Discovering Buddhism - Presenting the Path (25 October 2007)

0:01 we did it at like three. Report an error in the passage at 0:01 Highlight the passage at 0:01

0:09 I know it's gone missing. No, I think it's alright. Report an error in the passage at 0:09 Highlight the passage at 0:09

0:20 I hope it hasn't been vacuumed up. I think it's alright. But we definitely will have to find it before Amina teaches again. Report an error in the passage at 0:20 Highlight the passage at 0:20

0:33 I don't know where it's going to. Report an error in the passage at 0:33 Highlight the passage at 0:33

0:41 Welcome back. Report an error in the passage at 0:41 Highlight the passage at 0:41

0:48 So let's start with meditation. We're going to do a meditation on... Parts, on Saturday we began to talk about dependent arising, and one of the ways of thinking about how things exist is that they arise in dependence upon parts. So we're going to have that be your meditation today, this morning. You know what I mean. Days and nights just bleed into each other. Report an error in the passage at 0:48 Highlight the passage at 0:48

1:18 I'm seated and it's Thursday. Okay, right. Okay, we'll start with that. So we'll just start again with thinking about our posture. If you're seated on a chair, we'll move away. Whitney, do you want to be on a chair or you just don't have a cushion available? Okay. You're right, because I was going to say if you want, you just bring it in the aisle. You just go get one. Report an error in the passage at 1:18 Highlight the passage at 1:18

1:43 Yeah. So Report an error in the passage at 1:43 Highlight the passage at 1:43

1:51 you just start with checking your posture. Maybe if you're holding tension in your shoulders, you could roll them a few times. Relax that tension. Maybe take some deep cleansing breaths and let go of your day. Report an error in the passage at 1:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51

2:11 Let go of whatever it's taken for you to come here. And let go of whatever might keep you from being here. Report an error in the passage at 2:11 Highlight the passage at 2:11

2:33 And then just let your mind's eye review your posture. Thinking about keeping your shoulders level and back, your spine extended. Report an error in the passage at 2:33 Highlight the passage at 2:33

2:46 Legs in whatever way will be comfortable for you. Report an error in the passage at 2:46 Highlight the passage at 2:46

2:54 Chin just a little tucked under. Report an error in the passage at 2:54 Highlight the passage at 2:54

3:00 Eyes either open and unfocused, gazing off the end of your nose or closed. Report an error in the passage at 3:00 Highlight the passage at 3:00

3:10 Tongue on the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth. Report an error in the passage at 3:10 Highlight the passage at 3:10

3:16 Hands in your lap, right over left, thumbs touching lightly. And Report an error in the passage at 3:16 Highlight the passage at 3:16

3:38 then the final point is your breath. Just allowing your breathing to become regular and calm, but not changing it in any way. And Report an error in the passage at 3:38 Highlight the passage at 3:38

3:56 we'll just start with just observing our breath for a count of ten. Report an error in the passage at 3:56 Highlight the passage at 3:56

4:03 Either at the level of your belly, the level of your chest, or the level of your nostrils. And just seeing if you can keep your mind focused on the breath. Report an error in the passage at 4:03 Highlight the passage at 4:03

· · · silence, 1 minute

5:07 So we'll start with thinking about an object that's neutral to us, something like a pen. Report an error in the passage at 5:07 Highlight the passage at 5:07

5:17 And think about where the penness exists within that pen. Report an error in the passage at 5:17 Highlight the passage at 5:17

5:25 If you visualize something like a standard Bic pen, Report an error in the passage at 5:25 Highlight the passage at 5:25

5:33 where is pen in that black and white cylinder? Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

5:44 If you're honest, you have to admit that your eye... Even your mind's eye can only see a black and white cylinder and a point. Report an error in the passage at 5:44 Highlight the passage at 5:44

5:55 Actually, it only sees part of the curve and the front of the point. And it makes up the parts it doesn't see, like the back of the pen. Report an error in the passage at 5:55 Highlight the passage at 5:55

6:13 So where within this thing is pen? Report an error in the passage at 6:13 Highlight the passage at 6:13

6:24 Would anybody coming in here see a pen? Report an error in the passage at 6:24 Highlight the passage at 6:24

6:31 Would everyone coming in here see a pen? Report an error in the passage at 6:31 Highlight the passage at 6:31

6:41 How about somebody from a culture that doesn't use pens? Report an error in the passage at 6:41 Highlight the passage at 6:41

6:48 Or a dog? Report an error in the passage at 6:48 Highlight the passage at 6:48

6:53 Or an insect. Report an error in the passage at 6:53 Highlight the passage at 6:53

7:02 Where does pen reside in that object? Report an error in the passage at 7:02 Highlight the passage at 7:02

7:17 Imagine it blasting apart and forming a small pile of parts in front of you. The black and white plastic, the metal ball bearing, the ink, and all the parts of this thing that you think of as a pen. Report an error in the passage at 7:17 Highlight the passage at 7:17

7:40 Is this pile of parts still a pen? Report an error in the passage at 7:40 Highlight the passage at 7:40

7:56 And now think about this thing that you think of as your body. Report an error in the passage at 7:56 Highlight the passage at 7:56

8:05 We hold on to this idea of my body. We pamper it. Care for it, feed it, ignore it, run it into the ground. Where Report an error in the passage at 8:05 Highlight the passage at 8:05

8:23 is the body itself? Report an error in the passage at 8:23 Highlight the passage at 8:23

8:29 Is the body the legs, the hands, the head, the torso? Report an error in the passage at 8:29 Highlight the passage at 8:29

8:45 If the body is constantly changing, all the cells are coming into and going out of being, then where is this thing called body? Report an error in the passage at 8:45 Highlight the passage at 8:45

8:57 Which part is called body? Report an error in the passage at 8:57 Highlight the passage at 8:57

9:05 If I lose my legs or arms, is it still a body? At what point does it stop being a body? At what point did it become a body? Report an error in the passage at 9:05 Highlight the passage at 9:05

9:37 You see your own body in front of you and then dissolve it too into a pile of parts. Report an error in the passage at 9:37 Highlight the passage at 9:37

9:47 Where is the body now? Is this pile of parts a body? Report an error in the passage at 9:47 Highlight the passage at 9:47

10:09 If we think of the mind as being made up of parts, beginning, middles and ends of thoughts and feelings, ideas, beliefs, perceptions, criticisms. Report an error in the passage at 10:09 Highlight the passage at 10:09

10:25 Afflicted minds like anger, jealousy. Report an error in the passage at 10:25 Highlight the passage at 10:25

10:32 Where is the mind itself? Report an error in the passage at 10:32 Highlight the passage at 10:32

10:37 Which part do we hang mind onto? Report an error in the passage at 10:37 Highlight the passage at 10:37

10:45 Where is the mind? Report an error in the passage at 10:45 Highlight the passage at 10:45

10:59 If the thoughts come quickly and fade away one after another, thoughts, feelings, plans, memories, each one replacing the last, which one of them is mine? Which one is my mind? Report an error in the passage at 10:59 Highlight the passage at 10:59

11:17 Which one is me? Report an error in the passage at 11:17 Highlight the passage at 11:17

11:25 Am I my sad mind? I could be happy tomorrow. Report an error in the passage at 11:25 Highlight the passage at 11:25

11:36 Am I my critical mind? Tomorrow I could be tolerant. It's Report an error in the passage at 11:36 Highlight the passage at 11:36

11:45 changing so fast. It's like hanging this thought or concept of river onto a moving body of water. Which Report an error in the passage at 11:45 Highlight the passage at 11:45

11:57 part is the river? Report an error in the passage at 11:57 Highlight the passage at 11:57

12:13 From the Buddhist point of view, not only cells are recycled, but bodies are too. Report an error in the passage at 12:13 Highlight the passage at 12:13

12:20 And even more, this entire identity is recycled. You die, you're reborn. This life male, next life female. This life black, next life white. Report an error in the passage at 12:20 Highlight the passage at 12:20

12:38 This life dog, next life cat. Report an error in the passage at 12:38 Highlight the passage at 12:38

12:44 So what is this I? This subtle mind simply manifests into another form and environment based on the karma we've created. Report an error in the passage at 12:44 Highlight the passage at 12:44

12:56 That's what reincarnation really is. Report an error in the passage at 12:56 Highlight the passage at 12:56

13:03 So what are we so attached to? Report an error in the passage at 13:03 Highlight the passage at 13:03

13:10 What are we so strongly identified with? Report an error in the passage at 13:10 Highlight the passage at 13:10

13:17 If I'm so strongly a woman in this life, next life I could be a man. Report an error in the passage at 13:17 Highlight the passage at 13:17

13:24 If I'm so strongly American, next life I could be Mexican, Syrian, Turk. Report an error in the passage at 13:24 Highlight the passage at 13:24

13:38 Think about what you identify most strongly with in this life and imagine it not being you. Report an error in the passage at 13:38 Highlight the passage at 13:38

14:09 Imagine the things now in front of you, your book, table, pen, the cushion you're on, the people around you, yourself, the way you see yourself, your identity, your strongest held beliefs, the eye holding those beliefs. Report an error in the passage at 14:09 Highlight the passage at 14:09

14:27 And then imagine them all breaking up into tiny particles and dissolving out into space. And extend that spaciousness free of everything out into all directions. Report an error in the passage at 14:27 Highlight the passage at 14:27

14:42 Just let go. Report an error in the passage at 14:42 Highlight the passage at 14:42

14:52 Feel the bliss of just letting go of everything you hold on to so tightly. Report an error in the passage at 14:52 Highlight the passage at 14:52

15:10 And from the center of all that space, feel your body again sitting on your cushion, your mind filled with thoughts and feelings, your pen, paper in front of you. And Report an error in the passage at 15:10 Highlight the passage at 15:10

15:26 then take a moment to motivate for this class, Report an error in the passage at 15:26 Highlight the passage at 15:26

15:33 our final class. Report an error in the passage at 15:33 Highlight the passage at 15:33

15:37 Let's motivate each one of us actually being able to realize all three of the three principal paths in this life so Report an error in the passage at 15:37 Highlight the passage at 15:37

15:49 that we can perfectly benefit all beings. Report an error in the passage at 15:49 Highlight the passage at 15:49

16:02 And then when you're ready, you can end your meditation and we'll start with the opening prayers. Report an error in the passage at 16:02 Highlight the passage at 16:02

16:13 I didn't get a book again, sorry. You want to look on with Jeff? Report an error in the passage at 16:13 Highlight the passage at 16:13

16:34 With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge. Jeff, could you share it with us? will enlighten me 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 16:34 Highlight the passage at 16:34

17:06 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 17:06 Highlight the passage at 17:06

17:37 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 17:37 Highlight the passage at 17:37

18:16 So welcome. Welcome back. So why don't we start with questions, if anybody has questions, especially on the last couple of homeworks. So for those of you that were here on Saturday, you've probably been working on a couple of meditations. And then those of you that were here last week have been working on something, hopefully, bodhicitta, renunciation, something. Report an error in the passage at 18:16 Highlight the passage at 18:16

