The Misleading Mind

0:00 Yeah, and also I'll probably be using that one to some degree. I've got to stand up and move around and things like that. I don't have to. I will say that today is just a little sample of what we would like to have in the future. You're here just for a couple of hours. But even before you start, I would love to have you back again. You better wait. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:21 Wait till the end. So please enjoy. Thank you for coming, Karuṇā. Thank you for having me. Come. end. Report an error in the passage at 0:21 Highlight the passage at 0:21

0:32 Okay, there's the heater went off. Good. So thank you for inviting me, Teresa, everybody else. And it's true, Teresa has been silently hounding me to come, but it just was a little bit logistics always get in the way. Life gets in the way. So this talk that I'm going to do, which Carol mentioned that you're pretty casual here, which is good. Report an error in the passage at 0:32 Highlight the passage at 0:32

0:57 I think you said that, right? You did? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 0:57 Highlight the passage at 0:57

1:22 So I might stand up afterwards and you can stand up and lie down or whatever it is you need to do. However you get the information best. How many people here, before I really get going, are these, are all of you, everyone's been to the center? I don't mean the center, but everybody is, no exact new people? Report an error in the passage at 1:22 Highlight the passage at 1:22

1:46 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:46 Highlight the passage at 1:46

1:51 Yeah. New and improved. Well, I don't have to prove it's new. Yeah. Okay, so let me tell you. So with this, what I'm doing. Report an error in the passage at 1:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51

2:04 It's okay. No, I'm okay. I'm just looking for the book. It's over there. Anyway, I wrote a book. And so I want to give you the context for the book because I think that's important. I think context is always important. Otherwise, it's like, thank you, that's it. It looks like this. I'm not promoting it. Report an error in the passage at 2:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04

2:25 I'm just showing you what it looks like. A lot of arguments over the cover between myself and the publisher. They won, but I think they were right. Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

2:35 So that's what I'm going to just talk about because I've done readings and stuff like that in bookstores and when I go and do a reading, I don't do any reading from the book. First of all, I don't know why people would stand up and read from a book when they can buy the book. So I'm more interested in sort of the theory behind why this book was written, the context, the history and the content too, of course. Report an error in the passage at 2:35 Highlight the passage at 2:35

3:00 So. Report an error in the passage at 3:00 Highlight the passage at 3:00

3:03 So the background is like this. So usually I start my history with my history of my entire life. Really starting from something like early days where, well, I was a product of the 60s. That's how old I am. Anyone else around that time? Thank you. So anyway, I grew up outside Los Angeles and didn't like school. I didn't get school. And no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't seem to figure it out. Report an error in the passage at 3:03 Highlight the passage at 3:03

3:40 I'm talking about junior high. We had junior high then. Right now it's middle school. Junior high and high school, I just could not. To the point where actually I thought, well, I always got B's and C's. I didn't get D's and F's. But I'd study hard and then I wouldn't. No matter what I did, I always got the same sort of grades, B's and C's. Report an error in the passage at 3:40 Highlight the passage at 3:40

4:00 So after a while, I must confess, I just started to cheat. And, you know, you write things on your, on your, anyone else? I know no one else did this, right? So I wrote things there. I've been really good at it because I just was, my mother was very intense about grades and, again, about achievement. And so it was like, you know, I read a report card, go home, there's the same thing, B, C, B, C. Report an error in the passage at 4:00 Highlight the passage at 4:00

4:23 And so, you know, when I started doing that thing where you cheated, did my grades get any better? No. It's amazing. It's the same thing. Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this is because I think I liked to learn, but I didn't know that I liked to learn. And pretty soon I was really disconnecting from school. I think our kids today have a lot better because there's so many more options. And so then I started being in L.A. Report an error in the passage at 4:23 Highlight the passage at 4:23

4:52 in the late 60s, early 70s, lots of drugs and that sort of thing. And, you know, at one point... But I was always interested in what is meditation and there was no, I mean there was a little bit of Buddhism but it wasn't accessible, it was mostly yoga and Hinduism and so I got very involved in yoga. I went to a yoga retreat one weekend when I was a senior in high school and I really loved it and there was a little bit of meditation and so I came home and in that week and after that week I became a vegetarian, I quit smoking cigarettes, I quit doing drugs. Report an error in the passage at 4:52 Highlight the passage at 4:52

5:25 I could do all these things and I lost every one of my friends except for one. I was so shocked. I thought they were friends, but obviously they were interested in what people are interested in anyway. Report an error in the passage at 5:25 Highlight the passage at 5:25

5:39 So after high school, I took a year off and my mother said, well, you're going to go to college, right? Promise me. I said, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I had a good year off and I said, well, you know, I postponed. I'm going to take another year, right? And she said, no. You promised. My mother was very kind because she found, that was 1972, and there weren't many alternative colleges. Report an error in the passage at 5:39 Highlight the passage at 5:39

6:04 And she found one. Santa Cruz was just starting, but I didn't have the grades to get in there. And I went to Olympia, Washington, to Evergreen State College. Anyone heard of that? It saved my life, I have to say. What's that? It's a grade school, and it was so perfect for me. No grades. But evaluations, evaluations, so they would translate your grades. If you were going to transfer to another college, they could translate that into grades. And you designed your own program, like what you wanted to do, and you would talk to an advisor. Report an error in the passage at 6:04 Highlight the passage at 6:04

6:33 Anyway, it was fantastic. Anyway, why am I telling you this? The reason I'm telling you this is that that's sort of the context. And as I was getting more into yoga and that sort of thing, I became a yoga teacher. And then I had a falling out with that whole scene, and that's another. Another book, or at least a chapter. Very interesting experience. So it was quite painful. And in my third year at college, at Evergreen State College, it just so happened they had a year in Nepal program for my junior, senior year. Report an error in the passage at 6:33 Highlight the passage at 6:33

7:05 And I thought, wow, I really would have wanted to do that before. But now, you know, I don't know about this Asian, Eastern thought thing. And so I had an advisor who was really amazing. She was a Buddhist. And she gave me a book. And the book was the Bodhicara Vittara, which is like, you know, the Bodhisattva's guide. Report an error in the passage at 7:05 Highlight the passage at 7:05

7:26 I'd never seen anything like that. And she said, why don't you go on this trip? Why don't you do the Year in Nepal program and your program, why don't you do a thing where you go to Nepal and you look at indigenous authentic Hinduism and then you compare it with what's really happening here. Which would have been a fascinating study. I said, okay. Because I wanted to go to Nepal. I thought, where's Nepal? I looked at the map. I said, oh, it's next to India. Find a guru because that's what you were doing. Report an error in the passage at 7:26 Highlight the passage at 7:26

7:53 And I thought, I can sneak across the border. No one will notice. And this idea of doing a comparative study of Hinduism in the East and Hinduism in the West was a bit like telling a Catholic, you know, go to Italy and study Catholicism. It's like, right? It's just imbued. I mean, where do you go, right? So that's how I found myself in Nepal. We were doing immersion, Nepali language. I was living in a village. Great, great program. Report an error in the passage at 7:53 Highlight the passage at 7:53

8:24 And had no idea. I could not connect with this research project I had. I was lost and I wasn't interested. So I made a strange about turn and there was, in this village I was living in, up on this hill, I could see about a mile or two away, was a Tibetan Buddhist. And then someone told me, well, that place has these meditation courses in English for foreigners. Report an error in the passage at 8:24 Highlight the passage at 8:24

8:57 And it's only there or Dharamsala India were the only two places you can go. And I thought, I'm not going up there with 200 tourists. I'm too much, I'm Nepali, I'm a local guy. I'm not going up there, hanging out. So, I don't know, I was so lost with this research project that I did go up there and I walked around. Report an error in the passage at 8:57 Highlight the passage at 8:57

9:18 And anyway, I decided to do that one month meditation course in 1975. And then my year in Nepal program stretched into over 12 years. And I did the longest master's degree program on history. Report an error in the passage at 9:18 Highlight the passage at 9:18

9:36 I was there a year and a half and then I had to come back for a year to finish my senior quarter at Evergreen. And so this is all relevant. Oh yeah, I got a little slide, see. Storytelling. Oh, that was it. We already did that. See, you can't see, but I was the Unabomber there. Report an error in the passage at 9:36 Highlight the passage at 9:36

10:00 That's 19... That was actually after I went to Nepal, but I still had money. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 10:00 Highlight the passage at 10:00

10:14 So this quote is actually in the wrong spot. It should be after the next slide. Thank you. We'll move the next slide now. So Report an error in the passage at 10:14 Highlight the passage at 10:14

10:23 can you see? You can't see. Report an error in the passage at 10:23 Highlight the passage at 10:23

10:31 We could try moving it back again under this little wall. Would it be better in front, little or side, big? Front, little? Report an error in the passage at 10:31 Highlight the passage at 10:31

10:41 We're Report an error in the passage at 10:41 Highlight the passage at 10:41

10:53 going to do bigger. Report an error in the passage at 10:53 Highlight the passage at 10:53

11:09 Cushion was too big. Report an error in the passage at 11:09 Highlight the passage at 11:09

· · · silence, 1 minute

11:45 So Report an error in the passage at 11:45 Highlight the passage at 11:45

11:54 let's get back to business. Okay, I'll run out of time. Report an error in the passage at 11:54 Highlight the passage at 11:54

12:02 So while I was up at Kopan, there's these two extraordinary Lamas. I met, as you know, my main teacher, Lama Thubten Yeshe, who passed away in 1984. Report an error in the passage at 12:02 Highlight the passage at 12:02

12:18 And his protege, I guess you'd say, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Do we have pictures of them yet? Not yet? Okay, they're back here as well. Report an error in the passage at 12:18 Highlight the passage at 12:18

12:28 So when I was at Kopan that first year, I thought, wow. This is pretty interesting. These ideas are pretty unique and pretty fascinating. And Lama Yeshe would come and teach the course for now and then, probably six, seven times during the month. And after a while, I began teaching English to the young monks. It was a monastery, of course. 83 monks. My wife says 85. I always thought 83. Report an error in the passage at 12:28 Highlight the passage at 12:28

12:55 But I was at 83 monks. Sounds better, doesn't it? And so in terms of the 83 monks... And so I started teaching English, experimenting. Yangtze Rinpoche was one of my students, which is why his English is so impeccable now. Report an error in the passage at 12:55 Highlight the passage at 12:55

13:12 And I was a joke, by the way. He was my student, but not his English. Actually, he was a really, really difficult student. I mean, he was seven, eight years old, and he tortured me. Anyway, another story. So Lama Yeshe... Who I, as I said, my main teacher really was the abbot of the monastery, founder of this organization. And, you know, I connected so well with Nepal. Report an error in the passage at 13:12 Highlight the passage at 13:12

13:42 I loved Nepal and I loved what I had found. And yet I had to go back to the States for a short, you know, to finish this degree. And I thought, what am I going to do with my life now? And so I had the great fortune, Lama invited me to breakfast. The last day I was there, and I will warn you, if you get invited for breakfast, don't think it's about breakfast. So I was so nervous. Report an error in the passage at 13:42 Highlight the passage at 13:42

14:09 I remember having, and it was so great because those days the food was, I mean, the food was unbelievably basic. And you always lost a lot of weight and things like that. And so there I was with Lama, and we had like that canned peanut butter, the putina, and he had these fresh chapatis. And some fruit and I think there was an egg there and we're eating. And I was so uncomfortable I was eating. Because I had this question. What was I going to do with my life? Report an error in the passage at 14:09 Highlight the passage at 14:09

14:37 Small question. And so finally I squeaked it out and I said, Oh Lama, what do I do now? And he looked at me and he goes like that, dismissed. I never tell my students what to do. I blew it already. So then I started eating again. There was this really uncomfortable silence. Then he looked at me and said, so when you come back next year, I'd like you to teach my monks. Report an error in the passage at 14:37 Highlight the passage at 14:37

15:08 So I came back to the States for about a year, year and a half, finished that. And I had to figure out a way to go back to Nepal. And in those days, it's really hard to stay. You could stay three months. If you wanted to stay longer, you had to either be in development or student. Well, I knew how to do the student thing. Report an error in the passage at 15:08 Highlight the passage at 15:08

