The Heart Sutra By Ven Robina 2013 (part 1)

0:16 Okay, Report an error in the passage at 0:16 Highlight the passage at 0:16

0:24 alright. If you Report an error in the passage at 0:24 Highlight the passage at 0:24

0:33 were here today, I should have given you the homework, which is always the same. To see your dreams as dreams, and then when you wake up in the morning, or you'll laugh now, if you wake up in the morning, so if any of you didn't wake up in the morning and you're dead, well I'm sorry, but I hope you're going to a nice human rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 0:33 Highlight the passage at 0:33

0:45 And if we did wake up this morning... We should have woken up and blissed out and thought, oh my God, look, I'm still alive. Of course we didn't think that. Why? Because one of the big mistakes in our mind is to grasp at permanent me. We assume it's correct that I'm alive. But when we understand the main cause of being alive... Report an error in the passage at 0:45 Highlight the passage at 0:45

1:03 It's an accumulation of our past morality karma. Then we'll be blissing out that our petrol tank hasn't run out yet. Basically it's that. So we should have been delighted because the meter doesn't work, you see. We don't have clear voice. We don't know how much petrol is in the tank. This is a fact, right? So let's think it now. Report an error in the passage at 1:03 Highlight the passage at 1:03

1:21 Let's think. Amazing. I'm not dead yet. My petrol tanker morality, the accumulation of all the hard work I've done in the past, this is the main cause. I'm still alive. The main cause. Not my youth, not my health, not my good fortune, my past morality, accumulation of countless virtuous karmic seeds manifest as my health and my livingness, my breath still continuing to go in and out. Report an error in the passage at 1:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21

1:49 So we think, okay, so what? So I'm still alive. What then? Well, I'm going to make the most of this life, not just tip it down the toilet, you know? Wasted by just following attachment. I'm going to listen to these teachings to see Buddha's views of the universe, especially this amazing, marvellous view, the fundamental one, the basis of all his views, this view of no self-existence, this view of no self, this view of emptiness, so that I can really continue to apply it to my life so I can let go of grasping, let go of fears, let go of nonsense, stop harming others and develop my amazing, marvellous, astonishing potential. Report an error in the passage at 1:49 Highlight the passage at 1:49

2:24 And why even that? Not only for my sake, but for the sake of every other single sentient being, because we all live in this madhouse together. And if I don't help the others, who will? It's my job. So I think for this reason we sit here now. How fantastic. Report an error in the passage at 2:24 Highlight the passage at 2:24

2:44 Sange chadang chokye choknam la jangso badu dagni kiapsuchi dagi chanyen gipe sonam ki dro la penchir sangge drobpa shok Report an error in the passage at 2:44 Highlight the passage at 2:44

3:01 chadang chokye choknam la jangso badu dagni kiapsuchi dagi chanyen gipe sonam ki dro la penchir Saṅghi sangge Dhrumpa Shauk. Report an error in the passage at 3:01 Highlight the passage at 3:01

3:18 Shantideva, Shantideva, Shantideva, Shantideva, Shantideva, Da gi chon yen gi pa sonam ki Jho la penchir sange droppa sho So Report an error in the passage at 3:18 Highlight the passage at 3:18

3:35 let's read the Ha Sūtra, okay? Read together. Page 5. Report an error in the passage at 3:35 Highlight the passage at 3:35

3:49 So we imagine that we're sitting there on Valter Peak. So if you've been there, you know what it's like. This little tiny... Pocket handkerchief sized little peak on a hill, you know, with a little fence around it. You know, you can hardly fit many people in it. And then you read that there are a great host of monks and a great community of bodhisattvas there. Report an error in the passage at 3:49 Highlight the passage at 3:49

4:06 I remember asking Geshe Dagpa, our Lama in San Francisco centre, where'd they all fit? Where'd they all sit, I said. He said, oh, in the sky. So we can visualise all the holy beings blissing out in the sky. And we're sitting there, and Lord Buddha's sitting there in his yellow robes. In complete samādhi. And then there's Shariputra and Avalokitesvara. But it seems that Avalokitesvara, Buddha of compassion, actually he's in the form of a human, like 10th level bodhisattva, it seems. Report an error in the passage at 4:06 Highlight the passage at 4:06

4:33 And then Shariputra, they're sitting there. And basically they're having a conversation. But what's happening is, and we'll discuss it later, basically they're channeling Buddha, you know. They're channeling Buddha and having this conversation. There are many of the teachings of sutras like this where the disciple speaks, but actually it's the Lord Buddha's kind of inspiration that causes the word. Report an error in the passage at 4:33 Highlight the passage at 4:33

4:51 So it's in fact Buddha's teaching like this one, but it's been said by this conversation, Avala Kitasvara and Shariputra having a conversation. So we imagine all that and we're sitting there and we join in. So thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavan was dwelling on massive vultures mountain in Rajagiya together with a great community of monks and a great community of bodhisattvas. At that time the Bhagavan was absorbed in the concentration on the categories of phenomena called profound perception. Report an error in the passage at 4:51 Highlight the passage at 4:51

5:21 Also at that time the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Awalakitasvara looked upon the very practice of the profound perfection of wisdom and beheld those five aggregates also as empty inherent nature. Then through the power of Buddha, the Venerable Shariputra said this to the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokitesvara, How should any son of the lineage train who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom? Report an error in the passage at 5:21 Highlight the passage at 5:21

5:45 He said that and the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Arya Avalokitesvara said this to the Venerable Sharadvati Putra, Shariputra, any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom should look upon it like this, correctly and repeatedly beholding those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature. Report an error in the passage at 5:45 Highlight the passage at 5:45

6:07 Form is empty, emptiness is form, emptiness is not other than form, form is also not other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors and consciousness are empty. Sharaputra, likewise, all phenomena are emptiness, without characteristic, unproduced, unceased, stainless, not without stain, not deficient, not fulfilled. Report an error in the passage at 6:07 Highlight the passage at 6:07

6:32 Sharaputra, therefore, in emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no discrimination, no compositional factors, no consciousness, no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no visual form, no sound, no odour, no taste, no objective touch and no phenomenon. There is no I element and so on, up to and including no mind element and no mental consciousness element. There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance and so on, up to and including no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death. Report an error in the passage at 6:32 Highlight the passage at 6:32

7:02 Similarly, there is no suffering, origination, cessation and path. There is no exalted wisdom, no attainment and also no non-attainment. Shaiputta, therefore, because there is no attainment, bodhisattvas rely on and dwell in the perfection of wisdom, the mind without obscuration and without fear. Report an error in the passage at 7:02 Highlight the passage at 7:02

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

7:26 All the Buddhas who dwell in the three times also manifestly completely awaken to unsurpassable perfect complete enlightenment in reliance on the perfection of wisdom. Therefore the mantra of the perfection of wisdom, the mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra equal to the unequaled, the mantra that thoroughly pacifies all suffering should be known as truth since it is not false. Report an error in the passage at 7:26 Highlight the passage at 7:26

7:49 The mantra of the perfection of wisdom is declared. TA TA OM GATE GATE PARA GATE PARA SAMGATE BODY SOHA. Sariputra, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva, should train in the profound perfection of wisdom, like that. Then the Bhagavan arose from that concentration and commended the Bodhisattva Mahasattva, Arya Avalokitesvara, saying, Well said, well said, son of the lineage, it is like that, it is like that. Report an error in the passage at 7:49 Highlight the passage at 7:49

8:14 One should practice the profound perfection of wisdom, just as you have indicated, even the Tathagatas rejoice. The Bhagavan having thus spoken, the Venerable Sharad Vatiputra, the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Arya, Avalokiteshvara, those surrounding in their entirety along with the world of gods, humans, asuras and Gandavas were overjoyed and highly praised that spoken by the Bhagavan. Report an error in the passage at 8:14 Highlight the passage at 8:14

8:38 So if you go to the next little bit by Geshe Jampa Tekchok, who was the abbot for many years at Saraje Monastery, he was my first philosophy teacher. He just explains briefly the setting and the structure. So as we see, the prologue is called a basis for discussion. They always call it like that. As we've got there in the actual sūtra, you see the first part is the common prologue, or he calls it the basis for discussion, meaning the background or setting of the sūtra. Report an error in the passage at 8:38 Highlight the passage at 8:38

9:09 So that's this first little bit, thus did I hear it one time, telling us what and where and how, sort of who and where. Then there's a special prologue, as we see on page five. At that time, the Bhagavan was absorbed in the concentration. And then there's the, then the next, if you see on page five, the next heading, Buddha blesses the minds of Shaipucha. And that's what's happening here. The prologue to the sūtra begins with, thus have I heard. Report an error in the passage at 9:09 Highlight the passage at 9:09

9:32 And then the common prologue describes how the Buddha was sitting, blah, blah, blah. And then the special prologue. And then, see, meanwhile, the bodhisattva great Abulakidesvara was contemplating the profound, he was sitting there contemplating wisdom, contemplating emptiness. And he came to see, this is Abulakidesvara. Report an error in the passage at 9:32 Highlight the passage at 9:32

9:48 So, okay, back a bit. The special prologue that he was absorbed in concentration called profound appearance means the Buddha was himself reflecting on meditating on emptiness. And then this is the bottom of the column on page 7. Meanwhile, the Bodhisattva, the great being, Abulakitasvara, and I think I said in Holiness' teachings it says that he's in the aspect of human in the 10th level Bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 9:48 Highlight the passage at 9:48

10:11 He came to see that he was in meditation as well. And he came to see that the five aggregates were empty of any inherent nature of their own. So the Buddha meditates on emptiness and throughout most of the rest of the sūtra, starting from through the power of the Buddha, the Buddha blesses and causes a change to occur. Report an error in the passage at 10:11 Highlight the passage at 10:11

10:31 I'm sorry, I missed out something in there. I left the quote out. Forgive me. Starting from, yeah, where it says, I'm sorry, you'll see it. If you look at the actual sūtra, starting from. Report an error in the passage at 10:31 Highlight the passage at 10:31

10:46 Also at that time, I think it's there. So then, through the power of the Buddha, basically, the Buddha, he blesses and causes a change to occur in the mental continuum of two of his disciples. He blesses their minds so that they, so that then Shari Pooch asks a question and then the rest of it is Abedakita Tsavara's answer. You got the idea? Report an error in the passage at 10:46 Highlight the passage at 10:46

11:07 Roughly? Yes? I'll say it too fast and too confusedly. Alright. Is Ron here? Where's Ron? Not here today? Okay, fine. Okay, so basically that's what's going on, all right? You've got the idea. Buddha's sitting there, he's in meditation. Abulakitasara, he's in meditation and then Buddha zaps their minds and they have a conversation. Shaipucha asks the question and the rest of it, the answer is all Abulakitasvara. But in fact, it's said to be Buddha's words coming through Abulakitasvara's mind. Report an error in the passage at 11:07 Highlight the passage at 11:07

11:40 That's how they say. So they're real kind of spacey. All right, so the whole thing is really, you see it, what it is. If you go through all that list of stuff, all that he's doing, all that's happening here, if you see, he starts saying the five aggregates, form. Form is the first of the five aggregates. I'll explain that. Then the rest of it, and I've separated each grouping, it's basically saying each of these groups of... Report an error in the passage at 11:40 Highlight the passage at 11:40

12:10 Basically the way Buddhism divides up the universe into the various categories of phenomena. That's all. This is the Buddhist model of the world, quite different from our materialist model. They talk about we've got the five aggregates. Then you've got the five senses. You see no eye, no ear. Then you have the five objects of the five senses. And then you have what they call the subtle sense powers. Report an error in the passage at 12:10 Highlight the passage at 12:10

12:32 We don't talk about that. The next lot is those five. Then there's no... There's no twelve links, no ignorance and up to no ending and death. There's no twelve links. Then there's no four noble truths. There's no suffering origination. Then there's no wisdom, which is the result of all this. Report an error in the passage at 12:32 Highlight the passage at 12:32

12:47 So basically he's discussing these groups of phenomena, breaking down the world into its different groups of phenomena. Are you with me? And all he's saying is that we have to like, just in this also, this word here, it says there is no, where is it? Report an error in the passage at 12:47 Highlight the passage at 12:47

13:06 Five aggregates also, the very top of page five. Correctly, you see, okay, Shariputra, any son of the lineage, down the bottom of page five, or daughter of the lineage who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom, and all that refers to is emptiness, understanding emptiness, should look upon it like this, correctly and repeatedly. Report an error in the passage at 13:06 Highlight the passage at 13:06

13:28 Correctly and repeatedly. This is an interesting point. Correctly and repeatedly beholding those five aggregates also. All it means is that everything else is well. The also is apparently crucial in there, His Holiness says. Sometimes, I mean the version I memorize doesn't have the also in it, so it's interesting. Also, that's important. Report an error in the passage at 13:28 Highlight the passage at 13:28

13:47 Everything that does exist is what Buddha is saying. Everything that does exist, everything that does exist is necessarily empty of inherent existence. And we have to repeat correctly and repeatedly contemplate this. So this is something interesting because, you know, We can see that when we think of meditation, we instantly think sitting quietly with no thoughts. This is the commonest, the most cliched view of meditation, I think. Report an error in the passage at 13:47 Highlight the passage at 13:47

14:15 And it's very deep in us. The millisecond we say meditation, we think that. And then as soon as we hear this strange phrase in, say, what we hear in the Tibetan Buddhist one, which is the tradition coming from the great monastic university system in Nalanda in India, back in the 7th century, you know. Report an error in the passage at 14:15 Highlight the passage at 14:15

14:32 We track all our... Lineage is back there to the great Mahāyāna masters, Shantideva and so on. When we hear this term analytical meditation, we get very confused. And then we get, oh, and that sounds so complex. Analytical meditation. God, what's that? Well, I don't want to disappoint you here, but the better way to translate, that's a medieval phrase, okay, is how they talk in Tibetan. Report an error in the passage at 14:32 Highlight the passage at 14:32

14:54 How we would say it in English is, guess what? You'll laugh here. It means to think about it. Can you hear me? Now, we all know about thinking. We're brilliant, aren't we? But as soon as we say meditate, we go, oh, what's that? Are you hearing me, people? It literally means to think about it. That's what analytical meditation is, which sounds so surprising to us because we're so addicted to the view that meditation is sort of spacing out. Or we're addicted to the idea that it's mindfulness only. Report an error in the passage at 14:54 Highlight the passage at 14:54

15:22 We're really not understanding Buddhist picture if we think this, you know. Or anybody in the world who uses the word meditation who's not Buddhist. There's this very strong idea that some kind of special inner thing and special things occur. I know you understand what I'm saying. We mightn't be that clichéd. But it's very deep inside us. But if we really understand, this is what I was trying to point out yesterday, that this whole approach that's in the tradition of the Tibetan monastic system, which is where all our lamas come from, our teachers, tracking itself back to the great Mahāyāna masters in India in the 7th century in the Nalanda tradition, you know, that... Report an error in the passage at 15:22 Highlight the passage at 15:22

15:58 That there are many, these different approaches, there are different ways of basically internalizing Buddha's view of the universe. Because as a Buddhist, simply speaking, that's what you're trying to do. That's what you're trying to do. And I really say this all the time, but I really mean it to try and just get it on the earth. Report an error in the passage at 15:58 Highlight the passage at 15:58

16:18 You know very well, and we are geniuses at it in our culture, that when you want to learn music, you have to learn the theories first, don't you? If you want to learn classical music. You've got to learn the theories, which is really intellectually extremely complex. Ron talks about how emptiness is difficult. Report an error in the passage at 16:18 Highlight the passage at 16:18

16:35 Excuse me. Music, mathematics are highly sophisticated intellectual concepts. Would you not agree with this? And we happily learn it. We happily know we've got the potential. We study intensively for 10, 20, 30 years with enthusiasm and eagerness until we've conquered it and then we can play the piano. We understand this and we're brilliant at it. Report an error in the passage at 16:35 Highlight the passage at 16:35

16:54 Now look at how we think when we think emptiness or think Buddhist teachings. We get all caught up and all confused and then we might say, well I don't want us intellectual, I want to meditate, I want to practice, I don't want intellectual. We hear all this and we get completely confused about what we're trying to do. But if, you know, you can practice a small amount of Buddhism, you can merely do mindfulness meditation, you can merely watch your breath, you can merely do mantras, you can merely do prostrations, you can choose, you are the boss. Report an error in the passage at 16:54 Highlight the passage at 16:54

17:20 You can decide. But the Buddhist picture, if you take it in this tradition in the great monastic universities, which is the system we're using, the one that we're coming from, you're learning the entire world view of Buddha, the Buddhist world view. It's a view of the universe, basically. If it isn't, then it's just a partial bunch of weird, wacko things. It has to be a view of the universe. And it's based utterly in the view of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 17:20 Highlight the passage at 17:20

17:45 Utterly in that view. That is the basis of all Buddha's teachings. It's assumed, it's implicit in every single teaching of the Buddha because everything of the Buddha's comes to that point of emptiness. When we can get this, it has to mean we have to understand what a human is, which means we have to understand what a mind is. And if it's empty, it can't have come from a creator. Report an error in the passage at 17:45 Highlight the passage at 17:45

18:05 It cannot have come from your parents. You cannot be physical. It's all a joke. If we follow through the meaning of emptiness, it has to come down to mind, being not physical and being beginningless. It has to come to that. So we've got to understand that the Buddhist view is an entire world view. And of course you don't have to look into it all. Maybe you think it's all boring and exhausting. You'd rather just watch your breath. Please, do anything you like. You're the boss, I keep saying. But it is that. Report an error in the passage at 18:05 Highlight the passage at 18:05

18:29 It's a big world view. So if you're taking it from that perspective, then what you're doing is listening, like you do with music, the theories. Then you squeeze your brain and think about them and slowly you know yourself that the thinking process, whether it's maths, cooking, music, the thinking process, which is initially intellectual, gradually becomes experiential, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 18:29 Highlight the passage at 18:29

18:53 We don't ever talk about it this way. We don't call it that. We don't say you're sitting down with concentration and doing some analysis and that will eventually trigger an insight. We don't use those words, do we? But then we mystify those when we hear them. But that's what's happening. You've got the theory. Just your maths. You learn that one-on-one is two. Oh, mummy, that's so difficult. Report an error in the passage at 18:53 Highlight the passage at 18:53

19:14 Oh, dear, I can't understand that. It's all right, darling. Go do your homework. Go do some concentration. Get some focus. Go to the second mode of meditation. Do some analysis and you'll get an insight, sweetheart, I promise. That's what she said to you. And guess what? You did. You work it through. You use your pencil. You're working out what's one plus this, that. You've got to have the right contents. Report an error in the passage at 19:14 Highlight the passage at 19:14

19:32 You've got to have the right words first, don't you? Okay, this is a good point. You've got to have the right words first, don't you? You can't go home and do homework if you've got one plus one equals three. You'll be there till you're 97. You'll never get the answer because you've got the wrong facts. You're with my point here. So you've got to have the right words. You've got to be right theoretically. You've got to be because you can't think it through and get a realisation, the answer, which is two, if you haven't. Report an error in the passage at 19:32 Highlight the passage at 19:32

19:56 The same here. If you do not know the words about emptiness, if you do not know the words about karma, if you do not know the words about... And impermanence and all of other Buddha's views. How in the name of God in heaven, excuse me, can you internalize it and get a realization of it? I mean, it's beyond ridiculous. Report an error in the passage at 19:56 Highlight the passage at 19:56

