Radical Compassion (22 March 2008)

0:00 like a virgin of course just dated myself significantly okay Let's start by just sitting for a couple of minutes to just quiet our mind. Just sit with your back straight, whatever meditation posture you find comfortable and watch your breath. Just turn your attention to your breath either. The sensation of breathing going in and out of the nostrils or your chest rising and falling or Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:44 your diaphragm going up and down just for a few minutes to settle and focus your mind, get yourself here in this room in your body. Report an error in the passage at 0:44 Highlight the passage at 0:44

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:45 And now take just a minute to set your motivation for this teaching today, thinking. Maybe you've just come out of curiosity to find out more about Buddhist teachings, more about Buddhist meditation. It Report an error in the passage at 1:45 Highlight the passage at 1:45

2:04 may be that you have been attending teachings for a while, have some understanding of the nature of our unenlightened existence and you're wishing to liberate yourself from that cycle of uncontrolled rebirth. And Report an error in the passage at 2:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04

2:27 then the highest level of motivation, according to the Mahāyāna, Is the wish to develop your capacity to benefit beings in the most fast way possible by becoming a fully enlightened Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 2:27 Highlight the passage at 2:27

2:48 So just reflect on your level of motivation and the topic for this. Teaching today focuses on the highest level of motivation, so at least try and develop some aspiration for that, even if you don't understand really what it means yet. Just some idea, what a noble thought to wish to practice, not just for your own happiness, but for that of all living beings to develop that capacity. Report an error in the passage at 2:48 Highlight the passage at 2:48

3:18 So just take a minute to reflect on that level of motivation. Report an error in the passage at 3:18 Highlight the passage at 3:18

· · · silence, 1 minute

4:02 So what I'd like to do first is go around and have everybody introduce themselves because there's lots of new friends here today that I haven't met before. And if you could just go around and say your name and maybe a little bit about what background in Buddhism you have, what teachings or practice that you've already engaged in, so I kind of have an idea of people's background. Report an error in the passage at 4:02 Highlight the passage at 4:02

4:27 As Chikky introduced me, my name is Tenzin Chogkyi and I'm one of the teachers at Land of Medicine Buddha down in Soquel. And I come here a couple of times a year and always have a really good time whenever I come. And the teaching that we're going to have today and then the second half will be in two weeks on a Saturday. We sort of divided it up. It's a weekend teaching often, but because of the schedule here and at Land of Medicine Buddha, we weren't able to do the whole thing in one go. Report an error in the passage at 4:27 Highlight the passage at 4:27

4:55 So I'll give you two weeks to think about what we've talked about today and then we'll carry on. Hi, I'm Terry. And my background in meditation has been transcendental meditation since the 70s. And I had usually been doing that twice a day, but my friend Effie introduced me to this house. Report an error in the passage at 4:55 Highlight the passage at 4:55

5:23 I first came last weekend to see Venerable Rubina and now I feel happy again. She tends to have that effect on people. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Hi, I'm Cynthia. Oh, good. Report an error in the passage at 5:23 Highlight the passage at 5:23

5:45 Are you on? Do you know yet? Are you going? Or is it canceled? No, I think we're going. Oh, you are? Okay, great. We may have to change our plans and our itinerary, but I'm going. Cynthia's going on a pilgrimage to Tibet, so we've been on pins and needles, but is it going to be canceled or not? Yeah. Oh, great. Okay, sorry to interrupt, Dr. Report an error in the passage at 5:45 Highlight the passage at 5:45

6:05 No. I've been studying, learned Report an error in the passage at 6:05 Highlight the passage at 6:05

6:14 about sections a year or two or so ago, I guess, and I've taken some classes here. I've been listening to classes and teaching on the internet. Anywhere I can find them on any topic I can have. Report an error in the passage at 6:14 Highlight the passage at 6:14

6:37 My name is Amber. At Report an error in the passage at 6:37 Highlight the passage at 6:37

6:44 a curious level, you invite me to come today and how to do so. Know a little bit about Buddhism and have listened to some things online and read some things. Report an error in the passage at 6:44 Highlight the passage at 6:44

7:07 Isn't that great? They're going around that way. know. Report an error in the passage at 7:07 Highlight the passage at 7:07

7:10 Did you just ask who, what is the question? Yeah, just who are you and what you're after. Maybe I'll know you, I'm not sure. Maybe, maybe. So my name's Chogkyi and I'm the spiritual program coordinator here. And I've been sort of officially a Buddhist for 12 years, I guess, since 96, since I took refuge in 96, which you had a key part in as well. Report an error in the passage at 7:10 Highlight the passage at 7:10

7:37 We've known each other since 1982. We both end up Buddhist nuns, like however it's done. We share a lot of history about Madonna. Report an error in the passage at 7:37 Highlight the passage at 7:37

7:53 My name is Ananda, and my mother named me that. And I guess I've been brought up in the tradition from an early age, but of course when one is... Yeah, the vagina. Report an error in the passage at 7:53 Highlight the passage at 7:53

8:15 Forced into something, one rebels. Ergo, I went to Catholic school. And only recently have, you know, turned 36 and had the big, like, spiritual crisis. And now I'm just trying to live up to me. So, I don't know if that... Report an error in the passage at 8:15 Highlight the passage at 8:15

8:45 You know, I just want to be able to bring my happiness and my grace to everyone around me. Very good. Wonderful answer. Report an error in the passage at 8:45 Highlight the passage at 8:45

9:00 And I think I've sort of been a spiritual seeker for most of my life, little bits of Buddhism here, but I actually had the great opportunity to go to that with Lama. Oh, wow. And that just helped me to... Report an error in the passage at 9:00 Highlight the passage at 9:00

9:28 Was that the Mount Kailash one that you did with my good friend Amber? Yeah. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 9:28 Highlight the passage at 9:28

9:52 you know, I kind of feel like I've got plunked in the ocean and I'm treading water kind of. And actually I did do the long retreat with them. feel great. Report an error in the passage at 9:52 Highlight the passage at 9:52

10:21 you. Let's do the last year starting back here and then we'll go crowd. Hi, I'm Carol, and I too have been a spiritual seeper all my life and have an eclectic background in many things. I'm comfortable pretty much in any sort of religious environment if it's contemporary. Report an error in the passage at 10:21 Highlight the passage at 10:21

10:40 And I actually discovered Shai Chin Ling about three or four years ago when it was over off of Monterey because I worked a couple of doors down and I would go to the noontime meditation. And I'm just in a place in my life now where my brain has been so insane that it's clearly, I mean, I started having anxiety attacks for the first time in the fall. Report an error in the passage at 10:40 Highlight the passage at 10:40

11:01 So I said, okay. So I've basically been immersing myself as much as possible in the teachings where I don't know what part of my brain they're going into exactly. They're hard to understand, but meditation I believe in. And I love human beings too, so I'm here to help and to learn. Report an error in the passage at 11:01 Highlight the passage at 11:01

11:25 There's seats up here too. I don't know if you'd be more comfortable sitting down or in a chair, but there's one each. Report an error in the passage at 11:25 Highlight the passage at 11:25

11:34 you're going to be the hot seat for a minute. Literally. I'm Mary. I was raised in H &M. And then I practiced Zen for a while. And then I took refuge with Verena. And that's how it's at. I've been a student at LVP for almost two and a half years. So now I live here. so I'm learning. I live in New York downstairs. I've been doing teachers Do you have pictures around. around? Can you help me? Report an error in the passage at 11:34 Highlight the passage at 11:34

12:06 Hi, my name is Donna. them. I did. When I was like a Hindu path for about 14 years, I finally realized that wasn't working. So then I did, I was floating around for several years, new age, this and that, and that didn't work. And finally I came here about a year ago, and I think what cemented things for me is I took the bodhicitta retreat with John at Mayer's. Report an error in the passage at 12:06 Highlight the passage at 12:06

12:33 I felt like I finally had a map, and I just dropped off of the trailhead. The climb is quite high, but at least I feel like I know where I'm going now. Report an error in the passage at 12:33 Highlight the passage at 12:33

12:51 I've been Buddhist for years and this is one of my favorite teachings, but I always forget when I need it. Me too. Great. Report an error in the passage at 12:51 Highlight the passage at 12:51

13:05 I don't really laugh at three. Three, two, We're just doing introductions, and if you have any background in Buddhist teachings or meditation, just to kind of get to know each other a little bit. Okay. My name is Cork McGowan. I'm here from Reading. Cindy did persuade us to be here. I see that. Report an error in the passage at 13:05 Highlight the passage at 13:05

13:27 I had some Vipassanā meditation classes in the late 70s, actually. I went to three or four of them with Ruth Denison. Somebody named Hubbard, and we would have these 11-day classes where all we would do was eat vegetarian food and not talk and meditate. Report an error in the passage at 13:27 Highlight the passage at 13:27

13:50 It was really, really very an incredible experience. I went to one was at a CYO camp, one was at a Buddhist communal farm near Portland, and another was at the monastery, the Jesuit monastery over in Los Gatos. Report an error in the passage at 13:50 Highlight the passage at 13:50

14:10 And so the Jesuits and Ruth Denison would sit there and talk about Buddhism and Christianity. And I've done that off and on for a number of years, although I haven't been very regular with meditation recently. And I was actually, Cindy Tashima got me here just before the Dalai Lama was here last spring, so in this building. Report an error in the passage at 14:10 Highlight the passage at 14:10

14:30 And so I was here for some of those activities and I got to see the Dalai Lama with Cindy and everything, and that was very enjoyable. So she's kind of my... connection and reminder about and meditation. Her and Jack and Jude. Yeah. It's very nice to be here at the last minute. Yeah, great. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 14:30 Highlight the passage at 14:30

15:00 I'm not Buddhist, but I'm open Report an error in the passage at 15:00 Highlight the passage at 15:00

15:09 Anything? Yeah. Okay, great. Thank you all for introducing yourself, welcome. Since we've got a lot of new people, what I think I'll do before we launch into the text and the teaching is just kind of put everything into a little bit of context. Where does this teaching that we're going to be talking about today and in two weeks fit into the Buddhist path as a whole? Where does it fit in? Report an error in the passage at 15:09 Highlight the passage at 15:09

15:35 In our tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, we focus very much on a teaching called the lamrim, or stages of the past. And those of you who have taken some teachings here at Seichen Ling and other places may have heard of this Tibetan word, lamrim, stages of the past. And this genre of teachings, it's not just one text, but it covers a wide variety of texts and commentaries on root texts. Report an error in the passage at 15:35 Highlight the passage at 15:35

16:02 It originated with Lama and Tisha and there's this whole great long story about Lama and Tisha that I won't go into the whole story but basically they're in Tibet at a certain point historically there was an anti-Buddhist king who pretty much He wiped out Buddhism in Tibet, at least in terms of the institutions in the monasteries. It was very similar to what's going on with the Chinese now. Report an error in the passage at 16:02 Highlight the passage at 16:02

16:32 He destroyed all the great monasteries, wiped out almost all of the monastics. In fact, in order to have an ordination ceremony, you need five monks. There were only three monks left in Tibet. They had to go to the border of China to find two more monks to have an ordination. This is how wiped out Buddhism was in Tibet after this anti-Buddhist King Long Dharma. And in fact the little blue piping that we have on our robes is put to honor those Chinese monks that helped revive the monastic lineage in Tibet after this time. Report an error in the passage at 16:32 Highlight the passage at 16:32

17:08 So Buddhism at that point... Survived in these little pockets up in the mountains. The libraries were wiped out. The teachings were wiped out. And there was a lot of misunderstanding that arose. People thought, oh, you can practice these high methods of Tantra without having to bother with Sūtra, without having to bother with ethical discipline. Report an error in the passage at 17:08 Highlight the passage at 17:08

17:31 Monasticism really isn't important. Things were really in chaos and really mixed up in terms of how do you practice the teachings. In a gradual way, you know, leading up to the highest level of teachings. And so there was then a Buddhist king that followed Lama Dharma who wanted to straighten everything out, you know, and he looked to the great monastic institutions in India at that time where flourishing the Landa Monastery, Vikramashila Monastery, these huge monastic institutions that just went on a pilgrimage. Report an error in the passage at 17:31 Highlight the passage at 17:31

18:05 To the eight holy places over this past winter and walking around Nalanda Monastery. I mean, imagine you see Berkeley times ten filled with like 60,000 Buddhist monks. I mean, it was unbelievable. We just went to one out of something like 15 monasteries and we're walking around it for half the day. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. Report an error in the passage at 18:05 Highlight the passage at 18:05

18:27 You can't imagine. So these monasteries were really flourishing. And then the Tibetan king said, oh, let's invite a great Indian pundit. You know, to come and straighten everything out for us. So that was Lama Atisha. And when he got to Tibet, what he had studied, he was one of the greatest, you know, scholars at Vikramashila, which was one of the big monastic institutions. Report an error in the passage at 18:27 Highlight the passage at 18:27

18:51 He got to Tibet. And what he did was compose a text called Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment, which is sort of the first of the Islamrim texts. Report an error in the passage at 18:51 Highlight the passage at 18:51

19:03 Stages of the Path genre where he just laid out the path step by step by step. You know, you start with this, then you go here, then you go here, then you go here. And he organized the stages of the path into three, what's often called three scopes. But Lama Zopa in these teachings and Bodh Gaya last winter really clarified that the word in Tibetan doesn't mean so much scope, it means capacity or capability. Report an error in the passage at 19:03 Highlight the passage at 19:03

19:30 They're beings of different... Capacities and capabilities in terms of how are they able to practice. So the lowest scope is people who just want to be free of suffering, especially the suffering of future lives in the lower realms. Buddhism believes in rebirth and it also believes that there are many different states within which you can be reborn, including states of very extreme suffering. Report an error in the passage at 19:30 Highlight the passage at 19:30

20:00 There's hell realms in Buddhism. I remember once in India explaining to this one Tibetan Lama, and he was getting ready to go to the West for the first time, and he was asking me questions about Christianity, because he'd heard that Christianity was this religion. He was going to Germany. So he was asking me questions, and I started explaining what very little I knew about it in heaven and hell. And he said, Oh wait, you're talking about Buddhist heaven and hell. And I said, no, no, no, it's the same in Christianity. I was like, no, it sounds like Buddhism. They said, wait, I thought Christians didn't believe in rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 20:00 Highlight the passage at 20:00

20:33 And I said, oh, they believe in just one. That's forever. So there are these realms created by our minds, created by karma, you know, within which, because of our karma, we can experience intense suffering. People are very skeptical about this, but Master Shantideva in his book, Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, has this famous verse and he says basically, what do you think? Report an error in the passage at 20:33 Highlight the passage at 20:33

21:01 Acme Hell Realm Construction Company made the Hell Realm. Your mind created it. And we know, we can get into these paranoid states of mind where everybody looks like an enemy and everything anybody does. If there's somebody that you don't like, they can't do anything right, can they? Like everything they do. Report an error in the passage at 21:01 Highlight the passage at 21:01

21:19 You feel like they're dissing you. And you complain to your best friend, oh, when she said, can you believe she said that? And your friend is like, I thought she was giving you a compliment. And you're like, no, she did this thing and it was so twisted. So you can really see how your mind can create a state of incredible suffering. Report an error in the passage at 21:19 Highlight the passage at 21:19

21:38 So the first level of capability is, I want to be free of that. I want to practice a spiritual path. So that I at least change my karma enough that I don't have to experience that kind of suffering anymore. There are also these blissful reavers in Buddhism, deva realms where you're floating around and being fed peeled grapes by beautiful beings of whatever gender is your preference and all of this stuff. Report an error in the passage at 21:38 Highlight the passage at 21:38

22:08 So you say, oh, I'd rather have that. That sounds pretty good, but I don't want those other reavers, those really suffering. And then there's a middle level of capability that says, you know what, anywhere that I'm born in cyclic existence, you know, flung headlong through the force of karma and afflictions is bad news. Report an error in the passage at 22:08 Highlight the passage at 22:08

22:33 It doesn't matter where, even those wonderful peeled grape god realms are no good. Because I'm still completely under the force of my karma and delusions. It's not going to last forever. I have no idea where I'm going to be next after that. You know, I get this sort of image of the wheel of saṃsāra just kind of flinging you off. Report an error in the passage at 22:33 Highlight the passage at 22:33

22:55 You know, you're just kind of like that, being flung off into some other rebirth. So you have an understanding that it doesn't matter where in cyclic existence you get reborn. It's still suffering because you have no control. Your karma dishes you up experiences one after another, and you have no control over them. And they're usually, because of our delusions, not very much fun. Report an error in the passage at 22:55 Highlight the passage at 22:55

23:21 Even the pleasure that we get, we cling on to desperately with this paranoia in the back of our mind. Oh, it's going to end soon. The chocolate cake is so delicious, but it's the last piece. Whatever pleasure we have, there's always that thing of like... I don't want it to end. So it's always tainted by this grasping that we have. So even what's good in cyclic existence is tainted by our grasping, tainted by our misunderstanding of where happiness comes from. Report an error in the passage at 23:21 Highlight the passage at 23:21

23:53 So the middle level of capacity says, forget about it. It's bad news. You know, I want off the wheel. I want out. I don't want to have to be flung headlong into any next rebirth uncontrolled, you know, because of my karma delusion. And then the highest level of motivation, which our teachings of today and two weeks from now come from, is the level of motivation that says mere liberation from cyclic existence isn't good enough. Report an error in the passage at 23:53 Highlight the passage at 23:53

24:23 Even that's not good enough. Even myself being liberated from cyclic existence, never having to experience another uncontrolled rebirth, never having to experience even an instant of mental affliction, which is defined as any thought that disturbs your peace of mind. Even never having to experience even a fleeting iota of jealousy, resentment, anger. Report an error in the passage at 24:23 Highlight the passage at 24:23

24:51 That sounds really good, but even that's not good enough. I need to develop even more qualities than that. I need to develop complete enlightenment and Buddhahood in order to help other beings. Because it's not good enough for me to be free if everybody else is still flailing around, you know, subject to suffering. So that highest level of motivation says, I need to develop bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 24:51 Highlight the passage at 24:51

25:17 Okay, this is the Sanskrit word bodhicitta. Which means the wish to get enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings. So it's got two major components. And we're going to talk about both components because it's very important to understand that both are totally necessary. The wish to get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 25:17 Highlight the passage at 25:17

25:39 Enlightenment is different from liberation. A being who's liberated is called an Arhat. You may have heard this word, a Hinayana Arhat, a being who's liberated. Now a Buddha, a fully enlightened being, is a whole different kind of being. They have completely different qualities than a being who's just liberated. Report an error in the passage at 25:39 Highlight the passage at 25:39

26:02 Mostly mental qualities that enable them to benefit others. So a Buddha has qualities especially of mind, omniscient mind. They can see the karma of beings. They can see their past rebirths. Report an error in the passage at 26:02 Highlight the passage at 26:02

26:19 Know exactly what to say to wake them up. And that's the quality of a Buddha, which is different than the quality of an arhat. If I were a Buddha, I would know exactly what to say to Kork right this very second, exactly what was going on in his mind, and exactly what to say to break through. Report an error in the passage at 26:19 Highlight the passage at 26:19

26:40 Unfortunately, you're stuck with moi. So I just flail around and throw out things and maybe some of it penetrates and maybe some of it doesn't. But that's the special quality of a Buddha. So you say, okay, you know, I'm going to practice for that because that's what I need. I need those special qualities to benefit beings. It's not good enough for myself to be free. You know, I need those special qualities. And for that, you need the wish. Report an error in the passage at 26:40 Highlight the passage at 26:40

