Discovering Buddhism - Presenting the Path (23 February 2012)

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0:57 Does everybody have copy? Three principal paths? The root text? Report an error in the passage at 0:57 Highlight the passage at 0:57

1:07 The root text? Yeah, the one that we read together. Did you bring yours? Yeah, do you want to? That's why I was just going to see if there's enough and people can look on each other's. If not, maybe we'll make some more. Who does not have a copy of it? Report an error in the passage at 1:07 Highlight the passage at 1:07

1:28 The root text. How many times do I need to call this the root text? Who does not have a copy of it? Report an error in the passage at 1:28 Highlight the passage at 1:28

1:41 I bet you don't write too, so that's three. Maybe Jenna, maybe make, you want to make a couple copies? Yeah. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:41 Highlight the passage at 1:41

1:59 We'll start. Because it's only a single page, it won't take her that long. Report an error in the passage at 1:59 Highlight the passage at 1:59

2:11 Let's take some nice deep breaths. Let go of your day. Report an error in the passage at 2:11 Highlight the passage at 2:11

2:26 And just imagine breathing in that, whatever it is that you need tonight. So if you need energy, if you need a bright mind, a focused mind. Imagine that you can breathe that in. Any place that you're feeling tight or knotted up, imagine that that breath is dissolving those knots in your body and in your mind and Report an error in the passage at 2:26 Highlight the passage at 2:26

3:01 that you're breathing out whatever you don't need. Report an error in the passage at 3:01 Highlight the passage at 3:01

3:27 Quickly review your posture, especially noting whether or not your spine is straight. If you're in a chair, remember to come away from the back of the chair. Especially this time of night. Report an error in the passage at 3:27 Highlight the passage at 3:27

3:47 Letting your shoulders be level and Report an error in the passage at 3:47 Highlight the passage at 3:47

3:53 your breathing to relax. Report an error in the passage at 3:53 Highlight the passage at 3:53

4:06 And become aware of your body. Report an error in the passage at 4:06 Highlight the passage at 4:06

4:12 Think about the different parts of your body. Your arms and legs, head, skin, blood, bones, nerves, muscles, organs. Report an error in the passage at 4:12 Highlight the passage at 4:12

4:38 Examine them one by one with your mind. Report an error in the passage at 4:38 Highlight the passage at 4:38

4:49 Kind of like the nature of every one of these things. Their textures, their shapes and sizes, their substance, Report an error in the passage at 4:49 Highlight the passage at 4:49

5:11 allowing yourself to become more sensitive to how hard your body is working, all the movement that's going on in each moment, Report an error in the passage at 5:11 Highlight the passage at 5:11

5:26 the ebb and flow of your breath, the beating of your heart, Report an error in the passage at 5:26 Highlight the passage at 5:26

5:35 the flow of your blood and your veins, the Report an error in the passage at 5:35 Highlight the passage at 5:35

5:49 energy of your nerve. Report an error in the passage at 5:49 Highlight the passage at 5:49

6:02 Going down a little deeper, think about the more subtle level of your body. At the cellular level, Report an error in the passage at 6:02 Highlight the passage at 6:02

6:15 thinking about the fact that your body is completely composed of living cells. Report an error in the passage at 6:15 Highlight the passage at 6:15

6:25 All these cells are reproducing, abiding, dying off, disintegrating. And all of this is going on right now. Report an error in the passage at 6:25 Highlight the passage at 6:25

6:57 And it's happening in each part that we just mentioned. In all the parts that make you up. In your eyes, in your hair, your nails, your stomach, your intestines. Report an error in the passage at 6:57 Highlight the passage at 6:57

7:14 Everything is made up of cells. Report an error in the passage at 7:14 Highlight the passage at 7:14

7:29 And then think about your mind. It's also made up of parts. Countless parts. Thoughts, perceptions, feelings. One after another endlessly. Report an error in the passage at 7:29 Highlight the passage at 7:29

7:53 Try to look at this ever-flowing mental river of your mind. One Report an error in the passage at 7:53 Highlight the passage at 7:53

8:12 mental experience after another. Report an error in the passage at 8:12 Highlight the passage at 8:12

8:30 And each of those experiences or mental moments is also made up of parts beginning, middle and end. And Report an error in the passage at 8:30 Highlight the passage at 8:30

8:54 then turn your awareness to your outer world, Report an error in the passage at 8:54 Highlight the passage at 8:54

9:00 the outer surroundings, immediate surroundings, thinking about this room, Report an error in the passage at 9:00 Highlight the passage at 9:00

9:09 the cushion that you're on, or chair, Report an error in the passage at 9:09 Highlight the passage at 9:09

9:18 ceiling, everything hanging on the walls, everything on the altar. Report an error in the passage at 9:18 Highlight the passage at 9:18

9:31 Even these things that appear to be so solid and static are also constantly shifting and changing. Report an error in the passage at 9:31 Highlight the passage at 9:31

10:00 These two are made up of these tiny particles constantly. Coming into being, disintegrating and so on. Report an error in the passage at 10:00 Highlight the passage at 10:00

10:21 And then just open your awareness, expanding it to include the building, Report an error in the passage at 10:21 Highlight the passage at 10:21

10:30 the streets, the cars, the people outside, animals, trees, the buildings nearby and even the earth itself, the mountains, the water around us, Report an error in the passage at 10:30 Highlight the passage at 10:30

10:54 the whole city. Just go as far as you can go remembering that everything That you're touching right now with your mind is also at this very subtle level changing right now. Report an error in the passage at 10:54 Highlight the passage at 10:54

11:16 Nothing remains the same from moment to moment. Report an error in the passage at 11:16 Highlight the passage at 11:16

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11:59 If we understand how things change all the time, it's unrealistic to cling to everything as though it were permanent. Report an error in the passage at 11:59 Highlight the passage at 11:59

12:11 Whatever is beautiful or pleasant has to change and eventually it disappears. Report an error in the passage at 12:11 Highlight the passage at 12:11

12:23 So we can expect it to give us lasting happiness. Report an error in the passage at 12:23 Highlight the passage at 12:23

12:31 But whatever is unpleasant or disturbing also has to change. So there's no need to be so upset. Report an error in the passage at 12:31 Highlight the passage at 12:31

12:57 Even though impermanence isn't emptiness, it's a step in the right direction. Understanding impermanence gets us closer to understanding the nature of reality the way the Buddha experienced it. So Report an error in the passage at 12:57 Highlight the passage at 12:57

13:20 we can motivate this class to each one of us realizing the impermanence of ourselves, of all things. And ultimately understanding and realizing the emptiness of all that is including ourselves so Report an error in the passage at 13:20 Highlight the passage at 13:20

13:47 that we can ultimately benefit all living beings. Report an error in the passage at 13:47 Highlight the passage at 13:47

14:17 So we'll open with the opening prayers and then we'll recite the three principal paths. Report an error in the passage at 14:17 Highlight the passage at 14:17

14:27 The opening prayers on page 8. Report an error in the passage at 14:27 Highlight the passage at 14:27

14:39 With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha. Until I reach full enlightenment, inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 14:39 Highlight the passage at 14:39

15:12 I bow to all the high and holy Lamas. As far as I am able, I'll explain. Keep going. Three prints will pass. Somebody else need it? I know Christine needs a copy and Theo, I guess, needs a copy. Report an error in the passage at 15:12 Highlight the passage at 15:12

15:32 Can you guys share? Do you have enough? Okay. And you still have one? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 15:32 Highlight the passage at 15:32

15:42 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 of 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, and who, to make leisure and fortune meaningful, strive to turn their minds to the path which pleases the victors. Report an error in the passage at 15:42 Highlight the passage at 15:42

16:10 There is no way to end without pure renunciation, the striving for pleasant results in the ocean of life. It's because of their hankering life as well that beings are fettered, so seek renunciation first. Leisure and fortune are hard to find. Life's not long. Think it constantly. Stop desire for this life. Think over and over how deeds and their fruits never fail and the cycles suffering. Report an error in the passage at 16:10 Highlight the passage at 16:10

16:40 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. 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. Report an error in the passage at 16:40 Highlight the passage at 16:40

17:07 They're swept along on the four fierce river currents. Chained up tight in past deeds, hard to undo, stuffed in a steel cage of grasping self, smothered in the pitch black ignorance. 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. Report an error in the passage at 17:07 Highlight the passage at 17:07

17:32 Try to develop this highest wish. You may master renunciation and the wish, but unless you have the wisdom perceiving reality, You cannot cut the root of cyclic life. Make efforts in the ways then to perceive dependent arising. A person's entered 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. Report an error in the passage at 17:32 Highlight the passage at 17:32

18:02 You've yet to realize the thought of the able as long as two ideas seem to you disparate. The appearance of things infallit dependent arising and emptiness beyond taking any position. At some point they no longer alternate and come together. Just seeing the dependent arising never fails, brings realization that destroys how you hold to objects and then your analysis with view is complete. Report an error in the passage at 18:02 Highlight the passage at 18:02

18:31 In addition, the appearance prevents the existence extremes. Emptiness, that of non-existence. And if you see how emptiness shows in cause and effect, you'll never be stolen off by extreme views. When you've grasped as well as I the essential points of each of the three principal paths explained, then go into isolation, my son. Report an error in the passage at 18:31 Highlight the passage at 18:31

18:55 Make mighty efforts and quickly win your ultimate wish. So Report an error in the passage at 18:55 Highlight the passage at 18:55

19:04 you see why we saved the last two classes for emptiness. The section of emptiness is the same size as the other two combined. Report an error in the passage at 19:04 Highlight the passage at 19:04

19:16 So checking in first to see what things are coming up for people. It's been two weeks since our last class. It's a hell of a two weeks. And I just wanted to allow time. We only had one class for bodhicitta. So I kind of wanted to allow time if people had... Report an error in the passage at 19:16 Highlight the passage at 19:16

19:39 You know, some experiences or questions or something like that that came up. And you can come. There's a seat right there. That's all right. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's okay. Then that's probably the worst place for you, sitting right in front of the door. Report an error in the passage at 19:39 Highlight the passage at 19:39

19:59 Yeah, just, you know, because you guys were, hopefully, some of you were doing some of the meditation assignments. Could we turn on the second light, too? Report an error in the passage at 19:59 Highlight the passage at 19:59

20:09 That one right there, just hit the top button. No, no, well, there we go. That was it, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 20:09 Highlight the passage at 20:09

20:19 So hopefully some of you were doing some of the meditation assignments and maybe have something that you wanted to share or have a question about. Is there anything to give the mic to? Report an error in the passage at 20:19 Highlight the passage at 20:19

20:38 You guys all just completely grasp emptiness. Jenna, since you've got the mic. Hello. a mic I'll share. Hello? I was actually more disciplined this time than usual because we were missing a class. So I found a little bit of a struggle with the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 20:38 Highlight the passage at 20:38

20:59 But I ended up getting to a point working with the first half about friends, foes and enemies. Friends, strangers. And like I said, I was struggling for the first three sessions. And then after the fourth one, it kind of hit me that... These are just simply labels that we apply to the people that are in contact with us. And I know that might sound really simple, but I mean, it really, like, I got it not, like, what do you say, below the, below the, like. Report an error in the passage at 20:59 Highlight the passage at 20:59

21:29 Below the neck. Yeah, so it was really cool to actually. Isn't that cool? Yeah, I mean, I felt like it was a real, well, I know it was a real win for me, so. And it, um. I don't know, it kind of makes dealing with relationships, especially the people that are more challenging, it makes it a lot easier. I tend to have a lot more patience, actually, and just think, you know, okay, why is this person bothering me? Report an error in the passage at 21:29 Highlight the passage at 21:29

