Three Principles of the Path - Ven. Steve Carlier (12 June 2007)

0:04 me get up mindfully. Report an error in the passage at 0:04 Highlight the passage at 0:04

· · · silence, 4 minutes

4:16 Where's the book with the three prism aspects? Yeah, there's the gold one. Report an error in the passage at 4:16 Highlight the passage at 4:16

4:32 Yeah, 143. Report an error in the passage at 4:32 Highlight the passage at 4:32

· · · silence, 1 minute

5:24 Ah, yeah, probably. I don't think I need them, personally, if anybody else does. Report an error in the passage at 5:24 Highlight the passage at 5:24

5:32 Probably don't need it. Yeah, everybody, no problem. it possible to have a middle and middle spot? Report an error in the passage at 5:32 Highlight the passage at 5:32

5:29 helpful, Report an error in the passage at 5:29 Highlight the passage at 5:29

· · · silence, 1 minute

6:30 Well, we can start this evening by meditating a little bit in the way that one often sees recommended as a way to start the day. You know how they talk about Report an error in the passage at 6:30 Highlight the passage at 6:30

6:49 starting the day with the right motivation and then trying to do your best during the day to keep to that motivation and then in the evening to dedicate. So there Report an error in the passage at 6:49 Highlight the passage at 6:49

7:05 are these Lamas that recommend the first thought is how amazing. that I'm still alive. amazing that I still have this precious human life. Report an error in the passage at 7:05 Highlight the passage at 7:05

7:25 try to think a bit about that, how amazing I'm still alive, how amazing I still have this So just like Report an error in the passage at 7:25 Highlight the passage at 7:25

· · · silence, 1 minute

9:07 it says in this three principal aspects, path. this life. If I died, where would I be now? Report an error in the passage at 9:07 Highlight the passage at 9:07

9:15 I'll just read out these two lines. Leisure and fortune are difficult to find and life has no duration. So, of course, if you don't think that there is such a thing as a future life, then you're going to find it quite easy to think that this is the only opportunity we have to really do something worthwhile. Report an error in the passage at 9:15 Highlight the passage at 9:15

9:36 But if you think that there is going to be something after this life, you might think, well... So this human life is so wonderful, there's so much I can do with it, but there are always going to be other opportunities, other chances, but in actual fact, this is something which is very difficult to come by, this kind of opportunity. Report an error in the passage at 9:36 Highlight the passage at 9:36

9:58 There's no way we can guarantee that after this life there's going to be another opportunity like this. So another thing the Lamas recommend is thinking, If I'm going to do something, it has to be in this life. I have to do it in this life. I have to use the time I have left as best I can. Report an error in the passage at 9:58 Highlight the passage at 9:58

· · · silence, 2 minutes

12:07 Lama Tsongkhapa also says this life has no duration, so eventually we're going to die and we don't know when. It could be 30 years from now, it could be 20 years from now, it could be 10 years from now, it could be next year, it could be next month, it could be next week, sometime during this week, this coming week, sometime today. Report an error in the passage at 12:07 Highlight the passage at 12:07

12:32 It could happen. It could happen any time. Therefore, try to generate the determination to use this opportunity and to use it now without delay. Report an error in the passage at 12:32 Highlight the passage at 12:32

· · · silence, 1 minute

14:05 So with that sense of urgency, what's the best way to use this human life? To cut a long story short, it's to use it for benefiting others. So thinking I'm going to use the little time I have left of this precious human life. This precious human life, this precious opportunity to benefit others. What does that mean? Report an error in the passage at 14:05 Highlight the passage at 14:05

14:33 To benefit others means to help them to become free of suffering, which they don't like just like myself, just like I don't like it, and to find real happiness. Report an error in the passage at 14:33 Highlight the passage at 14:33

14:50 And really what that means is to help them to find their own enlightenment. The only way I can help them really is... By achieving enlightenment myself, so the purpose of this life is to benefit others, therefore the purpose of this life is to lead them to enlightenment, therefore the purpose of this life is to achieve enlightenment oneself, and therefore the purpose of this life is to follow a path to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 14:50 Highlight the passage at 14:50

15:19 Enlightenment isn't something that just happens by itself, Report an error in the passage at 15:19 Highlight the passage at 15:19

15:27 and even though the one who travels the path is oneself as an individual, nobody else can travel that path for you. Report an error in the passage at 15:27 Highlight the passage at 15:27

15:38 We need help and that's where the practice of refuge comes in. So on page 88 in this gold covered book, gold covered, Report an error in the passage at 15:38 Highlight the passage at 15:38

16:07 I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly by the merits I create through listening to the Dharma. May I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By the merits I create through listening to the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 16:07 Highlight the passage at 16:07

16:36 I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By the merits I create through listening to the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 16:36 Highlight the passage at 16:36

16:57 was quite good too. Report an error in the passage at 16:57 Highlight the passage at 16:57

17:02 There are all sorts of things that we can sort of put into our morning motivation. Of course, motivation is something that you can think about any time. They call it motivation. I can't remember. The problem about having this, you know, like one talk every month is I just cannot for the life of me remember what I talked about last month, certainly not the month before. Report an error in the passage at 17:02 Highlight the passage at 17:02

17:28 Anyway, the Tibetan word for motivation, gunlong. His Holiness discusses it quite a lot in his text. What's it called? Ancient Wisdom, Modern World, that one, Ethics for a New Millennium. Have you seen that? It's a really amazing book, that one. He talks quite a lot about Kunlong. So motivation doesn't quite capture it. Report an error in the passage at 17:28 Highlight the passage at 17:28

17:37 um... Report an error in the passage at 17:37 Highlight the passage at 17:37

17:55 And so he's sort of the expression he has developed to sort of... The meaning of the word gunlong is one's overall state of mind somehow. It's not just a question of I'm going to achieve enlightenment. For this reason, I'm going to do this in order to achieve this. It's not just motivation in that sense. I'm going to meditate in order to benefit the sentient beings. I'm going to meditate or practice generosity in order to achieve enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 17:55 Highlight the passage at 17:55

18:37 It's not just like that. It's to do with your outlook, your attitude. It's to do with your hopes and expectations. Report an error in the passage at 18:37 Highlight the passage at 18:37

18:48 So from that point of view, for example, when you're thinking in terms of, you know, And developing the right kunlong in the morning, you know, trying to bring out, bring about a sort of an outlook or an attitude towards your day and your daily activities. Report an error in the passage at 18:48 Highlight the passage at 18:48

19:16 Well, you can put almost anything in there. What I mean is you can choose, let's say for example you might have a day. Where you've got all sorts of things to do at work but you might decide that in terms of your spiritual practice although of course you've got to be prepared for anything that happens today maybe your emphasis is going to be let's say for example you're going to particularly try to focus on recognizing everybody you see as being very kind as Report an error in the passage at 19:16 Highlight the passage at 19:16

19:56 it says in the mind training teachings meditate on the kindness of all. This is really quite practical, you see, because, I mean, of course, from the point of view of trying to meditate on bodhicitta, trying to generate the determination to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings, it comes in there. Report an error in the passage at 19:56 Highlight the passage at 19:56

20:15 If you have some sense of the kindness of others, then it's going to be easier to develop a sincere wish to achieve enlightenment for their sake. But, you know, it also... Report an error in the passage at 20:15 Highlight the passage at 20:15

20:33 If you make up your mind, this is something I'm going to focus on today, and you do actually keep your mind on it to some degree, well, Report an error in the passage at 20:33 Highlight the passage at 20:33

20:46 that means that whoever you encounter, right from the very beginning of the encounter, you've got some kind of positive way of viewing them, sort of positive way of relating to them. Report an error in the passage at 20:46 Highlight the passage at 20:46

21:06 There's just less likelihood of getting irritated with them. I mean, you know, it's not completely fail-safe, but, I mean, it's a question of just being used to it, isn't it? It's a bit like Aiden. I mean, I was going to say, you know, if you think of how, like somebody who you really care for or somebody you really detest, they could do the same thing to harm you. Report an error in the passage at 21:06 Highlight the passage at 21:06

21:37 But in the case of the person you really care for, you'll probably find it quite easy to forgive them, whereas the person who you really detest is just going to feed your sense of hate towards them. Report an error in the passage at 21:37 Highlight the passage at 21:37

21:57 So if you have that somehow in your awareness as you're going around, this sense that everybody that you see is... Very kind. Then just having that positive attitude towards them is going to help you to avoid getting angry with everybody, which is one of the worst things that happens to us during the day, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 21:57 Highlight the passage at 21:57

22:30 Sort of just getting angry with everybody. Things get a bit too much. The pressure gets too, you know, too much and it's so easy to get irritated with everybody. Report an error in the passage at 22:30 Highlight the passage at 22:30

22:54 I think this sort of idea... It comes from some advice that I heard Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving one time. Actually, he was talking to the monks at Nalanda Monastery in France. Report an error in the passage at 22:54 Highlight the passage at 22:54

23:10 So indirectly he was advising us, and the way he did it was by telling us about the advice he gives to his young monks in Kopan Monastery in Nepal. He says that, because of course they all have to go into town from time to time, into Kathmandu. They're supposed to stay in the monastery and recite and memorize and be good little monks, but they need a break sometimes. Report an error in the passage at 23:10 Highlight the passage at 23:10

23:41 So whether they get permission or whether they don't, probably they go into town from time to time. So Rinpoche advised them, if you have to go into town, make up your mind, okay, I'm going into town in order to develop compassion. I'm going into town in order to practice. Report an error in the passage at 23:41 Highlight the passage at 23:41

24:01 I'm going into town in order to develop my sense of renunciation. I'm going maybe for young children to advise them to think about emptiness might be difficult. But anyway, you see the point. So then you can turn something quite ordinary into something quite extraordinary. And also because, you see, when we think about the... Report an error in the passage at 24:01 Highlight the passage at 24:01

24:32 Different kinds of Buddhist meditations and you think about those lamrim, the stage of the path and all that. There seem to be so many things, all of which you feel like you're supposed to be practicing all the time. It just gets too much, doesn't it? It gets kind of confusing and you kind of end up not remembering any of it. But anyway, so choosing something to focus on for the day or for a week even at a time is quite useful. Report an error in the passage at 24:32 Highlight the passage at 24:32

25:06 You've got more chance of getting somewhere when you focus on one thing. I'm talking about trying to be aware of the kindness of others. Of course, you're not going to be able to think of others being kind unless you've thought about it a bit beforehand. Why it is that all sentient beings are so kind? Report an error in the passage at 25:06 Highlight the passage at 25:06

25:29 Why is it everybody is so kind? I mean, this is taught in length in the... that, of course, you need to... Report an error in the passage at 25:29 Highlight the passage at 25:29