27:08 Because everything starts with intention in Buddhism, which is why we set our motivation at the beginning of every teaching. We set our motivation because we're aiming in a certain direction. So to aim in the direction of full enlightenment, we need this bodhicitta, which is what the whole subject that we're going to be talking about is about. Report an error in the passage at 27:08 Highlight the passage at 27:08

27:29 How to develop that bodhicitta, that wish to get enlightened for the benefit of all living beings. So it has these two components. The wish to get enlightened. So beyond liberation you want full enlightenment. You want Buddhahood. So that's one part of it. But it also needs the other component. For the benefit of all living beings. So it's not good enough to just want to get to be a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 27:29 Highlight the passage at 27:29

27:56 Because it's cool. You know, Buddhas are so cool. They have all those arms and legs and they're blue and all these colors and wow, it would be cool. No, it's not good enough just because being a Buddha is so cool. You have to do it, you know, for the benefit of other beings because only through those qualities will you be able to pull it off, to pull off that level of benefit. Report an error in the passage at 27:56 Highlight the passage at 27:56

28:21 And you can't stand it anymore. You know, you have to be able to benefit in this ultimate. And Lama Zopa says it's like, he has this wonderful analogy, he says, like you go into the kitchen to get some food. First you need a plate, right? So you get the plate and you go in the kitchen to get the food. You don't go into the kitchen with the plate and leave the kitchen without any food. Report an error in the passage at 28:21 Highlight the passage at 28:21

28:45 That would be really stupid, you know. The only reason for grabbing the plate, like at Land of Medicine Buddha we have this pile of plates and then the cooks put out all the things in the pots because there's a bunch of people. So we first grab the plate, then we go and put the food on the plate. And he says how dumb would it be to get a plate and walk past the food and sit down with an empty plate, you know. Report an error in the passage at 28:45 Highlight the passage at 28:45

29:07 And he says the plate is enlightenment and benefiting beings is the food. The only reason you need the plate. The only reason you need to get enlightened is to benefit beings. If you weren't interested in benefiting beings, there would be no reason to develop all of those qualities. You can see how it's really linked. It's not about just, oh, I've got to be a Buddha because that's best. That's the coolest, ultimate thing. Report an error in the passage at 29:07 Highlight the passage at 29:07

29:34 It's like, no, why bother? Frankly, it's quite a lot harder. I don't want to discourage you right off the bat. It's a lot harder. Report an error in the passage at 29:34 Highlight the passage at 29:34

29:44 Liberation is a piece of cake, relatively. Buddhahood is really hard, so you only do it if you really want to benefit beings. And you need to realize that that's the ultimate way to benefit beings, too. So wanting to benefit beings isn't enough either. So the second half of the component isn't enough. Report an error in the passage at 29:44 Highlight the passage at 29:44

30:05 Because there's all kinds of ways to benefit beings. Open a soup kitchen, open a homeless shelter, you know, go work in an orphanage in Zimbabwe. And it's great to do all of these things also, but, you know, you realize that the only way to really benefit beings is to get them liberated from all of their suffering. Report an error in the passage at 30:05 Highlight the passage at 30:05

30:25 It's not enough to give them lunch today. It's not enough to give them a place to live now. Because as long as they're still subject to their karma and delusions, they're not going to be free. It's just a band-aid. So it's great to do all of those things as part of our practice, but we're aiming towards the ultimate way of being able to benefit beings, which is only by developing those qualities of mind. Report an error in the passage at 30:25 Highlight the passage at 30:25

30:52 Because the main way that Buddhists benefit beings is by teaching them how to practice. Buddhas are not omnipotent. That's one of the big differences between enlightened beings and a Christian god. There's a bunch of differences. The creator thing isn't. But also the omnipotence. A Buddha, no matter how much compassion they have, cannot free us from our karma and our suffering. Report an error in the passage at 30:52 Highlight the passage at 30:52

31:20 And what's the proof of that? Report an error in the passage at 31:20 Highlight the passage at 31:20

31:24 Yeah, like we're still, I don't know about y 'all, you know, I'm still going through it, really, like even I'm a nun and I'm still, you know, but really, I'm still, if the Buddha cared at all and could, none of us would be here, you know, none of us would still, I mean, why are we here on a sunny, beautiful Saturday morning if it's all perfect? Report an error in the passage at 31:24 Highlight the passage at 31:24

31:45 We wouldn't be here, you know, we'd be off at the Marin Henlins or something, you know, doing all those other things. You know, we're here because it's not working, right? So, the Buddha can teach us how to practice. One of my teachers, Kiri Sanchara Rinpoche, said, everyone, the Buddha's power and sentient beings' karma are equal. Report an error in the passage at 31:45 Highlight the passage at 31:45

32:07 It's like, the Buddha can only help you if you have enough kind of virtue and interest and so forth to be able to take advantage of that help that they're dishing out, like, all the time. You know, I feel like the Buddhas are just, keep manifesting to us right and left. Hey, pay attention to me over here, you know, to try and wake us up. Report an error in the passage at 32:07 Highlight the passage at 32:07

32:30 But it's only when we actually, you know, meet them halfway from our side. Okay? So that's where these teachings fits into that scope. It's that highest level of motivation. It's not good enough just to be free of gross... Suffering of those realms and those mind states and all of that stuff. It's not even good enough to just be free of cyclic existence altogether. Report an error in the passage at 32:30 Highlight the passage at 32:30

32:54 But it's really important to become fully enlightened. But you can see how in the stages of the past, each of those levels builds on each other. Why on earth would you want to benefit and free other beings? from cyclic existence if you didn't really realize that cyclic existence is bad news you know if you didn't care about your own liberation What are you going to kill yourself becoming a Buddha to save everybody else? You know, you're not going to do that. If you still think there's some happiness to be found in cyclic existence, if you still think that right around the corner, like I did for all those years, everything's going to, you know, it's just this job and this living situation. Report an error in the passage at 32:54 Highlight the passage at 32:54

33:35 It's kind of intense right now, but pretty soon I'm going to change and it's all going to be okay. You know, and we keep thinking right around the corner, oh, it's kind of this. Part of my life just isn't working, but pretty soon, you know, this is going to mellow out and I'm going to be happy. And if you really buy into that worldview, forget about becoming a Buddha to liberate other beings. Report an error in the passage at 33:35 Highlight the passage at 33:35

33:57 You're just going to try and get them to mellow out that one situation that's causing them trouble. So you can see how you have to kind of build gradually. And you have to build the capacity. And the insight to see how all of cyclic existence is basically nothing but in the nature of suffering, essentially, you know, until you're liberated, before you wish that for other beings too. Report an error in the passage at 33:57 Highlight the passage at 33:57

34:23 So that's why Lama Atisha, very brilliantly and kindly for us, you know, condensed the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha into this nice stepwise way to practice called the long run. Okay, are there any questions about that? That introductory, contextual... Pass this out. I let it go during the introductions. Report an error in the passage at 34:23 Highlight the passage at 34:23

34:49 Anything with that? It's either clear or so incomprehensible. Report an error in the passage at 34:49 Highlight the passage at 34:49

35:00 In the last part of what you were speaking about, how people tend to... I know I do this. right? Report an error in the passage at 35:00 Highlight the passage at 35:00

34:54 I could show you that. Report an error in the passage at 34:54 Highlight the passage at 34:54

35:07 Where it's like, okay, it's difficult right now, but if I can just get to the next, if I can just get around the next corner, it'll be better. And that's where my... Report an error in the passage at 35:07 Highlight the passage at 35:07

35:27 You know, it's just like, okay, if you have faith, if you have the blind faith, you know, that it will manifest itself, then your happiness is somewhere in there too. So, I guess my question is, am I... Are you fooling yourself? Yeah, I mean... No, no, no, am I? Am I on the wrong, is that the wrong viewpoint? I mean, I know there's no right and wrong necessarily, but... Report an error in the passage at 35:27 Highlight the passage at 35:27

35:55 Is that going to be most efficacious towards my goal of bringing happiness? One of the main tenets of Buddhism is If you're trying to find happiness by manipulating your external reality to get that house of cards perfectly balanced and God don't breathe harder, it's all going to come tumbling down and you've got everything out there completely balanced, forget it. Report an error in the passage at 35:55 Highlight the passage at 35:55

36:33 Because there's no way we can have control over external reality. The only thing that we even have a hope of controlling through a lot of practice is our minds. And that's where happiness... resides for us is in our viewpoint in our attitude so the more energy we put out to try and manipulate our external reality to get all of that tweaked to be exactly in balance going to be tweaking and we have been tweaking since beginning of this time like buddhism says guess what you know it ain't just this life that we've been trying to tweak to get We've been tweaking since the beginning of this time, thinking... Report an error in the passage at 36:33 Highlight the passage at 36:33

37:13 Right around the corner. You know, and it's interesting, I think, I've looked at my own, what I've labeled happiness in the past, samsaric happiness, and it was more about the anticipation and the hope about that thing. Working out right around the corner. It's like relationships, you know, I haven't been in a relationship in a long time, I'm a nun, but I remember it was always that anticipation of getting together with the person was a lot more thrilling, you know, and then you get together and like six months later he's leaving the toilet seat up in the middle of the night and you're falling in and it's like all falling apart. Report an error in the passage at 37:13 Highlight the passage at 37:13

37:45 It's more like that hope and the anticipation gives you more happiness than the reality. So it's always like we're living in that little... Like the only happiness we have is in that little buffer zone right before we get what we think we want. And then that's where the real thrill is. It's weird. It's really weird. It's like when you really check, I look back, I really analyze and it's like it's that hope and that anticipation is when I felt like I had some kind of happiness. Report an error in the passage at 37:45 Highlight the passage at 37:45

38:21 And it's a total illusion, isn't it? It's like, ooh, it's right, it's within reach. And then that's when I was, and then you get what it is. I have, I have this friend and he was a football, like pro football star. He was in the New Orleans Saints, you know, he's this Buddhist practitioner. He was telling me about it. And he said, you know, he, his whole life he played sports because that was the dream when he was growing up. Report an error in the passage at 38:21 Highlight the passage at 38:21

38:51 If you're a pro ball player. You've got it made. Like his childhood, you know, him and all his friends. So he played sports and then he got recruited for both baseball and football in college and got all these scholarships. And then he got recruited for pro teams and he chose football. Like pro teams for both baseball and football. He chose football because he liked it better. Report an error in the passage at 38:51 Highlight the passage at 38:51

39:12 And so he's in the training camp. You know, he's telling me his whole Dharma epiphany. He's in the training camp for the New Orleans Saints and every day they boot out more people. And the group is getting smaller and smaller. And he said, I remember the day the coach comes into the locker room and he says, congratulations men, this is the 1991 New Orleans Saints football team. Report an error in the passage at 39:12 Highlight the passage at 39:12

39:33 And he was like, his lifelong dream came true. And he goes, the next day? And he goes, no, it was that afternoon. I thought, is that his? Report an error in the passage at 39:33 Highlight the passage at 39:33

39:43 My whole life. Even that very day, like once the thrill wore off. And he was like, I'm not any happier than I was yesterday. Like this was my dream. Like the happiness was in thinking that once he got it, he'd be happy. And then when he actually got it, and the minute his contract was up, he went to, there's some famous bookstore in Los Angeles, like Bodhi Tree Bookstore, and started getting all these things, and then he became this. Report an error in the passage at 39:43 Highlight the passage at 39:43

40:15 But that was his moment of like, wow, even this thing was supposed to give me happiness. Then he's like, this is it? Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche has this beautiful thing that he says at the beginning of one teaching and all of his students like freak out. He goes, the beginning of the path is giving up hope. Hopelessness is the beginning of the path. But it's true. Report an error in the passage at 40:15 Highlight the passage at 40:15

40:38 It's that thing of like, hey, just let go. And then you can really be happy, you know, because you're not putting all of this energy into tweaking your external. Report an error in the passage at 40:38 Highlight the passage at 40:38

40:48 You know, just work on your mind and work on changing your view of the world, changing your expectation, changing your label of what's going to make you happy. And that's, then you can really be happy. It's great, you know. Chogkyi Chogkyi wasn't saying, oh, and then you're going to be miserable forever. Report an error in the passage at 40:48 Highlight the passage at 40:48

41:07 You know, he said the beginning of the path is hopelessness because that's the key to really being happy, you know. Yeah. As opposed to hopelessness, could you say? Report an error in the passage at 41:07 Highlight the passage at 41:07

41:21 As opposed to hopelessness, you know, is it possible that emptiness? I mean, is emptiness... Well, that's something else. I think it's really good to just face that word hopelessness. I'm sorry. No, I think it's really good to just face what we've been doing and really look at that. I mean, to me, I'm kind of intense, you know, I just think it's really good. Report an error in the passage at 41:21 Highlight the passage at 41:21

41:51 To just say, wow, okay, I've been putting my eggs in this basket. You know, is that really working? And just to really look at that. And like I say, the reason it scares us is because we think we're giving up all those chances of happiness because we got it ass backwards. Like the reason that we freak out, I'm so bad, I'm such a bad nut. The reason that we freak out so much is thinking that... Report an error in the passage at 41:51 Highlight the passage at 41:51

42:18 We're giving up hope in happiness. And it ain't like that at all. All we're doing is letting go of all the causes of suffering. You know what? I promise you. I swear to you. All we're doing is letting go of everything that made us miserable since the beginning of this time. And that's where the real hope lies. And it's scary. Because we've been told by every Hollywood movie. Report an error in the passage at 42:18 Highlight the passage at 42:18

42:45 By everything our, you know, some of our parents said, maybe Ananda's parents didn't say that. My father said, look out for number one because nobody's going to look out for you. You know, we're told by every ad at every magazine, the more stuff you get, the happier you get. And it's completely wrong, you know, and I think we really need to face that. Report an error in the passage at 42:45 Highlight the passage at 42:45

43:06 Yeah. I've kind of been looking at that and it's really... To me, a very scary experience because I'm starting to see things of what I thought was so right or had to be a certain way and I Report an error in the passage at 43:06 Highlight the passage at 43:06

43:25 kind of find myself being very uncomfortable because it's scary to think that, you know, I'm 56 years old but now all these things that I built about my identity is sort of, oh, you know, there's something more and I actually... a person you feel in a very uncomfortable place. It is. It definitely is. It's very edgy. It's definitely very edgy. And it's gradual. Because what I'm talking about is the real meaning of the word renunciation. Report an error in the passage at 43:25 Highlight the passage at 43:25

43:57 Renunciation isn't about giving up your stuff. It's not about shaving your head and looking like a Martian. It's not about that at all. It's a mental giving up that tweaking thing. Like that's really what renunciation is. One of my teachers says, saṃsāra is a broken realm and it's not fixable. It's sort of like there's no way to really fix out there. And it's that. And that's what renunciation is. Report an error in the passage at 43:57 Highlight the passage at 43:57

44:30 It's that hopelessness that's giving up trying to tweak everything out there so you'll be happy. And then do and what you have, and you can have your You know, it doesn't mean you have to do this extreme thing and go into the monastery and eat bread and water. None of that at all. It's about tweaking your perspective and giving up hope in that external reality being fixable. Report an error in the passage at 44:30 Highlight the passage at 44:30

45:01 And then you can be doing the same thing but with a shift in your mind. And that's what renunciation is. It's developable. You know, what we're going to talk about today, if I'll quit talking about renunciation, is bodhicitta, which is developable. And renunciation also is something that you develop, you know, on the basis of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 45:01 Highlight the passage at 45:01

45:24 And that's what the two lower scopes of the lamrim are about, which are subjects of other classes, you know, and we can do that someday too, because I love that. And it's about seeing how we create our unenlightened reality. Seeing how our delusions and our grasping creates karma that just perpetuates this cycle of unenlightened existence. Report an error in the passage at 45:24 Highlight the passage at 45:24

45:47 And on the basis of that, you give up hope. You know, it's on the basis of knowing. Because blind faith is something different. And Buddhism says, forget about blind faith. Buddhism says, you have faith the same way that you have faith that if you eat lunch, you're not going to be hungry anymore. You know, because you've done it in the past, like you've tried things. We all engage in things out of faith. I put gas in the car, you know, with faith that then it will make the car go and I won't run out of gas. Report an error in the passage at 45:47 Highlight the passage at 45:47

46:18 You know, it's all things that we do on the basis of, yeah, because of all of this past experience, I believe that if I do it again, it's going to work out. And that's the kind of faith we have in Buddhism. So you just develop. Report an error in the passage at 46:18 Highlight the passage at 46:18

46:33 You look at your life and that's what meditation is in our tradition. Looking at your life, looking at your experiences, really analyzing how many times has it worked when you've tried to do it out there. Where does real peace of mind come from? What have your happiest moments been? Has it been when you bought the new SUV? Or has it been when you spent the morning volunteering in the soup kitchen? Report an error in the passage at 46:33 Highlight the passage at 46:33

46:57 Like what makes you, you just check, what makes you happy? Lord Buddha said, hey man, don't believe me just because I'm this being made of golden light with an aura ten feet wide, but hey, don't take my word for it. You check and you check for yourself and test. And that's what it is and that's what the path is all about. So don't feel bad that you don't feel hopeless yet. Report an error in the passage at 46:57 Highlight the passage at 46:57

47:24 Hopefully in time you will. Hopefully you'll feel hopeless. It's developable. Just like bodhicitta, you know, this mind that wishes for enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. You may hear that and you may think, oh, there's nowhere anywhere near that. Like, I don't even want to give up on happiness for myself yet. But you can develop it. It's not like you're either born Mother Teresa or there's no chance for you. Report an error in the passage at 47:24 Highlight the passage at 47:24

47:51 You know, there's a way. And what we're going to talk about today is the way to develop that mind through meditation. You know, step by step by step. Are you okay, Andanda? Are we all right? Okay. Does that clarify a little bit? Yeah? Okay. Okay. It'll become more clear. It's just, I mean, it's a difficult concept, you know. Yeah. It's the, you know, like, this whole experience of getting into, you know, really getting into this has been just a... Report an error in the passage at 47:51 Highlight the passage at 47:51

48:26 Breaking down wall after wall after wall, you know, and it's sometimes overwhelming and emotional, you know, and, you know, that's, I tell my friends, you know, that's how I am right now. I'm just emotional and I don't, before I would hide it and now I'm not interested in hiding in it. Report an error in the passage at 48:26 Highlight the passage at 48:26

48:52 I remember, I'll tell you this one little anecdote of when I think I got my first glimmer of renunciation. I was in this long meditation retreat that ended up lasting six and a half years, but the first part of it was like three and a half years. And then I decided I wasn't done yet, and I would carry on for another couple of years. So I was in a yurt in the desert in Arizona, and there was this one summer that was the hottest, driest summer in southeastern Arizona in a hundred years. Report an error in the passage at 48:52 Highlight the passage at 48:52

49:22 For somewhere that's already one of the hottest, driest places on the planet, you know. And I remember by 9 o 'clock in the morning, the interior temperature, somebody gave me one of those little thermometers, I wish they hadn't. It would be 120 degrees inside the earth by 9 o 'clock in the morning. It was so miserable, you know. And I remember I went through this thing, you know, because I was just completely broken down because of the external reality. Report an error in the passage at 49:22 Highlight the passage at 49:22

