Exploring the Heart Sutra: the Essence of Wisdom (25 October 2009, part 1)

0:00 I don't really have any other announcements. I'm going to make an announcement later, a couple of announcements later in the day. But I think just thanks. I haven't been able to sit in as much as I was intending to. But thanks to you all who have really been pushing the mic. We really appreciate it because I myself will be listening to this. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:18 And I'll know if I hear a voice who's not using a mic, I will find you. I know, but then I'll hear Janet's voice going, Mike! Right, good. Actually, Marcella, thank you. She's our plant. Can people turn off their cell phones if you still have one in your pocket that's not been turned off? At the end of the day, we will also offer a Thanksgiving Body, Speech and Mind, and I'm going to grab a few of you to help me with that. But nothing in this early morning session, so thanks. Report an error in the passage at 0:18 Highlight the passage at 0:18

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1:22 nanoseconds, or you can do extra minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:22 Highlight the passage at 1:22

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3:49 get in. So I don't knock over the microphone. Report an error in the passage at 3:49 Highlight the passage at 3:49

4:05 How's everybody doing, survivors of yesterday? Did everybody go to bed at about 7.30? People here were saying, you made my head hurt. Sorry. Report an error in the passage at 4:05 Highlight the passage at 4:05

4:24 So we're going to sit for a few minutes to set our motivation. And then we're going to start with... Reading through the sūtra and stopping at that point to do a meditation. So we'll begin with the meditation, stopping at that point of right after the paragraph we've gotten up to. The first part of Avalokiteshvara is to guide you through that meditation. We'll do kind of a briefer version of what we did yesterday. Report an error in the passage at 4:24 Highlight the passage at 4:24

4:59 But first let's sit on just for a few minutes. And then set our motivation for today's teachings. Report an error in the passage at 4:59 Highlight the passage at 4:59

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6:23 So let's think again that we're meditating on emptiness, studying emptiness in order to eliminate the root ignorance. That's the cause of saṃsāra. That wisdom that arises from that understanding is necessary for both liberation and full enlightenment. And we're aiming to become a perfectly... Report an error in the passage at 6:23 Highlight the passage at 6:23

6:52 Qualified guide for all living beings, a fully enlightened Buddha. So just take a minute to set your motivation. It's bodhicitta motivation for our study and practice today. Can Report an error in the passage at 6:52 Highlight the passage at 6:52

7:37 we close that window while we're doing the meditation? It's just a little bit loud. Okay, so let's read the sūtra starting with the title on page 77 and then we'll pause at the top of page 80. Right before form is empty and then we'll do the meditation on the five aggregates. The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra Arya Bhagavati Prajna Paramita Hiddaya Sūtra I prostrate to the Arya Triple Gem. Thus did I hear at one time the Bhagavan was dwelling on massive vultures mountain in Rajagriha together with a great community of monks and a great community of bodhisattvas. Report an error in the passage at 7:37 Highlight the passage at 7:37

8:24 At that time the Bhagavan was absorbed in the concentration on the categories of phenomena called profound perception. Also at that time the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokiteshvara looked upon the very practice of the profound perfection of wisdom and beheld those five aggregates also is empty of inherent nature. Report an error in the passage at 8:24 Highlight the passage at 8:24

8:47 Then through the power of Buddha the venerable Shariputra said this to the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokiteshvara How should any son of the lineage train who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection He said that, and the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokitesvara said this to the venerable Sharidvati Putra. Report an error in the passage at 8:47 Highlight the passage at 8:47

9:12 Shariputra, any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom, look upon it like this, correctly and repeatedly beholding those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature. Report an error in the passage at 9:12 Highlight the passage at 9:12

9:34 So first we'll look at the emptiness of each of the five aggregates and then see how what we call the self is nothing other than that which is merely labeled on the basis of those five aggregates. So first we have the form aggregate and in terms of the personal self, that's our body, material form. Report an error in the passage at 9:34 Highlight the passage at 9:34

10:10 It's a product of causes and conditions, the substances of our parents, all the nutrition that we got, the exercise and so forth. So take a minute just to reflect on this level, dependent arising. And Report an error in the passage at 10:10 Highlight the passage at 10:10

10:55 then our body is composed of parts, what we call my body is a collection of all the various parts, arms, the legs, the torso, the head. Report an error in the passage at 10:55 Highlight the passage at 10:55

11:15 How many of these parts could be missing before we can no longer say my body? Report an error in the passage at 11:15 Highlight the passage at 11:15

11:37 And then all of these parts are made of smaller parts, their components, all the way down to cells, molecules, atoms, subatomic particles. So just take a minute to analyze your body, seeing how it's composed of all these constituent parts from the grossest. At the subtlest Report an error in the passage at 11:37 Highlight the passage at 11:37

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13:17 level, we arise in dependence on conceptual imputation. So my body, I have a concept in my mind, my body. And then I lay that concept, label those constituent parts, and I think my body. Report an error in the passage at 13:17 Highlight the passage at 13:17

13:46 At that subtlest level, my body is created. By my concepts, by my imputation. There's no body there. There's all these different parts and on top of that, that collection, I label my body and it seems unitary. It seems like it was there already from its own side to reflect on this. Report an error in the passage at 13:46 Highlight the passage at 13:46

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15:12 And then we have our mental constituents. We have our consciousness. The mind that is that which is clear and knowing, just that clarity, the ability to hold an object and be aware of the object that the consciousness is holding. We have the five sense consciousnesses and then the sixth, the mental consciousness, the object of that consciousness is thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 15:12 Highlight the passage at 15:12

15:48 So think this consciousness, every moment of consciousness is produced by the last. That's the cause. Previous moment of consciousness giving rise to the next moment of consciousness. And Report an error in the passage at 15:48 Highlight the passage at 15:48

16:10 then for every moment of sense consciousness or mental consciousness, we have an object that the consciousness comes into contact with, giving rise to the sense experience. Report an error in the passage at 16:10 Highlight the passage at 16:10

16:28 Or a thought. Report an error in the passage at 16:28 Highlight the passage at 16:28

16:33 The consciousness doesn't exist in any way independent of its causes and conditions, the parts that go into making up that experience. Any given experience doesn't come from its own side, it's a product. Report an error in the passage at 16:33 Highlight the passage at 16:33

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17:53 Mind consciousness is created by my concepts. I just take this aspect of mind, that which is clear and aware, and holds an object. Report an error in the passage at 17:53 Highlight the passage at 17:53

18:06 And I label that consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 18:06 Highlight the passage at 18:06

18:12 I'm separating out that aspect and Report an error in the passage at 18:12 Highlight the passage at 18:12

18:21 creating it by the label, by the concept consciousness. And Report an error in the passage at 18:21 Highlight the passage at 18:21

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19:10 then there's discrimination or discernment after the initial sense contact. We have some recognition of the object. The factor of recognition, discrimination, discernment. Report an error in the passage at 19:10 Highlight the passage at 19:10

19:31 So again, dependent on that sense consciousness, on the object, on memory. For example, if we recognize something, we have some association with that. So it doesn't arise independently. It's dependent on all these causes and conditions, on these parts. We Report an error in the passage at 19:31 Highlight the passage at 19:31

20:05 tell the difference between things, dependence on our memory, on recognition. Prior learning, for example, Report an error in the passage at 20:05 Highlight the passage at 20:05

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21:01 we create the aggregate of discrimination by our labeling. We're taking that one aspect of experience, pulling it out, carving it out, separating it from the other aspects of our awareness and calling that discrimination. We're creating it by our concepts. We Report an error in the passage at 21:01 Highlight the passage at 21:01

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22:03 have feeling that arises. On the basis of that sense contact, on the basis of that recognition, some basic feeling of pleasant, unpleasant, neutral. Report an error in the passage at 22:03 Highlight the passage at 22:03

22:19 Again, very dependent, not at all independent, that feeling. Very dependent on the recognition, on the object. Also often on past association and memory, giving rise to some feeling of pleasant, unpleasant. Neutral. And Report an error in the passage at 22:19 Highlight the passage at 22:19

23:01 then again, in any moment of sense contact with an object, there's so many different things going on, but we're separating out that one factor of feeling, creating a concept, the feeling aggregate. Report an error in the passage at 23:01 Highlight the passage at 23:01

23:20 It's created by our conceptual imputation, by our designation. Report an error in the passage at 23:20 Highlight the passage at 23:20

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24:00 And then we have compositional factors, which are all of the other mental factors. That make up our experience, that flavor our raw sense contact. We have all of the things we call emotions, both negative and positive. We have the six omnipresent mental factors, things like attention, intention. We have certain neutral ones that are neither necessarily negative or positive, but all of the other mental factors. Report an error in the passage at 24:00 Highlight the passage at 24:00

24:40 That flavor our experience. And again, we're making these categories. We're making lists, categories, labeling, creating these factors through our concepts, through our imputation. Report an error in the passage at 24:40 Highlight the passage at 24:40

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25:27 And then the collection of all of these factors together, all of these five aggregates, we label on these parts, me. We're nothing other than... That which is merely labeled on that collection of aggregates, just like we did with the body, just like we do with the cup. In the very same way, we take these constituent parts and we label me. There's no solid, unchanging essence somewhere inside of us that's me. Report an error in the passage at 25:27 Highlight the passage at 25:27

26:06 The consciousness itself isn't me. What me is, the way we do exist. This is that which is merely labeled by concepts on these five aggregates. So think deeply. This is how we exist. And Report an error in the passage at 26:06 Highlight the passage at 26:06

26:43 our emptiness is our lack of existing in any other way. There's no other way we do exist. That way we always thought we existed is having some solid essence somewhere, something beyond our component parts doesn't exist at all. Report an error in the passage at 26:43 Highlight the passage at 26:43

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27:36 Again, the way we do exist is merely labeled by concepts. We have an idea, me, a concept. We label on the five aggregates. And our emptiness is our lack of existing in any other way than this. Form Report an error in the passage at 27:36 Highlight the passage at 27:36

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29:05 is empty. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form. Form is also not other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors and consciousness are empty. Shariputra, likewise, all phenomena are emptiness, without characteristic, unproduced, unceased, stainless, not without stain, not deficient, not fulfilled. Report an error in the passage at 29:05 Highlight the passage at 29:05

29:36 Shariputra, therefore in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no discrimination, no compositional factors, no consciousness, no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no visual form, no sound, no odor, no taste, no object of touch and no phenomenon. There is no I element and so on, up to and including no mind element and no mental consciousness element. There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance and so on, up to and including no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death. Report an error in the passage at 29:36 Highlight the passage at 29:36

30:18 Similarly, there is no suffering, origination, cessation and path. There is no exalted wisdom, no attainment and also no non-attainment. Shariputra, therefore, because there is no attainment, bodhisattvas rely on and dwell in the perfection of wisdom, mind without obscuration and without fear. Having completely passed beyond error, they reach the end point of nirvāṇa. Report an error in the passage at 30:18 Highlight the passage at 30:18

30:47 All the Buddhas who dwell in the three times also manifestly, completely awaken to unsurpassable, perfect, complete enlightenment in reliance on the perfection of wisdom. Therefore, the mantra of the perfection of wisdom, the mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra equal to the unequaled, the mantra that thoroughly pacifies all suffering, should be known as truth since it is not false. Report an error in the passage at 30:47 Highlight the passage at 30:47

31:16 The mantra of the perfection of wisdom is declared, tayata, gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhisoha. Shariputra, the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva should train in the profound perfection of wisdom like that. Then the Bhagavan arose from that concentration and commended the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Arya, Avalokiteshvara, saying, Well said, well said, son of the lineage, it is like that, it is like that. One should practice the profound perfection of wisdom, just as you have indicated. Report an error in the passage at 31:16 Highlight the passage at 31:16

31:53 Even the Tathagathas rejoice. The Bhagavan having thus spoken, the Venerable Sarivati Putra, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokitesvara. Those surrounding in their entirety, along with the world of gods, humans, asuras and Gandharvas, were overjoyed and highly praised that spoken by the Bhagavan. Report an error in the passage at 31:53 Highlight the passage at 31:53

32:21 We've got a couple of empty seats over here and one there. If anybody who's in the back and can't see wants to move up, they learn now that I call on people, so they're hiding in the back. They were talking about that yesterday. Oh my God, you call on people. Report an error in the passage at 32:21 Highlight the passage at 32:21

32:42 So let's review where we got up to yesterday. So we started talking about the setting of the sūtra. We're in Vulture's Peak with the Buddha and an assembly of monks, meaning arhats, highly realized beings who are not bodhisattvas. Report an error in the passage at 32:42 Highlight the passage at 32:42

33:05 And they're great in different ways. We've got two great assemblies. Okay, so one is great in that they're arhats, they're of high spiritual realization, and great in the case of the bodhisattvas was all those phrases that we talked about, those seven different meanings, having vast activities, vast... Report an error in the passage at 33:05 Highlight the passage at 33:05

33:25 Vision, you know, trying to help so many sentient beings and I was saying that list always reminds me of Lama Zopa Rinpoche when I read that, you know, just kind of this incredible, vast view and, you know, incredible activities. So we're up there and then Lord Buddha pretends to go into meditation on emptiness. He sits down. Report an error in the passage at 33:25 Highlight the passage at 33:25

33:45 Everybody's expecting him to talk. They're all gathered around. They're all sitting there waiting for the teaching. And he pretends to go into meditation on emptiness. And why do I say he pretends? Report an error in the passage at 33:45 Highlight the passage at 33:45

33:56 Chris knows why he pretends. Where's the microphone? Chris, you might have to run up here. In fact, there's this seat right next to Ben if you want to get a better view. Report an error in the passage at 33:56 Highlight the passage at 33:56

34:11 He's running around now, coming through now. There we go. Report an error in the passage at 34:11 Highlight the passage at 34:11

34:17 Because the Buddha has already achieved full and complete enlightenment, he has the ability to see emptiness and conventional reality at the same time. Perfect. Exactly, right? So the Buddha doesn't have to meditate on emptiness the way that the rest of us do, right? He doesn't have to sit there and close his eyes and do anything, because he's seeing it all the time anyway. Report an error in the passage at 34:17 Highlight the passage at 34:17

34:38 So he can see conventional reality and emptiness simultaneously. So he's just what we call taking the aspect, and this is an interesting concept to learn, because you'll hear this a lot, like the more you get into Tibetan Buddhism. This is something we emphasize a lot in the Vajrayana. We say that whenever, you know, if we have a tantric teacher, part of the training of the Vajrayana is to see them as a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 34:38 Highlight the passage at 34:38

35:02 And so if they seem to be sick, you know, if they seem to be dying of cancer, we say they're taking the aspect. We don't say they've got cancer. Because it's a specific pure vision, the specific technique of the Vajrayana. So you'll hear this in this sort of Tibetan Buddhist context. The idea of taking the aspect or manifesting the aspect is how it's called. So Buddha goes off taking the aspect of meditating on emptiness and then through the power of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 35:02 Highlight the passage at 35:02

35:34 And what does that mean? It's got a specific meaning here. Who remembers what through the power of the Buddha something else starts happening? John. Report an error in the passage at 35:34 Highlight the passage at 35:34

35:52 It's kind of like the Buddha is pulling the strings on this one and going. and, and, uh, I forget the Tibetan that you used yesterday, but going and causing a manifestation through Shariputra and Avalokiteshvara to get them to start discussing between themselves this concept that he already knows. Right, right, right. Exactly. And so this is one of the ways that... Report an error in the passage at 35:52 Highlight the passage at 35:52