18:44 So does anybody have any questions? So you would actually, Cedric, right at the end. I could just see the thought forming in his mind. Right at the end of the Saturday class, you had asked conditions. And I realized afterwards, because I led the meditation afterwards, that really everything she's talking about are conditions. Report an error in the passage at 18:44 Highlight the passage at 18:44

19:03 So all the food and all the air and the warmth and all the nurse keeping the baby warm and all that stuff are all conditions. But she also talked about karma in the final paragraph. So, yeah. New question. Report an error in the passage at 19:03 Highlight the passage at 19:03

19:20 I guess my question is, what's the difference between, or I know they're so closely related, but emptiness and dependent. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that in tonight's class, actually. Hopefully clarify. Yeah. Yeah, so let's wait and see if it gets answered, and then ask me again. Report an error in the passage at 19:20 Highlight the passage at 19:20

19:45 Anybody else? Charlie? And then Matt? Report an error in the passage at 19:45 Highlight the passage at 19:45

19:52 Honestly, I'm so confused, I don't. don't quite know where to start okay well it's not a good beginning but let's see what I can do I see Report an error in the passage at 19:52 Highlight the passage at 19:52

20:07 all these things as sort of like concepts that we just hold to... I'm what I'm seeing is Report an error in the passage at 20:07 Highlight the passage at 20:07

20:29 Kind of make the universe work in some sort of way. But I'm not seeing those concepts as being invalid as far as how we lead our lives. Exactly, yeah. And we'll talk about that more tonight, actually, because we'll talk about that third level of dependent arising is placing that label, that concept on. So, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 20:29 Highlight the passage at 20:29

20:51 So hopefully it'll shed a little bit of light. You want to pass it back to Matt? Report an error in the passage at 20:51 Highlight the passage at 20:51

21:02 This was just a minor point, but I have been reading a book called Old Path, White Clouds. And that's a massive book. Yeah, it's a great one, though. It's really quite readable, I think. Yeah. But there was the part about emptiness. Well, there are several parts where they discuss emptiness, but it keeps referring to... Report an error in the passage at 21:02 Highlight the passage at 21:02

21:24 word, oh, dependent Dependent co-arising, is that the same thing? It's the same, yeah, it's a different translation of it, yeah. Okay, but it's the exact same concept? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, and then the other question I had, which I'm not even sure if I know how to say it right, but so there's this concept of emptiness and no self, and then it seems like, so there's this pile of stuff sitting here. Report an error in the passage at 21:24 Highlight the passage at 21:24

21:56 And so, and we say, oh, let's, you know, we always say, okay, I vow to, you know, attain the correct view of emptiness. So what does that mean? Like, where is the I? Well, actually, what we're going to talk about this time is we're going to talk about the I tonight and, like, what the I is and all that. Yeah, there is a validly existing I, a conventionally existent I, and we're not saying that that doesn't exist. Report an error in the passage at 21:56 Highlight the passage at 21:56

22:20 You know, Charlie came to class tonight. That's a valid statement, you know. And Charlie's mind hopefully will get enlightened. So that's a valid statement too. It's the eye that rears up when I say, Charlie was here last week and he stole my book. And that's that eye that then we begin thinking, that's the eye that gets really huge and then is unable to hear anything else that I say and then starts getting angry. Report an error in the passage at 22:20 Highlight the passage at 22:20

22:50 Usually hooked upon this sort of embellished, over-embellished eye, this big eye. This I in quotes, the I that doesn't exist in the way we think it does. That's usually the I that gets us into trouble. And so that's the I that the Buddha is trying to point out doesn't exist in that way. And we'll talk more about that tonight. But that's the I that we usually we think exists. So we think that's the I that wants the chocolate cake in the middle of the night, right? Report an error in the passage at 22:50 Highlight the passage at 22:50

23:16 The I doesn't want it. Our body doesn't even want it. Like it's just this made up conceptualized fantasy. That doesn't exist in that same way. The same eye that would go and kill your neighbor because he's been taking that lawnmower every single week and I've had it. I mean, that's the eye that gets so upset. And so that's the eye that the Buddha is saying, wait a second, this eye has never even existed. It's just this fantasy that you've built around this. Report an error in the passage at 23:16 Highlight the passage at 23:16

23:44 So we're starting with... How the table doesn't exist the way we think. We're starting with how the pen doesn't, I don't even have a pen, how the pen doesn't exist, how the flower doesn't exist. We're getting to that I, because that I is really the root of our problems. We're probably not going to start war over pen, but it's a little easier to conceptualize first. So we'll get to the I tonight. Yeah, but there are two I's, and one of them does exist in a conventional sense. Report an error in the passage at 23:44 Highlight the passage at 23:44

24:11 And that's really all it is, is an identity that we've sort of the mind-body combination of this life. We hook, you know, there's this identity that Matt this time around. And that's conventionally existent and that's fine. There's no problem with that. And it exists only in dependence upon those things. Report an error in the passage at 24:11 Highlight the passage at 24:11

24:32 And that's the Buddhist point. It doesn't exist just out there as like Matt huge filling up the planet and needing chocolate cake. Starting wars, you know, which is the way we envision it because it feels like that when you get so upset. The eye just like swells. It's like it just fills the entire room, you know, but it doesn't really exist that way. So that's his point. It never has existed that way. It's just a big fantasy. So he's trying to point that out and I am trying to point that out. Report an error in the passage at 24:32 Highlight the passage at 24:32

25:01 So that's really what the whole class is about tonight. So if you're confused, it's good. That's at a really good place, because actually what you're doing is you're starting to question the way that you see reality, and that's confusing. That's okay. Report an error in the passage at 25:01 Highlight the passage at 25:01

25:20 Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 25:20 Highlight the passage at 25:20

25:24 Okay. Oh, that's great. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, that's better, because then as everybody leaves from LPP, they don't all wave at me and stuff. Report an error in the passage at 25:24 Highlight the passage at 25:24

25:37 Problems that Geshe-la doesn't have. Report an error in the passage at 25:37 Highlight the passage at 25:37

25:46 I try not to use words like ego because I don't know enough about Western psychology to know how it's used. But in a really general sense, I think you could say that. I don't know what you would then call the first one. Just identification. It's almost like identity. Identity. Yeah. I think simple identity. Chad. Report an error in the passage at 25:46 Highlight the passage at 25:46

26:09 You know, whatever your, what are you, software, you do software, yeah, like, you know, so it's just sort of like some basic things, where you were born, who your parents are, things like that. Report an error in the passage at 26:09 Highlight the passage at 26:09

26:20 It's sort of when you start embellishing upon those basic facts, which we do almost immediately. So go ahead and maybe give the mic back to Kim. Oh, you're not going to say? No, no, you just want to, okay, that was your question. I was like, wow, this is going to be something really big, cool. Report an error in the passage at 26:20 Highlight the passage at 26:20

26:40 Okay, that was a really easy question. It was the best question of the evening. All right, a little bit on logistics first. Our practice day is day after tomorrow, right? Day after tomorrow. And did everybody receive either the email or being in person, being here in person, being in person, the presentation ideas? Report an error in the passage at 26:40 Highlight the passage at 26:40

27:07 Everybody get one? Report an error in the passage at 27:07 Highlight the passage at 27:07

27:14 If you'd like one, you can have one. I do have them live. And actually, I might as well hand them out because otherwise they just go into Dharma burn because I'm sure next time I teach it, I'll add more things and stuff. Report an error in the passage at 27:14 Highlight the passage at 27:14

27:27 For anyone who has not done a practice day, I'll just go over really briefly how we do it or how I do it because I think every teacher probably does it differently. I've gotten into like a little... so um Report an error in the passage at 27:27 Highlight the passage at 27:27

27:39 mode of how I do it but usually what we do is we start The first couple of hours are really dedicated to just me leading you guys through some of these meditations. So you just have time to just relax and do them. You don't have to look at your notes or anything like that. You can just relax and do it. And what I usually do is do them in like sort of 15 to 20 minute size meditations. Report an error in the passage at 27:39 Highlight the passage at 27:39

28:01 And then I say, okay, you guys can get up and stretch. Move around if you need to and give you a couple minutes to do that and then sit back down. But keep it all in silence. So we'll start the day and you can ask questions and then we'll just keep it in silence for that session. And it'll be a few of them because we're also combining with the spiritual teacher class. So I'll probably throw in a couple of spiritual teacher meditations. Report an error in the passage at 28:01 Highlight the passage at 28:01

28:26 Although I don't know which ones yet. I'll probably decide that in the middle of the night tomorrow night. Report an error in the passage at 28:26 Highlight the passage at 28:26

28:32 But we did it. Actually, we combined the two last year and it worked. I think we did. Anyway, I'm pretty sure we did. So then we have a little Q &A right before we break for lunch. So you guys can, if you've had like... Some experience came up for you or something you want to share, a question or something. Because sometimes when somebody else is leading you, you can kind of relax into the meditation a little bit more. Report an error in the passage at 28:32 Highlight the passage at 28:32

29:00 And so then you might have an insight or something that you want to discuss or bring up. And then we'll break for lunch. And so Haley wanted me to find out. So what we're doing now is that lunch will be available in the cafe and she's actually going to make sandwiches for people. Report an error in the passage at 29:00 Highlight the passage at 29:00

29:19 And she wanted me to ask how many people want sandwiches and salads and how many people would prefer sandwiches and chips. So can I get a count? Who wants sandwiches and salads? One, two, three, four, five, six. And who wants, let me write, does somebody have a pen? Not an inherently existent pen, but just, yeah. All right, six S &S. Report an error in the passage at 29:19 Highlight the passage at 29:19

29:49 Alright, and who wants sandwiches and chips? Dean! Report an error in the passage at 29:49 Highlight the passage at 29:49

29:58 And I am not, I'm just doing the chicken salad and the salad, because I can't do, it's like vegan, she has vegan chicken salad, which is amazingly good, and that's what like 100 % of the people want. And then she also has like, it's so, I'm just happy that you're standing up for your chips, you know? Report an error in the passage at 29:58 Highlight the passage at 29:58

29:54 Yay. Report an error in the passage at 29:54 Highlight the passage at 29:54

30:21 Because I want chips too. So I'm right there with you. But I want both. I want salad and chips. Report an error in the passage at 30:21 Highlight the passage at 30:21

30:31 Anyway, so the cost of that will be $7 and that includes a drink. So just to let you know. And I'm sure you can negotiate if you don't. She's actually a pretty easygoing gal. And that also answers my question. How many people are planning to come? Report an error in the passage at 30:31 Highlight the passage at 30:31

30:58 30 to 4. Yeah, so everybody raise your hands again, Report an error in the passage at 30:58 Highlight the passage at 30:58

31:06 to what I have there could be somebody who's not here tonight are getting back. Okay. Okay, so then we eat together in the cafe and then we come back in here for our tea. I'll make you guys a batch of chai. Oh no, she might not like that now that we have the coffee idea. Report an error in the passage at 31:06 Highlight the passage at 31:06

31:30 Do I know how many people would like chai and I'll just make chai for those people? All right, I'll just make a half batch of chai and whoever else could get coffee or whatever, you can bring it in and that way it's like a compromise. Report an error in the passage at 31:30 Highlight the passage at 31:30

