← Lobsang Chokyi

Samsara and Nirvana - How we got into this mess and how to get out! (24 April 2008)

Lobsang Chokyi · 24 April 2008 · 2 h 8 min · Tse Chen Ling via Internet Archive

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  • 24:59

    So I wanted to just start with revisiting renunciation because we talked about renunciation in the first class. Renunciation, remember, is the wish to be free of saṃsāra altogether because we understand that saṃsāra is suffering. But I don't think when we talked about the beginning of the class that that many of you actually believe that saṃsāra is as much of a suffering state as the Buddha thought it was. So we had to really convince ourselves. We focused a lot on suffering. We focused a lot on these delusions that we all struggle with.

  • 26:44

    So renunciation is developing this wish to be free of saṃsāra altogether through the recognition of what it really is, what saṃsāra really is, and then being willing to go for liberation, basically, because you get it that there's something better. You understand that it's possible to live without these afflicted states of mind and that others have done it. So renunciation is literally definite emergence. That's how it translates in the Tibetan. It's to develop this mind that lets go of something or gives up something.

  • 32:32

    Is having this direct perception of emptiness that we talked about last week. And how do you create the causes to directly perceive emptiness? You need to collect the right conditions for it. You have to understand emptiness. You have to develop a deep state of meditation and regularly enter that deep state of meditation. And you have to be really determined to make it happen.

  • 49:35

    So now we're talking about Nirvāṇa. If our final goal is enlightenment, why the emphasis on nirvāṇa? In the Mahāyāna path, the emphasis is full enlightenment. As I said, I personally haven't even spent that much time studying nirvāṇa because it isn't a huge focus in our path usually. But it's important to see where it fits on our path as well because it is part of our path as well.

  • 51:26

    Nirvāṇa is somebody who has ceased all the gross suffering and all the gross delusions but still has the subtle tendencies. Especially what's called the obstacle to omniscience, that final obstacle to omniscience that we have to remove to become fully enlightened. The arhat, for somebody who has attained nirvāṇa, still has that. And the biggest of those is this really subtle tendency to still see themselves, most importantly, but also other things as self-existent.

0:00 Is it going? No. File chosen for real time savings. Yeah, it's a blue one. Report an error

0:11 There you go. Is it going? Yeah. The first words are, this is your test. So someone will be like, downloading it and they'll be like, oh no, it's an exam. So here you go. And there's also a little wheel of life. Oh, thank you. For your own study. Report an error

0:28 You can just pay for the book in the bookstore. Oh, okay. Oh, great. I just got them for everybody, but it's going to go through them. Report an error

0:39 Oh, and who's your homework? Yeah, actually I'll just give you the notes. I'll just give you the notes from Tuesday night's class, and then the homework from Tuesday night's class, and the presentation ideas. Report an error

0:56 So then at least everyone in the room is exactly on the same page. Report an error

1:10 However, if my breathing gets really deep in her legs, she might want to toss something in. Just find your posture, and we'll just do a short one on the breath. Take Report an error

1:29 your chair and pull away from the back of the chair. Keep your spine extended. Shoulders relaxed and back. Hands either on the knees or in the lap. Report an error

1:41 Eyes open and unfocused and staring before you or slightly closed. But if you're at all sleepy, it's better to have them open. Report an error

2:05 It's going to be in a position that feels good, comfortable, stable. And your breathing is just relaxed. Report an error

2:19 We're just going to count a few cycles of in and out breaths. Report an error

· · ·

6:34 ourselves and then also seeing it weird. Report an error

6:44 a good time for-humans. Report an error

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7:59 Especially tonight. Report an error

8:15 With Report an error

8:24 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

8:54 With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge, 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

9:25 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

10:03 So last class we covered a lot. We talked about a couple of meditations. And I also talked about the winds really fast. There are ways to discuss the 12 links that we won't really go into here, but you can look at how they move in a forward way, how you can reverse them in a backward way and all these different ways. Report an error

10:31 I think the bottom line of it though is just what a mess we make that keeps us here. So I kind of fast forwarded to the version of it of just realizing that we create these Report an error

10:47 chains of 12 links constantly and that they're just constantly intertwining with each other and that's what keeps us here. To me that works better and probably because my mind isn't keen enough to do all the analysis of forward and backward and all that stuff that they do in the monasteries. There are a number of books where it is handled in really great detail to get to know it better. Report an error

11:14 Does anyone have any questions that came up for them in the last class? Did anyone try to do the eye meditation? They're looking for the eye. How'd it go? Oh my goodness gracious. I think we woke her up. Sorry. I was actually going to help you. That's great. Thank you. The interdependence of the mic. Report an error

11:44 know she's unraveling the 12-way. Report an error

11:57 I think to Report an error

12:09 me, yeah, I think I hung on to that in some way, that it was in the mind for a while, and that one's a deeper meditation. unitary awareness that Mm-hmm. It still feels like Report an error

12:22 It just takes more meditating, looking for it, once you get the Buddhist idea of what the mind is. I think there's still some idea that the mind and the soul are the same thing. But there's also memory. Is it Report an error

12:53 in part of the body? Report an error

13:00 Think about, too, how it feels when it arises. To me, when it arises, it seems to expand. It never feels like it's solely the body to me. But it does feel like it's somehow present in the body, like it somehow fills the body. And so it's sort of an exercise of thinking about how it feels when that eye arises, which is why it's good to have particular incidents where it feels like it's rearing up, what's the word? Report an error

13:28 Rising up, rearing its ugly head. Dominique, could you turn on that middle light? Of all the times for it to be darker. There's a switch, let's It's in the middle, it's the middle one, yeah. Report an error

13:47 So yeah, it's good to actually think about certain times and to then do analysis either that evening, because you probably won't do it at the time if you're accused of something at work or something, you're not going to sit down and think about it. But you can feel how it might feel physical at that time. Report an error

14:05 And I'm sure there are people who think of it as a physical thing, because at the time of our death, we definitely identify very strongly with our body, right? It does feel like that's me that's dying. So there is some sense that the I is in the body. But I agree with you. For me, it feels much more like it's related to my mind. But then when we begin to dissect the mind a little bit, you begin to realize that those are various aspects of mind, but... Report an error

14:35 That mind itself isn't unitary. And so where in all of those parts is the eye? And so that's just not an answerable question. It's just a place to look. But I agree. I think it feels much more like it's part of the mind. But I think what I discovered, having done this meditation for a long time, is that I have to begin to analyze my view of... Report an error

15:01 The mind is still somehow holding on to a soul, which I think is from my upbringing as a Christian. That there's still some sense that it's not very, very subtle, almost energy-like thing that goes from life to life. That it's my soul that goes from life to life. I'm still holding on to that. There's still some part that hasn't gotten knocked out. And so that just takes constant chipping through meditation. Report an error

15:27 Where does memory fit? I think memory is just an aspect of mind, but I don't necessarily think it means that it makes it unitary. I think it's just a function. Mind can't remember. I don't know. That could be a question that there are a number of books on the Buddhist view of mind that include all the various mental factors, and memory is probably one of them. Report an error

15:53 But I must admit that I'm not as up on that as I could be. I think it's just a factor. It's just a way of, and it's not accurate necessarily, as we all know. Yeah. I mean, even before we get really old, if you've ever had siblings and, you know, sat down and tried to talk about some memory of childhood, like the differences, you know, are, right. Report an error

16:23 Yeah. And of course that goes going through your perspective. Yeah. And sometimes you'll have strong memories of things that then it turns out actually didn't happen like that at all. And it's quite jarring. I'm not sure why that happens except for the fact that our mind itself is so flawed that, of course, that we would, you know, remember things in a flawed way, you know, because we never perceived them accurately to begin with. Report an error

16:56 I just wanted to share my quote. Harriet Doerr, she writes, stones for Ibara. And she says, memories are like corks out of bottles. They swell and no longer fit. That's my memory code. But you remembered it. I know. Yeah, and I think even within memory, there's different... Report an error

17:21 functions of it because some of them are visual some of them are smell which they say is like the strongest and that can really knock you out of left field when you suddenly My sister was talking about the smell of my grandfather who died when we were quite young. A certain combination of smells, which includes... Report an error

17:42 Flannel shirts, sweat, and gas. Gasoline. Gasoline, yeah. And when that combination happens, which thankfully isn't often in her life, it's like, whoa, Grandpa. And it's weird. It's weird like that. Like, where is that? Where is that? You know, how is that stored? I don't know. I don't really know the answer to that one. Report an error

18:07 Who else worked with an organization? Anybody? Any comment about it or just... Acknowledgement that you did. Gold star. Report an error

18:20 Any experiences? Yeah, go ahead. I was thinking in terms of the self in time, as it was like a mathematical equation, equating some kind of uncomfortableness, and you think the self is responsible for that in the sense that the more concretized that self is, the more it has a weight in presence. But that weight in presence doesn't hold up in time. Report an error

18:17 a star. Report an error

18:45 Right. Because in the future, it hasn't even happened yet. Right. And way in the future, the self will be totally obscured unless it's in the memory of friends and relatives. Right, right. And then before now, the little boy person or the, you know, the child person is no longer existing in any real sense. Right, except his memory. Report an error

19:03 And the same thing he was saying about memory, you know, how faulty is that? You think, oh, it was really bad or really good and people tell you it was somewhere in between. Right, right, right. And so you always have this feeling like... If you can't work all the antidotes to your afflictive emotions, then getting rid of the self is the one you can remember. To apply that, yeah, that who is having this experience. Report an error

19:27 That always has to equal suffering. It's like one plus self plus this equals that. Well, you take one of those things out, it's not equal anymore to suffering. It's something else. Report an error

19:37 I hadn't ever thought about it in those terms, but that is the one that they say is the real antidote, and it is the one that, if you can remember to apply it, is the most effective. Otherwise you have to keep initiating new antidotes to different kinds of conflicts. But sometimes those other antidotes still work. I mean, sometimes they actually work better for you at a certain point, for a certain moment, which is why it's good to start with those. Report an error

20:01 And you'll know, too, what might work better for you at a certain moment. You're feeling much more analytical than I think the eye, like who's having this experience, who's angry right now, who's hurt right now, you know, like really trying to figure that out might work. But, you know, there are times that just trying to turn it around and love the other person or something like that would be more effective because of what's going on in your heart or something like that. Report an error

20:29 So I think our minds are just so fluctuating and our lives are so fluctuating. Try any number of them to success. And I've actually heard teachers ask students, like for me, emptiness works the best, you know, across the board, just dependent, I think, upon my own mind and my own relationship with emptiness. Report an error

20:50 But I have heard teachers tell students, you know, no, really meditate on loving kindness, you know, and I'm like, why don't you tell her that? But for that person, that student, maybe that's more beneficial. Maybe emptiness, maybe their understanding of emptiness is slightly off and it becomes aloof. You know what I mean? I've definitely known of some students who have this idea of emptiness where nothing exists and nothing matters, which is actually wrong view. Report an error

