Discovering Buddhism - Presenting the Path (26 January 2012)

0:12 If you wait to the end, you'll probably get more people because they're probably circling. Report an error in the passage at 0:12 Highlight the passage at 0:12

0:20 Come on Report an error in the passage at 0:20 Highlight the passage at 0:20

0:37 in, and when you get settled, we're just going to start. I'll just review the posture for those of you who need it. Those of you who don't can just start meditating on your breath. I'm going to start now. Report an error in the passage at 0:37 Highlight the passage at 0:37

· · · silence, 1 minute

0:51 So just extending your spine, relaxing and leveling your shoulders and come slightly back. Report an error in the passage at 0:51 Highlight the passage at 0:51

1:06 If you're sitting in a chair, just try to move away from the back of the chair. Place the feet firmly on the ground. Report an error in the passage at 1:06 Highlight the passage at 1:06

1:16 Sitting on a cushion, just have your legs be in a comfortable cross-legged position. The Report an error in the passage at 1:16 Highlight the passage at 1:16

1:29 chin is just slightly tucked down, which opens up the back of the neck. Report an error in the passage at 1:29 Highlight the passage at 1:29

1:39 Eyes are slightly open. Some people say hooded, just a little bit open, focused, a little bit off the end of your nose, just a couple feet in front of you. Report an error in the passage at 1:39 Highlight the passage at 1:39

2:07 Mouth are relaxed, lips are closed, breathing through the nose, Report an error in the passage at 2:07 Highlight the passage at 2:07

2:13 and the tongue rests on the roof of the mouth, behind the front teeth, but not touching. Report an error in the passage at 2:13 Highlight the passage at 2:13

2:35 Hands can either be palm down on your knees, or you can have them in your lap, right over left. Thumbs touching lightly. Just resting in your lap or at the level just a little bit below your navel. Report an error in the passage at 2:35 Highlight the passage at 2:35

3:09 And then the final element of the posture is your breathing, just allowing your breathing to return to normal. Report an error in the passage at 3:09 Highlight the passage at 3:09

3:21 We're going to start with watching our breath, but you don't need to overly pronounce your breath or exaggerate it in any way. Just focusing on Report an error in the passage at 3:21 Highlight the passage at 3:21

3:37 watching it as it... It enters and exits your body. Report an error in the passage at 3:37 Highlight the passage at 3:37

3:44 So you can focus on the level of your belly, expanding and contracting with each breath. And a little patch of skin right inside the tip of the nostril. So either one, the sensation of the air passing over that. And Report an error in the passage at 3:44 Highlight the passage at 3:44

4:16 the object is just to try to keep your mind focused or anchored onto that breath. And every time the mind begins to wander off with thoughts or distractions, noises, sensations in your body, ideas or thoughts, memories in your mind, just extract the mind and place it right back on that breath. And Report an error in the passage at 4:16 Highlight the passage at 4:16

4:48 do this for a few rounds of ten. Report an error in the passage at 4:48 Highlight the passage at 4:48

· · · silence, 2 minutes

7:10 The Report an error in the passage at 7:10 Highlight the passage at 7:10

7:21 motivation that we do this kind of spiritual work is basically to be able to help people, to help others. It Report an error in the passage at 7:21 Highlight the passage at 7:21

7:36 means developing. The skills, the attitudes, the minds to be able to have the capacity to take away people's suffering, Report an error in the passage at 7:36 Highlight the passage at 7:36

7:49 to take away their pain, their problems, their fear, their anxiety and the sources of those problems. Report an error in the passage at 7:49 Highlight the passage at 7:49

8:03 Because we don't have this now. Report an error in the passage at 8:03 Highlight the passage at 8:03

8:10 And to develop the capacity to help them have happiness and the sources of happiness. Report an error in the passage at 8:10 Highlight the passage at 8:10

8:22 That's the real reason that we do spiritual work. We Report an error in the passage at 8:22 Highlight the passage at 8:22

8:31 start with working with our own minds. Developing our own good qualities and eliminating our own negative states of mind so Report an error in the passage at 8:31 Highlight the passage at 8:31

8:45 that we cause less and less harm as we go through life. Report an error in the passage at 8:45 Highlight the passage at 8:45

8:52 And gradually we get stronger and stronger and our mind gets bigger and better and more and more perfect and we get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 8:52 Highlight the passage at 8:52

9:06 We can use this life to get closer to that goal. May Report an error in the passage at 9:06 Highlight the passage at 9:06

9:14 this class help us get closer to that goal. May any ideas or thoughts or understandings, insights that come out of this class help us to get closer to that goal. May Report an error in the passage at 9:14 Highlight the passage at 9:14

9:31 it also help us overcome whatever obstacles we face, whether it's laziness or pride or doubt, fear. No Report an error in the passage at 9:31 Highlight the passage at 9:31

9:46 matter how long it takes, no matter how hard it is, Report an error in the passage at 9:46 Highlight the passage at 9:46

9:58 that we can get there. We can get to that place where we have the capacity to help all living beings. And it begins. ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 9:58 Highlight the passage at 9:58

10:24 opening prayer, and then we'll recite. Report an error in the passage at 10:24 Highlight the passage at 10:24

10:31 three principal paths. Report an error in the passage at 10:31 Highlight the passage at 10:31

10:35 With the wish Report an error in the passage at 10:35 Highlight the passage at 10:35

10:47 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 10:47 Highlight the passage at 10:47

11:19 I bow to all the high and holy llamas. So this sheep, Report an error in the passage at 11:19 Highlight the passage at 11:19

11:27 did you get one? Can you hand? No, just hand. It's okay. Oh, here. Come on in. Report an error in the passage at 11:27 Highlight the passage at 11:27

11:42 Everybody else get one? You'll hang on to these. Okay, this will be your very own. I bow to all the high and holy Lamas. As far as I am able, I'll explain the essence of all high teachings of the victors, the path that all their holy sons commend, the entry point for the fortunate seeking freedom. Listen with a pure mind, fortunate ones, who have no craving for the pleasures of life. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

12:12 And who, to make leisure and fortune meaningful, strive to turn their minds to the path which pleases the victors. There is no end without pure renunciation. This striving for pleasant results in the ocean of life. It's because of their hankering life as well that beings are fettered, so seek renunciation first. Report an error in the passage at 12:12 Highlight the passage at 12:12

12:36 Leisure and fortune are hard to find. Life's not long. Think it constantly. Stop desire for this life. Think over and over how deeds and their fruits never fail and the cycles suffering. Stop desire for the future. When you've meditated thus and feel not even a moment's wish for the good things of cyclic life, and when you begin to think both night and day of achieving freedom, you've found renunciation. Report an error in the passage at 12:36 Highlight the passage at 12:36

13:07 Renunciation, though, can never bring the total bliss of matchless Buddhahood unless it's bound by the purest wish, and so the wise seek the highest wish for enlightenment. They're swept along on the four fierce river currents, chained up tight in pasties, hard to undo, stuffed in a steel cage of grasping self, smothered in pitch-black ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 13:07 Highlight the passage at 13:07

13:33 In the limitless round they're born, and in their births are tortured by three sufferings without break. Think how your mothers feel. Think of what's happening to them. Try to develop this highest wish. You may master renunciation and the wish, but unless you have the wisdom perceiving reality, you cannot cut the root of cyclic life. Report an error in the passage at 13:33 Highlight the passage at 13:33

13:56 Make efforts in the ways, then, to perceive dependent arising. The persons enter the path that pleases the Buddhas when for all objects in the cycle or beyond he sees that cause and effect can never fail and when for him they lose all solid appearance. You've yet to realize the thought of the able as long as two ideas seem to you disparate. The appearance of things, infallible dependent arising, and emptiness beyond taking any position. Report an error in the passage at 13:56 Highlight the passage at 13:56

14:29 At some point, they no longer alternate and 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 14:29 Highlight the passage at 14:29

14:59 When you grasp 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. So this is going to be our root text. Come on in. Report an error in the passage at 14:59 Highlight the passage at 14:59

15:23 And it goes through in quite a lot of detail, each of the three principal paths. And so we're going to start by talking about renunciation tonight. I'll give you one, two, even though we just read it. No, that's all right. Report an error in the passage at 15:23 Highlight the passage at 15:23

15:41 Okay, so before we start, did anybody have any questions about anything that we've been talking about so far? Or any of the reading? Do Report an error in the passage at 15:41 Highlight the passage at 15:41

15:58 we have the microphone ready? Okay, just good. Now that I see thousands of hands going up. Do you remember where you are? Report an error in the passage at 15:58 Highlight the passage at 15:58

16:11 All right, well, I'm just going to start. There'll be time later to ask questions if something comes to you. I usually like to start with a little check-in because it's no good getting more information if you're stumbling over something that you've already gotten. So anyway, Russ, welcome to the class. So I wanted to start out just talking a little bit in general about the lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 16:11 Highlight the passage at 16:11

16:38 And a little bit about Lama Atisha's story, his historical story, a little bit like the Buddha's story. I think it's good to remember that these were people, not just mythological creatures. Report an error in the passage at 16:38 Highlight the passage at 16:38

16:53 And sort of all it took to get the Dharma into Tibet sort of helps us remember the preciousness of it, because it wasn't so easy. It wasn't like he just came. You know, across the border and life was good and then it all passed down to us. There's quite a lot of effort involved. And then we'll start talking about a little bit more in detail about kind of the lamrim and how it's arranged in certain ways that we can understand a little bit better. Report an error in the passage at 16:53 Highlight the passage at 16:53

17:24 So I did tell a little bit of the story in that the lamrim, which just means stages of the path in Tibetan. Report an error in the passage at 17:24 Highlight the passage at 17:24

17:36 But it sounds much better, right? I don't know why we use it so often. I think just because it refers to the genre, and I think stage of the path in our mind is just, you know, it's like a concept or something, whereas when we say lamrim, we're actually referring to the genre of teachings that were the collected topics from, or collected experience of those topics taught in the sūtra teachings of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 17:36 Highlight the passage at 17:36

18:04 And they were, the lamrim tradition began in Tibet, so of course the Buddha lived in India and did all his teaching in India. Report an error in the passage at 18:04 Highlight the passage at 18:04

18:16 He was actually born in Nepal, what is now currently Nepal, but very close to India. And then all of his life he lived in India and taught in India. And most of his early, all of his students I think remained in India. Of course the teachings themselves spread elsewhere. swear, but, um, so... So eventually, by the 8th century, Padmasambhava, or Guru Rinpoche, originally did bring the teachings, the Buddhist teachings to Tibet. Report an error in the passage at 18:16 Highlight the passage at 18:16

18:50 And then, as I mentioned in the first class, there was a particular couple of kings, but especially one that was anti-Buddhist. And so the teachings began to wear, you know, the same way that... That's happening now. For a couple of centuries there was a lot of oppression and persecution of Buddhist practitioners and the monasteries that had been built were destroyed and the texts destroyed. Report an error in the passage at 18:50 Highlight the passage at 18:50

