Discovering Buddhism - Intro to Tantra (29 October 2008)

0:00 Transform this into enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:11 Okay, so we're going to do some prostrations. Report an error in the passage at 0:11 Highlight the passage at 0:11

0:16 Remembering that we're prostrating to the enlightened qualities of the Buddha that we want ourselves. We're also trying to cut any pride that might keep us from learning. Do Report an error in the passage at 0:16 Highlight the passage at 0:16

0:33 you have any favorites for qualities tonight? How about stability of mind, calmness, ability to accept problems as they arise. Report an error in the passage at 0:33 Highlight the passage at 0:33

0:44 Joy at all times. I come for all of those. Om Namo Maju Shriye, Namo Su Shriye, Namo Uttama Shriye, Soha. Om Namo Manju Shriye, Namo Shriye, Namo Uttama Shriye. Report an error in the passage at 0:44 Highlight the passage at 0:44

1:12 Namo Manjum Shri-eh, Namo Shri-eh, Namo Bhutama Shri-eh, Suha. Report an error in the passage at 1:12 Highlight the passage at 1:12

1:46 you a favorite bow? Could you give me that box of Kleenex? Report an error in the passage at 1:46 Highlight the passage at 1:46

1:56 So Report an error in the passage at 1:56 Highlight the passage at 1:56

2:02 not only was my computer, my email, my server was down, my printer is broken, and it was refusing to print to the other printer. And then I lost my flash drive. Report an error in the passage at 2:02 Highlight the passage at 2:02

2:18 I'm a little better now, and I have a migraine, so let's just see how many more things we can do. Maybe I'll break a leg tonight. Report an error in the passage at 2:18 Highlight the passage at 2:18

2:25 Get it all done, out of the way. Hey Joe, Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

2:32 you haven't missed anything. Come on in. All right, let's do a little, a short little meditation on the breath, just so you can humor me so that I can kind of go back to neutral. Report an error in the passage at 2:32 Highlight the passage at 2:32

2:46 And we'll set our motivation for tonight. Report an error in the passage at 2:46 Highlight the passage at 2:46

2:56 So just kind of take some nice deep cleansing breaths and let yourself arrive. You guys have probably already been here, so let me arrive. Report an error in the passage at 2:56 Highlight the passage at 2:56

3:09 I just... Imagine each out-breath letting go of everything that might keep you from being here, Report an error in the passage at 3:09 Highlight the passage at 3:09

3:20 and each in-breath bringing you more and more present. Report an error in the passage at 3:20 Highlight the passage at 3:20

3:34 Or just focus on a couple of rounds of just watching our breath. You can either do it at the level of your belly, which is my favorite flavor at this moment, or a little patch of skin inside your nostril, just focusing on the sensation of the breath. Report an error in the passage at 3:34 Highlight the passage at 3:34

3:55 Going out, coming back in. Every time your mind wanders off, just... Place it gently but firmly back on the breath. Report an error in the passage at 3:55 Highlight the passage at 3:55

· · · silence, 2 minutes

5:48 We'll set our motivation. Report an error in the passage at 5:48 Highlight the passage at 5:48

5:55 Really trying to get it, how amazing it is that we are still in this body for another day. We still have these amazing conditions. We have good teachers. We have this amazing center. Report an error in the passage at 5:55 Highlight the passage at 5:55

6:16 We have access to these teachings on Tantra. There's probably not so many people in the city of San Francisco tonight studying the world of Tantra. Report an error in the passage at 6:16 Highlight the passage at 6:16

6:36 We have, most of us, our health. Report an error in the passage at 6:36 Highlight the passage at 6:36

6:41 We have an inclination, some sort of thirst to follow this path. Report an error in the passage at 6:41 Highlight the passage at 6:41

6:55 So may whatever comes up tonight, may whatever we learn, may whatever insights we gain, whatever touches our heart, may it plant a seed that ripens as our own enlightenment, whichever path we decide to take so that we can benefit every living being without exception. Report an error in the passage at 6:55 Highlight the passage at 6:55

7:33 And then in your own time when you're ready, you can end your meditation and we'll do the opening prayer. Just do it once. Report an error in the passage at 7:33 Highlight the passage at 7:33

7:53 So it's on page 8 in the white book. Report an error in the passage at 7:53 Highlight the passage at 7:53

8:06 With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence. I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 8:06 Highlight the passage at 8:06

8:53 So I'm not going to start with a check-in, just because we've already lost a lot of time. But there will be time at the end, of course, for questions. I kind of just feel like I'd like to just launch in, if that's all right. And then if, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 8:53 Highlight the passage at 8:53

9:10 And we'll just sort of see how far we get. And, you know, we may not get through. I already thought it was an enormous amount to try to get through in one night anyway. And then, of course, we lost a half hour, so. Let's just see what happens. Report an error in the passage at 9:10 Highlight the passage at 9:10

9:28 But there will be time for you guys to ask questions for sure. Report an error in the passage at 9:28 Highlight the passage at 9:28

9:34 So I had just started at the end. Let me have some calming tea, Report an error in the passage at 9:34 Highlight the passage at 9:34

9:43 courtesy of Mary. Oh, she's done something to it. Looks like it has some soy milk in it. Perhaps she doesn't know that you don't do that with herbal tea. Anyway, the thought's there. I'll let it cool off. Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

10:01 So we had just started, the content of the last couple of classes was just sort of to begin to prepare us to discuss tantric methodology a little bit more. And hopefully you guys have started reading Lama Eshi's book, which is, I'm hearing from some of you that you have and that you're enjoying the reading. He is really, really great. Report an error in the passage at 10:01 Highlight the passage at 10:01

10:23 He's really accessible. Report an error in the passage at 10:23 Highlight the passage at 10:23

10:26 So, The one thing that we had just kind of started talking about when we began talking about the different types of refuge that you can take is this, we started talking about this idea of a Buddha nature, you know, what Buddha nature is, which is actually different in every lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, just to make it even more confusing, interestingly. Report an error in the passage at 10:26 Highlight the passage at 10:26

10:53 So I'm, of course, only going to speak from the Galukpa tradition. Report an error in the passage at 10:53 Highlight the passage at 10:53

10:59 But if we begin with that premise of Buddha nature, then what Lama Yeshe and what Tantra is telling us is that we can begin actualizing it in every moment. So it's like we are acting as if we're faking it until we make it. I mean, Tantra is a lot about faking it until we make it. So we're beginning to actualize our Buddha nature in the moment. Report an error in the passage at 10:59 Highlight the passage at 10:59

11:29 And every moment. And operating from that perspective. So all the enlightened qualities that we associate with enlightened mind, which we were just sort of prostrating to or attempting to, in some form are already in us. Not fully developed, but in some seed-like form. They are actually part of our Buddha nature. They are part of our potential. Report an error in the passage at 11:29 Highlight the passage at 11:29

12:02 And that's what kind of the good news is. It doesn't mean that we can just like kick back right now, you know, and take it easy. But it does mean that when we hit our sort of darkest moments, that it's something that we can hang on to. Report an error in the passage at 12:02 Highlight the passage at 12:02

12:19 Um, so... Report an error in the passage at 12:19 Highlight the passage at 12:19

12:26 Lama Yeshe actually calls it actualizing the positive. In other words, assuming that the positive is already there and actualizing it. And a lot of times when we're purifying, when we're doing purification techniques, that's actually what we're doing. It's not like we're, we sometimes tend to get into purification, and I do the same, a little too, I was never Catholic, but a little too Catholic. Report an error in the passage at 12:26 Highlight the passage at 12:26

12:51 We get out the scour brush, you know, and just like start. Getting rid of all the negative rather than focusing on actualizing the positive. And Tantra is more about that. Report an error in the passage at 12:51 Highlight the passage at 12:51

13:07 So when we actualize the positive, when we permeate our mind with positive thought, then there's no room for the negative. So it's a little bit more skillful means than feeling like we have to get rid of all the negative first. It doesn't mean that we don't get rid of the negative. It just means this is another technique to do simultaneously. So this is actually why tantra is so powerful and why it's so quick. Report an error in the passage at 13:07 Highlight the passage at 13:07

13:39 And at the end of a lot of those of you who have taken other classes with me. At the end of a lot of meditations and also on the Tuesday night drop-in and the Saturday drop-in, we end the meditation with imagining the enlightened being melting into light and absorbing into ourselves. Hopefully this sounds somewhat familiar to a few of you who have come. This is all about absorbing the qualities of the enlightened being. Report an error in the passage at 13:39 Highlight the passage at 13:39

