Transform Your Mind & Change Your Life Retreat - 7-Point Mind Training from Atisha (part 5)

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:02 So I have more to say about this particular interpretation or approach to mindfulness of breathing later on. But right now let's jump into the text. So we have about, what, 40 minutes before our break. Oh, I did want to ask, 15 minutes, what I'd like to do is not just that you have enough time to go to the toilet if you need to, but also that you kind of feel refreshed. Report an error in the passage at 1:02 Highlight the passage at 1:02

1:25 Maybe it's a time to have some tea or biscuits or something like that. So what I'd like to know, just give me a straight raise of hands. Report an error in the passage at 1:25 Highlight the passage at 1:25

1:32 How many people was 15 minutes sufficient, with the alternative being maybe another bit longer? I don't want you to be rushed. I'd like for you to come back, feel refreshed, ready to go rebooting. So how many was 15 minutes perfectly adequate? That's quite a few. And how many would like a bit longer? Report an error in the passage at 1:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32

1:55 I would like to please everybody. Why don't we make it just 20 minutes? 20 minutes, I should do it. I've been to many retreats, we have a half an hour. You don't get half an hour. That would be for the long ones. So 20 minutes will be okay. We'll do that. Then better err on the side of being leisurely, not on the side of being a bit pushed or driven. Report an error in the passage at 1:55 Highlight the passage at 1:55

2:18 General rule of thumb. So we go now to, we jump right into the text, the preliminaries, and before commenting anything about the preliminaries, I remember a statement by the great Dujum Rinpoche, a formidable Lama, one of the great Nyingma Lamas of the whole 20th century, and he wrote a text on Dzogchen. Report an error in the passage at 2:18 Highlight the passage at 2:18

2:36 He commented in it that many people think that the main practice is the most important, whereas we old ones, the great masters truly steeped in the tradition, we regard the preliminaries as important. So when we come to preliminaries, I know my own attitude. Can we get through those quickly please? Let's get to the good part, the main part, the deep part. Report an error in the passage at 2:36 Highlight the passage at 2:36

3:01 Can we just get on with it? This Dujjum Rinpoche was saying is, we're getting on to it right now. It starts out with enormously important topics. That again, for you old hands, and I know a number of you have studied Dharma for 20, 30, 40 years. As soon as you see precious human life of Lama, oh, this again. I'll sleep through this part. I know this one like my own. Report an error in the passage at 3:01 Highlight the passage at 3:01

3:27 Let me know when it's over. And so I'd like to bring some fresh light to this one because... You know, we may be very familiar with it. Being very familiar with it on the one hand and completely assimilating this perspective on our own lives, that's quite different, entirely different. And especially for us now, this point of the rarity and preciousness of a fully endowed precious human rebirth or life, it goes right back to the teachings of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 3:27 Highlight the passage at 3:27

4:01 He was the one that talked about this. He talked about the... The eight types of leisure. The Buddha discussed this. This is not something made up by Tibetans or by Atisha. And it highlights, it is really cultivating or training, assimilating a fundamentally different perspective on one's life. Now this was true a thousand years ago when Atisha was teaching this. And of course the teachings go back 1,500 years before then. But especially as I just listen to people talk. Report an error in the passage at 4:01 Highlight the passage at 4:01

4:32 And I watch documentaries and I follow the news fairly closely from day to day. This notion of the precious and fully endowed human life is just revolutionary. It is a fundamentally different way of viewing one's own existence, one's own life, than is widely held. I was, I think, in the tube in London some years back and I heard a bunch of young people, a whole bunch of frisky teenagers there. Report an error in the passage at 4:32 Highlight the passage at 4:32

5:02 And one of them said, got only one life to live, so let's have fun. And that view, I think, is very, very common. We're living only for a short time. You only live once. They say, ad nauseum, you only live once. They wish. You only live once. So let's have fun. Let's try to make the best of it. Let's try to enjoy ourselves. Let's try to make money so we can have a good life. Make more money so we can have a better life. Make a lot of money and then we can have a really good life. Report an error in the passage at 5:02 Highlight the passage at 5:02

5:32 And it's everywhere. It's everywhere. And the underlying assumption is, well, here we are. So my mom and dad got their sperm and egg together. I happened. Here I am. And I'll be dead soon. Don't know when, actually, but I'll be dead soon. And here I am. Let's just make the best of it. Try to have a good time. Report an error in the passage at 5:32 Highlight the passage at 5:32

5:52 Try to avoid hardship. Find a lot of goodship. Avoid the hardship. Because when it's over, it's over. And that's considered the realistic view. There are believers who believe otherwise. You know, there's Christians and the Buddhists and the Hindus. I've had so many atheists tell us, oh, tell me, oh, you Buddhists, you can't handle the notion of annihilation. Report an error in the passage at 5:52 Highlight the passage at 5:52

6:13 You can't handle that. So you make up this kind of story about you'll continue on into future life because you can't handle death. I say, oh, yeah, you got that one about as absolutely wrong as possible. Report an error in the passage at 6:13 Highlight the passage at 6:13

6:25 It wouldn't be considerate. I mean, just, you know, just take that because I've heard it so many times. You know, if you're a realist, you're not a believer. But you really follow science and you're really hard, you know, tough. You can handle reality straight, like straight whiskey. It may taste bad, but at least you can take it, knock it back. Report an error in the passage at 6:25 Highlight the passage at 6:25

6:42 So you knock back life, you know. But, you know, you just come back and say, well, which strikes you as more daunting? And that is, you live, you die, and then all your problems are finished. Whatever you've done, there'll be no more repercussions for you. If you've been an awful person, good person, no matter what, you're finished. All your troubles are over. Your concerns are over. Your suffering is over. It just kind of lights out. Report an error in the passage at 6:42 Highlight the passage at 6:42

7:06 It's the deep sleep. It's rest in peace. It's kind of like oblivion forever. It's kind of like easy street. No worries, mate. You know, forever. And all you have to do is hang in here for a while. And then it's over. And it's other people's problem. So you violate the environment and screw up other people and so forth. But then it's over for you and it's other people's problem. Report an error in the passage at 7:06 Highlight the passage at 7:06

7:26 So there's door number A. And door number B is, you're never getting out of here. Report an error in the passage at 7:26 Highlight the passage at 7:26

