Song of the Four Mindfulnesses - Instructions for Meditation on the View of Emptiness (6 April 2012)

0:17 You usually do prayers before? Which ones? Huh? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 0:17 Highlight the passage at 0:17

0:30 My inclination. Which, which page is Saṅgha Chita? Report an error in the passage at 0:30 Highlight the passage at 0:30

0:39 Just do that prayer. Report an error in the passage at 0:39 Highlight the passage at 0:39

0:47 We'll do that one at the end, okay? Report an error in the passage at 0:47 Highlight the passage at 0:47

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:30 Direct shot. Report an error in the passage at 1:30 Highlight the passage at 1:30

1:40 So we'll start with that prayer of generating refuge in bodhicitta on page 34. A Report an error in the passage at 1:40 Highlight the passage at 1:40

1:52 little song. Report an error in the passage at 1:52 Highlight the passage at 1:52

1:56 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:56 Highlight the passage at 1:56

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

2:12 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 2:12 Highlight the passage at 2:12

2:31 Thank you. So Report an error in the passage at 2:31 Highlight the passage at 2:31

3:04 thank you for inviting me and thank you everyone for coming on this Easter weekend. Passover weekend, nice spring weekend. Report an error in the passage at 3:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04

3:25 What is it? Report an error in the passage at 3:25 Highlight the passage at 3:25

3:31 And I've been asked to teach this one short text called The Song of the Four Mindfulnesses. I think one of the master program graduates had recommended that to the director to ask me to teach because she heard me teach it at this, what was it? One of the other centers in the Bay Area. Report an error in the passage at 3:31 Highlight the passage at 3:31

4:04 And it's a teaching that I've known since 1976. Report an error in the passage at 4:04 Highlight the passage at 4:04

4:16 I just completed leading a couple of different lamrim retreats and after that I managed to squeeze in a Manjusri retreat, all in preparation for returning back to the States for the first time. After I had left in December of 71. And I was returning back in a different state. Report an error in the passage at 4:16 Highlight the passage at 4:16

4:50 Me, I was in a different state. I was a monk. I knew anything about Buddhism before I left the states. So I was quite a different person. I had no idea what to expect. And I was concerned. About how I was going to control my mind because of course in Asia I was in fairly good surroundings for it. Kopan, Monastery, Dharamsala, studying at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives and retreat environments like the Tushita Retreat Center. Report an error in the passage at 4:50 Highlight the passage at 4:50

5:42 I've been... Report an error in the passage at 5:42 Highlight the passage at 5:42

5:46 Laudo retreat center, you know, all these different places. And then I was going to be going back to Chicago and family and help another monk as invited teachers at the Vajrapani Center in Los Angeles. That's where the Vajrapani began, was in Los Angeles. Report an error in the passage at 5:46 Highlight the passage at 5:46

6:17 So these were quite different environments, and so I was concerned. Report an error in the passage at 6:17 Highlight the passage at 6:17

6:24 And when I had finished that Magusa retreat, a book was delivered to me by a friend who was helping me with that retreat. And it was a translation by Jeffrey Hopkins of the Precious Garland of Advice to the King by Nagarjuna. And included in the book... It was the Song of the Four Mindfulnesses. And when I read it, I thought that it was just so perfect because if Report an error in the passage at 6:24 Highlight the passage at 6:24

7:03 you think about it, 84,000 teachings, right? 84,000 teachings the Buddha gave. I don't think I heard them all in that four or five years, but I heard enough that it was difficult to really be confident about what I needed to keep in mind in order to, you know. Maintain the desirable level of control over my body, speech and mind. And there it was. Report an error in the passage at 7:03 Highlight the passage at 7:03

7:34 Four things. Boy, that certainly did simplify everything. So that became a special practice for me and it was very useful. Report an error in the passage at 7:34 Highlight the passage at 7:34

7:52 So that's the subject. And so I don't know if that book is still in print, but... It's available there, and it's also been in this book as well, which is called The Buddhism of Tibet, published by Snow Lion. Report an error in the passage at 7:52 Highlight the passage at 7:52

8:13 And so the four verses are there together with a number of other texts, like The Key to the Middle Way and so on. Report an error in the passage at 8:13 Highlight the passage at 8:13

8:25 And in this text, it's accompanied by a short commentary given by the Dalai Lama to Jeffrey Hopkins, and he included that in there. Report an error in the passage at 8:25 Highlight the passage at 8:25

8:40 So now you know where it is, you can all go home now. But it's a very short commentary, so I may have a little bit more to say about it than you might get in there. Report an error in the passage at 8:40 Highlight the passage at 8:40

