Exploring the Heart Sutra: the Essence of Wisdom (24 October 2009, part 2)

0:07 So Report an error in the passage at 0:07 Highlight the passage at 0:07

· · · silence, 1 minute

0:40 let's take a minute again just to reset our motivation for the afternoon session, thinking about our bodhicitta motivation for studying this subject for the benefit of all sentient beings. So just take a minute to reflect. Report an error in the passage at 0:40 Highlight the passage at 0:40

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:51 So we had some hands up before we... Stopped for lunch and I think there were some leftover questions. Does anybody have some questions? Yeah, Matthew. Report an error in the passage at 1:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51

2:12 I had a question about imputation and I guess conceptualization of things. Report an error in the passage at 2:12 Highlight the passage at 2:12

2:27 I've always sort of assumed that sane, quote unquote, human beings, How do you say it? I guess they order their experience with language is a way to put it. Right. And so I guess with, if you were, I was thinking of like this, like just this hypothetical situation to help me try to understand this. Report an error in the passage at 2:27 Highlight the passage at 2:27

3:01 If a child, if a baby is born, like let's just say a baby's born an enlightened being, does it? Need to know language? For what? Exactly. No, I mean... For what purpose? What do you mean, does it need to know language? Well, so I guess the other way to look at it is, is the understanding of language a prerequisite to becoming enlightened? Report an error in the passage at 3:01 Highlight the passage at 3:01

3:37 I mean, do I need to understand language? Yeah, at some point, you need to receive teachings in some lifetime. It doesn't need to be the one that you get enlightened in. There's these beings called solitary realizers, and they don't have teachings directly in that lifetime, but they use the imprints and the teachings that they've gotten from previous lives. Report an error in the passage at 3:37 Highlight the passage at 3:37

4:03 So Mowgli the wolf boy could be a solitary realizer, and that would be fine. They never need to communicate with anybody. Theoretically, yeah. They say that solitary realizers don't get the full enlightenment of Buddhahood, but they get liberation, a certain kind of liberation. Report an error in the passage at 4:03 Highlight the passage at 4:03

4:26 As far as whether you could become a Buddha in a lifetime that you hadn't received any teachings. That's not explained in the scripture. They just say it's the solitary realizers, so they don't explain that. Okay, so since that's not my scenario, and most people's, it's really a combination of conceptualization, which is manifest in language and previous lives. Report an error in the passage at 4:26 Highlight the passage at 4:26

4:59 It's sort of like the two things together that sort of... our minds or whatever for Right, right. And for us as humans, our conceptualization is so dependent on language. It's really hard to separate. It's like the 11 words for snow in Finnish. Right. You know, it's really hard for us to separate as humans, you know, and so much of our concepts are learned concepts that were taught to us through the medium of language. Report an error in the passage at 4:59 Highlight the passage at 4:59

5:27 We're not like Mowgli the wolf boy that was just taught what was food and not food by the mother. Wolf by demonstration. We can be taught in abstract concepts like the circle and the square and calculus. We can learn that through the medium of language. So it's language and past imprints, past lives together. Yeah, you could say that. And also we learn by example, too. Report an error in the passage at 5:27 Highlight the passage at 5:27

5:57 For example, I think of my relationship with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, one of my main teachers. And yeah, I learn things from him through language when he's up on the throne teaching, but I feel like I've learned so much more just from hanging out with him and from example. So you can learn things, but to learn how to meditate on emptiness precisely enough to get that realization, I think would depend on language at some point in some lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 5:57 Highlight the passage at 5:57

6:30 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 6:30 Highlight the passage at 6:30

6:34 Is it possible to close that window? Just because it's kind of noisy and I'm sorry it's going to make it stuffy but I live in a really quiet place and I get really distracted. So my question is in relation to kind of the fabric of karma behind this because one of the things I thought about is the dependent arising on the object pretty easy to get in some basic analytical levels. Report an error in the passage at 6:34 Highlight the passage at 6:34

6:59 But then you look at like some of these monks who Who've been tortured and they're kind of like, oh, well, this is just purifying negative karma, right? So my question is, you know, there's not really mentions of like the fabric of karma being empty of existence. The causes, the output means, you know, they welcome someone beating them where I would flip out, right? Right, right, right. And so where does that fit and why isn't it really mentioned? Report an error in the passage at 6:59 Highlight the passage at 6:59

7:30 Because I'm reacting to the cup because I have also some karmic imprints to light blue. Right, right. So where does that sit? And, you know, emptiness and karma are so linked, so linked, because our conceptual designation and imputation is forced on us by our karma. Right, and it's sort of in concentric. Report an error in the passage at 7:30 Highlight the passage at 7:30

7:52 I like to think of it as concentric circles. We all have some shared karma to be born as human beings. That's forced on us by our karma. So because of just being humans, we have certain neurologically, physiologically, certain perceptions. Dogs can hear sounds at some wavelength that we can't hear. So just by being human we have a certain kind of perception and a certain kind of concepts and then 21st century modern post-industrial culture has a certain shared reality and then a certain country has a certain shared consensual reality and then the people that live in a city and then everybody in this room has a certain consensual reality. Report an error in the passage at 7:52 Highlight the passage at 7:52

8:43 But it's always individual at a certain point and every level is dependent on karma. Every level of consensual reality all the way down to the individual reality. So karma forces our conceptual imputations. It's forced on us by our karma what it is. So the difference between... The reactions to certain people. Like recently I was talking to this monk, this friend of mine, and he was like complaining about somebody, you know, and sort of saying that this person was so annoying because they did this, that and the other thing. Report an error in the passage at 8:43 Highlight the passage at 8:43

9:23 And I was just like, wow, I don't have that experience at all. Like that's one of my favorite people that he's talking about. And it's just like, you know, Casper and the other guy hearing about bodhicitta. And because of karma and past life imprints, the one guy storms out, slams the door, checks out of the meditation center. Report an error in the passage at 9:23 Highlight the passage at 9:23

9:42 And then the other one, like shaves his head, does retreat, you know, imprints. You know, the idea of bodhicitta is empty. And then whether you perceive it as something completely inspiring or completely... You know, ridiculous is all dependent on your karma. So it's like that with the torture. Is the torture unpleasant? It all depends. Report an error in the passage at 9:42 Highlight the passage at 9:42

10:04 If you're a great lojong yogi, you practice thought transformation, you realize you're just experiencing the result of something that you created the cause for in the past. And then instead of making you angry, making you suffer, you have compassion for the person torturing you because you realize they're just starting a whole round of karma. Report an error in the passage at 10:04 Highlight the passage at 10:04

10:25 So it can be the cause of an incredible realization of compassion for you if you're trained in that way and if you see it in that way. Whereas for most people it would be the cause of pain and anger and suffering because it's empty. So there's two elements to it. We put a label on the Buddha. The Buddha is this being who became an arhat, reached this level. Report an error in the passage at 10:25 Highlight the passage at 10:25

10:52 He's beyond karma. Like even when he went to the hell realms that time, he experienced no suffering because he doesn't have karma. So karma technically is also empty. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's why it functions. Right. And that's the dangerous thing. Right. And that's why the Buddha taught all these different levels of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 10:52 Highlight the passage at 10:52

11:13 Because if you think that something's empty of inherent existence because it's just a concept and then you start to lose your faith in cause and effect and you go. Well, if karma's empty, then I can just decide what result I'm going to get from... No, no, because it's describing a certain function. You know, positive karma is defined as that which leads to happiness in the short term and liberation or enlightenment in the long term. Report an error in the passage at 11:13 Highlight the passage at 11:13

11:40 Negative karma is defined as that which will lead to suffering in the future. So they're defined according to their function, how they function. Yeah, it's empty. But it functions to produce suffering. You know, that's because it's empty and that's what we're labeling negative karma. You know, any action that will lead to a suffering result in the future, because of the function and consensus, remember, we decide that that's what we're going to call negative karma. Report an error in the passage at 11:40 Highlight the passage at 11:40

12:11 But just because it's empty doesn't mean it doesn't function and you can somehow just decide. You know, we're creating a concept of negative karma, labeling on a function, on a certain function. And that's how it's empty, but not because it doesn't exist or not because you can just decide any more than I can decide to make a phone call with this. Report an error in the passage at 12:11 Highlight the passage at 12:11

12:31 Like, oh, I'll just decide it's good karma. You know, I'll just do something like really ridiculous and I'll just decide that it's good. Yeah, see how that works out for you. So where does that, why? Why wasn't there teachings on that specifically? So like an example you say, causes and conditions. Some guy thought about a cup. He said, okay, we're going to make it in this shape. Report an error in the passage at 12:31 Highlight the passage at 12:31

12:52 He found some clay, these parts. He added a handle. He's good there. Now someone says, he says, this is a cup. Now everyone around says, oh, great, it's a cup. Right, right. Where did he teach the karmic aspect with this dependent arising? Because it's dependent upon your reaction to previous whatever's in your... Report an error in the passage at 12:52 Highlight the passage at 12:52

13:13 I hate cups. I got hit by a cup once. Where is that? It's all over the place. It's everywhere. It's in the 12 links. In fact, it's so interesting. Chodan Rinpoche, the Lama who teaches here, I think it was two years ago at Land of Medicine Buddha, somebody asked the question, how can you tell a fully qualified teacher? Report an error in the passage at 13:13 Highlight the passage at 13:13

13:36 And instead of listing all the lists that he... you know, that are in all the, you know, there's the 10 qualities and, you He said, if the teacher teaches the relationship between karma and emptiness. Isn't that interesting? That was his answer. Isn't that beautiful? And I was just like, cool. That's so cool. Because it's so important, the relationship between karma and emptiness. He's like, that's how you can tell. Report an error in the passage at 13:36 Highlight the passage at 13:36

14:03 The relationship, you know, because it's a dependent arising that's how karma does function. So it is in there. It's not always as explicit as I personally would like it to be, which is why I really emphasize it and why I like bludgeon everybody over the head with the 12 links over and over and over again to show exactly which points karma and emptiness create those 12 links, you know. Report an error in the passage at 14:03 Highlight the passage at 14:03

14:30 And that's a whole other story and we could actually... Do a little mini 12 links thing tomorrow because it relates to everything. But that's how it all relates. It's like our very perceptions of reality are forced on us by our karma. Then we have a reaction because we're seeing it as negative from its own side. We're seeing that boss as a jerk. Report an error in the passage at 14:30 Highlight the passage at 14:30

14:52 From his own side we feel totally justified in yelling back when he yells at us. Instead of seeing how our karma has created the very appearance, not only has it on the grosser level it created the experience, on an even subtler level it creates the very appearance of that person is negative. And that's a subtler way of taking the 12 links when we talk about contact with the object, giving rise to a feeling and then we usually ignorantly respond. Report an error in the passage at 14:52 Highlight the passage at 14:52

15:21 With either aversion or attachment, when you understand, hey, not only is this experience happening because of karma, but I'm even perceiving it the way I'm perceiving it as of karma. And that's what really cuts the wheel, you know, because that's that antidote to that root ignorance right there. Because you can apply antidotes and you can go around thinking it's your karma all the time, but you're still going to get pissed off. Report an error in the passage at 15:21 Highlight the passage at 15:21

15:46 Like, I'm sorry. Whoops, I shouldn't say words like that. It's being recorded, you know. But if you just see, wow, like even my karma creates this appearance of the situation as being negative, that's really going to do it. Like that's the, like as Lama Tsongkhapa says, the atom bomb, you know, the atom bomb like against your... Report an error in the passage at 15:46 Highlight the passage at 15:46

16:09 Delusions is realizing that, because otherwise you're just going to go around saying, okay, I'm just paying back all this stuff, but you're not really going to have the tools you need to stop your afflictions, but it's really knowing that view that's what stops it. Great question, as usual, from Morgan. Okay, Lynn has something in the back. Report an error in the passage at 16:09 Highlight the passage at 16:09

16:40 Marcella gets extra credit from the teacher for passing the microphone around. I have a couple of questions. Report an error in the passage at 16:40 Highlight the passage at 16:40

16:51 first about the Report an error in the passage at 16:51 Highlight the passage at 16:51

17:05 and yeah um am still struggling Report an error in the passage at 17:05 Highlight the passage at 17:05

17:34 So geological time, tell me more about what seems like conflict or seems like it's not. if we have a planet is changing all the and, know, a million years from now is not Report an error in the passage at 17:34 Highlight the passage at 17:34

17:52 Right, right. How does that, you think about empathy? Right, right. Well, you know, in terms of causes and conditions, it came into being because of certain forces. You know, in Buddhism they talk about the Big Bang and the Big Crunch and it keeps repeating over and over and over again. You know, astronomers and physicists have figured out what happens. Buddhists will say, well, yeah, of course, and it just keeps happening over and over again. Report an error in the passage at 17:52 Highlight the passage at 17:52

18:24 So that would be the level that it's, you know, a dependent arising due to causes and conditions, and then we're labeling the universe on the basis of certain parts with our concepts, you know, and we call things certain geological ages. So it's all empty, but again, it functions perfectly because it's empty. Report an error in the passage at 18:24 Highlight the passage at 18:24

18:44 It doesn't mean that it's not happening. It doesn't mean that our planetary system isn't going to be destroyed when the sun explodes and all of that stuff. But it's equally all empty. So it applies not just to the personal, but to the geological and the astronomical and the physical reality. Report an error in the passage at 18:44 Highlight the passage at 18:44

19:08 question. have struggled with, this is, Report an error in the passage at 19:08 Highlight the passage at 19:08

19:21 whatever. Report an error in the passage at 19:21 Highlight the passage at 19:21

19:25 when something happens to Right, right. And there's something called collective karma, right? When people experience a similar result, they've all created karma in the past to be sharing that experience. Often they say that they created the cause together in some past life or at least to be sharing a similar experience because they've all created a similar enough cause in the... Report an error in the passage at 19:25 Highlight the passage at 19:25

19:55 To be having that experience. But really interesting. Then it gets down to the individual. How many of those people are really suffering? How many of them are using it as part of the path? Is it good karma or bad karma? It's very subjective. Just because it looks like a negative experience from the outside for that person. Report an error in the passage at 19:55 Highlight the passage at 19:55

20:17 If it's something that they take into the path and take as a lesson and take as something positive, it's not negative karma for them. So you can never tell from looking from the outside, it looks so terrible, but what kind of experience is that person having? Then it shows whether individually it's a result of positive or negative karma for that person. Okay, so that gets really interesting. Report an error in the passage at 20:17 Highlight the passage at 20:17

20:43 So we can't presume. All those people are experiencing the result of something. And then you think, in terms of karma, we have these deep pockets of both negative and positive karma that we've created in countless past lifetimes. So we've got to get over this thing of karma means somehow you deserve it, like you did something bad to somebody and you deserve payback. Because one of the qualities of karma... Report an error in the passage at 20:43 Highlight the passage at 20:43