49:48 I just felt like I was just completely stripped. Down to just some kind of essence. At a certain point I was like, I feel almost feral, you know, I just kind of felt like everything was drifted. And I remember having an insight into the broken realm thing and the hopelessness and really sitting on my cushion in this meditation during this intense external physical time. Report an error in the passage at 49:48 Highlight the passage at 49:48

50:09 And I had this deck on the front of the yurt and I went and sat in the chair of this deck. And for the first time, I think I've really given up hope in saṃsāra working on some deeper level than I already had. I mean, you'd think I'd already been in retreat for three years. You'd think something would have shifted. But at that point, it was like this. And I go, oh my God, like what do I do now? You know, because it was really clear to me I couldn't put any more energy into tweaking reality. Report an error in the passage at 50:09 Highlight the passage at 50:09

50:39 And it was just like, oh. But Buddhahood was like. Way out there. So it's sort of like, okay, there's this gap between, you know, this, I've just taken the first step and Buddhahood's way out yonder. How do I survive in between? Because it was only that hope and that illusion of happiness in that buffer zone before getting it. Report an error in the passage at 50:39 Highlight the passage at 50:39

51:03 So it's like, well, what is going to make me happy now? You know, because I'm not liberated yet. And I'm way back here, but I just gave up hope in everything that I always thought would give me happiness. How do I survive this interminable gap? And then it came so clear in my mind, just so clear and just completely incontrable. Benefit others with whatever capacity you have. Report an error in the passage at 51:03 Highlight the passage at 51:03

51:26 And that's the only way to survive that gap. When you've given up hope in tweaking that, it was like whatever capacity that you have to benefit others, you just do it. And that's where happiness comes from in that gap. And sure enough, I mean it just came so clear, I think it was some channeling or something, because there I am sitting here like, oh, what do I do now? Report an error in the passage at 51:26 Highlight the passage at 51:26

51:49 Benefit others, that's all. Because that's where happiness comes from. And it's such a relief, frankly, to give up the tweaking thing. It just takes up so much energy, so you just go through life. When can I make someone happy? You know, I teach... In this prison, in this one inmate, we were talking about one of the sufferings of saṃsāra that's listed in the text is like the... Report an error in the passage at 51:49 Highlight the passage at 51:49

52:14 Like the boredom, you know, that you repeat everything over and over and over again. And I had this one Tibetan Lama and he was driving the point home. He spoke English and he was like, you know, you get up in the morning, you brush your teeth, you get dressed, you have breakfast, you go to work, you come home, you have dinner, you watch TV, you go to bed. Report an error in the passage at 52:14 Highlight the passage at 52:14

52:29 You wake up in the morning, you brush your teeth, you get dressed, you have breakfast, you go to work, you come home, you watch TV, you go to bed, you wake up in the morning. But I got the seventh or eighth. You know, it was just like a complete... So this inmate raises his hand and he goes, man, you think it's tedious out there? In here? It's like the door is slammed, they open, you go to the exercise yard, the same guys are trying to kill you, you come back, you get in your cell, it closes up, you go to the garden, the same guys, and the gardener. Report an error in the passage at 52:29 Highlight the passage at 52:29

52:57 And he's like, how do I cope with this? Like, how do I survive? And most of the time I was just like, I have no idea what to say. And in that moment I just go, I go, you know what? I go, Make every day a contest with yourself. How many people can you make happy today in even little tiny ways? You just make every day a game, a contest with yourself. Report an error in the passage at 52:57 Highlight the passage at 52:57

53:20 How many people? And his face just lit up. I was like, what am I saying? You know, I don't know. He could get really angry. His face just lit up and he put his hands together. Oh, thank you. I can do that. He said, I can do that. So I went back two weeks later and I always check in with them, I give them homework and I check in, you know, so I was like, so how's it going, that thing about making people happy? Report an error in the passage at 53:20 Highlight the passage at 53:20

53:46 Well, he walks in, he's like floating, he's like, oh, you know, he kind of floats in to the chapel and he sits down and he's like, it's great, I'm so happy. He goes, because I'm kind of this wimpy guy, you know, I'm not a threat to anyone. And he goes, there's all these big tough guys that have to have this, you know. Report an error in the passage at 53:46 Highlight the passage at 53:46

54:04 Kind of thing. And, you know, they have to be so tough. And he goes, so they really need someone to talk to. So they can talk to me. Because I'm really wimpy. I'm no threat to anyone. So I decided to do that. To just be the wimpy guy that the big tough guys can talk to. And he got so blissed out. Like I, you know, every time I come back, he just got more and more radiant and blissful. And then I was teasing him about three months later. I was like, how about that tedium? Report an error in the passage at 54:04 Highlight the passage at 54:04

54:32 How's that boredom for you? It's like, what are you, nuts? Every day. So it's like that. It's like that. It's like every day a contest in small ways. I mean, we don't have to be the Dalai Lama yet. We have to eventually, sorry. But now, just in little ways, you make people happy. And that's the way you survive that gap between giving up hope in the way we used to do it. Report an error in the passage at 54:32 Highlight the passage at 54:32

55:01 And it's really fun. You know, even the little bit that I've partaken in it, it makes life really happy. Like giving up hope really is just opens things up so much. It's not, you know, that you're signing on to make yourself miserable at all. You know? Okay. Anything else about... I'm going... Veering off into a whole other direction, but this always happens, it's great. Anything else about the introductory material? Okay, what I want to do, and then we'll have a break, is just introduce briefly the two different lineages of developing this mind that wishes for enlightenment for the benefit of all. Report an error in the passage at 55:01 Highlight the passage at 55:01

55:42 Because like I said, it's not something you're either born, you know, Mahatma Gandhi or we're hopeless. It can be developed through practice and that's what we're going to do and try and do some meditation both this week and in two weeks together to kind of give you some of the techniques about how we do it. Report an error in the passage at 55:42 Highlight the passage at 55:42

56:01 So there's two main lineages of developing this mind of bodhicitta that wishes for enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. And one is called the sevenfold cause and effect. And I'm just going to mention the seven points of that. That's not the one that we're going to be doing for our class this week, but just to give you a perspective, the sevenfold cause and effect. Report an error in the passage at 56:01 Highlight the passage at 56:01

56:26 And that is dependent, the first step of that, it's very much dependent on a belief in rebirth. Because the first step is realizing that all beings have been your mother or some other equally dear person to you in the past, in a past life. We've had countless rebirths according to Buddhism. In all of those countless rebirths, there's infinite possibility of relationship with every other being. Report an error in the passage at 56:26 Highlight the passage at 56:26

56:55 So the first step of this meditation is saying, in all those countless rebirths, every being, even that really annoying person in the cubicle next to me at work, has been my best friend, has been my mother, has been my partner. And so it's just trying to equalize the partiality that we have on the basis of this life by that recognition that over time everyone has been incredibly dear to you. Report an error in the passage at 56:55 Highlight the passage at 56:55

57:24 And then the second point, after that, remembering their kindness. In that birth that they were so close to you, remembering their kindness. Then the third point is wishing to repay the kindness. And then on the basis of that, you generate a feeling of love. Wishing them to be happy. They say at this point the love shifts to the love that you have for your only child. And I think those of you who are parents will know that incredible love that you have for your child, that you want them to be so happy. Report an error in the passage at 57:24 Highlight the passage at 57:24

57:59 And then the next point is compassion. The wish for that being to be free from suffering. And then the next step is universal responsibility, His Holiness calls it. Universal responsibility. Saying, I'll do it. I'll free them from their suffering. Not only the wish that they be free from suffering, but saying, I will do that. Report an error in the passage at 57:59 Highlight the passage at 57:59

58:22 And then that leads to bodhicitta. The wish to get enlightened. Because then you analyze and you say, how can I do that? If I wish them to be free of suffering and I wish to do it myself, what's the best way to do that? You know, by becoming a Buddha. So that's how these meditations step by step lead to bodhicitta, lead to this mind wishing for full enlightenment for the benefit of all. Report an error in the passage at 58:22 Highlight the passage at 58:22

58:49 And then the second instruction is called equalizing and exchanging self and others. And this one doesn't depend on considering the previous relationship that you have. It's much more based on the fact that everyone is the same in wanting happiness and wanting to avoid suffering. We're all in the same boat. This is all about no matter what your previous relationship is, there's no difference between ourselves and others. Report an error in the passage at 58:49 Highlight the passage at 58:49

59:17 We all want happiness and want to avoid suffering. So this thing of partiality that we have, that we want all the good stuff for us and our friends and we don't care what happens to the other people and all of that stuff just isn't logical because we're all the same. You know, we're all the same. And so it's on the basis of that and not so much thinking about that past relationship that we have. So that's going to be the topic of the instruction that we're going over, is from the equalizing and exchanging self and others. Report an error in the passage at 59:17 Highlight the passage at 59:17

59:48 And this gave rise in Tibet to a bunch of teachings called in Tibetan Lojong. Lojong. Okay, L-O-J-O-N-G. And Lo means mind. And John - It's usually, this phrase vojang is usually translated thought transformation, mind training. Lo means mind or thought. Jang means to make pure or to purify or to practice something. And it has the connotation of training over and over and over and over and over again in something. Report an error in the passage at 59:48 Highlight the passage at 59:48

1:00:28 So mind training or thought transformation, that's a little bit wimpy. What this really is, these teachings, it's really about radically shifting that thing about me first. You know, equalizing, exchanging self and others. It's this completely radical thought transformation process that's thinking about others before you think about yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:28 Highlight the passage at 1:00:28

1:00:53 You know, thinking of the welfare of others. It's like my inmate. How do I get over boredom? Try and make other people happy. So it's this radical shift in perspective that involves a lot of training and is meant to completely shift the way that you relate to reality and to other people. Okay, so my training, that kind of sounds like, oh, you know, you're going to learn calculus or something. And it's not about that. It's about completely shifting and exchanging your self-concern to concern with others. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:53 Highlight the passage at 1:00:53

1:01:27 And it's a very advanced technique. It's very advanced and it also is dependent on some understanding of emptiness. Ananda mentioned emptiness earlier. Emptiness in Buddhism has a very specific meaning and it means that things do not exist in the way they appear to us. They're empty of existing in the way that they usually appear to us, including and especially ourself. So this kind of teaching is not going to work if you really think that by You know, serving others, you're going to be miserable. It's not going to work if you think that by exchanging self and others, you're just setting yourself up for misery and you're just going to be a martyr and a victim. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:27 Highlight the passage at 1:01:27

1:02:14 I mean, I remember those of you who may have had mothers that grew up in the 50s, you know, they were really famous for that. I remember my mother and she'd come to the table and we'd have fried chicken and she'd have like this wing and like maybe the heel of a piece of cornbread and she'd be like, it's okay because I'm the mother. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:14 Highlight the passage at 1:02:14

1:02:31 We're not talking about that at all. I'm not training you to be a martyr and a victim. I'm training you to be a warrior. Bodhisattvas are these beings with these minds. One of the translations for this word bodhisattva, which means a being with this mind that wishes to get enlightened for the benefit of others. In this one wonderful translation I love, They call it awakening warrior, you know, and in all the texts they're depicted as the superheroes of the Buddhist path. You know, they're not whiny victims sitting in the corner wishing they had more of the good stuff at all. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:31 Highlight the passage at 1:02:31

1:03:08 Okay? So I'm not training you to be like my, you know, 1957 mother with the like chicken wing, because that's ridiculous. And that's not what it's about. Like bodhisattva... Bodhicitta and codependents have no relationship to each other whatsoever. And through your practice, if you start to go to that place, you've got to correct your view because you're on the wrong track. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:08 Highlight the passage at 1:03:08

1:03:34 If you think that that's what it means, it's just reinforcing your wrong view of self and you're on the wrong track. And we're going to try and correct for that over the next two days. Mind training or thought transformation. These teachings originated with Lord Buddha, but they were kept secret for a really long time because they were so radical that the people who taught them would only teach them specifically to disciples that they felt like were ready. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:34 Highlight the passage at 1:03:34

1:04:09 Right? Because it's so radical that the lamas and the gurus didn't want people to diss Buddhism by saying, what, exchange self and others? That's nuts. I can't do that. This Buddhism stuff is a bunch of crap. So it was taught extremely secretly, passed directly from master to disciple, for about 1700 years after the time of Lord Buddha, until around 1200. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:09 Highlight the passage at 1:04:09

1:04:36 Now, Atisha has already appeared in Tibet. He's laid out the whole structure of the lamrim. This happened, Atisha lived from 982 to 1035. On one recent class I taught, and I had Atisha's dates on the board separated by a dash, and it was 982-1035, and somebody goes, wow, you've got Atisha's phone number. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:36 Highlight the passage at 1:04:36

1:05:01 like, oh my God. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:01 Highlight the passage at 1:05:01

1:05:05 The hotline to Lama Atisha. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:05 Highlight the passage at 1:05:05

1:05:11 So Lama Atisha was around the Y1K, like right around the turn of the first millennium or whatever they call it. And then even after Lama Atisha, the teachings were taught secretly. And at that time, after Atisha, some of his disciples started a lineage called the Kadampas. That was great. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:11 Highlight the passage at 1:05:11

1:05:33 Who are these really hardcore yogis. You know, they were the really hardcore guys. Like whenever they had a positive thought, they put a pebble on this side. And when they had a negative thought, they put a pebble on this side. And like, you know, they wouldn't let five seconds go without purifying whatever non-virtue. They were fierce, you know, these hardcore Kadampa. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:33 Highlight the passage at 1:05:33

1:05:53 Kadampa, the word Kadampa. Ka means teachings of the Buddha. And Dampa means personal advice. So that meant they took every teaching of the Buddha directly as personal advice without picking and choosing and leaving out a thing. So this equalizing, exchanging self and others' teachings was passed down secretly from these Kadampa masters to whatever disciples they felt like were ready to hear it. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:53 Highlight the passage at 1:05:53

1:06:21 Until the great hero of our story, Geshe Chekawa, who was a Lama who lived in the eastern part of Tibet in Kamp. And he was a great scholar in this monastery in eastern Tibet, had studied and memorized all of these scriptures, knew everything. One day he's walking down the hall of the monastery and he hears somebody reciting a text that he'd never heard before in his life. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:21 Highlight the passage at 1:06:21

1:06:48 And he's shocked because he's memorized everything. I mean, back then the monasteries, even now they memorized huge volumes of scripture. So he hears somebody chanting. This scripture that he's never heard. And he stops at the door to listen. And it turns out that it's one of the verses from the eight verses of Thought Transformation, which is another one of these Lojong texts. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:48 Highlight the passage at 1:06:48

1:07:10 And the verse he hears says, When out of envy, others mistreat me with abuse, insults and the like. I shall accept defeat and offer the victory to others. He's never heard anything like this. And it just completely blows his mind. It's like, what? When others mistreat you, you offer them the victory? That's nuts, you know? Report an error in the passage at 1:07:10 Highlight the passage at 1:07:10

1:07:35 But he's really intrigued. So he bursts into the door of the person and says, what is that text? And the person says, oh, that's the eight verses of thought transformation by the great Langri Thangpa. Where is he? How do I find this Lama? Oh, he lives in Lhasa, you know? So he's from eastern Tibet. So he decides in that moment to go to Lhasa, to meet Landry Tanfa, to receive this teaching on this thing that he's never heard before, this thought transformation. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:35 Highlight the passage at 1:07:35

1:08:03 Well at that point, you know, to go from eastern Tibet to Lhasa was like a four month journey on yak back through bandit ridden mountain passes. You know, it's not an easy thing. It's not like you get on that train they have now from Beijing to Lhasa or anything like that, you know. So Geshe Chogkyi decides to go to Lhasa to find this Lama. So he gets to Lhasa and he starts asking around. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:03 Highlight the passage at 1:08:03

1:08:30 And he hears, oh, Langritanka just passed away. You just missed him. So he starts asking around and he says, does he have any disciples? Oh, well, as a matter of fact, he's got these three disciples and they're fighting over who gets to be the next lineage holder. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:30 Highlight the passage at 1:08:30

1:08:47 He's devastated. He's completely disillusioned. What do you mean they're fighting over who gets to be the next lineage holder? He's completely disillusioned. He said, but that's not what this verse is talking about at all. They clearly don't get it at all. I'm going back to come. Oh, and then he hears more of the story. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:47 Highlight the passage at 1:08:47

1:09:05 No, no. They're trying to give it to each other because they're all so humble that they don't think that they should be the next. No, no, no. I have no realizations. You've got to be the next. So then he's like, okay, we're on to something here, you know. So he finds one of them and asks for teachings, you know, develops a relationship with one of these three lineage holders of Lama Tsongkhapa, and, you know, it's Gashi Sharawa, and he accepts him as a disciple, teaches him for... Report an error in the passage at 1:09:05 Highlight the passage at 1:09:05

1:09:36 12 more years before he gives him thought transformation. And already, this is this learned, this is like Geshe Dakpa, you know, this is this incredibly learned Lama already. But he, you know, Geshe Shara waits 12 years to give him the thought transformation. Finally gives him these teachings. He starts practicing. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:36 Highlight the passage at 1:09:36

1:09:56 Geshe Chakawa starts teaching lepers. He had this special relationship with lepers. Starts giving them one by one. This teaching, if you're doing this practice, they're actually healed of leprosy, you know. Geshe Chakawa had this brother who apparently already lived in Lhasa or followed into Lhasa later on. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:56 Highlight the passage at 1:09:56

1:10:16 He had this brother who was always out carousing and womanizing and drinking and, you know, torturing Geshe Chakawa, calling him a goody two-shoes, you know, holy roller and all this stuff. He was just this terrible... But he started seeing what was going on with these lepers. So he would listen at the door when Geshe Chokka was giving these teachings and he was so intrigued, like, what's going on with these lepers? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:16 Highlight the passage at 1:10:16

1:10:42 So he would listen at the door and he started hearing these thought transformation teachings. And despite himself, he started changing. And finally Geshe Chokka notices and he goes to him and he confronts his brother and he says, Report an error in the passage at 1:10:42 Highlight the passage at 1:10:42

1:10:58 You're not going out partying anymore. You don't have so many girlfriends. You're starting to be really nice to people. What's going on? So Geshe Chakwa's brother confesses and says, Oh, I've actually been kind of listening at the door when you teach that lojong thing. And at that point, Geshe Chakwa says, Hey man, what do I know about who's ready? You know, I never would have taught this brother of mine. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:58 Highlight the passage at 1:10:58

1:11:23 And look what happened to him. So from that point on, the teachings became public because of that. You know, Gashi Chako, his brother, because Gashi Chako was like, there's no way I ever thought in this lifetime he'd be ready. And here he is completely transformed. So from that point on, which is about 1200, these teachings have become public. So we're the great... Report an error in the passage at 1:11:23 Highlight the passage at 1:11:23

1:11:45 You know, benefactors of Geshe Chakwa's brother who transformed because we're able to actually have these teachings and practice them and they're very widely taught. In fact, His Holiness the Dalai Lama especially loves these teachings. They're part of the subject of Master Shantideva's famous book, The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, is based on this equalizing, exchanging self and others' teachings. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:45 Highlight the passage at 1:11:45

1:12:10 So we're able to benefit from... And Geshe Chokawa composed a text called The Seven Point Thought Transformation, which is the subject of this little book that you have, The Kindness of Others, a commentary on the seven point mind training. So the basis of what we're going to be doing comes from Geshe Chakawa's seven-point mind training. So what he did was compose a text kind of similar to Lama Tsongkhapa, taking the different points of the Lojong thought transformation teachings and composing a text. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:10 Highlight the passage at 1:12:10