8:55 And I think I will need that glass of water. Report an error in the passage at 8:55 Highlight the passage at 8:55

9:02 So one thing interesting about the Song of the Four Mindfulnesses is the fact that there are four mindfulnesses, and this is reminiscent of another group of four mindfulnesses. A teaching called The Four Close Placements of Mindfulness, which is a sūtra teaching common to both Theravadan teaching and in the Mahāyāna literature, such as you'll find it in The Perfection of Wisdom, as well as commentaries to The Perfection of Wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 9:02 Highlight the passage at 9:02

9:43 And that's a teaching that's practiced by... Hearers, solitary realizers, and bodhisattvas. Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

9:57 So the hearers are those who are striving for their own personal liberation from cyclic existence. Solitary realizers have that goal, but in addition to that goal, they want to be born at a time when no Buddha has appeared. Report an error in the passage at 9:57 Highlight the passage at 9:57

10:18 just through the force of their samādhi, they can cause liberation. Living beings who come around them to enter into the path. So it takes them a little longer. They say about a hundred eons longer than it takes a hearer to achieve liberation. Report an error in the passage at 10:18 Highlight the passage at 10:18

10:39 But it's still, after that one lifetime, then they go into their samādhi and liberation. And then, of course, the bodhisattvas, whose goal is to achieve supreme enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 10:39 Highlight the passage at 10:39

10:53 And it takes longer for the bodhisattvas generally to achieve enlightenment than heroes to achieve liberation and solitary realizers to achieve their liberation. Report an error in the passage at 10:53 Highlight the passage at 10:53

11:05 Shakyamuni was said to have achieved it fairly rapidly, but his progress is the one that was measured in three countless gradients. Report an error in the passage at 11:05 Highlight the passage at 11:05

11:19 You know, an eon is a very long time. The Buddha gave a number of different examples that we could think about to try to imagine how long an eon is. Report an error in the passage at 11:19 Highlight the passage at 11:19

11:31 And one example was that if you had a mountain made of iron that is a mile high, a mile wide and a mile deep, and if a bird like an eagle were to fly over that once every hundred years and... Brush the side of the mountain with its feather as it flies by. The amount of time it would take to wear that mountain down to the level of the plane would be one eon. Report an error in the passage at 11:31 Highlight the passage at 11:31

12:04 And then Countless was the largest number in the Indian system of counting, the equivalent to our zillion. And then three times that was the amount of time it took him. To achieve his goal of Buddhahood after he had already entered the first of the five paths of the Bodhisattva. The first of the five paths is called the path of accumulation. And you enter into the path of accumulation when your bodhicitta is so well established in your mind, it just arises naturally. Report an error in the passage at 12:04 Highlight the passage at 12:04

12:47 You don't have to think about it. You don't have to go through the seven points. Six causes, one effect, or exchanging self with others, those sort of methods of thinking in order to generate the bodhicitta. You've done that so many times that bodhicitta is just your way of being. Report an error in the passage at 12:47 Highlight the passage at 12:47

13:08 So once the effortless bodhicitta arises in your mind, you're said to be on the path of accumulation. And similarly, for the individual vehicle here and solitary realizer, they enter their path of accumulation. When their renunciation is effortless and Lama Tsongkhapa described renunciation as an attitude that takes no interest in the happiness of this life or any lives within cyclic existence and aspires day and night for liberation from the uncontrolled cycle of death and rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 13:08 Highlight the passage at 13:08

14:04 So that's how they enter the path of accumulation. Report an error in the passage at 14:04 Highlight the passage at 14:04

14:09 So the path of accumulation, although it's the first of the five paths, it's not easy to enter into it. And there are some people who those attitudes just arise spontaneously within them due to the work that they've done in former lifetimes. Report an error in the passage at 14:09 Highlight the passage at 14:09

14:29 The rest of us have to develop that familiarity. Through the process of meditation, which is familiarizing your mind with an object. Report an error in the passage at 14:29 Highlight the passage at 14:29

14:48 And for example, the practice of shamatha, which describes a specific state of concentration that is developed through meditation. We find that described in a number of texts. For example, Lama Tsongkhapa in his great exposition of the stages of the path. Gives a very thorough presentation based upon, you know, he quotes many other sources, traditional, classic, Indian sources, and the cultivation of shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 14:48 Highlight the passage at 14:48

15:27 So through the cultivation of shamatha, once you have shamatha, then you can meditate on any object you want for as long as you want without any distraction. Report an error in the passage at 15:27 Highlight the passage at 15:27

