Discovering Buddhism - Intro to Tantra (3 December 2008)

0:00 Testing, one, two, three, one, two, three. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:22 Welcome. Report an error in the passage at 0:22 Highlight the passage at 0:22

0:27 So we survived the happiness and its causes conference. I still am seeking the causes of happiness, but hopefully we'll get closer tonight. Report an error in the passage at 0:27 Highlight the passage at 0:27

0:43 So we're going to start with the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 0:43 Highlight the passage at 0:43

0:50 We're going to just do the nine round breathing that, of course, you guys are already masters of because you've been doing it, you know, repeatedly day and night since I last saw you. Report an error in the passage at 0:50 Highlight the passage at 0:50

1:03 Especially Chris, while he was organizing all the transportation, I'm sure he was doing it in the car, back and forth to the airport. So we'll just start with just taking some nice deep cleansing breaths and light-going of your day. Report an error in the passage at 1:03 Highlight the passage at 1:03

1:29 This in and of itself is sort of a tantric exercise in a way. You can imagine the in-breaths enlivening you, you know, making you more vibrant. And the outbreaths dissolving all the things that block you or keep you sluggish or drowsy or unable to be present, distracted. Report an error in the passage at 1:29 Highlight the passage at 1:29

1:55 So you can almost do it like a visualization. Report an error in the passage at 1:55 Highlight the passage at 1:55

2:03 Imagining with each in-breath, it's just kind of moving through your mind and body and just dissolving everything in its path. And then you breathe it out. And Report an error in the passage at 2:03 Highlight the passage at 2:03

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:48 then we'll start the nine-round breathing. So if you want, you can... Close the nostrils with your finger or you can just visualize it. I'll leave it up to you but I'll describe it for you. Report an error in the passage at 2:48 Highlight the passage at 2:48

3:03 So holding your left nostril closed with the back of your right index finger. You breathe in slowly through your right nostril. Report an error in the passage at 3:03 Highlight the passage at 3:03

3:13 So gently and slowly. I'm thinking that you're breathing in all the pure blissful energy from all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the Ten Directions. Report an error in the passage at 3:13 Highlight the passage at 3:13

3:24 And then block your right nostril with the same finger and exhale through the left nostril. And when you exhale, just think that you're breathing out all your impure desire, attachment, grasping, obsessive energy. And do this three times. And Report an error in the passage at 3:24 Highlight the passage at 3:24

4:10 once you've completed three times, then do the reverse. Report an error in the passage at 4:10 Highlight the passage at 4:10

4:18 Breathing in three times through your left nostril, slowly and gently, visualizing that you're again breathing in all the inspiration of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Report an error in the passage at 4:18 Highlight the passage at 4:18

4:28 And then as you exhale through your right nostril, think that you're breathing out all your impure hatred, anger, frustration, irritation, impatience, energy. Report an error in the passage at 4:28 Highlight the passage at 4:28

· · · silence, 1 minute

5:12 And then finally breathe in and out three times through both nostrils to make sure all your energies are clean, clear and equal. Report an error in the passage at 5:12 Highlight the passage at 5:12

5:22 So inhaling again all the power and excellence of all the Buddhas and exhaling out all your impure ignorance energy. Report an error in the passage at 5:22 Highlight the passage at 5:22

5:35 Thinking about all the ways that you block yourself through misunderstanding reality. All that ordinary view just Report an error in the passage at 5:35 Highlight the passage at 5:35

5:51 completely disappears. And Report an error in the passage at 5:51 Highlight the passage at 5:51

6:12 just allow your breathing to return to normal. Report an error in the passage at 6:12 Highlight the passage at 6:12

6:19 And just focus on your breath for a couple of minutes. So Report an error in the passage at 6:19 Highlight the passage at 6:19

· · · silence, 2 minutes

8:02 just as this exercise allows us to cleanse and breathe out all the impure energy, cleansing our mind, our subtle mind. In our subtle body, Report an error in the passage at 8:02 Highlight the passage at 8:02

8:19 we should feel really happy that we can come together tonight, talk more about these teachings of Tantra. It will allow us to do just this, cleansing our minds of old harmful habits, Report an error in the passage at 8:19 Highlight the passage at 8:19

8:38 old harmful views, and allowing us to put these methods into practice that actually transform our minds into enlightened mind, Buddha mind, awakened mind, so Report an error in the passage at 8:38 Highlight the passage at 8:38

8:58 that we can perfectly benefit every living being. Report an error in the passage at 8:58 Highlight the passage at 8:58

9:14 Turn in your own time as you're ready. You can end your meditation and we'll begin with the opening prayer. Report an error in the passage at 9:14 Highlight the passage at 9:14

9:35 So in the prayer book in front of you, on Report an error in the passage at 9:35 Highlight the passage at 9:35

9:43 page 8, Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

9:53 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 9:53 Highlight the passage at 9:53

10:42 Does anyone have any questions about the meditation that you've been doing or about any of the reading before we get started? Report an error in the passage at 10:42 Highlight the passage at 10:42

11:03 right. Somehow I feel like you guys are going to wake up later, so we'll probably make up for it. Report an error in the passage at 11:03 Highlight the passage at 11:03

11:10 I just wanted to start with a little something that I wanted to mention. I don't think I've talked about it so much in here, so I'm going to say it again if I have said it. And if I haven't said it, then I'll say it for the first time. Report an error in the passage at 11:10 Highlight the passage at 11:10

11:26 With Tantra, another term for Tantra is actually called secret mantra. So it actually includes the word secret. And as you actually reach the point where you enter Tantra and you are taking empowerments and so forth, it's not so great to talk about it publicly. It's important to keep it secret. It was originally supposed to be kept secret. And it's not so much so anymore. Report an error in the passage at 11:26 Highlight the passage at 11:26

11:59 People will start talking about what they've taken, who they've taken it with, sometimes quite loudly in public places like museums. I had somebody yell his practice across a crowded museum to me one time, I mean to a whole group of us actually, I was shocked. Report an error in the passage at 11:59 Highlight the passage at 11:59

12:16 And we have to be, we ourselves have to initiate that. Practice because it's not kept so secret anymore. So when people start talking to you about things, especially if it's in a public place, it has to come from our side to say, it's probably better we don't talk about this. Report an error in the passage at 12:16 Highlight the passage at 12:16

12:36 That's not saying if one-on-one you want to have a conversation with somebody that you feel like it would help you make decisions or something like that, or with me or with somebody else. From the center or a teacher or something like that. That's not a problem, but that's not usually the way it's done. Hang on one second. Report an error in the passage at 12:36 Highlight the passage at 12:36

12:54 So I'm mentioning this because often people will start when something is announced that an empowerment is being given, people just start talking. Are you going to go? Did you go? Who went? You know, and it's really none of our business. We all enter it at our own rate. We enter it when we feel like we're ready. And then with the other people that are there, it's okay to talk about the practice. And you'll know who each other is. Report an error in the passage at 12:54 Highlight the passage at 12:54

13:27 But it's really important to keep it a quiet thing. And the reasoning is that people can misunderstand. And even worse than that, they can develop a version in their minds. So there is a lot of... Importance for us to actually have become the proper vessels first. And part of that is doing our work on ourselves and on our minds. Report an error in the passage at 13:27 Highlight the passage at 13:27

14:22 And part of it is keeping it inward, doing the work inwardly and not necessarily so much discussing it. In this day and age... We tend to have really large empowerments and really large, and we'll talk a little bit about what empowerment initiations are tonight. Report an error in the passage at 14:22 Highlight the passage at 14:22

14:44 But we should still keep the intimacy the way it would have been. In traditional days where it would have been just one Lama and just a few choice disciples. And I think we can do that even though they now could be a hundred, or with Kalachakra, a hundred thousand at an empowerment. It can still have a kind of sweetness because what will happen at that empowerment is basically between you and the teacher. Report an error in the passage at 14:44 Highlight the passage at 14:44

15:15 It's a really intimate connection between you and the teacher. And so that loses its power if we blah, blah, blah, you know, if we just blah, blah, blah about it like we do about TV shows or other forms of entertainment or something. So I just feel like it's important to mention because I can sort of see changes as Tantra comes to the West and they aren't always positive. Report an error in the passage at 15:15 Highlight the passage at 15:15

15:40 And so we have to be, I think it's up to us. We're kind of the new generation. And so it becomes up to us how we practice these teachings and also how we conduct ourselves, you know, to become the proper vessels. Report an error in the passage at 15:40 Highlight the passage at 15:40

