← Lobsang Chokyi

Samsara and Nirvana - How we got into this mess and how to get out! (22 April 2008)

Lobsang Chokyi · 22 April 2008 · 2 h 9 min · Tse Chen Ling via Internet Archive

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  • 17:10

    Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who was just leading the retreat that I just did for 10 days, which was billed as a lamrim retreat and ended up, as I was telling Matthew, being emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness. So his view of the lamrim was basically that things do not exist the way we think they do and repeating that. Emptiness.

  • 24:20

    The only way to cut that ignorance, the only way to cut the root of psychic existence, of saṃsāra, is with the wisdom of emptiness, is understanding it. And especially having what's called a direct perception of emptiness. So we'll talk about that in a minute, but that is a deep meditative experience. It's not an intellectual experience. And in fact, emptiness itself is non-conceptual.

  • 47:57

    Those beings who have had the direct perception of emptiness, even though when you come down from your meditative state, you still see things that's inherently existent, including this eye, including the table, including Mary, including the cats upstairs, including the center, but you no longer believe it and you never do again. Doubt is gone immediately because you have directly perceived the nature of reality exactly the way the Buddha described it. You actually have that experience and that experience doesn't have to even last that long, but it permanently shifts your mind. And then from then on, that's what's called the path of seeing.

  • 1:33:56

    Dependent arising, so we were just talking a little bit of dependent arising. The 12 lengths of dependent origination, which we just about have enough time to go through, is what's depicted, if you look at your little handy-dandy wheel of life, on the outside. They're, um...

  • 1:49:27

    You cut all of the 12 links. But the wild thing about them... Which, like I said, I don't think I got until actually preparing for this course. I was just like, wow, we just keep creating them. Every time, you know, throughout our lifetimes, we're actually creating these different 12 links. And they're all sort of shooting out and they're interconnected.

0:03 we using that microphone? Report an error

0:07 got it, I got it. Doing well. No, right here. No, I unhooked it. It's not attached. I was trying to stash it behind the cushion because otherwise if it stays attached it goes... Report an error

0:26 That be nice. Can you tell my mind is still on retreat? Report an error

0:34 I was going to take the blame. Retreat? I'm so totally forgot about it. Blimey. second. Report an error

0:39 That's right. Let's all get up and beat Mary now. That'll be our beginning exercise. Report an error

0:51 Thank you. Report an error

0:56 It's amazing how even when you have something memorized, if you are leading it, it goes right out of the head. There's something about that, just like this happens at Pooja all the time. I have so much of it in the morning memorized, but when I'm leading it, I have to read it because the minute I stop reading it, my mouth starts saying something entirely different. Report an error

1:24 Okay, Report an error

1:27 so let's just start with a short meditation. We're going to do at least one longer meditation later in the class and for time we're going to do two. So we're just going to do a meditation on the breath just to center ourselves and allow our minds and bodies to catch up and come into this room. So you can just imagine taking some nice deep breaths and bringing in Report an error

1:57 Clear, pure, white light and just dissolving everything that might keep you from not being here, I mean from being present. Report an error

2:09 So any sluggishness, any distraction, Report an error

2:16 whatever you were working on today or this week or might tomorrow, just imagine it dissolving into thin air and Report an error

2:33 instead leaving in its place just awareness, focus, alertness. Report an error

2:48 Openness. Report an error

3:04 And then just focus on your breath for a couple of rounds of ten. So either the level of your belly, the level of your chest, or the level of your nostrils. Just the in breath and the out breath. Maybe count to ten cycles and then start over and try that for a couple of rounds. And Report an error

· · ·

5:40 then we just take a moment to set our motivation for tonight's class. We Report an error

5:54 actually have this amazing situation of this human life. We've come into contact with the Buddha's teachings. We've been contemplating and doing some reading, meditation, and Report an error

6:16 now we have this opportunity to learn more and to discuss, ask questions, and to open our minds to this way that the enlightened ones saw their view of the world, how they see reality, and Report an error

6:35 how that view actually can release us from a lot of our suffering, even now, even at our level of practice. Report an error

6:46 So I motivate to use whatever insights we gain, whatever ideas come into our mind, to not just focus on our own happiness, but to widen that to be able to help others, those around us, also find happiness. Report an error

7:23 And then when you're ready, you can end your meditation and we'll start with the opening prayer by His Holiness, which is on page 8 of your prayer book. Report an error

7:54 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. Report an error

8:23 And dispel the miseries of the world. With the wish to free all beings, sorry, 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. Report an error

8:50 As long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. With a wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment, inspired by wisdom and compassion. Today in the Buddha's presence, 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

9:31 I keep having this fear that one day I'm just going to just keep chanting it and someone will have to be like Chokyi. We're on the seventh repetition. Just sort of start. Report an error

9:43 So welcome. It's been a couple of weeks and this is our last week. Just a reminder that we're going to meet Thursday night and that'll be our final class of this series. So we'll have two classes this week and then no class next Tuesday. Just a reminder. So I'm wondering if anybody has any questions about anything you've been, all the hours of deep meditation you've been doing too. Report an error

10:14 Accomplish your homework assignment. I won't call on anybody. No, but if you have any questions or about any of the reading. Report an error

10:26 The books came in finally, last but not least. So if anybody had told me that they would like a book, this is The Meaning of Life by His Holiness, which really goes into a lot of detail on how... Karma works, using the wheel of life. It's a very nice book. Report an error

11:08 If anybody would like to get it, we're going to go through the bookstore, but I pulled it from the shelves because I wanted to make sure that you guys all got first dibs before I put it on the shelves. So you can get it after class. I can't remember. I just wrote down a number, but I don't remember who had raised her hand at the beginning of the class when I asked. Report an error

11:29 I know Karen wanted a copy and Alonzo, and neither of them are here tonight. Somebody else, but maybe it was you. I can't remember. Cedric, it was you. Okay, good. Matthew, two lights all gone. Report an error

11:43 And I also brought a couple of other books that just a little FYI, if you're interested in some good books on this same subject as the class is ending, if you want to dig a little bit more into it. This one I actually just started reading because I've heard such great things about him. This is the Four Noble Truths, but Geshe Tashi Sering's version. Report an error

12:05 Geshe Tashi Sering is, I think he's in his mid to late 40s. He's a fairly youngish Geshe, Chlorampa, which is like the highest level of Geshe's, who teaches in London at Jamyang Center. And I heard he's devised his own sort of little... program of study that I've heard really great things about from the people who have done it. It's a two-year online program, but he asked people I've heard it's very demanding, but he has people write essays, you know, like instead of just like my little homework, which you probably think is quite a bit, he has people like writing essays about. Report an error

12:45 karma in their life or something you know so it's like and they have to take part in like these debates chat line debates kind of thing so I mean it's quite quite a bit I've heard that it's really kind of, you know, it's like a new and kind of invigorating kind of approach. So I thought, wow, I bet he would have a neat approach to the Four Noble Truths. Report an error

13:06 And he does. It's actually quite readable. I brought it to Mexico with me. Okay, maybe I didn't crack it as much as I could have. But it's quite good. It's very readable. And His Holiness also has a version of the Four Noble Truths, which I don't have in front of me. There's another version of the Four Noble Truths by Lobsang Gyatso, which also looks quite good and has all sorts of little charts and things. Report an error

13:31 Look at this. He's got like... How these all work together in little lines like this. So he's got a whole different kind of approach, which is useful sometimes when you're trying to figure out how it all works together. And then Geshe Sonam Rinchen has this book, you guys can look at this on the break, which is literally called How Karma Works. Report an error

13:52 And it's totally on the 12 links of dependent arising, which is what we're going to talk about tonight, which apparently we create. Every time we create a karma. And I think that one just hit me this year. Like after 12 years of study, I think it finally just hit me that we don't just create these for like really big ones or for really intentional ones or things like that. Report an error

14:21 We're like zipping these babies out all the time and they're all interconnected. So we're basically creating saṃsāra. So it's really interesting to see how it all works, actually. And he's quite readable as well. So anyway, if you guys are interested and you want to take down the names of these, I actually think they may be on your syllabus. Report an error

14:44 I may put them on your syllabus. But if you want to peek at them, you're welcome to. Report an error

14:51 And a little present for you guys too. I got you guys Andy Weber's version of the Wheel of Life. So you can have your very own little Wheel of Life. So Mary, if you want to hand these out, that would be great. Report an error

15:06 We were ordering deity cards for the Chodron Rinpoche events. And since I was already ordering it from him directly, I thought... You know, throw in 15 of the wheels of life too and we'll see if it gets here on time. And it just barely did actually, so I just got here last week. You're going to have to use, if you're my age or older, you're going to have to use a magnifying glass, but it's still, you know it's there. Report an error

15:33 You just have to hold it out a little bit. There's a lot of detail. This is based on a tonka that he's created. So we're going to talk about that tonight. Report an error