36:23 Emanation bodies function, and that's why I thought it was interesting to discuss it a little bit, because we have this whole idea of emanation bodies, tuku is the Tibetan word, nirmanakai is the Sanskrit word, and we always think of somebody like His Holiness. They're born, they decide to just shoot out a body like... Report an error in the passage at 36:23 Highlight the passage at 36:23

36:41 That, you know, and it happens in two other ways too. And one of them is this, I call it channeling, except instead of Ramtha or whoever it is, it's like Lord Buddha. You know, just through the blessing of the Buddha, you know, these two people start to have a conversation. And have you ever noticed that when you're trying to help somebody? Report an error in the passage at 36:41 Highlight the passage at 36:41

37:00 Sometimes you just feel like something else takes you over completely. And you just feel like it's not your own volition. I feel that way sometimes when I'm teaching, especially when I'm totally clueless. Like some student asks a question, I'm like, I don't have any idea. And then all of a sudden I'll start saying something. And I'm like, wow, that's profound. Where did that come from? And then the student's like, oh, thank you so much. That's exactly what I was like. Report an error in the passage at 37:00 Highlight the passage at 37:00

37:25 I don't know where that came from. That happens all the time. It's interesting as a teacher because I set my motivation for that. When I sit down before I teach, I'm like, look, I don't have a clue. Tenzin Chogkyi doesn't have a clue, but she's up here as your representative right now, so please channel. Report an error in the passage at 37:25 Highlight the passage at 37:25

37:41 I appreciate it. Whatever wisdom you guys have, channel it through me. You can feel that sometimes when you're really trying to help someone, especially I think when you are totally clueless the most is when that can happen. Brian has a question. Where's the mic? Report an error in the passage at 37:41 Highlight the passage at 37:41

38:02 You said there were three kinds of emanations. Yeah. You said the first two and it was just kind of bothering me. Right, right, right. What was the third one? The third one, the word that they use, they sometimes translate as artisan emanation. And what it means is it can even be an inanimate object. Like Master Shantideva says, a dog, a bridge, like why he picked those two examples. A Buddha can emanate. Report an error in the passage at 38:02 Highlight the passage at 38:02

38:28 Like even an inanimate object, you know, or a dog or something. It doesn't need to be one like His Holiness and it doesn't need to be one like the channeling kind. It could be anything that you encounter. What was that called again? Artisan. They call it artisan emanation. Artisan emanation. And I think they call it artisan because it's like temporarily just creating something kind of out of nothing. Report an error in the passage at 38:28 Highlight the passage at 38:28

38:50 So you should be really suspicious all the time. You know, I have this theory that we should be pronoid all the time. Pronoia is just assuming that everything in your reality is conspiring to get you enlightened because we don't know what's a Buddha and what's not. It could be anybody, you know, and I think going around with that attitude of like anybody I encounter. Report an error in the passage at 38:50 Highlight the passage at 38:50

39:14 Could be a Buddha emanating. And it's not just the ones that are nice to you and sit up in front of the room with some weird outfit on and a shaved head. Like it's usually the annoying ones, you know. It's the ones that really teach you patience and it's the ones that push all your buttons. I think if a Buddha was really emanating to help us, that's how they'd manifest. Report an error in the passage at 39:14 Highlight the passage at 39:14

39:33 Yeah, they'd shoot off a couple that look like the kindly teacher, you know, just to kind of keep you from... You know, despairing altogether, but then mostly they show up as the ones that like teach you lessons, you know, in your life and cause you to practice things like patience. So I think it's kind of interesting to go around with this pro-noid attitude, you know, towards everybody. And it really cuts down the mental afflictions. If that horrible person yelling at you, you think, wow, it could just be a Buddha emanating to really help me right now, to help mirror. Report an error in the passage at 39:33 Highlight the passage at 39:33

40:06 So often when we get upset at somebody, it's because they're mirroring some quality in us that we can't stand. So see them as a teacher instead of seeing them as an object of your anger. It's like if somebody's criticizing you, see what's the grain of truth in what they're saying. Okay, they may not be saying it in such a great way, but could they be a Buddha just showing me something about myself? Report an error in the passage at 40:06 Highlight the passage at 40:06

40:31 So it's a really useful way. Whether it's true or not, it doesn't matter. Then you take everybody as your teacher. Because we don't know whether they really are a Buddha or not. But don't even waste a whole bunch of time worrying about that part. Just take it as if they were. And you'll progress really fast. So go around with that pronoid attitude. Report an error in the passage at 40:31 Highlight the passage at 40:31

40:51 Could you repeat the first two? Report an error in the passage at 40:51 Highlight the passage at 40:51

40:59 you repeat the first two? Yeah, so the first two, okay, so the three of them, one is called a rebirth emanation, okay, we can, you know, it's useful to just think of rebirth emanation, blessed emanation and then this artisan emanation and those are the three kinds of emanation bodies that's talked about. Report an error in the passage at 40:59 Highlight the passage at 40:59

41:22 Janet's got something and then Lynn I think has something, unless that was the same something. I had heard a story once, I don't know exactly the details, something of a family and there was some problem and it was going to be solved by some animal, dog or something that they needed. His Holiness emanated as a dog in order to help this family. So that would be like an artisan. So it's like a magical emanation. Report an error in the passage at 41:22 Highlight the passage at 41:22

41:49 So that they can appear for you in whatever form you need at that moment and then just... Exactly. However long they're needed there. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And we were talking about that. We were talking about Vajrapani and somehow this came up and we said, okay, His Holiness is the rebirth emanation, but it's not like that being isn't. Report an error in the passage at 41:49 Highlight the passage at 41:49

42:10 A lot of other places at the same time doing other things. And you can have more than one rebirth emanation too. Like you can have a bunch of rebirth emanations plus you're doing all kinds of other stuff manifesting as dogs and bridges and God knows what and the annoying co-workers and everything else to benefit beings. Report an error in the passage at 42:10 Highlight the passage at 42:10

42:30 You know, you're not restricted to just that one form or the form that looks in a certain way. And they say it's to benefit beings. So whatever it looks like benefits beings. It benefits us to have somebody in our world like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but His holy activities are certainly not restricted to that one manifestation. Report an error in the passage at 42:30 Highlight the passage at 42:30

42:51 But He shows up like that because that's what we can relate to and that really helps us. But He could be everybody else in our life who's ever taught us anything, could be the same being. But I mean also the potential to take a form without going through the entire birth process. Yeah, right. And that's what the artisan part of it means? Report an error in the passage at 42:51 Highlight the passage at 42:51

43:13 It's just kind of creative? Yeah, that's what I was talking about. You can manifest as a person, you can manifest as a dog or a bridge, as long as you're needed, and then... Right, right. Because when a person goes away from you, you don't know where they're going. Yeah, yeah. You don't know if they're here anymore. Yeah, you have no idea. Right, right, yeah. So the whole missing persons thing takes on a whole... On the milk cartons. Report an error in the passage at 43:13 Highlight the passage at 43:13

43:36 Who were they, anyway? It could be anybody. Yeah, John. I just thought this was kind of amusing on the same topic there. Because about a month ago, I was on the phone with my mom talking about something. And I was in this frame of mind. I was like, oh, I am so great. I figured this out. I am so cool. Yay! Aren't I wonderful? And at the time, there was this dog. Report an error in the passage at 43:36 Highlight the passage at 43:36

44:04 That I run into all the time. And the dog was sitting there listening to me on the phone with my mom. And when I was going on and telling her, I'm so great. Aren't I cool? Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay. The dog went over about five feet away, faced to turn me and proceeded to pee on a bush, all the while looking at me. Report an error in the passage at 44:04 Highlight the passage at 44:04

44:24 And when it was done, it came back over and sat at my feet and kept on looking at me. And I was like... Oh my, I just got schooled by a dog. That's crazy. And it was crazy because like the rest, I realized like, oh, wait a minute. Oh. That's humbling. That's what the dog thought of me being all like, oh, I'm so wonderful. And for the rest of the day, I was like, wow. Report an error in the passage at 44:24 Highlight the passage at 44:24

44:47 Getting dissed by a dog. That's pretty bad. No, there's like that artist in emanation. It's like, wow, the dog put me in the place I needed to be because I was all egotistical and I was humbled for the rest of the day. That's awesome. This friend of mine does this thing he calls spiritual revisionism and he says go back through your life looking for those emanation bodies and those special teachers that showed you extra attention or the person next to you on the bus that told you about Seichen Lange Center or whoever it is. Report an error in the passage at 44:47 Highlight the passage at 44:47

45:18 Because chances are if you're in this room you've run into more than a few. Everybody in this room has intense karmic imprints from the past. On a beautiful weekend in San Francisco, you're stuck in this stuffy room with me. And the chances are very high. In fact, I say 100 % certain that you've run into these. And they're showing up for you all the time. So it's cool to tune into that. Report an error in the passage at 45:18 Highlight the passage at 45:18

45:49 It's very cool to kind of be thinking. And then when you have those encounters, to just think, oh, who is that? Is that an emanation of a Buddha? Yeah, there's a question. you know, shows. Report an error in the passage at 45:49 Highlight the passage at 45:49

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46:09 We really need a cordless mic. You were talking about dogs, emanations. One of the most moving for me is Asangas. Yeah. I think it's, for me, so moving. I always remember it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And who, you know, and if we had really purified our vision, because remember, what we perceive is completely forced on us by our karma. Report an error in the passage at 46:09 Highlight the passage at 46:09

46:36 And that story of Asanga is a perfect example of, you know, we can't see. You know, what might be there at a deeper level. We just see what we have the karma to perceive. And they say sometimes it's a miracle that we can perceive our teachers at all and don't just see them as like a dog or a donkey or something. Report an error in the passage at 46:36 Highlight the passage at 46:36

46:54 You know, that we can even see them as a teacher. Like already shows that we've purified so much, you know, because and that shows again the relationship between karma and emptiness. Because it's empty, you know, our karma... It causes us to have the kind of perception that we have and if we purify it, so they say, you know, everything appears as a Buddha paradise and it's not somewhere like Amitabha's pure land ain't somewhere out there. Report an error in the passage at 46:54 Highlight the passage at 46:54

47:22 It could be this room, if you have that kind of karma, to have that kind of perception. So that's really important. It's not like heaven's out there somewhere. This room could be nirvāṇa. This room could be a Buddha paradise for somebody with the right kind of karma to perceive it as such. And that's what that means. Report an error in the passage at 47:22 Highlight the passage at 47:22

47:41 Because the appearance is completely dependent on the karma and there's nothing there from its own side. Yeah, great. Good example. Alright, so let's see. Where were we? So let's review. So that was what was happening. We're having this channeled conversation between Avalokiteshvara and then the Buddha's blessing causes Shariputra to ask a question. Report an error in the passage at 47:41 Highlight the passage at 47:41

48:03 We said it's really weird because Shariputra is said to be the foremost among the Buddha's disciples in terms of his wisdom. So here he's asking this really basic question. Oh, let's backtrack a little bit. So the Buddha is meditating on... Having a direct realization of emptiness of all the categories of phenomena and simultaneously Avalokiteshvara is having an intellectual Meditation on the emptiness of the five aggregates, which he starts explaining to us right afterwards. It's intellectual because he's just getting ready to talk. Report an error in the passage at 48:03 Highlight the passage at 48:03

48:36 And if he were having a direct perception, he'd be in deep meditation. You can't have a direct realization of emptiness unless you're in deep meditation, unless you're a Buddha. But for the rest of us, you have to be in deep meditation to have that realization. And then you come out and everything appears the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 48:36 Highlight the passage at 48:36

48:54 But when people say, oh I had a direct realization of emptiness like on the bus when I was looking out the window, no. You had something, hopefully, but it wasn't a direct realization of emptiness because that only is happening in deep meditation. So then Shariputra, the foremost of the Buddha's disciples in terms of his wisdom, but in this context he's an arhat, he's not a bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 48:54 Highlight the passage at 48:54

49:19 Ask Avalokiteshvara, how do you guys... Meditate on emptiness, right? He's an arhat, he obviously knows how the other guys meditate on emptiness, but he's asking the bodhisattva, how do you guys do it? How do you practice the profound, how do those sons of the lineage, meaning the bodhisattvas, practice and meditate on emptiness? So he says that, and then Avalokiteshvara says, we meditate on the emptiness of the five aggregates. Report an error in the passage at 49:19 Highlight the passage at 49:19

49:47 And he's talking about the beginning of the path. He's saying first meditate on the emptiness of the five aggregates also and the emptiness of the self. And that's what that also means. Both all of them separately and all of them together and see how those empty aggregates make up the empty self. Because that's the only way the self exists. So he's saying meditate on the emptiness of yourself and on the component parts. Report an error in the passage at 49:47 Highlight the passage at 49:47

50:17 And that's how you meditate at this stage of the path. And why are we meditating on the emptiness of the aggregates and not the emptiness of the cup or the room or something else? Report an error in the passage at 50:17 Highlight the passage at 50:17

50:30 Catherine. Report an error in the passage at 50:30 Highlight the passage at 50:30

50:35 Because if we can understand that the self is empty, then we can understand everything else is empty. Yeah, yeah. And that's our main object of attachment. That's what causes the delusion. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's the root ignorance, it's about everything, but mostly what gets us in trouble is somehow thinking that there's some inherent existence to the self. Report an error in the passage at 50:35 Highlight the passage at 50:35

50:56 So again, how does this help us practically? It all sounds very highfalutin and theoretical. How does understanding that we're only that which is merely labeled by concepts on the aggregates help us suffer less? Because that's the point, right? So I had this example. Some of you have heard it. And it happened a couple of years ago. And it was just like so perfect. I keep telling it in class. Report an error in the passage at 50:56 Highlight the passage at 50:56

51:19 I did something. I can't remember what I did. You know, just did something motivated because it's me somehow by flailing around trying to find happiness and avoid suffering. Because that's my motivation for most everything I do. So I did something. And one person in my life thought it was the most... Report an error in the passage at 51:19 Highlight the passage at 51:19

51:37 Horrific, selfish act of the most self-absorbed person they've ever encountered in their life. And then another friend saw the very same thing and saw it was like the enlightened activity of an emanation of bodhicitta. Meanwhile, I'm in the middle like, you know, whatever. And it just, like, I couldn't, how could I react? It was so extreme. Report an error in the passage at 51:37 Highlight the passage at 51:37

52:01 I think that that was a... A point where I really got how emptiness helps because I had a perception of that me and that incident in one way due to my karma. Then this other person has really crappy karma to see me as the most horrible, selfish person in the world. He imputes that on me and I was just, instead of getting angry at him, I was like, God, I'm so sorry. Report an error in the passage at 52:01 Highlight the passage at 52:01

52:27 Wow. That's not where I was coming from at all, but he could not be convinced. He just saw it in that way and he would not be convinced otherwise and it was so solid and self-existent to him that I was the selfish person in the world. And then this other person with much more pure karma than me saw it as enlightened activity and thought I was like the greatest. And it was just so extreme. Report an error in the passage at 52:27 Highlight the passage at 52:27