14:12 So becoming one, or as Lama Yeshe always says in his way, union oneness with those qualities. And this is also another way of getting back in touch with our Buddha nature. Report an error in the passage at 14:12 Highlight the passage at 14:12

14:30 So, yeah, so what usually gets in the way, and I speak from personal experience as well, of this is... The tiny little mind, the little constricted view that we have of ourselves and everything around us. The way that we keep ourselves small, the concepts that we have about ourselves and the world and others around us that keep things both small and ordinary. Report an error in the passage at 14:30 Highlight the passage at 14:30

15:04 And so those are huge obstacles in Tantra, is keeping that little mind. And time and time again. We're going to run into that in this class, talking about these limiting concepts. So transformation is used in both Sūtra and Tantra, but in Tantra, it's used slightly differently. Tantra, in a way, is a little bit more like science in that fact. Report an error in the passage at 15:04 Highlight the passage at 15:04

15:38 it's sort of like energies uh can be transformed and be um And used in different ways, sort of like, you know, they say it's when you're using, think about alchemy or making medicine out of things that might be poisonous if they were used, just straightforward. Report an error in the passage at 15:38 Highlight the passage at 15:38

16:02 Nancy, do you want to come in? I know that's a scary seat, right? I promise I won't pick on you. Please feel free to come in. Report an error in the passage at 16:02 Highlight the passage at 16:02

16:15 So, um... So, we had just started to touch on this. I thought we'd start with that and then we get into renunciation, which is the first of the three principal paths. It's kind of fitting that we're going to talk a little bit about desire, which is, of course, the fuel of Tantra. And desire being, I mean, sometimes it's written desire attachment in Tibetan and I think in Sanskrit as well, which Tibetan is based on. Report an error in the passage at 16:15 Highlight the passage at 16:15

16:50 They have one word that actually refers to the same type of grasping attachment. We have a lot of different words, and for us a lot of times desire immediately brings up sexual desire. It doesn't as much bring up desire for tea. Report an error in the passage at 16:50 Highlight the passage at 16:50

17:14 We do use it that way sometimes, but not as often. or desire Report an error in the passage at 17:14 Highlight the passage at 17:14

17:19 So. So in Tibetan, it's so sometimes in English, you'll see desire slash attachment, and it's just to show that it's really referring to both. And I think anger is the same way, actually, although I haven't yet seen this. But often, it's really more like anger slash hatred, you know, anger, if taken to a more extreme form becomes hatred. Report an error in the passage at 17:19 Highlight the passage at 17:19

17:46 And in Tibetan, it actually tends to mean It's very close. It's sort of like this wider range of possibilities than either anger or hatred. So Lama Yashi actually goes into a story from the sutras at the time of the Buddha's enlightenment where he had started practicing a really ascetic path. And he practiced this for six years and you see there's all these... Report an error in the passage at 17:46 Highlight the passage at 17:46

18:19 Drawings of him at that time where he had basically become just like a skeleton. And he began realizing that it wasn't, all it was doing was making it really hard for him to meditate. Report an error in the passage at 18:19 Highlight the passage at 18:19

18:32 So it wasn't working for him. And so he had this insight and so he decided that he needed to eat. He decided that he needed to find some sort of a middle way approach. And so there was a young girl whose name was Sujatha who came and offered him this boiled milk and rice dish. And he ate it. And not only did he find that it sort of gave him energy, which of course made sense at that point because his body was so depleted, because he had also been fasting quite a bit and living on the essence of plants and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 18:32 Highlight the passage at 18:32

19:14 It also, of course, brought new clarity to his mind and to his meditation. It also filled him with bliss. He also had this reaction where it filled him with bliss. And the change that allowed him in his practice, he actually went on to attain enlightenment within that evening. It was like a long evening, but it was definitely that evening. Report an error in the passage at 19:14 Highlight the passage at 19:14

19:41 so From the tantric perspective, this is sort of one of the stories that sort of shows the proof that it's possible to utilize pleasure and even desire in the fact that his body was needing, was attached to the food, to that sense, rather than this path of self-mortification or denial that a lot of... Report an error in the passage at 19:41 Highlight the passage at 19:41

20:10 That, you know, a lot of Western religions actually preach. So Lamieshi is really big on saying this is not the pro, you know, this denial approach is not the way that we go into Buddhism and it's definitely not the way we go into Tantra. Report an error in the passage at 20:10 Highlight the passage at 20:10

20:30 Thank you, Viela. It's my little angel. Report an error in the passage at 20:30 Highlight the passage at 20:30

20:42 Works a little bit with soy milk. Report an error in the passage at 20:42 Highlight the passage at 20:42

20:50 Give me some milk. Report an error in the passage at 20:50 Highlight the passage at 20:50

20:56 So he said actually, and this is I think really, really important, and it's an idea that he brings up in his book, and I think it was like the first time that I read, or maybe the second or third time that I read it, I began to get that I had never heard that before. Report an error in the passage at 20:56 Highlight the passage at 20:56

21:14 He talks about how often when we encounter desire or attachment to things, our immediate response is to grasp. And it's also to go slightly, what's the right word, less aware, to lose our awareness, to lose our clarity. Think about a really good massage, right? Or if anybody does yoga, you know when we go and do the corpse position? We're actually supposed to stay really focused. Report an error in the passage at 21:14 Highlight the passage at 21:14

21:47 We're not supposed to go to sleep. We're supposed to be really focused on relaxing. But most of us use it as a great time out, you know, and then all of a sudden like five minutes goes by and the teacher's like, okay, that's it, you know, or sit up again, you know, and we'll do namaste. Report an error in the passage at 21:47 Highlight the passage at 21:47

22:07 Most of the time when we experience pleasure, especially if that pleasure is something that we desire. And of course, sexual pleasure is a really good example too. But I think there are loads of others. A good bath could be it too. We go from that place of desire attachment immediately into sort of a less conscious state and sort of grasping for more. Report an error in the passage at 22:07 Highlight the passage at 22:07

22:36 The goal is to be able to keep the mind continuously and as clear and concentrated yet blissful. Condition as possible without following those habits of grasping for more. And that's why tantra is such an advanced practice. Most of us, Lama Yeshe says, the point is how much, how does he say it? How much desire can you experience without going berserk? And you have to be honest with yourself. Most of us can't even experience a really good piece of gone chocolate cake without going berserk. Report an error in the passage at 22:36 Highlight the passage at 22:36

23:16 So, you know, so we just have to work on our relationship with desire and our clarity of mind and those sort of things. So there are preliminary practices that we have to go through. Report an error in the passage at 23:16 Highlight the passage at 23:16

23:28 But I think it's interesting at our level to start noticing what happens in your mind when you experience any kind of desire and how habitual it is to just immediately bypass clear awareness of it into... You know, basically almost like a drunkenness, you know, getting drunk on it. It really makes you, when you first begin noticing it, it really makes you feel like an animal. Report an error in the passage at 23:28 Highlight the passage at 23:28

23:56 You're like, oh God, do I do this all the time? I mean, that's why they say this realm that we are in right now, that humans are in, animals are in, this is called the desire realm. This is like a realm that is permeated with desire. This is what our main focus is. You know, so it's actually we're going against the grain to even not want to just get sucked into it. And it's not so surprising that basically we're all, as Venerable Bino puts it so kindly, addicts. Report an error in the passage at 23:56 Highlight the passage at 23:56

24:27 It's just a matter of degree. Report an error in the passage at 24:27 Highlight the passage at 24:27

24:32 It's not a surprise. I mean, really, this is just kind of what our minds karmically are made of. We have created them, but this is kind of this is what the reason. agree. Report an error in the passage at 24:32 Highlight the passage at 24:32

24:42 um, So that sort of grasping and blindly sinking into it is a huge obstacle in Tantra. We won't be able to get very far. The other thing, of course, that we do is immediately become bored or dissatisfied with whatever at one point attracted us. Report an error in the passage at 24:42 Highlight the passage at 24:42

25:05 So that's another thing we have to work on. So these are different methods of working with desire in Tantra. Buddha... Taught in Lama as she seconds it that we actually have the capacity to enjoy limitless happiness while remaining completely free of any kind of of the delusions that normally come up in our minds when we're experiencing that happiness normally. Report an error in the passage at 25:05 Highlight the passage at 25:05

