Discovering Buddhism - Intro to Tantra (19 November 2008)

0:02 Oh look, present. Report an error in the passage at 0:02 Highlight the passage at 0:02

0:06 How cute is that? Thank you, somebody. Report an error in the passage at 0:06 Highlight the passage at 0:06

0:16 It's wet here. There you go. Because I will anoint myself. All right, so I'm going to start with some frustrations. Can we turn on all of the lights? The meaningful, there we go, the word silver, the meaningful ambiance. All right, so pick a quality of enlightened mind. Report an error in the passage at 0:16 Highlight the passage at 0:16

0:58 Om Namo Manju Shriye Namo, Su Shriye Namo, Uttama Shriye So. Om Namo Manju Shriye Namo, Su Shriye Namo, Uttama Shriye So. Report an error in the passage at 0:58 Highlight the passage at 0:58

1:21 Om Namo Manju Shriye Namo, Su Shriye Namo. Atama Shri Esau Report an error in the passage at 1:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21

1:51 That was very cute. So I'm too embarrassed to open this with everyone here. I'll just open it on the break. Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51

2:03 I don't think. I think it would be hot if we closed the door, actually. Report an error in the passage at 2:03 Highlight the passage at 2:03

2:14 Could you do me a favor and kind of push that close? Actually, it's heavy, so I usually put everything on Gisla's throne, which probably isn't all that appropriate. Report an error in the passage at 2:14 Highlight the passage at 2:14

2:38 So hello. Welcome back. Another week. We'll start with just a short little meditation on the breath. And Report an error in the passage at 2:38 Highlight the passage at 2:38

2:55 I apologize for being a little bit late tonight. It's just sort of been like that today. Alright, so this is a holy day by the way, in case anybody, that's what this is all about. This is actually the celebration of when the Buddha... Report an error in the passage at 2:55 Highlight the passage at 2:55

3:16 When the Buddha was born, his mother passed away shortly thereafter when he was still a baby and he was raised by his aunt. And his mother, because of her role in everything, actually went to a deva realm. She was in a god realm. And so when the Buddha, after he got enlightened, when he was, they say when he was 41, I love how they know exactly that he was 41. Report an error in the passage at 3:16 Highlight the passage at 3:16

3:40 Um, uh, he... Except he went up, he decided to repay her for her kindness at that point and he went up to that God realm and taught for the equivalent of three months in earthly terms. And then everyone, his disciples begged him to come back to earth. And so this is the celebration of his returning back to us to teach us after he taught her. Report an error in the passage at 3:40 Highlight the passage at 3:40

4:07 So it's like the Buddhist version of Mother's Day. We're celebrating Mother's Day today. So yeah, this is La Bob Duchin in Tibetan. So everything we do, they say, is magnified or is increased by at least 100,000 times, depending on who you ask. With Lama Zopa it's always millions. But at least many, many times. And so we try to do positive things and we try to avoid doing negative things. Report an error in the passage at 4:07 Highlight the passage at 4:07

4:36 Because you want whatever is going to be multiplied, you want it to be good multiplication, not the bad stuff. Or at least catch it, purify it. So with that in mind, now you have to try to meditate on your breath. Sorry. Report an error in the passage at 4:36 Highlight the passage at 4:36

4:55 So again, just find your posture. Just take some nice deep cleansing breaths. So let go of your day. Report an error in the passage at 4:55 Highlight the passage at 4:55

5:09 And just imagine dissolving away all the distractions, distractions of the building, distractions of your life, all the myriad things that you still have to do. Report an error in the passage at 5:09 Highlight the passage at 5:09

5:21 You just leave them outside the door. Report an error in the passage at 5:21 Highlight the passage at 5:21

5:29 And take some nice deep in-breaths and bring in freshness, clarity, awareness, alertness, awakeness. Report an error in the passage at 5:29 Highlight the passage at 5:29

5:50 And then when it feels like you've reached a place of relative calm, then try to focus your mind on your breath and just do a breath meditation for a few minutes. And Report an error in the passage at 5:50 Highlight the passage at 5:50

· · · silence, 2 minutes

8:24 then try to cultivate your motivation for being here tonight. Report an error in the passage at 8:24 Highlight the passage at 8:24

8:36 Maybe trying to remember how rare and precious it is to be able to learn anything about Tantra. Report an error in the passage at 8:36 Highlight the passage at 8:36

8:49 Maybe just remembering how rare and precious it is to wake up every morning. We take it for granted that we're still going to be in this body, with this life, these conditions. And Report an error in the passage at 8:49 Highlight the passage at 8:49

9:10 maybe just remembering why we decided to take this class to begin with. What motivated us at that time. Report an error in the passage at 9:10 Highlight the passage at 9:10

9:25 And if we have any semblance of developing bodhicitta, remembering that whatever we learn in these teachings, whatever might make an impact on us tonight, Report an error in the passage at 9:25 Highlight the passage at 9:25

9:45 that it not only benefit us, this life, but that it takes us all the way to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 9:45 Highlight the passage at 9:45

9:59 And that it plants a seed and that seed ripens as our own enlightenment so that we can truly benefit others. Report an error in the passage at 9:59 Highlight the passage at 9:59

10:22 And then when you're ready, You can end your meditation and open your eyes. Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

10:32 Close that now, I think. If we get hot again, we can open it, but the noise is so great. As everyone is seeking happiness, roaring down Oak Street. Report an error in the passage at 10:32 Highlight the passage at 10:32

10:46 So we're going to do opening prayer as holiness. It's on page 8. Report an error in the passage at 10:46 Highlight the passage at 10:46

11:02 We saved your special seat for you. Report an error in the passage at 11:02 Highlight the passage at 11:02

11:09 You have to take it. So many other people wanted that seat and I was like, no, we can't, we've got to let Nancy sit there. We're just getting ready to do the prayer, so it's on page 8 in your book. Report an error in the passage at 11:09 Highlight the passage at 11:09

11:26 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 11:26 Highlight the passage at 11:26

12:01 I'm just going to do it once. Hopefully you guys were alert for it and you didn't miss it. That's really why we do things three times. Report an error in the passage at 12:01 Highlight the passage at 12:01

12:12 course that's sort of like Lama Zopa has this tendency of saying, now that was really important after he said something. And you're like, what? And everyone's like writing it down. So I'll try to say it before next time. A couple of announcements. We still need volunteers. Report an error in the passage at 12:12 Highlight the passage at 12:12

12:36 Especially Wednesday, Wednesday before Thanksgiving. So if you have any time and can give any time that day. That's great. I also wanted to announce, I just found out that, you know, while Geshe-la is gone on Sundays, normally Geshe-la does the Dharma talk. And so we've been asking a lot of different members of the community to step forward, especially longer, old-time students, I should say, or at least semi-old-time students. Report an error in the passage at 12:36 Highlight the passage at 12:36

13:11 So Judith Hunt and Judith Weitz are actually two. Two Judiths, Judith squared, are going to give a little talk on the 7th because they're both long, they were long time Lama Yeshe students and they're just going to talk about what he was like and I'm sure it'll be very much like just anecdotal but I just wanted to mention it to you guys because he's so much, has a role in this class and so just to let you know that's the 7th of December and that's going to be here and it starts at 1030. Report an error in the passage at 13:11 Highlight the passage at 13:11

13:45 I usually start it out and then they'll just be like in conversation probably. And I don't know what they'll talk about, but I'm sure it'll be wonderful. I think Judith Weitzer was a student for much longer, but Judith Hunt is one of the coordinators at our study group in Marin. So she's kind of been in our community for a really long time. Report an error in the passage at 13:45 Highlight the passage at 13:45

14:13 So I just wanted you guys to know that. So just a quick check in, how are you guys doing with the, did anybody find the eye? Anybody looking for it? Report an error in the passage at 14:13 Highlight the passage at 14:13

14:25 Somebody found something? You looked? Well done. Keep looking. Report an error in the passage at 14:25 Highlight the passage at 14:25

14:35 Any questions about the meditation or about any of the reading, homework? You want to pass the mic back to Lynn? Report an error in the passage at 14:35 Highlight the passage at 14:35

14:47 Thanks, Denise. Just getting ready for the... I have a difficulty. I'm having trouble with the I in here. I have a difficulty figuring the logic of it. If there is no I, and yet we don't, there's karma. So something we do, even an unkind thought right now, would plant a kind of negative karma seed somewhere. Report an error in the passage at 14:47 Highlight the passage at 14:47

15:18 So it seems to me there's got to be something. The subtle mind. The subtle mind and the I aren't the same thing. Okay, so there's a name for what that is. And I also wondered... No, we've talked about that, but we will keep talking about it. We will keep talking about it. Because I get confused. Like, we're trying to do bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 15:18 Highlight the passage at 15:18

15:42 We're trying to... Generate bodhicitta, yeah. Generate it, yeah. And that's somebody. Yes, and there's a valid eye. There's a valid eye, and in the book he'll talk about that, so maybe reread those sections. But yeah, there's definitely a valid eye, a validly existent eye, but the eye that we're trying to find is the one that doesn't exist, but we believe in 100 % without question. Report an error in the passage at 15:42 Highlight the passage at 15:42

16:06 And then we're willing to defend it, we get all upset about it. That's the one we get into trouble on. But yes, there's a validly existent eye. Okay, at some point I'm going to need to hear the distinction. Report an error in the passage at 16:06 Highlight the passage at 16:06