20:14 So don't think of it as just intellectual. That's really a naive mistake, you know. Okay, we mightn't all be intellectuals. But even that is a confusion. I remember one woman in Kopan, and we're discussing these things. And she said, look, I'm not an intellectual type. She said, I'm more kinetic, I'm more emotional, I'm more intuitive. Report an error in the passage at 20:14 Highlight the passage at 20:14

20:34 I don't find this approach helpful. I said, what's your profession? She said, I'm a graphic designer. I said, you studied it? She said, yeah. I said, you use a computer? She said, yes. So if you think about it, to study even just graphic design, what is it? You don't study feelings. You study millimetres, inches, logic, how you use things in space. Report an error in the passage at 20:34 Highlight the passage at 20:34

20:57 You have to have intellectual understanding. You have to have technical understanding of a computer. Do you understand what I'm saying here? You have to be a highly technical, intellectual, technological mind. In order to express your art. So excuse me, it's wrong to even say that. It's just intellectual laziness to say, oh that's intellectual, I'm not that kind of person. Report an error in the passage at 20:57 Highlight the passage at 20:57

21:16 We are all very intellectual, we live our heads in our intellect. What do you think all the attachment anger thoughts are? Highly sophisticated conceptual stories that we've created, we're really clever. Report an error in the passage at 21:16 Highlight the passage at 21:16

21:28 You're being a super intellectual every day, working out what he said and what he did and how he said that and he shouldn't have said that and if only he'd done this and she said this and because of this, therefore this and therefore that's not fair, poor me. We have highly intellectual every single day. Elaborations, elaborations every day and they're all lies. So look at the energy we put into lying intellectual thought. Report an error in the passage at 21:28 Highlight the passage at 21:28

21:48 How about putting some energy into what we're calling Buddha's view because we've chosen to, his accurate thoughts. And why it's so hard? Because our mind is addicted to the wrong thoughts. We're sinking to that with great inertia and totally believing in all our wrong conceptual elaborations. So don't ever say you're not intellectual. I'm sorry. It's just lying. It's just laziness. Okay, different times of our lives we need different approaches. Report an error in the passage at 21:48 Highlight the passage at 21:48

22:15 Sometimes you've got to tell your head to shut up and just get on with it, you know. You've got to know at different times. There's all these different tools. But in the long term, over life after life, you can't avoid any of the steps. Report an error in the passage at 22:15 Highlight the passage at 22:15

22:27 And in the end, you've got to have the words because that is the action of the Buddha. The main action of the Buddha, like I said yesterday in the meditation, is the power of speech. And what do you think speech is? An expression of thoughts, concepts, intellect. We've got to have that. If you want to help one human being, you need to have words. Report an error in the passage at 22:27 Highlight the passage at 22:27

22:49 And words are thoughts and they've got to be accurate thoughts, otherwise you will harm them. And that's how we spend 95 % of our thoughts. Rubbish and vomiting out the mouth. Report an error in the passage at 22:49 Highlight the passage at 22:49

22:58 So we need to know the word, do not think it's merely, it is merely intellectual if you leave it there. Just like learning theory of cakes is merely intellectual. If you only know the recipes but never make a cake, you'd be seen as an idiot if you did that. But you can't avoid intellectual because it's thoughts and we all live in thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 22:58 Highlight the passage at 22:58

23:17 All Buddha used to do is use our thoughts to get beyond the rubbish of the intellectual collaborations. You're using it. Of course there are many approaches. The Dharma of the world, we see the different traditions and what's more emphasised here and what's more emphasised there. And you see, the thing is you can't just see it in terms of one life. Report an error in the passage at 23:17 Highlight the passage at 23:17

23:35 Maybe there's a great yogi in Burma meditating on emptiness, but 47 lives ago they've done all this work and now they're ready to go and meditate on it. So don't just think it's one life. That's naive too. If you, like one of my friends for example, you know, Most of the people I know, including me, who have met our teachers and listened to the Dharma, you know, 20, 30, whatever years, 99 % of us aren't in the caves meditating. Most of us are doing our jobs, working, creating virtue and morality, helping others and doing that kind of thing, because we're not ready to meditate. Report an error in the passage at 23:35 Highlight the passage at 23:35

24:08 We're not ready to go seriously into a single point of concentration and get realizations, which is finally the point. So you've got to create merit to do that, purify our minds. But some of my friends, one of them, René, venerable René, the Swiss monk, he went straight to meditation. Obviously he has the merit to do it. How marvellous. Different people in different countries, different times, different spaces, coming from different places, bringing what you bring you from your past life into where you're at this life. Report an error in the passage at 24:08 Highlight the passage at 24:08

24:30 So each of us, in the long term, you can't avoid any steps. You can't. And it's naive and ignorant to think that it's all beyond words and just to sit there saying the words is intellectual and blah, blah, blah. But at the same time, like I said, I'm editing this book of Lama Yesh, it's on Mahamudra. Report an error in the passage at 24:30 Highlight the passage at 24:30

24:47 Which is to meditate on the emptiness of your mind, the ultimate nature of your mind, the subtlest meditation, which is high, like Tsogchen. But we kind of think, oh that's better, I prefer that, oh that's a more advanced meditation, I'd rather do Tsogchen, just sit there and watch my mind, you know. Report an error in the passage at 24:47 Highlight the passage at 24:47

25:02 But if you don't know what your mind is, and you haven't got a clue how to help people with it, you stumble along. I remember one Tsogchen Lama for years and years teaching Tsogchen to his disciples, and then eventually Western ones, and then he said, finally, you know, I've got to start at the beginning again with you people. Report an error in the passage at 25:02 Highlight the passage at 25:02

25:15 He began teaching refuge, karma, blah, blah, blah, you know. So we've got to see it all in context, understand what we're trying to do, when and why and how. Otherwise, really naive, the misconception we have of spiritual, so wrong, you know. Report an error in the passage at 25:15 Highlight the passage at 25:15

25:37 All right, so these words. All right, so let's just start with, let's just go through these few little groupings and then we'll talk about the five aggregates because it's helpful. But in the end, the point is emptiness. But we'll discuss both these groupings, which is, you know, that's just what Buddha divides the world into. But the point is emptiness. The point of all of it is emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 25:37 Highlight the passage at 25:37

26:02 You know, these words aren't meant to be mysterious. All he's doing is laying out the different groupings of what exists on this earth, in the universe. So the aggregates are interesting. Let's just start with that one. So there's form. But Buddha, for some reason, has decided to divide up. The components both of the impermanent universe and of an individual. You can talk about the five aggregates of the entire world. Report an error in the passage at 26:02 Highlight the passage at 26:02

26:29 It's a way of dividing the entire impermanent universe or individual aggregates. Either way, same. So, he divides into five. So let's just use the person, personal aggregates, one's own aggregates. This term, Buddha used it, you know, so we quote, we use the term. It's not what we say in our daily life. It just means little heaps of things, groupings. Report an error in the passage at 26:29 Highlight the passage at 26:29

26:52 It's groups, that's all he divided. He broke us up into five bits, basically. And there's interesting logic to why. So let's look at this. Well, the first one is form. All it means is matter. So the crucial thing here is we have to understand if you think of the impermanent world, you basically divide it into three categories. The three... Report an error in the passage at 26:52 Highlight the passage at 26:52

27:09 Categories of phenomena in the impermanent universe, in the universe as we know it. Well, as we don't know it, but the universe. That is to say, the stuff that's matter or material and the tantric teachings, which I find it much in a way simpler, which I referred to yesterday, the physical world is made of the four elements. Report an error in the passage at 27:09 Highlight the passage at 27:09

27:26 And this is how they talk about it. They talk about the four elements, okay? The four elements. So the physical world is made of the four elements. Earth, air, fire, water. And this too is beginningless. It can't start somewhere. As His Holiness said in one of these many meetings he has with these scientists, Big Bang, yeah, no problem. Just not the first Big Bang, that's all. Report an error in the passage at 27:26 Highlight the passage at 27:26

27:47 And this is a shocking idea to us, already to get our head around this idea that something is beginningless. It seems beyond bizarre because we are very addicted, irrationally, Buddha says, to the belief that there has to be a beginning. One of the commonest questions we all ask, well, where do delusions begin? Report an error in the passage at 27:47 Highlight the passage at 27:47

27:45 You know? Because... Report an error in the passage at 27:45 Highlight the passage at 27:45

28:06 We have this strong, powerful belief in this idea. Buddha says, what a funny idea. What do you want a beginning for? It seems nutty to us. Report an error in the passage at 28:06 Highlight the passage at 28:06

28:16 But if we think through the concept, just the principle, the concept of cause and effect, which is the law, the Buddha says is a natural law, that runs the universe. And of course, he is dealing with the law of cause and effect in relation to behavior, minds, people, sentient beings, not whether you're good at football. Report an error in the passage at 28:16 Highlight the passage at 28:16

28:36 But that's the same, the same logic, cause and effect. And how we make things, we all know, cause and effect. Many things come together, you get a clock. You put a seed in the ground, you give it water, soil and blah, you get a flower. Hardly surprising. We know this is cause and effect. We don't use that term maybe, but this is obvious. Buddha's dealing with cause and effect, as we know, of the mind and of experiences, behavior, his deal, that's his expertise. Report an error in the passage at 28:36 Highlight the passage at 28:36

29:01 People, sentient beings, you know, why we suffer and why we're happy. That's what he deals with. So he says it's a natural law. He calls it karma. We know that. The law of karma. It's just the way we use the term colloquially. And that it's a natural law. No one has to make it. No one's made it up. He didn't have it revealed to him. He didn't invent it. He's not speculating. You know, he's observed it. And the same with the four elements. Same with the universe. Report an error in the passage at 29:01 Highlight the passage at 29:01

29:25 The physical world. The four elements. So we've got matter. One of the three categories of impermanent phenomena. And it's called here form. Report an error in the passage at 29:25 Highlight the passage at 29:25

29:39 The four elements, the gross and in the, yeah okay, the four elements. Then you've got mind or consciousness, these words broadly we can use them synonymously, mind or consciousness, which as we know from Buddha's view is not physical, not physical, not physical and we can't think of anything that isn't physical besides say, you know we can think of say, Never mind that. Okay, we don't posit that in the materialist world, do we? We say there's only the brain, the DNA, the genes and blah, blah, blah, you know? But the Buddha would say there's form or the physical. Report an error in the passage at 29:39 Highlight the passage at 29:39

30:09 Then there's mind, which is not physical. And then there's another category, a little kind of grab bag of all the leftover bits that are neither mind nor matter. And that would be something like time, for example, isn't it? Time does exist. We call past, present, future. But it's not matter and it's not mind. Can you hear that point? Report an error in the passage at 30:09 Highlight the passage at 30:09

30:26 So there's lots of bits and pieces like that. If you posit anything in the universe, you can work out, is it matter, is it mind or is it not neither? You can see, it's pretty easy. And they tend to, well, it depends on what definition of space you're using. Which one? What's this space you're talking about? Yeah, that's, you know, I don't even want to go there. That's complicated. That brings up things that are permanent. Report an error in the passage at 30:26 Highlight the passage at 30:26

30:50 And for me, the only reason they have that is to help us get to emptiness. And frankly, I don't find it helpful. Forgive me. It is helpful. I don't want to go there now. That is a different phenomenon, different discussion. It's an abstract idea and that's not an impermanent thing. So we forget that for now. So effectively the world as we know it, the universe, matter or form. Report an error in the passage at 30:50 Highlight the passage at 30:50

31:14 Then you've got consciousness and one, two, three of these five are belonging to consciousness, are mental. Three are mental. And then the other one, compositional factors. Compositional factors. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 31:14 Highlight the passage at 31:14

31:31 It's just one of the many terms used for this grab bag of third stuff. Things that are composed of parts, which is an impermanent phenomenon, is a product of cause and effect. There's many terms for an impermanent phenomenon. And there's all bits and pieces in there, including, for some reason, I don't know why they do this. I'm very curious. Report an error in the passage at 31:31 Highlight the passage at 31:31

31:53 It's not quite the same here. No, it's different. No, it's different. I'm sorry, I just confused you. Report an error in the passage at 31:53 Highlight the passage at 31:53

32:00 Okay, I'll say it another way. And it's true to say in general when you study all the nuts and bolts of how the world is constructed in Buddhist terms, you've got three categories of impermanent phenomena. You have stuff that's physical, you have stuff that's mental and you have all the other stuff. And that's generally known as non-associated compounded phenomena or compositional, compounded or composed. Report an error in the passage at 32:00 Highlight the passage at 32:00

32:23 Okay, there are many synonyms for that which is impermanent. Impermanent phenomenon, a produced phenomenon, a compounded phenomenon. Compounded means made of many bits, right? Or composed, compositional or compounded, same meaning. You understand? Made of many bits. Produced, it's produced by things, could cause an effect and it's impermanent, changing from moment to moment. Report an error in the passage at 32:23 Highlight the passage at 32:23

32:45 They're different synonyms for an impermanent phenomenon. So this third, this grab bag of leftover bits in that category of three. It's made up of all the bits that are neither mind nor matter. But here in the five aggregates it's different. This little grab bag, this compositional factors, is a little bag in which you'd put all the other bits and pieces that are neither form nor mind, but also all the other bits and pieces that are called mind, that aren't included in the first three. Report an error in the passage at 32:45 Highlight the passage at 32:45

33:13 Okay, I'll explain. It's not complicated. It's just like anything. You've got to squeeze your brain to listen to it. Report an error in the passage at 33:13 Highlight the passage at 33:13

33:21 In the Tibetan monastic system, which is coming from the Indian one, there's lots and lots of texts that they use that are including coming from the Therabadan tradition because they're the texts that they use. So there's one text that's coming from the Satantraga. There are various schools of thought in the Buddhist teachings. In the Therabadan teachings as we know them in the world, this is one of the remaining sub-schools of that approach to Buddhist teachings. Report an error in the passage at 33:21 Highlight the passage at 33:21

33:44 There's different tenets of Buddhism that have developed over the centuries. And the text that's used to understand the mind is called, we use in Tibetan the term, lo rig, mind and awareness. Mind and awareness. Lo is mind, rig, awareness. Again, there are different words used to refer to mind, mind and awareness. And there's two parts to this text. Report an error in the passage at 33:44 Highlight the passage at 33:44

34:07 There's what they call the epistemological model of the mind, which is utterly fascinating, the Buddhist view of how the mind functions, how it works, the way it functions, you know, how it works. It's totally fascinating. We might go into it. We'll see. Then the other one is the psychological model, the feelings, the emotions, the thoughts, all the different bits and pieces of our mind. Report an error in the passage at 34:07 Highlight the passage at 34:07

34:29 Okay? You with me? So, in that second part, the psychological model, it's divided up into 51 mental factors. The mind is divided up into 51 or as we'd say states of mind. There are in fact thousands but this 51 are chosen specifically because they relate in particular to our ability to learn to go meditate which is the point of it. Report an error in the passage at 34:29 Highlight the passage at 34:29

34:55 So there's groupings of states of mind in there. Are you with me so far? So the 51 are divided into different groups. One group is called the always present mental factors, the ones that are there every second of every moment of our experiences. And if anyone's missing, you're going nuts. And we're not talking the brain here, okay? We're talking your mind. Report an error in the passage at 34:55 Highlight the passage at 34:55

35:17 That's why these words are so confusing to us because we know the word love, compassion, depression. So we kind of then extrapolate and start using the materialist model or the chemicals and all this. We're not discussing the physical at all period. We are discussing mental states. This is why Buddha's view, even though the word sounds similar, it's profoundly different. Report an error in the passage at 35:17 Highlight the passage at 35:17

35:36 You've got to understand this if you're really trying to be Buddhist. So the five always present mental factors. There's another group called the six root delusions. There's another group called the twenty secondary delusions. There's another group called the eleven something and the twelve something else. Report an error in the passage at 35:36 Highlight the passage at 35:36

35:48 You understand? Whatever. The groupings, okay? So, in the five always present mental factors, one is intention, which is actually the meaning of karma. One is intention. Intention to do something. Is the meaning of the word karma. When the mind engages in the thought to do something, that's the process of creating karma. That's the beginning of the process of creating karma. Report an error in the passage at 35:48 Highlight the passage at 35:48

36:12 Intention. You might as well call karma intention. Volition, will, intention. Without that, the body does things, but your mind ain't, therefore no karma. You can't say there is. Then attention, where you pay focused attention to it. Then there's contact, where you actually engage in the object. Then there's feeling and discrimination. Report an error in the passage at 36:12 Highlight the passage at 36:12

36:33 Attention, intention. I think that's right. Does anyone know the five? Have I made a mistake, someone? Excuse me if I have. So keep it open until you've checked it. But what I'm getting at here is this. Two of those, feeling and discrimination, Buddha has plucked them out and put them down as major categories in the five aggregates. Can you see? Report an error in the passage at 36:33 Highlight the passage at 36:33

36:53 Form, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors and consciousness. So, okay. The five aggregates. So he's got form which is your physical bits. Then he's taken two of these 51 mental factors, specifically two of the always present mental factors and put them down as major categories. Do you understand what I'm saying here? Because, specifically because of their massive role in attachment and therefore the necessity. Report an error in the passage at 36:53 Highlight the passage at 36:53

37:25 To understand them and their massive role discrimination in our ability to make choices and decisions. And then the next one, this compositional factors is the grab bag of all the other bits of impermanent phenomena that are neither form nor mind, but also all the other mental factors. The other 49 are in this grab bag as well. You with me? You with me? Just technically. Report an error in the passage at 37:25 Highlight the passage at 37:25

37:47 And the fifth one gets confusing. It's now called consciousness. We think, well, we just thought we talked about consciousness. But here they're referring to what they refer to as primary consciousness. So one way they divide the mind, and I never talk about this because I just find it confusing. It's not experientially practical in talking about the mind day to day, in my opinion. Report an error in the passage at 37:47 Highlight the passage at 37:47

38:08 When we study it in more depth, of course we have to understand it. But if we think of our mind, we say they divide the mental consciousness. Okay, there's two ways you can divide your mind. Broadly speaking, into sensory and mental. And this is already an amazing thing to understand. It really helps us see how we make up stories. Report an error in the passage at 38:08 Highlight the passage at 38:08

38:28 Sensory and mental. I'll go to the sensory in a moment, okay, when we go to the sense business down there. But the mental is what we're concerned with here, okay. Mental consciousness is made up of two bits. Report an error in the passage at 38:28 Highlight the passage at 38:28

38:40 Primary consciousness or the main consciousness or mind, they call it, primary mind. And this is, you know, Sorry, I beg your pardon. Go back. That's not just the mental consciousness. We're talking about the mind in general now. All of your mind. One way of dividing is into two. Primary mind, which includes all your sensory consciousnesses. Don't worry about it at the moment. They're primary or main, uncomplicated. Report an error in the passage at 38:40 Highlight the passage at 38:40

39:05 Then you've got the other category called the mental factors or states of mind. Report an error in the passage at 39:05 Highlight the passage at 39:05

39:13 They're the ones we deal with most of the time. Love, attachment, anger, jealousy, discrimination, feeling. They're all the mental factors. They're the ones we have to learn to identify. The main mind is just the mind in general. Mind in general. Just leave it like that for now. And that's what's referred to by this fifth category. It seems difficult to see it experientially sometimes. Report an error in the passage at 39:13 Highlight the passage at 39:13

