Enlightened Courage - Becoming a Bodhisattva Warrior Thru the Method of Exchanging Self and Others (13 June 2010)

0:00 That's true, that's true, but I've definitely met some kind of more extrovert. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:17 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 0:17 Highlight the passage at 0:17

0:47 Thank you. he got into nursing school, but he might. You might, you might. Where did he get into nursing school? Wow, but you know, I shouldn't say what I'm not under the position, but I'm pretty sure he got into nursing school, and I don't think it's in the area. But I don't think that's a gospel. It definitely has to be moved back. I hope it's a four-year program. Yeah, because right now they're not hiring. Report an error in the passage at 0:47 Highlight the passage at 0:47

1:16 For one, they're not hiring. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. just get into your first class and get hired. No. Really? And I've been trying to get over it. He was an employee at CPMCC. He covers education. He went to the program. Very good. Report an error in the passage at 1:16 Highlight the passage at 1:16

1:40 We've got so much to cover today. Report an error in the passage at 1:40 Highlight the passage at 1:40

1:55 concentrations together. Report an error in the passage at 1:55 Highlight the passage at 1:55

1:59 Namo Matyushriye, Namo Shushriye, Namo Uttama Shriye. Om Namo Manjushriya, Namo Shriya, Namo Uttama Shriya. Report an error in the passage at 1:59 Highlight the passage at 1:59

2:25 Nama Shri Shri Nama Uttama Shri Yeh Oh Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

2:59 what a good idea! The sun doesn't... beat in on whoever's sitting there. Great. I thought what we could do this morning is after we sit and set our initial motivation, we can just review Tonglen, just do a brief one round of Tonglen to just review the instruction, make sure that we're clear about how that meditation works. Report an error in the passage at 2:59 Highlight the passage at 2:59

3:27 So we'll start with a little bit of meditation. So first, sitting. In our meditation posture, with our back straight, our head tilted slightly forward. Report an error in the passage at 3:27 Highlight the passage at 3:27

3:44 One of the points of the meditation posture is putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth right behind your teeth. It keeps you from having to swallow all the time. In our tradition, we put our right hand over our left with our thumbs touching, centered about four finger widths below the navel, which is the... Report an error in the passage at 3:44 Highlight the passage at 3:44

4:05 Point of our navel chakra. And that's a way of just sort of focusing our energy at that point, our elbows slightly out. And before we begin the meditation, let's just sweep through the body to make sure that our body is completely relaxed. So starting at the head, the crown, just sweep down through the body, relaxing any tension. Report an error in the passage at 4:05 Highlight the passage at 4:05

4:36 Any tightness we might be holding. So down from the crown, down through the forehead, the area around the eyes. Sometimes we tighten the muscles around our eyes. So just loosen, relax. It might be helpful to think of a warm, kind of a warm current flowing down through your body, just melting any tightness, any tension. Report an error in the passage at 4:36 Highlight the passage at 4:36

5:07 And then... Flowing down through your head, the muscles of your cheeks, your jaw. We hold our mouth closed during meditation. We breathe through our nose, but make sure your jaw isn't clenched or tight in any way. And then sweep down through your neck, your shoulders. Just loosen, relax. Notice if there's any tension there, any tightness. Just... Report an error in the passage at 5:07 Highlight the passage at 5:07

5:42 Let go and then sweeping down through your torso. Lift your sternum, open up your chest. Often we hunch over holding tightness in our shoulders and chest. So just lift and open and Report an error in the passage at 5:42 Highlight the passage at 5:42

6:07 sweeping down through the torso, Report an error in the passage at 6:07 Highlight the passage at 6:07

6:14 down the arms, biceps, forearms. Hands, not dropping the hands, keeping the posture, but just making sure their arms and hands are held in a way that's relaxed. Report an error in the passage at 6:14 Highlight the passage at 6:14

6:41 Moving down through the hips, the pelvis, loosening. Pay special attention also to the small of the back. Often we hold tightness there. Imagine melting, loosening, any tension, any tightness. And Report an error in the passage at 6:41 Highlight the passage at 6:41

7:08 then down through the legs. Relaxing the muscles of the thighs, calves, Report an error in the passage at 7:08 Highlight the passage at 7:08

7:20 feet. Report an error in the passage at 7:20 Highlight the passage at 7:20

7:36 And then round off this settling of the body, this relaxation with three deep breaths, drawing air in fully and expelling fully any stale air. Report an error in the passage at 7:36 Highlight the passage at 7:36

7:50 Three very deep breaths and pushing all the air out. And Report an error in the passage at 7:50 Highlight the passage at 7:50

8:19 then settle the respiration and its natural rhythm again, just for a few minutes, turning the... Attention to the breath. Report an error in the passage at 8:19 Highlight the passage at 8:19

· · · silence, 1 minute

9:36 Visualize in front of you the object of your Tonglen meditation and can either be yourself in some future suffering moment or someone close to you. Report an error in the passage at 9:36 Highlight the passage at 9:36

9:55 Helpful in the beginning to think of someone who's going through something very specific, mental or physical, hardship, sickness, depression, something like that. Report an error in the passage at 9:55 Highlight the passage at 9:55

10:22 And then imagine whatever suffering they're going through takes the form of black smoke filling their body. It's gritty, dirty smoke. You're not giving them any more suffering than they already have. It's just that whatever they're going through takes this visual form of black smoke. And Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

11:04 then tune into your feeling of compassion, your wish for this person you love so much to be free of their suffering. This heartfelt wish, may they be free of this suffering they're experiencing. And Report an error in the passage at 11:04 Highlight the passage at 11:04

11:43 imagine that this compassion gives you the power that as you inhale, you're able to draw out that suffering. Your compassion gives you that ability, that power with your inhalation, just like a vacuum cleaner. So for about eight to ten inhalations, draw out that. Black smoke and it collects in a little cloud in front of your face. Report an error in the passage at 11:43 Highlight the passage at 11:43

· · · silence, 1 minute

13:34 And then you're self-cherishing that self-absorbed, it's got to be my way feeling, takes the form of this black rock in the center of your chest. It's very hard, solid rock. And with one big inhalation, draw in that black smoke. Imagine that the minute it enters your body, it completely transforms into the antidote to your self-cherishing, a powerful burst of energy and light that goes down and just smashes that black rock. Report an error in the passage at 13:34 Highlight the passage at 13:34