25:37 Stages of the Path teachings and especially in the mind training teachings. Report an error in the passage at 25:37 Highlight the passage at 25:37

25:45 Everything that we have on a material level comes from others. Everything that we have on a spiritual level comes from others. Report an error in the passage at 25:45 Highlight the passage at 25:45

25:57 It's not really very difficult to understand. Anybody who sits down and just thinks about how many people are involved in one meal, providing you with one meal, if you think about the number of people. Report an error in the passage at 25:57 Highlight the passage at 25:57

26:18 If you appreciate the chance to practice the Buddhist teachings as transmitted to us by the Tibetan Lamas, then just think of the history of the arrival, how Buddhism arrived in Tibet and how it got from Tibet to here. Think of how many people were involved and how many hardships they underwent in order to bring the Dharma from India to Tibet, from Tibet. Report an error in the passage at 26:18 Highlight the passage at 26:18

26:51 Think of how hard those Lamas worked when they were younger in order to gain the kind of intellectual understanding and sort of also spiritual experience of what they teach. Report an error in the passage at 26:51 Highlight the passage at 26:51

27:10 So whether you think short term or long term, whether you think on a material level or a spiritual level, whether you think in terms of just this life or future lives, you know. Report an error in the passage at 27:10 Highlight the passage at 27:10

27:23 Eventually, somehow, everybody is involved in our happiness and well-being. Report an error in the passage at 27:23 Highlight the passage at 27:23

27:35 It's in that sense that all beings are so kind. In fact, if you look at Shantideva's Bodhicitta Avatar, I think it's in there anyway, where it talks about being able to look at each being and think. I'm going to achieve enlightenment depending upon this person. So the most amazing... Of course, we don't think of achieving enlightenment for one's own sake. That would be just selfish, wouldn't it? We talk about achieving enlightenment for the sake of all others. Report an error in the passage at 27:35 Highlight the passage at 27:35

28:13 Achieving enlightenment for the sake of others. But who gains the most out of it, of our own achievement of enlightenment, is ourselves, of course. even though you're not Report an error in the passage at 28:13 Highlight the passage at 28:13

28:27 You don't try to achieve enlightenment just for your own sake, but actually it's you the benefits the most, the purest happiness and openness of mind and clarity of mind that's possible. This is something that we achieve depending upon each and every single living being, every human being, every animal, every spirit, every whatever, every single one of those. Report an error in the passage at 28:27 Highlight the passage at 28:27

29:00 Depending upon every single one of those, we achieve enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 29:00 Highlight the passage at 29:00

29:29 We haven't really been following this text, but I thought we could read through it this evening, page 143. So we looked at the first few verses. Report an error in the passage at 29:29 Highlight the passage at 29:29

29:45 I bow down to the Holy Lamas. I will explain as well as I can the essential meaning of all the conqueror's scriptures, the path praised by the excellent conqueror's children, the port for the fortunate wishing liberation. Whoever are not attached to the pleasures of transient existence, whoever strive to make leisure and fortune worthwhile, whoever are inclined to the path pleasing the conqueror of Buddha, those fortunate ones should listen with a clear mind. Report an error in the passage at 29:45 Highlight the passage at 29:45

30:08 So actually there's, I mean if you meet the right person then you'll find that there's all sorts of advice on practice and explanation to be found in there about how to practice renunciation and bodhicitta and emptiness. But anyway, it's more evident as you go through the following verses. Without a complete intention definitely to leave psychic existence, there is no way to stop seeking pleasurable effects in the ocean of existence. Report an error in the passage at 30:08 Highlight the passage at 30:08

30:42 Also, craving psychic existence thoroughly binds the embodied. Therefore, in the beginning, an intention to leave psychic existence should be taught. That's interesting. He's called it intention to leave psychic existence. That's what he's called renunciation. Financiation. Report an error in the passage at 30:42 Highlight the passage at 30:42

30:57 Yeah, that's interesting, intention to leave psychic existence. There's not much difference between renunciation in the sense of thinking about the nature of psychic existence and not liking it and wanting to be free of it. I mean, they're obviously very, very close, aren't they? And maybe it's better to call it the intention to leave psychic existence than renunciation because renunciation seems to be such a problem for so many people. Report an error in the passage at 30:57 Highlight the passage at 30:57

31:25 As a word, you know. So basically this is saying, you know, as long as we're attached to psychic existence, how are we ever going to be free of it? Report an error in the passage at 31:25 Highlight the passage at 31:25

31:38 So the intention to leave psychic existence, this nye jung, as they say in Tibetan, or renunciation, is the opposite of that. Instead of liking the things in psychic existence, it's the mind that sees, that's sort of disenchanted with the pleasures of psychic existence, which is... Report an error in the passage at 31:38 Highlight the passage at 31:38

31:58 Disillusioned with it. And in fact, we had the example from Lama Zopa of the way you feel about psychic existence is the way you would feel if you were sinking in a septic tank like that. Not for one moment being even the slightest interest in staying there. So now, how do you go about developing that? Report an error in the passage at 31:58 Highlight the passage at 31:58

32:30 That kind of intention to leave psychic existence, that kind of renunciation. So Lama Tsongkhapa suggests that we approach it in two steps. One is to do with losing interest in the short-term material gains, short-term material gains, materialistic gains of this life, whether it's food and clothing. Reputation or whatever it might be, thinking about how this precious human life that we have is, you know, is basically, you know, this is it. Report an error in the passage at 32:30 Highlight the passage at 32:30

33:12 This is the chance that we have. We're not going to get this chance again. Report an error in the passage at 33:12 Highlight the passage at 33:12

33:19 If you use it well, there is the chance of having the opportunity again, but you can't just assume we're going to get the opportunity again. And then life has no duration. Report an error in the passage at 33:19 Highlight the passage at 33:19

33:29 Life has no duration. There's no time, there's just no time. Even if we live to 80 or 90 or 100, time just goes so fast, doesn't it? There's nothing. Of course, if you use your time well, that's great. But if you don't, then what's the point anyway? Report an error in the passage at 33:29 Highlight the passage at 33:29

33:55 And besides that, you can't be sure you are going to live for a long time. You can't be sure you will live that long. As I was saying during our meditation at the beginning, it could last. It could be today. Today could be the last day. In fact, Lama Zopa often advises people to think, you know, it's going to happen today. Report an error in the passage at 33:55 Highlight the passage at 33:55

34:18 This is the day I'm going to die. I can see the point of that. I do find it a bit kind of, you know, I think, well, if I do that, if I were really convinced that I was going to die today, I'd probably give everything away. But if I give everything away, what am I going to do tomorrow? Report an error in the passage at 34:18 Highlight the passage at 34:18

34:42 But actually, quite possibly, that would be the best thing to do. Also, I look around and I think to myself, well, I don't see any of my lamas doing that. I don't see any of my Dharma friends doing that, giving everything away. I don't want to be the old man out. But anyway, the main point, of course, anyway, it's a mistake to think that renouncing means... Report an error in the passage at 34:42 Highlight the passage at 34:42

35:07 Giving everything away physically anyway, the main thing is giving up attachment, isn't it? That's my excuse anyway. Report an error in the passage at 35:07 Highlight the passage at 35:07

35:20 So leisure and fortune are difficult to find and life has no duration through familiarity. This, emphasis on the appearance of this life, appearances of this life is reversed. So emphasis on the appearance of this life is reversed means you'll stop being attached just to the short-term pleasures of this life. Report an error in the passage at 35:20 Highlight the passage at 35:20

35:41 If you think again and again about actions and their inevitable effects and the suffering of psychic existence, emphasis on the appearances of future lives will be reversed. Report an error in the passage at 35:41 Highlight the passage at 35:41

35:54 So this, yeah, so obviously once we die, things don't just, you know, you don't just, I don't know, it doesn't all end there. Report an error in the passage at 35:54 Highlight the passage at 35:54

36:11 I mean, well, I mean, it's quite difficult to prove, isn't it? People don't usually come back and tell you. That's always been a problem, hasn't it? So it's a question of thinking about what makes sense. In some ways, I suppose because, I don't know, could you say that our culture is a culture which sort of basically denies the possibility of future lives in general? Report an error in the passage at 36:11 Highlight the passage at 36:11

36:44 Yeah, kind of does, doesn't it? So from the perspective of that culture, Saying that there is some future existence after this life is nonsense, right? And they're going to say, prove it. Well, actually, if you take the opposite perspective, it's kind of nonsense to say that life finishes, or our existence finishes after this life. Report an error in the passage at 36:44 Highlight the passage at 36:44

37:14 And you've also got a right to say, prove it. If you're going to say there's nothing after this life, prove it. What's your proof? Because I can't see it. Oh, right, yes. That's very convincing. There are all sorts of things that we can't see, but, you know, we believe, we super believe in the existence of, I mean, you know, like the atoms and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 37:14 Highlight the passage at 37:14

37:42 We do believe those exist, don't we? Don't we? Yeah? Report an error in the passage at 37:42 Highlight the passage at 37:42

37:49 Microphone. The good thing about this is that you have to, you know, think before you speak, because you have to wait while... Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 37:49 Highlight the passage at 37:49

38:01 I was thinking that in a future life, you're thinking always about the future, even as a Catholic or a Protestant, that you're going to be on the right side of God or you're going to be on a future life, enjoying the heavens or even the purgatory or even hell. So that's kind of thinking about the future in some way or another. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 38:01 Highlight the passage at 38:01

38:32 Well, anyway, I don't get your point, actually. You are saying that this culture denies the future life. Sorry? You are saying that this culture overall denies future lives. Well, that's why I was asking whether people thought that. What I'm really trying to say is from the point of view, so that the person who thinks there's no future life might well say there is no future life because, you know... Report an error in the passage at 38:32 Highlight the passage at 38:32

39:01 They're going to say it's nonsense to say there is a future life and you have to be able to prove it. I'm just saying that it's equally reasonable to say it's nonsense to say that there isn't a future life and if you're going to say there isn't a future life then prove it. I'm just saying that it's quite balanced really. You can say the same thing. So anyway, if you think again and again about actions... Report an error in the passage at 39:01 Highlight the passage at 39:01

39:27 This is useful, where it says think again and again about actions and their inevitable effects. This is talking about karma. So karma usually has these four characteristics. Karma is definite or fixed, which means that virtue leads to happiness and non-virtue leads to suffering, like killing and stealing and cheating and lying to people leads to suffering. Report an error in the passage at 39:27 Highlight the passage at 39:27

39:56 Couldn't possibly lead to happiness. Then saving life, giving, being kind and considerate, this leads to happiness and couldn't possibly lead to suffering. So when we think about what's going to happen after this life, well, it kind of doesn't make sense to say we just go on to whatever we feel like going on to. Report an error in the passage at 39:56 Highlight the passage at 39:56