15:56 So anyway, Lynn, did you have a question? We should pass our mic. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Wait for the mic. Thanks, Olivier. Report an error in the passage at 15:56 Highlight the passage at 15:56

16:07 But I can't go back too far. I have thought about this thing of secrecy with Tantra and felt a concern because research shows that when there's a lot of secrets, really it sort of paves the way for an unfair Nazi-like atmosphere. Bad things can happen when things are kept a secret. And so I've wondered about the ethics. Report an error in the passage at 16:07 Highlight the passage at 16:07

16:39 and how everybody makes peace with it? I don't know that I can necessarily answer that one. don't know I think I think it's probably something you'll have to bring up with a more qualified teacher than me yeah I mean I understand them I'm committed to following the tradition, but I just had that question about it. Report an error in the passage at 16:39 Highlight the passage at 16:39

17:09 And it's a fair enough question. I just don't know the answer to it. I think it ends up being really important for us to use our own integrity, first of all, in choosing teachers and in practices. And then secondly, once we enter those practices. And it's not like we ever give up our rights to our own wisdom. And in fact, Tantra is all about developing our own wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 17:09 Highlight the passage at 17:09

17:30 So I think we become our own guards. but, um... You know, fair enough question. I just don't know the answer. Report an error in the passage at 17:30 Highlight the passage at 17:30

17:44 Anybody else? Report an error in the passage at 17:44 Highlight the passage at 17:44

17:48 Yeah. You were just holding the mic and then it gave you an idea. Report an error in the passage at 17:48 Highlight the passage at 17:48

17:57 Yes, it's also about secret around tantra. What about hotels? You know, because in our culture, those are not really usual, let's say. Report an error in the passage at 17:57 Highlight the passage at 17:57

18:08 So should we talk about it to people coming into our home? What about what? Hotel, you know, where you have, I don't know if you can pronounce that word, there's a problem, where you keep, you know, your little things and so on, where you... Alter? I thought you said a hotel. I was trying to follow really hard. No, no, it's okay. Report an error in the passage at 18:08 Highlight the passage at 18:08

18:32 I was like, what are we doing in the hotel? can tell now No, that's a good point. So if you live with people, in other words, who are not practicing, actually, strictly speaking, we're not supposed to show any images that would, you know, alienate them in any way. Report an error in the passage at 18:32 Highlight the passage at 18:32

18:50 So, you know, like if we have a Yidamara deity that is with concert, we're actually, that's what these little things are for, is just bring it down. And sometimes at Vajrapani, you'll notice, they actually, at Vajrapani Institute, they'll actually put another... Tanka in front, that's an open one. Like these are more open images, the solitary Buddhas. And then for empowerment or something, then they'll move the one out from on top. Report an error in the passage at 18:50 Highlight the passage at 18:50

19:20 I think that's possible to do. And then if you are using your Yidam image during a practice, then you can, you know, pull it up or have a statue or something that you just leave covered. I think that's totally possible to do. Yeah. It's hard if you're sharing a room. And it's hard if you're sharing a room, but... It also raises questions and, you know, it's hard to know what to say, basically. Report an error in the passage at 19:20 Highlight the passage at 19:20

19:46 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it does, yeah. I think in a... I don't know, maybe does anybody else have any other ideas on that? That's a good question. Report an error in the passage at 19:46 Highlight the passage at 19:46

19:57 I would think it would just invite more conversation about it, you know, because I think it's possible, especially if it's somebody who's a life partner or something like that, I think you're going to have to have some conversations if that person's not a practicing Buddhist. Anyway, even if you're into tantra. So I think it's just another one of those ongoing conversations. I don't think there's like a pat answer that you can go. Report an error in the passage at 19:57 Highlight the passage at 19:57

20:21 And then that person is forever mollified and never brings it up again, you know. I think it's probably just an ongoing conversation, but I'm not sure. I'm not filled with answers tonight. Report an error in the passage at 20:21 Highlight the passage at 20:21

20:36 Maybe it'll come to me. Maybe I'll have like a grand idea. Actually, you know, it would be interesting. I always thought that it would be kind of an interesting program to have different people who are in different kinds of relationships where one member of the couple is... Buddhist and one is something else, where one is Buddhist and one is not, you know, Report an error in the passage at 20:36 Highlight the passage at 20:36

21:04 just nothing, you know, atheist or whatever, where both are Buddhist, but perhaps not at the same level, and where both are Buddhist, you know, so then they could talk about the various issues that arise, because there's all sorts of ways to deal with these issues, and I think it's just like with everything else, we just try different things and see what works. Report an error in the passage at 21:04 Highlight the passage at 21:04

21:25 Different minds. Some people are just kind of left alone. You just do your own little thing and, you know, never ever talk about it. But I don't think that's normal. The image of a Buddha, I've been confused about exactly how to do that. I have pictures. Report an error in the passage at 21:25 Highlight the passage at 21:25

21:55 If I look at a picture, it's not quite the same concentration. Do we get instruction in that? No. I mean, you do from a teacher who's teaching you a practice like that. You look at it and you try to see the details of the image and then you try to bring up those details in your own mind. I don't think there's much more instruction than that. I think it's just taking time. And you could kind of do it in quadrants. Report an error in the passage at 21:55 Highlight the passage at 21:55

22:26 You know, so you check out like, you know, what is his right leg doing and try to get that down, you know, or what is the lower part of his body doing rather than trying to take it all in because some of them are doing a fair bit and they sometimes have lots of arms and legs and heads and things. So it's kind of hard to keep it all straight. So the times that I've tried to do it, I've literally taken it. Report an error in the passage at 22:26 Highlight the passage at 22:26

22:50 Bit by bit and try to visualize it and then also just keep repeating because then you're like, wait a second, was that in the left arm or was that, I don't know, what's that arm doing? You just have to keep repeating it. But, you know, you're just doing the best you can. You try to take in the image and then you put the image away because it's a mental image you're creating, not. Report an error in the passage at 22:50 Highlight the passage at 22:50

23:10 And then it also, then it's supposed to be really alive. So you're not actually visualizing it exactly as you see it here anyway because This is a 2D or a 3D image and we want it to be lively and awake and alert and you know so just practice. Report an error in the passage at 23:10 Highlight the passage at 23:10

23:32 I'm sure once we see it we won't forget it. I mean once we really have it and once we actually see the Buddha directly we won't forget what it looked like. so. But then if you did see that, if you tried to explain it to us, we probably wouldn't get it. You know what I mean? We'd have to do it ourselves. So even if I had the profound experience of having a really great visualization like that, I could describe to you what I'd done and you wouldn't necessarily be able to do it anyway. Report an error in the passage at 23:32 Highlight the passage at 23:32

24:03 So I think it's just practice. I don't think there's a shortcut. Yeah. Yeah. So tonight we're going to talk about the importance of the teacher, finding a qualified Vaja master or guru for the path, the tantric path. And then we're going to talk about the method of unifying our mind or ourselves with the inspiration of the guru. Report an error in the passage at 24:03 Highlight the passage at 24:03

24:28 And this is called guru yoga. Report an error in the passage at 24:28 Highlight the passage at 24:28

24:34 So it's important to talk about what we mean by guru. And there's a couple levels of meaning. The relative or objective guru is the teacher that we're checking up, right? We're like checking out what their qualities are. Why don't you come in? Actually makes me more nervous for you to be sitting in the doorway than... No, no, sorry. Report an error in the passage at 24:34 Highlight the passage at 24:34

25:00 So the relative or objective guru is that teacher that they are communicating these methods with us. In different ways. And they're also just communicating tantric reality, I guess, so that we know how to act and we know what it looks like. And that's the relative. But then on the deeper level is our own inner wisdom. And that's what we're just talking about, this fundamental clarity of our own mind that these practices get us in touch with. Report an error in the passage at 25:00 Highlight the passage at 25:00

25:35 So the more... In touch with our own internal guru we are, the more these practices and the more profound our understanding is from these practices. Report an error in the passage at 25:35 Highlight the passage at 25:35

25:50 Lama Yeshe again says, Practically speaking, there is only so much the relative external guru can do for us. He or she cannot guarantee we gain insight and realizations. But our inner guru, our own clear wisdom, can accomplish everything. The practice of guru yoga, therefore, is primarily a method for learning how to listen to this inner guru. Report an error in the passage at 25:50 Highlight the passage at 25:50