31:45 And then we'll come in and we'll watch the Discovering Buddhism videos for these two classes, presenting the path and the spiritual teacher, which are really, really great videos actually. And that will take less than an hour and then we'll start the presentations. And then you guys will do presentations and actually some of you... Report an error in the passage at 31:45 Highlight the passage at 31:45

32:06 So Chad and Cedric are also doing the spiritual teacher class. So you guys, I don't know if you're going to somehow combine your topic or if you're just going to do two separate topics. You're going to do it like the night before. I'll call you then. Report an error in the passage at 32:06 Highlight the passage at 32:06

32:20 You'll be doing it while somebody else is doing their presentation. So we will have a couple of presentations and also a couple of other people there who aren't in this class. Report an error in the passage at 32:20 Highlight the passage at 32:20

32:32 I better remind them that it's happening. But who are doing presentations about the spiritual teacher. So that'll just give you guys good imprints for knowing what the spiritual teacher is all about. Report an error in the passage at 32:32 Highlight the passage at 32:32

32:44 And then that's it. And then we just dedicate. And so that's the end. So it's actually just a really nice way to kind of wrap up the whole subject matter. And hopefully, like doing your presentation and all that stuff, you get more clear on certain... Report an error in the passage at 32:44 Highlight the passage at 32:44

32:59 And also listening to people's presentations and stuff. But we're always really nice when people are giving presentations. Don't jump in and cut them off or something. Report an error in the passage at 32:59 Highlight the passage at 32:59

33:12 So that's it. Does anybody have any other questions? And then we'll just start with more on emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 33:12 Highlight the passage at 33:12

33:22 So we're going to go back to the root text. And if you don't have it, just listen. For verses 12 and 13, Report an error in the passage at 33:22 Highlight the passage at 33:22

33:36 at some point they no longer alternate, come together. Just seeing that dependent arising never fails brings realization that destroys how you hold to objects, and then your analysis with view is complete. In addition, the appearance prevents the existence extreme, emptiness, that of non-existence, and if you see how emptiness shows in cause and effect, you'll never be stolen off by extreme views. Report an error in the passage at 33:36 Highlight the passage at 33:36

34:03 So we started to get into a little bit of this on Saturday and we'll just talk more about this. So we project this quality of inherent or intrinsic existence onto everything we see. Speaking of which, let me give this back to you because I'll walk away with it. And that'll go into the karma class. Everything that we see, every person that we interact with, every experience that we have. Report an error in the passage at 34:03 Highlight the passage at 34:03

34:34 In our own view of ourselves, we see them all and we experience them all as inherently existent, independently existing. In reality, everything is dependently existing. It seems like, though, to our eyes and to our senses and to our minds, which is considered a sense within... Well, it's not considered a sense, it's mental within the Tibetan system. But it seems like, to our direct perception, that these things exist sort of out there, separate from me, independent of any other causes and conditions, and independent of anything that my own mind is doing to them. Report an error in the passage at 34:34 Highlight the passage at 34:34

35:20 It's like, you know, not just the qualities of Olivier screaming at me. You know, that anger that I perceive and that I embellish and that I fantasize and put all those other things. But Olivia himself, I am perceiving him physically in a way that's based on my own karma. And he exists in a way that is dependent upon a number of factors, including his body, his mind, his karma and so forth, and my karma with him. Report an error in the passage at 35:20 Highlight the passage at 35:20

35:50 So thinking about getting back to this table. It seems like this table is a table from its own side. Like it's just imbued with this table-ness. Like it just, table-ness is just sort of breathing out of it. But although actually probably the first time we saw it, we probably didn't even think of it as a table, actually, because it doesn't look like any table that most of us have grown up with. And actually I'm glad I just checked that because the leg was completely turned in. Report an error in the passage at 35:50 Highlight the passage at 35:50

36:22 And so we started in the meditation kind of looking down, starting to look at the different parts of an object, and in this case the table itself. So the top of the table, the legs of the table, the base of the table, the sides of the table. In this case the whole thing kind of lifts off. Report an error in the passage at 36:22 Highlight the passage at 36:22

36:42 But tableness itself is not in any one of those parts, nor is it in a collection of these parts. And as we go down deeper into the atoms, we can't find tableness either. And also just this idea of when did it start to be a table, and when in our mind did it start to be a table, which is actually different for each of us. Report an error in the passage at 36:42 Highlight the passage at 36:42

37:04 It starts being like you're pulling off the layers of an onion if you keep going deeper and deeper into an object and you realize that you can't find... This inherent tableness that you think exists. And that's what we usually are reacting to or grasping onto and loving so much. This is my favorite table. This is my grandfather's table. And like that kind of stuff that we do with objects as well. We definitely do it with people. Report an error in the passage at 37:04 Highlight the passage at 37:04

37:36 But we do it with objects as well. And people create entire rooms too. In case, you know, special objects that they love and they collect and all the, you know, owls or whatever, you know, that people do and get special insurance for them and things like that. You know, I mean, we go really crazy. And I think we can all relate to it. Even if we don't do that, we all have done that with some object that we absolutely love, you know. Report an error in the passage at 37:36 Highlight the passage at 37:36

38:06 And there's... If we go deeply into that object, it's sort of like, what is it about that object? It's usually a story that we've made up about that object, that we're giving it all these qualities, which is what attachment does, really. Attachment creates this whole fantasy about an object. Report an error in the passage at 38:06 Highlight the passage at 38:06

38:28 And increases the positive qualities and ignores any negative qualities that might be in the object. And aversion does the opposite. So there is an interdependent changing from moment to moment table. But that's not what we see. And that's true for people too. There is a Charlie that exists that is independence upon this body and that's changing moment to moment to moment and, you know, won't be here forever and all those things like that. Report an error in the passage at 38:28 Highlight the passage at 38:28

39:00 But that's not usually what I see. What I see is this Charlie that I've decided is like this and is always like this and he's always been like this, always will be like this. And that's why I hate him. You know, I mean, it's like usually it's very, very little information that it takes for us to create some image of a person. Report an error in the passage at 39:00 Highlight the passage at 39:00

39:17 And we slap it on to that person. And we don't even allow them to change from day to day, much less from year to year to year. And we do it in a positive sense as well, of course, which is why we get so upset when somebody leaves us. Because we think that they're exactly always going to be the same as they were in that exact moment that our eyes first met across the crowded room. Report an error in the passage at 39:17 Highlight the passage at 39:17

39:41 and that, you know. And of course we didn't know anything horrible about them at that time. And so we created a whole fantasy. We don't experience any kind of bare reality about things. We experience these exaggerated, embellished fantasies, basically. All projections of our own mind. And the Buddha is saying that this is the root problem. Report an error in the passage at 39:41 Highlight the passage at 39:41

40:09 That marks our entire experience in our life and every life that we've ever had. Because it's true not just for people, it's true for insects and animals and other beings as well that we perceive. I mean, I can tell you that those cats' relationship with food is actually pretty similar to mine. Report an error in the passage at 40:09 Highlight the passage at 40:09

40:26 But there's definitely a lot of embellishment going on with that little, you know. Other people in this house would not look at their food and be quite as excited as they are. And I'm sure they would actually look at my food and not be nearly as excited as they are, as I am. So this root misperception actually begins with this misapprehension of ourself. Report an error in the passage at 40:26 Highlight the passage at 40:26

40:43 so, but, um. Report an error in the passage at 40:43 Highlight the passage at 40:43

40:55 This I that we begin perceiving really in the womb. As soon as we begin forming and as soon as mind begins forming, before we're even born, newborns, actually babies in the womb begin reacting to things. And so we begin having some sense of an I even then. Report an error in the passage at 40:55 Highlight the passage at 40:55

41:18 And it's not to say we are, you know, this collection, this temporary alliance, basically, of mind, body and identity that is conventionally called Charlie or you have these dramatic puffs going off as each of the candles are going off behind you. Report an error in the passage at 41:18 Highlight the passage at 41:18

41:37 Maybe there are ideas, maybe there are insights happening, popping off in Charlie's mind. No, so this temporary alliance, which is I think what you were referring to, this conventional identity, that exists, and there's no problem with that. But that's not usually what I'm reacting to. And I certainly don't always have this idea. It's so much more fluid and spacious, and the same is true for us, for our own identities. Report an error in the passage at 41:37 Highlight the passage at 41:37

42:02 It's so much more fluid and spacious and changing. and imperfect. Report an error in the passage at 42:02 Highlight the passage at 42:02

42:09 Impermanent than we give it credit for. I mean, I do the same thing. If I see you always in a certain way, I definitely see me always in a certain way. And I'm shocked by changes within myself. And I also limit myself. This is a huge problem. And this is actually the Buddhist point. It's sort of like we create our own little self-imprisonment by this limited view of ourselves because we see ourselves so tiny and limited. Report an error in the passage at 42:09 Highlight the passage at 42:09

42:38 Everything is impossible. And so this is a huge problem. And it's all based on misperception. He's like, actually, this eye never existed this way. I'm simply pointing out what never existed. I'm not taking away something that exists. I'm not, you know, I'm not killing something that's there. Report an error in the passage at 42:38 Highlight the passage at 42:38

42:59 But it makes us uneasy. You know, thinking if I basically am sort of thinking, Okay, I am this temporary alliance of mind and body and identity and really nothing else. And it's the subtle most mind that goes from life to life. And that's really it, everything else. I mean, there's a blissful aspect that you can get to, but at first it sounds really stark and kind of scary. And so there's this part of us, this mind-created I. Report an error in the passage at 42:59 Highlight the passage at 42:59

43:29 That craves security and wants this immortality and wants to know that I exist in this really huge permanent way. And so that's how self gets created. It's this idea of self. But it's also something that our mind creates life after life after life. Because of the same, we need that sense of security. The Buddha is saying actually it's never existed. But it's a deeply ingrained. Report an error in the passage at 43:29 Highlight the passage at 43:29

43:56 thought pattern that we've held from life to life to It's actually a habitual thought that we've held from life to life to life. So it's not like we can change it overnight just by intellectually understanding this. Just like on Tuesday night we were talking about, we started the death and rebirth class on Tuesday night. It's actually death and rebirth or death and impermanence are some of the easiest to understand concepts in all of Buddhism, right? Report an error in the passage at 43:56 Highlight the passage at 43:56

44:21 I think most of us in this room know that. That we are going to die. We don't have something, unless we might slightly be off and not think that we are. It could be somebody in the room. But I think most of us, intellectually speaking, get it that we're going to die. But we haven't gotten it at a gut level so that we actually change the way that we live. So that we still get angry at people and stuff like that. You wouldn't really... Report an error in the passage at 44:21 Highlight the passage at 44:21

44:48 If you've ever been with somebody who's gotten a diagnosis or if you yourself have had a diagnosis where you have six months to live, you don't get bored. You're not going to get bored. If you have any of your wits about you, you're probably going to use the time pretty productively. You're no longer going to be blaming people for petty things and things like that, especially if you are then in that same moment. Report an error in the passage at 44:48 Highlight the passage at 44:48

