Transform Your Mind & Change Your Life Retreat - 7-Point Mind Training from Atisha (part 11)

0:09 So Report an error in the passage at 0:09 Highlight the passage at 0:09

· · · silence, 1 minute

0:44 we have just a relatively short time before our lunch break, but I would like to go onwards. I'm now looking at your copy, way up to page 15. So we've now concluded, in a very brief overview, the first of the seven points. So one-seventh of the way there. First training the preliminaries. And then the second point is the cultivation of ultimate and relative bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 0:44 Highlight the passage at 0:44

1:16 Ultimate bodhicitta, this term, Dundampe Chantrikisem in Tibetan, has two different meanings, depending on the framework or the context. In general, Mahāyāna, for example, the Lamrim teachings, the teachings of Tsongkhapa, Nagarjuna, Shantideva and so forth, ultimate bodhicitta is realization of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:16 Highlight the passage at 1:16

1:36 Emptiness, dependent origination, ultimate nature of existence. And knowing that, knowing, having direct realization of the emptiness of inherent nature of all phenomena and realizing the manner in which All phenomena arise as dependently related events, and thoroughly understanding what that means, this liberates the mind. It cuts right to the root of mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 1:36 Highlight the passage at 1:36

1:58 This frees. So there's one interpretation. It's not the only interpretation. After my first 20 years, then I learned there was another interpretation, and this is in the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions, where ultimate bodhicitta is identified as Dharmakaya, Buddha nature, pristine awareness, Rigpa. Report an error in the passage at 1:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58

2:17 Or primordial consciousness, often called primordial wisdom, is identified with Buddha mind. The Buddha mind is ultimate bodhicitta. Both of these have their own validity, own tremendous usefulness. And my interpretation of the following aphorisms from Atisha is that he's actually referring to both. I see them both included here. Report an error in the passage at 2:17 Highlight the passage at 2:17

2:38 I mean, they're kind of like obvious to me. So that's ultimate bodhicitta. And when it comes to relative bodhicitta, then there's unanimity that this, of course, is the bodhisattva ideal. The aspiration to achieve a liberation enlightenment of a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. But now we turn immediately in these few remaining minutes before the lunch break to the missing aphorism and many, many redactions of this text. Report an error in the passage at 2:38 Highlight the passage at 2:38

3:01 For some centuries now, for some reason, I have no idea why, they just didn't get this one. This one got deleted. And so when I read this very, very early handwritten copy of a very early... Commentary. There it was. And then I was in Mongolia just a few weeks ago and I was commenting to some Mongolian monk there how strange it was that this was deleted. Report an error in the passage at 3:01 Highlight the passage at 3:01

3:24 And I said, have you seen any current copies of the text? Printed copies that actually include this one? And he whipped one out and said, yep, there it was. And so it wasn't just my anomalous copy. But I'm a bit suspicious. I think there's maybe, what's it called? Conspiracy. I have a conspiracy theory. Report an error in the passage at 3:24 Highlight the passage at 3:24

3:44 Because this, here it is, you ready for the ultimate submission? It's the immediate preparation for going right into the main core practice of the whole training. And that is cultivating ultimate and relative bodhicitta. But before going there, there's one immediate preparation. And that is in Tibetan, I'm going to read it just because I'm very familiar with it. Report an error in the passage at 3:44 Highlight the passage at 3:44

4:04 Denpa Topne Samwa Den. Denpa Topne Samwa Den. This is a very literal translation. Once stability is achieved. Let the mystery be revealed. When stability is achieved, let the mystery be revealed. Well, once again, obviously that can be interpreted in multiple ways. So one very straightforward way, with no reference to shamatha, would be that you've been cultivating these complete reversals of attitude, the fourfold, about your life, your death, the nature of existence, the nature of our actions. Report an error in the passage at 4:04 Highlight the passage at 4:04

4:37 So often we feel, if nobody hears about it, if nobody catches me, I'm off scot-free. And in Buddhism there is no hue. It's kind of like it always goes around and comes around. We have so many clichés about this. But it is suggesting something incredibly profound about the nature of existence, diametrically opposed to the great big mindless machine that is the common view that's presented in science. Report an error in the passage at 4:37 Highlight the passage at 4:37

5:06 And that is that there is a moral fabric, an ethical fabric to reality itself. That there are things that are by nature afflictive, toxic, poisonous, unwholesome, non-virtuous. And I have to linger here just a little bit because this is incredibly important. And that is, had I not encountered Buddhism, I would have devoted the rest of my life to a career in ecology, environmental studies, environmental activism and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 5:06 Highlight the passage at 5:06