7:37 Here's reality. There's no escape door. Like, I don't want to play anymore. I'm tired of this. There is no door number B. It's only door number A. A is you get the third noble truth for free. The cessation of suffering and the causes of suffering. All you have to do is stop breathing. It's pretty easy. Report an error in the passage at 7:37 Highlight the passage at 7:37

7:44 in the very so Report an error in the passage at 7:44 Highlight the passage at 7:44

7:59 Whereas door number B is that consciousness is conserved and you can like it or lump it, it doesn't matter what you think. That consciousness likes space, time, likes mass and energy, like everything else in the natural world. It's conserved. And you can't take anything in the natural world. I mean, I've been trained in physics. This is widely accepted. Take any configuration of mass energy, for that matter, any body of space-time. Report an error in the passage at 7:59 Highlight the passage at 7:59

8:25 Space-time, you can warp it, you can woof it, you can bend it and so forth. You can do all kinds of things with space-time. Matter-energy, mass-energy, oh, you can make it a gas, a liquid. You can turn energy into matter, matter into energy. You can make all kinds of transformations. Just the one thing you can't do with any configuration of matter-energy, right down to an elementary particle. Report an error in the passage at 8:25 Highlight the passage at 8:25

8:43 You can't make it become nothing. It's just you can't do it. Nor can you make nothing transform into something. It's all shifting into something else. That's the way it is. That's the rules of nature. And so we like to think, some people like to believe, oh, consciousness is an exception. That consciousness came out of nothing, just kind of some sufficiently complex configuration of neurons, and then poof, like one great biologist said, like a genie coming out of a lamp. Report an error in the passage at 8:43 Highlight the passage at 8:43

9:12 Just rub your neurons correctly. And then, poof, out comes, pop, goes the weasel. You know, out comes consciousness. Happy days, you know. And then, and then, you know, Report an error in the passage at 9:12 Highlight the passage at 9:12

9:31 and then you're dead. Then the genie just vanishes. I mean, it's like a children's game. It's like a fairy tale. There's no physics there at all. It's mystical physics. The notion that dreams and so forth would emerge from cells and synapses and electricity and so forth. So door number two or door number B is that there is no exit from reality. Report an error in the passage at 9:31 Highlight the passage at 9:31

9:57 You just have two options to remain in this cycle of aging, sickness and death and suffering of all varieties forever or because consciousness just doesn't stop or you can decide to purify, to transform and liberate your consciousness and then you can be free forever. But some things forever, no matter what. And it just doesn't matter what you think. Just like it doesn't matter what you think about the laws of gravity. You can be a Christian, a Buddhist, a believer, a non-believer, but the laws of gravity don't care what you think. Report an error in the passage at 9:57 Highlight the passage at 9:57

10:26 They are what they are. The laws of nature are what they are. We didn't make them up. They are what they are. I'm actually more persuaded of the continuity of consciousness than I am of the laws of gravity. And I've been trained in physics for years. But I'm more confident. Nobody really knows what gravity is. Even Einstein. It's not solved yet. Gravitons, do they exist or not, you know? Report an error in the passage at 10:26 Highlight the passage at 10:26

10:50 Basic nature of gravity is not so clear yet. And so that notion that consciousness never terminates, that suicide is just a way of changing one body probably for a worse one, and that whatever troubles we have, they will continue. The troubles we have in the mind will not vanish just because we get rid of a body. Report an error in the passage at 10:50 Highlight the passage at 10:50

11:10 And moreover, makes it all the worse, is that we're actually creating our destiny. Every action, every voluntary action that we engage in is creating our future. Now, which is more daunting? Stop breathing and all your problems are finished. Deep sleep, no problemo. Or you're never getting out of here. Report an error in the passage at 11:10 Highlight the passage at 11:10

11:29 And you're responsible for every deed you do. And you will experience the repercussions for every deed you ever do. And it's in your hands. Which is more daunting? And I have to say, you're the ones that have the pipe dream. You're just thinking, we're playing a low-stakes poker game here. Whatever you do, it doesn't matter that much, because you're going to be dead soon anyway. Who cares? And so this is, I was asked last night, if there are a revolution in the mind sciences, what implications would it have? Report an error in the passage at 11:29 Highlight the passage at 11:29

11:58 Well, one has to start taking this seriously. What is a precious human rebirth endowed with eight types of leisure and ten types of endowment or opportunity? Report an error in the passage at 11:58 Highlight the passage at 11:58

12:10 Opportunity. For this, we really need to understand a fundamental distinction, which I will try to explain very succinctly. Many of you have heard it before. And that is, within the context of this life, which then terminates at our death, I'd have to say, within this context, there are many things of value. Report an error in the passage at 12:10 Highlight the passage at 12:10

12:31 Many, many things of value. Having an unimaginable number of things that are of value. Having pleasant vacations versus having really rotten ones. Having a good pension versus having no good pension. Having money versus not. Having a reputation versus a terrible one. And so on. There are many, many things of value within the context of this life. And these all have to do with hedonic well-being. Report an error in the passage at 12:31 Highlight the passage at 12:31

12:53 And that is the well-being, the happiness, the joy and pleasure that we get from the world by encountering felicity, by having good fortune. And there are many things that we try to do to have good fortune, get an education, get a stable job, take care of our health and so forth and so on. So within the context of this life, many, many things of value in terms of what the Greeks call hedonia or stimulus-driven pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 12:53 Highlight the passage at 12:53

13:18 And many, many people, I think it's actually probably billions of people right now out of the seven billion, when they think of happiness, they think of the good life, they equate, their vision is, how do you say, It consists only of visions of hedonia. And that is, I'll age well, I'll have a good pension, I won't be poor, my children will go out well, my spousal relationship will be good, and I'll age gracefully, I won't get too sick, and then I'll have a nice peaceful death. Report an error in the passage at 13:18 Highlight the passage at 13:18

13:48 But before then I'm going to have a lot of fun and acquire good stuff and have an interesting, colorful life. That's all hedonia. Report an error in the passage at 13:48 Highlight the passage at 13:48