40:27 There's no reason to suppose that we have that kind of choice. We don't really have that choice in this life. Why would we assume that we're going to have a choice about what happens after this life? You can't just choose to stay young. You have no choice but to get old. You can't just decide, I'm not going to get ill. Report an error in the passage at 40:27 Highlight the passage at 40:27

40:46 You get ill, we get ill, you know, unexpectedly. The healthiest person falls ill and dies. I mean, you know. We don't have any choice in this life, so why would we have any choice just to do what we feel like, as we wish, when we go on after this life. So it seems more reasonable to think in terms of cause and effect. What happens is the result of what's going to happen to you is the result of what you've done, the karma you've created, in other words. Report an error in the passage at 40:46 Highlight the passage at 40:46

41:21 These virtuous actions lead to happiness. Non-virtuous actions lead to suffering. Okay, so then karma is fixed. Karma also is increased, so even small actions can lead to great results. Then you don't experience the results of actions you haven't done. So if you want happiness, you're not going to experience happiness unless you've created the cause for it. Report an error in the passage at 41:21 Highlight the passage at 41:21

41:50 That's the main thing about not meeting with... The results of actions that haven't been done. And then the fourth feature of karma, that the results of karma are never lost. So in the case of virtue in this, if you get angry, then apparently this can destroy so much virtue. So even though you might have created the causes, you might have done something good. Report an error in the passage at 41:50 Highlight the passage at 41:50

42:21 But that's kind of like wasted by getting angry. The potential that you've created for something good to happen gets destroyed by getting angry. The more angry you get, the more destruction is done. Then in the case of destructive actions, kidding and stealing and so on, that can be purified. In that case, you would need to experience the result. But if you haven't purified it, then eventually, no matter how much time I'd have intervened, eventually you would... Report an error in the passage at 42:21 Highlight the passage at 42:21

42:50 I have to experience the result of that. So when you think along those lines, you see, just suppose we did get the chance of being a human being again, just like this, with all this kind of freedom and choice and the chance to carry on following this path. Now, from that point of view, it would be very good to be a human being again, wouldn't it? But just think about it. Report an error in the passage at 42:50 Highlight the passage at 42:50

43:17 know, I mean, okay. This life that we have right at this moment is pretty amazing in terms of what we're able to achieve, but also it's kind of like from beginning to end somehow there's just one problem after another, isn't there? We have so many problems we have to face. So there's nothing innately or inherently desirable about this kind of opportunity even. Report an error in the passage at 43:17 Highlight the passage at 43:17

43:49 So the point is, Even though you might become a human being again, you're still under the control of your karma. The negative actions that you've done in the past eventually catch up with you. Report an error in the passage at 43:49 Highlight the passage at 43:49

44:08 And so, of course, if after this life as a result of negative karma we have to go on to some suffering life, there's no need to, it's obvious we don't want that. But we might think, oh, it would be nice to be a human being again, or if you believe in the God realms, you know, oh, it would be nice to do that. You know, how about, what do you think of, you know, a few million years of just unadulterated bliss? Report an error in the passage at 44:08 Highlight the passage at 44:08

44:35 Sounds nice, doesn't it? When you think of, you know, spending at the maximum a hundred years, just, you know, I mean, if everybody started living to a hundred years, we'd probably all have to work up to 80, right? Or 90 maybe. Okay. So you have to spend most of your life just struggling and a few years, if you're lucky, making use of that pension scheme that you've put so much money into. Report an error in the passage at 44:35 Highlight the passage at 44:35

45:13 So in comparison with that, a few thousand years or a million years, I don't know how long they live for, they usually talk about huge lifespans of some of these. God's, I mean, wow, you know, no illness, no pain, no sort of physical suffering at all. Just, you know, just like, well, probably like the heavens that they talk about in the Bible, except it doesn't last forever. Report an error in the passage at 45:13 Highlight the passage at 45:13

45:38 And you don't go there because God sent you there. You go there because of your karma. And because of your karma, your karma gets, it runs out eventually. And you have to go down. You have to leave that. So why? Because? of the karma, you see. So somehow the karma binds you to suffering. Even though it looks so nice to spend however many hundreds or thousands of years just experiencing pleasure, you've still got your karma there and it's not just going to go away. Report an error in the passage at 45:38 Highlight the passage at 45:38

46:13 At the end of that life, it's going to catch up with you. So the message here is basically as long as you're in... What we call psychic existence, which means wherever you go and wherever you're born is not something that you do by choice. You don't just go where you like when you feel like it. You're not born where you like just because you feel like it, just because you want to. Everything is under the control of karma. Report an error in the passage at 46:13 Highlight the passage at 46:13

46:50 So that kind of existence is called psychic existence or saṃsāra. So thinking more and more about... The way karma works and the sufferings of psychic existence, the awful suffering that we have to experience of wanting something, being attached to something, a person or a position, some kind of wealth or whatever it is, just wanting it, just longing for it and not being able to get it. Report an error in the passage at 46:50 Highlight the passage at 46:50

47:20 I mean, that's suffering, isn't it? Or getting it but not being able to hold on to it, losing it eventually. And having so many unpleasant things happen to us. So life starts off with the suffering of birth, then ends with the suffering of death, and in the middle you have sort of one thing after another, one difficulty after another to have to deal with. Report an error in the passage at 47:20 Highlight the passage at 47:20

47:51 So thinking again and again about that would lead you to a strong sense of disenchantment with... Psychic existence in general, so you'd want to find, to achieve liberation from that. Report an error in the passage at 47:51 Highlight the passage at 47:51

48:13 And in fact, anyway, to go back to Lama Zopa's analogy, by thinking again and again about karma and their inevitable effects, you know, those four features of karma and thinking about all the sort of general defects of psychic existence, you're going to feel about being in psychic existence. Report an error in the passage at 48:13 Highlight the passage at 48:13

48:38 about is, you know... You're going to feel about staying in psychic existence, about as interested as you would be in staying in a cesspit. Report an error in the passage at 48:38 Highlight the passage at 48:38

48:51 And that's put in different words in the next verse. If having meditated thus, you do not generate admiration even for an instant for the prosperity of psychic existence. Report an error in the passage at 48:51 Highlight the passage at 48:51

49:05 Any of the pleasures of psychic existence. And if an attitude seeking liberation arises day and night, then the intention definitely to leave psychic existence has been generated. So then you have the renunciation. Also, if this intention definitely to leave psychic existence is not conjoined with the generation of a complete aspiration to highest enlightenment, what we call bodhicitta, the awakening mind, if on top of that renunciation you don't have... Report an error in the passage at 49:05 Highlight the passage at 49:05

49:35 It does not become a cause of the marvelous bliss of unsurpassed enlightenment. Thus the intelligence should generate the supreme altruistic aspiration to become enlightened. So with the renunciation or the intention definitely to leave psychic existence, was that what it was called? The intention to leave psychic existence, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 49:35 Highlight the passage at 49:35

49:57 So without that, Nye Jung, that intention to leave psychic existence. Everything that you do is nothing but a cause of suffering. With it, everything that you do is a cause of nothing but happiness, pure happiness, real happiness. Report an error in the passage at 49:57 Highlight the passage at 49:57

50:13 Without bodhicitta, nothing you do will ever be a cause of enlightenment. With it, everything you do will be a cause of enlightenment. There is an exception, actually. I've heard this exception put in various ways. They say that any kind of... karma created in relation to way Kenza Rinpoche of Land and Bersambuddha put it the other day, anything in relation to the Buddha Dharma and Saṅgha automatically a cause of enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 50:13 Highlight the passage at 50:13

50:50 Even if you don't have the mind of Bodhicitta, everything is still going to be the cause There's nothing you can do about that. you know, you can't, they, they, they, uh. I don't think this is his example. I think it comes from one of the scriptures. Just suppose you were to plant a seed in the ground, a faultless seed, and you were to surround it by all the nutrition it needs and all the moisture it needs and all the warmth it needs, and then stand by it and pray for it not to grow. Report an error in the passage at 50:50 Highlight the passage at 50:50

51:27 It would still grow, wouldn't it? So likewise. Anything that's done in relation to the three jewels, the Buddha Dharma and Saṅgha, you know, you can pray for it to have no result. You can pray for it to have some bad result and it just won't work. The only thing that can possibly happen is that it would lead to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 51:27 Highlight the passage at 51:27

51:55 That's what they say anyway. And another time I've heard it explained. Not in such general terms, not just generally anything done in relation to the Buddha Dharma and Saṅgha, but specifically in connection with Buddha Shakyamuni because of his particular relationship with the people in this world at this time. Report an error in the passage at 51:55 Highlight the passage at 51:55

52:16 Because he was the one that took the responsibility to help the beings in this era. Report an error in the passage at 52:16 Highlight the passage at 52:16

52:28 So then there's a couple of verses talking about how to generate that mind. And mainly what is it talking about in these two verses, how to generate compassion. Report an error in the passage at 52:28 Highlight the passage at 52:28

52:42 All ordinary beings are carried by the continuum of the four powerful currents, are tied with the tight bonds of actions difficult to oppose, have entered into the iron cage of apprehending a self or inherent existence, and are completely beclouded with the thick darkness of ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 52:42 Highlight the passage at 52:42

53:05 So this is talking about how... The sentient beings for whose sake we speak of achieving enlightenment are suffering and why they're suffering, how it all works. Whereas the four powerful currents, I think that they usually talk about that. That's usually explained as meaning the suffering of birth, aging, sickness and death. Report an error in the passage at 53:05 Highlight the passage at 53:05

53:27 Why does that happen? Because of being tied with the tight bonds of actions difficult to oppose. So the bonds of... So karma is like a rope that's tying you up to this kind of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 53:27 Highlight the passage at 53:27

53:45 Difficult to oppose. There's a nice explanation of this that comes in from Lama Zopa. I think it's in a commentary on Yamantaka, which I don't think has been published yet. I don't think it's been published yet. But it starts off with a very nice explanation about this. Report an error in the passage at 53:45 Highlight the passage at 53:45

54:09 this verse, maybe these two verses, but particularly that verse. Report an error in the passage at 54:09 Highlight the passage at 54:09

54:19 the sort of difficult to oppose, basically, I think this is getting to the point that, know, that karma, once it's been created, whether it's positive karma or negative karma, there's, you know, there's very little, there's, it's just, you know, it's, it's. There's nothing you can do about it except by purifying, especially in the case of negative karma anyway. That's the one that we're mostly worried about isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 54:19 Highlight the passage at 54:19