25:34 And he keeps underscoring there's absolutely nothing wrong with pursuing pleasure. There's nothing wrong with experiencing pleasure because we always go the opposite. You know, then we become really. Um. Report an error in the passage at 25:34 Highlight the passage at 25:34

25:43 You know, like, you know, I always think of the way Roland used to put it. Roland used to live and work here at the center. He would always be like, you know, don't go all Catholic on me. But yet he would always go very Catholic. We always go very Catholic. We immediately think if I'm on the Buddhist path and I, you know, I want to follow this path and that means I can't have any pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 25:43 Highlight the passage at 25:43

26:10 And then I, you know, I have to not, you know, I have to. I changed my relationship with food. I have to give up this. I have to give up this. I have to give up this, which is why I think it's quite interesting that we're also going to talk about renunciation tonight. Report an error in the passage at 26:10 Highlight the passage at 26:10

26:25 Lama Yashi's big, big underscored lesson is actually you don't have to give up anything. What you have to do is change your relationship with it. You have to change how you relate to things, which, of course, has to ultimately come from having understanding. And especially developing our wisdom, especially understanding emptiness, how things actually exist. Report an error in the passage at 26:25 Highlight the passage at 26:25

26:52 So otherwise, we keep seeing things out there as like existing in this really solid, juicy, exciting way and keep grasping at it. And, you know, it's, you know, we stay in the same boat. We never are able to. To transcend that state of mind, we're never able to transform that state of mind. But if we are able to start changing our relationship, then basically anything all day long can become part of our path. Report an error in the passage at 26:52 Highlight the passage at 26:52

27:27 Even going to sleep can become part of our path. And tantra is actually big on all these different yogas that you can do, not just sitting on the cushion, but eating, sleeping. Walking and all this stuff, these different yogas. Report an error in the passage at 27:27 Highlight the passage at 27:27

27:47 So Tantra is, part of what Tantra does is show us how with these different methodologies that have been passed down for generations to generation, they show us how to activate the sort of deeper levels of bliss than we've ever experienced through our ordinary senses. Report an error in the passage at 27:47 Highlight the passage at 27:47

28:14 And Lama Eshi is really big on saying, you know, we try to imagine like the most incredible bliss we've ever had through our bodies and we just limit ourselves that way because actually it's possible through transcending the sort of mundane ordinary that we can experience more bliss through our minds than we can even imagine. Report an error in the passage at 28:14 Highlight the passage at 28:14

28:39 And we just keep ourselves really tiny, you know. It's like trying to explain, trying to think of something to a little three-year-old, you know, and we're the three-year-old, you know, and we have this really tiny view of what's even possible for ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 28:39 Highlight the passage at 28:39

28:57 But these masters have experienced it and they're here to tell us they're like, no, you guys are really, really keeping yourselves tiny. Um, so Report an error in the passage at 28:57 Highlight the passage at 28:57

29:10 Probably most of us have seen the different images and the tankas of male and female Buddhas in embrace. And a lot of those were misunderstood when original explorers went into Tibet. What those images are actually referring to is kind of twofold. One is the... Report an error in the passage at 29:10 Highlight the passage at 29:10

29:38 Unification of our own male and female. Because within Tantra actually it's taught that we all have both male and female energies that are at this point not unified. But also it's talking about the union of bliss and emptiness. The male being bliss and the female being emptiness. And that's the ultimate version of what those images are depicting. Report an error in the passage at 29:38 Highlight the passage at 29:38

30:10 So if we keep seeing them at a level of, you know, ordinary sense desire, then we completely, as Rubina always says, miss the plot. We're not seeing at all the potential that those images are actually showing us. And sometimes, and Lama Eshi points this out, sometimes just by seeing those images, We can begin to restore the unification of our own male and female energies just by letting our minds go and not overanalyzing it so much. Report an error in the passage at 30:10 Highlight the passage at 30:10

30:51 So the other important thing to say is that ordinary attachment and ordinary hatred or ordinary anger are never... Paths to enlightenment. So it's only when they can be transformed. They are the fuel. You know, they use that story or that expression of the worm that's born from the wood, consuming the wood that it was born from. Report an error in the passage at 30:51 Highlight the passage at 30:51

31:28 So it becomes the fuel, but then it's destroyed, you know. So if we keep it at the ordinary level, it'll never do its work. It's like eating the poison. It's just like eating the poison. So it never actually becomes the medicine. Report an error in the passage at 31:28 Highlight the passage at 31:28

31:50 So it is just really, really important to underscore that Tantra doesn't mean just indiscriminately following all of your desires. Just want to get that one out there. Report an error in the passage at 31:50 Highlight the passage at 31:50

32:03 There is a method. And we have to do, of course, the work in our mind or it won't work at all. Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:35 The state of mind of bliss, they say, as our mind goes into a state of bliss, it becomes more and more and more subtle. And it's with that subtlety or that subtle level of mind that we are able... So, um... Report an error in the passage at 32:35 Highlight the passage at 32:35

· · · silence, 1 minute

32:56 To go deeper and deeper into emptiness. And without it, we get caught up with, you know, in our gross mind, we get caught up in the concepts and it blocks us. And so this is why the union of bliss and emptiness is so important. We aren't just experiencing bliss for the hell of it. We're using that blissful state of mind to make our mind more and more and more subtle so that we can actually You know, go deeply into profound teachings of emptiness without continually stopping ourselves. So I think that one's really important to understand, too, because a lot of times I think people just get caught up in experiencing the bliss. Report an error in the passage at 32:56 Highlight the passage at 32:56

33:48 And this actually comes up in the sūtra too. In the upper levels, there are more advanced stages of meditation. Actually, when you are attaining calm abiding or sine in Tibetan or shamatha in Sanskrit, Report an error in the passage at 33:48 Highlight the passage at 33:48

34:08 when you actually attain the level of calm abiding, which we need to directly perceive emptiness, both sūtra and tantra, one of the One of the signs to know you've got it, just in case you're close and you want to make sure, is that you experience both physical and mental bliss. So not only are you able to, the ninth level I think of the absorptions, the nine absorptions, is that you're able to keep your mind single pointedly on the object for as long as you want, but at least minimum of four hours without movement. Report an error in the passage at 34:08 Highlight the passage at 34:08

34:50 But even then, you haven't attained it yet. What shows you that you've attained it is experiencing this physical and mental bliss. Report an error in the passage at 34:50 Highlight the passage at 34:50

35:00 And then you know you've got it. Then you can get up and go tell your teacher. Report an error in the passage at 35:00 Highlight the passage at 35:00

35:08 But up until then, you still experience little moments of bliss in higher levels of meditation. And they often caution us. Um, so Report an error in the passage at 35:08 Highlight the passage at 35:08

35:20 I say us incredibly loosely, but they often caution students in meditation not to get too hung up on those moments of bliss, which of course can come early if we have past life imprints, and not to get too hung up with any of the other attainments that are by the way, you know, experienced, some of which are, you know, levitation and the ability to read people's minds and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 35:20 Highlight the passage at 35:20

35:50 Because we'll stop, we won't keep progressing. The point of calm abiding is simply to have the tool with which to directly perceive emptiness. Calm abiding in itself, of course, is really wonderful, but they keep saying, no, no, no, don't get distracted. You know, there's that line, don't get distracted, don't get distracted. Report an error in the passage at 35:50 Highlight the passage at 35:50

36:11 Because it's so easy, especially in the desire realm, for us to get distracted by blissful states. So that one keeps coming up. And that's in sūtra teachings. In tantra, we actually use the visualizations that we're taught in the sadhanas and in the practices. That's what we actually use to attain calm abiding. So it's not like we bypass attaining calm abiding. We just use different methods. So instead of focusing on our breath or focusing on a stone, as they do in the Kagyu tradition. Report an error in the passage at 36:11 Highlight the passage at 36:11

36:48 We focus on our yidam, you know, and it's actually something far more exciting about that imagery that kind of keeps our attention a little bit more, according to some of the tantras. Report an error in the passage at 36:48 Highlight the passage at 36:48

37:06 So the other thing that happens is in that feeling of bliss or the experience of bliss that we cultivate in our minds, we're able to... Overcome those limitations or those limited states of ourselves or limited views of ourselves and we're able to sort of transcend them. Because normally ordinary desire sort of narrows our mind, it constricts, it tightens. Whereas, you know, because we want, we want, you know, that's our normal response, right? Report an error in the passage at 37:06 Highlight the passage at 37:06