14:03 But all of that is completely irrelevant when you come to death. Everything, every aspect of that is death, because then whatever you require is all gone. And so then we have Yudamonia, what the Greeks called Yudamonia, what in Buddhism is called Dambedeva, sublime well-being, or Yangdabedeva, Samyak Sukha. Report an error in the passage at 14:03 Highlight the passage at 14:03

14:25 And this is authentic well-being. Terms that come up in the Buddhist teachings, very similar to the Greek Yudamonia, very similar to Ananda in the Hindu tradition. A quality of genuine well-being that we don't get from the world that we bring to it by way of our way of life, by way of the quality of mind we're bringing to every situation, by way of our degree of understanding and insight into the very nature of reality itself. Report an error in the passage at 14:25 Highlight the passage at 14:25

14:49 So when it comes to Yudhomaniya, what the Buddha referred to as authentic well-being or sublime well-being, Virtually defines Dharma. I asked one of my early teachers, Kishin Amantayake, what is Dharma? And he says it's a way of viewing reality, a way of living our lives that are conducive to, that give rise to a durable sense, a sustainable degree of well-being, sets us out on the path to liberation and awakening. Report an error in the passage at 14:49 Highlight the passage at 14:49

15:18 That's Dharma. So Ramda told me, where's Ramda? There's Randa who was telling me of a person who went to Bhutan and the Lama that she met told her, you need to find a religion. You need to find a religion. Poor translation. It's a poor translation because there is no word for religion in Tibetan. There isn't any word. But I know the word he was using. It's chur. It's dharma. Report an error in the passage at 15:18 Highlight the passage at 15:18

15:41 You need to find dharma. You need to find a dharma. You need to find a teacher of dharma. He didn't say you have to become Christian or Buddhist. There's just no word for religion. But what is dharma? It's a path that gives rise to ever-deepening, more and more durable, sustainable well-being, culminating in liberation itself, or all the better, perfect awakening. Report an error in the passage at 15:41 Highlight the passage at 15:41

16:04 And that's Dharma. That's not a religion. It's Dharma. And Dharma is not the same as religion. So I'm not criticizing anybody. But this is a translation Tibetan used a lot now. Because they hear of Christian, Christian, Christian religion. And for them they say, yeah, Christian Dharma. They hear of Hinduism, Hindu Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 16:04 Highlight the passage at 16:04

16:21 And then we call it Buddhism-Buddhism, and we say Buddhism is religion, and then they just follow us and say, okay, Buddhist religion. But it's not a religion. It's Dharma. And it has religious aspects to it. But it doesn't conform to our Western notion of religion. Not simply one-on-one. Report an error in the passage at 16:21 Highlight the passage at 16:21

16:41 But when it speaks of leisure, first of all leisure, just because I don't want to spend a lot of time here, but I will say this first point of saturating one's mind. In the key points of this discursive meditation, this reflection, this contemplation on one's own life as a life of leisure and opportunity, of inexpressible, inconceivable value, an extraordinary, almost inconceivable rarity. Report an error in the passage at 16:41 Highlight the passage at 16:41

17:11 It's precious and extremely rare, like a blue diamond or like a wish-fulfilling jewel, as the Tibetans and the Indians used to say. What are they talking about? And they say such a life is not just being a human being. On documentaries and so forth, I've seen so many accounts, listened to people whose lives from birth to grave, it's just an ongoing struggle to survive. Report an error in the passage at 17:11 Highlight the passage at 17:11

17:36 Just struggle to survive. I watched a documentary on a Chinese couple, contemporary, working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in a factory, having about a week off per year at New Year's time. And that's when the time they could, a little vestige of religion, because the rest of the time it's just flat out work, seven days a week, every week, all the time. Report an error in the passage at 17:36 Highlight the passage at 17:36

18:01 And then they have New Year's Day, and then they have a little bit of religion, and religion consisted of firing firecrackers to scare off the evil demons, the evil spirits. And that was their Dharma. That was it. And all they're trying, and I say this only with sympathy, not even one millimeter of, oh, I'm better, I'm not. Report an error in the passage at 18:01 Highlight the passage at 18:01

18:23 But they had, A couple of children. They hardly saw the children because they had to be in the workplace and with the children they couldn't be there. And so all they were thinking about, understandably, is we'd like to make a bit more money and a bit more money. Because at least not it's abject poverty, which is what they had in the rural. They didn't have enough money to get their family at all living out in the countryside. So they come to the city but now the children couldn't be there. Report an error in the passage at 18:23 Highlight the passage at 18:23

18:49 And the husband and wife hardly saw each other. Different factories. So they hardly had any time together at all. And I looked at that and that's a human existence. And all I feel is compassion. Because there's no leisure and there's no opportunity. They don't know what the word Dharma means any more than, you know, setting off firecrackers. And it's just getting by. You know, just getting by. Report an error in the passage at 18:49 Highlight the passage at 18:49

19:12 And there are hundreds of millions of people like that. So what we have right now, it may very well be true of all of us in this room, is we have a leisure. We have the leisure, that is from our own side, we have the time, we have the leisure to devote ourselves to something beyond the hedonic, beyond simply making money, having material success, business success, gaining some reputation and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 19:12 Highlight the passage at 19:12

19:40 We have time that we don't have to have every moment, like 12 hours a day, until you come home and you just drop. I mean, 12 hours working in a factory with no... No day off in the week. Just a grind for like 51 weeks a year. There's no leisure there. I know what I'd feel like. I can imagine what I'd feel like. After 12 hours, knowing tomorrow's going to be the same, I'd come, I'd just pass out. I'd just try to sleep as much as I possibly could so I could drag myself off to the factory the next day and be able to send money home to my kids. Report an error in the passage at 19:40 Highlight the passage at 19:40

20:15 So there's no leisure there. There's no leisure for people in Silicon Valley. They speak of the golden handcuffs of people who are bringing in 200,000, 300,000, a million, a million, two million, five million per year. No satisfaction. It's relentless. 16-hour days. Not 12 hours a day. 16-hour days. I know somebody who worked for a very famous man. Report an error in the passage at 20:15 Highlight the passage at 20:15

20:42 I don't want to mention his name because I have no wish to criticize anybody, but I heard from this from somebody I know well. He was working for a company that was working for a very famous man. And he learned how this very famous man, you'd know his name, it's not Steve Jobs, but somebody else in Silicon Valley, there are a few other people, where this man would find the most capable people, skilled, creative people he could. Report an error in the passage at 20:42 Highlight the passage at 20:42