54:42 Negative karma. Report an error in the passage at 54:42 Highlight the passage at 54:42

54:49 Actually, these four lines are sort of taking it from the suffering and then looking at where that suffering is derived from. So the suffering that we experience comes from karma. The reason that we engage in karma, the kind of karma that keeps us trapped in psychic existence, keeps us continuing in psychic existence, is the kind of karma that we do that basically comes from ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 54:49 Highlight the passage at 54:49

55:18 And although generally in Lama Tsongkhapa's teachings and when you listen to the teachings of Lamas in general, the Tibetan Lamas in general, they talk about ignorance as a mind which not knowing how things really are sort of makes things up, gets things wrong. Just like if you're walking around in the dark. Report an error in the passage at 55:18 Highlight the passage at 55:18

55:45 Because you can't see what's going on, you make mistakes. You trip over things. You knock things over. You knock into things. You grab hold of things. You go to grab something because you get things there and it's not. Report an error in the passage at 55:45 Highlight the passage at 55:45

56:04 I just remembered something which sort of illustrates that. I mean, anyway, we've all been in the dark and found ourselves stumbling about, haven't we? So I guess it's not very difficult. But I remember we had this... Older monk visiting us at Nalana Monastery one time. So we put him in the... If I lean back, it echoes, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 56:04 Highlight the passage at 56:04

56:28 Okay, lean forward a bit. Huh? You could use that dramatically. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 56:28 Highlight the passage at 56:28

56:39 So we put him in the Lama's apartment, the Geshe's apartment, special guest. So during the night, he got up to go to the toilet, the bathroom, and... He wasn't used to staying in that room, so instead of turning left into the bathroom, he turned right onto the stairs and he went tumbling down the stairs. Report an error in the passage at 56:39 Highlight the passage at 56:39

57:07 And it's just as a sort of like, you know, just by the way, he did recount to us afterwards that as he was falling down, he was thinking to himself, but there aren't any stairs here. There aren't stairs here. Report an error in the passage at 57:07 Highlight the passage at 57:07

57:24 That's the kind of thing. So, yeah, you can't see. So you make mistakes. So they talk about ignorance, the sort of fundamental cause of psychic existence, the fundamental reason why we remain in psychic existence. They describe it in those terms, a mind which doesn't know and within not knowing gets things wrong, sort of fantasizes. Report an error in the passage at 57:24 Highlight the passage at 57:24

57:53 But here, Lama Tsongkhapa has talked about it as being sort of like too... Report an error in the passage at 57:53 Highlight the passage at 57:53

58:03 Ignorance is the darkness which doesn't see the nature of reality. And then because of that darkness, you see on the last line, it's mentioned on the last line of that, the fourth verse on page 144, completely be clouded with the thick darkness of ignorance. So ignorance is not knowing, and then because there is that not knowing, there is... Report an error in the passage at 58:03 Highlight the passage at 58:03

58:30 The iron cage of apprehending herself, that's the mistake. So ignorance doesn't know and then the mind which makes the mistake is sort of like considered to be a separate mind, a separate sort of. But usually they're explained as being basically the same thing. Because of not knowing, you make a mistake. But that's what we're going to be talking about mostly for the rest of the evening, I think. Report an error in the passage at 58:30 Highlight the passage at 58:30

58:57 But just to go through the... Report an error in the passage at 58:57 Highlight the passage at 58:57

59:02 Next verse. So as it says, they're completely beclouded with the thick darkness of ignorance. So because of the ignorance, the apprehending of a self, this sort of false concept of a self can happen. Because of that false concept of a self, we engage in karma, which is in the second line. Because of that karma, we experience the suffering of birth, aging, sickness and death and so on, which is in the first line. Report an error in the passage at 59:02 Highlight the passage at 59:02

59:24 So they're born into psychic existence limitlessly, you know, like endlessly. Limitlessly, endlessly. And in their birth are tortured ceaselessly by the three types of suffering. So you all know those, I guess, three types of suffering they usually talk about, suffering of suffering, suffering of change, and then pervasive suffering. Report an error in the passage at 59:24 Highlight the passage at 59:24

59:52 And in their births are tortured ceaselessly by the three sufferings, thinking thus of the condition of... Those mother sentient beings, those mothers who have come to such a state, generate the supreme altruistic intention to become enlightened. So you're thinking, these two verses are talking about the practice of seeing all beings as one's mother. Report an error in the passage at 59:52 Highlight the passage at 59:52

1:00:21 So if you do feel that all sentient beings have been one's mother countless times in past lives, then you're... You have this possibility of feeling very close to all beings. So now on top of feeling that kind of closeness and concern for all beings, now you're thinking about how they're suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:21 Highlight the passage at 1:00:21

1:00:45 And usually when you see somebody that you care about is suffering, then you really want to do something about that, don't you? So if you see all beings as somebody that you feel very close to, and you think about their suffering, so you're going to want to put an end to all of that suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:45 Highlight the passage at 1:00:45

1:01:02 And then the And also you're not going to just stand by and let somebody else do it. You feel, I myself must do something. So this is kind of a strong sense of compassion towards all beings, towards all of whom you feel so close, so that when you see their suffering you feel, I myself have to do something about that. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:02 Highlight the passage at 1:01:02

1:01:27 I've got to do something about that. And then the way to do something is by... Oneself, first of all, achieving enlightenment because then your mind is clearer. You don't have the kind of limitations that we have at the moment in terms of wisdom, in terms of capacity to guide others and so on. So, in other words, having thought at great length and in depth about the suffering of all beings who have been one's mother generate the determination. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:27 Highlight the passage at 1:01:27

1:02:02 The altruistic determination to achieve enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:02 Highlight the passage at 1:02:02

1:02:13 And then we have the next line. If you do not have the wisdom realizing the way things are, even though you have developed the thought definitely to leave psychic existence, as well as the altruistic intention, the root of psychic existence cannot be cut. Therefore work at the means of... Realizing, dependent, arising. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:13 Highlight the passage at 1:02:13

1:02:46 So this is what I thought it would be good to talk about this evening. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:46 Highlight the passage at 1:02:46

1:03:00 So where it says even though you have developed the thought definitely to leave psychic existence as well as the altruistic intention, the root of psychic existence cannot be cut. So having practiced the way he's advised so that you now have this feeling of disgust towards psychic existence, you know, you just don't want to be in psychic existence any longer, that insight into your own... Report an error in the passage at 1:03:00 Highlight the passage at 1:03:00

1:03:26 You know, way of your own situation helps you to understand the suffering of others. So you've also got the determination to achieve enlightenment for their sake. But still, if you haven't got the wisdom realizing emptiness, when it says the wisdom realizing the way things are, it's talking about the wisdom realizing emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:26 Highlight the passage at 1:03:26

1:03:54 not... If you don't have that, then you're still not going to cut through the root of psychic existence. Therefore, meditate on dependent horizon. That's what it's saying. If you do not have the wisdom realizing the way things are, in other words, if you don't have the wisdom realizing emptiness, even though you might have the determination to leave psychic existence and the determination to achieve enlightenment, you won't cut through the root of psychic existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:54 Highlight the passage at 1:03:54

1:04:27 Therefore, work at the means of realizing dependent arising. Meditate on dependent arising in order to be able to understand the wisdom realizing the way things are. That way you're going to be able to cut through the root of psychic existence. That's what it's saying. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:27 Highlight the passage at 1:04:27

1:04:44 So for this to make sense, we need to understand what the root of psychic existence is. Of course, you've got to know what psychic existence is as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:44 Highlight the passage at 1:04:44

1:04:57 it's amazing how much these great. People, beings like Lama Tsongkhapa can pack into a few words. The root of psychic existence, just that word psychic existence is something you could spend like years learning in order to have a clear idea about just that psychic existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:57 Highlight the passage at 1:04:57

1:05:27 So what is psychic existence? Anybody? Yeah? Yeah? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:27 Highlight the passage at 1:05:27

1:05:42 You got that right. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:42 Highlight the passage at 1:05:42

1:05:46 Another way of saying psychic existence is saṃsāra. But, I mean, what is saṃsāra? What is psychic existence? What are we talking about? What does the word psychic existence or what does the word saṃsāra refer to? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:46 Highlight the passage at 1:05:46

1:06:11 Just being propelled by karma and delusions from life to life to life. That's exactly it, yes. That's exactly it. Saṃsāra is being born. Again and again, going from life to life under the control of karma. And under the control of karma, could anybody add something to that? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:11 Highlight the passage at 1:06:11

1:06:37 Under the control of karma. In what sense do we go from life to life under the control of karma? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:37 Highlight the passage at 1:06:37

1:06:48 Who said that? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:48 Highlight the passage at 1:06:48

1:07:01 We're under the control of karma due to the ignorance of any other way of living, any other basis for reality. the trocola and Report an error in the passage at 1:07:01 Highlight the passage at 1:07:01

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:07:12 Okay, so we are born, we go from life to life, we're born again and again and again, under the control of karma, and that's based upon ignorance of any other way of being, basically. Okay, so being born again and again, that's a sort of simple idea, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:07:12 Highlight the passage at 1:07:12

1:07:40 We all know we were born and eventually we're going to die. So we're talking about that happening again and again and again under the control of karma. So what does that mean actually? You're born under the control of karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:40 Highlight the passage at 1:07:40

1:08:08 Because our mind is still afflicted by the three poisons that we're constantly creating karma that's propelling us. In what sense, for example, is your particular life, the life that you have at the moment, The result of karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:08 Highlight the passage at 1:08:08

1:08:30 Because I've created the causes in the past. Yeah. It's actually quite simple, isn't it? I mean, the idea is you're born where you are because of karma. I mean, is there much more that we can say about that? In other words, if you created some kind of good karma, if you've got a good life, that means that would be the result of good karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:30 Highlight the passage at 1:08:30

1:08:59 If you've got a bad life, that would be the result of bad karma. It works something like that, doesn't it? Generally speaking, as human beings, that's counted as something good, so that's the result of good karma. Bad things can happen as a human being. Those are the result of bad karma. But anyway, being born with... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:59 Highlight the passage at 1:08:59

1:09:18 I mean, know that... It's actually going back to what I was saying before. Where you're born isn't something that happens out of choice. I mean, some people are born in very, very difficult circumstances, aren't they? They don't choose that. And actually, Report an error in the passage at 1:09:18 Highlight the passage at 1:09:18

1:09:38 like I say, you can almost tell intuitively that after this life, if we go on again, it's not going to be just a question of going where you choose because we can't even choose in this life, so why would we have the choice when we die? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:38 Highlight the passage at 1:09:38

1:09:59 yeah? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:59 Highlight the passage at 1:09:59