15:46 So I wanted to... One of the things, the main things I want to talk about tonight is emptiness a little bit more. We just basically got into it back, I think, in the second or third class. We began talking a little bit about it. And we're not going to be able to get into really deep, deep, deep study of emptiness in this class. Report an error

16:11 The next Tuesday night class actually is going to be on the wisdom of emptiness. Venerable Steve Carlier is actually going to teach a couple of Tuesday nights right after Chodron Rinpoche's program. So the last Tuesday of May and the first Tuesday of June, he's going to teach about karma, dependent arising and emptiness. Report an error

16:32 So it's a great lead in and then the Discovering Buddhism class will start on the same subject. So I can't remember the date. I think it might be the 10th of June is the day that the Discovering Buddhism class starts. Report an error

16:47 The Thursday night class coming up sooner, the last Thursday of May, will be on transforming problems. So it's the Lojong mind training teachings, all bodhicitta related. So we get wisdom and compassion within a single week. So emptiness. Report an error

17:10 Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who was just leading the retreat that I just did for 10 days, which was billed as a lamrim retreat and ended up, as I was telling Matthew, being emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness. Report an error

17:28 So his view of the lamrim was basically that things do not exist the way we think they do and repeating that. Emptiness. Report an error

17:38 Over and over in all different ways. And that is the simplified view of what emptiness means. Emptiness tends to get very mystical and holy and all this stuff, and it really is saying that things are empty of existing the way we think that they do. That's all it's saying. That's all emptiness really is referring to. Report an error

18:01 I think voidness misses the point in some ways because it makes it sound like it's something more than it is. It's empty of what? It's empty of inherent or absolute or concrete or permanent existence. And that's all emptiness is saying. So emptiness is approaching the nature of reality by starting with the lack, what it lacks. Report an error

18:27 We believe that things exist in solid, concrete, permanent ways, starting with ourselves, right? I am this kind of a person. You are this kind of a person. Report an error

18:39 This table will be here forever, you know, and then we're surprised when it breaks. Or, you know, I'll be here forever and we're surprised when it breaks. Report an error

18:49 Or our friends or our loved ones, you know, that we have this sort of solid view of everything that exists. And so the Buddha, from the very beginning, is saying, actually, it's never existed in that way. It's empty of existing in that way. And that's what emptiness is referring to. When we talk about dependent arising or interdependence, we're talking about things, the way things do exist. Report an error

19:15 So that's the positive. So these are two sides of the same coin. Things exist independence upon other things or things exist independence upon causes and conditions. Things exist independence upon my label of them. Things exist. Only independence on other things, only interdependently. They don't exist independently, which is the way they look. Report an error

19:46 They look like they sort of exist out there and then, you know, the world comes at me and I'm sort of the victim and oh poor me and the Buddha is trying to show that actually everything is interconnected. So when we talk about those two sides of the same coin, they themselves are actually interconnected. Report an error

20:08 So this is the nature of the reality the way the Buddha observed it once he had a direct perception of emptiness. And he said that basically all of our problems stem from this misapprehension of reality. And that including this misapprehension of ourselves actually begins with the misapprehension of ourselves. Report an error

20:34 So all of our delusions which we've spent, So much time in the last month looking at all of our various afflicted states of mind and how to work with them and so forth. They all arise in dependence upon this misunderstanding of reality, especially of ourselves and how we actually exist. Report an error

20:56 Because Lama Zopa is always saying that it's one thing to see or to perceive. Reality in this way that things exist sort of inherently, concretely, absolutely and so forth. But what we do is on top of that we then believe it and we latch on to it and we grasp at things as existing inherently. And by inherently I simply mean absolutely in this kind of solid permanent way that we tend to do, the way that we tend to see things. Report an error

21:31 So at this point this is all words and you really have to... To work with it a little bit. As one of my teachers always says, you've got to cook it a little bit. So it's that grasping onto reality in this way that is considered that ignorance. Remember what we were talking about in the middle of the Wheel of Life? The one I called the rat. Report an error

21:59 The pig should be the pig. The ignorance in that case, which I think looks awful like a rat here. Maybe it is my eyesight. But anyway, it's a pig. And I know it's a pig. But that's the ignorance that we're talking about. That's the kind of ignorance. So it's not just an unknowing. It's not like I'm ignorant of Ukrainian. It's not like I'm ignorant of... Report an error

22:26 Rocket science. It's a misknowing. It's misseeing. It's misperceiving reality as it really is. And that's the root of this whole condition that we label saṃsāra or psychic existence. And apparently we have been misperceiving things since beginningless time. It becomes like this huge... um, um, habit. If we think of anger in our mind stream as a negative mental habit or strong attachment or jealousy or any of the other mental afflictions as being mental habits that are strongly within our mind stream and we need to apply antidotes to eliminate them, ignorance is like the worst of them all. Report an error

23:21 Even though it doesn't seem like it, even though it seems like in many ways the other ones we can kind of relate to a little more, obviously. Like we know we get into trouble if we get jealous all the time or if we fall into deep depression or if we get angry all the time and scream back at our boss and so forth. Report an error

23:39 It's harder to see how ignorance is harmful to us. But this particular kind of ignorance keeps us from... seeing things as they really are. This is why wisdom is always signified as light. The lights on the altar, the candles, are actually to bring wisdom, which is why I made the point of lighting them tonight. Report an error

24:11 We really need wisdom in this class. Again, the way we described it a few classes ago, The only way to cut that ignorance, the only way to cut the root of psychic existence, of saṃsāra, is with the wisdom of emptiness, is understanding it. And especially having what's called a direct perception of emptiness. So we'll talk about that in a minute, but that is a deep meditative experience. Report an error

24:42 It's not an intellectual experience. And in fact, emptiness itself is non-conceptual. We approach it conceptually because that's the kind of people we are. That's the kind of beings we are. We understand things conceptually. But it's not a conceptual experience. In the end, each one of us will perceive it directly through deep meditative absorption. But at this point, it starts with us having the correct idea of what it is that we're looking for. Report an error

25:12 Because otherwise, we could spend a really long time looking for the wrong thing. And people do. Yogis spend years looking for the wrong thing because they didn't do enough study and contemplation first before going into deep retreat. Report an error

25:28 So using the same or similar analogy that we used a few weeks ago, according to the Buddhist point of view, there's no inherently delightful fill-in-the-blank out there. You know, chocolate cake, latte, tatli tea. Chantley tea. That's a good idea. Out there, separate from us. Our ability to see it as delightful is completely based on our good karma, if it's delightful. Report an error

26:10 And other causes and conditions. It arises in our presence. It arises in our mind due to all these various causes and conditions. It's not to say it doesn't exist. You know, there is sort of the raw data of shape and color and taste and smell. And my karma forces me, because I have a particular karma with this object, to perceive it in this certain way that... Report an error

26:38 Perceives it as delightful. Not everybody in this room would see tatli tea as delightful. Shocking, but true. Not everybody would see chocolate cake as delightful. Not everybody would see a latte as delightful. I'm not particularly up on lattes. Report an error

26:57 Sorry, it looks so delightful. I can guarantee you that the cats upstairs wouldn't like any of those three things. feel like I said. Report an error

27:06 They don't have any karma to see that is good. And the thing that they think is really delightful, I don't have any desire for. And neither is incorrect. They just simply have different karmic seeds in their minds that force them to see things in a certain way. And I have different karmic seeds, the same way that they would see a string or a ball in a certain way that I wouldn't necessarily see it in, where they would have a heck of a lot more fun with it than I ever would. Report an error

27:34 Ever would, especially when I think of Shanti. So if I find anything delightful, if I find a song really enjoyable, if I find a person really fun to be with, if I find a Dharma class interesting, if I find whatever the experience, a car nice, it's based on positive karma ripening. I have collected. I have collected karma. The karma has ripened that I have created, and that karma is due to what? Creating positive acts. Report an error

28:13 I have created positive acts, and they have then created a certain karma, and then that karma has been in my mind stream until the causes and conditions cause it to ripen. And then it ripens in the form of me enjoying this cup of tea or having... A really wonderful experience of a person or vice versa. The same thing is true if it's a negative experience. Report an error

28:40 If I can't stand coffee, for example, which is true, except for the smell, it's just a negative karma right being. There's no inherently wonderful coffee there. It's just dependent upon our karma, how we view that, how we taste it, how it tastes to us. If we have enough positive karma, Like, for example, a really, really holy being or a Buddha, we can experience bliss with everything, with every object, with every object in our world, which is the case for Buddhists. Report an error

29:17 They do have enough positive karma that every single thing that they encounter, they hear, taste, smell, touch as blissful. So they're forced by their karma to experience bliss all the time. They can't experience suffering in the same way that we do. So ultimately, understanding emptiness and ultimately really having this direct perception of emptiness is the key to all those pesky mental afflictions that we've been trying to work with. Report an error

29:53 It takes a lot of effort to have a direct perception of emptiness. It's not like we can run right out and do it because they actually say you have to be able to stay in a deep, deep meditative state for one to two hours. Report an error