21:05 And then he would give them demands that he knew they could not possibly meet. And so they would be immediately stressed out when they told him, here's what I want you to do and here's the deadline. They'll know from the time he says it, they can't do it. And then they just go into immediate stress mode. Report an error in the passage at 21:05 Highlight the passage at 21:05

21:21 This is the famous guy. I've got to succeed. If I succeed, I'll do so well. And I'll rise and I'll rise. And so they're putting in 16-hour days just back-breaking toil and failing because there's no way they could have succeeded in the first place. And he just uses them up, chews them, spits them out. He just burns them out. That's his... Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 21:21 Highlight the passage at 21:21

21:51 That's just how he deals with people. He finds the most creative and burns them out, and he fires them because he's got so many more people lining up wanting to work for him in his famous company. And he just spits them out and gets the next people running in, hoping that they will succeed. And that's maybe a little bit exceptional, but it seems not. Report an error in the passage at 21:51 Highlight the passage at 21:51

22:10 I used to live in the Silicon Valley, six years at Stanford. And so you can have no leisure because you're just trying to barely get by. Barely get by. Report an error in the passage at 22:10 Highlight the passage at 22:10

22:20 Just taking care of your kids that nobody's starving. Or you can have, you know, a million a year coming in and you just never get to breathe. You know, the relentless pressure in this entrepreneurial world where there's such fierce competition and work yourself into the grave and you're making so much money. Report an error in the passage at 22:20 Highlight the passage at 22:20

22:42 You come home and you got the fantastic... The car and the great house and the great Armani suits and everything else you could hope for and hardly any time to enjoy it because you come home and your work isn't finished and then you collapse at the end of the day and then you drive your fancy car off to that work and you burn yourself out again. Report an error in the passage at 22:42 Highlight the passage at 22:42

23:01 So there's golden handcuffs. There's so many people in this routine. The hedonic treadmill, they call it. In which case they may be wealthy or incredibly poor. I've met one in particular. Probably the richest man I've ever met. I didn't get to know him well, but I had one dinner with him, with another rich person I know much better. And I met this super wealthy guy. Report an error in the passage at 23:01 Highlight the passage at 23:01

23:24 I won't say anything more, but super wealthy. Involved investing, hedge funds, big banking. And he brought his cell phone with him to dinner. He hardly conversed, and then he had to leave in the middle of dinner because the stock markets had just opened in Germany. And then, poof, he's off because he has to. Report an error in the passage at 23:24 Highlight the passage at 23:24

23:41 Managing 100 million here and a half billion there and 200, you know, 2 million, whatever. And I just looked at his face and it just seemed like he was, he looked like a zombie. And again, there's nothing superior here, but if I were in that job, I'd be dead, I think. I wouldn't be a zombie, I'd be totally dead, you know. But just haggard and drawn and tired and in a treadmill. Report an error in the passage at 23:41 Highlight the passage at 23:41

24:05 So this man has more money than I'll ever see in 10 lifetimes. And I don't know when he ever had time to enjoy it. And so in so many ways, whether we fill the time with entertainment, we fill the mind with trivia, we fill it with golf, we fill it with mere survival, we fill it with luxuries and so forth, very few people have leisure. Report an error in the passage at 24:05 Highlight the passage at 24:05

24:26 Leisure for Dharma. And if they have leisure for Dharma, if they think maybe there's something more than this, than just more money, more work, more entertainment, more, more, more, because I'm getting no satisfaction whatsoever here. I'm just tired and stressed out. Even if they find some leisure, what do they fill it with? There's so much out there, out there on the internet, so much self-help and so many gurus and so many trips and fads and commercialization and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 24:26 Highlight the passage at 24:26

24:58 And how on earth do you know what to choose? Because there's so much rubbish out there. And there's so much good things out there, but if you're a complete beginner, you don't have a clue. You just know you're stressed out, you're tired, you're anxious and depressed. And you like some relief, some greater meaning. How do you tell? How do you tell? Just because they're famous? Lots of luck with that, you know. Report an error in the passage at 24:58 Highlight the passage at 24:58

25:22 And so the opportunity, the opportunity is being referred to here in these classic Buddha teachings, tracing back to the Buddha himself, is you have the leisure that you're not filling your mind every moment of the day with just the pursuit of hedonic success and well-being, happiness, pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 25:22 Highlight the passage at 25:22

25:39 Tell death do us part. But you have the leisure, but you also find, and here's where it really comes down to it, here's where it gets extremely rare, you've actually encountered authentic teachers who can share with you authentic Dharma, that can actually get to the root of suffering and can lead you on a path of liberation that brings you ever-increasing sense of genuine well-being. Report an error in the passage at 25:39 Highlight the passage at 25:39

26:06 To the point of setting out on a path, let's say the Mahāyāna path, to become a bodhisattva, proceed along that path, and the whole Dharma, the complete Dharma, the whole path, a guide who can take you from where you are right now to perfect enlightenment, and it's all there laid out in front of you. Report an error in the passage at 26:06 Highlight the passage at 26:06

26:22 The entire path is, as they say, in the palm of your hand. Finding such teacher, such teaching, such support to provide you with the support you need for such practice. And so if you have a life of leisure and opportunity, then you have now, in this lifetime, right there in front of you, like just a motorway, a freeway that just goes on and there's just no traffic. Report an error in the passage at 26:22 Highlight the passage at 26:22

26:45 Here you are and there's perfect enlightenment. There's kind of nothing in between you. And there's a road map all the way there. You have, in principle, the possibility to achieve perfect enlightenment in this lifetime. Because all the pieces that Milarepa and other great adepts, all the pieces they had, you have. Report an error in the passage at 26:45 Highlight the passage at 26:45

27:03 So Milarepa, he used it and became enlightened in that lifetime. But it's the same teaching that Jujum Rinpoche received, that the Dalai Lama received. It's the same teachings we can receive. And we have teachers of their caliber that are lived alive today. So we have teachers of that caliber, teachings of that caliber. Report an error in the passage at 27:03 Highlight the passage at 27:03