26:16 And we all have this inner wisdom, but we actually aren't so attuned to listening to it. Sometimes we're more interested in that sort of inner chatter, the inner chatter guru that's going on all the time. And even when we have little blips of insight, we often just don't pay attention to it. You know, we have a sort of a... Report an error in the passage at 26:16 Highlight the passage at 26:16

26:39 A hit of intuition or something like that. Sometimes we'll talk ourselves out of it. We won't pay attention to it. And actually, I think it's important to notice, and Lama, she doesn't mention it here, but I don't think intuition is always inner wisdom, too. So I think we have to be careful to check up, you know, because sometimes our intuition might be to do something that's harmful. So we just kind of, you know. Report an error in the passage at 26:39 Highlight the passage at 26:39

27:06 We just kind of listen to it and judge it. But guru yoga is a way of cutting through to this inner wisdom. It's like accessing a path to this inner wisdom. And then once we do, then of course we can communicate better with the outer guru as well, who is simply like sort of the face of our own inner wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 27:06 Highlight the passage at 27:06

27:37 If we can't connect to our inner wisdom, then we'll never be able to understand our outer guru. So then the question is, if we are trying to access this inner wisdom, does this mean that there's no real purpose for having an outer guru? You know, there's all these teachings about serving the spiritual master. And Lama Yeshi says, no, this is missing the point. The teacher... Report an error in the passage at 27:37 Highlight the passage at 27:37

28:05 We talk about this more. There's an actual course on the spiritual teacher that I'll teach again next year, or I don't know if I'll teach it, but it'll be taught again next year. I hope I do because I really like teaching it. I think in the spring, the Lama, which is the Tibetan word for guru, it's the same word, makes these teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha that are now, you know, 2,500 plus years old come alive for us. Report an error in the passage at 28:05 Highlight the passage at 28:05

28:34 This is like putting a living face onto these teachings because otherwise we can listen to them and read them and think about them, but they aren't awake for us. They aren't alive. They aren't a reality until we see them in living form, until we see a living teacher, until we work with a living teacher and we see them in different examples, facing different kinds of challenges. Report an error in the passage at 28:34 Highlight the passage at 28:34

29:01 So, um... They sort of, they do, they don't even sort of, they embody the qualities of a Buddha in a living form. So they show us what a Buddha is like, like a living Buddha, which is really, really important for us. And then, of course, that inspires us and that strengthens our inner wisdom. That strengthens the potential that we begin to believe in. Report an error in the passage at 29:01 Highlight the passage at 29:01

29:33 That we even have that capacity ourselves to become that ourselves. And so it's really important, all of these teachings, it's really important, but especially in Tantra, that there's an unbroken lineage of all these teachings that go back all the way to Shakyamuni Buddha. And with Tantra, all of the beings in that lineage have to have gained realizations from these practices. Report an error in the passage at 29:33 Highlight the passage at 29:33

30:03 And ultimately, it comes down to our guru or our teacher. And then we become, we're part of that. You know, we follow. We will gain realizations from these. We will be in somebody else's guru tree, ultimately, which is an interesting thought. One of my teachers always stresses how important it is that we remember that we join this lineage. You know, we're part of this lineage now. Report an error in the passage at 30:03 Highlight the passage at 30:03

30:29 Well, once we enter. Report an error in the passage at 30:29 Highlight the passage at 30:29

30:34 So hang on one second. So the teacher knows how to make these teachings come alive for us because they know our mind. So when we connect with the teacher, after we've checked up, and remember the advice is to take a long time to do that, to really check up. And while you're doing that, then they're doing that with you. You know, is this a fitting disciple? Is this person ready? Report an error in the passage at 30:34 Highlight the passage at 30:34

31:04 Are they Are they willing to discipline themselves in the way that the teachings require? Are they open-minded and unbiased, which is one of the qualities that we're supposed to have as disciples that we also talk about in that class, the qualities that we're supposed to have, not just the qualities that they're supposed to have. Report an error in the passage at 31:04 Highlight the passage at 31:04

31:28 so... They know our minds and after all this time of checking up and they've had time to check up our minds so they actually know which of these teachings will work better for us. And so there's that extra quality of when they teach and when they explain they'll know how to help. Our minds and the Dharma become one because they know our mind and they know what clicks with us and what doesn't click with us and where we have problems understanding something and where we don't have problems understanding something, where we're quicker at understanding something. Report an error in the passage at 31:28 Highlight the passage at 31:28

32:09 And so this practice of Guru Devotion is just sort of a way of opening ourselves up to this inspiration. Report an error in the passage at 32:09 Highlight the passage at 32:09

32:21 If we just rely on books, well first of all we can't really rely on books for tantric teachings. It's hard enough with sūtra teachings. There's a lot of teachings out there but we don't become part of a living lineage if we just are relying on books. We can use books to supplement our teachings but we definitely do need to have living teachers. But also of course we don't get this inspiration. Report an error in the passage at 32:21 Highlight the passage at 32:21

32:49 We don't have this living you know teacher in front of us going through life that we're seeing in these different situations that are that's inspiring our mind and that knows our mind you know that gives us the right examples for us you know that doesn't just use the yak examples that are traditionally in the text you know that these is a subway example And it's also important to know that the tantric teachings are pointedly Report an error in the passage at 32:49 Highlight the passage at 32:49

33:21 You know, they pointedly, when they wrote them down, they actually kept them really secretive. When we were just spending, we're actually still doing it. I guess we've got about two more months left with Geshe-la on this text called the Grounds and Paths of Secret Mantra. He'll read like one line and then he'll spend... Report an error in the passage at 33:21 Highlight the passage at 33:21

33:45 Days going over that one line, what's all in there in that one line. And the reason they do that is because it could be misused by somebody who either hasn't been initiated at all, which, you know, bad, bad, shouldn't even be looking at the text, or just isn't. isn't ready for that particular practice, you know, is trying to move on ahead before they've gained realizations. Report an error in the passage at 33:45 Highlight the passage at 33:45

34:09 They're meant to be studied and practiced with a qualified master. It's like a mentorship. You should be working with a qualified teacher. So that person, that guru, has to have all these specific qualities. And one of them, of course, is somebody who knows all the technical And very precise practices of your particular practice. That would make sense, right? They know how to do the visualizations. They understand how the subtle body works. Report an error in the passage at 34:09 Highlight the passage at 34:09

34:46 You know, they know how to practice it, how it fits all together, as well as knowing our mind. So they have these general as well as specific qualities. Otherwise, it's sort of like with a lot of these tantric texts, it's like we get, you know, a box of computer parts and a manual. Report an error in the passage at 34:46 Highlight the passage at 34:46

35:03 And we can't really put it together, you know. I mean, even with a qualified master, you'd be like, huh? And Geshe-la just like says it all, you know, without hardly any notes, you know. It's just kind of amazing and he'll just, you know, it's inside of him. Probably because his teachings, of course, have been so well explained and, you know, over so many years of time and he can see himself. Report an error in the passage at 35:03 Highlight the passage at 35:03

35:32 Doing it while he's explaining like how you measure mandala and stuff. It's all just like in his hands. It's like kinesthetic. And they say that, of course, we're in the, they call this the degenerate age. Report an error in the passage at 35:32 Highlight the passage at 35:32

35:51 And one of the... but with us we're like you know Report an error in the passage at 35:51 Highlight the passage at 35:51

35:52 Signs of that is that it's really, really hard to find a fully qualified tantric master. They say it's actually really, really hard to find a qualified spiritual master, period. And then on top of that, it's really, really hard to find a qualified tantric master. But if we start believing that all the really good teachers lived a long time ago, then all of this will start sounding a bit like fairy tales, and then we'll stop believing. Report an error in the passage at 35:52 Highlight the passage at 35:52

36:21 So we have to be careful of that. We have to guard against that. Because they are, I mean, look at what we have with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He's both a qualified teacher and a qualified Tatric master, posing as this very genial, diplomatic, grandfatherly, to the right audience, fellow who can be on the cover of Time Magazine and CNN and stuff like that. Report an error in the passage at 36:21 Highlight the passage at 36:21

36:46 He's a very good poster boy for Tibetan Buddhism. So it is possible for qualified masters to be here now, and it's also very, very possible for qualified tantric masters to be here now. And we're actually very fortunate just within our organization that there are quite a few, but it's up to each of us to check up. Report an error in the passage at 36:46 Highlight the passage at 36:46

