Transform Your Mind & Change Your Life Retreat - 7-Point Mind Training from Atisha (part 1)

0:00 ...treat with you, and particularly 7-point line training. a new venture for us. And I believe it's going to be pretty amazing, I've heard, from the boss. The text, I was not referring to my teaching, but the text itself really is quite extraordinary. It's to be here. We're all in a new venue, so we're all finding our way here. But I'm very much looking forward to, don't know what number it is, maybe 23rd. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:30 I have no idea. Report an error in the passage at 0:30 Highlight the passage at 0:30

0:35 So welcome everyone. So we have six days. I hope my breathing is not going to be distracting because I can't help it. I have to keep on doing it. Report an error in the passage at 0:35 Highlight the passage at 0:35

0:52 How is that? So is the amplification still good? And the breathing is not overwhelming? Good. All right. Well, I was again... no idea. Report an error in the passage at 0:52 Highlight the passage at 0:52

1:02 I was reviewing the text itself and some of my notes to it this morning and just once again became inspired all over again with the extraordinary qualities of this text. The seven-point mind training, and I'll be discussing it shortly. Of course, we'll have six days for this classic text. Often when I'm leading a retreat, for example, on shamatha or other topics, I'll very often say that this, what I'm sharing with you over the next six days or what have you, is not a rounded diet. Report an error in the passage at 1:02 Highlight the passage at 1:02

1:29 For example, shamatha. If your practice consists only of shamatha, developing your attention, your metacognitive skills, if this is not a rounded diet, it's not a complete practice, it's very important. I often liken it to brown rice. So if you eat it, it's really good. But if that's all you eat, that's not really rounded. And that's true for many of the other topics, dream yoga, for example, or vipassanā, for example. Report an error in the passage at 1:29 Highlight the passage at 1:29

1:51 So many of them may say, well, this is part of a rounded diet. But please, you know, have more practices than this if you'd like to have something that's really balanced. But when it comes to the seven-point mind training, it's already balanced. There's such a richness there, a texture, an integrated quality to the various theories and practices that Atisha and the lineage that follows him brings to this text. Report an error in the passage at 1:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51

2:14 But I can say, quite honestly, this text, if this does provide kind of a menu or a recipe or an array of recipes for a very, very balanced practice. So if you had nothing more than this, and I'm not ever suggesting you shouldn't, But if this were your only practice, just the seven-point mind training, then you could say, well, that's actually a very balanced practice. Now, you can always augment it. Report an error in the passage at 2:14 Highlight the passage at 2:14

2:37 You can enrich it. And no one's ever suggesting you shouldn't. They should stick to this alone. I think that would be very limiting. Nevertheless, what you would have in this text from Atisha is something that he compiled, drawing from many teachers, a tremendous richness of sources, practices, theories. Report an error in the passage at 2:37 Highlight the passage at 2:37

2:54 And so this one is really quite extraordinary in that regard. It provides a nest or a framework. I think you will find, I have found, for all of the other practices that I've studied, that I've been taught, I've practiced over the many years, the last 45 years, it provides a context or kind of like a nest. Report an error in the passage at 2:54 Highlight the passage at 2:54

3:10 Or if anybody has been to India, you've ever received one of those trays where there's a little place to put the veggies and the rice and the dal and so forth. It's like that. This is a tray in which, in my experience, all the practices I've received. The theories and practices that I've learned from about 40 Tibetan lamas over the years, they all fit onto the tray and you can see how they all fit together. So it's really quite marvelous in that way. Report an error in the passage at 3:10 Highlight the passage at 3:10

3:34 So that's how we'll spend the next six days. So it's a privilege to be able to share this, to pass this on. And I can say also, as I was kind of reflecting on last night, I gave a lecture, many of you probably attended, and the segue to this afternoon, that there was a great big question at the end for which I gave a very, I would say partial answer or inadequate answer, frankly. And that is I'd spoken of the possibility or my vision, my aspiration to see a true revolution take place in the mind sciences. Report an error in the passage at 3:34 Highlight the passage at 3:34