21:20 So they haven't gotten a correct understanding of emptiness. So for them to try to apply emptiness might not work at this point. So then for them it might be much more beneficial for them to know if they don't love, if they're feeling a lot of hatred or anger. Report an error

21:33 Almost just to melt the heart a little bit before they can move on. So yeah, I think you just test the water. Like in every situation, you test the water. And then if that's not working, try pulling out the toolbox. Okay, let me try this one then. Okay, let me try this one. It's still not working. This guy's still driving me insane. Like, what can I try, you know? And that's really why it's a toolbox, you know? So anyway, we're going to talk about Nirvāṇa tonight. Report an error

22:04 We finally made it to Nirvāṇa. I screamed that, I screamed that to, or I didn't scream it, I yelled it to Karen last night as we were leaving the airport. She was heading one way and I was heading the other one. I was like, it's Nirvāṇa tomorrow night. We finally made it to Nirvāṇa. It's worth it. That's one question. Report an error

22:22 So we started out talking about the Four Noble Truths. Did you have a question, Sandy? Did you want to ask? No, that was my question. When are we going to get to Nirvāṇa? We made it! The diehards made it to Nirvāṇa. We lost a few people on saṃsāra. Alonzo is coming to the practice day. He's been traveling a lot with business. I haven't heard from some of the others, so I think I may have lost them along the way. Report an error

22:50 So we started out talking about the Four Noble Truths, which we spent most of this class, because this is kind of really where we are, with the truth of suffering and the truth of the cause of suffering, karma and delusion. Report an error

23:07 And a little bit beginning to talk about the Third Noble Truth when we got into this direct perception of emptiness. So the Third Noble Truth is sometimes called True Cessation. And we're going to get to one thing tonight that's really very important is this difference of how the Theravadans see what happens when you attain nirvāṇa versus how the Mahāyāna tradition views it. Report an error

23:34 Because it's a huge difference actually. I didn't even realize that. To be perfectly honest, in our tradition we don't focus a whole lot on nirvāṇa, we focus on full enlightenment. in this particular Tibetan Buddhism. So I didn't even know that this huge difference existed, which is of course the joy of teaching a class. You're like, whoa, really? Report an error

23:57 So we're going to talk about that one a little bit later. But it reminded me a lot of Sandy's question, so I think hopefully her answer is here. Report an error

24:06 So true secession is the fact that these causes that we talked about in the Second Noble Truth are not... Actually a part of our minds. They can be removed from our minds. So afflictions and karma can be removed from our minds. And the result is nirvāṇa. The fourth noble truth is talking about the path leading to that cessation. It's sometimes called true path. And that actually is referring to what's called the three higher trainings. Report an error

24:42 The training in ethics, the training in concentration, and the training in wisdom. true paths. Report an error

24:47 So we'll talk about that one tonight too and how they relate because that one took me years to figure out the relationship between those three. Report an error

24:59 So I wanted to just start with revisiting renunciation because we talked about renunciation in the first class. Renunciation, remember, is the wish to be free of saṃsāra altogether because we understand that saṃsāra is suffering. Report an error

25:16 But I don't think when we talked about the beginning of the class that that many of you actually believe that saṃsāra is as much of a suffering state as the Buddha thought it was. So we had to really convince ourselves. We focused a lot on suffering. We focused a lot on these delusions that we all struggle with. Report an error

25:35 I mean, they're all part of our daily reality. It's not like I'm having to teach you that anger is an uncomfortable thing. You know, these are all things that we've experienced. Report an error

25:45 So I think as we spend more and more time going through, we begin understanding what the Buddha thinks of as suffering isn't necessarily always gross suffering. It's anything from discontent or dissatisfaction all the way up to unbearable gross pain and everything in between. And so it involves a lot of mental states that we might not have thought of as suffering. It also involves things like... Report an error

26:14 Not getting what you want. I mean, we go through that a hundred times a day, but I don't know that any of us would have labeled that suffering, you know, because we're usually focused on the really big ones, you know, the headaches, the breakups, war, global warming, you know, we're not so much focused on not getting a parking spot, having my tea go cold, you know, but those are all the little things that the Buddha actually taught make saṃsāra so dissatisfying. Report an error

26:44 So renunciation is developing this wish to be free of saṃsāra altogether through the recognition of what it really is, what saṃsāra really is, and then being willing to go for liberation, basically, because you get it that there's something better. You understand that it's possible to live without these afflicted states of mind and that others have done it. Report an error

27:12 So renunciation is literally definite emergence. That's how it translates in the Tibetan. It's to develop this mind that lets go of something or gives up something. A lot of times in the West we think it means giving up all the good stuff. But it's basically letting go of this grasping at external stuff for happiness. Report an error

27:36 Whether it's people, places, things. Because right now we tend to think this is our one life. This is our one chance and everything that happens to me and around me, it's sort of like I have to grab for happiness or push away to avoid suffering. And so we tend to live this incredibly limited life because of this. So renunciation is letting go of that. Renunciation is letting go of that grasping. Report an error

28:04 And it takes understanding to even want to. So it takes an understanding of... The fact that the I doesn't exist the way we think it does. It takes an understanding that the Tali doesn't exist the way I think it does. It takes an understanding that my mind, that everything is impermanent, including myself, my body, my mind, these states of mind that give me so much suffering. Report an error

28:30 All of that takes a certain amount of wisdom. It takes a wisdom of how karma works and how karma and emptiness work together. Report an error

28:39 So Lama Yeshe said, renunciation is less craving, less grasping, relaxing your grip on saṃsāra. Renunciation is totally to do with an inner experience of saṃsāra. It's not throwing away all of saṃsāra. Our grasping leads to more and more dissatisfaction, not to happiness. Pleasure itself is not the cause of our suffering, it's the grasping that causes our suffering, which I think is a huge difference. Report an error

29:07 So renunciation is getting fed up based on our understanding and seeing how saṃsāra sucks. And really seeing how it sucks. And you can really use the various things that happen to you in life, you know, or happen to those you love. You know, watching my mother age and die was a huge lesson in saṃsāra for me. Because it just was like, it was so horrible and pointless. Report an error

29:35 And you just realize, no There's nothing to be gained from it except the understanding that allows us to get out. In that sense, it's quite good. In that sense, it's quite useful to see. But otherwise, it's just more suffering. There's just a lot of suffering that we all go through. Report an error

29:57 And if we don't see our own suffering, it's a huge block because then we can't really see the suffering of others. And then we can't develop bodhicitta. And then we can't get enlightened. So it's really, really important to start with this renunciation. And then the question arises, is it possible? Is nirvāṇa possible? Report an error

30:17 Because right now I think a lot of people have this idea that nirvāṇa is like a heaven. It's like you achieve, you get to a place. You know, we leave saṃsāra, which is like leaving the bronze or something. We leave, we leave... Report an error

30:34 I'm from the East Coast, so I'm trying to think of an example in San Francisco. We leave Hunter's Point. We leave Hunter's Point, we get to Pacific Heights. It's kind of like that. And the reality is, if saṃsāra is a condition of mind, then nirvāṇa is as well. Nirvāṇa is a condition of being liberated forever from karma and clashes, and it's completely beyond all suffering. Report an error

31:01 So it's a condition of existence. Report an error

31:07 And this cessation is completely irreversible. So you never are again bound by karma and delusions. And you're not forced by karma and delusions to take another rebirth within saṃsāra. You can choose to. And so that's an option. But you're not forced to. Currently we're forced to and we have no control. And you don't just attain nirvāṇa by wanting it. Report an error

31:34 So intellectually getting that it's a better state of being isn't enough. Like we can't just kind of go, okay, cool, we're all in agreement. Great. See you there. Report an error

31:45 You have to, remembering karma, we have to create the causes. We have to constantly create the causes. And so that begins by generating this mind aspiring for liberation, which is the mind for renunciation. Which is why I bring it up again. My friends throw them off. Report an error

32:03 I always for some reason when I see them, I think this happened in Vajra Safar retreat, I always think of Lama Yeshe. And I don't know where that came from, but there's some sense that he's present, so that's kind of cool, maybe he's present. Report an error

32:17 Why not? Report an error

32:22 So the causes for liberation, the main cause for liberation beyond this mind of renunciation. Is having this direct perception of emptiness that we talked about last week. And how do you create the causes to directly perceive emptiness? Report an error

32:42 You need to collect the right conditions for it. You have to understand emptiness. You have to develop a deep state of meditation and regularly enter that deep state of meditation. Report an error

32:56 And you have to be really determined to make it happen. It's not going to happen, within our tradition, there's no understanding that a direct perception of emptiness can happen accidentally, like while you're doing the dishes. You can gain insights into emptiness, that'll help you for sure. And contemplating some of the teachings that we talk about in this class can help you gain an intellectual understanding of emptiness. Report an error

33:25 Studying can help you gain an intellectual understanding of emptiness. And we need that. intellectual or inferential understanding of emptiness to be able to meditate on it correctly. But it's not gonna happen while you're sitting around doing something else. I know, what a drag, huh? I know. Report an error

33:45 So one of my teachers gave a list of seven steps that you have to take and you have to continually follow in order to... Have this direct perception of emptiness. Remembering too that this direct perception of emptiness, when it actually happens, although it will permanently change your mind stream, that mental continuum that goes from life to life, currently your mind stream, but in a wider sense, it's just the mind stream that is going forward from life to life, currently in the body of Dominique, and then next lifetime it could be labeled something else. Report an error

34:31 So it only lasts a really short amount of time, but it has a huge amount of preparation that goes into it, and then the result of it is this enormous shift in how you are able to work with those afflictive states of mind. That's the final and the actually most effective tool of being able to rip them out one by one, which allows you to gain enlightenment, or nirvāṇa, whichever one you're going for. Report an error

35:00 So the first one is you have to collect a lot of positive karma or what's called merit. Merit is positive karma that you are really putting towards enlightenment. Report an error

35:13 So you can sit and you can read, you can study emptiness for years and years and years, but if you're lacking merit, you won't necessarily understand it. And without that understanding of it, then you'll never be able to directly realize emptiness. You actually need to have a lot of stores of positive karma. And once you have the positive karma, actually it can happen really quickly. Report an error

35:38 So you might think, oh, this is like light years away. You know, what Chokyi's talking about tonight is like next life. The reality is that we don't, and none of us really know where we are on this whole path. Report an error

35:52 So we don't know how close we are to gaining. The insights that we need to have this perception. So we might as well go with the assumption that it could happen really quickly and just go for it than to think, oh, it's so far away that it's not worth the effort. Report an error

36:10 So collecting, so there's what's called the two collections, collecting positive karma or merit and then also purifying negative karma. Both of those things are part of number one, the first step. Report an error