39:37 But this is how they talk, okay? So you've got the physical and then the rest you've got... The bits of your mind and he points out two of the mental factors as crucial, feeling and discrimination because of their powerful role in our lives in relation to attachment and therefore indeed how to get out of it. Report an error in the passage at 39:37 Highlight the passage at 39:37

39:55 And then the fifth one, the grab bag of all the bits that are left over including the other 49 mental factors and then main mind in general which includes sensory, it's including sensory consciousness. Okay, so that's the five aggregates. The five aggregates. The Buddha says we're made up of those five pieces. You can just as easily divide us into two, mind and body. You can make up any of this. He chose these for the particular reason, the feeling and the discrimination, because of their function, their role in attachment, okay? Report an error in the passage at 39:55 Highlight the passage at 39:55

40:22 And how we get caught up in saṃsāra. And I mentioned this briefly yesterday, so let's go into this one now, before we talk about the emptiness of it all, okay? It's helpful. Remember yesterday, if you were here, we talked about how, you know, Okay, the usual samsaric one is this. I mentioned the fisherman, the little boy. Due to past karmic imprint in the mind from past killing, this particular little kid, son of a friend of mine, I always use him as an example. Report an error in the passage at 40:22 Highlight the passage at 40:22

40:51 This is how we are in saṃsāra. He's got the past habit of killing, that imprint in his mind, the tendency is in his mind. It doesn't ripen until he sees fishing one day. So suddenly seeing fishing... It triggers the memory, basically, although he wouldn't say, oh, I must have done fishing in the past. Of course he doesn't think that. But look at when you meet people, when you've fallen in love with Fred. Report an error in the passage at 40:51 Highlight the passage at 40:51

41:16 I always think of Romeo and Juliet in West Side Story. Remember West Side Story? Tony and Maria at the dance, the jets and the business, and they're all dancing, and then suddenly they see each other. Do you understand? Everything else disappears, and suddenly Tony and Maria see each other. That's karma ripening. You with me? Report an error in the passage at 41:16 Highlight the passage at 41:16

41:37 One second before, but suddenly karma ripened. That's what it is when he saw fishing, karma ripened. He's got the imprint, he sees it and then goes, oh wow, and he runs like a magnet. So what's happening there is this, the karma imprint is in his mind from having fished before, killed before. He sees a scenario called fishing, whatever. Report an error in the passage at 41:37 Highlight the passage at 41:37

42:01 It triggers, oh this is highly complex what it triggers, but simplistically speaking, it then triggers instantaneously. Attachment. Attachment. This over-exaggerating, neurotic, needy, grasping, manipulative, possessive, extrapolating, ridiculous state of mind that's like a junkie. It triggers it. So it has a series of functions, attachment. A series of functions. First of all, its main one is it exaggerates the deliciousness of something. Report an error in the passage at 42:01 Highlight the passage at 42:01

42:31 So in his case, fishing. In my case, Fred. You know, it exaggerates the deliciousness of fishing and when the attachment's very strong, it'll make it look really sparkly and delicious. Look when you're in love. Do you remember? I remember. Doesn't the whole world look blissful? Everything's dazzling, isn't it? Not just Fred. Report an error in the passage at 42:31 Highlight the passage at 42:31

42:54 Everything looks divine, doesn't it? You feel like as light as a feather. Even if you're fat and ugly, you feel blissful. You get my point. Don't you? You feel divine. Do you understand? So, fetchment makes it... Attachment at the bare bones level is this hunger, this vampirish, hungry, grasping, desperate assumption, frantic looking for something delicious because it comes from a deep feeling of being dissatisfied. Report an error in the passage at 42:54 Highlight the passage at 42:54

43:21 So then you meet this object, he in his case fishing, it triggers, the memory there comes up, it triggers instantaneously this attachment. Which then causes it to look so divine to him. Sparkling, delicious. And then because of this, at the same time what attachment does, it causes good feelings to arise. Report an error in the passage at 43:21 Highlight the passage at 43:21

43:45 Pleasure. It triggers. It doesn't cause. Best of the way is it triggers good feelings. Pleasure. Right? Now because we're junkies for good feelings, right? Because that's all attachment wants is good feelings. That's the objective attachment is to get a good feeling. You agree? Objective attachment is the cake and the fishing, but what the attachment wants is a good feeling. You agree with that? Doesn't it? It only wants good feelings. Would you agree? And so obviously we will deduce, he will deduce that when fishing is there, his eyes see it and it looks delicious and it triggers a good feeling. Report an error in the passage at 43:45 Highlight the passage at 43:45

44:16 He makes the logical deduction, doesn't he, that fishing caused a good feeling. Wouldn't you agree with that? That's saṃsāra. And Buddha says it's a rotten, stinking lie. It's simply a misinterpretation. Are you hearing me? But we're so addicted to that process and that's why we're junkies. We are frantically dissatisfied. We're constantly on the lookout for a nice thing to trigger a good feeling. Report an error in the passage at 44:16 Highlight the passage at 44:16

44:38 We assume there are no good feelings in here. We assume I'm dissatisfied and I'm not good enough, I'm not enough, I'm too this, I'm too that and I'm too fat and I'm too small or whatever it might be. There's this voice chatting away inside us, right? Dissatisfied feelings, right? You get that? Not pleasant, is it? So we're desperately hungry for a good feeling. Report an error in the passage at 44:38 Highlight the passage at 44:38

44:57 And we of course believe one million percent that the objects of our senses, is that not true, are the cause of a good feeling, is it not? So we desperately hanker out the good of things out there. This is what we do. This is saṃsāra. This is what he means by saṃsāra. What? Report an error in the passage at 44:57 Highlight the passage at 44:57

45:19 Not yet fishing, he's just seen it. Okay, I haven't finished the whole scenario. The karmic imprint from past killing is there. It hasn't ripened yet because he hasn't met the condition. Maria hasn't fallen up because she hasn't sighted Tony yet. It's their latent waiting that she sees that shape, everything, the memories come back, although they don't call them memories. Report an error in the passage at 45:19 Highlight the passage at 45:19

45:39 Because of their past virtue, he looks divine. They run like a magnet to each other, right? You feel divine, so he feels, the fisherman feels blissful because attachment causes, it triggers a good feeling. I'm going to talk about the good feelings in a minute. It triggers a good feeling. And then he assumes, doesn't he, because it looks delicious, because attachment causes the thing to look delicious, and it triggers a good feeling, the logical deduction is fishing must cause a good feeling. Report an error in the passage at 45:39 Highlight the passage at 45:39

46:05 Would you agree with that? And because we're junkies for good feelings, the logical thing is I must go fishing, and I must keep going fishing, and keep going fishing. That's why we eat food, that's why we have sex, that's why we kill people, lie, torture, because it seems to trigger a good feeling. This is what we are in saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 46:05 Highlight the passage at 46:05

46:23 That's the bit, that's clear. So, okay, are we with these people? And we don't question this, do we? It's millisecond by millisecond by millisecond this occurs, isn't it? And aren't we, this is the trouble, we, okay, okay, so now let's look at the good feelings. Report an error in the passage at 46:23 Highlight the passage at 46:23

46:38 Let's look at the good feelings. And the more we talk like this, the more it implies emptiness, I tell you, this is the point. So, what Buddha is saying is this, it's so simple, it's so technically simple, it's like hilarious, that every microsecond of anything that we do, say and think, Every millisecond, there's not a millisecond, we're not doing something or thinking something. Report an error in the passage at 46:38 Highlight the passage at 46:38

47:07 The things we do with our body and speech, I'm sorry, they have to be propelled by the mind. Then there's karmic imprints. Seeds in the mind. They leave seeds in the mind. Seeds in the mind. Every second, every second, every second, every second, every second. All according to the little make-up of what we do, the action, what the motivation is and we can go into that as well. Break it down, what causes it all. Report an error in the passage at 47:07 Highlight the passage at 47:07

47:25 But basically it's leaving seeds in the mind. Impressions or programming, whatever you want to say. Seeds is a good analogy. You with me? And so, Simply speaking, what Buddha is saying is this, that every microsecond of anything that's labelled a virtuous action of mind, body and speech, we have to work out what that is, we have to determine, we have to establish what is a virtuous action, but the broadest meaning here is motivated, it's an action of motivated by a virtuous thought. Report an error in the passage at 47:25 Highlight the passage at 47:25

47:56 Motivated by not a delusion. Motivated by the wish to help. Motivated by kindness. Motivated by forgiveness. Motivated by generosity. Do you understand what I'm saying? That's called a virtuous action. Okay, the way the Lamas would teach, there are two other categories of how we create virtue that gives it much more power and doesn't even include... Report an error in the passage at 47:56 Highlight the passage at 47:56

48:17 A motivation or intention. This is a Mahāyāna teaching. One is when you do it in relation to something very potent like a Dharma center, the Guru Buddha Dharma Saṅgha. Because of the power of those objects, objects in the sense of our object of our action, because of their potency, because of the massive thing that they represent, any actions we do in relation to those that are virtuous, even without the intention, because of the power of the object, leaves a very powerful imprint in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 48:17 Highlight the passage at 48:17

48:41 And then another one is when you do any virtue in the context of keeping vows of morality. The Buddha says anyone who's living purely in the vows, and he's really big on vows, commitments, vows, he says you have this subtle form that's visible to clairvoyance. And every microsecond that you're not killing, not lying, not stealing, even when there's no intention, even when you're asleep, you're ticking over virtuous karmic seeds. Report an error in the passage at 48:41 Highlight the passage at 48:41

49:09 So there's three, normally speaking though, bare bones, karmic seed is planted when there's the intention and then the motivation behind the intention that determines whether it's virtuous or non-virtuous, broadly speaking. You with me? So every microsecond of one that's a virtuous one sows a seed in the mind, goes into your little bank, you know, goes into your bank of virtuous seeds. Report an error in the passage at 49:09 Highlight the passage at 49:09

49:30 And those virtuous seeds will ripen in four ways. It can ripen in four ways in the future. The same with your non-virtuous seeds. You've got another little bank of non-virtuous seeds. You with me? You with me? Simple. Everything you do, it doesn't go astray. It goes into your little bank. Everything you see and do and say, you take a picture and you store it in your memory, in your computer memory. Right? Report an error in the passage at 49:30 Highlight the passage at 49:30

49:54 So you come into this life as fisherman, okay? So he's got a good human rebirth. That's from past virtue. One of his virtuous carvings very strongly ripened at the time of his previous death. His strong morality karmic seed out of his big bank there ripened and he got a decent mummy in California. A good human birth. That's one way your karma ripens, the type of birth you get. Report an error in the passage at 49:54 Highlight the passage at 49:54

50:15 In his case, virtue ripen. You can say that bank of virtue is divided into four kinds of seeds. You could say it like that. My way of saying it, okay? And so the one that he got here was the main one, which is the type of one that brings lives. It's a very powerful seed with all the actions, all the various components there. Report an error in the passage at 50:15 Highlight the passage at 50:15

50:32 And it's what a complete action that ripened his human life. He got that. Great. Now the other three ways that his karmic banks, you know, that he accesses his karmic bank, there's other three in the categories of the virtuous seeds, right? Another little bank called tendencies. Report an error in the passage at 50:32 Highlight the passage at 50:32

50:47 So one of those, because of past killing, and he'd been in the lower realms in the past, that karma finished by finishing the lower realms. Now the virtue ripe, he gets a human life. But this other little bank, because he didn't purify all the killing. This is why the four opponent powers, that's why the purification practice is so powerful and necessary. Report an error in the passage at 50:47 Highlight the passage at 50:47

51:07 Because he never vowed never to kill again. He simply ran out his negative karma in the lower realms. It's all finished. He gets a human life again. He's in blissful. He's all blissful and happy. But he's got the tendency to still kill. You see what I'm saying? That's in his other little bank, which is a bunch of tendencies. So he's got good tendencies as well. He's intelligent, kind, generous. Good man, his mother said. Report an error in the passage at 51:07 Highlight the passage at 51:07

51:28 But one of his many tendencies in his non-virtuous bank was the tendency to kill. The residual result of the main result of killing in the lower realms. Are you with me here, people? A tendency to kill. So guess what? Look at the human realm. Most humans kill something. Because they've got the habit, they've been in the lower realms, they didn't purify it by vowing never to kill again. Report an error in the passage at 51:28 Highlight the passage at 51:28

51:50 That's why you've got to do the four opponent powers every day. You have to. If you don't consciously decide, I will never kill again, you don't purify the tendency. You don't create this new habit in your mind. If you don't practice piano, you can't play piano. If you don't practice the thought, I will never kill. Report an error in the passage at 51:50 Highlight the passage at 51:50

52:08 It's not enough just to stop killing. You've got to vow never to kill and continuously vow to never kill again every day, reiterated. But he didn't do that. So he had this tendency to kill in his little bank of non-virtuous seeds. Well that ripened as one of his many tendencies. So it didn't ripen though until he met the condition called fishing. Report an error in the passage at 52:08 Highlight the passage at 52:08

52:33 The third way your habit... Your virtue or non-virtuous karmic seeds can ripen. And in his case, it happened later on, 13 years later, when he was 29. No, he's a professional fisherman for 13 years, his mum said. And he died when he was 29, scuba diving. So the karmic result, okay, the fully ripened result of killing, if that had happened for him, he would have been born in the lower realms. Report an error in the passage at 52:33 Highlight the passage at 52:33

52:57 He's had that in the past, that's finished. Then the next way karma ripens is the tendency to do it. So he had that, the tendency to kill. The next way killing ripens, in this case killing, is called the experiences similar to the cause. Experiences similar to the cause. He got killed. He died young. He got killed by the fish probably, you know, and he died young. Or you're sick. That's the experience similar to the cause, in this case of killing. Report an error in the passage at 52:57 Highlight the passage at 52:57

53:24 The action similar to the cause is the tendency. Well he had those two. The fourth one is called environmental karma. You know, that's another one again. There's four ways any of your karmic seeds, all the virtues and all the non-virtues can and do ripen. It's a highly complex, subtle system. No one's running it. It's just a natural law. It all works. So one has to learn to understand it, you know. So basically, there's this fisherman, gets a human life. He's been in the lower realms in the past. Report an error in the passage at 53:24 Highlight the passage at 53:24

53:50 He hasn't purified his tendency to kill by vowing never to kill again. So the tendency is still there. This is the tragedy, the residual result of it. He hadn't cleaned it all up. So he sees fishing. So he's in a human body, which is in the desire realm. Buddha calls it a desire realm. We're made of the five senses and we know the five senses crave the five sense objects. Report an error in the passage at 53:50 Highlight the passage at 53:50

54:11 This is how we live. And this is our method of getting happiness, isn't it? We don't know any other way. So he's walking around with attachment, which is the dissatisfaction, I'm never enough, not enough. So you're always looking for something out there that think it'll make you happy. He sees fishing. First, the attachment in his mind exaggerates the deliciousness of fishing. Report an error in the passage at 54:11 Highlight the passage at 54:11

54:30 The stronger the habit, the more divine it looks. The more divine it looks, the more powerful that attachment will trigger good feelings. Attachment triggers good feelings. Okay, so now, where do those good feelings come from? This is another way to talk. One is every time you get a good feeling. And remember yesterday I said, can't click my left fingers, I'll click my right one. There are 64 moments in a finger snap, the Buddha says. Report an error in the passage at 54:30 Highlight the passage at 54:30

54:59 Every one of those moments is the ripening of a seed. So like one Lama said, Geshe Tashi in London, I remember reading one of his books, he said, you know, we know that when you see a movie, it looks like this seamless movement, doesn't it? But we know perfectly well every second there's 24, 24, made up of 24 still frames, isn't it? Isn't it? So it's like 24 in a second. Report an error in the passage at 54:59 Highlight the passage at 54:59

55:19 So it gives the illusion of moving smoothly. But actually it's 24 stills, you know? 64 finger snaps is 64 moments. If you have even a moment of five minutes of pleasure, of good feelings, you know, just sitting there relaxed and you're feeling good, five minutes. Well, however many moments there are, 64 in a finger snap, however many moments that is, there's many karmic seeds of virtue from your virtuous bank, ripening as a good feeling, ripening as a good feeling. Report an error in the passage at 55:19 Highlight the passage at 55:19

55:48 And what triggered it is seeing the fishing. Fishing didn't cause a good feeling. How can it? It's negative. But this is a tragedy for us. He's got a bank of good feelings from his past virtue. If you have any good feelings, you've got a bank of some virtue there and a feeling. A good feeling is the fruit of a seed of virtue you planted in the past. If you live there sick all day, some people are sick all the time in terrible agony and pain, aren't they? Report an error in the passage at 55:48 Highlight the passage at 55:48

56:13 They can't access their good, all they're accessing is their bad feelings, their unpleasant feelings, right? And the same, an unpleasant feeling is the fruit of a negative seed. It's the fruit of a negative seed. That's why when you've achieved your nirvāṇa and you've pulled out all the seeds and you see reality, you can only have bliss because bliss is the nature of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 56:13 Highlight the passage at 56:13

56:38 So there he is fishing and he makes the mistake like we all do of assuming because fishing triggered a good feeling, he deduces logically or illogically, Buddha says, that the fishing must be the cause of it. It's pretty obvious. You look at the cake, it looks delicious. Attachment makes it look more delicious than it really is. It looks all sparkly. You're kind of going towards it like a magnet. You're magnetized by it. Because you're totally convinced. Report an error in the passage at 56:38 Highlight the passage at 56:38

57:05 Because it's a millisecond of difference. You see the cake and you get blissful. And it looks divine. So we're just set up into this trap. Report an error in the passage at 57:05 Highlight the passage at 57:05

57:15 So of course we believe that story. We believe that interpretation. Scientifically we believe it. So we eat the cake. Anticipating happiness, waiting for fulfilment, waiting for pleasure, waiting for, no, waiting for satisfaction, to be satisfied. But we can't be. We're bottomless pits because we're junkies and we all know, as my mummy used to say, the more you get the more you want. Report an error in the passage at 57:15 Highlight the passage at 57:15

57:39 This is totally profound. That's the real suffering of attachment because we're making a mistaken interpretation that the cake is the cause of happiness. It isn't. Because what happens is, as you know, you keep eating the cake, you keep eating the cake, expecting happiness, waiting every second for it, anticipating it's so enormous, waiting, waiting, waiting. Report an error in the passage at 57:39 Highlight the passage at 57:39

58:01 It does bring some pleasure, it triggers some of your pleasure seeds, there's no doubt about it. But very soon we know that this attachment, at some point we can't see when it happens, attachment stops and aversion begins. Because now your stomach's getting fuller. And suddenly it doesn't look so delicious anymore because aversion is gradually taking over from attachment and now your aversion seeds, your unpleasant feelings are ripening, aren't they? Report an error in the passage at 58:01 Highlight the passage at 58:01

58:25 You feel stuffed, the cake looks revolting and you have to stop, otherwise you'd vomit. Because as the Lord Buddha says very simply, the pleasure we do get in saṃsāra doesn't last. It turns into aversion or indifference. There's only three options. And we all know this, but it's because it's all we know. Report an error in the passage at 58:25 Highlight the passage at 58:25

58:45 We don't know how else to get pleasure. We don't know. We're frantic. We're desperate. We just don't know how to trigger pleasure. We don't think it's ours at all. We think it's all in the cake. We think it's all in the fishing. That's the tragedy. We don't think, as Lama Zopa says, that our mind plays any role at all. And all this because we don't understand emptiness, by the way. Report an error in the passage at 58:45 Highlight the passage at 58:45