14:14 Not even a trace is left. In Report an error in the passage at 14:14 Highlight the passage at 14:14

14:31 its place, the center of your chest is this pinpoint of golden light. It represents your love, your wish. For that being and all beings to have happiness, it starts to spread and fill your chest, giving almost a physical sensation of warmth. Report an error in the passage at 14:31 Highlight the passage at 14:31

14:59 Imagine, expands, fills your chest, your torso, eventually your whole body slowly filling, your body and mind completely filled with this energy of loving kindness which gives you peace of mind, open heartedness. Report an error in the passage at 14:59 Highlight the passage at 14:59

· · · silence, 1 minute

16:40 And then once your body is completely filled with this golden light of loving kindness, begin to exhale towards that being, imagining that that golden light transforms into whatever it is that would give that person happiness. Report an error in the passage at 16:40 Highlight the passage at 16:40

16:59 So if it's mental happiness they need, imagine the golden light filling them. If it's something physical they need, imagine it transforming. Whatever it is that would give them happiness. And again, all the way from temporal happiness all the way up to liberation and enlightenment. You can imagine creating an environment that they can receive teachings, for example. Perfect place to engage in their Dharma practice. Report an error in the passage at 16:59 Highlight the passage at 16:59

17:34 So it can be temporal happiness all the way up to ultimate happiness of liberation and enlightenment. So for about eight to ten exhalations, imagine the giving. Report an error in the passage at 17:34 Highlight the passage at 17:34

· · · silence, 2 minutes

19:37 Now just take a minute to imagine that person that you love completely happy and feel your delight and joy in their happiness. Report an error in the passage at 19:37 Highlight the passage at 19:37

20:02 Rejoice that you've been able to repay the kindness of that being. Give them happiness. Report an error in the passage at 20:02 Highlight the passage at 20:02

· · · silence, 1 minute

20:52 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 20:52 Highlight the passage at 20:52

20:56 So once you are experiencing this technique, You can actually do the visualization with every breath, every inhalation and exhalation. Generally when I teach at the beginning I say, okay, eight to ten cycles of inhalation and then do the destroying of the self-cherishing and then for a couple of minutes do the giving. Report an error in the passage at 20:56 Highlight the passage at 20:56

21:19 But once you have a familiarity with the practice, you can actually couple it with every breath. And that's really... Great. It makes every breath, which we have to be doing all the time anyway, into our Dharma practice. And you don't have to do this practice when you're sitting cross-legged on the cushion. Report an error in the passage at 21:19 Highlight the passage at 21:19

21:37 With familiarity, too, you can do it all the time. Public transportation is great. I lived in New York for about a year and, you know, would ride the subway to where I needed to go every day. And, you know, you see all kinds of suffering people in the subway in New York. And so I just sit there. Doing it, walking down the street in Santa Cruz is a great place to do it too because there's lots of homeless people because it's got a great climate and lots of parks and things, so lots of people. Report an error in the passage at 21:37 Highlight the passage at 21:37

22:03 So, you know, you can do this all the time. And in fact, Lama Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Galupa tradition, one of his disciples wrote these verses in praise of Lama Tsongkhapa. And one of the verses he said was, every breath you take benefits beings. And it's not just poetic. He was referring to Tonglen practice, right? Report an error in the passage at 22:03 Highlight the passage at 22:03

22:24 Every breath that you take. So people ask a lot of times, how do I practice Dharma in daily life? This is terrific, right? Because everywhere you go, We're always meeting people that are going through problems, some physical, mental problems, sometimes more than others. I don't know, the last week or so it seems like the poop has seriously hit the fan. Report an error in the passage at 22:24 Highlight the passage at 22:24

22:47 I'm just running into people constantly. Sometimes it seems like everybody's doing really well and then suddenly there'll be a time that everything is just kind of chaotic for everybody. Great time for us to practice with situations like that. And as I mentioned yesterday, when you're experiencing your own... Report an error in the passage at 22:47 Highlight the passage at 22:47

23:05 Mental afflictions. Remember the thing about the three poisons, the three objects and the three roots of virtue. When we're going through stuff, to not just waste it on blame and self-pity, which I don't know about you guys, for me is my default mode, right? When I'm going through a hard time. Transform our own adversity into the path by thinking, wow, so many people. Report an error in the passage at 23:05 Highlight the passage at 23:05

23:28 You know, given the worst, what, six and a half billion? Humans alone on this planet alone in Buddhist cosmology says all these world systems. Think of all the millions of people going through whatever it is that you're going through. We think we're so unique. We're not. So many others are going through exactly what it is that we're going through and as a way to use our own obstacles and suffering as a way to increase our compassion. Report an error in the passage at 23:28 Highlight the passage at 23:28

23:53 Widen that scope and then do Tonglen if we're experiencing our own mental sufferings, physical suffering. It's a great way to practice, okay? But we can, you know, with familiarity, you can actually do it with every breath. It's a little bit complicated for beginners because so much is happening. And then you take some big, long, prolonged in-breath. Okay, wait a minute, the black smoke coming, you know, and then you sort of pass out. So it's good to get used to it, and then you can do it really easily with each in-breath and with each out-breath. Report an error in the passage at 23:53 Highlight the passage at 23:53

24:24 You can also play around with the visualization. I had this one student. She didn't like the lightning bolt thing. That was kind of too intense. She felt like it was really violent to have the lightning bolt going down and exploding the black rock. So what we did with her, she felt more comfortable just imagining the black smoke coming in and then just immediately sort of melting into this golden light that sort of bathed down and melted. Report an error in the passage at 24:24 Highlight the passage at 24:24

24:50 This hard heart. So that was fine too. So you can play around with that. I kind of like the lightning bolt thing. It's kind of extreme. You know, superhero. But if you really like the melting, more sort of peaceful visualization, that's fine too. So there's different ways that you can do the visualization and different teachers teach it in different ways and there's not any kind of right or wrong. Report an error in the passage at 24:50 Highlight the passage at 24:50

25:14 The point is just that. You know, just about... The fact of your compassion actually being the antidote to yourself, cherishing and somehow that's the antidote and then you're filled with this loving kindness and able to give out of that. So any questions about that technique now that we've done it another time? Where is it? It's right in front of Charles. Report an error in the passage at 25:14 Highlight the passage at 25:14