52:51 And I couldn't get proud because I just saw that that was her karma, imputing her... And so that's how it helps. You know, if I thought I was really self-existent and they were misunderstanding me, no, no, you don't understand me at all, right? How many times have we said that? No, you just don't understand. No, it's just that they have a different imputation, which they have to, because everybody does. Report an error in the passage at 52:51 Highlight the passage at 52:51

53:18 Forced on them by their karma. You know, we think there's some essential me and we're striving to get our partner to understand us, so you don't understand me. No, he or she just has different karma. Just accept it, you know, and everybody has their trip, they're laying on you, just like we're laying our trip on ourselves. Somehow we think it's more valid for us because we're, like, inside ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 53:18 Highlight the passage at 53:18

53:41 Like, how weird is that, you know? And then... People try and tell you how much you've changed and you don't believe it. It's like the traditional thing, like you lose a bunch of weight and you still think you're a really fat person and everybody's like, you're skinny. You know, I remember once I was in India and I lost all this weight and I was still thinking I needed to lose weight and I weighed like, I mean I'm 6 '4", I weighed like 160 pounds or something, I was like a skeleton. Report an error in the passage at 53:41 Highlight the passage at 53:41

54:06 But I'm still carrying around this vision of like being over, I mean it's exactly like that. Right? We're relating to the concept and not to the reality. And that's what we do with everything all the time. We have a concept in our head. We see some raw data out there that matches up with the concept. We lay the concept on the raw data. And then we're interacting with the concept the whole time and not what's there at all. Report an error in the passage at 54:06 Highlight the passage at 54:06

54:36 And it gets us in so much trouble. And that's how emptiness helps. It's not some theoretical thing. It's not something to keep Jeffrey Hopkins busy. Right? It's because we're constantly going around relating to concepts and we're not relating. Like my friend who wouldn't be convinced that I wasn't selfish. Report an error in the passage at 54:36 Highlight the passage at 54:36

54:53 And then he had this whole concept and everything I did reinforced that. Right? And then the other person thought I was the greatest. And it didn't matter what I did. Everything reinforced that. Because they were relating to the concept they had about me. And then it almost didn't matter what I did. They were just so full of their concepts. And we're so full of our own concept about ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 54:53 Highlight the passage at 54:53

55:16 And then we do that with other people all the time. You get some raw data. And then you create a whole story. And then we're just constantly creating to our storylines about other people and about situations. And the proof of it is things like my conversation with my friend two weeks ago when he's totally complaining about somebody who's like my favorite person in the whole world. Report an error in the passage at 55:16 Highlight the passage at 55:16

55:39 I have no idea what he's talking about. You know, he just perceived that, you know, and you meet people that are going around and everything is negative and they report their reality to you and you're just like... Wow, where are they coming from? And then people that are the opposite, like everybody's beautiful and perfect and wonderful, and you're like, where are you coming from? Report an error in the passage at 55:39 Highlight the passage at 55:39

56:00 So that's how it helps. And when you get criticized, when you get praised, just think, hey, that's that other person's karma, that they're laying that trip on you. Don't react. Don't react. And that's why part of... I think bodhisattva activity is you just do what you think is the right thing and you're not so worried about what people think. Report an error in the passage at 56:00 Highlight the passage at 56:00

56:27 Because how much of our lifetime do we waste? You try and manipulate the reaction that you want out of somebody. How often does that work for you? You know, you do this dance, trying to get other people to respond in a certain way, and it never works. You can do the same thing and get five different reactions. Report an error in the passage at 56:27 Highlight the passage at 56:27

56:46 You know, you try and be really nice to everybody, and you never fight with anybody, so everybody will like you. And then half the people think you're just a wimp, you know, and a couple of people might like you. But, you know, it never works, so just give it up, you know. Just give up that thing of trying to invoke... Report an error in the passage at 56:46 Highlight the passage at 56:46

57:03 Some response, you know, you try and act a certain way so you get a response because it's just, it doesn't work because everybody just has their karma to perceive whatever they're going to perceive. So it makes you be a lot more honest when you understand emptiness. You just do the right thing, you know, you act out of your integrity. It was really great for me to go into six and a half year retreat because I was like a total black belt codependent. Report an error in the passage at 57:03 Highlight the passage at 57:03

57:26 You know, I totally cared, did so much, put out so much energy to get people to like me. Like, God forbid somebody doesn't like you. The world will come to an end, you know? Then after being in solitude for six and a half years, I was just like, pfft, the hell with it. I don't care. You know, and then you come out and then you can just be real, you know? And then you can really help people because you can say those hard things to people that are good for them that you're so afraid to say because, God forbid, they won't like you anymore. Report an error in the passage at 57:26 Highlight the passage at 57:26

57:54 You know, so this is how it helps us practically. Just think. Everybody... It's just relating to their own concept about you. Just do the right thing and don't get so worried about it. And don't get upset when they don't like you. And don't get upset when they criticize you. See if there's something you can learn from it. But don't get all caught up in that thing. And that's how it really helps subdue our afflictive emotions which often give rise to those karmic actions. Report an error in the passage at 57:54 Highlight the passage at 57:54

58:22 And not seeing ourselves as so solid. And also allowing for the potential for us to change. Because sometimes we don't even realize how much we've changed and we're still stuck in some view of ourselves. And we really are just labeled on our aggregates. And our minds are constantly changing. Our bodies are constantly changing. Report an error in the passage at 58:22 Highlight the passage at 58:22

58:43 It's this continuum leading all the way to Buddhahood. We have to acknowledge that. Don't stay stuck in some old self view. You know, when you've been practicing Dharma for a while, a lot of stuff is going to change. And sometimes we stay stuck because we think that there is some inherently existing me somewhere. You know, so this is just thinking about this all the time. Report an error in the passage at 58:43 Highlight the passage at 58:43

59:04 And if we do this meditation a lot, it helps really break down that solid grasping that we have onto some self. Because it doesn't exist like that at all. The label's constantly changing because the basis is constantly changing. So the label should be changing as fast as the base. And we're very, very fluid. What we really are is just extremely fluid, changing moment by moment. So this is how this really helps us suffer less. Report an error in the passage at 59:04 Highlight the passage at 59:04

59:36 Because that's the whole point of Buddhism. It's not just some intellectual trip. It's like suffer less, see how everything is created by concepts and how we're relating to the concepts and not the actual thing that's there. Okay, do you have a question? Yes, please. Can you explain to me a little bit more about imputation? Yeah. Because I do not understand that more. Report an error in the passage at 59:36 Highlight the passage at 59:36

1:00:01 It means, impute means it's like we take a concept and then we... Impute or it's kind of like putting it onto the thing, like laying it on the thing. Imputing means, what's a good synonym for imputing? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:01 Highlight the passage at 1:00:01

1:00:24 Yeah, like putting it on top, like putting it on top. So we have what we call in philosophy a basis of imputation, right? And we say for something to be what it is, it needs to have a valid basis. When frosting the cake, how it works. Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:00:24 Highlight the passage at 1:00:24

1:00:38 So to be a valid basis of the label cup, because of our culture, because of consensus, because of function, we need to have a cylinder of a certain size that holds liquid that has a body. And then we impute a label onto that object, meaning sort of like laying it on top of the base. So yeah, like frosting, that's good. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:38 Highlight the passage at 1:00:38

1:00:59 It's another... Assigning a label on top of that base. I'll look in the dictionary.com during the break and we'll see. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:59 Highlight the passage at 1:00:59

1:01:18 The mic, Janet, the mic. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:18 Highlight the passage at 1:01:18

1:01:26 No, it says attribute, attribute accredited to, impute cleverness to cats. Attribute, that's good. Attribute, and that's used in a lot of the definitions. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:26 Highlight the passage at 1:01:26

1:01:43 A tribute, yeah, that's good. So Report an error in the passage at 1:01:43 Highlight the passage at 1:01:43

1:01:56 could you have concepts without having things to impute them upon? So for example, if you just had a world, a world just as in all of reality, being constructed out of pure mind with no form. Or no parts per se in a physical sense with which to impute upon. Could you still have the generation of concepts from just concepts generating concepts? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:56 Highlight the passage at 1:01:56

1:02:34 Or do you need to start with some sort of physical basis upon which to impute these things? Like in a universe of just pure mind. Right, right, right. And in the mind only... Sorry, in the Middle Way Consequence School, we say there does have to be a valid basis. And that's the difference, even though everything is created by our concepts, that's the difference between a hallucination and reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:34 Highlight the passage at 1:02:34

1:02:58 Because if everything is created by our concepts, why can't anything be anything? Or why can't you just create concepts out of nothing? And we say there needs to be a valid basis. And the validity depends on the function, the consensus, the continuity. So yeah, we can make up concepts about anything, but they say that's the difference between, you know, the Tibetan example is a flower that grows in the midair. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:58 Highlight the passage at 1:02:58

1:03:24 Yeah, we can think about that. That's a concept, but that's not reality because we can't impute that concept onto anything that acts as that valid basis. Sure, we can think about anything. We can imagine just about anything, like a flower growing in midair in the middle of this room. I can have that concept, but that's the difference between reality and something that's just... Report an error in the passage at 1:03:24 Highlight the passage at 1:03:24

1:03:50 An idea is, is there a valid basis for me to impute that concept on? I have a concept of sunflower, but I have a valid basis for my label, sunflower. There's no sunflower there. Sunflower is just a concept in my mind that I impute onto some kind of flower that's got a very big, whatever this part's called, and a certain kind of petals on it, and then I impute sunflower. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:50 Highlight the passage at 1:03:50

1:04:18 So we say... That sunflower that I'm imputing there is reality, and a flower growing in the middle of the sky is not reality. Yeah, because I was wondering, because if you go and you start taking the sunflower and breaking it down, you take the sunflower and you go to a more subtler level. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:18 Highlight the passage at 1:04:18

1:04:39 Right. and you go down even further okay those cells are made up of atoms which are made up of subatomic particles and by the time you get to subatomic particles you know they're you know there's there's a whole you know there's this whole big you debate in you know quantum mechanics of you know the measurement problem right you know what when you measure something when you observe something what is it that you are observing does reality come into exist does reality exists. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:39 Highlight the passage at 1:04:39

1:05:07 Prior to the observation, how does that bring the reality of it into existence? But what I was thinking more along the lines of is, well, if you take, say, instead of a sunflower, you just take a particle detector, say, like CERN or something, these particle accelerators. Well, for all intents and purposes, particles are basically just... Report an error in the passage at 1:05:07 Highlight the passage at 1:05:07

1:05:36 There are no quantum states. There is no real intrinsic physical reality to them, just like a probabilistic wave function. So that when they go and hit into the detector, it gives you a blip. Well, if that's what you define as a particle, it's just that blip in a detector, well, okay, you come along with a different type of detector. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:36 Highlight the passage at 1:05:36

1:05:56 It gives you a different type of blip. The only reason that we call them, okay, this is, you know, like this is a Tao Mison is because of, you know, like a concept. It's a concept of, you know, like a Tao Mison. But is it does, you know, like if you have like a world system generated just from concepts, concepts, referencing, referencing concepts, you know, like a whole self-referential system. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:56 Highlight the passage at 1:05:56

1:06:24 Yeah, yeah. Would you, because like if you just have, you know, That, I can see how it can be kind of difficult to come up with any sort of real valid basis for reality. No, no, no. But do you need something like a general consensus in order to go and say, like, okay, this is a talomaison. This is a sunflower. We're looking. See, the problem is you're looking for ultimate reality, and it doesn't exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:24 Highlight the passage at 1:06:24

1:06:57 This cup. Functions as a cup because it's a cylinder with a bottom that I can drink water out of. That's all. And that's okay. And it doesn't matter if there's any particle that is the ultimate particle that can't be broken down. Buddhists say it doesn't matter at all because there's nothing that exists from its own side. But the fact is there is some kind of reality there that I can relate to that's a cylinder with a bottom that's open at the top that I can drink. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:57 Highlight the passage at 1:06:57

1:07:28 Water out of, and it's just created by my mind, okay, as a cup. There is a valid basis there. You're mistaking valid basis with some kind of ultimate reality that I know the physicists are trying to find, like some particle that can't be divided. And we're saying it doesn't have to be at that level at all that we're talking about. It can be at the grossest level. We don't have to break down the cup to atoms and subatomic particles and try and see if there's tau mesons and all these other things in it. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:28 Highlight the passage at 1:07:28

1:07:58 The fact is, at the grossest level, I'm still creating it with my mind. Well, taking for instance, like the example of the cup, again, I'm working at that level. If you have, if you get, you know, a room full of people who perceive the cup in a different sense, so they're labeling the cup differently, you know, like the gods must be crazy. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:58 Highlight the passage at 1:07:58

1:08:23 To some people it's a Coke bottle, to other people it's a rolling pin, to some people it's a weapon, you know. In order to go and bring into, I'm thinking kind of here in terms of general consensus. Do you need a general consensus? So if you want to have, I don't know where exactly I'm going with this, but cultural norms, I guess, which would say we would all kind of agree that that's a cup. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:23 Highlight the passage at 1:08:23

1:08:56 But to somebody in the Kalahari, it's a rolling pin. Do you need general? like, imputational consensus. Absolutely, absolutely. Consensus plays a big part of it. For everybody in this room, we see that as a cup, but there's 30 different cups too, because we all, remember the concentric circle thing that I was talking about, like just being a human, we share a certain consensual, perceptual reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:56 Highlight the passage at 1:08:56

1:09:22 And then it sort of gets more and more defined depending on our culture. And then for all of us, that's a cup. We recognize that as a cup. But then, you know, we have different versions of that cup. We all have different perceptions of that cup. There's 30 different perceptions of what's sitting there on my table because we all have our individual karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:22 Highlight the passage at 1:09:22

1:09:43 So yeah, it's very consensual. And then you get people, if you had 30 people from all over the world. They might be perceiving 30 completely different objects, and that would be that thing to them. See, our cultural imperialism says that's a cup. It's a Coke bottle. It's not a rolling pin. You know, that's conceptual imperialism, right? And it's just, it is what it is, depending on the concept of whoever the perceiver is. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:43 Highlight the passage at 1:09:43

1:10:12 If it's valid, if it's a valid basis. Now if I start seeing that as a telephone, it's not acting as a valid basis of the labeled telephone because it doesn't function as that. No consensus says that it's a telephone. And then I'm hallucinating, right? Because I'm labeling something on a basis that is not valid. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:12 Highlight the passage at 1:10:12

1:10:33 So, okay. Just one more because we've really got to move on. And you have to work on it. You really, really have to work on these concepts. It's not easy and it's contrary to everything that you've ever thought. So it's great actually when you have a background in physics because you have all these other kind of ideas about the way that reality works that you can help apply to it. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:33 Highlight the passage at 1:10:33

1:10:58 But on the grossest level it doesn't really matter. And the physicists are looking for ultimate reality and Buddhism says they ain't never going to find anything that's inherently existent because nothing is, not even emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:58 Highlight the passage at 1:10:58

1:11:13 Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but we've got the whole rest of the sūtra to go. Yeah, Lynn. What is the thing of function? If you can reliably predict that if you lift something to your, you pour a fluid in and you lift it up and you can drink it. Yeah. And that's expectation. You can predict that's going to happen in cultures. Yeah. Does that mean it's got a valid basis? Do you, okay, do you mean would it function, if it functioned as that to everyone, would everybody see it as a cup? Report an error in the passage at 1:11:13 Highlight the passage at 1:11:13