36:24 Yeah, so it's like a lot of the sort of things that we do as preparatory practices to meditation are ways to do that. A lot of our prayers, a lot of the ways that we, you know, like just the way that we had our minds every time that we started class and we do the frustrations and we think about the qualities of a lightened mind that I want. Report an error

36:44 All of those are ways of actually creating merit and a lot of, like with frustrations, period, frustrations as a practice. It's about purifying pride, purifying negativities. So a lot of things are sort of built into the practices in order to help us get this. Report an error

37:03 You have to find a really qualified spiritual teacher. You can find out a lot in books and downloading stuff and talking to your friends and getting some DVDs. But you really, in order to be able to do this kind of really deep spiritual practice, in order to gain this kind of spiritual attainment, you really need to find somebody that knows how to meditate and can help you meditate to this level and can help work with you. Report an error

37:40 And that's the definition actually of a Lama or a Guru. That term Lama or Guru is referring to somebody who's truly qualified. It's often bandied about as though we're the same as somebody like Chokyi sitting here blah, blah, blah, and things that she's heard and stuff. It's not the same. Teacher has many gradations. In this case, we're talking about somebody who's really mastered the mind. Report an error

38:07 You know, somebody who has true attainments and true qualities in that sense. And we need all levels of teachers along the way. So it's not false humility, it's simply trying to point out the difference between somebody who has really worked with their mind for not just this lifetime but many lifetimes and can help you do it. Report an error

38:32 You know, can look at the problems that you're having and figure out what it is that you need to do. And then once you do, you serve that teacher like crazy. Report an error

38:42 Partly, you know, part of that is... To get close to them and to understand, you know, to commit, you're committing to this practice. And part of it is you're actually, you're purifying when you do that and you're accumulating merit. So it goes back to number one. A lot of these things actually go back to number one, which is why you may hear people talk about how working in a Dharma center and things like that really purifies. Report an error

39:11 There's a lot of purification that goes on and there's a lot of accumulating merit. Which is number four, serving a Dharma center, serving the Dharma in some way, serving a monastery, serving, you know, supporting the translation of texts, supporting the protection of texts, you know, like that. There's a lot of projects worldwide. Are you missing one? Okay, so one is collecting merit and purifying negative. Report an error

39:44 Number two is finding a truly qualified spiritual master or a Lama. Three is serving that teacher like crazy. And you have to put him like crazy. Four is serving a Dharma center, monastery or the Dharma itself in some way, which again creates enormous merit, either with your sweat or your money or your time or something, your energy. Report an error

40:10 Five is just plain all helping people. You know, helping out a soup kitchen, helping somebody who needs it in your building, helping a neighbor, helping an old lady across the street. Whatever it is, it's just that hands-on helping out. Report an error

40:28 Six is study, study, study, study, study. Thousands and thousands of hours of study of what emptiness, especially with emptiness, what emptiness is really referring to. So it's not just, this is talking about really deep study, not just... You know, these weekly classes, but then taking it to the next level and really looking at the works of the great masters of the emptiness lineage, the wisdom lineage, Nargajuna, Dharma Kiriti, Chantra Kiriti, Sankhapa. Report an error

41:00 And then contemplating. So, you know, they say there's these three steps, studying or learning, and then contemplating what you learn. And then meditating upon what you learn, which is the seventh one. You have to learn to meditate really deeply. So we're going to touch on calm-abiding meditation before the class is over tonight, but all of us have to learn to meditate really deeply, and some of us are better at it than others, partly due to karma. Report an error

41:34 And that also can shift because of accumulating the causes for it. Abiding Meditation Again, once you attain the actual level of meditation that's called calm abiding or shine or shamatha really requires retreat ultimately. But we can actually get to a certain level of mastering it here in the city. So it is something that we could start working on even though none of us have the right conditions for going to the next levels above that one. Report an error

42:12 But we can start small. And one of my teachers, Venabo Rene, who's down at Vajrapani, really, really encourages his students to just start, even if we don't have the right conditions right now, just to develop the discipline and to develop some amount of concentration right now. Because concentration can only help us, right? I mean, if we're doing analytical meditation, we need concentration. If we're working, we need concentration. Report an error

42:39 We need concentration, and our culture is actually almost anti-concentration. Everything gets shorter, we have shorter amounts of things because there's this idea that people don't have much concentration and to feed into that. And in fact, adult education is heading that way too, where it's saying classes have to be smaller, they have to be shorter, because people can't concentrate. Report an error

43:03 For so long. And there's this idea that you should be able to do five things at once and that, you know, why not six? So it's almost like the opposite of what you want to do with your mind. Report an error

43:16 So those are the seven. Did you get them all? Yes, I did. So we were talking about the three higher trainings and we were talking about, yeah? Report an error

43:28 It's related before we move on. Okay, sure. Report an error

43:33 I'm sorry, I'm slow on the uptake. No, no, no, please, please, please. So the seven steps of direct perception of emptiness in all we do. The seven, no, the seven steps in order to have, they aren't necessary, they're just things to sort of, if you haven't done them. These are the precursors to. Yeah, exactly. This is helping you create the conditions. And I wanted to say that the good deeds don't count unless we dedicate them, isn't that correct? Report an error

44:01 Yeah, that is true. Dedication is really, really important. I think they count. They just count more. You get more bang for your buck if you dedicate it well. You get more bang for your buck if you motivate it really well, too. And why is that? It's not because I think there's this idea sort of that merit and dedication and motivation are kind of like brownie points. Report an error

44:23 It all has to do with, because your mind is the ultimate recorder. There's no external being taking notes, you know? It's like, is it actually, is my helping Karen after hours working to transform my mind in any way? Report an error

44:39 You know, if I'm just kind of doing it because it's number three on the list, then it may not be. You know, so my motivation may not fully be there. The more that we take the time to motivate, the more that we sort of think of it all interrelated to our quest to become enlightened for the benefit of all, the more likely, hey, Lydia, how are you? Report an error

44:59 Come on in. We saved a seat for you. Yeah, we saved a seat for you. We've got a wheel of life with your name on it. The more it's going to actually transform your mind. So that's why it's sort of like constantly working on to transform your own mind. But you said there's no witness, but the earth was the Buddha's witness. Report an error

45:20 Yeah, I know. They could say that. But really the earth, I mean the earth is the earth. I think that's referring to all of the beings that have ever... Do you want to come up? I think it's referring... Well, I don't know. I'm not even going to respond. So we were talking about the three higher trainings a moment ago, and I wanted to mention how they interrelate, because for me, it wasn't clear from the very beginning when I studied them. Report an error

45:54 So that's the training of ethics. Again, the training of concentration and the training of wisdom. And the Buddha taught that we really need a strong and firm foundation in ethics before we even be able to. Report an error

46:10 Yeah, maybe there. I see his little head coming around the side. So he taught that we really need a firm foundation of ethics before we can even learn to concentrate, which I think is very interesting. he's not going, he's leaning over. Report an error

46:27 And the reasoning is actually quite practical. And as you start to do retreats and as you start to meditate more, you realize the reasoning because if you don't sort of clean up your act, and by ethics, usually within Buddhism it's talking about non-harm. So it's talking about trying not to harm others of your body, speech and mind. It's really what it's getting to. Report an error

46:51 We may not fully understand that yet and there are a lot of teachings to go through on that, but the main idea is trying, or ourselves, trying not to harm ourselves or others with our body, speech and mind. Because otherwise you just end up being really distracted by all the things you've ever done wrong and all the things you're currently caught up in that are harmful. Report an error

47:12 It's just a huge distraction. So the more you can clean that up before you start. The more you can actually meditate, because otherwise it's just a distraction. So it's kind of a practical idea. But also, the more that we start to live ethically, like we have this determination, even for a short amount of time in the morning, to set the motivation, okay, I'm going to try really hard not to get angry today, I'm going to try really hard to be kind today, or whatever the thing is. Report an error

47:49 That sets up... That becomes your object and then there's a part of your mind that begins to develop mindfulness and introspection that sees whether or not you're keeping on your goal and catches it when your mind goes off. It's the same thing that happens when you meditate. We have to develop mindfulness and introspection when we meditate. So if you've already started developing it in your life and you're walking around life and you're yelling at Matthew life, you know, like all the various things that happen in our lives that... Report an error

48:18 We get caught up in. If you develop this strong mindfulness and introspection, then it's the same qualities of mind that we need when we sit down and meditate. So they've already begun to develop and get strong. And then of course, we need to have this really strong meditation concentration before we can ever have this direct perception of emptiness. Report an error

48:40 So those two are a little more obviously related, but the ethics being related to concentration. I didn't get for a long time, so I always like to really underscore that one, because maybe the rest of the world is quicker than me, but maybe not. Report an error

48:56 So it's not like the Buddha, when the Buddha began teaching and he set up all these teachings on the Vinaya and discipline and ethics, it's not like he was teaching that to less evolved people who, once we got into these exciting, juicier, higher teachings, we could just let them go. It's actually, we all need that to some degree. It doesn't mean that you all have to run out and get ordained, but you can kind of see when you start looking at the conditions needed to attain the higher levels of meditation, why it was useful and why he created those conditions. Report an error

49:35 So now we're talking about Nirvāṇa. If our final goal is enlightenment, why the emphasis on nirvāṇa? In the Mahāyāna path, the emphasis is full enlightenment. As I said, I personally haven't even spent that much time studying nirvāṇa because it isn't a huge focus in our path usually. But it's important to see where it fits on our path as well because it is part of our path as well. Report an error

50:08 We just usually are sort of... Warned not to get caught up in the bliss of nirvāṇa. Not to get stuck there in that bliss for eons and eons and eons because you're no help to anyone. That's sort of the attitude. It's very funny. It's sort of the attitude that is taken about some of the higher levels of attainment that you get on the path to calm abiding. Report an error

50:28 Because apparently as you begin meditating more and more deeply and your concentration grows, then you get all these sort of byproducts. They actually call them byproducts like clairvoyance. Which just sounds crazy to those of us in the West. But it's sort of like, you know, Geshe-lists are always like, you know, it's not important, you know, these levels of clairvoyance that you reach or these levels of attainment, like being able to levitate and things like that. Report an error

50:56 You know, loads of people can do that. And I'm like, really? You know, but that's the idea. That's not the goal. Don't get sidetracked. by all these exciting little things that are happening, these little blissful states that are happening during your meditation, because that's not the goal. The goal is to develop this really strong tool of your mind so that then you can apply it to emptiness, so that then you can liberate yourself from saṃsāra and become enlightened. Report an error

51:26 Nirvāṇa is somebody who has ceased all the gross suffering and all the gross delusions but still has the subtle tendencies. Especially what's called the obstacle to omniscience, that final obstacle to omniscience that we have to remove to become fully enlightened. The arhat, for somebody who has attained nirvāṇa, still has that. And the biggest of those is this really subtle tendency to still see themselves, most importantly, but also other things as self-existent. Report an error