59:02 Just keep remembering that. Report an error in the passage at 59:02 Highlight the passage at 59:02

59:07 Feeling. So it's kind of important. So just understanding this technically. How else will you know that cakes won't make you happy if you didn't know this technically? Oh, Buddha says cakes don't make me happy. But in a sense you don't believe him. You know it makes you happy, but we don't get it. So if you can't understand it technically, how can you change? But when this way, at least if you understand that there is good feeling there, no problems, it is called pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 59:07 Highlight the passage at 59:07

59:35 And hey, as Lama Yeshe says, the more pleasure the better, dear. Don't think you're trying to give up pleasure, that's a grotesque mistake. Buddha is leading us to the most blissful, constant, unceasing pleasure. But we can't hear it this way, it sounds like sin, doesn't it? Pleasure, come on. Because we've got this... Report an error in the passage at 59:35 Highlight the passage at 59:35

59:51 The fundamentalist view of religion. Buddhist methods are how to help us get such bliss, you wouldn't believe it. Technically, actually, we can't hear. So when we understand technically what a feeling is, every second, feelings, ripening, every millisecond, feelings. And because we're junkies for the good ones. Report an error in the passage at 59:51 Highlight the passage at 59:51

1:00:16 Oh, exhausting. And the ones that, because we're in this body, this sensory body, the things that do trigger it are The objects that we've got some connection with. The chocolate cake, the Fred, the fishing, the torturing. Look at the people, look at the poor old pedophiles. That's the only way they know how to trigger their little memory bank of pleasure is, you know, screw little girls and boys. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:16 Highlight the passage at 1:00:16

1:00:39 Can you imagine how suffering that is? The poor things. Okay, stick them in jail, keep them out of the way. Torturer gets his good feelings by torturing people. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:39 Highlight the passage at 1:00:39

1:00:53 What a tragedy. So, of course, this pleasure we get now, that's what Buddha's saying, it is of the fruit of a virtue. It is that simply. But because it's triggered by attachment, by being a junkie, that pollutes it. So look at a pedophile, with respect to poor pedophiles. You can tell by looking at them, their slimy, unhappy mind. I'm not being horrible here. Can you see what I'm saying? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:53 Highlight the passage at 1:00:53

1:01:19 How we appear to others, you don't have to be that clairvoyant. By looking at people, you can tell their mind. Not being too clairvoyant here, really. Because everything your mind does affects your body. So a person's living day and night, obsessively thinking about sex with little girls and little boys. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:19 Highlight the passage at 1:01:19

1:01:35 Constant, unceasing, distressed, unbelievably undissatisfied mind. Can you imagine? And the karmic imprint to do this, the habit of sex. Can you only imagine the suffering? And look at therefore affecting, you know? So of course... It's, you know, the junkie putting the heroin in, that triggers pleasure too. But because of the intensity of the suffering of it all, it so pollutes the pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:35 Highlight the passage at 1:01:35

1:01:59 It's really not, Buddha says it's not pleasure at all. It's just total nightmare. But it's all we know. We don't know how else to get pleasure. That's our only method, being in saṃsāra. And all Buddha's doing is giving us alternative methods. He says, honey, your mind has the potential. When it's unencumbered by the junk, that means that it's in sync with virtue. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:59 Highlight the passage at 1:01:59

1:02:19 And because virtue is the cause of happiness, then you just are accessing such bliss. And the point is because it's not contaminated pleasure when you realize emptiness, when it's not contaminated by the junkie senses, it's just pure, utter, natural joy. This is the nature of our mind. This is the nature. This is who we are actually. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:19 Highlight the passage at 1:02:19

1:02:44 Of course, it's hard to get past being a junkie because we're all junkies in this junkie body, you know. But this is Buddha's teachings. Are we communicating? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:44 Highlight the passage at 1:02:44

1:02:54 So discrimination, this other one he plucks out of the five always present mental factors among the 51 mental factors in the model of the mind in Buddhism, is a type of intelligence that's absolutely crucial to do anything whatsoever. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:54 Highlight the passage at 1:02:54

1:03:08 It's simply the ability to discriminate this from that. You need it to say there's a clock and there's a cloth and there's a cup and there's a lid and there's a red and there's a white. There's a tissue, there's a box. If that one starts to go, you just can't tell the difference. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:08 Highlight the passage at 1:03:08

1:03:27 Your eyes are looking but you don't know. I remember reading about one woman who had this very unusual, I think it's this one, I was trying to think which mental factor was missing. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:27 Highlight the passage at 1:03:27

1:03:37 As she's getting older she can no longer discriminate between what she's seeing. She has to use other ways to remember where she put the teapot because she looks, she just can't see. She's got her eyes are fine but her mental consciousness is not functioning properly. So I've got a feeling she's missing discrimination in relation to physical objects. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:37 Highlight the passage at 1:03:37

1:03:56 So it's crucial here because you obviously can see in relation to virtue, this is the main factor, not the main one, one of the crucial ones. You've got to know the difference between virtue and non-virtue. You've got to know, you have an intelligence to know even what we're talking about now, how to work it out, discriminate between this and that. It's an absolutely vital state of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:56 Highlight the passage at 1:03:56

1:04:20 You with me people? Report an error in the passage at 1:04:20 Highlight the passage at 1:04:20

1:04:28 So the five aggregates. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:28 Highlight the passage at 1:04:28

1:04:38 Any questions about all that? Report an error in the passage at 1:04:38 Highlight the passage at 1:04:38

1:05:04 Yes. Yes. What darling? Are they what? Just habits. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:04 Highlight the passage at 1:05:04

1:05:14 Are they what? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:14 Highlight the passage at 1:05:14

1:05:19 Say it again. I don't understand. I'm really sorry. I can't hear you so well. Forgive me. Yes, tendencies to do things. A seed will ripen as a tendency. A seed can ripen as that happening to you. A seed can ripen environmentally and a seed can ripen as a type of life, depending on the time, the space, the amount of it, the strength of it, the time of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:19 Highlight the passage at 1:05:19

1:05:43 Many factors come together. So tendency is one of the four ways that karmic seeds ripen. Are you with me? And you could say that the tendency, let's say, of the killing one, the tendencies are the residual results of having done the main karma of killing, which is the one that will then ripen as types of very many lower rebirths. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:43 Highlight the passage at 1:05:43

1:06:06 And then once that's over, that's the main karma finished, but you haven't purified the tendency by vowing not to kill, so you continue this leftover result as the tendency to keep doing it. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:06 Highlight the passage at 1:06:06

1:06:19 Are you with me? It seems to me too, Tennessee is just simply the habit. Just every day too. This is why, as Lama Zopa says, not doing these four steps of the purification practice, which I'll go through briefly. It's in your notes and you're very familiar with it, most of you. Not doing that every day. We're insane. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:19 Highlight the passage at 1:06:19

1:06:50 Because that means we're not understanding Buddha's way of how things work. If we understood karma in the most basic way, that every time you do something, you're deepening that tendency to do it, aren't you? It's sort of awfully logical. We call that learning, don't we? What do you think you're doing when you play music? You're perfecting the habit to play music until eventually it's spontaneous. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:50 Highlight the passage at 1:06:50

1:07:10 You see what I'm saying? You can see then why people wake up in this life. There's Mozart. I mean, he ran to music from a time of a tiny age. It was obviously ripe and rich in his mind from past strong habituation with that type of activity. Look at Hitler. Look at Mother Teresa. Look at the fishermen. Another little boy, always quote this one too, the son of our friend in Queensland, Deichen, when he was a little boy, three, she was taking the lice out of his head and he was crying with compassion for the lice. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:10 Highlight the passage at 1:07:10

1:07:42 Mommy, mommy, don't hurt them. Leave them alone. It's their home. She hadn't taught him this. Like the fisherman's mother hadn't taught him that. It was a tendency in his mind. And we can obviously deduce where the tendency to be compassionate comes from. And he's never killed a living thing in this life. He's like 40-something now, 35 or something. He obviously steepened the habit, dug the groove in his mind to not kill and to have compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:42 Highlight the passage at 1:07:42

1:08:05 It just came spontaneously. This is why I find at least to use the view of karma as an explanation is awfully helpful because it at least explains theoretically why a person will wake up in this life with a tendency to kill or torture or be compassionate. Do you understand? Otherwise we just think, well, it's just potluck and no one knows why. Every single thing that arises in our mind is a tendency. Look at how we go to a war. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:05 Highlight the passage at 1:08:05

1:08:30 I mean, yeah, tendencies. To lie, to kill, to steal, to be kind. Then we can see in this daily life when we make choices using our discrimination and we think about the wish to practice morality and the logical reason for why, because it's going to benefit me because I'm sick of negative things, I'm sick of suffering first, then of course compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:30 Highlight the passage at 1:08:30

1:08:51 And then we just practice it. You get up every day and you just go against the old habit. Like, you know, Russian's question yesterday, how do you go against torpor and laziness? Well, you look at, to be precise, you look at the direct problem and you find the direct opposite, which is the antidote. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:51 Highlight the passage at 1:08:51

1:09:03 So the opposite to following a habit of killing is the habit to not kill. The opposite to can't be bothered is to be bothered. The opposite to lie is to tell the truth. The opposite to, it's obvious and we know that if you're playing music, you've never played it before, the tendency is to not play music. That's a status quo, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:03 Highlight the passage at 1:09:03

1:09:20 The tendency is complete. You don't know how to play music. Well, guess how you play music? By playing music. You change the tendency from one thing to another. It isn't rocket science. This is what's called practice. So what we're trying to do here mainly is look at what virtue is, look at the logic of why we want to be virtuous, why we want first not to be non-virtuous and then practice that habit. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:20 Highlight the passage at 1:09:20

1:09:45 Karma is a natural law. Karma takes care, as Lama Yeshi says. Be content with just that much. As I was saying to Roshan yesterday, we might be all these great practitioners, but if we're keeping our commitments and precepts, say, or vows, and we've got them, and we reiterate them every day when we take refuge, and then we reiterate our vow never to kill, never to lie, never to steal before we go to sleep, you can be blissfully happy with your practice because you're sowing the most magnificent garden for the future. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:45 Highlight the passage at 1:09:45

1:10:11 You can be very content with that. Because we can't see the result now, we tend not to think we're doing much good. It's a really important point. Yes, go on. You had your hand. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:11 Highlight the passage at 1:10:11

1:10:26 Well, I know, there are lots of good girls and bad girls. You're obviously one of the good girls. I know, yes. Well, that's a really wonderful thing to do, but the trouble is, what we have to look at is not the wishing to please, which is marvellous, it's the attachment. That's what pollutes. That's what the problem is. The wishing to please is called kindness. Never criticise that. But because it's motivated by attachment, and this is what's hard to see, then that's what makes a mess of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:26 Highlight the passage at 1:10:26

1:10:51 And we stick our noses in where they don't belong. So let's look at it again. Let's go back to it. It's about attachment because it's such a massive one for the Buddha, like I said, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:51 Highlight the passage at 1:10:51

1:11:02 The first level of attachment. The first understanding Buddha gives us is the first junior school level where he tells us not to kill, not to lie, not to steal. And his meaning, don't stuff too many cakes in and control yourself. You control your body and speech. You discipline your body and speech for a really excellent reason. So I've got to go into this again here. I'm sorry. We've done it before but it's necessary at this point because it helps us understand more deeply how we define a virtuous and a non-virtuous action. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:02 Highlight the passage at 1:11:02

1:11:28 And this helps us then understand how karma ripens. So it's all very helpful. And then we'll get to the one of... The suffering of it, why attachment is such a problem. And all of this is leading us to emptiness, you know, it really is. As I said, all of Buddha's teachings are, emptiness is implicit. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:28 Highlight the passage at 1:11:28

1:11:43 Non-self-existence is implicit. Okay, Report an error in the passage at 1:11:43 Highlight the passage at 1:11:43

1:11:53 any action we do for it to be called what they call a fully, to bring the fully ripened result, which is to be in one of those four pots in your good bank or your bad bank. You've got four, you've got two big main banks. A bank of non-virtuous seeds and a bank of virtuous seeds. And each has got four little kind of sub-banks inside those. You with me? So the one main one that is the fully ripened result of one of those seeds is the type of rebirth you get. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:53 Highlight the passage at 1:11:53

1:12:19 So at the time of our death... Not more than a few weeks before conception in our present mummy's human womb, we can deduce logically using this view that very strong morality karmic seed ripened just before we stopped breathing, which has to have come from the habit of practicing that, of nourishing that by being virtuous every day. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:19 Highlight the passage at 1:12:19

1:12:40 And Lama Zopa says it has to have been practiced in the context of keeping vows of morality in a spiritual path. He says just being good is not enough. It just doesn't have enough power. If we had realizations of emptiness and bodhicitta, then our goodness is very powerful. But the seeds we plant of goodness are very weak. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:40 Highlight the passage at 1:12:40

1:12:58 You're a good example. You know, when you're a pleaser, the good you do to others is still good, but because it's so polluted by attachment, it just can't have much virtuous result. You with me? Because it's polluted, and that's how most of our virtue is now. It's polluted by our attachment. So anyway, we'll go into that. But let's look at the... Report an error in the passage at 1:12:58 Highlight the passage at 1:12:58

1:13:16 The four ways that the karma ripens. The first one, the main one, the fully ripened result is in our case, or the fishermen's, we got a human birth. Phenomenal virtue ripened in the past, before we stopped breathing in the past life. Before we stopped breathing. And that was ripened by many things going on, you know. And this is described in the 12 links very nicely, the 12 links which is another category further down here. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:16 Highlight the passage at 1:13:16

1:13:40 No ignorance, no extinction of ignorance and this one. The 12 links are down here where we have to think about it. Repeatedly and correctly as how they're empty, okay, the 12 links. So in the 12 links is described, this process, you know, and it's touched upon, two or three of those things touched upon. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:40 Highlight the passage at 1:13:40

1:13:54 At the time of death, there's various things going on. Two of them, the eighth and ninth links, are called craving and grasping, which are just two levels of attachment, that's all. And particularly at the time of death, they play a very big role. So as long as we're quotes in saṃsāra, unquote, which means we haven't realized emptiness, Even in our case of being virtuous in the past life, we'd have to deduce that we've practiced the spiritual path in the context of keeping vows, which gives great boost to our virtuous calming seeds, like I suggested before. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:54 Highlight the passage at 1:13:54

1:14:26 Secondly, at the time of death, we would have had a peaceful death, hopefully, and this is why it's so important. The most precious thing you can do for a person in this life is help them die. To make the place and environment very peaceful, conducive for that person to be peaceful, to see holy images if they're a Buddhist, to hear holy sounds if they're a Buddhist and to say pleasing things to them, to praise them, to love them, to calm their minds down, to make them happy and virtuous. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:26 Highlight the passage at 1:14:26

1:14:49 It's the book I'm working on at the moment of Lama Tsongkhapa Rinpoche. It's how to help people in the time of death. It's so important. So we can deduce how fortunate we must have had a reasonable death that gave us the space for this very strong virtuous karma to ripen just before we stop breathing. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:49 Highlight the passage at 1:14:49

1:15:03 And that would have been nourished, interestingly, by craving and grasping. Even if it's a virtuous karma ripening, you're still going to have this... So the craving and grasping here, though, has to be for the next life, for the next event. That's what happens. Attachment does. Either you're panic-stricken attached to the thing you've got now and don't want to let it go, or you're attached to the next thing. So at least as we're in saṃsāra, it's kind of curious. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:03 Highlight the passage at 1:15:03

1:15:25 At least given that we are in saṃsāra still. Haven't realised emptiness. Use our attachment and grasping and imagine a future perfect human rebirth. Imagine the pure lands, not the god realm, the pure lands where you can be with the Buddhas and get enlightened very quickly, they say. So then you're looking forward to that. It's looking forward to something. It sounds very curious. But you think about it. We look forward to something, don't we? Oh, we're looking forward to that. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:25 Highlight the passage at 1:15:25

1:15:47 That's called attachment. You plan it, you work it out, you visualise it, you imagine, you count the days down and then you get there. Or you dread it if it's something horrible, like death. Well, why not change and start looking forward to it? But you don't look forward to death. How about looking forward to your next life? This sounds very hilarious to us, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:47 Highlight the passage at 1:15:47

1:16:02 Because we don't believe it. We just think it's just ridiculous superstition. But we look forward to a holiday. We look forward to going to the movies tomorrow. We look forward to going to bed. I look forward to going to bed. I love bed. We look forward to our lunch. You can see what I'm saying. Always propelling into the next moment. And that's what attachment does. It's like a motor that makes us go to the next thing. And then of course we can anticipate it. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:02 Highlight the passage at 1:16:02

1:16:22 It looks delicious and nice. We get all excited, don't we? And that's what depression is when there's nothing to look forward to, isn't it? You just see death and darkness. You understand? Because no attachment. Depression is aversion. It's internalised anger. When there's aversion, when there's nothing to look forward to, nothing looks exciting. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:22 Highlight the passage at 1:16:22

1:16:40 That's exactly what's happened because your attachment has become deflated. Look with a boyfriend, you're in love and blissed out like you can't imagine the bliss, the anticipation, the joy, the whole next 80 years all written in stone, right? And he brings you up and gives you up. I mean, straight to hell, isn't it? The depression, the despair, because the bubble of attachment was burst. So given that we're still in saṃsāra, that's my way of saying this, use that attachment and grasp it. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:40 Highlight the passage at 1:16:40

1:17:05 As long as Lama Zopa says, you've got to have this for the next life. Otherwise you're going to be clinging, I don't want to die, I don't want to die. That's straight to hell from there. That's panic and nightmare. And when your mind is freaking out, it triggers one of your non-virtuous seeds and your non-virtuous bank. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:05 Highlight the passage at 1:17:05

1:17:18 Because fear and ignorance and delusion and negativity have a natural relationship. When the mind is deluded, it's naturally fearful. When the mind is fearful, it triggers delusion. It's just natural. When the mind is peaceful, it triggers virtue. So you've got to die with a peaceful mind. So then given that you've got attachment and grasping, and I'm really not joking here, they talk about preparing for death. Well frankly I think it's preparing for the next life if you do it properly, if you think of a Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:18 Highlight the passage at 1:17:18

1:17:44 And look at the Christians, they do that. Nothing wrong. Okay, they go to heaven, God realms, they'll just go to the lower realms afterwards, what to do? Buddhists have got to have, you know, best to be in a human realm because you can use it to get out of saṃsāra. You can't use the God realms to get out of saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:44 Highlight the passage at 1:17:44

1:18:04 So this craving and grasping is very powerful, these 12 links, before you die. Very strong. So at least train your mind to practice virtue. Don't create negative karmic seeds. Have a decent death. Remember your practice. Have people around you doing your practice with you so it triggers it in your mind. Remember your good things. Person praise you and say what a good mother you've been and what a kind person you are so your mind feels peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:04 Highlight the passage at 1:18:04

1:18:27 It's the most precious gift you can give to your old mum and dad and your old grandpa. Praise them. Thank them for what they're doing. We never think to do that. They don't think they're doing well. Most people don't. Look at our own minds. And if you're dying, you're really fretting. Make them happy. You did a great job, mum. You're a wonderful mother. Wow, you're so kind, so loving, so compassionate. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:27 Highlight the passage at 1:18:27

