Transform Your Mind & Change Your Life Retreat - 7-Point Mind Training from Atisha (part 17)

0:15 So, any comments or questions, points of clarification, anything coming up? Yes, please. The microphone is where? Still here? An? Far side? On the far side over here? Report an error in the passage at 0:15 Highlight the passage at 0:15

0:49 That's coming up, but I'm happy to give it, that will unfold as we get towards the end or well into the teachings on Ultima Bodhicitta, but I'm happy to give a little sneak preview, a little foretaste. Report an error in the passage at 0:49 Highlight the passage at 0:49

1:04 As long as we're operating From the perspective of our minds, so this American mind over here, and Australian I presume, mind over there. So then we're in this matrix of subject and object, and that's just how we make sense of things, right? And then within that context, then we look into, well, how do we exist? And this is where the teachings of emptiness come in. That you're not an independent... Report an error in the passage at 1:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04

1:30 Isolated entity in and of yourself and I'm not over here. So it's not like two independent entities coming and bumping into each other, kind of a Newtonian notion of billiard balls bumping into each other. That's really profoundly questioned and refuted in the teachings on emptiness. And so that kind of softens things up already a bit, that we see in any encounter, in any kind of entanglement, there's kind of a systems approach of an arising that is mutually interdependent. Report an error in the passage at 1:30 Highlight the passage at 1:30

1:58 So there's a very profound theme. Still a duality, but one can say it's a soft duality. But then, so that's operating here, and even on a subtler level, because there are these three tiers or three dimensions of consciousness that just run through all of Mahana Buddhism for sure. And on this deeper level, this continuum of subtle consciousness, or the substrate consciousness that carries on from lifetime to lifetime, that's still within the framework of space, time, concepts and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58

2:25 So again, there's subject-object relationship. It's still there. But then when we delve into this whole realm, we find it in Vajrayana, pretty much everywhere, but very explicitly and very clearly, when we come to teachings of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, then the whole point of these approaches, I'll just stick with Dzogchen, it's the one I know somewhat better than Mahamudra, that the whole approach here, the central theme of that whole genre of practice, that pathway of practice, involving view, meditation and way of life, It's simply all about one point, and that is to fathom the nature of awareness right down to the ground, you know, a pristine awareness, Buddha nature, to know who you are from the deepest possible dimension. Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

3:10 So the classic strategy, and it's actually here, I think, very briefly, I mean, breathtakingly, concisely, but played out much more elaborately in detail and making it very, very clear in other classic Dzogchen texts, such as those by Jujang Lingba, for example. The classic sequence is shamatha to vipassanā and then tekchur, it's called in Tibetan. And tekchur is literally cutting, cutting through or breaking through. Report an error in the passage at 3:10 Highlight the passage at 3:10

3:37 So first of all, here's the strategy, because we need strategy. There are some people who are naturally gifted and they'll just, you know, they're just spontaneously, they'll arise a realization of Rigpa. It does happen. But for the rest of us, a bit like me, kind of more of a plotter. You know, step by step. Then the step is, you know, laying the foundation. And above all, the most important is ethics, nonviolence, benevolence. And on that basis, then the next major endeavor is really to, again, it's cleaning one's bowl and one's cutlery, you know, cultivating exceptional level of mental balance, mental well-being, mental health. Report an error in the passage at 3:37 Highlight the passage at 3:37

4:13 And this is cultivated in a myriad of ways. But shaman is one indispensable key to that. and so and so There was a bit of an introduction to that this afternoon. By achieving shamatha, you slip into, you really experience from the inside that substrate consciousness. What's it like when you're in that flow and your mind is evaporated for the time being? You'll come out of meditation and then your mind, woman's mind, man and so forth, will emerge from that subtle continuum and then you'll operate again within this relative subject-object matrix. Report an error in the passage at 4:13 Highlight the passage at 4:13

4:48 But in the classic sequence, when you achieve Shama, you tap into that substrate consciousness. Pristine, balanced, profound sense of well-being. And then from that kind of base camp, from that platform, then you practice Vipassanā. And the Vipassanā is above all, or primarily focused on, fathoming the very nature of that consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 4:48 Highlight the passage at 4:48

5:09 Does it exist by its own inherent nature? Is it inherently real? Does it exist by its own defining characteristics? And it's fathoming, I mean, just cut right to the chase. You fathom the emptiness of inherent nature, of that subtle continuum. Now that's a very profound revelation. So you see, even this has a purely relative nature, actually only a nominal nature, because it too comes into being by the power of conceptual designation. Report an error in the passage at 5:09 Highlight the passage at 5:09

5:34 So now things are really softened up. You soften up the rigidity of the ordinary mind with all of its obscurations with Samatha. That softens things up, loosens things up, makes the mind more pliable, malleable. Then you go to Vipassanā. And realize the empty nature of that phenomenon. But you're still realizing the empty nature of your awareness from the perspective of that subtle continuum. Report an error in the passage at 5:34 Highlight the passage at 5:34

5:59 So that subtle continuum, that substrate consciousness, is realizing its own emptiness of inherent nature. But the mind that is aware of that is that very substrate consciousness. That's very subtle, very transformative, very liberating. But then when you come to that stage, that basis of Shama Devapashana, then you're really ripe. Report an error in the passage at 5:59 Highlight the passage at 5:59

6:18 You're perfectly ripe for receiving what are called pointing out instructions. Now this can occur in solitude. It may arise right out of your meditation. It may come out of a direct encounter with a Lama, with a very profound realization, who points out to you your own pristine awareness. And then we can ask, OK, this is the deepest dimension. This is Buddha nature, primordial consciousness. It's none other than Buddha mind, Dharmakaya. Then we can ask, what is it? Report an error in the passage at 6:18 Highlight the passage at 6:18

6:47 That fathoms that dimension. And the answer to that is that dimension. Rigpa ascertains Rigpa. Coarser level doesn't ascertain the settler. So when we're operating under the coarse mind, we can't really fathom or taste or experience the settler continuum of the substrate consciousness. We can talk about it, we can imagine it, but we always miss the mark. Report an error in the passage at 6:47 Highlight the passage at 6:47

7:08 The settler can know the coarser, but the coarser cannot know the settler. So when we come to this level, And this is where I'm really answering your question. On this level of pristine awareness, it is by nature non-dual. It is by nature non-dual. And so when you're viewing reality from the perspective of Rigpa, self-knowing Rigpa, or pristine awareness, there is simply no duality at all. Report an error in the passage at 7:08 Highlight the passage at 7:08

7:34 And you realize more than that there's an emptiness of inherent nature of objects and an empty nature of subject. But you see all appearances as being pure displays, equally pure displays of rippa, pristine awareness. So that's the deepest sense of duality, of non-duality. And that's viewing reality from that perspective of pristine awareness. So in my interpretation, clearly there are different interpretations, but my interpretation of this text, I'm seeing with that one liner, once stability is achieved, let the mystery be revealed. Report an error in the passage at 7:34 Highlight the passage at 7:34

8:08 To my mind, that just points unerringly to Samatha. Obviously what is needed right there, you know, just before Vipassanā. And then he goes into the dreamlike nature of reality and step by step, especially when he says in Tibetan, It doesn't mean anything to you, but what it is in Tibetan is the antidote itself is liberated in its own place. Report an error in the passage at 8:08 Highlight the passage at 8:08