25:39 I think Katya is looking for the microphone. Oh no? Okay. I was just looking at it for if someone wanted to. Yeah, okay. All right, so yesterday you had some homework. I think of when you were the happiest. And you may have just been too overwhelmed to even think about it. But did anybody come up with anything? Alan shared this very moving story of he and his, all ten of his family, which just blows my mind. Report an error in the passage at 25:39 Highlight the passage at 25:39

26:07 I can hardly get myself together to travel internationally. I can't imagine traveling internationally with eight children. And going to Kosovo and how meaningful it was to actually feel that he was benefiting others and how much he learned from that experience. So anybody else have anything that came up? Janet, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 26:07 Highlight the passage at 26:07

26:31 Well, I actually almost instantly, when I started to think about it, thought, gee, I don't know. And I thought, well, the most happy that I've been, and maybe because it's most recent. Is either in doing the retreats as a meditation retreats or study retreats or whatever it was. Being in retreat, it was like a total pleasure and joy. Report an error in the passage at 26:31 Highlight the passage at 26:31

27:01 It was fun. It was the best thing I could have been doing ever. Right, good, good. So kind of immersing your mind in Dharma was really pleasant rather than just sensory indulgence to actually really immerse in Dharma in a simple little cabin that didn't even have a toilet that you had to go up the hill for. Report an error in the passage at 27:01 Highlight the passage at 27:01

27:26 That was my exercise. That's right. Good. Great. And then as I thought about it, I thought other times in my life, like one of the things that I remember that I really enjoyed and I thought was... you know, really nice was they, you know, how they do the Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners for homeless The group that I used to volunteer with was called Tenderloin Tessies. Report an error in the passage at 27:26 Highlight the passage at 27:26

27:52 and they would actually put out They'd have a big hall and they'd put tables out for everybody and set the tables. And the people would come in to eat, but they would sit down and we would serve them as though they were in a restaurant. And we would go around with different beverages to make sure that their cups were all full and everybody had different jobs to do, cleaning off the plates. Report an error in the passage at 27:52 Highlight the passage at 27:52

28:20 They didn't have to take up their plates. So I thought that was like, I really enjoyed that. Because I thought it was really nice to be able to give somebody that kind of service that normally they wouldn't get. They have to stand in some line and get food in a plate. And feel kind of like a beggar almost. Yeah, yeah. Here it was like a little more. Oh, nice, nice. Report an error in the passage at 28:20 Highlight the passage at 28:20

28:45 And then also I was like totally thrilled when my father died. That sounds funny. Report an error in the passage at 28:45 Highlight the passage at 28:45

28:56 You're going to have to explain that one, Janet, okay? That needs a little commentary. Well, you know, I sent an email over to Kopan to do pujas for him, and they always check with a geshe first to do a mo to see what's most beneficial. And I got back an email that said, if you do seven Medicine Buddha pujas, he will obtain a perfect human rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 28:56 Highlight the passage at 28:56

29:27 And when I read that, I felt like I won the lottery, not even him. So that was another one that was like that kind of thing. So it's like all different types of things. Types of things, right, right. You know, I had a similar experience when my father died. Report an error in the passage at 29:27 Highlight the passage at 29:27

29:46 I had been estranged from my father for about 11 years and he actually sort of, and then we, anyway, long story, but he had accepted for me to come and look after him when he was dying and then because of this long relationship I had with Lama Zopa and having worked for Lama Zopa in the FPMT international office and been a center director, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff, I was able to actually call Lama Zopa within like... Report an error in the passage at 29:46 Highlight the passage at 29:46

30:12 Four minutes of my father's breath stopping. And I heard later that Lama Zopa immediately, it was of course three o 'clock in the morning, but he was awake, immediately went and did practice for two hours for my father. And then that night he was giving a long life empowerment at Vajrapani Institute. I was up in Washington State and I heard that he dedicated the long life empowerment for my father. Report an error in the passage at 30:12 Highlight the passage at 30:12

30:35 And I had the same experience you did. I was just like, man. If all those years of killing myself working for Lama Zopa, if the only result was this, that I scored on behalf of my father, you know, and I had the same feeling, of course, like my father's just died, but I heard the next day, Venerable Holly called me and reported, oh, Rinpoche just went straight up and did these practices for two hours. Report an error in the passage at 30:35 Highlight the passage at 30:35

31:00 Within like minutes of my father's breath stopping, I was just like, yes, you know, it's like that's the deluxe package, you know. So yeah, yeah, interesting. You know, I think I started, actually kind of started Buddhism, one, because I wanted to find something a little more spiritual, but also because I had read about, I forget what the title is now, it's about death and dying. Report an error in the passage at 31:00 Highlight the passage at 31:00

31:27 It's not the Tibetan book, but it's the other one. Yeah, the Tibetan book of living and dying? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it, that's it. Yeah, I was reading that and my friend had... Report an error in the passage at 31:27 Highlight the passage at 31:27

31:39 Gone back to Louisiana to help, you know, when her father was dying and that kind of thing. I was kind of impressed and I thought, I don't know what to do. Right, right, right. To be of any use. Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm totally useless. And so, you know, I thought, well, and since this was a Buddhist thing and I read that book because she gave it to me and she said, this is really helpful. Report an error in the passage at 31:39 Highlight the passage at 31:39

32:04 And I used to read it while I was at the gym riding the bicycle. And people would say, oh, what are you reading? I've said, I'm reading about death and dying. And they'd go, oh, how horrible. And I said, oh, no, it's really quite nice. And then we'd get in a conversation. Report an error in the passage at 32:04 Highlight the passage at 32:04

32:22 But, you know, so it's like, I think for all of us, it's really important to realize that even if whatever little bit we can do. Yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 32:22 Highlight the passage at 32:22

32:37 You know, to be able to be beneficial to friends, parents, whoever it is that we know. Yeah, yeah. Good, good. Great, great. Thank you. Yeah, Lynn. I didn't sign it, but it's a great question. And I just sat here and there's been many, many really excited, happy moments and many, many horrendous moments. Report an error in the passage at 32:37 Highlight the passage at 32:37

33:01 But recently, we were at Vajrapani for the empowerment. The thing and then for big love and my husband and I had gone up to the stupa, which you all know about it, and we hadn't, you know, we had just arrived and we had heard that Lama Zopa had been up there preparing, but he hadn't. And then we were just a few people working on the sound and suddenly someone said, we better cut it out because they were kidding about it a lot because... Report an error in the passage at 33:01 Highlight the passage at 33:01