19:12 Very much the same situation. And so things went underground, which of course made it difficult to get accurate teachings, which is also the case now. Those in Tibet who want... Clear, accurate teachings find it difficult to get them now, which is really very much the case. For example, when Azhar Rinpoche, who is a great, amazing Lama, although he manifests as quite humble, very approachable, he's actually meant to be the reincarnation of Lama Tsongkhapa's father. Report an error in the passage at 19:12 Highlight the passage at 19:12

19:49 When he was in Tibet, which he was in Tibet until just the 80s, when he was in Tibet, He, or maybe even the 90s, it might have been the 90s, even though he was the head of a university, a small monastery, he never got the lamrim accurately from start to finish. And so when he was able to escape, and there's a book about him that's out, now I have to try to remember the title, that he wrote, his biography, something about the dragons, does anybody remember? Report an error in the passage at 19:49 Highlight the passage at 19:49

20:25 Surviving the Dragon, yeah, it's a great, amazing read. But one of the first things he did as soon as it was safe for him to do so was... He ran into Geshe-la, actually, at the Andronikos in Marin. And he was like, what? What are you doing here? And he was like, oh, I'm going over to this study group and I have a center in the city. And so then he began coming to receive teachings from Geshe-la on the Lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 20:25 Highlight the passage at 20:25

20:56 So even though in Tibet he would have been much, much higher, I'm sort of, you know. in. Report an error in the passage at 20:56 Highlight the passage at 20:56

21:04 Esteem-wise, he always goes behind Geshe-la in any kind of procession or anything like that because he sees him as his first real teacher. Report an error in the passage at 21:04 Highlight the passage at 21:04

21:16 And so that's the same. It was the same exact situation in Tibet after the 8th century, 8th, 9th, 10th century. And then, so a little bit about Lama Atisha. He was born also, just like the Buddha, into a royal family. It was sort of the best way to be born in India. But then, of course, you have the opposite problem, right? Report an error in the passage at 21:16 Highlight the passage at 21:16

21:43 So instead of he did have good conditions for education, he did have good conditions for having enough time and money. Good health and good food and so forth, just like the Buddha. But then you also get tempted by all those good things. And also you get pulled into running the kingdom, right? So then there's always that problem. So apparently from an early age, just like the Buddha, he said he had come to help the Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 21:43 Highlight the passage at 21:43

22:12 You know how the Buddha, there's that story of when he was first born, which must have been an amazing sight, taking seven steps and then said, I am here to help the world. Apparently Atisha did that too, although perhaps not at birth, but at a very early age. So apparently they say that Tara herself appeared to him when he was 11. Report an error in the passage at 22:12 Highlight the passage at 22:12

22:37 And, you know, reminded him of his purpose. So he must have been getting a little too attached to all the special little Indian sweets and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 22:37 Highlight the passage at 22:37

22:47 And then he left home. He kept asking over and over, you know, to be able to become a monk, to go and study and so forth. And his family didn't want him to. So he left home without permission and met all these kind of... He had gurus and yogis and just began practicing with them all during his teens. I'm bummed that John can't hear this because I wanted John to hear this one. Report an error in the passage at 22:47 Highlight the passage at 22:47

23:09 John Mulville who set up his seat, but he's in the back right now with Teresa. But anyway, he came back and he begged again and they said no and so then he ran away again and he brought back some really wild yogis. And there are a lot of really wild yogis in India. They have these long dreadlocks and all that. So apparently that convinced the family and they just wanted no more to do with him. So they allowed him to go at that point. Report an error in the passage at 23:09 Highlight the passage at 23:09

23:41 So he met his first main guru when he was 21 and he studied with him for nine years. So he was pretty serious. He wasn't taking this lightly. Report an error in the passage at 23:41 Highlight the passage at 23:41

23:53 And apparently sometimes he would get a little too proud and then the Dakinis would come in and they'd check him on that and make sure he didn't get a little... Let his pride get in the way of his studies. They often say, actually a lot of times in these stories, and even just as caution, they say that our pride is the biggest obstacle to being able to learn and study the Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 23:53 Highlight the passage at 23:53

24:16 Usually because pride closes us down rather than opening us up. So that's actually why we do prostrations before we attend a class, you know. Report an error in the passage at 24:16 Highlight the passage at 24:16

24:26 It's to sort of humble ourselves. You can't get more humble than getting down on the floor. So anyway, he went and studied. I think in the first class I said he studied at Nalanda. He didn't. He studied at Rikramashila, and he was quite renowned there. He actually did not get ordained until he was 29, so he got ordained when he was 29, and then he rose in the ranks at Rikramashila and became this incredible master there. Report an error in the passage at 24:26 Highlight the passage at 24:26

24:57 So it was here that the emissaries from Tibet came to request him to come to Tibet. So the background on that is that there is this Western king whose name was Yesheu, who for Report an error in the passage at 24:57 Highlight the passage at 24:57

25:13 whatever reason, and actually I don't know what originally prompted him to want to bring, you know, him personally to want to bring the Dharma back to Tibet, to reinvigorate it and clarify where it is. Report an error in the passage at 25:13 Highlight the passage at 25:13

25:28 So I don't know that story, but I just know that he tried repeatedly, he kept sending all these teams of Tibetans into, of course it's this enormously difficult terrain and the weather change is vast between the mountains and the clear air of Tibet and then the low lands and very kind of muggy environment of India. Report an error in the passage at 25:28 Highlight the passage at 25:28

25:53 But he had to send all these teams of young Tibetans for them to go and learn the language and then translate the text into Tibetan and then come back. Well, over and over again, they would die, actually, on the journey or just once they had been there and trying to study in the university and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 25:53 Highlight the passage at 25:53

26:13 Apparently, the biggest team that he sent was 21 people, all except two of whom died. In the journey, and those two came back and talked about Atisha. So that's how he found out about Atisha. So he sent another team with gold, all the gold he could gather to request, and the team was lost and the gold was lost. Report an error in the passage at 26:13 Highlight the passage at 26:13

26:36 I mean, it's just years, we're talking years and decades of this king's life. So he himself went. He went out to search for more gold, and he was arrested by this neighboring king who was very anti-Buddhism, who threw him into jail. So his nephew, Zhang Shibu, went to the king, went to Yeshiu in prison, and then went to the king to request his release. Report an error in the passage at 26:36 Highlight the passage at 26:36

27:05 And the king said, the only way you're going to get him back is to bring as much gold as equal to his weight. And so he kept gathering, you know, of course they had already combed the kingdom several times by now, so he couldn't, you know, he brought all he could and the king said, no, that's not enough, you know. Report an error in the passage at 27:05 Highlight the passage at 27:05

27:27 And so he was really desperate, so he went back to Yeshua and he said, what now? You know, what do I do? There's, I just have this much gold, he won't let you out, what do I do? And Yeshua said, take this gold. And offer it to Lama Etisha and ask him to come. He said, I'm an old man, let me die here. That's no matter. But you go, you take this and you bring him back to Tibet. Report an error in the passage at 27:27 Highlight the passage at 27:27

27:54 Which is what happened. He died in prison so that we could have the Dharma. I mean, it's really so impressive. I don't know what happened to that king. I would say that's pretty serious negative karma. But anyway, at this point the journey was successful. They were able to reach Atisha and they were able to make the request and Master Atisha did come back to Tibet. As I also mentioned in the first class, he did a divination. Report an error in the passage at 27:54 Highlight the passage at 27:54

28:22 He checked to see if it was beneficial. And apparently it came out that his life would be shortened if he came, but it would be much more beneficial for him to go for all sentient beings. And so he did go. But as I said, he had quite a rank at this monastery, and so nobody wanted him to go. And so he had to sort of look like he was just going to go on this three-year pilgrimage, which, of course, pilgrimages at that time were. Report an error in the passage at 28:22 Highlight the passage at 28:22

28:52 Many years, they weren't just three weeks, like you're lucky to go on now, three weeks, but it just took so long to go places, and so he said he would just go for three years. Apparently, he did try to return after that point, but there was a war in Nepal that blocked it, so he was able to just stay and not lie, as Geshele said when he told this story, and so it was... Report an error in the passage at 28:52 Highlight the passage at 28:52

29:21 The promise could be broken through no fault, as he said. So altogether he spent 17 years teaching and traveling in Tibet and he never returned to India. Report an error in the passage at 29:21 Highlight the passage at 29:21

29:35 And apparently he was so pleased when he met the Tibetan students, especially with their sincerity, that that's why he began to pull together the teachings into the form of this lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 29:35 Highlight the passage at 29:35

29:50 Taking the essential points of the sūtra teachings and then arranging them systematically to meditate and gain experience on and then how each one builds and then you keep starting over. Like I was saying, it's more like a spiral rather than a linear thing. It's not like you start with one and then you leave it behind forever. It's more like you just keep circling it and circling it and circling. Report an error in the passage at 29:50 Highlight the passage at 29:50

30:13 And each time you study and meditate on these, they get stronger and stronger in our minds. Because our minds change, you know, our minds are constantly changing through our own life experience. Report an error in the passage at 30:13 Highlight the passage at 30:13

30:24 So these teachings then come down to us through his main disciple, Don Tonpa, who, with a number of his disciples, started what's known as the Kadampa Geshe, or the old Kadam lineage. And Lama Tsongkhapa, Report an error in the passage at 30:24 Highlight the passage at 30:24

30:46 He became part of that lineage and then of course founded the Galupa lineage. Lama Tsongkhapa then composed this short text that I'm calling our root text which is basically like sort of covering the essential points all on one page rather than pages and pages which of course most lamrims are pages and pages even in translation. Report an error in the passage at 30:46 Highlight the passage at 30:46

31:09 There are a few Texts that are direct translation. There's actually one, I think, just direct translation of the largest lamrim, the lamrim chamo, that's in our bookstore. But then there's also commentaries on that lamrim, which can be volumes. I mean, just volumes and volumes, even in English, even condensed, for those of us of feeble mind. Report an error in the passage at 31:09 Highlight the passage at 31:09

31:37 Like whenever Geshe was talking, he was talking about the sharp students and the feeble students, and I was like, oh, sorry. That'd be me. Report an error in the passage at 31:37 Highlight the passage at 31:37

31:48 So, anyway, but they came down through the Galupa lineage to, you know, Pabanka Rinpoche, who wrote Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, or actually taught Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. It was an oral teaching that was written down by Trijong Rinpoche, who was one of the tutors to the... right. Report an error in the passage at 31:48 Highlight the passage at 31:48

32:06 The present Dalai Lama and then from the Dalai Lama to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Geshe-la to us. So that's the lineage of these teachings and they've come down to us in this way. Report an error in the passage at 32:06 Highlight the passage at 32:06

32:18 So another way to think of these teachings is thinking about the level of the practitioner or the mind or motivation of the practitioner and that's when we get into the three scopes. Sometimes you hear the three principle paths and three scopes. I know I used to be confused by that. Report an error in the passage at 32:18 Highlight the passage at 32:18

32:33 know What are they? So the three scopes are actually talking about the sort of scope of practice or level of motivation. So we have a lower, a middle and a greater and we get sort of broader. Most of us are not even actually on the lowest. That's what I hate to say. Because you actually have to have a fairly developed... Report an error in the passage at 32:33 Highlight the passage at 32:33