37:46 If something's really, really tasty, we want more of it. So we get like kind of more. Kind of like the old bag lady or something, like pulling it out closer to us. And just watch yourself over the next week, anytime you feel desire. Report an error in the passage at 37:46 Highlight the passage at 37:46

38:01 Bliss, on the other hand, and if you've ever experienced, even a tiny bit in a meditation on, for example, bodhicitta or opening your heart or like that, you know, that feeling of when you're sending out light or energy or wanting to help others, like in Tonglen. If anybody has experienced that, the taking and giving, that is one of the steps to generate the mind of bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 38:01 Highlight the passage at 38:01

38:29 It's incredibly blissful, but your feeling is open and clarity. It's not that sort of sluggish, drunken tightness. Hopefully. Chris looks a little like maybe. Report an error in the passage at 38:29 Highlight the passage at 38:29

38:51 Maybe he's just trying to remember what it was. Yeah, no, you guys have been like building doors and things all day. I know I saw you guys. Report an error in the passage at 38:51 Highlight the passage at 38:51

39:02 So anyway, so we should just kind of notice now what our normal pleasure, our normal relationship with pleasure is, our normal reaction when we experience happiness or bliss or joy. Report an error in the passage at 39:02 Highlight the passage at 39:02

39:21 In our normal relationship with it. Because in Tantra we definitely are trying to experience bliss with wisdom. The two together. Always in the same mind. And they say that's what makes Tantra the fast path. Because both of those minds exist simultaneously. And that's what helps us get enlightened faster. Report an error in the passage at 39:21 Highlight the passage at 39:21

39:57 Yeah, so there are four classes of Tantra. I'm going to just really quick give you a list and then we'll take a couple questions and then we'll go into the three principal paths again and renunciation. So there are four classes of Tantra I think probably many of you already know. Action, sometimes called Kriya in Sanskrit. Report an error in the passage at 39:57 Highlight the passage at 39:57

40:19 Performance, yoga and highest yoga. know. Report an error in the passage at 40:19 Highlight the passage at 40:19

40:26 Highest yoga is the one with the most commitments. That's how they're kind of known sometimes. But the way that they are broken down into four classes, what differentiates them is from the point of view of the practitioner. Report an error in the passage at 40:26 Highlight the passage at 40:26

40:45 It's the intensity of the desirous energy that the practitioner is skilled enough to use, to direct. Into that spiritual path. So the first action is somebody who is able to use and transform the blissful energy that arises from merely looking at something attractive or in this case an attractive partner. Report an error in the passage at 40:45 Highlight the passage at 40:45

41:11 So just from sight. Kriya Tantra also, and we won't get into so much of the details of these various paths. Partly because we can't. But Kriya Tantra also is known more for things being more external. So really having to keep very clean, for example, watching the foods that one eats and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 41:11 Highlight the passage at 41:11

41:44 Performance Tantra. And most of what we see now, like advertised as tantra, is usually this first one, action, or the very last one, highest yoga. We don't see so much of performance and yoga tantra anymore in the West, I should say. They just aren't coming over. It's like the first or the highest. Those are like your choices. Report an error in the passage at 41:44 Highlight the passage at 41:44

42:11 Performance Tantra, the practitioner is one who's able to use and transform the blissful energy that arises from exchanging smiles or laughter. Report an error in the passage at 42:11 Highlight the passage at 42:11

42:23 Yoga Tantra is somebody who's able to transform the blissful energy that arises from holding hands or embracing. It just sounds so cute. And highest Yoga Tantra is somebody who's able to transform the energy from the sexual union itself. I don't know, somehow. Report an error in the passage at 42:23 Highlight the passage at 42:23

42:42 Either through visualizing it or through actually having it, which is why some practitioners do consort practice and then some visualize consorts. Report an error in the passage at 42:42 Highlight the passage at 42:42

42:57 So let's take some questions if you have any here and then otherwise I'm going to go into sort of a slightly different direction so it feels like a good time. Report an error in the passage at 42:57 Highlight the passage at 42:57

43:09 Yeah, you should. Report an error in the passage at 43:09 Highlight the passage at 43:09

43:16 Jane's like on duty all through the class, even when she's attending. Report an error in the passage at 43:16 Highlight the passage at 43:16

43:27 She had such power to her. Yeah. If this is something that you're going to cover in detail later, then the question can wait. I'm sure, yeah. I'm just curious what is meant by male and female energy. Yeah. Actually, that's a good question, and I'm not so much going to. cover it later, so I'm not entirely sure. Report an error in the passage at 43:27 Highlight the passage at 43:27

43:50 I mean, it seems like you're doing a lot of different things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not so sure. I mean, they always say, actually, that the Buddhas, despite how they're sometimes drawn, that there really is no male and no female, that they're both, they're unified, which is sometimes why, even when you're describing... Report an error in the passage at 43:50 Highlight the passage at 43:50

44:09 We don't have one in here, but... A deity who is in union with a consort. You often don't hear much about the consort because she's actually part of him unless it's a she and then it's part of her. Report an error in the passage at 44:09 Highlight the passage at 44:09

44:26 And they're both, if you are rising as a deity, they are both you. It's not like you get to, it's not like I'm him today and then tomorrow I'm her. Report an error in the passage at 44:26 Highlight the passage at 44:26

44:36 It's not like that. So they really say that there is, but I don't know exactly what. What energies they are. Yeah, I mean, well, you know, if femininity is associated with wisdom and masculinity or male energy with bliss, then it seems like it could be a union of those two conceptual things. Report an error in the passage at 44:36 Highlight the passage at 44:36

44:57 Probably those two experiences, not so much the conceptual things. Yeah, yeah. But I don't know. I mean, I don't think it's necessarily what we consider male and female in this one particular culture, because, of course, that would be different in the other cultures it's passed through. Report an error in the passage at 44:57 Highlight the passage at 44:57

45:15 Yeah, just it came up in the reading. I just I wondered exactly what was. Yeah. And you know what I think would be kind of interesting that we could do is is catalog some of these questions. And then maybe when Geshele gets back, maybe as a group, we could actually ask him to come. I don't know. He might just say, I can't talk about that. And then we'd have to just accept that. Report an error in the passage at 45:15 Highlight the passage at 45:15

45:35 But I'm sure some of these questions he probably could to some degree. So. And it might be totally surprising because sometimes when you're coming from a whole different culture, he makes these assumptions that we all are on the same page and he'll be like, you know, so it might be like, I don't know what, you know, he might just say, you know, I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 45:35 Highlight the passage at 45:35

45:56 So it could be interesting. It also seemed kind of like it might just mean sort of a non-dualistic like union of opposites thing. Union, kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It could be. Yeah. So I'm not so sure. Sorry about that. Oh, that's okay. Anybody else? Yeah. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Mike's coming. Report an error in the passage at 45:56 Highlight the passage at 45:56

46:20 It was from page 23, 22. Yes, she's talking about unrealistic, you know, going to misery when you build up somebody. Wait, say that again. Say that again. Sorry. Would we experience such intense agitation if we did not hold? The unrealistic expectations that we do. He's talking about when we say, oh, somebody's really cool or really attractive and then we lay way beyond. Report an error in the passage at 46:20 Highlight the passage at 46:20

46:50 And I wondered, how do you think about your guru? Because you do that. Yeah, we get caught up with this idea of attachment because we only have one word for attachment. Here they're really talking about afflicted attachment. It's not talking about all attachment because like attachment for a mother for a kid is also quite useful to a degree I suppose when the kid's 30 it's not as useful but definitely when that kid's a baby it's necessary for that baby's survival. Report an error in the passage at 46:50 Highlight the passage at 46:50

47:21 So here it's talking about afflictive attachment and one of the qualities of that type of attachment is that we do exaggerate. We exaggerate the qualities of whatever the object whether it's chocolate cake or whether it's your best friend or your... You know, new squeeze, whatever. It was saying that you have to see the guru is perfect. Report an error in the passage at 47:21 Highlight the passage at 47:21

47:45 Only after you've checked up. Yeah. No, because part of that is your mind training because you're trying not to focus so much on the faults. It's to protect your mind of anybody. You're just starting with him or her. You know, ultimately you're also going to try to look past, not to not work on your faults, but not to focus on them so hard. Not to focus so much on your Dharma friend's faults. Report an error in the passage at 47:45 Highlight the passage at 47:45

48:11 So there are vows, you know, to not criticize and things like that. And it's mostly to protect our mind from this ordinary view, because that's such an obstacle for us getting enlightened with this method. Report an error in the passage at 48:11 Highlight the passage at 48:11