16:21 Well we have spent time and we can still spend more time on that and I mean it's lifelong it's not like you're gonna get it all in one class but it's more handled in the emptiness. The class on emptiness and any teachings on emptiness, this is one of the things that you get to because this is what causes all the trouble, is believing the stories that I make up about everything, but especially the stories I make up about myself and then clinging to that. Report an error in the passage at 16:21 Highlight the passage at 16:21

16:50 And so that's why we have to spend time analyzing what is the validly existent and what is the invalidly existent. And it's a process and it's not going to happen in one meditation or one reading or one discussion. It's just like ongoing analysis, trying to find that and realizing that it doesn't exist the way we believe that it does, which shoots a hole in our whole. Report an error in the passage at 16:50 Highlight the passage at 16:50

17:16 notion of reality. It seemed to me as I was reading that it would be very comforting to see the no eye, so I think you've answered that there is a valid eye. Yeah, it's actually discomforting. To see that it doesn't exist in the way that it doesn't exist, it's a relief, but not immediately. At first it's actually a little jarring. It's actually jarring, because we've placed so much. Report an error in the passage at 17:16 Highlight the passage at 17:16

17:45 Stock in its existence. To discover that it doesn't exist is like an earthquake. But ultimately, it's blissful. Ultimately, it's a really incredible experience. But at first, it can be quite jarring. And also, yeah, and also, it also depends on how many lifetimes you've been meditating on it. Because if we have past life imprints, they say that immediately we just hear about this. And it's like the hair, they say the hair goes up on the back of our necks. Report an error in the passage at 17:45 Highlight the passage at 17:45

18:22 We get goosebumps and we're excited. We want to pursue it. For the rest of us, there's this kind of... There's like, you know, kind of a moment of like where it's more jarring and more, you know, like what Charlotte was describing one of the other classes. I forgot what class that was. Maybe the emptiness class, wasn't it? Yeah. Where it can be more jarring. But then when you can get past that, if you don't let that stop you, as Tanjanchoki said, she was quoting Lama Zopa, and I don't know if I have the exact quote, but he said something like, Don't let that fear stop you because you have to remind yourself this could be my one lifetime that I'm going to get past my fear and keep looking, you know, going deeper and have this direct perception of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 18:22 Highlight the passage at 18:22

19:13 So just kind of like soldiering on ahead, like pushing past that fear because that fear is what's held us back in other lifetimes. But it still shows that we have some past life imprint with it. Report an error in the passage at 19:13 Highlight the passage at 19:13

19:27 At first it can be quite discomforting, and then it becomes freeing. It's literally liberating. Report an error in the passage at 19:27 Highlight the passage at 19:27

19:44 Right. So we can still call you Lin and it refers to you. There's still a validly existent I. There's the I that accumulates merit and becomes enlightened, and then we have separate mind streams that become different Buddhas. but that That's not usually the eye that gets us into trouble. That's not the eye that would make me punch you. That's not the eye that I would get really defensive if I was falsely accused. Report an error in the passage at 19:44 Highlight the passage at 19:44

20:10 It's usually some other eye that is all made up and it's all these stories that we create about who I am and how dare he and all that stuff. And that's all coming from story time. Anybody else? Any other questions? Joe? I'm passing him the mic. Report an error in the passage at 20:10 Highlight the passage at 20:10

20:33 Two things. One, my experience with emptiness seems to be either a chameleon or a changeling because the minute I see someone sees me, all of a sudden I change, you know, according to that perception of me that they have. Oh, I see, yeah. If that makes sense. The second part was, particularly with regard to the homework, when you wrote about... Report an error in the passage at 20:33 Highlight the passage at 20:33

20:59 Disintegration and then the feeling is bliss. And you're like, no, it's not. No, it's not. Close to bliss. As a matter of fact, you know, the, you know, seeing the, you know, it's, it's, it's become easier and easier than over the years of meditating to, to identify what I call the evil eye. And, and I say, okay, no, you're not real. Report an error in the passage at 20:59 Highlight the passage at 20:59

21:24 You're not real. You're not real. This is just a feeling. It's not a fact, et cetera, et cetera. And it's so strong and so powerful that as you try to rip, as I try to rip away from it and dissolve that, it's just such, it's still such a very painful, painful experience. And that's what just seems to be tripping me up over and over again lately. Yeah, less the ripping. Report an error in the passage at 21:24 Highlight the passage at 21:24

21:46 That could be part of it. Less the ripping and more the actual. If you're working with it and you begin to expose that it actually doesn't even exist, that's more effective. Because then it's like you're proving to yourself. Then it's not like you're tearing yourself apart. Because that's sounding like what you're doing is like tearing your image of yourself apart, which could be really painful, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 21:46 Highlight the passage at 21:46

22:06 It's like a tug of war. You know, I'm like shining the flashlight and you're looking at the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain and you're like, oh, I guess I don't have to be all scared, you know. Well, I'm saying you don't exist and it's saying, yes, I do. No, you don't. Yes, I do. No, you don't. It's back and forth and back and forth. That's where the pain comes from. Yeah, I think other analysis is what my point is. Report an error in the passage at 22:06 Highlight the passage at 22:06

22:28 Rather than just arguing with it. Maybe. Like just studying emptiness more. Just more study time of emptiness with other teachers and like ongoing, like a longer study and more meditation and that. Because then eventually, because otherwise you're just having, it's like within your own mind, you're just having arguments with yourself. And you're probably just repeating what you've done for a lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 22:28 Highlight the passage at 22:28

22:53 And it's really entrenched. and maybe Report an error in the passage at 22:53 Highlight the passage at 22:53

22:56 It's really entrenched. So it's not like intellectually, even intellectually understanding this is going to immediately knock it out of the water. It's there and it's really entrenched. And so we just have to work with it and work with it and work with it and work with it. And that little moment of the direct perception of emptiness, it's going to take us a long time to get to and then it won't last, you know, it doesn't last very long at all. Report an error in the passage at 22:56 Highlight the passage at 22:56

23:21 But it takes a lot of preparation to get to that moment. So you just, yeah, I would just say some more study time. Yeah, some more study time. Anybody, let me see first before, did anybody else have a question before we return to Lynn? Anybody else? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 23:21 Highlight the passage at 23:21

23:52 Whether something exists or not. Careful. I was thinking about, like, atoms and electrons, and we can't see electrons. How do we know they exist? Well, we know they exist because we predict this, that or the other thing. And that's how we know that they exist because they're going to do such and such and make such and such happen. Report an error in the passage at 23:52 Highlight the passage at 23:52

24:13 So then I came to the question of what does it mean? How do you think about it when you can predict how something's going to behave on the basis of there is something predictable? Report an error in the passage at 24:13 Highlight the passage at 24:13

24:29 So that's my question. I didn't understand your question. So say it again in a different way. Maybe I'll say it. Okay. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 24:29 Highlight the passage at 24:29

24:49 Because I will admit, I'm slightly sleep-deprived at this moment, so it's possible that you could rephrase it in a completely different way in two weeks, and I will understand it perfectly. Report an error in the passage at 24:49 Highlight the passage at 24:49

25:01 But we'll see. Report an error in the passage at 25:01 Highlight the passage at 25:01

25:05 So tonight we're going to talk about what Lama Yeshe calls overthrowing the tyranny of ordinary appearances. Report an error in the passage at 25:05 Highlight the passage at 25:05

25:17 So, ordinary appearances are seen to be, in Tantra, the biggest block to us being able to get enlightened or to be able to perfect our minds is that we just get very, very stuck in seeing ourselves and everyone around us and what we're capable of. Why is he staying out there? Chris, are you being shy? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 25:17 Highlight the passage at 25:17

25:47 We just, no, you just lock the door. It's okay, we'll let them in if they come. Report an error in the passage at 25:47 Highlight the passage at 25:47

25:54 I see these little feet. Report an error in the passage at 25:54 Highlight the passage at 25:54

26:03 Come on in, yeah. Do you want to be on a cushion? Is it more, yeah? Because, I mean, somebody could be there if they don't mind, like it inside of my head. Report an error in the passage at 26:03 Highlight the passage at 26:03

26:13 So ordinary appearances, Lama Eshi says. I have a couple of great quotes from him tonight. One of the major tasks facing the spiritual seeker is to identify as precisely as possible the factors responsible for perpetuating this cycle of dissatisfaction and then to apply the most appropriate antidote to their destruction. Report an error in the passage at 26:13 Highlight the passage at 26:13

26:33 So this is where he's talking about how we have to know our minds and then we have to apply what's going to eliminate the things that are causing us suffering moment by moment by moment so it's not like saying you know like when you when you feel like it it's actually we should be developing the mindfulness of knowing what's going on in our minds catching it and and applying the antidotes which of course first means knowing what the antidotes are Um So the thing in Tantra that... Report an error in the passage at 26:33 Highlight the passage at 26:33

27:12 That I was just starting with is that it's our view of reality that keeps us stuck in this cyclic existence. And so we hold this like a little tiny view of ourselves and what we're capable of. And it becomes like really oppressive, becomes really limiting and limited. And we can't get beyond our negative view about ourselves, which is, I think, one of the things that Joe was just talking about. Report an error in the passage at 27:12 Highlight the passage at 27:12

27:39 We tend to see ourselves, and I mean people have varying versions of this, but we tend to see ourselves as inadequate and, as Rubin always says, pathetic. We have this pathetic view of ourselves. And if our view stays like that, there's no way that we can progress on the path, and there's certainly no way that we can get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 27:39 Highlight the passage at 27:39