37:10 You can't take anybody else's word for it. It's a little hard once you've connected with your teacher and then they suggest that you go to somebody and get an empowerment. But up to that point, the onus lies on you. You definitely need to check up and take time and really prepare. Report an error in the passage at 37:10 Highlight the passage at 37:10

37:34 So it is important when we look at our teachers and we see them as... We're seeing them both as human, as somebody like us, but then we're also seeing that they have all these qualities that the Buddha had and that they face things, they face different challenges in a way that's different than the normal human because of their realizations. Report an error in the passage at 37:34 Highlight the passage at 37:34

38:00 And I think His Holiness is a really good example of that. He models for us. How to be in the world. You know, he models different ways of responding to criticism or responding to aggression or responding to war even or responding to exile or responding to disappointment or responding to, you know, there's all these different things that come at him and his reaction isn't always what you could expect. Report an error in the passage at 38:00 Highlight the passage at 38:00

38:30 It's sort of like you just sort of wait, like what's he going to do with this one, you know? And Lama Zopa Rinpoche is like that as well. So Lama Yeshe again says, when we see someone who has reached beyond selfishness, who has transcended the petty concerns of this world while still living in the world, who speaks and acts from intuitive wisdom and who is truly dedicated to the welfare of others, then we can have faith and conviction that these attainments are possible for ourselves as well. Report an error in the passage at 38:30 Highlight the passage at 38:30

39:00 And that's really what a teacher will do for us. It's like giving us. Back our own sense of our own potential that we tend to lose. We tend to get skeptical. Report an error in the passage at 39:00 Highlight the passage at 39:00

39:16 So the meeting of the inner and the outer guru happens in what's called a mandala. And Lamia, she talks about this in Introduction to Tantra. Report an error in the passage at 39:16 Highlight the passage at 39:16

39:34 It's like we come together with... This all happens at the empowerment, at the wang in Tibetan or initiation. I actually like initiation better. Report an error in the passage at 39:34 Highlight the passage at 39:34

39:55 In this meeting of the inner and outer guru, it's sort of like an energizing happens of our own enlightened potential. So this inner guru gets energized by somebody who's already developed. This potential to its fullest. And that happens at this particular meeting of the minds, so to speak. Report an error in the passage at 39:55 Highlight the passage at 39:55

40:24 And so a mandala is, I think we have an example, we have an example of a mandala house, but it's depicted in a lot of ways. I guess people, who here has seen a sand mandala? Yeah, so most people have seen a sand, or at least some depiction of one, or even like a postcard of one. Report an error in the passage at 40:24 Highlight the passage at 40:24

40:43 It's usually depicting what the pure land of that particular deity looks like. Always includes certain things in it, but mostly the most important aspect is that it includes the deity and surrounding deities and then some sort of an environment that has come out of this pure mind. So just like we create sort of the chaos of Webster and Oak out of our minds, they create this incredible pure land out of their minds. Report an error in the passage at 40:43 Highlight the passage at 40:43

41:24 And that's the same thing. I mean, actually, you know, of course, a fully enlightened being could actually be at Webster and Oak and experience it completely differently than us. Report an error in the passage at 41:24 Highlight the passage at 41:24

41:39 But we have to enter that mandala or that pure land only through the introduction of a qualified Vajramaster. And it's sort of done when that Vajramaster embodies that particular deity. And so that Vajramaster has to attain a certain level of realization before they can even do this. Otherwise it's just... Report an error in the passage at 41:39 Highlight the passage at 41:39

42:09 Words and the actual meeting doesn't happen. Report an error in the passage at 42:09 Highlight the passage at 42:09

42:17 So the empowerment. Report an error in the passage at 42:17 Highlight the passage at 42:17

42:24 I think what Lama Yeshe says about the empowerment is really, really powerful. He talks about how a lot of us think that all we have to do is show up for an empowerment and we've received the empowerment. And Geshe is always really, really clear about, you know, I have news for you, basically. I don't think any of us have ever received an empowerment. Report an error in the passage at 42:24 Highlight the passage at 42:24

42:48 It's not like the master is going to give you something. It's a meeting of the minds. It's literally a meeting of the minds. He calls it a shared act of meditation, which I think is really powerful. Do you need some water? Need some hot water? I will survive. Don't start singing. Report an error in the passage at 42:48 Highlight the passage at 42:48

43:12 It is the beginning of what connects us to that unbroken line of masters. So we have to be really present and not distracted. Report an error in the passage at 43:12 Highlight the passage at 43:12

43:26 And even if we don't fully understand what's going on, which believe you and me will be the case, it's like we have to strike a balance between knowing what's going on and being okay with not knowing what's going on. You know, because we could get really obsessive about what's going on and actually miss the experience of what's going on. Report an error in the passage at 43:26 Highlight the passage at 43:26

43:50 Or we could just be like airy-fairy and actually miss the precision of what's going on. So we have to be a little of each. We have to be spacious and open but also aware. And that gets back to that whole thing of not just getting into the incense and the bells and the chanting and missing. And, you know, missing it all, which is quite easy to do. So, yes, there are a lot of external things that happen all around you, and it is really possible to get really caught up with that. Report an error in the passage at 43:50 Highlight the passage at 43:50

44:27 There's, especially if it's a big thing, you know, there's lots of running around and things being handed out and people climbing over you and handing out things and did you get this and, you know, all this kind of stuff is happening. But don't forget that the main thing is happening that you're connecting with that guru. Even if you missed everything else, if you can just try to hang on to that, which maybe by the seventh or eighth time that'll happen. Report an error in the passage at 44:27 Highlight the passage at 44:27

44:59 So it's not just a fancy ritual. It's definitely a very precise ritual, but the most important aspect is it's the special inner communication between the Lama or Guru and the disciple, even if there are 100,000 disciples. And really great masters like His Holiness the Dalai Lama will draw 100,000 disciples, and it can still... Report an error in the passage at 44:59 Highlight the passage at 44:59

45:29 And allow for realization in the minds of all of those that are actually present. Now there will be picnics in the back and stuff like that when you're with His Holiness. The Tibetan community will come out in droves with all the kids and grandmas and everything else. Report an error in the passage at 45:29 Highlight the passage at 45:29

45:44 But you have no idea who those grandmas are. They could be having a really amazing communion with Him. Um. Report an error in the passage at 45:44 Highlight the passage at 45:44

45:52 So that's a really important thing because this comes out a lot where people do sort of think I just show up and then I get this thing and then I leave. And that's not what's happening at all. So if you haven't already, definitely read this section of Lamieshe's book. Report an error in the passage at 45:52 Highlight the passage at 45:52

46:16 True empowerment only occurs when both disciple and guru actively participate in the entire interaction. Through both meditation, visualization, understanding what's going on, and so forth. So without this, as Geshe always says, it's hard to say if we've actually received the empowerment. And when he sort of got to this section, it was kind of depressing. But he always is quick to say, but we do plant the seeds for the next one. Report an error in the passage at 46:16 Highlight the passage at 46:16

46:52 um so um And why is it called initiation? I think this is why I like. I think empowerment, yes, it does empower us to do the practice, and that's why it's called an empowerment. But I think there is that idea with empowerment that somebody is empowering you, and it's less of like a connection. And I think with initiation, it is a beginning. Report an error in the passage at 46:52 Highlight the passage at 46:52

47:14 It's the activation of something. It's the awakening of your own wisdom, awakening of these enlightened qualities. So it's not that you are lacking something and you get it. It's like you get a taste of what you already have. And that's empowering. It definitely is very, very empowering. So one of the skills, of course, that the Vajra Master has to have is how to conduct such a ritual in the way that follows the whole lineage of that particular practice. Report an error in the passage at 47:14 Highlight the passage at 47:14

47:53 And the disciple has to know how to keep their mind open and spacious without clinging to a certain way that it's supposed to look or a certain way that that teacher is supposed to act or something like that. Or actually to the self-existence of anything in the entire environment. And they say actually it's very possible, it's actually possible for us if everything is... Report an error in the passage at 47:53 Highlight the passage at 47:53

48:20 in place, if all the conditions are in place, it's actually possible for us to have realizations in an actual empowerment. Report an error in the passage at 48:20 Highlight the passage at 48:20

48:32 it's important for us to do the homework first, of course, before we enter. a little bit more, and then I'll take a question, and then we can also take a break. Report an error in the passage at 48:32 Highlight the passage at 48:32