8:33 That statement, to my mind, that's just kind of like pointing with a great big arrow to Rigpa. Because it's liberated right in its own nature. You don't bring something else to free it, to liberate it. It's liberated right where it is and is forever, primordially, timelessly free. So there's nothing you do to free it. You simply realize that which has always been free. So there's a dimension of your being right now. You and everyone else here. Report an error in the passage at 8:33 Highlight the passage at 8:33

9:01 There's a dimension of your being right now that is already free. That is none other than Buddha might. And explicitly the whole point of Dzogchen is to realize that. Okay? Report an error in the passage at 9:01 Highlight the passage at 9:01

9:21 Microphone just about there. Report an error in the passage at 9:21 Highlight the passage at 9:21

9:29 Your name? Rick. Brett. Thank you. Clarity with respect to emptiness. I alluded to it very briefly, kind of almost in passing in one of the meditations, right towards the end of just kind of going into awareness, where we did the oscillation, remember? And so I said, as you're inverting awareness, and this is the classic Padmasambhava, this is his whole oscillation. Report an error in the passage at 9:29 Highlight the passage at 9:29

9:56 It comes from Padmas and Baba. But in that oscillation, for as long as it's useful, there's that inversion, that arousal, that inversion, and it's coming right into awareness. Well, the very nature of awareness is luminous, in the sense that it illuminates. It makes manifest all appearances, right? And so you're coming right into the very nature of that which illuminates. Report an error in the passage at 9:56 Highlight the passage at 9:56

10:18 So it doesn't have a color. It's not bright like white or yellow or something. But it is that which makes all color, all appearances of all kinds possible. So when you're inverting awareness right in upon the nature of awareness itself, you're coming right into the sheer luminosity of your awareness. Report an error in the passage at 10:18 Highlight the passage at 10:18

10:34 It's called Pabhasajitta, brightly shining mind, for that reason. And that's from the Pāli canon. So that's where the luminosity is. It is the luminosity of awareness and the unfolding of that, the complete unveiling of that, is the luminosity of Dharmakaya itself. Right? Put a mind. But then we have this sense of release. That release. And just, and radically unlike releasing and then scurrying after some object here or there, object of thought or rumination, we're releasing, but it's, again, I like to use my hands, it's releasing like this. Report an error in the passage at 10:34 Highlight the passage at 10:34

11:10 Not like that, but just... And so there's just a release. Report an error in the passage at 11:10 Highlight the passage at 11:10

11:23 There's no object. You're not releasing it to an object. You're releasing into an open expanse that itself is not the object. It's just an objectless open expanse. And you just release your awareness like that. Report an error in the passage at 11:23 Highlight the passage at 11:23

11:40 And that's the emptiness. That's the emptiness. And from the deepest level, what that is, is the emptiness of all phenomena. Shunyata. I mean, that's the deepest interpretation of it. On a more superficial level, it's simply an evacuity of appearances, an emptiness of objects. But the deepest level is actually releasing into the emptiness, the shunya nature, the empty nature of all phenomena. Report an error in the passage at 11:40 Highlight the passage at 11:40

12:04 So you release into that, but as you release into that, you don't pass out. This is a crucial point. You don't just kind of go up or go into a trance or something like that. You don't slip into oblivion. The whole point of this is, as you're releasing, that the clarity of your awareness carries right on through, but with no target, no object, just like that. Report an error in the passage at 12:04 Highlight the passage at 12:04

12:27 And so you're releasing into emptiness. And then if you continue the oscillation, then you come in and invert again. But it's very important, because when we say invert, it tends to imply contraction. Like now I'm going to come into my head, or come into a little cubbyhole, or into a small space where awareness is. Report an error in the passage at 12:27 Highlight the passage at 12:27

12:42 But awareness isn't a small space. It's actually boundless. So what it is then, and the words are very important here, because it's easy just to kind of start going in and out of one's head. And that's not even interesting. It's not that. But when we say withdraw, it's simply withdrawing from all appearances. But now which direction would you go to withdraw from all appearances? Left, right, up, down? Report an error in the passage at 12:42 Highlight the passage at 12:42

13:09 There are appearances within. There are appearances of one's own thoughts, images, memories, emotions. Those two are appearances. So it's not kind of coming in behind your eyeballs. It's not going anywhere in space. It is simply a release of all appearances and then coming right into what's left. In the absence of appearances, and that is simply awareness. So that's the withdrawal, the inversion, is right into unmediated awareness, which is the very nature of luminosity. Report an error in the passage at 13:09 Highlight the passage at 13:09

13:39 Then when you release again, it does have that sense of, like that. And so releasing into an objectless open expanse. So there's the oscillation, so it seems that there's a sequence to it. We have luminosity, and then this open expanse, emptiness, and then the luminosity accentuated, and then the... But as you get into that rhythm, then you'll find more and more that when you release into that objectless emptiness, that there's something that persists as you release into that. Report an error in the passage at 13:39 Highlight the passage at 13:39

14:10 And that's that flow of awareness, the luminosity. You don't pass out. You enter into that objectless space, but it's still luminous. And then when you withdraw from all appearances, well, it's not coming into a small space. In fact, it's simply withdrawing from all appearances, but then you may be utterly in touch with, or still aware of, that emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 14:10 Highlight the passage at 14:10

14:36 So you release into emptiness, you're still aware of luminosity, you invert into luminosity and you're still aware of emptiness. Now, when they co-mingle, so to speak, after a while then, there's really not any difference. Report an error in the passage at 14:36 Highlight the passage at 14:36

14:52 That you're simultaneously aware of that luminosity of awareness and the objectless open expanse. And you're aware of the objectless open expanse and you're still aware of the luminosity. And so at some point then you can say, I think we're finished with the oscillation. Because there's no movement. It's not different now. There used to be. But then after a while there's just any difference. And then when you see there's no difference, then you have used the oscillation for what it was designed to do. Report an error in the passage at 14:52 Highlight the passage at 14:52

15:19 And then you simply rest in utter stillness and doing nothing. Now you can really practice non-meditation. Just resting and simply being aware and the awareness of which you are aware is luminous and empty. And that luminosity and emptiness are non-dual. Report an error in the passage at 15:19 Highlight the passage at 15:19

15:36 So it takes a while to be able to earn one's way up to the level of non-meditation. And if we try it too early, then it's what Dujim Limba calls the meditation of a marmot. You know, just kind of, just like a really poor facsimile. Report an error in the passage at 15:36 Highlight the passage at 15:36

15:55 It seems during Dujjum Lingva's time and during our time now as well, it seems there have always been a lot of people who just like shortcuts. So they hear about Dzogchen, they hear about non-meditation, and they just, well, who needs shamatha? That's for sissies, that's for lower people. And Vipassanā, too complicated, all that emptiness stuff. Report an error in the passage at 15:55 Highlight the passage at 15:55

16:16 I'm just going to sit here. And you just wind up vegging out. It's not non-meditation, it's just sitting there with kind of a spacey mind. And that's a poor facsimile of Dzogchen meditation. So, again, having said that, there are very gifted people. And there have been for a long time. Very gifted people, they go right to Dzogchen and they can realize it. So it's not making fun of, you know, like, oh, no, you have to take everything step by step. Report an error in the passage at 16:16 Highlight the passage at 16:16