21:51 Why am I upset with them? Why are they my quote-unquote enemy? So, yeah, it was really cool. Yeah, putting them in the enemy seat for that one meditation, you can see how quickly it can shift. Yeah. And if you think back on anybody that maybe... You had a negative feeling about it first and then all of a sudden it shifted because they either did something nice for you or whatever, smiled at you. Report an error in the passage at 21:51 Highlight the passage at 21:51

22:14 I mean, it's the stupidest reasons that we label people friends, you know. It's like they remembered your grind at the coffee place, you know. It's like, she's great, you know. Report an error in the passage at 22:14 Highlight the passage at 22:14

22:25 It's kind of stupid what makes us do it. And I think that's the point of the meditation is just to see that because we all do it all the time. And I have a bunch of friends who I consider my best friends. And so I was looking back after the meditations and I realized, well, this one gal that I absolutely loved to death, we went through a period of three years where we couldn't stand each other. Report an error in the passage at 22:25 Highlight the passage at 22:25

22:46 But now I'm in her wedding and I'm in the maid of honor. It's like, wait a minute, you were an enemy before. And she's gone back and forth many times between stranger, enemy, friend. And so it was good. Yeah, yeah. I had one friend when he was doing that that he said he could imagine his... Who at that point was his wife and became his ex-wife. He could imagine her in all three seats. So he would sometimes do the meditation with her in all the different positions. Report an error in the passage at 22:46 Highlight the passage at 22:46

23:13 Which just shows how much of it is just labeling. And it's labeling in the moment. It's not even like anything that's long term. It's just sort of like according to our mood. But we don't see it that way. Yeah, thank you. Anybody else? Either of the meditations. Either the equanimity one or the bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 23:13 Highlight the passage at 23:13

23:33 Which is a lot. The bodhicitta meditation is a lot. I mean, you know, I probably could have just had you contemplate bodhicitta or something. But I just thought it's useful for you to have, if at some point you have more time and you feel like you can give it to it, do it. It's just a difficult one to take on and only have a week or so to work with. It takes months and months and years, really. Report an error in the passage at 23:33 Highlight the passage at 23:33

23:58 To meditate on it and to give it like a lot of time every day, which most of us in the modern world don't have. But even at some point if you have a weekend or a week and you have like a book about bodhicitta and you take that meditation, that exact meditation, you don't need anything else, into retreat. Report an error in the passage at 23:58 Highlight the passage at 23:58

24:18 It can mean so much. I mean, it can really make a dent. Like you're saying on the fourth try, you finally got somewhere. So it's like that with the bodhicitta meditation. First, you're kind of just learning it. So you're like, okay, number two. You know, you're kind of peeking at your notes and stuff. And then after about, honestly, probably the tenth time, then you can just do it with your eyes closed. Report an error in the passage at 24:18 Highlight the passage at 24:18

24:41 And then you're actually having kind of more experience with it so that you don't have to always be peeking all the time. But it literally takes that many times, you know. Sorry it's not easier to get enlightened. I wish that I could make it easier. I wish I could get enlightened easier. But it just takes looking at this stuff and thinking about it in terms of our own lives. Report an error in the passage at 24:41 Highlight the passage at 24:41

25:05 So you're not just taking somebody else's blanket. You can't do meditation without inserting your own experiences. Because we have to insert our own experiences. Like with the equanimity meditation, it wouldn't mean anything if we didn't put people in there that we had relationships with. There wouldn't be any feeling on our side if we just put, you know, three famous people in there or something. You know, we wouldn't have any kind of a gut reaction to it. Report an error in the passage at 25:05 Highlight the passage at 25:05

25:30 So we have to choose people that we find difficult and also get excited when we see and also are completely bored with. Because otherwise we won't start examining our minds. And that's kind of what it's all about. Anybody else on bodhicitta or the readings? Report an error in the passage at 25:30 Highlight the passage at 25:30

25:53 Wait, wait, wait. The mic is coming. You've been gone that long? You forgot about the talking stick? Report an error in the passage at 25:53 Highlight the passage at 25:53

26:07 Yeah, but even so, anybody that you find difficult at all. It doesn't have to be an enemy with a capital E. Yeah, just difficult. Report an error in the passage at 26:07 Highlight the passage at 26:07

26:26 Right, right. Yeah. That's all we can do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 26:26 Highlight the passage at 26:26

26:38 A breakthrough, exactly. It's a breakthrough. Yeah, yeah. But really, since we're just working on our minds, then that's okay. What you're doing is fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we mentioned, I mentioned last, in the last class, a lot of people do get hung up on the term enemy. And so not to get so hung up on that term, it doesn't have to be somebody who's like come after you with a knife or... Report an error in the passage at 26:38 Highlight the passage at 26:38

27:04 You know, tried to hit you with a car or something like that. Took out a hit on your daughter or something. It just can be somebody whose voice annoys you or, like you're saying, somebody who's just sort of sullen all the time and sort of withdrawn or aloof to you or something like that. So that's totally fine to work with. Eventually, it can be quite amazing to work with people that are more difficult. Report an error in the passage at 27:04 Highlight the passage at 27:04

27:32 Or maybe even people who have harmed you. But please don't do that at first. We have to build up. It's like we just started going to the gym. We're not going to pick up the 500-pound weight. We're going to build up to it. And this is the same with working with our minds. We want to start right at samādhi, right? Report an error in the passage at 27:32 Highlight the passage at 27:32

27:49 But we've got to get there slowly. Thank you, Thea. Report an error in the passage at 27:49 Highlight the passage at 27:49

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28:23 Oh, I think you can do tons. Yeah, I mean, that's actually the cool thing about meditating. The work that we do in our minds is that it doesn't mean we have to go out and become friends with everybody. It doesn't mean that even if we're working with a particular person at work that that person has to ever know, that we're sitting there meditating on them at night and visualizing them handing us back our wallet or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 28:23 Highlight the passage at 28:23

28:48 It can just totally be internal, but it can then as a result shift our interactions with them. I remember one time in one of the classes recently, Jessica was in the class and she was talking about she was meditating on somebody at work. And it must have shifted something in her reaction because suddenly this person started being really nice to her and stuff. And she wasn't aware, but probably just because she was like meditating on this person and doing, you know, really doing the work on her own mind, of course, because that's all we can work on. Report an error in the passage at 28:48 Highlight the passage at 28:48

29:25 That something must have shifted and that person warmed. It was actually a stranger. I don't think it was an enemy that she was meditating on. So yeah, that's the cool thing I think about Buddhism is that we get to do the work on our minds, but we don't have to announce it to anybody. We don't have to change externally at all. We don't have to change what we wear or how we look. But slowly, slowly, people do notice. Report an error in the passage at 29:25 Highlight the passage at 29:25

29:51 And that's fine. you know. That's not really what we're doing it for. That's just a by the way, nice little side effect. Anybody else? Any other hands? Yeah, I thought I saw something over there. Report an error in the passage at 29:51 Highlight the passage at 29:51

30:13 Thank you for confessing. Let's put him in the center of the circle. Report an error in the passage at 30:13 Highlight the passage at 30:13

30:41 Right. think what it was, it didn't have to be precipitated. Report an error in the passage at 30:41 Highlight the passage at 30:41

30:53 And it's interesting too because you had to become aware of that. So there was something in your mind that allowed you to open to that. Come on in, there's a seat. We saved you a seat. Right up front. Yes, but you had to be open to that because I think that happens probably. I think a lot of us might have had a situation like that, but usually we aren't open to it and we keep seeing that person as an enemy even though clearly they've changed. Report an error in the passage at 30:53 Highlight the passage at 30:53

31:19 Or at least our appreciation. of them has changed, which is just as important, really. Honestly, I think a lot of times that we think somebody else has changed, it's really just our own mind that's changed. But since we're talking about impermanence in this class, we won't say that. But yeah, I mean, it's like our mind also is changing so constantly that a lot of times we'll, you know, spend time with one person and then the same person the next day. Report an error in the passage at 31:19 Highlight the passage at 31:19

31:47 Yeah, something may have shifted, but something also could have shifted in our mind. Suddenly we might think, oh, well the reason he's so mean is because I just found out that his wife is really sick. You know what I mean? Like something just could shift in our awareness or just our own work on our compassion or our own openness or just our calm so we don't get pissed off when he's screaming. Report an error in the passage at 31:47 Highlight the passage at 31:47

32:08 Like all those things can also shift. Yeah, but good point. Sometimes the best teachers come and really kind of... Painful packages, meaning life experience as well as humans, but yeah. Did you have one? Okay, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 32:08 Highlight the passage at 32:08

32:40 That's right, yeah, yeah. I was reading about that too. Report an error in the passage at 32:40 Highlight the passage at 32:40

32:49 Yeah, yeah, Report an error in the passage at 32:49 Highlight the passage at 32:49

32:56 yeah. I know, yeah, yeah. I was thinking that too, especially with the older woman. I mean, the younger guy, it's a little easier when you're young to throw yourself into dangerous positions because you don't fully always know. It's not to say that he didn't, but especially when you keep going back. And she knew, and she was definitely very afraid, but still felt like it was important to get in there and show what was happening to the world. Report an error in the passage at 32:56 Highlight the passage at 32:56

33:24 Yeah, very impressive. Who knows who these people really are? I mean, look how they've already touched a couple of us. So when you think about seemingly ordinary people doing really brave things, who knows who they are? Maybe their bodhisattvas, that sort of... Just manifest in this sort of ordinary form with an eye patch. I love the eye patch. Report an error in the passage at 33:24 Highlight the passage at 33:24

33:54 Or working as a nurse in a hospital. Or working as a fireman. You know what I mean? Just all these kind of jobs that you end up being the one who has to do really hard work. you so much. Report an error in the passage at 33:54 Highlight the passage at 33:54

34:13 And you might do it to help people. And if you were really bodhisattva, then you might do it also to inspire people to be better than themselves, kind of. Because when I was reading that, I was like, wow, that's just so brave. I don't know if I could do that. And it's just a worthwhile question to ask ourselves sometimes. You read about all the people in these war situations or in World War II or whatever, trying to smuggle children out and stuff like that. Report an error in the passage at 34:13 Highlight the passage at 34:13

34:42 They're totally getting themselves into trouble to do this. It's like these big, bigger-than-life people. So who are they? Who knows? I don't know yet. I don't have clairvoyance, but I'm happy that they're here. I'm happy that they're sharing the world with us. Report an error in the passage at 34:42 Highlight the passage at 34:42

35:03 Anyway, so let's move on towards emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 35:03 Highlight the passage at 35:03

35:13 I'm going to go ahead and just read the next couple of verses out loud, and then we're going to go into a little bit of discussion about what emptiness is and what it's not. It's one of those ones, just like bodhicitta, that can be, well, just like all three really, renunciation too, can be hugely misunderstood. 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 35:13 Highlight the passage at 35:13

35:40 Make efforts in the ways then to perceive dependent arising. A 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 should be... Report an error in the passage at 35:40 Highlight the passage at 35:40

36:07 Plural. Infallible dependent arising and emptiness beyond taking any position. So what does emptiness refer to? What is empty and empty of what? Sometimes I think emptiness can be seen as this very esoteric, difficult, philosophical thing. But actually it is the basis of everything in Buddhism. According to the Buddha, everything he taught was really to have us all have this direct perception of reality as it is. Even the teachings that seem to be completely about love and kindness and compassion, he said that everything that he taught was to get us to have this understanding because it's the misunderstanding of reality that gets us into trouble and causes all of our suffering. Report an error in the passage at 36:07 Highlight the passage at 36:07