48:46 So he also says, and of course he, Lama Yeshe also. Always is saying this. He says that if both the guru and disciple are properly qualified, the empowerment itself is pervaded by blissful wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 48:46 Highlight the passage at 48:46

49:03 There should be a blissful experience of the entire path while you're having this empowerment. And they actually say that enlightenment, he said actually, I had not heard this before, but he said enlightenment itself is possible during an initiation. Whoa, really? Um. Report an error in the passage at 49:03 Highlight the passage at 49:03

49:21 Also, it's important to say that if you have a particularly strong connection with a certain deity practice, you just keep receiving empowerment over and over into that practice. So it's not like you receive it once and you get it all. So let me ask you, of course, in his kindness, it's really quick to point out, if it didn't feel like this to you, that's okay. Report an error in the passage at 49:21 Highlight the passage at 49:21

49:44 It could go deeper each time. It can go deeper and you'll understand more. So just be content with whatever happens, you know, and then in each time you go a little bit deeper, a little bit deeper. So there are four initiations that you get in any highest yoga tantric empowerment. And this differs in the different classes of tantra. The vase initiation. And this initiates, well, I'll say the four first. Report an error in the passage at 49:44 Highlight the passage at 49:44

50:18 There's the vase, the secret. The wisdom and the word. And the vase initiates the disciple into the practice of deity yoga. So it allows you to do this practice. This, of course, purifies and blesses the body. So it's all the negativities that we have done with our body in many, many lifetimes, not just this one. Report an error in the passage at 50:18 Highlight the passage at 50:18

50:44 And plants the seed of all the emanation bodies that we get to send out once we get enlightened. Or nirmanakaya in Sanskrit of the Buddha in our mental continuum. The secret initiation initiates the disciple into the practice of an actual deity body called the illusory body, IB in my shorthand, which purifies and blesses all our speech for many lifetimes, very important, and plants the seed of the sambhogakaya, or the enjoyment body. Report an error in the passage at 50:44 Highlight the passage at 50:44

51:22 The wisdom initiation initiates the disciple into the practice of the most subtle mind or actual clear light, which purifies and blesses the mind in all of our limitless lifetimes of horrifying thinking patterns. Report an error in the passage at 51:22 Highlight the passage at 51:22

51:41 And blesses the mind and plants the seed of the truth body or Dharmakaya in Sanskrit. And the word initiation. Initiation. Initiation. Report an error in the passage at 51:41 Highlight the passage at 51:41

51:54 Initiates the disciple into the practice of the union of clear light and illusory body and purifies and blesses the body, speech and mind altogether. Report an error in the passage at 51:54 Highlight the passage at 51:54

52:05 And plants a seed for the nature body or the, I always have a hard time pronouncing this, Svabavakaya in the disciples continuum. Report an error in the passage at 52:05 Highlight the passage at 52:05

52:18 So I always get those confused. I always think word is the speech, but it's not. Secret is the speech. So vase, secret, wisdom and word. Yeah, do you want to grab that? I think, did you have? Oh, vase, yeah. Vase, secret, wisdom and word. Vase, vase. Report an error in the passage at 52:18 Highlight the passage at 52:18

52:50 Sorry. I know when it's a group, I always go to like the English version vase. Vaz. Report an error in the passage at 52:50 Highlight the passage at 52:50

52:55 pause you know um Karen Binaweba used to say, her mother used to say, if it's more than $35, it's a vase. If it's less, it's a vase. Isn't that cute? Report an error in the passage at 52:55 Highlight the passage at 52:55

53:08 Any questions about anything that I'd say? Who's Report an error in the passage at 53:08 Highlight the passage at 53:08

53:15 a Lama? Oh, yeah, that's the subject of another whole class. But Lama and Guru actually mean heavy with qualities. And it means somebody who has... All the qualities that we're looking for. So it's like this whole list of 10 qualities in sūtra plus additional ones in tantra. So it's not just a teacher. It's somebody who actually is imbued with these really heavy qualities, like including the direct perception of emptiness and like that. Report an error in the passage at 53:15 Highlight the passage at 53:15

53:48 So it's not just like somebody who's a really good teacher. So somebody like Ishola, he's not called Lama. No, he is a Lama. He's called Genla, which is a teacher. He is called a Lama. And what about Thupten Chodron up in Washington? She seems very... Is she ever called Lama? I don't know. I don't know what her students call her, actually. Report an error in the passage at 53:48 Highlight the passage at 53:48

54:15 Mary, do you know? Does anybody ever call her? Yeah. Um... Report an error in the passage at 54:15 Highlight the passage at 54:15

54:19 I mean, sometimes it's important to know, too, that Lama is used in a couple of different ways. Lama can also be used in some traditions and starting to in ours for somebody who has completed a three-year retreat. So you have to be careful with that usage. But the way that I'm talking about it is where it actually equals Guru. Guru is Sanskrit and Lama is Tibetan. Report an error in the passage at 54:19 Highlight the passage at 54:19

54:40 And that it literally means somebody who is a fully qualified. So often in English, we'll add those words, a fully qualified spiritual master, capital S, capital M, rather than a teacher. Our teacher here, he's fully qualified or isn't he fully qualified? That's for you to determine. This is the point. You have to check up. Report an error in the passage at 54:40 Highlight the passage at 54:40

55:03 You investigate what those qualities are and what his qualities are and you see if he matches. And part of that is a meditation. You know, meditating on the qualities of that holy being, whether it's Geshe-la, whether it's Thupten Chodron, whether it's, you know, Venerabina, whether it's His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whether it's Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Report an error in the passage at 55:03 Highlight the passage at 55:03

55:23 Going through those qualities, first of all, knowing what they are, and then secondly, going through them and thinking, do I see those qualities? Is there a reason for me to see those questions? Like trying to apply as much logic and reasoning. You know, can I see them? What are his students like? How have they worked on their minds? Report an error in the passage at 55:23 Highlight the passage at 55:23

55:41 I mean, it's really requiring us to really check up. And remember karma. You know, Olivier may have a certain relationship with a certain teacher that would work perfectly for his mind. And I see that same person and I don't have, either I have a neutral relationship, which happens, or I have even an aversion. Report an error in the passage at 55:41 Highlight the passage at 55:41

55:59 To that particular teacher. Because there's karma involved. So there's no inherently existent Lama in that sense, you know. So that's why it's really important for you to check up. Investigate. A really great book on this is, and I think it's out of print, but it's downloadable from berazinarchives.org is Alex Berazin's book relating to a spiritual teacher. Report an error in the passage at 55:59 Highlight the passage at 55:59

56:27 I think it's a great book. So it's definitely worth a reread. He gets into the different levels of spiritual teachers and how we really need them all. You know, everything from just somebody who knows a little bit more than you all the way and college professors, you know, all the way to the root guru and what makes the root guru different than a Vajra master or different than a guru who gives you vows or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 56:27 Highlight the passage at 56:27

56:50 And we have different relationships, sometimes for life, sometimes for lifetimes, with a lot of these different ones. Not with the senior student who's just helping him, but with all the other ones, and not the college teacher either, I don't think. But yeah, so it behooves us to understand what those relationships are before we begin them. But I think he spells it out very well. Report an error in the passage at 56:50 Highlight the passage at 56:50

57:14 And he also gets into what the meanings are behind the words. You know, in Tibetan and in Sanskrit, which we have a hard time translating into English. And so somebody can present themselves as a teacher or a Lama or a guru to us and even a Geshe. And we don't necessarily know what they are as a person. And so we have to check up because they can a lot can happen between India or Tibet and here. Report an error in the passage at 57:14 Highlight the passage at 57:14

57:41 And they can surround themselves with people that promote them in the same way a politician does. And then we have to really figure it out. What's his lineage? Who are his teachers? You know, like that. So we really do have to check up. But I think that's a great book for that. Yeah. Okay, quick. Report an error in the passage at 57:41 Highlight the passage at 57:41

58:05 Hold it up to your mouth. Two questions. One is the reincarnation. Like we hear that... Lama Zopa was reincarnated in Lava, etc. But I don't know about Gisela. We don't know about everybody. Yeah, because they aren't always recognized. But it doesn't mean that they aren't. It just means that they weren't recognized when they were children. But I mean, I think that's probably true for lots of women, too. Report an error in the passage at 58:05 Highlight the passage at 58:05