33:36 Rinpoche is coming. And we turned around, my husband and I turned around and he came over to my husband and then me. He greeted and he did his thing with me and I felt the sun come out. I had been so crabby and whiny and like suddenly. Report an error in the passage at 33:36 Highlight the passage at 33:36

34:01 And it was an amazing experience. It was really unbelievable. Yeah, right, right. And that's the thing we were talking about yesterday. When you get that experience that you feel like you're meeting a being who's got something going on. I mean, that's the way I felt when I first met His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I don't know what's going on here, but man, it's something of an entirely different magnitude. So I'm just going to check into whatever it is that he's into. Report an error in the passage at 34:01 Highlight the passage at 34:01

34:28 Everyone feels that way. I mean, I have to meet him at some point, but it was really... Yeah, nice. It was something. Nice. Very dramatic. Excellent. Good for you. Tricia, did you have something? Report an error in the passage at 34:28 Highlight the passage at 34:28

34:47 I did the homework this morning out on the deck when I was having the coffee and I had a hard time coming up with something. That's great. Great. Excellent. Report an error in the passage at 34:47 Highlight the passage at 34:47

35:00 And then I realized that the happiest moment in my life was right then and there because that was the now. And I thought, oh, well, I've got to come up with something better than that. Report an error in the passage at 35:00 Highlight the passage at 35:00

35:11 There's got to be something better than the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 35:11 Highlight the passage at 35:11

35:17 No, actually, I think you got it. Report an error in the passage at 35:17 Highlight the passage at 35:17

35:22 So I thought about the birth of my children who are all adults now. I think you got it. Report an error in the passage at 35:22 Highlight the passage at 35:22

35:27 And then I thought, oh, that was, you know, one of the happiest moments in my life. However, when I really think back, it was also a very painful moment in my life. Report an error in the passage at 35:27 Highlight the passage at 35:27

35:39 So it's just, you know, it's like the other side of the coin. It's just the flip side of the coin of the happiest moment of my life. And isn't it funny how sometimes the things that are physically incredibly painful can be mentally... We sometimes think that it needs to be somehow linked, that physical pleasure will give us mental happiness, and we know that that's not true. Report an error in the passage at 35:39 Highlight the passage at 35:39

36:02 This friend of mine was saying last weekend he went on his honeymoon in Hawaii and was just miserable and didn't even talk to his bride for like three days. There they are, like Maui. Which is supposed to be paradise, right? If it really worked that way, that all you needed to do was put your body in some perfect, samsaric environment and then your mind would be happy, it would always work. Report an error in the passage at 36:02 Highlight the passage at 36:02

36:24 But often it's the other way around. And then going through childbirth, which is physically very intense, but your mind somehow is very happy. Good, good. Betty, did you have something? Were you just moving? I agree with the mother thing. Yes, you're very excited when they give birth, but then later on it comes sometimes a difference. Report an error in the passage at 36:24 Highlight the passage at 36:24

36:59 It's a serotonin thing. It's definitely a serotonin thing. Anybody else? Okay, so we see. It's not... Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. Thank Report an error in the passage at 36:59 Highlight the passage at 36:59

37:10 Not necessarily about sensory indulgence, and I don't think anybody's really come up with one that was about sensory indulgence. So like I posited, I'm a little bit of a revolutionary nun. The capitalist system is wrong. You know, it's like that materialist sort of consume more and you'll be happier. Report an error in the passage at 37:10 Highlight the passage at 37:10

37:29 It just doesn't work. If it worked, God bless. Go for it. It just doesn't seem to work at all. And you just need to check your own experience to see, you know, Janet's experience when you're immersed in something meaningful like a Dharma retreat, you know, when you feel like something in your life is meaningful when you're able to give. Report an error in the passage at 37:29 Highlight the passage at 37:29

37:49 To others, like the example with her father, Alan's example of Kosovo. You know, when you're in the present moment, and that's really interesting too. Because I have sort of this theory about extreme sports. You know, those of you that know me know my pet peeves. And I have this theory that those, like, clinging from the side of a rock face by your fingernails and bungee jumping and those kind of things. Report an error in the passage at 37:49 Highlight the passage at 37:49

38:14 The reason they feel good is because they force you to get into the present moment. You know, you can't be clinging from the rock face and ruminating about the past because you'll die. So it's sort of like these things. I think part of the reason they feel so good is that they completely force our mind into the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 38:14 Highlight the passage at 38:14

38:35 And that's really the part that feels good. Okay, there's the adrenaline rush aspect. But it's also about forcing you into the present moment. When we can do that more peacefully, like sitting on the deck with a latte, hey, less dangerous, less expensive, right? So I think it's that and experimenting with that too. Because that's generally, you know, I do this experiment with a lot of classes and the two themes that come up when I have people check is that serving others and being in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 38:35 Highlight the passage at 38:35

39:09 Feel good. You know, that's the experiment. And I should have done some study and published a paper about it because, you know, I question just an empirical study of like remembering when things are the happiest. So just experiment with that. Lynn, do you have something? Yeah. No, I'm just joking. Not everyone responds to those extreme like sports, race cars. Report an error in the passage at 39:09 Highlight the passage at 39:09

39:34 I sure don't. It scares me to death. But it really is a question of people who have a slightly lower dopamine. Oh, okay. And, you know, these kinds of things, you get a dopamine rush. That's right. And it's right in the pleasure sentence. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but I think it is also, like, it does feel good to be in the present moment, and I think that's part of the effect, too. Report an error in the passage at 39:34 Highlight the passage at 39:34

39:56 Like, for sure, there's things going on biochemically, but it also, I think, has to do with, you know, just bringing your mind completely into the present moment. Do you want to come up and sit on a cushion? Report an error in the passage at 39:56 Highlight the passage at 39:56

40:07 You're kind of... There's one right there that nobody's on. I just wanted to say something about that also is that I went rock climbing for the first time recently and it's sort of funny you brought that forward and you know for me it was really empowering to feel so much fear come up. I hadn't really felt like... Report an error in the passage at 40:07 Highlight the passage at 40:07

40:26 The fear for my life, like ever. Maybe a couple other times on the subway in Brooklyn or something. Yeah, right. But I was like, I could be dead in the next 20 minutes. But it was really amazing to feel that and then have to like drop into my breath. It's like either I fall back and trust this person to catch me or I keep going. And so it was like those moments of truth. Report an error in the passage at 40:26 Highlight the passage at 40:26