21:10 It expands, right? So you can experience a huge result from some teeny tiny little karma. If you didn't purify way back yonder in some past life, you had a negative thought about somebody. And then over so many lifetimes, it expands to the result of you getting tortured and killed. So it doesn't mean that it's equivalent. Report an error in the passage at 21:10 Highlight the passage at 21:10

21:35 It doesn't mean you deserve it, it just means that somehow some seed was planted that finally grew and flowered into this result. Yeah, you're welcome. Chris had something before lunch. Did I? Okay, okay, great. Anything else before we continue? Yeah, Carla. Report an error in the passage at 21:35 Highlight the passage at 21:35

22:06 Actually, it's sort of a follow-up to Morgan's question. What I understood that he was asking, it's just like I was earlier during the class, I was thinking, so how about inventions, right? I think somehow that's what I got that he was also asking, you know, like there's no labeling, there's nothing yet, you know, and there's so many people inventing things all the time. Report an error in the passage at 22:06 Highlight the passage at 22:06

22:30 Right, right, right. Well, I'm a perfect example, right? I was in this long meditation retreat for six and a half years. I come out of retreat and I go to a teaching. I'll never forget, I went to this teaching. And when I went into retreat, when people wanted to record the teaching, they had a little thing and then every 90 minutes they had to take the thing out and flip it. Report an error in the passage at 22:30 Highlight the passage at 22:30

22:51 Remember those? And then all of a sudden everybody's passing up reincarnated cigarette lighters and TV remote controls to the front of the room. I had no idea what these things were. And you didn't have to change any tape and they just sat there for hours. And I'm like, so I didn't have the label MP3 recorder. Report an error in the passage at 22:51 Highlight the passage at 22:51

23:12 I didn't have that generic image at all. I'd never heard of these things. You know, I disappeared for years. I had no idea. But I could label small metal object with little buttons and windows. So I didn't know. That it was an MP3 recorder, yet I found out pretty soon. But I could at least label small electronic device with little buttons, right? Report an error in the passage at 23:12 Highlight the passage at 23:12

23:38 So there's different levels that you can label. And even the baby, without any of these refined concepts, labels, brown, you know, they might not even have the idea around, but they have some kind of concept and some kind of recognition of the object. So with new inventions, it's like that too. New things like MP3 recorders get invented. Then there's this kind of conceptual generic image learning curve for everybody, and now then everybody recognizes what it is. Report an error in the passage at 23:38 Highlight the passage at 23:38

24:09 So we can get new generic images, you know, and that's what learning is. I mean, our whole elementary school is all about stuffing our mind full of generic images. That's what learning is, because we don't have the concepts and we don't have the images. And all the books that we have when we're little kids, and this is a ball, and this is a cat, and this is a dog, and this is a choo-choo train, is just learning both language and generic images for things. Report an error in the passage at 24:09 Highlight the passage at 24:09

24:41 I think my question is, is it all the same, even if you're just applying a generic, more functional aspect of it, as opposed to labeling? I mean, for example, when it comes to a cup, It may not make much difference, but I think in other levels it may make a difference if you're just, you know, seeing it as a function as opposed to labeling it. Report an error in the passage at 24:41 Highlight the passage at 24:41

25:08 I'm not quite sure. What you just said about the, you know, instead of labeling MP3 player as opposed to something that is used, an electronic device used for recording. Right, right. the Are both the same labeling system? I mean, there's no difference in level there? Yeah, no difference in level. Because we still have some generic image in our mind that we're imputing on the object. And it may be that we have more sophisticated, you know, we have a different image if we know what MP3 recorders are. Report an error in the passage at 25:08 Highlight the passage at 25:08

25:48 And we have that, not only the label of the word, but the... The concept, then we can label it. But it doesn't matter if I don't know what they are. I'm still slapping a conceptual label of small electronic device of some kind on it. So yeah, there's not that really any difference. Okay, anything else before we carry on? Are you all totally confused? Report an error in the passage at 25:48 Highlight the passage at 25:48

26:13 Are you kind of sort of okay? A little bit getting there? Somewhat? Realized. Wow, there's a realized being in the room. I rejoice. Okay, so what does this have to do with anything? Report an error in the passage at 26:13 Highlight the passage at 26:13

26:29 And why is Avalokiteshvara saying? Because again, let's get back to where we are. He said that, meaning Shariputra asked the question, and the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokiteshvara said this to the Venerable Sharidvati Putra. Report an error in the passage at 26:29 Highlight the passage at 26:29

26:47 Shariputra, any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom should look upon it like this, correctly and repeatedly beholding those five aggregates also is empty of inherent nature. So, what's the main thing that we're meditating on? Who's, I don't know, grammatically I'm going to mess this up. Report an error in the passage at 26:47 Highlight the passage at 26:47

27:11 The main thing... The emptiness of which we're meditating upon. What's the main object? And Lynn has the mudrā, the self-mudrā. It's all about me, right? So that's our main object of meditation at the beginning of the path. And in a second, we're going to start talking about how the path works. So who cares about the cup, right? I don't really care. Report an error in the passage at 27:11 Highlight the passage at 27:11

27:40 You know, it's a nice cup. It's got a nice dragon. I like dragons, like whatever. I have no attachment to the cup. I could care less. It's very nice and it has my tea in it. But what am I really attached to? What do I really think exists inherently? Like, sure, I walk in here and the cup seems like it exists as a cup from its own side. Report an error in the passage at 27:40 Highlight the passage at 27:40

28:02 But this is the real troublemaker. So it's the emptiness of the personal self that's the main object of meditation. And that's the first thing, by the way, that you get a direct realization of the emptiness of. It ain't the cup and it ain't the MP3 recorder. It's moi. That's the one. So how is the self empty of inherent existence and how does the self exist? Report an error in the passage at 28:02 Highlight the passage at 28:02

28:31 Let's talk about that a little bit. The self, me. I'm a product of causes and conditions. That's pretty obvious. My causes are the, you know, the sperm and egg of my parents and all the nutrition, you know, all the food. I mean, I don't know, it's Seichenling, it's like gets to a whole new level. When I have lunch here, it's just unbelievable. They bring this tray with like 15 different things down, you know. Report an error in the passage at 28:31 Highlight the passage at 28:31

28:59 I was teasing Michelle, saying we had a secret website for FPMT teachers where we say where we're treated well and where we're not treated well. She's not sure if I'm serious or not. She's like, I'm going to hack into that. But the food here, like, you know, everything about Se Chin Ling really rates. So all of that went into making my... Report an error in the passage at 28:59 Highlight the passage at 28:59

29:20 You know, physical body. Those were the causes. And then the conditions are somebody took care of me. My mother changed my diapers when I was growing up. Like I, you know, was nurtured. I went to school. All of that stuff. So that's obvious. Just like the cup. And the causes and conditions that went into making me. Report an error in the passage at 29:20 Highlight the passage at 29:20

29:38 And then the parts. You know, the parts of me. This torso, legs, arms, very long, you know, head. How many parts could be missing before I could not be called Tenzin Chogky anymore? I could probably lose a leg, maybe even two. You know, a lot more. Could I lose my torso? No. Could I lose my head? No. That's pretty, you know, I could be like a thalidomide baby and still be, you know, a person. Report an error in the passage at 29:38 Highlight the passage at 29:38

30:08 But basically we're dependent on our parts, right? We exist in dependence on all of these component parts that I'm calling my body. You know, the parts of me, my body and mind. The five aggregates, right? We just went into that because of this. Those are our parts. The form, the feeling, the discernment, the compositional factors, the consciousness. Those are the five parts of the body. Report an error in the passage at 30:08 Highlight the passage at 30:08

30:35 And then, this is where it gets really interesting, just like the cob. I'm labeling, just like I'm labeling on the cylinder with the bottom and the open lid and the handle, and I have a concept cup, just like that I'm labeling on the form, the feeling, the discrimination, the compositional factors and the consciousness, Tenzin Chogky. Report an error in the passage at 30:35 Highlight the passage at 30:35

31:01 And that's how I exist. That's how myself does exist conventionally. That which is merely labeled on the aggregates. And that's why the self isn't just, whoops, previous chart, that's why it's not just consciousness. Because that's not what we're attached to, right? That subtle, little mental consciousness that goes from life to life, that's not what you think about when somebody insults you and you just go... Report an error in the passage at 31:01 Highlight the passage at 31:01

31:31 How dare you say that about me? You're not saying, oh, the storehouse consciousness that takes the karmic seeds to the next life. You know, you're not thinking about that at all. Our view of self, that wrong view that we have of self, is so much more than that. And the way the self does exist is labeled on all the parts, not just that one of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 31:31 Highlight the passage at 31:31

31:54 So sometimes we get fooled between the self and that which goes from life to life. Because we've got this sort of programming of, you know, this idea of that which is eternal, unchanging, partless, like a soul, right? We have this idea that there's some essence inside of us that when we die, like Casper the ghost kind of comes up and goes into either the next body or to heaven, depending on your world view. Report an error in the passage at 31:54 Highlight the passage at 31:54

32:26 But you feel like there's some... Essence. In Hinduism they call it the Ātman, right? The self. Like there's a self. Sometimes in Hindu schools they go big S self and little s self and the big S self is that one, that essence that's permanent, unchanging. So sometimes we have that kind of an idea about the self. And the Buddha famously taught the doctrine of An-Ātman, no self. Report an error in the passage at 32:26 Highlight the passage at 32:26

32:53 So refuting that one. Saying there is no such thing. And I think kind of subconsciously thinking that that exists makes us think that, oh, okay, it's that subtle consciousness that goes from life to life. That's like the soul. But it's not. It's so much more subtle than that. And it's changing moment by moment. It's not permanent. It's not partless. Report an error in the passage at 32:53 Highlight the passage at 32:53

33:18 It's just a continuum of mind moments changing moment to moment. So the Buddha refuted that there was any such self as this permanent, partless, unitary is the way it's usually described. A self like that that would correspond to the Christian idea of a soul or the Hindu idea of Ātman. So the Buddha said there's no such essence like that. Report an error in the passage at 33:18 Highlight the passage at 33:18

33:44 That was the grossest idea of the self that the Buddha refuted. Permanent, partless, unitary. Then there was another idea of self that the Buddha refuted and it's called the philosophical word is substantially existent and self-sufficient. What this means is like the controller or the driver of your body and mind. Like the real you is some kind of controller or driver of your body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 33:44 Highlight the passage at 33:44

34:12 It's like cranes on a construction site. There's some big crane and the thing is coming down and lifting the I-beam and doing this thing. There's some little guy in some little box somewhere, sometimes it's a woman, it's usually a guy, like running the gears. You know, so you got this big thing and then there's somebody running the show. And we kind of think there's some such thing like that in us. I remember when I was a little kid, I used to think, oh, the real me is in my head and it's looking out my eyeballs like the windows of the soul, right? Report an error in the passage at 34:12 Highlight the passage at 34:12

34:43 Like you're in your head somewhere and it's really that you're looking out of your eyeballs. So it's some kind of an idea like that that we have. It was actually reified in Western philosophy, I think it was the late 1700s, the homunculus, a little guy who lived in your pituitary gland. Remember that? And it was the late 1700s, he probably had a top hat and a tuxedo, and he lived in your pituitary gland, like doing that thing. Report an error in the passage at 34:43 Highlight the passage at 34:43

35:11 I mean, that idea is exactly... The epitome of this idea that the Buddha is refuting, that there's such a self-existent, substantially existent, self-sufficient meaning, a me separate from the aggregates. That's what that means, that there's some controller running the body and mind somewhere. And the Buddha said, ain't like that either, guys. Report an error in the passage at 35:11 Highlight the passage at 35:11

35:35 Neither is it inherently existent. Meaning there's no part of it that's independent of my conceptual imputation. So, what happens? Just like the cup, I come along with my body and mind, a continuum, a body and mind, both constantly changing, right? And then I have this idea, Tenzin Chogky, that I slap onto that body and mind. That's how I do validly exist. Report an error in the passage at 35:35 Highlight the passage at 35:35

36:04 Fine. No problem. That's how everything exists. It's merely designated onto what we call in philosophy a valid basis of the designation. Valid meaning it functions like that. Remember consensus, function and continuity. So there's a continuity that has that function and then I label it Tenzin Chogky. That's all. But it doesn't feel like that. It feels like there's something else. Report an error in the passage at 36:04 Highlight the passage at 36:04

36:35 Coming from its own side. And boy, nobody better insult me. Or if they praise me. I'm like, yeah. You know, because it's like feed, I mean, we talk about feeding the ego. It's like feeding that view of self that we have. Do we feel like we're just that which is merely labeled on a continuum of body and mind? Report an error in the passage at 36:35 Highlight the passage at 36:35

36:55 No way, you know. And that's how it helps us. Because that ignorance about the way we exist just happens to be the root of saṃsāra, folks. You know, it ain't the ignorance about the way the cup exists. It's the ignorance about the way that we exist. So that's the main meditation that we do. We're meditating on our emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 36:55 Highlight the passage at 36:55

37:20 Right? The emptiness of the self. And during the direct realization of emptiness, that's the realization that we get in that first meditation. Just like Chinrezig, meditating on, intellectually, on the emptiness of the five aggregates. Also, because he's meditating on each aggregate individually and the whole ball of wax, which we're going to do in a minute. Okay? Report an error in the passage at 37:20 Highlight the passage at 37:20

37:45 Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 37:45 Highlight the passage at 37:45

37:53 So I'm clear when you said that the... Buddha refuted this controller view, this crane operator view of a substantially existent, self-existent something. But is there some kind of connection or translation from that? phenomena or feeling to one of the mental factors or one of the types of consciousness that Buddhism does define? Report an error in the passage at 37:53 Highlight the passage at 37:53

38:19 That's just ignorance. That's just what we say is one of the flavors of that root ignorance about how the self does exist. It's just a complete misperception. You know, about the way that we exist. So it doesn't, I don't think it really relates so much. I mean, I can't think or I've never really heard it explained that it relates so much to a specific mental factor, that one. Report an error in the passage at 38:19 Highlight the passage at 38:19

38:43 It's just an ignorance about the way we exist that sort of just pervades, you know, and gives rise, flavors a lot of the mental factors. Because the delusion and the attachment and everything else kind of comes from that view and just the plain... Feeling of feeling inherently existent. You know, we just feel that there's something more than that which is merely labeled on that valid basis of body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 38:43 Highlight the passage at 38:43

39:07 You know, it's even subtler than the controller crane operator one. It's just this view that, yeah, there's something inherently there. Yeah, yeah. Morgan? Report an error in the passage at 39:07 Highlight the passage at 39:07

39:24 A quick question that's probably through the meditation. So, like, a lot of times when you sit with the cup and you're doing this dependent arising meditation, It does seem mirror-like. Once you get to a point, it seems like you get that and it reflects on the emptiness of the own self. To me, I just get really jammed up and it just feels like this vertigo. Report an error in the passage at 39:24 Highlight the passage at 39:24