28:02 I mean that, we limit ourselves with this view of ourselves. And then it becomes mental habit. Just like in the mind class, I read a quote from the Buddha talking about how every thought that we have has the potential to, you know, it like leads us in the direction of being able to change our reality. Report an error in the passage at 28:02 Highlight the passage at 28:02

28:30 So every single thought becomes incredibly important, whether it's negative or positive. Well, these are clear examples of negative. If we just get stuck with this, I'm really hopeless, I'll never do this, I can't do this. As Lama Yashu says in one other quote, we always say impossible, impossible, impossible. Report an error in the passage at 28:30 Highlight the passage at 28:30

28:50 That's totally possible. It's like, shift it. So Tantra is all about that. It's just like pointing out, no, look what you're doing. Look how you're thinking this is limiting what you're capable of. Report an error in the passage at 28:50 Highlight the passage at 28:50

29:07 So otherwise we just end up wasting this lifetime. And according to the Buddha, we've had many, many lifetimes where we just can't get beyond that view that everything is ordinary and that I'm the most ordinary or the most mundane. Report an error in the passage at 29:07 Highlight the passage at 29:07

29:27 I can't do anything. And so then we get into a little bit of, I think what Lynn was starting to talk a little bit about, Report an error in the passage at 29:27 Highlight the passage at 29:27

29:37 The different ways that, well, touching on. You mentioned the atoms and the electrons. There is a view that basically, and I think it's a scientific view, and I think that a lot of us, even if we don't feel like we believe it, it feeds into what we believe, which is that we are basically, because our bodies are matter and our brains are matter. Report an error in the passage at 29:37 Highlight the passage at 29:37

30:03 We are matter and that we are our bodies. And so basically, as our body is sort of, I mean, it's sort of the idea of like pleasure and giving the most pleasure to our body and then it decays and it dies and that's basically it. I certainly have known people have had this worldview. It's completely opposite to what Tantra believes. It's like the complete opposite of what Tantra believes. Report an error in the passage at 30:03 Highlight the passage at 30:03

30:32 And in fact, one of the main practices of Tantra is to continually actually dissolve this ordinary conception of ourselves into emptiness. And then from that emptiness, we arise. We ourselves arise in a celestial body of light as an enlightened being, like totally the manifestation of our complete potential of our own innate. Report an error in the passage at 30:32 Highlight the passage at 30:32

31:03 Perfection. I'm not sure if that's the right word. The potential that we have to be perfect. So as we do that, we have to repeatedly do that because we're so stuck with this idea of who we are and what we're capable of, and it's a very limited view. We have to just continually have this. Most of the practices that you do in tantra, you're just constantly dissolving everything into emptiness and arising, dissolving, arising, dissolving. Sometimes several times within the same year, like, again? Report an error in the passage at 31:03 Highlight the passage at 31:03

31:35 We have to do it again? But the reality is that we are so stuck with who I am and what I am that we have to just keep getting rid of it and arising again. It's like, oh yeah, I'm perfect. We aren't perfect yet, but what we're trying to get in touch with is perfection. The perfection and the perfected qualities that are already in us. And it is really good, I don't remember actually if I mentioned, when we talk about, I've mentioned it in various other things recently, so I can't remember if I did it in here. Report an error in the passage at 31:35 Highlight the passage at 31:35

32:09 When we talk about all these different Buddhas and Buddhas, Buddhas and Buddhas, female Buddhas and male Buddhas, around, you can look around and you see like Tara and Medicine Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 32:09 Highlight the passage at 32:09

32:24 Vajrasattva, Chenresic, Manjushri. These are not, a lot of times people will call them gods and goddesses. They aren't gods and goddesses. Report an error in the passage at 32:24 Highlight the passage at 32:24

32:35 And especially they aren't gods and goddesses in that same idea of the, you know, like in the Greek pantheon of deities. They aren't deities either in that sense. I mean, sometimes you do call it arising as the deity, but they're Buddhas. This is enlightened energy manifesting in a form that we might have some connection with and in a form that exemplifies a certain type of energy like wisdom, compassion, purification, action and healing. Report an error in the passage at 32:35 Highlight the passage at 32:35

33:16 So, um, We have to remember that we're concentrating on them. It seems like there's something external to us, but we're concentrating on them solely to identify with those qualities within ourselves. At first it starts out that they're out there, but they are... allowing us to recognize what our own qualities and strengthen what our own qualities are inside of us. So we have to repeatedly keep understanding and recognizing that we have the potential to be pure, capable, wise, compassionate beings. Report an error in the passage at 33:16 Highlight the passage at 33:16

34:00 We may not be there quite yet, but we have that potential inside of us, and we tend to cover it up. It's like we just keep gunking it up with mud, and then we believe the mud. But the mud's not us. No matter how much we stare at that mud, it's not us. Report an error in the passage at 34:00 Highlight the passage at 34:00

34:22 Um... Report an error in the passage at 34:22 Highlight the passage at 34:22

34:26 Again, when we are visualizing ourselves as a deity within Tantra, which of course you can't do until you've had the appropriate empowerments, but the whole purpose of that is to accelerate the development of those qualities within us. And I think too just to keep reminding ourselves that we have those qualities within us because we like to forget. I should say we're habituated to forget. Report an error in the passage at 34:26 Highlight the passage at 34:26

34:51 So the more precise our understanding is, Is of the specific qualities of the deity that we're trying to visualize and the meanings behind all the imagery. And of course the deeper our motivation is, you know, our bodhicitta to do the practices. Report an error in the passage at 34:51 Highlight the passage at 34:51

35:13 The more we can actually stimulate these qualities, because otherwise I had one teacher who said that if we are visualizing ourselves as a wrathful deity with the incorrect motivation, all we're doing is creating the causes to be born as a monster. You know, it's not really going to help anybody. We'll just create the causes to have, you know, four arms and, you know. Report an error in the passage at 35:13 Highlight the passage at 35:13

35:38 Wrathful mouths and all these different heads and, you know, all these different colors and stuff, but it doesn't necessarily help anybody, which is certainly sobering. Report an error in the passage at 35:38 Highlight the passage at 35:38

35:50 So at first, when we first start doing these practices, yes, it does all feel contrived and yes, it is all contrived, you know, but we have to start somewhere. The important thing is to know why you're doing it. And to remember why you're doing it. Because you're not just putting on another mask. It's not like, because we put on enough masks, right? So Lama Eshi points that out. Report an error in the passage at 35:50 Highlight the passage at 35:50

36:13 It's emanating as a deity is not emanating as something other than our own true nature. It's getting in touch with what our true nature is. And that I think so many of us have lost touch with that true nature. And so these practices are a way for us to remember what we have inside, what we are capable of. Report an error in the passage at 36:13 Highlight the passage at 36:13

36:41 So it's not like we're becoming something or somebody else. We're just trying to awaken these qualities that are at this point sort of lying dormant inside of us. We're doing various practices to kind of waken them up. Report an error in the passage at 36:41 Highlight the passage at 36:41

36:56 Because the opposite, if we just continue, it's just like we keep sort of suffocating ourselves with this oppressive, heavy view of what we're incapable of, you know, focusing on the things that we're incapable of. One of my favorite quotes from Lami Eshi, which is incredibly tiny, so it's not like it's that difficult to memorize. But as he was passing away, actually, he actually passed away of an enlarged heart. Report an error in the passage at 36:56 Highlight the passage at 36:56

37:24 Which I think is an interesting thing for him to have. He was supposed to die much, much sooner. The doctors were all very surprised. He actually died at a very young age. He was 49. But they expected him to die much earlier. But as it became obvious that he wasn't going to last that much longer, and his students were quite upset, as one could imagine, losing him. Report an error in the passage at 37:24 Highlight the passage at 37:24

37:51 He's, as you can tell from his reading and his writing, how charismatic he was, you know, and jokey and, you know, I mean, wrathful apparently too. But he yelled at them one point, am I this body? Am I this body? Is that what you think I am? And that's so useful. I mean, I think about that sometimes because we do get really, really caught up in thinking that I am this body. Report an error in the passage at 37:51 Highlight the passage at 37:51

38:20 We're not this body. This is just the body that we happen to have in this lifetime. It's actually, when you think about it, only the body that I happen to have right now because the body that I had in my 20s was a heck of a lot stronger. Report an error in the passage at 38:20 Highlight the passage at 38:20

38:32 The body that I'll have in my 70s, you know, knock on wood, will not be as strong if I'm still here in my 70s. Um, so. We just have to keep reminding ourselves we tend to really strongly believe I am this body. And his point was, you know, we're just clinging to what we believe is the real me. We cling to what we think is the real you, and that's almost always the body. We somehow think it's the body. The body is just the machine, you know. Report an error in the passage at 38:32 Highlight the passage at 38:32

39:07 That's the machine that allows the mind to function in the world. So then we look at the mind and we say, okay, if we're not the body, you know, maybe we're the mind. So if we start looking at the mind, then we start realizing, well, even, you know, the body is definitely not static. Well, the mind is certainly not static. The mind is just completely changing moment by moment by moment and incredibly powerful. Report an error in the passage at 39:07 Highlight the passage at 39:07