5:32 Because that was a Dharma I could totally believe in. So that was going to be it. That was my life that I was envisioning from the age of 13 to 20. Report an error in the passage at 5:32 Highlight the passage at 5:32

5:40 Without elaborating on the personal narrative, it's just a very small story. But I did study this. It was my passion. And what is very well known in ecology, which is now a very well-developed discipline, in 1963, when I decided I wanted to focus on this for my life, it was already developed enough that it was known that you can put something very small into nature, like just a little bit of DDT. Report an error in the passage at 5:40 Highlight the passage at 5:40

6:06 Not megatons, just a few tons. Just a few touches, just a little bit, you know, just sprinkle your field with it. And that it not only poisons your whole field, but again it's a water system and lo and behold you find your bird populations dying off. And then you find two generations later your children are getting leukemia. That's not, I don't believe. I don't believe that's because some nature god was punishing us. Report an error in the passage at 6:06 Highlight the passage at 6:06

6:29 Or the god's creative universe was punishing us for using DDT. I see no reason for that hypothesis. It's within the nature of nature. And that is you put in a poison, And then it gets into the system. And you may put in a little poison, but then it may come back magnified, very large. Report an error in the passage at 6:29 Highlight the passage at 6:29

6:49 And we will identify, if we put something into the system, and then it turns around and it kills off our children, or our food is poisoned, or we're getting cancer of a wide variety, and so forth, or all kinds of problems, then we would say retrospectively, if we can identify the source, this is something we did. Report an error in the passage at 6:49 Highlight the passage at 6:49

7:10 And now we have our population dying off, or our children, so forth and so on. We would look retrospectively, if we could find, did we do it? If the answer is yes, then we'd ask, what did we do? For example, DDT, which people used to, you know, just shower themselves with during the Second World War. They would just, you know, cover themselves, patty-cake, patty-cake with DDT, because it was so good for you. Report an error in the passage at 7:10 Highlight the passage at 7:10

7:30 You know, they thought, kills all the bugs. But then retrospectively, when we'd recognize that wasn't good, we called that retrospectively. That was ill-advised. Or that's called a non-virtue. That was a negative act. Because we don't like the consequences. There's nothing wrong with DDT. Keep it in a bottle. Keep it safe. It's just DDT. It's just a chemical. It doesn't poison anything. So it's neither toxic nor beneficial. It's just a chemical sitting in a bottle. Report an error in the passage at 7:30 Highlight the passage at 7:30

7:58 Let it out. Let it loose. Then you've got a problem on your hands. So in ecology, this is just completely natural science. If we do things to the environment that when the... The effects come around, come around, come around, and then we find they're beneficial. Our children are getting healthier. Or, I read a couple of months ago, you must have read it, it was such wonderful phrasing, the hole in the ozone layer is healing itself. Report an error in the passage at 7:58 Highlight the passage at 7:58

8:23 Did you see that? Healing itself. I thought, what a wonderful choice of words. It hardly ever comes up. It didn't say it's just kind of restoring as a mechanism. It said it's healing itself. That the people living, I think, in New Zealand, they don't have to be so worried about what's beaming through that hole, right? Well, whatever we did, and they know exactly what we did, to enable that problem not to be aggravated, get larger and larger and cover all of Australia, etc. Report an error in the passage at 8:23 Highlight the passage at 8:23

8:52 Whatever we did, that's good, right? Retrospectively, that was a good choice. It's healing itself. Maybe it will disappear. And then we say, whew, thank goodness we learned about, don't use that kind of aerosol, and so forth. One would think a little thing like that, I can't remember the name for it, but a little bitty thing, such a microscopic amount, right? C? Report an error in the passage at 8:52 Highlight the passage at 8:52

9:16 CFC? Yeah. How much quantity was that? I mean, it can't be megatons. It was just a little bit here and a little bit there, right? And then you're burning a hole in the atmosphere. That's karma. That's ecological karma. And it comes around and bites you. It bites you and you say, that was unhealthy, that was unwholesome. Why? Because we don't want the ozone layer to burn off. Report an error in the passage at 9:16 Highlight the passage at 9:16

9:38 We don't want global warming. We don't want species to vanish. We don't want rabbits taking over all of Australia. Bad idea, you know, retrospectively. Report an error in the passage at 9:38 Highlight the passage at 9:38

9:49 Or somebody thought in Florida, I'm rambling on here, but somebody thought in Florida, but wouldn't it be cool? Floridians are a very strange race, I have to say. Report an error in the passage at 9:49 Highlight the passage at 9:49