39:52 So what I'm curious is when you see that, when you first get that point where you're like the emptiness of self, it's like... and it just in it and it's this Report an error in the passage at 39:52 Highlight the passage at 39:52

40:00 It's like standing on a high dive for a second. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it keeps happening. Yeah. So what do you do? Awesome. That's great. You got it. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good. No, it doesn't. And it's perfect because it's not going to. Because we've been attached to it, by the way, since beginningless time, this wrong view of how the self exists. Report an error in the passage at 40:00 Highlight the passage at 40:00

40:22 And Lama Zopa says when you get that fear, it means you're hitting the mark. If you're doing meditation and emptiness of self and you don't feel that subjective feeling, it means you're not getting it. So that's perfect. It means you've got it. And Lama Zopa has this beautiful thing. There's this book called Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat that Lama Zopa, it was 1999 at Land of Medicine Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 40:22 Highlight the passage at 40:22

40:48 He did this three-month Vajrasattva retreat and taught on the lamrim throughout it and there's this beautiful book and he talks exactly about what it's like to have a direct realization of emptiness and he talks about that fear and he says there's two kinds of people. Some, when they're having that direct realization of emptiness, they have great joy, but he says before that, as you're going into it, this incredible fear arises because this thing that you've always thought was there, since beginningless time, by the way, He said it's like thinking that you had a million dollars in your pocket and you realize it's not there at all. You always thought you had a million dollars in your wallet and you open it up and there's nothing there. Report an error in the passage at 40:48 Highlight the passage at 40:48

41:30 And he says the fear comes because it has to come. And then he says you just push through it like wading through a river. It's like so beautiful because he talks about when that fear comes, it means you're on the right track and you just... You just keep pushing. He says if you back off at that moment you may lose your chance to see emptiness directly. And it's this whole thing about he says and then you see it and there's incredible joy on the other side. Report an error in the passage at 41:30 Highlight the passage at 41:30

41:58 But the reason the fear arises, we think we're losing something that we had. Right? Because we've been clinging on to this idea since beginningless time. So we have some fear or some hesitation, thinking that we're losing something precious that we've always had. And the only thing we're losing is the root of saṃsāra. The only thing we're losing is a wrong conception about ourselves that just happens to be the cause of every iota of suffering we've had since beginningless time. Report an error in the passage at 41:58 Highlight the passage at 41:58

42:28 Get rid of it, for God's sakes. You know, just get rid of it. But that's why the fear arises. And he said it has to. It has to. Because if it didn't arise, you wouldn't be meditating on the right thing. So it's awesome what you describe. And it feels scary as hell, doesn't it? Yeah, perfect. Right on. Sorry, Morgan. Report an error in the passage at 42:28 Highlight the passage at 42:28

42:52 Yeah, but just, you know, that means you're on the right track and so you just keep pushing. Because if you have doubts at that point, if you back up at that point, but when that fear arises, it really is because you're going for the jugular of your ego, and it fights back like crazy. And that's what Māra is. In all of these Buddhist sutras, they talk about Māra, and sometimes people say, oh, it's the Buddhist version of the devil. Forget it, it's your ego fighting back. Report an error in the passage at 42:52 Highlight the passage at 42:52

43:22 Because when you really... Giving it, you know, when you've got it in a choke hold, you know, and you're really wrestling it and you're doing your emptiness meditation on the self. It's going to try and do anything. Oh, this is too, you're going too far, Morgan. It's too intense, you know. You're not going to be able to relate to people after a while. Just give it up, this Buddhist thing, you know. Report an error in the passage at 43:22 Highlight the passage at 43:22

43:43 You've just gone too far. I mean, it's sneaky. It has all those voices trying to convince you to stop killing it because it doesn't want to die. Oh, look over there. Oh, look. Look, look, you know, look at that thing. And you just have to go for it. You know, you just really have to go for it because it's wily. Report an error in the passage at 43:43 Highlight the passage at 43:43

44:02 And sometimes its voice sounds a lot like wisdom and like intuition. But then you get pretty good at it. I used to have these battles with Māra in my long retreat. And I'd use these very unknown-like words to Māra, you know, when I felt like, you know, he was fighting back. And it was... You battle with that because you just feel it arising when you're on the path and you just can't let it win. What I used to say is, look, you've won since beginningless blank time. Report an error in the passage at 44:02 Highlight the passage at 44:02

44:33 You're not going to win this round. This is my big chance to win because I have all the teachings that I need. I've got the perfect teachers, the perfect circumstances, the perfect human rebirth, so F you, Māra. Report an error in the passage at 44:33 Highlight the passage at 44:33

44:48 And you have to because it can talk you out of this rebirth and you can not progress. So we have to. But it's awesome. That fear is really good. Janet. Report an error in the passage at 44:48 Highlight the passage at 44:48

45:10 On rare occasions, I come up at different times against a really intense fear like that. Not very often. But it feels to me almost like I'm going to die. Great. And I can watch that incredible fear and know that that's not true and still not go any further. But it's like, so I'm wondering, it's like, okay, so it's fear of death, basically, come down to it, fear of death. So in this little ego body, you know, mind with all this ego running around. Report an error in the passage at 45:10 Highlight the passage at 45:10

45:53 Practice, like, practices to release that fear of death, that fear of change is basically what it comes down to. We're so afraid of changing anything. Right, right, right, right. Do you have any advice? Yeah, and just, you know, I think that, you know, the more we study and the more we understand intellectually that you're not losing anything, and that's what the fear of death is. Report an error in the passage at 45:53 Highlight the passage at 45:53

46:16 I mean, that's what the fear of physical death really is. We feel that we're not going to exist anymore. And when you realize that understanding the emptiness of yourself doesn't mean you're not going to exist anymore because you never existed like that ever in the first place. And the more you can convince yourself intellectually through your study of that, then I think you have enough ammunition when that fear... Report an error in the passage at 46:16 Highlight the passage at 46:16

46:39 It starts to come up that you can counteract it. It doesn't mean it's not going to come up, but the more you're convinced that that wrong view about how you exist is the cause of every iota of pain you've had since the beginning of this time, and it's just believing that, you know, it's just overcoming a total, like Lama Zopa just dismissively calls it this hallucination. Report an error in the passage at 46:39 Highlight the passage at 46:39

46:59 You know, it's this complete hallucination about how we exist. So you're overcoming a hallucination. It's not like you're overcoming... Somehow are killing something that exists. It feels like that I'm really going to die. Yeah, great. Go Janet. Just go for it. Just go for it. That's great. That's great. Because it's exactly because of that grasping. Report an error in the passage at 46:59 Highlight the passage at 46:59

47:25 You know, we call that self-grasping. Like grasping onto that view. We call it in philosophy the view of the transitory collection. What's the transitory collection? The five aggregates. What's the view? Thinking that they're a self. So we say the root ignorance is the view of the transitory collection, which is shorthand for thinking that there's something more than the five aggregates. Report an error in the passage at 47:25 Highlight the passage at 47:25

47:49 Transitory collection. Isn't that ephemeral? Right? Transitory collection. That's all we are. You know, it's this transitory collection. But we never feel that way about ourselves, that we're just a transitory collection. You know, I love that, the view of the transitory collection, somehow solidifying that and reifying that and making that into an idea of a concrete self. Report an error in the passage at 47:49 Highlight the passage at 47:49

48:16 So that's great, and that is the fear of death. And if we didn't have that view of the transitory collection, we wouldn't fear death, because we're not losing anything. The consciousness will go on, it will become associated with another form body. What's the big deal? No big deal. And that's why the llamas, they say when they die, it's just like changing an old worn out pair of clothes. Report an error in the passage at 48:16 Highlight the passage at 48:16

48:40 I remember Riba Rinpoche manifesting the aspect of cancer, and his main attendant and translator, Fabrizio, this Italian man, was begging him once not to leave. You know, please don't die, Rinpoche, you know. And Riba Rinpoche says to Fabrizio, what are you saying? Why do you want me to stay in this old, worn-out body? Report an error in the passage at 48:40 Highlight the passage at 48:40

49:03 Like, why on earth are you wishing for that? You know, because from his side, it's like, God, get rid of the old body that doesn't work anymore. Give me one that can benefit beings because I'm just old and tired and I've, you know, got cancer. Like, get rid of it. So from their perspective, it's like, yeah, give me a fresh one. It's like, you know, it's just like, you know, kind of trading in the old used Ford or something. Report an error in the passage at 49:03 Highlight the passage at 49:03

49:26 Like, get rid of it. Yeah. I've heard the Dalai Lama say the same thing. Yeah. In a video, it was a movie. We were watching. He said exactly the same thing. He says, why keep an old body? It's just like changing your clothes. You get your clothes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's only us with our wrong view. Like all those things we do and all those things of freezing some DNA so that you'll be able to. It's like, you know, from a Buddhist view, it's just nuts. Report an error in the passage at 49:26 Highlight the passage at 49:26

49:51 Because you're not your body. It's that whole scientific materialist reductionist thing that you're your DNA? Like, please, you know? Like, so you're going to regrow it at some point in the future and then you're going to be you again? I don't think so, you know? Boy, it would be pretty sad if you were limited to your DNA. It's pretty easy to grasp intellectually. Report an error in the passage at 49:51 Highlight the passage at 49:51

50:11 I can, that is. Report an error in the passage at 50:11 Highlight the passage at 50:11

50:16 But to actually solidify the belief and embody that change of mind. You have to meditate, meditate, meditate, meditate. And that's the difference between understanding something intellectually and getting the realization. Because none of this stuff, like I said yesterday, Emptiness is not rocket science, you know. It's not that hard to understand intellectually. Really hard to get it to change your view of how you exist. Report an error in the passage at 50:16 Highlight the passage at 50:16

50:46 And that's completely dependent on habituation and meditating over and over and over and over and over again on it. Yeah. Yeah, we have... I have the bike, so... Yeah. I do have a question. Can I use this scenario and then... What happens is Janet has young children. She wrote a will out, but she hasn't printed it and signed it, so it's not legitimate. Report an error in the passage at 50:46 Highlight the passage at 50:46

51:14 But then the experience is there of dying. She should let go, or she's like, no, I can't. I haven't done all these yet. I sell my children. What do you say to that? I think we should be ready for death all the time. And His Holiness the Dalai Lama meditates on death every day and I think we should just completely be prepared so we don't have any clinging because it's that clinging at the moment of death that... Report an error in the passage at 51:14 Highlight the passage at 51:14

51:39 Creates a very powerful cause for continued samsaric rebirth. So would you say that we should always complete as much as possible on a daily basis? Absolutely. You know how these people get diagnosed with cancer and they quit their job as a CEO of some major company and do what they really wanted to do, which is like sail around the world? Report an error in the passage at 51:39 Highlight the passage at 51:39

51:59 We should be that way every day. You know, we should wake up in the morning and go, you know, it's a miracle I woke up in the morning. You know, it would be a miracle if I lived until tonight. Let me do the most important thing every day. So yeah, don't wait until you're 80 to make out your will. I mean, that's ridiculous. Because we should just be able to let go as much as possible at any moment, because we just have no idea. Report an error in the passage at 51:59 Highlight the passage at 51:59

52:25 Yeah, yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 52:25 Highlight the passage at 52:25

52:35 I was also wondering, in terms of the constant change of yourself, Going with the issue of disconstructing yourself, I guess, and the sense of fear and anxiety about yourself. But in terms of the relationships that we have around that count on a definition of that role, how do you work it through? Yeah, and you just, you know, I think you take it very lightly and very loosely. Report an error in the passage at 52:35 Highlight the passage at 52:35

53:09 You know, sure, we conventionally exist. Buddha wouldn't say that we're not all sitting here in this room. Sure, we exist. But just is that which is merely labeled on our aggregate. So there's not so much identification with any aspect of who you are. Which causes a lot of suffering. Like sometimes we can get into these roles or we identify so much. I mean Chris was saying before, we identify with our emotions. Report an error in the passage at 53:09 Highlight the passage at 53:09

53:35 I am an angry person, like I'm angry. Or I'm an engineer, like I'm this or I'm that. What happens when you're an engineer for 60 years and you lose your job because it's the recession and then you commit suicide because you can't deal with the loss? So I think it can help us just to hold those things with a very light touch. Sure. Report an error in the passage at 53:35 Highlight the passage at 53:35

53:59 That's an aspect of what's happening that's part of what I'm labeling me right now. It can change at any moment. You know, so we just deal with it conventionally, that's fine. But in terms of really solidifying it, you know, and hanging on to it, it's that attachment that's what causes suffering. Because that's when change happens. Report an error in the passage at 53:59 Highlight the passage at 53:59

54:20 You know, you identify as being really good looking. And if you're lucky, you're going to live long enough that you ain't going to be as good looking anymore. And if you really hang on to the identification with that, you're going to suffer. But if you have a mind just going, I'm constantly changing. My body and my mind are constantly changing. Report an error in the passage at 54:20 Highlight the passage at 54:20

54:38 It works because of the continuum to label me, you know, me my whole life. But just hold it kind of more lightly, you know, because I think that clinging, especially to aspects of identity, is just a setup for incredible. But I was referring to people who depend on you for that particular identity. Well, that's interesting. Can you give an example? Report an error in the passage at 54:38 Highlight the passage at 54:38

55:03 I was thinking about the mother, being a mother, and you're identified with that role. And mother only exists independence on a child. You're not a mother without having a child. So it's this relationship, you know, it's this relationship of mother and child. You can function that way. It's a valid label for a woman who has a child. Completely valid. You function like that. So there's no problem. Report an error in the passage at 55:03 Highlight the passage at 55:03

55:28 You know, again, just because things are empty doesn't mean that they can't function. Somebody's depending on you to, you know, act in a certain way towards them. That's fine. That's valid. That functions. That's part of the label of who you are. You know, it might change. Then what happens if you lose your child? If you really attach to the idea of mother or the empty nest syndrome that the kid goes off to college? Report an error in the passage at 55:28 Highlight the passage at 55:28

55:52 I mean, it's useful to look at those aspects of our identity that we really attach to. And try and just breathe a little relativity into it because the more we solidify it, the more potential for suffering when it changes, which it is bound to do because everything changes. So that's all. Yeah. Anything else before we carry on? Yeah. Jessica has. Report an error in the passage at 55:52 Highlight the passage at 55:52

56:19 Jessica, right? Yes. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 56:19 Highlight the passage at 56:19

56:24 I was going to ask about the relationship between suffering and no self, kind of in the opposite direction, like if the purpose of suffering is not to help us give up our concept of self. And I think there's a prayer that we could have the appropriate measure of suffering to be able to do that. And if you could just elaborate a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 56:24 Highlight the passage at 56:24