30:08 And really, technically, you have to be able to do what's called calm abiding meditation, which we will talk about at the end of next week's class, I believe it is. Report an error

30:25 Yeah, so we're going to talk about that at the end of next week's class. But we can start now, and the only way to, they say that even just getting some sort of an intellectual understanding of how karma and emptiness work together and how dependent arising works within that, you know, how they all work together, puts a crack in psychic existence. Report an error

30:50 You know, it just begins to weaken it. And you can see we're going to do a meditation in just a little bit tonight, and then that one is going to also be your homework assignment. You can see how actually applying even the really simple, basic understanding of emptiness can begin to unravel this kind of craziness of our minds. Report an error

31:18 I had this experience this week, so I actually really highly recommend this particular meditation. And it takes a while. You have to get familiar with it. And you have to sort of, like with all the rest of them, you just have to give it a fair shake. You know, really try exploring it and giving yourself enough time to do it. Report an error

31:38 But it really can take... The window of the sails of the mental affliction as it's happening, which, of course, I think also helps if you've done it before. You're having a mental affliction attack, a klesha attack. So emptiness is one of those subjects. They say, actually, karma is the most difficult of all the subjects that the Buddha... Report an error

32:08 And emptiness is incredibly vast and profound, so we're only going to be able to touch on it a little bit. But this is just to give you, it's sort of like giving you the beginnings of tools to work in your garden. Yes, you could get really, really profound or really wonderful tools to work in your garden, but this will just be the... Report an error

32:28 The beginning, you know, just the spade and the shovel we're going to give you so that you have enough to start working on your mind without too much to kind of overwhelm. Report an error

32:41 So we've talked about how, I think we talked about the screaming boss. Did we talk about the screaming boss idea, you know, that one screaming boss can appear completely differently to three different people. You know, Carol can be thrilled that I'm getting screamed at because she's been tired of hearing me on the phone for hours at a time. I can be totally pissed that I'm getting screamed at. Report an error

33:03 And Dominic can be completely bored by the whole thing and just kind of, you know, have absolutely no opinion whatsoever. And we all three are in the same room with the same basic raw data coming at us. You know, I mean, it's not coming at you in that same way, but you're definitely aware of the decibels coming out of his mouth. Report an error

33:24 The shape and color of his face, the timber of his voice, you know, all of that part is still the same. It's just simple difference of how we are reacting to it. I am thinking that he's inherently horrible. You're just bored. He's neither. And you're thinking he's wonderful because he's finally giving me my due. We also have the same, if we're talking about how... Report an error

33:51 A dog might see a newspaper, for example, how I see the Sunday New York Times versus how my old dog saw the Sunday New York Times, which was basically something to tear apart and distribute throughout the entire apartment. Report an error

34:09 And who's right? Actually, neither of us are right. There's no existence. The Sunday New York Times out there, the way I perceive the Sunday New York Times, which is, you know, this kind of hallowed, wonderful, large thing that I have built up in my mind as being really, really wonderful. Report an error

34:31 That's no more incorrect or correct than Rosalita's view of the Sunday New York Times, which was something to tear apart and drag throughout the house. And for her, that was her particular karma. Actually, I think we both got the same amount of delight from the Sunday New York Times. So this is also true for this I, this so-called I, this I that experiences the affliction of anger at the boss or boredom with the boss or... Report an error

35:11 Maliciousness with the boss or jealousy about a situation or attachment towards something, that sort of really longing or grasping desire for something, obsessive desire for something. That I that we try so desperately to please all the time is Also not inherently existent in the way that we give it so much control and power in our lives. And if we can even cut a chink into that, even the tiniest, let a little air out of that guy, that's when you start getting a little bit of space. Report an error

35:57 Because that I can kind of arise as being so all fired, important all the time. And it's hard to tell the difference between... That I that gets us into trouble and the valid, what's the so-called valid I, because there is a validly existent I, you know, that's this sort of temporary alliance between our body and mind. Report an error

36:21 It includes our identity of this life and so forth. And this I that arises when you accuse me of stealing something. You know, that I that arises. And you can really see it in those cases, those big cases. The reality is, is that we serve it all the time. We serve this sort of self-existent, important I. And we also tend to see that I as permanent. Report an error

36:48 It's this sort of soul, which the Buddha said is not the way we exist. It's not the way we've ever existed. We have a subtle, very, very subtle mind, which is almost energy-like, that goes from life to life. But not this I that arises. So you have to try to find this I, and that's what this particular meditation is going to be. It's just trying to find this I, and then trying to see when you can't find it, that actually it's never been there. Report an error

37:23 So there is this temporary alliance that comes. That begins with our conception and then our body and mind come together and then our mind labels it I and then we begin to see it as I. So it's actually created by our mind, not consciously but subconsciously. This I is created and all the elements of this I are created and then we just believe it. Report an error

37:57 We never analyze it, we never question it, just like we never question that things aren't, you know, even though we know psychologically, we know intellectually that things don't exist permanently or concretely or absolutely, we still get shocked when anything happens, when things break, when things get torn, when things get stolen and when people... Report an error

38:20 ill or people die we still get shocked by that so that showing that there's this level of us still believing that everything exists When we ourselves get injured or ill, I know personally it's shocking. It's sort of like, you know, how could I have cut myself? How could I have injured myself so severely? And actually the reality is that None of us will last forever. And so it's sort of just another opportunity for us to examine that situation. And it's an opportunity to look for that I. Report an error

38:59 How could I have gotten injured? How could I be late? So this I, this I gets us into trouble. I don't like to call this I-ego because I think ego has a meaning in Western psychology that we're not really entirely talking about, but I think loosely speaking or generally speaking you could call this I-ego. Report an error

39:28 It's sort of this identification with this sort of... I sort of imagine it when I examine the way it feels, especially when you get defensive about something or you get really terrified. Or if you've ever had the situation where you almost get hit by a car or something like that, it seems to flare up almost. Report an error

39:50 It feels larger than your body and mind. It feels like there's something outside of your body and mind that owns your body and mind. Like we say things like, my body. My mind, you know, my feelings. So we have this idea that there's sort of this lord over the whole thing. And the Buddha is saying, no, it's all concept. Like we don't exist that way at all. Report an error

40:23 So this is a root misperception that gets us into trouble. And the Buddha said it's actually the source of all of our suffering. So it's very, very important to take a look at. Report an error

40:35 And they say that it's sort of like this idea, this mind or this ego wanting some sort of security and immortality invents this. It's like we invent this independent, permanent self, inherently existent self, not... Consciously, not outwardly, but just deep, deep, deep within our subconscious. And since we never question it from life to life, we are born with it again and it takes off again the minute we get another body. Report an error

41:13 Animals have it as well. So it's not just something that humans have. And the Buddha actually teaches that all of the beings in the six realms continue to have this sense of I. And they say that it's actually, it's certainly the most harmful of all of our mental, you know, harmful mental habits. And it's actually the last to go. It's actually the final, most subtle obscuration that we have to eliminate in order to become enlightened. Report an error

41:47 We can actually have a direct perception of emptiness. We can actually remove one by one all of our mental afflictions. Slowly over many lifetimes. And this is like the last one to go. This subtle belief in the self-existent I is actually the last one to go. Report an error

42:09 So if you've had moments where you have been, I think actually when you're under a lot of stress, you also can see that I. It's moments when you have either a lot of anger or self-importance, fear. Report an error

42:27 If you're under threat, you know, I think defensive is like when it rears its ugly head the worst, but that might be just me. But those moments are really useful for when you're trying to find it in meditation. Because when you're sitting there in meditation, you don't see it at all. And you're like, no, I, okay, you know. And you can actually think that. Report an error

42:50 You've discovered something, but you haven't. Because it's more useful to try to find it and to poke holes in it, basically, analytically, logically, than it is to just not see it and kind of go, okay, it's not there, you know, all right, I don't believe what the Buddha said, you know. That's not what the Buddha is asking us to do. He's actually asking us to poke holes in our own enormous eye. Report an error

43:19 Which is huge because we've been serving this thing for lifetime after lifetime after lifetime and it doesn't even exist. And it's sort of like the Emperor's New Clothes. It's like him pointing out that it's kind of like, really? Report an error

43:37 And he's not saying that we don't exist. He's not saying that your mind doesn't exist. He's not saying that you aren't sitting there meditating. He's not saying that we aren't sitting here in class, but he's saying that this I doesn't exist the way we believe it without even our question in our mind. Report an error

44:00 It doesn't exist the way we think it does, and that it never has. So it's like he's pointing out that it doesn't exist. Or the emperor's new clothing. But he's also pointing out that actually the emperor never wore any clothing at all. And yet we've been serving the emperor for a really long time. In fact, the emperor itself doesn't exist. So basically it's just sort of raising a huge question mark. Report an error

44:30 And the next time that you get really upset is a good time to try to apply this information. And that's what I did this week, actually. I had a situation where, um, uh... That I arose very strongly and was very wounded. And I actually remembered to apply this because of Chris Rinpoche had repeated it non-stop for 10 days. Report an error