33:02 Practice to even be on the lowest scope. The three principle paths are actually talking about minds or mental development that we have to develop before we can get enlightened. So that's the difference between them. So we're going to talk about both. The three scopes are talking the lower scope motivation is only considered the lowest scope because we're only focusing on getting a good rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 33:02 Highlight the passage at 33:02

33:31 Which doesn't actually happen until you understand that there is more than this life. Because in our culture, of course, that's not the way it's taught. So first we have to understand that mind is beginningless and endless. I mean, that's a great one to understand. We don't normally grow up learning that one. We have to understand karma so that we know sort of how our actions affect, cause the result. Report an error in the passage at 33:31 Highlight the passage at 33:31

34:01 What happens in the next life? We have to understand death and impermanence, not just intellectually. Again, I'm not talking about intellectual understanding. I'm talking about some deep gut realization of these things that influence how we live. So at the very least, they say it's the minimum to be required, even a spiritual practitioner, because at least you're not focused on just this one life anymore. Report an error in the passage at 34:01 Highlight the passage at 34:01

34:33 Most of us are focused on this one life. So this level of motivation, which comes of course through study and meditation and contemplation on these different levels of understanding, you know, karma, death and impermanence, how the mind works, what happens at the time of death, reincarnation, you know, what causes the different conditions of our taking a new rebirth and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 34:33 Highlight the passage at 34:33

35:05 So you have to gain this level of understanding to even just keep from trying to harm others. I mean, this is like the first level that makes us stop. As Ben Rubino always says, this is the level of zip your lip and keep your hands to yourself. It's like this is the kindergarten level where we realize that, you know, my stealing that's going to cause suffering. Report an error in the passage at 35:05 Highlight the passage at 35:05

35:28 It's going to affect my future rebirth. My hitting you. My hitting you or screaming at you is only going to cause me suffering. At this level, we actually understand that. Most of us haven't quite even gotten that, so that's why we're here, actually. Report an error in the passage at 35:28 Highlight the passage at 35:28

35:48 The middle scope motivation is where we start getting it that even another samsaric rebirth isn't all that great. You know, so at the first scope, we're just trying to become like, we want to get like the royal rebirth, right? We want to be like a tisha. We want to be born into a royal family. So we have all those good things. But at this level, the middle scope, we start thinking, well, actually, even that's not so great because it's still dependent on karma, on our karma, and it's still, that karma runs out and then we lose it. Report an error in the passage at 35:48 Highlight the passage at 35:48

36:25 So saṃsāra is not such a great place to be born, and so we actually want to get out of saṃsāra. We're going to talk a lot about what this thing called saṃsāra is, so don't worry. All these strange words like klesha and karma, we'll explain as we go along. So the middle scope motivation is where we get it that any rebirth within saṃsāra, even as a god, In the pleasure realms is not enough, you know, because it's still psychic existence. There is still suffering and there is still impermanence and it's still all dependent on our karma and that karma runs out like gas in the tank, you know. Report an error in the passage at 36:25 Highlight the passage at 36:25

37:11 And so we want to get out of it completely. The highest scope motivation is where we get it that, oh yeah, we apply the same reasoning. Oh yeah, everybody else is in this too. It's not enough for me to get out of this if all of you guys are going to get stuck here. I have to work for you too. And so the highest scope motivation is where we get it that we want to gain enlightenment so that we have the tools, the capacity, the methods to help every other living being out too. Report an error in the passage at 37:11 Highlight the passage at 37:11

37:43 So that's why it's called highest because it's also the vastest. It's the vastest big heart, big mind. And includes all living beings. So it's quite a leap. So how does that relate to the three principle paths? So the three principle paths are talking about these mental states that we have to develop in order to attain enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 37:43 Highlight the passage at 37:43

38:07 So they're actual states of mind. They aren't just understanding intellectually these renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. So I repeat that one a lot because I think... When we come to classes like this, or any classes in a Dharma center, sometimes we gain an intellectual understanding of something and we think we've gotten it. Report an error in the passage at 38:07 Highlight the passage at 38:07

38:28 And we're sort of like, well, why do they keep teaching us these three original paths over and over? And it's like, well, have you realized it yet? Probably not. So they're trying it again from a new angle. Because it's not just having an intellectual understanding. Although, like anything else, that's a great lead-in. Report an error in the passage at 38:28 Highlight the passage at 38:28

38:45 Right? It's good to know kind of the general idea of baking a cake before you get in the kitchen. Right? It's useful to know how to do an oil change before you start changing the oil. But it's doing the oil change that helps you get it at a sort of gut level. If I were to just stand here and tell you, it might, for me anyway. Report an error in the passage at 38:45 Highlight the passage at 38:45

39:07 It wouldn't go into my mind in a deep and permanent way. Not that changing the oil or baking a cake is going to change my life, but it's the same way. So learning something is not the same as realizing it. And that's really important, and I'll probably keep repeating that just because I think sometimes people get confused at that. I know I have. I mean, I think it's quite easy when you talk about, for example, death and impermanence. Report an error in the passage at 39:07 Highlight the passage at 39:07

39:32 Yeah, we all get it that we're going to die to some extent, right? But how many of us are really living that way? How many of us use that understanding to not get mad? Because how important is whatever it is you're getting mad at going to be to you 30 seconds after you die? Not very important at all, you know? Report an error in the passage at 39:32 Highlight the passage at 39:32

39:52 So if we really got it, not just intellectually, or not that I didn't just get it that you guys are going to die, then I actually got it that I'm going to die. See, theoretically, I can get it that you guys are going to die, but it's a lot bigger for me to get it that I'm going to die. So again, intellectually understanding it is just a first step. Report an error in the passage at 39:52 Highlight the passage at 39:52

40:16 But that's not the whole picture. So we have to just keep hearing it and working with it in our own minds and working with it in meditation too. So we use this word path talking about it's creating this actual mind, this mental generated state or condition of understanding. Report an error in the passage at 40:16 Highlight the passage at 40:16

40:41 So the three are renunciation. I'm doing the translations. Or the translation of renunciation anyway. Bodhicitta, we still use bodhicitta, which is the Sanskrit word. And I'll talk to you about what these all mean. And the correct view of emptiness. Renunciation, bodhicitta, and the correct view of emptiness. So as Pavanka Rinpoche said, there is no way to turn your mind to spiritual practice unless you have renunciation from the very first. Report an error in the passage at 40:41 Highlight the passage at 40:41

41:13 And there's no way for this practice to serve as a path of the greater way unless you have the desire to become a Buddha for the sake of every living being. And there's no way to rid yourself totally of the two obstacles unless you have a correct view. This is why these three attitudes were taught to be the three principal paths. Report an error in the passage at 41:13 Highlight the passage at 41:13

41:36 Sometimes it's translated as the three principal aspects of the path because they aren't separate paths. It's not like you can get on the renunciation path and never come back to the main path. It's not like that. It just means there's sort of like three aspects of the same path. But I actually feel like somehow aspects of the path, it sort of weakens it a little bit. So I kind of like the idea of three paths because they really are paths within our actual mind streams. Report an error in the passage at 41:36 Highlight the passage at 41:36

42:06 But you'll see it translated in different ways. When these three principal paths... Not just are in your mind but pervade your mind, then everything can become your spiritual practice. So if you ever see Lama Zopa Rinpoche going through the day, everything becomes spiritual practice. How he pours his tea, how he offers a flower, how he does prayers for a bug, how he listens to someone with a problem. Report an error in the passage at 42:06 Highlight the passage at 42:06

42:43 You know, it all becomes spiritual practice. It doesn't have to be meditating and, you know, contemplating the scriptures or doing prostrations or any of the things that are so-called spiritual practice. It's just all the other stuff because these three principle paths are in his mind, you know, at all times. So that's what we kind of want to get to. Report an error in the passage at 42:43 Highlight the passage at 42:43

43:06 So renunciation, or I'll butcher the Tibetan, Yang Jung. Nguyen Jung. Report an error in the passage at 43:06 Highlight the passage at 43:06

43:17 It sounds heavy, but most of my teachers actually translate this as disgust for this life, which always sounds very heavy. And of course it's the first one too, so like all the students get up and leave, you know. I'll read you some really great Lama Yeshi quotes at the end to kind of make nice. Starting with the Lama Zopa approach. Disgust for this life. Report an error in the passage at 43:17 Highlight the passage at 43:17

43:32 I'll do. Report an error in the passage at 43:32 Highlight the passage at 43:32

43:44 Actually, Lama Zopa often says renunciation is getting it that this life is no better than used toilet paper. It's like, whoa, remember today? Okay, there goes the first row. It's like, wow. But what he means is really getting it that life is suffering and that... Getting at what causes that suffering, that there's a cause for that suffering. When we think about the Buddha's first teaching, the Four Noble Truths, we often get caught on just the suffering part. Report an error in the passage at 43:44 Highlight the passage at 43:44

44:27 But thankfully he went on. There is suffering. And there is such a myriad of levels of that suffering that we don't normally think of as suffering. We just think of suffering of like, you know. Broken arms and headaches and flu and amputated leg and like that. That is suffering too, for sure. But according to the Buddha, there are all these other levels of suffering too. And the most basic or the most underlying level of suffering is just this profound dissatisfaction in our mind. Report an error in the passage at 44:27 Highlight the passage at 44:27

45:07 And we're all born with it and we all die with it. And so it stays in our mind because we aren't. Countering it with anything else, any other understanding. And so no matter what we have, there's always this underlying dissatisfaction that continues to cause more and more and more suffering, even if we have the greatest of conditions. Report an error in the passage at 45:07 Highlight the passage at 45:07

45:28 So really getting it that this life is suffering and that there's something better, that it's possible to transcend saṃsāra. We're going to talk about this tonight. The second of the three principle paths is what's called jangsem, bodhicitta, bodhi mind, enlightenment mind, literally. Report an error in the passage at 45:28 Highlight the passage at 45:28

45:53 But is it Buddha mind? No, it's actually Buddhahood mind. It's the mind that wants to attain Buddhahood or to attain enlightenment in order to help all living beings. So it's this really profound, powerful, courageous mind that... That gets it that that's the only way that we're going to be able to help others. And our bottom line goal is to be able to help others. But we're really not able to until we have all these different tools that Buddhists have. Report an error in the passage at 45:53 Highlight the passage at 45:53

46:25 Or these different methods that Buddhists have. And all these different skills that Buddhists have too. Really cool skills actually too. Report an error in the passage at 46:25 Highlight the passage at 46:25

46:36 And then the third one is correct view. My correct view of emptiness. Yang. Report an error in the passage at 46:36 Highlight the passage at 46:36

46:44 view. Report an error in the passage at 46:44 Highlight the passage at 46:44

46:47 And we are going to get to this. We're going to spend a class on each of them, a couple classes on emptiness. Well, it is the most profound. It's not just sort of the most profound. In fact, they always use that word profound, and that's kind of code word for emptiness. Have you ever hear profound sutras? Report an error in the passage at 46:47 Highlight the passage at 46:47

47:06 It just means sutras are about emptiness. So this is referring to the Buddha's observation that things... Don't exist the way we think that they exist. So they are empty of existing in that way. That's really what emptiness means. It's like, as Jan Willis says in that one Discovering Buddhism video, empty, empty of what? That part gets forgotten. Report an error in the passage at 47:06 Highlight the passage at 47:06