39:38 It's incredibly powerful, even though we only tend to use it for, you know, they say like, I think science actually even says we only use like about 10 % of our mind or something like that. Is that the right figure? Is it like 10 %? Something really small. How do they know actually? What's the other 90 % look like? I mean, it's certainly within Tantra, the whole thing is the power of the mind, you know, in Buddhism, the whole thing is the power of the mind, right? Report an error in the passage at 39:38 Highlight the passage at 39:38

40:07 So just looking at our mind from a sort of more conventional sense, it's incredibly busy. It's incredibly powerful. And we generate all these amazing, I mean, just look at your mind just today. I just look at my mind just today. Let me just start there. Report an error in the passage at 40:07 Highlight the passage at 40:07

40:28 The range of emotions that I was able to generate today, the times that I was able to catch myself and sort of turn myself around when I was losing it a few times. Report an error in the passage at 40:28 Highlight the passage at 40:28

40:42 It's actually, it's really quite amazing. It's actually, if you just sit there at the end of the day and just think, wow, what happened? That's just one day, just the amount that our minds do within a single day. Report an error in the passage at 40:42 Highlight the passage at 40:42

40:57 But our whole culture sort of perpetuates this idea that developing the body is so much more important than developing the mind, you know. And basically there's loads out there to sort of chill out the mind. There's not so much to develop it. We have all these 24-hour fitness places to develop the body. I guess this is a 24-hour fitness place for the mind. Report an error in the passage at 40:57 Highlight the passage at 40:57

41:22 Definitely Buddhism provides 24-hour fitness for the mind. Maybe that's how we should sell it. I have to tell Joanna we should have a 24-hour fitness for the mind. Hang on one second. Yeah, if you can hold it for one second. So, um, It's true, actually, that some of the same techniques that we use in Tantra have been popularized in health and healing, in some New Age practices, where if you know that you have cancer, for example, you sort of associate or identify more with the health. Report an error in the passage at 41:22 Highlight the passage at 41:22

42:07 the healthy cells in your body than with the disease cells and things like that. And we're kind of doing that in a way with It doesn't mean that we're going to ignore those parts. Because in sūtra, that's what we first focus on, right? In the sūtra teachings, We are, one by one, we're picking out what our main afflictive states of minds are and then we're trying to remove them. That's what we're applying the antidotes on in the sūtra teachings in the lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 42:07 Highlight the passage at 42:07

42:50 Here we're more focusing on the positive. We're actualizing the positive, as Lama Eshi says. And if our self-image is really miserable, at this point we're going for what... We're strengthening our self-image by recognizing what qualities lay dormant within us. So it's like looking as, as Vena Rubina says, we're like looking at the potential rather than at the faults, which she does actually very well in people. Report an error in the passage at 42:50 Highlight the passage at 42:50

43:29 I mean, doing that to yourself is hard enough, I think. But doing it to others seems almost impossible. Like we're so used to just seeing the faults in everybody else, right? To actually just be able to just look at the potential in somebody and only see the potential and keep only seeing, even when they're screwing up left and right. Report an error in the passage at 43:29 Highlight the passage at 43:29

43:48 My mothers, I guess, do this a lot of times, you know? Just able to just keep, you know, everybody else is like, look. Junior is a murderer. You got to write this kid off. And they're like, no, no, I know he's going to turn his life around. And part of it is just kind of this rosy view, but part of it is just constantly trying to see the potential in that kid. Report an error in the passage at 43:48 Highlight the passage at 43:48

44:10 So now we're trying to do it with this kid. We're trying to do it with us. So here's another great quote from Lama Yeshe. This one's a little longer. Report an error in the passage at 44:10 Highlight the passage at 44:10

44:21 The biggest obstacle standing in the way of our successful transformation into such a deity is our persistent belief in ordinary appearances. As long as we maintain the ordinary vision we have of ourselves, there is no space for seeing ourselves as an enlightened being. We cannot truly see ourselves as possessing a deity's transparent body of light if we continue to identify so strongly with our gross physical form. Report an error in the passage at 44:21 Highlight the passage at 44:21

44:48 And we will never be able to contact the essentially pure nature of our own being if we continue to think of our mind's fundamental nature as nothing but the delusions and gross conceptions that pass through it. Report an error in the passage at 44:48 Highlight the passage at 44:48

45:02 Therefore, if we truly wish to achieve the satisfaction of complete self-fulfillment, we must find a way to break free from the tyranny of ordinary appearances and conceptions. We must gain a heartfelt appreciation of how disastrous it is to continue relating to our body and mind and therefore our self-image in the gross and limiting ways that we do now. Report an error in the passage at 45:02 Highlight the passage at 45:02

45:27 Put that one up on the fridge. Report an error in the passage at 45:27 Highlight the passage at 45:27

45:33 So if we don't interrupt the cycle that we're on right now with our limited self-conception and our... or being really stuck in ordinary appearance. Report an error in the passage at 45:33 Highlight the passage at 45:33

45:49 The end result has to end up being more indecision, more fear, more anxiety, more worry, which is all coming about because of this dualistic mind of me versus everything else. I see everything in terms of the victim, or as Lama Eshi calls it, self-pity mind, which is this mind that tends to see everything coming at me, and I didn't do anything to cause it. Report an error in the passage at 45:49 Highlight the passage at 45:49

46:13 And so I'm the victim here. And so I see everything outside of me as the enemy. Report an error in the passage at 46:13 Highlight the passage at 46:13

46:21 And we see and we are so used to seeing the answers outside of ourselves and seeing ourselves as inadequate and incomplete. And so we just we don't take the time to look inward. You know, we don't take the time. We don't we definitely don't think that we're going to find the answers to these problems inside of ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 46:21 Highlight the passage at 46:21

46:44 We keep looking outside, you know. Even once we meet Buddhism, we keep buying more and more books, you know. We keep taking more and more. I mean, it's great to take classes. It's not a bad thing to read. But at some point, we do have to bring it back and look inside of ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 46:44 Highlight the passage at 46:44

47:03 So, I mean, logically, we have to think about what makes us look outside of ourselves and what would make us look inside. inside of ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 47:03 Highlight the passage at 47:03

47:20 And it's still, we still, even once you meet the teachings, even once you connect with Buddhism and connect with good teachers, qualified teachers, and if you don't know what that means, then you should definitely spend time before you enter Tantra looking up what qualified teachers are. Report an error in the passage at 47:20 Highlight the passage at 47:20

47:39 It's so easy to think of ourselves as sort of poor little old pitiful me down here in saṃsāra, and then like somebody's gonna, come and save me, you know? It's that idea that Buddha is Mighty Mouse. So they say that these methods within Tantra of identifying ourselves as a deity That is what acts as the direct antidote to this mind, this self-pity mind. That's what cuts it. Report an error in the passage at 47:39 Highlight the passage at 47:39

48:23 The more that we can identify ourselves, like really identify ourselves with this holy being that arises in a body of pure light and has a mind of pure, clear wisdom, the more that we can cut this view of ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 48:23 Highlight the passage at 48:23

48:45 Inadequate and incomplete and a mess, basically. So we have to, and that requires a lot of practice, and all practice really means is working deeply within your own mind. Practice really just, you could always just define it. We use that word a lot for a lot of different things, and it always comes down to working with your mind. Report an error in the passage at 48:45 Highlight the passage at 48:45

49:14 It's like no shortcut. I don't know if I started this class when I was in retreat. I was reading Lama's book, the one that we use as sort of the root text of the mind class, which is a series of different talks that he gave in the 70s and mostly in Australia, I think, about the mind and how the mind works. Report an error in the passage at 49:14 Highlight the passage at 49:14

49:38 It's called Make Your Mind a Notion. I guess it's called Becoming Your Own Therapist. It's a combination of those two books. And I was reading it when I was in retreat and it really got at this one sentence that he said just got really, really clear and it was like your mind is your responsibility. And all this is is talking about that's what practice is, is just remembering that. So if you're really pissed off, if you're really upset, if you're really depressed, if you're really resentful, whatever is going on in your mind, whose responsibility is it? Report an error in the passage at 49:38 Highlight the passage at 49:38

50:11 It's not, you know. It's not the center. It's not the conference. It's not the volunteers. Dang. Seems like the volunteers. Report an error in the passage at 50:11 Highlight the passage at 50:11

50:25 Seems pretty crystal clear. Report an error in the passage at 50:25 Highlight the passage at 50:25

50:30 You know, so we just have to keep coming back to that. We have to keep coming back to that. are that stuff? Report an error in the passage at 50:30 Highlight the passage at 50:30

50:41 To do that, we have to create the space to do it in. We can't just go from despairing, self-pity mind to Manjushari in one night. It's not going to happen, I don't think, probably not. It hasn't happened for me that way. We have to create the space within our mind, spaciousness, which is where meditation comes in. Report an error in the passage at 50:41 Highlight the passage at 50:41

51:06 But we also have to, I mean, going on retreat is definitely. A way of creating space, creating space in our lives to be able to cut out some of the distractions that keep us from being able to remember this and to do these practices. Report an error in the passage at 51:06 Highlight the passage at 51:06

51:22 I mean, just plopping down and pretending to be Manjushri isn't going to do it. That's not going to do it. It's a subtle transformation of how we view ourselves and the rest of the world and each other. And it takes time and it takes creating that kind of a space. Or as Rubina would say, it's missing the plot. It's missing the plot entirely. But if we create the space, then it's possible for us to be able to recognize those qualities within ourselves, within our own minds, and then to develop them. Report an error in the passage at 51:22 Highlight the passage at 51:22