40:48 It was, I don't know, it was interesting to feel all that fear and then to kind of feel the courage to go through it. And that was something that was also just joy and courage. And just being there dealing with what was going on in your mind. Yeah, good. Thank you for sharing that. Good. All right. So let's carry on with the text. Report an error in the passage at 40:48 Highlight the passage at 40:48

41:09 We've got a couple more points to do. So we've gotten up to the... Near the end of the first page of the handout, and we've got somebody joining us. I don't know if we've got any more copies. Did we have any extra copies? Okay, okay. So we were, and maybe we can share. Yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah, okay. So we had the instruction on Tonglen that we'd gotten up to practice a combination of giving and taking. Giving and taking should be practiced. Report an error in the passage at 41:09 Highlight the passage at 41:09

41:43 Alternately, you should begin by taking from yourself. These two should be made to ride on the breath. So now that you've got that instruction, all of that makes sense. It's just a reminder. And that's the way it is with some of these texts. They're very cryptic. We can't depend on the root text for the whole instruction. We need the commentary. And then once we've had the instruction, we can read these little stanzas and it's like, oh, right. Report an error in the passage at 41:43 Highlight the passage at 41:43

42:08 Otherwise you wouldn't know what it meant. The two should be made to ride on the breath. What does that mean? So you need the explanation and then you can get reminded. And then concerning the three objects, three poisons and three virtues, and we've gotten up to that and we said the three objects. We're the objects of attachment, aversion and ignorance. The three poisons were attachment, aversion and ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 42:08 Highlight the passage at 42:08

42:34 And then the three virtues, the way to transform them is to do Tonglen when you're experiencing those mental afflictions to do Tonglen. Yeah, Katya. I realized I didn't actually understand what you meant when you said you could do... With every inhalation? What exactly? Oh, so, yeah, like for example, you're walking down the street, you see a suffering person, with every cycle of inhalation and exhalation, bring in the black smoke with every cycle, do the destruction, and then when you exhale, send out the golden light. Report an error in the passage at 42:34 Highlight the passage at 42:34

43:06 So you don't do it like wait a couple of minutes and do, you know, eight to ten inhalations. So as you get kind of facility with the visualization, you can kind of do it with each cycle. Report an error in the passage at 43:06 Highlight the passage at 43:06

43:20 right, and then the next lines, the instruction to be followed in short is to be mindful of the practice. So what this is talking about, we need to train our minds, we need to make ourselves familiar with this practice and one of the tricks of the trade, a lot of what we're going to be talking about from now on. Report an error in the passage at 43:20 Highlight the passage at 43:20

43:44 In the text are these tricks of the trade of how to train our minds. And this is talking about how we can memorize verses that we recite throughout the day to remind ourselves of this practice. So these are these words, taking the words to heart in all activities. So there are a lot of different of these verses and phrases that we can memorize, that we can use in our training. Report an error in the passage at 43:44 Highlight the passage at 43:44

44:10 We mention this... This other Lojong text that some of you may be familiar with called the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, that was that verse that Geshe Chekawa heard one of the verses, the thing about when people criticize and insult me, offer the victory to them. That one's terrific to use, right? And each, you can take a different verse every day and just memorize and repeat it to yourself throughout the day to get familiar. Report an error in the passage at 44:10 Highlight the passage at 44:10

44:37 Some of the commentaries... Mention this other verse that some of you may be familiar with that comes from a practice called Lama Tsopa or Guru Puja, which is a practice that a lot of times in our centers we do every two weeks. Some people do it every day, have a commitment to do that practice every day. And there's this verse about Tonglen in that. Report an error in the passage at 44:37 Highlight the passage at 44:37

44:59 And it says, and thus, perfect, pure, compassionate gurus, I seek your blessings that all karmic deaths, obstacles and sufferings of mother beings may without exception ripen upon me right now and that I may give my happiness and virtue to others and thereby invest all beings in bliss. OK, so a one verse reminder of this practice of exchanging self and others. So that's a really nice one to use. And again, just. Report an error in the passage at 44:59 Highlight the passage at 44:59

45:29 Training with these verses. There's another beautiful one from a text by Arya Nagarjuna called The Precious Garland. May the negativity and suffering of others ripen on me and may all virtue and happiness ripen on them. That one's easier. So any of these verses, so pick whichever ones kind of resonate with you. You can, you know, come up with a bunch of different verses and sort of rotate. Report an error in the passage at 45:29 Highlight the passage at 45:29

45:54 And this is what this stanza is talking about, you know, to be mindful of the practice by taking these words to heart in all activities, meaning reminding yourself of these. Practices by using one of these tricks. And we're going to talk a little bit more in the section on the five powers about the power of familiarity and how to do that too. Report an error in the passage at 45:54 Highlight the passage at 45:54

46:15 Okay. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 46:15 Highlight the passage at 46:15

46:22 On that verse, can you repeat the one about the verse that this man heard? Oh, right. That one. Let me get that. Oh, I don't have the piece of paper with me, but I think it's in this. Yeah, it would be in this book, I'm pretty sure. The eight verses, isn't it? Ever-flowing nectar of bodhicitta. Yeah, it's in the ever-flowing nectar of bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 46:22 Highlight the passage at 46:22

46:47 So that was, when out of envy others mistreat me with abuse, insults or the like, I shall accept defeat and offer the victory to others. That was the one that Geshe Chakawa heard. That's an interesting verse because when I heard that verse, I thought, oh, this is very interesting. That's assuming that somebody else is doing that to you. Report an error in the passage at 46:47 Highlight the passage at 46:47

47:08 But what if you're in a situation where you're the one who's doing that to someone? Well, right, right. So what's going on there? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And this is, you know, this Lojong teachings is more about transforming hardships that you experience into the path. I mean, if you're, you know, blaming others, abusing, criticizing other people, that whole blaming thing basically is due to an ignorance of the law of cause and effect. Report an error in the passage at 47:08 Highlight the passage at 47:08

47:37 And why things happen to us the way that they do. If we're blaming other people for the experiences that we're having, that kind of comes from the root ignorance about how things are. You know, what are we doing? So basically karma and emptiness would be the antidote to that kind of a mind that criticizes and blames the outside. That would be the mind that sort of sees ourself as this helpless victim of just random events coming at us. Report an error in the passage at 47:37 Highlight the passage at 47:37