58:33 They weren't necessarily recognized. They're starting to be recognized now. I don't know of any women lamas, so that's confusing. Khandro Rinpoche is a recognized Rinpoche. But I think that there are, actually in our tradition, there's quite a few women teachers. Actually, we just went to see Jetsuma. Tenzin Palmo was just on her final tour, unfortunately. She feels like she's said enough. Report an error in the passage at 58:33 Highlight the passage at 58:33

58:59 She said, he's going to go back into retreat. But you missed her. She was great. We went to see her right after the conference ended. I was just transcribing my notes actually before class. But look how long she's been around before she got recognized. It's changing. You know, it's coming from an old system and it's coming west. And I actually think more women will be recognized once it's in the west. Report an error in the passage at 58:59 Highlight the passage at 58:59

59:25 Okay, I have one more team. Hey, no, you just said. How is it going to be? And comparing the lamas who were put into the monastery at five or six years old compared to people who start studying Buddhism like at 20 or 15. Yeah, it's definitely going to take her at 20. How about at 40? Yeah, we won't progress as far, I don't think, in this life. Report an error in the passage at 59:25 Highlight the passage at 59:25

59:54 But it totally depends on karma, you know. Because Lama Zopa Rinpoche, he did spend some time in the monastery, and he actually studied quite a bit in a refugee camp that he was in. It was interesting. He was not Tibetan. He was Nepali. He is Nepali. And finally got permission to go and study in Tibet when he was really young. Report an error in the passage at 59:54 Highlight the passage at 59:54

1:00:20 Not really, really young, like five, but more like 11 or 13 or something. And right then... Tibet fell, like he literally just got there, got caught with all the monks, came through, ended up in Baxa, which is a refugee camp. And that's where he met Lama yesterday. And he studied quite a bit. They were very organized, of course. And, you know, I mean, most of us would have just been like completely freaked out to be in this refugee camp. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:20 Highlight the passage at 1:00:20

1:00:48 We've lost our country, lost our home. What's happening? They just settled down and began reconstructing the text. Like, what do you remember? What do you remember? You know, like, you know, and assigning debates, you know, they just kept it up. They just set up, you know, Sarah in a refugee camp. But that's that's the. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:48 Highlight the passage at 1:00:48

1:01:07 he had, you know, so he didn't actually have that whole structured thing that Geshe-la had. So he has a different kind of mind in the way he approaches things. That's part of why I got ordained, because I just didn't want to... You know, waste any more time. But I do think it's incredibly wonderful if we could meet it much earlier because I think we just have more time to do, you know, and sort of a more sharpness of mind when we're younger than we do when we're older. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:07 Highlight the passage at 1:01:07

1:01:52 But we do the best we can. We create the seeds for the next life and we'll see what happens in this life. I think, of course, it is great if we could meet it when we're five. If I was highly attained enough to choose my next life, I would definitely want to be born into a Buddhist family. It would save a lot of time, I think. Any other questions before we take a break? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:52 Highlight the passage at 1:01:52

1:02:16 Oh, yeah. Oh, Alex Berezin. B-E-R, is it E-Z-I-N? I think it's either E-Z-I-N or just Z-I-N. We'll try them both. E-Z-I-N. Just Z-I-N. And it's bearsandarchives.org. We might have a flyer form even out here. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:16 Highlight the passage at 1:02:16

1:02:44 He's got lots of downloadable stuff on his website, too. But he definitely has this book. And you can just download it chapter by chapter. Look at it first and see if you want to print it. But it's definitely got a lot of good information. I'm sorry that it's gone out of print. I hope it gets reprinted, actually. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:44 Highlight the passage at 1:02:44

1:03:02 I think it's a great resource. But he's just a great resource all around for a lot of this stuff, actually. I was really fortunate at one unnamed thing, empowerment, that I was at, that he was present on the lunch breaks and he was giving everybody a little discussion group just on his spare time who was just available. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:02 Highlight the passage at 1:03:02

1:03:24 I missed it, but he was just available giving people. You know, information, answering questions and stuff on the lunch break. And I was like, oh, that's so great. He's just, he's been around for years and years and years and he knows a lot and he's very accessible. I'm impressed with him. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:24 Highlight the passage at 1:03:24

1:03:44 So then someone told me that he wasn't considered, like, that his interpretations of things wasn't really Tibetan Buddhist, et cetera, et cetera, and that here we, you know, don't talk about birds. So I put him aside. But what is the political story there? I don't know. So he's okay. I think he's all right. I can go back to him. Probably depends on any person that you meet. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:44 Highlight the passage at 1:03:44

1:04:09 Yeah, some people may not. Maybe Malam doesn't like him and I do, or maybe, who knows. I think he's a useful resource, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:09 Highlight the passage at 1:04:09

1:04:21 Anybody else? Any questions? Okay, why don't you take a break. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:21 Highlight the passage at 1:04:21

1:04:28 And then we'll talk about guru yoga. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:28 Highlight the passage at 1:04:28

1:04:34 Chris, now that you're subbing, does that mean you can't come into the class? Report an error in the passage at 1:04:34 Highlight the passage at 1:04:34

1:04:41 writing down everything Meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:41 Highlight the passage at 1:04:41

1:04:53 So once we've had this amazing experience of the initiation that we've been fully present and undistracted and you know I guess first of all we've we've found our teacher that's taken us years and then we've had this initiation and we've been completely present throughout and one-on-one communing with our teacher. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:53 Highlight the passage at 1:04:53

1:05:15 Then we have the daily practice usually that comes with that empowerment. And that's called the sadhana. But it's basically just like a daily yoga or a daily practice. And every sadhana contains this practice of guru yoga. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:15 Highlight the passage at 1:05:15

1:05:40 Lama Yeshe describes it like this. In front of you, or above the crown of your head, you visualize the main meditational deity of the tantra you're practicing, surrounded by the various gurus of his or her lineage, like in this image up here, which is from Guru Puja, what's called Lama Chopra, Guru Puja, that we do twice a month. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:40 Highlight the passage at 1:05:40

1:06:00 That's what we're supposed to be visualizing. But in our case, you know, it would depend on what. think, um, Report an error in the passage at 1:06:00 Highlight the passage at 1:06:00

1:06:08 Meditational deity you're using, that's the center one and then they're surrounded by all the various gurus of that lineage. And so including your own guru, you picture your own guru as part of that lineage. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:08 Highlight the passage at 1:06:08

1:06:25 Then after you get the whole visualization up there, you do these various prayers and requesting inspiration or blessings from all those lineage lamas. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:25 Highlight the passage at 1:06:25

1:06:35 And then in response to this, then they sort of melt into each other and then they dissolve into you in the form of light through the crown of your head and they enter your central channel and they dissolve into your heart center. And as they do that, then they also dissolve all your ordinary appearance of things, your dualistic appearance of things. You know, seeing them as out there and you as... Report an error in the passage at 1:06:35 Highlight the passage at 1:06:35

1:07:00 As Lama Yeshe always says, self-pity mind, me little thing down here, you great big guy up there, you know, all of that dissolves. And then it dissolves into this sort of clear space of emptiness. And then as Vena Ravina always says, that Lama Yeshe said, that she remembered him always saying, you meditate for that moment of that feeling of your own. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:00 Highlight the passage at 1:07:00

1:07:29 That deity is one with your guru and that guru is now one with your mind. So it's like my mind, Buddha's mind, Guru's mind, all one, she says. That's what he always says. She'll say that at Puja all the time. So you just concentrate on that. And then, of course, once you have the empowerment, then you arise from that space into the form of your deity. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:29 Highlight the passage at 1:07:29

1:07:55 Um... Report an error in the passage at 1:07:55 Highlight the passage at 1:07:55

1:07:59 We don't just do it once, you know, and then it's done. Tick. We have to just do it over and over and over again. And we have to do it over and over again. Why? Because we have this really strong, stuck sense of who we are and who we aren't. And so this is dissolving that. And we have to constantly dissolve it. We forget it all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:59 Highlight the passage at 1:07:59

1:08:27 If we could remember it all the time, we'd already be enlightened. I mean, so it's normal to forget it all the time, but it is something that, that's the kind of mindfulness that you need for these practices, is to constantly remind ourselves. And that's why I think that we have all these daily commitments when we enter Tantra, because otherwise, it's hard enough when you're following these daily commitments, but otherwise we wouldn't remind ourselves every day. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:27 Highlight the passage at 1:08:27

1:08:59 We're supposed to be reminding ourselves every moment to do this. That's very difficult. Otherwise, it all begins to deteriorate and we just lose it, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:59 Highlight the passage at 1:08:59