45:16 understanding anything about karma and you have any belief in the system of karma it's like you want to be creating as much positive energy as you can during that time period so you're I mean, it's actually a really good slash or way to cut through some of your negative emotions is to think, wait a second, I could die tonight. Report an error in the passage at 45:16 Highlight the passage at 45:16

45:36 Do I want to die tonight being pissed off about the shape of the dining room? You know, I mean, honestly, it's like so stupid, the stuff that we get angry about. Report an error in the passage at 45:36 Highlight the passage at 45:36

45:44 Do I want this person that I'm fighting with to die without me having a chance to, you know, make up with them or whatever? It's one of the ways that you can just cut out the nonsense. Report an error in the passage at 45:44 Highlight the passage at 45:44

45:58 So, but we have this, I got onto that for some reason, I've forgotten why, but anyway. But this idea that we go on and on and on forever is just really hardwired into our system because we've had it for life after life after life after life. And every time, every life we've died, every life our life has ended, but we forget that and we gloss it over and we create this I-ness, this huge sense of self that owns all of our ideas and our views and our memories and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 45:58 Highlight the passage at 45:58

46:34 And and then perpetuates them in the world, basically. So it's sort of this invented, independent, permanent sense of self. And it's all the Buddha saying a fantasy. So it is important going to the level. So we started with the three levels of dependent arising that we started with on Saturday. The first were. Report an error in the passage at 46:34 Highlight the passage at 46:34

47:00 It was that things arise independent upon causes and conditions, which the largest cause is karma, and conditions is basically everything else. And then the second was that things arise, you know, but that doesn't include everything. So then the next level school came up with the fact that things arise in dependence upon causes and conditions and parts. Report an error in the passage at 47:00 Highlight the passage at 47:00

47:24 And so we can look at how... Because if you look at space, space doesn't really have any cause or condition, but it does have parts. It has directions, is what they called parts. So the directions of east, west, north, south and things like that, that would include space. So things arise in dependence upon these two things. But if we break down the table or we break down the cup or we break down the pen, Report an error in the passage at 47:24 Highlight the passage at 47:24

47:54 We still can't find that cupness there. So then the third level of dependent arising, which is actually the highest level, which is what the highest school believes in, which is the highest school of philosophy within Buddhism, believes that things don't exist except through causes and conditions, parts and a mere label or a concept, which is this third level. Report an error in the passage at 47:54 Highlight the passage at 47:54

48:21 So it is, it's like we have these... We have the causes and conditions that created this table. So we have not just the conventional causes and conditions, but our karma to actually see it as a table. And then we have all the parts of that table, and then we slap this label of table on it. Report an error in the passage at 48:21 Highlight the passage at 48:21

48:42 But it doesn't exist from its own side as a table. We are giving it this label as a table, but there's no tableness in it. At some point it was not a table to us. And for many beings it is not a table. And that's the Buddha's point. It's not like it's wrong that it's a table. It's simply that it's existing merely based upon causes and conditions, parts and this label. And we give it all this other stuff. Report an error in the passage at 48:42 Highlight the passage at 48:42

49:14 So he's saying that actually its existence is only independence upon these things. It doesn't exist. Separate from those things. It doesn't exist inherently. And one interesting way to do it is to actually, let me have your pen back again. Report an error in the passage at 49:14 Highlight the passage at 49:14

49:33 I even thought when I was going through my notes, I was like, remember to bring a pen to class. If you start, if you look at the letter A, you know I'll borrow it back so you might as well keep it up. So if you look at the letter A, it's basically Report an error in the passage at 49:33 Highlight the passage at 49:33

49:51 The parts are simply these lines and we look at it as though it's this inherently existent A. But at some point we learned that if you put these lines together it is A. But now when we look at it it just seems to have A-ness all over it like any fool could look at this and see A. Well clearly a Tibetan who's first come here and has never seen the English language before would not see A. Report an error in the passage at 49:51 Highlight the passage at 49:51

50:16 He wouldn't know what this was. The cats upstairs would not know that this was an A. So it's not an inherently existent A. It's simply that we have now labeled it A. But honestly, and it's funny because we don't get attached to an A either. So it's like we can hear this and we can learn it, but it's not something that we're going to fight wars over or get divorced over or anything like that. Report an error in the passage at 50:16 Highlight the passage at 50:16

50:44 But there is this inherent, it does feel like from its own side, this is A and that it's always been A and that it always will be A. But I mean, the entire world could dissolve and another world begin and this, you know, or the entire English language, entire languages have died out, right? Latin has died out, it's not spoken anymore. There are some languages that are completely dead languages and those people thought the same about their... Report an error in the passage at 50:44 Highlight the passage at 50:44

51:12 Letters too, that they inherently existed and would always exist, just like their cultures, just like their countries, that they all are impermanent and they all existed only in dependence upon certain things that when they passed away they no longer existed in the world. So this is true for every single phenomena or object that there is, every single thing. Report an error in the passage at 51:12 Highlight the passage at 51:12

51:38 Nothing has a single atom of inherent existence. Independent of the mind labeling it or a mind labeling it. Everything arises in dependence upon causes and conditions, parts and a label. So things arising in dependence upon parts and a label is describing dependent origination. Things being empty of inherent existence is describing emptiness. Those are the two concepts. So we'll keep talking about that one a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 51:38 Highlight the passage at 51:38

52:08 One is sort of talking about the lack. That never has been there that we believe in and we grasp onto and we fight wars over and we kill each other over and we fall in love over. And the other is talking about how things arise, how things exist. So one is sort of the positive and one is the negative. But they're the flip side of the same thing and they totally support each other. Report an error in the passage at 52:08 Highlight the passage at 52:08

52:34 So you can think about it also if you think about the first time that you met anybody in this class and how... And it seemed like you didn't know this person's name, but now when you see this person, now when Chad sees Charlie, he sees Charlie, and he sees Charlie as sort of self-existently Charlie, or he sees Chokyi as self-existently Chokyi. Report an error in the passage at 52:34 Highlight the passage at 52:34

52:59 And it's not, again, this really subtle sort of identity of my mind and body that exist in this really loose, light, spacious way. you've embellished it hopefully in a positive sense but it's sort of gotten fabricated and you've filled it in with all these other things based on your particular karma with me and based on sort of the various projections that you have now placed seeing and this is true for all of And again, it's not saying that... Report an error in the passage at 52:59 Highlight the passage at 52:59

53:37 This level of this transitory collection or this transitory alliance between a mind and a body and identity don't exist. There is a conventional Chokyi sitting here. I have not always been a Chokyi. I've had many, many labels in this lifetime. And all of them were valid labels at the time. Report an error in the passage at 53:37 Highlight the passage at 53:37

53:58 But that's not the eye that... That you would, you know, start a fight with or get attached to when I move away or all those other things that cause afflicted mind to arise. That's the issue that he's saying. It's this, and even more than that, it's this sense of I, if I have my own view of Chokyi, right? Report an error in the passage at 53:58 Highlight the passage at 53:58

54:23 So I have... We each have our own view of ourselves, this self that we have embellished and gotten, and it's gotten really huge in our mind. We serve this completely fabricated I, and we have for lifetimes, actually. And we grasp that it is inherently existent, and that actually is the root of all suffering. That self-grasping, they actually call it the mind of self-grasping, is the root of all existence. Report an error in the passage at 54:23 Highlight the passage at 54:23

54:51 And that self... It's basically this solid thingness. So whether it's in a person or whether it's in an object, they actually say self for objects as well. So when the Buddha taught selflessness, he wasn't just talking about people. There's actually selflessness of phenomena and selflessness of persons. Report an error in the passage at 54:51 Highlight the passage at 54:51

55:10 It's that inherent thingness. So whether it's the Kimatha-ness or whether it's the reading glasses-ness. This is a reading class. Kind of like a little lipstick cake. Or the table-ness or the center-ness, which five years ago, this building was not Seichenling. It was something that we found literally on Craigslist and moved over from a little insurance office, literally a little insurance office over in Glen Park, and moved into it. Report an error in the passage at 55:10 Highlight the passage at 55:10

55:44 And we began visualizing. Seichen Ling as we walked from room to room and then it came together here. But this building was something else. And now when we walk in, now people walk in and they see Seichen Ling like imbued coming out of the walls, you know, I mean, it's like coming out, like you would look, you look at it as you drive by or you ride by and you think that's Seichen Ling. Report an error in the passage at 55:44 Highlight the passage at 55:44

56:09 And, you know, we could be somewhere else next year, you know. Karma willing and the crick don't rise. So we do that with every single thing that we encounter and we imbue everything with this huge thingness that the Buddha is basically pointing out, hey you guys, it doesn't actually exist this way. And we waste so much life and energy and thoughts on this misperceived reality. Report an error in the passage at 56:09 Highlight the passage at 56:09

56:43 This is the self. This is the self and the selflessness that the Buddha was teaching about. Report an error in the passage at 56:43 Highlight the passage at 56:43

56:54 So everything actually only exists in dependence upon something else. And that's what the idea of dependent arising is. Things only exist dependently. Nothing exists independently. And that's the point. That's the point. There's no me from its own side. There's no my body from its own side. There's no table from its own side. Report an error in the passage at 56:54 Highlight the passage at 56:54

57:22 But that's not saying that there's no table. And that's really, really important because that's when we start getting into this idea, which we're going to talk about a little bit tonight, this whole idea of nihilism, how you can slip really easily into nihilism because you can go, well, if there's no table, if there's no... Report an error in the passage at 57:22 Highlight the passage at 57:22

57:44 Kimatha, then nothing matters, nothing exists, which is what the lower schools got into this confusion, no matter how these, you know, Buddhists are really into debating things, especially in Tibet. And so you debate and you debate and you debate, and there's always, the lower school always gets confused on if there's no independently existent thing, then there's no thing at all. Report an error in the passage at 57:44 Highlight the passage at 57:44

58:07 And it's like, no, no, no, it's not the point. It's simply that there's no independently existing thing, but there is a dependently existent thing. There is a dependently existent person. There is a dependently existent Chokyi. There is a dependently existent Sai Chun Ling. There's just not an independently, the way it looks like, existent thing. Report an error in the passage at 58:07 Highlight the passage at 58:07

58:28 um so um I wanted to just get into one possible misperception, and that is you can't just label anything as anything, which is of course something that the lower schools said. Well, okay, well, then how come I can't take this and say it's a million dollars? It's the right shape, maybe for another country or something. Report an error in the passage at 58:28 Highlight the passage at 58:28

58:55 It wasn't big for us. And so the Buddha said, okay, wait a second, you have to have three things in place. The object has to be known to a conventional perception, which is also the same as saying a conventional valid perception. So if it's just somebody who has a mistaken mind or a confused mind, then it's not going to be right. Report an error in the passage at 58:55 Highlight the passage at 58:55

59:22 And I'll show you an example. It's not going to be valid. So the first is the object must be known to a conventional perception. The second is that no other conventional perception can contradict this perception, its existence. And the third is that no ultimate analysis can contradict its existence either. So in other words, looking deeply at it. So a conventional perception is referring to somebody with conventional valid perception. Report an error in the passage at 59:22 Highlight the passage at 59:22