36:59 So if we can get it how things actually exist. We can stop suffering. And that was his whole goal, right? So emptiness. Nargajuna said, anyone who knows not emptiness has no hope of freedom at all. Left in darkness, they will circle in the prison the six realms of pain. So he started the class with impermanence, which is a way, a step towards understanding emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 36:59 Highlight the passage at 36:59

37:37 Only because if we could even really get it, that things are impermanent, which is of course what the conventional modern world of science believes. So there's nothing even Buddhist about it, but we deny it constantly, that every single thing that we use in this life... It is impermanent and is shifting all the time and is constantly disintegrating. Not only can I knock it off and it can break, but it's also at some point, if anybody's ever done that, at some point you pick something up and it's just broken because it's gradually been disintegrating, especially if you're cleaning out your grandma's house or something. Report an error in the passage at 37:37 Highlight the passage at 37:37

38:26 Or flowers. Actually, flowers are an amazing meditation on impermanence. Someone hands you them. They're beautiful. And then somehow you just turn around like two days later. I was actually looking at some flowers that Ifang brought me. And I was going to bring one down for a demonstration of something else later in the class. Report an error in the passage at 38:26 Highlight the passage at 38:26

38:44 And they've all just completely gone. You know, it's like, wow, when did that happen? They don't look bad. Like from a distance, they still look all right. But like all the little flowers are all kind of... So flowers are actually great meditation on impermanence because they change so quickly. Report an error in the passage at 38:44 Highlight the passage at 38:44

39:04 So it's not emptiness, but it does allow us to understand that things are so much more constantly in change, constantly shifting, not solid, much more fluid and spacious than we think they are. Even cups, even the planet. You know, if you've ever lived through an earthquake and seen the earth move, the thing you thought was like the one thing you could rely on, especially from the East Coast. Report an error in the passage at 39:04 Highlight the passage at 39:04

39:33 It's like, did I just see that? The road kind of moves a little bit and becomes sort of fluid. Things that we think of as so solid, metal can shift, can disintegrate, can rust. Report an error in the passage at 39:33 Highlight the passage at 39:33

39:51 So spending a lot of time just contemplating that, even if you're not in serious meditation, but just thinking about it when you're in commute, when you're walking. This road hasn't always existed. It will not always exist. Every single thing that you're doing, spend a day just doing that. Make a goal to spend 10 minutes every day doing that. However you do it, it begins to sort of unravel this way that we have of looking at the earth and thinking that things are so solid and unchanging and permanent because it's a false view. Report an error in the passage at 39:51 Highlight the passage at 39:51

40:29 Even our third grade teacher would tell us that. And yet we are always shocked when something breaks, when somebody gets sick, when something changes, when somebody leaves us, when a job is done. You know, like all the things, even when a TV show is over, you know, it's like anything that shifts that idea that things are supposed to always go on exactly as they are at this moment. Report an error in the passage at 40:29 Highlight the passage at 40:29

41:02 It actually should be a welcome thing to us because that's reality. We should be able to be open to that. Instead, it's just kind of like... And then you even hear people who are Buddhist and have been meditating on this for years talking about how it wasn't supposed to be that way. Report an error in the passage at 41:02 Highlight the passage at 41:02

41:18 Says who? You know? Nobody said that living on... You know, even if you're not Buddhist, nobody said living life, you know, is going to be... Report an error in the passage at 41:18 Highlight the passage at 41:18

41:31 Solid and permanent and unchanging. Nobody said that. I mean, I don't think there's any religion in the world that believes that. There's not even any science in the world that believes that. Report an error in the passage at 41:31 Highlight the passage at 41:31

41:43 But we have to constantly remind ourselves because nobody else really is going to do it except reality when it busts in, you know, and forces us to look at it. Report an error in the passage at 41:43 Highlight the passage at 41:43

41:56 Yeah. Whoops. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Talking stick. Report an error in the passage at 41:56 Highlight the passage at 41:56

42:05 I had a couple of wonderful experiences this week, aside from breaking the cup. Report an error in the passage at 42:05 Highlight the passage at 42:05

42:16 Let's see, I got this in 1986 when the big Berkeley Hills fire. I was sitting there watching the 49ers game and came on the TV and I realized that we could see a view from the back of our house. I looked across the bay, I could see the smoke coming up. I Report an error in the passage at 42:16 Highlight the passage at 42:16

42:35 Later that afternoon, several hours, the asphalt started to come west and started to settle. And I went out in the backyard and there was this incredible piece of ash, maybe three or four inches across, and it was still solid. And I looked at it and it was a hand drawing done from the Berkeley Hills looking west to San Francisco with the bridge. Report an error in the passage at 42:35 Highlight the passage at 42:35

43:00 Oh my gosh. Not very professional, but very clear. Right. Somebody took a drawing and that thing had gone up to Lord knows how high and come all the way over to the city and settled. Wow. Report an error in the passage at 43:00 Highlight the passage at 43:00

43:16 Interesting. My daughter went to, who's 31, went to high school with a young guy who I occasionally see socially and he's with the fire department over in Berkeley and this doesn't connect. These stories don't hold. tied together in any way, so I don't anticipate any coherence. He's a wonderful young guy and I've known him since he was 15 and he's talked about being a fireman and I ran into another friend who's a retired fireman from the Oakland Fire Department and I went over to visit him for the first time and we went up to where he had fought the fire in 86 and it was the same view as the drawing and it was really just a nice... Report an error in the passage at 43:16 Highlight the passage at 43:16

44:00 Closure that I'm going to share with my daughter. I don't know why, but there were just some nice generational loops there that I really enjoyed seeing kind of some closure between my daughter, her friend, this guy I'm meeting who's older than me. Right. It was just a nice sense of time and change. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not particularly empty, but... Report an error in the passage at 44:00 Highlight the passage at 44:00

44:23 No, but there's some impermanence in there. Yeah. So I'll let you get away with it. Change, anyway. Thanks. Report an error in the passage at 44:23 Highlight the passage at 44:23

44:31 Yeah, I think with impermanence what we're trying to do is when things happen that we're not expecting and when things happen that, you know, like even if it's as simple as reaching for a pair of jeans and suddenly they're your favorite jeans and you all of a sudden notice a hole in them and you're kind of like, where did this come? Report an error in the passage at 44:31 Highlight the passage at 44:31

44:52 All of that's happening all the time. We just don't always notice it. And the same, of course, with the flowers. The flowers are disintegrating at a really fast rate, as we all are. They're even faster. And so within a day, we can see a shift, a huge shift from the day before. And then another one, if anybody looks at themselves in the mirror, we can see a shift. Usually we deny it for years, and then it's almost like, whoa. Report an error in the passage at 44:52 Highlight the passage at 44:52

45:19 But it's only because we're denying it that makes it seem like it's sudden. It's not really sudden. It's actually happening very, very slowly over time. Report an error in the passage at 45:19 Highlight the passage at 45:19

45:28 so So it's a beginning to understand that things aren't as solid, aren't as permanent as we think that they are, aren't even as absolute. And that's where we start getting into emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 45:28 Highlight the passage at 45:28

45:47 So right now we have this view of things as being very absolute. That's part of what that equanimity meditation also can help us break down. You know, I really like her, I can't stand him. Report an error in the passage at 45:47 Highlight the passage at 45:47

46:00 She's good, he's bad. This is good news, that's bad news. I'm really smart and I've always been smart. I'm really poor, I've always been poor, I always will be poor. There's absolutes that we always think about our worlds. know, I am Report an error in the passage at 46:00 Highlight the passage at 46:00

46:17 I am when I am, you know, as Popeye used to say. Bodhisattva Popeye. And that's the way we see things. So, I mean, that is an honest perception that we are seeing things that way. But what the Buddha is saying is that how things appear to us is based on our ignorance. It's not really how things exist. And we have to examine this for ourselves. That's why I'm saying that... Report an error in the passage at 46:17 Highlight the passage at 46:17

46:43 Taking some time to really try to push through our understanding of impermanence is a step in the right direction. Because even just looking at things with this understanding of it really looks like it's solid. You know, taking something, taking the bell or whatever we call this, the chime. It looks really solid. And it's weird to think that it's constantly changing. Report an error in the passage at 46:43 Highlight the passage at 46:43

47:09 You know? So taking the time to actually do that with our things and then later at some point when it does break or chip or rot or whatever, it won't be shocking to us. Even doing it with ourselves, looking at ourselves in the mirror. I look like I'm really solid. I mean, just don't let anybody else see you doing these kind of things. But, like, really just thinking. It looks like I'm really solid, but I'm not. Report an error in the passage at 47:09 Highlight the passage at 47:09

47:37 Like, I'm actually made of all these little particles. And I'm constantly, you know, according to the Buddha, I've been disintegrating since I was born, you know, which is an odd thought. You're just sort of looking at yourself. And that's really the only way. I mean, that's what, that's, you know, when the Buddha lived, he and his troop of monks just sort of traveled around from place to place and went and meditated. Report an error in the passage at 47:37 Highlight the passage at 47:37

47:57 That's the kind of stuff they were doing. They would look at the tree and they would think about it, you know. When Venerable Steve was here recently, that's the kind of stuff he's been doing for 35 years, you know, just sitting there thinking about it, you know. And you just have to do that a lot because otherwise we stay so busy that we aren't thinking about it. In fact, we're actually usually thinking against it. Report an error in the passage at 47:57 Highlight the passage at 47:57

48:21 We're trying to almost fight against what we see, right? Especially in our culture, things are sort of... It's almost meant to be unbreakable. If we see any sign of age, we're supposed to cover it up, we're supposed to dye it up, we're supposed to cover the bags under our eyes. look like we're 16 all the time or something. I don't know. But we're not supposed to actually see the signs of damage. I mean, I suppose also if we do, we just get rid of it and get a new one. Report an error in the passage at 48:21 Highlight the passage at 48:21

48:50 There's always that idea, including the wife. Not just the car when it gets the scratch, but also The Buddha said that these things don't exist, either things, experiences, people. When I say things, I'm really talking about all of these things. It's not just objects, but it's also our experiences in the world. We also solidify and reify those as well and make those absolute too. Report an error in the passage at 48:50 Highlight the passage at 48:50

49:23 It was the best day ever. John was along and he actually thought it sucked. It's like everything we see is like, that's the best restaurant or the worst restaurant because you went in one time. Through this myriad of causes in your life because you're in a really bitchy mood and the waiter had a really bad night and so you had a bad experience and yet we label it like these absolutes. Report an error in the passage at 49:23 Highlight the passage at 49:23

49:51 Even more so I think with kids, right? I think a lot of teenagers are always like, you know, but a lot of us still do it. So the idea is just to begin to examine the fact that we even see things in terms of these absolutes. And then just begin to sort of subtly explore them a little bit. So, yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 49:51 Highlight the passage at 49:51

50:29 Go to see about a restaurant or hotel. And it's like some people give it a one star and other people give it a five. And I've always thought, well, depends on the day you were there, right? Totally. And who was the waiter and what mood they were in or whatever. But it always amazes me, you know, like how they absolutely, this is the worst restaurant, don't ever go there. Report an error in the passage at 50:29 Highlight the passage at 50:29

50:48 Right. You know? Right, right. No, totally, totally. I mean, I don't think there's anything on Yelp that doesn't have some sort of range. Maybe that's one of those things that you're supposed to take out the best and the worst and then look at the middle ones or something, you know, because it's just, yeah, usually people, yeah, it just depends on their mood as well as the day that they went in and the cooks, what kind of day the cook had and all that stuff, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 50:48 Highlight the passage at 50:48