27:21 And if we're in an environment where we can really practice and we have the leisure to practice, then when we look around at the 7 billion people on the planet, let alone any other species or types of sentient beings, Report an error in the passage at 27:21 Highlight the passage at 27:21

27:34 You can see that people that have that leisure and that opportunity, they say in Buddhism are as rare as a star in the daytime, as rare as a supernova. And that's what a star in the daytime is, a supernova. How often do they come around? And that's how rare it is. So to view one's own life as something as almost unimaginably rare and precious, that what you could do with this life... Report an error in the passage at 27:34 Highlight the passage at 27:34

28:04 Especially if you're not a death door. You can be 60, that's fine. As long as your mind is clear and the health is good. There are people who start practicing dharmas really seriously, well into old age. There was one, I just have one story from the Pāli Canon. One old man, I think he was a great grandfather, he's like 90 years old, really old. And he was inspired by the Buddha, he was inspired by the Buddhist teaching, he wanted to take ordination. Report an error in the passage at 28:04 Highlight the passage at 28:04

28:29 He wanted to take ordination like 90, something like that. And so he went to, I think, Moggallāna Putra, one of the Buddha's foremost disciples, and he went to this sublime monk, incredible paranormal abilities and so forth, and he said, please grant me ordination, I'd like to become a monk. And this monk looked at him and he said, Grandpa, you know, you're a bit old, long in the tooth, why don't you just make prayers for your next lifetime? Pray to me, have a really good birth next time, and then you become a monk when you're 15. Report an error in the passage at 28:29 Highlight the passage at 28:29

29:00 But 90's a bit late. So I'm not going to give you... You're too old. It's like trying to join the army at 890. Go to a recruiting office and say, Aye, aye, sir. They're probably not going to accept you. Well, I know your spirit is willing, but your flesh is really saggy. Report an error in the passage at 29:00 Highlight the passage at 29:00

29:17 And becoming a monk and entering that full discipline, I know what I'm talking about. It's demanding. If you're not just hanging out as a monk, but you're getting the training, it's very demanding. Not physically so much, but mentally, really. So we went then to Shariputra. Shari put the wisest of all the Buddhist disciples. And he asked them the same thing, and Shari put her children the same thing. Man, you're too old. You don't have the merit for this. Report an error in the passage at 29:17 Highlight the passage at 29:17

29:42 That ship has sailed. So no, I'm not going to give you, I'm not going to give it for nothing. And then this poor old fellow, then he just was despaired. He so passionately wanted to devote the rest of his life to Dharma. Then he went over to a creek. A little riverside. And he's about to throw himself in. These two monks said, I should just wait until the next lifetime. Well then, better sooner than later. He's ready to jump into the river and just be swept away. Report an error in the passage at 29:42 Highlight the passage at 29:42

30:11 And then the Buddha saw him. The Buddha saw him on the brink and the Buddha manifested right there and said, don't jump. He said, I'll ordain you. Report an error in the passage at 30:11 Highlight the passage at 30:11

30:20 He got the ordination of the Buddha himself. I'll ordain you. You have the seeds. You have the seeds of virtue that this can be meaningful for you. My students didn't see that. But I have deeper insight than they do. What they didn't see, I can see. And I'll give you ordination. I will ordain you as a monk. Because you've got what it takes. You've got the right stuff. Report an error in the passage at 30:20 Highlight the passage at 30:20

30:40 You ordained him. He became an arahant. That's unusual, 90. But I met a yogi, Lozantensin. Lozantensin. I met one. And he was a farmer, then he was a soldier, had nothing really, and then stopped soldiering at the age of 48. So when I was young, I thought that was really old. Now I think, oh yeah, still fairly young. But he was 48. But he had this, like this old 90-year-old, he had this single-pointed commitment. Report an error in the passage at 30:40 Highlight the passage at 30:40

31:14 He was a person of sharp faculties, although only, I think, moderately literate, not educated, not a monk, not a tuku, not anything, just a guy who'd spent maybe eight years in the army after having flee for his life from Tibet. And he went to the senior tutor of the Dalai Lama. Report an error in the passage at 31:14 Highlight the passage at 31:14

31:31 And he said, I have nothing else to do with the rest of my life except practice Dharma. Will you guide me? So the guy had some confidence, right? More confidence than I had. I was intimidated by Lama Rinpoche. He scared me. But this guy went right to him and said, Will you guide me? I'll do nothing else. I'll just put the teachings into practice. And Lama Rinpoche, this senior tutor, said, Yeah, you betcha. Report an error in the passage at 31:31 Highlight the passage at 31:31

31:52 I'll teach you. So then he spoon-fed him lamrim. He gave him a task like, Okay, meditate on precious human rebirth and then come back when you've finished. When you've completely revolutionized your view of your own existence and you're cherishing every single moment, dedicating every moment, every day, absolutely to Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 31:52 Highlight the passage at 31:52

32:13 When you see for yourself, because you've revolutionized your way of viewing your own existence, then come back to me and I'll give you the next serving. And brought him right through lamrim. And he went right through step by step and then he brought him into Vajrayana. So when I met him, he'd been in retreat, strict retreat for 12 years. Report an error in the passage at 32:13 Highlight the passage at 32:13

32:30 Living up at a cave at about 15,000 feet, roughly 5,000 meters. He was living there. He'd come down once a year. Once a year he'd come down from the mountain at New Year's time to listen to Dalai Lama give teaching and to get a bag of lentils and a bag of rice. And then he'd go back up to his cave at 5,000 meters, way above Dharamsala. And I'd met him when he'd been doing that for 12 years. And then the Dalai Lama asked him to come out of retreat to go to Boston in the United States. Report an error in the passage at 32:30 Highlight the passage at 32:30

33:01 I guess there was Herbert Benson who wanted to do research on Tumo and this man was accomplished in Tumo. So a Dalai Lama asked him to come out of his cave, down to Dharamsala, go down to Delhi, hop on a jet and fly to Boston to go to Harvard and have them put a whole bunch of sensors on him while he goes into Tumo practice. Report an error in the passage at 33:01 Highlight the passage at 33:01