15:38 So then if you put, if you have, through reasoning, The attitude of renunciation or bodhicitta comes in your mind. Then you can hold that through this mental quiescence, which is the English translation of shamatha. You can hold it with this state of mental quiescence until it becomes just so thoroughly imbued in you that it arises naturally without you having to make any effort. Report an error in the passage at 15:38 Highlight the passage at 15:38

16:08 Then you enter into the path of accumulation. Report an error in the passage at 16:08 Highlight the passage at 16:08

16:18 Now one of the... One of the essential factors in cultivating mental quiescence is mindfulness and mindfulness is one translation but it's defined as memory, recollection, the ability to recollect an object. Report an error in the passage at 16:18 Highlight the passage at 16:18

16:45 So recollection is essential in the cultivation of concentration because you have to keep the object in front of you through Recalling and not forgetting it. Recalling and not forgetting are both aspects of mindfulness or recollection, memory. Report an error in the passage at 16:45 Highlight the passage at 16:45

17:09 So you initially bring to mind the object through remembering what you were taught or reading or if it's an image that you're meditating on then you would have like a painting or a statue and you look at that and then you kind of close your eyes and look away. And try to duplicate it with your mind's eye. Or if you're meditating on impermanence then there's reasoning that's involved and then an understanding of impermanence comes to mind and then you sustain that. Report an error in the passage at 17:09 Highlight the passage at 17:09

17:41 Or if it's compassion then there's ways of thinking to develop a compassionate attitude and then you sustain that. Or if it's emptiness then you would use reasoning and then the object of emptiness comes to mind and then you hold that. Report an error in the passage at 17:41 Highlight the passage at 17:41

18:01 So initially, you bring these objects to mind through listening, reading, thinking, and when you lose the object, you bring it back again, mainly with the power of mindfulness or recollection. Report an error in the passage at 18:01 Highlight the passage at 18:01

18:22 And of the nine stages of the cultivation of mental quiescence, the fourth stage is achieved or not just entered but accomplished. You finish what needs to be done on the fourth stage when your mindfulness is so developed that you don't forget the object through the whole session, the whole meditation session. Report an error in the passage at 18:22 Highlight the passage at 18:22

18:47 Before that, you sometimes forget what you're doing, as we know. Report an error in the passage at 18:47 Highlight the passage at 18:47

18:59 It's hard to even finish prayers without forgetting, where was I? Which verse was I? Even a short prayer, like the Gandenlak Yema, descent from... Report an error in the passage at 18:59 Highlight the passage at 18:59

19:15 About a thousand, hundred gods of Tishida, the Lama Tsongkhapa practice. Or even the seven limb prayer in seven lines. One can forget what one's doing before one gets to the seventh line. A friend of mine where I work, he mentioned to me one time that I work at the University of California in Santa Cruz. Report an error in the passage at 19:15 Highlight the passage at 19:15

19:41 So I know this guy, he's the director of procurement and contracts. So he took advantage of a class being offered in the gym on meditation. So he went there and he thought, oh, meditation on the breath, oh, this should be easy. And this guy is a fairly, a bit of a competitor. He likes to compete with road bikes and, you know, this kind of competition. Report an error in the passage at 19:41 Highlight the passage at 19:41

20:09 And so, you know, a little bit of a competition, a challenge. And he mentioned to me, he said, I have to, Report an error in the passage at 20:09 Highlight the passage at 20:09

20:23 Eat a little humble pie, he said to me. So I couldn't concentrate on my breath for even one whole minute. Yeah, it's not easy. It's not easy. And I was reading recently in some, I think, Mandala publication that I saw on Facebook. I'm a friend of Mandala on Facebook. And it mentioned how, I think, It might have been Lama Zopa who was speaking, or it might have been the one-year report, the report on what the FP &T had been doing for this last year. Report an error in the passage at 20:23 Highlight the passage at 20:23

21:13 The International Office puts out a report, you can see how they spent their money and all this kind of thing, transparency. And part of it was... All the different things that were accomplished, Lama Zopa was mentioning, done a lot, and there's a lot of centers, and a lot of people have met the teachings, and people are making many prayers, and people are doing all kinds of good things. Report an error in the passage at 21:13 Highlight the passage at 21:13

21:37 And it was, I don't remember the exact words, but what I remembered was, and the next step will be the cultivation of mental quiescence, to have Buddhism thoroughly established. In the West, Report an error in the passage at 21:37 Highlight the passage at 21:37

21:59 because when I first started studying, it was like I didn't find it until I got to Dharamsala. I didn't get to Dharamsala except I met somebody the first day I was in India who'd been in India for six months and we asked him, what's the most interesting place you've been in the six months you've been in India? Report an error in the passage at 21:59 Highlight the passage at 21:59