44:58 That was all he talked about was this I and that it didn't exist this way and all these different ways he approached it. And I finally remembered to look at it and it released so much pain. It was amazing actually. And I've been doing this meditation for a long time and I've never had quite that same release. Report an error

45:21 And I don't know that I've ever tried it when I was in the pain. And I think that's the difference. So actually in your homework assignment, we're going to do this meditation together now and then your homework assignment is to do it when you're not upset. And then to try it when you are and see if there's any release. Report an error

45:42 And maybe there won't be. You know, for me, honestly, it's taken 12 years. I mean, I remember having experiences of it before. In this particular retreat, I actually finally had this experience that almost like a... They often describe when you're doing this... meditation and you're looking for the eye and you realize that it doesn't exist in the way you always So it took me a really long time to have that experience of a lot of meditation on this eye. Report an error

46:27 So it won't happen necessarily for everybody right away. I have known people that it's happened right away for. But it really can poke a hole in that I who is the one who has all the suffering. That I is the one who's so upset. And if we can poke a hole in that I and realize that that I doesn't even exist the way we think it does, it can actually release. Report an error

46:56 us from suffering even now to even a tiny degree. It's very amazing. So it's actually a very, very powerful tool to have in your toolbox. Report an error

47:07 The direct perception of emptiness goes beyond this. What we start doing is trying to figure out the object. I'm not even going to get into that, but we actually try to figure out What our object of meditation is in terms of this deep meditation that we do, we actually have to get into this deep meditative state repeatedly over and over and over again. Report an error

47:38 But the direct perception of emptiness itself, they say, only lasts about 20 minutes. It doesn't last that long. But from then on, forever. You are permanently on a different side of the divide between ordinary beings and what are called Arya beings. Those beings who have had the direct perception of emptiness, even though when you come down from your meditative state, you still see things that's inherently existent, including this eye, including the table, including Mary, including the cats upstairs, including the center, but you no longer believe it and you never do again. Report an error

48:19 Doubt is gone immediately because you have directly perceived the nature of reality exactly the way the Buddha described it. You actually have that experience and that experience doesn't have to even last that long, but it permanently shifts your mind. And then from then on, that's what's called the path of seeing. Report an error

48:39 From then on, the next whole path is just removing, using that experience of emptiness that you now... Completely believe. Because right now it's all just gobbledygook. I'm just blah, blah, blaying. But at that point, from then on, it's like the difference between me describing how to use a hammer and you holding a hammer in your hand and hitting something and going, oh, okay. Report an error

49:01 Or they say it's like describing the taste of sugar and then you tasting it. It's completely different, right? Because I'm still talking about it in a conceptual way. And at that moment you have this completely... Non-conceptual experience of reality as it is. And from then on, you just are able to apply that. Every time you have an affliction, you're able to just pull out the AK-47 of emptiness and shoot it down. Report an error

49:30 Like you no longer believe in all the stories that our mind is constantly creating, which is really all mental afflictions are. It's just... These are incredibly creative stories that our mind just runs with because we don't stop it. We don't stop it and look at it. So this meditation is a start. Report an error

49:54 So we're going to actually just start right now. We're going to do this meditation on the eye. And this will be your homework assignment as well. And then you guys can take a break and mull about your eye and whether or not it exists in any way the way you think. Report an error

50:12 And try to stay alert. Sleeping through this meditation isn't quite as useful as... What is it that... When Ninjay was here, she did this thing. Yeah, tapping the face. So maybe try that. I also had a friend who taught me that, you know, the occipital ridge, those two points on either side of the back of your neck, really rubbing them like that is really good to stay alert. Report an error

50:40 Rinpoche has this tendency, Lama Tsongkhapa Rinpoche has this tendency to teach for many, many, many, many hours at a stretch and then to start again. At one point we were doing a Medicine Buddha empowerment and we went until 1 a.m. and then he said, okay, we should take a break. And we were all like, and then he said, everyone come back at 5 a.m. and we'll finish it before sunrise. Report an error

51:09 So you sort of learn to figure out ways to stay awake. So this one works, I think. And then this, you know, I can't hit my mic, but you know what I mean, like that. Report an error

51:24 Staying as upright as you can works. And if you need to review the posture, you want to just really get in the best posture for alertness that you can. So if you're in a chair, pull away from the back. Have your feet firmly on the floor. Report an error

51:42 If you're on a cushion, really try to bring your spine into alignment. Report an error

51:55 And I find also really trying to find your sits bone and to try to sit forward a little bit on your sits bone also helps. And if you can, meditate with your eyes open. That really also makes a difference. It helps with your concentration. So just start with a few rounds of your breathing. -ness. Alignment. Report an error

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52:21 Just observing it coming into and going out of your body. Report an error

52:52 And then with as much alertness as you can muster, they say with the alertness of a spy, Report an error

53:03 slowly and carefully become aware of this eye. Report an error

53:14 It's really good if you have had an experience recently where you were put on the defense. Somebody, you know, disrespected, I started to say dissed. Somebody dissed your work, somebody dissed your contribution. Report an error

53:39 Are you accused of something? Are you really afraid? Report an error

53:54 If you can't, just start thinking who or what is thinking right now? Who or what is meditating? Who or what is feeling? And Report an error

54:13 how does this I seem to come into existence? Report an error

54:21 How does it appear to you? Report an error

54:32 Does it feel like this I is some sort of creation of your mind? Report an error

54:43 Or does it feel like it exists independently in its own right? Report an error

55:01 If you have enough sense of it to identify it, try to find where it might be. Where Report an error

55:12 is this I? Report an error

55:19 Where does it feel like? Is it in your body? Is it inside of you? In your head? Report an error

55:34 Is it in your heart? Report an error

55:41 Your stomach? Report an error

55:51 Think about all the parts of your body and where it might be. Report an error

55:59 Is it in your eyes? Is that the way it feels? Report an error

56:14 It might be really small and subtle. Think Report an error

56:25 about the cells or the organs or the particles that make up the cells. Report an error

57:01 After thinking about your body for a little while, ask yourself again how your eye manifests, how it appears to exist to you. Report an error

57:20 Does it still seem as vivid and concrete? Report an error

57:28 Is your body itself the eye? Report an error

57:47 Maybe your mind is the I. Report an error

57:54 The mind is this ever-changing stream of thoughts and feelings and other mental experiences. Report an error

58:09 Starting, abiding, stopping. Report an error

58:15 Which one of these is the I? Report an error

58:26 Which of these kinds of thoughts is the basis for the I? Is it the good thoughts only, like love, compassion? Report an error

58:40 Is it the hateful, angry, Report an error

58:46 confused thoughts? Report an error

58:55 Is it your meditating mind? Report an error

59:00 Your analytical mind? Your conceptual mind? Your dreaming mind? Can Report an error

59:20 you find your I within your mind? Report an error

59:35 Think about this one for a few moments. Many of us think of the I and the mind as being the same. Report an error

59:46 But if the mind is nothing but a stream of thoughts, where Report an error

59:54 is this I? Report an error

1:00:15 Is there any other place you could look for this I? Report an error

1:00:23 Could it exist outside of your body in some way? Outside of your mind, Report an error

1:00:36 what does it feel like when it arises? Report an error

1:00:54 Look again for this eye, the way it actually appears to you, the way it feels. Do you notice any difference? Does it feel any difference? Report an error

1:01:11 Does it feel as solid and real as it did before? Report an error

1:01:24 Does it still appear to exist independently, in and of itself? Report an error

1:01:44 Imagine disintegrating your body. Imagine all the atoms separating and floating apart. Billions and billions of minute particles scattering through space. Imagine that you could actually see this and Report an error

1:02:14 then disintegrate your mind, letting every one of your thoughts and feelings, sensations, perceptions, ideas disintegrate and float away and Report an error

1:02:34 just stay in this experience of space for a moment without being distracted by thoughts. When Report an error

1:02:54 the feeling of an independent I arises again, Analyze it again. Report an error

1:03:02 Where is it? Is it in the body? Is it in the mind? How does it exist? Where does it exist? Report an error

1:03:26 Don't make the mistake of thinking that I don't exist. Just because your body isn't the I and your mind isn't the I, it doesn't mean that you don't exist. Report an error

1:03:39 You just don't exist the way you instinctively feel like you exist, independent and inherent. Report an error

1:03:52 Your self exists in dependence upon your body and mind and Report an error

1:04:00 this combination is the basis to which we ascribe this I, this self and label it Chokyi, Carol, Mary, Cedric. Report an error

1:04:22 Whatever exists is necessarily dependent upon causes and conditions or parts and names for its existence. Report an error

1:04:36 This is how things exist conventionally. Report an error

1:04:43 And understanding interdependence is the principal cause for understanding a thing's ultimate nature, its emptiness. Report an error

1:05:00 The conventional nature of something is its dependence upon causes and conditions and its ultimate nature is its emptiness of inherent independent existence. Report an error