16:46 Some people just are very gifted and they may go right to Dzogchen and have profound realization. But for the rest of us, people like me, step by step, a bit more practical. Report an error in the passage at 16:46 Highlight the passage at 16:46

16:59 Yes, Jen, right behind you. Microphone is coming. Report an error in the passage at 16:59 Highlight the passage at 16:59

17:14 Which one? The luminosity empty? The oscillation. The oscillation, yes. And if you are, sometimes I find it uncomfortable to be going in and out very consecutively, so time that over just a release over a number of breaths and an integral oscillation over a number of breaths. Yeah. How do you, I think I'm getting on a bit of a swing. Report an error in the passage at 17:14 Highlight the passage at 17:14

17:40 And a swing, yes, sure, I know, yeah, sure. In that case, from what you were describing, that's not correct. The swing kind of has its... The swing has its fun bits. A fun bit. We enjoy swing, sure, I do, still do. If you're visualizing a swing, that's probably not quite it. Report an error in the passage at 17:40 Highlight the passage at 17:40

18:02 And if there's a sense also of movement, like, whee! Ooh! That's not it either. That's just, you know, hearkening back about 40 years in, 50 years in, like, oh, wasn't that fun when we were kids, you know. Report an error in the passage at 18:02 Highlight the passage at 18:02

18:16 But I'll add this, and that is, when he goes to sweet Dzogchen meditation, actually the Samatha without a sign, because you've attended a lot of retreats with me, when Padmasamava teaches Samatha without a sign, and he speaks of that release and then arousal, there's no reference to the breath. There's no reference to the breath. Report an error in the passage at 18:16 Highlight the passage at 18:16

18:36 That's something I've added to help people living in our times get a little bit something to hold on to, because otherwise it can just be so ephemeral, so intangible, that people sometimes just have a really hard time doing it. So I like to give them something trainer wheel, so to speak, and say, well, go ahead and maintain peripheral awareness of the breathing, which gets very similar to the Dzogchen approach of mindfulness of breathing, which gets very legitimate. Report an error in the passage at 18:36 Highlight the passage at 18:36

19:01 But the way Padmasambhava teaches it, much more like you. That is, he makes no reference to, in the teachings on Shama to Adada Sai, with no reference to mindfulness of breathing, when he's teaching that straight out, and you can find this in Natural Liberation, the book I translated, then he does speak of that inversion right into consciousness itself and then release, with no reference to, how do you say, establishing that rhythm in accordance with the rhythm of the breath. Report an error in the passage at 19:01 Highlight the passage at 19:01

19:28 So you establish your own rhythm. And if you like to, if you find it much more soothing, helpful, practical, to invert the awareness, kind of like the swing coming in upon awareness, and that takes place over multiple breaths, that's fine. Report an error in the passage at 19:28 Highlight the passage at 19:28

19:49 Yeah, I understand. When I go like that, it's just to say that we're not visualizing something. We're not visualizing like going out in a spaceship and going to deep space. Report an error in the passage at 19:49 Highlight the passage at 19:49

20:06 In either case, it's a visualization because that's just getting tangled up once again in subject-object duality of awareness and the appearance that one is focusing on. Report an error in the passage at 20:06 Highlight the passage at 20:06

20:17 At the same time, it would be more like this because it is an oscillation and that release can take place over breaths. It can go for 10-15 seconds. It's your call. You set the rhythm and there's no right rhythm. But if your release takes place over 15 seconds, What about that, right? And I think here's a way to combine the two. And that is stay Report an error in the passage at 20:17 Highlight the passage at 20:17

20:47 there. So it's not like that. It happens and then just rest in that. Like skydiving. You jump out and then you just go. Report an error in the passage at 20:47 Highlight the passage at 20:47

21:06 Yeah, it is. Baby and bathwater, you betcha. so is there a sense of Report an error in the passage at 21:06 Highlight the passage at 21:06

21:07 batting them up for the it's... Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 21:07 Highlight the passage at 21:07

21:13 But just make sure the baby isn't awareness, because if you pass out, that's not it. Report an error in the passage at 21:13 Highlight the passage at 21:13

21:22 Not the right way. But you're quite right. It does have a sense of actually releasing, dissolving, giving up your very self, your very sense of identity. And you are releasing your mind. You know, Jen's mind, woman's mind, all of that business, all the configuration, all the, yeah, just that conditioning of your mind. Report an error in the passage at 21:22 Highlight the passage at 21:22

21:16 next time. Report an error in the passage at 21:16 Highlight the passage at 21:16

21:47 That which makes you a senchen. A senchen is a sentient being. And the term, as you might recall, because you've heard a lot of teachings by now, that the Tibetan term that we translate standardly as sentient being, it's senchen. And it means a mind-haver. A mind-haver. So if we should ask, it comes back to the early question about non-duality, if we ask ourselves, we hear from Dzogchen that in fact we are Buddhas imagining that we are sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 21:47 Highlight the passage at 21:47

22:20 And then locking on to it, very much like being in a non-lucid dream. That this, from a Buddha's perspective, this is our non-lucid dream. But then that's hard to imagine. And why? Because if I were a Buddha, then how come I'm not experiencing infinite compassion, infinite virtues of all kinds, and no suffering of any kind? Report an error in the passage at 22:20 Highlight the passage at 22:20

22:41 How come, you know, if I'm a Buddha? Because I pretty obviously am. Report an error in the passage at 22:41 Highlight the passage at 22:41

22:49 And so, what is it that makes us so confident? That we're not Buddhas. You know, when somebody tells you, no, actually you are a Buddha, but you're not aware of it. And we say, no, I'm not. What gives it that confidence? So I can ask you personally, do you think there could be a Buddha who looks just like you? Physical appearance. Could there be a Buddha that looks just like you? Report an error in the passage at 22:49 Highlight the passage at 22:49

23:13 Why not? You're too short? Report an error in the passage at 23:13 Highlight the passage at 23:13

23:18 Maybe you're too old to be a Buddha. Or too young. Or you don't have enough wrinkles, you know, the wise old lady. Really, you don't think a Buddha could look just like you? Report an error in the passage at 23:18 Highlight the passage at 23:18

23:31 What's that? Report an error in the passage at 23:31 Highlight the passage at 23:31

23:36 A person who has achieved perfect enlightenment. You don't have to have 32 major and 80 minor marks. Those are the Buddhas who come once in an eon and they're coming to turn the wheel of Dharma. That's a very special full manifestation of coming and manifesting the world to teach the Dharma to turn the wheel of Dharma from scratch. Report an error in the passage at 23:36 Highlight the passage at 23:36

24:00 That's when a Buddha like that appears. So the next one will be Maitreya. It's a long time from now. And then when Maitreya fully manifests, he too will come with 32 major, 80 minor marks and teach the Four Noble Truths and teach everything from scratch. But until then, the Buddhas are not manifesting in that way. But there are, according to Mahāyāna, all of Adryana, Dzogchen and so forth, there have been many, many Buddhas since Buddha Shakyamuni. Report an error in the passage at 24:00 Highlight the passage at 24:00

24:24 It's not just Buddha Shakyamuni and the next one is Maitreya. And so among people in our historical era... Can you imagine that any of them who have achieved enlightenment might possibly look like you? Is that possible in principle? Go ahead. Be bold. Be bold. Oh, shucks, he's turning red. Now what do you think? Report an error in the passage at 24:24 Highlight the passage at 24:24