52:01 So it's a hard... It's the very last thing that we get rid of. And only a Buddha is completely free of all that. It's this subtle tendency to see things as self-existent. You know, when we were talking about the I last week in the meditation, seeing things as existing out there, solidly, permanently, inherently, self-existently, independently, like that. Report an error

52:31 And so there's that little... What they call, it's sort of like the, you know, they talk about how when you store garlic in a jar and you get rid of all the garlic, there's still the scent. You gotta get rid of the scent. That's the scent of garlic for us. And we just got a bunch of garlic yesterday. It really does reek. Report an error

52:54 So I was thinking about that and I was like, yeah, that's the thing you gotta get rid of. And it's the hardest one. It's the hardest one. Especially this idea that I... exist in some self-existent way. Report an error

53:08 So the difference between attaining Nirvāṇa and becoming a Buddha. At the beginning, I think it was in the second class, we talked about the five paths because Karen had brought up something in the reading where His Holiness listed within one paragraph about four different lists or five different lists. Report an error

53:27 And one of them was the five paths. And the five paths is really important. To know, because it's sort of helpful to know. It's like a map. It's like the map of enlightenment. And Nirvāṇa falls on that map. It's part of the fourth path, actually. So when you generate genuine bodhicitta, which is this wish to become a Buddha for the benefit of all beings, on the basis of renunciation, you enter the first path. Report an error

53:57 That's how you enter the first path, actually. So none of us are actually even on the first round. I'm sorry. But you never know when it's coming. It could be tomorrow, so it's alright. The path of accumulation, that's the first path. On that path is where you usually develop calm abiding meditation. Report an error

54:19 And some sort of inferential understanding of emptiness. When you develop this union of calm abiding and what's called special insight into emptiness, Report an error

54:32 You enter the path of preparation. What are you preparing to do? You're preparing to see emptiness directly. So the path of preparation is all about preparing to see emptiness directly. Report an error

54:45 Path of seeing, we spend a lot of time talking about. That's actually the shortest of all the paths. That's just when you directly perceive emptiness. It can last literally 20 minutes. You know, it's the tiniest. All the other ones are like lifetimes or something. And then path of seeing is like really fast. Report an error

55:03 That's when you become what's called an Arya being, the direct perception of emptiness, permanently shifting your mental continuum. And then the fourth path is what's called the path of meditation or the path of habituation, where you basically are working repeatedly with that realization of emptiness and going back into it repeatedly in a deep state of meditation. Report an error

55:28 Using it to remove all of your clashes or mental affictions one by one. That's the path of habituation. I think that's why I like the term habituation more than meditation. It's basically the same in Tibetan. Gom is to familiarize or habituate yourself or something. But in English it's different. There's something about that term habituation of just getting used to it. Getting used to this idea of how things actually exist. Report an error

55:56 During that path is where you could attain liberation or nirvāṇa. But once you remove that final obstacle of that inborn view of yourself as self-existent, then you become a Buddha. And that's actually called the fifth path, the path of no more learning. The lower schools and the Hinayana schools, the Theravadan schools, say that you don't need to perceive emptiness directly to attain nirvāṇa. Report an error

56:29 You have to have a direct perception of the Four Noble Truths. That's what it's considering the lower schools. The Mahāyāna schools say that you do need to directly perceive emptiness. And when you do directly perceive emptiness, right after you come out of that meditative state, that very meditative state, so you've had your 20 minutes of directly perceiving emptiness and you come out of it and you're like, whoa, you know? Report an error

56:54 Within moments of that, you actually have a direct perception of the Four Noble Truths. That's why they're called the Four Noble Truths. Noble there is talking about the mind of an Arya being, somebody who has directly perceived emptiness. That's from the Mahāyāna point of view. Report an error

57:14 So they say that there are two kinds of mental afflictions or kleshas, those that are manifest and those that are potentials or those that are seeds. Nirvāṇa is the elimination of both. And so sometimes deep, like yogis that have spent a really long time meditating, Will eliminate the manifest ones and they'll think that they're done with anger, they're done with jealousy or whatever because they've been meditating on it for 30 years. Report an error

57:41 And then they'll come out in meditation and they'll meet the object again and they'll get angry or jealous or irritated or depressed or whatever because they'll just come in contact. So they still have the potential in their continuum. Report an error

57:59 And some people actually can make it all the way to their death without having that potential arise. But it's still in their continuum, so then in their next life it still pops up. So they haven't actually attained nirvāṇa, but they might think that they have. Report an error

58:16 So then they would be a once-returner? I don't know, we'll get into that one yet. So there are three kinds of nirvāṇa, although the first one isn't actually genuine nirvāṇa. It's called temporary cessation. Report an error

58:31 And then the second is nirvāṇa with remainder. And the third is nirvāṇa without remainder. Report an error

58:44 And the hugest, like I said, and we're going to talk about each of those, but the hugest difference that I was mentioning at the beginning between the Theravāda and the Mahāyāna paths about what happens when one attains nirvāṇa. is that in the Theravadan tradition it's believed that once you eliminate all of the kleshas one by one, in other words you attain this state of cessation, the mental continuum ceases altogether. Report an error

59:13 They say it's like a light, the flame of a candle going out when the butter or the oil exhausts. It's like the mental continuum actually ends. Report an error

59:28 In the Mahāyāna approach, it's considered that you can take out the mental afflictions, basically, and the mental continuum continues, and that's pure and blissful because the nature of the mind is pure and blissful. So the state of an arhat, somebody who detained nirvāṇa, is to just be blissed out for eons. They enter this amazing state of deep meditation. Report an error

59:51 So temporary cessation, the first type of nirvāṇa, isn't actual nirvāṇa. But it is when it's actually really useful for us because we can actually attain this one ourselves just through repeated effort and diligence trying to remove mental afflictions and actually gaining success, even though it's only temporary. Report an error

1:00:12 We get a taste. And they say that actually getting that taste gives us some faith that it's possible to remove them altogether. So it is quite useful for us because it's something that we can all... reach like everybody in this classroom can actually attain this one within this lifetime even you know maybe not with our worst mental fiction but we can with some of the lesser ones and that's actually incredibly empowering Report an error

1:00:38 we haven't removed the root cause, so we still have ignorance of seeing things as inherently existent, and so it keeps coming back. So we still have anger and things like that that arise. Report an error

1:00:51 Nirvāṇa with remainder is when Somebody attains this state of complete sensation or nirvāṇa while still in this body that's formed by karma and delusion. Our body, our physical body is caused by karma and delusion. And both the Theravadana and Mahāyāna traditions think that this is possible. So we've just systematically worked with all of our afflicted states in mind and with our direct perception of emptiness. Report an error

1:01:19 We've removed them one by one. And then... We attain this state of sensation but we still have this sort of contaminated body. Then the final act of this lifetime or the exhaustion of that final karma that caused this body, it happens with our death. And then according to the following, so death then depletes that final karma. Report an error

1:01:50 The nirvāṇa without remainder is what happens when the saṃsāra body is finished or exhausted. And that's where the Theravadan and the Mahāyāna traditions split. And according to the Theravadan, basically at death everything ceases for that being. It's done. They sort of are in this, I'm not exactly sure. Report an error

1:02:15 It doesn't sound at all attractive to me, but then I think it's because I'm a Mahāyāna at heart. But it's not just their body or their delusions that cease, it's everything ceases. The mind itself ceases. The continuum I should say ceases. Report an error

1:02:34 According to the Mahāyāna, that person becomes what's called an Arhat, and though their saṃsāra and their samsaric body and their delusions all cease. That individual mental continuum continues and that being then enters this really deep meditative state for eons where they're just basically incredibly blissed out because that's all that's left. Report an error

1:03:00 The nature of the mind is just pure and blissful and knowing and so they're just in this deep meditative state on emptiness for eons and eons. Which according to the Mahāyāna traditions is a supreme waste of time. They could be out there helping sentient beings, so it's from that angle. Report an error

1:03:17 But the difference is that the arhat definitely continues, doesn't cease with their death. So for the Theravadan, with the individual vehicle... Individual liberation vehicle, Nirvāṇa is the final goal and so that once that goal is achieved, that continuum ceases. Report an error

1:03:44 And for them, for the Charavadins, the drive is this renunciation just to be, you know, getting it that saṃsāra sucks, getting it that saṃsāra is suffering and this drive to get out of saṃsāra altogether. For the Mahāyāna practitioner, It's not enough to get it for ourselves but to realize that all the rest of us, not just in this, you know, those that are known to us or those that are loved by us, but all beings are suffering in the same cycle and motivating to get out of it entirely for their benefit in order to help every last being without exception to get out of it as well. Report an error

1:04:26 So that's why it's called the Mahāyāna vehicle because it's... This sort of great vehicle, considering the scope is actually great. And so even for us at the very beginning, we motivate our renunciation with bodhicitta, which is why we start classes with this idea of trying to develop this little mind, this baby mind of bodhicitta, even though it's not genuine bodhicitta yet. Report an error

1:04:50 It's like trying to widen our perspective on why we do our practice, why we sit and meditate, even though it seems really gigantic at the beginning to think, you know. I sit down for 15 minutes for the benefit of every living being without exception. It's almost arrogant. It's almost insane. To be honest, it is. It is totally insane. But so is saṃsāra. It's just a different direction of insanity. Report an error

1:05:23 To be able to even for a moment hold it in your mind that what you're doing with your life and with your Spiritual practice is for the benefit of all beings. So why don't we actually take a quick break, just because it's getting late and I don't know how late Chloe's here. So if you guys need to just stretch your legs, I'm seeing some little eyes getting smaller and smaller in the back row. Report an error

1:05:50 Not naming any names. Report an error

1:05:57 You're going deeply into somebody, is that it? Right, contemplating this. A little finer, finer point. Report an error

1:06:34 No, actually, well, from my understanding. He's so hypnotic. Report an error

1:06:20 about Nirvāṇa and in the Report an error

1:06:37 Which of course is coming from this particular tradition, so that could be different. My understanding is that pure lands are sort of the abode of the enlightened mind. So every Buddha has a pure land. And that basically a pure land rebirth, you can attain one. And some pure lands are sort of open to anyone who prays to get into them like Amitabha. And then some of them like... Report an error

1:07:06 As you're gaining, you have to be practitioners in that particular practice. But that if you enter a pure land, you can actually, it's like a fast track to enlightenment. Report an error

1:07:18 I mean, that's what it's considered. But I also have heard that having a human rebirth and being able to practice tantra, which of course is the Tibetan saying, the whole Vajrayana, is also a fast track. So I think it's kind of both. So sometimes I hear, I mean, a lot of our dedications will include... Report an error