1:18:45 You've done so much good in this life. Oh, she'll be blissful. That's the most precious way to help the dying person. Don't forget that with your old grandma and grandpa and grandma and ma before they die. Write them a good letter. Don't say it in the face, don't email them, write them a letter thanking them for everything they've ever done. They'll never forget it. It'll be blissful for their minds, you know. And then you have this craving and grasping anyway. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:45 Highlight the passage at 1:18:45

1:19:05 As long as you've got saṃsāra, you've got this craving and grasping. So you might as well use it. Our virtue now. You're still motivated by delusion, some of it. We can see the delusion's there, attachment's there. But we've got to add another good motivation to it and I want to talk about that in a minute. So here, we at least imagine. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:05 Highlight the passage at 1:19:05

1:19:25 And if Buddha's teachings of karma are true, not just some fantasy, then it is reasonable. Just like if you have a garden. This is a really major point. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:25 Highlight the passage at 1:19:25

1:19:34 I always say that. I always say the main point. Everything is the main point. Everything is crucial. Everything is vital. Everything is important. So, okay, you listen. If you're a gardener, I find this helpful. If you are a gardener, you have to choose seeds to put in your ground, don't you? Don't you? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:34 Highlight the passage at 1:19:34

1:19:54 Okay, so what is the thing that determines the seed you choose? No, what's the crucial, what makes you choose that seed? Because you want, no, even more simple, you want the result. So you have to know what will bring in the future, don't you? You have to know the future result. So you've got to know you want a rose and that's the future, isn't it? It's the future, isn't it? The rose is the future, isn't it? So it means you've got to know what seed will grow a rose. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:54 Highlight the passage at 1:19:54

1:20:23 You don't say, oh, that looks like a pretty seed. I might grow that one. You don't say that. That's silly, isn't it? You see what I'm saying? You've got to know that seed looks boring. You've got to know, what do I want in the future? I want a rose. I want an apple tree. I want a pear tree. I want an oak tree over there. I want gardens and greens and veggies and beautiful. You're looking into the future by definition, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:20:23 Highlight the passage at 1:20:23

1:20:42 No one says, ah, live in the present, please. They don't say that to you. How stupid. A gardener has to think of the future, right? You agree? And then the point is, the decision you make now, this second, and now I'm turning into karma, of what thought you have, which is karma, which is the seed, has to be determined by the result you want. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:42 Highlight the passage at 1:20:42

1:21:04 You with me? So Buddha says, virtuous seeds will ripen as happiness. Well, you think, okay, broadly, you're not sure you want roses or apples yet, but hey, happiness, I want that. Hey, quick, what should I do to get happiness? Please, virtue. First level of virtue, back off and leave SBs alone. Don't kill them. Don't lie. Don't steal. Don't badmouth. Don't cheat on your partner. Minimum level. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:04 Highlight the passage at 1:21:04

1:21:30 Already amazing. You just die with a happy mind. You've put those seeds in. Guaranteed you'll get a very decent garden in the future. This is the meaning of karma. Don't think it's some hippy trippy thing. Don't think it's punishment and reward. Don't think it's just cosmic and religious. Buddha says it's a natural law. So if you're going to live with it, treat it like gardening. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:30 Highlight the passage at 1:21:30

1:21:47 No one laughs at you thinking you're superstitious if you do gardening. Do you understand? It's as simple as this, but we don't think it's that simple. We make it complicated. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:47 Highlight the passage at 1:21:47

1:21:56 We still think someone up there is going to judge me, you know. Do you understand? So you have to know what fruit you want. So if you have to think of what fruit you want, don't just leave it, well, I'll just cross my fingers. It's like leaving it to God. Well, I'll just be a good person and cross my fingers. That's superstition. If you really abide by the laws of karma, if you accept it and use it as your basis, think it through. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:56 Highlight the passage at 1:21:56

1:22:19 What kind of life do you want? Well, you know, if you want a human life, you've got to have lots of virtue, don't kill, plus, you know, help sentient beings. If you want to be, I'm really not joking here, if you want people to like you, to find you very nice to look at, be patient. If you want people to believe your words, don't lie. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:19 Highlight the passage at 1:22:19

1:22:40 If you want people to be generous to you, don't steal. It's so common, sort of, it's like not rocket science. Of course you don't know it yet, you can't prove it's true, use it as your hypothesis. You might as well, no one else gives you any advice. I mean the Christians say that's fine, if you want to be a Christian, that's that view. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:40 Highlight the passage at 1:22:40

1:22:58 The materialists have nothing to offer as far as this is concerned. So I'm happy to work with Buddha, he's got a statement there, he's got a view, I'm happy to work with it. Or Buddha says you can also, the Mahāyāna say, you can go to one of the pure lands where all the Buddhas exist, where you can get enlightened very quickly, very, very quickly. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:58 Highlight the passage at 1:22:58

1:23:16 Then you can come down to the humans and... Pop around helping others. So you make your decision. Good human life or pure lands. Make your decision. Work out what garden you want and then sow the seeds and aspire every day. And then when you die, karma takes care. Just like gardening does. Like if I don't know anything about botany, and I really mean know nothing, never heard of seeds and fruits, which is how the materialist world is when it comes to future lives. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:16 Highlight the passage at 1:23:16

1:23:39 If I know nothing about botany, but you do, and you've got this acre of ground out there or hectare, whatever it is now, you know. And as far as I can see, there's nothing there. It's boring. Then you proceed. You've put all your seeds in. And you proceed to give me a vision of how to look in 50 years. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:39 Highlight the passage at 1:23:39

1:23:55 And you know very well, knowing that you can do that. And I'll go, wow, you're clairvoyant. No, Robina, I just know the laws of botany. What do you think? No one's laughing at you because they all know the laws of botany. You can project into the future because it's a law. It'll work. Assuming other laws don't intervene. Given that the laws will work and are consistent, you will get that garden in the future. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:55 Highlight the passage at 1:23:55

1:24:17 We understand that in our human world. We're brilliant at this. That's Buddha's expertise when it comes to happiness and suffering in life and future life and past life and all the rest of his views. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:17 Highlight the passage at 1:24:17

1:24:29 So it's up to us really, isn't it? It's time for tea. Time for tea or whatever you have. And I'll see you in 20 minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:29 Highlight the passage at 1:24:29

1:24:41 You can have some questions then if you like. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:41 Highlight the passage at 1:24:41

1:25:03 So basically we started with the Heart Sūtra. We began, we explained how... It's structured and we looked at what Buddha's doing is getting us to look at all the different groupings of phenomena in the universe and how we have to repeatedly and correctly analyse how they are empty of inherent existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:03 Highlight the passage at 1:25:03

1:25:20 So we started with the first grouping which is the five aggregates and explained briefly why Buddha chose these five. They're divided up into form which is the physical. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:20 Highlight the passage at 1:25:20

1:25:30 Sorry, the aggregates are two ways of saying it. All the contents of the impermanent universe which is effectively the world we know it. Because as we suggested here, we brought up the topic, there are some phenomena that are permanent, but it's a bit of an abstract idea. It's useful and helpful, but not relevant at the moment. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:30 Highlight the passage at 1:25:30

1:25:45 That impermanent, either the world or the five aggregates of the whole world can be divided into those five categories, or one's own personal aggregates. And so we looked at form, which is the physical. Then we mentioned, according to Tantra, the four elements. It's the way, the model they use to refer to the four elements and it's described in great detail in the text. This is not of course tantra but I'm just saying that because I find it helpful, the four elements. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:45 Highlight the passage at 1:25:45

1:26:08 And of course they mention the four elements here, it's all part of the deal. And then we've got the form which is physical, then we've got the rest of it is the other kinds of impermanent phenomena, mind and then the things like other bits and pieces left over that are not mind nor matter and that's that little grab bag called compositional factors. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:08 Highlight the passage at 1:26:08

1:26:30 In there are all the remaining 49 mental factors because the other two, feeling and discrimination, are plucked out as important. And I gave the reason why, roughly. And then the remainder is this primary consciousness which includes sensory, the main mind. Sensory and mental, the main kind of mind they talk about. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:30 Highlight the passage at 1:26:30

1:26:47 The five aggregates. Then we began looking at feeling, which has got us to this present discussion. We talked about feeling, how feeling, every microsecond of every moment in every day, you can divide it into three types of feeling, pleasant, unpleasant or neither. So forget the neutrals. The pleasant, unpleasant are the ones that are, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:47 Highlight the passage at 1:26:47

1:27:06 The ones we are living our lives in, desperately, frantically like junkies, avoiding the unpleasant feelings because we believe that the ugly things out there cause them and desperately grasping at the nice ones, believing totally that the nice things out there cause them. This is the essence of the mistake we're making in Saṃsāra. Buddha says not understanding karma, not understanding continuity of mind. This is what he's saying. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:06 Highlight the passage at 1:27:06

1:27:32 So as we think about it, like I said, every minute of everything we ever do say and think, Motivated by the mind, intention, leaves a little seed or an imprint seed. Seed will do in the mind. Highly complex. Exactly the character of that seed. Many factors. We'll go into this in a second. So there's four ways those seeds can ripen, depending on those many factors. Four ways. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:32 Highlight the passage at 1:27:32

1:27:56 One is as a type of rebirth. One is as a tendency to keep doing something. One is as that thing happening to you. And one is the very way the environment impacts upon us. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:56 Highlight the passage at 1:27:56

1:28:09 And that every second, In the day, a pleasant, unpleasant, let's say a pleasant, unpleasant feeling is ripening because we're junkies for the pleasant feelings and then we have this mistaken interpretation that you're like the fisherman, he sees the fishing. It instantly, it triggers a memory of having done it before, basically, think of it this way, which instantly the attachment is also triggered. Attachment makes it look totally divine. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:09 Highlight the passage at 1:28:09

1:28:32 He's magnetised by it because it looks divine and because attachment, this is the part two, this is explained very well in Tantra, attachment triggers a good feeling in the body, the mind actually, then the body. And because we're junkies for good feelings and then we deduce wrongly that the fishing must cause it. So, of course, you keep wanting to fish. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:32 Highlight the passage at 1:28:32

1:28:55 This is what attachment causes and it's based on a lie. So the pleasant feeling is cool, you're allowed to have pleasant feelings. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:55 Highlight the passage at 1:28:55

1:29:06 The tragedy is now because it's the torturing and the killing and the sex and the lying and the stealing and the cake and the fishing that trigger it, which we assume is the main cause. First of all it's wrong, it's a mistake and it drags us down because it pollutes the pleasure. So the more harmful the action... Report an error in the passage at 1:29:06 Highlight the passage at 1:29:06

1:29:26 The more heavily it pollutes the pleasure. So in the end, it's like the pleasure of the wild pig eating the hot shit. Best way to say it. To anyone looking on the outside, it looks disgusting. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:26 Highlight the passage at 1:29:26

1:29:39 The pleasure, you know, to the person, because it's triggering good feelings, that's what so deludes us. Because it triggers such pleasant feelings. We really can't see what we're doing. This is the tragedy of the fisherman, another terrible by-product of following our feelings. Following our feelings. The fisherman. This is the thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:39 Highlight the passage at 1:29:39

1:30:02 This is starkly illustrated when his mum told me that she went fishing with him one time. She didn't like fishing. She never told him to fish. She never taught him to fish. But she couldn't bear it. But she never told him not to fish because she tried to respect her boy. She went fishing one time. And this is the point. This is the worst part. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:02 Highlight the passage at 1:30:02

1:30:21 Because he has got the tendency to fish. Because he is attached to fishing, because it looks more divine than it really is and he thinks about it all day and defines himself in those terms and only wants to go fishing all the time and thinks it's good, he sees the same flapping fish in that boat as his mum did. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:21 Highlight the passage at 1:30:21

1:30:39 They see the same thing. This again is emptiness. They see exactly the same thing. They both agree they're on a boat in the river or in the ocean and they see fish bouncing about. They both see that. But look at their interpretations. Because she doesn't have a tendency to kill, therefore she doesn't have attachment, therefore it doesn't look delicious to her, therefore she sees it more nakedly, more accurately. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:39 Highlight the passage at 1:30:39

1:31:02 She sees by the body language of the fish that they're not happy, that they're suffering. She sees it, clear. He just sees flapping fish. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:02 Highlight the passage at 1:31:02

1:31:12 But he's so caught up in his own story, which is what attachment does, it's got this whole novel that attachment writes, that your mind is full of this story. So that causes that scenario just to be a reflection of his story. He sees flapping fish but he doesn't join the dots. This is the worst tragedy. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:12 Highlight the passage at 1:31:12

1:31:34 The torturer intellectually knows he's causing harm but the pleasure is so enormous he's lying to himself massively so he can't see that. He can see but it's hard to see. The fisherman never even sees harm because he doesn't value fish because our world doesn't think of fish having suffering. The best you can do is see a flapping body. His little eyes are like saucers anyway. It can't express much. It doesn't have a voice. It has no legs and arms. It can't climb out of the boat. The best it can do is flap its little body. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:34 Highlight the passage at 1:31:34

1:32:03 Poor fish. If they squealed like pigs, who would go fishing? Fish die quietly for our convenience. So we can't see their suffering. This is the tragedy. She could see suffering right there because there was nothing in between her and that. And that's why attachment... It's such a cruel, cruel thing. It looks like it doesn't harm others, but it causes us to do all the harm we do to others because we're attached to what we want. And if it's actually attached to harming others, that's when it's so heavy. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:03 Highlight the passage at 1:32:03

1:32:33 But most of the time it's a honey-covered razor blade, you know. Attached to sex. It looks like you're having a good time. It looks like you're being kind to each other. And he'd get into you. Where's Sarah? Attached. Who can complain when Sarah reaches out to help? It would be cruel to say, who do you think you are helping Sarah? It doesn't look like there's any negativity there. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:33 Highlight the passage at 1:32:33

1:32:54 But this is where attachment starts to get tricky. Because you see, this gets us to the deeper understanding of attachment. This is not even talked about. This level of attachment, which I'm about to talk about now, which we began to touch on yesterday, which the Tibetans called the Eight Worldly Dhammas, which sounds so abstract to us. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:54 Highlight the passage at 1:32:54

1:33:10 It's taught on the Mahāyāna level. The simplest level of attachment is refrain from killing, lying, stealing, back off, play safe, don't harm others, protect your body, protect your speech and then in high school begin to meditate, begin to understand attachment through meditation and begin to be cautious about it. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:10 Highlight the passage at 1:33:10

1:33:24 To really see how it's causing you suffering because it is a honey covered razor blade. It's very hard to see it. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:24 Highlight the passage at 1:33:24

1:33:33 So it's only when we've really subdued our body, speech and mind in the first stages of practice and now beginning to move more dramatically into the compassion wing. And attempting, you know, attempting to understand our own mind, to try and now benefit others. And we're trying to then continue to radically break down, you know, all the delusions, break down the delusions in our mind which prevent us from benefiting others. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:33 Highlight the passage at 1:33:33

1:33:57 Now we're focusing on others. So here we look at deeper levels of attachment, subtler levels, more pervasive, more primordial, much harder to see. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:57 Highlight the passage at 1:33:57

1:34:07 So these eight worldly dharmas as the Tibetans call it, there's just eight ways of labelling attachment, four sets of little pairs. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:07 Highlight the passage at 1:34:07

1:34:17 And this is the primordial level that attachment functions at. The first one is said to be that we're totally attached to, junkies for, no, okay, this attachment works at this level, that it's the assumption that happiness is having nice feelings. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:17 Highlight the passage at 1:34:17

1:34:35 It seems so bizarre to think of anything else it's almost hard to hear it. And that therefore totally attached. Just to getting nice feelings. The broadest one is this. And therefore attached to be free of unhappy feelings. Desperate. The millisecond you have a slight pain in your knee is panic stations, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:35 Highlight the passage at 1:34:35

1:34:53 Instantly trying to find a way which pill, which that doctor wear, chiropractor something, who, where, what, how, which one, that one to help me get rid of the pain. The second we have it, even a small pain. Look at this. Panic, isn't it? Because attachment is getting what it wants, a nice feeling. Instant. And we'd never question it. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:53 Highlight the passage at 1:34:53

1:35:12 Not a millisecond. The next pair are attached to getting things. They're usually in the old-fashioned days, I suppose it was related to the monks in the monasteries, attached to be given things, attached to gifts. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:12 Highlight the passage at 1:35:12

1:35:26 But for us, it's attached to getting things, having things, and then desperately wanting to be free of not getting things. We might hear that one much in our minds and think about it, but think about it. Then the last two are getting real tasty, really right. And the way I would like to say it is these last two. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:26 Highlight the passage at 1:35:26

1:35:44 Are the closest in a way to the view of I. They're the closest to ripping out these last two out of the way of really easily ripping out the belief in the self. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:44 Highlight the passage at 1:35:44

1:35:56 First lot, first pair, attachment, desperate to hear nice words with your name in it. Join to your name. You with me? And can't bear. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:56 Highlight the passage at 1:35:56

1:36:15 Hearing nice words, unnice words with your name in it. Unnice words about other people. Oh, we love hearing them. But as soon as Robina's in it, oh my God, panic, hysterica, mental breakdown, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:36:15 Highlight the passage at 1:36:15

1:36:28 And the last one, the most pervasive, the hardest to see, and these last two are getting to Sarah's point. The first one as well, getting good, all of them actually, is the one of attachment. They call it attachment to reputation, which sounds a bit grand, but it's attachment to what people think of us. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:28 Highlight the passage at 1:36:28

1:36:45 And the more we see this one, it actually, this one seems to motivate just about everything we do. In other words, it's almost as if the assumption is that I'm nothing until someone else sees me and approves of me. Do you understand? Like I mentioned, you think at even the deepest level of it, think of loneliness. This sounds quite shocking to us. Think of loneliness. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:45 Highlight the passage at 1:36:45

1:37:13 What it means is we have no one to hear us. No one to see me, no one to approve of me, no one to feed me back to myself. I'm not being cruel here. Because in our world we see ourselves as social beings, so we see this as healthy and good. And you can see how it's healthy and good. You can see how absolutely a child needs this in order to grow into a nice being. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:13 Highlight the passage at 1:37:13

1:37:37 But you see, we don't factor in the child's stuff. We don't factor in their mind. We don't think that plays a role. We just assume. So we can see how praising a child and loving a child and nurturing a child can help a child grow up nicely with a reasonable sense of self. But, excuse me, we don't factor in the fact that if that child has got psychotic tendencies from past lives, you can praise them till the cows come home and they'll still be a psycho. I'm not being mean now. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:37 Highlight the passage at 1:37:37

1:38:02 We don't factor in the child. We don't factor in their mind. So, of course, in a conventional sense, and from our point of view of practicing love and compassion, our job is to talk to people, is to make them happy and kind, is to make them to be loving. That is our job. But the neediness, the attachment is, no one's doing it to me. Therefore, we think I'm nothing. That's what we mean by loneliness. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:02 Highlight the passage at 1:38:02

1:38:24 You don't have no one to talk to. So, the logical question has to be, well, okay, I'll think to myself, why do I need someone to talk to? Why do I need that, Robina? If I'm using Buddha's view, if I've got all my qualities inside my own mind, if I've got the potential to become a Buddha, if I've got the potential to be blissful and I can be loving and compassionate and wise, I can give up attachment which means I'll be completely content and blissful, why do I need someone to talk to? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:24 Highlight the passage at 1:38:24