1:11:48 Well, they might not. Right, right. But if they, you Report an error in the passage at 1:11:48 Highlight the passage at 1:11:48

1:11:56 know that anything. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they'd figure it out sooner or later. Even if they didn't perceive this as a cup, if you left them alone in a room with this for long enough and it was full of water and they were really thirsty, they'd work it out. Okay, we have another question on a type of phenomenon. We know from research, say, that it Report an error in the passage at 1:11:56 Highlight the passage at 1:11:56

1:12:22 discriminated. There's certain emotions. Right, Report an error in the passage at 1:12:22 Highlight the passage at 1:12:22

1:12:34 yeah. That's because our consensual reality as human beings. It still doesn't mean it exists from its own side. We're still creating the label happiness that we're imputing on that face, right? So it still doesn't mean it's inherently existent. It means that there's some things that are universals for the human realm, and that's fine. They're still not inherently existent. They're still imputed by concepts. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:34 Highlight the passage at 1:12:34

1:13:07 Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:13:07 Highlight the passage at 1:13:07

1:13:15 right. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:15 Highlight the passage at 1:13:15

1:13:24 And you have to just work on it. Usually at this point in the Heart Sūtra, everybody's desperately looking for something that inherently exists. And I really understand that. I really kind of understand because I've just sort of told you that there's nothing that inherently exists and everybody's trying to look at everything from facial expressions to Tao Mises that inherently exists. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:24 Highlight the passage at 1:13:24

1:13:50 And we just really need to get used to the fact that nothing exists inherently. Not one thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:50 Highlight the passage at 1:13:50

1:14:08 I have a question regarding the consciousness that is doing this meditation. Do you have at times in which that consciousness gets discontinued or gets shattered? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:08 Highlight the passage at 1:14:08

1:14:22 Confused or gets incongruent because I was thinking there should be this consciousness that is reflecting on all of this emptiness and emptiness and emptiness. And let's say that a fear comes. At that point the consciousness gets distracted or let's say that I have pain on my back. Suddenly that component is distracted. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:22 Highlight the passage at 1:14:22

1:14:44 My question is, is there a point which that consciousness gets shattered, that you're not able to maintain the level of consciousness of awareness? Right, right, right. And they say to actually get a direct realization of emptiness, we have to have developed single-pointed concentration to the point where the scriptures say you can meditate without the slightest bit of distraction for four hours on an object. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:44 Highlight the passage at 1:14:44

1:15:09 To get the direct realization, like what we're doing right now. And this takes us back to the next thing I wanted to review, which is this chart, right? And remember we said the path of accumulation and the path of preparation, we're meditating on emptiness until during... All the way up to the end of the path of accumulation, we're actually using what we call the wisdom of learning and contemplation. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:09 Highlight the passage at 1:15:09

1:15:36 We talk about three ways of relating to the teachings. We say we've got hearing or learning about it, we've got contemplating it, and then we've got meditating on it. Strictly speaking, we're not meditating at all until we have single point of concentration. We talk about meditation now and we meditate and come to meditate at 8.30. We're not meditating, we're contemplating. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:36 Highlight the passage at 1:15:36

1:16:01 Until you have single point of concentration, strictly speaking, you never meditate for one second in your life. So that's what's necessary to actually do the meditation on emptiness and that's when we've entered the path of preparation. When we have single point of concentration that we're using to meditate on emptiness and then you're not going to have to worry about any of that stuff because whatever object you choose your mind can focus on it like a laser beam for as long as you want. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:01 Highlight the passage at 1:16:01

1:16:30 And that's the power of that. And that's the reason for developing single-pointed concentration. You know, the only reason, the main reason is to meditate on emptiness using that concentration. Because that's the only thing that's going to be able to get you to have that direct realization. Because otherwise, yeah, you'll get confused, you'll get scared, you'll get distracted, your back will hurt. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:30 Highlight the passage at 1:16:30

1:16:50 But once you've developed single-pointed concentration, none of those things will interfere with your meditation. Okay? So, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:50 Highlight the passage at 1:16:50

1:17:02 Behaviors like single-pointed concentration. So what you're presenting is that single-pointed concentration does inherently exist from what you're saying. No, no, nothing inherently exists. No, no, no. No, no, no. We're mixing up existence and inherent existence, and this is something you really have to get used to. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:02 Highlight the passage at 1:17:02

1:17:26 If it inherently existed, you could never develop it. If single-pointed concentration existed inherently, we'd be stuck because we could never develop it. It wouldn't be a product of causes and conditions and parts and conceptual imputation, and it would be hopeless. We might as well all leave and go to the beach now. Right? Yeah, if it inherently existed, it would mean that there would be no way it could be produced or caused. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:26 Highlight the passage at 1:17:26

1:17:54 By causes and conditions. So no training could result in single pointed concentration. So again, don't mix up existence and inherent existence. Things exist because they're not inherently existent. There'd be no way that they could exist if they were inherently existent. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, Matthew. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:54 Highlight the passage at 1:17:54

1:18:23 Just a quick question to define terms. When I was taking the karma class, we talked about, Things like language as collective karma, cultural karma. Is that the same thing as our consensual perception of something? Yeah, definitely. And if we were Finns, we would have a completely different perception of snow because we'd have 11 words for it. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:23 Highlight the passage at 1:18:23

1:18:52 So language for us as humans definitely helps define... Our actual concepts. Because concepts and language for us is so linked. So there's all these studies about how people perceive things differently if they have the words for it. So for us it's very much linked. So we have some kind of collective karma to be speaking English. Not all of us are Americans. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:52 Highlight the passage at 1:18:52

1:19:17 And then in other languages that we speak there may be completely different concepts. Like in French there's a zillion words for love. In Tibetan and Sanskrit, there's like a zillion words for mind and consciousness and awareness that we don't have, and they all mean something different. And then in Finnish, there's all these words for snow. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:17 Highlight the passage at 1:19:17

1:19:35 Makes sense, you know. In different languages, there's more words for something that actually makes us have subtler and more differentiated concepts about it. And that has a karmic basis. Yeah, yeah. It's our collective karma to be born speaking whatever language that we have. Thank you. Okay, let's quickly review the five paths and then it's time for our break and we barely finished our review. Okay. We'll be here all night. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:35 Highlight the passage at 1:19:35

1:20:04 We'll be here all night. No, we won't. Okay, so let's review the five paths. So we had coming from beginningless time. You know, there should be an infinite error, an error with infinity. Since beginningless time, we've been from here. Getting to this point, fear, faith and compassion. Leading to refuge, right? We had, you know, fear, which isn't such a terrific word, but it just basically means I don't want to suffer anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:04 Highlight the passage at 1:20:04

1:20:31 You know, I don't want anybody else to suffer anymore. I don't want to be in saṃsāra anymore. I'm going to take refuge because I have faith in what the Buddha taught. The Four Noble Truths thing makes sense to me. And so I'm going to just, you know, buy into that for now. Give that a try. I've tried every other way to be happy and it hasn't worked so I'm going to give that a shot. So then we take refuge and then we work on these three realizations, renunciation, bodhicitta and wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:31 Highlight the passage at 1:20:31

1:21:02 And then when we have actual bodhicitta and what isn't written here is actual renunciation too because that's a prerequisite for bodhicitta. We can't wish for all other beings to be free of saṃsāra and for us to do it. If we still think that there's some happiness right around the corner in saṃsāra when things mellow out a little bit. How many years have we wasted? Oh yeah, when I get that boss, he's really a drag. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:02 Highlight the passage at 1:21:02

1:21:29 When I get the new job, then everything's going to mellow out and it's all going to be perfect. Yeah, right. Okay, so actual bodhicitta and then we've entered the path of accumulation right when we have what we call uncontrived bodhicitta, day and night, 24-7. That's our baseline, you know, mental state. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:29 Highlight the passage at 1:21:29

1:21:48 And then we enter the path of accumulation during which we're working on what? Who remembers what we're working on during the path of accumulation? Report an error in the passage at 1:21:48 Highlight the passage at 1:21:48

1:21:58 Concentration. Yeah, I'll just repeat what people say. So developing single-pointed concentration, okay, and what else? Yeah, accumulating merit. So working on accumulating merit and working on single-pointed concentration. And then what's the point that we... Transfer over to the path of preparation. What's happening there? When do we go from the path of accumulation to preparation? Report an error in the passage at 1:21:58 Highlight the passage at 1:21:58

1:22:30 Morgan, what's... Not yet. Not yet. Okay. So when do we go to the path of preparation from the path of accumulation? Yeah, Ben. Yeah, we've... We've developed perfect single-pointed concentration. We're using it to meditate on emptiness. So they say a union of calm abiding and special insight is the way that they phrase it. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:30 Highlight the passage at 1:22:30

1:22:54 So a union of calm abiding, which means perfect single-pointed concentration and special insight into the nature of reality. Then we're at the path of preparation. We haven't had the direct perception yet. But what we work on during the path of preparation is subtler and subtler intellectual understandings of emptiness. So we're still using concepts, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:54 Highlight the passage at 1:22:54

1:23:18 We're still using concepts and ideas to meditate on emptiness, but it's getting subtler and subtler, closer and closer to the way it really is. And then at the very last meditation of the path of preparation, we have, we go into meditation. Right before that we've had a direct realization of dependent arising and then we go into meditation and during that meditation we have a direct realization of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:18 Highlight the passage at 1:23:18

1:23:47 Direct realization of something that isn't there and remember it's the pizza box example. We're seeing something that doesn't exist. We're seeing its mere absence. We're seeing that that thing that we always thought was there isn't there at all. And after the break I'm going to read some of these things that Lama Zopa said about what that's like because it's very cool. So we're seeing a mere absence just like when you thought the pizza was there in the box and you open it and there's nothing there. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:47 Highlight the passage at 1:23:47

1:24:16 So we arise out of that meditation and we're an aria. We're on the path of seeing, meaning seeing emptiness directly. And then during the path of meditation, from that point on we're called an Arya Bodhisattva and then we keep going into that direct realization of emptiness over and over and over again. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:16 Highlight the passage at 1:24:16

1:24:37 And then that has the power to eliminate our karma and delusions, right? So that's what's being worked on on the first seven bodhisattva grounds. We're eliminating... The obscurations to liberation, which is karma and delusions. So we say that you can no longer create any more new negative karma after you're an Arya. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:37 Highlight the passage at 1:24:37

1:25:01 But you still have your old karmic seeds, you still have your mental afflictions, but they have no basis. It's like they have no foundation anymore because they're all based on... That view of things is inherently existent. And that's just gone. It's like pulling the foundation out from under a building. How long is it going to be before the building crumbles? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:01 Highlight the passage at 1:25:01

1:25:23 You've taken out the base, right? So it may stand for a while, but it's, you know, it's days are numbered. And it's the same with your karma and delusions. You've just taken out the foundation. So it's going to fall apart. Sooner or later, right? So you keep meditating on emptiness. By the way, every time you meditate on emptiness, it's the same exact mere absence. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:23 Highlight the passage at 1:25:23

1:25:47 It doesn't change. Every meditation on emptiness you do after that first one on the path of seeing, same meditation. But what's different is it chips away more and more. At the karma and the delusion. So you keep going into it just like the pizza box. You keep seeing there's nothing there, what you thought was there. You come out of it and your delusions and karma are more and more shaky. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:47 Highlight the passage at 1:25:47

1:26:14 Until at the end of the seventh ground, you've completely eliminated your karma and your mental afflictions. And just by the way, you're liberated from saṃsāra there. It wasn't your goal, but it just... It happens, you know, because of your meditation. So you're liberated, but you're not called an arhat, even though you're liberated, because you're not done yet. You're still an arya bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:14 Highlight the passage at 1:26:14

1:26:39 And then you have what we call the obscurations to omniscience. Very, very subtle tendencies for seeing things as self-existent. The analogy they give in the scripture, they say it's like a pot that's had a bunch of garlic in it. You know, like a ceramic pot that's had garlic in it, like unglazed. And you take all the garlic out and it still smells like garlic, even though there's nothing there. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:39 Highlight the passage at 1:26:39

1:27:03 And they say, that's what's going on here. Right? It's just this sort of scent of seeing things as self-existent. Just this very subtle, it's still left sort of these taints, you know, this scent. So you work on eliminating that and then at the end, and the same process, going into meditation on emptiness over and over and over again. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:03 Highlight the passage at 1:27:03

1:27:26 That's the antidote to all of it. It's just repetition and getting used to it, which is what the path of habituation means. Habituating yourself to it, getting used to it, repeating it over and over, that meditation on emptiness. And then at the end of that, in the last meditation, as a... Non-enlightened being, you know, you go into meditation again on emptiness because every transition between these paths happens in deep meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:26 Highlight the passage at 1:27:26

1:27:55 You don't transition from one to the next when you're walking around and taking the bus. You know, you're transitioning in deep meditation so you go into the last meditation before and then arise out of that meditation as a fully enlightened being. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:55 Highlight the passage at 1:27:55

1:28:11 Immediately shooting out infinite emanation bodies wherever sentient beings need you to, knowing everything, having that omniscient mind, being able to see ultimate and conventional reality simultaneously. Who knows what that's like? Even the scriptures just say it's indescribable, ineffable, incomprehensible. Yeah. So that's... Report an error in the passage at 1:28:11 Highlight the passage at 1:28:11

1:28:35 The five paths. And then the last one is called the path of no more learning, which just means ain't nothing else to do. You're there. You've reached the goal. Okay, so that's the five paths. So let's take a break now and we'll come back and any questions we have about the five paths and then we'll want to read just a little bit of what Lama Zopa said about that fear because we talked about that fear yesterday and what he says about kind of pushing through it because it's very... Report an error in the passage at 1:28:35 Highlight the passage at 1:28:35

1:29:05 Okay, so is 15 minutes enough? Yes. Okay. 11.15, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:05 Highlight the passage at 1:29:05

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:29:44 Through meditation, we went through the five aggregates. And I think one of the quote-unquote goals was to realize that the self was just when these five elements come together. Yeah. want to show me. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:44 Highlight the passage at 1:29:44

1:30:07 That's the basis. That's the valid basis of the label me. Right. I mean, go up the meditation to sort of realize that so formless realms. Is this just for the human? This is desire realm and form realm. Formless realm beings have four aggregates. They don't have the form aggregate. So there's three realms that they talk about. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:07 Highlight the passage at 1:30:07

1:30:37 The six realms that we're used to are the desire realm, which is where humans are. So the formless realm would have four and not the form aggregate. Yeah, that's right. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:37 Highlight the passage at 1:30:37

1:30:48 So their meditation would be different. I taught the human meditation on the five aggregates. The human desire realm meditation on the five aggregates. Is there any other exception? Is that the only exception where the formless realm you won't have the form element? In any other way, you will have the others. Buddhas, the five aggregates have completely transformed. So Buddhas would be a whole different thing because they're not even considered sentient beings anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:48 Highlight the passage at 1:30:48

1:31:23 That's a long story. But the only other exception to the five aggregates would be the formless realm, I believe. Any other questions about the five paths, the chart? Report an error in the passage at 1:31:23 Highlight the passage at 1:31:23

1:31:42 Reading it this way, it has generosity. It has the perfections. Yes. And then it has method, prayer, power. Anyway, how do those relate to each of those grounds? Are you focusing on those particularly? They say that during those grounds, those perfections reach perfection, like reach the perfected state. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:42 Highlight the passage at 1:31:42