33:19 So he was invited off to Amherst where I was living at the time as a monk. I translated for him, and he was asked by Bob Thurman, Robert Thurman, many of you know the name, he was asked a very, very direct question that almost no monk would answer, because the Dalai Lama had told him, and Bob Thurman knew this, the Dalai Lama told this monk, who was a really accomplished yogi, he said, when you go to the West, you go to Harvard, and they ask you about your experiences, don't say, aw shucks, I don't have any realization, I have no experience, because they'll believe you. Report an error in the passage at 33:19 Highlight the passage at 33:19

33:53 And they're wondering, why did the Dalai Lama send this guy? He has no realization. He just said so. So they're going to believe whatever you say, especially if you say something like, I'm nothing. And so, no, just tell them the truth. Which, you know, ask the Dalai Lama if you achieve enlightenment or bodhicitta. He'll probably say, hasn't even achieved bodhicitta. He'll probably say, I just have a lot of faith. Report an error in the passage at 33:53 Highlight the passage at 33:53

34:12 That's normal. You know, that's what Tibetan yogis do. So here is this monk put on a spot, Bob Thurman knowing that he had to answer truthfully, candidly. He just asked the monk, what's it like to have your mind? What's it like to be you? And the monk answered, oh, my mind is in a constant state of immutable bliss all the time, both during meditation and between sessions. Report an error in the passage at 34:12 Highlight the passage at 34:12

34:40 I mimicked his body language, like, gosh, I wish I didn't have to say this, so embarrassing. So he started at 48. He started at 48. Report an error in the passage at 34:40 Highlight the passage at 34:40

34:52 But the senior tutor saw, I will not be wasting my time. Giving one-on-one guidance. If he keeps teaching, 2,000 people will show up. But he felt, for this person, I'll give them one-on-one. Because this person is going to put everything into practice. And he did. He did. So this is a revolution. So I was asked, what would happen if there were a revolution in the mind sciences? Report an error in the passage at 34:52 Highlight the passage at 34:52

35:15 Well, this is the first revolution. And a revolution means, as in the Copernican revolution, once you've understood... That in fact the earth goes around the sun and not vice versa. You can never look at the universe in the same way. You cannot look at the earth as being the center of the entire universe with all the stars and galaxies going around us. Report an error in the passage at 35:15 Highlight the passage at 35:15

35:34 You can't think that. It's not an option. If you've understood what Galileo discovered, which has been confirmed countless times since then. So you just haven't any choice, but you cannot go back. That's a scientific revolution. These four preliminary practices. Each of them is a revolution of taking, you know, having a nourishment, well, let's kill some time, right? Let's go out to the movie. Report an error in the passage at 35:34 Highlight the passage at 35:34

36:00 The movie's really rubbish, I think, but, you know, we'll kill some time. Or let's just hang out. Or let's just have some fun. Or let's just treat our lives, our time, as if it's worth nothing. Because after all, we have plenty of it. And after all, when we're dead, we're just dead. So what's the big deal? You waste time? Well, okay, well, you weren't having that much fun, but at least it wasn't much suffering. That notion of taking everything for granted, taking days for granted, and thinking, as one person, when I first translated for one of my primary teachers, Gatradamache, who's been guiding me in Dzogchen ever since, he went to a Dharma center. Report an error in the passage at 36:00 Highlight the passage at 36:00

36:39 He was invited by, I'll leave everything anonymous here, and the director of the Dharma center invited him to teach, and he came there and gave, I have to just say, superb teachings. It was the first time I ever translated for him. And he was giving teaching on shamatha and vipassanā in the Mahamudra tradition. And I'd heard a lot of such teachings, but not Mahamudra. Report an error in the passage at 36:39 Highlight the passage at 36:39

36:58 And I was just spellbound as I was translating for him, reading the text that he's giving a commentary to. I thought, this is just, this is amazing. I've never seen anything like this before. And I've been already studying for 20 years, studying and practicing. And the fellow who was the head of the center came on the first day. Report an error in the passage at 36:58 Highlight the passage at 36:58

37:16 And then he didn't show up the second day. And so the question went out, well, you invited his wife, why are you there? And then the word came back from another person in the center, he's Dharma'd out. I'd never heard that verb before. He's Dharma'd out. Please don't use that. It's kind of a word that I like to see dead and buried and never used again. Report an error in the passage at 37:16 Highlight the passage at 37:16

37:38 But you need to have one day, but that was kind of enough, and I need a bit of a breather. Let's go off and let's go sailing. Or let's play some golf. Or just, it's like kind of Dharma'd out. Report an error in the passage at 37:38 Highlight the passage at 37:38

37:50 One day, you know. So, by and large, among materialists, for people who just think, you know, death is termination, what's the big deal? You don't have much potential anyway. You're an animal. What do you expect? You're merely human. What do you expect? So, you know, the stakes are not very high. And if you do something really awful, well, okay, but when you die, no more consequences for you. Report an error in the passage at 37:50 Highlight the passage at 37:50

38:14 So it's like paying, you know, playing for peanuts, playing poker, but playing peanuts. You know, it's not a big deal no matter what. Report an error in the passage at 38:14 Highlight the passage at 38:14

38:22 Going from there, or I will not say Christianity, but a very complacent interpretation. I'm choosing my words very carefully here. But I've known a lot of Christians and have some superb ones who in many ways I'd love to emulate. The virtue, the compassion, the generosity, altruism. In some cases it's spectacular. So I have deep respect. And then there are other Christians, people who call themselves Christians. Report an error in the passage at 38:22 Highlight the passage at 38:22

38:50 Where at the most, it's kind of going to church once every Sunday. But, well, at least on Easter and Christmas. Because Sundays, you know, it's football. Report an error in the passage at 38:50 Highlight the passage at 38:50

39:01 And it's barbecues. And that's a day to really have some fun. So now, you know, the so-called Sabbath is for footballs and barbecues and weenies and hamburgers and so forth. And hanging out and watching one football game after another. But at least Christmas and Easter, yay, Jesus, you know. Thumbs up for you. Because I know, after all, nobody's going to ever earn their way to heaven anyway because you're a good Protestant. That salvation is an undeserved gift for sinners like me, and I'm certainly a sinner. Report an error in the passage at 39:01 Highlight the passage at 39:01

39:32 But thank goodness it's taken care of because I got my spiritual life insurance program in place because I got my beliefs lined up. And so, pretty much, I can just hang in there and enjoy life and make money and so forth and not be too bad. And then, Give a great big thank you note at the end of the life to Jesus for saving me because now I have eternal salvation, eternal bliss after living a life of utter mediocrity and spiritual complacency. Report an error in the passage at 39:32 Highlight the passage at 39:32