56:43 Okay, I think, you know, I think that helps us with renunciation. You know, I think the more we realize that saṃsāra is a broken realm and it's not fixable, that's what enables us to just let go of clinging to saṃsāra and that may be what they're talking about there. Which of course, you know... Then on the basis of that, and renunciation is one of these words I hate, you know, it's one of the ones I'd like a new definition for, but since we use it, but it means the Tibetan word translates as definite emergence, meaning the definite wish to get free from saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 56:43 Highlight the passage at 56:43

57:19 And I think that one of my friends who's a teacher says, to really have renunciation you need to have suffered enough, you know, to just... Really be over it and to want to get free. Sometimes with new students, when they start studying Buddhism, they don't really want a pacified mind. They're a little bit addicted to the highs and lows. You know, we're a little bit addicted to the roller coaster ride, but if you've really hit bottom, I mean, if the roller coaster has crashed majorly, that's when you just feel like, hey, wait a minute. Report an error in the passage at 57:19 Highlight the passage at 57:19

57:52 I think I want to get out. So I think that's the function of suffering. And when suffering comes in our life, even as Buddhist practitioners, which it must because we're not arhats yet, right? We're not free of our karma. I think that's how we can use it in the path. Oh, wow. Because I find that way. I mean, I have a great life. Report an error in the passage at 57:52 Highlight the passage at 57:52

58:11 I'm a Buddhist nun. I travel around the world teaching, which is my favorite thing to do, meeting these great people. And then every once in a while, I still will have a really bad day or a conflict with a friend or something like that because I'm still subject to my karma. And it's really great because it reminds me, oh, I'm not free yet. Report an error in the passage at 58:11 Highlight the passage at 58:11

58:31 You know, I have a great life, but it's still in saṃsāra, and I'm still subject to karma and delusion. So I think when we have that kind of suffering, that's the purpose of it, and we can use it to, you know, reinforce our renunciation. Yeah, good. All right, why, oh, Carla, why don't we have Carla, and then why don't we take a slightly early break, and then do our meditation after, because I really want to do the meditation on the five aggregates and the self. Report an error in the passage at 58:31 Highlight the passage at 58:31

59:01 Maybe a few more questions if we've got them. Yeah. It's just since some people brought up fear during the self-meditation or analysis, I think in my experience I have rarely encountered a situation where it's just like realizing that there's no self. But I think at some point... I mistake that by the nihilistic view. And I'm wondering if you could just put a few words on that fine line in between having no self, you know, not finding a self, but at the same time not falling into the extreme. Report an error in the passage at 59:01 Highlight the passage at 59:01

59:46 Right, right, right. And I think that's, you know, Lama Tsongkhapa, who's the founder of the Galukka tradition, was sometimes criticized for emphasizing... A valid establishment of how things do validly exist. And he was sometimes criticized for that, but he was trying to bring people from, we call it the chasm of nihilism, of going to that extreme of thinking that nothing exists, especially thinking that karma doesn't function, by emphasizing how things do exist. Report an error in the passage at 59:46 Highlight the passage at 59:46

1:00:15 So they say... We talk about the middle way in Buddhism a lot, and it means different things in different contexts, but we talk about the middle way between the two extremes of eternalism and nihilism. So eternalism would be the extreme of thinking that everything exists inherently and just the way it appears. About 90 % of the people, they say, tend towards that extreme. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:15 Highlight the passage at 1:00:15

1:00:40 And then there's the other 10 % of us. I think we've done all those recreational... Substances in the 60s or 70s and then we don't believe that things appear in the way that they do at all because it's transmogrified so many times. And then we tend towards, oh, nothing exists. You know, the extreme of, you know, nothing exists, nothing matters. So I think to bring yourself from the extreme of eternalism, you focus on emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:40 Highlight the passage at 1:00:40

1:01:07 Then if you feel that you're getting over into the other extreme, you focus on dependent arising. Right? Because that's how things do validly exist. And thinking, okay, I'm empty because I'm nothing more than that which is merely labeled on the valid basis of my aggregates. And then when you're starting to get a little too extreme in that, but I do exist as that which is very, you know, that's how I conventionally exist. And that's fine. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:07 Highlight the passage at 1:01:07

1:01:31 Right? To tilt yourself. Because it's a razor's edge. You know, that middle way. Without denying either half. Remember, and we said that emptiness and dependent arising are like two sides of a coin. They're like two ways of explaining the same kind of characteristic. One is in the positive way of explaining and one is more talking about what isn't there. So I think to get from the extreme of nihilism, you think about how do you validly, conventionally exist, not inherently one iota, but independence, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:31 Highlight the passage at 1:01:31

1:02:07 On conceptual designation onto those parts of the five aggregates. So that helps. That helps. So it's almost like, well, I can't really find a self here, but there's still a head and a body with two legs and so forth. Yeah, and it functions, and it's fine, and that's who Karla is. Karla is an ever-changing continuum of body and mind with a label on it and a concept. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:07 Highlight the passage at 1:02:07

1:02:35 And thank goodness, because if Karla were anything more than that, Karla couldn't become an enlightened being. If we weren't empty, there's no way we could become a Buddha. So thank God for emptiness. If it weren't for emptiness, there would be no way we could transform. Because we're empty, we can create the causes and conditions to have the body and mind of a fully enlightened being and label that with our concepts. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:35 Highlight the passage at 1:02:35

1:03:00 That's cool. If Carla were inherently existent, remember Nagarjuna said, because of emptiness, everything is possible. If it weren't for emptiness, nothing would be possible. Because of emptiness... Carla the Buddha, and you won't be called Carla anymore, is possible. So that's all. And again, we just have such a solid thing that emptiness means it doesn't exist, because we just conflate inherent existence and existence, and we've got to peel those two apart. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:00 Highlight the passage at 1:03:00

1:03:36 But since beginningless time, we've thought existence meant inherent existence. So part of our job is just separating existence from inherent existence and seeing that they're two different things. Okay. Anything else? Are we okay? Kind of? Sort of? Why don't we take two short breaks this afternoon. Why don't we do that? So let's take ten minutes now and come back a quarter after and then we'll do our meditation and then if we need to we'll take another little mini break later. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:36 Highlight the passage at 1:03:36

1:04:40 I'm so sorry. Here she comes, here she comes. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:40 Highlight the passage at 1:04:40

1:05:05 All right. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:05 Highlight the passage at 1:05:05

1:05:20 So as I mentioned before, this was a meditation that Lama Zopa Rinpoche told me to do at a certain point of my retreat, and I found it really very significant, very good at kind of hitting the mark. And he said, recite the Heart Sūtra, get to that point of the sūtra where Avalokiteshvara gives that instruction, stop and meditate on the emptiness of the five heaps and then the emptiness of the self and keep going back and forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:20 Highlight the passage at 1:05:20

1:05:53 And that was one sort of part of my practice and I would just keep repeating that. So I do about maybe 20 minutes or half an hour of the meditation on the emptiness of the five skandhas and then the self. And so we'll do that. We'll just experiment for about 20 minutes or so and go back and forth and I'll lead you through. Maybe what I'll do is go back to this page so you're kind of familiar with the five heaps. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:53 Highlight the passage at 1:05:53

1:06:26 Go back to that. So let's just sit for a few minutes watching our breath. First getting in your meditation position with your back straight, your legs crossed comfortably, your head tilted slightly forward, your tongue on the roof of your mouth right behind your teeth, Report an error in the passage at 1:06:26 Highlight the passage at 1:06:26

1:06:48 your hands with your right hand over your left and the thumbs touching just a few finger widths below your navel. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:48 Highlight the passage at 1:06:48

1:06:58 Your eyes slightly open, gazing down the plane of your nose and then just take a few minutes to focus on your breath, to settle your mind. So Report an error in the passage at 1:06:58 Highlight the passage at 1:06:58

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:08:13 first we're going to meditate on the five aggregates, on the emptiness of the five aggregates, the five parts of a person. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:13 Highlight the passage at 1:08:13

1:08:26 So think about first the dependent arising of form, form, aggregate, personal. Form aggregate is your body. Think about how it arises from causes and conditions, the causes being, first of all, the sperm and egg of the parents, the regenerative material, the Report an error in the passage at 1:08:26 Highlight the passage at 1:08:26

1:08:57 food that you ate, and then the conditions being the care that you got growing up, the education that you got, Report an error in the passage at 1:08:57 Highlight the passage at 1:08:57

1:09:13 exercise that went into making your body what it is. So think about how our body, our form aggregate, is a result of causes and conditions. It doesn't exist independently. Sometimes it feels like we just have this body, but it came into being as a result of causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:13 Highlight the passage at 1:09:13

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:10:31 And then your body feels like something unitary, but it exists in dependence on parts. So think of the parts of your body, your arms and legs, your torso, your head, your ears, your toes, your fingers, all the parts of your body. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:31 Highlight the passage at 1:10:31

1:11:23 And then at an even subtler level, all those parts are composed of parts. So your hand, seems like we can talk about my hand as if it were some kind of unitary, discrete entity, but it's composed of fingers, thumb. The palm, the wrist, the front and the back of the hand. So all the parts of the body, the gross parts, are composed of smaller parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:23 Highlight the passage at 1:11:23

1:12:20 And then at an even subtler level, we have the cells, the components of the cells, Report an error in the passage at 1:12:20 Highlight the passage at 1:12:20

1:12:34 the atomic and subatomic particles. And Report an error in the passage at 1:12:34 Highlight the passage at 1:12:34

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:13:11 then let's look. What we call my body is just a concept. It's just an idea imputed or labeled onto these parts. So on the basis of a validly functioning, valid basis, we label my body. So think about how your body, just like the cup, exists in dependence on concepts. There's no my body there from its own side, independent of your labeling onto the constituent. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:11 Highlight the passage at 1:13:11

1:13:51 So take a minute to see how your body exists like that, that which is merely labeled on the functioning parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:51 Highlight the passage at 1:13:51

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:15:00 So your body's emptiness is its lack of being anything other than a dependent arising. Your body isn't inherently existent. It depends on all three of these levels for its existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:00 Highlight the passage at 1:15:00

1:15:19 So its emptiness is its absence of being anything other than a dependent arising. Then Report an error in the passage at 1:15:19 Highlight the passage at 1:15:19

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:16:04 let's look at the mental parts of the person. We have the aggregate of feeling, pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. That very basic response, feeling to sense contact. So it's dependent on an object. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:04 Highlight the passage at 1:16:04

1:16:27 We need to have that contact with an object. We need to have a consciousness, that perceiving awareness. So Report an error in the passage at 1:16:27 Highlight the passage at 1:16:27

1:16:41 it exists in dependence on the cause of a continuum of consciousness, the conditions of the contact with an object. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:41 Highlight the passage at 1:16:41

1:16:59 And then we have memory, past association, all giving rise to that feeling. In response to that sense contact. So it doesn't arise independent of those causes and conditions, those parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:59 Highlight the passage at 1:16:59

1:17:21 So we don't inherently have any kind of pleasant or unpleasant feeling. It exists on dependence on that event of that contact with an object, that apprehending consciousness, past memory and association. So think about that. How feeling is dependent in that way. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:21 Highlight the passage at 1:17:21

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:18:58 And then we label that mental function feeling. We have an idea, feeling, we have a concept of the aggregate of feeling. So we pull apart, we isolate that one function of consciousness and we call that feeling. So in a way, we're sort of artificially identifying one aspect it. Any kind of complex response that we have to an object and we're just calling that one aspect of response feeling. So in that way it's dependent on our concepts, dependent on our imputation. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:58 Highlight the passage at 1:18:58

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:20:49 And now let's look at discrimination or discernment. So again we have the component parts of the contact with an object, the contacting consciousness, the object. That we come into contact with any of the sense objects or a thought. And then we have recognition, discernment, discrimination, recognizing what that object is. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:49 Highlight the passage at 1:20:49

1:21:28 But it's independent on the different component parts, the causes and conditions of the consciousness, the contacted object. And so forth. So it doesn't arise inherently. It's not independent. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:28 Highlight the passage at 1:21:28

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:22:56 That function of our consciousness, that mental factor, we label that discrimination or discernment. We create a concept to label that one function. When we come into contact with an object, there's so much going on, but that one aspect, that one mental function, we label. So it's created by our mind, by our concepts, by our labeling. Then Report an error in the passage at 1:22:56 Highlight the passage at 1:22:56

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:24:40 we have all the other compositional factors, all of the other mental factors that flavor our consciousness, the six omnipresent mental factors, the things that we call emotions, both positive and negative. And Report an error in the passage at 1:24:40 Highlight the passage at 1:24:40

1:25:04 so we're creating these... There's 49 left over in that fourth aggregate, 49 mental factors after we take out feeling and discernment. And again, we're creating with our concepts these 49 categories to describe various functions of our consciousness. So it's a little arbitrary. They don't exist from their own side. We're just kind of carving out little aspects. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:04 Highlight the passage at 1:25:04

1:25:38 Of our mental function, giving them these labels. So think about how all of these 49 mental factors that make up the aggregate of compositional factors are dependent on our mental labeling, our conceptual designation. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:38 Highlight the passage at 1:25:38

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:26:55 And then we have consciousness, the most fundamental level, the fact that we're a sentient being. We have this consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:55 Highlight the passage at 1:26:55

1:27:04 Which is a continuum coming from our past life and it's changing moment by moment by moment. Consciousness or mind is that which is clear and knowing, clear and aware. It holds objects and is aware of the objects that it's holding. So it's caused, every moment of consciousness caused by the previous moment of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:04 Highlight the passage at 1:27:04

1:27:34 What we call consciousness composed of all of these parts. All of these moments of consciousness, Report an error in the passage at 1:27:34 Highlight the passage at 1:27:34

1:27:44 for example, when we're having a sense consciousness of an object, whether it's an external sense object or a thought, component parts of that moment of consciousness are the object being contacted, the sense contact, and then our consciousness coming into contact. So that's the way that consciousness... Report an error in the passage at 1:27:44 Highlight the passage at 1:27:44

1:28:13 Arises in dependence on causes and conditions and parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:13 Highlight the passage at 1:28:13

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:29:00 And then we call that consciousness. We have an idea of consciousness based on that function of clarity and awareness, that function of holding sense objects and being aware of them. We label that consciousness. So consciousness itself is created by our concept, by our conceptual imputation. And designation. On Report an error in the passage at 1:29:00 Highlight the passage at 1:29:00

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:30:21 the basis of those five component parts, all of which are dependent arisings, we label me. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:21 Highlight the passage at 1:30:21

1:30:36 So that's how we exist, is that which is merely labeled on those five component parts. And our emptiness is we're nothing more than that. So think about this deeply. Nothing more than that which is labeled by concepts. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:36 Highlight the passage at 1:30:36

1:31:02 On those five aggregates that themselves are empty of inherent existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:02 Highlight the passage at 1:31:02

1:31:16 There's no concrete essence, there's nothing other than that. So Report an error in the passage at 1:31:16 Highlight the passage at 1:31:16