15:25 As luck would have it, I found an independent master's degree program at Antioch University, the other one, the other alternative university then, and that's where I stretched my master's degree for ten years. to keep that visa. So that's the context. Now, what is this? So let's get to the heart of the matter. So ever since probably the early days when I met Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, I always got the feeling that these ideas, these teachings are universal or have a basis that's beyond the culture, that what we're receiving in the Tibetan tradition was not just Tibetan. Report an error in the passage at 15:25 Highlight the passage at 15:25

16:06 It is... And Lama Yeshe himself would say over and over again to us that these principles are universal. And so I was really fascinated by what that meant. And I really felt that if we're going to do a good transition into the West, as we say, or the modern world, we had to understand these universal principles that is underlying all this tradition. Report an error in the passage at 16:06 Highlight the passage at 16:06

16:34 tradition, you know, that we're looking at, that we deal with, all this tradition. I really believe that every single thing that we're looking at that is traditional, these tankas, these water bowls, statues, prostrations, all that, I really believe that somehow it has some universal quality. There is ritual, there is culture, it's true. In fact, His Holiness Dalai Lama was asked by the FPMT Board of Directors once they had a meeting with him many years ago, and they asked him, His Holiness, How do you feel about the possibility of transferring Tibetan Buddhism to the West, or to the modern world? And he said, well, it's possible if you leave the Tibetan with us. Report an error in the passage at 16:34 Highlight the passage at 16:34

17:16 And that's really important. So to distinguish what is Tibetan and what is Buddhism is kind of some of our jobs, I'd say. It's not that we want to, at our level, it's like on a banyan, but to know what is the cultural parts of what we're doing and what is the... Report an error in the passage at 17:16 Highlight the passage at 17:16

17:34 So Lama actually said, you know, what I really want you to do is if you really understand what you really need to do is you need to be able to teach these ideas so that your mother can understand them. He told me that directly. And that's why that's my mother sitting there with Lama and my sister. And this is, I don't know what year, it must be about 79. Report an error in the passage at 17:34 Highlight the passage at 17:34

18:02 I should find out, 1979. And that's up in the patio outside his room. And same patio where in later years when, this is not relevant to the book by the way, in later years I would go and stand outside his room for 5, 10, 15 minutes waiting to go in because I was so nervous. See the nervousness, it got worse, I'll tell you. Because there was a honeymoon stage where he was really nice. And then from the nice it went to... Report an error in the passage at 18:02 Highlight the passage at 18:02

18:33 If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. For me personally, this is my mandate, you could say. You know, sometimes you have to spend, sometimes your mandate is to be a scholar and to really go deep into these ideas and maybe your job is not to explain it but to understand it so there's a good transmission into our culture because it has to be exact. Report an error in the passage at 18:33 Highlight the passage at 18:33

19:09 But then another part of it is we have to be able to convey these ideas which actually the main avenue for explaining the ideas is understanding them. I mean, to be really clear. And the primary for us, you know, the primary way for us to understand them is we have to actually delve deep into them through contemplative and mind training practices, right? Report an error in the passage at 19:09 Highlight the passage at 19:09

19:37 It's not just about the intellect. So we have to try hard on that level. Then I think we can explain it simply enough. And Lama Yeshe had that power or had that quality to explain it in a way, I don't know how he did it, where he really... He transcended any barriers of culture and language and that kind of thing. I don't know. I mean, Lama Zopa, anyone could do it. Report an error in the passage at 19:37 Highlight the passage at 19:37

20:02 It was his choice to manifest that way. This is what he chose to do. So it's not a comment about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who's actually his vehicle, his mandate has been to transfer, I think, the teachings in their purest form. If we just brought them in their universal form, we would lose a lot. So we first need their complete transmission in the traditional exact form and then we can now wrestle with it and play with it and explain it in newer ways without losing the essence. Report an error in the passage at 20:02 Highlight the passage at 20:02

20:42 I'm not really looking at my notes, but maybe I should. No, I'm on track. So in terms of when I return to the States in... At the end of 1988, I had two children that were already born in Nepal. I have three now. The last one was born at home in Santa Cruz. And, you know, what do you do when you're 12, 13, you're studying these ideas? What do you do when you come back? And also the other thing is most of my friends and fellow students, Lama Yeshe, when he was alive anyway, would encourage people to stay. Report an error in the passage at 20:42 Highlight the passage at 20:42

21:24 In Nepal or India for a little while, but then he would send them home because he really felt that that's where the value was in terms of bringing these ideas and integrating them in your own culture. He wasn't very interested in people becoming, not interested, he was actually quite demanding that you don't become Tibetan, you don't become Nepali, you don't become Indian. Report an error in the passage at 21:24 Highlight the passage at 21:24

21:46 Of course, there were some people that stayed and became translators or, you know, Geshis. We need those. But if you were like most of us, then you really needed to come back here and figure this out. So for myself and my wife, we stayed a very long time. It was a little unusual, but I think it was because we were working. We weren't just studying. I think we were kept pretty grounded by having to work there. So when I came back, then I asked... Report an error in the passage at 21:46 Highlight the passage at 21:46

22:18 I didn't ask Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Out of the blue, he said, I think it's good to move back now. And then I really wondered again, what was I going to do? And he just said straight out, he said, I think it would be good to study psychology, Western psychology, modern psychology, which is a good choice for a Tibetan Buddhist, any Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 22:18 Highlight the passage at 22:18

22:42 It's a good choice. So I went and got my master's degree in clinical psychology and then became licensed as a therapist. I didn't do the PhD program because I'd spent that 10 years, 11 years doing that master's program and I just could not write another thesis. It's like anything but that. So I got the master's degree. What do you think? JFK. Report an error in the passage at 22:42 Highlight the passage at 22:42

23:09 Which was good. I'll get to that in a second. Well, good. That's a little bit vague. We'll go into it. Anyone else? Therapists? Social workers? Report an error in the passage at 23:09 Highlight the passage at 23:09

23:23 We're all psychologists, actually. So it was about six, seven years ago, I was moving my office to another office, and as is kind of traditional in the Tibetan traditions, when you move to a new place, you get the new building consecrated, right? So it happened that Lama Zopa Rinpoche was in town, and so was Chudra Rinpoche. And so... Report an error in the passage at 23:23 Highlight the passage at 23:23

23:48 It was great. They agreed to come to this new office. I was just driving them over in my car and Chud Rinpoche was sitting in the passenger seat and Lama Zopa Rinpoche was in the back seat. And of course, those who know Chud Rinpoche should know that there wasn't a lot of conversation going on in the car. But then out of nowhere, really out of nowhere, almost at my office, it's only 10 minutes from my house, and out of nowhere, that's what this slide's about, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said to me, Out of the blue from the back seat, you know, if you're just helping people feel better, there's not much benefit. Report an error in the passage at 23:48 Highlight the passage at 23:48

24:29 And it's true. I'm not exaggerating. My professional clinical life flashed before me. I saw every one of my clients as if, you know, everyone had just flashed before. And honestly to God, I just could not find probably anyone. Report an error in the passage at 24:29 Highlight the passage at 24:29

24:57 the room, motivation where I was, was in that moment if sad, they're anxious they're depressed, whatever, it was like deal with that, deal with that, you know, in that moment pretty much Report an error in the passage at 24:57 Highlight the passage at 24:57

25:12 I tell that story, of course, frequently and I do put a caveat on that, which it was for me. That advice was for me personally. I wouldn't say that, I mean, great, if all therapists act that way, it's true. But, you know, it's like saying an emergency room physician, of course, you're working on helping the person feel good in that moment, you're saving their life. Report an error in the passage at 25:12 Highlight the passage at 25:12

25:32 So it's not to say that helping someone feel good is not helpful. It wasn't helpful for me to put my life in that mode. It was just a way to get me to shift my view, my intention, which is what a lot of our Buddhist training is about anyway. But I think also, to be honest with you, I was a chicken. I was afraid because I just thought, well, what will people think? Report an error in the passage at 25:32 Highlight the passage at 25:32

25:58 I'm just a bit out there, Buddhist psychology. And of course, I wouldn't present it in that way, but I think it was easier to just... people feel better. It's less risky. don't have to make a stand. Report an error in the passage at 25:58 Highlight the passage at 25:58

26:13 That's kind of where things started to change. I did feel like quitting. Again, I'm not exaggerating. I did feel like quitting doing therapy because I just couldn't get the formula. You know, this is like, I remember seven, eight, nine years ago, there was little talk about Buddhist psychology and modern psychology. And people weren't talking about it for a while, but I quit going to most of those kind of conferences because most of them were, all of them seemed to be therapists interested in Buddhism and not Buddhists who were interested in therapy. Report an error in the passage at 26:13 Highlight the passage at 26:13

26:46 I think that's changed. But when I was going, I felt like the only Buddhist in the room. And so when Rinpoche told me that, it did really rock my boat. Report an error in the passage at 26:46 Highlight the passage at 26:46

26:59 It was difficult, but here I am, and that's why the idea of the book. So I'd always wanted to write a book, and just, I didn't so much write a book. It's like I felt I had to get the ideas out. I felt that Lama Yeshe gave me sort of a, you know, a command, a mandate. Because I really began to think that all this experience that I have had, to just hold on to it for myself seems really selfish. So this is my way of sort of giving back because not everyone can go to Nepal for 12, 13 years. Report an error in the passage at 26:59 Highlight the passage at 26:59

27:33 And not all of us, you know, here we are and we got work and we have all kinds of things to do. So I had the great fortune of spending a lot of time and diving deep into these ideas. And so that's why Rinpoche said what he said because what a waste if I wasn't, you know. I did an internship, my internship was at Stanford at the Children's Health Council and I honestly felt like, I'm not a wolf in sheep's clothing, but it was really awkward because I was with all these professionals. Report an error in the passage at 27:33 Highlight the passage at 27:33

28:07 They thought I was a professional, they were wrong. And then at the end, you know, I made a big mistake on a case that I was handling. You know, I had to manage all these cases for all these psychiatrists, psychologists, educational therapists and occupational therapists, all these people. I ran all these teams and I thought it would be discovered that I didn't know what I was doing. Do you get that feeling, you know? Report an error in the passage at 28:07 Highlight the passage at 28:07

28:33 I thought, if they find out, I've got to get out of here, right? So then I went towards the end of my internship with this big media family. You know, these families would pay $5,000, $6,000 to have their child assessed. And then they would meet with all this team of people who did these assessments. Report an error in the passage at 28:33 Highlight the passage at 28:33

28:53 I went in there and it was scheduled for whatever, you know, 9 o 'clock in the morning on a Thursday. And I went in with my supervisor. There's the family. You know, they're kind of always really nervous because, like, what are you going to say about the child? And I went in there with my supervisor and no one showed up. The psychologist didn't show up. Report an error in the passage at 28:53 Highlight the passage at 28:53

29:12 The psychiatrist didn't show up. The occupational therapist didn't show up. The speech, the education, none of them showed up. And I realized I'd blown it. I'd forgot to tell them. Report an error in the passage at 29:12 Highlight the passage at 29:12

29:23 And the family was from the Midwest, so they were staying in a hotel. And I just, what do you do? What do you do when you come from a family where the mistakes are not, you don't make mistakes, right? Anyone come from that kind of family? My family made no mistakes. So I never learned how to do them. Report an error in the passage at 29:23 Highlight the passage at 29:23

29:43 Anyway, I walked out and I turned to my supervisor. I said, Shirley, I'm really sorry. She said, it's okay. We know you're not organized. I said, why didn't you tell me that three years ago? Meaning, you know, she knows Buddhists, all this hiding thing I did. Not that Buddhists are not organized, I don't mean that. But I wasn't. Anyway, so that Report an error in the passage at 29:43 Highlight the passage at 29:43

30:09 was that. The point was, I left that life and I'm trying to adhere to what Lama Zopa Rinpoche said about just helping people feel better, there's not much benefit. Report an error in the passage at 30:09 Highlight the passage at 30:09

30:23 That's a big topic, right? Oh, there it is. Report an error in the passage at 30:23 Highlight the passage at 30:23