40:01 As Alfred North Whitehead said, a great philosopher and mathematician, he said, religion has become an ornament for an already comfortable life. So that's not Christianity. But a lot of people kind of, you know, shelve that off like fool's gold. When you look at the actual teachings of Jesus, nothing remotely like that. Report an error in the passage at 40:01 Highlight the passage at 40:01

40:21 It's extremely demanding. It's formidable. It's pretty awesome. But, you know, little things like it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven. He didn't really mean that, of course. And be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. Nah, he was exaggerating. And so forth and so on. So Christianity has become, in many cases and not all, just an excuse to live a completely hedonic, mediocre life. Report an error in the passage at 40:21 Highlight the passage at 40:21

40:48 While still thinking that death after death is going to turn out really well. I've seen that a lot. And I want to say, once again, there are superb Christians. And are there Buddhists that take Buddhist teachings just as casually? Thinking, well, after all, I've got the pure land waiting for me, so I can just screw around until I die. Because after all, Amitabha is going to give me a free gift at the end of the day. So it happens in different traditions. Report an error in the passage at 40:48 Highlight the passage at 40:48

41:11 And then we're all missing the point, whether we're materialist or we call ourselves religious. The notion of this as a life in which we could achieve perfect enlightenment of a Buddha tends to fall through the cracks. So this has always been the teaching. It's now five o 'clock, but I'd like to spend just a couple more minutes, just no more than five. This has been around, these teachings have been around since Atisha, the core teaching has been around since the times of Buddha, so they go way back. Report an error in the passage at 41:11 Highlight the passage at 41:11

41:38 There's nothing new here. On the other hand, if we look at the 20th century, the 20th century was the worst century in history for the Buddhadharma. It's safe to say. It used to be a very dominant president in China and through all the communist countries of Asia that have become communist. Tibet, massive, massive genocide. Mongolia, I've gone there now four times. Almost all the monks were killed, all the monasteries were destroyed. Report an error in the passage at 41:38 Highlight the passage at 41:38

42:10 And that was before the Chinese moved into Tibet. And North Korea and, and, and. It was really a genocide of religion generally, but Buddhism being prominent was hit really, really hard. So when the Tibetans came out in 1959, they're in bare-knuckle survival mode, because they'd seen one monastery after another, tens of thousands of monks and nuns butchered, machine-gunned, strafed, bombed, killed in every minute, and tortured to death. Report an error in the passage at 42:10 Highlight the passage at 42:10

42:39 And so almost all the monasteries gone, as many books as they could find were burned. And so this little tiny fragment of a civilization, about a quarter of a million out of six million, Managed to make their way into exile and trying to maintain a 2,500-year-old tradition with this tiny little population. And even now, if you go to the monasteries like Sera, Gandandeva and so forth, and this goes through all the traditions of Buddhism, you find fewer and fewer young people. Report an error in the passage at 42:39 Highlight the passage at 42:39

43:09 Fewer and fewer young people are wanting to devote their life to this. The young people are coming there by and large because there are no other opportunities. They're from a dock where they have no education. Or other hill places with no education. Very few now coming out of Tibet. Fewer and fewer. And so this does not look very sustainable. Report an error in the passage at 43:09 Highlight the passage at 43:09

43:28 And these are big. A lot of monks there. But then to what extent is there real meditative practice? How many of them are going in their training and then going in for years of retreat? Almost none. Almost none. And then how many young Tibetan lay people are really taking Dharma seriously in India? Really rare. Report an error in the passage at 43:28 Highlight the passage at 43:28

43:49 I can say it's really, really rare. And now already, now that we've had Buddhism in Australia and so forth, we're already seeing a decline in numbers of young people coming to the traditional centers, where they're doing pujas and empowerments and traditional teachings, as if the students are Tibetan, you know, because that's how the Tibetans know how to teach, is to people like themselves, and we're not. Report an error in the passage at 43:49 Highlight the passage at 43:49

44:11 And so could it happen in 50 years that many of these centers that look pretty alive now are going to turn to museums? Because there just won't be any more young people. It'll be like some churches where you see everybody is 60 and above. I mean, all of them. There's just no young people there. Will traditional Tibetan Buddhist Dharma centers around the world, will they just become old folks' homes after a while? And then museums, and then just sold off become garage or community hall or something else. Report an error in the passage at 44:11 Highlight the passage at 44:11

44:38 So we are facing here, right now in the early 21st century, we're facing the biggest crisis in the whole history of Buddhism. But on the one hand, it's gone global. At the same time, is this sustainable, the way it's being taught and practiced right now? Is it sustainable? Are the prospects rosy in Tibet itself, where it's always under the heel of the Chinese communists, who are happy to destroy monasteries, which they're doing right now? Report an error in the passage at 44:38 Highlight the passage at 44:38

45:03 They're still destroying monasteries there. The biggest one, the most splendid one, I think, in all of Tibet. They're demolishing it, house by house, not all of it, but they're doing major pruning to cut it back, just because it was too big to make them comfortable. So we look at this, and then that's the situation of Buddha Dharma. Now let's go wide-angle lens, and then I'll stop. Okay, wide-angle lens, how are we doing with 7 billion people on the planet? Report an error in the passage at 45:03 Highlight the passage at 45:03

45:28 Well, we're emptying the oceans of fish and replacing them with plastic bags. There's global warming for which the consequences are almost unimaginable, and we may have passed the tipping point, say the most well-informed. That whole Paris Agreement, the scientists were saying, yeah, nice try, too little, too late. Report an error in the passage at 45:28 Highlight the passage at 45:28

45:47 And that's if we don't just negate it or renege on all those agreements by the United States and so forth and so on. And many countries not even participating. And so global warming, then the wiping out of natural wildlife, we've wiped out, what, 40 % in the last 50 years. And then the pollution of the land and the sea with herbicides, pesticides, poisons of all kinds. Report an error in the passage at 45:47 Highlight the passage at 45:47