1:05:19 Think about how your body exists conventionally, independence upon your skin and your blood, your bones. Your legs, your arms, your organs and in turn each of these exists independence upon their parts, cells, atoms, subatomic particles. Report an error

1:05:51 Your body doesn't exist except independence upon those things. Think about how your mind exists independence on its parts, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, sensations. Report an error

1:06:13 And each of these exists only independent upon the previous moment of each thought, each feeling, each sensation. And Report an error

1:06:34 go back to this feeling of I or self. And think about how you exist conventionally. Report an error

1:06:46 Independence upon your mind and body and name. Report an error

1:06:55 These are the parts of yourself. Report an error

1:07:04 When your body feels hunger or cold, you think, I'm hungry, I'm cold. Report an error

1:07:15 When your mind has an idea about something, you say, I think. Report an error

1:07:22 When you feel love for someone, you say, I love you. Report an error

1:07:29 When you introduce yourself, you say, I am so and so. Report an error

1:07:38 Apart from this sense of I that depends upon this ever-flowing, ever-changing stream of your body and mind, is there an I that is solid, unchanging, independent? Report an error

1:07:59 The mere absence of such an inherently existent I is the emptiness of the self. Report an error

1:08:22 The method that you use is to gently seek out that I and once you've found it, you bombard it with all the reasons that it can't possibly exist the way you think it does. Report an error

1:08:37 This truly existent I was never really there to begin with. It never could exist the way it feels like it exists. And when we actually experience the realization that it doesn't exist, that I don't exist in that same way that I think I do, it actually is a feeling of bliss. Report an error

1:09:05 It's a release, Report an error

1:09:09 a letting go. Report an error

1:09:19 The real I is changing moment by moment, light and spacious and fluid, but Report an error

1:09:31 our mind tries to fix it as solid, concrete and unchanging. Report an error

1:09:40 If our mind is so spacious and light and changing, there's no reason for following doubt and jealousy, fear, anger, attachment. Report an error

1:09:58 This I is completely changeable from moment to moment to moment. Report an error

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1:10:40 And as you're ready, you can end your meditation and open your eyes. Report an error

1:11:05 Does anybody have any questions about that experience? Who's done this meditation or something like it before? Report an error

1:11:16 And have you done it several times? Have you done it more than once? Oh, microphone, sorry. Could you hand in the mic, Carol? That's right. Report an error

1:11:36 When I was younger in Los Angeles, there was a Theravatan Vihara, and this is a teaching that they oftentimes do. examining you know I think when I was younger I didn't have any clue what they were talking about, looking for the eye. Obviously the eye has no organ. Well, although we do think it's the brain sometimes. Report an error

1:12:00 So you kind of get what Buddha's talking about, but I think when you get older you start to see the validity of that more and more on deeper levels. Or the way I see it is... You know? No. Report an error

1:12:13 The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind create a specialized consciousness and then it gets stuck thinking that that's the object that's solid and real. But you just kind of go back to that it's just a specialized consciousness. It's like a habitual rehearsed sense of self. Report an error

1:12:36 Have you ever tried doing it when you're really upset? Yeah, but it doesn't always work. The upset's more real than the sense of eye for sure. Seems, yeah. Anybody else? Has anybody else ever tried it? Has anybody else happened? A question about how to do it? Because this will be your homework this week. Just play with it. Sometimes you can have a feeling of fear that arises. Report an error

1:13:13 And that's that feeling of sort of the ground dropping out. And they actually say that's a really good sign because it actually means that you've got the right eye. Report an error

1:13:23 That's a hard one. I know Karen has brought it up several times that she can't figure out which eye is the valid eye. It just takes over and over and over meditating on it and trying to see it. But there is a story of when Lama Tsongkhapa was teaching this meditation to his disciples and he had this one disciple who grabbed his shirt while he was meditating because he felt like he was losing himself. Report an error

1:13:51 So it's a sense of everything I know to be true, which is this package here, suddenly not being there. And so they actually say that's a really good experience, although it's a bit unnerving. Report an error

1:14:08 But the blissful part comes in getting, if you can get to that stage of then the ramifications of that experience. Because then there's... That I that is experiencing all these negative emotions that we've just spent so many weeks trying to figure out how to work with and they've brought us so much suffering just in this life. Report an error

1:14:33 And the Buddha says actually lifetimes after lifetime we've been struggling with losing our temper and feeling depressed and getting lonely and feeling jealous and feeling left out and feeling, you know... All those negative states of mind that we just go through over and over and over again, they actually have no platform because the platform is the self that we have simply created. Report an error

1:14:58 It's just another story. And if we can get that, then none of those negative emotions have any legs to stand on, literally. You know, which is enormous. Getting that is not so simple. but still those basic Baby insights add up. So even just getting a taste of it and a longer taste and a longer taste, that's really what the work is. Report an error

1:15:29 That's what the practice is, is just trying to get those insights. And once you taste it once, trying to get it again, trying to taste it again. Venmo Rinne actually led some of the sessions at the retreat in Mexico, and he... Defined in a way that I don't think I've ever heard anyone else define, the difference between insights and realizations. And he was talking about, you know when you're in an experience like you're being led, in a meditative meditation like I was just doing with you, or you're hopefully with somebody better like Lama Zopa Rinpoche or Geshe-la or something, where they're leading you and you have a certain experience because of their... Report an error

1:16:16 mastery of the subject. And so you have an experience. So that's an insight. And so you go home and then you try to cultivate that same experience. Report an error

1:16:28 But you can't make it last yet. It falls away. Like I said, the minute you have this great experience in meditation, then you go outside and you scream at the cab driver or something. We can't carry it for that long. But the point is to keep trying to... Report an error

1:16:46 Cultivate that until we can actually generate it on our mind, I mean in our mind stream, without any effort. And that's the realization. And the more you do it, it's just like practicing the piano or something, the more that you cultivate it, the easier it is to arise, whether it's an experience of compassion or whether it's an experience of emptiness, whatever the experience is, that you can cultivate it on your own without. Report an error

1:17:12 All the notes, without all my homework sheets of paper, the thousands of sheets of paper that I've probably given you guys, without all the books. Report an error

1:17:24 We approach it right now conceptually, but ultimately we're able to generate these realizations within our mind stream without effort and spontaneously. Report an error

1:17:35 Just the minute I say, have you tried meditating on emptiness, Cedric? You'll have the experience. And that's the realization. And I had never heard anyone quite describe it that way, and I thought, oh, okay. I sort of was thinking insights were little blips and realization was irreversible, but I kind of had missed all the steps in between, I think. Report an error

1:17:58 So, anyway. Why don't you guys take a break and look at the conventional reality of the cafe or something? Oh, yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Report an error

1:18:12 There's an analogy that's kind of working for me, and I don't know if it's... Really helpful. It has to do with motion pictures, you know, movies, which are whatever many frames per second and we turn them into something solid. So it's kind of like if I think of me and my life and what I'm looking for as it looks solid, but if I start breaking it down, it's just a series of images. Report an error

1:18:35 Yeah. No, movie's a really, really good analogy, I think. Yeah. And in fact, I've often heard it that way. And the interesting thing is, if you think about how karma relates to all of that, we've created the karma for the film that we're watching right now. So we can't change the ending. But by how we react to what's happening, we can change the next film that's being created right now. Report an error

1:19:01 Because we're creating the next film right now. It's kind of like that. So I am a filmmaker after all. Yeah. Yep. Exactly. Yeah, we're constantly creating the next film. Although, actually, we're creating many, many films. That's what we're going to come back to, is actually talking about the Twelve Links. Report an error

1:19:22 And those are all those little films that we're creating all the time, no matter what the situation is, like whether mentally. Physically, verbally, we're creating all these little tiny films that are flipping out. And then emptiness slices through all of them. It's the ultimate antidote. Report an error

1:19:43 So take a break, stretch your legs, breathe, have a cookie. Find comfort and think about how it doesn't exist inherently from its own side in that comfortable way we once thought. Report an error

1:20:10 Oh yeah, yeah. So actually that goes through the bookstore. So what we're going to do is, so just take it in there and she won't have any idea that you didn't just pull it off the shelf. I actually just paid for them all to make sure that we got them and then I saw that they came in while I was gone and they, I mean they put them on the shelf and I was like ripping them down in the middle of the night. Report an error

1:20:29 So yeah, go ahead and you can just buy them and then I'll submit my reimbursement thing to the bookstore. It works that way. Report an error

1:20:38 They don't. I actually got it from Amazon, but if you, yeah, I think probably let's just go with Amazon for that one. It was pretty inexpensive, though. I mean, it's probably, it's about the same as that book, but on Amazon sometimes you can find it for cheaper, which is what I did. Yeah, I found it quite good. I know, it's terrible, isn't it? Ultimately, I think we will start having more books in stock in the bookstore, but we're limping through right now. Report an error