4:07 And the question was, well, if that happened, what would be the ramifications? What would happen if that actually occurred? And I gave a little bit of an answer, I think just very partial. But I would say the next six days are the answer to that. The next six days. if we... Adopt a fundamentally different attitude than what is widely accepted, and certainly not universally accepted, but a fundamentally different attitude regarding our own identity, nature of mind, the role of mind in nature, and so on. Report an error in the passage at 4:07 Highlight the passage at 4:07

4:37 Then the ramifications, the repercussions of that, will flow out into all of the seven points of the seven point mind training. And one can see that the impact of that, of this shift. It can be very profound. But I would emphasize on this one point is that we've seen many revolutions take place over the centuries. Report an error in the passage at 4:37 Highlight the passage at 4:37

5:01 The French Revolution started out with some really nice themes, fraternity, equality and liberty. That sounds pretty good to me. And then how many heads rolled and how much tyranny came out of that. Report an error in the passage at 5:01 Highlight the passage at 5:01

5:12 If you look at the writings of Marx, he was addressing a lot of social injustices, a lot of very legitimate issues. And he proposed, you know. Solutions to them. But then when people put them into practice, the Bolshevik revolution, the Maoist revolution, I think probably well-intentioned, but how much bloodshed, how much tyranny flowed from that? Report an error in the passage at 5:12 Highlight the passage at 5:12

5:34 And the list goes on and on. The revolution in Iran and so forth and so on. So one can have very good intentions, but as the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And so these revolutions, including for that matter scientific revolutions, For which we now have, you know, it's such a two-edged sword. And so, so many benefits that we have. But also such a tremendous impact on the environment. Report an error in the passage at 5:34 Highlight the passage at 5:34

6:01 And so many weapons. We can't even count them. And the possibility of pretty much exterminating human life on the planet, which is just a few fingertips away. The scientific revolution also has been a mixed blessing. A tremendous blessing. I delight in it. But of course there's an awful lot of downside to it as well. Because I think for a simple reason, now speaking purely from a Buddha's perspective, the people who conceived of these revolutions and then maybe triggered these revolutions, whether political or religious or scientific and so on, in many cases I don't think much of a revolution occurred really within their own minds. Report an error in the passage at 6:01 Highlight the passage at 6:01

6:40 They were telling a revolution other people should do. Or they participated in it like as in Galileo. And he's a very interesting case. I want to elaborate right now. But the revolution is external, above all. It's an external. It's a different way of viewing things outside. The relative motions of Earth and the Sun. Well, that's a revolution. But did that insight, which he was the one that actually proved with empirical evidence that the older view was wrong, did that radically revolutionize his whole way of being in the world? Report an error in the passage at 6:40 Highlight the passage at 6:40

7:14 I think that's probably, the answer's no. Probably not. Whereas when we speak of revolutions, and I will use this term within Buddhism, we're not speaking about revolutionizing Buddhism, that I have a new way of viewing it, let's follow the Alan Wallace movement. I have no such notion of that at all. But the notion of a radical shift of perspective that profoundly alters and transforms and even liberates the one who is participating in the liberation. Report an error in the passage at 7:14 Highlight the passage at 7:14

7:42 So you're the first recipient, you're the first beneficiary of the revolution. This is a revolution that's safe. Buddha was a revolutionary. He challenged so many of the assumptions of the Vedic tradition, of the Brahmanic tradition, the caste tradition, the role of women, many, many things. He was just undeniably, he was a revolutionary. He shook up things a lot. But of course, we don't find that bloodshed occurred in his name during his lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 7:42 Highlight the passage at 7:42

8:11 And although, unfortunately, over the years, there have been names fought. Under the banner of Buddhism, it's every single time a violation of what the Buddha actually taught. Every single time. So actually, in fact, they have nothing to do with Buddhism at all. They have to do with human beings' delusion, craving, and hostility. And that's the root of them. But he gave them no platform, gave us no platform, for religious wars or sectarian wars of any kind. Report an error in the passage at 8:11 Highlight the passage at 8:11