48:24 But with Guru Devotion... Um. Report an error in the passage at 48:24 Highlight the passage at 48:24

48:27 All of the teachings of Guru Devotion actually do come from Tantra. The underlying teaching of Guru Devotion is that you have to spend a really long time checking up, making sure that this teacher is who you want, the person or the being who will lead you to enlightenment. So the onus is on you. Then you check, you check, you check in all the ways that they show you in the lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 48:27 Highlight the passage at 48:27

48:57 And then you make a decision whether or not this person is the one that you're going to follow. And I'm talking about a root guru. I'm not necessarily talking about a teacher that you might receive instructions from in a Dharma center or something like that. Definitely not speaking about me. And I'm talking about somebody that you would spend as... Report an error in the passage at 48:57 Highlight the passage at 48:57

49:17 And they say in the Lamrim, or as His Holiness often advises, 12 years or a really long time checking up on this person. And then once you have made that decision, then you spend quite a bit of time trying to train yourself to be able to see the qualities of this being, you know, and to actually to cultivate devotion. Report an error in the passage at 49:17 Highlight the passage at 49:17

49:41 Because they say that's actually the hardest of all the Lamrim topics, bar none. Direct perception of emptiness to be able to cultivate this mind of devotion towards the guru. And so it's an action that we do. It's like something we work on. It's not something that just comes naturally. Although you hear some people when the moment they hear their guru's name, they like burst into tears or something. Report an error in the passage at 49:41 Highlight the passage at 49:41

50:10 I didn't have that experience. You know, I like saw Rinpoche teach and I thought he was interesting and then I didn't. I received another teaching for years from him, at least a few years. And Rubina tells these stories too for her. It wasn't like that for her, you know. But we all, I mean, I've definitely known of people that were like that. They just saw an article about somebody and they knew that that was their teacher or something like that, you know. Report an error in the passage at 50:10 Highlight the passage at 50:10

50:37 I guess it must be strong imprints from the last life. That's all I can figure. Report an error in the passage at 50:37 Highlight the passage at 50:37

50:44 Yeah, so with Guru Devotion, it is a tricky thing, and especially tricky with Westerners, but it's really more about the same ideas that we talk about in mind training, but we're just focusing on our teacher once we've decided that person is our teacher, and nobody's forcing us. Report an error in the passage at 50:44 Highlight the passage at 50:44

51:03 The problem with Westerners, I think, a lot of times is that the looking for the teacher, I think, is where that kind of attachment can come up. Report an error in the passage at 51:03 Highlight the passage at 51:03

51:14 And that's where we have to be careful because if we're exaggerating the qualities of that teacher, then we won't be able to see clearly whether or not this person is the one that can shift our mind the most, which is how they describe a root guru. The one who can shift our mind the most. Or we decide we want to do it too quickly, you know, because we want to get going, you know. Report an error in the passage at 51:14 Highlight the passage at 51:14

51:41 That comes up a lot and that's where I think it can turn into that ordinary attachment. Yeah. You want to pass it to Claudia? I Report an error in the passage at 51:41 Highlight the passage at 51:41

51:56 just have a question about what you just said about the person who can shift your mind the most. So say you're hearing a teaching by a teacher who's doing some teaching on someone, another teacher who is dead. Report an error in the passage at 51:56 Highlight the passage at 51:56

52:19 But, you know, who gets the credit in a sense for shifting your mind the most? The person who's, you know, able to bring it through in a way that shifts your mind. Probably that teacher, to be honest, but not always. Yeah, it's probably... It would be kind of rough, I think, to have your guru. I mean, for all of us at some point, our gurus will pass. And that's, I can't even imagine. Report an error in the passage at 52:19 Highlight the passage at 52:19

52:51 I mean, I've already lost two of my gurus and it's just so horrifying. I can't imagine what it will be like to lose a root guru. But to choose one who's already passed, which seems like, it seems like when you're, if you want somebody who can... I mean, it's not impossible because, you know, Manjushri was, I mean, I think they normally think of it, Manjushri was Sankapa's root guru. Report an error in the passage at 52:51 Highlight the passage at 52:51

53:21 He had such high-level attainments that Manjushri would appear to him the way, you know, Geshe-la does for us or something. Actually, better because all the other people aren't there. Just one-on-one to give him personal instruction. Report an error in the passage at 53:21 Highlight the passage at 53:21

53:39 And you hear that kind of thing. But that's a Buddha. It's not a Lama that's passed away. So I think, yeah. But it's a good point. I mean, it's... But I still think the teacher is the one who's interpreting those teachings in a way that's moving your mind. So I think it is still the teacher that's in front of you. Report an error in the passage at 53:39 Highlight the passage at 53:39

54:00 That's really the role of the teacher. Because without the teacher, we aren't able to... They say, that's why we can't just read a book and get enlightened. We need it to go through the magnifying glass of the teacher in order to catch fire in our hearts and our minds. Because otherwise it stays kind of dry and intellectual. Report an error in the passage at 54:00 Highlight the passage at 54:00

54:20 And they embody it all in a way that really excites us. So I think it's the living one right in front of you. I mean, not me, but somebody else. Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 54:20 Highlight the passage at 54:20

54:39 Okay, let's talk a little bit about, let's go the opposite now, talking about renunciation. We're going to talk a little bit about, you know, they say that the three principle paths, and we talked a little bit about what those are. Report an error in the passage at 54:39 Highlight the passage at 54:39

54:53 Renunciation, bodhicitta and the correct view of emptiness are not just preparations for our mind, but prerequisites to studying Tantra. So the next few classes we're going to talk about, What these three are and why it would be that they would be prerequisites. And they say, too, that, yeah, it's, I mean, he's, Lama, yes, he's really easygoing about this. Report an error in the passage at 54:53 Highlight the passage at 54:53

55:24 And he's sort of like, you know, if you wait until you have mastered them all, then you'll never be able to do anything, which, of course, we all like, right? Report an error in the passage at 55:24 Highlight the passage at 55:24

55:33 But they actually say that, of course, it's best, and traditionally it was best, to actually generate the minds of renunciation, bodhicitta and the correct view of emptiness, or to have a direct realization of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 55:33 Highlight the passage at 55:33

55:53 So, Pabanka Rinpoche says, and he's the one who, for anyone who may have forgotten, he's the one who... He wrote Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, or rather that was turned into Liberation, his teaching, his public teaching was turned into Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, which is a commentary on the lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 55:53 Highlight the passage at 55:53

56:12 He said there's no way, and this is from, there's a very short, very brief lamrim. That's just like a page and a half. And he said, there's no way to turn your mind to spiritual practice unless you have renunciation from the very first. And there's no way for this practice to serve as the path of the greater way unless you have the desire to become a Buddha for the sake of every living being, which is bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 56:12 Highlight the passage at 56:12

56:38 And there's no way to rid yourself totally of the two obstacles unless you have the correct view. This is why these three attitudes were taught to be the three principal paths. They're principle. They're very, very important. So if we have these three and they pervade our mind, in other words, they are actual generations of these minds, then everything we do becomes spiritual practice. Report an error in the passage at 56:38 Highlight the passage at 56:38

57:09 But without them, it just looks like we're doing spiritual practice. But our minds aren't really participating in the spiritual practice. Report an error in the passage at 57:09 Highlight the passage at 57:09

57:21 So we want to just review them a little bit and look at them in a new way, especially in the way that Lama Yeshe teaches them, which is slightly different, as is usual for him. Renunciation is defined as having a disgust with this life, which sounds very heavy. Report an error in the passage at 57:21 Highlight the passage at 57:21

57:41 I mean, actually, Lama Zopa goes into it in great detail, which he's sort of like, it's like you're floating in a septic tank and all this stuff, you know. Report an error in the passage at 57:41 Highlight the passage at 57:41

57:51 I often will call it getting fed up with this life, but they say it's not quite enough. I mean, you have to actually get it that not just that this life... Report an error in the passage at 57:51 Highlight the passage at 57:51

58:07 Isn't going to lead us where we want to go if where we want to go is perfected mind of a Buddha and enlightenment. But also we have to get it that those things exist. So we have to know what the goal is. Otherwise, just being fed up with this life, we all get fed up with this life. If we ever go through a really, really hard time of like losing someone to death or something like that, we get totally fed up with this life. Report an error in the passage at 58:07 Highlight the passage at 58:07