51:14 But they don't see it that way, right? They see it as 100%. This is the reality of what this place is like, and I'm going to share it with the world. Same with the doctor or the dentist, too, because they put those on Yelp. Or like a movie. I can see the same movie in two different days and hate it and love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I always think about reviewers. Report an error in the passage at 51:14 Highlight the passage at 51:14

51:35 I mean, they don't think about it in terms of all the causes and conditions that were going on in their minds or their day or their... Whether they like the color blue and the movie's name blue or something. You know what I mean? They don't see things in terms of that, but that's actually a lot what's happening. Report an error in the passage at 51:35 Highlight the passage at 51:35

51:51 Hopefully they have some understanding of movies too. That would be helpful. I'm going off totally on a tangent, but it used to be when they reviewed movies, they would actually talk about how things were in the making of a scene without even telling you necessarily what happens or anything about the plot. Report an error in the passage at 51:51 Highlight the passage at 51:51

52:08 It would be more like, you know, How the scene was built up, whether the director had a vision for the whole thing or whatever, and you would go to sort of see these things in action. And now it's always like, this is the movie and this is how it ends. You're kind of like, you know, I don't know. Anyway, one person's opinion. So the basic meaning of this word emptiness, which is the translation of shunyata in Sanskrit, shunyata. Report an error in the passage at 52:08 Highlight the passage at 52:08

52:38 Sometimes they... Translated as voidness, I think that's really hard to understand in our culture. I mean, it's a weird word. So I stick with emptiness. I think what gets weird is that we always forget empty of what. We get caught on the noun emptiness, but we forget what it's actually referring to, a lack of. Report an error in the passage at 52:38 Highlight the passage at 52:38

53:01 And it's referring to a lack of this absolute, inherent, intrinsic. Existence that we layer upon every single thing that exists. We project it upon whatever's out there. We think that things exist in this way, and they usually say this thing like, out there. And that's the way it feels, right? It feels like the world is happening to me. Report an error in the passage at 53:01 Highlight the passage at 53:01

53:27 Things exist. You guys exist out there independently. Like you just popped into being, you know, come into my class and then like come at me. Sometimes it does feel that way, actually. But it's like that with everything, you know, getting on the 22, it's like that too. It's like you forget the interdependence of all things. Report an error in the passage at 53:27 Highlight the passage at 53:27

53:46 You forget that these are all living beings, like in the meditation on enemy friend and stranger. We forget their wants, their desires, you know. It's just like what's coming at me. And things don't exist that way. They don't exist in this concrete, absolute, solid way. Everything is empty of existing that way, and that's all emptiness means. I mean, all. It's very profound, but that's simply what emptiness is referring to, that everything is empty of this inherent, absolute, independent existence that we project upon it. Report an error in the passage at 53:46 Highlight the passage at 53:46

54:25 So that's what it's talking about. Report an error in the passage at 54:25 Highlight the passage at 54:25

54:30 And this is true for every experience. So, you know, there's no inherently delay. Delightful dinner, like you were talking about out there, you know, separate from my mind, my experiences, and my particular karma, which is the thing, of course, that Buddhism brings into it that's slightly different, is the fact that I have created positive karma to have a really great time at that restaurant, whereas the next guy, the one-star guy, actually created lousy karma that ripened when he went into the restaurant. Report an error in the passage at 54:30 Highlight the passage at 54:30

55:04 And so we also have this marriage of karma and emptiness. Because things don't exist intrinsically, then karma can work. So it's this very kind of interesting thing. Report an error in the passage at 55:04 Highlight the passage at 55:04

55:15 Because we can create positive and negative karma, and a somewhat neutral karma too, then every one of our experiences of all these things and people that are empty of inherent existence can be determined by our karma. So if I enjoy somebody's company and I think that they're really witty and funny and great to be with, it's because I've simply created the karma to experience them that way. Report an error in the passage at 55:15 Highlight the passage at 55:15

55:44 You know, Christine could have completely different karma with the same person. Is that person, that person's neither but both of those projections, you know what I mean? So it's not to say that my projection of them, because I think that they're witty and wonderful and fun to be with, is correct. Neither is her view correct if she thinks that they're a pain in the butt and annoying and they just talk all the time. But neither of them is wrong either. Report an error in the passage at 55:44 Highlight the passage at 55:44

56:12 There's no wrong or right in this. It's just that we have created certain karmas that are ripening. So the same is true of food. The same is true of mental experiences too. You know, the kind of happiness that you wake up with for no reason and the kind of depression that you wake up with for no reason. Report an error in the passage at 56:12 Highlight the passage at 56:12

56:33 That we also see as independently delightful or horrible. Are you raising your hand? Could we wait a little bit? I feel like there's a lot of questions. Would you mind holding on? I want to get out more information. There's a lot of questions coming up. I think it's probably because we missed the week. Let me just do a little bit more explanation and then I'll open up the questions. Report an error in the passage at 56:33 Highlight the passage at 56:33

57:03 So the same object isn't seen in the same way by three or four different people like you can imagine. Several different people going to the same restaurant or traveling together or, you know, there's the story in the scriptures about the three different beings looking at the glass of liquid, the human being seeing it as water, the pretta seeing it as nectar, some sort of divine nectar of transcendental wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 57:03 Highlight the passage at 57:03

57:31 Prada being seeing it as pus and blood, which they have the karma to see. Which one is right? None of them. It's just karma. It always sounds like the being of a joke, actually. Three beings go into a bar and look at a glass of liquid. But the reality is that that kind of thing is happening a lot. Even in the human realm, if we all have the same cup of tea, I might think it's great, he might think it's horrible, you might think it's just blah, and it's just karma. Report an error in the passage at 57:31 Highlight the passage at 57:31

58:06 Because of our karma, we organize the different data that we see, so the smells and taste and tactile images or whatever of the cup of tea. Our karma is forcing us to perceive it in different ways. So it's not necessarily somebody just trying to be difficult. There are certain karmic results of actions, and it's just as real to that person as it is to us. Report an error in the passage at 58:06 Highlight the passage at 58:06

58:40 I remember working with a woman when I first came to the center, and she really did hear it, that everyone was trying to start an argument with her. It would be very interesting if you were with her because it didn't sound that way to me, but it felt very real to her. Later, when I was studying karma, I realized that that was the karmic result of harsh speech. Report an error in the passage at 58:40 Highlight the passage at 58:40

59:04 Any kind of speech that's yelling or mean, like a cruel speech, that's all considered harsh speech. The karmic result of that is... Hearing people being mean to you, actually. So it's not just like, oh, you know, get over it. She was having a karmic reaction that was just as real to her as mine was that the person was somewhat neutral. You know, they were just kind of showing us to the table or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 59:04 Highlight the passage at 59:04

59:39 That was my particular karmic reaction. Or even that the person's being really nice. You know, I tend to actually... I think that most people are really nice, and I'm sure that's just a karmic reaction, a karmic arising from my personal karmic appearance. Report an error in the passage at 59:39 Highlight the passage at 59:39

59:56 So the same thing isn't exactly the same to every single person, all because of our karma. The same thing is true for objects, and I'll do the pen thing, because this is one of my teachers, that's what he would always talk about, is the pen thing. We look at this thing, and we decide that it's a pen. Report an error in the passage at 59:56 Highlight the passage at 59:56

1:00:16 But if we really break it down into what our mind, what our eye can actually see before our mind starts getting involved, it's basically this cylinder with a point. Now we can't even really see the back of the cylinder. We just see part of the cylinder and we sort of make it into a cylinder. We see the front and we add the back in our mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:16 Highlight the passage at 1:00:16

1:00:39 We can't really see the back. We can't see the bottom. It's got this point. Some of us have used it as a pen, and so then we immediately make it into a pen. But, you know, if I threw it on the floor and there was a dog in the room, they'd probably take it as a chewy toy, and that would be totally fine for them to use it as a chewy toy. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:39 Highlight the passage at 1:00:39

1:01:00 That wouldn't, well, maybe not. If it was your pen, you might not want them to use it as a chewy. But they wouldn't be wrong to see it as a chewy toy. Their karma is forcing them to see it as a chewy toy, and that works for them. Actually, it probably works more for them than a pen, actually. An ant might see it as something that has to go over to get to the food on the other side. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:00 Highlight the passage at 1:01:00

1:01:23 So it would be like a barrier of some sort, or maybe even a threat. They might not even know quite what it was, and they might be a little scared of it. Somebody who lived in a culture that didn't have pens, which probably doesn't exist anymore, but if there was such a person. Maybe somebody had been in a coma for 20 years and woke up probably more than 100 years. They might think it was some sort of a tool that you could dig with. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:23 Highlight the passage at 1:01:23

1:01:50 It wouldn't necessarily inherently be a pen from its own side. It wouldn't be this absolute thing called a pen. And that's true really for everything. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:50 Highlight the passage at 1:01:50

1:02:03 But if we were really thinking about... I mean, this is the pen's, the emptiness of the pen's inherent existence. So this is the emptiness of the pen, which is easier to think about in the pen because we don't really, we don't have problems with being overly attached to a pen, usually. We don't have so many problems with, if this pen broke, I wouldn't, you know, probably lose any sleep over it. I'll just throw it away, recycle it. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:03 Highlight the passage at 1:02:03

1:02:30 But it's easier for us to look at inanimate objects and think about our relationships with them. I think it is anyway. And then start thinking about the more difficult things like other people that we make into absolute things or ourselves. And that's actually a really, really big one is how we ourselves exist. But let's think about the other person. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:30 Highlight the passage at 1:02:30

1:02:55 Let's think about the screaming boss. So you mentioned the screaming boss. I'm going to make the screaming boss a woman. Because I usually make it a man, and then I thought, well, that's kind of weird. I always have women bosses. I'm going to make it into a woman. So if I come into work and my boss screams at me, and she might actually do this every morning, which fortunately I have a really nice boss, so that's not true. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:55 Highlight the passage at 1:02:55

1:03:14 But the same screaming boss can be three things to three different people, right? So I come into work and she screams at me, so of course to me she's inherently evil, right? She's horrible. I can't stand her. I wouldn't even say all the different words. Christine might think it's a really great thing. Maybe she's been waiting for me to get in trouble because I'm always wasting time and coming in late, and so she's just like, yeah, lay into her. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:14 Highlight the passage at 1:03:14

1:03:44 John's just bored. He's just sitting there. He hears the same decibels, the same screaming mouth, the same energies in the room, but his karma... The whole thing is neutral. He's just trying to get his work done, so he's just sitting there. And it's just a complete non-event. Somebody would say, John, what happened at work today? Report an error in the passage at 1:03:44 Highlight the passage at 1:03:44

1:04:04 And he'd be like, I don't know, I got this done and this done. But it's like he wouldn't even hear it as a horrible thing. And in fact, I might even think that that person who's screaming at me, who I'm thinking is inherently evil now, is a really nice person tomorrow. Because that's the way our minds work, right? Today I'm seeing her as... Report an error in the passage at 1:04:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04:04

1:04:24 Evil incarnate, you know, but the reality is, is that she's not, you know, she's, the people who love her think she's great for just as little reason as we have for disliking her. I mean, her kids like her, her neighbors like her and, and she herself probably sees the situation completely differently because maybe she's like tried other ways. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:24 Highlight the passage at 1:04:24