48:08 If you study karma and emptiness, you know that's not true. Events aren't random. They're all created by causes. A lot of how we perceive events is determined by our Our projection, our perception, our conceptual imputation. So there are also a lot of techniques in the Lojong teachings about, and we're going to talk about that in a second when we get to the next point about transforming adverse circumstances into the path. Report an error in the passage at 48:08 Highlight the passage at 48:08

48:36 How do we see things differently? How do we open up the space in our minds to actually perceive our reality differently? Because Buddhism says, We don't have this self-existent reality just coming at us that we're a helpless victim of. Our karma determines what we're actually perceiving. That reality is not existing in the way that it appears to us. So those are some of the antidotes to the mind that would tend to be feeling like a victim and wanting to kind of blame and criticize others. Report an error in the passage at 48:36 Highlight the passage at 48:36

49:09 So that's also a long story. That's a great thing to get into, is just, you know, even just that alone could be the subject of a weekend workshop, right? What do we do when we feel that sort of, it's all coming at us? Yeah, Lynn. Wait, wait, wait. I understand that in terms of my personal life right now, say. Report an error in the passage at 49:09 Highlight the passage at 49:09

49:37 I told you I did Tonglong. Yeah. Faculty meetings. But how do you think about it in terms of politically oppressive situations like women with abusive men or all of Tibetan monastics getting tortured and beaten? That's right. And it's hard to imagine each person had that karma. So how do you interpret it? Report an error in the passage at 49:37 Highlight the passage at 49:37

50:06 We say that things happen due to causes and conditions, but we also say that karma mostly ripens in the feeling aggregate. So for any given group of people that are experiencing the same conditions, whether they're experiencing Report an error in the passage at 50:06 Highlight the passage at 50:06

50:23 That, as suffering or not, all depends on their minds, right? One of my teachers, Riba Rinpoche, was in a Chinese prison camp, tortured. He wouldn't even tell us the stories about it because we'd freak out, right? But every once in a while, some little story would slip out. And then we'd be flipping out. Report an error in the passage at 50:23 Highlight the passage at 50:23

50:43 We'd be crying. He'd tell some little story. And then he'd look at us and he'd go, what's wrong with you? He goes, look. It was a great opportunity for me to practice. That was the best time of my life because it was a great opportunity for me to practice. He said, I just worked on my compassion for the people torturing me because they're just starting a round of suffering for themselves. Report an error in the passage at 50:43 Highlight the passage at 50:43

51:09 I'm just experiencing something that I created causes for in the past. They're just starting. Poor things, right? I mean, that's a mind that's really well trained. There's this Lama Peldin Gyatso who was in this prison camp for a long time and he met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama when he was finally able to escape from Tibet. Report an error in the passage at 51:09 Highlight the passage at 51:09

51:29 And His Holiness said, what scared you the most? Like, what was the most frightening experience for you in that time that you were being tortured? Peldin Gyatso said, it was really scary for me when I thought I would lose my compassion for the people that were... So whether or not suffering is experienced in one of those situations is completely dependent on the mind of the person experiencing it, right? Report an error in the passage at 51:29 Highlight the passage at 51:29

51:57 Even being beaten? Even being beaten. Even being tortured. And that's this mind, I mean, it's so well trained, we can't even relate to that, can we? But he, you know, I've met Peldengazzo. For him, that... He wasn't just trying to please His Holiness, right? That was like totally sincere, totally sincere. So it's not dependent, and that's what emptiness means. Report an error in the passage at 51:57 Highlight the passage at 51:57

52:22 It's not dependent on the circumstances, whether that makes you suffer or not. And the good stuff either. If it always worked, it would be self-existently pleasant or unpleasant, and it's not. Yeah, yeah. It sounds just like what we were talking about earlier, about... Having a child, you have horrible physical pain, but it's mentally something else. And so this would be the same kind of thing in a prison camp or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 52:22 Highlight the passage at 52:22

52:52 You have horrible physical pain, but mentally it's something else. That's right. And just like we can't understand being tortured and not getting angry, Rinpoche couldn't get how upset we were. He would just look at us and he would just say, you guys, what is wrong with you? Like he could not conceive of how we were so upset even hearing about what had happened to him. Report an error in the passage at 52:52 Highlight the passage at 52:52

53:15 He was like, don't you get it? They're the ones creating the causes for suffering. How can you feel any? anything but compassion. And we'd be like, we're feeling everything but compassion. He's like, how can you, you know, and it's that perspective that really, really gets the ultimate nature of reality, you know, has a completely different perspective. Report an error in the passage at 53:15 Highlight the passage at 53:15

53:38 Not that it's terrific, not that it's okay, not, again, that we shouldn't intervene if we can in a situation like that when it feels that somebody's experiencing harm. We shouldn't sit back and go, oh, it's their karma. Let it happen. No. But there are situations where there's nothing that can be done. And then if you're the recipient of something like that, you know, you can transform your mind and use it into the path. Report an error in the passage at 53:38 Highlight the passage at 53:38

54:05 It's a very advanced practice. Remember, this is secret. And this is exactly why. Because people... Would distort that and think, oh you're saying that you deserve it because it's your karma and that's a whole long story and karma doesn't mean that you deserve it and that you should just accept whatever is happening. Report an error in the passage at 54:05 Highlight the passage at 54:05

54:23 No, but there's times that you can't do anything about it and then the best thing to do is to develop a mind like that because then for you it really is a benefit instead of hardship. Yeah, hard, really hard practice. Yeah, Ellen. Report an error in the passage at 54:23 Highlight the passage at 54:23

54:39 Nelson Mandela comes to mind. He was in prison for all those years and he gets out of prison. That's right. He says, let's not hate, let's not kill the whites. And he invites some of his prison guards to the inauguration. That's right. Exactly. Exactly. Right. Somebody like that. I mean, you can go either way. You can either become incredibly bitter or you can use those experiences to help your mind grow. Report an error in the passage at 54:39 Highlight the passage at 54:39

55:07 Look at Gandhiji, you know, and all that he went through. And there he was on the train platform freezing because he was thrown out of the car in South Africa for not being white. And that was the start of this whole movement that took years and years and years. And he worked on his mind so hard. I mean, he didn't start out as saint. Report an error in the passage at 55:07 Highlight the passage at 55:07