58:33 I often feel like that was the... The biggest lesson that my mother's death taught me is that saṃsāra is just, it leads you nowhere, you know. But that's not enough unless you then couple that with, but what else is there? You know, there is fortunately something beyond saṃsāra. Otherwise it would just be depressing, you know. There would be no purpose in getting fed up with this life or finding huge disgust with it. Report an error in the passage at 58:33 Highlight the passage at 58:33

59:02 Um, so, um... We have to get it that it's possible to have an existence that isn't controlled by our karma and delusions, which is what we're controlled by now. At this point, we're at the mercy of. We don't have any control over them. And that is liberation or nirvāṇa and ultimately full enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 59:02 Highlight the passage at 59:02

59:27 And with all of these things, it's not just understanding the words. It's actually generating that state of mind. So we have to understand that, and this is true for the entire graduated path. Sometimes people will feel that they've gotten the whole lamrim and actually all they've gotten is an intellectual understanding of it. Report an error in the passage at 59:27 Highlight the passage at 59:27

59:47 It's really, really different to have it steep your mind so thoroughly that you change how you act and what you do and what your goals are and how you live. So you push yourself past the sort of way that we normally live. Report an error in the passage at 59:47 Highlight the passage at 59:47

1:00:07 bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is defined as the mind that wants to become a Buddha for the benefit of all beings. So again, it's not just, oh, wouldn't that be nice? You know, it's generating this mind that night and day, they always say. It's always that, you know, night and day. Wants to become a Buddha for the benefit of all beings. In other words, finds the suffering of others so unbearable that Buddhahood is the best method to help all living beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:07 Highlight the passage at 1:00:07

1:00:41 So it's a pretty high octane kind of a mind. It's huge. It's caring about every living being more than we actually care about ourselves. I think I can say that in the West. More than you care about. Whoever it is that you love the most. So you fill in the blank and then imagine that times not just the humans of the world but all living beings without exception. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:41 Highlight the passage at 1:00:41

1:01:09 So it's all humans, all insects, the non-human beings that we only hear about and don't even fully believe in yet. It's loving all of them with a love stronger than you can even imagine. So bodhicitta is huge. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:09 Highlight the passage at 1:01:09

1:01:26 And the correct view of emptiness is the mind that realizes basically that things don't exist the way that they seem to, according to our sense perceptions, that they are empty of existing in that way. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:26 Highlight the passage at 1:01:26

1:01:42 It doesn't mean that things are, that nothing exists. It doesn't mean that things are like space. All those weird things that we try to make emptiness mean. Emptiness just means that things are empty of existing in the solid, you know, out there, dualistic way that things appear to exist. Concrete, permanent, non-changing way that it seems like things exist. Ourselves included. But we're going to spend more time on emptiness in a couple weeks. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:42 Highlight the passage at 1:01:42

1:02:19 Next week we'll spend more time on bodhicitta. Yeah, do you want to give her the mic? So, renunciation bodhicitta. Now, I was thinking about the tantra and putting yourself as if it's already happened. And that makes sense because a lot of research shows, you know the whole thing about writing your goals, you're supposed to be shown that. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:19 Highlight the passage at 1:02:19

1:02:48 You write them in the present tense. Yeah, if you look at any athlete, they're actually doing tantric methods. Imagining themselves not just winning but feeling the goal going around their neck. And being there. So when you say the way you said it about bodhicitta, getting there, why not say right then and there like you are bodhicitta? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:48 Highlight the passage at 1:02:48

1:03:12 Well, the methodology is to fake it till you make it, but then ultimately that's generation stage, completion stage, we actually become Buddhists. So it's only going to take you so far to say affirmations are not tantra. They're part of the methodology in terms of starting to see ourselves as enlightened and starting to see the purity and all that and everyone around us and everything around us. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:12 Highlight the passage at 1:03:12

1:03:38 But that's only half the battle. Completion stage is actually where the practices we do work on the subtle level in our body, our minds and actually turn us into a Buddha. The beginning we're just, that's where we're doing the fake until you make it. So it's not quite enough to just say I already have bodhicitta. If I don't, because my mind won't actually be working on the same level. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:38 Highlight the passage at 1:03:38

1:04:02 If I actually generate genuine bodhicitta, I literally have this I desire 24 hours a day without a break to work for the benefit of all beings. And so it's like a fuel for my practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:02 Highlight the passage at 1:04:02

1:04:20 We're going to get into this next week, but this is where the energy of practice comes from, I think. You know, when you see practitioners like His Holiness and Lama Zopa Rinpoche who are willing to just work around the clock for others and never even think about taking a holiday. You know, it's just not even in their minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:20 Highlight the passage at 1:04:20

1:04:39 And it's just because of this mind of bodhicitta. So we can only fake it to a certain degree. You know, we still have to do the work of generating that mind, that mind of bodhicitta, the genuine realization of bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:39 Highlight the passage at 1:04:39

1:04:54 Yeah, otherwise we just won't have the actual fuel. It's like saying, you know, I have fuel in my car. If I don't really have fuel in my car, I'm not going to get too far, conventionally speaking. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:54 Highlight the passage at 1:04:54

1:05:08 Ultimately speaking, that's a whole other story. So yeah, the fake it till you make it only works so far. We have to be doing the other practices as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:08 Highlight the passage at 1:05:08

1:05:20 One more thing and then we'll take a break. So if Tantra is the result vehicle, which we had mentioned last week is one of the ways that it's referred to, these three are actually seen as the cause. These three are the... The cause that create that result. And we have to have the actual experience of them, which comes through a lot of hours of study and practice and contemplation and meditation, especially meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:20 Highlight the passage at 1:05:20

1:05:57 Because just like we were talking about with the guru shifting your mind, meditation is what shifts your mind. It actually allows that realization to blossom so that it's irreversible. So that it doesn't even, you don't lose it no matter what. And there's stories about bodhisattvas until they reach what they call high level bodhisattvas. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:57 Highlight the passage at 1:05:57

1:06:20 There's all these different levels of being a bodhisattva where you can still lose it. I mean, what a drag, right? You generate this amazing mind. And there's the story of this one bodhisattva who's walking on the road and this... Report an error in the passage at 1:06:20 Highlight the passage at 1:06:20

1:06:39 Person comes up to him and asks him for his eyeball. And so, you know, part of being a bodhisattva is that if it's beneficial, then I will give you anything, you know. And they say for a bodhisattva, it's just like a leaf falling from a tree. Because they have no attachment to their body anymore. Because their desire to help others is so strong. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:39 Highlight the passage at 1:06:39

1:06:59 So he reaches into his eye socket and... Pulls out the eyeball and hands it to the guy. And the guy says, not with your left hand. And he gets so angry that he's just like, I can't work for sentient beings. So he loses his bodhicitta. The minute you lose it, the minute, actually one of the bodhisattva vows is losing your love for any sentient being for one night and one day, 24 hours, you'll lose your bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:59 Highlight the passage at 1:06:59

1:07:28 If we even had it at this point. But it's definitely huge practice because if you get irritated at anybody and you have that thought of they're not worth it, then they fall out of that whole scope of all sentient beings. And so then we lose our bodhicitta. So he had to go back to the beginning. He became enlightened, I think, later on. So it has a happy ending. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:28 Highlight the passage at 1:07:28

1:07:51 And I think the story is that the guy on the road, of course, was... It was a plant. You have to be careful of that guy on the road who asked for your eyeball. Maybe do it with your right hand. Especially in India. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:51 Highlight the passage at 1:07:51

1:08:07 But Tantra is the result and these methods, the actual experience, the genuine... so um yeah Report an error in the passage at 1:08:07 Highlight the passage at 1:08:07

1:08:16 genuine you know Revolution of your mind by these three is what acts as the cause. And you have to have all three. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:16 Highlight the passage at 1:08:16

1:08:29 And they say, too, Tantra is the only way that we can get enlightened in this life. And in some teachings they actually say it's actually the only method to get enlightened, which, of course, other traditions would disagree with. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:29 Highlight the passage at 1:08:29

1:08:44 And when you ask Geshe-la that, it's sort of like further on down the line, you know, those, Um, so Report an error in the passage at 1:08:44 Highlight the passage at 1:08:44

1:08:50 Almost Buddhas had to do some tantric practices to get there. I'm not so sure about that. But anyway, it's definitely the only way to maintain enlightenment as quickly as we want to if we have bodhicitta because we want to help all beings very quickly. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:50 Highlight the passage at 1:08:50