9:58 There were Floridians that thought it would be really cool to have pythons as pets. Because after all, they do stay cute and cuddly, don't they? I mean, pythons. They don't get big, do they? They didn't say that at the pet store. And so hundreds, thousands of people were buying pythons, and then they found they got big. Report an error in the passage at 9:58 Highlight the passage at 9:58

10:19 And then they didn't want to feed them, you know, three chickens every day. And so they just let them loose into the swamps. What could be the harm? A few hundred, a few thousand pythons. They've now wiped out most of the mammals in the Everglades. Most of the mammals are gone. The pythons ate them all up. Report an error in the passage at 10:19 Highlight the passage at 10:19

10:38 And they're eating the alligators. Report an error in the passage at 10:38 Highlight the passage at 10:38

10:44 So retrospectively, we might think, that wasn't such a good idea. Introducing rabbits here, pythons in Florida. Retrospectively, it's wiping out the population there. Because nothing can compete with them. Who eats pythons? Report an error in the passage at 10:44 Highlight the passage at 10:44

11:01 Bigger python, I guess. So this is karma. But it's going to karma in a deeper level. Taking into account consciousness and the sequence of consciousness. It's a natural law. The Buddha discovered he did not make them up. He's not punishing. He's not rewarding. He said, any more than there's some ecology god. Report an error in the passage at 11:01 Highlight the passage at 11:01

11:22 God ecology that's punishing people for releasing pythons into the Everglades. And so on. It's natural. So, then we move on. Time is a passing. So one stability is achieved. Well, here's one very straightforward interpretation of that. You have four revolutions, four thoughts to radically revision everything, including casting into the dustbin and burning the contents of the universe being a big mindless machine where it just poops out and consciousness actually doesn't even factor in. Report an error in the passage at 11:22 Highlight the passage at 11:22

11:55 So you have whole histories of the cosmos, which I have read when I study cosmology, that don't even mention mind or consciousness. As if it's so trivial it doesn't even bear a footnote. This is a make-believe universe. Cosmologists study a make-believe cosmos. One that doesn't exist. Because the only cosmos that does exist is one in which mind is present, consciousness is present and does have a role. And they ignore that. So they are studying and describing a make-believe consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 11:55 Highlight the passage at 11:55

12:22 It certainly has aspects to truth. But they missed one of the most fundamental truths about reality. That consciousness is not trivial. It's not bipartite. Of just getting fancy footwork with neurons and axons and so forth and so on. It's a silly idea. They can't even test that hypothesis. But they present it as true anyway, which I find astonishing. Report an error in the passage at 12:22 Highlight the passage at 12:22

12:43 And so, one stability to achieve, that you have those four revolutions and then you stabilize them. That your view of your own life is that of a precious. Your view of your own mortality is ingrained into your way of viewing yourself, your loved ones, all species, everything. It's just how you view things. It's not a technique you pick up and put down. It's now you're viewing everyone around you. It's subject to impermanence. Everyone you see is going to die. Report an error in the passage at 12:43 Highlight the passage at 12:43

13:09 So Atisha, this Atisha, he gave some of the most quintessential marriage counseling I've ever heard in my life to a couple that was squabbling. They came to him for marriage counseling. He's a monk for his whole life, so I don't know why they came to him. But because he was a sage, I guess. And they gave him the best marriage counseling I've ever heard. Speaking of these squabbling couples, they'd be nice to each other, you're going to be dead soon. Report an error in the passage at 13:09 Highlight the passage at 13:09

13:33 If you just take that into account, you might want to just give each other a break and recognize, hey, before we die, let's be nice to each other. Why not? It's better than squabbling. And so... Stability to achieve that you're just viewing reality from this radically opposite perspective, especially nowadays, of your life, of death, of the nature and extent of suffering and the significance of our actions and their consequences. Report an error in the passage at 13:33 Highlight the passage at 13:33

13:58 And you're living in that world. Just as we are living in a world where the Earth is circuiting the Sun and species adapt over time and E equals MC squared and quantum mechanics and so forth. I'm living in that world. I love science. There are many truths in it. This is also revolution. So once you've stabilized your four revolutionary ways of shifting, now let the mystery be revealed. So that would be one very meaningful interpretation, but I'm very confident something is more intended by this. Report an error in the passage at 13:58 Highlight the passage at 13:58

14:31 That's good, but there's more. And that he's going directly from those four into ultimate bodhicitta first, and then relative bodhicitta. It was very unusual, as I mentioned yesterday. So is there something needed beyond developing very strong motivation, very strong, very pure, authentic motivation, renunciation? Is there something needed before you go right into the teachings of emptiness? Report an error in the passage at 14:31 Highlight the passage at 14:31