1:10:09 When we define that, would it be necessary to say that when we take on life after life, we take on the aggregates as well or no? Yes, yes, yes. It's another way of saying it. Does everybody know what we mean when we talk about the aggregates? Everybody know that? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:09 Highlight the passage at 1:10:09

1:10:31 But you're trying to say that any time you're born under the influence of karma, it's involuntary. You never have a choice to be where you are if you're born under the influence of karma. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm going to say that, yeah. Are you happy with that? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:31 Highlight the passage at 1:10:31

1:10:48 But on the other hand, don't people choose to create positive karma sometimes? You have choice. You have choice there. The thing is, you see, even if you chose to do some good action with a view to being born in some good situation in the future, When you die, you'll only be able to go on to that situation, not because at that point you think, okay, I feel like going on to this nice situation, but because you created the karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:48 Highlight the passage at 1:10:48

1:11:23 So it's still controlled by karma. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:23 Highlight the passage at 1:11:23

1:11:33 Don't you include also other elements in addition to the karma, which is your innate ignorance just by being in saṃsāra? So it is not just only karma, but the ignorance that goes beyond karma or comes with karma. Definitely. And that adds to the psychic existence. So that's why it's important to say we're born here and there in psychic existence due to karma, but we shouldn't say just due to karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:33 Highlight the passage at 1:11:33

1:12:04 We are born in psychic existence here and there, different kinds of birth in psychic existence due to karma, but not just due to karma. There's also ignorance. There's also ignorance. But so now this is what we need to think about. I mean, everybody seems to know pretty well anyway, so it's not very difficult. In what way are we born due to ignorance? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:04 Highlight the passage at 1:12:04

1:12:33 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:33 Highlight the passage at 1:12:33

1:12:37 Yeah, sure. We have a consciousness that acknowledges the fact that we are alive, or at least that we are experiencing this cyclic existence. There's an awareness, there's a... Consciousness that is acknowledging, number one, that we are born again with some elements of karma but also with some elements of ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:37 Highlight the passage at 1:12:37

1:13:00 So it is a combination of ignorance, consciousness and karma that lead us into the psychic existence. That's why in this very verse it talks about the root of psychic existence. When it's talking about the root of psychic existence, what it's saying is that Psychic existence doesn't just happen by itself. It's not without causes, they say. Something causes you to be born in psychic existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:00 Highlight the passage at 1:13:00

1:13:28 And amongst those causes, there could be many of them. There could be a huge number of causes. But the one which, by eliminating it, you can become free of psychic existence is the one that they call the root of psychic existence. And they use the analogy of a... A root because anybody who's tried to get rid of a tree knows that you can cut it down right to the ground, but if the roots are there, it grows back. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:28 Highlight the passage at 1:13:28

1:13:59 It might not grow back exactly the same as before, but it'll grow back. Anybody who's tried to get rid of... What was it? Actually, I was reading this Bryson book on Australia. He's talking about some kind of plant that's covering Australia at the moment. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:59 Highlight the passage at 1:13:59

1:14:21 And you can cut it up as much as you like. Even if there's that much left, it'll grow kind of thing. So you've got to get rid of it right from the root. So, yeah, I mean, and what that's saying is, you know, it's really very, very important that they use the word root of psychic existence because all of the other, you could get rid of, the sort of, the connotation is, Report an error in the passage at 1:14:21 Highlight the passage at 1:14:21

1:14:43 the implication is that you can get rid of all of the, you could get rid of all of the other causes, but if you don't get rid of the root cause, Report an error in the passage at 1:14:43 Highlight the passage at 1:14:43

1:14:52 Then you're still not going to get, you know, you're still not going to free yourself from psychic existence. Psychic existence will grow back, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:14:52 Highlight the passage at 1:14:52

1:15:05 So now they say that the root of psychic existence, you see, you can say that the cause of psychic existence is karma, you know, because when they say psychic existence, what they're really talking about is, you know, why are we born into suffering? The reason we're born into suffering is because of karma. We can say karma is the cause, but it's not the root. There's something deeper, a deeper cause. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:05 Highlight the passage at 1:15:05

1:15:31 That deeper cause is referred to as the root of psychic existence. And what is it? Usually they say it's ignorance. And, of course, there are different types of ignorance, aren't there? I mean, you know, there's the ignorance about, you know, which bus you need to catch to get to Santa Cruz and so on. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:31 Highlight the passage at 1:15:31

1:15:54 Just not knowing. I mean, there's all sorts of not knowing. But specifically, what ignorance is it that is the root of psychic existence? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:54 Highlight the passage at 1:15:54

1:16:06 Do people have ideas about that? Yeah? The nature of reality. The nature of reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:06 Highlight the passage at 1:16:06

1:16:18 Nature of reality. Okay. Anybody got to... Does everybody agree with that? Report an error in the passage at 1:16:18 Highlight the passage at 1:16:18

1:16:28 Grasping at a self. Grasping at a truly existence. Actually, it's almost like those are... The true nature of reality or the grasping at a self, it's almost like in this verse where it said the darkness of ignorance, apprehending a self. Remember the third verse up on page 144? Have entered into the iron cage of apprehending a self and are completely be clouded with the thick darkness of ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:28 Highlight the passage at 1:16:28

1:17:00 So it's almost like... We've got one answer that is describing ignorance in terms of what it doesn't know, you know, the darkness that it's in, what it doesn't know, which is the true nature of reality. It can't see. It can't see the true nature of reality. And within not knowing, within that darkness of not knowing the true nature of reality, it grasps at a self. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:00 Highlight the passage at 1:17:00

1:17:24 Now grasping at a self particularly means it like, that means it fantasizes about what the nature of the self is. What we are, our nature, the nature of ourselves, the nature of the people around us and phenomena, objects around us. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:24 Highlight the passage at 1:17:24

1:17:42 So that's what they say is the root of psychic existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:42 Highlight the passage at 1:17:42

1:17:52 Now, Report an error in the passage at 1:17:52 Highlight the passage at 1:17:52

1:17:57 I mean, what do you need to get rid of the root of a tree? This is where the analogy kind of seems to break down a bit. Because to get rid of the root of a tree, you need, I mean, I don't know, what do you need? You probably need a couple of... Report an error in the passage at 1:17:57 Highlight the passage at 1:17:57

1:18:16 labourers with a couple of good shovels and picks and stuff, right? I don't know if you'd really want a sword to get rid of a tree, so it's slightly different, slightly different, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:16 Highlight the passage at 1:18:16

1:18:47 Imagery in a way. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:47 Highlight the passage at 1:18:47

1:18:52 So anyway, what's the instrument that you need that will get rid of that root of psychic existence, that ignorance? So remember, so far we've already said that the root of psychic existence, I mean we haven't said why the root of psychic existence is ignorance that doesn't know about the true nature of reality in which grasps, fantasizes about. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:52 Highlight the passage at 1:18:52

1:19:19 The nature of the self, okay? But anyway, we've said that that's what it is, okay? So if that's the root of psychic existence, how are you going to get rid of that root? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:19 Highlight the passage at 1:19:19

1:19:37 Through wisdom, the wisdom realizing emptiness. Yeah, that's okay, that's completely right. But why is that ignorance, why is that wisdom going to get rid of the ignorance? Because it's going to break our attachment to this permanent self, permanent phenomena. That's also true. There's actually a simpler answer. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:37 Highlight the passage at 1:19:37

1:20:03 There's actually a simpler answer to that. What you're saying is right, but you could actually put it in an even simpler way. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:03 Highlight the passage at 1:20:03

1:20:13 Wisdom means knowing, doesn't it? So just think, we've said that the root of psychic existence is not knowing the nature of reality. So what's going to get rid of that? Knowing the nature of reality. okay so if Report an error in the passage at 1:20:13 Highlight the passage at 1:20:13

1:20:29 What's going to get... Remember, we're not talking about actually two different things, we're talking about the same thing in a different way. Ignorance doesn't know the nature of reality and grasps at a self. So, to get rid of, from the point of view of it being kind of like this darkness about the true nature of reality, so wisdom, knowing the nature of reality, should be the opposite of that. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:29 Highlight the passage at 1:20:29

1:20:57 You want something which is going to oppose it, don't you? Something which is the opposite. So what gets rid of the grasping at a self? Was that how you put it? Grasping at a self. What gets rid of grasping at a self? Renunciation. That would help, but that would also help. All of those help. It's interesting actually because there's a verse, I don't know where this, I think it actually comes from the Madhyamakavatara, Shantideva Madhyamakavatara, where he says that, Report an error in the passage at 1:20:57 Highlight the passage at 1:20:57

1:21:36 Love and so forth, like love, compassion, bodhicitta, generosity, morality and so on, because they don't directly oppose ignorance, they are not what we need in order to get rid of that ignorance, to put it simply. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:36 Highlight the passage at 1:21:36

1:22:01 So all of those things, generosity, love, compassion, cherishing others, they all help to get rid of. But you have to directly perceive that there is no self, that there is no inherent thing to grasp at in order to conclusively understand that there is, that gets rid of the ignorance. I'll give you an example which we had last Sunday from Kenza Rinpoche. He said, if somebody is in their room and they're... Report an error in the passage at 1:22:01 Highlight the passage at 1:22:01

1:22:38 They're really, really afraid because they think there's this poisonous snake in the room. What's the most poisonous snake in Australia? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:38 Highlight the passage at 1:22:38

1:22:58 The King Brown. Okay, so you're in your room and you think there's a King Brown. Probably you're Australian, okay, because otherwise you're King Brown. But you're Australian and an Australian is in their room and they think there's a King Brown in the room. Now, if you tell this person, this Australian person, there's no elephant here, is that going to calm their fear? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:58 Highlight the passage at 1:22:58

1:23:30 No. What is it that's going to calm their fear? Report an error in the passage at 1:23:30 Highlight the passage at 1:23:30

1:23:40 Show them there's no snake, right. So their fear comes from thinking there is a snake. Of course, if there is a snake, then you don't want to tell them there's no snake. But anyway, okay, assuming that there's no snake but they're afraid that there's a snake, their fear comes from thinking there's a snake there when there's no snake. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:40 Highlight the passage at 1:23:40

1:23:59 What's going to stop that fear is understanding there is no snake. They believe there's a snake because of that belief. They have the fear. Actually, there's no snake. If they know there's no snake, then they're not going to be afraid anymore. So the ignorance thinking there's a snake is eliminated. The ignorance thinking there's a king brown. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:59 Highlight the passage at 1:23:59

1:24:27 The ignorance believing that there's a king brown in the room is eliminated by the wisdom realizing there is no king brown in the room. A brown, a brown, a king brown. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:27 Highlight the passage at 1:24:27