1:09:11 Otherwise, we're just floundering around, taking lifetime after lifetime, which is, of course, So that's... Report an error in the passage at 1:09:11 Highlight the passage at 1:09:11

1:09:19 What the other methods do, they take eons and eons and eons. So we have to, and they say actually even just having these three in your mind without Tantra, you will progress hugely on the path. So if you just generate these three minds of renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness in their genuine forms. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:19 Highlight the passage at 1:09:19

1:09:45 Even without tantra, you're going to progress so hugely in this lifetime that it would just blow us away to actually even consider. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:45 Highlight the passage at 1:09:45

1:09:58 In both teachings of sūtra and tantra, they say that we need the two main causes for Buddhahood. They say the two wings of a bird. We were just talking about this last night. I drop in meditation. Bodhicitta is often called method or skillful means. So those are all synonyms for bodhicitta. So if you see sort of code words for bodhicitta, you want to become a Buddha only because it's the best way to help people. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:58 Highlight the passage at 1:09:58

1:10:35 And you can't really help them without being a Buddha. In the same way, to the same level, to the same degree. Because as a Buddha, you know not only people's minds, but you know past and their future karma. You know what's going to work for their mind in terms of practice. You can show up in whatever form they need at any time, you know, without any effort or even thought on your part. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:35 Highlight the passage at 1:10:35

1:11:04 So you have like this incredible way of being their perfect help at that time. Um. Wisdom is the other wing and that really is again the code word for emptiness, the correct view of emptiness. But you can't generate bodhicitta without renunciation. Renunciation is the prerequisite for bodhicitta because if you can't see your own suffering, if you can't see the situation that you're in, Report an error in the passage at 1:11:04 Highlight the passage at 1:11:04

1:11:38 Here in saṃsāra and even how saṃsāra is formed, there's no way that you can turn that same understanding to all sentient beings. You cannot see the suffering of others without seeing your own suffering first. It's the same suffering. So first we have to look at the kind of suffering that we're in and that's how we generate the mind of renunciation. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:38 Highlight the passage at 1:11:38

1:12:03 And saṃsāra is simply... This mind that we have, renunciation is wanting to get out of saṃsāra, so we have to understand that saṃsāra is not a place. It's a condition of repeatedly taking rebirth without any control due to our karma and our afflictions. And as a result of our karma and afflictions, we keep taking rebirth in these sort of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:03 Highlight the passage at 1:12:03

1:12:35 existences. So they say it's actually a condition. It's a condition of being forced to take rebirth over and over again due to our karma and delusions. And that's what saṃsāra is. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:35 Highlight the passage at 1:12:35

1:12:51 And it's sort of, I mean, this is the reason that we suffer. And saṃsāra is basically everything that we experience within our suffering. And, um, um... Because it's all a product of our karma and delusions, you know, so everything that sort of, it's sort of everything is tainted by this in our existence, you know, rugs, you know, get holes in them and relationships end and people die and pens break. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:51 Highlight the passage at 1:12:51

1:13:24 You know, it's sort of like this is because it's sort of built into it because it's all created by our karma, which is less than pristine and our mental afflictions. So it's sort of in that sense, everything that we experience is saṃsāra because my mind is saṃsāra and I've created it all. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:24 Highlight the passage at 1:13:24

1:13:47 Buddhas create pure lands and those kind of incredibly blissful experiences because their mind is not saṃsāra. You know, they aren't under control of karma and afflictions. So escaping from saṃsāra is changing the nature of our mind. You know, Buddhists can live in New York City or in San Francisco and not be samsaric beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:47 Highlight the passage at 1:13:47

1:14:11 Actually, some of you guys could be Buddhists living here, working for others and being incredibly happy all the time. You know, your experience of a pen. It might be that it's some sort of beautiful golden staff or something, whereas Eye of the Carbonese is a Bic, you know, that then runs out of ink, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:11 Highlight the passage at 1:14:11

1:14:33 So renunciation, you know, is seeing this for what it is and saying, okay, I don't want to live this existence anymore where things are tainted like this, where they are... they are You know, where I'll lose everyone I ever loved, where I'll lose things, or things will break. Like tonight, my computer is not a Pure Land instrument. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:33 Highlight the passage at 1:14:33

1:15:06 And what keeps us from actually doing anything about it is that we don't really accept it. You know, there's still some part of us that keeps trying to make saṃsāra, fix saṃsāra. You know, we keep trying to fix saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:06 Highlight the passage at 1:15:06

1:15:23 And it's just unfixable. The point is to transform our minds so that we are no longer samsarg beings. And then we can help others transform their minds. I mean, that's sort of the point. But we keep trying to deny it. And, you know, maybe it's not quite as bad as all that. And then we have experiences where we really see sort of... Report an error in the passage at 1:15:23 Highlight the passage at 1:15:23

1:15:50 Head first into the chasm of how horrifying it is. And it really is. It is pretty horrifying. But the good news is that it's not the only way to exist. And that's the point that the Buddha is making is, you know, we get caught up in this really limited way of living and we think this is all there is. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:50 Highlight the passage at 1:15:50

1:16:13 And he's like, no, you guys, you know. You can transcend this. It's totally possible. I did it. You can do it. And only that, but we can show others how to do it, too. So the cause for saṃsāra are these karma and kleshas, or delusions. Karma being the action of their mind and what motivates it. Which is, you know, what we create whenever we follow our kleshas. And the kleshas are basically afflictive emotions or mental afflictions. And this is what causes our suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:13 Highlight the passage at 1:16:13

1:16:53 So it doesn't, renunciation doesn't mean that we have to give up every single thing, everything fun and pleasurable. Simply means understanding how karma works and how our minds work and how these delusions keep us repeatedly taking birth in these realms of saṃsāra that we don't have to. So you do it through understanding. Renunciation is we arrive at this generation of genuine renunciation through this deep understanding of how it all works. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:53 Highlight the passage at 1:16:53

1:17:35 And through meditating, through looking around us, through thinking, through contemplating. And contemplation could be discussion as well. And then we do it a lot through meditation. So why don't you guys take a break. And then we'll just end with a couple of, at least with the meditation that you're going to do this week. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:35 Highlight the passage at 1:17:35

1:18:07 See, you guys got the other one. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:07 Highlight the passage at 1:18:07

1:18:11 So we've only got a few more minutes, so I'm going to just kind of cut back a little bit. There are a couple of ways that you can meditate to generate this mind of renunciation. Of course, a really big one is death and impermanence, especially if you have had any experience of death in your life. But even if you haven't, there's lots of death around us, so you can kind of imagine. It's certainly a very, very potent. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:11 Highlight the passage at 1:18:11

1:18:37 meditation um to do to um to generate this mind of of wanting of getting fed up with saṃsāra and wanting to get out um wanting to to get out of this cycle um One is on precious human rebirth and there's a number of ways to meditate on it. The meditation I'm going to give you guys tonight is sort of a modern approach. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:37 Highlight the passage at 1:18:37

1:19:03 Because the traditional approach often leaves people a little bit cold. You have to memorize like all these possible things that you have and things that you don't have. And a lot of them are a little hard to get your mind around. So you're kind of like, okay, I mean, you've just started Buddhism and you're already trying to focus on, you know, how you weren't. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:03 Highlight the passage at 1:19:03

1:19:32 Born in the spirit realm this time or something like that. You know what I mean? So it's a little kind of hard. So this is a meditation that Kendall Magnuson wrote, who is sort of one of my heroes. And I do hope she hears that one. And she kind of put it in terms that are a little bit easier to grasp of all the ways that we can just basically appreciate the life and opportunity that we have right now. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:32 Highlight the passage at 1:19:32

1:20:00 And that's the gist of doing a meditation on precious human rebirth. Of course, and getting the fact that it can all change in a heartbeat, you know, literally a heartbeat. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:00 Highlight the passage at 1:20:00

1:20:12 So that's one, precious human rebirth, death and impermanence. And then another one, and we don't really have time to get into it, but we definitely get into these in other classes, is... Spending some time thinking about how our actions in our lives are so motivated by the eight worldly concerns. Gain, loss, pleasure, pain, fame, or good reputation, bad reputation, and praise and blame. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:12 Highlight the passage at 1:20:12

1:20:42 And just constantly how every moment. Is motivated by these. And even they say, even the greatest meditators are still having this little concern for how people in the village think of them. They're really hard to get rid of these little motivators. And as long as we're heavily motivated by these eight, we're still totally attached to this life. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:42 Highlight the passage at 1:20:42