1:32:05 So during the first ground, you're perfecting. Remember how we said that word paramita could mean either gone to the other side or going to the other side and perfection could either mean going to perfection or perfected. So we would say after the first ground your generosity is perfected, right? And then the second ground. So it's a special kind of culmination of that quality is one way you could say it, is developed and perfected on that ground. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:05 Highlight the passage at 1:32:05

1:32:39 And it goes in that order. And that's the order they say that we start practicing the perfections because generosity is pretty easy, then ethics, then patience, effort. I mean, we try and practice all of them, right? But they say that that is the order of sort of from a little bit more kind of gross and easy to subtler and more difficult. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:39 Highlight the passage at 1:32:39

1:33:00 Yeah. So they say that that's what's happening on those grounds and why each one is related to a different perfection because it's perfected on that ground. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:00 Highlight the passage at 1:33:00

1:33:10 One ground, working on the second ground of ethics may be a couple of eons. Third ground, many eons. Fourth ground, half an eon. Do you know what I mean? It's not like a time. In the sūtra explanation, which is why we like the Vajrayana so much, up to the path of seeing is one countless great eon. Right? Report an error in the passage at 1:33:10 Highlight the passage at 1:33:10

1:33:38 Then from the path of seeing to the seventh bumi, another countless great eon. And then the last three bumis, another countless great eon. So we talk about three, I'm sorry, a little bit wrong. From the path of accumulation, no, I'm sorry, I was right. Yeah, all the way through to the path of seeing, one countless great eon. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:38 Highlight the passage at 1:33:38

1:33:58 Another one for the first seven bumis and another one for the last three. But, according to Vajrayana, one lifetime. the whole nine yards possible. Yeah, yeah, possible. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:58 Highlight the passage at 1:33:58

1:34:24 I'll understand something, then I lose it. And since everything is based on causes and conditions, I'm wondering about, this seems like things are very definite on the chart. And I'm wondering if there isn't like a flexibility like somebody may be one place and then causes and conditions may change somehow and something else is. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:24 Highlight the passage at 1:34:24

1:34:49 And there's certain permanent cessations that are irreversible and that's why we use the word cessation because it means you can't fall back from that. You know, so yeah, and what you're saying is right. Sometimes we have realizations that don't seem stable. Like stable realizations or don't seem like that. But they say, for example, after you've had the direct realization of emptiness, you can never fall back from that realization. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:49 Highlight the passage at 1:34:49

1:35:17 And then what happens in your next life is because you're an Arya, you get born in the perfect circumstances. You get the teachings, right, very early on, and then they say something happens when you're about 12 or 13 years old that they call in Tibetan bakchak sepa, and it means that karmic seed from your direct realization of emptiness in your past life ripens, and you realize again what's going on. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:17 Highlight the passage at 1:35:17

1:35:42 We had this great teacher, Kirti Senchabrimche, and in his biography, he was talking about his education. And he gave this little hint, like if you know what to look for, he goes, and then when I was about 12 or 13, I started studying Madhyamaka, and it was like as if I'd found an old friend. And I was just like, oh, you know, because that's what happens. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:42 Highlight the passage at 1:35:42

1:36:03 When you start studying it and then all of a sudden you go into that direct perception again, it all comes back. And they say that it usually takes that amount of time. And then in every lifetime, so you never fall back down from it just when you pass away or something. So there's certain realizations. I mean, once you've seen it, you've seen it. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:03 Highlight the passage at 1:36:03

1:36:22 It's like learning how to read Chinese. Like before, you're just looking at the page and it's a bunch of marks. It's just random. And then the minute you... Once you learn how to read, you can never look at that page and it just looks like Marx again. It's the same thing with the direct realization of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:22 Highlight the passage at 1:36:22

1:36:39 Certain realizations are like that. Then they say at a certain point of the path, and for Buddhas, like if Buddhahood is not inherently existent, how come it lasts forever? How come you can never fall down from being a Buddha? They say every moment of Buddhahood creates... It forces the virtue, like it's got so much virtue every moment of Buddhahood, all that you're doing to benefit beings creates so much virtue that it forces the next instant of Buddhahood with a bunch of virtue left over. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:39 Highlight the passage at 1:36:39

1:37:12 Right? So it's... Yeah, yeah. It gets that way at a certain point. You're creating so much virtue in every moment with everything you do as you progress along here that after a certain moment, it's not that it's permanent in the sense of unchanging. Your mind is still changing moment by moment by moment, but you're creating so much virtue in every moment that it forces the next moment of consciousness to... Report an error in the passage at 1:37:12 Highlight the passage at 1:37:12

1:37:41 to still be realized, you know, and you can't fall back. So they say after a certain point, and I think they say you can't lose your bodhicitta after. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:41 Highlight the passage at 1:37:41

1:37:51 Bodhicitta can be lost until, I think it's the middle of the path of accumulation. I'm not sure about that, don't quote me on that, but I think somewhere in there. Then you can't lose your bodhicitta anymore and then the other realizations are kind of like that, like at a certain point. And it's not that it's unchanging, but it means that just the mind that you have forces the next moment of mind to still have that realization. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:51 Highlight the passage at 1:37:51

1:38:18 Yeah, good question. Did you have something? Yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:18 Highlight the passage at 1:38:18

1:38:32 I think you hinted at this yesterday, but I'm sort of looking at your diagram too. Seeing it two ways, and one is like the way you're teaching it to us. And then the other one is like, you know, from a hypothetical lens of, you know, what if we were all enlightened, then sort of like the element of time and language and the whole schematic would not really exist, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:32 Highlight the passage at 1:38:32

1:38:59 I mean, it wouldn't, I mean... You mean for an enlightened being? Yeah. If you're already enlightened. Or if we were all, yeah. If we were all enlightened, yeah. Then... In a certain kind of sense, the schematic, I mean, not only would it not be needed anymore, but it wouldn't really make sense from that perspective, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:59 Highlight the passage at 1:38:59

1:39:21 But it's what we did to get there, right? So every Buddha... It has to have gone through this. And yeah, if we were all enlightened, then we'd throw away all the textbooks and who cares? You know, we don't need the path anymore. They say, like, after you've crossed the river, what do you do? Take the rowboat on your back and walk along with it? No, you leave it on the other shore. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:21 Highlight the passage at 1:39:21

1:39:43 So it's like that. I mean, the Dharma, the whole path is just to get you to the other shore. It's of no intrinsic, you know, it's not inherently anything. It's just a method. So like that. Is that what you mean? Yes, it is. And just being able to recognize it as a method, I think, might be helpful. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Right, right, right. I mean, it's just because it's what we have to do to get to be a Buddha. And it's not, you know, what we call Buddhism, which, by the way, is a word. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:43 Highlight the passage at 1:39:43

1:40:13 Invented by the British explorers, you know, it's interesting when you look at the word for a Buddhist, which again didn't exist in Tibet, the word is nangpa, which means inner being. Like anybody following the path of Dharma was called an inner being because it was pointing to they're looking within for happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:13 Highlight the passage at 1:40:13

1:40:33 They're looking within for the answers and not looking at all that stuff. And I think that's very cool, you know, so it's not about being dogmatic about it. It's just a description. It's just empirical in a way, kind of showing what happens. And then, yeah, when we're at the end, then we don't need anything. One of my friends, one of his teachers said, the greatest thing about being enlightened is you don't have to do your sadhanas anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:33 Highlight the passage at 1:40:33

1:40:58 You don't have to do your daily practice anymore. You just benefit beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:58 Highlight the passage at 1:40:58

1:41:09 Okay, yeah, Janet's got one. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:09 Highlight the passage at 1:41:09

1:41:12 Wait for the mic, Janet. Thank you. I have your diagram, and I have one that I brought that was from Emily. But basically, my question is that on both, you show that the acquired obscurations... Report an error in the passage at 1:41:12 Highlight the passage at 1:41:12

1:41:36 It's almost right at the beginning, just after your first direct realization of emptiness. But it seems to me, I think it was in Tara Tantra, and we were working on this at Vajrapani, Report an error in the passage at 1:41:36 Highlight the passage at 1:41:36

1:41:52 finding the point where you move from the path of seeing to the path of meditation was when the acquired obscurations are abandoned fully. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:52 Highlight the passage at 1:41:52

1:42:04 And you can see in your diagrams that's exactly how it's drawn. And there is a space in the path of seeing where it seems as though you're still purifying and working on eliminating or acquiring the full cessation of the acquired obscuration. So is it just a little technical thing? Yeah, and the way that I've... Report an error in the passage at 1:42:04 Highlight the passage at 1:42:04

1:42:33 It's at the end of that first meditation, the acquired, meaning the ones that are learned, right? So the ones that you learn from your culture. How can you believe anymore that something that was taught by your culture, like maybe that... Death is the end of everything when you've seen emptiness directly, you've seen your future rebirth, you've seen all that stuff and all of those things that you were just taught by your culture that are wrong views are then eliminated when you've seen the ultimate nature of reality directly. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:33 Highlight the passage at 1:42:33

1:43:05 So that's what I meant by those acquired obscurations, just the learned wrong views. When you've seen the nature of reality directly, all of those just completely fall away. Maybe it's the difference between those The tendencies or the imprints, it's sort of like the garlic, you know, the garlic bulbs are removed, but maybe that's the difference. The seeds or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:05 Highlight the passage at 1:43:05

1:43:27 The seeds are propensities for it, yeah. Maybe, and you have the old karma that's accumulated because of it. Yeah, it may be. Because I can't figure out, because it doesn't make sense. Otherwise, the path of meditation would... Pop over and your path of seeing would be only like a little wide. Right, right, right. And I'll try and check that out. I'll just try and check that out while you've got that teaching. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:27 Highlight the passage at 1:43:27

1:43:48 Maybe I'll ask Emily or something. Well, Emily agrees with what you had, but it was in the Tara Tantra and I believe it was with Geshe Dharpa. Oh, okay. And then we were looking, we were studying from the master's program down with, oh. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:48 Highlight the passage at 1:43:48

1:44:10 That was the question she was trying to answer. We were like searching, searching, searching through for the answer. We found that that distinguishes when the acquired obscurations are fully abandoned is when you move from the path of seeing into the path of meditation. That's like the line. Okay, I'll check that. I'll check that. Yeah, I'll check that and get back to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:10 Highlight the passage at 1:44:10

1:44:34 Okay, so back to the sūtra. So now Avalokiteshwar has given the short answer and now he starts to elaborate. What we've done up until now is the brief answer and now he starts to elaborate and the next part is maybe the most famous words of the Heart Sūtra. Okay, so in your text it says form is empty but... Report an error in the passage at 1:44:34 Highlight the passage at 1:44:34

1:45:01 The translation I prefer says form is emptiness because then that makes it symmetrical. Okay, so form is emptiness, emptiness is form, emptiness is not other than form, form is also not other than emptiness. Okay, so these are called the four profound applications. The four profound applications. So form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:01 Highlight the passage at 1:45:01

1:45:26 What is, what's going on here? Right, because we said Emptiness is what we call in philosophy a non-affirming negation, meaning it's a mere absence. So how can that be formed? How can form be emptiness? One's a positive thing and one's a mere absence. How can a mere absence be formed? So what is he trying to do here? What's Avalokiteshvar trying to do? Is he saying literally that they're equivalent? No. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:26 Highlight the passage at 1:45:26

1:45:58 He's just pointing out something that's called in Tibetan, and it means there are basically two ways of saying the same thing. And remember we said that emptiness and dependent arising are like two sides of a coin. So that's what he's emphasizing here. Okay, that there's two ways of looking at exactly the same thing. And he's using form because visual consciousness for us is so compelling, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:45:58 Highlight the passage at 1:45:58

1:46:26 We're so kind of addicted to visual stimulus. So he's starting out with form because that's visual, you know, the form aggregate. So form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. It's not literally true because then it would be equating. A positive thing with a negative thing. But what he's trying to do is show the relationship between emptiness and dependent arising here with these four. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:26 Highlight the passage at 1:46:26

1:46:51 So form is emptiness means emptiness has to have a basis, right? You can't talk about emptiness apart from some basis which is empty. And sometimes in the early sutras there were these... Bad translations that would talk about the void, you know, emptiness, like the void, capital V. Like it was some existing thing out there, separate, like some ultimate void. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:51 Highlight the passage at 1:46:51

1:47:20 And like then the goal of the path is to merge with a void like a black hole, you know, and that's supposed to be appealing? No, you know. So the void, it's like some other kind of reality existing separately out there, right? Like you've got... The world, you've got saṃsāra and then you've got like the void out there. And so this is saying it's not like that at all. Emptiness is just a quality of every existing thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:20 Highlight the passage at 1:47:20

1:47:46 You need to have that basis which is empty. You can't talk about emptiness without having a basis of what you're talking about, a basis for that emptiness. So even though the quality of emptiness is the same for every existing object, In being a mere absence, how can a mere absence be more or less absent? It's just not there at all. You know, that impossible way of existing. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:46 Highlight the passage at 1:47:46

1:48:13 But you've got the cup's emptiness and the flower's emptiness and the paper's emptiness and the microphone's emptiness and Tenzin Chogky's emptiness. And you can't talk about emptiness in any way separate from a basis which is empty. It's just a characteristic of phenomena, okay? So that's what this means. Form is emptiness. It doesn't mean literally, you know, because we would be equating a positive thing and a negative thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:13 Highlight the passage at 1:48:13

1:48:39 But it just means you need to have a basis. You can't talk about emptiness as some abstract concept out there. It's just a quality of every existing thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:39 Highlight the passage at 1:48:39

1:48:49 And that emptiness goes out of existence when that object goes out of existence. Even though we say emptiness is an unchanging phenomenon. It doesn't change moment by moment. Because how could a mere absence change in any way? So the cup is changing moment to moment. The cup is a changing phenomenon. Its emptiness is unchanging. It doesn't change moment to moment, but it can go out of existence. If I smash the cup on the floor, which I'm not going to do because it belongs to Se Chin Ling, then the cup's emptiness would go out of existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:49 Highlight the passage at 1:48:49

1:49:26 The cup's lack of being anything other than a dependent arising, which is what its emptiness is, would go out of existence because the cup would no longer exist. So that's what this is emphasizing. We don't talk about emptiness like, oh, emptiness is like some state of mind or some, you know, ground of being. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:26 Highlight the passage at 1:49:26

1:49:48 Like sometimes people get the idea, like they get confused with the whole Hindu idea of Ātman and Brahman. It's like some kind of ultimate ground of being that everything is kind of popping up out of. It's like it's unmanifested ground of being and then everything's kind of popping up out of it. No, it's not like that. It's just a characteristic of every existing thing. So that's what form is emptiness means. And then emptiness is form is emphasizing the dependent arising aspect. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:48 Highlight the passage at 1:49:48

1:50:20 It's saying form could not arise if it weren't empty. So emptiness is form means because things are empty, form can arise. Because things are empty, these things can arise in dependence. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:20 Highlight the passage at 1:50:20

1:50:35 Emptiness allows for dependent arising. If things weren't empty, they could not manifest. They couldn't come into existence. So that's what the second one is emphasizing. So because things are empty, they can come into existence. Emptiness allows for form. Because things can only exist as dependent arising. And dependent arising is only possible if things are empty. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:35 Highlight the passage at 1:50:35