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:32:15 the way we do exist is merely labeled on the five component parts, the five aggregates, which themselves are merely concepts labeled onto functions of body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:15 Highlight the passage at 1:32:15

1:32:35 And that's all we are, that which is merely labeled. Our emptiness is, we're nothing other than that. Try and hold that realization strongly. So Report an error in the passage at 1:32:35 Highlight the passage at 1:32:35

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:33:47 let's dedicate the positive energy of this meditation towards being able to see the emptiness of ourself so that we can overcome that fundamental grasping. That's the cause of all our problems, the root of saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:47 Highlight the passage at 1:33:47

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:34:52 Okay, so that's how you do that meditation and you can, if you've got a longer session, you can just kind of go back and forth and it just chips away, you know, because you see that you're labeled on the aggregates and then you go to the aggregates and see that they themselves are empty of inherent existence and then you go back to the self and back to the aggregates and you just keep going back and forth, seeing that we're just... Report an error in the passage at 1:34:52 Highlight the passage at 1:34:52

1:35:18 That which is labeled on components that themselves are empty. You know, there's nothing to hang on to. There's nothing to solidify. So I found that really powerful. And like I said, what I do is get up to that paragraph that we've gotten up to in the text. Stop there, right? We got to that first part of Avalokiteshvara's answer. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:18 Highlight the passage at 1:35:18

1:35:40 Saying, beholding those five aggregates also is empty of inherent nature. Or you can get to the same next part, form is empty, emptiness is form. Because the next section talks about the emptiness of the aggregates. So one of these paragraphs right in here. And then you stop and you do the meditation. And then you continue on with the rest of the Heart Sūtra. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:40 Highlight the passage at 1:35:40

1:36:02 And it's a really powerful meditation. So like I said, I think I had, I can't remember, 200. You know, repetitions of it and it took me a couple of weeks and it was great. It was one of the best parts of this long retreat that I just did all these different things but I remember really clearly that two week period because it felt like it really started to shake that strong grasping that I had. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:02 Highlight the passage at 1:36:02

1:36:32 No, I only did that. I mean, I did my other commitments but then that was just my only focus. Oh, microphone. Oops, where'd it go? Report an error in the passage at 1:36:32 Highlight the passage at 1:36:32

1:36:47 Well, let's hear practically how you did that because you did more than one recitation in a session. So I would take maybe what I did in that retreat, I was doing the traditional four sessions a day, right? So I would have like a two-hour session in the morning, then a three-hour session before lunch, a three-hour session in the afternoon, usually about two hours in the evening. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:47 Highlight the passage at 1:36:47

1:37:12 So each one I would take about 45 minutes and then I'd just break for five minutes and then I'd do another one. So I'd do maybe two or three per meditation session. But I'm saying you'd only recite this once and then go into the meditation and then come out again, recite it again. In one session you'd do about three or four recitations. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:12 Highlight the passage at 1:37:12

1:37:37 Yeah, usually about two or three, because each one was about 45 minutes. So yeah, I do two or three, you know, because then I just have a little break in between and just go, oh, wow, that was cool. And then I do it again like that. And so just kept repeating over and over. So I do maybe, I don't know, like... Report an error in the passage at 1:37:37 Highlight the passage at 1:37:37

1:37:54 Ten a day or something, and it took 200, so it was about, yeah, maybe three weeks or so that it took, because I get through about ten a day. Because he said, do it really slowly, don't just... You know, really meditate on it, it got really trippy, it was great, it was just like, wow, you know, as I got more and more into it, and it just felt like it was one of the most effective kind of periods of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:54 Highlight the passage at 1:37:54

1:38:18 So I just do that, like... You know, alternate between the five aggregates, then go back to the self, see how it was just merely labeled on the aggregate. So I was using, they say the meditation on dependent arising, they call that the king of reasonings for getting an insight into emptiness, which is why we emphasize understanding dependent arising so much when we're trying to understand. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:18 Highlight the passage at 1:38:18

1:38:44 Emptiness because they say it's the king of reasonings for understanding emptiness because emptiness is just the flip side of dependent arising. So you see how you exist as just dependent on being labeled onto those five aggregates and then you just go, I'm nothing else. That thing I thought was there that freaks me out so much when I start to see that it's not there and it never was there, never could be there, never will be there. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:44 Highlight the passage at 1:38:44

1:39:09 You ain't losing nothing you ever had. You're just losing the cause of... Suffering, you know, so like that. Yeah, yeah, so the emptiness is the... So just back to the practicality, so you would stop, let's say... I think I would stop after a form is empty. I think I would stop actually after the next one. Form is empty, emptiness is four. So you'd say that whole paragraph, and then you'd stop, meditate, then you'd finish the meditation, or that kind of level, and then you'd continue, Shariputra. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:09 Highlight the passage at 1:39:09

1:39:42 Yeah. And then you'd finish up. Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Morgan. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:42 Highlight the passage at 1:39:42

1:39:52 Just a real quick one. When you get that kind of feeling, you said the fear kind of like that Janet went into as well. Do you change do you change the the focus of your meditation on to that? So like it kind of comes in waves like you're kind of like it feels like a little like someone's shocking you a bit. Yeah. Do you basically like whatever triggers that like there was various things. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:52 Highlight the passage at 1:39:52

1:40:12 It was a difficult meditation in a group setting for me. Right. But do you go from like, okay, once you kind of get that feeling and you're kind of sitting there on that high dive or whatever that feeling is, is that now, do you try to hold on that object? No, no. You do whatever freaked you out in the first place harder. You know, whatever it was that brought up that fear, you push it. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:12 Highlight the passage at 1:40:12

1:40:35 At that point, it's like that thing that Lama said of going through the river and I'll try and find that so I can read that passage to you tomorrow because it's so cool the way he describes it. So whatever brought you to that feeling instead of shifting to the fear somehow, you just keep pushing whatever it was that made you afraid because that's getting to the point. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:35 Highlight the passage at 1:40:35

1:41:00 So whatever got you to that point of fear in the first place, you just trust. And that's when you need refuge, man, because refuge is the safety net. And you've got to have refuge and you've just got to go, I just trust that this is the answer. And I'm just going to go for it because I'm really freaked out right now, but I've just got to trust what Lord Buddha said about how I do exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:00 Highlight the passage at 1:41:00

1:41:22 Now I don't exist and what the cause of all of my trouble is. So really that faith and that trust and that refuge is really the only thing that enables you to go through the fear, I think, and to really push it. Because otherwise you're like, I'm just going to go psychotic or something, you know. I mean, sometimes that's a real fear when people start to meditate really. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:22 Highlight the passage at 1:41:22

1:41:45 Deeply. And that's why we have refuge in Buddhism. You know, because they, you know, the Buddha really pulled the rug out, which is why he backtracked in the third turning of the wheel. Because so many people experience that fear and then he just put the rug back a little bit or put a safety net. Oh, no, no. You know, it's just exaggerating to make a point. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:45 Highlight the passage at 1:41:45

1:42:06 It's really like this. But to really cut the root of saṃsāra, we have to go through that fear, but that's why we have the safety net of refuge and of really trusting that. Because otherwise, yeah, it's way too scary if there's nothing. But we do have refuge in the Buddha's teachings and just some faith that the Buddha is really showing us the unmistaken path to get out of our suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:06 Highlight the passage at 1:42:06

1:42:33 And you just... You know, you've trained enough in that. I think when you get to that point, you've trained enough in that that that's what gives you the courage to keep pushing it when you get to that point. Yeah, yeah, good. Good question. Sandra and then Keith. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:33 Highlight the passage at 1:42:33

1:42:52 During. It was during. Yeah, that was one of the things. I did a first... Three and a half years of retreat, and then that wasn't enough, so I did three more years. And then during the second three years, I'd met with Lama Zopa in between the two, three years, and he gave me my game plan for the second three years. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:52 Highlight the passage at 1:42:52

1:43:11 So that was one of the practices he told me to do for that second three years. Shiné Land in, yeah, Shiné Land in Central California. Yeah, Keith. I Report an error in the passage at 1:43:11 Highlight the passage at 1:43:11

1:43:29 want to ask, what happens with me is when I do a meditation, that meditation or like that, I begin to get a feeling of hopelessness, that it's just too hard. And then my mind begins to work, I don't know, for me or against me. I say, well, if there was actually another aggregate, and that produced, this is really just all a dream, that this life is a dream, kind of like the mind-only school, well, then it's okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:29 Highlight the passage at 1:43:29

1:43:57 It's not that hard. This seems so hard. And so then I fall into that. Right. And I don't know if, I think it's sort of a self-defeating kind of mechanism, but it does seem to work. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:57 Highlight the passage at 1:43:57

1:44:14 So what should I, I mean, would it be best just to stay with the hopelessness and the helplessness and the feeling that this is just too hard. You'll never get out of saṃsāra this way. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:14 Highlight the passage at 1:44:14

1:44:24 It's just because. work Report an error in the passage at 1:44:24 Highlight the passage at 1:44:24

1:44:27 If things actually have some kind of an existence, if it's not all a product of my mind, how will I ever let go? How will I ever do the renunciation, the letting go? Report an error in the passage at 1:44:27 Highlight the passage at 1:44:27

1:44:42 It just seems so difficult, but then it's almost like there's a shortcut. Yeah, yeah. In Lama Zopa, I've heard him say, I remember once in San Francisco, I think it was 1993, it was actually Venerable Chogky's first teaching of Lama Zopa I took her to, and he talked about the emptiness of the carpet for nine hours, like very typical Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:42 Highlight the passage at 1:44:42

1:45:05 And I remember at a certain point this woman, like he just went on, because this is the way he teaches, it's like a nine hour guided meditation and the emptiness of the carpet and the emptiness of the carpet and over and over and this woman, like at a certain point this woman got really agitated and it was a big room full of people and she kind of calls out from the back row, but wait, wait, like does that mean the carpet doesn't exist? Report an error in the passage at 1:45:05 Highlight the passage at 1:45:05

1:45:26 Or does that mean it's an illusion? And he said, it's... It's not an illusion, but it's like an illusion. And then he said it over and over again, and she was totally pacified. She was just like, he's like, it's not an illusion, but it's like an illusion. It's not an illusion, it's like an illusion. He said, it's so like an illusion that it's almost like nothing's there. You know, so it's really, really close to being an illusion. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:26 Highlight the passage at 1:45:26

1:45:53 But it's like an illusion. It's not an illusion. Because what is there is so incredibly subtle. Like how things do conventionally exist is so extremely subtle that for all intents and purposes, it is an illusion. Because everything that we're perceiving, we're totally creating. So the mind-only school isn't that far off. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:53 Highlight the passage at 1:45:53

1:46:17 Buddha just kind of swung a little bit into this one direction. It was on the basis of all these sutras that say everything is mind, mind is the producer of everything. It's all true. And what does exist conventionally is so extremely subtle that it's as if it's an illusion. But there's just that subtle difference of like, no, it's not an illusion, it's like an illusion. But for all intents and purposes, what we're perceiving is completely... Report an error in the passage at 1:46:17 Highlight the passage at 1:46:17

1:46:46 Illusory, you know, because we're just reifying so much, like our conceptual imputation is just so far out there. So I don't know if that helps, you know, but we have to get, again, on the razor's edge. And often we will tip to one side or the other and we'll get depressed when we go into nihilism. Or we'll, you know, hold on too tight when we go to eternalism. And it takes a long time to actually get it right. But then Lama's open, that same thing after he says you just push through, like wading through a river, and you just get this image of like, okay, I'm just going to go for it. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:46 Highlight the passage at 1:46:46

1:47:21 You know, and then he says you have this incredible joy. Like you realize that thing, that million dollars that you all saw was in your... It's not. And then you just have this incredible feeling of freedom and joy. So I think just tilting, and it's not easy. It's definitely not easy. Getting the middle way consequent school's view is the subtlest and the hardest. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:21 Highlight the passage at 1:47:21

1:47:46 But we can work with the other views. My friend Venerable Rene, who taught at Vajrapani for so long, he really advocated working your way up through the views of the philosophical schools. Because sometimes we think we have the middle way consequence school and we don't at all. Like we don't have a clue. But if you really work your way up... Report an error in the passage at 1:47:46 Highlight the passage at 1:47:46

1:48:06 Through the views and meditate on the different views. It's okay, you know, and it gets you higher and higher. So meditating on the middle or on the mind only school view is great. I told him I thought I was confessing at one point. I said, you know. When I studied the four schools, I always thought I was a middle-way consequence person, but I realized I was really a middle-way independent. He goes, oh, that's wonderful. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:06 Highlight the passage at 1:48:06

1:48:29 And he says, oh, very good. Just stay there. That's great. Because I was like, I kind of think... The cup is hinting to me that it's a cup, which is that view. You know, it's like there's something there that makes it a cup, but then I label it cup. And I'm kind of thinking the cup is like, hey, don't I kind of look like a cup? Report an error in the passage at 1:48:29 Highlight the passage at 1:48:29

1:48:48 Look at me. Don't I look kind of cuppy to you? And then I'm going, okay, you're a cup. And that's the middle way independent school and the middle way consequent school say the cup isn't even hinting to me that it's a cup. It's all me labeling it. So it is interesting to study those different things and find to be meditating at that level because it's all better than being at the bottom of the ladder, which is where we mostly are. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:48 Highlight the passage at 1:48:48

1:49:14 It's rungs leading us up to that higher view. Good. And I'll find that thing. I'm sure that book is here somewhere, so I'll find that little quote about pushing through the river to encourage us all. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:14 Highlight the passage at 1:49:14

1:49:29 I don't think so. I think it's to follow up. Both of you. When you say, well, no, wait a minute, go back to that, seize that moment where it was rough or where it is rough. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:29 Highlight the passage at 1:49:29

1:49:46 I don't think I can identify the actual thinking concepts that happened before that feeling of roughness. So do you go back to the quality of the, I mean, Rubino once said years ago, feelings are just thoughts. So the best I can do is just go back to that feeling like, ooh, you know, ooh, ooh. Or whatever logic got you there, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:46 Highlight the passage at 1:49:46

1:50:12 That's what I'm saying. Repeat that logical progression. Be better to go to where you, so in other words, kind of identify what the process was that got you to that point. Okay. And just repeat the process, like keep doing that analysis that got you to that point. When that kicks in. Oh, you know, got you to that point. Okay, thank you. Yeah, yeah, good. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:12 Highlight the passage at 1:50:12

1:50:32 All right. Anything else about, yes. I'm Report an error in the passage at 1:50:32 Highlight the passage at 1:50:32

1:50:39 still thinking about what you just said, Lama Zopa said. It's not an illusion, but it is like an illusion. I was remembering teaching on dream yoga in the Nyingma tradition that life is a dream. It is a dream. It is not like a dream. So where is this? Report an error in the passage at 1:50:39 Highlight the passage at 1:50:39