24:50 Could a Buddha in principle, it's not speaking about you, it's not trying to embarrass you, but could a Buddha manifest like you with that body? Report an error in the passage at 24:50 Highlight the passage at 24:50

25:01 Yeah. If not, why not? And if not like you, then not like you, and not like you, and probably not like His Holiness the Dalai Lama either. What makes that body special? So yeah, I think you're right. A Buddha could manifest just like you. Take a snapshot, it would be a snapshot of a Buddha. So that body that you have doesn't define you as a sentient being. Report an error in the passage at 25:01 Highlight the passage at 25:01

25:25 You can have that body and be a perfectly enlightened being. Good. So that's not an excuse. So if you look in the mirror and say, I'm not a Buddha because I look like that, I say, that's not conclusive. You could be a Buddha and look just like that. Any of you have seen the movie Yogis of Tibet? Wonderful movie, right? And if you've seen it, you must remember Dupan Rinpoche, that yogi from Dashichong who had been meditating maybe 60 years or so. Report an error in the passage at 25:25 Highlight the passage at 25:25

25:51 Really, really, you know, so deep. And he looks right into the camera. You remember, because I've referred to this many times. He looks right into the camera. He's speaking with this utter candor. And he says, I may look human to you, but inside it's very different. Report an error in the passage at 25:51 Highlight the passage at 25:51

26:06 And he also says, I can remember all my past lives. That's breathtaking. And then you look at him, and what does he look like? Report an error in the passage at 26:06 Highlight the passage at 26:06

26:18 An old man, yeah, kind of looked like kind of raggedy rogues, no brocade, no big hat, no halo, no nothing, at least not that I can see. Maybe other people can, but not me. So he looks kind of like a scruffy old man. Nothing special at all. You can find people like that all over India, these old Tibetans, you know. But there he was. Report an error in the passage at 26:18 Highlight the passage at 26:18

26:37 But it was of such a stature that, you know, there's Dokten, he's one of the Dokten, and they don't cut their hair. I've met a number of them, they don't cut their hair. They're monks, fully ordained monks, but with one caveat, and that is they don't cut their hair. Like, what was it, Samuel from the Old Testament? Samuel, was it? Report an error in the passage at 26:37 Highlight the passage at 26:37

26:53 Never cut his hair. Wasn't it Samuel? Samson, there we go, Samson, exactly right, thank you. But, so they never cut their hair until when they see they're finished. It's better, it's a Gomba Zoh. When they see that what they wanted to accomplish in this lifetime is finished, Gomba means your intention. These people are coming in consciously, these highly realized beings. Report an error in the passage at 26:53 Highlight the passage at 26:53

27:18 They come in and they embody consciously because they see something to be done and they can do it. And they manifest. And then at some point they know they've done it. They've accomplished what they set out to do in this lifetime. And so Gomba, Zop, their intention has been completed. Gomba, Zop, completed. Report an error in the passage at 27:18 Highlight the passage at 27:18

27:39 When they see that they've finished what they set out to do, then for these dokten, these long-haired yogis, they cut their hair. They cut their hair to let everybody know, I'm checking out soon. Not suicide, but I'm finished, and I'm just going to withdraw my awareness, and this body will be finished. Report an error in the passage at 27:39 Highlight the passage at 27:39

28:00 And so in this dokten, Dupanamache, who appeared in this film, when he cut his hair, signaling to all of his fellow monks and lamas and yogis, That he's finished. He's going to be leaving quite soon. Then the Dalai Lama heard about it. And he said, no you don't. I beg to differ. I want you to stay. Don't go. Can you imagine the Dalai Lama saying, no, I want you to stay. You stay. You stay. I'm saying stay. Report an error in the passage at 28:00 Highlight the passage at 28:00

28:29 Then he had to stay for a while. But you must be very gratified if the Dalai Lama tells you he wants you to stay. Because he must feel that's very meaningful. And so clearly the Dalai Lama was taking seriously what he said, that this is nothing phony about that, no showing off. But again, the simple point was, he looks quite ordinary, but there was nothing ordinary about him. So then, if you're still confident, even though a Buddha could look just like you, or a Buddha could look just like old Dupanambache, you know, old man, kind of funky old man, then what gives you the confidence that you're a sentient being? Report an error in the passage at 28:29 Highlight the passage at 28:29

29:09 Since you could be, the body could be a Buddha's body. And then I think where the rubber hits the road, we say in America, where we really get down to, okay, now here's the reason. Here's the reason I know I'm not a Buddha. I've checked out my mind and boy is it not a Buddha mind. It's like a work in progress and it's got an awful lot of work to do. Report an error in the passage at 29:09 Highlight the passage at 29:09

29:33 Purification, development, you know, this is a long road and I'm a sentient being and I've got a lot of work to do. Fair enough. That's not an invalid conclusion. Until we ask the question, what makes you think that mind is yours? Report an error in the passage at 29:33 Highlight the passage at 29:33

29:52 Why are you owning it? It'd be like having a big wheelbarrow full of dung right next to you and say, mine, mine, I'm a dungy person, I'm a dungy person, you know, just pile full of dung. And I would ask, why are you identifying with that wheelbarrow full of dung? Because it's not you. And it's actually not yours. So why don't you give it a rest? Report an error in the passage at 29:52 Highlight the passage at 29:52

30:22 Now once you've released your mind, you know that screwed up neurotic samsaric mind, which has all kinds of mental licks and obscurations, work in progress, so much to be done. Once you've just gone like that, just, now what's left? You've already released the fixation on your body. Report an error in the passage at 30:22 Highlight the passage at 30:22

30:41 And then the mind coming up. And what's left? What's left? Report an error in the passage at 30:41 Highlight the passage at 30:41

30:54 Yeah, what if you even release the grasping onto substrate? Report an error in the passage at 30:54 Highlight the passage at 30:54

31:00 Yeah. This is where we're going really deep. And this is where the step-by-step can be really useful. That you release your mind and it's dissolved, it's melted away. And now you just have this one individual continuum and still the clinging of mind is there. Right? You may not even have a body. You may be oblivious of your body. So you're not grasping onto that of which you're not even aware. So that's easy. And your mind is dissolved into the substrate consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 31:00 Highlight the passage at 31:00

31:28 It's just like this. Pure mountain stream of just clarity, continuity. But it's individuated. It's within space, within time. And there too then come the tentacles of I Am. Report an error in the passage at 31:28 Highlight the passage at 31:28

31:43 Release that. Because that's not a person. Release that. And if you release identification with even the substrate consciousness, now what's left? Report an error in the passage at 31:43 Highlight the passage at 31:43

32:00 Rigpa, Dharmakaya. Dharmakaya primordially non-dual from Dharmadhatu, which is emptiness. And then you recognize, when you've stopped identifying with everything that is not you, your body, your mind, your substrate consciousness, let alone everything outside, friends, relatives, possessions and so forth, when you've ceased identifying with everything that's not you, what's left is you. Report an error in the passage at 32:00 Highlight the passage at 32:00

32:26 That was just kind of a priori, that was just straight logic. Because you do exist, you're not a non-entity. But when you've ceased identifying with everything that is not you, that what remains is you, and the you that remains, Once you've stopped identifying with everything that's not you, your stomach-eye. Then you're not a sem-chen, then you're not a mind-haver, because the mind is just evaporated. Report an error in the passage at 32:26 Highlight the passage at 32:26