8:33 He was very, very strong on that point. So the point being that this seven-point mind training, and it starts out with a boom. It's designed to bring about profound, irreversible transformation in the way we view reality, the very quality of our minds, the quality of our way of engaging with other people and the environment. Report an error in the passage at 8:33 Highlight the passage at 8:33

8:53 It's designed to bring about a revolution. And when the revolution occurs from within, a radical transformation towards wisdom and compassion, then you don't find any collateral damage. And that's what we find almost invariably with revolutions that start on the outside. The motivation may be really good, often is. Usually it is a response to some kind of terrible injustice. There's so much out there. But it often has so much collateral damage. Report an error in the passage at 8:53 Highlight the passage at 8:53

9:22 Whereas if the revolution occurs deeply from within, as we've seen in the lives of so many of the great sages, the great saints, bodhisattvas of the past, then it's all good. The impact on oneself is good. The impact on others is good. The impact on society is good. It is all for the good. And so that's the direction of the Seven Point Mind Training. So that's a brief introduction. We have six days together and of course we know this is a residential retreat. Report an error in the passage at 9:22 Highlight the passage at 9:22

9:52 And the upside of the residential retreat is hopefully we have nothing to do now for six days besides go for total immersion. And to bring about, to seed, it's like we have six days with a very fertile field. And the fertile field is your own hearts and minds. Six days to... Sow a very bountiful harvest. And for six days, mulch and moisturize and aerate the soil and make sure there's plenty of sunlight. Do everything we can in six days to see that all the seeds that are planted here, if there were seeds you want planted in your mind, and I presume that's why you're here, that these in six days germinate. Report an error in the passage at 9:52 Highlight the passage at 9:52

10:29 You see something growing, something really taking root that then you can nurture and care for over the coming weeks, months, years, decades, and maybe lifetimes. And then reap a bountiful harvest. But this is six days then, a very precious time, that really we have, hopefully, I know I don't have any other demands on my time, a little bit of email, but I can fit that in. Report an error in the passage at 10:29 Highlight the passage at 10:29

10:51 That's my only other requirement. I can't just turn off. But for you, you may have email, but hopefully you have the minimum, absolute minimum. other demands on your time. So for six days, we're all like monks or nuns. We're like contemptives, like yogis living in a retreat center. And then we have time for total immersion. In order to derive the greatest possible benefit, because I think that's why we're all here, as much benefit as possible from this time we have together, that it can be as meaningful as possible. Report an error in the passage at 10:51 Highlight the passage at 10:51

11:25 Then we can draw from the wisdom of old, of Atisha himself and so many other great masters. But continuity is the key. Psychologists know this. If you want to break a habit, like maybe you're too dependent on nicotine or an addiction here or an addiction there. I mean, it's universal knowledge. It's so well established from psychologists, from neuroscientists. This means you need to kind of restructure your brain a bit. You know, neuroplasticity and all that. Report an error in the passage at 11:25 Highlight the passage at 11:25

11:50 And the great contemplatives, the great sages of the world, they say, if you want to bring about a deep and lasting change, maybe... Cultivate some very meaningful habits and get over some that were not so meaningful, not so helpful. Continuity is the key. Continuity is the key. It's not getting really gung-ho and having a big spurt of enthusiasm and energy and intensity and then getting burnt out and saying, oh, well, I'll get to when I've had a breather and I've gone on vacation after a while, then I'll get back to it. Report an error in the passage at 11:50 Highlight the passage at 11:50

12:17 And then having another big binge, you know, a Dharma binge and then off. And so that kind of thing, it can keep you going. Report an error in the passage at 12:17 Highlight the passage at 12:17

12:27 But deep transformation doesn't take place that way. As Lama Yeshe once said, years and years, decades ago, and that is for those of you who know Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, but Lama Yeshe made this comment like 40 years ago. He said as he attended to how his Western students would come to him with tremendous enthusiasm, he's such a brilliant teacher, and so embodied the teachings. Report an error in the passage at 12:27 Highlight the passage at 12:27

12:48 And he said, you Westerners, you're like people who come... You come to the teachings, you come from retreats, and while you're in retreat, you're like going into a shower, and you're scrubbing yourselves off and getting really, really clean. And then when the retreat's over, then you jump into the mud pools, and then splash around in the mud. Report an error in the passage at 12:48 Highlight the passage at 12:48