22:20 He said, oh, Dharamsala. Where's that? It's not far from here. We were in Patankot at the time on our way to Kashmir to escape the monsoon. Report an error in the passage at 22:20 Highlight the passage at 22:20

22:31 And so it was just, you know, like a three-hour bus ride away, he said. That was about half the amount of time, but it didn't matter. And he says, it's cool, you'll escape the heat of the Punjab. This was August. And he said there were very mellow people there, Tibetans. Report an error in the passage at 22:31 Highlight the passage at 22:31

22:55 And there's white snow monkeys. So I'm not sure why we went there. Could have been any one of those three reasons. Report an error in the passage at 22:55 Highlight the passage at 22:55

23:05 But one person was interested in Buddhism. So after having discussed it, we thought, well, what the heck, let's check it out. Report an error in the passage at 23:05 Highlight the passage at 23:05

23:16 And so there was the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives had just started offering classes in Tibetan Buddhism. There was one class in front of my class. So people in my class. Who started studying there were people like Glenn Mullen, Stephen Batchelor, those kind of people. Those were my classmates. And the one in the class before were people like John Landau, Alex Berzin, you know, those people. Report an error in the passage at 23:16 Highlight the passage at 23:16

23:42 So some people had gone there specifically to study, and I had just sort of fallen into it. And at the time, it was hard to find any books in English on Buddhism. I think the only books we could find were like Evan and Spence books on the Bardo Thodol, Tibetan Book of the Dead, and I think there were a couple other ones, but almost none. Report an error in the passage at 23:42 Highlight the passage at 23:42

24:15 So since that time, there's a lot of books. And since that time, there's a lot of centers. And since that time, there's a lot of qualified lamas who either live in the West or visit the West. Report an error in the passage at 24:15 Highlight the passage at 24:15

24:30 And since that time, there's a lot of Westerners who've heard a lot of teachings and are quite knowledgeable and are working on training their minds. Report an error in the passage at 24:30 Highlight the passage at 24:30

24:43 But what's really needed now is to have the realizations, and the realizations require extraordinary concentration. Like I mentioned, you can't even enter the first of the five paths without effortless. Renunciation and bodhicitta, and that unless you've done a lot of work in a former lifetime, then you're going to need really good concentration to cultivate that. Report an error in the passage at 24:43 Highlight the passage at 24:43

25:14 So in the practice of cultivating good concentration, you have to cultivate mindfulness. And so Report an error in the passage at 25:14 Highlight the passage at 25:14

25:25 mindfulness is simply recollection. That's all it is. Unlike, there's another practice that's called mindfulness. But it's a different kind of practice. Like for instance, Jon Kabat-Zinn has a practice of mindfulness that is very beneficial for reducing stress and helping in recovery from illnesses and so on. Report an error in the passage at 25:25 Highlight the passage at 25:25

25:52 And it's described something like non-judgmental attention in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 25:52 Highlight the passage at 25:52

26:04 So it has the name mindfulness, but it's not... The mindfulness that we find in the Buddhist scriptures. In the Buddhist scriptures it is recollection and so it's not forgetting the object of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 26:04 Highlight the passage at 26:04

26:18 And it's also used to not forget other positive instructions. The instructions that you have received from your teacher. The instructions that you have read and have taken to heart from your studies. Report an error in the passage at 26:18 Highlight the passage at 26:18

26:44 And you know you can go the whole day without recalling what you planned to keep in mind that day. It's easy. Even if you make the plan when you first get out of bed in the morning, or before you get out of bed in the morning. Like if you're a practitioner of the Mother Tantra, you're supposed to begin every act with your left. Report an error in the passage at 26:44 Highlight the passage at 26:44

27:13 How do you do that? I remember when we first heard that. And we asked Som Rinpoche. He was one of the teachers and kind of archetypal Tibetan Lama. Boy, did he look the part. Report an error in the passage at 27:13 Highlight the passage at 27:13

27:30 I don't know if anybody's ever even seen a photo of Song Rinpoche, but he was fairly tall and his shaven head, a bit of gray, and that long goatee, white goatee that he had. He looked like something from out of a Doc Strange comic book that I was attached to as a kid. The mystic man from the East, that was it. And he said, well, you know, I was thinking, well, how am I going to shake somebody's hand? Report an error in the passage at 27:30 Highlight the passage at 27:30

28:00 Am I supposed to sort of start with my left and then grab his hand with my right? How am I supposed to keep this practice, begin every action with the left? And he said, oh, when you get out of bed in the morning, the first foot that hits the ground is your left. So you've begun every action of that day with the left. Report an error in the passage at 28:00 Highlight the passage at 28:00