1:51:07 In relation to what you just talked about. I'm not sure whether I'm understanding the two correctly. The difference, yeah. And what is the difference? Yeah, yeah. Okay, in the mind-only school, for example, they say that reality and our perception of reality come from the same karmic seed, right? So that's what mind-only means. It means that, you know, you and my perception of you came from the same karmic... Report an error in the passage at 1:51:07 Highlight the passage at 1:51:07

1:51:37 The middle way consequence school's view says, no, there are external objects, right? There are external objects, but I'm creating them to be what they are through, we better go back to this, is it that one? No, it's the next one. We're creating them to be what they are through our concepts. So they're like a dream or like an illusion in that there is something there. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:37 Highlight the passage at 1:51:37

1:52:05 Right? That's the basis of our imputation and our concepts. So it's not just hallucination. There are external objects. There is something there. But the way that they exist for me is completely created by my conceptual imputation. So it's almost as if they were an illusion. It's like 99 % illusion, 1%. There's nothing there from its own side, but there is some basis externally. So that's the difference between the mind-only school that says there's no external object independent of my karmic seed giving rise to my perception of the object and the object itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:05 Highlight the passage at 1:52:05

1:52:45 Middle-way consequence school says, yeah, there's external objects, but then the way that I... Create my reality is through my conceptual imputation. So it's very subtle, the difference. And it may be during that teaching that they were going, trying to get people from the extreme of eternalism by exaggerating and saying, it is a dream, it's all a dream. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:45 Highlight the passage at 1:52:45

1:53:07 But Lama Zopa differentiates and he goes, no, it's like a dream, it's like an illusion, but it's not strictly speaking in the way that some Buddhist schools say, it's just all created by mind. It's almost all created by mind. It's almost all mind only, but just slightly not. Can both of those views be right for different people, like with different karmic inheritance? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:07 Highlight the passage at 1:53:07

1:53:39 Also, is that sort of like the second turning of the wheel and the third turning that both could have a very skillful way of... Yeah, exactly. And the Lord Buddha taught all these different philosophical schools and it was all appropriate for different minds and studying that mind-only school really helps us get out of the extreme of eternalism. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:39 Highlight the passage at 1:53:39

1:54:02 Then the middle way school just... It adds a little bit more so you're not tilted, because there's some problems with that. If Hemi and I are both a result of my karmic seed, where are other sentient beings in this? If everything that I perceive is just created by my karmic seeds, am I the only sentient being? And then if everything that you're perceiving is created by your karmic seeds, how can you be perceiving me? Report an error in the passage at 1:54:02 Highlight the passage at 1:54:02

1:54:26 So there's loopholes in it, but it was taught to get people out of that view of eternalism. So like that. So yeah, and it was all appropriate for people with different minds and it all kind of brings you at least out of that strong clinging that you have in saṃsāra. So is that kind of like there's no final ultimate, that it's all skillful means and we don't have to be right? Well, it just depends on who you talk to. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:26 Highlight the passage at 1:54:26

1:54:57 I mean, according to Tibetan Buddhists, they say the middle way consequence school is the ultimate. So different people say that... What's the ultimate? So you just have to kind of choose what suits you, I think. You know, according to Tibetan Buddhism, there's a certain hierarchy with the middle way consequence school as the ultimate. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:57 Highlight the passage at 1:54:57

1:55:14 And then they say that's it. That's really the definitive view of how things exist. But then you go to some other country and they say that it's some other different way. And so I think it's just up to your own experience and what suits you. And it may be that you, you know, work with a certain view for a while. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:14 Highlight the passage at 1:55:14

1:55:32 And I think they all function to tear down our solid clinging to things as inherently existent somehow. So yeah, it just depends who you talk to. Who says what's the ultimate? Yeah, Sarah. Could you talk a little bit about karma? You know, if everything's coming, arising out of our karma. Yeah. What is the, is there, it seems like there has to be a lot of faith in that. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:32 Highlight the passage at 1:55:32

1:56:02 that and following that. Right, right. Because if you can't see how karma works, is it true that it requires a lot of trust or faith? Right, right. Because we can't see the mechanisms of karma. And that's one of the things I think I mentioned yesterday, there's three levels of phenomena. There's the phenomena we can directly perceive. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:02 Highlight the passage at 1:56:02

1:56:28 Then there's a kind of phenomena we can figure out through some sort of analytical process, like it's kind of perceivable through analysis or through some sort of logic like that. And then there's things that there's no way we can actually have even a direct or a conceptual imputation of. And those are the things that we do have to rely on in enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:28 Highlight the passage at 1:56:28

1:56:57 You know, and just have faith in the mechanisms of karma. But there's certain ways, I mean, for one thing it makes sense, right? It makes a lot more sense than thinking that everything's random. It's sort of like physics, you know, Newton's third law of motion. For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:57 Highlight the passage at 1:56:57

1:57:15 So it sort of kind of makes... And also it's so fundamental to Buddhism. And if the Buddha was right about so many things, why would he have lied about something that was so fundamental? Like we can figure out... What the Buddha said about our suffering is true, for example, and most people are attracted to Buddhism because they are going through some kind of suffering, and we can sort of, you know, study what the Buddha said about our suffering, and I don't know about you, you know, I study these lists and it's like, yep, been through that, uh-huh, yeah, that too, yeah, been through that. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:15 Highlight the passage at 1:57:15

1:57:48 The way the Buddha describes just our condition. It's so subtle and so right on and there are things that we can verify. So it seems like the one thing that we can't verify that's so fundamental to the Buddha's teachings, yeah, we do have a certain faith, but it's not just blind faith. Like there's a difference between faith and blind faith. Like I have faith that, you know, I ate my lunch today and it's going to... Report an error in the passage at 1:57:48 Highlight the passage at 1:57:48

1:58:16 Give me some nutrition and get me through the afternoon because it's always worked before. I don't know for sure that it's going to work this time. But I have some faith based on experience and based on some kind of background. And sort of the same thing with the kind of faith that we have in the Buddhist teachings that we can't directly check ourselves. But on the basis of other things that we can check, we have some kind of confidence. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:16 Highlight the passage at 1:58:16

1:58:41 But it's not like blind faith of just trusting like that. Anything else? Alright. So there's one more piece that I want to get to before we go back to the sūtra because with the beginning of Shariputra's answer is where we start to talk about the five paths implicitly. There's explicitly what Avalokiteshvara is talking about and then implicitly he's starting to talk about how we meditate on the five paths. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:41 Highlight the passage at 1:58:41

1:59:16 And so since I'm American, I made you a diagram. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:16 Highlight the passage at 1:59:16

1:59:23 I'm not a Tibetan. And I have, you know, Microsoft Word with all the little drawing thing. So this is the diagram. It will be a lot easier to explain it when you have the diagram. So what we're going to do in the time we have left, do you guys need another break now? It's been about an hour since we came back. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:23 Highlight the passage at 1:59:23

1:59:43 Are you all right? Yeah? Okay. Because this will be different. So what we're going to talk about now, and this is the last thing we'll do today, because I think you have enough of the puzzle pieces, and like I said, for the rest of tomorrow we're just going to tie everything together. We're going to talk about the five paths. Because then, you know, starting with Avla Kateshwar's answer, he's giving us the instructions about how to meditate on all of these five paths. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:43 Highlight the passage at 1:59:43

2:00:11 So, yeah, there's a bunch. Avalokitesh for his answer, I think I misspoke, yeah. When we talk Report an error in the passage at 2:00:11 Highlight the passage at 2:00:11

2:00:30 about Report an error in the passage at 2:00:30 Highlight the passage at 2:00:30

2:00:53 the five paths, it's not meaning path so much in saying Yeah, blah, blah, blah. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:53 Highlight the passage at 2:00:53

2:00:51 when we talk about Report an error in the passage at 2:00:51 Highlight the passage at 2:00:51

2:00:57 The method that you follow as much as it's talking about the realizations in your mind at that point. So we're going to talk about this. And you see at the very left-hand side of the chart, we have fear, faith and compassion, which are the causes of refuge, which is the first vertical line right here. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:57 Highlight the passage at 2:00:57

2:01:22 Okay, so fear, faith. And by the way, this is the bodhisattvas path. So this is specific to bodhisattvas, what we're going to be talking about here. It's not the same thing that happens to arhats. Arhats have five paths too, but there are five different ones. So this is specific to bodhisattvas and this is the middle way consequence school since we're biased because we're Tibetan in the Tibetan tradition. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:22 Highlight the passage at 2:01:22

2:01:47 This is their... So fear and faith, they often say, are the causes of refuge. Fear meaning, I don't want to suffer anymore. I don't want to suffer anymore. I don't want to be in saṃsāra anymore. And then if you're a bodhisattva, there's compassion. I don't want anybody else suffering either. So I'm going to enter the path. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:47 Highlight the passage at 2:01:47

2:02:11 I'm going to take refuge. It makes sense what the Buddha said, and that's where the faith part comes from. What the Buddha said about the Four Noble Truths thing makes sense to me. What he said about the suffering and the cause of suffering, it all makes sense. So I'm going to give it a shot. I'm going to have a certain amount of faith that if I practice what the Buddha taught, It could free me. Because that's really what refuge is. And refuge is a weird word we don't use much in English. But we talk about refugees, don't we? Report an error in the passage at 2:02:11 Highlight the passage at 2:02:11

2:02:45 And what is that? It's a person who's going from a situation of danger to a situation of safety. Right? A refugee. And we're doing exactly the same thing. We're refugees. We're going from the really dangerous situation of saṃsāra. To a situation of safety, by relying on what the Buddha taught, because the Dharma teachings are the main refuge. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:45 Highlight the passage at 2:02:45

2:03:11 You don't just say, oh Lord Buddha, please save me, like those other religions do that, oh please save me. It's kind of a drag, because Buddhism is a lot of hard work. You're taking refuge in the path which means you have to practice it. You can't just pray to somebody to save you. It's not theistic. Nobody's going to come along and clean your karma and save you. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:11 Highlight the passage at 2:03:11

2:03:32 What you're taking refuge in is, yeah, what the Buddha said made sense. I'm going to practice what the Buddha taught in the last two noble truths about how I can cease my suffering. The cessation of suffering and the path leading to it, that sounds good. Because I'm sick of the first two. I've been doing that since beginning of this time. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:32 Highlight the passage at 2:03:32

2:03:56 So that's why we say that fear, faith and compassion are the causes of refuge. So that's where we enter. Into the diagram. And congratulations. Most of the people in this room are somewhere on the chart. Since beginning of this time, we've been off the chart. Way off here somewhere. High fives to everybody. You know, we're on the page. Right on. Okay? Report an error in the passage at 2:03:56 Highlight the passage at 2:03:56

2:04:25 So fear, faith, compassion, you're somewhere in here. And then we take refuge and then we practice the three principal aspects of the path. It's what we call this renunciation, bodhicitta and wisdom. So renunciation again being this wish to definitely get free of saṃsāra, bodhicitta, the wish to get enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings and then wisdom, realizing emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:25 Highlight the passage at 2:04:25

2:04:52 And then when we have actual uncontrived bodhicitta, we're at the second vertical line. So actual bodhicitta means that one I was talking about before, uncontrived, 24-7, that's the baseline. You know, that's your MO for everything, is actual bodhicitta. And then you get called an ordinary bodhisattva. I mean, sorry, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:04:52 Highlight the passage at 2:04:52

2:05:15 It's amazing to be a bodhisattva. But we differentiate between... Ordinary bodhisattvas and Arya bodhisattvas. So anybody that's not an Arya is called, in Tibetan there's the word soso kevo, and often they translate it as the childish ones. And it doesn't mean four-year-olds, it means people who haven't had a direct realization of emptiness. So often in the text you'll see the ordinary ones, the childish ones. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:15 Highlight the passage at 2:05:15

2:05:44 Oh, I mean, can't all of us it. So it just means anybody who hasn't seen emptiness directly. But you can still be a bodhisattva even before you've seen emptiness directly. What you need is uncontrived bodhicitta. Really hard. Even renunciation is really hard. Uncontrived bodhicitta. And then you enter with renunciation, actual renunciation and actual bodhicitta, you enter the first path called the path of accumulation. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:44 Highlight the passage at 2:05:44

2:06:19 So the milestone for that is actual renunciation and actual uncontrived bodhicitta. Why do you need renunciation to have bodhicitta, do you think? Why is bodhicitta dependent on renunciation? Okay, on that wish to definitely get free of cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:19 Highlight the passage at 2:06:19

2:06:43 Yeah. If you think that saṃsāra is a good deal for you and that your happiness is right around the corner with that next job or that next relationship, what, you're going to become a Buddha to free all beings from suffering forever? No. So you need to realize it on your own behalf first, which is what renunciation is. Oh, saṃsāra, as long as I'm in it, bad news. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:43 Highlight the passage at 2:06:43

2:07:07 I'm never going to have ultimate lasting happiness. Actual renunciation and on the bodhisattva path, bodhicitta, is when you enter the path of accumulation. So that's the milestone there. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:07 Highlight the passage at 2:07:07

2:07:23 Bodhicitta, actual renunciation. And then what's happening during the path of accumulation. What you're doing is, as the name indicates, mostly accumulating virtue, doing practices to accumulate virtue, make merit. You're also working on your single point of concentration during this path. Okay? So you know that thing that we talk about, Shinne, Samatha. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:23 Highlight the passage at 2:07:23

2:07:48 Calm abiding, single pointed concentration. You're working on that during the path of accumulation. So that's your job. Purification, accumulation of merit, working on your shine, working on your single pointed concentration. That's your job. And then at a certain point you have perfect... Single point of concentration that you're using to meditate on emptiness because that's the point of having that single point of concentration, to use it for all your meditations but especially your meditations on emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:48 Highlight the passage at 2:07:48

2:08:23 So when you enter the path of preparation, you have perfect single point of concentration conjoined with insight into the nature of reality. It's still intellectual. But you have perfect single point of concentration you're using to meditate on emptiness. At that point, you're in the path of preparation, the next step. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:23 Highlight the passage at 2:08:23

2:08:47 Why do you think it's called the path of preparation? What are we preparing for? Yeah, that terror. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:47 Highlight the passage at 2:08:47

2:09:01 So we're preparing to see emptiness directly. Yeah, exactly. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:01 Highlight the passage at 2:09:01

2:09:05 So what we're doing on the path of preparation, we're using that unbelievable tool of that single point of concentration that we developed. We're meditating on emptiness over and over and over again. Now, it's still intellectual, okay? It's still conceptual. But it gets subtler and subtler and subtler during the path of preparation. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:05 Highlight the passage at 2:09:05

2:09:27 So we get subtler and subtler intellectual realizations of emptiness. Okay? Until... Until the very end of the path of preparation. Oh, by the way, at a certain point during the path of preparation, it has four stages. And during the third of the fourth stage, we have a permanent cessation of the possibility of any rebirth in the lower realms. That's our first permanent cessation. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:27 Highlight the passage at 2:09:27