1:51:05 So emptiness allows for the possibility of dependent arising, which just happens to be how everything exists. So nothing could exist if they weren't empty. Nothing can come into being inherently. So is that clear what those two mean? So it's juxtaposing the emptiness and the dependent arising, showing in the first case... Report an error in the passage at 1:51:05 Highlight the passage at 1:51:05

1:51:31 That emptiness depends on the form and then that the form depends on the emptiness because it couldn't come into being if it weren't for emptiness. If it weren't empty, there's no way for it to arise. And then to emphasize even more, emptiness is not other than form. Form is also not other than emptiness. Again, emphasizing that relationship. So form is not other than emptiness, meaning there's nothing else. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:31 Highlight the passage at 1:51:31

1:52:00 Nothing exists that's not empty and if it weren't for emptiness, nothing could come into existence in the first place. So it's completely linked, this idea of emptiness and dependent arising, completely linked. Emptiness shows how dependent arising functions and dependent things arise in dependence because they're empty of inherent existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:00 Highlight the passage at 1:52:00

1:52:25 So this is just showing those two things in this kind of shocking... Because it seems weird. What do you mean form is emptiness? You know, it's all mystical, right? And you read it for the first time and you're like, wow, that's trippy. I wonder what he means, you know? So that's why we're studying it. Because then the next time you read the Heart Sūtra, it reminds you, oh right, you know, emptiness and dependent arising are like... Report an error in the passage at 1:52:25 Highlight the passage at 1:52:25

1:52:49 Two ways of talking about the exact same characteristic. And that's cool, because don't forget that. And don't think of emptiness as some black hole out there somewhere, some mystical void that you're supposed to merge with. I mean, that's just ridiculous. It's just talking about the quality of every existing object. And because of that quality, things can come into existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:49 Highlight the passage at 1:52:49

1:53:14 Things can be dependent arisings. Yeah, microphone somewhere. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:14 Highlight the passage at 1:53:14

1:53:26 So Buddhas are depending arising also. But what I get not clear is Buddhas also go out of existence or they don't go out of existence. I know that Sakyamuni had said that there's a point in which I'm no longer my teachings or I will not be in there. But I was also hearing that as Buddhas do... Report an error in the passage at 1:53:26 Highlight the passage at 1:53:26

1:53:50 So why would the Buddha no longer be there? Not appear for us in this world system. They say that Shakyamuni Buddha is manifesting. We talk about the 12 deeds of all of the wheel-turning Buddhas. They all go through these 12 deeds. And the Buddha is manifesting those 12 deeds simultaneously in multiple world systems. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:50 Highlight the passage at 1:53:50

1:54:11 So our karma ran out in this world to have Shakyamuni Buddha alive. So he disappeared. But he's simultaneously because of being a Buddha. And that's why these holy beings take the aspect of dying. What's happening? Our karma wore out to have them with us, which is why we do all these long life prayers for our teachers. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:11 Highlight the passage at 1:54:11

1:54:35 Why you're supposed to, if your teacher has told you to do something, you're supposed to do it, because that creates the cause for their long life. Because the only reason they show up is to help us. And if we diss their advice, they're going to disappear. Why bother? So they say the best cause for your teacher's long life is following their advice. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:35 Highlight the passage at 1:54:35

1:54:55 Because it's dependent on our karma that these beings show up for us and manifest like that. So that's the reason that the Buddha disappeared from this world system. He took a form body. He took a rebirth emanation that has a certain lifespan. And that's one thing too. But there is the possibility that that emanation could take another body and continue on. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:55 Highlight the passage at 1:54:55

1:55:23 But they say that Shakyamuni didn't continue in this world system but is simultaneously manifesting in multiple world systems. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:23 Highlight the passage at 1:55:23

1:55:32 So I have a question going back to karma independent arising. So if I understand this, because the cup is empty, right? Yeah. We can all relate to it with our different karmic imprints. Right. If the cup wasn't empty. Also, karma wouldn't work. Is that how karma works with dependent arising? Yeah, exactly. Because dependent arising is based on karma, like cause and effect. It's just all about cause and effect. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:32 Highlight the passage at 1:55:32

1:55:57 Yeah, exactly. If things were inherently existent, karma couldn't function. Dependent arising couldn't function. Because they're empty, karma, cause and effect, dependent arising all function. Exactly right. If things were inherently existent, nothing that we did would have any result. And we might as well forget about ethics. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:57 Highlight the passage at 1:55:57

1:56:19 We might as well forget about cause and effect. Forget about ever keeping any kind of vowed morality. Why bother if things are inherently existent? It's not going to produce any kind of result. But because things are empty, all those things do produce a result. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:19 Highlight the passage at 1:56:19

1:56:36 yeah. Including our perception, which is another result of our karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:36 Highlight the passage at 1:56:36

1:56:48 My one understanding of emptiness is that it is impermanent. Because of impermanence, there is a lot of possibilities in causing effect. Is that correct perception? We say that emptiness, when you use the words permanent and impermanent, which I don't like, I like to use changing and unchanging, because for us in English, permanent has the connotation of it's going to last forever, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:56:48 Highlight the passage at 1:56:48

1:57:14 And as we've just seen, the cup's emptiness isn't permanent in that sense because it goes out of existence when the cup goes out of existence. But for the whole time that it lasts, it's unchanging. It doesn't change moment to moment. So some people use permanent and impermanent for this quality of changing and unchanging, but I prefer to use the words changing and unchanging because it's unchanging for as long as it exists, and then when the cup ceases to exist, its emptiness goes out of existence too. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:14 Highlight the passage at 1:57:14

1:57:46 So it's not permanent in the sense of lasting forever. So it's impermanent in that sense only, but for as long as it lasts. As the cup exists, its emptiness is not changing moment to moment. Okay. What? What do you mean? What? Speak. Use your words. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:46 Highlight the passage at 1:57:46

1:58:23 Thank you. Gosh, I've been happily thinking that this is dissolving moment by moment. At a subatomic level. I have happily thought that for years. What, the cup? Yes. It is. Oh. Yeah, I'm talking about the emptiness of the cup doesn't change. Oh, okay, okay, all right. You can quit whining. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:23 Highlight the passage at 1:58:23

1:58:50 Okay, wait, we've got, Lynn had one. Lynn. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:50 Highlight the passage at 1:58:50

1:58:56 Okay. Lynn, Carla, John. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:56 Highlight the passage at 1:58:56

1:59:03 The connection between dependent arising. Karma and emptiness. Why is dependent arising? Dependent arising has to do with causes and conditions, circumstance and parts and conceptual imputation, right? Those three levels. So could you just say again? Report an error in the passage at 1:59:03 Highlight the passage at 1:59:03

1:59:42 Because if things weren't empty, if things were inherently existent, nothing could come into being. They'd be solid, they'd be static. Nothing could be produced if it were inherently existent. So cause and effect couldn't function. Karma couldn't function. Nothing would be dependent on causes and conditions if it were inherently existent. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:42 Highlight the passage at 1:59:42

2:00:08 Because that's what inherent existence means. That it's what it is from its own side, independent of all of these factors. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:08 Highlight the passage at 2:00:08

2:00:19 Nothing can exist like that. It couldn't come into existence in the first place like that. It's impossible. It's describing something that's completely impossible because nothing could ever come into existence apart from depending on these three factors. That's what dependent arising is. But things don't appear to us like that. That's the problem. When we think about it intellectually, It's just basically implied. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:19 Highlight the passage at 2:00:19

2:00:49 We go, well sure, nothing could be inherently existent, but it's not the way it appears to us. We walk in the room and everything appears as if it was there from its own side, completely independent. I mean intellectually when we think about it we go, well of course not. But it's not the way things appear to us. And that's the difference between understanding it intellectually and having a deep realization of it so you don't even have that appearance anymore of inherent existence. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:49 Highlight the passage at 2:00:49

2:01:16 Because that's how everything appears to us. It doesn't appear as a dependent arising at all. Okay, Carla and then John. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:16 Highlight the passage at 2:01:16

2:01:39 I think most of the teachings that I've had so far have used the word permanent. Empty quality of the cup? Yeah. So my idea is that the emptiness of the cup would not dissipate. No. See, that's why I hate the word permanent, because we have the connotation last forever. But the minute that cup goes out of existence, because the emptiness is just a quality of that cup, its emptiness goes out of existence. And that's exactly why I use changing and unchanging, because permanent to us has two connotations. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:39 Highlight the passage at 2:01:39

2:02:13 It means it doesn't change moment to moment. But permanitas also means it lasts forever. But the minute that cup disappears, because form is emptiness, emptiness is form, emptiness is not other than form, form is not other than emptiness, means that the emptiness of that cup depends on the existence of that cup. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:13 Highlight the passage at 2:02:13

2:02:33 It can exist once the cup no longer exists. If you shred that on the floor, you should have the emptiness of the pieces. Yeah, but that's not the emptiness of the cup. So it's not like... It's just like energy, it's never created. No, it's just a mere absence of a certain way of existing. Emptiness is not a positive thing, it's a mere absence of a certain way of existing. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:33 Highlight the passage at 2:02:33

2:03:02 It doesn't transform. No, no. Because there's nothing to transform, it's just describing something that isn't there. So there's nothing to transform. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:02 Highlight the passage at 2:03:02

2:03:16 Cook it. form. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:16 Highlight the passage at 2:03:16

2:03:18 I'm giving you all the raw vegetables. You've got to cook it. John's got one. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:18 Highlight the passage at 2:03:18

2:03:32 This is just a question about dependent arising. I don't know if it's already been addressed or if I'm just confused about it or whatever. But let's take a world system, remove all sentient beings and remove all valid bases. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:32 Highlight the passage at 2:03:32

2:03:58 Perceive, even if there's no sentient beings, because of a Buddha's omniscience, even if there's no sentient beings there, the Buddha can perceive it. Okay, and remove all objects, all valid bases of imputation. Then in such a world system, even if you go... That wouldn't be a world system, because there's nothing there. We wouldn't call that a world system. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:58 Highlight the passage at 2:03:58

2:04:23 Okay, well what I'm... See, the thing that I'm kind of... Questioning is, if you have, say you have a universe, we have these things, say like, you know, like, best to describe this, what's on my mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:23 Highlight the passage at 2:04:23

2:04:49 In a universe devoid of beings who are able to lay conceptual imputations onto things or onto the things that they see, and it's just a universe full of objects. say. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:49 Highlight the passage at 2:04:49

2:05:09 Do things like the axioms of mathematics still hold? Can you go and say 2 plus 2 is equal to 4 in such a universe if you have no beings that are able to go? Mathematics is just concepts. It's just a concept. If you don't have a being with that concept, it's meaningless. 2 plus 2 equals 4 doesn't exist in nature, really. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:09 Highlight the passage at 2:05:09

2:05:34 It's just a concept that we're imputing onto, you know, addition. I mean, it's just a concept, so we don't talk about that. There would still be external objects that wouldn't exist as what they appear, because we're organizing everything conceptually. Right? So I love these pictures of like the birth of the universe or the Big Bang or something and they show a picture of what it looks like. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:34 Highlight the passage at 2:05:34

2:05:59 The hell it looked like that. There was nobody there who could perceive light of certain wavelengths that saw the purple and the blue. I mean, give me a break. You know, it's just a bunch of energy exploding in the middle of space. It didn't look like that. Who could have looked like that to? There's no eyeballs. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:59 Highlight the passage at 2:05:59

2:06:19 You know, it's like they give these pictures, oh it looked like that, like give me a break, you know. One more question, then we really have to move on. We could go on like this forever, but we've got to finish the Heart Sūtra. One of the things is, like I say, you've got to keep thinking about it. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:19 Highlight the passage at 2:06:19

2:06:36 I'm giving you the ideas, but it takes a long time. I know for a lot of you, you're hearing all of this for the first time. You just mull it over. There's nothing like just meditating. Apply it to all of these examples. Just keep thinking about it. Just keep thinking about how... It applies to the different examples because it's a long process to actually get to the point of understanding. And this is just the raw material and then you have to apply it to all these things like geological time and subatomic particles and the cup and everything else because it's all the same. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:36 Highlight the passage at 2:06:36

2:07:13 Well, I was just going to say I think there's a point where our usual ways of understanding things break down. Like we have to kind of... Surrender to the, like, language isn't going to get us there at the end of the day. Yeah, it's only experience, you know, really. And it's like, you know, I talked the first night about this book that I read. Every page and every... Report an error in the passage at 2:07:13 Highlight the passage at 2:07:13

2:07:37 Footnote and Maps of the Profoundness, huge book by Jeffrey Hopkins. My conclusion at the end of that book was I wasn't going to understand emptiness by reading footnote number 872. I was going to understand emptiness by sitting down on my rear end on a cushion and meditating on it. You can't figure it out intellectually. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:37 Highlight the passage at 2:07:37

2:07:58 I mean, it's not that hard to... Figure out intellectually, but you need the experience and then it'll all become clear. All these, you know, examples that we're asking about, you just keep practicing, you keep meditating on it and then it becomes clear. Yeah. Okay, let's just reel ourselves back, back to the sūtra. And then after talking about the four profound applications. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:58 Highlight the passage at 2:07:58

2:08:25 This form is emptiness, emptiness is form, emptiness is not other than form, form is also not other than emptiness. We're applying those same four to the other aggregates in the same way, meaning those same four apply to everything else too. Feeling, discrimination, compositional factors and consciousness are empty. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:25 Highlight the passage at 2:08:25

2:08:49 All of these aggregates are empty of inherent existence. Our dependent arisings have that relationship of emptiness and dependent arising that we explained for the form. It's all the same for the rest of the aggregates. And remember, we're still talking about how to meditate during the path of accumulation and preparation. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:49 Highlight the passage at 2:08:49

2:09:09 Remember that was the other level. We're talking about meditation instructions, descriptions about what we're doing in our meditation. So we're still on the path of accumulation and preparation. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:09 Highlight the passage at 2:09:09

2:09:23 Okay, in the same way, feeling discrimination, compositional factors, Shariputra, likewise, all phenomena are emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:23 Highlight the passage at 2:09:23

2:09:33 Now, very interesting. A lot of commentators say that every time Avalokiteshvara says the word Shariputra, we're jumping to another path. So that's a clue. Where are we? The path of seeing. So every time Avalokiteshvara says the word Shariputra, it's a signal that we're jumping to another path. Some commentators explain like that. So it's very interesting. So now we're at the path of seeing. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:33 Highlight the passage at 2:09:33

2:10:04 We're just beginning a presentation called the eight aspects of the profound, which is the path of seeing. And so there's two levels. We're explaining emptiness and then we're also explaining what's happening at the path of seeing. So all phenomena are emptiness without characteristics. Now, is it true that phenomena don't have characteristics? No, of course they do. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:04 Highlight the passage at 2:10:04

2:10:33 Not from their own side, right? Independent of our dependent arising. So from now on, whenever they say something, there is no this, there is no that, we add in our minds from its own side, right? It doesn't mean it doesn't exist at all. It just means it doesn't exist inherently. It doesn't exist independently of these three levels of dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:33 Highlight the passage at 2:10:33

2:11:00 So nothing has characteristics from its own side that are not produced by causes and conditions, not dependent on parts and not dependent on conceptual imputation. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:00 Highlight the passage at 2:11:00