51:57 Because we aren't going to recognize them and they won't be fully formed. It's not like you're going to suddenly find that you have the wisdom of a Buddha without. It's not like it's that kind of buried treasure. It's more like the buried treasure is that we have the potential. Report an error in the passage at 51:57 Highlight the passage at 51:57

52:13 I remember actually on Lama Zopa Rinpoche's last visit to Sechenling, most recent visit to Sechenling, and I actually got a chance to meet with him and I was talking to him about how completely unqualified I am to be teaching the Dharma. And he said, you know. Report an error in the passage at 52:13 Highlight the passage at 52:13

52:36 Gaining realization takes a very long time. A very long time. So I interpreted that to mean that we just keep plodding along. We just keep working with the mind. And of course, yes, we definitely need to go and retreat. We have to make time for retreat. And then when we come back from retreat, we work in the world. Report an error in the passage at 52:36 Highlight the passage at 52:36

53:00 That becomes our practice with our mind in the world. And then it's like we go back and forth. And we have to practice it all sort of simultaneously. Report an error in the passage at 53:00 Highlight the passage at 53:00

53:10 Generating bodhicitta could take us lifetimes. You know, the actual realization of bodhicitta. All the stories, if you read in the sutras, you know, like with Shakyamuni Buddha's story, you know, he became these different levels of bodhisattva, the different... In different lifetimes, it's not like he didn't. He went through all the levels in one single lifetime. There's all these stories about all the realizations that he had and how long it took. Report an error in the passage at 53:10 Highlight the passage at 53:10

53:42 And then to have a direct perception of emptiness, we have to develop calm abiding first, which is, you know, that's probably for most of us going to take a very long time. So if we waited until we had those realizations under our belt, Not to mention renunciation. We never would enter tantra. I mean, definitely we would never enter. So he just says, okay, just start with doing a little bit in each, you know. Report an error in the passage at 53:42 Highlight the passage at 53:42

54:12 And Venerable Rene, who's one of my teachers, says a little bit in each day, which could be as simple as, he suggests just sort of reading a little tiny bit about emptiness each day, you know. Right now, that's the meditation that I'm working on in my lamrim meditations, and I don't have that long. So I do this set amount of my calm abiding meditation every day, which isn't very long. Report an error in the passage at 54:12 Highlight the passage at 54:12

54:43 But for my emptiness thing, I just try to look at the emptiness of one thing. So it may be as little as two minutes, but I try to look at the emptiness of one thing. So the more that you know what that means, the more you can do with it. So that's why I was suggesting to Joe that we spend some time studying these subjects so that we can do a little bit on them each day. Report an error in the passage at 54:43 Highlight the passage at 54:43

55:05 Because it is going to take us a while otherwise, and yet if we really do have a strong feeling that... We really do want to benefit others and we do want to take a tantric path. We sort of need to get started. So Lama Yeshe is definitely encouraging us, go ahead and get started but keep working on these things as well. Report an error in the passage at 55:05 Highlight the passage at 55:05

55:26 We have to because otherwise the tantra isn't going to go anywhere. we... Over lifetimes, we sort of developed this habit of either grasping at things or running away from things, you know, which is just attachment and aversion sort of gone wild. And it's based on this dualistic view of myself as sort of this, you know, the victim and everything else is coming at me. Report an error in the passage at 55:26 Highlight the passage at 55:26

55:57 And so we have to, I mean, that's a place that we can start. Report an error in the passage at 55:57 Highlight the passage at 55:57

56:04 Continually remind ourselves that this is a hallucination once we actually believe that this is accurate. And sometimes that can be very, very powerful if you're feeling, especially when you're feeling slightly overwhelmed in a situation, to remember this is a hallucination right now. You know, this is coming. It feels like everything's coming at me. Report an error in the passage at 56:04 Highlight the passage at 56:04

56:29 And to sort of breathe into that and just be like, okay, you know, what's actually happening here? You know, there are all these different sending beings have their own take on what's happening right now. I need to remember spaciousness. And I'm looking at Denise meaningfully because she's running a team in the conference. Report an error in the passage at 56:29 Highlight the passage at 56:29

56:51 So this is definitely stuff that's going to come up in the next week. It's going to be this intense practice period. It's a form of retreat, actually. So one way to do it is, you guys did the meditation on the, or maybe not, maybe that was a mind class, the clear light nature of the mind. Have you guys, have we done that one in here? Or you've done, probably in other classes, the one where you're just looking at, for example, the space, the sky. Report an error in the passage at 56:51 Highlight the passage at 56:51

57:26 You know that there's that visualization we create sort of the mental image of lying on the hillside and looking up into the sky and just remembering that's what our mind is like. Which is a very simple image and often so useful when your mind is super agitated and overwhelmed. And that it's accurate. Report an error in the passage at 57:26 Highlight the passage at 57:26

57:45 It's not like, you know what I mean? It's not like we're making up some image. We're just remembering, oh yeah, my mind's afflicted right now. I have all these afflictions going on. But the actual nature of my mind is clear and pure, exactly like the sky is. Which is why in retreat it is so useful to look at the sky every day. Report an error in the passage at 57:45 Highlight the passage at 57:45

58:06 Especially if you're like me and you really push. I'm a pusher. So to just remember in the midst of everything, you know, to try to find, to try to touch some of those qualities that we know exist but we lose touch with. Report an error in the passage at 58:06 Highlight the passage at 58:06

58:24 And remembering too that when we are thinking about the quality of our mind being clear and calm, that it's alert. It's not like dulled out. You know, which is our other habit, that sort of the baby at the breast thing, we're going into the stupor. We're not going into the stupor. Our fundamental mind is clean, clear, light crystal, as Lama Yeshe likes to say. And so there's no place for that, those kind of hallucinations of self-pity. Report an error in the passage at 58:24 Highlight the passage at 58:24

58:55 But it's alert, it's awake, you know. And I find that very useful too. Um, Report an error in the passage at 58:55 Highlight the passage at 58:55

59:07 That is a way, I mean, the way we were doing with the breathing at the beginning where you're allowing the breath to dissolve away all the different afflicted states of mind that might keep you from being really present. That's another way of sort of using, that's actually, it's a sort of tantric technique actually because when you dissolve that, it's like you're dissolving it into emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 59:07 Highlight the passage at 59:07

59:32 Because it doesn't really exist that way. You know, our minds agitated because we are seeing things unclearly. We're seeing things through our hallucinations. And so it's just sort of like it's a way of calming us down and bringing us more alert and present. A lot of times people think that, you know, without this sort of dualistic state of mind that we have all the time, that we just kind of... Report an error in the passage at 59:32 Highlight the passage at 59:32

1:00:02 Zone out and become kind of Gaga land, you know. But when you look at beings like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he has this incredibly sharp mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:02 Highlight the passage at 1:00:02

1:00:14 He's just not upset, you know. So all we're giving up are all the crazy-making delusions and the hallucinations. It actually allows us to be clearer. It allows us to be more focused to get rid of those kind of stories. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:14 Highlight the passage at 1:00:14

1:00:33 And our minds become stronger, so we're actually able to do more with them. We actually waste a lot of time with these kind of misperceptions. The more that you study emptiness and the more you try to apply them, which of course is the whole point of studying emptiness, that you try to apply these teachings in your daily life and you realize that this whole situation that you're just about ready to get all upset about, It doesn't even exist the way you're about to get upset about it. It's like you realize that you could have gone into a three-day spin, but you don't have to. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:33 Highlight the passage at 1:00:33

1:01:12 And it's such, that's a blissful feeling. That's a relief feeling because we normally do go off into our spin and we're suddenly realizing, oh, we don't have to waste that energy. We don't have to waste that energy. We can cut it. We actually have the ability to cut it, even now in our sort of little baby tantric mind. So Lama Yashi says, this is the advice he gives in this one meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:12 Highlight the passage at 1:01:12

1:01:42 Watch your thoughts as they arise, abide and then dissolve back into the clear nature of your mind. Watch them as they arise from this clear nature and then naturally, without you forcing them, dissolve back into it. Once they dissolve, try concentrating on the resulting clarity with as little distraction as you can. So his point in this is talking about not getting engrossed with every single thought arising, but rather focusing on the fact that it arises and dissolves. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:42 Highlight the passage at 1:01:42

1:02:19 It arises and dissolves. It's not like we're trying to keep them from arising. We're just noticing that they have no essence. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:19 Highlight the passage at 1:02:19

1:02:29 You know, this is really what we're doing when we're meditating on our breath. We still are staying very, very alert and we're not repressing thoughts. We're not forcing them back out again. We're just noticing that they arise and fall away and we stop getting so engrossed by every single thing that pops into our head, which is quite useful then off the cushion, you know, because a lot of thoughts will still arise. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:29 Highlight the passage at 1:02:29

1:03:00 So, again, Lama Yeshe, the source of all of our happiness and suffering, the root of both the pains of saṃsāra and the bliss of nirvāṇa is the mind. And within the mind, it is our habitual wrong view, our ignorant, insecure ego grasping that holds on to the hallucination of concrete self-existence as if it were reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:00 Highlight the passage at 1:03:00

1:03:27 The way to break the spell of this hallucination is to see the illusory nature of things and recognize that all phenomena are nothing but fleeting appearances arising in the clear space of our mind. Thus, the more that we contemplate the clarity of our own consciousness, the less we hold on to any appearance as being concrete and real and the less we suffer. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:27 Highlight the passage at 1:03:27