1:04:52 And I still insist on coming in late every day. And so she's just trying to make it clear how important it is to come in on time. And so from her point of view, it's this very clear thing of this annoying, probably inherently annoying employee coming in late every day. Not that this happens at all, of course, in my life. I'm certainly never late. But at least, fortunately, I don't have a screaming boss about it. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:52 Highlight the passage at 1:04:52

1:05:21 But that's her emptiness of any inherent reality. So she's, you know, to John, she's a neutral. To Christine, she's a great boss. You know, to me, she's a horrible boss. The very next day, everything could be turned, right? John could be getting in trouble. I'm relieved. You know, finally somebody else is getting in trouble. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:21 Highlight the passage at 1:05:21

1:05:40 This time Christine could be all upset because John's her best bud or something, you know. So it happens like that constantly where whoever we think of as inherently Report an error in the passage at 1:05:40 Highlight the passage at 1:05:40

1:05:50 Whatever can constantly be shifting because nobody really exists in that solid, reified way that we put people. So then when we think about it in terms of ourselves, that's where it starts getting really juicy because we do think about ourselves as existing in this really absolute way. You know, that's when we get into the I am when I am. I am this way. I've always been this way. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:50 Highlight the passage at 1:05:50

1:06:19 If you really study yourself over the course of a lifetime, you really see how much you have changed and how much you're constantly changing and how your mind is changing and how the types of friends that you have change. Even your favorite colors change. But yet we insist on seeing ourselves as this solid, absolute thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:19 Highlight the passage at 1:06:19

1:06:45 So when we talk about our I, Which is the meditation that you're going to have this week is looking for this inherently existent I that we believe exists. First of all, don't just take anybody's word for it that it doesn't exist. The idea is actually to explore. Not to just go, okay, it doesn't exist. I don't have to do the meditation. I believe it doesn't exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:45 Highlight the passage at 1:06:45

1:07:11 One of the things I know that has been confusing in the past when we've talked about this inherently existent I. The Buddha isn't saying that this I that exists in dependence upon this body and mind doesn't exist. So this I that I say, when I say I'm attending a class at the center, I went to the store, you know what I mean? Report an error in the passage at 1:07:11 Highlight the passage at 1:07:11

1:07:35 Like that I does exist. That's what's called the valid I. There is a certain identity that exists in the world, but that's not usually the one that gets us into trouble. That's not the one that causes these afflictive states of mind to arise. If we think about a situation where somebody has blamed us for something, then the I that arises is like, I didn't do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:35 Highlight the passage at 1:07:35

1:08:01 You know? Me? I didn't do that. That's the I. Because then what arises on that in the next, and you can think of it with anything else, and it could also be the I that arises when you're about to get killed, if you've ever been just about... You know, run over or something. That happened to me one time out in front of General Hospital. It was like, whoa, that's the eye. That's the one that they're always talking about. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:01 Highlight the passage at 1:08:01

1:08:24 It's like, me, that's me, where we really believe 100%. What happens with that, you know, you took it. I saw you take it. And when that eye arises, then based on that eye, we get defensive, we get angry, we get resentful, we hold a grudge. We try to, you know, catch that guy. We try to, you know, we try to like, we try to blame me back. Usually we, if we get blamed, that's the natural reaction is to try to be like, well, you're not so great yourself, you know, which is why that's actually bodhicitta, though. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:24 Highlight the passage at 1:08:24

1:09:01 Not to do that. Not to return blame for blame or criticism for criticism. But... That's the I that gets us into trouble. When we do this meditation, when we're looking for the I, we're not looking for the I that came to class tonight or the I that got a dress out of the closet. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:01 Highlight the passage at 1:09:01

1:09:20 That's not the I. We're looking for the I at some point that we were either... I think the most is if somebody blames you or criticizes you, especially publicly or in some way that you just... For me, it always feels like this. It's almost like it gets bigger than my body. It's like this eye rises really big and it feels like it's not your body and mind combined. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:20 Highlight the passage at 1:09:20

1:09:48 It's something bigger that operates your body and mind, like owns your body and mind. In some way that if you logically talk about it like that, we know it doesn't exist that way. But that's the way it feels if somebody is like, you did it. No, you did it. I saw you do it. And then all of a sudden everybody turns around, you know, and you're like, I didn't do it. You can feel it. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:48 Highlight the passage at 1:09:48

1:10:09 It's like this I comes up. And based on that I, the Buddha says, we create all these negative states of mind that then we act on and then we create the negative karma and then that karma ripens and it ripens as our unpleasant experiences and our suffering. And that's what keeps us here, is that constantly. So we never really take the time to examine the fact that that I that seems to arise, that seems really, really real, doesn't exist in the way that it feels like it exists. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:09 Highlight the passage at 1:10:09

1:10:45 And in fact, when we have a direct perception of emptiness, which is a huge and important goal in this lifetime, and the Buddha said it's totally possible for us to do. In our school, anyway, it's said that we actually have a direct perception of emptiness based on this I looking for this, the self, our own self. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:45 Highlight the passage at 1:10:45

1:11:11 According to Buddhism, there are selves of, there's a self of a pen, too. There's something that's like this, that we're looking for. There's like inherently existent, it seems like there's an inherently existent penness in this pen. It feels like there's an inherently existent table in this table. But when we're looking for the inherently existent me, that's the one that if we can get that, if we can have this experience where we directly perceive, not through our conceptual thinking, but through our direct perception, our connection almost with emptiness itself, then we can actually, that's really what's going to cut our ignorance, almost like the roots of a really bad tree that has to come down. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:11 Highlight the passage at 1:11:11

1:11:55 That's what's really going to do it. Because once we see that we don't exist in that way, then we can extrapolate and everything else doesn't exist in that same way. Some schools actually do it differently. The Kagu school does it in terms of inanimate objects first, which I can kind of get too. I actually think that is interesting. I remember listening to Tenzin Palmo teach one time, and she said, if it's easier for you to see the emptiness of the table first, And then the emptiness of your own self. Then you're probably a Kagyu. And I was like, well, God, I actually kind of can. I think the emptiness of myself is a little more juicy because I get much more into trouble than I do thinking about the emptiness or thinking about the solidity of the table. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:55 Highlight the passage at 1:11:55

1:12:44 But I can kind of see both, actually. I mean, I'm attracted to both. But then I'm a Libra, so. It's hard for me to make up my mind. I'm staying with a glug buzz this time around. But maybe I've shifted schools every time, I don't know. So how do we work with this in our lives, this kind of understanding? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:44 Highlight the passage at 1:12:44

1:13:07 When things, and I think you brought it up actually, Dylan, one of the, maybe it was in the end of the last class or one of the classes that we were talking about karma. What shifts our karma is... How we respond to the screaming boss. So the screaming boss, or whatever, I'm just using the screaming boss as the example. So if we have a boss screaming at us, if we scream back, we're simply creating the causes to have more screaming bosses. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:07 Highlight the passage at 1:13:07

1:13:38 So how we react to whatever is happening. The thing is happening because it's the ripening of our karma. We can't change that at that point. They say it's almost like the movie's been made, you know. We can't change the ending. If we go in the movie theater and we're like, no, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, like stop it, stop it, stop it, you know, it doesn't work that way. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:38 Highlight the passage at 1:13:38

1:13:58 But we can change the next movie because of the way that we react to whatever's happening. So, for example, with the screaming boss, if we can stop ourselves for that one moment and not scream back and remember with wisdom, just any amount of wisdom, this is my karma right there. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:58 Highlight the passage at 1:13:58

1:14:22 This is my karma ripening. Make it almost like a mantra. This is my karma ripening. And not screaming back, no, you idiot. Or whatever we were going to say. Sometimes we have to do that kind of work on the cushion about 50,000 times before we can do it in person. And I'm not even exaggerating. It's almost like you visualize, especially if it's something like this that happens a lot. And I'm saying screaming boss. It could be the annoying roommate. It could be whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:22 Highlight the passage at 1:14:22

1:14:52 You know, the roommate who's like, you didn't clean your pan or whatever, you know, and they do that every day. You didn't clean. So you visualize so that you can catch yourself next time. You didn't clean your pan. You just wait for the words. And they're just words. And so then the next time, then you don't have to get angry. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:52 Highlight the passage at 1:14:52

1:15:10 You don't have to yell back. You can just be like, okay, this is my karma right thing. And then you can examine it so that then it won't cause you to, the eye to get all defensive and to, you know, strike back or whatever. The Screaming Boss is another example of that. If you come into work, you know the Screaming Boss always screams at you. Obviously, you could try to, if it is being late, you could try to be on time. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:10 Highlight the passage at 1:15:10

1:15:32 If it's something that every day there's something else, and it's just a particular karmic relationship that you have in this lifetime, then see it as one and try to bring that wisdom into it. It almost makes it more fascinating. It almost makes it a little less about... Me, if I actually think, well, this is just simply my karma ripening. What's going to happen today? Because what usually makes us so mad is we believe in this inherently existent me who's the victim, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:32 Highlight the passage at 1:15:32

1:16:06 We believe in that 100%. I didn't do anything wrong. You're evil. You'd see the fault in anyone. It's not me. And if I can actually think, who's getting upset? Report an error in the passage at 1:16:06 Highlight the passage at 1:16:06

1:16:21 Who is this I that's getting upset? It doesn't even exist in this way that it seems to exist. It actually sort of gives me a little space. If the boss is screaming at me and I'm able to just kind of look at her, I remember there's a story of Venema Rubina when she was speeding, which she always speeds. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:21 Highlight the passage at 1:16:21

1:16:42 She goes very, very fast. She was going up 80. No, she was going up, what's the one that goes from L.A.? 580. 505, is that what it is? Report an error in the passage at 1:16:42 Highlight the passage at 1:16:42

1:16:57 I-5, I-5, I thought you were saying 5-5, and I was like, no, it's not 5-5. I-5, yeah. So she was going up I-5, and she was like cutting off people and stuff, and somebody, I'm sure she was, you know, I think even she told the story she was. I don't think I'm saying anything against her. I think she even gave it in a teaching, this example. But somebody who she had cut off, like, you know, came after her. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:57 Highlight the passage at 1:16:57

1:17:17 And like pulled in front of her and got out and started screaming. And she just left the window up. She was just looking at him and thinking, oh, my actions have caused such, you know, such anger. And like all his veins and everything were popping out. And she was just sort of looking at him and just thinking. And it was like she could, she was separating herself. So it wasn't like I, she wasn't getting mad back or anything like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:17 Highlight the passage at 1:17:17

1:17:40 She was just watching and thinking about, oh, look how the anger is arising. And my actions have caused it. So she was doing this analytical meditation while he was screaming at her on the highway. It was very interesting to hear about in a way. I mean, of course, the guy could have pulled out a gun or something. But even then, knowing General Rubina, she would have just taken that one and run too. But the idea is sort of to get out of that really gooey, heavy feeling of me. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:40 Highlight the passage at 1:17:40

1:18:12 And begin to dissect that a little bit and realize that it never has existed in this solid, unitary way that it feels like it exists. So we begin to, if we can crack it just a minute, just a tiny little bit, then we stop fighting for it tooth and nail. So we stop believing that it exists in this really solid, absolute way and we can... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:12 Highlight the passage at 1:18:12

1:18:38 We can dissolve it a little bit. It definitely, definitely helps. I don't think I'm doing a good job with presenting it tonight, but it definitely helps to dissolve some of that. And if we can dissolve some of that, then we won't get angry, we won't get resentful, we won't be dissing that person with our speech behind their backs. So it saves us from doing all this other harm if we can even just for half a second analyze the situation a little bit in terms of bodhic teaching. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:38 Highlight the passage at 1:18:38