1:24:38 The only thing that's going to get rid of that ignorance, knowing all sorts of things could happen and none of them is going to help get rid of that fear except knowing there isn't a King Brown in the room. So something which is the complete opposite to that belief. The one thinking there is is opposed by the one thinking there isn't. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:38 Highlight the passage at 1:24:38

1:25:02 So how does that help us with the ignorance and the wisdom then? Do you see how that applies? How we can apply that? Yeah? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:02 Highlight the passage at 1:25:02

1:25:21 Well, wouldn't you have also to question your thinking of the fact that you think that there is a snake? Not just only proving and looking that there is no snake, but also challenging your thinking of that there is a snake or no snake. Yes, yes. In fact, you can approach it on either level, can't you? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:21 Highlight the passage at 1:25:21

1:25:47 Actually, probably it will start off by your having some feeling of doubt about that belief. But still, what's really going to stop you from believing that, what's going to really uproot that belief is seeing for yourself there's no snake. Even if somebody were to... Talk very persuasively about there being no snake. Even if they were to say, I've looked, I've looked everywhere, there isn't a snake here. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:47 Highlight the passage at 1:25:47

1:26:24 Now that's going to help you a lot more than being told there's no elephant, but it's not going to help as much as seeing for yourself. Or questioning your habit of thinking. Yes, so even questioning your belief isn't going to quite do the job. Not as effectively as looking for yourself everywhere where that snake could be and seeing that there isn't one there, isn't it? And it's like that with the ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:24 Highlight the passage at 1:26:24

1:26:53 You can start to question and you can listen to other people's accounts and you can listen to very persuasive arguments about how there isn't a self. But what really is going to work is when you've seen for yourself that there isn't a self. But of course we also have to think about what that self is that we're saying doesn't exist because of course one thing we find out when we're learning about emptiness is something that Kinsramashe often makes a point of saying. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:53 Highlight the passage at 1:26:53

1:27:28 Person, self, I and being are synonyms. So we exist, right? So there is a self. There is a me, there is an I, there is a person. I mean actually in English it turns out to be a bit more than four but anyway. We do exist, there is a person, there is a self, there is an I, but there isn't a self the way that we fantasize it to exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:28 Highlight the passage at 1:27:28

1:28:03 And really to be able to know really what that means, There may be other ways, but the general approach here is to look at the different ways in which the Buddha taught selflessness. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:03 Highlight the passage at 1:28:03

1:28:31 So when Buddha first achieved enlightenment, apparently he said, you know, I've discovered this phenomenon which is so profound and so deep, nobody's going to understand it. So for the time being, I won't teach about it. And eventually he was persuaded to teach. We have the turning of the wheel of Dharma, the Four Noble Truths and so on taking place. So the thing is, emptiness, if emptiness is taught straight away to some people, they can think that what it means is nothing exists. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:31 Highlight the passage at 1:28:31

1:29:11 And so they say that the Buddha being aware of the propensities and the... His inclinations and backgrounds and so on, the abilities of people he was teaching, took care to avoid undermining their sense of things existing, took care to avoid saying something that might drive the people he was talking to towards nihilism, a belief that nothing exists at all. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:11 Highlight the passage at 1:29:11

1:29:39 Because if you believe that nothing exists at all, then that means... you're not got You won't have any sort of impetus to follow a spiritual path at all. The whole idea of karma will be meaningless. The whole idea of refuge will be meaningless. The whole idea of future lives and so on will be meaningless. Enlightenment, liberation, because you think, well, nothing exists. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:39 Highlight the passage at 1:29:39

1:30:03 The Buddha taught nothing exists, so what's the point? So that's where we get the explanations of selflessness. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:03 Highlight the passage at 1:30:03

1:30:17 According to the four systems of Buddhist philosophy or Buddhist tenets, the Vaibhashika system, the Sotrantika system, the Chittamatra system and the Majamika system. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:17 Highlight the passage at 1:30:17

1:30:35 Sometimes they call, use the English word for, what do they use? The Vaibhashikas I think they sometimes call the great exposition school in English. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:35 Highlight the passage at 1:30:35

1:30:47 Sotrantika, the sūtra followers. Or is there another term? Sutrist. Then the Chitta Mantra, mind only, consciousness only. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:47 Highlight the passage at 1:30:47

1:31:03 Majamika, middle way. So then that middle way system has got two sort of sub-schools. Each of them considers itself to be the middle way school. So one of them is the Svatantrika school, which we... called the Middleweight Autonomy School then there's the Prasangika which is the Middleweight School. Is that right? Yeah, Consequentialists. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:03 Highlight the passage at 1:31:03

1:31:38 So, now... a spell check. I can guarantee it won't work. Consequentialist, I mean, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:38 Highlight the passage at 1:31:38

1:31:50 Yeah, thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:50 Highlight the passage at 1:31:50

1:31:55 So, um... Report an error in the passage at 1:31:55 Highlight the passage at 1:31:55

1:32:01 It's even... Report an error in the passage at 1:32:01 Highlight the passage at 1:32:01

1:32:07 So selflessness, the lack of a self, the non-existence of a self or emptiness, the way it's taught in those different systems is different. So normally the way it's explained according to the Tibetan systems, the Kalukpas anyway, the Vaibhashika system basically has the most superficial account of... Report an error in the passage at 1:32:07 Highlight the passage at 1:32:07

1:32:33 Then the true nature of reality or selflessness. Slightly more profound than that, or slightly more precise than that or accurate than that, is that of the Sotanasa school. Then the Chitamantra, mind-only school, is more profound than that. And then the Majumika is the most profound. And within those two Majumika or middle-way schools, the one which is seen as most... Report an error in the passage at 1:32:33 Highlight the passage at 1:32:33

1:33:03 Precisely reflecting the Buddha's own understanding of the actual nature of reality is the Middle Way Consequence School or the Prasangika School. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:03 Highlight the passage at 1:33:03

1:33:16 Now, the way that works is Report an error in the passage at 1:33:16 Highlight the passage at 1:33:16

1:33:21 in the Vibrasika School, they talk about two types of selflessness. They talk about, so one of them is more superficial and one of them is, you know, for them that's the most profound, the most subtle. So the more superficial one, sometimes referred to as a sort of coarse or gross level of selflessness. This focuses on the belief, which they see as false, Report an error in the passage at 1:33:21 Highlight the passage at 1:33:21

1:33:58 in a person, the person, we ourselves, I guess, as people, being permanent, single and independent. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:58 Highlight the passage at 1:33:58

1:34:14 Some people have been pointing out recently that using the word permanent is maybe a little bit misleading because generally speaking, if you say something is permanent, does that automatically imply that it doesn't change, it's unchanging, something which is permanent? So what's the difference between you think that it does imply some kind of static quality? It does? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:14 Highlight the passage at 1:34:14

1:34:43 So what's the difference, for you, what's the difference between something being permanent and something being eternal? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:43 Highlight the passage at 1:34:43

1:34:53 Yeah? Something permanent and something eternal. So, okay, what about the mind? Isn't the mind eternal? Is the mind eternal? It never comes to an end, does it? It goes on forever. So it's eternal, isn't it? Is it permanent? No. Because if you think that permanent means, you know, Unchanging. We don't have a sense of our mind being unchanging, static, like totally unmoving, do we? So there seems to be a difference between something being permanent, something being eternal, doesn't there? Report an error in the passage at 1:34:53 Highlight the passage at 1:34:53

1:35:37 So anyway, some people prefer, the Tibetan word is takpa, whatever that means anyway. Basically it means not changing, unchanging, static. So some people prefer to use the word static. So we're talking about a belief in there being a person which is permanent in the sense of being static, unchanging, and then single in the sense of having no parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:37 Highlight the passage at 1:35:37

1:36:07 So if I can jump back again. Static in the sense of not subject to moment-by-moment change. In actual fact, everything around us is changing all the time. Everything is in a... Constant state of change, isn't it? Nothing stays fixed even for a moment, right? So this is the belief in the person being static. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:07 Highlight the passage at 1:36:07

1:36:32 And then not only that, but being single in the sense of not having any parts. And then independent in the sense of not being affected by causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:32 Highlight the passage at 1:36:32

1:36:51 So is that accurate or not? And actually another question I would like to ask is, Who actually could possibly believe that there was such a thing anyway? Report an error in the passage at 1:36:51 Highlight the passage at 1:36:51

1:37:02 Because you see, what it says in the scriptures or the texts that deal with this topic, they say that there are certain, probably Hindu systems anyway, non-Buddhist systems that were existing at the time of the Buddha anyway. Nowadays whether they exist or not is another. It's a sort of a moot question. I think that you might find that some of them do actually exist in India these days. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:02 Highlight the passage at 1:37:02

1:37:38 Kinzramshi talks about some Hindu teachers in the Saanatha or Varanasi University and he mentions how they had certain teachings that would be given publicly. And certain teachings that would only be given to their own children. So sort of like secret teachings on, you know, the sort of secret views and so on of their, I don't know, their philosophy. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:38 Highlight the passage at 1:37:38

1:38:14 I mean, you know, that's modern day India. Anyway, so the idea is that the Buddhists, specifically here we're talking about the Vaipashikas, you know, that first system. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:14 Highlight the passage at 1:38:14

1:38:30 Deny the existence of such a person which these non-Buddhist systems actually believe to exist. Now, these non-Buddhist systems, Hindu systems, whatever they are, philosophical systems, now, okay, in certain respects, the Buddhist philosophers will argue with them and will debate with them and won't accept some of their ideas. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:30 Highlight the passage at 1:38:30

1:39:00 But they don't claim them to be fools. There's no sense in which they're stupid. But now, so, I mean, could there possibly be, if they're not stupid, then why would they believe that we don't change? Report an error in the passage at 1:39:00 Highlight the passage at 1:39:00

1:39:25 Yeah? Report an error in the passage at 1:39:25 Highlight the passage at 1:39:25

1:39:30 Will that be associated with the admin as part of the belief? Probably, yeah. But, so... So they believe that there is such thing as an Ātman, right? Which, I don't know, a self. I mean, Ātman is the self, right? Well, the soul and the super-soul. Well, there's probably different ways of translating. I mean, I know that the Ātman is translated into Tibetan as Dag. And that Dag is translated into English as self. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:30 Highlight the passage at 1:39:30

1:40:00 But who knows? Anyway, the thing is, you know... Whether you call it Ātman or whether you call it self or whether you call it soul, anyway, you know, where does this idea come of that? It's got to be part of us, right? Whether you call it a self or a soul or whatever you call it, it's got to be part of it. It's not something that's just, there's no sense in talking about it being something just up in heaven or in the sky or buried under the earth or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:00 Highlight the passage at 1:40:00