2:09:55 That's cool, right? No more rebirth in the lower realms. We don't even have to be an aria yet for that to happen. That's a big score. No more rebirth in the lower realms. So that happens because of our intellectual understanding of emptiness. Even that is powerful enough to purify the karmic seeds that would cause a rebirth in the lower realms. So that's the path of preparation. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:55 Highlight the passage at 2:09:55

2:10:23 Go ahead. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:23 Highlight the passage at 2:10:23

2:10:31 This may be where I've been asking this question this morning. At some point along here, I thought you lost the ability to accumulate or to create more karma, but maybe what I mean. We're not quite there yet. Yeah, but you do lose the ability to go to the lower realms. Yeah, so that happens first. That's the first sensation, preparation. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:31 Highlight the passage at 2:10:31

2:10:59 of preparation, okay, okay. It has four components, we won't get into that right now, but on the third of the fourth kind of stages of that path of preparation is when that first permanent cessation happens. Then, you're at the very end of the path of preparation. You have a direct realization of dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:59 Highlight the passage at 2:10:59

2:11:25 The very, very last The next stage of the path of preparation is called highest mundane dharma. That means it's the highest place you can go as an ordinary being. That's the very last stage. Highest mundane dharma means that's the end of the road as an ordinary being. Next you're going to be an aria, you're going to be a completely different kind of being. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:25 Highlight the passage at 2:11:25

2:11:47 So highest mundane dharma, you have a direct realization of dependent arising. Just before that you have a direct realization of subtle impermanence. Which is also very powerful. So you're having all these direct realizations just preceding the direct realization of emptiness. So a direct realization of subtle impermanence, a direct realization of dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:47 Highlight the passage at 2:11:47

2:12:10 And then you go into meditation, your last meditation, as an ordinary being, and you have the direct realization of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:10 Highlight the passage at 2:12:10

2:12:20 That's the path of seeing. The next one. Okay, the minute you go into the direct realization, the first, very first direct realization of emptiness, you become an aria, you've entered the path of seeing. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:20 Highlight the passage at 2:12:20

2:12:36 Okay, three things disappear at the end of that meditation, which is why the arrow is a little bit in, because it's at the end of the first meditation. Okay, it's not the moment you enter the path of seeing, it's when you come out of that meditation. The acquired obscurations to liberation are abandoned. So any idea that you have, that you exist inherently. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:36 Highlight the passage at 2:12:36

2:13:01 Remember I said the view of the transitory collection is one of the things completely eliminated at the end of that first meditation. You no longer believe that there's some driver, you know, the little homunculus thing. You're over it, you know. You just don't believe at all that there's any inherently existing. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:01 Highlight the passage at 2:13:01

2:13:21 So that's one of the views that you abandon completely and that's one of these acquired obscurations, deliberation, anything that you've learned, any world views that are learned, those are the acquired ones, right? The acquired ones like anything that you were taught as a child or in Sunday school about the way things work that's not the way it works, you abandon them at that point. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:21 Highlight the passage at 2:13:21

2:13:46 Now, what's the direct realization of emptiness like? So we say that what you're experiencing in that meditation is a mere absence. So what's the object of that first direct realization of emptiness? Report an error in the passage at 2:13:46 Highlight the passage at 2:13:46

2:14:05 Yeah, the self. So you're meditating on the emptiness of me. So you go through the analysis. You're going through the analysis. And then at a certain point you get that direct realization of emptiness. At that point, no conventional phenomena is appearing at all. Not even you, even though that was the object of the meditation. All you're seeing is a mere absence of inherent existence. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:05 Highlight the passage at 2:14:05

2:14:34 So how do you have a direct perception of a mere absence? You might be wondering. And there's this great example. For those of you that have heard it a million times, you know, excuse me, but it's just such a great example I can't resist, okay? This is courtesy of a friend of mine, Tuptenpende. I heard him give this example in 1994 or something, and it's just so perfect that you have to use it when you're explaining how to see a mere absence. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:34 Highlight the passage at 2:14:34

2:15:04 Let's say you've had a really hard day at work and you come home after work and you and your roommate decide you're going to stay in and you're going to get a DVD, right? Like maybe these days Netflix, the latest Netflix thing just arrived. So you're going to just chill out, watch a movie, get carryout pizza. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:04 Highlight the passage at 2:15:04

2:15:23 So you call up Domino's and you order the extra large vegetarian, of course, you know, and then that comes and you're sitting there and you're eating the pizza and you're watching the movie. You know, you get the extra large, but you weren't really that hungry, so you got two slices left over. At the end of the night, you put the white box in the fridge, and you go to work the next day, and you have this really busy day, and you have to skip lunch. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:23 Highlight the passage at 2:15:23

2:15:46 You just get the peanut butter crackers out of the machine and like a cup of soup or something. So you're driving home, and you're really hungry. And you're thinking about that cold pizza, because what's better when you're really hungry than cold pizza? So you're thinking about the pizza and you come home and you walk in the kitchen and you see the white box with the red and blue dominoes on the top on the kitchen counter and you walk up to it and you lift it. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:46 Highlight the passage at 2:15:46

2:16:13 And what do you see? A mere absence. Okay? So the very first minute you're not seeing the... Tomato juice on the tissue paper and the funny little plastic thing that keeps the top open and the little green pepper. All you're seeing is an absence of what you thought was there. And it's the same thing. Same thing when you see emptiness. You're not seeing what's there, you're seeing what's not there. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:13 Highlight the passage at 2:16:13

2:16:44 Only later do you see the tissue paper and the green pepper. That's not what you're seeing. You're just seeing a mere absence of what you thought was there. So that's what the direct realization of emptiness is like. Just perceiving that mere absence, just like the pizza. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:44 Highlight the passage at 2:16:44

2:17:07 But you said earlier that it's not conceptual. That's right. The realization. That's right. So maybe this is hard to put into words, but can you talk about that a little bit more? It's just, they say you see it like you see the palm on your hand. You just get it? You get it. You're perceiving it directly. So you're not thinking about it. They say until that point during the path of preparation, they say that our... Report an error in the passage at 2:17:07 Highlight the passage at 2:17:07

2:17:29 Intellectual realizations are emptiness. In philosophy they say it's mediated by a conceptual image, just meaning you're thinking about it, right? You're meditating on it using concepts. It's not that you're actually seeing it directly, right? So in that moment you're seeing the mere absence directly. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:29 Highlight the passage at 2:17:29

2:17:48 You're not just thinking, oh yeah. There's the self and it's not really inherently existent. It's dependent on the five aggregates. You're not kind of going through that analysis. You're actually like, you're just seeing that it's not there at all. Just like the pizza. So is it as shocking as not seeing the pizza? Apparently so. That's what they say. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:48 Highlight the passage at 2:17:48

2:18:11 It really takes your breath away? Exactly. And that's when Lama Zopa in this book, he's just like, It's not there. You know, he just goes on and on. And then, of course, at the end of this lecture, he says, not like I've seen it or anything. And you're like, yeah, right. I mean, the way he explains what's happening, he's just like, and then you just see that it's not there. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:11 Highlight the passage at 2:18:11

2:18:32 What you always thought was there. It's not there at all. And then he says, you cry with tears of joy running down your face. You know, that's after the fear and the pushing through the river thing. So, yeah, apparently it's just a total, like, wah. This thing that I always thought was there since beginning of this time, much more significant than the two pieces of pizza, believe me. You know, and this thing that you always thought was there since beginning of this time, it just ain't there at all. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:32 Highlight the passage at 2:18:32

2:18:58 And yeah, it just totally, like afterwards apparently you just spend the next couple of days in a total daze. You're just like, you know, you come down from that meditation. And then after that meditation, all you're seeing during that meditation is a mere absence. You're not seeing conventional phenomena at all. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:58 Highlight the passage at 2:18:58

2:19:17 And then after you come out of that first meditation of the path of seeing, you've eliminated these acquired obscurations to omniscience. You no longer believe in the view of the transitory collection. You have no doubt about the path. You no longer believe that ascetic practices are the path. That's not so meaningful for us, but in India you see it. People doing ascetic practices, staring into the sun, sleeping on the bed of nails, holding up their arm that it just withers. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:17 Highlight the passage at 2:19:17

2:19:49 We don't do that. We do the other extreme. So that's not a big deal for us. But you eliminate all of that and then they say after the direct realization of emptiness you see what's called the 16 aspects of the Four Noble Truths directly. The Four Noble Truths, Noble is a kind of wimpy translation of the word Arya. So it means the four things that are true for an Arya. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:49 Highlight the passage at 2:19:49

2:20:15 Is what the Four Noble Truths. So you see those directly. So you're no longer relying on faith in what the Buddha said about our suffering and the cause and how it ceased. You see what's called the 16 aspects of the Four Noble Truths after that. But during that meditation itself, you're only seeing that mere absence. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:15 Highlight the passage at 2:20:15

2:20:37 Every time you meditate on emptiness, that's all you're seeing is the mere absence. Whether you're headed towards being an Arhat, whether you're headed towards being a Buddha, the quality of that meditation is exactly the same every time you go into it. It's just that mere absence. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:37 Highlight the passage at 2:20:37

2:20:55 Any other questions about that so far? Report an error in the passage at 2:20:55 Highlight the passage at 2:20:55

2:21:04 Carla asked, can you go back to highest mundane dharma? That's the last part of the path of preparation. That's the last moments that you're considered an ordinary non-Arya being. One of the things that happens during that path is the direct realization of dependent arising. Okay, and that's... Report an error in the passage at 2:21:04 Highlight the passage at 2:21:04

2:21:28 So that precedes the direct realization of emptiness, which is why we emphasize meditating on this so much because it's the key to seeing emptiness directly. So that's what's happening during that stage. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:28 Highlight the passage at 2:21:28

2:21:47 We are talking about following the Heart Sūtra in terms of the realization of emptiness. At what point do you challenge or at least use the reasonings? The four reasonings. Yeah, you've been doing that all along, okay? You've been doing that all along up until here. You're using those reasonings to get, during especially the path of preparation, you're meditating over and over again on emptiness using reasoning, using logic, using analysis. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:47 Highlight the passage at 2:21:47

2:22:20 At that point you're also using debate. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So all the way through, and that's how you get a direct realization of emptiness. And I said, His Holiness said, how do you get a direct realization of emptiness? And he said, study, study, study. Right, so we have to use analysis, we have to use, you know, conceptual thought. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:20 Highlight the passage at 2:22:20

2:22:43 And there's another interesting misunderstanding. Because this is a direct realization of emptiness and it's not mediated by concepts, it's a non-conceptual realization. There's a misunderstanding that any non-conceptual state is to be pursued. So in some Buddhist systems, they... They train in trying to empty their mind of thoughts, right? But it's not that any non-conceptual state is a direct realization of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:43 Highlight the passage at 2:22:43

2:23:14 This happens to be a non-conceptual state, but we're not going to get there by just trying to empty our mind of thoughts. It's our mind's job description to think, right? It's a Yul-Chen, an object holder. So we use conceptual thought, we use analysis to get to this point, right? Over and over and over again, using logic, using analysis. And then it shifts into the non-conceptual direct realization, but not by just trying to wipe out thoughts in our mind, because that's not going to... Report an error in the passage at 2:23:14 Highlight the passage at 2:23:14

2:23:45 Get us the direct realization of emptiness. So it's a misunderstanding. Yeah, it's a non-conceptual state of mind, but there are other non-conceptual states. And just trying to somehow push away thoughts is not the way to get there. Okay? So, path of seeing. You're an aria now. You know, after all these countless lifetimes of being off the chart and then you're finally on the chart and then you get to that point and you're a completely different kind of being. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:45 Highlight the passage at 2:23:45

2:24:16 You've achieved the first bodhisattva ground here, the path of seeing. You're an aria bodhisattva now. So then after a certain point you enter the path of meditation, the next path. Now the path of meditation, the word for meditation literally means habituation. So we can call this the path of habituation. You're getting used to what you saw, using it to eliminate The first, obscurations. The innate obscurations to liberation, which are those defilements that we talked about before, karma and delusions. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:16 Highlight the passage at 2:24:16

2:24:57 So you're using the direct realization of emptiness to slowly, slowly eliminate karma and delusions. Over and over and over again. Now, it's very interesting. Once you become an Arya, you can no longer generate new negative karma. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:57 Highlight the passage at 2:24:57

2:25:16 Which is really cool. So no more new negative karma. Because we can see, and again this gets back to Morgan's question, so much of a relationship between karma and emptiness in terms of how karma is created. You need to have that solidification of reality. You need to see things as self-existent. That force creates a karmic seed. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:16 Highlight the passage at 2:25:16

2:25:39 When you don't have that, you're still seeing things the same way, but you don't believe it anymore at all. Once you've had that direct perception of emptiness, there's no more force to implant new karmic seeds. The force of the afflictions that give rise to those karmic actions are completely dependent on ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:39 Highlight the passage at 2:25:39

2:26:02 So you no longer have enough force to implant new karmic seeds. It doesn't mean that you're free of delusions. It doesn't mean you're free of old karma. Because we still have the karma that... We have to that point that we have to purify. So you're still purifying the old negative karma. You're still subject to, you still have the potential for those afflictive states, those mental afflictions, anger, attachment, jealousy. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:02 Highlight the passage at 2:26:02

2:26:31 But there's no longer the power to plant new karmic seeds. So that's extremely cool. So then you keep meditating on emptiness. You keep going into that meditation over and over and over again during the path of meditation and at a certain point after the seventh ground or seventh Bhumi, you've eliminated the old karmic seeds and all of your delusions and you're now liberated from saṃsāra on the bodhisattva track. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:31 Highlight the passage at 2:26:31

2:27:06 So it happens by the way. It's not your goal, but it just happens because you've eliminated karma and delusions, which is what causes you to be reborn in saṃsāra. So now we've eliminated that, but we have other obstacles to eliminate. We've got the obscurations to omniscience to eliminate. So that's what we work on on the last three bodhisattva grounds. And those are these subtle, subtle... Report an error in the passage at 2:27:06 Highlight the passage at 2:27:06

2:27:34 Tendencies that prevent us from seeing conventional and ultimate reality simultaneously, which only a Buddha can do. And there's a really interesting correlation between that and omniscience. So being able to see the thing and the emptiness of the thing at the same time, there's this really interesting relationship between that and omniscience. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:34 Highlight the passage at 2:27:34

2:27:59 And I ask every Tibetan Lama I run into and I've never gotten a good explanation. I think it's because I can't get it yet. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:59 Highlight the passage at 2:27:59

2:28:06 but that that obscuration Those obscurations to omniscience then are removed. Remember, and that's why we said the Buddha had to pretend to be meditating on emptiness because he could see it and be talking at the same time, but he went off in the corner and went like that. So those are eliminated. And then the path of no more learning, which is the goal of Buddhahood. Okay? And then you're an Arya Buddha at that point. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:06 Highlight the passage at 2:28:06