1:38:48 It doesn't mean you've got to be autistic and talk to nobody. That's not the option. We've got to look at the attachment, the neediness to having someone see me a nice person. and therefore what you know Therefore, what that says about what I think about myself, which means I have to think I'm nothing. It has to mean that. It has to mean I'm not worthy. It has to mean that. It has to mean that, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:48 Highlight the passage at 1:38:48

1:39:11 I'm not worthy. But only when someone comes along and you can be even more neurotic than me. I don't care. If you praise me, I'm happy. Are you seeing my point? Report an error in the passage at 1:39:11 Highlight the passage at 1:39:11

1:39:22 We're cheap, really. We're cheap dates. As long as anyone asks us out, we'll go out. Anyone will do. Praise me. Say I'm nice. Please. I'm not being horrible. Hear it. You know, I even look at the one about, this is hilarious, this one, when you're in a restaurant, you know, and your neighbour's talking a bit, your friend, your sister's talking too loud. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:22 Highlight the passage at 1:39:22

1:39:44 You should be quiet, they're watching at you. What do you think for? Of course, we have to work out the difference between good behaviour and thinking of others, which is virtue, and worried about what people think about me. That is the one that shows us most strong. And that's why in our life, if we look at it in daily life, we're living with people, we're living with neighbours, we're living with work people, we're living with the people on the road, in the street, at home, your hubby, your kids, all this network of other beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:44 Highlight the passage at 1:39:44

1:40:12 And this frantic, distracted, schizophrenic, as you would call it, sense of self is always watching out the worried, you know. And we're defining how we feel based on what they think. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:12 Highlight the passage at 1:40:12

1:40:25 It's so primordial. It's so hard to see this because it's every second. And we call it... Being a good person. And I'm not saying you're not a good person, but it's... And because also this other one of maybe the good person, like the good girls and bad girls, and Sarah's a good girl. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:25 Highlight the passage at 1:40:25

1:40:43 Don't put down the being good girl and don't not criticise my being a bad girl. But they're both made and voted by our own needs, you know. Don't think they're not. So I, you know, my being rude was because I wanted to get my way. And I had enough lack of conscience. I didn't care what people thought, but in a way I did. I was desperate they loved me. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:43 Highlight the passage at 1:40:43

1:41:01 But I looked like I didn't care. Rubbish. It was just rudeness and arrogance. But Sarah would not be that way. She wouldn't be angry. She wouldn't be unkind to people. She'd be helpful, wanting to make people happy. So this is the one, too, another way of broadly putting this attachment of all the kinds. Attachment is attachment, attachment, no matter what it's for. The main thing of attachment, the main thing attachment wants, desperate, junkie, is things to be nice. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:01 Highlight the passage at 1:41:01

1:41:26 Things have got to be nice. You understand what I'm saying? When we really understand this, so we taught it in terms of nice feelings, nice things, everything out there nice, people behaving nicely, getting nice sounds, nice smells, nice taste, nice praise. Everything is nice. Attachments are junky to have everything nice. And if we understand the relationship between attachment and aversion, which is so intimate. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:26 Highlight the passage at 1:41:26

1:41:53 We don't think this way in our ordinary daily life. Who would think anger has got to do with attachment? We don't think of it this way. But this is the one where we understand this is very, very tasty. Anger is the response when attachment doesn't get what it wants. But what's tricky is, you know, anger for some people, which, okay, bare bones state of mind that informs what we call anger, the volatile expressing of something. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:53 Highlight the passage at 1:41:53

1:42:22 It's aversion, aversion. There's attachment and aversion. So, attachments are junky to get nice things and aversion is the panic when attachment doesn't get what it wants. And this happens a million times a day. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:22 Highlight the passage at 1:42:22

1:42:40 So, whether it's wanting to make the world a better place, which sounds very noble, wanting to help your, you know, Sarah wants to help her alcoholic brother, which is very noble. Can't argue with that part. It's marvellous to want this. But what we don't notice is that our attachment... It's frantic for the brother not to be an alcoholic. And my mind is frantic for the world not to be environmentally unsound. Let's say that's what I want, the world to be nice environmentally. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:40 Highlight the passage at 1:42:40

1:43:05 So my attachment is frantic, it's like a junkie in there, informing, polluting my compassion, desperate to have the world the way I want it. And let's say, you know, Sarah, the good girl, just using an example, you know, desperate. The compassion in her wants her brother to be well. She really does care about her brother. But her attachment to have everything nice, It's like informing that and polluting it and this attachment is a junkie for a non-alcoholic brother. So it's panic and drama and you talk about him behind his back and if only this and how dare, how can we help him? Report an error in the passage at 1:43:05 Highlight the passage at 1:43:05

1:43:40 Because the anxiety is called by attachment. Anxiety is not caused by compassion because compassion when it's correct is brave and strong and courageous and patient and will never give up. But our compassion is polluted by attachment. Therefore gets anxious and worried when things don't go the way our attachment wants it. But it's really hard to see it because we can't discriminate between these voices in our head, these mental factors, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:40 Highlight the passage at 1:43:40

1:44:10 So sometimes we have to let things be. I mean the wisdom wing for me is like minding your own business. I find that a good way to say it to myself. The wisdom wing is you control your body, you control your speech, you back off, you leave sentient beings alone. The kindness and compassion and love, that's the compassion wing. We've got to do it. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:10 Highlight the passage at 1:44:10

1:44:28 But if we're trying to practice the wisdom wing, let's say our tendency is always to interfere and try to make people better and try to do the nice things because that gives us the pleasure, that gives us the good feelings and that gives us the praise and that gives us the good reputations. That part of our attachment is really fed, hugely, of course it is. There's nothing more divine than doing something for beloveds and then they thank you profusely. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:28 Highlight the passage at 1:44:28

1:44:53 What we're thinking of, isn't it, when we're in love, especially if we're in love with somebody, with your child or your beloveds, when you're thinking of doing this thing for them, what you're really thinking of is them getting it and them seeing it and them thanking you. We are. And it's so exciting, isn't it? You can't wait to give this gift and have them open it and look at it and love you and say thank you. This is attachment. Don't think it's not. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:53 Highlight the passage at 1:44:53

1:45:11 But it's so tricky because it's so mixed with the good part. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:11 Highlight the passage at 1:45:11

1:45:17 It's so mixed and it's so natural, but it's so hard to see. So hard to see. It's at the level of assumption and it drives most of what we do. Buddha is saying this. So how marvelous that we've got some kindness to add on top of that, isn't there? I mean, if you're just having your attachment and harming people as well, then you're in trouble. At least we're doing good things. At least we're trying to be nice people and help others and serve others and be kind. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:17 Highlight the passage at 1:45:17

1:45:40 But we've got to be much more wise because as Lama Tsongkhapa puts it, meaning well is not enough. You need wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:40 Highlight the passage at 1:45:40

1:45:50 That means... You've got to have enough clarity in your own mind which comes from less attachment, not to mention less ignorance. Wisdom is what you get as you lessen your own neuroses. That's what wisdom is. You can't kind of grow special wisdom, you know. Of course by thinking about emptiness you will, but all the delusions which are the root, are rooted in the ignorance which is the opposite to emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:50 Highlight the passage at 1:45:50

1:46:16 They're all the cause of why we don't have wisdom at the grosser level. So by looking more carefully at our mind and attempting to be motivated by the genuine wish to do the right thing, which is the thing that's wise as well as helpful, and then when you see that it's not going to bring much help, you don't say those words. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:16 Highlight the passage at 1:46:16

1:46:33 You leave it alone. That means your attachment is going to have a panic attack, but you've got to be brave in the face of it and accept it. This is like what patience is. Patience is seeing that horrible thing that attachment can't bear and accepting it. Not just sort of like repressing, but opening your door, opening and walking into it, welcoming it. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:33 Highlight the passage at 1:46:33

1:46:59 That's patience. It's a stupendous state of mind. It smashes attachment. It smashes attachment, which is fear and panic. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:59 Highlight the passage at 1:46:59

1:47:10 You accept this is my alcoholic brother. I can't change him. So love him for who he is. Stop manipulating him to change because your attachment can't bear him being an alcoholic. And then you talk about him behind his back. And then the thing you do is all you ever do is think about him as being an alcoholic. He happens to have other qualities. Guess what? You know yourself is so insulting when people keep pointing out your main mistakes. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:10 Highlight the passage at 1:47:10

1:47:29 Because all they do is see you in this particular way. They reference you that way. She's always this way. Or she's that angry person. Or she's that depressed. Oh, how are you, Robina? You're so depressed. There's other things there. So talk to the better part of the person. Your brother's an alcoholic. He looks like he's not wanting to give it up. You can't force him. Hello, Fred. How are you, sweetheart? Report an error in the passage at 1:47:29 Highlight the passage at 1:47:29

1:47:46 Have a cup of tea. And he wants to moan and complain. Don't buy into it. Treat him with respect. Talk to the better part of him. That's how you respect people. That's wisdom. But all the time, oh darling, how can I help you? What's wrong? Of course he's going to feed into that and have self-pity and it will just drown him. But we're so unwise in how we help people. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:46 Highlight the passage at 1:47:46

1:48:06 We're so buying into the self-pity. I'm not being cruel here. We buy into that ugly part of that person because it's all we see because we don't like what they are. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:06 Highlight the passage at 1:48:06

1:48:17 All looking like we're being kind. Of course we're being kind, but hear my point. So it's very scary this because sometimes there is nothing to do. Sometimes you just be there and love them and keep your eyes wide open and when you see a window of opportunity then the wisdom will be that you will help them because they're open to your help. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:17 Highlight the passage at 1:48:17

1:48:36 Because the only time to help somebody is when they're open to it. We bully our way into people's lives or we want to make sure we are the nice girl doing all the nice things and we make sure that we're seen to be nice. This is the attachment to reputation. Massive. Massive. So needy. This is how we are. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:36 Highlight the passage at 1:48:36

1:48:55 This is samsarable, this is. This is hard to see, this level. This is the one that really informs most of our actions. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:55 Highlight the passage at 1:48:55

1:49:08 So any questions from that? That seems clear? Yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:08 Highlight the passage at 1:49:08

1:49:15 Yes. No difference, even no different. Every single word here is perfectly applying to mother and child. No difference. Not a fraction of difference. Well, I'm sorry, there is a difference in that your job is to help them. You don't leave them alone. When your child's walking across the road, I mean, your job. But like, this is where it's a really important point. Even I said yesterday the point, you know, when we were talking. Where are you? There you go, darling. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:15 Highlight the passage at 1:49:15

1:49:44 What's your name again? And I always forget. Adita, please forgive me, darling. I really think of it and then I forget again. Adita. So Adita's point yesterday. We first have to establish what is the relationship between her and her boy. That's why I said, are they young or are they older? And we sort of established that maybe she is technically a mother and the 20-year-old son is technically a son or is it a daughter? There you go. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:44 Highlight the passage at 1:49:44

1:50:09 So that is true. You can say they are child and mother but her role has changed because they've left home and they're now their own boss. So then it's a different relationship. But if you're a mother and the child is small, your job is to watch them like a hawk. So then you must tell them what to do but even then you've got to use wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:09 Highlight the passage at 1:50:09

1:50:28 Because if they're not going to listen to you, it's water off a duck's back. You've got to have the wisdom to know how to speak to them, how to help them, so they do hear your advice. It still needs wisdom, but you need to intervene as a mother because it's your job, isn't it? In that sense, it's different. But the attachment discussion is exactly the same, especially with a child. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:28 Highlight the passage at 1:50:28

1:50:49 Attachment completely runs the show with a mother. It's interesting, I remember one time when Lama Zopa Rinpoche heard about somebody, some mother. In the tsunami, people were praising this mother who ran back into the tsunami for her child. And remember she said, wow, amazing. But even more amazing if she'd run back into the tsunami for a stranger. Because mothers will do anything for their children, run to burning houses. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:49 Highlight the passage at 1:50:49

1:51:21 And it is pretty amazing. Yeah, that's right. It's pretty amazing, courageous. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:21 Highlight the passage at 1:51:21

1:51:43 No, not yet. But I know that's pretty stunning. Well, what you could... No, no. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:43 Highlight the passage at 1:51:43

1:51:50 Yeah, well that's if we look at the compassion wing where we now see that the main emphasis here is to smash this attachment to self in order to develop compassion for others. And then when a person has so practiced that, they see the benefit of compassion and the thought of not having it. Yes, that's pretty intense, isn't it? Yeah, that would be pretty amazing to have that, wouldn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:51:50 Highlight the passage at 1:51:50

1:52:14 And that really comes right down to the basics though also, the very basic level. It shows... The awareness of whatever arises in our mind helps or harms us. And that's something we don't have in the materialist world. We think we're allowed to be angry and tortured and depressed and jealous because someone else harmed us. Whereas that view, even the very basic level in Buddhism, Buddha's getting us to see that our anger harms us. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:14 Highlight the passage at 1:52:14

1:52:41 Forget about whether you're justified or not. Our anger harms us. And that shows that kind of awareness, which is pretty incredible, that you don't want to lose compassion because you know yourself that would poison you. You'll torture you. That's a very powerful one. That point is amazing. Yes. Yes, darling. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:41 Highlight the passage at 1:52:41

1:53:08 The key to that, Louise, is understanding karma. But you have to understand karma. So how would you think it works? Why would you think you have to understand karma to have forgiveness? What's it mean? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:08 Highlight the passage at 1:53:08

1:53:25 For your sake, yeah. But why would you have forgiveness for somebody? Why would you need to? Or even compassion. What's compassion then for these people? Which people are you having compassion for? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:25 Highlight the passage at 1:53:25

1:53:39 For example, Report an error in the passage at 1:53:39 Highlight the passage at 1:53:39

1:53:43 okay, what about a person who offends you? Why would you have compassion for them? Let's say somebody tortures you. What would be the reason you'd have compassion for them? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:43 Highlight the passage at 1:53:43

1:53:58 That's for your sake, but that's good. That's good because you see that hate would hurt you. But what would be the logical reason karmically why you should have compassion for them? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:58 Highlight the passage at 1:53:58

1:54:10 Nothing to do with him. Nothing to do with that at all. So it's your personal business. Why in your mind would you have compassion for a torture who harms you? Or who harms anybody else for that matter? Karmically, what's the reason? Report an error in the passage at 1:54:10 Highlight the passage at 1:54:10

1:54:25 You don't know. No, you don't know basically. Say you don't know. Just say you don't know. It's easy. Just say I can't work it out. I can't work it out. No, you didn't ask this question. I'm asking you this question. You asked me a different question. Okay? Okay, I'll tell you why. This is why renunciation is fundamental first. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:25 Highlight the passage at 1:54:25

1:54:43 And renunciation, remember from yesterday. One, I'm sick to death of suffering. But now finally I know why I'm suffering. Because of my past karma and my delusions. That's what renunciation is. So then now you transfer that to others and that's compassion. Oh my God, look at that suffering. I can't bear that suffering. And then second, now I know why they're suffering. Or that they're causing themselves suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:43 Highlight the passage at 1:54:43

1:55:10 And that's why you have compassion for them. Because they're causing themselves suffering. Do you see that? Yes, I do. That's the reason to have compassion. And when you have that level of compassion, it includes every single being in the universe. All the torturers, all the pedophiles and all the victims. We only like to have compassion for victims now. Or for offenders who are nice and distant from us. Because they didn't offend us. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:10 Highlight the passage at 1:55:10

1:55:31 That's easy. We like to feel sorry. That's what good girls do. We like to feel sorry for people. I'm not being rude to you now, but that's a typical thing. Where some people would hate offenders because they harm other people and how dare you like offenders and what about the victim and that kind of thing. So that's the reason, that's the basis of proper valid compassion because we are all creating our own suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:31 Highlight the passage at 1:55:31

1:55:50 We're all suffering now at the hands of others because we've harmed them. We all harm others now and we'll suffer in the future because of that. So we are all suffering because of our own past actions and our own present actions. That's the basis of compassion. And when you have that as the basis of compassion, Everybody is an object of your compassion. Everybody. Not a single one left over. And you can't have that for others until you have it for yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:50 Highlight the passage at 1:55:50

1:56:14 And that's what renunciation is. It's like compassion for yourself. Based on karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:14 Highlight the passage at 1:56:14

1:56:23 What do you think? Have you ever heard of a person who walks to the piano, has never practiced and plays a full magnificent piece of Bach? Have you ever heard of a person like that? Report an error in the passage at 1:56:23 Highlight the passage at 1:56:23

1:56:34 Louise, answer my question. Have you ever heard of a person who's never learned piano, who sits at the piano and plays it? Well then what do you think you have to do to learn to play piano? And you then have to do what? Fake it till you make it. You have to fake it till you make it, don't you? Don't you? Well then, why different with compassion? It's just the same. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:34 Highlight the passage at 1:56:34

1:56:54 You fake it till you make it. Based on logic. Based on logic. Do you understand, Louise? Good. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:54 Highlight the passage at 1:56:54

1:57:16 So what's the point here in relation to what I've just said? I know the story. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:16 Highlight the passage at 1:57:16

1:57:28 No, that's not the story at all. That's another story altogether. That's not that one though. But you got it wrong. It's not the story at all. You got two stories mixed up there. Okay. So never mind. Have you got what I've said from this? Have you got the point from this? And then naturally if you have compassion, of course you'll forgive. That's nothing special. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:28 Highlight the passage at 1:57:28

1:57:48 Forgiveness will come naturally. Compassion has to come first based upon karma. Do you understand? Okay, good. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:48 Highlight the passage at 1:57:48

1:57:59 What was that for? Report an error in the passage at 1:57:59 Highlight the passage at 1:57:59

1:58:03 Go on. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:03 Highlight the passage at 1:58:03

1:58:20 Right. Yes. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:20 Highlight the passage at 1:58:20

1:58:29 Yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:29 Highlight the passage at 1:58:29

1:58:37 Right. Yeah. That's right. Exactly. Yes. Right. No. That's right. That's right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yep. That's right. So then. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:37 Highlight the passage at 1:58:37

1:58:51 Right. I understand. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:51 Highlight the passage at 1:58:51

1:59:05 Yeah. But that's advanced. What are we getting at? No, no, Roshan. Yeah, well, if it's old, especially if it's a close relative and old, you really don't have much choice about it. You've got to really sacrifice yourself and be kind to them because they're nearly dead, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:05 Highlight the passage at 1:59:05

1:59:20 Oh, absolutely. If it's an old person, also some old close relative, is it? Yeah. Who's a meanie. Are they mean to you or everybody? Report an error in the passage at 1:59:20 Highlight the passage at 1:59:20

1:59:34 I understand that. Okay, I understand. How often do you have to see this person? Well, then, okay. So one of the things to do is then here is to... You make a decision when you're going to go see them. Okay, they've got me for two hours. Is it an hour at a time, two hours at a time, every now and again? And you decide this is their time and you just spend your entire time not thinking about yourself and especially not having attachment to them being nice to you, which of course is why it makes us upset. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:34 Highlight the passage at 1:59:34

1:59:57 Just deciding, listen, they're old. No time left. And you have compassion because she's absolutely ruining her own mind. She's messing up her own mind by being so mean and nasty, isn't she? She's polluting her own mind close to death, not so cool. So you do everything you can, not in a needy way, but just genuinely respectful, genuinely kind, genuinely praising her, thanking her. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:57 Highlight the passage at 1:59:57

2:00:20 And don't even try to force good feelings. It's like you're writing a new script and you're playing a little role in a play for that hour. And once you decide this, it's easy. If you come with all that tension and expectations, it'll be painful. Just decide and then when you're like this, there's nothing she can do. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:20 Highlight the passage at 2:00:20