59:49 So imagine that you're walking alongside the road and you see a scarecrow, but you think it's a man. And so you start having whatever your reaction is to thinking there's a man coming up staring at you basically, quietly staring at you. So you might have some reaction of like... wariness or on guard or whatever and you're starting to react to this and then somebody coming towards you says no actually it's just a scarecrow Charlie you're getting all worked up and it's really it's just a scarecrow so So your entire view of this man vanishes because there was no basis for it at all. It was simply this embellishing of what the raw data that you were seeing. Report an error in the passage at 59:49 Highlight the passage at 59:49

1:00:33 And then it became, and so you received additional information from another valid cognition, and so you're like, oh, okay, actually, it's not a man staring at me. Oh, come on in. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:33 Highlight the passage at 1:00:33

1:00:43 I forgot Morgan said he was going to come a little bit late. He just flew up from L.A. That's amazing that you got here. Like, flew back and forth to L.A. and back. I hope you can breathe in more ways than one. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:43 Highlight the passage at 1:00:43

1:01:00 The same is the story that they always tell about seeing that, you know, you're in a sort of pre-dusk, low-light situation and you see the coiled rope and you think it's a snake. And so you react and you have this fear arise, you see this thing. And then with additional information or another valid cognition, you know, Whitney comes in and says, no, Charlie, it's actually just a rope. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:00 Highlight the passage at 1:01:00

1:01:25 They get you some glasses. And you realize that actually you had no valid reason to think that it was a snake, but you just responded to a certain shape and color and design on its back. And then all this stuff came up. Usually afflicted thought arises based on this misperception. So the lack of an object's inherent existence is its emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:25 Highlight the passage at 1:01:25

1:01:52 And how it arises in dependence upon other things is dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:52 Highlight the passage at 1:01:52

1:02:00 And we have to get to the point where we actually see them as supporting each other. They don't contradict each other. And this is part of the root tax, actually. Lama Tsongkhapa was really big on saying that you actually get to an understanding of emptiness through understanding dependent arising. And he really... Report an error in the passage at 1:02:00 Highlight the passage at 1:02:00

1:02:21 He advocated teaching dependent arising first. And it actually is easier to understand than emptiness. So it's like teaching the positive way that things exist before teaching how they don't exist, which is a little, it's almost like when you first start receiving teachings on emptiness, it's almost like things that you are resting on are disappearing one by one. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:21 Highlight the passage at 1:02:21

1:02:44 And so it's a little unnerving actually. And so he actually felt that Teaching dependent arising is a way to get to the same place, but it doesn't allow you to fall into this nihilistic thought of thinking that nothing exists. Because the Buddha is actually only denying that something that never existed and never could exist exists. It's a hard sentence. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:44 Highlight the passage at 1:02:44

1:03:15 The Buddha is saying basically that... Exist. Exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:15 Highlight the passage at 1:03:15

1:03:20 Something, this thing, this inherently existent thing, not only that it has never existed, but actually that it never could exist. It's not saying that things don't exist at all. I see Whitney going, curling up into more and more fetal position in the back row there. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:20 Highlight the passage at 1:03:20

1:03:39 It's not that they don't exist. It's that they don't exist in this separate, independent, solid, permanent, concrete, unchanging way that we live. See them right now. So just think for a second. If somebody calls out your name and says, you know, Jane, then there's this conventional I and you think, oh, that's me. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:39 Highlight the passage at 1:03:39

1:04:03 And you turn around, yeah, you know, that's the conventional I and that's fine. You haven't built any story. But then if they follow it with, she's a thief. She took my stuff. That's when this I wells up. Because if you didn't have this huge embellished eye, you would either say, well yeah, I better run, or no I'm not, and you just start trying to explain it. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:03 Highlight the passage at 1:04:03

1:04:28 But usually we have this huge sense of defensiveness that rises up. And they say actually when you start to do, we're going to do this meditation tonight and you're going to do it in what's left of the week and hopefully after the practice day, which is seeking this eye. It's good to start. With trying to remember a time that you were really scared, like if you're being run off the road on your bike, being really scared. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:28 Highlight the passage at 1:04:28

1:04:54 So you have this really strong sense of wanting to preserve this I. They say another one is like if somebody starts to push you off a building or into the Grand Canyon or something like that. There's this sense of I that arises. And I think I was telling you about almost getting hit in front of the general hospital. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:54 Highlight the passage at 1:04:54

1:05:14 Really clear sense of this I arose, and I was like, oh, this is that I that we're talking about. Or if you've gotten really, really angry, just really, really angry at somebody, or if you've gotten really, really defensive. So it's this really strong sense of I that goes way beyond mind, body, identity. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:14 Highlight the passage at 1:05:14

1:05:37 You know, like that. So it's not like that. It's this huge sense of, I didn't take anything. How dare you, you know, accuse me of stealing that, blah, blah, blah. So it's this huge, huge sense of I. And that's the I that gets us into trouble. And that's the I that if you can have an experience like that, you can summon that I up because that's the I that you're actually trying to find. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:37 Highlight the passage at 1:05:37

1:05:59 But it's sneaky because once you start looking for it, it's just gone. And then you're like, where's this eye? So that's the eye that we're looking for. The interesting thing and the thing that Lama Tsongkhapa is taking pains to point out here is that things still function. Most importantly, karma still functions. And actually, karma... Report an error in the passage at 1:05:59 Highlight the passage at 1:05:59

1:06:29 Only functions because things are empty from their own side and exist only in dependence upon causes, conditions, parts and labeling. So this idea that sometimes unfortunately people, especially people who are just reading about emptiness and don't have teachers and don't... Spend a long time trying to really get at these different meanings behind emptiness and we're just touching the tip of the iceberg. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:29 Highlight the passage at 1:06:29

1:06:57 I mean honestly most of my teachers have said to spend thousands of hours studying emptiness before I mean it really takes that long before you really know what it is that you're looking for in meditation before you're going to directly perceive emptiness so that it takes a long time of both studying and Report an error in the passage at 1:06:57 Highlight the passage at 1:06:57

1:07:19 And meditating on it. But a lot of people, if they first hear about this idea of emptiness, they fall into this nihilistic thought of like, well, if I don't exist and Kimatha doesn't exist and nothing exists, it's all, you know, people are like, it's all just dreams. It's all just, you know, people sometimes take some of the analogies, but they take it in the wrong direction. But then it's basically this idea of that it doesn't matter what I do. It doesn't matter how I act. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:19 Highlight the passage at 1:07:19

1:07:47 It's all empty anyway, right? I mean, I have actually heard people saying this, and that's completely wrong view. That's nihilism, and that's what the Buddha's or what Jason Kapa is trying to say. Wait a second, there's a middle way between this thought that nothing exists and this thought that we already have been clinging to for lifetime after lifetime, that everything exists solidly and permanently, that there's something in between, and that... Report an error in the passage at 1:07:47 Highlight the passage at 1:07:47

1:08:15 It's called the middle way, and that's the more accurate view of reality. That's getting closer to what he calls correct view. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:15 Highlight the passage at 1:08:15

1:08:25 So there are a couple of terms that might help, and they often get confused. One is the two truths, which, you know, are there actual two ways that things exist? No. Truth or reality itself is being divided into two. The first is often translated as either deceptive truth, which I actually prefer that translation, or conventional truth, which also fits. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:25 Highlight the passage at 1:08:25

1:08:53 Or people sometimes say relative truth, which I think is a really weird translation because actually emptiness is more like relative truth. But conventional truth you'll see really commonly. But that's how we currently see things. We see things and we think that they exist that way. Is it really true? No. But it seems true to a mistaken mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:53 Highlight the passage at 1:08:53

1:09:16 And right now our mind is a mistaken mind. It looks like this is an inherently existent table. I believe it's an inherently existent table. And I'm going to protect it and build a little special case for it and get special insurance because I love this table and I want it to last forever. That's my deceptive truth. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:16 Highlight the passage at 1:09:16

1:09:34 Ultimate truth. It's the second truth. And that is true. That is the true nature of reality. And that's that everything is empty of this inherent existence. And everything exists that way. And that is the nature of reality as enlightened mind perceived it once it got enlightened. That's actually as an Arya being perceives it. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:34 Highlight the passage at 1:09:34

1:09:56 Once you perceive emptiness directly. You can perceive ultimate truth, although until you become an arhat, in other words, somebody who has attained nirvāṇa, you can only perceive it in a deep meditative state. When you come out of that state, you still see reality in the same way. I still come out and I still see Olivier and I still see, it still looks like he inherently exists that way, but I don't believe it anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:56 Highlight the passage at 1:09:56

1:10:27 Like I've seen reality, and I'm saying see, but it's in meditation. I've perceived reality as it exists, so I don't believe it anymore. But he still looks solid and inherently existent. My table still looks solidly and inherently existent, but I don't believe it anymore. So those are the two truths, deceptive truth and ultimate truth. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:27 Highlight the passage at 1:10:27

1:10:47 And then sometimes people get confused with the two extremes. And that's what we were just talking about where there's the middle way. So there's nihilism, this thing that if things don't exist inherently, then they don't exist at all. And eternalism, which is the belief that basically what we believe now, that whatever my senses tell me, that's the way things exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:47 Highlight the passage at 1:10:47

1:11:10 This looks solid. Okay, it's going to be around forever, you know. And then I'm shocked when it, like it's a dent in it or something. Which is what we do. I mean, we do. So the middle way is between these two. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:10 Highlight the passage at 1:11:10

1:11:27 So why don't we take some questions, actually. I was just going to say one more point, and that is that the only thing that matters, actually, is how we act towards others, what we do with our minds, how... What kind of karma we create, because things are empty of any inherent existence, it actually allows us, this is why karma works and this is why it's actually possible for us to get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:27 Highlight the passage at 1:11:27

1:11:56 If we inherently existed, we wouldn't be able to change. And that's the only thing that allows for change. So it is scary that things are impermanent and we die. I'll grant you that. and that I Eyeglasses cases can break and that tables can fall apart and that cities can end and that civilizations can end. But the cool thing is that karma exists that we can actually, due to how we treat each other and what we do with our minds and bodies and speech, we can create enlightened reality, which is basically getting enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:56 Highlight the passage at 1:11:56

1:12:38 And so all of that only depends upon the fact that everything is empty of existence from its own way. Oh, it sounds like... So why don't we... You know what? I just don't even have a clock. I'm just babbling on. I hope it's not 1130. So why don't I take some questions and then you guys can take a break because I'm sure you have some questions unless you just are so thoroughly lost that you're just going to leave on the break. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:38 Highlight the passage at 1:12:38

1:13:03 So in this lineage, can a lay person achieve enlightenment? Absolutely. And so if that's possible, the first thing that comes to mind... Why bother with the red robes? Especially if it's not your color. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:03 Highlight the passage at 1:13:03

1:13:23 Would we recognize him, in other words? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:23 Highlight the passage at 1:13:23

1:13:29 A lay person or as an ordinary person? Oh, yeah. I mean, actually, I have no idea and none of us have any idea who in this class could already be enlightened or a bodhisattva or a highly realized being, somebody who's already perceived emptiness. It's not going to show in your outer appearance. don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Well, thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:29 Highlight the passage at 1:13:29