1:19:06 So watching how we react is how we break the karmic path. There are three levels of dependent arising. We've talked a little bit about the first one. I want to talk about the second one. And then tomorrow night we'll talk about the third one, which is the most subtle view. And it's sort of the hardest to understand. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:06 Highlight the passage at 1:19:06

1:19:25 So the three levels of dependent arising, which is talking about how things actually do exist. Emptiness is how they don't exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:25 Highlight the passage at 1:19:25

1:19:36 Emptiness is talking about the lack of inherent existence. Dependent arising is how actually they do exist. The first is in terms of things arise or things exist due to causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:36 Highlight the passage at 1:19:36

1:19:52 We've talked about this a little bit, but I'll say something else. I'm just going to give you the list first. The second is that things arise due to parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:52 Highlight the passage at 1:19:52

1:20:07 And the third is that things arise as a mere label. Unto whatever arises due to causes and conditions and parts. So each one subsumes the one before it. The grossest one, causes and conditions, doesn't include everything, and so then parts is a little bit bigger and also includes causes and conditions, and the mere label includes causes and conditions and parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:07 Highlight the passage at 1:20:07

1:20:35 So when we talk about causes and conditions, that one we can talk about in terms of... Report an error in the passage at 1:20:35 Highlight the passage at 1:20:35

1:20:43 Even just the natural world. So say we're talking about a sprout or a seed becoming a sprout, becoming a plant. And that happens. It's not just like, you know, we look down and we see a sprout and it's almost like it just came about of its own accord, right? The reality is that this little seed was planted either by somebody or just by the wind. And due to the causes and conditions, The rain and the sun and the soil and the you know, whatever else is involved. It grows. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:43 Highlight the passage at 1:20:43

1:21:22 You know, so it suddenly it bursts out of, we've all seen those little movies, the fast, you know, the time, the quick time photography where the, you know, the seed bursts and then the sprout, you know, takes over and grows and then that gets bigger and bigger and bigger and turns into like a bush or a tree or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:22 Highlight the passage at 1:21:22

1:21:39 It seems like it just sort of sprang into being. But obviously all these different things were involved in its coming into being. And we can understand that, right? We've all seen those movies. We've all watched the Discovery Channel. You know, we can see that that exists. We forget it, you know, a lot of times. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:39 Highlight the passage at 1:21:39

1:21:57 We forget that things actually arise that way. For example, with non-organic things, think about this pen or thinking about the chime or thinking about the clock. All this thing, Report an error in the passage at 1:21:57 Highlight the passage at 1:21:57

1:22:12 thinking about the water kettle. Everything that we make use of, or pick up, or look at, or interact with inanimate objects, we can realize that they all came into being based on causes and conditions. There were people who made a bunch of these in a factory, and then somehow somebody produced the plastics from petroleum products, and somebody had to get those petroleum products out of the ground. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:12 Highlight the passage at 1:22:12

1:22:38 So there's all these different people and beings who were involved in the making of this pen. The same is true for the chime. The same is true for the fabric in this and the dyes that went into the fabric. The same is true for people, right? We all had parents. We had grandparents. Those grandparents came from different countries, mostly in this country. You know, everything that went into each of those beings that then produced us, they all had to eat things that grew in the ground, and then the farmers had to grow the things. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:38 Highlight the passage at 1:22:38

1:23:09 That's all that's really meant by causes and conditions. Except... The main cause, according to Geshe-la, the main cause is always karma, which we don't always think about. But everything else is a condition. So, you know, what my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother ate on her toast in the morning somehow became me. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:09 Highlight the passage at 1:23:09

1:23:34 I can't quite follow it all, but I know that somehow all of that became me. And that's all that's really meant by this causes and conditions thing. I think it can become more confusing, but that's really all that's meant by causes and conditions. You'll have a meditation on that tonight that was created by Venerable Rubina that just sort of talks about how this myriad of causes and conditions that goes into the making of each of us, as well as all the things that we use and make use of in our lives. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:34 Highlight the passage at 1:23:34

1:24:09 Dependent and rising in terms of parts is talking about how... Causes, I mean, um, uh, Report an error in the passage at 1:24:09 Highlight the passage at 1:24:09

1:24:14 Every single thing can be limitlessly broken down into parts and then those parts into parts and then those parts into parts and then those parts into parts. Even though when we look at something like the pen or even the sprout, you know, it looks like it's just a solid unitary thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:14 Highlight the passage at 1:24:14

1:24:35 You know, even when I look at you, I don't think about the part, you know, I look at John, I'm not thinking about the top of his head and his left arm. I'm just seeing John. My mind is making him into this like solid unitary thing. I'm seeing a pen. I'm not thinking about, you know, the little guy that goes to the factory in China and like, you know, pumps these babies out, you know, 150 a second, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:35 Highlight the passage at 1:24:35

1:24:58 I'm seeing it as like fully formed and just, you know what I mean? But if we really analyze it, every single thing can be broken down into parts. And then those parts into parts, and then those parts into parts. And if you think about something in those terms, it gets into, like we were talking about in the beginning meditation, every single thing can be broken down that way. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:58 Highlight the passage at 1:24:58

1:25:23 We realize that nothing exists in this solid, inherently existent way. That's one way that we can kind of get at it. When I was going to rip the flower, I was going to take the flower that I was looking for in Yifang's bouquet. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:23 Highlight the passage at 1:25:23

1:25:40 What I usually do is I take some poor little unsuspecting flower and I start looking for the flower inside of the flower, you know. And you try to figure out it's just a bunch of parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:40 Highlight the passage at 1:25:40

1:25:52 But if, you know, there is nothing, everything exists. Okay, so anyway, I was just going to say at what point does it become a flower? At what point does it become a pen? At what point does it become a person? All these different... The parts that go into these things we don't see when we look at them. We just try to use them as a unitary object. But if we begin analyzing them, we can actually see how it breaks it down. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:52 Highlight the passage at 1:25:52

1:26:24 For example, when you think about how your eye will see like a cup or a tea kettle. Or even how we saw with the pen. Our eye sort of organizes the different shapes and then we create this mental image actually of what we think a pen or a tea kettle or a cup actually is. So we fill in the back that we can't really see. We fill in the top rim. We fill in the bottom. We might not even be able to see that. But we've seen other ones. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:24 Highlight the passage at 1:26:24

1:27:01 We've picked them up and looked at them. Hopefully not when there was tea in them. So our minds, our eye is constantly shifting and looking at things and actually like if we're looking at the carpet, we're not seeing the bottom of the carpet. Although in some sense we always feel like we're seeing the whole thing all the time. In reality we aren't. But then our mind, our eye tries to take all that data and then synthesize it into this whole, this thing, this unitary thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:01 Highlight the passage at 1:27:01

1:27:36 In reality, it exists as all these different parts. I think I'm losing that train. But anyway, do you see what I'm saying? That there is this way that things arise. They aren't as solid as they look if we begin looking at all the different parts that our mind is just pulling them into this hole. But in reality, they're all the different parts, all the different grains of the wood and the glue that goes into it. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:36 Highlight the passage at 1:27:36

1:28:04 So it's a slightly different way that these things are existing than in the way that things coming into existence due to causes and conditions. The final one where it's talking about a mere label, which we'll talk about tomorrow, is that things exist. At some point we place a label on top of this thing that's arisen in the form of... Report an error in the passage at 1:28:04 Highlight the passage at 1:28:04

1:28:31 All these different parts and due to causes and conditions. And so that's why when you examine a flower, for example, and we think about if we rip up the flower and we're looking for where the flower starts and when it became a flower, we're looking at the label and we're looking at the leaves and the stem and the stamen and the pollen and things like that that all go into this. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:31 Highlight the passage at 1:28:31

1:28:55 If it were simply parts... There's this pile of parts in front of me of a flower. It's no longer a flower, right? It's the same parts, right? I can have two flowers, one I've ripped up, and one that I haven't. Obviously, the one that's a pile of parts is no longer a flower anymore. But at what point did it stop being a flower? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:55 Highlight the passage at 1:28:55

1:29:20 At what point did it actually become a flower? It became a flower when we placed the label on it. So that label is really, really important. And like I said, we'll talk about that one next time. But it's a very subtle addition to how we perceive reality. That helps us also to break down how we perceive reality. Not in a crazy-making way, but in a way that helps us to stop clinging onto things so tightly. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:20 Highlight the passage at 1:29:20

1:29:53 Either our view of each other or our view of ourselves or also our attachment to things, our attachment to this life, our attachment to our views, right? Also our opinions, which can also be things that we cause harm, we fight about. And to lessen this grip that we have on this sort of solid existence around us, you know, the world staying as it always has to stay. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:53 Highlight the passage at 1:29:53

1:30:23 You see a lot of people get so upset and angry when change comes. Change comes. I mean that's actually the only given is that change comes. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:23 Highlight the passage at 1:30:23

1:30:33 So anyway, questions and then we're going to end with a meditation so we can take a break before the meditation. Questions about any of that? Theo, wait, wait, wait, wait. Talking stick. Is it on? It's on? Yes. Lama Zopa Rinpoche uses the lesson of the car and... In dependent parts, on parts and on parts. Right. And he also uses the, in emptiness, the eye. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:33 Highlight the passage at 1:30:33

1:31:04 Right. Of inherent existence, virtue and reality. Yeah. I've been reading on that. Yeah, yeah. To get a little grasp of what he means by emptiness. Yeah. And I use the aggregates of a peach. Where does it become a peach? Is it the fragrance, the meat? The taste, the smell, the color, the leaf, the twig, the tree itself or the root. Where do we find the peach? It is empty of inherent existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:04 Highlight the passage at 1:31:04

1:31:33 It arises out of dependent existence. So it's not to say that it doesn't exist. It simply exists dependently. A lot of times when we see things, I think that was what I was trying to get at, we see things as all existing independently, including ourselves, right? We see ourselves as existing independently. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:33 Highlight the passage at 1:31:33

1:31:56 And what the Buddha is saying is that, no, actually we're all interdependent. We are all dependent upon many things. The peach is dependent upon many things, including our label of it as a peach. Again, the ant might have a completely different view of that peach. Yeah, and the valid base. And the valid base. You could impute. Yeah. We're not going to get to that one tonight. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:56 Highlight the passage at 1:31:56

1:32:19 Tonight? Okay. That's getting more into the label. I'm a little ahead then. I've been studying in Hawaii. Yeah, that's getting more into the label. But anything else about either these, at least the first two aspects of dependent arising or impermanence? Report an error in the passage at 1:32:19 Highlight the passage at 1:32:19

1:32:40 Dylan, I think, and then Jenna. I sort of get the idea that, as you were explaining emptiness, emptiness seems very similar to impermanence as well. It's almost like it's the same thing to me. Yeah, and it's not. But it's okay that you're thinking that right now. It's okay that you're thinking that right now. And I think in some traditions, actually, I have heard it taught similarly. In a much more subtle philosophical tradition like this one, there are vast differences between the two. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:40 Highlight the passage at 1:32:40

1:33:17 But that's how you get there is by starting with impermanence. So that's fine to be there. That's an okay place to be, yeah. And I think then knowing that it's not exactly the same thing but still taking time to really try to go deeply into impermanence I think is great because I don't think our culture really deals with impermanence very well. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:17 Highlight the passage at 1:33:17

1:33:38 And so it's sort of like take that time to really think about the impermanence of everything that you come into contact with tomorrow, for example. I mean obviously you might probably have to work and go to school or something like that too. But I mean just to try to take a little bit of time at the... Report an error in the passage at 1:33:38 Highlight the passage at 1:33:38