47:34 Things are empty of existing in the way that they appear to exist. You know, out there, separate from us, concrete, unchanging. Report an error in the passage at 47:34 Highlight the passage at 47:34

47:44 So you can think about that in terms of objects. You know, this feels like it has no connection to me, that it's just there forever until of course one day it's not and then I'm shocked, right? It falls apart when I pick it up or something. And then of course each other, right? So if I think of Anne in a certain way, I think of her as that way all the time. Report an error in the passage at 47:44 Highlight the passage at 47:44

48:05 Dependent on what? Dependent on one experience of her or, you know, sometimes not even an experience of her. Sometimes just my own projections are so thick and layered on that I can never really see her. And I believe in that projection. I mean, Rinpoche always says, it's bad enough that we project, but that's sort of normal. Report an error in the passage at 48:05 Highlight the passage at 48:05

48:29 But then we believe in that projection, 100%, no question. It's not even up for debate, you know, it's not even sort of like, you know, isn't she blah blah blah, it's sort of like 100 % I think she's like that, good or bad, right? So relationships are always tricky, right? Because we aren't really having a relationship with the person, we're having a relationship with our own mind. Report an error in the passage at 48:29 Highlight the passage at 48:29

48:52 We're going to get into this a lot. This also refers, this correct view, this idea of correct view, also refers to how karma and emptiness work together. Report an error in the passage at 48:52 Highlight the passage at 48:52

49:04 And so that's another form of this wisdom. There's emptiness and then there's how karma and emptiness work together. Report an error in the passage at 49:04 Highlight the passage at 49:04

49:15 So an example of that is, and this sort of shows how our lack of wisdom causes a lot of problems for us. And this example comes from one of my teachers who used to use this example. He said, for example, if I think that... If I lie for the company that I work for, then I will make a lot of money for that company. So I have this sort of false view. And so I keep lying in the hopes that I'll be able to make more money for the company. Report an error in the passage at 49:15 Highlight the passage at 49:15

49:50 And sometimes the company makes money, and sometimes the company doesn't make money, which is sort of the proof that lying isn't the cause of the money. you know. So... There is a relationship between, there's always a relationship between something, the cause and its result and there's always a similarity. Report an error in the passage at 49:50 Highlight the passage at 49:50

50:14 So if there's a positive cause, there has to be a positive result. So that since lying is negative, it can never be the result of gaining money. The gaining money comes from having been generous in a past life, according to the Buddha. The lying leads to... People not believing you and people lying to you in your future lives. That's what he says. So we don't see the correct connection between these two events, the action and the result. Report an error in the passage at 50:14 Highlight the passage at 50:14

50:45 We think the lying is actually bringing the money, so we keep lying in the hopes. But as I said, if it was the direct cause, then every time we lied, we'd always get money. But sometimes we get money. And we haven't lied. And sometimes we lie and we don't get money. So there isn't a direct correlation between the two. So we'll talk about this more. Report an error in the passage at 50:45 Highlight the passage at 50:45

51:10 But understanding how karma works and understanding what karma is allows us to create the causes that we want to create. Because we have to understand what causes. Lead to what results. And then also help us to clean up what we don't like to experience because we find out what has caused the results that we're experiencing. Report an error in the passage at 51:10 Highlight the passage at 51:10

51:34 So karma is incredibly cool. Karma only works because things are empty of existing in this solid, unchanging, unchangeable, concrete way that we tend to think of things as existing. Report an error in the passage at 51:34 Highlight the passage at 51:34

51:49 So why do we need these three? Report an error in the passage at 51:49 Highlight the passage at 51:49

51:54 Three principle paths, actually, they become the causes of the result of enlightenment, basically. And in the tantric teachings, they actually say that in order to even enter tantra, we're supposed to have not just an intellectual understanding of the three principle paths, which is, I think, what they say now is the bare minimum that you should have before you enter tantra, the higher teachings. Report an error in the passage at 51:54 Highlight the passage at 51:54

52:25 Now they just say an intellectual understanding, but it used to be that they would say you actually should have a direct realization of renunciation, a direct realization or generation of bodhicitta and a direct realization of emptiness before you ever entered any of the tantric teachings, which is no longer the case. Report an error in the passage at 52:25 Highlight the passage at 52:25

52:48 I think this is what's called the degenerate age, I think. But they say that these... Three, if you have these three minds, you will have amazing results even if you never enter Tantra. If you just have these three understandings and realizations in your mind. But if you have these three and you enter Tantra, it's possible to become a Buddha in one lifetime. And that's why people enter Tantra, supposedly. Report an error in the passage at 52:48 Highlight the passage at 52:48

53:20 So that they can have faster results to get enlightened and help people. That should be the bottom line. Whenever people come to me and say, I'm thinking about taking an empowerment, blah, blah, blah, I always ask them, what's the underlying motivation? The underlying motivation, at least on some level, is supposed to be to help people. It's supposed to be to help people. That's really why we're doing it. Report an error in the passage at 53:20 Highlight the passage at 53:20

53:44 There should be some bodhicitta motivation there, even if it's all contrived, but the best we can do. Report an error in the passage at 53:44 Highlight the passage at 53:44

53:53 Because there are enormous commitments and so forth. And you'll never keep doing them if you don't have at least a contrived sense of these three principle paths. Report an error in the passage at 53:53 Highlight the passage at 53:53

54:04 So I wanted to also mention, you know, Venom Rubina always talks about the two wings of a bird, which are the two sort of aspects of the path, method and wisdom. Method is really just referring to bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 54:04 Highlight the passage at 54:04

54:22 All the whole method side of the teachings is talking about this underlying motivation to help people, which is really all that compassion means. Compassion, defined in Buddhist terms, is wanting to take away the suffering of another. That's really all compassion is. So when you're talking about great compassion, it's talking about wanting to remove the suffering of all others. Report an error in the passage at 54:22 Highlight the passage at 54:22

54:46 It's just a matter of it stretching. Stretching. So all the skillful means and so forth is all this bodhicitta motivation. That's really all method is about. For those of you who know the five paths, when we talk about the five paths of enlightenment, method is the first two, the path of accumulation and the path of preparation. Report an error in the passage at 54:46 Highlight the passage at 54:46

55:13 Wisdom, so we're talking about method and wisdom, the second wing. Which you can't fly without the two wings. Wisdom is the third path. It's this developing or generating this correct view of emptiness. Understanding the nature of reality. Which doesn't just refer to external reality. Remember, it also refers to our experiences of that reality. Everything that happens to us gets affected by understanding karma and emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 55:13 Highlight the passage at 55:13

55:42 That's the third path. The direct perception of emptiness, which is the shortest of all the paths, is having this initial first direct perception of the nature of reality in this deep, deep, deep state of meditation. That's the path of seeing. The following path, which could be lifetimes, and often is, unless we're doing Tantra, or unless we're doing Tantra perfectly, I should say, is called the path of... Report an error in the passage at 55:42 Highlight the passage at 55:42

56:11 Meditation or the path of habituation, that's where you're just getting used to everything you experience in this deep, deep state on the nature of reality. So you're just continually going into that deep state of reality and using it to eliminate all your negative states of mind. Because if things don't really exist the way we think that they do, and you have this gut level taste of that, you can use it to get rid of all your anger, your jealousy, your hatred, your Report an error in the passage at 56:11 Highlight the passage at 56:11

56:42 Depression, boredom, every negative state of mind that you can imagine, you can use that. Understanding of how things actually exist to eliminate them one by one by one. And that all happens on that path. And then the final one, the path of no more learning, which I just love the title of, that's actually enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 56:42 Highlight the passage at 56:42

57:02 Sounds like that little poem that you used to do at the end of school, no more learning, no more books. That's what happens when you get to be a Buddha. Path of no more learning. And we can't generate... Bodhicitta without renunciation, right? Because if we don't see our own suffering, there's no way that we can want to remove it in others. Report an error in the passage at 57:02 Highlight the passage at 57:02

57:28 We can think we do. And a lot of us, I think, came to Tibetan Buddhism with this idea of it being a compassionate path and we wanted to develop our compassion, want to help all beings. We just sort of had that, right? But we don't have any wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 57:28 Highlight the passage at 57:28

57:42 Because we don't really know what suffering is for ourselves, right? A lot of people are actually in denial that they're even suffering. That comes up a lot when you go to these big teachings like Kopan and so forth. There's people raising their hands. Because a lot of people from Western countries maybe don't have the deep physical suffering of developing countries like India and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 57:42 Highlight the passage at 57:42

58:10 We still have suffering. I mean, as I say, even those in the God realms, you know, even the high level, the A level movie stars have suffering, you know. So even the wealthiest of the wealthy, you know, have suffering. So what is saṃsāra, this thing called saṃsāra, cyclic existence? If we want to get out of cyclic existence, what does this mean? Report an error in the passage at 58:10 Highlight the passage at 58:10

58:38 Saṃsāra is not a place. And I always have to say that because I think a lot of times we have this idea of saṃsāra being like a physical manifestation. You know, a lot of times when people move into the center, there's this idea or even just come to the center. Like in here, we're not in saṃsāra, but out there we're in saṃsāra. I hate to say, we are seriously in saṃsāra here. Report an error in the passage at 58:38 Highlight the passage at 58:38

59:04 Sometimes saṃsāra is translated as cyclic existence. Which kind of gives you an idea of what we're getting at here. So saṃsāra, I actually see, there's a perfume, right, called saṃsāra? Which really, somebody seriously got the wrong idea there. I know. I'm like, wouldn't want to put that one on. So we want to get out of psychic existence. We want to get out of saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 59:04 Highlight the passage at 59:04

59:25 We have to understand what it is. Saṃsāra is defined as the condition, I'll say this a couple of times, the condition of having to take a stream of impure heaps, which is just another fancy word for, you know, that's aggregate, so body and mind, forced on you by your karma and delusions over and over again. Report an error in the passage at 59:25 Highlight the passage at 59:25

59:50 The condition, saṃsāra is the condition of having to take a stream of impure heaps or body and mind forced on you by your karma and delusions over and over. Report an error in the passage at 59:50 Highlight the passage at 59:50

1:00:07 So we have no choice. It's forced on us, right? There's a lot of times that people say, you know, oh, I chose this birth. There's kind of a new age idea or maybe from other traditions or something that we choose our birth. We don't. We willingly choose our birth. We choose our birth in the sense that we did the actions that created the causes for us to get it. That part is true. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:07 Highlight the passage at 1:00:07

1:00:31 But only through ignorance, you know, usually. Maybe we lucked out and we created some positive karma too. But not always through sort of knowingly. We didn't knowingly create the causes. I mean, unless you are practicing now and you're dedicating to that. Which is something, you know, when I first met the Dharma, I was always dedicating. I am still dedicating to my enlightenment. But I'm also... Report an error in the passage at 1:00:31 Highlight the passage at 1:00:31

1:00:56 Dedicating for the causes in the next life to be able to pick up where I left off because I'm getting old and I'm afraid I'm not going to get it done. So I just want to be able to start like John and hit it, wake up at 11 and go, oh, let's figure out where a Dharma center is and have parents that helped and all that stuff and are really understanding and supportive. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:56 Highlight the passage at 1:00:56