1:07:37 In fact, I think it was you that sent me that email about, like, what's the difference and why do we pray that? Well, you know, when somebody dies, yeah, I'm always praying that they'd be born. I have a person who was from human labor at the New York Times. The Pure Land is in the state of enlightenment. Report an error

1:07:54 No, it's to get there, to get there fast, because you don't have all the distractions of everyday life. It's another, yeah. I thought of it as more like heaven. Report an error

1:08:07 But it's not. You don't want to equate that with heaven. It's very Christian. Yeah, I think it's just that it's enlightened mind. When we think about if you're offering a mandala and the mandala is depicting enlightened mind in your own future pure land, you're imagining that it's a place that beings can be reborn in and practice and study the Dharma very quickly get enlightened so they can benefit others. Report an error

1:08:34 So it's sort of like that idea that It's a place, it's like a fast-track university or something that you could go to. And it's not that same place where the gods are, right? No. Separate realm. Although I think it is within the god realm. I think it's actually considered part of, because you haven't left saṃsāra, so you haven't attained nirvāṇa yet. Report an error

1:08:53 So the paradigm doesn't really, you're not in that state of... I think it's because your mind is still saṃsāra. That's the only reason. I don't think it's like a place so much. It's like a state of being, but that's part I'm... I'm a little confused by it. That sounds like a really good question for Geshe-Allah. I think part of the idea is that the Pure Land is outside of the Sixth Realm. Report an error

1:09:15 That's the advantage. But your mind is still saṃsāra, so you haven't attained nirvāṇa yet. That's the thing that's confusing. But I know that's true also when you're in the really deep states of meditation. They actually say that although you are still a human... Your mind is actually attained to the level of the form realm or the formless realm. This one really deep state of meditation. So it's an odd concept because I think part of why it's odd for me is because I still have a really literal sense of things being in places. Report an error

1:09:49 But the idea is that our mind is saṃsāra and our mind is nirvāṇa and our mind is able to go and be reborn in this sort of pure land. It's really straight in line as opposed to Report an error

1:10:03 Something like that. Even a different level. And I don't quite get then how is it, I know, if it's not a place, then like what is it? And are you, it must be somehow that you're reborn in this way that Amitabha or whoever's pure land it is somehow protects and enhances the conditions of your study and practice? Report an error

1:10:25 Somebody. Yeah, or... It's the transference of merit. The idea of transference of merit. Amitabha can transfer his merit to you. Yeah, which we don't think. We actually feel that you have to already have the merit, but they can ripen it. So, you know, you might have it in your mental continuum, and then like a Buddha or a really great teacher, who in our tradition is the same, would be able to... Report an error

1:10:57 would be able to pull you like your best karma up so that you have the best conditions right now or a magnifying glass so that Amida is that that is to write Ripe in what you already have. So you have to already have it. In our tradition. He's not able to give it to you. Or they say that, you know, the proof of that is that they already would because they have limitless compassion. Report an error

1:11:27 A Buddha. Report an error

1:11:32 A person who once was ordinary. Yes, that's why I think it's actually to me it makes more sense that they aren't giving you anything that you don't even have, but what they are is helping you. Because that's what enlightened mind, that's why we want to become enlightened, right? I want to become enlightened so that I will know exactly what Matthew needs and I'll be able to help him. Report an error

1:11:56 What he already has. I can't give him anything he doesn't already have. But I can look into his mind and I can know what's going to work for his mind and I can see that he's really analytical so I can, you know, help create those conditions. I can't do it for him though. And I can't give him anything. Yeah. So that's the difference. And that's of course coming from our tradition. I don't know him. I don't want to counter and confuse you anymore. Report an error

1:12:17 It all kind of correlates and plays in, but I guess the confusion is, who is Amida Huda? My understanding is that he was once ordinary. Like all enlightened beings. No, that there are many, many, many, many Buddhas. Report an error

1:12:36 No, they aren't the same continuum. They're different. They were different. Yeah, that any Buddha was once ordinary in the same way that Shakyamuni was ordinary. this no he was no they Report an error

1:12:49 In the same way that we can be a Buddha. So we start as ordinary, we start as somebody with afflicted states of mind, you know, crazy minds, but then we eliminate it and we become enlightened, and then we are able to help, and that we manifest in whatever form helps people, so they manifest in the form of say, Anjushri, who was once an ordinary being, they manifest in the form of Tara, who was once an ordinary being. Report an error

1:13:12 He would just be, he was once an ordinary being, he became Amidala. So that's what that is. That's my understanding. It's a generic term. See, I don't know, because I don't know that term. I just know Amitabha, but I don't know the difference. I don't know what Amitabha, I don't know. Is it the same? Yeah, so I mean, my understanding, is Amitabha a term for more than one? Report an error

1:13:38 Not that I know. I mean, it might be. Sometimes it's a synthesis of Amitayu and Amitabha together. Yeah, in ours we see both. Because Shakyamuni, when he was giving the commentaries on the sutras, he would just switch back and forth with those two buddhas. Right, and I get confused by them all the time. Report an error

1:13:54 It's like what they're holding is the only way I can ever tell. Yeah, that's the only way I can ever tell. They're both red, right? Yeah, and one of them is holding the nectar, one of them is holding something else. They're red? In our tradition. We don't have him up. but, um... Report an error

1:14:03 I'm going to tell you I had the crowns and things. Report an error

1:14:15 What's this? There's a little one right there. What about the white tarot? Really? I mean, I have to look at it. This is Robby. It isn't the best tarot, actually. But I see what you mean. Yeah, you say tarot. You see the one? Ray. You say tarot. Uh-huh. Tu tarot. Tu tarot. The minute falls apart. But I can't see. Part of it is because, remember, that was mantras. Report an error

1:14:42 It's a different script. And so they have like this little, the baby arm. The baby arm. Report an error

1:14:51 So I'm thinking of this om tare tu tare. At first I thought it might have been white taro, but then I don't say mama, because mama I know. Report an error

1:15:01 Like, who is this? Because I have green taro on the wall, and that's not it. Really? Interesting. Isn't that interesting? Maybe we should, we'll catch up with him. I'm going to buy it and then play with it. we're going to a period of time. Report an error

1:15:07 Mm-hmm. Report an error

1:15:17 I'm sure to get to it. Are you coming on the 4th? Report an error

1:15:24 Announcement. On May 4th, Geshe-la is teaching, it's a Sunday morning, and he's teaching on motivation, the importance of motivation. Report an error

1:15:36 But the announcement part is that it's his 9th anniversary with us, and so we're going to have a party afterwards. Everybody's invited if you'd like to come. And if you know that you're coming, just contact the office and let them know so we have enough food. And also, Tanzen Lama, who has been translating for Deshulam before that and was his attendant, is leaving, has left basically, has stopped translating. Report an error

1:16:00 I don't know if he's going to leave the area. But anyway, we just want to thank him for nine years of service. So we're going to have a party for him too, so a simultaneous party. So if you bring this, one or both of them could give you their opinions on it. But yeah, it may be another version of Torah. Maybe we might actually translate it. Yeah, you translate it, but then you can check it with them. They'll check it with them. Report an error

1:16:25 And then bring it to the practice. No, we're kidding. It'll be all, this is so simple, isn't it? I'm glad you haven't translated it in one sentence. I don't think it's simple until we really are fluent in Tibetan, which is a ways off. Although you never know when it's going to happen. I think I will. Report an error

1:16:45 want. So liberation in this sense that we're talking about is liberation from samsaras. Liberation from this mind that's filled with delusions is liberation from karma. Because if we don't have the mind that's filled with delusions, then we aren't creating karma. So then we're no longer a saṃsāra being. But we aren't yet a Buddha. Report an error

1:17:08 You know, we haven't removed that final obstacle to omniscience, which has to do with this subtle misperception of reality. Report an error

1:17:19 So according to the Mahāyāna, the higher schools of the Mahāyāna actually, the aggregates, our body and mind, continue after liberation and become, ultimately our aggregates become what's called the form body and the wisdom body of the Buddha. Report an error

1:17:42 It's a very subtle body and mind, because remember again, I think we have touched on this, we talk about it more in the Tantric class, the Introduction to Tantra, which is one of the final classes of the Discovering Buddhism program, but there's this idea that within Buddhism that we have both a gross body and mind and subtle body and mind, and actually at the time of death we realize that we actually have this very, very subtle mind, and that's the one that goes forward. Report an error

1:18:11 So the very subtle body and mind of the individual is what becomes the basis of the Dharmakaya and the Rupakaya, which are the bodies of the Buddha. Report an error

1:18:24 And they say that the method, the practice of method or bodhicitta, the bodhicitta teachings, generosity, morality, patience and so forth, are what lead to the... form body, the rupakaya, and the wisdom practices or the emptiness, study of emptiness and analysis of the nature of reality is what leads to the dharmakaya or the wisdom practice. Report an error

1:18:56 And so remember also that this entire post that we've just spent seven classes discussing is coming from this point of view of the sūtra path. So it's not coming from the point of view of the Tantra path. Report an error

1:19:12 So through this method that we've been talking about, the Buddha himself, the Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, attained enlightenment in what's called three countless great eons. Three countless great eons, which Geshe was always trying to tell us how to figure out how long that is. But again, to me, it's just like, okay, that's a really long time. Report an error

1:19:35 You know, like knowing that it's something to the end, to the something power of the blah, blah, it's just like... You know, if it's anything longer than 75 years, it's a really long time. So I don't really need to know that it's like that long. It's just depressing. So according to Tantriyana falls within the Mahāyāna. Sometimes people call it a separate vehicle. It's part of the Mahāyāna because your reasoning for entering the Tantric path would be to do it really fast, to attain enlightenment really fast. Report an error

1:20:08 Why? Because of bodhicitta, because you find the suffering of all beings unbearable. And so you would enter a quicker path to try to get enlightened more quickly. And in that path of tantra, you are able to, you still are following the same map. You still have to attain home abiding, but you do it within the visualizations of tantra. You still have to work on your, mental afflictions one by one but you're doing it in a different context that's the only difference you're working more with the subtle energies of the subtle body and mind but otherwise you still have to do the same work it's not like going to do any juju on you like mystically get some fairy dust on you and do it faster it's not like that it's just that it's a different method and a different approach using the same map Report an error

1:21:05 So, um... As I talked about at the beginning, we were going to end with the discussion of calm abiding meditation. And calm abiding is described or defined as that mind which is imbued with the exceptional bliss of cliancy due to deep single-pointed concentration on its object. Report an error

1:21:36 That mind which is imbued with the exceptional bliss of pliancy to deep, single-pointed concentration on its object. Is this going to be a hand up? No. I'll just repeat it until I reach out. Report an error

1:21:54 I got up to That mind, which is imbued with the exceptional bliss of pliancy due to deep single-pointed meditation or concentration on its object. Report an error