2:11:14 Unproduced and unceased from its own side, independent of causes and conditions. So things come into being, they're produced, dependent on causes and conditions. right and our karma and afflictions don't Aren't produced independently. They're produced as a result of causes and conditions. And nothing ceases by itself independent of causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:14 Highlight the passage at 2:11:14

2:11:43 So our afflictions and our karma and our obscurations aren't, you know, ceased just because we hope so. Right? We have to create the causes. I mean, we can look at each of these eight just in very general terms and in relation to the path. So unproduced and unceased, think about it in terms of your own delusions and your own karma. They weren't produced without a cause and they ain't going to end without a cause either. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:43 Highlight the passage at 2:11:43

2:12:10 So by practicing the path, they can seize. The next one, stainless, and that's not the greatest translation of the word, no impurity. Okay, so you can think of no impurity. Nothing is stained from its own side or nothing is impure from its own side. So instead of stainless, change it to no stains from its own side, right? So the impurities arise, independence, too, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:12:10 Highlight the passage at 2:12:10

2:12:42 So nothing, all of our delusions, all of our stains, all of our obscurations arise dependently. And no freedom from impurity either without causes and conditions. Nirvāṇa and enlightenment, freedom from impurity, don't happen inherently. It's not self-existent. It's created by causes. So this is talking about how all of these things are dependent arisings. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:42 Highlight the passage at 2:12:42

2:13:11 All of these things are empty of inherent existence. Doesn't mean they don't exist. It means they don't exist from their own side. So they exist as dependent arising. So not deficient. Again, not a great translation. Does not diminish is a better translation of this. Do not diminish. The impurities, the afflictions don't diminish from their own side and not fulfilled. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:11 Highlight the passage at 2:13:11

2:13:35 A practitioner's attainment of knowledge of good qualities of... Enlightened qualities doesn't exist from its own side. It's created. So this is all talking about the path and how it's all a dependent arising. None of it comes from its own side. You want your afflictions to diminish? You want them to cease? You want to be pure? Report an error in the passage at 2:13:35 Highlight the passage at 2:13:35

2:14:00 Create the causes for it. It's emphasizing what's done on the path to create the causes for. What we want. And it's picking these examples that relate to our karma, our delusions, our afflictions, right? It's using these examples. None of these things exist from their own side. Now, this is also talking about the direct perception of emptiness. In that perception of emptiness, none of these things appear. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:00 Highlight the passage at 2:14:00

2:14:29 Remember we said the direct perception of emptiness... No objects are appearing, so all phenomena are emptiness means no phenomena are appearing during that direct realization of emptiness. We've just jumped to the first meditation of the path of seeing. Nothing is appearing to us except for that mere absence. So none of these things are appearing. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:29 Highlight the passage at 2:14:29

2:14:52 No production, no cessation, no characteristics. No stains, no purity, none of it is appearing to us in the direct realization of emptiness. So it's referring both to describing the emptiness of all of these things and it's also talking about the actual appearance to the meditator during the path of seeing. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:52 Highlight the passage at 2:14:52

2:15:13 So it's got these two levels to it. Is that clear? Okay. What's that? Not fulfilled means not that the path isn't completed from its own side. Fulfilled means fulfillment of all the qualities of an enlightened being. That doesn't happen inherently. Okay, so not fulfilled, yeah. So all the attainments of the path, the fulfillment of the attainments doesn't happen from its own side either, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:15:13 Highlight the passage at 2:15:13

2:15:45 So not, you know, the impurities don't diminish from their own side and then the qualities aren't. Art attained from their own side either, independent of causes and conditions. Yeah, John's got something. Not about world systems this time though, John, okay? Report an error in the passage at 2:15:45 Highlight the passage at 2:15:45

2:16:02 No, it's actually about something you just said. So in a direct perception of emptiness, no phenomena appear except for the mere absence of those qualities of the phenomenon. The mere absence of inherent existence is the only thing that appears. Okay. Yeah, it's not the mere absence of all the other qualities, it's specifically the mere absence of inherent existence. That's the only thing appearing. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:02 Highlight the passage at 2:16:02

2:16:30 And what that feels like, I got no idea. You know, it's like the empty pizza box thing. How can you be perceiving that thing? And it's because, oh, we should read from Lama Zopa. Perfect, perfect timing. Lama Zopa will tell us what it feels like, because I wanted to read this. So this is talking about... Report an error in the passage at 2:16:30 Highlight the passage at 2:16:30

2:16:48 The direct realization of emptiness, perfect segue. So Lama Zopa says, when you realize emptiness, not just that there is no I, not just the feeling that there is no I, you should feel something very intensive. It should be very much more than that. Your understanding should be something very intensive. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:48 Highlight the passage at 2:16:48

2:17:07 Not just the feeling that there is no I. The feeling should be something very deep. The feeling there is no I should be very intensive, very deep. You should feel as you would if you've had a vision that you'd received a million dollars, that somebody put a million dollars into your hands and you totally 100% believed that you actually had all that money and then suddenly realized it was just a hallucination. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:07 Highlight the passage at 2:17:07

2:17:31 It's gone. Like that. Suddenly you realize that it's not there. It is totally gone. What you have believed, were 100 % convinced of, and so strongly clung to, grasp that, is suddenly totally non-existent. There's nothing to grab onto, nothing to hold onto. Suddenly it's totally non-existent. Nothing of what you've been holding onto, cherishing as if it really existed, is truly there. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:31 Highlight the passage at 2:17:31

2:17:58 None of what so far you have never had any doubt about have been grasping at continuously, holding on to like a cat grabbing a mouse, all its claws clutching tightly together. Nothing of that I exists. Suddenly, that about which you've never had any doubt since beginningless rebirths, even since this morning or since you were born into this life, suddenly it doesn't go anywhere. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:58 Highlight the passage at 2:17:58

2:18:23 Suddenly there's nothing there. Just there, suddenly, you realize that there's nothing there. Suddenly it's not there. You realize that it's totally non-existent, totally non-existent. There's nothing to hold on to. Just right there, where it was, totally lost. And then he goes on like that. And then he says, Report an error in the passage at 2:18:23 Highlight the passage at 2:18:23

2:18:46 The right way of perceiving that the eye is empty is an extremely deep, intensive experience, but there are basically two kinds of experience you can have. You can feel incredible that you've discovered the most precious things, such as a wish-granting jewel, or like a person who's been looking for or waiting to meet a friend for many, many years. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:46 Highlight the passage at 2:18:46

2:19:06 And then after all those years, suddenly meeting that friend. Or like you've been waiting to get a billion dollars for a long time and then suddenly you get the money. In other words, when you see emptiness, you feel unbelievable joy. Incredible joy that makes you cry. The second kind of experience is one of unbelievable fear. Incredible fear. Not just any kind of fear. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:06 Highlight the passage at 2:19:06

2:19:28 Not just the fear of being attacked by somebody. Not that kind of fear. It's a very deep fear, something deep inside your heart, in the very depths of your heart. A very deep fear. The other fear is not fear of losing the eye. Something is going to happen to this eye, but it's not losing the eye. The ordinary fear that this real eye is going to receive some harm. But here, something that you believed in, not only from birth, but from beginningless rebirth up until now. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:28 Highlight the passage at 2:19:28

2:19:55 Something that you believed in 100%. Only now. Only now. You realize that it's not there. Only now you realize that it's totally non-existent. This can cause an incredibly deep fear to arise. As I often say when you recite the Heart Sūtra, when you say the words, no ear, no nose, no tongue, if fear arises, that's a good sign. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:55 Highlight the passage at 2:19:55

2:20:18 Fear arising means your recitation of the Heart Sūtra, the essence of wisdom, is hitting or touching the root of saṃsāra, hurting it. Your recitation of the Heart Sūtra has touched the root of saṃsāra, ignorance, has hit it. Your recitation of the Heart Sūtra, your way of thinking when you recite the essence of wisdom is fitting, like an arrow or a bomb. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:18 Highlight the passage at 2:20:18

2:20:39 And then he goes on, it's hit its target. And then he says, the texts that explain that when you feel this fear, At that time you should not try to escape from this fear. Trying to do so is your greatest obstacle to realizing emptiness. Instead you must realize that this is the one time, the one opportunity to realize emptiness, the only wisdom that can directly cut the delusions, the root of saṃsāra, the gross and subtle defilements, bringing liberation from saṃsāra and full enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:39 Highlight the passage at 2:20:39

2:21:10 Knowing this you must go through the fear. You must complete your experience. Go through the fear like crossing a river. Otherwise, if you block your own progress, the one time that you have the opportunity of realizing emptiness, if you run away from that, if you run away from the fear that arises when you realize emptiness, that's no good at all. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:10 Highlight the passage at 2:21:10

2:21:31 However, you never have to worry about the I ceasing because the I never ceases. The I that is the label never ceases. The label never stops, never ceases. Why is there always continuity of the I? The label, why is there always continuity of the self? Because there is always the continuity of consciousness. Even after enlightenment, the consciousness continues forever. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:31 Highlight the passage at 2:21:31

2:21:56 Therefore, thinking I'm going to cease, I'm going to become non-existent is totally wrong. So he goes on like that. It's this great, it's this whole section that starts on page... Report an error in the passage at 2:21:56 Highlight the passage at 2:21:56

2:22:09 455, it's called A Meditation on Emptiness, of this book that's a transcript of teachings that Rinpoche gave at the Vajrasattva retreat about ten years ago at Land of Medicine Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:09 Highlight the passage at 2:22:09

2:22:21 So he's talking about what it's like. So that's what it's like, just that mere absence, like he describes, like you've always thought there was something that was there and then suddenly it's just gone. There's nothing there. So I'll leave that up there. This is Venerable Chogky's copy. If you want to look during lunch, I've bookmarked the section so you can take a look at that. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:21 Highlight the passage at 2:22:21

2:22:44 Okay. Okay. So these eight characteristics that are all empty, and this is what's happening during the direct realization of emptiness at the path of seeing. We're seeing that all of these... Don't exist from their own side. Nothing is appearing. None of these phenomena, none of the characteristics, none of this is appearing at all. Okay, so next, Shariputra. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:44 Highlight the passage at 2:22:44

2:23:11 So what's happening? New path. Path of meditation. Okay, so what's going on here? So Shariputra, therefore. In emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no discrimination, no compositional factors, no consciousness. He repeats the five aggregates. So this is talking about how we meditate on the path of meditation. We're still meditating on the five aggregates and during the direct perception none of those aggregates are appearing. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:11 Highlight the passage at 2:23:11

2:23:46 So this is our object of meditation, but when we've gone into the direct perception, none of those aggregates are appearing to the consciousness at all. Only that emptiness. And then he goes on. No eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. No visual form, no sound, no odor, no taste, no object of touch and no phenomena. So he carries on with this list, okay, this famous list. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:46 Highlight the passage at 2:23:46

2:24:17 Let's see, just one back. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:17 Highlight the passage at 2:24:17

2:24:24 So not only is he talking about the five aggregates or the five heaps here, he's talking about something called the twelve ayatanas, is the Sanskrit word we usually translate it as the twelve sources. So eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. So what we're talking about is the potential for sense consciousness. These are called the sense powers. And it doesn't mean just the sense, the physical sense organ. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:24 Highlight the passage at 2:24:24

2:24:54 It's more subtle than that. Because it's talking about just that potential for having that... Sense consciousness that depends on the physical organ and it depends on the brain and it depends on a lot of other things too. So it's not just the eyeball, not just the physical ear, but it's just that ear sense power, the eye sense power, the nose sense power. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:54 Highlight the passage at 2:24:54

2:25:22 So we've got the sense powers and then the objects of those senses. Visual forms, sounds, odors, tastes, objects of touch. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:22 Highlight the passage at 2:25:22

2:25:33 And this is another list that the Buddha came up with to talk about what? Sense contact again, right? So we've got the sense power coming into contact with an object once again, shows up over and over and over again. Shows up in the five heaps, shows up in the twelve links. He's telling us how we get in trouble. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:33 Highlight the passage at 2:25:33

2:25:59 And he's talking about the emptiness of all of these things. You know all those things that seem like they exist from their own side that we're perceiving? They're empty. And you know even the sense powers that we have. You know it seems like we're seeing things. From our own side and it's appearing to us from its own side and it's all empty. So he's emphasizing again the emptiness of all of these components of every sense contact that we have with the night. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:59 Highlight the passage at 2:25:59

2:26:30 Because that's how we get in trouble. As we think it's inherently existent. And the pretty stuff is inherently attractive and the ugly stuff is inherently, you know, causes aversion for us and all of the other things. And he's just saying, hey, none of it exists independently. None of it exists from its own side at all, right? None of it is inherently existent. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:30 Highlight the passage at 2:26:30

2:26:54 It all exists as a dependent arising. So he's giving us another list. And also none of these things... You're not having any of that sense consciousness in the direct realization of emptiness. So it's also describing what's happening during the direct realization of emptiness at the path of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:54 Highlight the passage at 2:26:54

2:27:13 Now are any of these things appearing in the direct realization of emptiness during the path of seeing? No, they're not either. But in the path of meditation we're starting to use different objects. Remember I said that first direct realization of emptiness is personal. Emptiness that we get through meditating on the five aggregates, seeing their emptiness and the emptiness of the self that's nothing more than a label projected on that composite of the five aggregates. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:13 Highlight the passage at 2:27:13

2:27:44 So that's the subject for the path of seeing. Now the subject for the path of meditation, we extend it to all other phenomena. We start meditating on everything else too. Because the same exact emptiness... The quality of my own emptiness is the same as the quality of the emptiness of the cup, the flower, all of these sense objects, all of my sense powers. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:44 Highlight the passage at 2:27:44

2:28:08 It all has exactly the same total lack of any kind of inherent existence. So we extend it in the path of meditation to more objects. We're extending that realization that we got, which we first got in terms of ourselves, to everything else. And we see, wow, everything's the same. It's all the same. Okay, so that's why this list comes up when we're talking about the path of meditation because that's when we start meditating on more and more objects. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:08 Highlight the passage at 2:28:08

2:28:39 And now he's giving lists of all existing objects. Then he says there's no I element and so on up to and including no mind element and no mental consciousness element. And this is shorthand. He's not listing it all out. What he would say if he listed it all out, he'd repeat these 12. He'd go, there's no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, no visual form, no sound, no odor, no taste, no object of touch and no phenomena. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:39 Highlight the passage at 2:28:39

2:29:07 And then we're adding the six consciousnesses that arise as a result of this contact. So we've got three components here. We've got the sense power, we've got the object, and then a consciousness arises. So if he wrote out the whole list, he'd say, and then there's no visual sense consciousness, no auditory sense consciousness, no olfactory sense consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:07 Highlight the passage at 2:29:07

2:29:32 Because after that potential comes into contact with an object, then the consciousness arises. In that list of 18... The twelve sources plus the six sense consciousnesses is called the eighteen datus or the eighteen elements. So we've got this list of twelve and then we're adding the six consciousnesses and we call that the eighteen datus is the Sanskrit or elements is the way we often translate it. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:32 Highlight the passage at 2:29:32

2:30:04 And that just so happens to cover every existing thing. So it just so happens. That between our sense power, any object of our senses and the consciousness that arises, we've just covered everything that exists. So he's just told us nothing exists from its own side. Remember, and it's not that there's no eye, no ear, no nose, no eye from its own side, no ear from its own side, independent, you know, inherently existent. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:04 Highlight the passage at 2:30:04