2:28:34 So that's a... A quick version of the five paths. And it's something, if it's the first time you've heard them, your head's probably swimming. But we'll keep going over them. This is kind of the last little component that you need to understand the Rest of the Heart Sūtra. Because Avalokiteshvara is telling us how to meditate on emptiness at each stage. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:34 Highlight the passage at 2:28:34

2:29:01 That's the instruction for the rest of the Heart Sūtra. He's given us the instruction for the path of accumulation and preparation. Meditate on the emptiness of the five aggregates. And that's our first instruction. So that's where we are in the Heart Sūtra. He's just given us our meditation instruction for these first two paths. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:01 Highlight the passage at 2:29:01

2:29:23 And then the instructions will come for the path of seeing, the path of meditation, each stage of it. Okay, so questions about this. Where to begin, right? Anything about... Yeah, Carla. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:23 Highlight the passage at 2:29:23

2:29:52 I just want to confirm, I think it was said earlier, but now looking at this chart, to clarify. Yeah. Can you have a direct realization of emptiness before being a bodhisattva, or you need an uncontrived bodhicitta? If you're going on the bodhisattva path, This way, you do it this way, but it is possible to be an aria before you're a bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:52 Highlight the passage at 2:29:52

2:30:23 They say for some beings of sharp faculties, sometimes they do that one first, but you still have to be at the path of accumulation and accumulating the merit. So they say, even for example, they say that you can be an arhat, you can already be liberated and be an arhat, Report an error in the passage at 2:30:23 Highlight the passage at 2:30:23

2:30:44 Enter the bodhisattva path, right? You newly generate bodhicitta, but you have to enter at the beginning of the path of accumulation. Even if you're already liberated from saṃsāra, but you don't have bodhicitta yet, you always have to enter here at the path of accumulation because you need to generate renunciation, bodhicitta, accumulate all of that merit. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:44 Highlight the passage at 2:30:44

2:31:09 So even if you've had the direct realization of emptiness before you've generated bodhicitta, you still need to generate bodhicitta and go through the path of accumulation, even if you're already an arhat. So even more for an Arya being who hasn't generated bodhicitta yet, they have to. Of course, obviously, they've already had the direct realization of emptiness, but we don't call it the path of seeing on the bodhisattva track until they've gone through. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:09 Highlight the passage at 2:31:09

2:31:36 Accumulating the virtue, generating bodhicitta like that. That's the way it's explained. So you don't somehow skip over. If you've had a direct realization of emptiness without bodhicitta, you don't sort of skip. You always have to go back to the beginning of the path of accumulation. Is it because of how we practice? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:36 Highlight the passage at 2:31:36

2:31:58 Yeah, yeah. It's how we accumulate merit as a bodhisattva. To create, because remember we talked about the six perfections, which creates the causes for the body and mind of a Buddha. And so we still need to create those causes. We still need that merit and practicing the six perfections to create the causes for the body and mind of a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:58 Highlight the passage at 2:31:58

2:32:19 So it's about how we practice, mostly in terms of the method side. Because we got the wisdom side, which is the same for both Aryas and Bodhisattvas, but we need to backtrack and catch up in terms of the method side. Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 2:32:19 Highlight the passage at 2:32:19

2:32:37 a couple more in the back. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:37 Highlight the passage at 2:32:37

2:32:46 So this is following the Sūtra teachings. And at one point, how the Tantrayana melts or... works together with suture because it seems like they are different time periods for It's really interesting to study the five paths as they're explained in terms of Tantra or Vajrayana. The five paths are explained but... Report an error in the passage at 2:32:46 Highlight the passage at 2:32:46

2:33:16 Where they happen for a tantric practitioner and what's going on in their practice is completely different. And that's very cool to study. For people who have that empowerment, highest yoga tantra empowerment, there's a book called Tantric Paths. Well, there's one called Grounds and Paths According to the Guya Samaja Tantra. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:16 Highlight the passage at 2:33:16

2:33:38 Unbelievable, fascinating. Also, there's a book by Daniel Cozart called Highest Yoga Tantra that talks about the five paths and when you get those realizations if you're practicing tantra. So we talk about the five. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:38 Highlight the passage at 2:33:38

2:33:52 The same way we do in the Sūtra Bodhisattva vehicle, we call this the Paramitayana, you know, the vehicle of the perfections. But what's happening in your tantric practice to give you those realizations is somewhat different than it is in Sūtra. Yeah. We had, yeah, Lynn. Wow. It's cool, huh? Isn't it exciting? This is previews of coming attractions. Because remember, we're on the chart. That's a great thing. So I'm thinking, I'm trying to think of examples. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:52 Highlight the passage at 2:33:52

2:34:36 Well, he says he's like here, and I think he's here. So it's just perspective. Are there any examples of anyone who would... Report an error in the passage at 2:34:36 Highlight the passage at 2:34:36

2:34:49 I bet they see themselves, but they won't say it, right? Because there's actually vows that you're not supposed to say your level of realization except to your closest students. So the cool thing that happens is then after that person manifests the aspect of passing away, their close disciples write books about what they really realized. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:49 Highlight the passage at 2:34:49

2:35:12 And actually Riba Rinpoche was working on a secret biography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama because he got the real scoop. And His Holiness will just tell us, oh, I'm a simple monk, and I really kind of admire the idea of bodhicitta. And then he tells Riba Rinpoche what's really going on, is you're allowed to tell your close disciples if it will inspire them. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:12 Highlight the passage at 2:35:12

2:35:33 And there's this great book called The Biography of Acharya Mun, this Thai forest master. And his closest disciple, who he talked to about his realizations, Spills the beans after he dies, and it actually has this passage that's just mind-blowing where he achieves liberation, and it talks about the meditation where he achieves liberation, and meanwhile he's dressed in rags and going around all humble with the begging bowl, and he's an arhat, you know, and he teaches the devas, there's this whole thing. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:33 Highlight the passage at 2:35:33

2:36:04 That he teaches the monks till midnight and then the monks go to bed and then all the devas come. And devas of different neighborhoods come for teachings on different nights, like the devas of this neighborhood have Tuesday night and the ones of there. I mean, it's mind-blowing stuff. And this is a Thai forest monk. This isn't even Vajrayana we're talking about. I mean, those are even more out of control. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:04 Highlight the passage at 2:36:04

2:36:24 So that's how we know, you know, because they told some close disciple. So sometimes we have these secret biographies. Apparently there's a secret biography of Lama Tsongkhapa. I don't think it's been translated in its entirety, but there's a book called Enlightened Beings by this friend of mine, Jan Willis, who's a professor at Wesleyan University. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:24 Highlight the passage at 2:36:24

2:36:45 And she gives the secret biography of five of these really major Galukpa lineage lamas and what was really going on. Behind the scenes, but there's all kinds of vows that you're just humble and you don't show off. Because for me, if His Holiness the Dalai Lama tooted his own horn a lot, it would be weird. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:45 Highlight the passage at 2:36:45

2:37:06 But he says, oh, I'm a simple monk and I admire bodhicitta, and then you just look at what he's doing. And for me, that gives me more faith, which is why I think you have the vow. You know, it's one of the monastic vows, actually. There's all these monastic vows about not talking about your realizations because it doesn't really promote faith unless it's somebody really, really close to you. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:06 Highlight the passage at 2:37:06

2:37:26 But to publicly make declarations usually makes people suspicious rather than inspired. You know, a lot of us have a vow to have it. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:26 Highlight the passage at 2:37:26

2:37:40 Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:40 Highlight the passage at 2:37:40

2:37:45 Look at the qualities. They're so obvious. I mean, look at His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He'll never say it as any quality and it just exudes, I mean, it's just like radiance. It's unbelievable. So I think you just look at the qualities, which are just so clear. You know, don't trust the words that they say about themselves, but it's just you can taste it. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:45 Highlight the passage at 2:37:45

2:38:03 You know, you can really feel it. I mean, you look at Lama Zopa and he says, I'm the greatest simpleton among the disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha. And you're like, yeah, right. You know, no, that's me. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:03 Highlight the passage at 2:38:03

2:38:14 And you just look at their activity and you can just taste that there's like no ego at all. I mean I've just never gotten a shred of any kind of ego around Lama Zopa ever in 20 years of being really close to him for many years like working for him and zero. You can tell. You can tell. They don't have to say it. You can feel it. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:14 Highlight the passage at 2:38:14

2:38:39 What happened to Reva Rinpoche's biography of His I guess the next rebirth is going to work on it. I hope. I don't know. I don't know. So let's see. Matthew. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:39 Highlight the passage at 2:38:39

2:38:59 Somebody mentioned that this chart is based on the sūtra path. Yes. And so this is something that I've always, I guess, well, I haven't understood. I always assumed that, because you said that... No, it's not completely different. We still have the five paths. It happens in different, you know, not in a different order. It's still in the same order. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:59 Highlight the passage at 2:38:59

2:39:26 You still have the direct realization of emptiness. All I'm saying is it's very interesting to study which practices lead to, you know, if you have those empowerments, which practices you do to get to that point. And the time frame is quite different, right? Because we can get the whole thing in one life. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:26 Highlight the passage at 2:39:26

2:39:45 Whereas the time frame according to the sūtra is, you know, many eons to progress along the five paths. So it's not different in terms of the realizations and in terms of the order, but it is different in terms, you know, it's just unique in terms of what meditations are you doing to get the realizations of the path. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:45 Highlight the passage at 2:39:45

2:40:04 Yeah. Okay. So within this tradition, there is no like non-tantric path. Yeah, there is. You know, you can do the whole thing according to sūtra, or you can do it according to tantra. And most of us do both, right? Like we incorporate, of course, because the sutras are the basis of everything. And then, you know, tantra is just techniques. It's not any different conceptually from the bodhisattva path. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:04 Highlight the passage at 2:40:04

2:40:34 It's just specific techniques of the Mahāyāna. So it's not like a whole different yana. It's not like you have Theravāda and then Mahāyāna and then Vajrayana. It's a subset of very, very specific techniques that you use within the Mahāyāna. Yeah, yeah. The other question I had, could you repeat, you were talking about the obscurations to omissions, abandon. Yeah. What was the quality of that? Report an error in the passage at 2:40:34 Highlight the passage at 2:40:34

2:41:12 Okay, it's to see, remember we said that, you know, until you're a Buddha, you have to flip back and forth between a direct realization of emptiness where nothing is appearing at all. It's the empty pizza box thing, right? It's just that mere absence is the only thing that appears. And then you come out of that and you see things the way they always are. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:12 Highlight the passage at 2:41:12

2:41:35 So you can't see the emptiness of the Thangka of Medicine Buddha and the Thangka of Medicine Buddha simultaneously. Use that as your object of meditation and then when you have that direct realization of emptiness, that conventional object disappears from your consciousness. All you're seeing is that mere absence. Until you're a Buddha and then... Report an error in the passage at 2:41:35 Highlight the passage at 2:41:35

2:41:55 They're simultaneous. So the obscurations to omniscience are those subtle, subtle tendencies for seeing things as self-existent that prevent that simultaneity of perceiving ultimate and conventional reality at the same time. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:55 Highlight the passage at 2:41:55

2:42:15 And what that's like, God knows. I don't know. That's what they say. I'm a visual person. Me too. Help me out here. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:15 Highlight the passage at 2:42:15

2:42:36 Okay. I'm looking up there and I see the mere absence of the tonka and that's all I'm seeing. No, you're not looking at it. When you're getting the mere absence, it's not visual seeing. Realize it. So actually, can you eat? Can you even know how to lie down? I mean, your mind wouldn't even be looking for bed because it would... No, when you're in that realization. When you're in that realization, nothing is appearing. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:36 Highlight the passage at 2:42:36

2:43:05 You ain't thinking about bed, food. It's just you're there. Was anybody here when Geshe-la said that recently and I burst into tears? Which part did he say? That nothing existed. And I don't mean, you know, anything. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:05 Highlight the passage at 2:43:05

2:43:22 I thought, wait a minute, I've been listening to these dating for years, I never heard, but I'm hearing it again right now. If that's what I'm saying, I think I'm hearing nothing, nothing appears. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:22 Highlight the passage at 2:43:22

2:43:35 Nada. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:35 Highlight the passage at 2:43:35

2:43:39 Visually, that's a big deal for me. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:39 Highlight the passage at 2:43:39

2:43:45 It's the empty pizza box thing. Tell me it's blissful. It's apparently, that's what they say. I'll find that book, I swear. I'll read it to you in the morning because it's amazing. It's this whole passage titled Meditating on Emptiness or Meditation on Emptiness and then it's this whole thing and it's just like so personal and I swear and then at the end he goes, hey, but not like I've seen it. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:45 Highlight the passage at 2:43:45

2:44:12 Yeah, yeah. I'm sure it's somewhere in this. Okay, bring it. Bring it just in case. I think Chogky has it. Where is she? She's gone. Yeah, right. Is this when you buy your socket? Report an error in the passage at 2:44:12 Highlight the passage at 2:44:12

2:44:22 Do you have that book of the teachings from the Vajrasapha retreat? Great. Okay, got it. We're on it, Lynn. We're on it. Because I'll just read you, I mean, the whole thing is ten pages, but I'll read you the going through the river thing, and then what he says, the joy that happens when you see it. It's awesome. When you see it. When you realize it. All right. Is that enough to chew on overnight? Report an error in the passage at 2:44:22 Highlight the passage at 2:44:22

2:44:50 Yeah, okay. So you have all the pieces. Are you okay? Does everybody promise to come back tomorrow and get the rest, please? Okay. Okay. Great. That's the right answer. Okay. Review your notes. If you have them, review your chart. You know, see, get ready for a review and you know I call on you by name. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:50 Highlight the passage at 2:44:50

2:45:17 Okay. So we'll review what we've gotten up to, all the chunks, and then we'll finish the rest of the sūtra. It's always like this, by the way. We're in three paragraphs in on the first day because we have to explain all the concepts before we can get to the rest of the sūtra. We did it in two days with Spanish translation, so I promise you we can do it. Finish the sūtra tomorrow. Because once you get all the basic concepts, the rest of it just goes easily. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:17 Highlight the passage at 2:45:17

2:45:45 All right. Right on. Sort of easily. More easily. Alright, so let's take a minute to dedicate thinking of all of the positive energy that we've generated from our sessions. Unbelievable. Really unbelievable to be thinking of these concepts all day long. Unbelievable merit. Incredible. Huge. Just to doubt it for even a second and we've been... Report an error in the passage at 2:45:45 Highlight the passage at 2:45:45

2:46:14 Looking at these concepts deeply, doing the meditation, so let's dedicate all of that energy towards being able to attain the path of seeing on the bodhisattva track, that realization that will cut the root of saṃsāra and get us free. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:14 Highlight the passage at 2:46:14

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:47:14 Great, thank you. So tomorrow we'll review and we'll get to those famous cryptic lines. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:14 Highlight the passage at 2:47:14