1:22:15 they say, actually, that single, you know, Attaining single point in concentration is what you're shooting for. And that calm abiding is like the zenith. It's like the highest form of single point in concentration. And that you don't, so you go sort of through these different levels of deeper and deeper. Well, actually, first of all, you go through the levels of just being able to keep your mind on the object. Report an error

1:22:42 You start with just being able to keep your mind on the object for a second and more of your time in the concentration is actually your mind is off the object and then it's catching your mind and placing it back on the object and then it's patching, patchwork attention is actually what it's called. So as you're going through the various levels of meditation, you're trying more and more to be able to keep your mind on and off. Report an error

1:23:09 And so you do it... Steadily until actually this level of calm abiding that we're talking about, this level of meditation, you're able to just effortlessly keep it on whatever the object is for as long as you want. And they say the sign is that you can sit in deep meditation on an object for four hours or more without any movement of your mind off the object and without any effort, which I like that part. Report an error

1:23:41 Without any effort. I mean, it sounds, I can't even imagine four hours seated, period. But the thought that actually this bliss of cliancy that arises is what allows you to be able to sit without any effort or without any pain, in effect, to have a really blissful experience of your body and your mind. Report an error

1:24:06 You actually attain a level of both physical and mental bliss. And it comes from, due to, if you look back at that definition, due to the deep single point of meditation on this object. So they say that this level of bliss, like when you first start meditating, it's actually the very first level of talking about forceful meditation. Report an error

1:24:37 And it actually is forceful, like you actually are applying quite a bit of effort. And they actually say that the same amount of effort that it takes at the very first stage, which is called forceful placement, is what becomes the bliss. Report an error

1:24:56 It's actually that effort actually is what actually transforms into the bliss, which I think is an interesting thought. And the bliss comes, the physical bliss. It comes from the subtle level of the body. It's the winds and the channels, the energy being able to flow more freely because of the state of mental focus. Report an error

1:25:20 So it's actually sort of more of a harmony between the subtle level of your body and mind. Would it be fair to say then the harder it is to meditate at first, the more blissful you'll be? No, I think the level of bliss is probably similar, but I do think it's a good sign. It actually won't be blissful when you first start. Report an error

1:25:44 Unless, of course, you have incredible seeds for mass life. So I can't say across the board. I have a friend, actually, who for him, quite from an early age, meditation was a blissful experience. And he didn't even know it was, you know, he just kind of was like seeking out. You know, what's meditation, going to meditation classes and stuff, trying to figure out what this was. But it was just a natural thing for him. But for most of us who don't have those kind of seeds from past lives, it will be quite effortful at first. Report an error

1:26:18 But that also is why you don't want to trance out. That came up in one of the classes. We talked about it at the morning meditation Saturday and then also at the Friday meditation. Report an error

1:26:31 Because somebody was having the experience and she wanted to know whether it was okay to trance out. And according to all of the teachings that I've ever received on calm abiding meditation, there's actually quite a lot of effort at the beginning. And so you shouldn't be trancing out. And if you have the experience where like the whole, like if you sit for a half an hour or something and it just kind of goes like that, it probably means that you aren't fully focusing on the object. Report an error

1:27:00 That your mind is just kind of going into what's called the state of subtle dullness. That's quite dangerous. Yeah, the state of dullness is quite dangerous and a lot of times people think that they are able to meditate very deeply for hours at a time and actually they're just going into the zone out thing. Report an error

1:27:18 The problem with that is that you can actually create the causes for rebirth in formless realms from that deep tranciness for hours at a time. So that So if the more force, if you're aware of the force, this came up actually at retreat, one of the questions, the Q &A sessions in the retreat that I just did in Mexico. Report an error

1:27:41 One of the students was talking about it and General McNeil said that for most of us, as we're working on single-pointed concentration and calm-abiding meditation, We're so aware of every passing minute. Like you don't lose the time. Like you don't zone out for a while as you're starting training. Then the upper levels, you start getting some feeling of bliss. But at the lower levels, you're really, really aware because you are trying to keep every bit of your being focused on that, whatever the object is. Report an error

1:28:19 So there's some effort involved so that it's not like you're just like... You know, for 30 minutes. You're just focused. And you're trying to keep that focus and that alertness the whole time. So it's not an enjoyable thing right at first. Sandy? Wait, wait, wait. Talking stick. You Report an error

1:28:49 described bliss. Bliss is a term... It does give you a pleasure, but it's not like the kind of pleasure that we have. I think that's why they don't use pleasure. Pleasure tends to refer to more like sensual, like something of the body, you know, a really good bath. They say that actually the kind of bliss that we have in saṃsāra doesn't even range on the scale of what the holy beings will experience just through. Report an error

1:29:25 Living and breathing and meditating, you know, like the kind of bliss that you can get at the upper levels of deep, deep, deep meditation and once you become an Arya being and an Arhat and a Buddha, Report an error

1:29:38 it's like our highest level of bliss is probably, our highest level of pleasure is probably like the best orgasm that you can imagine and they say that like the bliss of Nirvāṇa and enlightenment. It's like off the scales compared to that. So it's kind of hard to say. But I think bliss is talking about just, I mean, it is pleasure. There is joy involved. Report an error

1:30:04 But it's all in mind. You're not experiencing it in the body. No, you actually do. You do have a physical bliss as well. There's a mental and a physical bliss of clients that you attain with calm abiding. So in the Wisdom of Emptiness class, we actually go a lot into calm abiding. And the different steps and the nine levels and so forth. And you actually hit the ninth level of calm abiding and you still, and so you're able to keep your mind on the object. Report an error

1:30:30 You have complete clarity. You have complete vividness. You have this alertness throughout the session and so forth. You still haven't attained it because the final thing that you attain is this level of bliss and fliancy of physical and mental bliss. And the reason is because it's affecting your subtle body and mind. Report an error

1:30:49 And the subtle body and mind is where that bliss comes from. Once everything's sort of flowing freely throughout your winds and channels, that's what brings the bliss. And that's actually what Tantra uses, so that level of bliss. In Tantra you actually use that level of bliss to directly perceive emptiness. Report an error

1:31:14 And there's something about it, which I can't even claim to fully understand, but there's something about that level of bliss that relaxes our otherwise firm grasping view of reality so that we're able to kind of sneak through to be able to see the nature of reality with a little less hard head. But it's something about that level of bliss that sort of does that. And so Tantra really uses that. Become Abiding is... Report an error

1:31:43 It's where you get it, developing that state of bliss. Report an error

1:31:51 And they also say, of course, because when you're in this really deep state of meditation on anything, whatever it is, it's the breath, for that time that you're in this deep meditative state, you aren't having afflicted states of mind. So there's a level of bliss with that. Just having that not be present in your mind. You haven't eradicated the source. Report an error

1:31:51 um... Report an error

1:32:14 You know, you haven't eradicated all the mental afflictions entirely. It's like a temporary cessation. But that temporary cessation is blissful. Because you don't, you're not being pissed at Dominic for, you know, blah, blah. And you're not like reworking those stories that we always do for, you know, Bob and how annoying he is at work. Like you're just not doing all that with your mind. Report an error

1:32:35 Your mind is in this blissful state beyond all that. Even though it's temporary at that point. So just having that cessation of all those. Crazy states of mind that we've been examining week after week is also blissful, which makes sense. Report an error

1:32:54 Even at our level, we can begin to get a taste of that. So even, I think that's why people are drawn to meditation, right? Even the simplest meditation on the mind, I mean on the breath, without even having any other understanding, you know, it's taught at the Y, right? Like old folks homes. Like it's starting to be much more popular and that reasoning is... Report an error

1:33:14 When you're meditating on the breath, even for a minute, you're able to not be Vista Dominique or crazy at Bob or worrying about this or ruminating about that. You're able to just have a break. It's like giving your mind a break. And that's blissful. So we can kind of see, even at that level, that we get a little taste of that bliss. Report an error

1:33:43 Traditionally, they say to develop home abiding isn't a huge, doesn't take a huge amount of time. But I also think that, you know, because they normally say that you can actually, it's possible to do it within 6 to 12 months in retreat. It's doable. I mean, it's not that long a retreat even. But I also think that they were talking about people who had already begun cleaning up their morality a bit. Report an error

1:34:08 Because they were talking to the monks and nuns, right? So they had already been talking about, you know, they had already begun eradicating that first level, the training of ethics. For the rest of us it might take a little bit longer. But it is still something that we could actually attain in this lifetime. So it's not like one of the huger realizations that are out there, like the direct perception of emptiness, which is also possible to do in this lifetime, especially once you've attained calm abiding. Report an error

1:34:39 So they build on each other. Report an error

1:34:43 The five main obstacles to developing this meditative state, I would like to give you a guess on what? This is according to Nagarjuna. These actually come up in our bodhisattva vows too. The obstacle of restless desire and missing a person or thing is considered one. Report an error

1:35:09 Restless desire and missing a person or thing. And these are all things that come up when you go into retreat, too. You can really get a good front row seat. Feelings of malice towards someone. Report an error

1:35:25 So you can see these first two are really dealing with ethics. If you were working on your ethics, you probably wouldn't have this longing desire for your favorite red sweater or something. You know what I mean? Or much less. Harry Bob or Mary, you know, so you probably wouldn't have that kind of strong number one. And number two, the feelings of malice, definitely you'd be hopefully working on that one where you're not so pissed off at somebody that you can't even meditate because you're just thinking, like their face keeps coming up, you know, like every time you sit down. Report an error

1:36:02 Hopefully you're working on that off the cushion. The third one is drowsiness and dullness, which we're already beginning to work on, right? and then um The fourth one is attraction to sense objects. Report an error

1:36:23 I wouldn't know what that one was. And the final one is unresolved doubts. So we're going to talk about each one for a second here. Restless desire, of course, is pretty obvious, but it's anything, basically, desire for anything or anyone that agitates your mind in some way. We often, again, don't think we've talked about attachment before. Report an error

1:36:45 We don't think of attachment a lot of times as something that really disturbs our mind, but in fact it does. And all those things come up. The first time you do a solitary retreat of any length whatsoever, it's amazing the old friends that you bring to mind. And you've decided during that retreat, you're like, I've got to contact her. Report an error

1:37:07 And you know, you've made it 40 years without this person. You probably are going to be fine until you're deaf without contacting this person. But in that retreat, you're like... It's totally disturbing your mind, and that's that restless desire of missing someone. It's just a distraction, that's all it is. Report an error

1:37:26 It's your mind being bored by staring at the breath, basically, or whatever your object is. Analyzing the lamrim, whatever. Report an error

1:37:37 Feelings of malice is referring to that really strong ill will that you can't concentrate. Report an error