1:33:54 Some points where you're maybe commuting from here to there. To think about it, it's really quite profound to think about the impermanence of every single aspect. To look at the different faces of people on the bus and think that person's going to die. This person here will not always be around. This driver will retire. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:54 Highlight the passage at 1:33:54

1:34:15 You know, that baby will be a driver, you know. Like, thinking about it, so not just in like the old people are going, but also the baby that's on the bus, you know. I think I spend a lot of time on the bus. But you see the baby and you think, that baby's got this whole life ahead. What is this baby going to have this whole life? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:15 Highlight the passage at 1:34:15

1:34:33 That baby could end up being the woman with the patch in Syria, you know. Who knows, you know. Every single thing is impermanent. The bus itself. We'll be sitting like in some yard, you know, in 10 years, retired, you know, like that. I usually do it a lot with thoughts as well. Yes, yeah, and looking at our thoughts. Especially while meditating. But you can also, you know where it's really, really helpful is to think about the impermanence of things that are causing you a problem. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:33 Highlight the passage at 1:34:33

1:35:04 So looking at the things that cause you a problem, like if you have a belief or some sort of a value system that's causing a problem. That too is impermanent. Even though it feels like who I am at this moment, I believe it's 100%, it was something that you didn't always have and you won't actually always have it. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:04 Highlight the passage at 1:35:04

1:35:25 Or if you're really attached to something, someone, or some taste or some experience, thinking about the lack of inherent existence or the impermanence of that thing is really, really helpful. To try to dissolve some of that attachment or that hatred. I mean that's kind of what Jenna was talking about too with the enemy friend stranger meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:25 Highlight the passage at 1:35:25

1:35:51 Yeah, breaking down those labels is a step in that direction of starting to break down how things actually exist. We're just seeing it, but that's actually how they exist. So the Buddha is just trying to point that out. It's not like it's, he didn't make it up. He just perceived it when he got enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:51 Highlight the passage at 1:35:51

1:36:08 Yeah, before you, I think Jenna had a question first, yeah. Just a comment on impermanence, and you kind of just touched on this before Dylan, or in regards to his comment, but I always heard growing up, things never change, people never change. So that was just one of those phrases that are instilled in me based on just my parents saying that. So now that I'm discovering Buddhism, I just find it really interesting because that is really one of the only guarantees that... Report an error in the passage at 1:36:08 Highlight the passage at 1:36:08

1:36:38 Death and taxes, right? So just having that shift in perspective that I always thought things never changed. Like I would always be that person, but that's not the case. Yeah, yeah. For good and for bad. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Fred? Just kind of a foolish convolution. I mean, if I understand emptiness... As long as it's not about the Oakland Fire. Hmm? I'm teasing you. It's coming. If I understand emptiness, then... Report an error in the passage at 1:36:38 Highlight the passage at 1:36:38

1:37:10 Then impermanence is irrelevant, isn't it? No. I don't think impermanence is ever irrelevant. I think if we're able to have a direct perception of emptiness, then impermanence won't hurt us so much. Because things don't actually exist in this solid way. So if they break, you know what I mean? The reason impermanence hurts us is because we think that things exist in this solid, concrete way, this absolute way. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:10 Highlight the passage at 1:37:10

1:37:40 And then, of course, they don't. And so they break. And so then it hurts us. That's what causes our pain, right? Our marriage ends. Our loved ones die. Our car breaks down. And it's not the thing breaking necessarily that's causing us the pain. It's our misunderstanding of how it existed in the first place. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:40 Highlight the passage at 1:37:40

1:38:01 So if we can have a direct perception of emptiness, then impermanence doesn't bother us anymore. It won't cause us the pain that it causes right now. Won't necessarily make it irrelevant. It's just we won't be grasping onto things as being permanent and solid. That's all. So it can just be. It doesn't have to be good or bad. Do you know what I mean? You know, sometimes people will try to say, I remember actually my good friend, he's still my good friend. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:01 Highlight the passage at 1:38:01

1:38:33 I went to massage school at one point many, many years ago, and this one good friend of mine who's still a good friend would always say, change is good. Remember when that expression was, change is good, and I would be like, change just is. It's not always good or bad, you know, it just is. And I think change just will be. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:33 Highlight the passage at 1:38:33

1:38:53 Like it doesn't, now it's either good or bad, depending on how it affects me, but if we begin to understand that we don't exist in this solidly inherent existent way that we think we exist, and everything else around us doesn't, then change just is. It's all much more fluid and spacious and kind of like the way I think people experience life on LSD. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:53 Highlight the passage at 1:38:53

1:39:22 I didn't really ever experience it on LSD. I did mushrooms, though, and it was kind of like that. I remember one time on a practice day, this woman was talking about her experience of, I think it was on LSD, and she was talking about how she was on the couch and she became one with the couch and all this stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:22 Highlight the passage at 1:39:22

1:39:19 you know Report an error in the passage at 1:39:19 Highlight the passage at 1:39:19

1:39:40 I think that's actually closer to reality in some ways than we think. Like now it sounds funny, but I think in reality things are much more fluid and changing and, you know, the way they kind of do in dreams when things sort of morph and then suddenly change and morph. Energy just is constantly shifting like that. We're seeing it as Fred and this building that's here and it's Sachin Ling. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:40 Highlight the passage at 1:39:40

1:40:05 You know, like we have these layers and layers and layers and layers of labels. And so, yeah, I don't think it becomes irrelevant so much as it stops harming us. It starts, it stops feeling big and scary and whatever else change feels like to us. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:05 Highlight the passage at 1:40:05

1:40:22 So why don't we take a five minute break and then we're going to end with a meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:22 Highlight the passage at 1:40:22

1:40:31 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Oh my gosh. So we need five more of everything. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:31 Highlight the passage at 1:40:31

1:40:46 Wait a second, I think I might have given you the wrong homework. Does it say seven or does it say six? Yeah, so I just need six copies. So I'll just give you, make five more. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:46 Highlight the passage at 1:40:46

1:41:06 No, you'll get it tonight. Yeah, you could do the same with this one because whoever can't come tomorrow night can go ahead and get class seven. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:06 Highlight the passage at 1:41:06

1:41:18 Five copies. to go over six and seven and a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:18 Highlight the passage at 1:41:18

1:41:22 generation, second generation, third generation. I couldn't remember the other day I was telling you about the Hawaiian Japanese. This guy was, he said he was 70, he was 83. He talked to us under the Banyan Tree. Oh, are you? Banyan Tree planted in 1873 and how it spread to an 80Y. He also does the practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:22 Highlight the passage at 1:41:22

1:41:49 and the right shape and the entire part of the room for people just to go with it. Can you talk about the hill and the mountain of Maui? Oh yeah, you can come straight there. Have you been there? Report an error in the passage at 1:41:49 Highlight the passage at 1:41:49

1:42:05 Yeah, you should definitely. You can contact them. is. Oh. Oh. Oh. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:05 Highlight the passage at 1:42:05

1:42:08 You could just write to him. You could probably even stay there. They have guest rooms. Make him feel accommodated. Gently. They have a house in Maui. Definitely should visit. Your sister goes on Maui? Report an error in the passage at 1:42:08 Highlight the passage at 1:42:08

1:42:23 And a farm and a new dealer. No, no, no, but you could just, you could, if you want to, you could write them and just say, I like the comments and see the places out there, just to make sure. But, I mean, they're totally open. Oh, yeah, yeah, many times, yeah. That's a good question. You can ask Janet. That's a nice one. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:23 Highlight the passage at 1:42:23

1:42:52 Sorry, oh, the center maybe. No, I don't think I do need anything. I was just there. not that much. I was just there. You know, it was a lot. Yes. It might be something that was . What town? Report an error in the passage at 1:42:52 Highlight the passage at 1:42:52

1:43:12 Canababali. Above Canababali. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I think one of my friends is actually . I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:12 Highlight the passage at 1:43:12

1:43:31 I guess they asked the main Lama there and he decides what's best. She just said she was going, she asked if it was okay, I said sure. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:31 Highlight the passage at 1:43:31

1:43:30 I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:30 Highlight the passage at 1:43:30

1:43:40 I will write that in my suggestion in a You're good. Thanks. I think I'm a friend that's really new. What is your arm? Here's what you're saying. There's one next to him. He drives it on . . . . . . . Thank you. Is that for work? Thank you very much for your work. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:40 Highlight the passage at 1:43:40

1:44:12 yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:12 Highlight the passage at 1:44:12

1:44:15 think, yeah, go ahead and do them both. And then you'll have to. Because you're not here tomorrow. Or are you here tomorrow? You are? How many people are going to be here tomorrow night? So we'll have a class. Is tomorrow night a scheduled class? It wasn't and now it is because we're not going to have a class next week. Yeah, maybe I didn't put you on the list because you added late and I bet that didn't. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:15 Highlight the passage at 1:44:15

1:44:38 Okay, yeah. So we're going to do next week's class tomorrow. And then the practice day is no longer going to be on the 10th. It will be on the 24th of March. Yeah. Just because of health stuff. So, yeah. Change. Exactly. Change in impermanence. Yeah. Exactly. I did want to say a couple things that are coming up. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:38 Highlight the passage at 1:44:38

1:45:07 The death and rebirth class is still going to happen. I'm not going to teach it. I actually asked Venable Carol to teach it. I'm going to have kind of too much on my plate, I think, in the next couple of months. So she agreed. So she's going to teach it, and it's going to stay on schedule on March 22nd. It'll start death and rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:07 Highlight the passage at 1:45:07

1:45:28 She's using my notes, so I'm sure it'll be a great class. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:28 Highlight the passage at 1:45:28

1:45:34 I will be back to teach the class on the spiritual teacher, karma willing. I think we had originally scheduled that to start on the 31st of May. I think I'm going to do it probably the 6th of June, whatever that first Thursday is in June. I think I'll do that one. The spiritual teacher tends to be a small class because it's only really people that are... Report an error in the passage at 1:45:34 Highlight the passage at 1:45:34

1:45:59 ready for that. It tends to be, but it's really a great class. It's a very juicy class. Death, on the other hand, tends to be quite popular, until it's your own, of course. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:59 Highlight the passage at 1:45:59

1:46:13 Also, just to remind you, the guy Newland Weekend is coming up next weekend. He is the professor from a university in Michigan. Who has taught a couple of books, I mean written a couple of books, especially Appearance and Reality, I think, and The Two Truths. Those are probably his two most famous books. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:13 Highlight the passage at 1:46:13

1:46:34 But he's currently editing His Holiness' teachings on the lamrim, so he's going to talk about the lamrim and how it all, why it was such an important book for His Holiness to teach, and why His Holiness only taught it that one time in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 2007. So it should be a very interesting workshop. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:34 Highlight the passage at 1:46:34

1:46:55 John Landau is coming up from Santa Cruz to teach on another, it's the second method. Remember I mentioned there are two methods of generating bodhicitta. The one is the one that you guys got, the seven point cause and effect. The second method is called exchange of self and others and the most powerful aspect of that is this meditation on Tonglen. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:55 Highlight the passage at 1:46:55

1:47:23 Taking and giving. And it's really meant to build love and compassion. Very, very powerful, yet simple meditation. Actually not so difficult to learn. Not like the seven point cause and effect. Really much easier. But also quite profound. Like even if it's simple, it's still quite profound. It's quite a powerful. And so he's going to come on the middle weekend in March. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:23 Highlight the passage at 1:47:23