1:21:13 How are you going to turn down the meaning of life? Report an error

1:21:19 That is the reincarnation of Lama Yeshe. Yeah, he's Spanish. He's actually much older now. He's like 21, but I haven't seen a recent photograph of him. This is when he was quite younger. Yeah, he was born into the family of two of his students. Report an error

1:21:41 Yes, exactly. Report an error

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1:22:14 Great Gopatatli sitting here. Report an error

1:22:20 Oh. I've got some. do that. Report an error

1:22:51 ago, I was buying all the books that W. Lama had written. And then he just kept putting them out. I know, I know. It's like, so now I just buy them if it's like on a subject that I'm working with at that time or something like that. Yeah. I know. Or so many unread. Report an error

1:23:21 Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, yeah, the different Dalai Lamas. Yeah, yeah. And so that was kind of nice, and then all of a sudden it just, Report an error

1:23:33 but it was funny for a while, it was kind of like he was like, you know, a hot star. Right, like, what's his name, Grisham or something, yeah. Yeah, when's his latest thing coming out? I know because he speaks so much, and then they're quite easily transcribed into a book. So, yeah, it's, I mean, and so much of it, of course, are sort of... Report an error

1:23:59 Only slightly above a public talk, and so they're quite accessible too, so it's not okay. Report an error

1:24:12 So he has different levels. Totally does. He totally does. No, I mean, it just goes straight over my head. But then sometimes he's just so clear. I still think that one book on death and the mind of clear light, I just think it's such a clear. direct. Well, this one's like that too. It's just very clear, direct, um, and understandable, but sometimes, yeah, they can be a little, to me, they can feel too academic or I, it's too academic for my mind. Report an error

1:24:41 They are not inherently academic, but for my mind. Report an error

1:24:54 except for that. Report an error

1:24:59 Although he didn't, he used to. Report an error

1:25:12 Yeah, but even the Dalai Lama isn't inherently existent because definitely there are people who see him as kind of either a pain in the butt or worse, you know. Report an error

1:25:28 This is what he says, yeah. I know, what does he see when he looks in the mirror? I used to have one teacher who said that, you know. It's sort of like, does he look in the mirror and see Chenrezig or does he just see a regular monk or does he, you know. Report an error

1:25:42 He'd never let on, you know. It wouldn't be very skillful for him at this point to say something else. Beyond. It's actually the most skillful thing he could do would be to be incredibly humble. And so he does that well. Report an error

1:26:06 It's a weird way of saying it because Buddhists don't even believe in God. It's just an odd thing. I know. They call him like the God King and all that stuff. And it's like, oh, is it raining? Oh, it's really raining. Wow. I totally wasn't aware of that. I love rain. It's kind of nice in May or April or whatever we're in. It's like the wrong month or something for it. Yeah, it's very odd, that idea, like the God-King thing, you know. Report an error

1:26:34 I don't know where that one's from. It sounds very archaic, like somebody from, you know, the British in the early 1900s or something said it, and it just stuck. Because nobody really, I mean, a lot of people, if you're not Buddhist, you don't really understand all these different... Things are just manifestations of enlightened mind. It's not like, you know. Report an error

1:27:05 Yeah, and also in Nepal, you've got people who are raised with, really consider themselves both simultaneously Hindu and Buddhist. And I'm always like, really? Report an error

1:27:15 Aren't those rather different approaches to life? I've had cab drivers who have said that. I'm both Hindu and, you know. Report an error

1:27:27 Right, right, right, Report an error

1:27:35 right, right, right. Report an error

1:27:41 It's sort of like me thinking that Christ is a Buddha or a Bodhisattva. It makes sense. Although Geshe-la would say, he could be, but that doesn't mean that he is. And then you're like... Report an error

1:28:03 Yeah, Report an error

1:28:11 I mean, just what I know about Christ and his teachings, I just think he was pretty darned amazing, and so I don't have any problem with that fact. But of course, you know, Tibetans could actually see... Are you asking me something? Report an error

1:28:23 No, I've got plenty of things. See, I've got like a water bottle here tonight. No, I'm still working on this telly, I think. Report an error

1:28:33 But when you think about the amount of compassion that he had in him and what he was willing to do for the benefit of others and that he wasn't necessarily about just making people feel good, it sort of looks bodhisattva-ish to me. But of course, how will we know, I guess, until we're enlightened? Then we'll be sitting around going, remember that conversation that we were having? There he is! Report an error

1:29:05 Darned his thing. Report an error

1:29:09 I guess he'll be there and he'll be like laughing. Report an error

1:29:17 So we actually just touched on how you begin to use this kind of stuff in your everyday life. And one of them is how you react to the stuff that comes your way, which is, All stuff that you've already created the karma for. So the movie that you created in your last life is showing now. So how do you respond to it? When the boss comes in and starts screaming at you, do you yell back, which is your normal response. Report an error

1:29:48 And the idea is to start bringing just one tiny blip of wisdom into that situation so that you don't automatically follow. The mind that we've been habitually following from lifetime to lifetime so that we actually just even for a second stop ourselves from following that mind. Even if we, you know, I mean, even though instantly you can't suddenly change the kind of person that you are and you can't suddenly take this intellectual at this point knowledge and have it be a gut experience. Report an error

1:30:27 If the meter maid comes up and starts screaming at you for where you're parked, it really is difficult for you to go, hey, this is what Chokyi was just talking about last night. I think I'm going to respond in a really patient and kind and loving way because I want to change my movie for the next life so I don't have any nasty meter maids in my life next life. Report an error

1:30:49 It's not going to happen like that. It just won't happen that quickly for us to shift it. But I did have one, the same teacher actually, Venmo Renee actually said, every time you act out of ignorance, you create the causes to stay in saṃsāra that much longer. Every time you act out of wisdom or every time you shift the way that you habitually act, you weaken the bonds of saṃsāra. Report an error

1:31:19 So if you can even just once say, I'm not going to get angry. It's like even just once to recognize it or even for a minute. One of my teachers used to say, you know, with the screaming boss analogy, even just remembering it in the bathroom 10 minutes later, this is what she was talking about last night, you know, and so you're not holding on to the anger. Report an error

1:31:44 It cuts that, you know, or maybe three days later. Then it gets to the point where it's in the bathroom 10 minutes later or that night and then it gets, you know. So you're shortening the amount of time that you can remember it. Because every time you can actually remember, oh, this is my karma. This is my karma happening. Report an error

1:32:06 My karma's ripening. I'm getting a negative experience. And just suspending belief for half a second can cut it just a little bit. And that's all we're shooting for at this point. We're not expecting anyone to come out of this class and to be a total saint and to be like, you know. know, um, Report an error

1:32:27 But to just gain that understanding of how it all works together and to shift your perspective. Report an error

1:32:39 I think it was Vena Rubino who actually calls it, she calls it like a paradigm. You actually have, after enough analysis and enough contemplation and enough meditation, you actually have a paradigm shift. how you view reality. That's the direct perception of emptiness. And it takes a lot of study and thinking and, you know, as you're walking to work, thinking as situations arise, sitting down on the cushion that night and looking at it, you know, really becoming like when Venerable Steve was here before and he talked about emptiness, he was just like this, this is like the kind of thing that, Monks do for 30 years, you know. You just look at something for a while and you're thinking about it. How is it empty of inherent existence? Report an error

1:33:34 You're just constantly thinking this stuff through. It's like these conceptual ideas that you've got to digest to the point where it becomes non-conceptual. And so all of that just takes time and practice and contemplation. Report an error

1:33:56 Dependent arising, so we were just talking a little bit of dependent arising. Report an error

1:34:06 The 12 lengths of dependent origination, which we just about have enough time to go through, is what's depicted, if you look at your little handy-dandy wheel of life, on the outside. They're, um... Report an error

1:34:21 On the very outer rim are these 12 links, and they start with ignorance, which is in the upper right hand, right off his left fang. Report an error

1:34:35 It's depicted by a blind man. This is the ignorance we've just been talking about. In this context, ignorance is talking about this mistaken view of reality, or even more precisely, How we grasp onto things is truly existent. This is that ignorance. This is the root cause of all of our suffering. Even more specifically, grasping onto a self-existent I, me. Report an error

1:35:09 This is the root cause of saṃsāra. And they symbolize it by a blind man because his sight is obscured. you know. Report an error

1:35:20 from seeing the true nature of reality. And he's holding this little walking stick show that ignorance is necessarily feeble. It doesn't have any foundation in valid cognition. And so that's why it's like this blind man with this walking stick. Report an error

1:35:45 Based on this ignorance, the second limb is that we create And specifically in this case, the second link is throwing karma. We talked a little bit about karma. We talked about one of the karmas that causes the next rebirth is the throwing karma, the karma that we generate at the time of death. And that carries, they actually sometimes call it compositional action or causal karma. Report an error