28:19 I thought, my goodness, somebody has actually taken this instruction seriously and thought a good way how to do it. So, you know, you can start your day like that, but then after that, how often does one remember? Or like the different teachings that one of your teachers may have given you on how you might practice transforming an everyday activity into a Dharma practice. Report an error in the passage at 28:19 Highlight the passage at 28:19

28:51 Like when you're brushing your teeth to purify the speech so that all of the negative actions of my speech are purified, just like removing whatever from my mouth with the toothbrush. Or, you know, putting on clothes and thinking that I am putting on the ornaments of the deity. Or, you know, all of these different mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 28:51 Highlight the passage at 28:51

29:18 Practices that we were given instructions on how to change ordinary activities or when one is eating, like using a knife and fork to eat. I don't know if you've ever done a fire puja, but in a fire puja you hold two implements, right? There's like a funnel at the end of one iron bar and then there's like a cup at the end of the other iron bar and you're sitting like this and you've got your wood stacked in front of you and you pour oil. Report an error in the passage at 29:18 Highlight the passage at 29:18

29:48 On the wood and it's set on fire and that gets the fire going really well. So like Kishinorandage, he said, so when you're eating, you think of yourself as holding those two implements and you're feeding the fire god of wisdom inside you. Report an error in the passage at 29:48 Highlight the passage at 29:48

30:06 Transforming, you know, an ordinary action like eating into a practice. Because, of course, the whole point is to transform everything that we're doing. Instead of, because generally speaking, we're creations of karma and delusion, right? Generally speaking, I mean generally in Buddhist teachings. Not that you can just go outside and ask, generally, what would you say we're creations of? Karma and delusion, right? No, I don't think you'll hear that. Report an error in the passage at 30:06 Highlight the passage at 30:06

30:38 But as a creation of karma and delusion, we're like perfect at sustaining. Karma and Delusion. We're the tools, we're the effect of Karma and Delusion and we can continue Karma and Delusion and thus we'll get the result of Karma and Delusion. So if you want to change that, it's like a considerable effort because there's a huge momentum, a huge momentum to not act out of attachment, for instance. Report an error in the passage at 30:38 Highlight the passage at 30:38

31:17 There are times when we know we have attachment. Because some attachments are stronger than other attachments. But even a weak attachment is still going in the wrong direction. It's going in the wrong direction. Even a weak attachment, it's still attachment. And Lama Tisha, when he went to Tibet from India, this was a grand Lama. Report an error in the passage at 31:17 Highlight the passage at 31:17

31:42 He was like the pride of Vikramishila Monastery. He was the crown prince of Bengal. Who gave it all up, became a Buddhist monk, dedicated himself to practice, became a great scholar, practitioner. Crown Prince when Report an error in the passage at 31:42 Highlight the passage at 31:42

32:03 the Red Guard went into Tibet and smashed everything that they could smash that was part of ancient culture in order to be able to restart Chinese culture. From a new perspective, so they had this idea they could just smash everything that represented anything old. Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:29 So they went into, you know, they did it in China, they did it in Tibet, but the Indian government made a request to the head of the Chinese government to protect this one Gompa outside of Lhasa that was special to Atisha. Because he was their crown prince. And they did. Chinese soldiers set up and told the cultural revolutionaries, no, you can't touch this. Report an error in the passage at 32:29 Highlight the passage at 32:29

33:01 This is out of favor to our neighbors from India. We're not going to do this. So somebody very special, he went to Tibet. And he started, his followers were known as the Kadams or the Kadambas. I noticed you have a book on your bookshelf, the Kadams. It's a teaching of the Kadampa Geshe's, they were called, translated by Thutton Jimba. Report an error in the passage at 33:01 Highlight the passage at 33:01

33:34 So the Kadampas. And he taught the Kadampas that any action done by attachment or anger or ignorance will result in a lower rebirth. He didn't say only heavy attachment. Report an error in the passage at 33:34 Highlight the passage at 33:34

33:52 Like the uncontrolled attachment that you would walk through fire to get your partner or whatever. Any attachment. So we have to transform all of that. Okay, so how do you do that? One at a time. But any action you do, try to find another way of doing it. It just takes changing the thought behind why you're doing it, right? I mean, like eating. I've always been a good eater. Report an error in the passage at 33:52 Highlight the passage at 33:52