13:04 And then the Lama comes again, oh good, let's go off and take a shower. And you scrub it up, rub it up, you scrub yourself all clean during the retreat, and then you jump back into the mud afterwards. And so, you know, a lot of going back and forth, but maybe not a whole lot of transformation. It's continuity. It's continuity. Report an error in the passage at 13:04 Highlight the passage at 13:04

13:20 So if we can have very kind of intensive, high density continuity, not just practicing every day, which one would hope you do anyway, but high density continuity, that from the moment we wake up in the morning, we just start practicing Dharma. You open your eyes, you start practicing Dharma. And whether you're walking or eating, you're taking a nap, you're attending teachings, you're meditating, we're having a discussion, that it's just wall-to-wall Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 13:20 Highlight the passage at 13:20

13:44 And you're sowing seeds. We're not here just for a technique. Now we're here to really sow seeds of Dharma from the great Atisha, and he's drawing on the greatest of the greats in the whole Indian tradition, and of course stemming fundamentally from Buddha Shakyamuni himself. So there's a simple key to deriving as much possible benefit as we can. I'll do my best, but I'm limited, so I'll simply offer my best, that's all I can guarantee. Report an error in the passage at 13:44 Highlight the passage at 13:44

14:11 And in terms of you offering your best to you, because you don't really need to offer me anything special. But if you'd like to do yourself the greatest service, then it would be just by maintaining an ongoing flow of engagement in the practice throughout the six days. To facilitate that, what I would suggest is that between sessions, just all the time between sessions, if you establish as your baseline, your default mode, what people like to call noble silence, I think because it sounds cool, but basically silence, noble or ignoble, But silence. And that is you just remain in your own space, very present in your own body, own mind, very present in your own understanding, your flow of mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 14:11 Highlight the passage at 14:11

14:56 If you're doing that as constantly as possible, and it's not that you're doing just one thing, it's not just mindful walking or mindful eating, it's taking the teachings in and letting them percolate, letting them flow, letting them germinate in your mind, that you're bearing the teachings in mind, you're applying them. Report an error in the passage at 14:56 Highlight the passage at 14:56

15:15 To your experience from moment to moment for six days. If you make this kind of like very compact, not driven, not pressured, but just full, full, through continuity, through maintaining silence, unless it's very obvious to you, it's going to be much more practical to use my voice for something. Good. Pick up voice, like you pick up a utensil, like, oh, I could really use a fork now, rather than trying to, I don't know, bump it over my way. Report an error in the passage at 15:15 Highlight the passage at 15:15

15:45 Like that. Pick it up, but when you finish with the fork, just put it down. So use speech when you see it's really useful and nothing else will really quite do it. Do it. No big deal. But then put it down as soon as you're finished. And don't just kill time. Because we tend to do that an awful lot in our modern society. Report an error in the passage at 15:45 Highlight the passage at 15:45

16:04 Over meals, it's kind of like as if we abhor a vacuum. And if we were another person, we're just sitting, we're not talking, let's talk. And even if it's just talking about meaningless stuff, you know, we kill time. So let's not kill time, because time is life, so we're killing life. Let's maintain a continuity of engagement, bearing in mind the teachings, and default mode is silence, so that you can honor those around you, because it's for your sake, but also those around you are very likely really continuing to focus on the practice. Report an error in the passage at 16:04 Highlight the passage at 16:04

16:40 Really being really present, bearing in mind, perhaps reflecting on the teachings of Atisha and so on. Or maybe simply not even reflecting on the teachings, but just putting them into practice. And when we hear other people talking, it tends to be distracting. It tends to draw us away into their conversation. So it's a simple request. And if, again, we have six days, we have plenty of time, we have these two-hour breaks. Report an error in the passage at 16:40 Highlight the passage at 16:40

17:03 During the breaks especially, if you like to go out walking, I'm going to explore the walking trails here myself. I love walking. And if you have a Dharma friend here or a partner, husband, wife, a friend, and at some point you'd like to go out for a walk and just have a really meaningful conversation, then I'm not asking you not to do that. Report an error in the passage at 17:03 Highlight the passage at 17:03