1:03:52 By watching our thoughts come and go in this way, we move ever closer to the correct view of emptiness. So this isn't saying that nothing exists except dreamlike appearances in our mind. That's not what he's saying. He is saying, though, that we have to loosen this hold that the way we see reality is the way reality actually is. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:52 Highlight the passage at 1:03:52

1:04:17 There is a difference between how things appear to us and how things actually exist. And we need to focus on understanding what that difference is. Because otherwise it really is like a spell. When he talks about the spell of hallucination, it does hold us under its spell. And we're not able to actually work effectively, much less get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:17 Highlight the passage at 1:04:17

1:04:40 So one of the ways we do that is through just focusing on how thoughts arise and fall away. Arise and dissolve, whether they're destructive thoughts or even if they're positive thoughts at this point. We do tend to focus more on the delusions that we have and identify them with who we are than we do on that clear sky that they're arising in, the clear mind that they're arising in. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:40 Highlight the passage at 1:04:40

1:05:12 So that's when he also does talk about how important it is for us to... Keep returning to this clear light nature of the mind, to keep focusing on, you know, what the clear sky looks like. I find that so useful actually to do in retreat. When I do retreat now, I set a time that I do it every day and I do it, you know, because I have found here in the city, I think it's quite easy, especially here in the center. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:12 Highlight the passage at 1:05:12

1:05:43 Especially living and working in the same room. It's very easy to literally have days go by where I don't leave the building, which is intense. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:43 Highlight the passage at 1:05:43

1:05:54 So in retreat, I make a point of it. I don't care what the weather's like. I always go outside and I always stare at the sky. And there's this huge relief of going, oh yeah, that's what my mind looks like. And almost every day that you look at the sky, I mean, it's always going to look like your mind at some point. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:54 Highlight the passage at 1:05:54

1:06:12 So even when it's like completely fogged in and you're like, yeah, I could definitely recognize that one, you know, or if it's like thundering and lightning and you're like, yeah, that one looks familiar too. I mean, and those are just afflictive thoughts that are just, that's just exactly what happens in our mind. And then the very next time you look up, it's like cleared, you know, that was the cool thing about Crestone, the place where I was, these enormous windows that you could just watch the sky day and night. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:12 Highlight the passage at 1:06:12

1:06:40 And it would go from like literally like, you know, these amazing lightning shows to clear, you know, completely clear for miles and miles and miles. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:40 Highlight the passage at 1:06:40

1:06:52 That's huge, a huge relief for our mind to just get a break from all that constant chatter that we normally, usually self-criticism, always criticism of something that. That we constantly create in our minds. And this kind of bliss, just having a relief from that ordinary chatter when we do get this peace, when we start recognizing the clarity of our consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:52 Highlight the passage at 1:06:52

1:07:25 It is blissful, but it's not like the kind of... Um... Report an error in the passage at 1:07:25 Highlight the passage at 1:07:25

1:07:29 We don't have the kind of grasping at it that we do with all the other things, the sense pleasures that we tend to grasp at. We have happiness with the senses and we just grasp and grasp and grasp. This actually allows us to strengthen and to sharpen our concentration. So it's a completely different use of our mind. So instead of just wanting more and more and more in that kind of junky way that we normally do. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:29 Highlight the passage at 1:07:29

1:07:57 This allows our mind to actually open and get stronger. So it's just using our mind in a different way. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:57 Highlight the passage at 1:07:57

1:08:08 So the biggest obstacle to developing a really, really strong concentration is this constant mind of dukkha or dissatisfaction, this restless mind, always looking, always thinking, always wanting more. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:08 Highlight the passage at 1:08:08

1:08:28 We're constantly looking for something to satisfy this dukkha mind. And we always, of course, look outside of ourselves. You know, we're always looking for food, partner, job, like tea. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:28 Highlight the passage at 1:08:28

1:08:44 You know, drugs, alcohol, music, like something, just something. And you can kind of feel it in yourself. And I especially notice it when if you've been working a lot and then you do get some time off, it's almost like that adrenaline rush from having worked so hard. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:44 Highlight the passage at 1:08:44

1:09:01 And I remember my sister actually when I was younger and she was three years older than me. And if she was ever home... This is like, she was probably 15 or something. If she was home and it was a Saturday night, just the fact that it was a Saturday night, she would just be like a shark, you know, she'd just be moving through the house and then finally she'd just have to go to the local convenience store just to be doing something, you know, because it was a Saturday night and she was like, she had to be out of the house. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:01 Highlight the passage at 1:09:01

1:09:26 That's dukkha. We all have that, but it's just interesting to see how it just makes you, I mean, it brings so much suffering, that kind of like. That restlessness. And they say that's the biggest obstacle to concentration is that mind. Because we keep looking, we keep looking, you know. We keep trying to gain long-term satisfaction with short-term, you know, pleasures basically. So, and you know, we find short-term pleasures. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:26 Highlight the passage at 1:09:26

1:09:57 It's not to say that they don't exist. But then we get bored. Because the dukkha sets in, you know? It's like part of our mind. It's like a fault of saṃsāra. He takes his job very seriously. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:57 Highlight the passage at 1:09:57

1:10:17 People are allowed to leave, though. That's okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:17 Highlight the passage at 1:10:17

1:10:23 We do keep them for many hours sometimes, as you know. Chris is like, they don't let me go. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:23 Highlight the passage at 1:10:23

1:10:34 So the mind is just constantly looking for something more exciting, more, you know, it's that junky mind. It's just that junky mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:34 Highlight the passage at 1:10:34

1:10:46 So the bliss that arises when we contemplate the clarity of our mind actually acts as an antidote to this. It actually has this ability to provide this sort of calm, deep satisfaction that... That we are unfamiliar with and that we never will gain from our ordinary pleasures, you know, of our body and our senses. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:46 Highlight the passage at 1:10:46

1:11:12 And then because this is why tantra works the way it does, because we feel fulfilled by this bliss, then our mind doesn't get restless to keep looking for more. Because we're already having it, you know what I mean? We're experiencing that bliss and our concentration strengthens because we're focusing on that bliss. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:12 Highlight the passage at 1:11:12

1:11:31 That's what we're concentrating on. So instead of trying to concentrate on our breath, for example, we strengthen our concentration by focusing on this experience of bliss. And that's actually how we develop calm abiding in Tantra. So we still have to develop calm abiding, it's not like we get it. We don't get off of it or get out of that by going the tantric route, but we do it on the experience of bliss, so it's very interesting to our mind. So they say, anyway, that we develop calm abiding and concentration at a faster rate, which is actually what Venmo Rinne's retreat is all about at Vajrapani. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:31 Highlight the passage at 1:11:31

1:12:14 I mean, the first week, I think. He's just talking about developing shine, correct? And then the three weeks following, he's using deity practice as your method of developing kama biting or shine. Shine is just the Tibetan word for kama biting. So that really, really deep state of concentration that we need. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:14 Highlight the passage at 1:12:14

1:12:40 to have a direct perception of emptiness. So here you're just using what your object is, is an experience of bliss. So they say that it's much easier. And it's not like we don't already have some experience of that. If we've ever done anything where we just get so absorbed in an experience that we just lose track of time and even lose track of, you know, eating or, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:40 Highlight the passage at 1:12:40

1:13:07 We forget to eat or we forget to take a break or whatever. I remember having this experience when I used to do photography, the old-fashioned kind. Actually, my favorite aspect of photography was developing it, especially developing and editing the prints in the darkroom. And hours and hours and hours would go by, and I would forget to eat, which is just shocking to me now. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:07 Highlight the passage at 1:13:07

1:13:35 I still get that somewhat here where I get caught up with work, but it's not quite the same as where you're just so absorbed in the pure pleasure of something that you forget. And so we have had this experience to some degree in ways where our senses aren't distracting us and our mind isn't upsetting us the way that it normally does. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:35 Highlight the passage at 1:13:35

1:14:02 So this is similar. This is similar. And so the sights or the senses of our eyes or smells or all these other things that normally would distract us, we don't even notice them. And they say then that as our concentration gets stronger, of course, that the experience of... The bliss becomes stronger as well. So it's not like we are having to make it a more blissful experience. Because our concentration is stronger, then it becomes more blissful. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:02 Highlight the passage at 1:14:02

1:14:42 And then, of course, the more bliss, the more powerful our absorption gets. So it just keeps feeding itself rather than us having to sort of force our concentration to get stronger and stronger, which, as we all know, doesn't always work. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:42 Highlight the passage at 1:14:42

1:14:59 And they say each of us has this capacity in us right now. It's just that the seeds aren't fully developed. We have to actually recognize and develop them. And it's not like anybody else can do it for us. We have to do it. And we're the ones that have to access this aspect of our own minds within our own minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:59 Highlight the passage at 1:14:59

1:15:27 But it also doesn't mean that we're already enlightened and that we already have perfected it. We just have to recognize that we have the seeds of that perfection and then really work on our minds. As long as we're still getting irritated with people or impatient or holding grudges or getting resentful or feeling lazy or obsessing about what to eat after class or whatever, then that means we're not enlightened yet. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:27 Highlight the passage at 1:15:27

1:15:53 So if you had any doubt, any thought, you might be. I'm sorry, but I have to tell you that. Because enlightened means literally free of all faults and having perfected all qualities. So as long as we're still having those experiences, it means we're not quite there yet. But beneath all those faults, beneath all the afflicted states of mind, we do have this potential. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:53 Highlight the passage at 1:15:53