30:33 Giving a hug, right? So just giving people hugs, you know, it's good if that's all you can do. But if you have more, you know, giving a hug is not going to solve the problem. Report an error in the passage at 30:33 Highlight the passage at 30:33

30:47 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 30:47 Highlight the passage at 30:47

31:02 So it's very interesting to think this through. Why do we say Buddhism? You know what I mean? Why when we say, okay, so what's this center about? What do you do at this center? Report an error in the passage at 31:02 Highlight the passage at 31:02

31:29 Classes in what? Meditation and Buddhism. Isn't that interesting? You know, in Tibetan, they don't say we're giving classes in Buddhism. Buddhism is a Sanskrit word. Why do we say that? Well, I mean, English is unique. I'm making excuses now. English in the unique sense that it borrows from all these languages, right, and it integrates. Report an error in the passage at 31:29 Highlight the passage at 31:29

31:54 But it's kind of interesting when you think about that. I think that when people come new, maybe you should start off with that idea like explaining why we use the word Buddhism. Why don't we have an English word? Tibetans have a Tibetan word. Japanese have a Japanese word, right? Which Chinese? Anyone speak Chinese? Report an error in the passage at 31:54 Highlight the passage at 31:54

32:15 Someone told me once, what's the word for Buddhism in Chinese? Yeah, that's right. What does it mean? Can you translate it? Report an error in the passage at 32:15 Highlight the passage at 32:15

32:29 Buddha's teaching. Does it refer to the historical? Like when people think Buddha, do they think of the Shakyamuni Buddha? So it's like saying Jesus' teaching. Report an error in the passage at 32:29 Highlight the passage at 32:29

32:44 It's interesting. I think we need to deconstruct this term. Report an error in the passage at 32:44 Highlight the passage at 32:44

32:50 So if we were really being, I don't know, pure, then we would say... Report an error in the passage at 32:50 Highlight the passage at 32:50

33:02 Buddhism, which is like awakeningism, right? Or the path of awakening. Because Buddha in Sanskrit means Buddha means awakened one or to awake, right? Well, that's very different than Buddhism, isn't it? What if people come in and say, welcome to our classes on awakening? I mean, it might sound kind of weird, but that is probably more accurate, right? Report an error in the passage at 33:02 Highlight the passage at 33:02

33:28 I wonder what that would do. So anyway, think about that. Report an error in the passage at 33:28 Highlight the passage at 33:28

33:35 Oh, yeah. Do they talk about awakening? Do they? Report an error in the passage at 33:35 Highlight the passage at 33:35

33:43 They're more evolved than us. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 33:43 Highlight the passage at 33:43

33:56 Well, then you can extrapolate and define, but I was just looking for a straight translation of the word Buddha, which does mean awake or awakened or awakened one person, awakened being. Report an error in the passage at 33:56 Highlight the passage at 33:56

34:10 Buddhism is the practice of awakening, right? Or the system of thought of awakening. So let's move on. It's interesting that we don't really think about it much. But anyway, so it's very interesting that His Holiness the Dalai Lama describes Buddhism in this way, that if science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change. Report an error in the passage at 34:10 Highlight the passage at 34:10

34:35 And these ideas, it's very interesting, right? They're 2,600 years old. And I think that when we look at Buddhism since His Holiness... This often refers to Buddhism as the science of mind or mind science. What's a synonym for mind science? Yeah, it's almost a straight translation, isn't it? So again, so that sort of reaffirmed what Lama Yeshe had been saying to me in those early days. And if you think about it even further, if you look at, it's very interesting the history of Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 34:35 Highlight the passage at 34:35

35:12 Not that I'm not an expert at all, just a very, very casual reader. History of Buddhism. You know, Buddhism started with a Buddha who taught for 41 years or something like that. We're luckier than for Jesus who taught for something like three years. The 41 years he was teaching and he pretty much taught things over and over again. And that's why because there was no written language. Report an error in the passage at 35:12 Highlight the passage at 35:12

35:40 At that time, they didn't write the teachings down, but at the same time, they had the capacity to memorize. And as we know, not we know, if you go to the Tibetan monasteries, the monks spend a lot of time memorizing. And it's unusual. We don't do that. But that's why when Geshe-la teaches, he doesn't often need a text. He just pulls it out of his memory. Report an error in the passage at 35:40 Highlight the passage at 35:40

36:03 It memorized thousands and thousands and thousands of pages. So it's not really at all surprising that the teachings could be written down 400 years later. For us it seems strange, but actually it's not that strange because number one, the Buddha taught over and over and over and over again and number two, they had this great capacity of memory and number three, they, well, those two. Report an error in the passage at 36:03 Highlight the passage at 36:03

36:24 And they committed to memory and pass it down. And that living tradition still exists today, handing it down orally. But nonetheless, so we talk about science and mind. Interesting when you think about it. So Buddhism started in this little area in India. And at 40 years, Buddha went around teaching. Report an error in the passage at 36:24 Highlight the passage at 36:24

36:47 And then look at what happened. Then over 2,500, 2,600 years, it went as far south as Sri Lanka, right? Report an error in the passage at 36:47 Highlight the passage at 36:47

36:59 far west, at least to Afghanistan, maybe further. As far east as Indonesia and to Japan, Korea, Asia, China. kind of amazing. The thing that's interesting is that it's... It adapted, right? It didn't ask people to change their culture. It adapted to the cultural mores and the rituals and the cultural values of that area. Report an error in the passage at 36:59 Highlight the passage at 36:59

37:25 And so now we come to the modern world. Let's just say America for a moment. So we come to America. What is our belief system here? What system of thought do we value the most? It Report an error in the passage at 37:25 Highlight the passage at 37:25

37:44 seems to be scientific materialism, rational, deductive approach. And? Well, yeah. Well, that's another question of what that actually has morphed into, right? But if we look at just the psychology of the people, right? Psychology of the people probably when you went to Sri Lanka was somewhat kind of a devotional, faith-oriented, amongst other things. Report an error in the passage at 37:44 Highlight the passage at 37:44

38:12 And so the Buddhism that adapted there has a faith, devotional aspect. Those qualities of the Buddhist teachings that spoke to that, and those were emphasized in that culture. And again, when you go to China and Taoism and Japan, it's a different kind of approach, a different kind of mindset. I think that it makes sense the type of Buddhism that manifested there reflects the cultural mindset. Report an error in the passage at 38:12 Highlight the passage at 38:12

38:39 How about that? In Tibet, same thing. It was very animistic before Buddhists went there, and it makes sense that the... Some ways of the tantric teachings are very attractive and other things. So I think that my point is only that what is our culture in this sort of marriage to or adherence to science, because I do believe there is a strong connection or affinity to it, and look what His Holiness says of Buddhism being mind science. Report an error in the passage at 38:39 Highlight the passage at 38:39

39:08 So it makes sense that those parts or that angle of the teachings are then integrated. Report an error in the passage at 39:08 Highlight the passage at 39:08

39:19 So we talk about science and then in terms of the mind science, psychology, right? Can we just say that's a synonym, mind science and psychology? I guess it is. It's quite interesting because in modern psychology, it's a very new science. And what those of you... Who have some instruction or studied psychology? Not anyone. Well, I've got to pick on you because you're the only one who raised your hand. Report an error in the passage at 39:19 Highlight the passage at 39:19

40:00 What was your degree in? Are you a psychologist? Outside of somewhere like here, in your education, right? When you're at, huh? What's that? And they're not copying to it? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 40:00 Highlight the passage at 40:00

40:20 In your study, your degree, did you ever get a definition of mind? Report an error in the passage at 40:20 Highlight the passage at 40:20

40:36 When you studied it, did you receive a definition of mind? Report an error in the passage at 40:36 Highlight the passage at 40:36

40:44 So you had to define open and mindedness. When you were defining mindedness, did you find a coherent definition, an agreed upon definition? Or was it more theoretical speculation? Obviously. Report an error in the passage at 40:44 Highlight the passage at 40:44

41:18 See, now that's not fair. You've got to leave that side out. Did you in traditionally... Okay, let me put it this way. I mean, my point is you didn't, probably, because there isn't one, right? Report an error in the passage at 41:18 Highlight the passage at 41:18

41:37 It's very interesting when you think of psychology that in... If we... Report an error in the passage at 41:37 Highlight the passage at 41:37

41:52 If we were to go to Sri Lanka and talk to a scholar, or to China or Japan or Korea or Vietnam, Nepal, to any of these places where there would be a Buddhist scholar, maybe also, maybe even a Buddhist monk, but it would say scholar, and you asked him or her, what is the definition of mind? Do you know that they'll all tell you something pretty similar? Report an error in the passage at 41:52 Highlight the passage at 41:52

42:19 There's a definition of mind. Dan Siegel, I think many of you have heard of him. He's one of the leading researchers in neuroscience. Report an error in the passage at 42:19 Highlight the passage at 42:19

42:29 I actually had a good fortune to have dinner with him some months ago. And I noticed that when he was at, he does his workshops, he asks a question that I also had asked for many years. And he asked people that question. How many people, and he's teaching to, you know, a lot of, I mean, he teaches to probably psychologists, therapists. Report an error in the passage at 42:29 Highlight the passage at 42:29

42:49 And he's asked, he asks in his workshops if people can raise their hand if they had any instruction on the nature and definition of mind. Report an error in the passage at 42:49 Highlight the passage at 42:49

43:01 And he said now he's asked that question to 100,000 people. And he estimated maybe 3 or 4 percent have had that class of those, and most of them through outside of their formal studies. So that's pretty interesting that there is not really a clear, we call psychology, the study of the mind, or psychologist. Report an error in the passage at 43:01 Highlight the passage at 43:01

43:25 I don't know what just means. Practitioner? What is just psychologist? Person who studies? It must be psychologist. Okay. Which is good, person who studies, but then again, oh, let's see, how about this, psychotherapist. So a therapist of the mind. And there's not an agreed upon definition of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 43:25 Highlight the passage at 43:25

43:44 I mean, there's lots of... But it's pretty interesting when Lama Zopa said, if you're just helping people feel better, there's not much benefit. Because, you know, I had a definition. I've had a definition of the mind since 1975 and then studied that and I agree with it. And then at that same time, wasn't acting in a therapeutic way that was fed from that definition of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 43:44 Highlight the passage at 43:44

44:07 So if your definition of the mind, the definition of the mind has to drive the therapy. Report an error in the passage at 44:07 Highlight the passage at 44:07

44:15 So if we don't have a definition of the mind, then the therapy we're doing is not probably psychotherapy. It might be feeling therapy. It might be, you know, I'm not saying it's useless. That's not my point. But it's probably misnamed as psychotherapy. Okay? We're kind of like working around the mind and pieces of the mind and parts of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 44:15 Highlight the passage at 44:15

44:36 It's true. And I'm not saying, again, I'm not saying it's not helpful, but it should probably be better not to call it psychotherapy because I don't know what we're doing with the mind. Honestly, if we don't have a definition of it. The other thing that we don't have a definition of is in the DSM 3 and 4, right? Report an error in the passage at 44:36 Highlight the passage at 44:36

45:01 I have to pick on you again. Soon to be 5 or soon to be 4? Soon to be 5. When I say pick on you, if you want me to stop, I can. Report an error in the passage at 45:01 Highlight the passage at 45:01

45:11 No, no, no, no. It's just for me. It's my own benefit, not you. My point, okay, I won't pick on you. But there's a manual that if, like when I was at Stanford, I had to always give diagnosis, right? And a lot of times you don't have to, to do therapy. And I think there's about 423 diagnoses in this statistical manual that you do have to use if you're claiming on insurance and those kinds of things. Report an error in the passage at 45:11 Highlight the passage at 45:11

45:40 And you go through this and it's very fascinating. I mean, it's really worthwhile, again, to analyze it. All the diagnoses, of course, are negative, right? They're a problem. Now, it says in Buddhist psychology there's 84,000 afflictions, right? Yeah. So it's not that that's wrong that there's 423. The problem is when you look in that book is you don't know what you're measuring it against. Report an error in the passage at 45:40 Highlight the passage at 45:40