1:36:17 And it's capable of throwing our next rebirth. It's a complete karma, so it has all those four aspects that we talked about, or those four factors of object, intention, act and completion. We talked about those different aspects, so it's a complete karma. Throwing karma can only be a complete karma. So the more complete our positive karmas can be, the more possible it is for that to become a throwing karma to our next slide. Report an error

1:36:49 like, um... So in this case, in the context of the 12 links, it's actually referring to one specific complete action motivated by a specific moment of ignorance, which is the first link, that acts to establish a potential on the consciousness that will throw the consciousness of that continuum into a future rebirth, independence upon whether that karma is positive, negative or neutral. Report an error

1:37:21 And they symbolize it in that drawing with a potter shaping, you know, wheels on the potter's wheel. Report an error

1:37:39 So in that case, the clay, the ignorance is molded by the karma of the potter, you know, the beginning, the process of beginning about, bringing about those new effects. And also, just like the potter's wheel continues to turn without any effort, for those of you that have ever thrown. Report an error

1:38:01 I have and it is. It's true. It does keep kind of moving on its own. Karma establishes this potential that just keeps going until it brings its effect. Like it can't be stopped except through purification. This is all talking about unpurified karma. So this is just the karmas that we create all the time. Report an error

1:38:21 So the next, the third limb is based on this karma. Consciousness arises in the form of this new being. It's represented by a monkey who's running around sort of, you know, going from tree to tree. And the monkey is, for those of us, who here has actually seen monkeys running around in the wild? Report an error

1:38:46 They're crazy, totally wild. Yeah, and just constantly moving. I mean, that whole thought of monkey mind. It's much more understandable after you see them. So it definitely is constantly moving and seeking other things all the time. So this is consciousness. And consciousness in the Twelve Links in this particular context is talking about a specific instance of consciousness, the consciousness that has just been imprinted with that karmic imprint. Report an error

1:39:22 It's called the causal consciousness. And that karmic potential for a future rebirth state is placed on that continuum. And then it's carried forward on that continuum. The third one is called name and form. So the new being takes on name and form. And this link of name and form occurs only at the moment of conception and prior to the development of the sixth sense organs. Report an error

1:39:54 Form is referring to the embryo. At this specific point right before the development of the sixth sense organs. And name is referring to the other four aggregates, so those of mind. So it's really talking about mind and body, those things that we think of as eye. Name and form is symbolized by four people in a boat. Report an error

1:40:20 The boat is the form, and the four people are the aggregates. Who can remember the four aggregates of mind? Feeling, discrimination, compositional factors and consciousness are the four aggregates of mind. For our purpose it's enough to just think it's mind and body. Report an error

1:40:45 So then the next thing to arise are these sixth sense sources. They actually call them sources because they're the sources from which the sixth sense consciousness arise. Eye, ear, nose, taste, touch, body and mental. Report an error

1:41:02 and once Once the being is reborn in the womb, they have body and mind organs, sense organs from that moment of conception. Report an error

1:41:20 This is according to the Buddhist thought. Report an error

1:41:25 But they're unable to function Report an error

1:41:30 until they make contact. They do not function at this point. So this is depicted by an empty house with five windows. Representing the five sense consciousnesses and implying the six. It's empty because it's waiting for the associated consciousness to arise in the six sense sources. Report an error

1:41:55 Once the mind makes contact with an object at the sixth length, that's contact. So in the fifth length, the object and the sense organs and the consciousness are established, but they don't. They aren't yet connected. The object isn't yet experienced. Contact is when it's actually a mental factor. It brings together the three elements so that an object can be experienced. It has the function of distinguishing an object as attractive, unattractive or neutral. Report an error

1:42:40 And it refers to those moments where object, sense power and consciousness come together. The thing that follows this is feeling. Feeling arises from contact. Without contact, you can't have feeling. So it's depicted by a couple embracing. Report an error

1:43:03 The seventh link is the feelings that arise from this contact. Report an error

1:43:13 So the link of feeling is generated when on the basis of contact, one of three feelings arise. eyes happiness or pleasure unhappiness or um um What do you call it? Lack of pleasure. Displeasure or indifference. And feeling is also a mental factor. And it reacts. It's when the mind reacts to a sense object which contact has distinguished as being either attractive, unattractive or neutral. Report an error

1:43:46 So it's on the basis of that discrimination that feelings arise. So as a result of this, then our mind becomes happy or unhappy or indifferent. Report an error

1:44:04 The dependent link of feeling refers not only to the moment following contact, but also to feelings experienced throughout life which serve as the basis of the next link, craving. Report an error

1:44:15 So feeling is represented by a man whose eye has been pierced by an arrow. Report an error

1:44:25 Feelings cause craving. Because we don't start craving something until we think it's... Both attractive and that it brings us happiness. That's when we start craving towards something. So craving, contact and feeling generate a mind of attachment and that's the link of craving. Craving is a mind of really obsessive attachment. Report an error

1:44:53 Craving is depicted by a man drinking beer. No matter how much he drinks, he always wants more. Report an error

1:45:03 So through craving we have attachment to the good feelings that bring happiness, aversion to bad feelings that bring unhappiness and indifference to neutral experiences. Report an error

1:45:15 Grasping is what follows craving. So we start with this sort of mind of attachment and then it follows with this mind of pleasure and then we follow it with craving it and then we follow it with grasping it. So it's just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All of this happens quite quickly. Report an error

1:45:34 The link of grasping is a mental factor of desirous attachment that has been generated by the link of craving. When the intensity of craving becomes very strong, it develops into grasping. Report an error

1:45:47 But these two links, links 8 and 9, refer only to those moments of attachment and grasping that happen at the time of death. Report an error

1:46:02 Nourishes or activates a particular karmic potential, causing the consciousness to be thrown into its next life. Because they actually say, sometimes when it's said that this mind of grasping or this mind of strong attachment is the root cause of saṃsāra, in some traditions they actually say that. In this particular tradition, they're talking specifically at that craving and grasping, that happen at the time of death that keep us repeatedly taking bodies and taking rebirth. It's this grasping kind of mind. Report an error

1:46:41 It's depicted... Grasping is depicted again by a monkey grabbing fruit. Grabbing, grabbing, it's that kind of mind. The tenth link, based on these actions that we do with our body, speech and mind when we die, we're forced to repeatedly take new forms of existence. So it's the link of existence. Report an error

1:47:06 Again, due to this mind of craving and grasping at this truly existent self and thinking of it as real. So existence is referring to that karmic potential that was imprinted on the consciousness once it's activated. Report an error

1:47:27 So you can see how this is already going through several lifetimes. We've already gone from some of these links are happening in one life and some of them are activating in the next life. So it's not just in one lifetime. Report an error

1:47:48 When thoroughly nourished, the potential is empowered to be able to produce the next rebirth and become the tenth link. The effect it produces in the following moment is the next rebirth. In this way, the link of existence generates the next link, the eleventh link of birth. Report an error

1:48:08 So it's depicted by a woman about to give birth. So then 11 is we then take birth over and over and over. And it's depicted by a woman having given birth. Report an error

1:48:25 And then they say actually with the establishment, it's simultaneous with the establishment of name and form of that rebirth. In the second moment they say aging starts. Report an error

1:48:38 Which is an interesting idea. We don't think of that when we see a newborn baby. We don't think, oh, it's already aging. From the Buddhist point of view, the moment you're born, you've put into seeds the effect of your own aging and death, which is the final link, aging and death. And that one's depicted by an old man carrying a corpse on his back. Report an error

1:49:02 So, the The wild thing about the 12 links, which, I mean, you can meditate on the 12 links. I didn't go into nearly any of the details of a lot of these books where they talk about how it goes forward. You can follow the links as they go forward. You can follow the links as you go backwards. The basic bottom line is that if you can cut ignorance, you cut the 12 links. Report an error

1:49:27 You cut all of the 12 links. But the wild thing about them... Which, like I said, I don't think I got until actually preparing for this course. I was just like, wow, we just keep creating them. Every time, you know, throughout our lifetimes, we're actually creating these different 12 links. And they're all sort of shooting out and they're interconnected. Report an error

1:49:51 So we're basically creating this web or this net. That's keeping us here. And they compare it to one teaching I heard is it's sort of like you already got into prison, you're already locked up, and within prison you keep creating more, you keep doing more and more crimes. So you keep getting, you know, your sentence keeps getting increased and increased and increased and you can't even get out of the door because you just keep creating more and more, you know, cause to be there. Report an error

1:50:25 And the only... Way to cut it is to cut it at its root. So I have a, why don't we see if there's any questions actually, and then I actually have a lighter meditation to end with if we have a few minutes, which is one that Venom Rubina wrote. And if not, then you're going to have this as your assignment next week. But it's her meditation on dependent arising. Report an error

1:50:57 Which I think you can hear her voice coming through it, loud and clear. But anyway, why don't we see if you all have any questions that just came up from the Twelve Links. Which I have to, you know, I admit, I've received several teachings on the Twelve Links, but every time I study them and try to meditate on them, I'm simply trying to figure out how they fit together. Report an error