2:00:39 Nothing. She can't answer back. It's like deaf ears. Either she'll respond in a sweet way or it'll even annoy her more because there's nothing she can do. You're not buying into her rubbish. And that's skillful. That's wisdom as well. That's wisdom as well. Do you understand? Because anger... I know from having anger. Anger is looking for someone to grab onto, is looking for a fight. But you give her nothing but kindness. She cannot fight with you. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:39 Highlight the passage at 2:00:39

2:01:06 She's left silent. So it's skillful for her sake as well. But mean it. Don't be sarcastic. Mean it. I know, but you're expecting her to be kind in return. That's the problem. But why we say we give up is because what you're waiting for is her to now start being kind to you. But that's the expectation. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:06 Highlight the passage at 2:01:06

2:01:25 That's attachment. yeah, yes. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:25 Highlight the passage at 2:01:25

2:01:34 Yes. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:34 Highlight the passage at 2:01:34

2:01:38 Exactly. I know. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:38 Highlight the passage at 2:01:38

2:01:43 Can you give me an example of an action? Because there's so many variations. What is an example of an action? Report an error in the passage at 2:01:43 Highlight the passage at 2:01:43

2:01:53 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's right. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:53 Highlight the passage at 2:01:53

2:02:11 But did your action actually cause that? Or is it just that it didn't work in the end? Or did your action actually cause the bad thing to happen? Well then, okay. Of course you did good. You didn't cause that bad thing. You see, there's more than just our wanting things to work, to make it work. There's the karma of that person. That's the main thing. The main reason it didn't work is the karma of that person. They didn't have the merit to be helped. They had obstacles. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:11 Highlight the passage at 2:02:11

2:02:39 It's not your job. Your job is just a facilitator. So, you know, that's it. You don't feel bad. You feel bad, of course, but you delight that you tried to help a person, but they didn't have the karma to be helped. That's not a point we ever think of. A person has to have some merit there from their own virtue in order to receive help from others. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:39 Highlight the passage at 2:02:39

2:02:58 Do you understand that? It's a really major point to think. We don't think that one at all. That's why mothers bear all the guilt for everything that went ever wrong in the family. It was a complete grotesque exaggeration of their role. Do you understand? I remember even being mad at my mother. Because she felt she was completely responsible. I felt almost like she was being insulting. Excuse me, Mum, I played some role in my life sort of thing. Back off, you know. You can't take all the responsibility. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:58 Highlight the passage at 2:02:58

2:03:24 That's what guilt and ego does. So you're just a small part of it. The real one is whether this person has the merit to be helped. And if they don't have it, you didn't do anything wrong. No, of course not. You only tried to help. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:24 Highlight the passage at 2:03:24

2:03:50 Yes. All you can do is do what you can do, which is have prayers done as soon as you hear about it and do what you can. You can't help much. A person dies in an accident. You just can't help much except rely upon their merit. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:50 Highlight the passage at 2:03:50

2:04:04 Yes. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04:04

2:04:07 That's right, precisely. But they might have virtue in their mind. They might have died with a happy mind. You don't know. But all you can do is do what you can do for them. Now, if you have faith in the Buddhist ones, you get practices done to help their mind. You know, there's not much we can do and that's why if we are, that's why when we do understand that we're going to die and we don't know how we're going to die, we can all fantasise about dying peacefully in bed. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:07 Highlight the passage at 2:04:07

2:04:28 Thanks, you know, we just don't know it won't be an accident or you don't know you won't drop dead and fall into your soup. It happens all the time. So better prepare now. That's why we've got to start preparing now, isn't it? By thinking about impermanence and being virtuous and purifying our non-virtue. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:28 Highlight the passage at 2:04:28

2:04:48 Virtue and the wish to be, the aspiration. Virtue, practising strong virtue, but mostly the aspiration, the strong aspiration, literally the strong wish, the strong wish. In the same simple way, what's the main cause of me walking out this door? What's the main cause of me walking out this door? That's right. I won't otherwise, I'll sit here in my chair. I'll be very surprised if my legs pick me up and take me out the door until there's a thought. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:48 Highlight the passage at 2:04:48

2:05:14 Do you understand? So it's not a joke to say this and as Lama Zopa says, there's a saying in Tibetan, everything exists on the tip of the wish. This is the meaning of karma. When we understand this, it's so easy, it's outrageous because we tend to think it's all coming from out there and you cross your fingers and wait for it to come. We've got to make it happen. An aspiration motivated by the best motivation. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:14 Highlight the passage at 2:05:14

2:05:35 That is the karma. Every day wanting that, every day aspiring and every day practicing virtue to bolster it. Do you understand? That's it. And then at the time of death, you should make sure that they do this one because your consciousness, if it leads through the crown chakra, as Lama Zopa says, nowhere else to go but the pure lands. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:35 Highlight the passage at 2:05:35

2:05:56 So make sure they pull you when you're dead. Tell them to pull your thing here. Pull you at the crown chakra. Tap there strongly because your consciousness leads through different places. If it leads through the sex organ or lower down, that could be a sign you're going to the lower realms. That's why you shouldn't touch dead bodies unless you touch them at the heart chakra or up here. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:56 Highlight the passage at 2:05:56

2:06:14 Up here. Nowhere else to go but the pure lands. So, you know, tell them what to do when you're dead. Yeah, yes. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:14 Highlight the passage at 2:06:14

2:06:29 It's a good way to help creatures. I remember driving along the ring road in Kathmandu with Rinpoche and a group of people and the driver ran over this little family of ducks. There's a mummy duck. And little baby ducklings. I remember we sat in the middle of the ring road in Kathmandu with all the cows and the big trucks racing by while Lama Zopa did transference of consciousness on the little duck, you know. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:29 Highlight the passage at 2:06:29

2:06:47 And so this little baby duck, I'll never forget it, this little fresh little baby duck and the little heart was out going boop, boop, boop. You see this little heart exposed. And Rinpoche's doing all this Powa practice on his little pulling it at the front chakra. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:47 Highlight the passage at 2:06:47

2:07:00 Yeah. Yes. Oh, it's okay. It does. It's not a question that matters. It's a question, if I miss the red, if I go through the green light, does it matter? It's a practical issue. If you get the wrong place, then obviously you don't. But it's around about there. You know where it is. The central channel is just in front of the spine. And it's just about here. You'll feel it. You'll feel it. About there. You'll feel it. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:00 Highlight the passage at 2:07:00

2:07:28 What? What? You tap. Like that. Yes? This is a very funny conversation. Yes? What? Report an error in the passage at 2:07:28 Highlight the passage at 2:07:28

2:07:47 Yes. That's right, exactly. No, no, that's just because they're pointing out the power of compassion. That's all. But even that in spite of intentions. I mean the story about the Buddha in his past life when he was a bodhisattva. Clairvoyant, you know, amazing powers, enormous compassion. And he's on this boat. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:47 Highlight the passage at 2:07:47

2:08:09 Remember the 500 merchants? With his clairvoyance, he could see the mind of one of these dudes who was going to kill everybody and steal everything for himself. And he was so immensely moved by compassion for this old guy, this guy, for the guy, not to mention the other 499 people. So overwhelmed by compassion for him to the terrible suffering he would have in the future lower realms, that he said, I'd rather go to the hell realms myself. I would rather do it, so I'd kill him. I'd kill him to stop him, and I'd rather go to the hell realms. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:09 Highlight the passage at 2:08:09

2:08:34 Well, not only did he not go to the hell realms, but it actually increased his... He'd hastened his path to Buddhahood because of the immensity of this compassion. This is the example of exchanging self for others type of teachings. You'd rather suffer instead. That is what Lok Tonglen is and that's why it's such a stupendous practice. The bravery, the courage to rather me than you, which is this outrageous level of compassion. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:34 Highlight the passage at 2:08:34

2:08:59 You understand? So let's get back to the Heart Sūtra. So now let's talk a bit about... The emptiness part of the Heart Sūtra rather than the five aggregates. So what does it mean that we need to look upon it like this correctly and repeatedly beholding those five aggregates also, meaning everything, as empty of inherent nature? Report an error in the passage at 2:08:59 Highlight the passage at 2:08:59

2:09:24 What is this? Well, like we began yesterday, if you were here, one of our biggest problems is to get our mind around the use of the word emptiness. I find this incredibly important. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:24 Highlight the passage at 2:09:24

2:09:40 So once we get the hang of this one, then I think it's a lot easier. So let's just look at the way they use the word. And it's the tradition of two and a half thousand years of building up. And this is the benefit of the lineage tradition, the oral lineage. I see with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, he pays incredible respect to the words that he has heard from his holy beings, the mouths of his holy Lamas. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:40 Highlight the passage at 2:09:40

2:10:01 So it's because of the respect of this, brings the blessings of it, you know. So Rinpoche repeats those words. So when our trouble is in our culture, when we hear those words coming from middle-aged, arcane Tibet, not to mention India from 1,000 years, 2,000 years before that, then of course it's not a way we talk. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:01 Highlight the passage at 2:10:01

2:10:22 We use a very different way of talking. This is where it's interesting. When Lama Yeshi, the Lama of IPMT, my Lama, and the main Lama of Lama Zopa, who's the Lama now, our teacher now, he, when he first met Westerners, Back in the mid-60s, a friend of mine called Gene Smith, this American fellow who passed away recently, has this amazing project, worked for 40 years in India, employed by the Library of Congress in the States. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:22 Highlight the passage at 2:10:22

2:10:45 It was some extraordinary, interesting thing. They paid him to salvage and collect. Tibetan texts so he had this when he came back to the States after 40 years he lived in Boston I remember visiting him there for a while then he went to New York and he had this house four stories and every room was the Kargyu room and the Ningmar room and the Tantra room and the Sakyu room and the Gelugpa room every room was full of text from top to bottom He met Lama Yeshi in the 60s. He already spoke Tibetan. He'd come from the States and he met Lama Yeshi in Kathmandu. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:45 Highlight the passage at 2:10:45

2:11:17 And he said he was blown out by his ability, even though his English was completely chaotic, he was blown out by Lama, yet his ability to speak in a very psychological way, just like a Western person does. Because if you hear a traditional Tibetan, then you hear a Westerner. It's like you can't even recognise the same thing. Because the words, the use of the terms, the structure, the concepts, or the things that they will choose to tell you are so utterly different. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:17 Highlight the passage at 2:11:17

2:11:43 So Lama seemed to have this skill. To find not just the use of the words, but what was important for our ears. He always spoke experientially. And that's something I really remember. So anyway. So, okay. So, this word emptiness, when we hear the words like, you know. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:43 Highlight the passage at 2:11:43

2:12:04 Empty of inherent nature. Or we hear emptiness. We hear word emptiness. Or we hear we've got to realize emptiness. We've got to see emptiness. We've got to cognize emptiness. We've got to perceive emptiness. Because we don't understand the use of the word emptiness, we just stay stuck with it and we reify it. Oh, emptiness. What's that? Report an error in the passage at 2:12:04 Highlight the passage at 2:12:04

2:12:20 So it's like saying you've got to realise E equals MC squared and you just don't go further. Oh, E equals MC squared. Wow, God, E equals MC squared. How do I get that? E equals MC squared. And 30 years later you're still saying, oh yeah, oh you know the nature of reality is E equals MC squared. What's it mean? Oh God, I don't know, it's so complicated. But you've never bothered to study it. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:20 Highlight the passage at 2:12:20

2:12:37 You haven't learned the words. Right? You get my point? So let's look at another way of hearing the use of this term. We'll use the example of yourself and do it again. With Ron I did it. Who did I do it with Ron? Was it Ron? Yeah, it was Ron. I'll do it now. Same one. Okay, no, even before I start. Okay, same old thing. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:37 Highlight the passage at 2:12:37

2:13:00 In Buddhist philosophy, as I mentioned yesterday, Report an error in the passage at 2:13:00 Highlight the passage at 2:13:00

2:13:07 there's various synonyms for that which exists. Phenomenon, object of knowledge, existent, established base. There are several. And they're all different terms used to refer to what exists conventionally. Okay? Report an error in the passage at 2:13:07 Highlight the passage at 2:13:07

2:13:26 And the universe as we know it is made up of lots and lots and lots of different little things, wouldn't you agree? Millions of things, millions of phenomena. A phenomenon for the Buddha is an object of knowledge, meaning an object, a thing that can be known by our mind. This is a fundamental point in Buddhism. So the definition of the synonym called existent, the definition is that which can be cognised by mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:26 Highlight the passage at 2:13:26

2:13:58 So in other words, that which mind cognizes, and clearly it's got to be a valid cognition, and there's various precise ways of determining what is a valid cognition, that which is cognized is necessarily that which exists. And it's axiomatic that that which exists is necessarily that which can be cognized by mind. Please hear this point. Report an error in the passage at 2:13:58 Highlight the passage at 2:13:58

2:14:24 It's massive. This is really indicating the whole Buddhist approach. The centrality of mind. The definition of an existence is something that your mind can cognise. That's why Buddha posits omniscience. Because whatever exists, if it exists, can be cognised by your mind. It's a shocking statement. We do not think this way in the West at all. Christians, you'd put you in hell for that. God knows everything. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:24 Highlight the passage at 2:14:24

2:14:53 We've reified this, you know. But we ordinary people, no way. Buddha totally disagrees with this because he says everything comes from mind. So everything comes from mind. Everything is made by mind. If everything is made by mind, surely our mind can cognise it. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:53 Highlight the passage at 2:14:53

2:15:11 Do you see what I'm saying? It's sort of hilarious. Okay. Then why are we looking at this? Because Buddha is saying at the moment our trouble is our dumb minds are cognising things that don't exist. That's our problem. We're living in la-la land. We've made up junk. So our job is to sort out the mind. And so one of the approaches, which we're discussing here, is to discover what does exist and what doesn't. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:11 Highlight the passage at 2:15:11

2:15:41 First, theoretically, how do you establish what exists? So you've got two truths, conventional existence and ultimate existence. Conventional truth, ultimate truth. So we have to first establish, how do we establish? How something exists conventionally. And Report an error in the passage at 2:15:41 Highlight the passage at 2:15:41

2:16:11 then we proceed to discuss its nature and find out where the mistakes are and how it exists ultimately. And that's emptiness. So shorthand. Haven't got a clue what it means yet. Listen to it. Shorthand. Emptiness is how it really exists. Like confusion. It's just the way they talk. It's really shorthand. It's really come to a real essence. And this is the way they talk. So obviously you have to unpack it, you know, to be able to extrapolate, to be able to explain it clearly. Report an error in the passage at 2:16:11 Highlight the passage at 2:16:11

2:16:43 So first we have to establish what does exist. Then we can begin to discuss it. So how do we establish what a cup is? And actually the more we do this, the more it actually is implying, like we talked yesterday, the subtlest level even of emptiness. But we can go there gradually. So first we have to say, Mum, what's a cup? You've just heard what a cup, what's a cup, Mum? Well, she will give you the definition, okay? Report an error in the passage at 2:16:43 Highlight the passage at 2:16:43

2:17:08 And a definition, you hear it, it has two parts. The first part tells you its conventional characteristics. The flat-bottomed clay. Round thing with a space in the middle and a handle. I mean, whatever. You get my point. So that part, you go straight away. You'll see it. You can recognise it. Oh, yeah, I see. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:08 Highlight the passage at 2:17:08

2:17:26 Look at that. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Round, flat-bottomed with a space in the middle and a handle. I get it, Mum. Yep. But I'm not cappy yet. I have to have the second part of the definition, which is fundamental. This tells me what it does, what its job is, what its function is. Really, in other words, what it is. Oh, sweetheart, it holds my T. Report an error in the passage at 2:17:26 Highlight the passage at 2:17:26

2:17:46 You get me? That's the definition of a cup. That we decide. And then what happens? We've got to do a bit more yet. That's not enough to prove it's a cup yet. We've got to prove it. So how do we prove that that is a cup according to that definition? How do we prove it? What's the most obvious thing to do to prove it? Report an error in the passage at 2:17:46 Highlight the passage at 2:17:46

2:18:07 Huh? Pour tea in it. And then if it does hold your T, we've just proved it does fulfil its function. It fulfils its function, isn't it? What's a knife, mum? Well, it's a long skinny piece of metal with a sharp edge. You can see it immediately. What does it do? Oh, darling, it cuts things. Oh, good, let's try. Cut. It does it. Hey, it's a knife. Easy, isn't it? And the one extra check, they say, you've got to make sure there's no other valid cognition of it that contradicts that. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:07 Highlight the passage at 2:18:07

2:18:30 Valid cognition. Valid cognition. And when you study Buddhist psychology, you study this in depth. Okay. And this is the point here. Then we can be comfortable between us in this room. We can all sign the contract. That's a cup. We all shake hands. We agree on it. You understand? So this is what conventional nature means. How do you think it exists? It's by agreement. We've agreed it's a cup. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:30 Highlight the passage at 2:18:30

2:18:58 And this already is the subtle dependent arising. Already this is pointing to emptiness. That's made by our mind. Already. But there's ways to go. You've got to go through this. There's various stages we have to go through to get there. But we can see this already. If we have made it up, we've decided it's that. We've decided it's that. Report an error in the passage at 2:18:58 Highlight the passage at 2:18:58

2:19:14 But you see, this is the trouble. This is what they say when you reify things. This is what they mean when the Buddha says we're seeing things as self-existent. What he means by that is this. That we just assume, oh, well, there's a cup, you know. It's a cup. What do you mean we made it up? Don't be ridiculous. It's a cup. It's a cup. It is the way it is in itself, in and of itself, from its own side without depending on my mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:14 Highlight the passage at 2:19:14

2:19:42 It's a cup. Buddha says ridiculous. Nothing can be this way. Hell, heaven, enlightenment, whatever you want to posit as existing cannot exist this way. That's the concretising, the putting it out there and I'm just seeing this cup and that's just the way it is, like the pink person. Yeah, pink people are such creeps. They do this and that. They are that way. Come on, you're not going to argue with me. That's truth. That's seeing things as self-existent. Report an error in the passage at 2:19:42 Highlight the passage at 2:19:42

2:20:07 That's seeing things as if it's got nothing to do. This is the subtlest one. It's got nothing to do with you. They're that no matter what. Buddha says a load of rubbish. It's a story, including a flat-bottomed container with a handle that holds T that is a story made by our mind. But you know what? It happens to be valid. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:07 Highlight the passage at 2:20:07

2:20:28 Because it does fulfil its function. So that's a valid statement of a valid conventional truth. But it's made by our mind, isn't it? But if I say there's a knife, that's not a valid statement. We have agreed that a definition of a knife is a long piece of metal that cuts things. If we've agreed upon that definition, then this is not a knife. But guess what? Report an error in the passage at 2:20:28 Highlight the passage at 2:20:28

2:20:51 Who says we can't call it a knife? But we've got to do a lot of work. We've got to ring up Wikipedia and all the dictionaries and everybody in the whole world to all agree. Do you see what I'm saying? That a knife is a flat bottle container that holds tea. Are you seeing my point here? We can easily do that, but look at the hard work you've got. Just relax and keep calling it a cup, please. Report an error in the passage at 2:20:51 Highlight the passage at 2:20:51