46:05 In other words, what's the baseline of health, mental health? That is actually more scary than all those. Those diagnoses are not a big problem. What's scary is what are they in reference to? What is the baseline? What am I trying to achieve? So I know now, fortunately, there's some other movements happening, going on for 10, whatever, 15, like positive psychology and narrative therapy, who are sort of rebelling against that paradigm. Report an error in the passage at 46:05 Highlight the passage at 46:05

46:32 So I understand there's other, but that's not in the common frame. right? So, A common language, I guess, or the culture of psychology. So it's very interesting. If we don't have a definition of mental health, what are we doing? So someone who has trichotillomania, do you remember what that is? Hair pulling. Report an error in the passage at 46:32 Highlight the passage at 46:32

46:58 I just like saying the word. It's my favorite diagnosis. Hair pulling. So hair pulling is not a physical disorder. It's a mental disorder. Okay, pulling out your hair. Trichotillomania, remember that one. If you have that, what's that in reference to? So the mental health, so that's a mental disorder, a mental disease. Report an error in the passage at 46:58 Highlight the passage at 46:58

47:22 So is it just the absence of that that we're looking for? Or is there a level of mental health that's more positive, more profound? Okay, in modern psychology, it is not. Report an error in the passage at 47:22 Highlight the passage at 47:22

47:39 There are things like functioning well, good social relations. Those are good. But we're a psychology. Otherwise, family therapy is a good name. They're not fooling you. They're therapizing around family relationships. That's okay. They're looking at family therapy, looking to develop good relationships in family. Report an error in the passage at 47:39 Highlight the passage at 47:39

48:04 At least they're not doing family psychology. Report an error in the passage at 48:04 Highlight the passage at 48:04

48:14 Yeah. So I understand. But at least the name fits what they're attempting to do. It's a little less controversial maybe than psychology. Report an error in the passage at 48:14 Highlight the passage at 48:14

48:45 Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know, it's used to support the military. Right. As your friend. Right. So that's... I was trying to be a little bit nicer. Report an error in the passage at 48:45 Highlight the passage at 48:45

49:06 No, no, because I get on these soapboxes and then I get someone and say, well, wait a minute, I'm the director of the Positive Psychology Association. No, but yeah, it's a big topic. Let's put it that way. Okay, so that's what I was just talking about a few minutes ago. I jumped. So psyche being the human soul, spirit or mind. Report an error in the passage at 49:06 Highlight the passage at 49:06

49:30 The study thereof is ology and ology is one who engages in. So we should have a good definition of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 49:30 Highlight the passage at 49:30

49:41 What's that? Dictionary. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 49:41 Highlight the passage at 49:41

· · · silence, 1 minute

50:31 Like Krishnamurti used to say, right? He says the word is not the thing. The description is not to describe. And that's okay, by the way. My feeling about modern psychology is fine. I think it's really important to study these ideas. The problem comes with many of the... The way they're promoted is they're promoted as truths, right? And they're not truths. They're ideas. Report an error in the passage at 50:31 Highlight the passage at 50:31

51:07 I personally don't, but that's the way it showed up in the dictionary. So I had to be fair because I want to just put mine because mine, I mean, was one of the words. But no, because anyway, that's true. So Dharmapada, right? Everything it has. Oh, by the way, what we're doing right now, I say it's a little tricky doing these kinds of talks two hours. Report an error in the passage at 51:07 Highlight the passage at 51:07

51:28 I do do workshops on the book because, you know, I don't know the audience and they're beginners, not beginners. And so I'm just kind of wading my way through. So if there's other areas, because I do, it was about the misleading mind in this book. And this is what the book is trying to do is that it takes mind as the main idea, right? Everything has mind in the lead, has mind in the forefront, is made by mind. Report an error in the passage at 51:28 Highlight the passage at 51:28

51:52 If one speaks or acts with a corrupt mind, misery will follow as the wheel of a cart. Follows the foot of the ox. Okay, for people in this room, for most of you, it's like, okay, I know that, right? But wait, but think about it. Go back to where we started in terms of the intent behind trying to write a book like this and doing these kind of classes. Report an error in the passage at 51:52 Highlight the passage at 51:52

52:10 You know, most of us, including myself, doing this for 35 more years, you know, I forget that all the time. If that's true, then when I have a problem with Carol, which has never happened, by the way, it's probably just someone else. Report an error in the passage at 52:10 Highlight the passage at 52:10

52:27 What's our default mode for taking care of that problem? Just to be honest. Or when I'm feeling anxious because I have to leave town tomorrow and I've got to get ready. So what is our usual solution? The usual solution, at least for me, is I've got to get back quickly today from San Francisco so I can go do this and that. Report an error in the passage at 52:27 Highlight the passage at 52:27

52:53 I've got to do these errands. That's the solution to my anxiety, correct? Report an error in the passage at 52:53 Highlight the passage at 52:53

52:59 Action, rumination, out there. That is because I'm not a Buddhist. If I were a Buddhist, which means a psychologist, I would first go somewhere in here and look at the anxiety directly. It's one of the ways that I've been, many ways to do that. But my default mode would go not out there but in there. So, that's because, that's because, Report an error in the passage at 52:59 Highlight the passage at 52:59

53:33 I don't have that slide because it doesn't matter. When we talk about Buddhists, what's the Tibetan word for Buddhist? Anybody know, Carol? Yeah, what's the Tibetan word? You're right. I've got to be nice to her because she won't ask me back. Report an error in the passage at 53:33 Highlight the passage at 53:33

53:55 Maybe I don't want to come back. Nangpa, you're right. Nangpa in Tibetan, Nangpa. Nang, the word Nang means, Tibetan's kind of like a little bit like a case language. So Nang means in. I-N or inside. Pa is the case marker for a being, a person. No, not a person, a living being. So it means an in-being or an inner being. What a great definition of Buddhist. See? That's why we're all messed up. Report an error in the passage at 53:55 Highlight the passage at 53:55

54:25 We say, I'm Buddhist. What do you mean? No, no, I'm not Buddhist. I'm an inner being. Oh, okay. What does that mean? See? It's not easy to be Buddhist because I'm actually, to be honest with you, I might be an inner being for a minute or two a day. So mostly I'm an outer being. Report an error in the passage at 54:25 Highlight the passage at 54:25

54:47 That's the shift that is made. That shift from a default mode of dealing with problems, the world, let's just say problems, difficulty, from an outer locus versus an inner locus. And that's the huge... Even amongst our Buddhist friends, we have conflicts with them. If I have a conflict with one of my Buddhist friends, it's because I get locked into outer, I'm tricked by that outer perspective that I've been tricked by for my whole life. Report an error in the passage at 54:47 Highlight the passage at 54:47

55:27 So it's not unusual that the habits lead me there. An inner being then, that's there. So it's a good point that even a very basic level for Tibetans, they have this word inner being for Buddhists. I mean, that's pretty profound. Okay? Report an error in the passage at 55:27 Highlight the passage at 55:27

55:48 So the Report an error in the passage at 55:48 Highlight the passage at 55:48

55:53 psychology, right? So if we think that... So I made a shift. Okay, now I made a shift into Buddhist psychology. Report an error in the passage at 55:53 Highlight the passage at 55:53

56:05 It's really interesting, actually. Actually, I do this exercise. I like this exercise. If you hold up your hand for a second. Come on. You've got to participate. And you just look at it. You just study the hand, right? And if I asked you, so, what's the color of the hand? Report an error in the passage at 56:05 Highlight the passage at 56:05

56:28 Pink? What else? Everyone's pink? Blue? Green? Green. Green, okay. It's an alien over here. Tan. Is it one color or is it many colors? Yeah. And what's the texture of it? Report an error in the passage at 56:28 Highlight the passage at 56:28

56:50 Dry. And what do you call this when you squeak? Is that texture also known? Soft. Is that texture, do we call that texture? Density. What does it feel like? And what's its shape? This always gets people. How do you describe it? Starfish shape. Okay, and what's its heat? What's its temperature like? Hot, cold, warm? Okay. So I do that. Report an error in the passage at 56:50 Highlight the passage at 56:50

57:17 This is very interesting. Report an error in the passage at 57:17 Highlight the passage at 57:17

57:21 If I ask you, so, but I can't ask this group because there's too many smart people, too many Buddhists. If I said the same thing, I think about this in just a conventional audience. Now I say, so what shape is your mind? Report an error in the passage at 57:21 Highlight the passage at 57:21

57:39 It's a mess. When you said that, I saw this ball of string. So the shape of the mind. What color is your mind? Simple question. Same thing with the hand. What color is your mind? Same thing. What's its density? Is it dense or not? The thing that's really interesting is that for those of you in this room who are Buddhists and study this, think back to a time when you weren't and how those questions are very unusual. Report an error in the passage at 57:39 Highlight the passage at 57:39

58:14 The reason they're unusual, and isn't that unusual? I did a talk at Google and before I went there, I had a little fun because I didn't realize I said this, but I was talking to this during the same demonstration. I said, oh, last night I Googled the word hand. They giggled, but they were very polite. So, you know, I Googled the word hand and I got four and a half million sites or hits. Report an error in the passage at 58:14 Highlight the passage at 58:14

58:43 On definition of hand. And I didn't mind and there were only three million. So I thought that was pretty interesting. What I originally did was I was trying to use the word, I actually wanted to know about how many definitions of mollusk there were. Report an error in the passage at 58:43 Highlight the passage at 58:43

58:59 Don't ask me about mollusk, why I chose mollusk. But I didn't get definitions but I found out, you know how many kinds of mollusk there are? Any guesses? Report an error in the passage at 58:59 Highlight the passage at 58:59

59:08 3,000? Is that a jillion? 25,000. So see, when you're ever on... Who wants to be a millionaire or something? Anyway, it's interesting because we're very familiar with the hand and the body, right? Defining the body, but we don't have a clear idea what the mind is actually. It's really pretty strange because we've had the mind at least since we were born, just like the hand. I think that's pretty fascinating, that we don't have a good working... Report an error in the passage at 59:08 Highlight the passage at 59:08

59:38 It's coming. I think it's coming. It's changing. But we're very reductionist, very external out there. there Report an error in the passage at 59:38 Highlight the passage at 59:38

59:50 So if Buddhism is translated as awakening, then we could say, well, why? It's a psychology. Awakening sounds a little bit spiritual, right? But now, if you think of a spiritual being as an inner being, that those would be synonyms. Spiritual being, inner being as synonyms. For me, I think of a spiritual being, my definition is someone who... Report an error in the passage at 59:50 Highlight the passage at 59:50

1:00:14 I made that up, but I've seen it now. Think about that. Your focus is to develop your inner potential. Then the first thing is, one gets in touch with their, oh, there's inner potential, right? Because a lot of people don't even know that there is inner potential. So that's a big leap right there. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:14 Highlight the passage at 1:00:14

1:00:39 then so your focus So Buddhism, it's not about the Buddhist religion. Anyone who's worked on developing their inner potential and some sense of that would be an awakening being or an inner being or a spiritual being or a Buddhist, whatever you want to call them. It doesn't matter. There's lots of Buddhists who don't focus, I suppose, much on their inner potential. I mean, maybe indirectly they are. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:39 Highlight the passage at 1:00:39

1:01:07 Do we have to have a break? Do we have a break? I'll go on and on forever. It's 10 after 11. No break. I'm only in the first introduction of the book anyway. I really apologize for that. So, 12. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:07 Highlight the passage at 1:01:07

1:01:25 Better wait till I finish though. I still have some things here. Well, we'll just keep going. People need to get up and do something. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:25 Highlight the passage at 1:01:25

1:01:47 Perfect from its side. From its own side. Everyone will find this deep perfect. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:47 Highlight the passage at 1:01:47

1:02:12 So Lama Yeshe said, The human mind has both positive and negative sides, but the negative is transient, very temporary. Your up and down emotions are like the clouds in the sky and beyond them, the real basic human nature is clear and pure. Wouldn't it be great in our first class in our psychology that we got that quote? Wouldn't it be cool? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:12 Highlight the passage at 1:02:12