1:40:30 I mean, it's something about ourselves, isn't it? So where would this idea come of there being some aspect of ourselves which is? Unchanging. But anyway, I think that that's getting closer to it. I'm sure that they don't believe that we don't change. I mean, you know, they're not stupid. Like I said, they're not stupid. They know that there's a difference between the baby and the child and the teenager and the middle-aged person and the old person. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:30 Highlight the passage at 1:40:30

1:40:57 They know as well as we do. We do, that that kind of change does take place. So maybe they have an idea that all of that change that actually we can see taking place is just superficial. There is something deeper than that that remains unchanging. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:57 Highlight the passage at 1:40:57

1:41:25 So anyway, that kind of idea of any sense of a person which is unchanging. So anyway, you know, let's just... Report an error in the passage at 1:41:25 Highlight the passage at 1:41:25

1:41:35 Which is sort of some kind of unitary, solid, having no parts. I mean, if we think of our body, we can see that our body has parts. You know, hands, legs, head and so on. Our mind even, does our mind have parts? In what way does our mind have parts? Report an error in the passage at 1:41:35 Highlight the passage at 1:41:35

1:41:56 Different aspects of consciousness, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:56 Highlight the passage at 1:41:56

1:42:03 I think we might need to find an alternative to this. Something that hangs down from the roof. There's distinctions of mind. The smriti, the memory, the buddhi, the intellect, the di, the will. They're just distinctions with what is called mind. Yeah, so we can talk about those different aspects of the mind as being parts of the mind, can't we? Report an error in the passage at 1:42:03 Highlight the passage at 1:42:03

1:42:28 There's not just this one mind which has no aspects. As soon as you start talking about different aspects of the mind, you're already talking about parts, aren't you? Report an error in the passage at 1:42:28 Highlight the passage at 1:42:28

1:42:39 So anyway, and then as for not being subject to cause and conditions, I mean we are... Very definitely subject to causes and conditions aren't we? I mean as people we're a result of our upbringing, we're affected by our environment and so on. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:39 Highlight the passage at 1:42:39

1:43:03 So Report an error in the passage at 1:43:03 Highlight the passage at 1:43:03

1:43:06 that's the theme to sort of like watch out for when you're going through these different systems of Buddhist philosophical belief is like what we've just been talking about is the The most superficial or gross or coarse level of self and the lack of that would be the most superficial type of selflessness, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:43:06 Highlight the passage at 1:43:06

1:43:36 So the importance of knowing about that is that when we go on to the next one, you're going to have more of an appreciation of the relative depth of that level of self. Do you see what I mean? In other words, if we were to just, for example, if we were to just immediately leap into the Prasanghika view, besides the fact that you could be confused, you wouldn't really appreciate. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:36 Highlight the passage at 1:43:36

1:44:12 No, that's not what I'm saying. If I say appreciate, it means like, you know, oh, how wonderful it is. That's not the point. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:12 Highlight the passage at 1:44:12

1:44:24 You could get mixed up. You might listen to a teaching on, you know, You could, you, in your, your list. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:24 Highlight the passage at 1:44:24

1:44:30 The selflessness according to the Prasen-Giger system and mistake it for something quite superficial. Whereas if you've understood that this most superficial level isn't what we're talking about. There's something even deeper than that, more profound than that. For example... the next level of selflessness. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:30 Highlight the passage at 1:44:30

1:45:03 So when I'm trying to understand this, I have to be able to see that what I'm analyzing is something, don't get it mixed up with this one, it's subtler than that. And then when you've understood that, then you're going to be able to see, okay, well, there's actually something subtler than that even. So when we get to the Chittimatra view, We're going to know, okay, this is even subtler, you know, I'm not really explaining myself, am I? You get the point, okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:03 Highlight the passage at 1:45:03

1:45:37 Okay. Yeah, because you would always run the risk of not really knowing what it is that you're supposed to understand doesn't exist, you know, the fantasy that's being sort of dissolved at each progressive level. That's the point. Okay, so that's the, you know, That's the most superficial type of selflessness that they talk about. But one thing that's interesting I find even there, so Report an error in the passage at 1:45:37 Highlight the passage at 1:45:37

1:46:11 is it possible to have a belief that there is a person that's permanent in the sense of not changing moment by moment, single in the sense of not having any parts, no aspects, no parts, and independent in the sense of not being affected by cause and conditions? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:11 Highlight the passage at 1:46:11

1:46:34 Is it possible to have such a belief? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:34 Highlight the passage at 1:46:34

1:46:39 It does make sense, but there are lots of things. People believe all sorts of things that don't make sense. It's possible to have such a belief, isn't it? Basically, you can believe anything. So of course it's possible to have that kind of belief. How would you undermine, how would you uproot that belief? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:39 Highlight the passage at 1:46:39

1:47:01 What would you need to understand in order to see that that belief was incorrect? That's another way of putting it. You know, like, what do you need to know in order to realize? realize that there's no snake in the room. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:01 Highlight the passage at 1:47:01

1:47:16 What do you need to do to get rid of the belief that there is a snake in the room? It's seeing that there isn't one, right? Actually seeing for yourself that there isn't one. So how do you get rid of the belief that there is a person that's permanent, single and independent? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:16 Highlight the passage at 1:47:16

1:47:38 So the thing is there are two different ideas about this. One idea says you've got to be able to see that all three of them are wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:38 Highlight the passage at 1:47:38

1:47:46 And there's another idea which says, well, if you understand that the person isn't permanent, well, then you already know that there isn't a person who's permanent, single and independent. It's true, isn't it? I can't think of an example for that. But anyway, it's pretty straightforward, isn't it? But the problem with that idea is that then what would be the difference between realizing there is no... Report an error in the passage at 1:47:46 Highlight the passage at 1:47:46

1:48:11 Self, in the sense of a self which is permanent and independent, and understanding the person is impermanent. Because everybody agrees in these different schools that impermanence, which refers to the way that things change all the time, you know, constantly changing, that is more superficial than any level of selflessness. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:11 Highlight the passage at 1:48:11

1:48:42 Maybe I don't need to hang around talking about that one. don't know. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:42 Highlight the passage at 1:48:42

1:48:52 Anyway, just, I know it sounds a little bit sort of, it Report an error in the passage at 1:48:52 Highlight the passage at 1:48:52

1:49:00 sounds a bit sort of technically in a way and intellectual in a way, but they do say, you know, there's no, people don't have this belief in a person being, you know, a self which is a, you know, static, single and independent naturally. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:00 Highlight the passage at 1:49:00

1:49:20 It's not something they have naturally. It's something that you would only believe because of having studied a particular philosophical system. It's something that would be learned, in other words. It would only be learned. But still, it does bring us to the idea of impermanence and the way that things are changing all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:20 Highlight the passage at 1:49:20

1:49:42 And that in itself is really quite... Even if it is... more superficial than the most superficial type of selflessness just thinking about impermanence is pretty profound, it? Report an error in the passage at 1:49:42 Highlight the passage at 1:49:42

1:50:02 I mean, okay, you know, we've got all these different levels of selflessness and it's even more superficial than those, but that doesn't mean to say that it's in and of itself superficial. It's a very, very profound thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:02 Highlight the passage at 1:50:02

1:50:16 Have Report an error in the passage at 1:50:16 Highlight the passage at 1:50:16

1:50:30 we talked about that in the other two times I've been here, about impermanence? I mean, uh... Even if I have, if you can't remember, it doesn't really matter. So it looks like if I have, nobody can remember. The memory of it is certainly permanent. Yeah. So the thing about, you know, okay, so we know there's two levels of impermanence. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:30 Highlight the passage at 1:50:30

1:50:59 There's the visible one, which is referred to the sort of superficial level of impermanence, the visible one where you can change, you can actually see. there he is. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:59 Highlight the passage at 1:50:59

1:51:11 taking place or you can see has taken place when you see something you know you hear about somebody dying when you see something break when you see a car getting dented or scratched or whatever you can see change has taken place that any change that you can see is taking place is what they Subtle impermanence is something that you can only understand has taken place through using reasoning basically. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:11 Highlight the passage at 1:51:11

1:51:40 When you can see that change has taken place over a given period of time, yesterday it was shiny and new, today it's scratched and dented, you know that that change didn't happen just like that in a moment. It happened gradually. Gradually doesn't have to mean over a long period of time. It just means, you know, not just... Report an error in the passage at 1:51:40 Highlight the passage at 1:51:40

1:52:08 Instantaneously, yeah. Change doesn't take place instantaneously. If you could have filmed it even, you would have been able to see the scratch gradually appearing and so on. So anyway, when we see change taking place on a visible level, we can infer that change took place constantly in between the two points where you actually could see that change took place. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:08 Highlight the passage at 1:52:08

1:52:38 right so that's because it's only So that kind of change, which you can only understand through inference, through using reasoning, is called subtle impermanence. Subtle impermanence means that things never stay the same, even for a moment, they're constantly changing. So there's one really quite odd, what do you call it? Report an error in the passage at 1:52:38 Highlight the passage at 1:52:38

1:53:09 What do you call it? Conclusion that you can draw about that, which is that since change is taking place all the time, there's a difference between the me that's sitting here and the me of my childhood, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:53:09 Highlight the passage at 1:53:09

1:53:29 To start off with. So now, since there is a difference, Report an error in the passage at 1:53:29 Highlight the passage at 1:53:29

1:53:37 well, that means that the me of my childhood doesn't exist anymore, right? Completely non-existent. In a sense, the continuity, obviously I wouldn't be here if it weren't for that, the me of my childhood, but the me of my childhood doesn't exist. In fact, the whole way in which change takes place is that, if we can put it this way, the earlier versions give way to the later versions. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:37 Highlight the passage at 1:53:37

1:54:09 The later versions can only exist through the earlier versions ceasing to exist. So that means not only that the me of my childhood, but also like the me of ten years ago no longer exists. Sometimes you remember things so clearly, but what you can remember just doesn't exist anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:09 Highlight the passage at 1:54:09

1:54:32 It did exist, but it doesn't exist anymore. But also, you know, that means also the me of last year no longer exists. The me of last month doesn't exist. The me of last week doesn't exist. The me of yesterday doesn't exist. The Steve that came here this morning doesn't exist anymore. I find that a little bit creepy actually. It doesn't exist anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:32 Highlight the passage at 1:54:32

1:55:02 The me that came into this room just before 7 o 'clock doesn't exist anymore. Finished forever, completely gone forever. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:02 Highlight the passage at 1:55:02

1:55:12 And so you can see you can narrow it down, can't you? The me of a second ago, the me of half a second ago. And so you can see why they say that if you want to get some real... Insight and feeling for impermanence on this level, this constant change. Go and sit by a waterfall or a fast moving river Report an error in the passage at 1:55:12 Highlight the passage at 1:55:12