32:58 Yes, please, over on the left, on your right. Report an error in the passage at 32:58 Highlight the passage at 32:58

33:05 So we're going very deep into Dzogchen waters here. Report an error in the passage at 33:05 Highlight the passage at 33:05

33:13 Peter, hi. Oh, good, let's do that. Back where we live. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 33:13 Highlight the passage at 33:13

33:24 Around practice, indeed, yes, around a diet. remember Mr. I think he said it's good to have 100 Report an error in the passage at 33:24 Highlight the passage at 33:24

33:30 Sure. After the teaching today, I'm feeling like I shouldn't be doing anything but shamatha meditation. Can you just explain? Good. Good, I'm very happy. It's kind of like shamatha for a day. And then tomorrow, I hope you'll feel I should be doing nothing but pivhashana. Report an error in the passage at 33:30 Highlight the passage at 33:30

33:53 And then day after tomorrow, I should be doing nothing but bodhicitta. And the day after that, I should be doing nothing but transform everything that happens in life into the path. And by the time you have, I should be doing nothing but nothing, nothing but, and you've done seven points of mind training. Report an error in the passage at 33:53 Highlight the passage at 33:53

34:09 Put it all together. And then you have a rounded diet. But it's good to have a moment or a phase when you just see with, I think you do, you see with real clarity, this is indispensable. I can't skip this. So then it comes, here we have a very practical point, so I'm glad you bring us back where we live, because this is not, it's the shallow end of the pool in the sense it's where we live, but where we live can also be as deep as the earlier discussions, because it's not someplace else, right? Report an error in the passage at 34:09 Highlight the passage at 34:09

34:42 And so this point comes up a lot, it comes up in these monumental teachings on Dzogchen that I've translated from Jujumlingma, which are actually coming by and large from Padmasambhava, and he's the transmitter for them. Report an error in the passage at 34:42 Highlight the passage at 34:42

35:00 You see the indispensability of Samatha. It looms large because he just says it. Unless you're one of the very gifted people, or gifted people, they can simply... Here's the test. It's kind of a placement exam. You may have heard this before. But it comes up in two of these revealed teachings, revealed teachings to Jujjum Lingva, two of them. Report an error in the passage at 35:00 Highlight the passage at 35:00

35:22 One's a Vajra Essence, the other one is the Enlightenment of Samatha Vajra. We're right towards the beginning of the text. You get something like a placement exam. A placement exam. Like if you've been homeschooled as a child and then eventually you need to go into a school and then the teachers need to know, well, what ratio he placed you in, that it's challenging but not too challenging. Report an error in the passage at 35:22 Highlight the passage at 35:22

35:42 So then you have a placement exam, right? And so you have a placement exam in Dzogchen, right towards the beginning of the text. And he says, all right, there are people of superior, middling and then inferior, kind of ordinary faculty or clarity, what do you call it? Report an error in the passage at 35:42 Highlight the passage at 35:42

35:59 Faculty, faculties, short faculties, medium and ordinary, or dull. And the placement exam, especially, it's very, very clear in the Enlightenment of the Samatha Bhattara, is you go out in solitude, into a solitary place, just kind of out in nature, all by yourself, and for 20 days, for 20 days, and in 20 days, during 20 days, you have nothing else to do, as much as you can, all the time, all the time, uninterruptedly. Report an error in the passage at 35:59 Highlight the passage at 35:59

36:26 You just release your mind into space. That's your job. So nothing else, just for 20 days, just as much, as continuity as you can. And again, you don't keep on going, you don't hyperventilate your mind into space. You just go, and then you remain until some kind of like thoughts start creeping in again. Report an error in the passage at 36:26 Highlight the passage at 36:26

36:54 And maybe there's a congealing around my mind. And then if you see that happening, and then you just, as much as you possibly just, Release and stay released. Just releasing your mind entirely for 20 days. And he said, if you're a very gifted, if you're a gifted individual, that alone may bring you right to the realization of Rigpa. Report an error in the passage at 36:54 Highlight the passage at 36:54

37:16 In which case you skip Samatha, you skip Vipassanā, and then you simply rest in non-meditation. And that's resting in Rigpa. And that will just carry you right along the path. But he said, if you're not a very gifted individual, then... Report an error in the passage at 37:16 Highlight the passage at 37:16

37:34 If you go on for 20 days like that, over that period you'll get restless, you'll get bored, the mind will start wandering, get antsy, and so forth and so on. In which case, if that's what happens, then come back and say, okay, now roll up your sleeves, we're going to do shamatha, vipassanā, and then we'll go on to sokchen, the tekchut, after that. Report an error in the passage at 37:34 Highlight the passage at 37:34

37:56 So there's a sequence to it. But it comes back to this point of sooner or later. If one is very intense, not simply with the aspiration, I'd really like to fill my life with Dharma, I'd like to live a profoundly spiritual life, I'd like to experience greater eudaimonia, greater well-being, I'd like to experience and manifest in the world greater compassion, greater wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 37:56 Highlight the passage at 37:56

38:18 This is all wonderful. And if that's the aspiration, if that's pretty much, I think I've finished, that's what I want to do. You don't really need to achieve shamatha. Because you can practice Vajrayana, Dzogchen, Mahamudra and all of those. In a very meaningful way, a very beneficial way, you won't achieve the path. You won't reach the path. But if that's what you wanted, if you didn't really think, you're not really thinking about the path. Report an error in the passage at 38:18 Highlight the passage at 38:18

38:42 You're not really thinking about setting out on a path of irreversible transformation and freedom. If that's not in mind, then you don't need shaman. Just hang out and receive more empowerments and practice. Do a one-month retreat here, do a three-year retreat there, and get old and have a very rich, meaningful life, and then have a good death, and then carry on. Report an error in the passage at 38:42 Highlight the passage at 38:42

39:02 But if one, as I was inspired very early on by my earliest teachers in India in 71, introduced the notion of path, it really got me. It was like I was a fish and it hooked me really early on. That this is the point. That I also didn't go to India just to practice Dharma. I think I could have done that in Europe. Report an error in the passage at 39:02 Highlight the passage at 39:02

39:20 But I went there looking for something. I was looking for liberation. That was my idea. I'd go to India for 10 years and become enlightened. That's what I thought I would do. I didn't have. Report an error in the passage at 39:20 Highlight the passage at 39:20

39:32 But if the vision, aspiration, the yearning to reach the path, proceed along the path, and I'm referring especially to the path to enlightenment itself, if that really sets and it becomes one's aspiration, then there has to be in the mind, sooner or later, when the time is ripe, and I call it the outer mandala meeting the inner mandala, the outer circumstances, is there a conducive environment? If there's not, then wait or create one. Report an error in the passage at 39:32 Highlight the passage at 39:32

40:03 But don't think about achieving shamatha without really taking into consideration the environment. It turns out for this practice it's really important. Really, really important. And so is there a conducive environment? Can you stay there and not be kicked out after three months because your visa ran out? And I've been teaching a lot of people, that's a big issue. Report an error in the passage at 40:03 Highlight the passage at 40:03