17:23 It should be my mutual consent, of course. But then what I would ask for the benefit of everybody here is that if you would like to participate in some conversation, what I would ask is then go out a bit. So there are just two people participating in a conversation. Other people don't have to hear it. And then what do you want to talk about? We have no police here. Report an error in the passage at 17:23 Highlight the passage at 17:23

17:45 We have no talk Gestapo. Nobody's going to be observing. Was that meaningful enough? We're not going to have a little meaningful measure. That was only three out of ten. I'm sorry, you have to shut up. That's not going to happen. Then you judge, because we're all adults here, and we're here to find some meaning. Report an error in the passage at 17:45 Highlight the passage at 17:45

18:03 But if you'd like to have some conversation, then I'd say just go out for a walk. It looks like it's going to be raining a bit off and on, so you can have the umbrella and chat away. But within the buildings itself, it would be very nice to have kind of a baseline of silence. That's one request. In terms of format, so we're starting today at 2 o 'clock, so as I think you know, we have a three-hour session, apart from today, we have a three-hour session in the morning, 9 to 12, three hours in the afternoon. Report an error in the passage at 18:03 Highlight the passage at 18:03

18:31 So though the format of these will generally be the same, very often when I begin a retreat, we're going to have a meditation coming up very quickly here, but then when I give the first talk, I often go on a bit longer than otherwise to paint the big picture, to give some framework and so forth. And so I may very well do that again today, after we've had a meditation. But then after that, then the talks will be of shorter duration. Report an error in the passage at 18:31 Highlight the passage at 18:31

18:57 But the morning and afternoon sessions, the two three-hour sessions, we'll have something like a 15-minute break. But I'd like to see that it's long enough that in terms of going to the toilet, whatever else you might need to do, that you don't feel rushed. So we'll maybe start with 15 minutes. If that turns out to be a bit short, we'll extend it, make it longer. So we'll have a break in the three-hour sessions in the morning and afternoon, roughly halfway through, 15-minute break, longer if necessary. Report an error in the passage at 18:57 Highlight the passage at 18:57

19:25 And the mornings and afternoons will be primarily Dharma talk and guided meditations. From day to day we'll see whether there's also some time for question and answer and discussion. But every evening, probably tonight, but we'll just leave that open, the evening is from 7 to 8.30. It's only an hour and a half, so there will be no break there. Report an error in the passage at 19:25 Highlight the passage at 19:25

19:48 And especially for certain starting tomorrow night. Report an error in the passage at 19:48 Highlight the passage at 19:48

19:54 Then the evenings will begin with an unguided meditation. Tonight I'll probably guide something just because we're starting out. But an unguided meditation, because I will have led a number of guided meditations throughout the course of the day. So the evenings are time for you to fly solo. Take the practices, the guided meditations from the day, implement them, be your own guide. So we'll start out with a 24-minute session. Report an error in the passage at 19:54 Highlight the passage at 19:54

20:17 By and large, I think probably all of our sessions will be 24 minutes, which... About a thousand years ago was found to be maybe not too long, not too short. Nothing magical about 24, but relatively short, 24 minutes. And then in the evenings, again tonight might be an exception, we'll just see. But from tomorrow onwards, then evening sessions will begin with an unguided meditation and then roughly an hour just for open discussion. And that can be for sharing your own insights, your observations, questions, points of clarification. Report an error in the passage at 20:17 Highlight the passage at 20:17

20:48 It's really open. It doesn't have to be just question and answer. I'm happy to respond to questions, but it can be more than that. So that's pretty much the format. And so I think that's enough. What I'd like to do now then is go directly into meditation. So hopefully your chairs are comfortable there. It looks like all of the floor space here is pretty well taken. Report an error in the passage at 20:48 Highlight the passage at 20:48

21:11 And in the back as well. At any point, if you have some flat, as far as I'm concerned, there could be another person here. At any point, if you'd like to go in the supine position, you're always welcome to do so. Report an error in the passage at 21:11 Highlight the passage at 21:11