1:02:41 So the mind is defined as... I mentioned if you go around to all the different countries and you ask the scholars what's the mind or definition of mind, they'll give fairly similar definitions. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:41 Highlight the passage at 1:02:41

1:02:59 There's a lot of debate on how that works. So just as a reminder for those who have studied this, because it's always good to remember, so the mind is defined as something that's clear and it cognizes. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:59 Highlight the passage at 1:02:59

1:03:19 The tradition is clear and knowing. Now when we say clear, one student in a class said, you know, actually he had come to two of my classes, I did a part one and part two series, two series. And he said, you know, last series you said that too, clear and knowing. I don't say knowing, clear and cognizing. Actually if you want to know cognizing, I think another word to say is quite nice, is experiencing. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:19 Highlight the passage at 1:03:19

1:03:46 It's clear and it experiences. Sometimes that helps. He said, you know, clear, I don't get this clear thing. He said, you know, I think what you mean is transparent. And I thought, he kind of caught me, he caught me, it was good. And I thought, wow, all these years I never heard anyone say transparent. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:46 Highlight the passage at 1:03:46

1:04:09 I wonder why. And I thought, I said, well, let me think about that. And the class was once a week. And I came back next week after talking to some friends. Transparency and lucidity Report an error in the passage at 1:04:09 Highlight the passage at 1:04:09

1:04:28 Lucid, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:28 Highlight the passage at 1:04:28

1:04:32 transparent does mean... Report an error in the passage at 1:04:32 Highlight the passage at 1:04:32

1:04:38 Well, no, that's the same feeling. I had some feeling like transparent and feel right. And then someone. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:38 Highlight the passage at 1:04:38

1:04:46 that's one thing. It is, isn't it? And another thing that someone pointed out to me, he says, well, every time people use the word transparent, they're referring to something that's made of form. Like the gel is transparent. Yeah. And the mind is not form. It's formless. Big point. Okay. So it's clear in the sense of luminous or, what did you say, lucid. Like a mirror. I think a great definition is a mirror because you can never see the clarity of a mirror, but it's clear. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:46 Highlight the passage at 1:04:46

1:05:21 You never see the clarity because it's always reflecting. But to reflect, it has clarity. Of course, it's form. Don't go too far with that. But for me personally, everything appears in the mind because it is clear. If it wasn't clear, it couldn't appear. Does that make sense? The mind reflects everything. Holds everything. Reflects is a good word for now. And then for real technical parts of that, Carol will teach you that in her karma class. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:21 Highlight the passage at 1:05:21

1:05:54 So you can debate with her on the definitions. But no, it's interesting because, again, if we had in modern psychology this idea that it's clear, cognizing and formless, it'd be very helpful. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:54 Highlight the passage at 1:05:54

1:06:07 It'd be very, very helpful. They're getting there. Neuroscience is getting there. Dan Siegel does himself articulate a position that the mind is different than the brain, which is great. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:07 Highlight the passage at 1:06:07

1:06:24 Because it is. Brain being form. If the mind is formless, then it can't be the brain. Again, that's a bigger discussion. More interesting, actually. Interesting, not more interesting. So that's just where we're going to work with it. The idea that this is transient, this moves, these emotions move around, is very, very hopeful for us. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:24 Highlight the passage at 1:06:24

1:06:58 So as I said earlier, if you have a theory, if you have a psychology, you will probably, I just assumed you would have a therapy. But that's not necessarily true, I guess. You could just have a theory without any, I don't know. Anyway, I'm going to assume that all the psychological theories have some sort of, in other words, all therapy has to arise from a theory, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:58 Highlight the passage at 1:06:58

1:07:23 And the theory, in my opinion, the theory is flawed. In the sense of seeking to develop lasting happiness and mental health. The theory is flawed. Not for other things. For mental health, it's flawed because there's a misunderstanding of what the mind is. Now, if we have this other idea that the mind is this idea of this clear knowing quality that's obscured, remember what Lama Yeshe said, by these emotions. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:23 Highlight the passage at 1:07:23

1:07:56 So this is the word of the title, Misleading Mind, which I didn't come up with, by the way. The publisher did correctly. I had another title. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:56 Highlight the passage at 1:07:56

1:08:07 My title was How Problems Help. And they read the book and they said, yeah, it's a good title, but you didn't talk about how they help. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:07 Highlight the passage at 1:08:07

1:08:16 I said, I did too. You didn't read it. Read it again. I do talk about how problems help, but I think it's assuming that... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:16 Highlight the passage at 1:08:16

1:08:27 Anyway, mine was a little more assuming that people understood it the first time they read it kind of thing. I think Misleading Mind is a good title. So here now we get into the idea that these emotions arise in the mind. I don't like emotions. By the way, emotions is the common word we're using all the time now. The technical term is probably better, but it's not so good for a... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:27 Highlight the passage at 1:08:27

1:08:56 Which is the afflictions or delusions or afflictive minds. That is more accurate. Emotions is just one part of the afflictive. And also in our culture when we say emotion, it seems like emotion is different than mood, say. Right? But mood is an afflictive mind also. Emotion is different than thought. So if I have a thought, a scheme, how can I steal that clock up there if everyone leaves? Report an error in the passage at 1:08:56 Highlight the passage at 1:08:56

1:09:24 Is that right? You wouldn't call that an emotion, but it is an afflictive mind. I use the word emotion, disturbing emotions, afflictive emotions in the book because that's sort of colloquialism. It's asking less of people than using things like delusion or afflictive mind, but those are more accurate. The other part is that Report an error in the passage at 1:09:24 Highlight the passage at 1:09:24

1:09:57 And I don't know, the idea in this awakened psychology is you do have to become your own therapist. And a lot of people don't like that, right? That's why this approach is not for everybody. I mean, if you're really skillful, you can find in it something for everybody, right? But strictly speaking, it's a little bit brutal, this approach. Do you think? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:57 Highlight the passage at 1:09:57

1:10:29 Do you know what I mean? Brutal because you can't rely on someone else to do it for you. Brutal because you can't accomplish it without facing all this stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:29 Highlight the passage at 1:10:29

1:10:45 We can't accomplish happiness, mental health. I don't think we can become mentally healthy without dealing with the unhealthy part. And that is very tricky and very scary for a lot of people. How do I do that with my mother? I teach these ideas so the mother can understand them. Those are the tricky things. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:45 Highlight the passage at 1:10:45

1:11:11 But if you, otherwise you're just helping make people feel better, that's okay. But if you're really engaging in this psychology, the difference is that everything is confronted and looked at and deconstructed and analyzed and faced to check whether it's a problem or not. Okay, if it's not a problem, then you move on. Because there's a lot of things in the mind and emotions that are not a problem. Okay, positive states of mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:11 Highlight the passage at 1:11:11

1:11:41 So you check those out and go, oh, those are okay. But anytime there's a problem, when I have this big problem I have with Carol, at a certain point, that's hard. I mean, that's hard to go, well, start here. That is not easy, if it's a big problem especially. It's one thing when you're driving down the street and you can't find a place to park. But my mode this morning was, honestly, my problem was there was no place to park. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:41 Highlight the passage at 1:11:41

1:12:15 Again, I wasn't a Buddhist. Actually, I didn't get that upset about it. I got a little concerned because I don't want to be late. But what would an inner being be doing? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:15 Highlight the passage at 1:12:15

1:12:28 Do you think about that? See, outer being, inner being. Now, awaken. We'll go right to the point. Because I'll run out of time otherwise. You know, if you say awakening, there's a therapy of awakening. Think about that for a moment. I'm sure you already did. But the implication there is that we're not awakened. That's pretty profound. As opposed to just, oh, I'll focus on awakening. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:28 Highlight the passage at 1:12:28

1:12:54 And then you kind of turn that around and go, wait, why don't you focus on what it means that you are? What does it mean to be not awakened? And if I'm not awakened, then what is all this? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:54 Highlight the passage at 1:12:54

1:13:06 And how is this a problem? Right? Is this a problem right now? Do we have problems right now? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:06 Highlight the passage at 1:13:06

1:13:15 Some say no, some say yes. Longer term Buddhists are more depressed because they say, yeah, there's a problem. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:15 Highlight the passage at 1:13:15

1:13:27 We're worse off. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:27 Highlight the passage at 1:13:27

1:13:32 My first Buddhist teacher is in the book. The first Buddhist teacher was my friend Dave. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:32 Highlight the passage at 1:13:32

1:13:48 Excuse me for jumping around, but it just happens. More spontaneous. My first Buddhist teacher was Dave. Now Dave was my best friend. He's the only one that didn't leave me when I went to that yoga retreat. He still hung around. I mean he was a big stoner but he still came around. It was amazing. And Dave and I worked together that year I took off from high school. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:48 Highlight the passage at 1:13:48

1:14:14 I did travel but before that I got a really great job. Some days we make $100 and that was in, you know, whatever, 19... 1971 or something. For two surfers who had a year off and were partying, it was a really great job. Dave was one of those guys. Shaggy, blonde hair, never combed, looked like he always slept in his car. He's helping. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:14 Highlight the passage at 1:14:14

1:14:50 He's my partner. We used to install these. Kind of vertical blinds, you know, those things, yeah. And my brother-in-law was our boss in the installation department. And he was, Scott was very, he was going to make, he told me I'm going to make a million dollars by the time I'm 30. He said that. He did actually. He really did. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:50 Highlight the passage at 1:14:50

1:15:12 And so he was really diligent. And so every morning we'd go in about 7, 7.38 and we'd have to get all the orders to, because we'd go out and do these installations. Or we'd do repairs, stuff like that. So we'd be standing there and Dave, you know, his blue jeans were always kind of hanging pretty low. We wore the usual uniform, you know, Santa Monica surfer types of, you know, white t-shirt or blue t-shirt, blue tennis shoes, white socks. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:12 Highlight the passage at 1:15:12

1:15:37 And his hair was like shoulder length. And Scott said, hey, you guys, hang on a minute. I've got to go leave the office for a minute. Keep doing what you're doing. But Dave, can you answer the phones for a few minutes if it rings? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:37 Highlight the passage at 1:15:37

1:15:52 Scott used to wear a tie to work, you know. And so sure enough, as soon as Scott left the room, I'm back in the storeroom getting parts and stuff, and I hear the phone ring, and it's ringing, and it stops ringing, and I say, okay, Dave, answer the phone. And a couple minutes later, I come out, and I hear this kind of yelling and this loud talking, and I go, what's going on? So I went out there, and as I went in to the office, Scott came in from the other door, and there's Dave on the phone like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:52 Highlight the passage at 1:15:52

1:16:21 And he's like, his face is all red and he's saying, lady, lady, you think you got problems? Everybody's got problems. And slams the phone down. And Scott's face turned white. And he said, who was that? He said, you know, it was that lady from the other day we did that installation for. She said we screwed it up and something wrong. I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:21 Highlight the passage at 1:16:21

1:16:47 But the point was. It's a good story, but the lady, problems, problems, everybody's got problems. That's the shift, you know, that's the shift that we make because we, because Carol said and Therese said when I asked her the problems right now, they said yes and then some other people said no. So what a negative approach to think that we have problems right now. I mean, these guys are negative. Why do I want to go to this place? So that's very profound. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:47 Highlight the passage at 1:16:47

1:17:11 You know, we think about why do I want to go here and all they deal with is problems. It has to be in the context of our potential that Lama Yeshe was talking about. So in this psychology, it's an awakened psychology, that we have this potential to be much different, much more different than we are now. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:11 Highlight the passage at 1:17:11

1:17:32 It has to be balanced with some positive perspective rather than, yeah, okay, tell me more about how I have problems. Tell me more about how I'm suffering. Okay, okay, I believe you. It has to be more than that. It has to be... Otherwise it's just a negative, depressing, kind of pessimistic approach. But when we think about what is the opposite of that, so we're asleep, what does awakening look like? Report an error in the passage at 1:17:32 Highlight the passage at 1:17:32

1:17:58 I think we should have more classes on that too, kind of like the positive psychology approach. Really describing what this awakened mind is, this awakened potential is. I'm sure we do. But sometimes it's not emphasized right in the beginning. It seems like we emphasize more. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:58 Highlight the passage at 1:17:58