1:09:12 So they also say right before that moment where we absorbed this deity who was also one with our guru, And I guess Lama Yeshe used to say this, Fenerubina always mentions it, that it's because of that Guru's yearning to be part of our, you know, to be oneness with us, to be oneness with our mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:12 Highlight the passage at 1:09:12

1:09:44 It's out of their kindness. And it's because of our relationship with the teacher that we actually develop this. Understanding of their kindness and that sort of gives it that warmth that makes it a lot more juicy than if it was just a deity that we kind of see as something really beautiful and blissful and made of light but we don't have any connection with you know unless of course you're like some of the great masters of old who actually did have intimate connections with Tara or Manjushri or something like that but for most of us that warmth comes from Report an error in the passage at 1:09:44 Highlight the passage at 1:09:44

1:10:21 Our connection with our guru and that feeling that we have for them. So then it's almost like this feeling of, they say it's like we're their only child and all they want is what's best for us. And so it's coming from that sense of love beyond what we can even imagine having for ourselves. Because what they really want for us is our own enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:21 Highlight the passage at 1:10:21

1:10:50 Which we aren't even entirely sure we want ourselves. So through this visualization we connect closer and closer with this guru which allows us to connect closer and closer with those qualities within ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:50 Highlight the passage at 1:10:50

1:11:07 So otherwise if we don't do that then the deity practice just becomes sort of a... It can become more like visualizing artwork or something like that. It can stay in this sort of distant dualistic sense. But with that, it gives it this real sense of closeness, this kind of devotion, really. And they say that this devotion is what brings a quicker realization and quicker. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:07 Highlight the passage at 1:11:07

1:11:47 progression on the path. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:47 Highlight the passage at 1:11:47

1:11:51 And it's also really important to know that visualizing the guru slash deity in this way has nothing to do with the guru. I mean, it has nothing. It's not for the benefit of the guru. It's totally for our benefit. That's how we juice up the practice so that it works for us. It's not that they need us to think of them in that way. It's what makes it have real feeling for us. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:51 Highlight the passage at 1:11:51

1:12:19 So then it's not like we just like leap up off the cushion and we go back to our ordinary way of being, you know. We have to actually repeatedly do this, reminding ourselves of it. And it's really, really hard, you know. Venerabine is always saying, you know, we just go around with our sort of habitual miserable mind, our habitual dissatisfied mind, and we have to just keep reminding ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:19 Highlight the passage at 1:12:19

1:12:49 That our mind is in complete unity with our guru and with our deity. So we have to keep reminding ourselves of that. And it takes repeated practice. And that's why we do these practices all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:49 Highlight the passage at 1:12:49

1:13:12 And it's important when our regular mind arises and we do things based on ego or based on our delusions or whatever, We have to bring up at this point, we have to remind ourselves at this point of what we've just been practicing. And it's difficult. I mean, we screw up constantly. You know, I can say one. I've had a couple screw-ups just this week. Which is, you know, I'm reading these tonight and I'm preparing for this and I'm just like, wow, I wish I could really practice this really, really well. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:12 Highlight the passage at 1:13:12

1:13:48 But it just takes time. I mean, it really does take time. As Lama Zopa says, we have to go patient. It takes a long time. We have to go slowly. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:48 Highlight the passage at 1:13:48

1:14:03 We have to just practice these guru yoga practice all the time. We have to become really intimately familiar with it. We have to become intimately familiar with our own nature and the nature of the deity, the nature of the guru. And we just, yeah, this becomes our daily life. It's not like we're just walking down the street imagining this absorption over and over. It's beginning to embody these qualities, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:03 Highlight the passage at 1:14:03

1:14:28 So this enlightened. This energy, this enlightened, we ourselves are getting in touch with these powerful qualities within ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:28 Highlight the passage at 1:14:28

1:14:43 So this inspiration or this thing, you know, we're asking for inspiration from this, our guru and all the lineage lamas of this particular practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:43 Highlight the passage at 1:14:43

1:14:58 Why are we asking for inspiration? I mean, clearly we all want to be inspired. Why? You know, what is it? They're actually usually called blessings. You know, usually we talk about blessings, wanting to get blessings. So blessings, I think, often takes on this really mystical feel of like, you know, gold dust or something, you know, like he's going to give me blessings, you know, give me a blessing cord, you know, I have to wear, you know, I'm good. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:58 Highlight the passage at 1:14:58

1:15:22 It's like it becomes it's sort of. Takes on an inherent quality that I don't think the Buddha ever intended it to take on. Blessings just act to soften our mind because otherwise I think we can get really academic about this stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:22 Highlight the passage at 1:15:22

1:15:40 And our mind gets harder and our heart gets harder, you know. So at the beginning of the class I talked about Dharma monsters. And I think this is a Dharma monster, you know, somebody who just takes in a lot of information, but they aren't trying to, they don't take it below the neck, as Tenzin Chokyi says, you know, it stays in the mind, it stays intellectual, it stays theoretical, it's interesting, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:40 Highlight the passage at 1:15:40

1:16:06 And believe me, there are definitely a lot, there's a lot of facts and figures out there about Tantra. But if we listen to them... And we don't actually try to practice them, then it'll never soften our mind and our heart, you know. So the blessings that we keep asking for are actually to soften our mind and our heart so that, you know, we actually can practice this. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:06 Highlight the passage at 1:16:06

1:16:31 So it doesn't just stay like that. It doesn't harden us. And so that's why we're requesting these different... It's like blessings from the gurus or inspiration from the gurus. It also, as we're repeatedly visualizing the absorption of the guru and the deity, being one, into ourselves, it dissolves this concrete misconception that we have about ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:31 Highlight the passage at 1:16:31

1:17:02 So we have to keep doing that because, of course, it reforms. It's like quicksand. The minute we dissolve it, we get off the cushion, we're like... That was great. And then the minute something happens, somebody pisses you off, somebody accuses you of something, you get overwhelmed, which is my personal favorite. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:02 Highlight the passage at 1:17:02

1:17:24 It all forms again because we've habitually had this wrong view about ourselves for lifetime after lifetime. So it's not like we can stay in that place all the time without repeatedly doing this visualization. So that's another reason why we have to do it all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:24 Highlight the passage at 1:17:24

1:17:43 And then it's also, Lama Yeshe also says it's really important for us. We do these visualizations, the more we do these visualizations, of course, the more they make sense to us and the more natural they feel too. And at first they do feel kind of contrived, and they are, I guess. But he cautions us to be really careful that we don't just do them. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:43 Highlight the passage at 1:17:43

1:18:12 Because of some sense of duty or that we force ourselves to do them, that we actually just try to, you know, he says, don't push. He's always big on that. Don't push. Don't push, dear. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:12 Highlight the passage at 1:18:12

1:18:25 Because otherwise, then it becomes like empty ritual. So we have to be careful of that, too. It's not empty ritual. It's actually an incredibly meaningful ritual, but it's only meaningful method if we know what it means. So that's the importance of... um, um, Report an error in the passage at 1:18:25 Highlight the passage at 1:18:25

1:18:40 A class like this and also of working with a qualified teacher and also of just rereading and rereading Lama Yashu's book, I think, because it keeps reminding us of all these things. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:40 Highlight the passage at 1:18:40

1:18:51 It's like we have to train our minds. It's not in sūtra we train our minds all the time, right? We have to train our minds to be patient when we prefer to be impatient. And we have to train our minds to... Work with problems that arise in a certain way so that we can develop our bodhicitta. We train our minds to feel compassionate when we actually prefer to be pissed off. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:51 Highlight the passage at 1:18:51

1:19:16 So there's a lot of mind training in the sūtra path. This is mind training in the tantric path. It's training our minds not to see ourselves or anything else in the ordinary way that we normally do. And we just keep falling back into that old habit. So we just constantly have to prove it to ourselves that we can dissolve that away. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:16 Highlight the passage at 1:19:16

1:19:43 And we have to really trust the methodology. And we're so used to just believing whatever we see with our senses or whatever we hear or whatever our view of myself. We believe that is true. You know? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:43 Highlight the passage at 1:19:43

1:20:04 We have to keep that limited view of ourselves, I should say, that really incapable, imperfect view of ourselves, which is no less real. It's not any more real than seeing ourselves as a being of light. They both feel fake. I mean, they both are unreal in some sense. They're both simply imagination. The difference is that the limited view of ourselves is what keeps us in saṃsāra, whereas these methods of seeing ourselves arising as a being of light is actually introducing us to this deeper level of our own being that gets us out of saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:04 Highlight the passage at 1:20:04