2:30:33 So he's just giving us a list of all existing objects. Are covered by the 18 Datus or the 18 elements. And he's saying, during the path of meditation, this is the object of our meditation. This is how to meditate. Remember meditation instructions. We meditate on all this other stuff too. What we saw is true in our own, you know, applied to our own personal self. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:33 Highlight the passage at 2:30:33

2:31:00 We apply to everything else that exists. And none of it is appearing to us at all when we're in the direct realization of emptiness. None of these positive phenomena are appearing at all. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:00 Highlight the passage at 2:31:00

2:31:16 So it's describing how to meditate and what that meditation feels like. D-H-A-T-U. is the way it's usually spelled in Ayat. Ayatana is usually spelled A-Y-A-T-A-N-A. Ayatana, and that's the sources. That's the Sanskrit word that we usually translate as sources. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:16 Highlight the passage at 2:31:16

2:31:39 So he's, again, just giving us lists of what else we meditate on. So during the direct realization of emptiness, we're not perceiving any of those things. They were an object of meditation, but then when we actually get... To the emptiness of them, that's the only thing that's appearing. And he carries on. Oh, John. Yeah. So just to clarify, the 18 elements cover all perceptible things. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:39 Highlight the passage at 2:31:39

2:32:07 All existing phenomena. All existing phenomena. All existing phenomena. Because we've got all external objects of the senses. We've got the sense. Power itself and the consciousness that arises as a result of that contact. All existing things. All existing things. Okay. Yeah. And then he carries on. Well, if he just covered all existing things, how come we've got more to this? Report an error in the passage at 2:32:07 Highlight the passage at 2:32:07

2:32:31 Well, he just wants to drive the point home, that it really is all existing things. And then he says, there's no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance and so on, up to including no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death. What's that all about? What is he talking about here in shorthand? What does that look like? Report an error in the passage at 2:32:31 Highlight the passage at 2:32:31

2:32:54 What starts with ignorance and ends with old age and death? Yeah, the 12 links of dependent origination. So he hasn't named them all out. He hasn't said ignorance, karmic formations, consciousness, you know. He hasn't gone into the whole thing. But he says none of the 12 links which describe how we create our saṃsāra, right, in the forward order. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:54 Highlight the passage at 2:32:54

2:33:17 So he's saying we don't create our saṃsāra self-existently. It's not inherently existent, that whole process. And it doesn't. End, because he's doing the 12 links in the forward order and the reverse order. So he says there's no ignorance all the way through old age and death from its own side, independent of causes and conditions, parts, you know, and conceptual imputation. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:17 Highlight the passage at 2:33:17

2:33:43 And it doesn't stop self-existently either, folks, so we have to create the causes for it. So he's bludgeoning us with the path now. He's like, look, guys, you know. Nothing exists inherently. Even the path doesn't exist inherently. Your saṃsāra isn't created inherently and it doesn't stop inherently. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:43 Highlight the passage at 2:33:43

2:34:04 It's all dependent arisings. So at this point we should feel excited. Great. There's hope, right? So the 12 links is what he's talking about here. Similarly, in the same way, there's no suffering, origination, cessation and path. What does that sound like? Four Noble Truths. So the Four Noble Truths aren't self-existent. They're dependent arisings too. All of this stuff is a dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:04 Highlight the passage at 2:34:04

2:34:33 There's no exalted wisdom, no attainment and also no non-attainment. So even the end of the path, even that attainment isn't self-existent. And the non-attainment isn't self-existent. So if you don't complete the path, that's cause too. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:33 Highlight the passage at 2:34:33

2:34:51 If you don't pull it off, there's a reason for that too. That's not self-existent. So he's telling us the path isn't self-existent, it's all caused, even the attainment is caused, even the non-attainment is a result of dependent arising, right? It's a dependent arising. So it's very cool, you know, he's applying emptiness to everything. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:51 Highlight the passage at 2:34:51

2:35:16 And remember, he doesn't say it doesn't exist. So no suffering from its own side, no origination from its own side, no cessation from its own side. Because now that we know what he means, it's not just this cryptic mystical thing. He's telling us how to meditate on emptiness. He's describing the emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:16 Highlight the passage at 2:35:16

2:35:34 Remember again the three levels. Describing the emptiness of things, giving us meditation instruction, and describing what happens during that realization. None of these things are appearing. To that consciousness in the direct realization of emptiness. None of the 12 links are appearing, none of the path is appearing, even the result isn't appearing. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:34 Highlight the passage at 2:35:34

2:35:56 Even when you have those realizations, are you aware of it when you're in the direct realization of emptiness? No. You could be a 10th level bodhisattva in that direct realization. Is your bodhicitta... Report an error in the passage at 2:35:56 Highlight the passage at 2:35:56

2:36:11 Are you perceiving your bodhicitta and your clairvoyances and all of those qualities? No. None of those things are appearing. It doesn't mean you've lost them, but they're not the object of your consciousness at that point. It's cool, isn't it? Isn't it more meaningful now when you read the Heart Sūtra? Like it's not just these lists and it's also mystical. So, Shariputra. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:11 Highlight the passage at 2:36:11

2:36:37 And I think we'll leave this last part For the afternoon, because we're nearly at lunch, and then that's a whole other thing. And we've got two hours left this afternoon, so we'll finish the sūtra and then answer any other questions. And we've got time for a couple of questions now. Yes. Yeah. We're actually going to finish. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:37 Highlight the passage at 2:36:37

2:37:05 I didn't think it was possible about two hours ago. We're going to do it. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:05 Highlight the passage at 2:37:05

2:37:13 Okay, after knowing that nothing exists. From its own side. Yes, from its own side. How can we apply that with our feelings? Like if you're in a situation that you're conscious, I heard a lot, you know, I said, I don't know what to do. Somebody told me, you have to feel your heart sometimes. How can you apply that? Report an error in the passage at 2:37:13 Highlight the passage at 2:37:13

2:37:43 Knowing all this. Yeah. Well, it's kind of like the example I gave before. You know, when I was criticized by one person and praised by one person and knowing that everybody's just perceiving different things based on their karma because it's all empty of inherent existence. So the appearances are all created. So I think when we have strong feelings, like strong emotions, like strong attachment, strong aversion. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:43 Highlight the passage at 2:37:43

2:38:11 We apply our understanding of emptiness to the object that seems to be creating that strong feeling. Like, for example, the definition of attachment is exaggerating the positive qualities of an object and thinking that by possessing that object you'll find lasting happiness. So I always say when you feel a strong emotion arise, look at what you're exaggerating. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:11 Highlight the passage at 2:38:11

2:38:34 Always look at the exaggeration. You know, somebody feels so attractive to you and you're just like, I have to go out with that person. What are you, how much are you creating that appearance, you know, of that person as attractive? And I always give the example I remember years and years ago, now it's like 23 years ago, you know, long before I was a nun. You know, I remember one time totally falling in love and this guy was perfect. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:34 Highlight the passage at 2:38:34

2:38:58 You know, he's just like totally. And then there's always the time that you start going out with him and then you take him to the party to introduce him to your friends. And they've got to see how fantastic he is too. So you take him to the party and you're like, here he is. And they're all like, oh, nice to meet you, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the next day you're checking, wasn't he fantastic? Report an error in the passage at 2:38:58 Highlight the passage at 2:38:58

2:39:21 And they're like, yeah, he seems really nice. Okay, do you want to go to the movie at 7 and have the pizza later? And you're like, no, no, but... Really? Like, wasn't he amazing? And they're like, honey, you seem really happy. I'm really glad. Let's go to the pizza first. And you're like, you think all your friends are blind and stupid, right? Because he is inherently perfect. And then what happens? Report an error in the passage at 2:39:21 Highlight the passage at 2:39:21

2:39:45 Then you move in together. And six months later, you can't stand the way he chews his food and he leaves the toilet seat up in the middle of the night. And you're like, you've changed. No, he hasn't. You know, you just had this whole projection of perfection. And then you start to see that it's a mixed bag. And that's what some of those strong emotions are. And that's how you can use it. How are we exaggerating? Report an error in the passage at 2:39:45 Highlight the passage at 2:39:45

2:40:08 How are we creating a whole story? Sure, there's some qualities there. Granted, there's qualities. That's the valid basis. But then we've totally exploded it. We completely built it into this whole story. And then what happens? You're relating to the concept. Poor guy. You're not even having a relationship with him. You're having a relationship with your concept of Prince Charming. You know, like poor guy, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:40:08 Highlight the passage at 2:40:08

2:40:37 And that's what we do all the time. Remember, we're relating to the concept and not to what's there. And we do that with aversion, the horrible boss that we can't stand. And you can't believe that like his wife and kids come in at the end of the day and the kids jump into his lap. Oh, daddy, daddy. You're like, who could even stand to be near him? Report an error in the passage at 2:40:37 Highlight the passage at 2:40:37

2:40:57 Because aversion is the same thing. We are exaggerating the negative qualities of an object. We build up that whole concept and then we're responding to the concept. And the poor boss can't do anything right. And everything they do is just proof to us that he's really as horrible as we think he is. So looking at that in our daily life, especially when we feel a strong, disturbing emotion, that's when you can use both your understanding of karma and emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:57 Highlight the passage at 2:40:57

2:41:26 Karma is a little bit more gross, you think. What have I done to create this experience? You know, if it's something negative, what have I done to create it? And then you think, well, how is my karma even creating the very appearance of this situation? Not only did my karma create the situation that I'm in, my karma even creates at a subtler level how the whole thing appears to me is created by my karma. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:26 Highlight the passage at 2:41:26

2:41:53 So that's how we use this knowledge, you know, to cut through saṃsāra. Because that's how the whole chain reaction works. Our ignorance gives rise to our afflictive emotions. Thinking that things exist from their own side is what gives rise to those Disturbing emotions. And those disturbing emotions is what causes us to engage in negative karmic actions, which makes us suffer. So we cut it at the root. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:53 Highlight the passage at 2:41:53

2:42:19 I heard that Lama Yashi used to always say, question appearances. And I think that's a great mantra for us. Question appearances. The way things appear, question. Does it exist the way that it appears? Especially if we're caught up in some kind of strong negative emotion. Yeah, yeah. Okay, let's have Ben and then we'll, Ben and Lynn and then we'll bless the food and then we'll have time for more questions later. This is just connected to what you were just saying, but it just seems like such a fuzzy line to be able to like see kind of the root of your own ignorance, but then you said earlier like acting out of your own integrity. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:19 Highlight the passage at 2:42:19

2:43:01 Right. And like, and it's just... Yeah. How can you see the signs for what your integrity is? Right, right, right. And it's so hard. It's so hard because our wisdom is always increasing and because we don't have clairvoyance and omniscience and all of this other stuff yet. So you just do your best with whatever wisdom that you have and realize that it can change. And what seems like the right action is not necessarily the right action in that moment, but we have to somehow. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:01 Highlight the passage at 2:43:01

2:43:32 Wow, trust in that process and trust in ourselves. It's one of the things you see sometimes people think, Oh, unless I'm omniscient, I don't really know how to help people and I don't really know what to do. So they just sort of sit on their hands, hoping that somehow they'll magically get enlightened and be able to help. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:32 Highlight the passage at 2:43:32

2:43:49 And as we've seen with practicing the perfections, you have to engage. You know, we do have to create the causes in our own faulty way without omniscience and clairvoyance and all this other stuff. And we just do our best. And for me, that's always like that. I kind of had this frustration when I feel like my compassion outstrips my wisdom and I really care about someone and I really want to help them and I don't have a clue or I do something that seems like I'm just bumbling around creating a worse mess. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:49 Highlight the passage at 2:43:49

2:44:22 And then I think, if only I were a Buddha, then I'd really know. So that very frustration that comes from trying to help. You know, inadequately for me is a big fuel on the path in that frustration. But don't err to thinking that you need perfect wisdom before you can act because it will only come as a result of our what we call contaminated good karma. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:22 Highlight the passage at 2:44:22

2:44:48 You know, good karma done without perfect wisdom. We need to just plunge in and do our best and just sort of trust ourselves and trust our intuition somehow. But it's hard. It's really hard because you're there, you're poised, and then you're like, well, I don't know. But don't go to the extreme of non-action just because we know that we're not omniscient yet. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:48 Highlight the passage at 2:44:48

2:45:12 That's the other danger. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good, good. Lynn. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:12 Highlight the passage at 2:45:12

2:45:23 Okay. I'm still Lynn. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:23 Highlight the passage at 2:45:23

2:45:24 Karma and causes and conditions. And if we look at dependent arising in karma, what are the causes and conditions that lead to the karma, that leads to the non-virtuous action or whatever? Are you asking about free will, perhaps? Yes, I am. Okay, I thought so. About half an hour ago, I got popped with. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:24 Highlight the passage at 2:45:24

2:45:52 Can we hold free will to the afternoon? Because I want to draw a diagram. If we're going to get into free will, I want to draw a diagram. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:52 Highlight the passage at 2:45:52

2:46:03 Okay, great. Great. We'll have to do it. We're just going to have to do the 12 links thing. I can just see that right now. There's no way around it. We'll do the short version, the 1040 easy version of the 12 links. Okay. And that will answer the free will question. God, do I really want to get into that? I was startled when it came into my mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:03 Highlight the passage at 2:46:03

2:46:28 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, we'll do the easy version of the free will question. Okay. All right. So first let's dedicate the merit and then we'll offer the food. So thinking of all the amazing virtue. Incredible. Unbelievable virtue from even just this morning, thinking about emptiness like this, tearing apart saṃsāra by our thinking about emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:28 Highlight the passage at 2:46:28

2:47:02 So let's dedicate it towards being able to have that realization which Report an error in the passage at 2:47:02 Highlight the passage at 2:47:02

2:47:14 will not only free us from saṃsāra but enable us to have all of the qualities of a fully enlightened being. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:14 Highlight the passage at 2:47:14

2:47:25 All those qualities to benefit others. So just take a minute to dedicate the merit. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:25 Highlight the passage at 2:47:25

2:47:59 And then we'll offer the food. It's on page 207 if you want to follow along. So visualizing the food is blissful wisdom nectar inside of a vast jeweled vessel. And as you eat, imagine offering this blissful nectar to Shakyamuni Buddha seated at your heart. Oma. O Mahoum, Mahoum. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:59 Highlight the passage at 2:47:59

2:48:31 The Guru is Buddha, the Guru is Dharma, the Guru is Saṅgha also. The Guru is the creator of all happiness. To all Gurus I make this offering. May we and those around us in all future lives never be separated from the Three Jewels, continuously make offerings to the Three Jewels and receive the inspiration of the Three Jewels. Report an error in the passage at 2:48:31 Highlight the passage at 2:48:31

2:48:56 To the supreme teacher, the precious Buddha. To the supreme refuge, the precious Dharma. To the supreme guides, the precious Saṅgha. To the triple gem, the objects of refuge, I make offering. Thank Report an error in the passage at 2:48:56 Highlight the passage at 2:48:56

2:49:14 you. Enjoy. Bon appetit. Report an error in the passage at 2:49:14 Highlight the passage at 2:49:14

2:49:27 Thank you so much for coming. Report an error in the passage at 2:49:27 Highlight the passage at 2:49:27