34:31 And then Lama Eshi asked us to experiment with the taking the essence practice in which you, well he made all of these pills made out of flower petals with a lot of other special ingredients, relics and all these other kinds of things. And it was a practice called taking the essence, in this case of flowers. Report an error in the passage at 34:31 Highlight the passage at 34:31

34:58 But they're rolled into those round pills that are typical of Tibetan medicine, as one of my doctor, Western doctor friends referred to as dirt balls. Report an error in the passage at 34:58 Highlight the passage at 34:58

35:15 And so, yeah, so we, the instruction was three of those a day with three cups of water, boss, that's it, for three weeks to see if you would be suitable. To go further and get into the practice. And at that time, the only people who had ever been successful in the practice had only done it in Tibet. But one of them was a friend of Lama Yeshe's and he lived in Dharamsala. And so he gave us the instructions and everything on how to do it. Report an error in the passage at 35:15 Highlight the passage at 35:15

35:54 He said nobody in India has been able to do it so far and not sure why. And then we heard of these two guys that... Had been practicing in the mountains of Derudun, which is part of, not far from Dharamsala, but in India. And they were coming to Dharamsala and they had been known as being practitioners of that. Report an error in the passage at 35:54 Highlight the passage at 35:54

36:14 And they were big, but the expert, the master that Lama Yeshe had asked to be our guide, said the reason why they're so big is because they eat a lot. Report an error in the passage at 36:14 Highlight the passage at 36:14

36:27 Not because they're successful in this pill retreat. So... So anyway, the whole idea, what Lama Yeshe thought, well, one problem the Westerners have is that they don't have enough time and it's hard to find a good place and to get adequate provisions and all of this kind of stuff. There's so many difficulties for them to really get into practice. So what if they could succeed in taking the essence of these flowers in form of pills? Report an error in the passage at 36:27 Highlight the passage at 36:27

37:05 You have a bag like that. Theoretically, and we were imagining this, right? During the mealtime, it doesn't take very long to swallow a little pill. What are you going to do then for your lunch hour? Report an error in the passage at 37:05 Highlight the passage at 37:05

37:18 So you're sitting around talking, imagine, boy, wouldn't it be great just to beg like that? One could go off for six months. One could find a beautiful little stream in the Sierras. Report an error in the passage at 37:18 Highlight the passage at 37:18

37:31 Nobody around. Just have your water, your pill. And just sit there and do your practice. Nothing else. Report an error in the passage at 37:31 Highlight the passage at 37:31

37:44 And then I had to go back to the West. I couldn't stay longer, but it didn't matter. A friend of mine, he stayed longer. He did it. He sent me a photo after his 49th day. And he looked like somebody from Auschwitz. He was just so thin. Unbelievable thin. I couldn't believe it. He was sitting there in full lotus posture with just like his shorts on. So thin. Report an error in the passage at 37:44 Highlight the passage at 37:44

38:15 And he eventually had to stop. I think after about 60 days, he stopped when he found himself lying on the floor, waking up. He thought, I need food. Good thing he thought that. So it didn't work. But one thing that it did do. It was changed my attitude towards food. Because all that time being without food, I really recognized what I needed food for. Report an error in the passage at 38:15 Highlight the passage at 38:15

38:44 Fuel. That's what I need food for. Fuel. I need energy. And without it, I just can't do things. You know, I led one of these pill retreats at Vajrapani Retreat Center and like some days you'd feel good, other days you'd feel bad. People would be sneaking into the kitchen. my kitchen. Report an error in the passage at 38:44 Highlight the passage at 38:44

39:07 Making smoothies and stuff like that. It was okay to have a little bit of honey, our instructor had taught us, so from time to time I'd have a little bit of honey to add to my pill and my cup of water. Report an error in the passage at 39:07 Highlight the passage at 39:07

39:20 But boy, I really needed fuel. And ever since then, that's how food has appeared to me. Not that I don't appreciate. A tasty meal, but that's what I really need. And that was something quite useful. And when you're not attached to the food, but as if you're going to get happiness from it, and there are those people who, that is a very common form of happiness. Report an error in the passage at 39:20 Highlight the passage at 39:20

39:51 Human conditions, we're quite simple. It comes down to it, we're very simple. We need to have the requirements of life, and you'll find generally... That they just get better, but they're not much different. It's just, you know, you get plain food and then there's, you know, the real expert, expertly cooked food. Report an error in the passage at 39:51 Highlight the passage at 39:51

40:19 But it's still food. And the reason why we eat it is because we need fuel. But when you're eating it for happiness, then you're in trouble. You're just in trouble. Not only does it create a lower rebirth, because you don't have to be a human being. To eat food. Even the pigs have food. So, you know, if you die and the last thing on your mind is food, well, there's all kinds of possibilities. Report an error in the passage at 40:19 Highlight the passage at 40:19