1:01:18 So before you even make it to 18, you're in a Dharma center and on your way. That's kind of what I want to do. I feel like I just wasted a lot of time in this life, so now I'm dedicating to that all the time. Because otherwise we have no choice. Our karma that we create through ignorance mostly creates the causes of not just the conditions of our next lifetime, but also the very bodies that we have that are impermanent, that get old and get sick and die. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:18 Highlight the passage at 1:01:18

1:01:53 So renunciation. Renunciation is not wanting this anymore. It's finding this dissatisfying, dissatisfactory. And like I said, currently we don't fully get it or we don't accept that every single part of our experience and our existence is not satisfying and is in fact suffering. With an idea of all these different levels of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:53 Highlight the passage at 1:01:53

1:02:25 So not just the suffering of our physical body or even our mind, you know, mental and physical illness or injury or something like that. That's gross suffering, but then there's a subtler suffering that has to do with just changing the fact that things just change, the impermanence of things. So even if we get the job that we like. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:25 Highlight the passage at 1:02:25

1:02:50 You know, then we suddenly find out the guy next to us like talks to himself or something. You know what I mean? Like there's this little something comes in on the first day of work, you know, and you're kind of like, oh, you know, or didn't you realize that you're not in this office that they showed you? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:50 Highlight the passage at 1:02:50

1:03:05 You're actually in the cubicle down the hall, you know, or actually you're not in control of that thing you thought you were going to be working on that project. You're actually doing dishes. Oh, oh, that wasn't explained to you. That actually happened to me once, my very, very first job. I didn't understand. The woman had a lisp. This one became a joke in my family. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:05 Highlight the passage at 1:03:05

1:03:28 But I thought she was saying health and she was saying house. And so she was saying healthkeeping. It was in a hospital and it was housekeeping. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:28 Highlight the passage at 1:03:28

1:03:38 I was like, why do I have to wear this weird green uniform? Anyway. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:38 Highlight the passage at 1:03:38

1:03:46 That's what saṃsāra is. That on a big scale, imagine that. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:46 Highlight the passage at 1:03:46

1:03:55 And then there's an even subtler level in that sort of our very nature, like everything, since everything is empty of this inherent, solid, absolute existence and in fact is created through our karmic actions, the actions of our mind, our body and our speech, so ultimately changeable, then even the good things. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:55 Highlight the passage at 1:03:55

1:04:17 Can't last forever, right? We know that. Most of us in this room have experienced losing the good things, whether it's finishing the ice cream sundae or whether it's having a relationship in or losing a parent or losing a lease or having your car scratched after you just got it or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:17 Highlight the passage at 1:04:17

1:04:37 So there's all sorts of ways that the very nature of our reality being what it is causes our suffering. So suffering is not just this gross level, it's all these different levels. So what keeps us chained to this condition of saṃsāra? It's our karma and delusions, according to the Buddha. So karma is the action or movement of the mind and what motivates it. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:37 Highlight the passage at 1:04:37

1:05:07 So I'll say that again. Karma is the action or movement of the mind and what motivates it. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:07 Highlight the passage at 1:05:07

1:05:17 Delusions or mental afflictions are simply our bad thoughts, negative states of mind, anger, hatred, obsession, attachment, jealousy, depression, loneliness, anxiety. You know, it doesn't have to be the big ones. It's not always like the kind of rage that kills people. It's sometimes just that kind of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:17 Highlight the passage at 1:05:17

1:05:27 Attachment, jealousy. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:27 Highlight the passage at 1:05:27

1:05:41 Snarky mind, I call it in Bodhi. You kind of wake up on the wrong side of the bed. That's delusions too, you know, because those deluded states of mind. In fact, of the two, the Buddha said that these delusions are actually worse than the karma because they are the cause of the karma, right? If I'm angry, I'm more likely to yell or steal or grab or, you know, hurt, harm others. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:41 Highlight the passage at 1:05:41

1:06:08 If I am lonely, I'm more likely to get depressed and commit suicide. If I'm obsessed with you, I'm more likely to stalk or whatever. So it's like all these things that could... Or just go down and eat everything in the kitchen. I mean, let's not always put it onto people. So whatever is going on in our mind is what motivates us to act. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:08 Highlight the passage at 1:06:08

1:06:31 And those actions then create the karma that help... Create the conditions of our lifetime, life after life after life. So this condition is saṃsāra. That's saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:31 Highlight the passage at 1:06:31

1:06:46 So most of the time this idea of renunciation, I think because of the way it was used in Catholicism, it tends to have this idea of giving up all the fun stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:46 Highlight the passage at 1:06:46

1:06:59 Giving up all the, as one of my teachers said, giving up all the big pieces of chocolate and thinking you don't ever get any. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:59 Highlight the passage at 1:06:59

1:07:08 It's not like that at all. It's more like, actually I think in the same teaching he said, this venerable Neil, he said, it's more like giving up the current little piece of, you know, the little tiny ice cream cone that you're carrying because you suddenly realize there's a huge ice cream sundae over there for you. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:08 Highlight the passage at 1:07:08

1:07:28 But you can't get it as long as you're clinging to this one. Because it's the clinging, it's actually the clinging to... This condition that keeps us in this condition. So it's that clinging, that grasping that we're trying to eliminate, not saṃsāra itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:28 Highlight the passage at 1:07:28

1:07:47 Saṃsāra is simply our condition. We're actually just trying to eliminate that condition. But we do that through understanding. We do that through increasing our understanding of what saṃsāra really is, what suffering really means, and all these different levels. And only then can we want to get out of it, and only then can we look around us and go, oh yeah, I want you guys to get out of it too, which is then getting into the bodhicitta realm. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:47 Highlight the passage at 1:07:47

1:08:15 And so renunciation is wanting to give up this whole cycle with this understanding that there's something else. So you're not giving up anything until you realize, if I got out of this cycle, it would just be so much more fun. It would be so much greater to get out of this struggle. This constant struggle. And we haven't even gotten it that we've been doing this for lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. But that's really what we have to get is this gut level understanding that it's just this colossal waste of time. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:15 Highlight the passage at 1:08:15

1:08:49 That we could be using doing, you know, not only doing good, but having more fun. Because we get so caught up. It's kind of like, I always think of it like... Little kids on the playground, you know, when you're a little kid and you're just really caught up in that little world and it's like, well, he grabbed my toy, you know, and you're like fighting over these little toys and the parents are like, ha, ha, ha, ha, like thinking that the kids are so young and ignorant in a way, but we do the same things as grown-ups too, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:08:49 Highlight the passage at 1:08:49

1:09:18 You know, it's like the toys turn into people or cars or jobs or something, but we're still tug-of-war. I mean, look at the... Political situation in this country. Talk about little kids on the playground. I always think of teachers and Buddhas as the adults and all the rest of us are the little kids on the playground. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:18 Highlight the passage at 1:09:18

1:09:37 And they're like, kids, if you could just put down the Barbie, there's this whole thing over here you could play with. We're like, what? What? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:37 Highlight the passage at 1:09:37

1:09:48 So there's always that element that there's something better and that we're not getting it yet, that there's something beyond this continual struggle that we're in. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:48 Highlight the passage at 1:09:48

1:09:58 So how do we develop this thing called renunciation? I'll give you a break. There are three really great meditations, only one of which we have the time to get into in this class. The other two are dealt with in two other classes of the Discovering Buddhism program. The first one is the Precious Human Rebirth meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:58 Highlight the passage at 1:09:58

1:10:20 And it's quite detailed, but in the basic bottom line is that it's really, really hard to get all the conditions that we have managed to get. It's kind of like we get in this meditation that we've just won the lotto. It's probably bigger than that. It's like the New Jersey lottery or something. It's like we've got this really enormous gift of this body, this mind, these conditions, this life. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:20 Highlight the passage at 1:10:20

1:10:50 And there are two aspects of it. We didn't get that body, that life, those conditions. So we think about that, which takes a certain amount of understanding of the realms of existence. But even just looking around us on the street, right? Just ride the 22 a couple of times, you know? I didn't get that. And then I'm not, it's not like I'm feeling like I'm better than that person. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:50 Highlight the passage at 1:10:50

1:11:10 I'm just simply grateful. Wow. You know, I have a whole body. My mind's working pretty good. I'm not screaming. So that's probably a good sign. I'm not high on something. Those are all good signs. I'm actually able to offer my seat to somebody. I can get up and do that, which is not always the case. So you spend some time doing that, and then you also spend some time really enumerating all the great conditions that you do have. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:10 Highlight the passage at 1:11:10

1:11:37 So that's kind of what this meditation is about. We deal with this one more in a class that's called Establishing a Daily Practice. So we aren't going to spend so much time on it today in this class. But I think it is useful, it's always useful to spend a little time thinking about what conditions you have and going for it. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:37 Highlight the passage at 1:11:37

1:11:59 Because that's the way you feel. When you do this meditation really well, you should feel like great. You know, it should be like this great feeling of like kind of you're pumped up and ready to go. You know, it's like Mary and I watching. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:59 Highlight the passage at 1:11:59

1:12:16 G.I. Jane. You watch it, you're like, yeah! I'm ready to do it. Taking it all and go for it. And that's really what it's about. The other one that makes you do that is meditating on death and impermanence, which of course we'll cover in the class on death and impermanence, death and rebirth. But, like I said, nothing in this life... Report an error in the passage at 1:12:16 Highlight the passage at 1:12:16

1:12:41 None of the details, none of the things that keep us up at night, none of the things that we worry about, none of the things that we angst over are going to matter to us 30 seconds after we're gone. We'll just be moving towards the next life. And apparently we've been doing this for life after life after life. And in every life, whether it's as a puppy or a crawfish or a human, we get totally involved in the little life that we're in. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:41 Highlight the passage at 1:12:41

1:13:10 And we create all this negative karma because of that obsession and that kind of inward focus. And then we move into the next life. And we just don't learn. We still get so obsessed. And I say we because I'm just as guilty of it as anybody. But according to the Buddha, the one thing that's really going to help us, because in this meditation on death and impermanence, which is really profoundly useful for developing renunciation, Report an error in the passage at 1:13:10 Highlight the passage at 1:13:10

1:13:40 We not only think about the inevitability of death, but we also think about the fact that there's no guarantee on when. We don't know when. We just know it's going to happen, right? We have to develop a certainty that we know it's going to happen and an uncertainty in terms of the time. It could happen at any time. It's not just those people that feel sick, right, or are old. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:40 Highlight the passage at 1:13:40

1:14:04 In fact, a lot of the old ones live a lot longer than the rest of us. It's always like the tougher they are, they live forever. Even if they smoked and drank and everything else, they're still living. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:04 Highlight the passage at 1:14:04

1:14:18 But the third element of that meditation is that the only thing that really helps us at that moment of death, which is certain to come for each of us, and we don't know when, is... If we've worked with our minds and if our minds have sort of a calm and stable stability and if we've been working on eliminating the negative karma and purifying it and trying to be decent human beings, you know, even if we're not Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:18 Highlight the passage at 1:14:18