1:20:50 So there's a method of that. It's not just... Gross habit that we're used to seeing ourselves as, oh, self-pity mine, you know, miserable me. As Venerable Bean always says. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:50 Highlight the passage at 1:20:50

1:21:03 Neither of them have any ultimate reality from their own side, you know, so in that sense, neither of them are real, truly existent. But one of them has a positive outcome, whereas the other one just keeps us here, just keeps us stuck. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:03 Highlight the passage at 1:21:03

1:21:24 So we just have to keep proving it to ourselves over and over and over again. So that's part of why we have to do this Guru Yoga, not just once a day, but repeatedly, several times during the day, many times during the day. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:24 Highlight the passage at 1:21:24

1:21:40 Any questions? And then if not, then we can do the meditation that's in your homework. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:40 Highlight the passage at 1:21:40

1:21:51 Okay, wow. I just put you all to sleep. All right. So we're going to do a short meditation that just sort of gives you a taste of this idea of the guru yoga. And of course, those of you that have taken classes with me, I usually know that I sort of throw in a little touch of guru yoga in all of the meditations just about that I give you. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:51 Highlight the passage at 1:21:51

1:22:16 This is a little one. Actually, I don't have my notes. I think it might be actually from How to Meditate by Sange Kadro, Kathleen McDonald. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:16 Highlight the passage at 1:22:16

1:22:29 So we're just going to start, we're not going to, and your homework you're actually going to start it with the nine round, but we're not going to do that because of the timing. But we'll just start with a few cleansing breaths. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:29 Highlight the passage at 1:22:29

1:22:44 So just find your posture again, especially keeping your spine extended, especially if you're starting to feel sleepy. So just do those cleansing breaths and like just dissolve all that sluggishness, sleepiness. Imagine fresh alertness, awareness coming in. And do that a few times. And if it helps, you can actually do it physically, you know, like actually imagine, you know, black smoke exiting, you know, in your exhales and clean, fresh, bright, white light coming in with each in-breath. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:44 Highlight the passage at 1:22:44

1:23:21 And Report an error in the passage at 1:23:21 Highlight the passage at 1:23:21

1:23:42 then begin by imagining yourself surrounded by all sentient beings, all living beings. And just try to imagine a little bit about their sufferings. And how much they want to be happy. And how much they're the same as you in that way. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:42 Highlight the passage at 1:23:42

1:24:14 And think a little bit about their dissatisfaction, their pain, hopes and dreams. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:14 Highlight the passage at 1:24:14

1:24:24 Whatever brings them happiness. Whatever brings them sorrow. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:24 Highlight the passage at 1:24:24

1:24:41 And this way just try to feel your connection to them. Even those that you have problems with or those that you don't know at all in this life. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:41 Highlight the passage at 1:24:41

1:25:09 And then imagine in this space. In front of you, raised above you, is Shakyamuni Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:09 Highlight the passage at 1:25:09

1:25:22 Imagine that he's made of pure golden light, luminous and vibrant, and Report an error in the passage at 1:25:22 Highlight the passage at 1:25:22

1:25:34 his energy is pure, unconditional, compassionate, loving wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:34 Highlight the passage at 1:25:34

1:25:52 His face is peaceful and smiling, and he radiates love to you and to all the surrounding people of your life, and then beyond them, to all the myriad living beings of the universe. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:52 Highlight the passage at 1:25:52

1:26:20 He's seated on a lotus topped with two radiant discs, the sun representing wisdom and the moon representing bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:20 Highlight the passage at 1:26:20

1:26:32 This lotus rests on a golden throne adorned with jewels and supported by snow lions. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:32 Highlight the passage at 1:26:32

1:26:44 He's wearing the robes of a monk. He's sitting cross-legged in full vajra posture. The palm of his right hand rests on his right knee in earth-touching mudrā. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:44 Highlight the passage at 1:26:44

1:26:57 His left hand rests in his lap in meditation mudrā. holding an alms bowl filled with His Report an error in the passage at 1:26:57 Highlight the passage at 1:26:57

1:27:17 face is radiant, smiling compassionately on you and all living beings without exception. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:17 Highlight the passage at 1:27:17

1:27:26 And pure light shines from every pore of his body, reaching the entire universe. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:26 Highlight the passage at 1:27:26

1:27:47 If you have a teacher, imagine that Shakyamuni Buddha and your own teacher are in essence the same energy and the same qualities. And Report an error in the passage at 1:27:47 Highlight the passage at 1:27:47

1:28:09 remember that this image of Shakyamuni Buddha It's sort of vibrant and alive. It's not like a 2D or 3D image. It's more like a hologram. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:09 Highlight the passage at 1:28:09

1:28:30 And now in your own mind, just ask for a blessing of the path within your own mind stream. And for whatever you need in your own spiritual life, just ask that you can receive this blessing for the benefit of all. And Report an error in the passage at 1:28:30 Highlight the passage at 1:28:30

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:29:20 we'll recite his mantra for a few moments. And as we do and visualize light pouring from him into you, Pervading your whole body with light and with all the blessings. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:20 Highlight the passage at 1:29:20

1:29:49 Thaya, Thao. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:49 Highlight the passage at 1:29:49

1:29:55 Maha Munai Report an error in the passage at 1:29:55 Highlight the passage at 1:29:55

1:30:01 Thaya Tao Report an error in the passage at 1:30:01 Highlight the passage at 1:30:01

1:30:13 Taiya Tao. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:13 Highlight the passage at 1:30:13

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:30:50 Thaya Thao Report an error in the passage at 1:30:50 Highlight the passage at 1:30:50

1:30:57 Maha Esau. Thaya Tha Ong. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:57 Highlight the passage at 1:30:57

1:31:14 Thayata Om Mune Mune Maha Mune Report an error in the passage at 1:31:14 Highlight the passage at 1:31:14

1:31:26 Thaya Tha Om Mune Mune Mahamunah Esau Thaya, Tha, Ong. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:26 Highlight the passage at 1:31:26

1:31:50 Taya Tau. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:50 Highlight the passage at 1:31:50

1:32:02 Thaya Thao. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:02 Highlight the passage at 1:32:02

1:32:27 Shakyamuni Buddha shrinks in size and comes to the crown of your head, facing the same direction as you, Report an error in the passage at 1:32:27 Highlight the passage at 1:32:27

1:32:40 melts into a stream of golden light, Report an error in the passage at 1:32:40 Highlight the passage at 1:32:40

1:32:46 enters your crown and fills your heart entirely with all his blessings, his inspiration, his heart instruction. Advice, realizations and your own body, speech and mind become completely inseparable from Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightened body, speech and mind. And remember as Lama Yeshe said, your body, speech and mind, Buddha's body, speech and mind and Guru's body, speech and mind all one and just rest in this place of union. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:46 Highlight the passage at 1:32:46

1:33:48 Dedicate this meditation and this class. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:48 Highlight the passage at 1:33:48

1:33:56 That we each can reach this place of union all the time. That we can begin to embody these qualities of enlightened body, speech and mind ourself by using these methods as many, many, many beings have done before us. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:56 Highlight the passage at 1:33:56

1:34:17 And that the gap between our mind and the Dharma completely disappears so that our mind becomes the Dharma for the benefit of all beings. When Report an error in the passage at 1:34:17 Highlight the passage at 1:34:17

1:34:39 you're ready, you can end your meditation. Open your eyes. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:39 Highlight the passage at 1:34:39

1:35:00 So this will be your meditation this week. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:00 Highlight the passage at 1:35:00

1:35:07 If you don't feel like you want to chant, you don't have to, especially if you have a partner who certainly opens up our winds and channels. So I think it's actually a good thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:07 Highlight the passage at 1:35:07

1:35:18 A couple quick announcements, actually. We have a couple of new Discovering Buddhism classes that we're going to do in January. I'm talking right now with Joanna about the dates. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:18 Highlight the passage at 1:35:18

1:35:34 I think it's going to be just the next two. I'm going in order. How to Meditate is going to be six weeks, I think. And Presenting the Path, which is an overview of the whole path. And I'm not sure which is going to be on which date. I think it's Wednesdays and Thursdays. And then also, just in case you haven't heard, Venom Urbina canceled the teaching on the 20th. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:34 Highlight the passage at 1:35:34

1:36:00 So that's not happening now. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:00 Highlight the passage at 1:36:00