14:52 If your reflections, your meditation on emptiness or on ultimate nature of awareness, pristine awareness, if that's going to bring about irreversible and complete transformation and liberation, if your practice of vipassanā... Your cultivation and perfection of wisdom, your practice of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, if this is going to bring about irreversible transformation, liberation and awakening, is there anything else that's needed apart from very authentic motivation? Report an error in the passage at 14:52 Highlight the passage at 14:52

15:22 And there is. It's everywhere in Buddhism. It's in the Buddhist teachings, in the Palikana, in the Mahāyāna, the Vajrayana, in Mahamudra and Dzogchen. And you'll find it in Chan. And it is the origins of the term Chan, which comes from Jhāna. Which is jhāna in Pāli, it's shanata. It's shanata. Achieve shanata, you achieve the first jhāna in Pāli, or jhāna in Sanskrit. Report an error in the passage at 15:22 Highlight the passage at 15:22

15:49 Jhāna, bring it to China, it becomes chan. And you go from chan and go over to Japan, and chan becomes zen. It's all jhāna. Report an error in the passage at 15:49 Highlight the passage at 15:49

15:58 And so it's very remarkable that in zen there's hardly any reference to shanata at all, when the very word zen means jhāna. And so this is the missing link. And this is the one that somehow, I have no idea how it happened, but this is the only aphorism that got deleted in many of the later redactions. I'm putting it back in, just because it was there in the first place. Report an error in the passage at 15:58 Highlight the passage at 15:58

16:18 But oddly enough, I've lived for tears in Thailand, I've studied Theravāda Buddhism for 45 years, and very often in the Theravāda tradition, with all the Vipassanā centers everywhere, how many Samatha centers do you know? Samatha, the actual achievement, the authentic achievement of even the first jhāna, is either dismissed altogether, you don't need it, momentary samādhi is enough, which is complete bollocks. Report an error in the passage at 16:18 Highlight the passage at 16:18

16:45 So there's one idea. Another one is they marginalize it, well do a little bit on the side, you know, do four days, that should do it. Another one is you completely misinterpret it, and that happens a lot. Especially among modern commentators. They turn their backs on the most authoritative teachings of the Buddha himself and of Buddhagosa and then make up their own definitions of the first jhāna. Report an error in the passage at 16:45 Highlight the passage at 16:45

17:06 To the extent there's one California guy that these weekend retreats on the jhānas with the expectation will come out with one or two at the end of the weekend. You know, it's where else but California. And so it just kind of makes one weep like you're missing something so important, ignoring, marginalizing or completely misrepresenting it. Report an error in the passage at 17:06 Highlight the passage at 17:06

17:25 And it's actually more, it's common. It's not the exception, it's the norm. And then among Galupas, for example, if they studied well, they have a superb understanding of what Shantide is. The teachings of Tsongkhapa doesn't get any better than that. They're definitive. I've translated almost everything you wrote about Shantide. So, because I believed in it, it's fantastic material. Report an error in the passage at 17:25 Highlight the passage at 17:25

17:46 And then how many Galupa Geishis do you know who actually practice Shantide? Let alone go off into Shantide retreat and actually achieve it. If you're doing one month, they'll say, whoa, you've done a whole month of shamatha. Big deal. And in the Dzogchen and Yuma traditions, the Dzogchen Mahamudra, they often overlook it entirely. Report an error in the passage at 17:46 Highlight the passage at 17:46

18:03 In Vajrayana, they often skip it and say, well, I get to it in a state of regeneration, but they don't. And so it's very weird that something that is so central, so indispensable, according to the Buddha and Nagarjuna and Shantideva and Sangaba and Padmasambhava, and the list goes on and on of the greatest of the greatest, they all say this shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 18:03 Highlight the passage at 18:03

18:23 At least access to the first John is indispensable if you want to liberate your mind. And then for centuries people have been marginalizing it, overlooking it, or completely misrepresenting it. It's very strange. And this is the verse that got deleted. It's weird. Really weird. Well, so that's why I might have spent a bit more time than otherwise to kind of make up for lost centuries of ignoring this one. Report an error in the passage at 18:23 Highlight the passage at 18:23

18:45 So what he means here is a deeper interpretation of once stability is achieved, once you've stabilized your mind. Not just stabilize your motivation, that's fantastic, but how about the mind that's subject to laxity and excitation, to dullness and mind wandering, rumination flip-flopping back and forth between the two. Report an error in the passage at 18:45 Highlight the passage at 18:45