1:37:47 Drowsiness is referring to sleepiness, but dullness has to do with that trancy mind that we were just talking about. So they aren't the same thing. Dullness is really just zoning out, or really heaviness of mind, sometimes just described it. Report an error

1:38:08 Attraction to sense objects is basically anything... That can distract you from your object, whether it's visual or audio, so you remember the lyrics of all your favorite songs from the 70s or 80s or whatever. Report an error

1:38:27 Sense of smell, so you might start remembering Grandpa's shirt. Taste, of course, definitely that one comes up with your treat. touch you might be thinking about all sorts of things with touch you know you'd be thinking incredibly how important it would be right now to have a really good massage that one always comes up for me I wonder if I could get one you know and you're like maybe I should send a note down to the caretaker Report an error

1:38:53 Unresolved doubts has to do with not fully understanding whatever it is that you're supposed to be doing in retreat, whatever you're meditating on, whether it's... Emptiness, like you just haven't really worked out all the ins and outs. And so you're just using that amount of unresolved doubt to keep you from going further. Report an error

1:39:15 You're just like, well, I can't, you know, I can't go, you know, you're just kind of caught up in this upper space without being able to go down deeper because you're not, your analytical mind is just getting kind of caught up with the ins and outs. You haven't taken the time to work out your doubts. Report an error

1:39:32 Outside of the retreat and now it's blocking me. One of my teachers also caused unresolved doubts having a wimpy practice. Report an error

1:39:41 Not just being really firm and resolute to practice really well. Not just going for it in terms of like, you know, deciding, okay, I'm gonna, you know, start every day at 4 a.m. or whatever, you know, and just go for it. So that kind of mind that still is... Doubt is considered in Buddhism to be a two-pronged mind, so your mind is separated by this not having resolved whatever the issues are that are blocking you. Report an error

1:40:14 And they say actually to meditate, to develop home-abiding beyond the fourth level. I think we can get to the fourth level, where we are, wherever we live, whatever the conditions, period. And this is like one of the loudest houses, I think, in the city. Um, um. We could get to the fourth level out of nine. But they say beyond that, that you do need to go into retreat and that you need not only to be in retreat, but you need these incredibly quiet conditions. Report an error

1:40:45 That's why they chose caves. They say not even the sound of water. You know, like often we'll be thinking when we go on retreat, we want like a roaring river nearby or something. But for calm abiding retreat, there's really... Really detailed, specific instructions of what we do need in order to develop it. And you start with these really tiny sessions. Report an error

1:41:14 I think it's really taught that you start with like 12-minute sessions and you try to do them really, really well and that it's more important to do really short... They say Report an error

1:41:28 I hesitate to say the word tight, but you know what I mean by tight, where your mind is very alert and sharp, rather than just trancing out for an hour and a half, you know, going, hey, that was a great session, you know, it went in no time, right? Report an error

1:41:42 So the idea is to do really strong, tight ones, and then to get up and take a break, and then sit down again, and then expand them gradually over time. And so Lamieshi gives techniques that actually you would have like 18 sessions in a day rather than the traditional in Tibetan Buddhism anyway, you do four sessions. Report an error

1:42:07 Like if you go into a traditional retreat of anything, you know, daily retreat, lamrim retreat, compassion retreat, whatever, you have four sessions in each day and you have breaks around them that contribute to them. So you might take a walk on your break or have lunch on your break or whatever. For you to be contemplating whatever the subject was. With calm abiding you have lots of little tiny sessions instead and the reasoning is so that your mind is really sharp and clear and strong in each session and that these sessions are short. Report an error

1:42:39 So that's important to know when we're, if we decide that we want to start working on it at home that we just, as Venerer Ney said, I'm a fan of quality rather than quantity. So just to keep it Really sharp and strong and short, not to try to take it on. I've got to develop combiding so I'll have to just sit every morning for four hours. Report an error

1:43:07 It's not like that. We have to build up to it. And you can choose any subject at all or any object at all. They say that Tenzin Palmo, who's a British nun who did... A retreat in a cave in India, or Ladakh actually, for 13 years. She chose a stone. She just picked a stone as her object. And she looked at the stone and found the qualities of the stone and then went into her meditation. So then of course she wasn't using her eyes anymore. But you hear like in Hindu, a lot of Hindu religions, I mean a lot of Hindu practices, where they also have kama-biding. Report an error

1:43:48 Kama-biding isn't necessarily a strictly Buddhist thing. It's simply a deep state of meditation. They'll use a flame, you know, or something like that. So they use a physical object and then the mind will gather all the details about it and then it becomes a mental image and then you're no longer. So you're not sitting in meditation like looking at the clock or something like that or the cup. You've got all the details of it and then you're going within, you know, and doing your meditation based on a mental image. Report an error

1:44:18 The more common one and the usual one that we start with is the breath. Just because there's something about the breath starting as a sensation of the body and then it becomes a mental image as well. And we all have one. And you always have it with you. And it's actually always unique. Each breath is actually unique, but there are some similarities. Report an error

1:44:44 Within Buddhism, it's actually taught to pick a really virtuous object, like an image of the Buddha. And in the same way that Tenson Paul got to know her little stone, you would get to know all the details of what he's holding and how many arms and what his face looks like and what color he is and how he's seated and all those things. Report an error

1:45:03 And then you would, again, you wouldn't look at him anymore. So you're not using their eyes, you're not using their physical senses at all. Report an error

1:45:13 You're gathering the details, but then it becomes a mental experience. So whatever object you're choosing, it's the same, whether it's the breath or a Buddha. The thing about a virtuous object is you're already spending so much time trying to develop this skill that you might as well make it virtuous. Report an error

1:45:32 I think that's the idea. I don't think it's any easier. I personally had a harder time with an image of the Buddha than I did with the breath. And they also say that it's best not to change objects. Report an error

1:45:47 But, yeah, so to pick an object and then to stick with it until you attain calm abiding, which is horrible for anyone to tell a Libra. Report an error

1:45:57 I couldn't figure out which one to choose because I was like, how could I pick one to do for 50 years, you know, it just sounded horrible, or even lifetimes. And then another teacher thankfully said, no, it's okay, you can change it again, you know, but really work with it for like six months or eight months or something. Report an error

1:46:16 And it really depends on the teacher because I mentioned to Geshe-la that I had gone back to the breath and he's like, no, no, no, you shouldn't change objects. I'm like, whatever. Report an error

1:46:27 But I think the idea about not changing objects is because we can have really fickle minds and we can decide that the problem lies in the object instead of just getting down to the work. And that's what I think it's about is really just deciding, I'm going to work with this one this year and see, you know. Report an error

1:46:23 Whatever. Um... Um... Report an error

1:46:47 But I do know, and there are also some amazing books out there that can help. There's a book by, again, Lama Rinpoche called Calming the Mind, which I think is just an incredible book. And it feels like he's right there with you, and he's like leading you through the stages of deep meditation. Clearly the absolute best would be to have a living teacher that you're working with, because then you can say, I'm running into this wall. Report an error

1:47:15 You know, what do I do? How can I work with this one? And so that's much, much better. And there are teachers that offer, like Venema Renee teaches a number of classes and a lot of different ways on how to develop calm abiding on either objects or states of mind, like compassion, things like that. Report an error

1:47:35 And so then you can connect with somebody that way. Alan Wallace, I think, also is teaching a lot of stuff on calm abiding out there. There are a lot of teachers that do. And then once you connect with them, then when you hit a snag, you can, even in our modern time, you can send them an email. You know, you can still get your specific question answered, which is really different than reading everything out of a book, because someone can help you work on your mind. Report an error

1:48:01 Geshe-la is another one you can just connect with and just say, look, I'm having this experience, what do I do? And I've done that one with Geshe-la before, too. Sometimes they'll say, you know, stop doing it, don't do it right now. It's better for you not to do it right now. You know, just focus on compassion or something. Report an error

1:48:21 And the last thing is just that this mind that we're cultivating when we do this kind of meditation is really alert and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. That's why my sister said it's like they say that it's like the mind when you're watching a really, really good film. So you really are quite alert. So you're not just zoning out. And one teacher said also it's like if you're focusing on your breath, it's like your entire body and mind is focused on that breath. Report an error

1:49:01 All of you are focused on that breath. So it's all of you is focused on that breath. Or are to be in many personalities. So it's like you just every... Each inch of your being is focused on that breath rather than thinking that it's some one tiny part of you and the rest of you could be off planning tomorrow or something, which of course is what my mind always tries to do. Report an error

1:49:26 It's like, okay, well that part's boring, but what else can we do since we're seated here and we have some quiet time and there's no computer nearby. So it's kind of like to think about those kind of images where you really are quite alert and focused and present and you're not. zoning off at all then every time you feel that that slipped that's mindfulness noting that and to bring it back Report an error

1:49:53 repeatedly bring the mind back without any kind of expectation or disappointment, just repeatedly doing it. We start a lot of times with a meditation on the breath, but a meditation on the breath isn't necessarily calm abiding meditation. You really have to be that. Your goal has to be, okay, I want to develop chroma fighting, so I'm going to keep it really, really alert and sharp and strong. Report an error

1:50:23 Not, sometimes it's just a relaxing thing to do or a way to kind of bring your mind to neutral to meditate on the breath. So you have to be really aware of the difference between the two. Yes, Eddie? Thank you. When you're focusing on the object, what is it that you're supposed to be thinking? Report an error

1:50:45 Nothing at this point. I mean, thoughts will arise and you're just not following them. You're not trying to examine the object, trying to deconstruct it. No, that's analytical meditation. This is a different meditation. You're just practicing placing the mind repeatedly on the object and trying to keep it there. Report an error

1:51:04 And trying not to think at all. No, you don't, because that implies that you're putting a lot of effort into not thinking, and that just is going to kill you. Because mind, as Tens in Tokyo, as one friend of mine, mind's MO is to think. So trying to tell it not to think is just, it's like it's just going to kill you. So you're basically just not putting energy into those thoughts. Thoughts arise and fall away. Report an error

1:51:29 Thoughts arise and fall away. And your main concern is keeping your full Attention on whatever your object is. So if it's the breath, it's on that breath at exactly that point that you've decided your focus is. So if it's that little patch of skin inside the nostril, that's where it stays. You don't let it stray down to how it feels in the belly. You aren't examining how the oxygen feels entering all of the cells of your body. Report an error

1:51:57 You're not. You're just there and that's it. And then your mind gets distracted and then you place it back. And the mind gets distracted and you place it back. And you don't get caught up with like, I'm a failure, I can't do this, this is horrible. You're just placing it back. Just repeatedly. One person said it's kind of like you've got a puppy and the puppy's running around and you're trying to get it to go on the paper. So you just place it back. Report an error

1:52:25 There's no anger. There's no disappointment. You're just repeatedly placing that puppy on the paper, you know. And that puppy is your mind. And your mind is just used to, and then you're like, nope, back on the paper. And what you're trying to do, it's like building a muscle. Report an error