55:26 He started out pissed off and freezing on the train platform. And that experience, you know, he had to look at, like, what's going on here? What's happening? And then was able to transform his mind. I mean, these examples are people who, when you read their biographies, they started out with a mind that was completely different. Report an error in the passage at 55:26 Highlight the passage at 55:26

55:44 And then within the course of their... Practice with adversity became what we think of as great saints, didn't they? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Betty. I just wanted to say it was that experience of seeing the Tibetans and knowing and learning about their Holocaust that attracted me to Buddhism in the first place. Report an error in the passage at 55:44 Highlight the passage at 55:44

56:05 I kept saying to myself, God damn it, if they're on some drugs, I'd like to know what they are. Please tell me because they look mellow as all get out. Yeah, right, right, exactly, exactly. Yeah, Katya. Report an error in the passage at 56:05 Highlight the passage at 56:05

56:19 This is one of those things maybe because it's an advanced practice, but where the devil's advocate in me comes up and it's like, you know, if that's the right thing, then why would 99.9 % of people react, you know, not like that? You know what I mean? The root ignorance that drives saṃsāra, right? We think that things are just happening. Report an error in the passage at 56:19 Highlight the passage at 56:19

56:42 At us, randomly, or that they're self-existently pleasant or unpleasant. And the way, the key, and that's why I said this is an advanced practice, and that very first line of the text said, trained first in the preliminaries, which is an understanding of the nature of reality and an understanding of cause and effect, an understanding of the... Report an error in the passage at 56:42 Highlight the passage at 56:42

57:02 Faults of saṃsāra so that you don't react as if things are just kind of coming at you and you don't co-create your reality. Like if you understand the role that you play in creating the experiences that you have, both karmically and in terms of your perception, in terms of emptiness, then you can't just act as if you're just a victim of random circumstance. Report an error in the passage at 57:02 Highlight the passage at 57:02

57:26 But 99.999... On and on and on. And to the decimal points, people don't have that understanding, of course, and can't transform it. And that's why these practices are being taught. But how many people are in this room finding out about it on Sunday morning? And how many people are out there feeling like whatever's happening to them is just random events that they have to react to versus looking at ways to transform it mentally? Report an error in the passage at 57:26 Highlight the passage at 57:26

57:56 Yeah, Betty. Plus it puts the control back into us. Well, right. I mean, it's not somebody else's fault. It's my responsibility. And it's a drag about Buddhism. You can't blame people anymore. That's one of the things that's eliminated. And it's kind of a drag. You know, you just can't go around blaming other people for your problems. Report an error in the passage at 57:56 Highlight the passage at 57:56

58:16 And it's like, oh, God, you know, oh, I have to look at my mind. You know, I have to think about emptiness and karma. And sometimes you're just like, God, it was so nice when I could just put the blame outside. But in Buddhism, that's taken away from you. Okay. Yeah, well, one of the things that I know that, and we've discussed that Hillary and I have discussed it also, is like, you have to also, you know, and I have to also recognize, like... Report an error in the passage at 58:16 Highlight the passage at 58:16

58:44 Where I'm at with my practice, what level I'm at. That's right. And respond accordingly. Right, right. You know, so if somebody's going to come like they look like they're going to hit me, I may run. Well, sure. You know, I'm just going to say, oh, well, it's my karma and I want to get this finished. No, no, no. No, I know, but I'm just using an example. You know, it's like making sure that, you know, that I'm... Report an error in the passage at 58:44 Highlight the passage at 58:44

59:10 And that goes across a lot of things because we hear in the teachings, I hear especially, like with Geshe-la, he teaches like the highest level of accomplishments are so and so and so and so. And I guess like, oh, I can't do that. It's like, oh, this is horrible, you know, but it's like, you know, you just start and it's like you kind of go where you're at. Report an error in the passage at 59:10 Highlight the passage at 59:10

59:34 Okay, do as much as you can. And I have to remind myself because I can easily begin to look at this ideal and think, oh, I'm horrible. I'm not there. Absolutely. Yeah, I do that all the time. I mean, you know, I'm always comparing myself to His Holiness and Lama Zopa, right? Instead of, and then I feel a lot better. Report an error in the passage at 59:34 Highlight the passage at 59:34

59:54 When I compare myself to like me five years ago, you know, that makes me feel better because I'm just like, oh God, you know, I'm just like a total loser. But then I just think of even myself five or ten years ago and then I can go, oh wow, right, it is really, really changing. I remember once I was talking to Lama Zopa on the phone, like... Report an error in the passage at 59:54 Highlight the passage at 59:54

1:00:15 This is when I worked in the international office and we were talking about something and I was doing, you know, I was kind of apologizing to him for not being able to serve him better. I was working for him at that point. I'm like, oh Rinpoche, I wish I could just serve you better. And then he said this one thing and I'll never forget it. I remember because it really struck me and he goes, oh, I was saying something like, I wish I had more capacity to serve you better. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:15 Highlight the passage at 1:00:15

1:00:39 And he goes, oh. But your capacity is increasing all the time. And it was so sweet. And I went, wow, he's right. Like it kind of got through to me because, right, I was always doing that thing of like, oh, I just can't do these amazing things. And you're always hearing these stories and, you know, you're around these teachers. And then I thought, well, wow. And I did. After I hung up the phone, I really reflected on my own progression. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:39 Highlight the passage at 1:00:39

1:01:08 It made me feel so much better of like, oh no, you know, what I could do to serve Lama Zopa when I first started, I would just do in a good morning now. You know, what would totally overwhelm me would be like nothing ten years later, because like slowly, slowly, you know, and I think that's really important because, again, we don't want to use our Dharma practice as another excuse to feel worse about ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:08 Highlight the passage at 1:01:08

1:01:34 And beat ourselves up for not being, like we're given these examples as an aspiration, but we've got to realize it's called the path for a reason, right? Because it's a progression. And just because we hear about these ideals doesn't mean that we're instantly going to be there just because we've heard about it. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:34 Highlight the passage at 1:01:34

1:01:54 So we have to be careful with that too. And there's always that interesting, I've been looking at that in my own... Practice this sort of gap between the ideal and where I am and like working with that gap and like holding, you know, keeping my sights on this ideal but also being really realistic about where I am and not beating myself up that I'm not there. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:54 Highlight the passage at 1:01:54