40:21 If you're meditating in a place not your homeland, you may have three months. This happened to me. I went to India. After three months I had to renew my visa when I went there for a long-term retreat. And when I renewed my visa, they told me, you'll not get an extension. So, you know, three months and you're, you know, bye-bye. I'll still get, you know, out. So even when I'm in retreat there, under the guidance of His Holiness, practicing shamatha, I had already been thinking, well, where do I go from here? Report an error in the passage at 40:21 Highlight the passage at 40:21

40:45 Because in three months, I can't be here anymore, you know. That's unsettling. It's not debilitating, but if you want to practice shamatha and continue until you're finished, it would be extremely helpful to be able to know, here I can stay. And I will remain here until my chief shamatha. But that means no visa problems, no financial problems, worrying about, well, what if I run out of money, and so forth and so on. Report an error in the passage at 40:45 Highlight the passage at 40:45

41:08 Just not having to be concerned with the environment. And having a teacher available, preferably physically, but at least by Skype, you know, in modern times. And having some, unless you're already a very experienced yogi, it's very nice to have some companions, just some Dharma friends there, kind of mutual support. And so, if that aspiration comes up, then, Do you have that? Is there a place you can go, conducive environment? And then that's the outer. Remember Atisha saying, if you don't have the conditions, you can meditate for a thousand years. Well, let's not mess around here. Report an error in the passage at 41:08 Highlight the passage at 41:08

41:40 And then you look within and say, if I immerse myself there, where there's basically no entertainment, there's no way to kill time. There's no television, no internet, there's just no way to kill time. I'm there and it's Dharma. It doesn't mean you have to practice Sharmatha all the time. There's really, there's not much to do. You're there to practice Dharma all day. And that includes some variety, but overwhelmingly you're there for shamatha. So then you see, am I right? Report an error in the passage at 41:40 Highlight the passage at 41:40

42:06 Is the motivation there, the aspiration, the enthusiasm? Do I have the discipline? Can I go cold turkey on all of the hedonic pleasures that we may be accustomed to? And if you have that confidence, then, then you go for it. Then you go for it. But until that happens, rather than kind of waiting or looking forward to or hoping one day that will happen, the very important point here is if the time is not right, one might have children, one might have parents to take care of, one might have various obligations that one finds very meaningful in life. Report an error in the passage at 42:06 Highlight the passage at 42:06

42:39 And say, this is not a time for me to go. Fine, it's everybody's individual call. You need to know that the time is right. You need to have that very strong intuition. That, yes, now I can leave. And not just for three months, but now I can leave and I'm going to go to this conducive environment, all those circumstances, and I'm going to go out there and practice until I achieve it. Report an error in the passage at 42:39 Highlight the passage at 42:39

42:58 That kind of confidence. Then the question, when is that? Well, then you have to just watch reality. You cultivate, cultivate from within and then you keep your eyes open from outside. And maybe people like Claudio, Rhonda and other people, knowing of this vision, are really helping to create such a conducive environment. We have found property. Report an error in the passage at 42:58 Highlight the passage at 42:58

43:18 Magnificent property in Tuscany, overlooking the Mediterranean, up on the side of a mountain. It's glorious. And it's been blessed by some extraordinary people, including one Dakini in Kandula. She came to that property and she danced and she sang. And she said, here's a place people can achieve shamatha and higher realization. She's one of my Lamas. Report an error in the passage at 43:18 Highlight the passage at 43:18

43:36 I hold her in highest esteem. And so it seems like a really conducive place. And I've had a lot of blessing, encouragement. Okay, go for it, go for it. From Lama Zopa Rinpoche in particular. Report an error in the passage at 43:36 Highlight the passage at 43:36

43:47 But then prior to that time, so it's not there yet. We don't even know whether we're going to get the zoning permit. We should know soon. And things look optimistic. But prior to that point, it's a temptation, I think, to think, well, I'll wait. I'll wait. Never wait. Never wait. Because where we are in our lives right now, this is kind of the talk I would give at the end of a retreat. Where we are in our lives right now, this is the place to practice Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 43:47 Highlight the passage at 43:47

44:14 And not have any notion at all of waiting. But rather, because I could be dead tomorrow, you could be dead tomorrow, so what are you waiting for? This is it, every day, as if, if this were, I mean, I think of this a lot, if this today, right now, Monday, isn't it? If this Monday, if this turned out to be the last day of my life, could be, if it did, would I be content that this is the way I've spent the last day? Report an error in the passage at 44:14 Highlight the passage at 44:14

44:40 And I ask myself that a lot, and I can tell the answer, I can tell the answer. Yeah, this would be a good last day. Nice to be with you on this last day. And doing something very meaningful. Following the teachings of Lama, I adore. Atisha, he just moved me to tears. I mean, so splendid. So if this turns out to be my last day, that's a good job. This is a good way to spend the last day. Report an error in the passage at 44:40 Highlight the passage at 44:40

45:06 And having every day like that. That if this turned out to be the last day, it's a good finish. And it's well primed for whatever may come after. Report an error in the passage at 45:06 Highlight the passage at 45:06

45:15 And so it's not waiting. It should not be waiting. If one has obligations in the world that one finds meaningful, attend to them and this text is perfect for this. Take wherever you are and transform that, transform it. So you really do have the feeling that I'm giving much more than lip service. I am really letting my mind become Dharma. I am really whatever taking care of one's children and anything else that may be one's beloved responsibilities, happy responsibilities. Report an error in the passage at 45:15 Highlight the passage at 45:15

45:46 That it's all permeated by Dharma and with as little attachment to anyone as possible. When we think of attachment like an attachment theory, which I know a little bit about because I know some really good psychologists, when psychologists speak of attachment theory and secure attachment and so forth, they're referring to something very wholesome, very good. Report an error in the passage at 45:46 Highlight the passage at 45:46

46:05 But when Buddhists, when we speak of attachment, it's by definition a mental addiction. So speaking of children, just as an example, it's very clear in the Buddha Dharma. That you may have no attachment for your children at all, which would be the ideal. No attachment to children at all. And have a profound sense of responsibility, of commitment, love, affection, compassion for them. Report an error in the passage at 46:05 Highlight the passage at 46:05

46:31 So they know your children, they can always count on you. Absolutely. Because they look upon you in a unique way that they do not look upon any other adult. So you may be absolutely there for your children, and with no attachment. And likewise in relationships. Friendships, spousal relationships and so forth. The Buddhist idealists have no attachment at all to your spouse. And yet there may be very deep commitment. Many of the great Islamists have very long, very rich marriages. Report an error in the passage at 46:31 Highlight the passage at 46:31

47:02 Very common, you know, among the very highly realized ones. But I think no attachment. His Holiness the Dalai Lama had a very close relationship with his mother. Report an error in the passage at 47:02 Highlight the passage at 47:02

47:12 My sense is no attachment. But, you know, really loved his mother. So that's it. So when the time is right, that we're not waiting, not waiting, but just taking every day. This is my arena. This is my locus. This is my field for practicing Dharma today. And just drinking it to the last drop today. And every day there. And then when the outer mandala and the inner mandala, they come together and you see the opportunity has arisen and you're completely ready for it. Report an error in the passage at 47:12 Highlight the passage at 47:12

47:41 Then for this temporary period, immerse yourself into shamatha and achieve it. And then if you wish, stay in retreat. It might be simpler. Go right into Vipassanā, right into Dzogchen, if that's your path. Or if you wish, like this woman who has this wonderful husband, go home. I'll keep in touch with you by Skype. But be with your husband. He's been supporting you so much. So be the loving wife. He's being a loving husband. Report an error in the passage at 47:41 Highlight the passage at 47:41