40:51 That's all it takes. What's going to be the last thing on your mind? So that's why one tries to transform everything that one does into a practice. Because you don't know when the last moment of your life is. Report an error in the passage at 40:51 Highlight the passage at 40:51

41:11 You know, like... When my mother passed away a couple of years ago, they were down in Florida. Snowbirds escape the winter of Chicago, go down to Florida. He's making breakfast. Thump, he turns around and she fell down on the kitchen floor dead. Just like that. Boom! Just like that. So it can go so fast. It's not like those old westerns. The guy gets shot and he has about... Report an error in the passage at 41:11 Highlight the passage at 41:11

41:43 5,000 words he has to say before he finally croaks. They can go just like that and you don't know what's going to be the last thought on your mind. Report an error in the passage at 41:43 Highlight the passage at 41:43

41:57 So if you're training your mind and following the teachings, then there's a good chance that it's going to be a positive thought that's going to carry you into a good rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 41:57 Highlight the passage at 41:57

42:18 And in order to succeed in that kind of training, it requires mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 42:18 Highlight the passage at 42:18

42:27 So the reason why I'm saying this is to motivate you, to practice mindfulness, that this is something you need. You need to remember the teachings that you've been taught, that you've studied, Report an error in the passage at 42:27 Highlight the passage at 42:27

42:45 especially the conclusions, right? You don't want to die in a doubtful state of mind. Report an error in the passage at 42:45 Highlight the passage at 42:45

42:59 Am I empty of true existence or am I empty of duality? What's the difference? Report an error in the passage at 42:59 Highlight the passage at 42:59

43:11 You want to have the conclusions you want to keep in mind, like faith in one's teacher, bodhicitta, compassion. These essential strong points you want to have in your mind when you pass away. And so those are the things that... We read books, attend classes, and during the time that we're reading or attending the class, we're gaining a lot of information. Report an error in the passage at 43:11 Highlight the passage at 43:11

43:48 But in order for that information to be useful to you, you need to think about it. Because it's just sort of words for a while. Report an error in the passage at 43:48 Highlight the passage at 43:48

44:00 It's almost like an inventory. You accumulate a large inventory of words. Hard to keep in mind. So they can fill notebooks together with the published books on the shelf. And all of those books will have great rebirths if they could. Report an error in the passage at 44:00 Highlight the passage at 44:00

44:22 A book's rebirth is it goes to another owner after the first owner dies. So for us, it's not really enough to remember some words. You have to bring to mind... Something that those words do to you. Those words bring some insight into something that you hadn't thought of before. And it takes some time. Sometimes it can happen right away. You get it. Other times you have to think about it. Maybe even discuss with friends and arrive at conclusions. Report an error in the passage at 44:22 Highlight the passage at 44:22

45:07 And once you get the conclusions, then to hold that in mind. Report an error in the passage at 45:07 Highlight the passage at 45:07

45:17 The more you do that, the stronger it comes and the less effort it takes. So in the practice of the four close placements of mindfulness, that's what a person does once they've entered into the path of accumulation. Of course, we can do a facsimile of that before we've entered into the first path, but it's generally... Report an error in the passage at 45:17 Highlight the passage at 45:17

45:45 The borders of that practice are from the path of accumulation through the final path of no more learning or Buddha, Buddha level. Report an error in the passage at 45:45 Highlight the passage at 45:45

45:56 All of these practitioners have this mentality going. And what it is, it's a combination of mindfulness and wisdom. And the wisdom is the conclusions of a thorough analysis. I'll tell you a little bit about the thorough analysis in a moment. But the conclusions of that thorough analysis that are placed close to you through memory, through recollection. Report an error in the passage at 45:56 Highlight the passage at 45:56

46:29 The meaning of the words placed close to you is that you're not forgetting it, you're holding it in mind. Report an error in the passage at 46:29 Highlight the passage at 46:29

46:39 So the four close placements of mindfulness are the mindfulness of the body, feeling, the mind and phenomena. Those are the four. Report an error in the passage at 46:39 Highlight the passage at 46:39

46:59 And the reason why the Buddha taught these is because naive people think that the body is the vessel of the truly existing person. Report an error in the passage at 46:59 Highlight the passage at 46:59

47:17 They think that feelings are the resources of the truly existing person. They think that the mind is the truly existing person. and they think that phenomena, particularly Report an error in the passage at 47:17 Highlight the passage at 47:17