1:12:44 And the text itself is in the back as an appendix. At the very end, following page 95, it's on an unnumbered page, just called appendix, the seven-point mind training. And it says here by Pabanka Rinpoche, but this is actually Geshe Chakawa's text. What Pabanka Rinpoche did was get about five or six different translations and different versions of it and came up with his own version. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:44 Highlight the passage at 1:12:44

1:13:11 But here where it says by Pabanka Rinpoche is actually Geshe Chakawa. So this is the text that we're going to be going over. And I think now what I'll do is give you a break and then maybe we'll come back and do a little bit of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:11 Highlight the passage at 1:13:11

1:13:25 Okay, so is 15 minutes enough that you can get some tea? Okay, so I've got 11.25, so I'll ring the bell in about 12 minutes so you have a couple of minutes to come back to your seats and then we'll meditate. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:25 Highlight the passage at 1:13:25

1:14:02 I don't mean to talk too much about renunciation. Oh, that's all right. You never talk too much about renunciation. Oh, no. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:02 Highlight the passage at 1:14:02

1:14:16 It's just what happened. where are we at? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:16 Highlight the passage at 1:14:16

1:14:20 It's nice that I don't have too much of the script, you can just go where you need to go. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:20 Highlight the passage at 1:14:20

1:14:50 everyone back in? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:50 Highlight the passage at 1:14:50

1:14:53 I just wanted to mention that there are some postcards out. In the lobby, Chodin Rinpoche is coming and he'll be actually in residence at our center for a couple of weeks in May. And he's going to be, the lamrim teaching this year is going to be Atisha's Lamp for the Path, which is the first lamrim. So I thought it was a nice segue. She didn't even think. Well, I gave you a nice cup of tea. Can I say something about lamrim teaching? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:53 Highlight the passage at 1:14:53

1:15:30 Anyway, so that's going to be the 15th through the 18th. And like I said, there are cards out there. He's actually going to start the overall tour at Land of Medicine Buddha, which is where Tenzin Chogkyi is based now. He's going to teach how to develop bodhicitta this year, too. So that's also very appropriate. And he's going to start that at the beginning of May, May 1st, I think. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:30 Highlight the passage at 1:15:30

1:15:55 Okay, Report an error in the passage at 1:15:55 Highlight the passage at 1:15:55

1:15:59 so what we're going to do now, I'm just going to introduce the seven points of the text. That we're going to be using and then we'll meditate on one of the points. So if you look in that appendix that falls on page 95, so the seven points, the first one is the preliminaries and it says here explaining the preliminaries as a basis for the practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:59 Highlight the passage at 1:15:59

1:16:27 It's kind of near the bottom of the first page of the root text, the appendix. Explaining the preliminaries is the basis for the practice, which consists of one line. First, train in the preliminaries. And this is why you need to get somebody to teach you this text, because it's sort of these cryptic little things that are meant to just remind you of what you already know. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:27 Highlight the passage at 1:16:27

1:16:48 As many Tibetan texts are, you can't really get what it means from reading it so much. You know, there's code words that they use and they shorten. important things into just a short little word or phrase that reminds you of a whole teaching that you've gotten. For example, Report an error in the passage at 1:16:48 Highlight the passage at 1:16:48

1:17:18 the bodhisattva vows, which is a level of vows that we take at a certain point, you can't really understand exactly what you're meant to do or not do from just the one. for example, the bodhisattva vows, which, is that me? I think it was your, there's the, there go. Sorry. It was the word bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:18 Highlight the passage at 1:17:18

1:17:17 For example, Report an error in the passage at 1:17:17 Highlight the passage at 1:17:17

1:17:28 It just seems completely impossible, you know, when you read the Bodhisattva vows, doesn't it Michelle? So you have to get a whole teaching on what it means. Okay, and the same with this one. So the preliminaries, and then the second point, the actual practice, training in the awakening mind. And awakening mind is this translator's translation for the word bodhicitta, awakening mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:28 Highlight the passage at 1:17:28

1:17:54 So that wish to get enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings. So the actual practice, training in the awakening mind. And then the third point is at the top of page 99, transforming adverse circumstances into the path to enlightenment. A very useful technique. And there are a lot of books written on this subject alone, on just this third point. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:54 Highlight the passage at 1:17:54

1:18:21 Lama Zopa Rinpoche has this famous book called Transforming problems into happiness. Transforming problems all about how not to be a fair weather Buddhist practitioner. Because it's really when we have problems that we can practice best. And so actually training our mind to even welcome problems and adversity as a chance to practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:21 Highlight the passage at 1:18:21

1:18:46 Because like I said, I don't know about you guys, but there's generally a lot more problematic days than there are blissful days. And if I was only able to practice during the blissful times, my already shortened time left in this lifespan would be shortened considerably. So it's like, how do we train with adversity? And the fourth, the integrated practice of a single lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:46 Highlight the passage at 1:18:46

1:19:12 And this is a practice called the Five Powers. And this is a wonderful, wonderful practice, the Five Powers. There's a Five Powers for life and a Five Powers at the time of death. And I'm going to go over both of them because the Five Powers at the time of death is a wonderful teaching if you're a caregiver, you know, a hospice volunteer, to prepare for one's own death, which is inevitable to all of us. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:12 Highlight the passage at 1:19:12

1:19:40 So we're going to go over both sets of five powers when we get to that fourth point. The measure of having trained the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:40 Highlight the passage at 1:19:40

1:19:50 And then the sixth and seventh point are lists of these aphorisms, the commitments of mind training and the precepts of mind training. And we're going to spend quite a bit of time on these on the next session that we have. Two weeks from now on the commitments and precepts because these are wonderful, wonderful ways to train your mind. This is sort of the how-to of how to train your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:50 Highlight the passage at 1:19:50

1:20:15 And again, some of these are a little bit cryptic. I heard that this one friend of mine who's a Canadian nun who speaks Tibet really well and she was working with her teacher on this text because he was teaching it and she was trying to translate the root text. Well, they got to this point and it was in this cryptic dialect of like East Kampa, you know, she couldn't understand it at all. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:15 Highlight the passage at 1:20:15

1:20:39 The Lama that she was with was from another river valley in Tibet and didn't understand it. They had to go find someone who was from this valley to even translate this section because it was in this, you know those books that are written in like... Southern U.S. dialect with all the apostrophes and all the aw shucks thing. It was like that. This is kind of how this was written. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:39 Highlight the passage at 1:20:39

1:21:03 And so even now in English there's this one, don't burden the ox with the load of a zoo. What the heck does that mean? So we're going to go through all of those and explain what they mean. And I'm going to give you another translation that's kind of more of a translation of the meaning rather than the words. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:03 Highlight the passage at 1:21:03

1:21:23 you to take home and practice with. So those are the seven points. Now, one practice that's a preliminary to the main practice, and actually I'll skip ahead and just give you the five points of the main practice of equalizing and exchanging self and others. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:23 Highlight the passage at 1:21:23

1:21:45 So the first point is equalizing oneself with others. And you're going to have a handout this afternoon that has these points on it. So we'll go into them in more detail. Equalizing oneself with others. And that's the thing I mentioned before. Just getting that we're all the same. You know, we all want, I mean, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I think every talk and every teaching he's ever given in the past 35 years starts with this sentence. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:45 Highlight the passage at 1:21:45

1:22:17 Isn't it true that we all want happiness and we want to avoid suffering? Jeffrey Hopkins, who's been one of his translators for many years in one book, said, you know, every talk His Holiness is ever given, he starts with this. So there's either one of two things. Either he has nothing else to say, or this is a really important point, you know, that we shouldn't forget. Like, guess what? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:17 Highlight the passage at 1:22:17

1:22:40 We're all the same. We all want happiness and we want to avoid suffering. So it helps even out. This partiality that we have about me first. You know, I'm the center of the universe. It's all about me, my happiness at all costs kind of thing. The second point, reflecting on the disadvantages of self-cherishing attitude. And the third point, reflecting on the advantages of the thought cherishing the welfare of others. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:40 Highlight the passage at 1:22:40

1:23:09 So first, the disadvantages of self-cherishing. The advantages of cherishing others. And when we get to this, we'll talk a lot about the difference between overcoming self-cherishing and being a black belt codependent. We're really going to talk about the difference between bodhicitta and being a martyr, because there's this huge significant difference. The fourth point, the actual exchange of oneself for others. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:09 Highlight the passage at 1:23:09

1:23:37 And then the fifth point is giving and taking. And this is the instructions in Tanlin meditation. Some of you may have heard of this kind of meditation, Tanlin giving and taking. So that's the actual practice, which is the main meditation practice that goes along with these instructions. And so we're going to spend a bit of time on that this afternoon and also in two weeks do that practice several times just so that you get very used to it. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:37 Highlight the passage at 1:23:37

1:24:06 What we're going to meditate on now is actually a preliminary to all of these. And that is what's called equanimity. Equanimity. There are these words that you only find in Buddhism, like sentient. You know, when was the last time you used the word sentient in any other context than in Buddhism talking about beings with consciousness? Report an error in the passage at 1:24:06 Highlight the passage at 1:24:06

1:24:28 And equanimity is another one of those. Words that you almost never run into in any kind of normal sense. And what this is, is it's a prerequisite to developing bodhicitta via this method. And it's basically leveling the playing field. You know, getting to the point where there isn't so much of a discrimination in your mind between yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:28 Highlight the passage at 1:24:28

1:24:53 You know, and your friends, and then the enemies are over there, and I want all the good stuff for me and my friends, and the people that I don't know at all. I could care less what happens to them, and then my enemies, you know, not only do I care less, but I kind of get off when something bad happens to them. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:53 Highlight the passage at 1:24:53

1:25:11 It's like that really annoying person in the cubicle next to you at work, and then you hear they're going through a bitter divorce, and there's part of you that kind of feels happy about that. And it's really normal, by the way. That's one of the ten non-virtues. There's ten picked out of the 84,000 because they happen to us all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:11 Highlight the passage at 1:25:11

1:25:34 And one's called ill will or maliciousness. And in a subtle form, it's that thing. I think every supermarket tabloid is marketed on the basis of the tenth non-virtue, right? Like, Oprah gained 40 pounds. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:34 Highlight the passage at 1:25:34

1:25:51 You know, Brad Pitt, the What's Your Name and Angelina are fighting over Brad Pitt, you know. And the whole thing is full of this, and it's this thing of like, oh, I'm not suffering so much if somebody else is even worse off than I am. I think we get some kind of a thrill, or especially if it's somebody that you don't like, or if it's somebody rich and famous to prove that they can't be completely happy because we're kind of jealous. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:51 Highlight the passage at 1:25:51

1:26:15 I mean, it's this whole mixed weird thing that goes on. But it seems to be a very fundamental affliction that we have. So this equanimity is just to try and overcome that partiality that we have between ourselves and the people we like and others and say, okay, I don't want that person to be my best friend. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:15 Highlight the passage at 1:26:15

1:26:39 I don't want to hang out with them. I don't want to have lunch with them every day, but at least I wish them well. Buddhism doesn't say, Equanimity doesn't mean you can't have friends. You know, you can't have people that you hang out with and that you like and that you are supposed to love everyone, but it does say you just can't discriminate so much. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:39 Highlight the passage at 1:26:39

1:27:04 Like, it's not fair. You know, even the people that you don't like, that you don't want to hang out with, that you find annoying, also deserve happiness and deserve to be free from suffering. And at least you have to get over that mind that wishes, You know, that they would break their leg or go through a bitter divorce. You know, and you get kind of psyched up about it, you know. And it's normal, but we have to get over it. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:04 Highlight the passage at 1:27:04

1:27:27 If we're ever going to pull off the mind that wishes for enlightenment for the sake of all sentient means, how can a bodhisattva indulge in any of that kind of stuff at all? I mean, it's the most anti-bodhisattva mind state, to be happy over the suffering of others, isn't it? It's just completely so unacceptable, you know, that that's the first thing. And a lot of the lamas that teach this equalizing exchanging self and others say, hey, work on equanimity meditation for a long time until you really get it, the playing field level, before you even go on to the next step. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:27 Highlight the passage at 1:27:27

1:28:07 So in your personal practice you can completely work on this. For a long time. Especially you will have a couple of sticklers. For me it was my ex-sister-in-law. I could wish everyone happiness but I blamed her for ruining my family and the whole thing fell apart and it was all her fault. And in this long retreat I worked long and hard on getting that leveled out. Because as long as she was outside the range of my bodhisattva activity. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:07 Highlight the passage at 1:28:07

1:28:37 I couldn't, you know, I couldn't practice. Like, I can't say, oh, I'll get in life for the sake of all 70 babies. You know, I had to. And it was hard. It was really hard. And a lot of times in this meditation, you know, you think of your best friend and your worst enemy and people come up afterwards and they're like, what if it's the same person? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:37 Highlight the passage at 1:28:37

1:28:59 You know, it's usually a family member, isn't it? Like, it's usually somebody really close to you that just drives you nuts. And it's usually that same. So this is why we can work in our practice really long at equanimity. And if we even just pull off that first step, we're doing great. If we really have a direct realization of equanimity, forget about bodhicitta and all the rest of it, our lives would be really different. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:59 Highlight the passage at 1:28:59

1:29:28 So that's what we're going to do now, the prerequisite to all of the rest. So that's going to be our meditation. And what we do in our tradition, for those of you that are new at meditation, we do what's called analytical meditation. And so what I'll do is put out things for you to think about. So in this kind of meditation, unlike Singaporean concentration on a specific object, we actually use our conceptual mind to generate some sort of an insight or realization. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:28 Highlight the passage at 1:29:28

1:29:59 So you use your conceptual mind and your thought process, mull over, The points that I'm going to introduce until you feel like you get some kind of an insight. And then just hang out with that to try and deepen it. You know, try and sit with that until the insight deepens a little bit. When you feel the feelings start to fade, kind of go back to it and try and regenerate it according to the points that I've brought up. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:59 Highlight the passage at 1:29:59

1:30:27 And we'll do the whole thing within the context of the visualization of the Buddha in front. We always visualize a holy being meditating with us, do certain practices in relation to that holy being in order to purify and accumulate merit and get our minds receptive for meditation and just in a receptive, open frame of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:27 Highlight the passage at 1:30:27

1:30:49 In our tradition, we don't just plop down and meditate on a subject without these preliminaries. So for some of you this may be new, and we don't have enough time to explain the meaning of all of these, but if you just follow along, I'll guide you through the preliminaries. And then at the end, because in Buddhism the whole point is to become that enlightened being, we don't leave them hanging out there, we actually absorb that energy into us, you know, and visualize ourself having been transformed by the meditation and actually... Report an error in the passage at 1:30:49 Highlight the passage at 1:30:49

1:31:21 You know, actualizing the quality of the enlightened being. At the end, we always do an absorption. And then we dedicate the merit, which is similar to motivating in the beginning. It sort of puts it, seals it, and aims it in a certain direction. So all of our Buddhist practice begins with motivation to sort of set that mid-course correction. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:21 Highlight the passage at 1:31:21

1:31:41 And then in the end, we sort of seal. With the goal that we set in the beginning and we dedicate all of the energy towards that in the end. So our main meditation will be within the framework of these preliminary and concluding practices. So if you're not familiar with those, just kind of follow along as I guide you through. So first let's sit in our meditation posture. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:41 Highlight the passage at 1:31:41

1:32:05 The main point is to get your back as straight as possible. And your head should be tilted slightly forward with your tongue on the roof of your mouth. In our tradition, we put our right hand over our left with the thumbs touching just right below the navel. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:05 Highlight the passage at 1:32:05

1:32:28 Just a few finger widths below the navel. Our elbows out a little bit. Your legs just crossed in a comfortable position. The point of sitting on the floor with your legs crossed is just to keep... A very stable base. Often in the beginning when it's uncomfortable you can put cushions under your knees to keep your knees elevated a little bit if it's hard to get them down on the bottom cushion. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:28 Highlight the passage at 1:32:28

1:32:55 Also in our tradition we keep our eyes open slightly and aiming down the plane of our nose to a point on the floor just in front of us, a couple of feet in front. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:55 Highlight the passage at 1:32:55

1:33:09 And then start again by... Focusing on your breath just for a minute or two to settle your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:09 Highlight the passage at 1:33:09

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:34:12 And now visualize at the level of your forehead, about two yards in front of you, is a large golden throne, beautifully adorned with jewels, supported in each corner by a pair of snow lions. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:12 Highlight the passage at 1:34:12

1:34:34 On the throne is a lotus, sun and full moon discs. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:34 Highlight the passage at 1:34:34

1:34:43 Upon the lotus, sun and moon is seated Shakyamuni Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:43 Highlight the passage at 1:34:43

1:34:57 His body is in the nature of golden light and it's very magnificent and he wears the three robes of a monk. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:57 Highlight the passage at 1:34:57

1:35:12 His face is beautiful and has a loving smile and his eyes are long, narrow and fine and Report an error in the passage at 1:35:12 Highlight the passage at 1:35:12

1:35:23 his gaze is very peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:23 Highlight the passage at 1:35:23

1:35:32 His lips are red, his hair is blue black and on the crown of his head is a crown protrusion. The palm of his right hand rests on his right knee. The middle finger touching the moon cushion, and his left hand rest in his lap, and the gesture of meditation holding a bullet vector. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:32 Highlight the passage at 1:35:32

1:35:57 And imagine the Buddha in front is a real living presence, so don't imagine a two-dimensional being like a painting, a lifeless like a statue, but a real living presence in front of you, looking at you, smiling, kindly. So happy that we're engaging in this meditation and Report an error in the passage at 1:35:57 Highlight the passage at 1:35:57

1:36:28 to remind ourselves that we're practicing not just for our own sake but for the sake of all living beings. We visualize our mother on the left, Report an error in the passage at 1:36:28 Highlight the passage at 1:36:28

1:36:39 our father on the right, the rest of our friends and family behind us, people that annoy us that we have problems with in front so that we don't lose sight of the path that we're practicing for them as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:39 Highlight the passage at 1:36:39

1:36:59 And then all living beings stretching infinitely in all directions. And we imagine that we're taking responsibility for all of these beings and leading them to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:59 Highlight the passage at 1:36:59

1:37:14 And actually leading them in this meditation practice. In Report an error in the passage at 1:37:14 Highlight the passage at 1:37:14

1:37:24 order to set our motivation and correct our intention, the first step is to take refuge and generate bodhicitta. And the real meaning of refuge is Report an error in the passage at 1:37:24 Highlight the passage at 1:37:24

1:37:39 By understanding the nature of our suffering in existence, by understanding the nature of unenlightened reality, we turn towards the Buddhist teachings as a way to free ourselves from suffering. So taking refuge is about turning for safety to something. So in this case, we realize that by practicing the Buddhist teachings, we turn away from those behaviors that we've... Report an error in the passage at 1:37:39 Highlight the passage at 1:37:39

1:38:10 Been trying for so long to give us happiness that just contributes to our suffering. Trying to manipulate our outside reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:10 Highlight the passage at 1:38:10

1:38:20 And we realize that only by looking within, by changing our minds, only source of true happiness. So that's what refuge really means. And then also the idea that we're not just practicing for our own sake, but for that of all living beings. So generating a mind of bodhicitta, this awakening. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:20 Highlight the passage at 1:38:20