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:13:48 So, I mean, all of you guys could be. I can't tell. Which is another reason why the Buddha said it's really important not to judge others because you don't really know what's going on until you can read minds, until you not just can read minds, but read minds and karma and everything else, which is what you can do with enlightened mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:48 Highlight the passage at 1:13:48

1:14:06 So if I am an enlightened being and I don't necessarily want you to know that because it wouldn't necessarily benefit you. In fact, it would benefit you more to think I'm an ordinary being. Then I'm not going to, you wouldn't know. Because I'm not showing you my, you know, amazing gold, my jewelry body. I'm just like posing as, you know, frumpy little nun over at St. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:06 Highlight the passage at 1:14:06

1:14:29 John Lama. And that's really, really possible that you wouldn't necessarily know. Because they say there are many, many holy beings wandering around and we don't know. We don't have any idea, you know. If your entire motivation is to benefit beings, you could pop up in any form. So you wouldn't necessarily know that Cedric is this amazingly enlightened being because he's just posing as this sort of ordinary fellow sitting next to you week after week, waiting for that. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:29 Highlight the passage at 1:14:29

1:15:14 Waiting for the moment to arise when he'll say some amazingly profound thing that'll change your entire life. You just don't know. It sort of changes your perception on the guy next to you on the bus or the annoying co-worker or the annoying partner that you've had for 15 years. You just don't know who this person is. You just don't know. It doesn't mean you have to stay in horrible relationships or horrible jobs or even in a horrible seat on the bus, but it just means to... Report an error in the passage at 1:15:14 Highlight the passage at 1:15:14

1:15:44 Keep this idea alive that we, unless we can read people's minds and really know what's going on. Right now we base everything on our eyes and our ears and our fantasies. We don't really know. And we base everything on that. We just don't know. But yeah, enlightened mind. Do you remember, Chad, in the last, in Cedric 2, we watched this movie called... Report an error in the passage at 1:15:44 Highlight the passage at 1:15:44

1:16:14 Words of My Perfect Teacher with Tsongkhapa Rinpoche, who's a Nyingma Lama who also happens to be a filmmaker. He did The Cup and he did Travelers and Magician. A very wild kind of crazy wisdom kind of a Lama. But there's this point where the students are like, well, what does enlightenment look like? Report an error in the passage at 1:16:14 Highlight the passage at 1:16:14

1:16:38 Is it this crazy guy who's like... Coming off of planes and wearing hats and disappearing into the crowd and not being seen for days and leaving them at the airport and just doing wacky things. And then this one interview, he says, you know, wait a second. If I'm enlightened, enlightenment just is basically having no fear, knowing reality as it is. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:38 Highlight the passage at 1:16:38

1:17:03 So you aren't constrained by caring basically what people think of you and how you look and all those things. He's like, what else? So enlightenment could look like anything. So it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be, you know, at one point one of the students says, why doesn't he act like an enlightened being then? Report an error in the passage at 1:17:03 Highlight the passage at 1:17:03

1:17:22 And it's sort of like, well, what does enlightenment look like? We have... Preconceived notions that somebody who's enlightened or somebody who's an Arya being or somebody who's an Arhat is going to look basically like Christ or something. It's going to have sort of a golden body and nice posture and beautiful hair. And that's not necessarily the case, especially if they have the bodhisattva ideal and they really want to benefit other beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:22 Highlight the passage at 1:17:22

1:17:52 Does that help? Or make it worse? Report an error in the passage at 1:17:52 Highlight the passage at 1:17:52

1:17:58 a good question. That just created 17 more questions. Matt, could you hand in the talking stick? Going Report an error in the passage at 1:17:58 Highlight the passage at 1:17:58

1:18:13 further with that question, which is a great question, by the way, Report an error in the passage at 1:18:13 Highlight the passage at 1:18:13

1:18:19 we know an enlightened being also by the fact that they were a teacher. It always seems to me in what I read and hear that... Oh, would you, like, if you reconnect with that? What do you mean? Oh, so would an enlightened, would we know an enlightened person by the fact that they... They would be awake and they would obviously have that mind of bodhicitta so strong that they would want to be a teacher. Would that be an obvious... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:19 Highlight the passage at 1:18:19

1:18:48 Well, they say, yeah, and one of the teachings in the spiritual teacher class actually is that that is the way that the Buddha has said that he will return and that all the Buddhas will return is in the form of a spiritual teacher because that's the activity that's the most useful, it's the most practical. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:48 Highlight the passage at 1:18:48

1:19:08 And actually, really the only way that they can help us. I mean, they can help us by popping up as the guy on the bus and they can help us in these kind of really wild ways that they can manifest energy in different forms. But the best way is by teaching the method that will get us out of this and then spurring us on. And who does that but the teacher. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:08 Highlight the passage at 1:19:08

1:19:31 But it doesn't mean, of course, that all teachers are enlightened beings, nor does it mean that... Report an error in the passage at 1:19:31 Highlight the passage at 1:19:31

1:19:41 It means that it's possible. It means that it's possible that any teacher of authentic Dharma could be a holy being. And so the whole Tibetan approach is, if it's possible, then just treat them that way. Treat them, start looking at them that way. Especially once you take the time, and they say to take up to 12 years to choose, especially in the role of your root guru, like somebody without that much. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:41 Highlight the passage at 1:19:41

1:20:10 Sway over your mind and the way that you apply the Dharma to take up to 12 years to check them out and they'll check you out at the same time. And then once you venture that relationship, then just honor them as a holy being because you just don't know. And actually that allows you to stop that mind of nitpicking and criticizing and all that stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:10 Highlight the passage at 1:20:10

1:20:32 It just allows you to open up to that relationship. Yeah, but it's a huge step. That's why the 12 years. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:32 Highlight the passage at 1:20:32

1:20:43 I know. But the idea of a teacher notion needs to be taken out as well. I see you as a teacher. You're sitting before us and we're learning the Dharma. But also the idea of you are talking about crazy wisdom. The person standing on the fire hydrant on the corner screaming. Is that a valid teacher? Every notion that we have. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:43 Highlight the passage at 1:20:43

1:21:13 Yeah, I mean, there are definitely hugely different kinds of teachers, even conventional teachers. Alex Berzin has a good book that's called Relating to the Spiritual Teacher, and it has a great something after, subtitle, but I forgot what it is, something about building healthy relationships or something like that, which is the required reading for the spiritual teacher, DB class. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:13 Highlight the passage at 1:21:13

1:21:36 And in it, he has this list of eight, and that's just eight that he's come up with. Spiritual teachers that he's come up with that any one of us could have in any one life. And actually, one person could fill all those eight slots, but most likely wouldn't. It starts with a college professor, which a lot of people, of course, start learning Buddhism in college now, which wasn't true when I was in college. But definitely a lot of people that come here have already taken a class in either high school or college. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:36 Highlight the passage at 1:21:36

1:22:08 And that person wouldn't necessarily be your root guru, for example. However, if that person were Geshe Sopa or Robert Thurman, it's possible that you would go to further levels with that teacher, but not in the college setting. But then you might connect with them in that way. And then it goes all the way up to like Dharma instructor, which is basically what I am, where I have had some amount of experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:08 Highlight the passage at 1:22:08

1:22:30 And so I'm just trying to teach you from my experience, you know, like that. And then you're going up to these different levels where people are giving you vows of different levels. The first, you know, the refuge precepts and then lay vows and then bodhicitta vows and then bodhisattva vows. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:30 Highlight the passage at 1:22:30

1:22:50 Tantric initiations. And those are all higher and higher levels of your relationship with this being, all the way up to root guru, which is like the most important one in your life. The one, as he says it, the one who brings tears to your eyes. The one who shifts your mind, changes your mind more than anyone else. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:50 Highlight the passage at 1:22:50

1:23:13 And that's totally a different one. Than the college professor. But it doesn't have to be. It could be the same one, and you could have just gradually over time reached these different levels. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:13 Highlight the passage at 1:23:13

1:23:26 But really, I mean, we had come up with Geshe Sopo was the only one I could think of who I could imagine. But I think, you know, I'm sure, I don't know if Robert Thurman... He's at the level where you give tantric initiation, so I think that probably phases him out. So I think probably Geshe Sofa is the only one that I can think of in the whole country who could be all of those things at some time, because I've left out a couple of levels. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:26 Highlight the passage at 1:23:26

1:23:50 And so that's just all the possible spiritual teachers you could have. Then you have all these different ways that enlightened mind or holy mind, meaning bodhisattva or an Arya being or an Arhat, could manifest to benefit you. So you're walking along and you think you're actually not such a bad guy and then this person bumps into you and starts a fight, testing you, testing your patience. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:50 Highlight the passage at 1:23:50

1:24:20 That could be a teacher if you allow that person to be a teacher. And so there are a lot of mind training teachings that are basically pointing out that fact that anyone who rubs you the wrong way basically could become a teacher if you allow them to because they're going to force you to look at your faults and force you to work on your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:20 Highlight the passage at 1:24:20

1:24:41 So those people can also be teachers. Whether they are actual teachers is unknown to us at this point. That was my point to Dean. They could be. An actual teacher. They could be an actual holy being, or you could just be using them that way. Either way, it's valid. Either way, it's going to get you closer to enlightenment, so who cares, you know? Report an error in the passage at 1:24:41 Highlight the passage at 1:24:41

1:25:04 Anybody else? Yeah, Charlie. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:04 Highlight the passage at 1:25:04

1:25:13 In trying to sort of shift your mind to another way of perceiving things, someone I read said that this is like... There's a picture in psychology books of it's an old lady and you look at it another way. It's a beautiful woman. He just sent this email that you had to look at it like and you try to figure out. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:13 Highlight the passage at 1:25:13

1:25:41 Right, exactly. And somehow the perception just pops that you, oh, okay. In your experience with emptiness and dependent arising, is this something where you, There's a sudden shift within you? Well, I think it's a series of pops. It's like the candles going out. Yeah, it's very much like you remember it. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:41 Highlight the passage at 1:25:41

1:26:09 Every time you remember it, it's a shift. But you need like thousands of them, you know. So every time you're meditating and you get an aha, it's a shift. But then again, you come out and Olivia still pisses you off, so you're still holding on to that. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:09 Highlight the passage at 1:26:09

1:26:27 Every time that you're like all riled up and you suddenly remember, this is an entire story. This has no basis in reality. This is exactly like the snake is the rope thing. And it just totally deflates all of those mental afflictions and they just... And it's such an interesting feeling, but you have to have that over and over and over again. Because within the next second, somebody's like, Charlie, I told you not to. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:27 Highlight the passage at 1:26:27

1:26:55 And immediately the eye rises again. And we've just had so many lifetimes of believing, not just as Rinpoche said, not just seeing this eye, but believing it exists as true. It's truly existent. So it's like we just have to keep looking at it over and over and over again. And that's why... It's not just the reading, it's not just the studying, it's not just the contemplating, but actually learning to deeply meditate on it. That's what's going to shift it permanently. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:55 Highlight the passage at 1:26:55