1:14:48 Just trying not to harm and trying to, as His Holiness says, try at least to be kind, and it's always possible to be kind. That's his quote. And it's always possible to be kind. And also trying not to harm and, if possible, even to benefit. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:48 Highlight the passage at 1:14:48

1:15:07 At least not to harm them. Because the only thing that's really going to benefit us, right, because the only thing we can take with us is our mind. So our subtle mind moves into the next rebirth, dependent on our karma. If we've worked on that mind, that mind will bring positive imprints and so forth, which will help us. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:07 Highlight the passage at 1:15:07

1:15:27 And even at the moment of death, it will help us. If we've been working with our mind and our mind is somewhat stable and calm, even if the situations around us are thoroughly chaotic, there might be a chance, no guarantee, that we could remain calm. At that moment, and they say that's a really pivotal moment to spring us into the next life. I can just say there's a chance, because of course who knows, right, at the moment that we're dying what's going to happen. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:27 Highlight the passage at 1:15:27

1:16:00 I can say without a doubt that there's no chance if we haven't been working on our minds. Well, I can't say that either, because I suppose it's possible that some wonderful karmic seed would ripen at that moment. Not very likely, you know. I mean, that time, even if you have the best conditions, there's so much happening just physically, all the different levels of your body are just sort of stop, you know, the karma for this body is discontinuing and so all these different hallucinations happen and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:00 Highlight the passage at 1:16:00

1:16:31 If we haven't really been working with our mind and we haven't really been meditating, we haven't really been trying to develop our mind in any broad way, we haven't really been thinking about others and so forth, most likely we'll get overwhelmed. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:31 Highlight the passage at 1:16:31

1:16:46 So part of this meditation on death and impermanence is to prepare us for what is inevitable. And the most amazing thing then is, of course, that we get it that all these conditions could stop in an instant, so I better get going. It's not like fear, but it's more like urgency. Just like, wow, I better do something. I better use this life the best way I can. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:46 Highlight the passage at 1:16:46

1:17:10 It's sort of like the stories that we hear and some of us have even experienced. If you have a really heavy physical diagnosis, for example, you sort of get it that life is precious, that life is short. And so you start using it kind of a little bit more meaningfully until you forget again. But this is what this meditation is designed to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:10 Highlight the passage at 1:17:10

1:17:35 So the third meditation, which is the one that you guys will work on this week and one that we will end with. Today is one that's on what are called the eight worldly concerns. These are four pairs of concerns that really prevent us from developing true renunciation. And we all have them and we spend a certain amount of our lives being motivated or obsessed with these four sets, these eight concerns. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:35 Highlight the passage at 1:17:35

1:18:11 They're a good test to how much work you've done with your mind. And it's not like a test that anybody else sees. Because when these things pop up, they pop up for you, right? It's not like they pop up in neon and Christine can see when I'm screwing up. It's not like that. It's like I can think about them a lot of times. And in fact, that's happened recently where I'm like, oh, that's just like an eight-worldly concern. It kind of helps you get rid of it a little faster, too, when you recognize it. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:11 Highlight the passage at 1:18:11

1:18:36 You're like, oh, well, that's not important. You know, who cares what he thinks of me or whatever. So I'm going to read you the eight, and then we'll take a little break, and then we'll go through, we could go through it. You'll get this in your homework, so you don't have to write it down. But I'm just going to read you kind of what those eight things are, and then we'll end with a little meditation on these eight, and that'll be the meditation that you'll do this week. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:36 Highlight the passage at 1:18:36

1:19:07 So I'll do them in the, because they're two. There are two things, two concerns which make a pair. So getting something and not getting something. Feeling good and not feeling good. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:07 Highlight the passage at 1:19:07

1:19:29 Being well thought of or having a good reputation and not being well thought of or having a bad reputation. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:29 Highlight the passage at 1:19:29

1:19:39 People saying good things to you and people not saying good things to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:39 Highlight the passage at 1:19:39

1:19:48 So getting something and not getting something, this is really big, especially, I think it's big in every culture, actually, but I think it's especially big in the West. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:48 Highlight the passage at 1:19:48

1:19:58 I mean, it's anything from like, things. Or jobs or parking spaces or relationships that you think are somehow yours, even though the person never even looked at you. Sometimes there's that thing where you're like, but he was mine. And it's like, well, no, not really. And that obsession, getting that and keeping that, even if sometimes somebody gives us something as a gift that we didn't even want, and then we become sort of preoccupied with, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:58 Highlight the passage at 1:19:58

1:20:32 That thing and how I'm going to keep that thing special and how I'm going to protect it and how I'm going to insure it and how I'm going to make sure that nobody else gets it. And then I'll send it down to you that actually I don't really want it. That happens a lot actually. People give us things that we don't even really want. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:32 Highlight the passage at 1:20:32

1:20:51 Instead of just giving it on to somebody who might actually use it at the thrift store or something, we just hold on to it. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:51 Highlight the passage at 1:20:51

1:20:58 Yeah, so it doesn't necessarily, it just eats up a lot of our precious human rebirth. You know, it doesn't necessarily benefit us in any way. Getting something and not getting something. Feeling good and not feeling good. I mean, that's basically anything from the pain in our body when we meditate, you know, to, you know, anything, you know, all the way up from getting the next fixed if you're an addict, you know, or going from relationship to relationship, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:20:58 Highlight the passage at 1:20:58

1:21:27 A lot of people really like that first part of a relationship before any of the work starts. So they just sort of serially go from that beginning, the first six months of every relationship, and then they jump out. It's that constantly wanting to feel good. I think as a culture, we really, really feed that. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:27 Highlight the passage at 1:21:27

1:21:50 We have like the new car season that comes out before the old one's even ended yet. It gets moved back further and further, you know, and it's sort of that idea that you don't want that anymore, you know, or you don't want the old iPad, you know, you don't want the old this, you know, that, the other thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:50 Highlight the passage at 1:21:50

1:22:09 So there's that idea that we have to just trade up. We always have to trade up, and we have to trade up probably right now. Even though I just got together with this person, I just would have trade up. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:09 Highlight the passage at 1:22:09

1:22:21 And the same thing is true with feeling bad. How often do we reach for something when we take pills? I'm always shocked when I watch TV. The only time I watch TV is when I go home and I watch it with my sister or something. you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:21 Highlight the passage at 1:22:21

1:22:34 But all the drugs that they just advertise now, it's just so scary. We just take drugs for everything, any kind of physical or mental pain that we might ever have. We just take it, thinking that somehow that's a really positive thing, but sometimes it actually just makes us weaker, you know, because we can't even handle any little bit of pain. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:34 Highlight the passage at 1:22:34

1:22:54 We have a little bit of pain and we can't handle it. And a lot of times it's our fear of the pain. Which I've examined quite a bit because I've had migraines for like 30 years or something. And I remember, I think I talked about this, I've talked about this with a few people, doing my first Nune, which is a really intensive purification retreat. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:54 Highlight the passage at 1:22:54

1:23:14 And you end up doing some fasting. And so I couldn't take a migraine pill on that one day. And I was doing five in a row or something. So of course I was like, I know I'm going to get a migraine. And I was like, the fear of... Of not wanting to get a migraine. The fear of that pain was bigger than the migraine. Because of course I had a migraine and I lived. That was the main thing that I got out of the first series of Nunez. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:14 Highlight the passage at 1:23:14

1:23:39 It's okay. You just get sick and it's not so bad. You know what I mean? I found that it was actually manageable and often that is the case. That the fear of the pain is actually worse than the pain. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:39 Highlight the passage at 1:23:39

1:23:54 And the drugs are a lot about the fear. They're not even so much about the pain. And this is especially true when people are really freaked out and especially when they're dying. A lot of times in our culture we are medicating the fears, the anxiety, not the pain. Because there's sometimes nothing we can do for the pain. So it's important for us to figure that out now. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:54 Highlight the passage at 1:23:54

1:24:21 Being well thought of and not being well thought of. And this is very much, we care so much what others think of us. This is a big one for me too. I definitely know this one. Sometimes we bend over backwards to make sure that somebody thinks well of us. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:21 Highlight the passage at 1:24:21

1:24:42 We want to be thought of well by everyone, positively. Not so much, I mean I have heard of this in being... and infamous I think a few people really are driven to become famous. Most of us, it's just more like we want people to think well of us. It's not so much wanting to become Richard Gere or something like that. Who probably, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:42 Highlight the passage at 1:24:42

1:25:14 Could care less what people think of him. And not being well thought of is the same. I mean, how much of our time is spent really worrying about if we know that somebody thinks badly of us, it kind of puts us off center, especially if that person is somebody in authority to us, like a boss or somebody in our lives or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:14 Highlight the passage at 1:25:14

1:25:37 It can just, the whole rest of your day or week can be... You're not even involved with all these other people around you because you're just thinking about Bob having a bad opinion about you or something. It's very interesting how it can just eat up your mind and your life. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:37 Highlight the passage at 1:25:37

1:25:54 And these aren't vast and profound thoughts. These are just things that we're dealing with every single day. But what the teaching of it is how does it make us act? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:54 Highlight the passage at 1:25:54

1:26:06 How much more authentically we could act if we weren't so obsessed with how Bob thinks of us, you know. And then the last two, people saying good things to you, which includes praise, but can also just be people agreeing with you, you know. And then people not saying good things to you, which again includes criticism, but could also just be people disagreeing with you, which sometimes we just take like a knife in the heart, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:26:06 Highlight the passage at 1:26:06

1:26:34 So-and-so disagrees with me and I'm just like, you know. I get so upset. Or even if people saying really nice words or kind words or praise and so forth and people just disagreeing with you or saying something rude. Sometimes somebody in a shop is having a really bad day and they say something rude and we get completely bent out of shape and people sue people for much less than this. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:34 Highlight the passage at 1:26:34

1:27:01 It's like people kill people for this. It's just like it... Whatever the reason is, that person says something rude to me, it shouldn't matter so much. Do you know what I'm saying? That person doesn't make or break you, even if they do say something that's completely out of line with whoever you are as a human being. Or if they yell at you without any meaning or warning or so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:01 Highlight the passage at 1:27:01

1:27:30 We can get thoroughly depressed and angry and so forth. So these are just... These eight things keep us from ever really moving forward, ever really developing this mind of renunciation. And karmically speaking, the natural reaction to whatever is happening to us is exactly what's causing us to stay in saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:30 Highlight the passage at 1:27:30

1:27:57 So screaming back at that rude woman behind the counter. Is exactly what's keeping rude women in our life, from life to life to life. We're having these rude women selling us donuts from life to life to life. And because we're continually screaming back at them, we're creating karmically the cause to keep meeting rude women. You're selling us donuts from life to life to life. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:57 Highlight the passage at 1:27:57

1:28:21 If we stop and we think with wisdom, oh, wait, this is my karma ripening. I've created the causes for this. It doesn't matter. And, as His Holiness said, even try to benefit, right? Maybe she's tired, you know? Maybe she's having a hard time. Maybe I just meet it with a smile and just wish her a happy day, you know? The very worst is she's going to think about that all day and be like, what was wrong with that guy? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:21 Highlight the passage at 1:28:21