1:18:16 Buddha taught at first, Right? Because, okay, so got problems. have to become a little bit more identified with what that means. It's not that I have problems on a temporary level necessarily. It's not about that. It's about in terms of the potential, what we could be as human beings. So as human beings, then we either run on... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:16 Highlight the passage at 1:18:16

1:18:52 So when someone explains to us you're running on automatic pilot, you're in reactive mode, then of course we have to explain what that means even more. That there's a possibility, as Lami Ashi said up there, to be in a different mode. That has to be presented. If it's not presented, that's the mental health. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:52 Highlight the passage at 1:18:52

1:19:18 What we have now is not mental health. And if you say, what do you mean by that? Well, of course, we talk a lot about how there's not mental health. So what did Buddha teach? The very first thing, what did he teach? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:18 Highlight the passage at 1:19:18

1:19:34 Mental disease. Problems. DSM. 84,000 diagnoses in the DSM. Why did he teach that? That's kind of a bummer. I mean, that's so negative. Buddha was kind of a... Report an error in the passage at 1:19:34 Highlight the passage at 1:19:34

1:19:50 Sounds like it was negative. Depressed. Everyone could relate to it? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:50 Highlight the passage at 1:19:50

1:20:01 I think it's more like that. I think it's not saying right. I don't know. My imagination tells me something more like what you were saying. My imagination tells me that unless we really get a handle on what our situation is, we won't do anything about it or what it is what we do about it is really not a solution. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:01 Highlight the passage at 1:20:01

1:20:25 So it's almost like we can't do something, you know, cancer can stay hidden, right? So if someone has cancer and you have some sort of way of diagnosing it, maybe you're, let's just fantasize, let's say you're a little like clairvoyant and you can see someone, you can see their cancer. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:25 Highlight the passage at 1:20:25

1:20:46 So what is the compassionate thing to do, to tell them or not tell them? Report an error in the passage at 1:20:46 Highlight the passage at 1:20:46

1:20:54 Well, I think maybe they're about to die. Well, can't they always do something about it? Report an error in the passage at 1:20:54 Highlight the passage at 1:20:54

1:21:02 See from... So you wouldn't tell them. You have to Report an error in the passage at 1:21:02 Highlight the passage at 1:21:02

1:21:13 think about it. I never use this example. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:13 Highlight the passage at 1:21:13

1:21:21 There's always one in the audience that does that. I was just, you know... Okay, let's say you have a special machine. Yeah. Let's say those airport things you get scanned in, maybe one of the byproducts of those that it picks up on liver cancer. Tumors, let's just say. Do you... So someone's going through... I mean... Report an error in the passage at 1:21:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21:21

1:21:42 Now the next thing is going to be, well, legally can you tell them or not? I'm just saying, do you tell the person or not if you have that perspective? Report an error in the passage at 1:21:42 Highlight the passage at 1:21:42

1:21:54 It's how you tell them. No, I'm just thinking about this. I've never asked this question before. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:54 Highlight the passage at 1:21:54

1:22:19 If they would think it would be helpful. No, I understand. Okay, so I think that if, probably what I'm learning from this is that if I have that ability, if you have that perspective. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:19 Highlight the passage at 1:22:19

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:22:33 I will relate to the person that they will have that problem. What I do is different. I agree. You might tell, you might not tell. But my mindset is different all of a sudden. I'm really focusing on helping in the best way I can. And maybe you don't tell them and that's my motivation. But I'm still working from, I'm working with their problem. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:33 Highlight the passage at 1:22:33

1:23:02 So I think that nonetheless I'd rather know. Because then I can know, well, it isn't interesting. It's so funny. Oh, you should be nicer to him because he has cancer. Isn't that funny? Why? Because he has cancer you have to be nicer. Why not just be nicer? Everyone has cancer anyway. Anyway, I digress. But the point being that I think Buddha thought better to people know. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:02 Highlight the passage at 1:23:02

1:23:28 Because without knowing you can't improve. You can't do anything about it. Okay? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:28 Highlight the passage at 1:23:28

1:23:37 You don't want to do anything. That's why I think it's a good thing about talking about what our potential is and what the possibilities are so you have some sort of positive motivation. Yeah, exactly. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:37 Highlight the passage at 1:23:37

1:23:50 Okay, so where am I going? Report an error in the passage at 1:23:50 Highlight the passage at 1:23:50

1:23:57 Oh, yeah, Crazy Benny. That's what I was going to say. Crazy Benny is a friend of mine who calls himself Crazy Benny. I would not give him that name if he hadn't done it himself. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:57 Highlight the passage at 1:23:57

1:24:10 you know. One of my many, many vices is I love to play golf. It's out. I'm out of the closet on that. Benny is like 72 years old and it's really interesting. He said, I was able to read your book. I was able to get it online so I didn't have to buy it. I read most of it. He says there's pages missing here and there. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:10 Highlight the passage at 1:24:10

1:24:34 you know but i i got Report an error in the passage at 1:24:34 Highlight the passage at 1:24:34

1:24:38 Benny is one of those guys who is quite well off and he says he's not. So he's got it. Anyway, he's in the retail business, he tells me. Electronics. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:38 Highlight the passage at 1:24:38

1:24:50 But he says, you know, I read that. He says, you know, it's interesting, but I don't know all this suffering stuff that you talk about. He says, I don't have problems. You know, I have a good life. You know, I get up when I want to get up. I go to bed when I want to go to bed. electronics. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:50 Highlight the passage at 1:24:50

1:25:07 I don't have a wife or girlfriend anymore. I've had three of those, but they're just kind of problems. So now my life is good. I get to play golf whenever I want. So I really thought about that. I really thought, what did Buddha mean? What did he mean? Because I'm missing something, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:07 Highlight the passage at 1:25:07

1:25:26 I'm missing something. How do I explain this to Benny? Because I've got to explain these ideas as if I'm teaching them to my mom. And there's Benny. He's like my mom. This is so important. I really did think about it for quite a long time. I didn't respond to him. I thought, what a great question and what a great challenge for me. And it came to the conclusion that Benny doesn't know he could have it better. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:26 Highlight the passage at 1:25:26

1:25:50 I don't mean that in a greedy sense. What Buddha taught in terms of the truth of suffering is I think it's the truth of problems. You know, in a different way of saying it. I don't want to change Buddha's words. But, you know, think about problems and that we're never really problem free. And so even, you know, the point is, the point of view is that Benny then, he complains all the time. He's one of the biggest complainers I know. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:50 Highlight the passage at 1:25:50

1:26:21 Love the guy, but he really does. He would be out there on the golf course and he said, these guys are so slow ahead of us. What are they going so slow for? And what happened to my swing? And I just, oh God, I can't play today. And he's really like that. And it goes on and on like that. And I thought, wow. So Benny's definition of suffering or problems is different than mine. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:21 Highlight the passage at 1:26:21

1:26:50 He doesn't know that that state of mind, that complaining state of mind, is what we're calling suffering. And it's arising from what? An emotion. And that those emotions are not helpful. Now, what do you do with Benny? Honestly, I mean, you think about this. How are you helpful with him? Report an error in the passage at 1:26:50 Highlight the passage at 1:26:50

1:27:09 And I think what's helpful, of course, is it's not helpful to be judgmental. It's actually helpful to be curious. And just ask him. Just ask. Is this as good as it gets? What do you think, Benny? Do you think, you know, and then people will usually say, yeah, I should have more control over my mind and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:09 Highlight the passage at 1:27:09

1:27:29 So, in the awakened psychology now, what we're getting to, after Benny, is what Geshe Tashi Serian says, you know, only by investigating the nature of our underlying dissatisfaction. Now, that's a big leap. Our underlying dissatisfaction. I just made a leap, by the way. Shouldn't have done that. So if we do a longer term kind of class, I wouldn't do that. What do you mean underlying dissatisfaction? We haven't gotten there yet, right? But that is what, you know, the Four Noble Truths. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:29 Highlight the passage at 1:27:29

1:27:59 I just found out something. It's just a couple of months ago. I know other people have known this, but maybe a year ago. Do you know that the Four Noble Truths, why are they called the Noble Truths? Report an error in the passage at 1:27:59 Highlight the passage at 1:27:59

1:28:34 It's okay. Well, no, it's right. The way I understood it, they're called noble. So another way of saying it, they're called noble truths because they're truths for noble beings. And then, of course, the definition of noble being is someone who's had direct experience of reality. No wonder I don't understand them. Right. When we attain insight into reality, we will then see these as truths. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:34 Highlight the passage at 1:28:34

1:29:11 So actually, we don't. I'll speak for myself. Actually, I don't see people as beings of suffering. I mean, I can force my mind to see it. But for a noble being, that's what he or she sees. So now it becomes very interesting because if you think about when we look at how many people here would like to be a possum. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:11 Highlight the passage at 1:29:11

1:29:47 How many people here would like to be a frog? It's interesting, isn't it? Why? Why not? That's because we see that whatever word you take on now, that's because you see it as suffering. But see how suffering is kind of weird? It's not quite the right word, is it? I mean, I don't think there's another word. But the reason I don't want to be my, you know, sometimes people say, oh, I just want to be born as a cat next life. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:47 Highlight the passage at 1:29:47

1:30:16 That cat and the eagle, those two sometimes people say. But if they really think about being a cat, it's like, yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:30:16 Highlight the passage at 1:30:16

1:30:33 unsatisfactory. That's why I think the satisfaction, it's Report an error in the passage at 1:30:33 Highlight the passage at 1:30:33

1:30:43 very good. But when we look at, just let's go a little deeper. When we look at a frog, we wouldn't really say, oh, I don't want to be a frog because it's unsatisfactory. It's something even much deeper almost. Do you know what I mean? It's a visceral kind of thing, isn't it? That's, I think. The noble being who sees the four truths sees us just kind of like when we're looking at the frog or the possum or the cockroach. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:43 Highlight the passage at 1:30:43

1:31:14 You just get pretty disgusted when you think of being a cockroach. That's, I think, for them. They look at us, and I'm not saying, you know, not with condescending attitude, but that's how it must look compared to what is available, just like for us. Or, you know, you can just say, you know, driving through the slums or whatever, you know, poor areas. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:14 Highlight the passage at 1:31:14

1:31:43 You wouldn't want to, you know, through Calcutta and Delhi and those areas. You wouldn't really want to trade places. The people living in those environments, that's because it's seen as suffering. And I think in this expanded sense, that's the view of our whole reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:43 Highlight the passage at 1:31:43

1:32:15 Yeah, if we can get there. That's right. We have to. What Report an error in the passage at 1:32:15 Highlight the passage at 1:32:15

1:32:22 we got. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:22 Highlight the passage at 1:32:22

1:32:29 Right. So the mentally healthy person, let's go back to... So the person, this is where I'm trying to go with this book. Okay, is that... our whole reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:29 Highlight the passage at 1:32:29

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:32:38 You know, it's exercising that choice. But most of us don't know about that choice. It's like if really we knew that I could be a toad in a couple hours from now, you know, in the sense that if really we believed that we knew that there's more than this life, the consciousness moves on and that we are... Report an error in the passage at 1:32:38 Highlight the passage at 1:32:38

1:33:10 We could be dead in an hour and in our next life in two hours, right? In that theory. And then you go, okay, you could be a toad. We've really thought that. That should stimulate us in terms of, well, what do I need to do to not have a toad consciousness anyway? Well, we have it. But that's the mental health that we're trying to – I think that's the definition of mental health. Just being a – Good human being with a human mind that's using the potential. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:10 Highlight the passage at 1:33:10

1:33:47 So the idea is that as we get to the mental health part, it's about control, which is really, really funny. Freedom, again, something else I learned in the last year or so. If we talk about freedom, like we talk about a country, like they're free now. We talk about Tibet. Tibet could be free. Why? They wouldn't be under the control of the Chinese, for example, right? So usually we think of a synonym or definition of freedom as not being controlled, which is, I think that's so true. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:47 Highlight the passage at 1:33:47