1:52:44 This is just the exercise. It's just the exercise of building the concentration. And then in terms of clarity, if it's an image, or there's all these various states of levels of absorption. Those are later. Right now you're just trying to develop the strength of the muscle of the mind of keeping it on the object. You know, the sense of clarity and vividness and things like that come later. Report an error

1:53:14 Do they have any questions about anything that we talked about at all? Like, how do I work with this in my everyday life? Like, what is, you know, like... Report an error

1:53:24 What does Nirvāṇa mean in the 21st century in San Francisco? You know, is it an archaic subject? How do I relate it to my life now? Okay, so mine's simpler than that. You once told us that we could make merit through rejoicing. And I thought, oh, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do that. And then I realized, I don't know how to rejoice. Report an error

1:53:29 You know, like, you know, you know, Report an error

1:53:53 So could you tell me what rejoicing is? Rejoicing is simply deeply, deeply, deeply delighting in something. So whether that something is your own good works, which is a really big one, especially for those of us who tend to just criticize ourselves or find fault with ourselves, to really rejoicing in the things that you have done. Report an error

1:54:17 You know, specific things that you've done or delighting in the happiness of another, especially if you have problems with jealousy or thinking about all the amazing things that your teachers have done or are doing right now. You know, like my teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, tends to never sleep. You know, he's just always trying to benefit others. Report an error

1:54:45 And so he's like really creative in that and he's just up all hours thinking of all these various things. And then like, you know, suddenly you get an email and be like, some new project has begun that, you know, he cooked up in the middle of the night or something that, and he's got, he's literally got thousands of projects going on. Report an error

1:55:03 It's just tirelessness. And so you can rejoice in that. You know, without thinking, God, I should do that too. It's more just like, yeah, that's so great that he's doing that. Or think about all the work that Ben Rovina does around the clock. She's got that kind of mind too. She's going all the time. So rejoicing is simply deeply delighting in something, which we tend not to do. Report an error

1:55:27 We tend not to do really, really deeply. Be happy in the works of ourselves, or the works of others, or the works of our teachers, or the works of the holy beings in order to become holy beings, or the works of the Buddha in order to become the Buddha. I mean think of all the hours he's spent trying to develop calm and fighting. Think about the yogis or the people that right now are doing long retreats, day in and day out, smugging it out, facing absolutely nothing when they get up except their mind, you know? Report an error

1:55:57 No external stimulation whatsoever, no outside people, no TV, no radio, no music, no job, no... No phone, no lights, no motor cars. Not a single luxury. Exactly. So, yeah, rejoice in that. That's an amazing thing that they're doing. They're really trying to take these teachings and put them into practice and do something with their minds. So it's like that. You still have a question. Report an error

1:56:27 I do. You have an unresolved doubt. I do. Well, because, you know, I was trying to think, well, you know, because, you know, you said we could do it every day, looking at people, you know, so I've been thinking, I've been rejoicing at, wow, doesn't she have nice thick hair, doesn't he have nice jeans, and I'm like, I don't know. Report an error

1:56:48 Well, you can do that if you think about the fact that those are karmic results. So that must mean that they did positive things in their past lives in order to get those things in this life. And that's a good way to keep from just criticizing, like when we criticize celebrities, you know, for their lives, rather than just thinking, wow, isn't it amazing that Angelique Jolie has this, you know, amazing beauty and this amazing celebrity and this amazing... Report an error

1:57:17 You know, fortune, good fortune, that she created that karmically. So not to just think she's some external thing out there independently being whatever and then just finding fault with her. Instead doing the opposite thing of thinking, oh, she karmically created this by, they say, good looks come from patience, from practicing patience. Report an error

1:57:40 You know, if she has money, which she does. Then that means she was generous. So then giving, so rejoicing in that rather than rejoicing in her thick luxurious hair. Rejoicing in the causes for that, which also gives you some sense of karma and thinking about how karma plays into it. So more like that. Okay, Report an error

1:58:03 that's where I was falling short. Yeah. It's a step though. Anybody else? Report an error

1:58:15 Nada? Report an error

1:58:23 So I ran into Jack Sonnen. Yes. Was he at the airport? No. I ran into Jack at the candlelight vigil. Oh, okay. And I don't know why we discussed it. I think he might have, they might have said, oh, you're teaching that class. Do you know what? No. And so he told me, he gave me a definition for Nirvāṇa. Report an error

1:58:48 And he said that that was when you don't have any more buttons to push. I like that. I like that too. That's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Report an error

1:59:04 What's saṃsāra? Oh, we knew saṃsāra. Well, we have when every button is pushable. Yeah, exactly. Saṃsāra we knew. Nirvāṇa that's the mystery. No, that's true. You have no buttons that push. Actually, I like sort of spending time with teachers like His Holiness or like Lama Zopa. And watching them in the experience of when a button could be pushed and isn't. Report an error

1:59:35 And that gives you some sort of faith that, oh it is possible to not get irritated. And in fact, to approach it in such a completely different way, irritated or whatever the affliction is, to approach it in such a different way that it actually is a delight. So somebody that seems almost like a heckler, for example. Report an error

1:59:57 They just are kind of thinking, well, how can I reach this person? Like they just, it's almost like a game. It's like it just becomes this delight of like, oh, great, here's somebody I can help. You know, it's more like that rather than, oh, you know, my thing is like, oh, somebody in the back row who's like going to point out that I don't have it, which is ego, right? Point out that I don't have any knowledge or point out, you know, where I'm short, I'm a lousy teacher or whatever, you know, because those are all my affliction states of mind, all my buttons being pushed. Report an error

2:00:24 They're just like, whoa, hey, I've got this great idea, I can try to help this person. So watching beings who even have any slight feeling might have these kind of attainments. Report an error

2:00:38 Watching them in action is pretty cool. Report an error

2:00:45 Okay, so just a reminder, the practice day is all day next Saturday, so not this coming Saturday, but next Saturday the 3rd. Report an error

2:00:57 And you guys all have presentation topics to look at, think about, and that's your main homework this time. I also am giving you that meditation that we did at the end of class last time, the one about dependent arising. My body is no more than a mountain of carrots and onions and potatoes and lamb. Federal Ravena is one on dependent arising, which I think is a kind of interesting meditation too. Report an error

2:01:24 But the main one is just to prepare something and don't make it all scary just to like just a little something that kind of wraps up the class in your mind and just picking something that is going to make you think so that you can present it. Do all of you think you can make it to that practice day? No. Should we come to you? Report an error

2:01:45 That sounds nice. Great. Do you have a big enough cabin? I mean, I'm 70. Report an error

2:01:49 happened? We'd be there! Perfect. Great. I like the way you think. Who else? Is everybody else able to come? Report an error

2:02:06 I know Alonzo's coming. I might create a diorama for 13. It's just coming to be a diorama. A diorama? Yeah. The characters in it. What's 13? What's 13? It's like our saṃsāra. There's a lot of places who go there. Report an error

2:02:27 Yeah, exactly. Oh, a living mandala. I love it. I think you do a play. Okay. So it starts at 10.30 on the 3rd and then depending on how many, Report an error

2:02:46 how does it go a little bit later? It should end by like... Also a reminder again about Rinpoche. If anybody wants to volunteer, I'm Report an error

2:03:01 plugging in. If any of you have told me that you could volunteer and you haven't heard back from me, Report an error

2:03:10 Venable Steve Carlier is coming on the 27th and the 3rd. Talking about karma, dependent on rising, and totally fun teacher in terms of just, I've never seen anybody teach like that before. Very relaxed, incredibly knowledgeable, he's been a monk for a billion years, studied at both Nalanda and, but for the longer time at Saraje in South India. Report an error

2:03:41 So he's debated it, he knows it inside and out, and it... And he is completely relaxed in the way he approaches it. So it's just a completely different way of teaching than I've ever seen. So that's on the 27th of May and the 3rd of June. Report an error

2:04:00 And then Transforming Problems into the Path is the next Discovering Buddhism class, and that starts on the 29th of May. And then on Tuesdays, that's Thursdays, and then on Tuesdays, the Wisdom of Adventism. Report an error

2:04:14 which begins on the tap and And Karen is going to start teaching Buddhism in a nutshell, which is an introductory course on Buddhism. And if you know anybody that wants a way in and has been looking for an introductory course, then please send them her way. And that starts next week. Next Tuesday. Four weeks. That's it. Okay. Alrighty. Report an error

2:04:45 So let's dedicate this class. We have to dedicate really well so that Matthew doesn't lose it all because he gets pissed on his way to Yosemite. Report an error

2:04:56 We're thinking of you. So let's do five hours of dedication. I am my teacher's student. So now we just dedicate any insights, any understandings, any blips. Report an error

2:05:17 we've gained throughout the course so not just in tonight's class but in any of the other classes and all the meditations and the contemplation in between and any of the readings we can dedicate it to each one of us having this experience of a direct perception of emptiness. Report an error

2:05:35 is the ticket out, really, the ticket out of Saṃsāra. Thank you for joining us today. And we also dedicate it to each of us always having the conditions that we need to be able to practice. Always having these perfect conditions. Report an error

2:05:57 And from these perfect conditions that we can become somebody who can benefit those beings around us. We really, really need it. Report an error

2:06:14 So we'll have to have Matthew here in effigy, I guess. I'd like to come later on to Matthew Saturday where I'm not invited and crash. There you go. And do a presentation anyway. Yeah, that worked. It's kind of like a little boom. He did that for the deaf class. And he did a presentation, too. Report an error

2:06:34 So here you go. Here's your homework. So should we rejoice that he has the pauses? To go to Yosemite? Yeah. Is that good? Yeah. It's a jurist trap. You can have one if you want, but everybody gets one. All the bears. I hear they're waking up early and getting hungry. Are you camping or are you in an hour? Cushy camping. Report an error

2:06:31 so it actually worked out. Report an error

2:07:01 Cushy camping? Oh, car camping? In a nice hotel. Oh, really cushy camping. Which hotel? I don't know. Is it inside the park? Yeah. Oh, that nice one, maybe not. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I know which one. Something like that. I think it is. Awani. Awani. We're not going there. We're not going there. That's Nirvāṇa. We're going to the SEMSAR and we're down the road. Report an error

2:07:30 It's 66. Awani? Report an error

2:07:32 There are no sleeping things in Yosemite. That's out on the other side. As if you go through on that route 120 and you hit the other side. Believe me, I went there one time. I was sleeping on, there was a lot of great camping on the top route. I think it is 120. I think I'll put it on pause. Yeah, you can. No, we can tell. We can try to give somebody stories online. Report an error

2:07:57 And it was totally freezing. And so we had to, we just couldn't even sleep. Report an error

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Talk by Lobsang Chokyi, recorded 24 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