1:28:51 He must have been on happy drugs. So So this week, just thinking about these four pairings, just trying to look at them. Either you can choose two for a day and just try to look for them in your life, or if something comes up in your life, which is what happened to me recently, and just thinking, oh, wait a second, that's that. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:51 Highlight the passage at 1:28:51

1:29:15 That's that sixth one, you know, and then thinking about, oh, that's eight worldly concerns, and that's really just about this life, so who cares? You know, what's the ultimate goal? Was this? And that happens, so why do I care what that person said or what they thought of me, you know? So it's very interesting. You can use it in particular problems, or you can just try to look for them popping up, because they won't pop up in neon. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:15 Highlight the passage at 1:29:15

1:29:40 You know, they won't be like, oh, I'm really concerned in Anne's mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:40 Highlight the passage at 1:29:40

1:29:47 It's more like you'll be thinking about it and you'll be like, oh wait, that's one of the eight real concerns. Okay, now I get it. And it's quite useful to look at it in that way. Any questions about, especially these eight, but anything else that I've just been talking about and then we'll take a break. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:47 Highlight the passage at 1:29:47

1:30:05 Everyone's just like stunned. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:05 Highlight the passage at 1:30:05

1:30:10 Okay, take a break. I wanted to mention there's a book out there that looks like this. It's a great little book. It's also really cheap and portable and you can take it with you wherever you go. It's not highly recommended, it's just suggested and encouraged. I think it's a great book. It covers, it's Tsongkhapa's three principle, Tsongkhapa's version that this is based on of the three principle paths but then the commentary is by Pabanka Rinpoche and then the one who edited it. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:10 Highlight the passage at 1:30:10

1:30:45 It was Tarchin, right? Yeah, Geshe Losan Tarchin, who did some commentary on it, too. So it's just a really nice covering of the three principle paths, and I highly suggest it. It's also really cheap. It's only $6.95. We got a whole bunch in. If people would like them and we run out, I can always get more. They're really fast. They're in New Jersey. Probably won the lottery. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:45 Highlight the passage at 1:30:45

1:31:15 Okay, take a break. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:15 Highlight the passage at 1:31:15

1:31:43 Theo, I forgot to make you a copy of the binder readings. Are you coming this weekend? Yes. You're coming on Saturday or Sunday? Okay. So I can make you a copy at work tomorrow? Sure. I was thinking about that when we sat down. I thought, it'll come. I could Report an error in the passage at 1:31:43 Highlight the passage at 1:31:43

1:32:05 probably make a copy tonight, but it would be single-sided. It'd be nice to do it double-sided. Yeah. I noticed that in one of the handouts, there was The Buddha's Life. There were two pages in the middle that were completely blank, but the pages that ended and the page that began again followed through. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:05 Highlight the passage at 1:32:05

1:32:25 So it must have just been a printer error. Yeah, yeah. I think I remember when I did that, I was actually up at the Russian River, so I was probably at some coffee place or something and just working too fast again, which is always my excuse. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:25 Highlight the passage at 1:32:25

1:32:41 It worked out. You figured it out. It required a certain amount of wisdom to get through it. Well, maybe patience, wisdom, just knowing or believing that it would happen right. Right, that's right. If you just stay with it, then you'll get to the other side. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:41 Highlight the passage at 1:32:41

1:33:08 That's what you're talking about. Totally true, yeah. It's so funny. It actually works to kind of release it a little bit when you remember that. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:08 Highlight the passage at 1:33:08

1:33:28 Yeah, I had that too earlier in the week. Someone yelled at me about something stuck in my Report an error in the passage at 1:33:28 Highlight the passage at 1:33:28

1:33:50 brain. Actually, and Vinaya is the third. Yeah, the Tantriyana is not even included in those three baskets because they're from sūtra teaching. But yeah, the Vinaya is the third. The teaching is not discipline. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:50 Highlight the passage at 1:33:50

1:34:19 Three higher trainings. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's lots of threes, I think. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:19 Highlight the passage at 1:34:19

1:34:33 Yeah, and ethics leads to concentration and concentration leads to wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:33 Highlight the passage at 1:34:33

1:34:42 Which is, of course, true with these two, right? Renunciation leads to bodhicitta. Bodhicitta doesn't always lead to wisdom, but in this teaching, of course, it's important that we have both wisdom and bodhicitta because you could actually have a direct perception of emptiness without bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:42 Highlight the passage at 1:34:42

1:35:04 But if you want to get enlightened, that's why they stick it in the middle. It's kind of like, because then it motivates you to have a direct perception of emptiness. They don't want all these little our hearts running around. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:04 Highlight the passage at 1:35:04

1:35:28 Nirvāṇa without remainder, or with remainder. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:28 Highlight the passage at 1:35:28

1:35:35 Assuming it was early in your life. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:35 Highlight the passage at 1:35:35

1:35:42 And not on your deathbed. That's it. $6.95 and then add tax to that. I don't know. You can ask Jenna to figure it out for you. Great little books. Quite powerful. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:42 Highlight the passage at 1:35:42

1:36:03 This is one I often bring in to retreat with me. So, but you're still here in the body, still have them as to Report an error in the passage at 1:36:03 Highlight the passage at 1:36:03

1:35:38 Right? Report an error in the passage at 1:35:38 Highlight the passage at 1:35:38

1:36:05 to cover so much. Sorry? Lightspeed. Oh. No. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:05 Highlight the passage at 1:36:05

1:36:14 No large print, you need glasses. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:14 Highlight the passage at 1:36:14

1:36:28 You can do that after, come on in. I'm Report an error in the passage at 1:36:28 Highlight the passage at 1:36:28

1:36:35 so bummed that you missed it. Teresa put me on the job. You should have just said, no, I have to go to class. I'll do it afterwards. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:35 Highlight the passage at 1:36:35

1:36:59 I'll give you my notes. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:59 Highlight the passage at 1:36:59

1:37:16 I got a few parts. Did you hear the Lama and Tisha's story? Oh, yeah. I wanted you to hear that one. Because it kind of reminded me of you. It's a little more glorified. He was a prince instead of living in Montana. But, you know, kind of the same otherwise. fine. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:16 Highlight the passage at 1:37:16

1:37:37 And he had Tara came and visited him when he was 11. I'm not sure if that's happened to you. Manjushu came and told him to become a monk. I left that part out. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:37 Highlight the passage at 1:37:37

1:37:51 Oh, do you want that? No, no, I just took it off there. Oh. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:51 Highlight the passage at 1:37:51

1:38:00 I wouldn't have. I would have crashed. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:00 Highlight the passage at 1:38:00

1:38:16 Everyone's buying books. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:16 Highlight the passage at 1:38:16

1:38:27 Jenna is. Jenna. Oh, Jenna. Jenna's the third Jenna. Well, I might as well announce the upcoming things that are coming while you're still standing. You can listen while you're buying your book. Venable Steve Carlier, for those of you who came to the Long Life Puja, he was the umse, the chant master. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:27 Highlight the passage at 1:38:27

1:38:50 But he's coming up to teach on karma on February 3rd through 5th. And it's really... Made for all levels of students. So beginners, intermediate, advanced is going to be great for everybody. Some people should definitely try to come with that. If you can't come to the whole thing, then maybe just come the Friday night. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:50 Highlight the passage at 1:38:50

1:39:10 You know, because I think if you come in the middle, it'll be confusing probably. Although maybe not. I mean, he might teach it in such a great way that it wouldn't be. But I think usually with these kind of weekend ones, it's better if you can only come to part of it to come on the Friday night. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:10 Highlight the passage at 1:39:10

1:39:26 And then Guy Newland, who is the author of a number of really good books on emptiness, including Appearance and Reality. He's coming March 2nd through 4th. He's actually going to be talking about the lamrim. He's going to be talking specifically about Lama Tsongkhapa's lamrim, and that should be great. I've heard he's a really excellent teacher. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:26 Highlight the passage at 1:39:26

1:39:47 I missed him the first time he was here. John Landau. It's coming on March 16th. It's Friday night and on 17th all day on Saturday. So he's not doing the Sunday like the other two are. He's just doing the Friday night and then all day Saturday. So Scott's going to do the Sunday. Completely different. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:47 Highlight the passage at 1:39:47

1:40:10 But anyway, he's going to be teaching on Tonglen, which is the means of developing great compassion and great love. And so he'll be... day um Report an error in the passage at 1:40:10 Highlight the passage at 1:40:10

1:40:19 Talking a little bit about it and then allowing time to do this particular meditation practice. So that's also meant for all levels. And this just in, Thubten Chodron is also coming on, it's a Tuesday night, kind of weird, but Tuesday night, March 20th, and she's going to talk about joyful effort. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:19 Highlight the passage at 1:40:19

1:40:39 Thubten Chodron has been around for a long time. She's been ordained probably something crazy like 30, 35 years or something. and she Report an error in the passage at 1:40:39 Highlight the passage at 1:40:39

1:40:50 Founded and manages an abbey called Shravasti Abbey up in Washington State. She's been around for a long time. She's got a great website, by the way. If you ever want to get information about practice, a really trustworthy website, just Google Tipton Children. Oh, of course you have to know how to spell it, right? So T-H-U-B-T-E-N. And Children's the same as Pema Children. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:50 Highlight the passage at 1:40:50

1:41:18 Which is the same word, C-H-O-D-R-O-N. But she's written a number of books that are in our bookstore. There's one on anger. There's one on, what's that, What Color Is Your Mind? I think she wrote that one. She's written like just a bunch of books. So it'll be really nice to have her back. She hasn't been back for a few years. And joyful effort, I mean. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:18 Highlight the passage at 1:41:18

1:41:40 We all need it. She's going to be leading a retreat on Tara, and so I actually was trying to make it easy on her, so I was trying to pick, and she's going to go into joyful effort during that retreat. That retreat is the previous weekend, I think, right? Or week, I can't remember. No, I think it's the previous week. I think it's like a week long at Vajrapani on Green Tara, and since Green Tara is the Buddha of action. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:40 Highlight the passage at 1:41:40

1:42:07 And, you know, active energy, then she's going to work in teaching some joyful effort. So I kind of just thought, okay, how about if you just do joyful effort? She was totally doing us a favor by coming, so I wanted to make it easy. I didn't have to research anything new. So I wanted to give you these fun, or not fun, I wanted to give you these sort of lighter quotes by Lama Yeshe, because I was focusing more on the suffering, like Lama Zopa always does. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:07 Highlight the passage at 1:42:07

1:42:31 Apparently, when they first started teaching together, Lama Zopa... Who since Lama Yeshe's passing has sort of taken on both of their personalities. But in the early days he would just come and teach on the hell realms for like three or four hours until everyone was climbing the walls and screaming and crying. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:31 Highlight the passage at 1:42:31

1:42:49 And then Lama Yeshe would come out and just make everybody laugh and laugh. So he's just sort of the lightening up guy. And Lama Zopa was a warm up act. But now Lama Zopa himself will make everybody laugh. Like if we're all getting like, you know, he'll all of a sudden go, oh maybe pee pee break, pee pee break. And then we'll all go hee hee hee. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:49 Highlight the passage at 1:42:49