1:16:20 These practices are a way of accessing it, you know, accessing that potential. So at the very beginning, and then we'll take a break and then we'll have some questions and then we'll end with a meditation. At the very beginning of the series, I had mentioned that there were the common preliminaries, which we started with, the three principles of the path, you know, generating some form of renunciation, bodhicitta and emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:20 Highlight the passage at 1:16:20

1:16:52 And then I also mentioned really briefly that there were uncommon preliminaries, and I said I would mention those later. The uncommon preliminaries include receiving the appropriate tantric empowerment. You know, clearly if you want to do a certain practice, then you have to receive the appropriate empowerment. Which actually begins with... Report an error in the passage at 1:16:52 Highlight the passage at 1:16:52

1:17:21 Um. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:21 Highlight the passage at 1:17:21

1:17:27 Finding the Vajra Master who would give you that empowerment, which we're going to spend time on next week. How do you meet? How do you serve? How do you connect with? How do you judge, if that's the right word, a qualified Vajra Master? Then once you've taken the empowerment, as Geshe-la always says, whenever anybody takes refuge, You know, spend a moment rejoicing. And then it's like, now you have to keep it. Now you have to keep the various commitments and vows of that empowerment. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:27 Highlight the passage at 1:17:27

1:18:06 This is called Samaya. If you ever hear the phrase Samaya, this just basically means, well, there's vows in Samaya, I suppose. So vows are where you actually are vowing to keep a certain... um or to not keep or to you know do away with a certain negative action um and semi are like pledges so they're a little in some ways a little less strong than a vow actually i think i can honestly say that they are a little less strong than a vow And we take all sorts of those with Tantra. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:06 Highlight the passage at 1:18:06

1:18:45 So when you do decide to enter Tantra, make sure that you have somebody around who can explain to you all the things that you've just taken. Because so many people do enter Tantra and they don't have a clue as to what they've just agreed to. Fortunately, in the FPMT, I think we're really, really good. My first experience was not within the FPMT. Let me reveal this on... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:45 Highlight the passage at 1:18:45

1:19:14 But I was very, very fortunate that Tenzin Chokyi was with me and was sort of my, she was always my, I always had a joke that she was like sort of the 1-800, you know, Dharma. Because every question I ever had, she was just right there with me, which I created the karma for, so I can be really, really happy about that. Even when they didn't provide the basic daily commitment that always. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:14 Highlight the passage at 1:19:14

1:19:40 Comes with any highest yoga tantra empowerment. She wrote it out for me, longhand, which I kept for, I still have for many, many years. That's the one I used for my practice. So I was very fortunate that even though I was a little more stupid than perhaps any of you will be, I was protected by incredibly good karma and Dharma friends. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:40 Highlight the passage at 1:19:40

1:20:03 So that's always a really good question to ask before you take the empowerment. What are the commitments I'm agreeing to if I take this? What's the daily commitment? Am I taking any vows? What are those vows? Can I learn about them before I take them? And also, is there any mantra commitment? These things aren't always spelled out, and so it's very, very important to ask. We're getting better in the West, but... Report an error in the passage at 1:20:03 Highlight the passage at 1:20:03

1:20:38 We still aren't perfect. And outside of the FPMT centers, which I haven't had that much experience, in fact, I've never been on that one, some centers are better than others, you know, at telling you what it is you're getting into. So it falls on you, you know. If you are going to go, ask. Ask lots of questions. You can only help, not just yourself, but anybody else. Because when you ask the questions and the people running it will go, oh yeah, we should have put that on the website. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:38 Highlight the passage at 1:20:38

1:21:10 I've done that too. We should have that printed up. So very, very important. And it falls on you. You definitely have to take that on, especially in the West right now with all the various... It's taking us a while to... Be as clear as we should be about this stuff. And Llamas don't know that we don't already know it. I mean, you know, maybe they do. But when Llamas come around to monasteries, all the monks already know all this stuff, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:10 Highlight the passage at 1:21:10

1:21:45 The monks learn it through in their various classes. So they don't have the same issues as when they come to the West. And we're all different levels. Some of us, not any. any understanding, walk in there and just take it because the person looks really nice. And then the last one is doing the practices that will both purify the obstacles and accumulate merit. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:45 Highlight the passage at 1:21:45

1:22:14 And I think I touched on that. And if I haven't, it's a really big part of our practice from now on. Purifying obstacles. Purifying negative karma that acts as an obstacle for us and accumulating merit or accumulating positive karma that will allow us to progress. So in meditation we have to do that. In sūtra practices we have to do that. With study we have to do that. We definitely have to do it when we practice Tantra. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:14 Highlight the passage at 1:22:14

1:22:47 So why don't you guys take a break and then come back and ask some questions. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:47 Highlight the passage at 1:22:47

1:23:01 Yeah, two heads and Brian. Alright, so we're going to do line round breathing meditation, which begins to introduce some of the ideas of the subtle body. And then there's just a meditation that I liked, that I thought was more grounding meditation that comes from John Landau. Before we do that, did anybody have any questions that you wanted to ask Brian? You want to pass Brian? A new face, a new voice. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:01 Highlight the passage at 1:23:01

1:23:35 Today, anyway. Can you talk more about using bliss as the object of meditation? We will. We will, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:35 Highlight the passage at 1:23:35

1:23:48 Anybody else? Yep. She's just so patiently waiting. If you could repeat the last thing you said was the uncommon preliminaries. I didn't write it down. Oh, sure. That's an easy one. I love those kind of questions. I just look at my notes. yeah, that's part of. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:48 Highlight the passage at 1:23:48

1:24:03 it's not. So this won't be in the same order exactly, but no, maybe I will. I'll do it in the same order. The first one, receiving the appropriate tantric empowerment. It sounds sort of like, you know, common sense, right? But still. Secondly, of course, before actually you do that, so really first, really 1A is finding a qualified Vajra Master. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:03 Highlight the passage at 1:24:03

1:24:34 And we'll discuss that one more next week. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:34 Highlight the passage at 1:24:34

1:24:39 But I didn't say that. And this is actually really, really important. And it comes into every single practice that we do in Tantra is what's called guru yoga. It's called guru yoga. And so this practice, of course, ultimately is more powerful if you've actually met a guru. Otherwise, you're just sort of, you know, visualizing. So we'll talk about that one more. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:39 Highlight the passage at 1:24:39

1:25:06 And then keeping the various commitments and vows of that empowerment, which it behooves you to know what they are and to ask if it's not spelled out. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:06 Highlight the passage at 1:25:06

1:25:19 And if it's not spelled out and you're not sure, then to know that then you have to make a decision, well, then do I want to go in there and be surprised at the end? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:19 Highlight the passage at 1:25:19

1:25:33 Which happened to me one time. I still remember Venerable Angie's face and my face looking when we heard what the commitment was, which isn't even all that much, but we were just both kind of like, oh. So be careful. Doing practices that both purify obstacles and accumulate merit is number four. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:33 Highlight the passage at 1:25:33

1:25:58 Oh, man. We have to start over. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:58 Highlight the passage at 1:25:58

1:26:04 She's missing a merit. Okay, anybody else? Okay, we're going to do, can you pass it to Lama? Report an error in the passage at 1:26:04 Highlight the passage at 1:26:04

1:26:18 When it says yoga, guru yoga. We'll talk, we'll definitely talk more about guru yoga next week, so yeah, yeah. It made you have to do, you know, downward dog. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:18 Highlight the passage at 1:26:18

1:26:31 Sorry, I can't resist. Everybody wear loose baggy clothes. No, I'm kidding. this? Report an error in the passage at 1:26:31 Highlight the passage at 1:26:31

1:26:40 Okay, so we're going to do this. I'll describe it for you and we can start. We're going to do this every week, actually, from now on. You can practice it at home. It'll be in your homework. And I've seen it described differently in different places. And so I went with Lama Yeshe. As usual, if I have any doubts, I go to Lama Yeshe because he's the one I'm using as the root. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:40 Highlight the passage at 1:26:40

1:27:09 for this one. Um, The reason that we do this particular, this is a breathing exercise basically, but it also allows us to begin visualizing our subtle body and we'll get more into the subtle body in the kind of detail that I can give in the next few classes, not next week, we aren't having class next week, just announcing that's not going to happen so don't show up. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:09 Highlight the passage at 1:27:09

1:27:38 Um... So the reason you would do this exercise is the way Lama Yashi describes it. You do it to dispel the impure airs and energy that you have in your subtle body, like if you're feeling blocked. And he actually suggests doing it before all meditations. I don't do it before all meditations, and I'll let you explore. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:38 Highlight the passage at 1:27:38

1:28:09 experiment, but But I definitely have done it when you're doing a deity retreat, definitely with that kind of visualization. So you start with, actually let's just start first, just take some nice deep breaths and let go of all the chatter in your mind, all the ideas, thoughts, conceptual things, whatever we've been discussing, Report an error in the passage at 1:28:09 Highlight the passage at 1:28:09

1:28:39 decision making in the cafe, you know, just let that all dissolve. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:39 Highlight the passage at 1:28:39

1:28:52 And then you're going to take your right index finger and you actually hold your left nostril closed with the back of your right index finger. And then you breathe in slowly through your right nostril. And while you're doing that, just think that you're breathing in all the pure blissful energy from all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Ten Directions. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:52 Highlight the passage at 1:28:52