19:05 Wouldn't it be helpful to make your mind serviceable so it's relaxed, it's still, it's clear, and you can maintain a flow of very focused attention as you venture into the very nature of consciousness, the very nature of reality itself, which is the mystery to be revealed. The very nature of existence. What's the nature of this reality? And there's an answer that the knowing of which liberates. It's not hypothetical. Report an error in the passage at 19:05 Highlight the passage at 19:05

19:31 It's medicine that's been taken for 2,500 years. The teachings on emptiness, the teachings on dependent origination. But in order for that to be more than simply a preoccupation of your intellect and giving really cool Dharma talks and maybe writing some very interesting essays and so forth, maybe even dissertations. Report an error in the passage at 19:31 Highlight the passage at 19:31

19:48 In order for those teachings to sink in and actually get to the root of mental afflictions and cut them and be more than intellectual entertainment floating around on the surface, leaving all of the roots of mental afflictions untouched, and that happens a lot, in order for that to happen, then according to Shantideva, he could make it more clear that first you train in shamatha and then you train in vipassanā. Report an error in the passage at 19:48 Highlight the passage at 19:48

20:11 He says it in so many words, there's no wiggle room there. And he's reflecting the whole Mayana tradition, which is also the whole Theravāda tradition, which is actually what the Buddha said every which way. And so this one, having been so marginalized, overlooked and misrepresented for so long, it's time to bring it back into focus. So the question came up just last night, what hope is there as we look at the big picture? Report an error in the passage at 20:11 Highlight the passage at 20:11

20:34 What's looking down the road? Are we looking 300 years ahead and then seeing the total extinction of Buddha Dharma on the planet? How might things play out? And I mentioned last night something I utterly am convinced of, and that is a relatively small number of people, even a handful of people, could shift the whole course of history for Buddha Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 20:34 Highlight the passage at 20:34

20:55 Could. And not just go with the general flow. Either the dissipation of Dharma into kind of new ageisms and be here now, little cliches and so forth, and not slip away and die a quiet tomb. Of rituals and beliefs and going through routines that become more and more devoid of meaning as the great masters pass away. Report an error in the passage at 20:55 Highlight the passage at 20:55

21:20 Is there a middle way? And to my mind, now this is just opinion. It's not opinion that the shamatha is absolutely dispensable. That's not an opinion at all. It's an overlooked massive fact. But my opinion is that if people in this particular juncture of history where we are right now, where it's on the knife edge, it really could go this way or that way. Report an error in the passage at 21:20 Highlight the passage at 21:20

21:42 If there were a relatively small number of people, and not just Tugus and Rinpoche who are kind of born with a great edge, but people who are really basically just ordinary people like us. If there were 10, 20, 30 people who actually achieved Samanta fully, and then used that as a launching pad to go fully into the cultivation of ultimate bodhicitta, and realized it, and fully into the cultivation of relative bodhicitta, and realized it, actually became bodhisattvas. Report an error in the passage at 21:42 Highlight the passage at 21:42

22:11 Because the bodhicitta is now rising spontaneously, effortlessly. If we had even 10, 20 people like that, I think that could change the course of history. For Buddhadharma for sure, but even broader. Even broader. So, there's stability of faith. I comment here, we're out of time. So we're going to get back to this, but I'm going to linger more on the shamatha a bit, just to show, highlight the indispensability of this, which is so often overlooked. Report an error in the passage at 22:11 Highlight the passage at 22:11

22:42 For going into the very next teachings on page 16 on ultimate bodhicitta. We'll unpack this a little bit. The nature of shamatha and particularly this one avenue that we're exploring. There's so many that could be explored. But this one approach we're taking here I think is profoundly consonant with or in harmony with the approach that Atisha is himself sharing with us. Report an error in the passage at 22:42 Highlight the passage at 22:42

23:04 And it's widely regarded that in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition that Atisha was actually an emanation of Padmasambhava. And that the Penchen Lama was an emanation of Atisha, coming right through into the present time. And Dom Dumba, of course, being a previous incarnation of Dalai Lama. So this dynamic between Penchen Lama and Dalai Lama is going back at least to the time of Atisha. It's quite a dynamic. It's Padmasambhava and Shanrizi, Avalokiteshvara. And so that's the balance. Report an error in the passage at 23:04 Highlight the passage at 23:04

23:33 That's the balance we're looking at here. So Namo to Atisha, I think is unbelievably immense. Fantastic. We'll return to him, but right now it's ten past. So let's come back at ten past two. Enjoy the full two hour break. And as much as you can, do settle. Do settle in the effortless silence. Maintain the continuity of practice. As much as you can. So, see you at 2.10. Report an error in the passage at 23:33 Highlight the passage at 23:33