1:47:49 And Tubton Children is going to talk about joyful effort, you know, how to keep the happiness on the 20th of March, how to keep the happiness in our practice and that kind of willingness to keep going even when you just can't be bothered, which everyone hits no matter how enthusiastic you might be now. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:49 Highlight the passage at 1:47:49

1:48:08 And it may come tomorrow morning. So you have to know these tools on how to work with that. And it's such an honor to have her. So that would be great if we could have a really good turnout for that. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:08 Highlight the passage at 1:48:08

1:48:20 All right, I'd like to end with a meditation that, oh yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:48:20 Highlight the passage at 1:48:20

1:48:27 the death one starts on the 22nd of March. I think it ends the first Thursday in May, but I can't quite remember, like May 3rd or something like that, I think. I think it's seven weeks again, and I don't think there's any interruption this time, so I think it's just a straight seven weeks Report an error in the passage at 1:48:27 Highlight the passage at 1:48:27

1:48:54 to the 24th. 24th, right, yeah, 24th. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:54 Highlight the passage at 1:48:54

1:49:05 Jenna? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:05 Highlight the passage at 1:49:05

1:49:11 I just need the homework for number six so that I can actually lead that meditation because I didn't put it in my notes. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:11 Highlight the passage at 1:49:11

1:49:24 We'll do it quickly, which is I'm sure the way Venerable Rubina once did it because that's how she teaches. She teaches at 150 miles an hour. All right, so let's get back into our little meditation posture for another go. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:24 Highlight the passage at 1:49:24

1:49:42 This time thinking about how things arise as a dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:42 Highlight the passage at 1:49:42

1:49:56 So again, just bringing your spine as straight as you can manage, relaxing your shoulders and Report an error in the passage at 1:49:56 Highlight the passage at 1:49:56

1:50:10 taking some nice deep breaths. We're Report an error in the passage at 1:50:10 Highlight the passage at 1:50:10

1:50:21 going to just think about our body a little bit again, just like we did at the beginning of the class. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:21 Highlight the passage at 1:50:21

1:50:33 It's what we believe in is something real from its own side. We cling to it the most. We think about it the most. We take care of it the most. We even identify with it the most. To our hallucinating minds, it's the one thing that we can definitely think of as me. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:33 Highlight the passage at 1:50:33

1:50:58 But think, how is it my body? It's Report an error in the passage at 1:50:58 Highlight the passage at 1:50:58

1:51:06 come into being and continues to exist in dependence upon countless causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:06 Highlight the passage at 1:51:06

1:51:16 And we cannot find my body among any one of those causes and conditions. Yet it's nothing other than those causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:16 Highlight the passage at 1:51:16

1:51:30 It can be said that everything in the universe before this body came into being is a valid cause and condition for the existence of this body. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:30 Highlight the passage at 1:51:30

1:51:45 My body began with the egg and sperm of my kind mother and father. So where is my body? Report an error in the passage at 1:51:45 Highlight the passage at 1:51:45

1:51:58 Without the mother and father's parents, there would be no mother and father. Without the mother and father, there would be no my body. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:58 Highlight the passage at 1:51:58

1:52:10 Where is my body apart from these beginningless mothers and fathers? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:10 Highlight the passage at 1:52:10

1:52:24 Without my mother's womb, the egg and sperm could not join and develop. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:24 Highlight the passage at 1:52:24

1:52:33 Without the food that my mother ate every single day, the egg and sperm could not grow into a fetus. So where is my body apart from all the food that she ate? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:33 Highlight the passage at 1:52:33

1:52:55 My body is nothing other than a mountain of carrots and potatoes and chicken and bread. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:55 Highlight the passage at 1:52:55

1:53:06 Without the earth, the gardener, the sun, the water, the fertilizer, there would be no carrots. And without the carrots, there would be no mother. Without my mother, there would be no my body. It does not exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:06 Highlight the passage at 1:53:06

1:53:27 My body would not exist without the clothes my mother wore to keep her warm in the winter. The clothes would not exist without the sheep who provided the wool, the sheep shearers, the sheep shearers' mothers, the owners of the sheep, the people who processed the wool, the people who turned it into cloth, the truck drivers who took the cloth to the factory. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:27 Highlight the passage at 1:53:27

1:53:54 The designers, the tailors, the sewing machines, the designers of the sewing machines, the shops that sold the clothes, the people who made the racks that the clothes hung on. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:54 Highlight the passage at 1:53:54

1:54:13 So where is my body apart from all of these? It Report an error in the passage at 1:54:13 Highlight the passage at 1:54:13

1:54:21 cannot be found. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:21 Highlight the passage at 1:54:21

1:54:29 My body would not exist without the cotton bushes, the people who planted the cotton, the farmers who nourished the cotton bushes, the people who picked the cotton. Who drove the trucks, who took the cotton to be processed. The architect of the factory where the cotton was turned into cloth. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:29 Highlight the passage at 1:54:29

1:54:51 The people who turned the cotton into cloth. Who dyed the cloth. Who made the dye. Who designed the package that contained the dye. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:51 Highlight the passage at 1:54:51

1:55:04 Who printed the package. Who made the printing machine. Where is my body apart from all of these causes and conditions? It does not exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:04 Highlight the passage at 1:55:04

1:55:27 My body would not exist without the doctors and nurses who helped it come out of the womb, the soft cloth that protected it and kept it warm, the crib in which it was put to sleep, the milk from my mother's breasts, the food that she ate that transformed into the milk that nourished my body, Report an error in the passage at 1:55:27 Highlight the passage at 1:55:27

1:55:54 the nurses who checked this body while it was sleeping to make sure that it did not suffocate, the heating in the hospital that kept this body warm. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:54 Highlight the passage at 1:55:54

1:56:09 The electricity that kept the heaters burning, the electricians who did the wiring, Report an error in the passage at 1:56:09 Highlight the passage at 1:56:09

1:56:20 the colleges they went to to learn to become electricians, the teachers in those colleges. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:20 Highlight the passage at 1:56:20

1:56:31 Where is my body apart from all of these countless causes and conditions? Report an error in the passage at 1:56:31 Highlight the passage at 1:56:31

1:56:39 It cannot be found. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:39 Highlight the passage at 1:56:39

1:56:50 My body would not exist without the mountains of morality practiced in a previous life that is its main karmic cause. The morality could not have been practiced without the kindness of the gurus who showed the path to the person in the previous life, without the kindness of the Dharma friends, the books in which the Dharma was printed, the people who made the Dharma books, the person who designed the typeface, Report an error in the passage at 1:56:50 Highlight the passage at 1:56:50

1:57:25 the people who made the paper, Report an error in the passage at 1:57:25 Highlight the passage at 1:57:25

1:57:30 the people who chopped down the trees from which the paper was made, Report an error in the passage at 1:57:30 Highlight the passage at 1:57:30

1:57:37 the previous parents. The food the previous mother ate to nourish her body so that the body in her womb could grow, so that the previous person could survive, to practice morality in order to create the cause to have my body in this life. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:37 Highlight the passage at 1:57:37

1:58:01 It's clear there is no my body apart from these beginningless causes and conditions. So what is there to cling to as Report an error in the passage at 1:58:01 Highlight the passage at 1:58:01

1:58:23 we dedicate this class, this time together? To each of us being able to understand first impermanence deeply in a gut level so that it influences our lives. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:23 Highlight the passage at 1:58:23

1:58:39 And gradually, slowly, slowly to deeply understand emptiness, the nature of reality as the Buddha explained it, as the Buddha experienced it, so that we ourselves can become enlightened, so that we ourselves can help all living beings. Can Report an error in the passage at 1:58:39 Highlight the passage at 1:58:39

1:59:18 I hand this out? Report an error in the passage at 1:59:18 Highlight the passage at 1:59:18

1:59:27 So you have seven, too. So whoever is not going to be here tomorrow night, raise your hand, and then Jenna will give you tomorrow's, I mean, the homework. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:27 Highlight the passage at 1:59:27

1:59:40 Those people also get the presentation ideas, too. The other people can wait. So on the practice day, which will now be on the 24th, which I'll talk a little bit more about tomorrow night, the way that we usually design it, so people with their hands up get... Everybody else gets it tomorrow night. Are you coming tomorrow night? Okay, you're not. Okay. So in the front row too, Jenna. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:40 Highlight the passage at 1:59:40

2:00:09 So on the practice day, what we usually, or what I usually do is in the morning we'll just do some meditation together. So I'll lead, I'll pick out a few of the meditations that I feel are representative of the class as a whole. And I'll just sort of guide you in them giving you time to have breaks and stretch and stuff like that. So you don't have to sit solidly for two hours. And then we'll take time to discuss if anybody has questions or insights that they gain from that session. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:09 Highlight the passage at 2:00:09

2:00:42 We'll try to stay silent during that session. So it'll be a couple of hours of like a little mini retreat. And then we break and eat lunch together. It's a potluck lunch, and so then we'll eat lunch together. And then after lunch, we watch a little short film. That's one of the Discovering Buddhism series, and it talks. Hopefully, it'll be him or Keanu. And then what we do is people pick different presentation topics. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:42 Highlight the passage at 2:00:42

2:01:10 And so basically... What I'm looking for is just to pick something from the class that meant something to you and try to explain it to the group like we weren't there. So it's kind of just like a way for you to see if you got it, like if you understood it or like that. So less about what has been happening in the last couple classes that people talking more about their experience. I want less of their experience than actually something that was taught that meant something to you. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:10 Highlight the passage at 2:01:10

2:01:38 You can share why it was important, that's okay, but I wanted to have you explain something that was taught in the class or something you got out of the reading or out of your own meditation or something like that. So I created a list of presentation topic ideas and so those people that are not able to come tomorrow night will get that tonight and the rest of you will get it tomorrow night and we can talk more about it tomorrow night. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:38 Highlight the passage at 2:01:38

2:01:59 But the idea is like maybe five, ten minutes, like not... Big, no PowerPoint. It doesn't have to be anything huge. Nobody even has to stand up. It's just to talk a little bit. You can even read your notes. It doesn't matter. You can be like, the three sufferings are, you know. That's okay. It's just nice if everybody does it because then the people that want to do it don't feel stupid and everybody's just sitting there looking at them. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:59 Highlight the passage at 2:01:59

2:02:25 So it just kind of makes it a little bit more cooperative environment. But it doesn't have to be super scary or anything. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:25 Highlight the passage at 2:02:25

2:02:36 Same time, seven. Thanks guys for being understanding. I appreciate it. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:36 Highlight the passage at 2:02:36

2:02:54 there's no reason not to. Yeah, I'd have to say that. Saves energy, yeah. Does that make sure? Oh, yeah, yeah. So got one already? Oh, okay. Cheers. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:54 Highlight the passage at 2:02:54

2:03:08 I can just leave here. This is one you gave me. Yes. And I actually didn't have mine. I was like, oh, no, I got mine. I know. I looked over her. I was like, yeah, whatever. Thank you. that you made it too long. I'm not, I'm gonna try. Let me see, I have a six or more. I just moved over to the world. We were watching the world. We're all in love with the world. We're in Carolina. We're in love with the world. We're in love with the world. We're in Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:08 Highlight the passage at 2:03:08

2:03:43 No problem, it works three hundred and sixty-four days a year. Interesting, it takes off. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:43 Highlight the passage at 2:03:43

2:03:56 I don't know. Can I ask you a quick question? I thought I'd ask questions about the equanimity of meditation. So I'm new to this world of practice, and I'm still performing in meditation practice. And so I thought a lot about this challenging person for my own. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:56 Highlight the passage at 2:03:56