1:29:18 And then you block your right nostril with the front of the same finger and exhale through your left. And as you do that, just think that you're breathing out all your impure desire attachment energy. And you just try that three times. And if you would rather just visualize, you can do that. You don't actually have to hold. But sometimes it helps at the beginning to hold. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:18 Highlight the passage at 1:29:18

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:30:18 When you're finished, just have your hands in your lap. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:18 Highlight the passage at 1:30:18

1:30:38 And then we do the reverse, where we breathe in through the left nostril, slowly and gently. And visualize again that you're breathing in all the inspiration and blissful energy from all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the Ten Directions. And as we exhale through the right nostril, think that you're breathing out all your impure hatred and anger energy. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:38 Highlight the passage at 1:30:38

1:31:08 And do that three times. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:08 Highlight the passage at 1:31:08

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:32:16 And then finally, breathe in and out three times through both nostrils, making sure that all the energies are clean, clear and equal. As Lama Yashi says, as you inhale, breathing in all the power and excellence of all the Buddhas. And as you exhale, think that you're breathing out all your impure ignorance energy. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:16 Highlight the passage at 1:32:16

1:32:43 And as you exhale, each time think that all your physical and mental difficulties, all your blocked energy disappears. And Report an error in the passage at 1:32:43 Highlight the passage at 1:32:43

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:33:36 just let your breathing return to normal when you finish that. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:36 Highlight the passage at 1:33:36

1:34:02 And then just again bring your attention to your body and your posture and try to correct if your body has begun to slouch. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:02 Highlight the passage at 1:34:02

1:34:16 Most important aspect is always the spine, keeping it upright and straight. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:16 Highlight the passage at 1:34:16

1:34:29 And just remember that the stability of the body supports the calm concentration and the alertness. So take a moment to imagine that your body is like a tree. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:29 Highlight the passage at 1:34:29

1:34:47 Sending its roots down into the earth. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:47 Highlight the passage at 1:34:47

1:34:54 We can bring our attention to the place where our body makes contact with the cushion or the chair. And then follow those roots as they reach down through the floor into the ground as Report an error in the passage at 1:34:54 Highlight the passage at 1:34:54

1:35:15 it makes contact with the stable earth energy below us. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:15 Highlight the passage at 1:35:15

1:35:23 We can begin to imagine that we have this central channel that runs down our trunk just in front of our spinal column. And you can see it like a tube made of light. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:23 Highlight the passage at 1:35:23

1:35:43 And this central channel penetrates deep into the earth, contacting the stable earth energy that grounds us and supports us. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:43 Highlight the passage at 1:35:43

1:35:54 In the same way that a root stabilizes a tree. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:54 Highlight the passage at 1:35:54

1:36:08 So just like the roots of the tree brings up nutrients from the earth that follow up through the roots into the trunk and from the trunk through the branches. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:08 Highlight the passage at 1:36:08

1:36:21 All the way to the uppermost leaves. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:21 Highlight the passage at 1:36:21

1:36:27 In this same way, imagine that the energy that we've contacted begins to rise very slowly and deliberately up through the trunk of our body from below. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:27 Highlight the passage at 1:36:27

1:36:41 And slowly this energy makes its way through the spinal column up the back of the neck and the back of the head all the way up to our crown. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:41 Highlight the passage at 1:36:41

1:36:53 So just follow it slowly and deliberately, trying to feel it every step of the way. The slowly rising energy, releasing any tightness, restrictions, anything it encounters that blocks, Report an error in the passage at 1:36:53 Highlight the passage at 1:36:53

1:37:14 releasing all the pockets of frustrated energy and blocks that we might be feeling. And Report an error in the passage at 1:37:14 Highlight the passage at 1:37:14

1:37:37 now imagine that that energy that's rising up the trunk of our body continues straight up and out through the crown of our head, up through the ceiling, the roof, the atmosphere. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:37 Highlight the passage at 1:37:37

1:37:51 Into the farthest reaches of space. And Report an error in the passage at 1:37:51 Highlight the passage at 1:37:51

1:38:02 as our mind makes contact with the boundlessness of space, it experiences boundless expansion of clear, unobstructive awareness. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:02 Highlight the passage at 1:38:02

1:38:19 And just rest in that state for a few minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:19 Highlight the passage at 1:38:19

1:38:44 And then allow your attention to descend again from space through the crown of the head, through the back of your head. Back of your neck, until your attention comes to rest in the heart center, deep within the center of your chest. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:44 Highlight the passage at 1:38:44

1:39:06 This is the center of your awareness, but it remains in contact with the earth element below and the spaciousness above. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:06 Highlight the passage at 1:39:06

1:39:18 The earth element gives us a calm stability, along with the ability to concentrate our attention and fix it, hold it on any object. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:18 Highlight the passage at 1:39:18

1:39:31 And the space element above us allows us to experience our own spaciousness of mind, clarity, alertness. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:31 Highlight the passage at 1:39:31

1:39:46 If we have too much of the earth element, we begin to feel heavy and dull and drowsy. And then we connect more with the space. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:46 Highlight the passage at 1:39:46

1:39:58 If the space element predominates, then we can feel vague and lightheaded, distracted, scattered. So then we need to ground. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:58 Highlight the passage at 1:39:58

1:40:16 Imagine that the essentially clear consciousness residing at the center of our hearts takes on the aspect of gently radiating white light. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:16 Highlight the passage at 1:40:16

1:40:27 And this white light is in the nature of loving compassion, the wish that all beings could have perfectly balanced mind, stable and clear, and that their own loving compassion, wisdom and skill could manifest. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:27 Highlight the passage at 1:40:27

1:40:58 And then slowly allow this radiant white light to expand at the center of your heart along with your own loving, compassionate wishes. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:58 Highlight the passage at 1:40:58

1:41:09 Imagine that it expands out in all directions. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:09 Highlight the passage at 1:41:09

1:41:17 And imagine that this compassionate white light energy merges with the white light emanating from all those that are sitting around you. And Report an error in the passage at 1:41:17 Highlight the passage at 1:41:17

1:41:32 that slowly it expands to encompass the entire room and Report an error in the passage at 1:41:32 Highlight the passage at 1:41:32

1:41:41 then outward to pervade the entire building. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:41 Highlight the passage at 1:41:41

1:41:49 The entire neighborhood, the Report an error in the passage at 1:41:49 Highlight the passage at 1:41:49

1:41:56 city, Report an error in the passage at 1:41:56 Highlight the passage at 1:41:56

1:42:02 the Bay Area, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:02 Highlight the passage at 1:42:02

1:42:07 California, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:07 Highlight the passage at 1:42:07

1:42:11 the whole country, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:11 Highlight the passage at 1:42:11

1:42:17 the whole planet, Report an error in the passage at 1:42:17 Highlight the passage at 1:42:17

1:42:24 the solar system and the entire universe. Wherever it reaches, whoever it touches, it induces an inexpressible experience of peace, well-being and bliss and Report an error in the passage at 1:42:24 Highlight the passage at 1:42:24

1:42:53 just rest in this blissful awareness. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:53 Highlight the passage at 1:42:53

1:43:18 And then feel that all this white light energy that's been emanated throughout the universe, fulfilling the desire of every living being, returns back to you like snowflakes falling into a lake. This compassion energy dissolves into your heart, inducing an inexpressible experience of bliss that pervades your entire being. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:18 Highlight the passage at 1:43:18

1:43:53 Rest in that experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:53 Highlight the passage at 1:43:53

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

1:44:16 Just as we've emanated this white light energy to all beings throughout the universe, bringing them peace, well-being, happiness, fulfillment. We Report an error in the passage at 1:44:16 Highlight the passage at 1:44:16

1:44:31 each be able to accomplish this in our own life by putting these methods into practice and transforming our own minds, actualizing our true potential. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:31 Highlight the passage at 1:44:31

1:44:43 And by the merits of this class, may we quickly, quickly, The code word for tantra may be quickly, quickly attain the fully enlightened state of a Buddha to be able to benefit every living being without exception. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:43 Highlight the passage at 1:44:43

1:45:12 In your own time, you can end your meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:12 Highlight the passage at 1:45:12

1:45:29 Sorry, I had to go through that a little quicker than I would have liked, but you get a taste. So now you get to spend a couple of weeks working on that one in your spare time in between sessions. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:29 Highlight the passage at 1:45:29

1:45:44 So I do want to make an announcement that most of you should be on the e-news list, hopefully. The center is basically closed from Friday through Sunday the 30th? Tuesday? Tuesday the 2nd. Okay, good. There are some exceptions. The drop-in meditations will still be happening. Saturday mornings and Tuesday nights and other things. So look on the website because I can't remember them all. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:44 Highlight the passage at 1:45:44

1:46:24 Or call the information line because I know we're going to leave that as an outgoing message. But just if you are not coming to the conference and you are coming to the center during this time period, then just check first and see what's still on so you don't make the trip over and then find a closed door. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:24 Highlight the passage at 1:46:24

1:46:43 That would not be a good experience. So thank you. Have a great Thanksgiving for those I don't see. Have a great retreat. You're going down, right, Brian? Yeah. So you're leaving. Are you just going to the first one and then you'll see? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:43 Highlight the passage at 1:46:43

1:47:02 Yeah, it comes. Okay, yeah. But it's still excellent. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:02 Highlight the passage at 1:47:02

1:47:09 I think maybe I already have to have Tantra to do that one. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:09 Highlight the passage at 1:47:09