1:21:11 But we're not going to get into that tonight because we've sort of run out of time. So Lama Yeshe talks about... Renunciation in the terms of calling it emerging from dissatisfaction, which I really, really like, because I think renunciation immediately brings to mind giving up all the good stuff, you know, just basically becoming a major killjoy. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:11 Highlight the passage at 1:21:11

1:21:34 um and um You know, maybe living in like some burlap sack or something somewhere. And, you know, so renunciation, I think, maybe was overused by the religions before this one. And so emerging from dissatisfaction actually makes a lot more sense because what we are giving up is this this mind of dukkha, you know, dissatisfaction with every single thing that we grasp at and run after. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:34 Highlight the passage at 1:21:34

1:22:06 It's like our baseline is this mind of dukkha. And it leads to everything else. It leads to discontent. It leads to aversion. It leads to boredom. It leads to depression. It leads to low self-esteem. It leads to hatred. You know, it leads to everything. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:06 Highlight the passage at 1:22:06

1:22:26 So his point is that renunciation is kind of... It's like you're in this swamp of dukkha and you're emerging out of that, which I find a much nicer image than the burlap sack idea. So he says, Lamiyeshe says, because you know I can't do a whole class without having at least one quote from Lamiyeshe, Tantra can only be practiced effectively once we have become disillusioned with our ordinary way of grasping at sensory desires. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:26 Highlight the passage at 1:22:26

1:23:00 We must have a deep heartfelt understanding that such grasping never leads to satisfaction but only to pain and disappointment. That's huge. That whole sentence is huge. If we fail to see how our ordinary attachment to pleasure binds us tightly to the wheel of repeated disappointment, which is the way he calls saṃsāra, the wheel of repeated disappointment, we will make the same mistakes with tantra that we've been making in our ordinary pursuits of happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:00 Highlight the passage at 1:23:00

1:23:30 Whenever we experience a blissful sensation as a result of our practice, we'll grasp at it as something self-existent and definitely capable of giving us endless enjoyment. Like a spider waiting for a fly, we will pounce greedily onto whatever attractive experience comes along. Trying to squeeze pleasure out of things in this way is completely deluded. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:30 Highlight the passage at 1:23:30

1:23:50 And as long as we have such an unrealistic attitude, we'll never know true satisfaction. If we don't let go of this grasping attitude, we'll unintentionally turn tantra into yet another meaningless journey around in circles. I just love it. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:50 Highlight the passage at 1:23:50

1:24:10 So it's really, really important for us to understand how saṃsāra works, you know, and it's also really important to see, again, to look at our relationship with attachment. What are we doing right now with attachment? Report an error in the passage at 1:24:10 Highlight the passage at 1:24:10

1:24:27 And how it all keeps us here, how it holds us back, how it binds us to saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:27 Highlight the passage at 1:24:27

1:24:38 So true renunciation is implying that we are no longer relying upon our sensory pleasures or sensory anything actually for ultimate happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:38 Highlight the passage at 1:24:38

1:24:52 Because right now that's sort of what gets us into trouble in the desire realm is that we're relying on our senses for everything. And the Buddha's like, actually you have this huge consciousness that you're not developing at all and you're just living everything through your senses, thinking that's reality and that's all there is. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:52 Highlight the passage at 1:24:52

1:25:15 So true enunciation shows that kind of understanding of how all of that works. And what it means is that... We can still have pleasure. It doesn't mean that we deny ourselves pleasure. It just means that we're giving up these deluded states of mind in relation to that pleasure. It means that we're transforming our mind in relationship to attachment, happiness and pleasure. So that's what we're giving up. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:15 Highlight the passage at 1:25:15

1:25:47 We're giving up those deluded states of mind in relationship to enjoyment, to the way we enjoy things. And attachment the way we were just talking about when we were talking about diluted attachment with Lynn, it pollutes everything. And that's true of everything in saṃsāra is that we're just so constantly enthralled by everything that our senses bring to us that we never go in. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:47 Highlight the passage at 1:25:47

1:26:17 We never go inside. We're just constantly distracted. It's so much more exciting out there or it seems like it, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:17 Highlight the passage at 1:26:17

1:26:25 Whatever kind of sensual experience we have, whether it's, you know, food or sex or movies or, you know, relationships or jobs or cars or, you know, toys, whatever it is, we want more and more and more. We go into that mind of just, you know, grasping, grasping. And Lama Yeshe is saying, and it's true for the great teachers, they don't... Report an error in the passage at 1:26:25 Highlight the passage at 1:26:25

1:26:51 Do this, you know, they have this total easygoing attitude about things, you know. You offer them dinner, they enjoy the dinner, and then they're like ready to go. We're like, you know, we have to keep staying for hours and keep eating like a ton. Geshe-la will sit for... He was actually quite kind at his going away dinner and stayed a lot longer than any of us expected. Sometimes we'll have a birthday party and he'll literally come down, eat it, and he'll be like, okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:51 Highlight the passage at 1:26:51

1:27:17 And then they get up because he's got things to do and we just want to sit there for hours and blah, blah, blah. So it's not that they don't enjoy. It's just that they don't see that as bringing them lasting happiness the way we still do. So they aren't like... Report an error in the passage at 1:27:17 Highlight the passage at 1:27:17

1:27:38 And if you ever saw any, you know, videos with Lama Yeshe, he definitely was having a great time. You know, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is definitely having a great, blissful time. He's definitely still able to try things and enjoy things. And he laughs so much, you know, but he's not grasping at it as the end-all be-all the way we tend to, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:38 Highlight the passage at 1:27:38

1:28:06 And they say, you know, once we gain these higher realizations that Tantra brings, it's beyond our limited imagination, like the bliss that we can have just from different levels of our own meditation, our own awakenings, you know, the various attainments along the path. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:06 Highlight the passage at 1:28:06

1:28:29 So, yeah, so then we just get back into looking at what it is that we're... Our relationship with pleasure and how we sort of dull our mind when we experience pleasure and kind of go into this stupor. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:29 Highlight the passage at 1:28:29

1:28:52 So, I mean, that's definitely part of, I didn't put that as your homework, but you should definitely look at how you relate to the things that bring you pleasure. I'll do the same. I think it's very interesting. It's a little embarrassing, but it is very, very interesting how... How quickly our minds go into that, even with just everyday things, you know, it doesn't have to be anything that we would think of doing that with. We do it with everything. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:52 Highlight the passage at 1:28:52

1:29:20 And it's very interesting when you start doing any of the tantric meditations to not just do the same thing, not just slip into some sort of like, you know, stupor with it, to just try to stay really alert and aware of what you're doing. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:20 Highlight the passage at 1:29:20

1:29:39 Um, so... So I think if there's any questions, otherwise we can just end here. I'm sorry, I feel like I've been kind of out of it, but doing my best to be present and alert. Hopefully people have gotten stuff out of it. If there are any questions, we can do a couple of questions and then we can just dedicate. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:39 Highlight the passage at 1:29:39

1:30:08 Cedric, I just love your expression. That was perfect. I think that was some compassion, actually. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:08 Highlight the passage at 1:30:08

1:30:18 Does anybody have any questions? Report an error in the passage at 1:30:18 Highlight the passage at 1:30:18

1:30:23 Not a single one. Wow. Cool. All right. Well, then let's take a moment to dedicate. Hopefully, hopefully, just, I mean, when you think about it, when we came in here tonight, our minds were completely different than they are right now, no matter what you managed to get out of this class. I mean, thank goodness that subject matter was so powerful and Lama Yeshe's teachings on it are so powerful so that you at least got that, despite the medium. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:23 Highlight the passage at 1:30:23

1:30:57 And so if we think about how quickly our mind is constantly changing and we think about our mind in terms of it being like a garden, we actually manage to plant quite a few seeds tonight. And those seeds will take root and they will blossom and they will bring about Transformation in our minds if we sort of just allow them. So we just dedicate whatever we've gained from this class to that happening so that we can become enlightened beings, so that we can benefit others perfectly, Report an error in the passage at 1:30:57 Highlight the passage at 1:30:57

1:31:37 quickly, quickly, which is code word for Tantra in this very life. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:37 Highlight the passage at 1:31:37

1:31:49 Okay, thank you very much. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:49 Highlight the passage at 1:31:49

1:31:58 I think migraines are one of those ways that you really know that saṃsāra sucks. Who would like to hand these out? Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:58 Highlight the passage at 1:31:58