1:38:45 Mind, wishing to practice for the benefit of other Buddhas. I go for refuge and time and enlightenment to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all scented beings. I go for refuge and time and enlightenment to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:45 Highlight the passage at 1:38:45

1:39:13 By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, the Supreme Assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:13 Highlight the passage at 1:39:13

1:39:37 May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:37 Highlight the passage at 1:39:37

1:39:47 May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:47 Highlight the passage at 1:39:47

1:39:58 May all sentent beings never be separated from the happiness that is free from suffering. May Report an error in the passage at 1:39:58 Highlight the passage at 1:39:58

1:40:10 all sentent beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for friends and hatred for enemies. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:10 Highlight the passage at 1:40:10

1:40:26 To further prepare our minds for the meditation, we purify obstacles and accumulate merit by means of meditating on the 7-1 prayer. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:26 Highlight the passage at 1:40:26

1:40:41 Reverently I prostrate with my body, speech and mind. Think of that holy being in front of you, Shakyamuni Buddha, that you visualized. You're still there in front. And just bow down in your mind with a feeling of respect and reverence towards Shakyamuni Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:41 Highlight the passage at 1:40:41

1:41:06 Pay respect to one of the qualities of the Buddha, compassion, wisdom, power. I Report an error in the passage at 1:41:06 Highlight the passage at 1:41:06

1:41:19 present clouds of every type of offering, actual and imagined. So visualize from the whole sky. With all kinds of offerings to that holy being in front. It's a way of generating merit. If you know the traditional offerings that are offered on the altar, you can think of whatever beautiful thing you can imagine. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:19 Highlight the passage at 1:41:19

1:41:44 Just imagine the whole sky filled with offerings. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:44 Highlight the passage at 1:41:44

1:41:56 The first step of purification is actually acknowledging our faults, making confession. I declare all my negative actions accumulated since beginning rest. So think especially of some specific thing that you may have done today, yesterday, or some habit that you have that you'd like to work on, that you'd like to purify. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:56 Highlight the passage at 1:41:56

1:42:32 I rejoice in the merit of all holy and ordinary beings. It's wonderful and a really powerful way to train our minds to rejoice and be happy about virtue, to be happy about... The virtuous things that our teachers are doing, our Dharma friends, and especially ourselves. Rejoicing in others' virtues is a great antidote to jealousy, and rejoicing in our own virtues is a great antidote to low self-esteem. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:32 Highlight the passage at 1:42:32

1:43:07 So it's really important to give ourselves credit also for the virtue that we do. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:07 Highlight the passage at 1:43:07

1:43:22 And then in order to create the cause for our teachers to remain with us and keep teaching us, we have to request them, please remain until the end of cyclic existence and turn the wheel of Dharma for living beings. Now Report an error in the passage at 1:43:22 Highlight the passage at 1:43:22

1:43:51 in front of you, visualize three people. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:51 Highlight the passage at 1:43:51

1:43:59 Visualize a friend, someone very dear to you. It may be a good friend, your partner, one of your parents, one of your children. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:59 Highlight the passage at 1:43:59

1:44:11 Very, very dear. Someone that you wish all happiness. A strong wish that you'd like to see them. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:11 Highlight the passage at 1:44:11

1:44:29 And then next to them, visualize a neutral person. Somebody that you know, but you have no strong feelings of liking or disliking one way or another. Maybe the checkout clerk at the local grocery store. Somebody that you see often, but you don't have any strong feelings one way or another. But make it someone specific. It's not just a generic neutral person. It's someone specific that you have neutral feelings towards. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:29 Highlight the passage at 1:44:29

1:45:09 And then next to them, visualize somebody you could call enemy. Or if enemy seems like too strong of a word, somebody you find annoying, irritating, someone you try to avoid, someone you try not to spend time with. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:09 Highlight the passage at 1:45:09

1:45:38 And get a feeling. For your reaction to each of these people. What do you feel when you look at the friend, look at the neutral person, look at the enemy? Report an error in the passage at 1:45:38 Highlight the passage at 1:45:38

1:45:54 Get a sense for what kind of feelings come up in you as you focus on each of these people. Pay Report an error in the passage at 1:45:54 Highlight the passage at 1:45:54

1:46:23 your attention to your friend. How do you feel when you think about this person, when you visualize them in front of you? What kind of feelings come up for you? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:23 Highlight the passage at 1:46:23

1:46:51 What's the basis of that label friend? That person seems so solidly, so concretely to be a friend. It seems like they're a friend from their own side. But think about how it is that they're a valid basis for that label friend. What have they done or said to make them a friend? Is it something to do with the way that they've treated you recently? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:51 Highlight the passage at 1:46:51

1:47:24 Something they've done for you? Report an error in the passage at 1:47:24 Highlight the passage at 1:47:24

1:47:29 Is it because they're always complimenting you, laughing at your jokes, telling you how wonderful you are? What is it about the relationship that makes you label that person friend? Report an error in the passage at 1:47:29 Highlight the passage at 1:47:29

1:48:11 Were they always a friend? They seem so solidly and completely a friend now, but was it always that way? Did you always feel about them the way you feel about them now? Or is there something they said or did that made it change? Report an error in the passage at 1:48:11 Highlight the passage at 1:48:11

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:49:02 Could you imagine it changing? Could you imagine that this person could say or do something that would cause them to lose their status as your friend? That would make them transform, possibly to a stranger, possibly even to an enemy. Can you imagine they could say or do something that would hurt your feelings so badly, but then they would be someone that you would try to avoid? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:02 Highlight the passage at 1:49:02

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:50:07 Has this ever happened in the past? Have you ever had a good friend that something happened and they lost that label, friend? They lost that designation? Report an error in the passage at 1:50:07 Highlight the passage at 1:50:07

1:50:25 You drifted apart and they became a stranger? Or they did something that hurt you and they actually became an enemy? Has this ever happened with Report an error in the passage at 1:50:25 Highlight the passage at 1:50:25

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:51:07 the person that you labeled enemy? Feel the feelings that come up when you think of this person. What Report an error in the passage at 1:51:07 Highlight the passage at 1:51:07

1:51:29 is it about them? That makes you designate them enemy, annoying person, irritating person. What is it about what they say or do to you that causes you to label them enemy? It seems so solid, so concrete that they're the enemy, but it's dependent on something that they've said or done to you, some behavior that they have. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:29 Highlight the passage at 1:51:29

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:52:47 Can you imagine that that could shift? Can you imagine something that they could say or do? Perhaps if you got to know them better, understood them more, maybe understood their suffering, they might turn into a friend or someone you felt close to, or the Report an error in the passage at 1:52:47 Highlight the passage at 1:52:47

1:53:15 thing they do that annoys you so much could change and they could just become a stranger. Can you imagine that that could shift? If this person's designation as enemy could shift, they could become either a friend or a stranger. Has Report an error in the passage at 1:53:15 Highlight the passage at 1:53:15

1:53:58 this ever happened in the past? Have you ever known someone, completely got on your nerves when you first knew them and you couldn't stand them and then over time things shifted? Maybe they even became their friend or at least your version subdued so that they were no longer such a strong enemy. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:58 Highlight the passage at 1:53:58

1:54:25 telling that this may have happened in the past. Now Report an error in the passage at 1:54:25 Highlight the passage at 1:54:25

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:55:00 think of the stranger. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:00 Highlight the passage at 1:55:00

1:55:06 Think of that label stranger that's probably due to the fact that you just don't know this person one way or another. You don't know them well enough. If you knew them better, they could easily change into a friend, easily change into an enemy. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:06 Highlight the passage at 1:55:06

1:55:26 If they have that label stranger that seems so concrete and solid, probably because you don't know them very well. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:26 Highlight the passage at 1:55:26

1:55:42 Can you imagine that if you spend more time with them, if they got to know them, they'd no longer be a stranger to you. They may even become a good friend. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:42 Highlight the passage at 1:55:42

1:56:13 Isn't it true that everyone who is now our friends or our enemies, everyone started out as a stranger. At some point, when we first met them, for however long, they started out as a stranger. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:13 Highlight the passage at 1:56:13

1:56:33 Simply everyone started out like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:33 Highlight the passage at 1:56:33

1:57:01 Go back and look at all three people together, think of all three people. Does that labeling seem so solid anymore? Report an error in the passage at 1:57:01 Highlight the passage at 1:57:01

1:57:15 Because of our analysis, we've seen that the way we label people, friend, enemy, stranger, is just completely dependent on what they've done for us, what they've said to us. It Report an error in the passage at 1:57:15 Highlight the passage at 1:57:15

1:57:32 can change in a moment. In fact, It has changed. All of those friends, all of those enemies started out as strangers at one point. It's just dependent, completely dependent on what they say or do. It Report an error in the passage at 1:57:32 Highlight the passage at 1:57:32

1:57:52 could change at any minute. So is it really valid to hold such strong distinctions? Is it really valid that we want all the best for our friends? Report an error in the passage at 1:57:52 Highlight the passage at 1:57:52

1:58:09 They seem so solidly friend. But we can see it's just a label that we designate based on some behavior. We hold so strongly aversion towards our enemies, but again it's just a label that we designate on that person on the basis of something annoying they did. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:09 Highlight the passage at 1:58:09

1:58:49 Isn't it true that all these people are just like us and wanting happiness and wanting to avoid suffering? So when we label and hold these strong distinctions just based on how they treat us, again, just thinking we're the center of the universe and the whole structure of our view of people is just based on what they do to support us or undermine us. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:49 Highlight the passage at 1:58:49

1:59:20 And the fact is that we're all just the same in wanting happiness and wanting to avoid suffering, so there's really no reason to hold such strong. So just conclude by feeling really strongly. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:20 Highlight the passage at 1:59:20

1:59:41 Break down the barrier of those strong distinctions. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:41 Highlight the passage at 1:59:41

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:00:21 Now visualize that the Buddha in front, who is there meditating with us the whole time, rises up in the air, becoming smaller. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:21 Highlight the passage at 2:00:21

2:00:32 It comes to the crown of our head, facing the same direction as you. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:32 Highlight the passage at 2:00:32

2:00:46 And then the Buddha melts into golden light. Which melts into you through the crown of your head, filling your whole body. And imagine as this golden light fills your body that you're completely filled with all the qualities of the Buddha's kindness, compassion, wisdom, power, and completely cleansed of any obstacle, defilement. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:46 Highlight the passage at 2:00:46

2:01:18 Especially focus strongly on the Buddha's quality of equanimity, wanting happiness for all beings, not discriminating. I can't imagine that a Buddha would discriminate between a friend and an enemy, just on the basis of how he or she was treated. So feel very strongly that you've actualized this quality of a Buddha's enlightened mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:18 Highlight the passage at 2:01:18

2:02:06 That virtue that we've done through this meditation and through the whole morning session, we'll dedicate the merit so that it's not wasted, all that virtue isn't wasted on just some sort of samsaric happiness that actually goes from the karmic bank account towards our future enlightenment. Due Report an error in the passage at 2:02:06 Highlight the passage at 2:02:06

2:02:31 to the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a Guru Buddha and lead all living beings without exception. And to that enlightened state, may the supreme jewel bodhicitta that is not arisen, arise and grow. And may that which has arisen not diminish but increase more and more. How Report an error in the passage at 2:02:31 Highlight the passage at 2:02:31

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:03:46 did that go? Any questions, experiences, regulations? Anybody have the same person be all free? That happens sometimes. Like I said, usually a family member. Hannah, did you have something? Report an error in the passage at 2:03:46 Highlight the passage at 2:03:46

2:04:07 I Report an error in the passage at 2:04:07 Highlight the passage at 2:04:07

2:04:12 was just thinking that whenever you say enemy or whenever we meditate, I always have the same person. I was thinking, well that's kind of silly, you know, to have that same person because it's almost like I'm kind of reinforcing looking at that person. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:12 Highlight the passage at 2:04:12

2:04:27 So I was thinking, I think I need to shift, you know, because relationships do shift. Yeah. Does it break down? Like when you really think, because for me when I really, like it seems so solid when I set them up and I'm like, ooh. And then when I really think, oh, like they dissed me, so they're a terrible person? Report an error in the passage at 2:04:27 Highlight the passage at 2:04:27

2:04:48 Because, you know, I think of why it is that I label someone that. And then it's all about me that just seems so ridiculous that it's like I view them as a terrible person just because they don't like me like everybody's supposed to like me and think I'm wonderful. So that helps me break it down when I think about the reasoning. It's just all about me. It's all about how they should treat me so great and think that I'm so wonderful. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:48 Highlight the passage at 2:04:48

2:05:13 And it's not really that they're a monster from their own side. And I think in the same way, also the person that you love. Yeah. Of course, I was thinking now of my mother, and I was thinking, but jeez, I don't know how she could become. A stranger or an enemy, you know, because the definition is so strong. The relationship is so strong. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:13 Highlight the passage at 2:05:13

2:05:38 Yeah. But, of course, one knows of other situations, right? Other people who... Yeah, you get estranged from a parent. You know, something happens, like you get married to the wrong person and your parents never speak to you again. You know, things can... happen that can cause that kind of estrangement even with someone like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:38 Highlight the passage at 2:05:38

2:06:01 It's interesting when I was in this long retreat, when I went in, I have really intense relationships with people, you know, and I went in and I had all these really close friends and I went into solitude, at that point I thought it was three years, three months and three days, you know, it ended up being six and a half years. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:01 Highlight the passage at 2:06:01

2:06:17 Completely different. But I would think of my friends and I'd miss them and I'd cry. And then I was doing a lot of this kind of meditation. I'd go, wait, you know, I thought that I picked all my friends because they were these like well-read sort of, you know, left-wing politics and, you know, fascinating and they had all these values. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:17 Highlight the passage at 2:06:17

2:06:39 And then I really started to analyze and go, no, they just think I'm great. Like that's why my friends are my friends. They laugh at my jokes. They think I'm wonderful. They're just ego gratifying. Like that's really why I label people friend because they gratify my ego. And then I go, well, wow, like what's up with that? You know, is it really about all the, I thought it was all these neutral qualities. And then I said, well, no, there's people with all of those qualities that can't stand me and I don't label them friend. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:39 Highlight the passage at 2:06:39

2:07:08 You know, they're just as intellectual and we all love the same movies. They have left-wing politics and they think I'm a jerk but I don't label them friends. So it's not really about those qualities, it's about how do they treat me. It's that thing of like, oh I'll smile at you so you smile at me so I'll feel good. It's that thing of like you just have this mutual ego gratifying contract with people. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:08 Highlight the passage at 2:07:08

2:07:34 And it's very interesting to just analyze that and start to break it down and really just be aware of like who... Why is it that you're hanging out with who you're hanging out with? And like I said, the goal of Buddhism is not to not have friends, but it's just kind of interesting that we generally draw such huge distinctions without any analysis at all, and how fair is that? Report an error in the passage at 2:07:34 Highlight the passage at 2:07:34

2:07:57 You know, it's like one time I got in big trouble at a teaching for calling. Marriage, a mutual contract for ego gratification. But I said, I just, you know, provoke people by saying, okay, it's extreme, but look at how many elements are in there in those close relationships about, you know, a kind of a contract for ego gratification. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:57 Highlight the passage at 2:07:57

2:08:22 It just makes you, it just makes things loosen a little bit, you know, when it's just so extreme, those distinctions. Did anybody else have any experiences or questions? Yeah. I had a bit of trouble with them. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Micah? So it helped when you said irritant. Yeah, yeah. Because I couldn't deal with the enemy thing. Right, right. So I went to that space. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:22 Highlight the passage at 2:08:22

2:08:58 Yeah, because the enemy is just so strong and loaded and it's so sort of Hatsfields and McCoys or something and we don't have things like that, we just have somebody who bugs us. There's something that I read a while back that a person that is like, irritant is my mother, you know, that I read somewhere that he said, do you think you're... Report an error in the passage at 2:08:58 Highlight the passage at 2:08:58

2:09:24 think you're involved or you think you're enlightened, go spend a weekend with one of you. Definitely. Yeah, it's so easy to have all kinds of love and compassion with the orphans in Zimbabwe because we have no idea how annoying they are. But try the person your housemate or the person in Cuba next to you and they're impossible. But it's really easy to tsunami victims. We don't know how annoying they are and we can have all of this compassion for them. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:24 Highlight the passage at 2:09:24

2:09:54 It's sort of like the Lama's always go, start with people like in your house, you know, start with the people who live next door, who are right there, because of course they're the ones that are pushing your buttons right and left and the ones that are really hard, but you're never going to evolve at all if it's just something, oh, all sentient beings are out there somewhere. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:54 Highlight the passage at 2:09:54

2:10:12 And then my ex-sister-in-law, oh, but she's not a scented being, she's like, you know, oh, but I love all scented beings, you know, but then there's this one who's related to me who just drives me nuts, you know, so, yeah, it's, the closer to home it is, the harder it is, but that's the only way you're going to progress, it's like, break it down with that person who's, you know, the closest to you and drives you crazy and... Report an error in the passage at 2:10:12 Highlight the passage at 2:10:12

2:10:37 The thorn in your side. And it takes a long time. You know, you just have to keep working at it. But you do feel it shift, which is why these are all techniques I'm introducing. You know, please, I beseech you, take them home and use them on your own meditation cushion. You know, it's not just about, oh, we're going to have this warm, fuzzy day thinking about loving kindness Saturday, March 22nd. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:37 Highlight the passage at 2:10:37

2:11:02 You know, like, take them home as techniques that you use over and over and over again, because that's when your mind starts to shift. Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to say... It does feel like the people who are closest to me, the closest relationships that this is most challenging with. And I almost feel like it's because I have the greatest expectations. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:02 Highlight the passage at 2:11:02

2:11:25 And so it's really hard to let go of those expectations of how someone should be interacting with me. And then the other thing that came to my mind was that I was reflecting on comments that I react to. that kind of sting. And I don't know quite, I was trying to analyze it, well it's all about me, but it still felt like there was this attachment like, but that really hurt my feelings and how to let that go. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:25 Highlight the passage at 2:11:25

2:11:59 So maybe if you could comment a little bit. And we're going to get more into that this afternoon. The main practice of equalizing, exchanging self and others, there's a unique explanation of it that has nine points. And the first three points are just looking from the side of the person. Yeah, everybody wants happiness. Everyone wants to avoid suffering. Nobody can seem to pull it off. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:59 Highlight the passage at 2:11:59

2:12:24 But then the second three points are, well yeah, that's fine, but what about me? Like there are people that are nice to me, and there are people who are really crappy to me, and that's all well and good for them, but what about the way they are with me? So I think we'll get into that more when we get into analyzing, like really breaking it down in terms of others, in terms of ourselves. And then the last three points is in terms of the ultimate nature of reality and how things... Report an error in the passage at 2:12:24 Highlight the passage at 2:12:24

2:12:50 Aren't inherently existent. It's just labeled on the basis of these perceptions that we have. So we'll really spend some time breaking it down. And this is especially for Ana and Kishu, who's had this teaching before, but we're going to go into new territory for you guys so you won't be bored to death this afternoon. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:50 Highlight the passage at 2:12:50

2:13:09 We're going to break it down even more. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:09 Highlight the passage at 2:13:09

2:13:15 It was interesting because I hadn't realized before as I was looking at the labels and at the people that I had in front of me before that One of the reasons I use the labels is as sort of a protection for me because I have very limited energy for dealing with people. I'm really introverted and need a lot of time by myself. So if I label someone as stranger or enemy, you know, then I don't have to. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:15 Highlight the passage at 2:13:15