1:27:23 But we can try for right now all these little moments of, it's literally like popcorn. It's very interesting. It's also very cool. But you just have to be patient because within the next second, you're grasping on again. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:23 Highlight the passage at 1:27:23

1:27:41 It's so, we're so stubborn. And basically our mind, it's like, it's not to say we're stupid, but that mind is stupid. That mind, and it's so stubborn. And I just have to be like, of course it is. You know, I've had this for lifetime after lifetime. And that mind isn't me. It's just a simple, it's like a form of ignorance. That's all. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:41 Highlight the passage at 1:27:41

1:28:01 It can be eliminated. It's not me. It's just my mind right now has this ignorance in it. That's all. Rather than thinking, I'm so stupid, which is of course what I usually do. But it's not. It's just a form of ignorance and it can be removed. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:01 Highlight the passage at 1:28:01

1:28:18 The more wisdom we have, the more we can apply that wisdom. The ignorance won't have any basis anymore. It's like shining the light on the coiled rope. There's no basis for it to be there anymore. So, yeah. Any more questions? Yeah, there's a question arising in the back row. He was fine until that one. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:18 Highlight the passage at 1:28:18

1:28:43 Here's another doozy. So if our clear light of mind goes from life to life, where does the ignorance, like is it because the karma transfers along with it? Yeah, also the afflictions, the kleshas arise based on the karma. And the karma arises based on the kleshas, klesham meaning afflicted mind. So, yeah, there is a subtle most form of mind, but we still have the karma in it. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:43 Highlight the passage at 1:28:43

1:29:14 And the karma is not a physical thing, but it is a working of the mind, and it still transfers with the mind. And as long as we have karma, we have kleshas, and as long as we have kleshas, we create more karma. So we just keep... The cycle keeps on. We haven't removed it. The only thing that removes that, once you directly perceive emptiness, some people do really deep states of meditation and during that deep state of meditation or even like during a long retreat, you aren't creating negative karma, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:29:14 Highlight the passage at 1:29:14

1:29:50 Because you're just in this deep meditation most of the time and you're just by yourself. So you might step on a few ants or something, but you actually are pretty much... It's almost like you're in a suspended animation, but you haven't eliminated those clashes. It's like those stories of the yogis that meditate for 30 years and then they come out and then they scream at somebody, you know, because they haven't really removed the negative states of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:50 Highlight the passage at 1:29:50

1:30:19 It's sort of like when you're flying and you're flying above the storm. And then you come down into the storm, the storm's still there. You just have been flying at a different level. So it's exactly the same with the meditator. The meditator has been flying at a different level and not dealing with the crap underneath the sort of, you know, basic mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:19 Highlight the passage at 1:30:19

1:30:40 Our basic mind is pure, clear and knowing, but unfortunately it is polluted right now. But that's all it is. It's just pollution. So the pollution can be removed. It's the same as polluted water. The nature is still clear. So we can get down to that clarity again. That clarity is possible again. And the only way to remove it permanently is through directly perceiving emptiness, which is the path of seeing. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:40 Highlight the passage at 1:30:40

1:31:09 The minute we directly perceive emptiness, which actually they say, okay, we've studied this, imagine, for hours, thousands of hours. We've meditated on it for thousands of hours and then we have this experience where we, of course, at the same time have been simultaneously building our concentration so that now we can sit for four hours with no effort applying our mind to this object which is called common abiding. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:09 Highlight the passage at 1:31:09

1:31:34 So we've developed this really high state of concentration and we've developed this clear understanding of what the heck it is we're looking for. The two come together and literally within as little as 20 minutes of meditating we can directly perceive emptiness. Are we out of here? No, but we're on the way. We're on the conveyor belt. We have directly perceived emptiness which means we're actually now on the third path of the five paths. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:34 Highlight the passage at 1:31:34

1:32:03 First being the path of accumulation. We're accumulating merit, basically, in order to be able to directly perceive emptiness, which takes an enormous amount of merit. The second path is the path of preparation. Again, we're preparing to see emptiness. The third is this path of seeing, which literally lasts that 20 minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:03 Highlight the passage at 1:32:03

1:32:24 That's it. Boom. You're seeing emptiness. It finally all comes together and you... Get through the clouds and the storm and you directly perceive nature as it really is, reality as it really is. When you come back out, I still see Olivier is self-existent. I'm still, it's like I'm schizophrenic. I have, in the direct state of, in the meditative, deep meditative state of directly perceiving emptiness, I get it. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:24 Highlight the passage at 1:32:24

1:32:55 And forever my mind is changed. I'm an Arya being actually now. The minute I come out of that meditation, I have completely changed forever. There are two types of beings, ordinary beings and Arya beings, and Buddhas count as Arya beings. I come out of that state of meditation, you look at me and you can't see any different. You're like, oh, there's that nun again, you know. Actually, I am forever changed, and you might tell by my eyes. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:55 Highlight the passage at 1:32:55

1:33:18 I'm out. But. But you can't tell from the outside, but my mind is forever changed. And actually, I'm on the path of seeing, but what's now going to happen is I'm on the next path, which is the fourth and the final, really, path, is the path of habituation or meditation, where now I've got to meditate on it and habituate my mind to this completely different reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:18 Highlight the passage at 1:33:18

1:33:44 I thought I had it in all those classroom hours. I thought I had it in all my meditation hours, but now I totally have it. So now I just have to habituate. And during that process, we eliminate one by one by one all of our mental afflictions. And then the final path, the path of no more learning, is basically enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:44 Highlight the passage at 1:33:44

1:34:04 And that's when you remove the most subtle afflictions. It's sort of like the taste, they say. Of the onion in a jar. It's just the faintest essence of our mental afflictions. And then you actually become enlightened. So that whole process takes quite a bit of time. But that path of seeing is actually incredibly short. It's just the moment that your mind clicks into concentration on reality and you actually directly perceive it. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:04 Highlight the passage at 1:34:04

1:34:39 And then you're in like Flynn. So why don't we take a break, actually. And then come back and we'll finish the root text. We'll do a meditation on the eye. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:39 Highlight the passage at 1:34:39

1:34:58 So go see what your eye notices in the bookstore. And also, you might notice that Keisha gave us all these little calendars of what's coming up in November. So this is, it's for your very own. See the I immediately grasp to it. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:58 Highlight the passage at 1:34:58

1:35:37 So go back to your root text and we'll end it. We'll end with the final verse, verse 13. When you've grasped as well as I the essential points of each of the three principal paths explained, then go into isolation, my son. Make mighty efforts and quickly win your ultimate wish. presentation, wasn't it? Meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:37 Highlight the passage at 1:35:37

1:35:58 So here he's, remember he was writing this to his actual disciple, whose name is actually Nawang Takba, the same as Arkesha here. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:58 Highlight the passage at 1:35:58

1:36:08 And I think we can assume that disciples, disciples, disciples, which actually means us, to study it until you grasp it and then go into isolation. And so what he's talking about here is retreat. And just for a minute I just wanted to do an advertisement for the importance of Taking time to do retreat. I think a lot of times people think of retreat in the West as sort of almost like going on a holiday because that whole idea of like you go on a pampered kind of retreat or you go and get mud baths or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:08 Highlight the passage at 1:36:08

1:36:44 Here basically you are going somewhere to go more deeply into this same material. So it's like... If you decided that you were going to do a lamrim retreat or a meditation, take all your meditations from this class and just do them around, you know, four sessions a day for a week. You could do that with what you have now. Just take all your notes from this class and go and do that. Retreat is basically, you hear different things, but Lama Zopa Rinpoche says retreat is retreat from the eight. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:44 Highlight the passage at 1:36:44

1:37:17 worldly concerns and we talked about that back with renunciation right so You're giving up this desire to always have things be comfortable. You're giving up whatever people might say about you. You're giving up all those things that normally keep us in this world, tied to this world, and you're just focusing on the Dharma in some form. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:17 Highlight the passage at 1:37:17

1:37:42 And sometimes people see it as a luxury, but it's really... No matter where you live, no matter if you lived in the country and had silence all the time, you still need to take time to do serious meditation. So definitely with our wacky, crazy lives here in the city, no matter how much we have a chance to study the Dharma and no matter even how wonderful our practices are, and I'm hoping all of your practices are far better than mine, it's still really important to go... Report an error in the passage at 1:37:42 Highlight the passage at 1:37:42

1:38:13 And take time to just meditate on this stuff. So, I mean, my teachers both, I would say that the strongest advice I've ever gotten is to take at least a month a year. I think Lama Yeshe says two months a year and one of my other teachers does as well. I think Lama Zopa says at least a month a year. Whether that month is all at once or whether it's week by week by week, whether you have to do it by taking Sundays and making that your retreat day, somehow bring that silence and that reflection into your life so that you can take time to look at this stuff deeper. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:13 Highlight the passage at 1:38:13

1:38:58 So you could, like I just said, you could just take all your notes from class and just go and shut yourself up in a cabinet at Vajrapani and do the best you can. It's probably more helpful the first couple times to go and do it as part of a group because you learn how retreat is done. You learn all the extra things that we sometimes think of as embellishing or unimportant, but actually they're preparations for your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:58 Highlight the passage at 1:38:58

1:39:24 If you go, for example, Venema Urbina is going to do a retreat at Land of Medicine Buddha the 8th through the 16th of December. And she's actually said on Tuesday night, she actually said people can come for one day, two days, three days, seven days, the whole thing. So you can actually really get a good feel of what retreat is like in that way, how you would set up your seat and stuff like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:24 Highlight the passage at 1:39:24

1:39:50 I also like the retreat that I think I've described a few times, the Vajrasapha retreat that I did in India. I don't know if I did or not, but anyway, I get the classes confused. I know I just talked about it in the deaf class. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:50 Highlight the passage at 1:39:50

1:40:07 That kind of a group retreat also, if you decide to take it another level where you actually are going away and... um um Report an error in the passage at 1:40:07 Highlight the passage at 1:40:07

1:40:15 In a group environment, doing formal sessions each day, setting up the altar every morning, doing motivations, doing dedications, having some sort of group discussion period, otherwise keeping complete silence. You really learn how retreat can be. And then when it's just you, you really see how much energy you lose through the mouth. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:15 Highlight the passage at 1:40:15

1:40:39 We lose so much energy by talking, just keeping silence and only looking at this stuff and only reading anything that might support it. So maybe just bringing a couple of good commentaries in, but that's it. So don't bring in Rolling Stone or something like that. Don't bring completely unrelated material in. Try to keep... Report an error in the passage at 1:40:39 Highlight the passage at 1:40:39

1:41:01 Try to keep it only to the bare minimum and have that be supportive of whatever it is that you're meditating on and that's it. And then otherwise, stare at the sky. Allow the mind time to let this trickle in because that's the kind of time we don't have here. Staring at the sky is really great. Sitting and just, it's almost like that's when your aha moments will come because it's so quiet and whatever it is you've just been meditating on just has that much more, Trickle down time. I cannot praise it enough. And that's really the only way they say that we ever get realizations in this stuff, is to take time and to meditate on it. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:01 Highlight the passage at 1:41:01