1:43:14 So Lama Yashi said, and I'll read these each twice just because I think there's a lot there. But even though they're lighter, they're just, you know, he has a certain way of... His English is certainly not always easy to understand. Being renounced means becoming more reasonable through knowing the characteristic nature of pleasure and objects of pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:14 Highlight the passage at 1:43:14

1:43:36 You don't need to write it down. If you guys like these, I can send them out. Being renounced means becoming more reasonable through knowing the characteristic nature of pleasure and objects of pleasure. Flexibility is the key. You're alright if you get pleasure. And you're all right if you don't. Being renounced is not giving up pleasure and enjoyment, but developing an easygoing nature toward them without attachment, recognizing them as karmic projections, illusory and impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:36 Highlight the passage at 1:43:36

1:44:08 So I'll read that again. Being renounced means becoming more reasonable through knowing the characteristic nature of pleasure and objects of pleasure. Flexibility is the key. You're all right if you get pleasure, and you're all right if you don't. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:08 Highlight the passage at 1:44:08

1:44:24 Being renounced is not giving up pleasure and enjoyment, but developing an easygoing nature toward them without attachment, recognizing them as karmic projections, illusory and impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:24 Highlight the passage at 1:44:24

1:44:39 Isn't that cool? That's when you just kind of go, oh, okay, I don't have to give up the chocolate. Proper renunciation requires you to understand the nature of reality. it. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:39 Highlight the passage at 1:44:39

1:44:53 Without understanding reality, there's no way that you can develop renunciation. Once you understand it, renunciation comes. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:53 Highlight the passage at 1:44:53

1:45:02 Simply pushing doesn't work. Renunciation means discovering a new basic reality. Proper renunciation requires you to understand the nature of reality. Without understanding reality, there's no way that you can develop renunciation. Once you understand it, renunciation comes. Simply pushing doesn't work. Renunciation means discovering a new basic reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:02 Highlight the passage at 1:45:02

1:45:36 Renunciation is not grasping, but you can't make yourself not grasp. It's only by changing your understanding that you stop grasping. You must have an intellectual understanding of emptiness in order to develop renunciation. So I think that one's really important to get because a lot of times when we talk about these three principle paths, we talk about renunciation and then bodhicitta, it seems linear. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:36 Highlight the passage at 1:45:36

1:46:00 It's not. What he's saying is actually we need this understanding of emptiness in order to develop renunciation. And we need renunciation to develop bodhicitta and like that. So they all feed on each other like that. Actually, we need an understanding of emptiness to develop bodhicitta too. So I'll read that one a second time. Renunciation is not grasping, but you can't make yourself not grasp. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:00 Highlight the passage at 1:46:00

1:46:27 It's only by changing your understanding that you stop grasping. You must have an intellectual understanding of emptiness in order to develop renunciation. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:27 Highlight the passage at 1:46:27

1:46:41 And then the last one. Renunciation is less craving, less grasping. Relaxing your grip on saṃsāra. Renunciation is totally to do with an inner experience of saṃsāra. It's not throwing away all of saṃsāra. Our grasping leads to more and more dissatisfaction, not to happiness. Pleasure itself is not the cause of our suffering, it's the grasping that causes our suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:41 Highlight the passage at 1:46:41

1:47:13 Renunciation is less craving, less grasping, relaxing your grip on saṃsāra. Renunciation is totally to do with an inner experience of saṃsāra. It's not throwing away all of saṃsāra. Our grasping leads to more and more dissatisfaction, not to happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:13 Highlight the passage at 1:47:13

1:47:34 Pleasure itself is not the cause of our suffering. It's the grasping that causes our suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:34 Highlight the passage at 1:47:34

1:47:46 All right, so I'll go through these eight as a little meditation. We don't have that much time, so I'll just go through them a little bit just so that you can kind of begin thinking about them. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:46 Highlight the passage at 1:47:46

1:48:02 So again, get comfortable in your seat. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:02 Highlight the passage at 1:48:02

1:48:14 I'm not going to review the points of the posture, but the most important element is always keeping your spine extended. It's sort of important to remember keeping that spine extended and then letting the rest of your body kind of relax all around that spine. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:14 Highlight the passage at 1:48:14

1:48:43 So various things happen to us due to our karma, but the point is not to get too attached or too averse to whatever happens. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:43 Highlight the passage at 1:48:43

1:48:55 When we get super happy about the good ones or super upset about the bad ones, it shows attachment to this life. So these eight are really good tests of our enunciation. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:55 Highlight the passage at 1:48:55

1:49:13 So the first one is getting something. How much of our lives is devoted to this? If we're not thinking about it, we're talking about it, planning it, or actually getting it, and that some part of our mind really thinks that we get some sort of lost in pleasure. Some sort of lasting happiness from whatever the object is. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:13 Highlight the passage at 1:49:13

1:49:57 Not getting something. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:57 Highlight the passage at 1:49:57

1:50:05 So either we get something we didn't ever really intend to get and then we get obsessed with it or we don't get something that we thought was ours. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:05 Highlight the passage at 1:50:05

1:50:21 We don't get the parking space, we don't get the job, we don't get the house, we don't get the car, we don't get the dinner. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:21 Highlight the passage at 1:50:21

1:50:35 It just takes up all this space in our mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:35 Highlight the passage at 1:50:35

1:50:49 Feeling good. And this is anything from getting rid of that pain in our knee to try to feel better all the way up to serial relationships or drugs or continually getting new jobs and thinking it's going to bring me happiness. And Report an error in the passage at 1:50:49 Highlight the passage at 1:50:49

1:51:20 in this culture it's this constant search for more happiness from me and Report an error in the passage at 1:51:20 Highlight the passage at 1:51:20

1:51:38 not feeling good. The Report an error in the passage at 1:51:38 Highlight the passage at 1:51:38

1:51:43 more that we crave this pleasure. The less tolerant we get of whatever kind of pain or unhappiness or illness we undergo. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:43 Highlight the passage at 1:51:43

1:51:56 It's actually like it makes us weaker. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:56 Highlight the passage at 1:51:56

1:52:05 It's often the fear of pain or illness that causes us suffering. It makes our suffering worse. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:05 Highlight the passage at 1:52:05

1:52:19 Without this, whatever pain can often be quite bearable, but all this emotional baggage makes it so much worse. And we never see that it's our own mind that's causing this suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:19 Highlight the passage at 1:52:19

1:52:48 Being well thought of. Caring so much what people think about us. Sometimes to the point of fame, but usually just wanting a good reputation. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:48 Highlight the passage at 1:52:48

1:53:07 Wanting to be thought of positively by everyone. And often bending over backwards to get that. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:07 Highlight the passage at 1:53:07

1:53:31 Not being well thought of. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:31 Highlight the passage at 1:53:31

1:53:38 This is like the reverse of that. How Report an error in the passage at 1:53:38 Highlight the passage at 1:53:38

1:53:48 much of our time in our life is spent worrying about having a bad reputation or being thought ill of. Somebody not thinking about me the way I think of myself. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:48 Highlight the passage at 1:53:48

1:54:17 And people saying good things to you, including praise, but also just agreeing with you. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:17 Highlight the passage at 1:54:17

1:54:28 Most of the time we only want nice things to come our way. Kind words, agreement, praise, soft gentle speech. And Report an error in the passage at 1:54:28 Highlight the passage at 1:54:28

1:54:56 the partner to this one is people not saying good things to you or saying bad things to you. Including criticism, but also just disagreeing with you. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:56 Highlight the passage at 1:54:56

1:55:10 Sometimes we get so angry or depressed when people criticize us or challenge us or disagree with us or just say mean things, rude things. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:10 Highlight the passage at 1:55:10

1:55:44 We start with just looking how often these eight arise in our minds and how they're often the direct cause for so many actions of our body and mind. Obsessing about them, worrying about them. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:44 Highlight the passage at 1:55:44

1:56:02 Getting upset, angry, anxious. And that just eats up our precious human life. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:02 Highlight the passage at 1:56:02

1:56:18 It's taught that if we live our lives in service to these eight, we'll never develop pronunciation. So Report an error in the passage at 1:56:18 Highlight the passage at 1:56:18

1:56:29 we start with just looking at them, analyzing them, noticing them. So Report an error in the passage at 1:56:29 Highlight the passage at 1:56:29

1:56:45 we dedicate this class and everything that we've learned about, thought about, each one of us getting to know our own minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:45 Highlight the passage at 1:56:45

1:56:58 And our own afflicted states of mind so we can uproot them. Being Report an error in the passage at 1:56:58 Highlight the passage at 1:56:58

1:57:05 able to begin that transformation of our minds right now so that one day we can be beneficial to others and ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:05 Highlight the passage at 1:57:05

1:57:35 Oh, right. Yeah. Well done. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:35 Highlight the passage at 1:57:35

1:57:49 That's right. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:49 Highlight the passage at 1:57:49

1:57:54 Wednesdays 6 to 7, yeah. And we actually have a couple of extra mats. Yeah, yeah, so if you don't have a mat and you want to come, then still come. We'll make it happen. We'll make it happen, exactly. Yeah, great, thank you for doing that, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:54 Highlight the passage at 1:57:54

1:58:11 I mean, thank you for teaching it as well as for announcing it. All right, and homework, you want to hand out the homework? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:11 Highlight the passage at 1:58:11

1:58:33 So bring your three principal paths every week, and we're going to read it at the beginning. It'll be a part of it, so remember to bring an Report an error in the passage at 1:58:33 Highlight the passage at 1:58:33

1:58:44 email. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:44 Highlight the passage at 1:58:44

1:58:52 I think I covered everything. Did anyone not get a copy of the three principal tasks? Report an error in the passage at 1:58:52 Highlight the passage at 1:58:52

1:59:03 We are one short. One short of homework? Yes. Okay, I can. We could just make a copy. Okay, yeah. Do you want to just do that? I'll make a copy. Do you want to email it? Or I could email it to you. Okay, there you go. Makes that easy. All right. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:03 Highlight the passage at 1:59:03

1:59:32 Oh, yeah, I did that this morning. Was that cool? Yeah. It was dying, so I figured I'd just pop it on in there. Give us some blessings. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:32 Highlight the passage at 1:59:32

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:00:11 Thank for that. Let's write it down on something. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:11 Highlight the passage at 2:00:11

2:00:22 I usually don't like to check my email. But I'll go ahead and write it down right now. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:22 Highlight the passage at 2:00:22

2:00:31 Happy New Year. Do you still have my check? me check. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:31 Highlight the passage at 2:00:31

2:00:40 Okay, you know what, let me just give you cash and when you find the check, rip it up. Oh. Yeah, that would work for me. Okay, great. Yeah, I know. There was a point where I'm looking. Thank you so much. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:40 Highlight the passage at 2:00:40

2:01:07 Yes and no. I'm wondering, I'm waiting for chicken for a moment. Okay. you, Josh. You're welcome. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:07 Highlight the passage at 2:01:07

2:01:04 a ride to your work? Report an error in the passage at 2:01:04 Highlight the passage at 2:01:04

2:01:13 Thank you. I can wait, I can wait. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:13 Highlight the passage at 2:01:13

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:02:20 everything up? Yes, sir. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:20 Highlight the passage at 2:02:20