1:34:24 But then I start thinking about what is this healthy mind that we're trying to talk about? Well, the unhealthy mind is a mind that's in control, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:24 Highlight the passage at 1:34:24

1:34:34 So it's true that freedom could be not, be under its control. But another way of saying it is Right. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:34 Highlight the passage at 1:34:34

1:35:07 So what's a healthy mind in that context, do you think? Report an error in the passage at 1:35:07 Highlight the passage at 1:35:07

1:35:23 Right. control so freedom is about being in control uh it's true you'd be free of the mind that's taking control but the other way of putting it is that you're in control whatever that means mind that's controlled a mind that's in control yeah Report an error in the passage at 1:35:23 Highlight the passage at 1:35:23

1:35:24 Right, so isn't that, so that's fascinating. Now we're getting to the point, almost getting to the end of the hour, so I've got to get to the point. So where does this mental health, this mental disease come from, if we have it, that we have? Where do the problems come from? Okay, let's go back. We're talking about, okay, they're not from that I can't find any parking places. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:24 Highlight the passage at 1:35:24

1:35:48 We've already eliminated that. It's not because, you know, Carol yelled at me last night. It's not from that. Okay, so where is it from? It's internal. So I go really to Nangpa. I go to this, okay, I'm going to internal. And I'm convinced that if, we jumped a lot, but I'm convinced that if I just try and control all the parking places and I try and control Carol and try and control Teresa, control my wife, my kids, then I'll be happy. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:48 Highlight the passage at 1:35:48

1:36:16 That's my mode. So now if I go, okay, that doesn't work. So then I go, okay, the only thing that's going to work is I got to... Why do I think all that? Because my mind misleads me. It's hypnotized me into thinking that if I can just get Carol to calm down, talk a little nicer and admit she made a mistake, then I'll be happy. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:16 Highlight the passage at 1:36:16

1:36:41 And you make that shift that that's not the solution, that it's the disturbed mind that I've been misled. My mind's agitated because she spoke rudely or maybe she didn't even speak rudely. That's just what I heard. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:41 Highlight the passage at 1:36:41

1:36:55 And that that disturbed mine is the problem. Once those shifts are made, now I'm not misled. But how, why do I think Carol is the problem? Report an error in the passage at 1:36:55 Highlight the passage at 1:36:55

1:37:06 This is where we get in the book. You got to read the book. That's why I'm not promoting. The reason is, it Report an error in the passage at 1:37:06 Highlight the passage at 1:37:06

1:37:23 seems like it, right? It seems like it's much easier. And that's because I think that someone's saying is, you know, people don't have the method, which is true. Why we have to have empathy. You know, we can't say, Report an error in the passage at 1:37:23 Highlight the passage at 1:37:23

1:37:37 people to deal with things internally. So I didn't say that clearly, but it is true. Like the cancer question, of course. If they don't have the capacity to deal with that, then you wouldn't necessarily tell them. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:37 Highlight the passage at 1:37:37

1:37:53 But so we do need, you know, but of course with Carol's sense, I know she has a capacity. So I could go to her and say, you know, could you act a little nicer? Report an error in the passage at 1:37:53 Highlight the passage at 1:37:53

1:38:06 You're really the problem here. So that's how we're misled. Okay, so what is it that's misleading? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:06 Highlight the passage at 1:38:06

1:38:17 Have you ever heard... See, the thing is that in modern psychology, what is the cause of your problems? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:17 Highlight the passage at 1:38:17

1:38:32 That's right. That's right. No fair. Okay, but so now that's... Okay, now what if you adhere to another system of thought? Report an error in the passage at 1:38:32 Highlight the passage at 1:38:32

1:38:44 Well, I'll just... Your mother is a cause. Or, as times have evolved, genetics. Bipolar is a genetic disposition probably. Or social, cultural, dysfunctional family, alcoholic family, dysfunctional social system. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:44 Highlight the passage at 1:38:44

1:39:13 There's many, many, many, many, many. And then, of course, the therapies arise from there. Wouldn't it be interesting? Isn't it interesting? Now, if we started a new school of psychology, modern psychology, and so now we're going to teach everyone that, okay, all the mental disorders, depression, anxiety, trichotillomania, obsessive-compulsive behavior, all that stuff, narcissistic personality disorder, all these things. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:13 Highlight the passage at 1:39:13

1:39:44 Arise from only one thing, ignorance. Wouldn't that be amazing? Report an error in the passage at 1:39:44 Highlight the passage at 1:39:44

1:39:54 Now what does it mean, ignorance? Report an error in the passage at 1:39:54 Highlight the passage at 1:39:54

1:40:01 Geshe Gallagher is a very sweet, lovely Geshe, North Carolina. And he was saying to me, well, you know, the problem is we see things that aren't there and don't see things that are there. That's kind of... A working definition of ignorance. It's not the full definition. So that's where it arises. So when Carol is rude to me, and I'm seeing her talking that way, it's such an easy one to use because you can never imagine her being rude. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:01 Highlight the passage at 1:40:01

1:40:41 You see, so I'm seeing something that's not there. Let's take another example. Let's say that someone was rude. They were rude. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:41 Highlight the passage at 1:40:41

1:40:53 It still applies because it's not so useful in Carol's sense because she's not rude. But when I have a problem with someone who's been rude, then I try and get everyone convinced. Don't you think Cheryl's rude? Yeah, yeah, she's really rude. That's the way we were. But this ignorance is really very, very subtle and profound. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:53 Highlight the passage at 1:40:53

1:41:24 Even what you're seeing doesn't mean it's not there, but it's not there the way we see it. And as soon as we see something existing that way that it doesn't really exist that way, we have a problem. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:24 Highlight the passage at 1:41:24

1:41:42 So if we see things how they are, then we don't have a problem. And this is, I mean, of course, this is the only antidote we need, the only pill we need. The only therapy we need is this one. But the reality is that we're not all very good at this one, so we have to do some other ones that help support to get to this one. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:42 Highlight the passage at 1:41:42

1:42:04 It's not that we just help everyone see reality and what's really there and what's not. Definition of reality is, so this is kind of reality therapy, I guess you'd say. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:04 Highlight the passage at 1:42:04

1:42:19 The definition, now, again, capacity. Sometimes we don't have the capacity to handle this. But just so that we know for the future, what is the root of every issue of not finding the problem with the parking that I was having? Again, it's this misunderstanding of how things are. The definition of reality is seeing something and it exists the way it appears. That's the definition of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:19 Highlight the passage at 1:42:19

1:42:51 It's so simple. And so amazing that, oh, you mean I don't see things the way they appear? No, I don't. I don't see things. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:51 Highlight the passage at 1:42:51

1:43:02 I see things only the way they appear. I don't see the way things are. So which means I don't see you guys as you really are right now. Doesn't mean you're not there. I'm just misunderstanding, okay? When David Copperfield does those amazing illusions. Making the railroad car or the Statue of Liberty disappear. The Statue of Liberty is there, but what I'm seeing, it doesn't exist the way it appears or disappears. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:02 Highlight the passage at 1:43:02

1:43:32 That's the same thing. It's a good metaphor. So all of our mental disorders will disappear. So the only reason I get upset is because the subject is experiencing something in a way that it doesn't exist that way. So if we want to get better, Report an error in the passage at 1:43:32 Highlight the passage at 1:43:32

1:43:53 If we believe that we're not so good and we believe we can get better, that's the only thing we need to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:53 Highlight the passage at 1:43:53

1:44:07 So I've taken so many teachings and stuff like that. Why am I still such a mess? That comes back to we have to work. The mind, the confused, is habituated to be confused. It's its habit. And we start looking at neuroscience, which... you know, useful, you know, we do get a lot And it works. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:07 Highlight the passage at 1:44:07

1:44:52 But guess what? They got to do it. He can't do it for them and they can't do it once. And he's really having a really, really... His strategy is not so much about closing those paths, but developing ones that are opposing it, which is very similar to Buddhist practice. Exactly. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:52 Highlight the passage at 1:44:52

1:45:32 The way to counter anger is through patience. So, you know, patience now makes a little more sense. If this idea of patience is not the neural pathway that's opposite to the anger one, then it's not really patience. You know, we might just hang on. It's an interesting discussion. So compassion, like, is not just something because it's right. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:32 Highlight the passage at 1:45:32

1:45:57 You know, like, I should be compassionate. I should have empathy. That's often how we are. It's not like that. It's because it actually is healthy from a biological point of view. So it's pretty exciting work. Okay? Okay, that's it. By the way, I have hundreds of slides. Let me find one to end on. Oh, I know one. I had one here. Oh yeah, it's coming. I told you I have hundreds of slides. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:57 Highlight the passage at 1:45:57

1:46:34 I think in pictures there. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:34 Highlight the passage at 1:46:34

1:46:43 So there's many, many, many, many more things we could do. I don't know. We can talk for a few minutes. I don't think I've, you know, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:43 Highlight the passage at 1:46:43

1:47:01 Yeah, you said that the mentally healthy person is making a choice that most people don't even know they have. Yes. Is that to develop the inner potential? Yes. If I had had time, one of the things in the book that I really wrestled with was how to make this stuff practical for people. And I thought about myself, like what do I do? Report an error in the passage at 1:47:01 Highlight the passage at 1:47:01

1:47:21 And the first step is remembering there's a choice. If we don't remember that, we go into our default mode, which is automatic pilot reactiveness. So 99 % of the world is like that. And then what if you knew you had a choice to be different? That choice alone is really a healthy seed, isn't it? Because everything stops. So that fits in with the idea of the inner being. So a problem arises, you don't look outside, you look within. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:21 Highlight the passage at 1:47:21

1:47:58 And then you look in and you're looking for your inner potential and say, well, I don't have to be anxious here. Exactly. And that's why I take study. You know, it's really interesting when we talk about the methodology includes listening, contemplating and meditating. You know, taken another way, listening means like study. We need to be educated. So it's not fair to expect people to be able to do this without education. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:58 Highlight the passage at 1:47:58

1:48:24 You know, because I could say, maybe we just met, it's your first time here and you heard this and you say, and I say, yeah, you got to go in, you got to look inside. And you leave here and go, wait a minute, what does that mean? Look inside, I don't know. You know what I mean? So we need education. Then we need to think about things, which the contemplative side is about thinking, talking, discussion, dialogue around the thoughts that really wrestle. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:24 Highlight the passage at 1:48:24

1:48:45 And of course the meditation is the integrating internally. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:45 Highlight the passage at 1:48:45

1:48:53 Karuṇā, I agree with Lama Yeshe. He says we should become our own therapists. Of course if a psychologist goes around telling everybody to become their own therapist, you won't have a job. Yeah, that's what he thinks. internally. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:53 Highlight the passage at 1:48:53

1:49:05 I don't want a job. It's too hard. So when does a psychologist tell Buddhists that they should go see a therapist? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:05 Highlight the passage at 1:49:05

1:49:18 That's a good question. That comes up, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:18 Highlight the passage at 1:49:18

1:49:24 When should you go see a therapist? Yeah, I think we were asking when should a Buddhist see a therapist. Yeah, it can happen because the way I put it, Is it – well, it's like this. When we have a conflict with another person – let's just start there. So we have a conflict with another person. Depending on what their capacity is, you know, I could say – let's say I have a conflict with my wife's Buddhist, whatever. And I could say to her, you know, I know that this problem I'm having is due to my whatever way I explain it, my attachment to, you know, having my dinner cooked, blah, blah, blah, blah, something like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:24 Highlight the passage at 1:49:24

1:50:08 Right? So I know that, but I don't have quite the capacity to deal with the strong emotions coming up for me right now. So I need your help. Can you cook dinner tonight? Because that's different. So the same thing with a therapist is, you know, we're not very, most of us are not very competent. And if we're being taken over by a strong emotion, That's dangerous. It's harmful for others and harmful for ourselves. And it's true that a lot of skillful therapists are helpful in reducing the emotional conduct. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:08 Highlight the passage at 1:50:08

1:50:42 The other thing is, and I think maybe this is what you're talking about. Oh, I think I know maybe what you're asking. One time during one of the November courses at Copan, my job was to help organize them and run them and that sort of thing along with my wife. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:42 Highlight the passage at 1:50:42