1:02:17 You know, and somebody was saying, oh, you know, you keep your eyes on the kind of stars, on the goal, but... Be aware of how you're walking so you don't just stumble and fall. You have to be aware of where you are and what steps you're taking now, and I think that's really important. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:17 Highlight the passage at 1:02:17

1:02:37 I try to, if I'm going through some kind of a turmoil or something, it's like, well, now I know it's my fault. But whatever it is, you try to push. You know, you don't push too far, but you try to push a little further so that you don't get too, you know, lethargic and lazy, which is I can get very lazy very easily. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:37 Highlight the passage at 1:02:37

1:03:04 And that's that balance, like pushing your comfort zone. Kind of going a little further, you know, not over the edge where you're going to jump over the cliff before you can fly. That's right. Yeah, so pushing your comfort zone but not going so far outside of it that you'll just freak out and give up. And that's a dance, getting that balance right between not being complacent and staying really completely within your comfort zone, like challenging yourself, but just one little comfort zone at a time. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:04 Highlight the passage at 1:03:04

1:03:33 And I think that's what enlightenment is. I think about it and we think... A couple of days ago we were talking about Buddhahood and what are the qualities of Buddhahood and it seems so inconceivable. But I think it happens one little comfort zone at a time. You stretch, you stretch, you stretch, you increase your capacity little by little by little and then that last little comfort zone, boom, Buddhahood. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:33 Highlight the passage at 1:03:33

1:03:58 And it kind of happens like that. As a progression, it's not some huge leap. It just, you know, you stretch and stretch and stretch. And I think that's the way it happens. And just getting that is a big relief, I think. You know, just sort of seeing that and being familiar with that stretching. Yeah. Good. Great. All right. So the next section. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:58 Highlight the passage at 1:03:58

1:04:22 Is training in the ultimate awakening mind on the top of page two and we're going to skip that because it's a long story and it's 11 o 'clock so we can get that in other courses, the ultimate awakening mind. Great story but if we get into that we'll never even finish the text. So point number three is really the essence and we've talked about this a lot. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:22 Highlight the passage at 1:04:22

1:04:46 Transforming adverse circumstances into the path of enlightenment. So we've talked about this a bit so far. When the environment and its inhabitants overflow with unwholesomeness. Transform adverse circumstances into the path to enlightenment. Apply meditation immediately at every opportunity. The supreme method is accompanied by the four practices. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:46 Highlight the passage at 1:04:46

1:05:11 So what are some of the ways that we can transform these adverse circumstances into the path? We've mentioned them a little bit over the weekend. What are some of those methods? As it says in the text, the environment and its inhabitants overflow with unwholesomeness. What do we do about that? Do we go to that place of, oh, it's all just a drag and it's all just happening and I'm a helpless victim? How can we transform that? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:11 Highlight the passage at 1:05:11

1:05:40 What are some of the techniques? Any ideas of what we can do there? Like we just mentioned, thinking of everybody going through the same thing and having compassion for them. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:40 Highlight the passage at 1:05:40

1:05:54 Saying that you will take this on if it means that they... You can free them from suffering. Yeah, so Tong Lin at those moments is a great way to transform, right? We're going through something, which we will as long as we're in saṃsāra. Sometimes we think we should be exempt because we're meditating or something, right? Sometimes we start to practice and then we think, wait a minute, how come all this stuff is still happening to me? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:54 Highlight the passage at 1:05:54

1:06:19 Well, guess what? As long as you're subject to karma and delusion, which for most of us is still going to be a bang long time, It's going to happen. It's not like the minute you start to meditate suddenly. And people think that sometimes. Oh, I'm looking for peace. I'll start to meditate. And then suddenly everything should be perfect. And it's just not like that at all, right? So when the inevitable happens, because we still are subject to karma and delusion, taking it into the path by... Report an error in the passage at 1:06:19 Highlight the passage at 1:06:19

1:06:49 You know, letting it sort of change your perspective. So many people going through this. Let it develop your compassion, thinking of others, doing Tonglen. Fantastic practice. And that's why when Lama Zopa, when people come to him and complain about what's going on in their lives, you know, don't do that with Lama Zopa. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:49 Highlight the passage at 1:06:49

1:07:09 You're not going to get the answer you're looking for. Oh, Lama Zopa, I was just diagnosed with cancer. Terrific! Do Tonglen. You know, you're like, wait a minute, I didn't get any sympathy. So like that, like all of these things, that's a way to transform it into the path. Good. Any other ideas? Janet. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:09 Highlight the passage at 1:07:09

1:07:30 One of the things that I do occasionally when I can remember is I try to reflect on the things that are either, that I think are horrible. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:30 Highlight the passage at 1:07:30

1:07:42 And recognize them as a reflection of a part of my mind that I either haven't come to peace with or haven't totally resolved. And like I think how could those people in those slaughterhouses be so cruel to all those animals? And then you stop and think and it's like the same ignorance that I had when I was... Report an error in the passage at 1:07:42 Highlight the passage at 1:07:42

1:08:07 Catching grasshoppers for fishing or some other thing. I mean, it's like some people don't necessarily have those things. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:07 Highlight the passage at 1:08:07

1:08:17 They've resolved them. And it's not to say that that's good, but it's to take the charge away from becoming upset and losing my peacefulness of mine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the wars. I can't even keep peace in my house. So how could you expect to keep peace in the world? I mean, you know, it's just this exaggerated reflection of my own stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:17 Highlight the passage at 1:08:17

1:08:42 Right. That's great. And that's such a great technique to use whatever you see externally that's unpleasant and then use it as a mirror. What's going on in me that's a reflection of what I'm seeing out there? Because you couldn't see it if it didn't exist somehow. Within you, so sort of turning it around and that really helps with the blame too. And then it really helps in developing compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:42 Highlight the passage at 1:08:42

1:09:09 That's right. Because you understand the ignorant mind and the suffering that has to be inside that consciousness or within that mind in order to make it. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:09 Highlight the passage at 1:09:09

1:09:22 You know, behave in that way. And it's actually that delusions that are like what you said, you were talking about it, the stick. You know? Right, right. Maybe it was Geshe-la. Yeah. It was Geshe-la on Wednesday. But in any case, yeah. Right, right. It was recent. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. And I think that's an interesting thing to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:22 Highlight the passage at 1:09:22