48:06 So I really encourage her to go home. She'll be fine. But achieve shamatha first. So if you feel for one day, shamatha, shamatha, shamatha, very good. Tomorrow will be different. Report an error in the passage at 48:06 Highlight the passage at 48:06

48:21 Anything else coming up? It's 8.30. Maybe one quick one. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 48:21 Highlight the passage at 48:21

48:33 Jim? Jim. That's easy. Jim. Got it. Hi, Jim. Could you talk about the arising of intense fear and the experience of emptiness? Yeah. Sure. Sure. Intense fear. I'll give a little prelude to it. We spoke of giving away the mind or in jen, just actually just releasing your very sense of identity itself. Just like that. Report an error in the passage at 48:33 Highlight the passage at 48:33

49:07 And just in shamatha alone, fear can arise. And sometimes fear can be so strong, it can be debilitating. And it is very simple when you look for the, if you try to articulate it, because I've encountered people like this. Just shamatha, let alone teachings and emptiness. It is a fear of annihilation. That's what it is. Report an error in the passage at 49:07 Highlight the passage at 49:07

49:27 The fear of annihilation, that I'm going to lose myself and I'll never get myself back. And it's kind of a reality-based fear. Because as you're along the trajectory of shamatha, the whole point of this is that your mind gradually, gradually is fading, dissolving, dissolving, evaporating and gone. That mind that we so strongly identify with the mind that you have, you might have her, right? And that mind you have is just kind of disappearing in your hands, so to speak. Report an error in the passage at 49:27 Highlight the passage at 49:27

49:55 And then insofar as you're identifying with your mind, You're seeing a loss of yourself. And so that's when Shantide is practiced correctly. Well, when you're dying, what happens? Let's imagine kind of a gradual death. You're on the deathbed and you're just kind of gradually fading out. And the brain is gradually shutting down. What's happening? You're losing your mind. Report an error in the passage at 49:55 Highlight the passage at 49:55

50:16 Step by step. Different parts of the brain shutting down, shutting down. So memory, thought, imagination, emotion shutting down, shutting down, senses imploding. And so people are afraid of dying. Because they're afraid of annihilation. What will become of me? And it's along the same trajectory. You're dying, you're going into the substrate consciousness. You're achieving shamatha, you're going into the substrate consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 50:16 Highlight the passage at 50:16

50:38 And it's the same substrate consciousness. So you're getting a sneak preview of dying. But shamatha is actually very healthy for you. It does not shorten life. In fact, this is a matter of curiosity. When nine years ago, I was guiding two groups of people in three months shamatha retreat, they did studies of telomerase. Report an error in the passage at 50:38 Highlight the passage at 50:38

50:55 The telomerase. And it turned out that the aging process seems to slow down when you're doing a lot of shamatha meditation. So there's a paper, and one of the co-authors is a Nobel laureate, Elizabeth Blackburn. She was in charge of that research. So there's a bit of a tangent there. And I'm leading up to your question. But here's on a more superficial level. It's a fear of annihilation. Report an error in the passage at 50:55 Highlight the passage at 50:55

51:18 At the same time, insofar as one has released the identification with one's mind, then if the mind dissolves, Then you're not annihilated. Because you're not identifying with something that's fading out and disappearing. So then you just relax into it. And what you wind up with, when your mind is evaporated entirely or dissolved into its ground, into the substrate consciousness, bliss, luminosity and non-sexuality. Report an error in the passage at 51:18 Highlight the passage at 51:18

51:45 So rather than something to be feared, something that is, you know, fulfillment of your heart's desire. But then we go deeper. Deeper into the teachings, the theory, the practice, the meditation on emptiness. And there's a famous story, you may have heard of it. It's from the time of Tsongkhapa. And Tsongkhapa was extraordinarily brilliant but also had a very profound realization of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 51:45 Highlight the passage at 51:45

52:09 And with such people who are speaking out of their realization when they give teachings, then it tends to have a very profound impact on those who are listening, if they're receptive, if they're open. And so Tsongkhapa was speaking from his experience, from his realization of emptiness. And he was speaking probably to hundreds of monks because he was a very renowned scholar, contemplative during his time. And so imagine a congregation of many, many monks. Report an error in the passage at 52:09 Highlight the passage at 52:09

52:35 And he's giving these very profound, very kind of ontologically shattering or destabilizing teachings that just basically shatter or cause your very worldview to tremble. And he's giving these teachings from this profound realization. And then there was one monk. The story goes, this had been narrated for 600 years. Report an error in the passage at 52:35 Highlight the passage at 52:35

52:56 There was one monk listening to him with rapt attention, really receptive, really attentive. And then Tsongkhapa was just going right at the very nature of an awareness. And suddenly this monk, he goes like this. He freaks out. I mean, he's really, like, really shocked. A very strong fear comes. And he's grabbing his collar just like this. Tsongkhapa was one of those people that Atisha referred to as having clairvoyance. And so he saw what was going on, that he wasn't having a twitch or an epileptic seizure or something. Report an error in the passage at 52:56 Highlight the passage at 52:56

53:27 He's suddenly grabbing his collar. And he turned to this monk and smiled and said, ah, this monk from Nartang, he knew where he's from. This monk from Nartang has just established relative truth with respect to his collar. Report an error in the passage at 53:27 Highlight the passage at 53:27

53:42 That it wasn't just he himself that he felt was being annihilated. But when you have some intimation, some inkling, some taste of the emptiness of all phenomena, it looks like the annihilation of the universe. Like your whole world is vanishing, just evaporating, not just you. And so then he grasped onto something he could hold onto and held his, you know, this was his life raft in an ocean of emptiness, something he could hold onto. Report an error in the passage at 53:42 Highlight the passage at 53:42

54:10 My cholera exists, therefore there's a universe. So it's, to round off here, it's a very deep question and there are very deep answers to it in here, and I'm just passing on. Nothing deep from me. But through me, yes. Through me, yes. Thanks to the, you know. So here it is. This is why we speak of relative and ultimate bodhicitta. And the two are so mutually, reciprocally nurturing, supportive, strengthening. Report an error in the passage at 54:10 Highlight the passage at 54:10

54:40 So it's not simply a sequence, just do ultimate bodhicitta and then do, but rather cultivate both and then see the reciprocity of these two, how they enrich each other. And so when you go, very briefly here, when you go to relative bodhicitta... The attention again and again and again is focusing on others. And not just one's own family, one's friends, but just going out and embracing all sentient beings, the open, vast expanse of sentient beings throughout the world. Report an error in the passage at 54:40 Highlight the passage at 54:40

55:09 And identifying with them all, everyone as being like your own mother, your father, your children, your family. That type of intimacy, that sense that there's all my family, all my parents and so forth. Which means the field of caring expands just massively. In which in that field of caring expanding, you as an individual, it's kind of like you're still as big as you ever were, no less significant. Report an error in the passage at 55:09 Highlight the passage at 55:09

55:37 But within this larger field, you're just a tiny mote of dust. And you were already a mote of dust. But that's not how you appear in the vastness of your care, your concern, your loving kindness for essential beings. And so you just immerse yourself in this. Of attending to others, cherishing others more than oneself. And then you go from that practice and then you go into the teachings of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 55:37 Highlight the passage at 55:37