2:13:41 So it was interesting. I really don't wish her badly at all. I know she wants happiness and wants to avoid suffering. When she's with me, I mean, I just think she's in the bottomless pit of me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was interesting to see that. Right, right. And it's sort of like, and then it really gets into like, even as a bodhisattva, you know, even as an aspiring bodhisattva, when are we allowed to set limits? Report an error in the passage at 2:13:41 Highlight the passage at 2:13:41

2:14:11 Does it mean that you just have to make yourself available 24-7 to every bottomless pit of need that crosses your path? And believe me, there's plenty of them out there. When are we allowed? Does bodhisattva activity mean you're a doormat? Does it mean your door is always open? Does it mean that you can't? Report an error in the passage at 2:14:11 Highlight the passage at 2:14:11

2:14:31 Set a limit to get the rest you need because we all have different capacities for interaction. And that's a very, very interesting territory to delve into because I think sometimes people hear like the bodhisattva ideal and they're just like, oh my God, you know, if you do tend to need a lot of personal space and a lot of quiet, you just think that means I'm just going to be in the fray like all the time and everybody's just going to be grasping onto me. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:31 Highlight the passage at 2:14:31

2:15:00 But it's very interesting to look at the examples of some of our teachers because it doesn't always serve someone to just let them dump on you. You know, that's not the wisest thing to do. And Lama Yeshe used to call it idiot compassion when you're just sort of like there and you let everyone dump on you because he's like, there's something wise about that. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:00 Highlight the passage at 2:15:00

2:15:23 That's not really helping them. That keeps them... You know, stuck in the role of victim. Like sometimes, I think one of the hardest things about being a spiritual teacher, you know, for people who are really like a Lama, I mean, and I've even had to do this a couple of times with students, is say something really kind of harsh to them to wake them up that they don't want to hear. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:23 Highlight the passage at 2:15:23

2:15:44 So it's not, you know, if you're dealing with people from a place of wise compassion, sometimes you have to like snatch them up and really say things. That don't make you popular. So it's really not about like a bodhisattva is just sort of this wide open doormat like dump on me, you know. So it's kind of interesting working with that and working on setting limits because I think you're not alone in people backing off from just even the concept of becoming a bodhisattva, thinking that that's what it means. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:44 Highlight the passage at 2:15:44

2:16:19 You know, you just have to be kind of parked. Out on the street corner with a sign that says, come talk to me, I'm available for you. You know, and that's not really what it's about at all. So yeah, but it's hard to get that balance right, to get the balance right in like, what's wise compassion versus what Lama Yeshe would call idiot compassion. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:19 Highlight the passage at 2:16:19

2:16:40 You know, where's the listen? Sometimes I've noticed I've pushed people too far, you know, beyond which they were really ready. To go, and then they kind of go off for a while, but they usually come back eventually because they think about it for a while. They freak out and then they go away and kind of think about it and come back. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:40 Highlight the passage at 2:16:40

2:16:58 So sometimes you do have to be kind of harsh with people who wake them up. Yeah. Did you have so much? Okay. I did so. So I wanted to make sure she got fucked. Anything else? How long do we have for a lunch break? We don't have that many people, so an hour is fine, but if you wanted an hour and a half, that's fine too. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:58 Highlight the passage at 2:16:58

2:17:22 It's quarter one, we're running a little late. Should we start at two, an hour and fifteen minutes? Does that give people enough time for a break? Okay, and then two to five? Yeah. Okay, so what we'll do this afternoon, we'll get more into these points about the actual main practice of equalizing, exchanging self and others. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:22 Highlight the passage at 2:17:22

2:17:44 We'll do another meditation. We'll get about halfway through the text I think today and then when we come back in two weeks we'll do the precepts and commitments of thought transformation and the teaching on the five powers and do a lot of Tonglen meditation practice. We'll get the introduction to Tonglen today, the instructions and then we'll do more of that practice next week but we'll make sure we get another nice meditation in today this afternoon. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:44 Highlight the passage at 2:17:44

2:18:15 Thank you. So see you in about an hour and 15 minutes. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:15 Highlight the passage at 2:18:15

2:18:21 I Report an error in the passage at 2:18:21 Highlight the passage at 2:18:21

2:18:33 just want you to all know that. We're sitting in an uneated, the memorial shrine, freezing. People were running out during the breaks instead of doing walking meditation, sitting in their cars with a heater. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:33 Highlight the passage at 2:18:33

2:18:59 It was crazy, and someone said it snowed on the summit of some mountains above Monterey or something. Global warming or something. Oh, Chikki, where'd she go? She's here. Chikki. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:59 Highlight the passage at 2:18:59

2:19:20 Panda? That's what she was supposed to be doing. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:20 Highlight the passage at 2:19:20

2:19:31 So let's just begin and just, let's focus on mine after the break. We orient here in our... And Report an error in the passage at 2:19:31 Highlight the passage at 2:19:31

2:20:04 then just reflect and reset your motivation for the afternoon session, thinking of the motivation that you set earlier today, either your curiosity to come learn more, your understanding about the path leading to liberation, Report an error in the passage at 2:20:04 Highlight the passage at 2:20:04

2:20:29 or practicing about the capacity to be of ultimate benefit to all living beings. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:29 Highlight the passage at 2:20:29

2:21:05 open, it's going to be really noisy for the air. Yeah, it's going to get stuffy, but it may be full. Here, we'll do it. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:05 Highlight the passage at 2:21:05

2:21:25 Oh, great. Why is it in traffic? Okay so before we launch into new material are there any questions that came up? After you're reflecting on this morning's material or anything that came up during lunch that you'd like to discuss. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:25 Highlight the passage at 2:21:25

2:21:48 It feels like I'm so new to practice, but it's hard to imagine that Report an error in the passage at 2:21:48 Highlight the passage at 2:21:48

2:21:57 I will be the person. Yeah. Because I feel like I know so little, so it seems like a little weird to be having that aspiration because I feel like I need to kind of help. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:57 Highlight the passage at 2:21:57

2:22:12 Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:12 Highlight the passage at 2:22:12

2:22:15 So it just feels like, to me, like there's like this ultimate, that I probably feel like unbelievable to attain, you know, to be, I don't know if I would say enlightened enough, but, you know, to have enough understanding to really... So it feels like a limitation due to not seeing how you could ever be such a being. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:15 Highlight the passage at 2:22:15

2:22:46 Right, I mean, because I feel... The desire to be a benefit and to help people, but in this ultimate way, it seems... To become a Buddha, like that's kind of so all-encompassing thinking. Right. That's so all-encompassing, like how could you ever pull that off, kind of thing. Right, right. I mean, I do feel, you know, being of service and I want to be a benefit. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:46 Highlight the passage at 2:22:46

2:23:10 Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, generally, like I said, these... Teachings are quite advanced and at a more preliminary level. And in fact, the way that Lama Yeshi, who is the founder of the whole organization that Seiji Ling is part of, he used to start, even before explaining something basic like the Four Noble Truths, he would start explaining the mind from the Buddhist perspective. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:10 Highlight the passage at 2:23:10

2:23:39 You know, because so often we identify with ourselves, we identify with our delusions. And so from the Buddhist perspective, the mind is nothing but that which is clear and knowing. That's the definition of mind in Buddhism, meaning mind holds an object and is aware of that object, period. And the object can be one of the five sense objects that we usually think of, or a thought. So it can be an object of sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing, or thought. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:39 Highlight the passage at 2:23:39

2:24:15 It's the sixth sense according to Buddhism. Therefore, you know, the mind is not inextricably linked with, you know, the delusions and limitations the way that we feel that it is. And I thought it was very skillful. I mean, yes, she used to start people off meditating on the nature of mind itself to sort of loosen that identification that we all have. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:15 Highlight the passage at 2:24:15

2:24:40 You know, I am an angry person. You know, I am... I am stupid. I am whatever it is. Because we identify so much with delusions which are just these fleeting mental states as a result of causes and conditions. You know, this incredibly fleeting thing. So I think it's really important to meditate on the potential of mind and then to relate that to, for example, the Four Noble Truths, the truth of cessation. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:40 Highlight the passage at 2:24:40

2:25:11 These delusions are a result of misunderstanding the nature of reality. Because we think things are coming at us from their own side, that we didn't cardically co-create our reality, we react. Things that we like, we try and grasp onto and pull towards us. The definition of attachment in Buddhism is... Report an error in the passage at 2:25:11 Highlight the passage at 2:25:11

2:25:36 Exaggerating the good qualities of an object and thinking that by possessing it you'll have lasting happiness. So it's based on ignorance about the way that the object exists. It's based on ignorance about the qualities. Exaggerating, which includes thinking that those good qualities are coming from the side of the object and not that you co-created your perception. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:36 Highlight the passage at 2:25:36

2:25:59 That object is neutral. Because of your karma you see good qualities and out of ignorance. So I think understanding the nature of how our delusions arise on the basis of this fundamental ignorance about the nature of reality makes you realize that mind has the potential to be purified from all of that. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:59 Highlight the passage at 2:25:59

2:26:22 And we're not these limited beings that we solidly perceive ourselves to be. In fact, our sense of self is nothing more than a conceptual imputation. You know, on the basis of what we can perceive that's necessarily limited by our root ignorance about the nature of reality. But we hold that to be true, and that's me, and how could I become a Buddha, and yadda yadda, all that stuff. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:22 Highlight the passage at 2:26:22

2:26:49 And I think one of the important things is to look at our lives, if you've been doing any practice at all, or even just look at your life through other... The personal, you know, self-growth work you've been doing and look at how you've changed and how even really fundamental things that you would think is just so you, you know, is completely, totally part of you, totally changes and you're a different person. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:49 Highlight the passage at 2:26:49

2:27:13 And sometimes I think we hang on to these labels long after whatever the basis of labeling has totally changed. You know, I remember when I was thinking about getting ordained, you know, and I... No singing and dancing. Oh, I can't go out dancing. And then I thought, well, I haven't really gone out dancing for about 20 years, you know, but somehow I'm holding on to this label of myself as this person who likes to do this, that. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:13 Highlight the passage at 2:27:13

2:27:37 And the other thing, when I really checked, I hadn't done any of those things since I was about like 24 years old, you know, all these things that I'd be giving up. And it's like, what am I giving up? I'm just giving up. I have this concept. of myself that is so historical and that includes all of these things that I haven't even done. So I think often we're carrying around this conceptual baggage of who we think we are and then you really even examine in the moment and so much of it is no longer at all valid, even relatively, is it? Report an error in the passage at 2:27:37 Highlight the passage at 2:27:37

2:28:09 So kind of breaking down those solid views helps with that issue, I think. So really meditating on Selflessness, according to Buddhism, which has a bunch of different levels to it, really helps with this teaching, because like I said, this is very advanced, and if you do hold on to a very solid, concrete view of self, A, you're never going to think you're going to be able to pull off being a Buddha, B, you'll think you're giving up all your fun, you know, to do this practice, so the prerequisites are some of these other stages, for sure. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:09 Highlight the passage at 2:28:09

2:28:43 Does that help? Yeah. Okay. Anything else that came up for people during the day? Keisha? I'll stick on you. Oh good, I knew there was something. I'm still like toying around with it, so it's not quite okay for any questions yet. But anyway, when we were doing Tomlin, usually when I do Tomlin, I get stuck with the enemy. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:43 Highlight the passage at 2:28:43

2:29:14 And I just kind of go lost and keep Report an error in the passage at 2:29:14 Highlight the passage at 2:29:14

2:29:20 chucking. But this time, I actually figured out why. That's because I don't want to think of myself as somebody who doesn't like somebody else. Oh, yeah, yeah. Then I just got stuck in this ego trip and didn't, you know. Right. It's a good girl. And Ben Horvino says that to me all the time. It's like, oh, that's what she's been saying. But I just, I was wondering if you have any suggestions for how to, I mean, now I see that that speech is there. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:20 Highlight the passage at 2:29:20

2:29:52 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:52 Highlight the passage at 2:29:52

2:29:54 I mean, maybe I do just need to sit there and meditate on my ego forever, but it's just, I didn't even continue on with the rest of the meditation because it was like, oh darn, now I have to look at this. So is there a faster way? I mean, I know that I have to spend the time with this, but I mean, just... Report an error in the passage at 2:29:54 Highlight the passage at 2:29:54

2:30:13 In this particular meditation. I know that that can't be skipped and that takes a long time to work with. So I'm not saying I really want to just dodge this and never look at my ego. Now that I know it's there, how do I not sit in it and not go through the rest of it? Yeah, and I think because it's very deep and I don't think there's a quick fix just for this meditation. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:13 Highlight the passage at 2:30:13

2:30:25 Yeah, it's just a... Report an error in the passage at 2:30:25 Highlight the passage at 2:30:25

2:30:44 Is my feeling like when I hear you, what's coming up for me is thinking of this whole process that I went through in this long meditation of owning my shadow. You know, like I really thought I was a nice person. I thought everybody liked me. I thought I was so, until I went into solitary confinement with my mind for six and a half years and all of this really ugly stuff that I could no longer deny because I wasn't distracting myself from it. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:44 Highlight the passage at 2:30:44

2:31:14 Anymore. Came up. And it was like what Jung would call the shadow. You know, all of this really ugly stuff about myself that I had just run away from completely and denied and completely didn't even acknowledge was there. You know, I used to say, I mean it cracks me up now. I used to say, I don't get angry. I don't get sad. Like I just completely repressed all my anger, all my sadness. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:14 Highlight the passage at 2:31:14

2:31:39 And then it goes back to this whole dysfunctional family thing because it was not acceptable to express any of that in my family of origin. Like I just was completely not allowed to express any angry sadness. So I tricked myself into thinking it didn't even exist. But it was there, you know, and it was festering and it was ugly. But in order to, like there was no way to move past it except straight through. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:39 Highlight the passage at 2:31:39

2:32:03 And part of my whole, you know... People have encouraged me to write a book about this experience of retreat because so much of it was psychological and just really looking at my stuff and part of it was just really looking at that stuff that I talked myself into believing didn't exist and then really making friends with it and accepting it because my problem was I didn't think I was acceptable being a mixed bag. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:03 Highlight the passage at 2:32:03

2:32:31 So I only allowed myself... To believe in the stuff that I call positive. But it was like looking at the shadow and going, guess what? I'm a mixed bag. Big surprise. I'm not an R-hot yet. I've got delusions. I've got this stuff. I even have anger. I even have sadness. All this stuff I never believed. And I'm still okay. Damn it. And I'm a work in progress. And I'm trying. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:31 Highlight the passage at 2:32:31

2:32:59 Rear end is in this here in the middle of the 120 degree desert and I'm an okay person even with all of this stuff. And part of it was, you know, I think I'd repressed all of that just because of my deep lack of acceptance of those qualities in me. I'd fool myself into not even believing that they were there. And just accepting, like looking at those parts of myself and then making friends with them was just a huge part of that process that I did. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:59 Highlight the passage at 2:32:59

2:33:28 And it's hard. And I don't think there's any way past that. Like I don't, until you accept that you're angry and you're sad and you're all these things, whatever it is, that it doesn't fit the picture of the good person, you know, the good girl. The nice person. Because, you know, for me, I just completely disowned anything. And all my friends could have said it. Like, Chogky would have said, you're pissed off all the time. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:28 Highlight the passage at 2:33:28

2:33:56 Like, what do you think? You know, but I couldn't see that about mine. She's, you know, she could have seen all this stuff that I didn't even believe existed in me. It's probably so obvious to everybody else, you know. But I think it's about making friends, like accepting and making friends with all of you and realizing that it's all in there. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:56 Highlight the passage at 2:33:56

2:34:16 And then you can start the path. You know, you can only start the path when you're dealing with the whole cloth. You can't really start with this fragmented self. You know, you can't, because you're not working with all that's there. You know, and if it's just, if you've just compartmentalized yourself, you know, and put yourself into all of these compartments and labeled some of them unacceptable and I'm not even going to acknowledge that that exists, there's kind of no way. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:16 Highlight the passage at 2:34:16

2:34:46 You're just always going to be blocked. So I don't think there's really much of a way past that hard work of just accepting, you know, it seems sort of the antithesis of the spiritual past is the beginning is accepting all the crappy stuff about yourself because, you know, we're always kind of taught, oh, the spiritual past is about love and night and the positive, and it's not. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:46 Highlight the passage at 2:34:46

2:35:07 It's about just having your face smashed in the ugly stuff too, you know, and there's kind of no way around it, and it's not. Like you're a failure, it's how you can really start on the path. So I'm sorry, I know that wasn't the answer that you really wanted me to say. But it makes sense, you know, as I'm trying to develop equity, and of course I have to, you know. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:07 Highlight the passage at 2:35:07

2:35:28 I mean, it's actually pretty obvious if I look at it. And then you can begin, it's such a relief. You know, I told one friend of mine, Wendy Cook, who's the director of the center, And she asked me once, like, what was the main thing that you got out of all of your years of retreat? And without even thinking, it just popped out of my mouth. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:28 Highlight the passage at 2:35:28

2:35:48 I said, I learned to make friends with myself. And she just burst into tears. Like, it was so moving for her to hear. You know, and I was just like, well, that sounds kind of lame. But, you know, it was really true. And that was a huge, significant thing. And for her, it was so moving. But it's hard work. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:48 Highlight the passage at 2:35:48

2:36:07 Looking at all of yourself, you know, because we just have never gotten any reinforcement for that, all that other stuff. Yeah, a nun. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:07 Highlight the passage at 2:36:07

2:36:20 Before you went on retreat, were you already a nun? No, no, I didn't become a nun. I didn't decide to get ordained until the third year of the six and a half years. So I was a layperson for three years and then decided to get ordained like only halfway through. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:20 Highlight the passage at 2:36:20

2:36:40 So is this, I mean, obviously you had teachers up until that point. Yeah, yeah. I think I've asked this every time I come here. I'm very interested in, you know, obviously I'm interested in following this path and continuing it, you know, to a hopeful fruition, you know. Yeah. And... Report an error in the passage at 2:36:40 Highlight the passage at 2:36:40

2:37:09 And, you know, the question I keep asking is, when do you find that teacher? How is that? Like, I know this may not be at the topic even remotely, but, you know, it's like, how do you know when? Yeah. I mean, is it something that you request? I mean, I guess I'm asking what the... Kind of protocol. Right, the protocol is. And one of the things is there's a bunch of different levels of relationship with teachers also. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:09 Highlight the passage at 2:37:09

2:37:41 You know, and as a beginner, you come to places like Seichen Lange, you get teachings from a wide variety of different people. It's sort of the relationship is kind of like a university professor or something. Like somebody that you respect that knows more than you or can teach you something on some level and you come with just sort of a respectful, receptive attitude. And then... Report an error in the passage at 2:37:41 Highlight the passage at 2:37:41

2:38:02 At deeper levels of practice, you get sort of a deeper, more committed level of relationship with teacher, all the way up to... If there's somebody who gives you a tantric empowerment, then that's a very, very special kind of relationship that you enter into with that person that doesn't just last for this life, it's like a commitment that lasts until enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:02 Highlight the passage at 2:38:02

2:38:26 And that's very heavy, and I think even those of us who have made that kind of relationship with the teacher still really have no idea what we're doing, or what we've gotten into, or how to even relate to that. That's a huge, vast... Subject is like, how do we properly relate to a being with that level of relationship? And I think that a lot of times people see other people doing that and then they think they need to rush into that kind of heavy committed level of relationship. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:26 Highlight the passage at 2:38:26