1:41:42 One really amazing group experience to just plant the seed. I try every class to plant the seed. Kopan Monastery outside of Kathmandu in Nepal. Does an amazing one month lamrim retreat. And a lot of times people's reaction is like, oh my gosh, it's so far away and it's so expensive. The retreat itself is actually only a few hundred bucks. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:42 Highlight the passage at 1:41:42

1:42:06 Of course, the airfare is high. So the trip all combined is actually still much less than if you were to do a one month retreat anywhere in this country. Except maybe your own house. All your meals included. It's actually pretty amazing. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:06 Highlight the passage at 1:42:06

1:42:23 And I've done it twice and I would happily do it over and over again. You learn so many different things because your mind changes each time. The teacher changes. They actually have it arranged so nicely that they do teachings for like four and a half hours every day, split up into two sessions. And then you also have practices in the morning. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:23 Highlight the passage at 1:42:23

1:42:45 At night, you have a discussion group, people all around the world. I mean, you're there with like 250 people and they're from literally all across the planet and everybody has these amazing different experiences. And it's just, this stuff comes alive in a way that, you know, it just, we just don't have the space for it to come alive in that way here. So I highly suggest that even if, you know, just to plant the seed, it happens every year, mid-November to mid-December. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:45 Highlight the passage at 1:42:45

1:43:13 It's actually followed if you have a little extra time with a one-week lamrim retreat where you're just silently meditating on the topics. And I don't know that there's any guidance for that, I think. I mean, there's a leader, but it's not like a guided retreat. It's just simply you get more time for it to trickle down. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:13 Highlight the passage at 1:43:13

1:43:33 But, you know, we have great retreat centers nearby. Vajrapani does group retreats from a day to a weekend to a week. To ten days to two weeks. So just see what they've got going on and go. Just come here for a day. You'll get the experience a little bit on Saturday of what a group retreat is like and how just that silence helps it go down a little bit more. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:33 Highlight the passage at 1:43:33

1:44:01 So I just highly, highly suggest that if you can't get away for anything more than a day, then just make a day periodically where you just keep silent. You don't answer the phone. You don't talk to anybody. You don't do email, which somehow, for some reason, people think somehow it doesn't count. I remember so shocked. We had an amazing, actually, she just entered the three-month retreat tonight. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:01 Highlight the passage at 1:44:01

1:44:26 Joanna, who was our office manager when I first came, and she did her first three-month retreat, silent retreat, and I got this email from her about a month into it, and I'm like, what are you doing? Report an error in the passage at 1:44:26 Highlight the passage at 1:44:26

1:44:38 And she was going crazy, you know. She was just like, she had so much energy and she just couldn't sit still. So it's actually so exciting to me every time I hear she's going into retreat. So she's still doing it. But yeah, I can't recommend it highly enough and it's not a luxury thing. It's definitely how you take it to the next level. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:38 Highlight the passage at 1:44:38

1:44:57 It's the only way to take it to the next level. And if you can't do it with your current job situation, then do what you can in each day or each week and change your job if you have to. Because it's the only way, if you want to realize these teachings, it's like the only way to realize these teachings. And it's a slow process, so you've got to start. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:57 Highlight the passage at 1:44:57

1:45:18 So that's my advertisement. So I'm going to lead you in this meditation on the eye. And we've run out of time, but I'll do it really fast. And then this will be your assignment. So you can just start poking at the eye. Just start trying to get that little bugger up. And see if you can find it. Because we give it so much power. We've been giving it power for lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:18 Highlight the passage at 1:45:18

1:45:48 And at some point you're going to have to notice that it doesn't exist. So this is what the point of this one is. You just, you try to find it. And then once you think you've found it, you start. And bombarding it with these reasons that it can't possibly exist in the way that you believe that it exists. And actually, once you let go, it's actually quite a blissful feeling. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:48 Highlight the passage at 1:45:48

1:46:14 But it takes a while to let go. So I just start with checking your posture. Remembering the most important element of it is just letting your spine be extended because that will help your channels and winds. Be free, not constricted, and that helps your concentration. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:14 Highlight the passage at 1:46:14

1:46:45 And it's good to start this meditation with remembering an incident where maybe somebody has criticized a job you did at work or accused you of something or you, you know, came close to death, you nearly were hit by a car, or really frightened, frightened for your life. Because those kind of moments are when this I really arises strongly. It's easier to kind of get a grasp on it. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:45 Highlight the passage at 1:46:45

1:47:24 It's sort of like you have this mind of a spy looking for this I. You start trying to become aware of that I. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:24 Highlight the passage at 1:47:24

1:47:38 How does this I seem to exist? How does it appear to you? Report an error in the passage at 1:47:38 Highlight the passage at 1:47:38

1:47:48 Does it feel like a creation of your mind? Report an error in the passage at 1:47:48 Highlight the passage at 1:47:48

1:47:58 Or is it something existing independently in its own right? Report an error in the passage at 1:47:58 Highlight the passage at 1:47:58

1:48:12 And if you can identify it, try to find it and see if you can locate it. Where Report an error in the passage at 1:48:12 Highlight the passage at 1:48:12

1:48:28 is this eye? Report an error in the passage at 1:48:28 Highlight the passage at 1:48:28

1:48:33 Is it in some part of your body? Is it in your head with your brain, in your eyes, in Report an error in the passage at 1:48:33 Highlight the passage at 1:48:33

1:48:46 your heart? Report an error in the passage at 1:48:46 Highlight the passage at 1:48:46

1:48:55 Is it somehow in your whole body? Report an error in the passage at 1:48:55 Highlight the passage at 1:48:55

1:49:05 Is it more subtle than that? Is it in one of your organs or your nerves, your blood? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:05 Highlight the passage at 1:49:05

1:49:23 Is it even more subtle than that? Is it at the level of cells or atoms? Where Report an error in the passage at 1:49:23 Highlight the passage at 1:49:23

1:49:35 is this I? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:35 Highlight the passage at 1:49:35

1:49:44 After you take time to think about every part of your body, searching for this I, now look at how it may manifest. How does it appear? Does it still seem to be as vivid and concrete as it was before? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:44 Highlight the passage at 1:49:44

1:50:10 Is your body the I or not? Report an error in the passage at 1:50:10 Highlight the passage at 1:50:10

1:50:22 Maybe you think your mind is the I. The mind is a constantly changing stream of thoughts, feelings, experiences, perceptions. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:22 Highlight the passage at 1:50:22

1:50:38 Which of these experiences is the I? Report an error in the passage at 1:50:38 Highlight the passage at 1:50:38

1:50:46 Is the I a loving thought, an angry thought? Is the I the meditating mind, the dreaming mind? Report an error in the passage at 1:50:46 Highlight the passage at 1:50:46

1:51:00 Where in your mind is this I? Report an error in the passage at 1:51:00 Highlight the passage at 1:51:00

1:51:11 If it's not in the mind or the body, is there any other place you can look for it? Could it exist in any other way? Report an error in the passage at 1:51:11 Highlight the passage at 1:51:11

1:51:26 How does it feel? Where does it feel like it lives? Report an error in the passage at 1:51:26 Highlight the passage at 1:51:26

1:51:34 Is it inside of you? Outside of you? Both? Report an error in the passage at 1:51:34 Highlight the passage at 1:51:34

1:51:53 Again, look at the way this eye appears to you. After searching for this eye, do you notice any difference? Do you still believe that it's as solid and real as you felt before? Report an error in the passage at 1:51:53 Highlight the passage at 1:51:53

1:52:11 Does it still appear to exist independently? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:11 Highlight the passage at 1:52:11

1:52:28 Now again, mentally disintegrate your body. Imagine all the atoms separating and floating apart, billions and billions of minute particles scattering through space. Imagine that you can actually see this. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:28 Highlight the passage at 1:52:28

1:52:51 And now disintegrate your mind. Let every thought, feeling, sensation, perception just float away. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:51 Highlight the passage at 1:52:51

1:53:04 Just stay in this experience of space. That Report an error in the passage at 1:53:04 Highlight the passage at 1:53:04

1:53:14 independent, inherent I reoccurs. Look for it again. Where does it exist? How does it exist? Is it in my body? My mind? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:14 Highlight the passage at 1:53:14

1:53:34 Don't make the mistake of thinking, if my body isn't the eye and my mind isn't the eye and I can't find the eye, then I don't exist. You do exist, but not in this way you instinctively feel, independent, inherent. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:34 Highlight the passage at 1:53:34

1:53:57 Conventionally, your self-exist independence upon your mind and body. And this combination is the basis to which conceptual thinking ascribes a name. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:57 Highlight the passage at 1:53:57

1:54:10 I, or Chokyi, this is the you sitting and meditating and wondering, maybe I don't exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:10 Highlight the passage at 1:54:10

1:54:26 Whatever exists is necessarily dependent upon causes and conditions, parts, and a name for its existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:26 Highlight the passage at 1:54:26

1:54:38 This is dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:38 Highlight the passage at 1:54:38

1:54:45 This is how things exist conventionally, and understanding interdependence is the principal cause for understanding a thing's ultimate nature, its emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:45 Highlight the passage at 1:54:45

1:54:58 Think about how your body exists conventionally, in dependence upon skin, blood, bones, legs, organs. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:58 Highlight the passage at 1:54:58

1:55:09 And each of these exists in dependence upon their own parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:09 Highlight the passage at 1:55:09

1:55:20 Think about how your mind exists in dependence upon thoughts, feelings, perceptions, sensations, and Report an error in the passage at 1:55:20 Highlight the passage at 1:55:20

1:55:31 how in turn each of these exists in dependence upon their parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:31 Highlight the passage at 1:55:31

1:55:43 Now go back to your original feeling, that self of I. Think about how you exist conventionally in dependence upon mind and body and name. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:43 Highlight the passage at 1:55:43

1:55:59 When the body feels hunger or cold, you think, I am hungry, I am cold. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:59 Highlight the passage at 1:55:59

1:56:10 When the mind has an idea, you say, I think. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:10 Highlight the passage at 1:56:10

1:56:20 When introducing yourself, you say, I am so-and-so. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:20 Highlight the passage at 1:56:20

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:57:05 Apart from this sense of I that depends upon the ever-flowing, ever-changing streams of body and mind, is there an I that's solid, unchanging and independent? Report an error in the passage at 1:57:05 Highlight the passage at 1:57:05

1:57:21 The mere absence of such an inherently existing I is the emptiness of the soul. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:21 Highlight the passage at 1:57:21

1:57:44 Let's dedicate this meditation and this class and this entire course to each of us being able to realize renunciation, bodhicitta, and the correct view of emptiness in this very life so that we can perfectly benefit every being without exception, including ourselves. On Report an error in the passage at 1:57:44 Highlight the passage at 1:57:44

1:58:21 time, when you're ready, you can end your meditation. cough, cough. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:21 Highlight the passage at 1:58:21

1:58:35 When the body coughs, I say I cough. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:35 Highlight the passage at 1:58:35

1:58:43 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:43 Highlight the passage at 1:58:43

1:58:47 Somewhere I lost my Kleenex box. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:47 Highlight the passage at 1:58:47