56:03 And it said for a person whose mind is well nurtured, cultivated in relative bodhicitta, in compassion, loving kindness, that when you gain some insight, some experiential insight, cutting through to the reality of emptiness, it said it's like discovering the greatest possible treasure. Report an error in the passage at 56:03 Highlight the passage at 56:03

56:21 Whereas if one has not prepared the mind in that way, but is still lingering or kind of just in the same rut of I, of my well-being being more important than others, the self-centeredness, I, I, I. And when it comes directly from that, and games, it could be the same glimpse of emptiness, it could be the same realization of the same emptiness, but from this perspective, then that glimpse, Will it be experienced as if you've lost the greatest treasure? So it's all in the preparation. But this is why these two really completely support each other. Report an error in the passage at 56:21 Highlight the passage at 56:21

57:01 The ultimate and relative bodhicitta. So when it comes to fear pertaining to emptiness, then number one, the path of emptiness, finding middle way, finding middle way. And the middle way is... We find the middle way, in my experience, I have very little experience, but what little I have, we find the middle way with regards to all kinds of things. It's always that avoid extremes. Report an error in the passage at 57:01 Highlight the passage at 57:01

57:22 We find the middle way by bumping into the extremes and doing what's left over when we're not bumping into extremes. That's what's left, is the middle way. So when we first start to investigate the nature of reality using the modes of investigation of Vipassanā in the Madhyamaka context, then we start not finding anything. Report an error in the passage at 57:22 Highlight the passage at 57:22

57:43 Sleeking myself and finding not to be found. And then looking and really probing into what is really there and finding nothing is really there. Then when one first ventures into that, it's very natural to slip into nihilism. Having a sense that actually there's nothing at all. And that's bound to be scary. And then we pull back over and then we yank on our collar or something. And then we reestablish conventional reality. Report an error in the passage at 57:43 Highlight the passage at 57:43

58:11 And we go... Okay, yeah, there's causality, there's interdependence. But now we're falling over into the other extreme of substantialism, of reifying things, grasping true existence. We say, oh, but that's not it, that's just saṃsāra. And then we start going back over here and then slipping into nihilism and then we come back here. And the idea is we bounce less and less. Report an error in the passage at 58:11 Highlight the passage at 58:11

58:31 We don't hit so hard on the two extremes of substantialism reifying everything and nihilism where everything is just vanishing entirely until you're just not bouncing at all and then you're right down the stream. So I think whether in Shamatha and then more deeply in Vipassanā and also in Dzogchen, it's not for the faint-hearted. Report an error in the passage at 58:31 Highlight the passage at 58:31

58:55 It's not for people who never want to feel afraid or never want to feel vulnerable, but rather willing to, boldly, courageously be willing to say, well, this is the path and what comes up, I'll deal with it as it comes up. So there was one yogi that I lived with for a year and he'd been in meditation for about 25 years. Report an error in the passage at 58:55 Highlight the passage at 58:55

59:15 And he was leading a one-year retreat that I organized 28 years ago, I think it is. And he was leading a one-year shamatha retreat that I organized in 1988. And at the very beginning of the retreat, there were only 12 people in the retreat. He was a principal teacher, I was his apprentice, so to speak, and his interpreter. Just 12 people, but took off one year from their lives. Report an error in the passage at 59:15 Highlight the passage at 59:15

59:35 None of them had children, so there's no big sacrifice from anybody else. But they took off one year just to practice shamatha. And he told them right from the beginning. Over the course of this year, some of you may experience kind of gut-wrenching fear, real terror. And that wasn't even vipassanā, it was just shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 59:35 Highlight the passage at 59:35

59:51 And should that happen, the final thing I say in response to your question, but should that happen, should fear just emerge like a volcano out of your awareness, just terror, should that happen, then here's your task. You must recognize that this fear has no basis in reality. You have to recognize that. Report an error in the passage at 59:51 Highlight the passage at 59:51

1:00:14 And recognizing that, when you see the fear come up, observe the fear as fear. Don't be sucked into it. There'll be almost like a big strong magnetic pull, like a vortex, like a whirlpool, just sucking you into it. So you are afraid. You are terrified. Don't let yourself be sucked in. Just rest loose and see fear as fear. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:14 Highlight the passage at 1:00:14

1:00:38 Then it will dissolve itself. So that's what's to do. Observe the fear. Now having said that, just a tiny bit more. There are various types of fear. I'd say three, just for starters. There's fear that's reality-based, and that if you're stepping off a curb, and then suddenly you see a car whizzing around the corner, then you're afraid, because you could be killed here. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:38 Highlight the passage at 1:00:38

1:01:04 And that fear then makes the blood drain from your head into the big limbs, and so you can have great strength for a short time, and you can leap back onto the curb, and then the car whizzes by and there's no accident. So that's fear, very useful fear. It's fear that saves your life, right? And so that's not something unwelcome. That's actually very welcome that saved your life because there was a fear there. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:04 Highlight the passage at 1:01:04

1:01:28 There was a danger there. The fear aroused you, alerted you and then protected you or enabled you to be protected. We can also be fearful of inevitable. That is, some people are afraid of death. That's like being afraid that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. What's the point? Yes, you will die, and yes, the sun will rise tomorrow, but if you're afraid of it, you just have to say, you know, you better get over this, because it's going to happen anyway. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:28 Highlight the passage at 1:01:28

1:01:56 So why don't you find out what it is about death that you're really afraid of, so you're not simply afraid of death per se, because that's just self-defeating. That just means you're going to be afraid and afraid until you die, and then you'll be freaking out when that happens. So that's kind of like, you know, self-destructive. So we have to figure a way out of that. And then there's fear that has no basis in reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:56 Highlight the passage at 1:01:56

1:02:17 For children, fear of the boogeyman, fear of things that don't exist at all. And so that's the type of fear that arises when you practice shamatha. That in fact, that which you're fearing has no potential to give you any harm at all. And so you simply observe the fear that has no basis in reality, recognize fear as fear, and then it just dissolves of its own accord. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:17 Highlight the passage at 1:02:17

1:02:40 But we come back to that whole theme of a balanced practice. Having spiritual friends, having... If one is all possible, finding a spiritual guide, a Lama, a spiritual mentor that one trusts, that can be tremendously helpful, that one has very deep trust in. When it comes to fear, take refuge, take refuge in your guru, Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha, that can be enormously helpful. So having that rounded, the spiritual friends, knowing that you have friends who are there to support you, should you get into deep waters, and they're there, they are your friends as you're their friends. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:40 Highlight the passage at 1:02:40

1:03:16 Having spiritual friends, having a spiritual mentor, cultivating bodhicitta, cultivating the four measurables, loving kindness and so on. Guru yoga, very powerful. All of these then enable us to deal with whatever comes up in the course of the practice. Okay? Very good. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:16 Highlight the passage at 1:03:16

1:03:38 So homework for tonight is the same as last night. It's a big prime directive to get a good night's sleep. I succeeded. I followed my own instructions last night. I slept very well. And then I woke up very fresh, very happy. And so, you know, just, so I won't reiterate again, but just go into the supine position and there you are, just mellow out with mindfulness of breathing. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:38 Highlight the passage at 1:03:38

1:03:57 There you feel drowsy and then sweet dreams. See you tomorrow morning. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:57 Highlight the passage at 1:03:57