2:38:58 Whereas I think for beginners there's a lot that you can learn on the path, you know, and to be... You know very measured and like take what you can from the university professor level for a very long time before you enter into that kind of a commitment because it's nothing to fool around it with and it's nothing that should be done off the cuff on the basis of charisma or some feeling or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:58 Highlight the passage at 2:38:58

2:39:24 In fact his Holiness the Dalai Lama when he teaches he says In the text they say, check the teacher for 12, up to 12 years before you commit. And there's all of these characteristics in the teachings that you're supposed to check. Does the teacher have that characteristic? You know, it's not just this, like, emotional thing or an intuitive thing or a charisma thing. It's like, you check, you know, there's a checklist of qualities and they say... Report an error in the passage at 2:39:24 Highlight the passage at 2:39:24

2:39:52 You know, there's these ten qualities, but at least they should have these six, and even if they can't have the six, they've got to have at least these three. So you really check, and I think people jump into relationships that they're not ready for, you know, and make those kind of commitments without having any idea. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:52 Highlight the passage at 2:39:52

2:40:09 Because it's actually extremely damaging. Then if you get disillusioned with a teacher that you feel that you've made a deep commitment to, it can be extremely damaging. So it's much better to proceed really cautiously and be measured about it than to leap in. Because then if you're disillusioned, it can really derail you off the path for a long time. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:09 Highlight the passage at 2:40:09

2:40:32 I guess the thing is, is that I feel... I kind of feel like I'm on the right path. I'm here. Yeah. You know, but then I also have so many questions. Yeah. So many, you know, almost on a daily basis. Yeah. I'm confronted with things that I don't know. Right. You know, and I mean, and I do have the patience. I know that it's a very long process, you know. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:32 Highlight the passage at 2:40:32

2:41:06 I guess my question is, will it present itself at that time? Is it something that I should be seeking, or is it something... Well, I think you sort of found it. Like, here you are, there's teachers here, you know, you're friends with Jack and Judith who know so much. There's plenty of teachers here, and I would just say, just keep showing up, keep asking your questions, ask them in class, ask them one-on-one. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:06 Highlight the passage at 2:41:06

2:41:34 With people, they say, you know, there's this ancient Indian saying, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear without wasting even a second. Like I don't think there needs to be a lot of grasping from our side. Like your main business is making yourself ready. And when you're ready, that teacher that you have that... Report an error in the passage at 2:41:34 Highlight the passage at 2:41:34

2:41:54 Karmic connection with will definitely show up. You know they say without wasting even a second. So it's about making ourselves ready and receptive and being open and searching in a really sincere way. I think the best way to make yourself ready for a teacher is really keep correcting your motivation. You know keep working on your motivation for why you're engaged. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:54 Highlight the passage at 2:41:54

2:42:16 In the spiritual path and with that sincerity and that level of motivation, there's no way the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas can stay away from you. You know, you just draw them to you with your karma and they'll just keep showing up for you. So you're fine, you know, don't worry. Anything else? Okay. So let's delve into the next section of the text. So actually we're on the first point. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:16 Highlight the passage at 2:42:16

2:42:45 At the bottom of the page, explaining the preliminaries as a basis for the practice, and that line says merely, first training the preliminaries, okay? So, and this we talked about a little bit before. What are these preliminaries? When we talked about the three scopes or the three levels of capacity of the stages of the path. Report an error in the passage at 2:42:45 Highlight the passage at 2:42:45

2:43:09 So these are the topics leading you up to this highest level of capacity. Leading you up to the capacity of wanting to be a full enlightened being for the benefit of all. And there are four subjects from the stages of the path. I'm just going to mention them because this is the subject of your other courses, your other stages of the path courses. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:09 Highlight the passage at 2:43:09

2:43:32 And these are four subjects to train in before this level. And those four subjects are the precious human life, otherwise known as the precious human rebirth, something that we study in this tradition quite a lot. And the point in practicing and training in the precious human life is to realize what an incredible opportunity we have. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:32 Highlight the passage at 2:43:32

2:43:55 You know, to be who you are sitting in this room right now with an interest in Buddhism, with a place like Seichen Leng to come and get teachings, you know, with the teachers like Geshe Dapa and Shipi and Malam and all the teachers who teach here, all the books that exist for us now, unbelievable, unbelievable. Report an error in the passage at 2:43:55 Highlight the passage at 2:43:55

2:44:17 I remember when I started out as a hippie teenager, you know, and I go... To the bookstore and there's four books on Buddhism that are these impenetrable translations by Edward Kahn's full of words like sin and you couldn't make head or tail of them in the first place. And now we have these gigantic, you know, we have Bodhi Tree Bookstore and Gateways and Santa Cruz and these books completely filled. I mean, my bookshelf alone, I'll never be able to make it through the books in my own personal little room that I have. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:17 Highlight the passage at 2:44:17

2:44:48 You know, so it's incredible. Incredible, the opportunity. His Holiness the Dalai Lama coming to the U.S. a couple of times a year in teaching. Unbelievable. You know, even, when was it that there was that first Council on World Religions at Vivekananda in 1893 or something, and that was like the first Eastern religion ever presented in the West, you know, and just think that was only 109 years ago. Report an error in the passage at 2:44:48 Highlight the passage at 2:44:48

2:45:16 My mouth is all off. 115 years ago, you know, the very first teaching of any kind of Eastern tradition in the West at all. And then here we are, this plethora, like you have your choice of all the centers, even just in this greater area. I was telling somebody, I was just in India, and I was saying we started to have this local teachers group that meets. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:16 Highlight the passage at 2:45:16

2:45:40 Quarterly to talk about some of the issues of being a teacher. And there's ten of us who drive to San Jose. We can drive in one day. Nobody has to stay over in hotel rooms. It's like we've got ten teachers within driving distance. And people in India were freaking out. They're like, you've got ten teachers just in the Bay Area? So it's amazing the chance that we have. Report an error in the passage at 2:45:40 Highlight the passage at 2:45:40

2:46:00 So that's the precious human rebirth. And really realizing the opportunity we have so we don't waste time. We're not complacent. We realize the rarity and that we have to create the cause for this so you don't fritter away this precious rare opportunity that you have. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:00 Highlight the passage at 2:46:00

2:46:17 And then the second topic is impermanence, which includes death awareness, which is meant to give you the same result in terms of realization as the precious human rebirth. You know, precious human rebirth is sort of the glass is half full. You know, we have this incredible opportunity. Death awareness meditation is like, hey, And it could be gone at any time. You know, you better make use of it now while you've got it, because any minute, impermanence being the way it is, we could lose this precious opportunity that we have. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:17 Highlight the passage at 2:46:17

2:46:49 Because everything is a result of causes and conditions, including our life, and the causes and conditions could shift, you know, that we cease to exist. Report an error in the passage at 2:46:49 Highlight the passage at 2:46:49

2:46:59 The third, refuge and karma. So karma is the law of cause and effect. Which you need to develop faith in in order to practice the Buddhist path. If you believe that everything is completely random and there's some creative god up there throwing the dice and deciding your life, what's the point? But if you have faith in cause and result, you realize that by engaging in certain actions you will... Report an error in the passage at 2:46:59 Highlight the passage at 2:46:59

2:47:29 You know, reap the benefit of certain results by engaging in non-virtue. You will experience suffering. There's a direct relationship between cause and effect. And then on the basis of that, you engage in practice. And then the last of the four topics under the preliminaries, meditating on the faults and sufferings of cyclic existence. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:29 Highlight the passage at 2:47:29

2:47:52 And this is for the middle level of the scope. Remember, it's not good enough just to want... Relief from gross suffering, especially the gross suffering of lower realms. You need to get off the wheel altogether. Free yourself completely from being subject to uncontrolled rebirth headlong by the force of karma and delusion into who knows what kind of rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 2:47:52 Highlight the passage at 2:47:52

2:48:19 Okay, so that's the last topic of the four years. Report an error in the passage at 2:48:19 Highlight the passage at 2:48:19

2:48:27 Faults and sufferings of cyclic existence. And that's for that renunciation that we talked about so much this morning. This is to realize that it's a broken realm. It's not fixable by all of that tweaking that we spent so much time doing. And these four subjects in the Sakya tradition, which is another Tibetan Buddhist tradition, are called the four thoughts that turn the mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:48:27 Highlight the passage at 2:48:27

2:48:53 And that's kind of an interesting thing. Turn the mind towards what? Turn the mind towards Dharma practice. Turn the mind towards spiritual practice. So reflection on these four subjects is primary to the path and a preliminary for this advanced topic that we're studying now. Okay, so the four thoughts that turn the mind is the preliminary. Okay, so the second... Report an error in the passage at 2:48:53 Highlight the passage at 2:48:53

2:49:22 Of our seven points is the main practice and that starts at the bottom of that page, the actual practice training in the awakening mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:49:22 Highlight the passage at 2:49:22

2:49:32 And what we're going to do for this one is talk about the nine levels in your handout. And this was a specific training on this point developed by Trijong Rinpoche. Now Trijong Rinpoche was a Lama. Who was one of the main tutors of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and who was also a main teacher for a lot of the lamas in the Galupa lineage at a certain point. Report an error in the passage at 2:49:32 Highlight the passage at 2:49:32

2:50:04 I think he passed away in 1983. So for this whole generation of Tibetan lamas including Lama Yashi and Lama Zopa of the FPMT and many of the main... Lamas of the Galipa tradition that are of that older generation, he was one of the main teachers. And so when he taught this equalizing, exchanging self and others, he split this second point into nine kind of subsections. Report an error in the passage at 2:50:04 Highlight the passage at 2:50:04

2:50:34 And that's what we're going to look at now. And that's what I've elucidated on your handout. So the first point, equalizing oneself with others. The practice of reflecting on the equality of oneself and others and having the wish to enjoy happiness and avoid suffering. And remember we talked about that this morning when we talked about what is His Holiness the Dalai Lama start every talk he ever gives. Report an error in the passage at 2:50:34 Highlight the passage at 2:50:34

2:50:59 We're all the same. We all want happiness and want to avoid suffering. So it's either that he has nothing else to say or this is really important. So how do we develop this? Because this is a realization that is to be developed in meditation. So how do we develop this mind that realizes this, this equality between ourselves and others? Report an error in the passage at 2:50:59 Highlight the passage at 2:50:59

2:51:24 So this can be practiced in nine points. The first three are based on the viewpoint of others. And this is pretty straightforward. Report an error in the passage at 2:51:24 Highlight the passage at 2:51:24

2:51:35 So all other living beings are equal in the wish to avoid suffering. We're all the same. In this very same way that you wish to avoid suffering, everyone else does too. There's no difference at all. So this thought that we have that we're the center of the universe and our own happiness and suffering are the only thing that counts. Report an error in the passage at 2:51:35 Highlight the passage at 2:51:35

2:51:59 When you think about it, everybody else feels exactly the same way. There's no difference between ourselves and others when it comes to this feeling. The same way that we're trying with every action to get happiness and avoid suffering, everybody else is too. So it's just realizing that we're all the same in this way. And then the second point is not only do beings want to avoid suffering, they want happiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:51:59 Highlight the passage at 2:51:59

2:52:30 So to avoid suffering and... The wish to procure happiness. And then, just like us, nobody seems to be able to pull it off. Just in the same way that we're trying to avoid suffering and have happiness, so is everyone else and they're all really confused about how to do it. Just like we've always done, they keep grasping and tweaking their external reality, trying to get it to work out. Report an error in the passage at 2:52:30 Highlight the passage at 2:52:30

2:53:01 And as confused and frustrated as we are about how it doesn't seem to ever work, guess what? They are too. Everybody's going around in confusion about how on earth do I get happiness and avoid suffering? I keep trying to do it. I keep changing jobs. I keep moving. I keep getting involved in new relationships. How come it's not working? Report an error in the passage at 2:53:01 Highlight the passage at 2:53:01

2:53:24 Nothing seems to work. I remember when I first came back for my first trip to India. And Nepal, which was about a year and a half. And I remember coming back to the West. And in India, you see really abject suffering. You know, you see lepers on the side of the road, missing fingers, toes, body parts, noses. It's intense. You know, they're sitting there, unwashed, begging, really severe, gross. Report an error in the passage at 2:53:24 Highlight the passage at 2:53:24

2:53:51 And of course you can't help but feel compassion. I remember coming back to the Santa Cruz area and going to the local shopping mall soon after coming back from India. And it was so interesting because I saw so clearly how... All these people are at the shopping mall on Saturday and the young women are buying that new outfit for the date with the guy that night because then if it works out with him, if they get the right dress, then the guy will like them and they'll work out with him and then they'll get married and then they'll end happily ever after. Report an error in the passage at 2:53:51 Highlight the passage at 2:53:51

2:54:24 It was the whole Cinderella thing and it was so intense. It was almost more poignant to me than the lepers sitting by the side of the road. Seeing how... All these people thought they were doing the right thing to get happiness. Why isn't this working? TV is telling us this should work. Every Hollywood movie, every magazine ad. And there was just something even more heartbreaking on some level of these people thinking that consumerism was supposed to make them happy because that's what every... Report an error in the passage at 2:54:24 Highlight the passage at 2:54:24

2:54:59 The cultural signal that they got said was true and it still wasn't working. At least the lepers thought they knew why they weren't happy. But they accepted it. Oh hey, I'm a leper. Of course I'm not happy. But here were people who were so confused they still weren't happy even though they were doing the right thing according to our cultural standards. Report an error in the passage at 2:54:59 Highlight the passage at 2:54:59

2:55:19 Really interesting. So I found that even this first point of just realizing how everybody wants happiness And wants to avoid suffering has helped me so much to overcome, especially criticism and judgment of what other people do. Because no matter what anybody does, if you can get to that bottom line of no matter how dysfunctional their behavior, no matter how crazy it seems they're doing what they're doing, even if they're hurting people. Report an error in the passage at 2:55:19 Highlight the passage at 2:55:19

2:55:50 But the bottom line is, even no matter how twisted it seems, Their motivation is to get happiness and avoid suffering, no matter what. And it really helps you have compassion for people who seem to be doing such hurtful things to other people. Because they're really not, you know, I think very few people are really malicious by nature in that way of really, you know, and even people who are, they're just getting happiness by seeing other people suffer. Report an error in the passage at 2:55:50 Highlight the passage at 2:55:50

2:56:22 So it's still about their happiness. And other people mostly are just sort of bulldozing over other people in their wish to get happiness and avoid suffering, as we all have. I remember one of those ugly things about myself that I had to face up to in retreat was how much I'd hurt people in my life. In my wish for happiness, how much I'd just completely run roughshod over other people's feelings, right and left. Report an error in the passage at 2:56:22 Highlight the passage at 2:56:22

2:56:50 And I had to look and I'd say, It's not that I'm a terrible person. I never meant to hurt anyone. And I really regret that I did. But just out of my own delusion and wish for happiness, I ended up doing these really unskillful things that ended up hurting people. But it really wasn't any intention to hurt others. I was just so self-absorbed, you know, trying so hard to get my own happiness that I didn't even see what I was doing to other people. Report an error in the passage at 2:56:50 Highlight the passage at 2:56:50

2:57:20 So for me, I had a real problem with a lot of judgmental critical mind and even this first step has helped me so much when I start to go to that place with someone of finding fault in their behavior is to just look and go, you know, whatever they're doing, they're just trying to get happiness and trying to avoid suffering no matter how dysfunctional it seems, whatever it is. Report an error in the passage at 2:57:20 Highlight the passage at 2:57:20

2:57:44 So I think this step is really an important one and can really help us. Even relieve our own critical judgmental mind. Okay, so all that's well and good from the side of others. But still, you might feel there's people who are really nice to me and people who really mistreat me. So that's all valid from their side, but what about from my side? Report an error in the passage at 2:57:44 Highlight the passage at 2:57:44

2:58:09 So there's three points that address this. And one is really similar to what we did in the meditation this morning about equanimity. Looking at the people you label friends. Looking at the people that help you. How long have they been your friend? In the past, have they always been your friend? And if you believe in past lives, think about the perspective in terms of past lives. Have these people been your friends? Report an error in the passage at 2:58:09 Highlight the passage at 2:58:09

2:58:40 And are they the only ones ever who've ever helped you? The people you feel so partial towards now. Or in past lives, have a... So many beings have been equally kind to you as the people we label our friends right now in this very limited temporal, you know, little slice of our life. Even think ten years ago, are the people you're hanging out with all the time now who are your best friends the same as the people ten years ago? For me, it's not true at all. Report an error in the passage at 2:58:40 Highlight the passage at 2:58:40

2:59:10 You know, when I look back even five, ten years, the people that I label, you know, my best friends. Are completely different than the people from ten years ago. But it seems so concrete to us now. So again, to break down, like even if we think, oh but there's people who are really nice to me now, break it down by thinking more long term. Report an error in the passage at 2:59:10 Highlight the passage at 2:59:10

2:59:32 And even in past lives, there are other people who are so kind to you that may seem like complete strangers in this life. You know, you have no idea that in some past lives they were your best friends. Report an error in the passage at 2:59:32 Highlight the passage at 2:59:32

2:59:45 And then the same thing with enemies. People that we label the enemy or the annoying person and irritating person, you know. Not only that, they're not the only ones, but also how could we practice it all if we didn't have those people who irritate us? If everybody was really nice to us and gratified our ego, would that be the best for our spiritual practice or what? Report an error in the passage at 2:59:45 Highlight the passage at 2:59:45

3:00:11 They say, you know, your greatest enemy is your best teacher. And that's what these thought transformation teachings are all about. Thank goodness for those annoying people. Because you know what? I'll tell you the truth. The most irritating qualities in other people is your own disowned qualities. And they're just holding a mirror up, showing you your stuff. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:11 Highlight the passage at 3:00:11

3:00:36 In general, the most annoying qualities that you find in other people are those parts of yourself you cannot stand. So whose fault is that? Right? I have this friend and she's so annoyed by really spaced out people. You know, and in Santa Cruz we have plenty of them. These really hairy, kind of deadhead-y people. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:36 Highlight the passage at 3:00:36

3:00:57 They just drive her nuts. And to me, they don't bother me at all. They're kind of cute and endearing because I don't have a spaced out bum in my body. Like, I'm generally so intense that people are just like, you know, I am not spaced out at all. So that doesn't bother me. However, People who are really controlling and domineering and all of these things about myself that I can't stand, they drive me completely insane. You know, if I'm around somebody who's trying to order me around, it prevents the way that I'm trying to order them around, and then they're trying to order me around, and they're trying to control me while I'm trying to control them, and that's what really drives me nuts. Report an error in the passage at 3:00:57 Highlight the passage at 3:00:57

3:01:34 So whenever somebody really pushes my buttons, I really try and look at them as a teacher to go, what is that about me? That's resisting what they're doing to me. Because that's the real problem. It's not really about them. So you can learn so much about yourself, you know, and about your resistance. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:34 Highlight the passage at 3:01:34

3:01:53 And if everybody thought you were so wonderful, you'd never push against those resistances at all, would you? I remember when I was this very young, naive Dharma student, I... I was having a conversation with Lama Zopa's long-time attendant, Venable Roger, you know, who'd been practicing for three countless gradions already, by far. Report an error in the passage at 3:01:53 Highlight the passage at 3:01:53