1:51:02 And, you know, we'd have 200 people from all over the world. Still, they get lots of people coming, more than that. And one year, 1979, something like that, there was one woman who was really having a psychotic break, a disorder, psychotic break. And she was doing some very, very bizarre behavior. And then she started, like, breaking windows. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:02 Highlight the passage at 1:51:02

1:51:31 The temple and some other things and break, you know, she was really pretty lost. And the course leader, the course leader was always a Westerner. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:31 Highlight the passage at 1:51:31

1:51:47 I remember vividly, you know, so I went up to see Lama Yeshe about, I think something else. And the course leader was in Lama's room and I could hear them outside. Because remember I used to be nervous about going in, so I had to stand there. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:47 Highlight the passage at 1:51:47

1:52:02 This course leader is really, she's still around, she's a nun, very big heart, very, very warm, compassionate person. And I can hear her arguing with Lama Yeshe. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:02 Highlight the passage at 1:52:02

1:52:14 And pretty soon I'm hearing a little bit of the content. And Lama Yeshe is, so finally I hear Lama Yeshe saying, you know, take her to the hospital. Now this is Nepal, you're in a hospital? Okay, but take her to the hospital. And she's saying, but Lama, we're... Here we're teaching, learning about compassion and there's a Buddhist monastery and this is our job is to practice. If she can't be here, then where? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:14 Highlight the passage at 1:52:14

1:52:41 You know, like that really. But now I realize it's pretty idealistic, right? But that's my opinion. And then Lama just, and then I heard this like, I told you she needs a psychiatrist. And he said, Buddhism is for healthy people. Okay? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:41 Highlight the passage at 1:52:41

1:53:02 How we define healthy people, I think it's just conventional. Just conventionally we define it. I don't have to go into all the details. That I think is very profound. Buddhism is for healthy people, which means that's why we do, for the unhealthy people, then we use a lot of Western modern ideas. But for the Buddhist psychologists or therapists, always they are coming not from the attitude, the mindset that I was coming from before Lama Zopa told me that. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:02 Highlight the passage at 1:53:02

1:53:33 It doesn't mean you give up on your mindset. You know. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:33 Highlight the passage at 1:53:33

1:53:35 You know, the research has shown that the most effective therapy, you know, these exit studies with clients, and that the most effective quality or variable in producing effective therapy, it's not the therapist's model, it's not their education, it's not their degree, it's not their interventions that they use. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:35 Highlight the passage at 1:53:35

1:54:05 Interesting. And there are eight criteria. And one, overwhelmingly, like 73 % of it was the relationship that the therapist was able to develop with the person. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:05 Highlight the passage at 1:54:05

1:54:16 It has nothing to do with theory. It has nothing to do with psychology. I mean, I shouldn't say nothing, but that's about probably if I were, probably if they do research, they found it has to do with creating an empathetic space, a space of compassion, hope. All those things which come from our Buddhists, if we're good Buddhists, come from, you know, we should have that mindset. Not should, like, I've got to have it. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:16 Highlight the passage at 1:54:16

1:54:44 It's just like if we follow the idea of wisdom, you know, this idea of understanding reality, we will be hopeful and warm. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:44 Highlight the passage at 1:54:44

1:54:55 And that's the most healthy. So it depends which side you look at, from the client's side or from the therapist's side. That's my answer. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:55 Highlight the passage at 1:54:55

1:55:08 Psychotic. Yeah. were to practice Buddhism, would it be helpful? Yes. Right practice, yes. yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:08 Highlight the passage at 1:55:08

1:55:25 actually studies of that in Ladakh with the oracles. Like when young children start having mental issues and they send them to an oracle to become an oracle. Right. Interesting, isn't it? Yeah, in Nepal I used to go see this woman time to time. Every Sunday she became possessed. Okay, so from what's that in modern, in the West, she became what? Psychotic or whatever it is, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:25 Highlight the passage at 1:55:25

1:55:54 But yet she was possessed and everyone would go there for, you know, ask her observations of things and different paradigm. I mean, it's all just, it's not, the description is not to describe, right? So, but, you know, these are real things. I mean, people do. And there is such a thing as conventional reality. It's valid, but it's mistaken. Do you know what I mean? It's valid, but mistaken. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:54 Highlight the passage at 1:55:54

1:56:24 You're sitting there, but that's valid. But the way I'm seeing you is mistaken. Now, for someone psychotic, what they're seeing is not valid because it's not valid. It's not there the way that the society is experiencing it. You know, it sounds trivial, but it's pretty big. One Report an error in the passage at 1:56:24 Highlight the passage at 1:56:24

1:56:52 more? Really hard one? Report an error in the passage at 1:56:52 Highlight the passage at 1:56:52

1:56:57 So, thank you. You know, like I said, when I do these kind of talks, I just randomly go, I don't even look at this thing. I hope it was helpful. Main thing is that the intent behind the Misleading Mind, the book, is that there is a... Report an error in the passage at 1:56:57 Highlight the passage at 1:56:57

1:57:19 A complete psychology in Buddhist thought and we can learn to translate it and make it useful for everybody or as many people as possible. I just thought of a difficult question. Going back to the beginning where your comment of what Rinpoche had said to you in the car about making people just feel better. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:19 Highlight the passage at 1:57:19

1:57:44 How has that changed how you approach your practice? It's really good. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:44 Highlight the passage at 1:57:44

1:57:51 Still working with it, honestly. I mean, I think that's maybe why I said it. Not why I said it, but that's the effect of it. I don't think for me doing therapy is the best use of my time. I think education is better, like this kind of thing. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:51 Highlight the passage at 1:57:51

1:58:18 Yeah. And then my hope is, if that's true, then other people... We'll collaborate, we'll collaborate, and then they'll take it into the therapy office or wherever. Yeah, I think that that's, yeah, I would say that. You know, honestly, also when I wrote this book, you know, it really is interesting. I did not write it ever thinking, and I'm not saying this in a humble way, I don't mean it that way. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:18 Highlight the passage at 1:58:18

1:58:51 I never thought anyone would read it. You know, it wasn't like writing it like... It's kind of sell it and read it. I wrote it because I had something inside of me that I just felt I wanted to get out, you know, and explain. So it's really kind of like for myself, too. I mean, Rinpoche encouraged me to write a book and again Lama, I think, did. But it was really like frustration, a little bit of frustration that what's out there and then I have this idea. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:51 Highlight the passage at 1:58:51

1:59:21 I'm glad people are reading it. I'm glad it's well received. But that wasn't, I mean, that's kind of a dessert or something. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:21 Highlight the passage at 1:59:21

1:59:31 Anything else? Yeah. I'll repeat your question. So Report an error in the passage at 1:59:31 Highlight the passage at 1:59:31

1:59:47 your point really resonates with me. The first teaching is suffering or dissatisfaction. It seems like it could be really a downer. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:47 Highlight the passage at 1:59:47

1:59:59 And then having a choice and seeing is definitely the opposite. It's very motivating. Is that the answer for you or could you speak more about that? How do you avoid the downer part of it? Is that what you mean? No, not so much like how do you see it in terms of see it as a positive or your capacity as a positive. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:59 Highlight the passage at 1:59:59

2:00:24 How to see the idea of suffering as... I think Report an error in the passage at 2:00:24 Highlight the passage at 2:00:24

2:00:35 initially it's not. I think initially it's depressing. And the positive effect is that it has a strong motivating factor. You know, when I do connect with that now, I mean, I can't say in the beginning, but now when I see it, it actually is quite, the effect is that it helps me to see reality. Because simply stuck in, in the suffering as existing I mean doesn't exist the way it appears either Report an error in the passage at 2:00:35 Highlight the passage at 2:00:35

2:01:12 If nothing exists the way it appears, except for reality, then even what I'm calling suffering and what I'm seeing doesn't exist the way it appears either. I'm still not seeing it correctly, am I? Until I'm an aria being and I realize reality. So the effect that it has on me is it brings me into the present moment exactly. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:12 Highlight the passage at 2:01:12

2:01:35 That's the effect it has on me. The positive effect is that at that moment it tells me I can have a different frame of mind. I just make a switch. I'm trying to use a real example. Let's say I really do key in with what's meant by the dissatisfied world and it's just nothing but problems, which happens sometimes for a split second. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:35 Highlight the passage at 2:01:35

2:02:00 The positive side of that... is all kinds of things. One is I get very happy for being a human being. I get very happy that I've, you know, I got access to some other ideas, right? And third thing is I then immediately apply those ideas, immediately. So that's the positive. If I didn't have that view, I would just, which I usually don't have, then I think, okay, let's go play golf. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:00 Highlight the passage at 2:02:00

2:02:31 It is a little tricky because when you do have that view of the first noble truth, when you get glimpses of it and see it, then you also see golf as, when you talk about golf or coffee or whatever, TV, it doesn't matter. When you see golf, then it's like, oh, yeah, you know, that doesn't work. That's the same thing. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:31 Highlight the passage at 2:02:31

2:02:52 But that's not a bummer. That's not a downer for me. It's actually like, oh, good, I'm balanced again. You know, it gets me balanced. Does that make sense? Report an error in the passage at 2:02:52 Highlight the passage at 2:02:52

2:03:02 The fact is it gets you to see reality better. It enhances your view of reality. Yeah, that totally makes sense. I'm just thinking of the question I have in my mind of studying East and West psychology is I'm seeing a lot of things as wondrous and a lot of the examples are like hellish images and stuff and I'm thinking, I have an articulator for myself, how is it that I'm seeing this as wonderful not seeing the suffering or the... Report an error in the passage at 2:03:02 Highlight the passage at 2:03:02

2:03:31 Other things that is wonderful at all. It's just very interesting, but I just haven't clarified that. Well, maybe there's an assumption that by seeing the hellish, all this crap, right, is going to be something, you know, it's good. It makes me feel better or something. I don't think that's true. I think it makes you feel shittier because Report an error in the passage at 2:03:31 Highlight the passage at 2:03:31

2:03:54 I don't think we feel bad in one way. I don't mean it that way. I say we don't feel bad enough, you know. The point is, is that that is reality. So let me ask you a question. So you go to Calcutta and you drive, have you been to India? Have you been over there? No, I haven't. So it's intense. You can go to Rio de Janeiro to the favelas, whatever they're called, you know, whatever. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:54 Highlight the passage at 2:03:54

2:04:17 But if you drive through some really intense, it's so obviously suffering, right? What's the effect of that on you? What's the positive effect of that? Does it have a positive effect? Report an error in the passage at 2:04:17 Highlight the passage at 2:04:17

2:04:29 I think it's like driving through. No, okay, hanging out, whatever, seeing and experiencing. No, but I have done trips where I've gone to places like that in Mexico. So when I'm there, getting to know the people and helping their lives is definitely a positive effect. But knowing that for so many other thousands that they don't even have a door they can close, that's very sad. Yeah, but it has a positive effect for you, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:04:29 Highlight the passage at 2:04:29

2:04:54 Opens your heart, makes you kinder, more empathetic. More human, more in touch, more connected. Does it do that? Yeah, I think maybe that's the effect I'm trying to articulate. That's a good thing, right? That's a good thing. So values change. That's how I would see that if we were really, when we really see the first noble truth, I'm sure that it has that same effect, only in massive ways more. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:54 Highlight the passage at 2:04:54

2:05:25 Because when you hang around people who have that perspective, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lama Yeshe, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I mean the automatic experience is you feel their sense of warmth. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:25 Highlight the passage at 2:05:25

2:05:40 And by the way, their sense of warmth is something that makes them happier too. But it's a completely different warmth than when I see Benny when I go play golf, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:05:40 Highlight the passage at 2:05:40

2:05:53 That's bad. I hope that answers your question. It's a good question. Thank you very much. Yeah, it helps me think about it. Okay. Lunchtime? Lunchtime. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I hope I didn't confuse you all too much. If you want, I'll come back. I'll say all the same stuff again. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:53 Highlight the passage at 2:05:53

2:06:16 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:16 Highlight the passage at 2:06:16

2:06:24 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:24 Highlight the passage at 2:06:24