1:51:21 They say that if you have pride, if you have a really strong affliction of pride, that you should think about the 12 links and how difficult it is to understand. And that's supposed to cut your pride because it's such a complex teaching. But I'm happy to try if anybody has any questions. And hopefully it's just something simple like, what was the image for link number three? But if nobody has any questions about that, then we can end with the final meditation. Report an error

1:51:51 Independent arising. Report an error

1:51:57 Okay, let's do it. Report an error

1:52:02 And then I just have a couple of announcements to make at the end. Report an error

1:52:08 So again, just try to sit alert. If you need to rub those wake-up points, we're almost done. Report an error

1:52:22 She says, Vena Burbina says, According to Lord Buddha, all of our sufferings and fears are rooted in our deeply held and utterly irrational belief in solid, real, existing out. Things existing out there in and of themselves, independent of everything else. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, we live in a world made up by our own minds. Report an error

1:52:49 This delusional way of seeing the world and ourselves is so pervasive that initially it's impossible to detect. Report an error

1:52:59 Lama Tsongkhapa says that the most skillful way to loosen the grip of this fantasy And to eventually bring our own minds into sync with how things actually are and thus eradicate suffering and fear is to contemplate dependent arising. Report an error

1:53:17 As Lama Yeshe says, it's the king of logic to prove emptiness. To prove, in other words, that things are empty of or lack the type of existence that our hallucinating minds think they have. Report an error

1:53:32 Take this body of ours. It's what we believe in most as something real from its own side. It's what we cling to most, think about most, take care of most, identify with most. To our hallucinating minds, it's the one thing that is definitely me. Report an error

1:54:01 But think about my body. How is it my body? Report an error

1:54:14 It's come into being and continues to exist, independent upon countless causes and conditions. We can't find my body. Among any one of these causes and conditions, yet it is nothing other than those causes and conditions. Report an error

1:54:36 As Geshe Jampa Tekchok says, 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

1:54:56 Think, my body began with the egg and sperm of my kind mother and father. So where is my body? Report an error

1:55:10 Without the mother and father's parents, there would be no mother and father. And without mother and father, there would be no my body. Report an error

1:55:26 Where is my body apart from these beginningless mothers and fathers? Report an error

1:55:38 Without my mother's womb, the egg and sperm could not join or develop. Without the food my mother ate every day, the egg and sperm could not grow into a fetus. Report an error

1:55:54 So where is my body apart from all the food she ate? Report an error

1:56:03 My body is nothing other than a mountain of carrots and potatoes and chicken and bread. Without the earth, the gardener, the sun, the water, the fertilizer, there could be no carrots. Without the carrots there would be no mother. Without my mother there would be no my body. It does not exist. Report an error

1:56:36 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' mother, 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

1:57:06 the clothes designers, the tailors, the sewing machines. The designers of the sewing machines, the shops that sold the clothes, and the people who made the racks the clothes hung on. Where is my body apart from all of these? It cannot be found. Report an error

1:57:38 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. The people 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

1:58:02 The people who turned the cotton into cloth. The people who dyed the cloth. The people who made the dye. The person who designed the packet that contained the dye. The printer who printed the packet. The people who made the printing machine. Report an error

1:58:22 Where is my body apart from all of these causes and conditions? It does not exist. Report an error

1:58:33 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 my mother ate that transformed into the milk that nourished my body. Report an error

1:58:57 The nurses who checked this body while it was sleeping to make sure it did not suffocate. The heating in the hospital that kept the body warm. Report an error

1:59:07 The electricity that kept the heaters burning. The electricians who did the wiring in the hospital. The colleges they went to to learn to become electricians. The teachers in those colleges. Report an error

1:59:27 Where is my body apart from all these countless causes and conditions? It cannot be found anywhere. Report an error

1:59:44 My body is nothing other than all the food I ate as a child, the milk and rice and peas and lamb and apples and eggs. My body would not exist without the food, the farmers, the people who trucked the vegetables to the market, the people who sold the vegetables, the people who made the shelves at the market that held the vegetables off the ground, the people who made the stalls at the market, the people who made the shop. Report an error

2:00:16 Where they sold the lamb, the person who killed the lamb, the person who packed it, the person who put it in the refrigerator at the supermarket, the people who made the refrigerator, the people who made the factory where the refrigerator was made. Report an error

2:00:41 Where is my body apart from all of this? I cannot be found. Report an error

2:00:52 My body could not exist without the mountains of morality practiced in a previous life that is its main karmic cause. That 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 printed the Dharma books, the person who designed the typeface used in the Dharma books, Report an error

2:01:24 the people who made the paper, the people who chopped down the trees from which the paper was made, the previous parents. Report an error

2:01:37 The food the previous mother ate to nourish her body so 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

2:02:00 There is no my body apart from these beginningless causes and conditions. Report an error

2:02:09 So what is there to cling to? Report an error

2:02:23 So we can dedicate this class to each one of us, understanding emptiness more and more. And being able to put it into effect in our lives right now. Whatever understanding we have of emptiness dependent arising in karma. Report an error

2:02:42 So we can loosen this grip of thinking that everything is inherently existent. Report an error

2:02:51 So that we can quickly become enlightened. Report an error

2:02:57 So that we can benefit all beings. And Report an error

2:03:06 so that we can find happiness ourselves. Thank Report an error

2:03:21 you. I think you can hear her voice, can't you? I Americanized it a little bit. So a couple of announcements. The practice day for this class is next Saturday. Not this coming Saturday, but next Saturday the 3rd. So I'm also going to hand out with the homework this week, which is the looking for the eye meditation. Report an error

2:03:51 There's also some suggestions for short presentation for that day. And if you want to choose something that's not on the list, just contact me so I can okay it. I also wanted to, so that's 1030 to 4 on the 3rd, Saturday the 3rd. And then also just a reminder that Shantideva Rinpoche is coming and that he's teaching an entire lamrim, the first lamrim, Atisha's Lent for the Path, which is perfect for you guys. Report an error

2:04:27 And that's the 15th of May through the 18th of May. It'll be four sessions. And I did the other two, so that's good. Report an error

2:05:00 Yes, so we're meeting this Thursday. No, Report an error

2:05:11 I think I said next week. You mean in terms of homework? Yeah, I meant next class. So actually, when you're meditating on the eye... No, no. Report an error

2:05:22 Before you get the next assignment, which will be the same one that we just did, you'll only have a few days. But it's all right. You can, you know, like I said before, I give you a meditation assignment, but then it's just, then you can pick it up and do it for a while. I mean, do the meditation on the eye for, you know, a couple months and try that, you know, and see what that's like. Just to do it repeatedly until you become familiar with it. Report an error

2:05:51 Like with any of those ones that we were working on, the meditations, the antidotes that might help with anger or with jealousy or something like that, to work with it repeatedly is much more effective than to try it once or twice and then toss it. So give it a fair shake. But in terms of our classes, we meet again on Thursday and you'll get a new homework assignment. Report an error

2:06:17 I believe in giving lots of homework, but only because then, you know, then you've got it and you can just take it and run with it and do whatever you have time to do. And people have different amounts of time to meditate. Report an error

2:06:36 Yeah, so liberation. So this is optional reading now. We've completed all of the, except for the meaning of life, all the required reading is done. For those people that are doing it for credit, which I think Karen might be the only one, Report an error

2:06:53 Are you doing it for the certificate, the Discovering Buddhism certificate? There you go. All right, so we have another. Liberation in the Palm of Your Hands. There's a book that was, there are two translations of it, but it's based on a commentary that Pabanka Rinpoche did, I think in 1921. It's a 24-day teaching. Report an error

2:07:16 That covers the entire Lamrim. And so it corresponds with all of these Discovering Buddhism classes. And so I just called it Days 14 and 15 out of that teaching. And there are two different translations of that book. One of them is in one volume and one of them is in three volumes. But it's the same teaching. It's just in two different translations. Report an error

2:07:36 So if anybody is interested in that and would like me to make copies, I can just make copies rather than... You're feeling like you have to run out and buy Liberation in the palm of your hands. That's what that means. Okay, I will make you a copy. I don't have an electronic, so I'll just have to bring it to the next class. Report an error

2:07:57 Is there anybody else that would like a copy? We can try that new... There's some capacity on the printer downstairs that will do book copy things, so I'll see if I can figure it out. Report an error

2:08:14 Did you get another lesson after that lesson? Oh, well done. Okay, so Mary can help me figure it out. Anyway, if not, we'll just do the old-fashioned way. Same old, same old. Report an error

2:08:27 Okay, thanks, you guys. Report an error

· · ·

2:09:04 Pause on that thing. Do you want us to clear? No. I think we'll just leave it. Right, Mary? Report an error

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Talk by Lobsang Chokyi, recorded 22 April 2008. Original at Tse Chen Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/LC_Samsara_200803. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

Recorded at Tse Chen Ling Center, San Francisco, and archived by the center on Internet Archive. More from Tse Chen Ling

Listen on Internet Archive · CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US