3:02:14 You know, and I said the stupid thing, it's so embarrassing sometimes when you think about the things you've said. And I just said, oh, you know, let's be, oh, I was going into a new situation. I go, oh, it's going to be okay, because in general people really like me. Like, you know, I'm nice. He looks at me and he goes, oh, that's too bad. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:14 Highlight the passage at 3:02:14

3:02:33 I'm really sorry to hear that. And I was just shocked. I was like, what? How are you ever going to practice patience if everybody likes you? I'm so sorry because you're never going to develop patience. Because it's only with those people that are so annoying that you can practice patience. Well, pretty soon I started working in FPMT centers and my karma shifted completely and then I was blamed by all kinds of people and it was great. Report an error in the passage at 3:02:33 Highlight the passage at 3:02:33

3:03:00 But that's it. So even our enemy. Even the people we call enemy are our greatest teachers. And that's how we really practice, you know, with those people that we find so annoying. And then the last point of that is there's no sense, again, in being discriminatory because everybody, we're all in the same boat. Report an error in the passage at 3:03:00 Highlight the passage at 3:03:00

3:03:24 We're subject to suffering and impermanence and everybody's the same in the sense of what we have to experience. Report an error in the passage at 3:03:24 Highlight the passage at 3:03:24

3:03:34 I shout too much and I almost get a sore throat by about this time of day. Pardon me for a cough drop. Okay. And then the last three rounds have to do with Report an error in the passage at 3:03:34 Highlight the passage at 3:03:34

3:03:58 the ultimate nature of reality. Report an error in the passage at 3:03:58 Highlight the passage at 3:03:58

3:04:04 So this is about things seeming like they're concretely coming from their own side at us. And we don't do anything to co-create our reality. Report an error in the passage at 3:04:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04:04

3:04:19 Would there be a friend or an enemy without us and our participation in the relationship? If there was a self-existent friend out there from their own side, everyone would find that person wonderful. That person would be everyone's best friend. And we know that's not true, right? We all like different people. Report an error in the passage at 3:04:19 Highlight the passage at 3:04:19

3:04:46 The most annoying person at work is somebody's beloved husband and father. You know, and their wife comes to pick them up from work and smiles and throws her arms around his neck and kisses him and we go, oh my God, how could any, oh, how could she live with him? Right? So we are equal partners in creating our friends and our enemies. They don't exist from their own side. Report an error in the passage at 3:04:46 Highlight the passage at 3:04:46

3:05:14 You know, absolutely, inherently as lovable or as annoying. We help create that relationship. And also, they don't remain that way permanently, like we saw in the equanimity meditation this morning. Will they be friend forever? Will they be enemy forever? It's all changing. It's impermanent. It's a product of causes and conditions. You know, so again, breaking down the solidity. Report an error in the passage at 3:05:14 Highlight the passage at 3:05:14

3:05:44 these labels. And then the last point is, it's just a concept that only exists at the conventional level. It's a label that we've created. According to Buddhism, emptiness means things are dependent arising on three different levels. And this is a whole other story, but I'll just throw it out as it relates to this level. So things are a product of causes and conditions. They're dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 3:05:44 Highlight the passage at 3:05:44

3:06:14 By being a product of causes and conditions. That's the grossest level. They're also dependent on parts. That's a more subtle level. They arise depending on causes and conditions. They're dependent on parts. And then at the subtlest level, they're dependent on your conceptual imputation makes them what they are. Report an error in the passage at 3:06:14 Highlight the passage at 3:06:14

3:06:42 The labeling process of your concepts Creates what everything in our reality is. So there is no friend. All there is is a person who says certain words to you. You know, blah, blah, blah. That person makes decibels. You know, their mouth makes noises at you. And if it's something that pleases you, you label that person friend. That's all that's happening, you know. Report an error in the passage at 3:06:42 Highlight the passage at 3:06:42

3:07:18 If we're a little more advanced Dharma practitioners, the person that criticized you, you label friend, guru. You know, the person who says those things that shows you the nature of your ego, grasping. Oh, my best friend, you know. It's just a labeling process. It's created by mind, imputed by mind. So that's the ultimate level of how everything exists to us. Report an error in the passage at 3:07:18 Highlight the passage at 3:07:18

3:07:45 There's some basis out there. Right? There's some colors and shapes, some bases out there that then our mind matches up with some concept in our head. We label that thing and then it looks like it exists out there to us. Okay? And that's what we do with friend. That's what we do with enemy. If our labels were different, if our concepts were different, we wouldn't put that label on that person that makes those noises with their mouth. Report an error in the passage at 3:07:45 Highlight the passage at 3:07:45

3:08:19 That's all that's happening. So it really breaks down this solid partiality. And that's the whole point of this whole first point, equalizing ourselves with others. It's analyzing in all these different ways to help break it down. And you can do this in meditation. And we should do this in meditation. Report an error in the passage at 3:08:19 Highlight the passage at 3:08:19

3:08:39 All nine of these points. To help train our minds to break down that really intense partiality we have that we label all of these people friends. It seems that they're so solidly friend from their own side. We label all of these other people enemy. And we don't see how it's a labeling process, how changeable it is. Report an error in the passage at 3:08:39 Highlight the passage at 3:08:39

3:09:02 You know, all of these things. So it's really important to train our minds like this to just break down that sense of partiality. So are there any points so far about these nine sub-points of the... The Galupa tradition is really into this. You know, we've got these seven points and the second point is the main practice and in the main practice there's five points and there's nine points of the first point. So I'm sorry, this is kind of the way... Report an error in the passage at 3:09:02 Highlight the passage at 3:09:02

3:09:29 It's crazy. It drives me nuts too. So any questions about this nine points so far? Okay. Okay, so then... Oh, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 3:09:29 Highlight the passage at 3:09:29

3:09:48 first talking about everyone having been your friend and everyone having been your enemy, the question that came to my mind was, well, how do you get from friend enemy? But then you that it's merely our label. But does what causes someone to change our label of them to change, is that all karma? Our karma. Our karma. For sure. Definitely. Definitely. Like the causes, Report an error in the passage at 3:09:48 Highlight the passage at 3:09:48

3:10:19 It's a bunch of different things. Part of it is the labeling, but on the grossest level, somebody is nice to us because we were nice to people in some past life. Oh, if it makes us happy. If it makes us happy that people were nice to us, it's a result of our past virtue. If somebody is mean to us and it makes us suffer, it's a result of some past non-virtue. Report an error in the passage at 3:10:19 Highlight the passage at 3:10:19

3:10:47 So for sure, if the way that person acts makes us have a subjective feeling of happiness or unhappiness, you know, there's no way that that's caused by anything other than a past deed that we did. Now, because of our labeling, somebody can act in a certain way towards us that maybe, you know, in the past we would have labeled hurtful, and because of our practice, We now appreciate it and think that it's a great thing. So is that a result of good karma or bad karma? I would say good karma. Report an error in the passage at 3:10:47 Highlight the passage at 3:10:47

3:11:26 Yeah, because if it makes us happy, if we appreciate it, we see it as a positive thing in our life. So that's where the labeling part comes in. And that's where our subjective experience of pleasure, displeasure, is not, you know, the stimulus can change. What makes us happy can completely... Report an error in the passage at 3:11:26 Highlight the passage at 3:11:26

3:11:47 So there's nothing about the stimulus that stays the same, but our subjective feeling of happiness or unhappiness is linked to whether we did virtue or non-virtue. Because the definition of good karma is that which leads to an experience of pleasure in the short term and to liberation in the long term. Report an error in the passage at 3:11:47 Highlight the passage at 3:11:47

3:12:07 So it has to be, you know, that's the definition of a good karmic act. The definition of bad karma is that which... Leads to suffering in the future. So there's no way to get happiness from negativity. And vice versa, there's no way to get suffering from virtue. Report an error in the passage at 3:12:07 Highlight the passage at 3:12:07

3:12:29 But the stimulus that arises, you know, that causes us to feel happiness and suffering can change over time. 20 years ago I used to love to go out to these trendy clubs in San Francisco dancing and stay up all night. Now I can barely stay up past 9.30. Loud noises drive me nuts. To be in a situation like that would be like a hell wrap. And it used to be what I'd pay a lot of money to do for fun. So that's completely changed. Report an error in the passage at 3:12:29 Highlight the passage at 3:12:29

3:12:56 You know, the same thing that I sought after that would give me happiness now would just be the utmost suffering for me. So does that help? Yes, it did. It does. And it seems to me, though, at some point in this practice, that everything would be positive. In other words, even when people maybe are mean to you, perceive them as an enemy and being mean to you, that's an opportunity to practice. Report an error in the passage at 3:12:56 Highlight the passage at 3:12:56

3:13:22 Absolutely. And that's the third point, is transforming adverse circumstances into the past. And you actually go, hey, difficulty, bring it on. You know, and when things, when you're too complacent, I've even gone through this for little blips of time, like when things are going too well, you're like, I must not be doing something right, I need to ramp it up so that, you know, I start to go through it more. Report an error in the passage at 3:13:22 Highlight the passage at 3:13:22

3:13:50 Because you're sort of at this complacent level where people are nice to you and everything's going well, you're just kind of like, what are we doing wrong, you know? Because you can really practice more with adversity and you start wanting... More of it, I mean, not to suffer more, but just to progress more, because you really see that those are incredible opportunities. So for sure you're right, you know, and then no matter what happens, you're like, great, you know, the worst thing can happen, right on. Report an error in the passage at 3:13:50 Highlight the passage at 3:13:50

3:14:19 Opportunity to practice, you know, which is wonderful, because then you don't waste any time. Because as it is the way we are now, is, you know, when it gets really bad. We get derailed and you're too depressed to meditate and you can't help anyone because you're all in this downward spiral of self-absorbed depression. Report an error in the passage at 3:14:19 Highlight the passage at 3:14:19

3:14:39 You waste tremendous amounts of time that way. So that's a big part of this practice is that, like transforming any difficulty into the path for sure. Report an error in the passage at 3:14:39 Highlight the passage at 3:14:39

3:14:51 What about the aspect of being content? Report an error in the passage at 3:14:51 Highlight the passage at 3:14:51

3:14:57 Say more about what your definition of content means. Report an error in the passage at 3:14:57 Highlight the passage at 3:14:57

3:15:06 I'm not sure if I have a definition, but that word has come up in terms of, Report an error in the passage at 3:15:06 Highlight the passage at 3:15:06

3:15:17 well, maybe it's the perspective of being content that no matter what arises is an opportunity to practice, but somehow I think maybe I'm attaching an old definition of what content is, and I'm sort of struck by you saying, well, when things are kind of going along, like, then you're saying, well, hey, like, that's not satisfying because I'm not having opportunities to practice. Report an error in the passage at 3:15:17 Highlight the passage at 3:15:17

3:15:40 But I guess when you said that, I was thinking, oh, but isn't that contentment? So I guess maybe I'm sort of needing to analyze that for myself, what that word means and what that looks like. Isn't it sort of like friend and enemy? The definition of what makes you contented in your life can really change, you know, and more if your goal is to speed along the path as quickly as possible for the benefit of all sorts of beings. Report an error in the passage at 3:15:40 Highlight the passage at 3:15:40

3:16:09 What your life looks like that makes you happy and contented is going to be pretty different than when you were just looking for samsaric happiness and pleasure. You know, Tenzin Palmo, this nun who did retreat for something like 12 years and wrote this book, Cave in the Snow, and she says, even a house cat knows the most comfortable chair in the house to take a nap. Report an error in the passage at 3:16:09 Highlight the passage at 3:16:09

3:16:34 Like, that's a no-brainer. You know, if you're just looking for that level of, like, the most... You know, um, Report an error in the passage at 3:16:34 Highlight the passage at 3:16:34

3:16:39 Physical comfort. She's like, even the cat can tell you what the most comfortable chair in the house. If that's all you want, that's not much. But I think you answered your own question. If your level of contentment is maybe more subtle or all-encompassing or is more about your spiritual practice, then what looks like contentment for somebody who's looking for some sort of comfortable samsaric happiness, It's going to be really different. You know, I was in this yurt, you know, in the 120 degrees, and for me, I completely chose, I could have left at any point, and that was where I wanted to be 100%, even though for so many people it would have been like a hell room, you know, and it wasn't because it was physically comfortable, but it was because I knew it's where I needed to be to go through my process. Report an error in the passage at 3:16:39 Highlight the passage at 3:16:39

3:17:33 So it changes a lot, like what you label as happiness. What you label suffering, what you label contentment, just like any other label, shifts depending on your perspective. Because it's nothing that exists from its own side. It depends on your projection and your perspective completely. Report an error in the passage at 3:17:33 Highlight the passage at 3:17:33

3:17:56 Good question. Very good question. Okay. So, the second point of the equalizing self and others... Reflecting on the disadvantages of the self-cherishing attitude, seeing that it's the source of all unhappiness. And by self-cherishing, what I mean is that shut down, kind of closed down, me first feeling. Report an error in the passage at 3:17:56 Highlight the passage at 3:17:56

3:18:29 And I think we all know when we've gotten into that mindset of like, there's sort of a... There's this flavor of desperation around it, right? Like, I've got to get this to be happy and I've got to avoid that. And it's sort of this slightly kind of desperate, paranoid, you know, if this doesn't happen, I'm going to be so miserable and I'm going to freak out. Report an error in the passage at 3:18:29 Highlight the passage at 3:18:29

3:18:51 And it's really at this shutdown. It's like one of the definitions of, there's a word in Sanskrit, dukkha, which is often translated as suffering. For example, in the Four Noble Truths, the truth of suffering is the way the translation usually is. And it's a translation of this word dukkha. Very interesting, the derivation of this word dukkha, one of the derivations is it means constricted space. Report an error in the passage at 3:18:51 Highlight the passage at 3:18:51

3:19:23 Constricted space. And that's what this self-cherishing feels like. If things don't fit into this little box that you've created, For yourself with your mind, you know, to be happy. Things need to fit into this little box and they need to be exactly like this. Or else you're not going to be happy. In its constricted space, you know, you just completely constrict the infinite potential of your life into this tiny little box. Report an error in the passage at 3:19:23 Highlight the passage at 3:19:23

3:19:51 And if things don't fit into there, you're going to freak out and be miserable and unhappy. And that's what this self-cherishing attitude is all about. It's that constriction that you feel. And even the normal idioms that we have, like, you know, I feel shut down, hard-hearted, you know, I put up a brick wall. Report an error in the passage at 3:19:51 Highlight the passage at 3:19:51

3:20:15 All of these things are exactly what it feels like, viscerally, of just that keep everything out that could threaten my fragile little house of cards, you know, label of what happiness is. Report an error in the passage at 3:20:15 Highlight the passage at 3:20:15

3:20:32 Yeah, I know. Report an error in the passage at 3:20:32 Highlight the passage at 3:20:32

3:20:37 I believe that's what the label of Lama was describing as attachment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because again, it's sort of needing things to be exactly the certain way to fit your label of what happiness for you will be, you know. And what are the chances that things are, you know. We're not in control. What are the chances that things are going to fit into this little narrow box that we've constructed about what our label of happiness is? Report an error in the passage at 3:20:37 Highlight the passage at 3:20:37

3:21:11 That nothing's ever going to be outside of the box. We're just setting ourselves up. No wonder they call it suffering, this constricted space, because we're doing nothing but setting ourselves up for disappointment. It's like that thing we were talking about this morning about expectation and disappointment. Report an error in the passage at 3:21:11 Highlight the passage at 3:21:11

3:21:30 You know, the narrower and more constricted that space is, the more you're setting yourself up to be mightily disappointed. And what happens when you're in a relationship and your partner has this little box that's over here and you have your little box that's over here, how much overlap is there? Is there any? Or is your definition of happiness over here and theirs is over here and it's in conflict or there's no overlap and then, you know, even more, it sort of magnifies. Report an error in the passage at 3:21:30 Highlight the passage at 3:21:30

3:22:00 However many relationships you have, everybody has their little box. And the word that's often translated bliss, sukha, means wide open space. Wide open. Anything, it encompasses everything. And we can relate to that hopelessness we were talking about before. I think that sense of hopelessness is giving up, trying to fit everything into the little narrow box and just breaking it open. Report an error in the passage at 3:22:00 Highlight the passage at 3:22:00

3:22:28 Into that wide open space, that Sukha, mind state. So the disadvantages of self-cherishing, even in the moment, it feels crappy. Even in the short term, in that moment, when you have that little box. That you've formed and you have that paranoia. Oh, we've got to have Thai food tonight. If he wants to go out for Chinese, I've got to have that coconut milk soup or I'm not going to be happy. Report an error in the passage at 3:22:28 Highlight the passage at 3:22:28

3:22:59 You know, or I have to go to that movie at the multiplex and if he wants to go to that one and I need the popcorn with no butter on it. If he wants the one with the butter, I'm going to, you know, just create this narrow little view. And now, what are the chances? of reality fitting into that little box? You know, somebody wants butter on the popcorn, and you don't, and then you have a bite, and then you take a taxi home, and you break up over it. Report an error in the passage at 3:22:59 Highlight the passage at 3:22:59

3:23:24 I mean, this is the nature of reality, isn't So in the short term, it's terrible. Your relationships with others really suffer. The more it's about you and the center of your own universe, unless you're in a relationship with a black belt codependent, chances are that you're not really going to have much fun with your friends. Report an error in the passage at 3:23:24 Highlight the passage at 3:23:24

3:23:50 And then on the last level, kind of more long term, think about karma. Think about the karma that you create. And like I said before, I realized how much suffering I caused for other people. Through just trying to get my own happiness first and how I just bulldozed over other people's feelings without meaning to hurt people. Report an error in the passage at 3:23:50 Highlight the passage at 3:23:50

3:24:15 I wasn't really a terrible person, you know, but I was just trying to find happiness for myself and I created all kinds of negative karma as a result of it by just railroading over other people. So in the immediate subjective experiences, you know, Your relationships with other people suffer, and in the long term, you create a world of negative karma by just blasting through other people's reality, you know, with your own agenda. Report an error in the passage at 3:24:15 Highlight the passage at 3:24:15

3:24:46 And those are some of the disadvantages of self-cherishing. So really meditating on that, and like I keep saying, all the signals that we've got that that's the way to happiness. I am here to tell you that they're completely wrong, you know? Hollywood movies are wrong. The capitalist, materialist, consumer culture that we are inventive has everything completely backwards. Report an error in the passage at 3:24:46 Highlight the passage at 3:24:46

3:25:16 It's all wrong. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is right on. Every Buddhist teacher since Lord Buddha is right on. And that's the way to happiness. Because all you have to do is analyze, you know, so you can see. Report an error in the passage at 3:25:16 Highlight the passage at 3:25:16

3:25:32 So the next point is very similar. The good qualities from cherishing others. And again, you can think of those three points. How it makes you feel in the moment. And I usually give my students homework at this point. Sometimes we do this class over a couple of weeks, you know, on Wednesday night. We meet every Wednesday night. And I tell people, and I'll give you this homework too, before we meet, two weeks or now, keep a little notebook. Report an error in the passage at 3:25:32 Highlight the passage at 3:25:32

3:25:59 Go to the drugstore on the way home. Get a little spiral. And for the next two weeks, when you feel a subjective experience of happiness, write it down. Write down the time, the date, the circumstance, and write down what just happened to make you happy. Write down what it was that made you happy. And the same for suffering, negative feelings, sadness, depression, whatever it is. Report an error in the passage at 3:25:59 Highlight the passage at 3:25:59