46:10 There's just the environmental side. And then so many other aspects as well. That we are depleting the earth right now. Our whole economy, the way we are consuming, acquiring and then spilling out waste is by every criterion not sustainable. That's just perfectly, it's just not, we cannot do this. While the heads of state, including that of my home country, are still holding ideal, oh I wish we had a higher and higher GDP. Report an error in the passage at 46:10 Highlight the passage at 46:10

46:37 I wish everybody could be like China, we could all have a growth rate. And when the heads of state start freaking out because people are not consuming as much. And that's everywhere. It's in China, the United States, probably here too. Oh, people aren't spending as much. Get them to spend, for heaven's sakes. Oh, our economy's going to slow down. Report an error in the passage at 46:37 Highlight the passage at 46:37

46:55 I will probably be voted out of office, which is what really counts. Get people to spend. Produce more. Spend more. Consume more. Because this is how things will really turn out well. Report an error in the passage at 46:55 Highlight the passage at 46:55

47:06 Smart people. Obama's a smart guy. But I don't see him or any of the other heads of state actually questioning this. Is ever-increasing consumption, growth? More and more wealth, 7 billion people going to 11 billion, depleting natural resources. Are we not on a complete catastrophe course? And that's what the scientists are telling us. Report an error in the passage at 47:06 Highlight the passage at 47:06

47:28 And so for Buddha Dharma, we're in absolute crisis mode. For the planet, for human civilization, they say there's something called the doomsday clock, which by very responsible scientists, they say we're three minutes to midnight. We've moved closer more recently. Not even counting things like weapons of mass destruction, nuclear armaments. Report an error in the passage at 47:28 Highlight the passage at 47:28

47:47 People like some possible contestants for the American presidency having their fingers near the buttons, they can blow things up. It makes things very precarious, to put it lightly. And so if there was ever a point in history since the time of the Buddha when we desperately and urgently and dramatically and overwhelmingly need to have more enlightened beings, never more so than now. Report an error in the passage at 47:47 Highlight the passage at 47:47

48:12 Never more so than now. Somebody embodying the alternative. To consumption and consumption and war and religious bigotry and genocide and ethnic cleansing and all of the stuff that we read about every single day in the news. We have this Holiness the Dalai Lama who's a world figure. We don't have many more. We have the Pope who seems to be a splendid human being. Really wonderful human being. We don't have many. Report an error in the passage at 48:12 Highlight the passage at 48:12

48:40 They just are like beacons of light. Here's another way to live. Here's another way to conceive of the good life. To pursue happiness, to cultivate happiness, to realize your fullest potential as a human being, as a sentient being. We need more. We need more desperately, quickly. And people who have a life of leisure and opportunity are the ones that have that possibility. And people who are human but don't have those, don't. Report an error in the passage at 48:40 Highlight the passage at 48:40

49:08 They don't have that opportunity. So on this final point, when I first met His Holiness the Dalai Lama one-on-one, 1971, there was a whole conversation there. I won't tell the whole story. But one pith instruction he gave me was, when I was concerned with arrogance, I was concerned that the more I learn, the more superior I will feel. Report an error in the passage at 49:08 Highlight the passage at 49:08

49:28 I'll feel better, smarter, more virtuous than other people. Because I wanted to cultivate my intelligence and my wisdom and my virtue, which would make me better, but then I think I'm better, and then I'm an arrogant jerk. So I didn't want to follow a path of greater and greater arrogance and jerkiness as I followed a path. And so he gave me a rich teaching. Report an error in the passage at 49:28 Highlight the passage at 49:28

49:49 Part of the Pith instruction was the greater understanding you have, the greater responsibility you have. Simple. Simple. And so I was a recipient of so much generosity and kindness and just opening the taps of so much wonderful teaching by so many sublime teachers that whatever understanding I might have and in any ways that increased intelligence, insight and so forth, I know exactly where it came from. Report an error in the passage at 49:49 Highlight the passage at 49:49

50:17 Just the gifts, the generosity of others. So if I have anything to offer during these six days, I know exactly where it comes from. I can tell you the names, and I can tell you all the teachings, because I'm just channeling them through. That's all I'm really doing. But there it is. It's not just for me, it's for anyone, insofar as we have leisure and opportunity. Report an error in the passage at 50:17 Highlight the passage at 50:17

50:39 If we squander it, if we take it casually, complacently, then there seems something very grave about that, or at the very least, immensely sad. That there was such enormous possibility, potentiality, to do some terrific good, to bring about profound benefit for ourselves, and then letting this flow out into the world to bring about so much benefit in a world that so desperately and urgently needs it, and to let that opportunity pass by as we just do other things. Report an error in the passage at 50:39 Highlight the passage at 50:39

51:15 Quite tragic. So that's the first point. To radically revolutionize your whole view of your own existence in a broader framework. of life after life after life. And it said, if you waste this one, don't count on getting another one in the imaginable future. Just imagine yourself to be one out of seven billion randomly. Report an error in the passage at 51:15 Highlight the passage at 51:15

51:38 Nigeria, Syria, Congo, China, and all this goes on and on and on. Would you like to be a random person just thrown out like that? Would you like to just count on your life? And that's just human being. Assuming you actually get to be a human being. Because we share the planet with so many other species. So it's time to really fundamentally reassess what I've been taking for granted, what I believe to be true, which is in fact just an opinion, and yet real. Report an error in the passage at 51:38 Highlight the passage at 51:38

52:11 And the continuity of consciousness from life to lifetime is about as real as it gets. And people who are just thinking end of life is now end of all my problems are wishful thinking. They're just wishful thinking as far as I'm concerned. I can't take that seriously at all. Report an error in the passage at 52:11 Highlight the passage at 52:11

52:26 Nothing can persuade me otherwise. I'm done. It's kind of tempting. I said forget about it. So that takes us to 5.10. So we'll come back at 7 o 'clock. No, let's make it 7.10. Because the breaks are really a time just to really then just go back to practice, try to maintain continuity of practice. So we'll come back at 7.10. Go directly to meditation. And then we'll see. But if you have enough things to discuss, we'll just fill that time with going back and forth. Report an error in the passage at 52:26 Highlight the passage at 52:26

52:56 Enjoy your evening. I'll see you at 10 past 7. This is prospective memory. Remember to come back a little bit late. Report an error in the passage at 52:56 Highlight the passage at 52:56