2:21:09 You've got everyone to agree with it. Are you seeing my point? You know, HSBC do these nice ads, and this is the meaning of emptiness. You know, you have an ad, they have the ads, and it shows in one country, having your shoes off, bad. Look, you go to a fancy party in our country, you throw it out the door if you take your shoes off. In India, take your shoes off, good. You walk in with your shoes into the goppa, they'll throw you out. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:09 Highlight the passage at 2:21:09

2:21:30 So where's the truth, the inherent truth in good shoes off and shoes on? It's what you agree on what it is. You all agree and shake hands, so it becomes good and becomes bad according to your view. Can you see my point? Buddha says everything exists like that. Everything. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:30 Highlight the passage at 2:21:30

2:21:50 So anyway, first we established there is a cup that is a flat bottom clay container that does hold, or it could be plastic, whatever, that holds tea. So then we all agree and we now use it as a cup and it does function beautifully. But now you see, Buddha says we're not happy with that. We're not happy with that because that's enough to prove it's empty actually, but it's not enough for us. We are so thick. Report an error in the passage at 2:21:50 Highlight the passage at 2:21:50

2:22:12 What we do is we then are projecting, according to our level of mind, and this is where Buddhist teachings on emptiness, they discuss, they argue with different levels of propositions, of views, you know, three different stages of understanding emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:12 Highlight the passage at 2:22:12

2:22:27 The first one, the grossest one, the one that all the Buddhist schools argue with, which is the Hindu position, which you could also say is the Christian position, Report an error in the passage at 2:22:27 Highlight the passage at 2:22:27

2:22:40 is that there's a permanent cup that doesn't exist in dependence upon causes and conditions. That doesn't exist in dependence upon causes and conditions. We can go to the object called self. Because whether it's a cup or a self or a toilet or enlightenment or hell or a clock, if we can first label it, define it, establish it as existing and then agree upon it, then we can begin to discuss it. Report an error in the passage at 2:22:40 Highlight the passage at 2:22:40

2:23:10 And everything existing in the universe, everything existing in the universe is existing in this way. So let's just use the object called self. Let's use the object called self and this is what's so fascinating already. Before we begin to discuss how I exist, Report an error in the passage at 2:23:10 Highlight the passage at 2:23:10

2:23:36 just like before we begin to discuss how the cup exists, we have to first establish a cup, don't we? Right? Then we can look at how it exists. We can talk about how it's impermanent and not permanent. We can talk about how it's not this but it's that. We can talk about how it doesn't have an inherent nature but it has this. Report an error in the passage at 2:23:36 Highlight the passage at 2:23:36

2:23:54 We can then discuss the thing. So you've got to posit a thing first before you discuss how it exists. You with me so far? Yes? Makes sense? Okay. So now let's take the object called I. You just use your I and I'll use my I. Before we begin to discuss how the I does exist, we have to establish that there is an I, don't we? Report an error in the passage at 2:23:54 Highlight the passage at 2:23:54

2:24:17 Same argument as the cup. Don't we have to do that? A conventional I. So, you know, we can all say I is, in Buddhism, I, self, person, being, generally, are synonymous. I, self, person, being, generally, synonymous. Okay? So, in order to discuss how this particular I exists and your particular I, we have to establish conventionally how it exists. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:17 Highlight the passage at 2:24:17

2:24:47 So we first have to label it. We have to give it a name. Well the name is I. What's an I mum? What's a person mum? What's a being mum? What's a self mum? Well sweetheart it's the name we give to the combination, in the human case let's say, a human I is the name we give to the combination of body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:24:47 Highlight the passage at 2:24:47

2:25:09 You with me? Will that do? That functions as a person. They walk and talk and do mathematics and whatever you want to say. So then we can establish that's what a self is. We're talking human self here. We can have an animal self because it's the same type of definition. But here we're talking just within the humans. Let's say that. The broader definition really is for all selves. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:09 Highlight the passage at 2:25:09

2:25:28 Okay, let's do the broader one because all selves or eyes or persons, the term in Tibetan is wonderful. A mind possessor. It's a great word. Semchen is the term they use for a sentient being or a self or a person. A mind possessor. A saṃsāra, we're talking, no, okay, all. A mind possessor. So straight away it brings again the centrality of mind for Buddha. Consciousness. A mind possessor. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:28 Highlight the passage at 2:25:28

2:25:53 A mind possessor. That's a sentient being. A mind possessor. That's enough for a definition. A mind possessor. A mind possessor. That'll do us here. Okay. So we establish an ant, a dog, a human, you know, when Buddha talks about a hell being, you know, these other kinds. Mind possessors. All right. So now. Report an error in the passage at 2:25:53 Highlight the passage at 2:25:53

2:26:14 You see this is the point, we have to establish that before we can begin to discuss the emptiness of that self. We have to establish the conventional cup before we begin to discuss the emptiness of the cup. Because again the first thing I'm trying to show here is emptiness, before you get to know what it is yet don't worry, emptiness is a characteristic of something that exists. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:14 Highlight the passage at 2:26:14

2:26:42 This is why nihilism is a total nonsense. Emptiness is a characteristic of something that exists. Can you hear that point? Therefore, it is bizarre to say there is no self, period, and then just chuck the baby out with the bathwater. That's madness. That means you just go nowhere with that. That's just nihilism and you might as well die. Are you hearing me, people? Emptiness is a characteristic of a something that exists conventionally. Report an error in the passage at 2:26:42 Highlight the passage at 2:26:42

2:27:13 Say the words, write it down and you'll think about it. God, the Swannies are already, oh no, the Swannies are playing in an hour, aren't they? I have to watch during lunch, the first quarter. Hawthorne lost yesterday, Geelong lost, yeah, they got smashed by Richmond. So it's a bad sign for Sydney, I know. Okay, so write those words down because it's contradictory to what we think, but I'll explain it. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:13 Highlight the passage at 2:27:13

2:27:38 Emptiness, which we will explain, is a characteristic of something that exists. Okay. Now we get to these words here where it says form is empty, emptiness is form, okay, right there. Emptiness is not other than form and form is not other than emptiness. Technically that's not a correct statement but they say, what it's saying is you cannot have emptiness without something that exists conventionally. Report an error in the passage at 2:27:38 Highlight the passage at 2:27:38

2:28:18 Now we'll do this discussion here. There's three things we've mentioned here. One is you've got to establish something that does exist conventionally. Give it a name and a definition. It fits the definition. That does exist. Let's discuss it now. We did that one. Secondly, we looked at the synonyms of that which does exist and why they're so important because Buddha's saying we need to learn to cognise that which does exist instead of all the rubbish we're cognising. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:18 Highlight the passage at 2:28:18

2:28:39 yeah so sorry Report an error in the passage at 2:28:39 Highlight the passage at 2:28:39

2:28:45 Do we accept that the blue exists here on this cup? This is how Buddha would talk, that blue exists on this cup. You agree, don't you? Do you accept that a handle exists on this cup? Do you accept that white exists on this cup? Do you accept that there is no red on this cup? So turn it into a, I think the only way I like to say it is turn it into a noun. Report an error in the passage at 2:28:45 Highlight the passage at 2:28:45

2:29:05 Turn it's not red into an existent, into a phenomenon, into an object of knowledge. Turn it into a noun, in other words. Turn that into a noun. If you were here yesterday, you'll remember it. Absence of red. Do you accept that red is absent here? Do you accept there's no red here? Yeah, you accept? So turn it into an object of knowledge. Meaning, I like to say, turn it into a noun. Report an error in the passage at 2:29:05 Highlight the passage at 2:29:05

2:29:34 Absence of red. You accept that, don't you? It is not a way we tend to think, but the really simple reason here is because we can agree that absence of red does exist, yeah? Okay, so emptiness of red does exist. Yes, you agree? So wouldn't you agree that blue is a characteristic of a cup, this cup? Wouldn't you agree that the absence of red is a characteristic of this cup? Would you agree with that? Would you agree with that? Report an error in the passage at 2:29:34 Highlight the passage at 2:29:34

2:30:03 So it's not just being clever, because like I said yesterday, you could say that absence of elephant is here as well. But there's a very good reason why Buddha wants us to see the absence of red on this cup is because we think there is red there. We're making a mistake. We're projecting red where it doesn't exist. There is a cup. Do you understand? Report an error in the passage at 2:30:03 Highlight the passage at 2:30:03

2:30:27 There is a blue cup. So we can even, we can go further there in a minute, but we have to establish that there is something first, then we see that we're projecting something on top of it that doesn't exist there. Can you hear that? This is why, what? Report an error in the passage at 2:30:27 Highlight the passage at 2:30:27

2:30:49 I'm about to get there. Would you, okay, this is what I said before. Okay, if you, okay, good. Get the point again. If you're colour blind, if you're colour blind and you see this as red, do you accept, theoretically you're making a mistake? As long as we've established what blue is, and we've all agreed in our world that blue is this colour, yeah? But you see it as red. That's a possibility, isn't it? So if we don't see it as red, we don't need to bother with it. Report an error in the passage at 2:30:49 Highlight the passage at 2:30:49

2:31:16 We already know the truth. But you are seeing a lie. You're making a mistake, aren't you? So Buddha says to you, you need to realise the absence of red. You do, don't you? Would you agree with that? You don't look confident. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:16 Highlight the passage at 2:31:16

2:31:31 Why would you need to see the absence of red on this cup? Why would you need to realise it's not red? Why would you need to realise that? Report an error in the passage at 2:31:31 Highlight the passage at 2:31:31

2:31:42 No, it's agreed upon that it's blue. You agree this is blue. So then if you see it as red, do you accept that you're making a mistake? Do you accept you're making a mistake if you see it as red? Report an error in the passage at 2:31:42 Highlight the passage at 2:31:42

2:31:56 Of course you do. That's the point. But let's assume you are convinced. You know there's a thing called blue and you know your colour. Let's say you accept that you know you're colour blind. That's already a good progress. That's progress. If you think you're not colourblind, you think it really is red. That's what Buddha says we're all doing in the world now. We believe things are self-existent. We believe things make us happy. Report an error in the passage at 2:31:56 Highlight the passage at 2:31:56

2:32:13 We believe you're the cause of my problem. These are all the lies that our mind tells us that we believe in. Do you understand? So, okay, you can even accept. Well, let's say, forget it. Let's say, let's say I'm seeing it as red. And you have to first point out to me, okay, let's say I'm seeing it as red. I don't know I'm making a mistake yet. No problem. I don't know I'm making a mistake. Now, you know I'm making a mistake. Report an error in the passage at 2:32:13 Highlight the passage at 2:32:13

2:32:35 You've established the colors. You know that red is not this color. You know it's blue. You've got wisdom. You know the truth. Let's say, right? So you won't bully me into saying it's not red. Come on, Robina, it's blue. And I don't see it as blue. I see it as red. I believe it's red. I've always thought it's red. Do you understand my point? Report an error in the passage at 2:32:35 Highlight the passage at 2:32:35

2:32:50 Deepen my bones. So you won't bully me, and this is the point, you won't bully me into seeing it as red. What would you do to help me see the truth? What would you do? Report an error in the passage at 2:32:50 Highlight the passage at 2:32:50

2:33:05 And then, that's very good, that's a great start, to even recognise I might be making a mistake. Oh my God, I'm not right. Wow, that's already a good step. Then what would you do? How would you get me to see it as blue? What would you do? Practically, what would you do? Report an error in the passage at 2:33:05 Highlight the passage at 2:33:05

2:33:22 No, that's not enough, that's just convincing me, that's making me believe it. How would you get me to actually see red? Blue, blue. How would you get me to see the truth? What would you have to do? That's it, there you go. We look at the dependent arisings, we look at the factors that might be causing me to make a mistake and we fix them. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:22 Highlight the passage at 2:33:22

2:33:42 Do you see? It's a practical thing and that means you've got to fix my glasses, fix my eyes, check my language, understanding, check the lighting and you fix all those. You understand what I'm saying? Then eventually, and then this is the point, let's say you fix it all and you show me the cup again. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:42 Highlight the passage at 2:33:42

2:33:57 I'm going to get a big shock. I'm going to go, oh my God, it's not red. Wouldn't I say that? Wouldn't that be a big shock to me? That's seeing emptiness. You've seen the emptiness of red. So what we're talking here is obviously not the emptiness of red. We're talking about, okay, exactly the same wording. Report an error in the passage at 2:33:57 Highlight the passage at 2:33:57

2:34:16 What Buddha's saying is there is an I that does exist conventionally. There is a table. There is a cup. There is a cushion. These are things we can even agree upon. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:16 Highlight the passage at 2:34:16

2:34:27 But the way that what we're doing is we haven't got just one lie but many layers of lies in our mind that are causing the cup to appear, or the me or everything, to appear wrongly to us. Can you hear that concept? And those lies are called, first of all, there's a lie that's called seeing it as permanent. Look how we believe we're permanent. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:27 Highlight the passage at 2:34:27

2:34:51 Look how, you know, it seems like a joke to think I'll die today. Unless you're on death row and you've got a date with the executioner tonight at midnight. And even then you'll be living in denial, hoping you won't. Let's say you've got cancer, you know your death's coming soon and maybe you're prepared to accept it. Report an error in the passage at 2:34:51 Highlight the passage at 2:34:51

2:35:05 It's coming soon. But look at the fierce fight we have to get to to see the simple truth that we're impermanent. Because why? Because there's a rotten lie in our mind that believes utterly I'm permanent. We don't think we have that lie, but everything we speak and say indicates it. Do you understand what I'm saying? And that's why... Report an error in the passage at 2:35:05 Highlight the passage at 2:35:05

2:35:23 To argue with that lie you have to fix the problem which is look into our mind and identify that lie and then argue with it. Consciously, cautiously, reasonably every day until slowly the penny drops. Report an error in the passage at 2:35:23 Highlight the passage at 2:35:23

2:35:43 This is ignorance, yeah. This is one word. The root ignorance is the one. I'm not getting into this. The deepest lie is called ignorance. They're all ignorance, but they give this very deep meaning to the particular root ignorance called marigpa, which is the one that's ignorant of emptiness. We're getting there in a minute. So the top lie, the grossest lie, we could say is seeing as permanent. So we have to argue with it. Use... Report an error in the passage at 2:35:43 Highlight the passage at 2:35:43

2:36:03 The truth, to argue with it until one day the penny drops. And why we even have that grasping at permanence to me or my fancy grandma's antique cup is because I'm desperately like a junkie attached to my grandma's cup. Want my grandma's cup to be there every day. So we project a permanence onto it. All the lies are connected. Do you understand? So when I see that chocolate cake, what I'm seeing is a divine, delicious, delicious cake. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:03 Highlight the passage at 2:36:03

2:36:33 Just vibrating deliciousness and sort of like sitting out there, not me, not thinking for one second that the cake I'm seeing isn't the cake that exists on that plate. I believe there's a divine delicious cake on that plate. Like I believe that's read. I believe and what this means is I think I'm just this victim sitting here all innocent and this delicious cake comes along. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:33 Highlight the passage at 2:36:33

2:36:57 It's not my fault. Do you recognise what I'm saying? That's the lie of attachment, which exaggerates. Lama Zopa says, what all these lies do in the mind, which are all working hand in hand, ever more subtle, all the way to the grossest lie, the subtlest lie, what they're all doing, and this is the point, is decorating on top of what does exist, layers upon layers upon layers of characteristics that don't exist. Report an error in the passage at 2:36:57 Highlight the passage at 2:36:57

2:37:29 You with me? And what's interesting, he said one time, or maybe many times, but I remember reading it, Report an error in the passage at 2:37:29 Highlight the passage at 2:37:29

2:37:39 when you've realised emptiness, when you've uprooted all the other lies and finally uprooted the root lie, he says, when you've realised emptiness, when you've seen the emptiness, and I'm going to go into that, the real meaning of it, getting to it, getting to it, but the root lie, you've removed the biggest lie of all, when you've finally realised emptiness of yourself, let's say, he says, it's as if. Report an error in the passage at 2:37:39 Highlight the passage at 2:37:39

2:38:04 There is no self. But there is. But what does exist is so subtle, it's as if it's an illusion. So in other words, this smoke and mirrors idea. The more we think about emptiness, the more it seems to be saying, you keep stripping away the lies. Well, it isn't that, it's not this, it's not that, it's not this. Oh my God, what is it? It's a terrifying idea that maybe there's just nothing there. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:04 Highlight the passage at 2:38:04

2:38:28 But there is. But what does exist, it is as if it's an illusion. So literally it's like there's nothing from this, anyway that's getting to emptiness, don't get there yet. I don't want to get to the meaning of emptiness yet. Just get to the idea of how these lies, many of them, are all projecting onto something that does exist, things that don't exist there. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:28 Highlight the passage at 2:38:28

2:38:47 We can hear this, can't we? Surely. We're doing this every day with pink people, with you, with me, with enemies, with friends, with cake, with toilets. We do this all the time. This is what saṃsāra is. And the tragedy is, as Lama Zopa says, we don't think our mind is playing any role because we think the cake is delicious. We think you are a creep. Report an error in the passage at 2:38:47 Highlight the passage at 2:38:47

2:39:06 We think pink people are horrible. We concretise everything and have this sense of separateness from it. I'm just this innocent victim. And of course our materialist view completely expresses this. So the general idea here I'm trying to get at is how in our mind there are these neuroses, these lies, these delusions that project, Report an error in the passage at 2:39:06 Highlight the passage at 2:39:06

2:39:33 Characteristics onto what does exist, which is so subtle as if it doesn't, Report an error in the passage at 2:39:33 Highlight the passage at 2:39:33

2:39:42 layers upon layers of these characteristics which don't exist there. And so the job doing this, talking this way of being a Buddhist, is understanding the words of what does exist and what doesn't and understanding the words of the lies and how they lie and what they are projecting and then learning to not first not believe in them like the first step. Report an error in the passage at 2:39:42 Highlight the passage at 2:39:42

2:40:04 And then slowly doing the dependent arising logic analysis, deconstructing, unpacking, slowly using logic which will trigger the insight into seeing the truth Report an error in the passage at 2:40:04 Highlight the passage at 2:40:04

2:40:20 correctly and repeatedly. Are you with me people? The general procedure. The general procedure, you know. So, it's lunchtime. Okay, it's lunchtime. So... Think about your lunch, how there's nothing from its own side. It's completely no inherent nature. It doesn't exist in the way it appears. It's just your projection. Just think of your lunch like that. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:20 Highlight the passage at 2:40:20

2:40:46 And then meanwhile, think of it as divine, delicious nectar. You're going to make it nectar and you're going to make it delicious and you think of offering it to all the beings of the universe and they all bliss out and then you eat it with a happy mind. All right. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:46 Highlight the passage at 2:40:46

2:40:58 So, come back. How did timing yesterday go? Was it all right? Too long? Too short? A bit long? Oh. Well then come back early and just ring a bell and come and get me if you want to come back early. I know so. Okay, come back at two. Yeah, and see how we go. Just play it by ear and talk about this stuff please. Report an error in the passage at 2:40:58 Highlight the passage at 2:40:58

2:41:18 Talk about not emptiness yet, we haven't got to the meaning of this emptiness. Can you hear my point? Just the procedure, the approach of how we're projecting things onto things that don't exist there. That's the key. Beauty, ugliness, niceness, you this, this, this and that and to the subtlest one even the very thisness of it, the thusness of it. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:18 Highlight the passage at 2:41:18

2:41:37 Which is the subtlest one. But don't go there yet. Okay? Enjoy your lunch. Your merely labelled lunch. Report an error in the passage at 2:41:37 Highlight the passage at 2:41:37