1:55:36 because there's no rest and you can hardly pin down a point where there is something that remains in the sense that we talk about things generally are sort of made. And then they last for a while and then they break or they disintegrate or whatever, they die. A point at which there is a remaining, it's as if there's these moments that have gone and they've gone forever and then there are these moments that haven't happened yet and then what's left kind of thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:36 Highlight the passage at 1:55:36

1:56:19 If you keep sort of like, you know, making your divisions of time finer and finer, it's kind of... The present kind of disappears and it is like that, you know, the movement of a waterfall or a fast-moving river which, you know, there's just not for a second is there any staying the same. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:19 Highlight the passage at 1:56:19

1:56:45 So, you know, that whole, that meeting that was here at 7 o 'clock, that meeting that was here, you know, that group of people that was here at 7 o 'clock. No longer exists. Actually that world that was there at 7 o 'clock no longer exists. If it does, where is it? Report an error in the passage at 1:56:45 Highlight the passage at 1:56:45

1:57:11 We can have some kind of world where all of the different earths sort of like pile up. Obviously that doesn't work. Yes, you can think about it and you can remember it, but they don't exist anymore. If they do exist, where are they? Show me. So that's, you know... And can you, I mean, you know, just try to imagine, in fact, don't just imagine, try using it, you know, try thinking about this sometimes. It's really, I was actually once advised to, you know, to take a week to focus on that. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:11 Highlight the passage at 1:57:11

1:57:52 Of course, I never did. But I think, you know, if you were to just spend a week where, you know, where you focus on just trying to get some sense of Report an error in the passage at 1:57:52 Highlight the passage at 1:57:52

1:58:06 Make it part of your life rather than just a theory. This constant change which means everything from this morning doesn't exist anymore. Everything from lunchtime doesn't exist anymore. Everything from a few seconds ago doesn't exist anymore. Then see if that helps you to see what effect that has on your emotional problems. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:06 Highlight the passage at 1:58:06

1:58:32 See how that affects your way of relating. To the world around you. It would be quite interesting to see, wouldn't it? Yeah? Yeah, you're not allowed to talk without a microphone. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:32 Highlight the passage at 1:58:32

1:58:57 But it does exist. In the sense that, if we go in terms of karma, what had happened an hour ago, two hours ago, or 50 minutes ago, it does exist. In some way, the question is, where is it? And which leads me to the other... very much. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:57 Highlight the passage at 1:58:57

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:59:17 Which is the super space out there where all of the karma is accumulated in the positive to the negative sense. Yeah, but that's not really going to work. If you say there is this space up there where all of the past moments are sort of like piling up, I mean they also are going to have to change. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:17 Highlight the passage at 1:59:17

1:59:44 They can't, because, you know, like... that, like, yes, like, 24 hours ago's me was something that was changing. So therefore, if it's up in space somewhere, then it's also going to be changing. Why would it become static and unchanging? It just doesn't make sense, does it, to say that there's some kind of place where all of those... And there's no need for it also, you see. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:44 Highlight the passage at 1:59:44

2:00:12 There's no need for it. It actually doesn't matter. It's different. It might be difficult to sort of like grasp in the beginning and it might be odd and sometimes a little bit creepy but actually there doesn't need to be a pile up of previous moments because it all sort of works on the basis of continual change. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:12 Highlight the passage at 2:00:12

2:00:43 Why do we need to have those previous moments? We have the memories of them. And like in the case of karma, karma itself, karma means action, so once the action has been done, then there is some kind of impression left on the consciousness, some kind of potential left on the consciousness. The consciousness is changing all the time, so previous moments of consciousness don't exist anymore, so the previous imprints of karma don't exist anymore, but they're sort of like later versions carry on. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:43 Highlight the passage at 2:00:43

2:01:13 The potential of this moment gives rise to the potential of the next moment. That gives rise to the potential of the next moment. And as each new moment arises, the previous moments cease. And you don't need anything to pile up. Yeah? Report an error in the passage at 2:01:13 Highlight the passage at 2:01:13

2:01:37 We're going to have to stop soon, actually. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:37 Highlight the passage at 2:01:37

2:01:44 So tell me if this is premature to ask this, jump to this. So then piggybacking on his question, there is that which takes rebirth. So they speak of the alaya vijjnana, the earth consciousness. That does take rebirth. Not all schools agree on that. So a two-fold question is, can you simply speak of that? Alaya Vijnana, eighth consciousness that does take rebirth, in quotes. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:44 Highlight the passage at 2:01:44

2:02:06 And then secondarily, what of the four schools support that? Alaya Vijnana, that which takes rebirth, the eighth consciousness, the storehouse consciousness. Well, they all, I think you'd have to say they all accept that consciousness goes on. I'm pretty sure that... That it's only the Chittamatra school, the mind-only school, that talks about the storehouse consciousness, the eighth consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:06 Highlight the passage at 2:02:06

2:02:35 In the Swatantrika system, you've got, again, it breaks down into two sort of sub-schools. One which is very similar in many of its beliefs to the Yogacara system and one which is more like the Sotrantaka system. But I'm pretty sure that even the one that... It's like the chitta matra system doesn't share that belief in a store consciousness, but I'm not quite sure about that. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:35 Highlight the passage at 2:02:35

2:03:02 And anyway, I mean, when it comes down to what it is that goes on, because of the very fact that it's difficult to sort of like, I mean, even here, it's quite easy to become nihilist because, you know, if things are changing all the time, all the time, all the time, then what can go on? You know, it's quite difficult to... Report an error in the passage at 2:03:02 Highlight the passage at 2:03:02

2:03:22 Hold on to some sense of something that could go on. If, you know, like the me of this life is going to be totally non-existent by the time we get to the moment of death, and then what goes on? It's quite difficult to grasp. Normally the way I've heard it explained is the continuity goes on, which means it's like some people describe it as like a domino effect. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:22 Highlight the passage at 2:03:22

2:03:45 I don't know if that's a very domino effect. This moment knocks on to the next moment, that knocks on to the next moment. So it's like this infinite, you're going to have to have an infinite line of dominoes that goes up to enlightenment. So anyway, I don't know. Or no. Yeah. Yes. Can you ask one more? Report an error in the passage at 2:03:45 Highlight the passage at 2:03:45

2:04:10 Yeah. It's just rare to get someone who speaks English to get an answer, not via translation. It's sort of nice. So knowing that we always chant Heart Sūtra, we always chant that famous line, it's an illusion, a dream and all that from the Diamond Sūtra. Obviously, the school we're part of, Madhyamika Prasangika, agrees with those sutras, otherwise we wouldn't be chanting them. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:10 Highlight the passage at 2:04:10

2:04:31 Which of the remaining three schools disagrees with Heart Sūtra and Diamond Sūtra? Oh, right. Yeah, well. Because they seem sort of obvious to me that they're true, without falling into needless. It varies, actually. I mean, it seems that... Report an error in the passage at 2:04:31 Highlight the passage at 2:04:31

2:04:47 I think we can say that the Mind Only School and the Madhyamika School both accept the Heart Sutta, but they would attach a different significance to what it was teaching. And then, as far as the other two schools are concerned, that varies historically. In terms of their beliefs, there isn't any inherent need for them to say, the, you know, the president, sorry. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:47 Highlight the passage at 2:04:47

2:05:18 The Heart Sūtra was never taught, it didn't exist, the Buddha never taught it. But historically there have been periods when, like teachers, practitioners that we could describe on some level as being Vaibhashikas and Sotrantikas, what they usually call Hinayanists, there were periods when certain of them denied... Report an error in the passage at 2:05:18 Highlight the passage at 2:05:18

2:05:45 The Heart Sūtra and the other Wisdom Sutras as having been taught by the Buddha. But apparently, because you can tell that from the way that Nagarjuna and other masters go to great lengths to explain how the Mahāyāna teachings in general, including the professional wisdom teachings, were taught by the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:45 Highlight the passage at 2:05:45

2:06:14 The main theme of it being that there's no reason to say that the Mahāyāna teachings weren't taught by the Buddha because they're the same as the Hinayana teachings except more kind of thing, that kind of theme. But I don't know if we can say these days that people who we consider to be followers of the Hinayana systems, the Theravadins and so on, I don't think we can say categorically that Because they're Hinayana, they don't accept those teachings. Some do, some don't. It just varies. I think it always has varied from time to time, from person to person somehow. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:14 Highlight the passage at 2:06:14

2:06:55 There's no need for somebody who is a Hinayana practitioner or is a Hinayana philosopher to deny the existence of the Mahāyāna. There's no need at all. So some of them nevertheless do. I mean, just like you get Mahāyāna, you put down the Theravadin. That doesn't mean to say that the Mahāyāna systems in general inherently consider the Hinayana school not to be valid and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:55 Highlight the passage at 2:06:55

2:07:27 So I think we're going to have to spend a few moments dedicating and then stop there. But Report an error in the passage at 2:07:27 Highlight the passage at 2:07:27

2:07:48 we can dedicate by thinking as a result of the positive energy or the virtue that we've created this evening and also because of all of the... virtue or the goodness that's ever been done in the past that is being done now that ever will be done May all beings without exception, our kind mothers, may each one of them find peace of mind. May Report an error in the passage at 2:07:48 Highlight the passage at 2:07:48

2:08:18 their minds be subdued in the sense of not being controlled and agitated by the mental afflictions. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:18 Highlight the passage at 2:08:18

2:08:38 And may all of them quickly achieve the Perfect happiness and peace of complete enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:38 Highlight the passage at 2:08:38

2:09:14 And then spend a moment thinking, I myself, the one who I'm dedicating, just like the goodness which I'm dedicating, the action of dedication, the goals which I've dedicated are all completely empty of inherent existence, Report an error in the passage at 2:09:14 Highlight the passage at 2:09:14

2:09:37 completely empty of existing as they appear, which is something other than being merely labeled. Just like a dream, just like an illusion, just like empty space, completely non-existent in the way that they appear. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:37 Highlight the passage at 2:09:37

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:10:23 Okay, thank you. Will you come back? I'm sure I will eventually. Please come back. Say it three times. Yeah, please come back. Please come back. Please come back. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:23 Highlight the passage at 2:10:23

2:10:44 you have something good? What do you call it? Some projects? Report an error in the passage at 2:10:44 Highlight the passage at 2:10:44

2:10:51 I need all sorts of things. No, really, really. What do you have? I mean, it's Sakadara for a chance to. It is Sakadara, it's true. Yeah, okay. Yeah, sure. No choice. A billion bowls. No choice. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:51 Highlight the passage at 2:10:51