47:32 Mental factors other than feeling, there are those that are negative and those that are positive. So the negative would be the ones that pollute the truly existing person and the positive ones would be the ones that purify the truly existing person. So to eliminate those wrong views, he taught these four close placements of mindfulness, the body, feelings, mind and... Report an error in the passage at 47:32 Highlight the passage at 47:32

48:04 And the way in which one meditates on that is through an analysis. You look at the characteristics of these four things. Each of these four things has two types of characteristics, general and specific. Report an error in the passage at 48:04 Highlight the passage at 48:04

48:26 The general characteristics are four. All of these things have four characteristics. those characteristics are Impermanence, misery, empty and selfless. And that's because whatever is produced is impermanent, whatever is the result of, or whatever is contaminated, i.e. contaminated means it's a product of Garmin delusion, whatever is contaminated is miserable and everything is empty and selfless. Report an error in the passage at 48:26 Highlight the passage at 48:26

49:14 So those are the general characteristics because you can find those everywhere. Specific characteristics are those properties that define a thing and distinguish it from other things. Report an error in the passage at 49:14 Highlight the passage at 49:14

49:35 But of course there are multiple properties and characteristics and one can meditate and enumerate and make inventories. Great long lists of properties and characteristics of the body, feeling and so on. But there are ways of thinking that will get you to the result quicker. Report an error in the passage at 49:35 Highlight the passage at 49:35

49:59 Like with meditating on the body, you would identify, first of all you would look at the body as, is this the vessel where I am? Report an error in the passage at 49:59 Highlight the passage at 49:59

50:18 Am I here someplace in the body? Report an error in the passage at 50:18 Highlight the passage at 50:18

50:25 Well, it could be. Because, are you sitting here or not? If you are, then you have something to do with your body, don't you? Report an error in the passage at 50:25 Highlight the passage at 50:25

50:40 So, you look in the body for you, Report an error in the passage at 50:40 Highlight the passage at 50:40

50:48 right? I mean, if somebody comes, opens the front door, and comes in here looking for you, or if they're coming in here looking for me, they'll spot me with their eyes, right? What their eyes will see is a familiar shape and color. That is what will be appearing to their visual consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 50:48 Highlight the passage at 50:48

51:19 And they have already learned to associate the name Pende with that visual form. And they will say, there you are. Okay, I give up, I'm here. But is it just the form? That's appearing or is there the form plus me appearing? Am I a visual object that's appearing to their mind? I mean when the mind comes to know something the mind is defined different ways but basically the mind's job is to reveal objects. Report an error in the passage at 51:19 Highlight the passage at 51:19

52:10 It makes things appear. If there was no mind then nothing would be appearing. No colors or shapes, no sound, no aromas, no tastes, no tactile sensations. Even darkness would not be appearing. Report an error in the passage at 52:10 Highlight the passage at 52:10

52:31 If you're in a coal mine and all the lights go out, it would be pretty darn dark. Report an error in the passage at 52:31 Highlight the passage at 52:31

52:41 In Chicago, there's a museum called the Museum of Science and Industry, and they have an artificial coal mine. You go down in a coal mining... Elevator and you go and it opens up and the coal mining shafts and they turn the lights out. And I know for a fact it's awful dark. There's no light at all. But there's awareness of darkness. There's awareness of your thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 52:41 Highlight the passage at 52:41

53:14 There's awareness of a few screams. And nervous talking. When will the lights come back on? Like that. All of these things we're aware of. If there's no mind, none of that would be appearing. That's the fundamental function of the mind. Add to that the ability of the mind to take a tremendous amount of data, basically, that's appearing to your senses and be able to apprehend objects within. Report an error in the passage at 53:14 Highlight the passage at 53:14

53:55 All of that. You know, there are some paintings, for instance, that are supposed to be of something. But it might be hard to know what it was. You have to be trained to find the object within all of the colors and whatever. But we can do that. Our mind can do that. And we're doing that all the time. We're identifying objects and differentiating amongst the objects. Report an error in the passage at 53:55 Highlight the passage at 53:55

54:26 We're doing that. So that's another fundamental function of the mind that reveals objects and apprehends them or engages in them. Report an error in the passage at 54:26 Highlight the passage at 54:26

54:40 So with the sensory consciousnesses like visual consciousness, auditory consciousness, the sensory consciousnesses that are based upon a physical sense organ like the eye, ear, nose, tongue and the rest of the body, they're like a mirror. In the sense that a representation of an object will appear in the mind, like a reflection appears in a mirror of something you put in front of it. Report an error in the passage at 54:40 Highlight the passage at 54:40

55:15 So the person comes in the door and looks and says, there you are, Pende. Now, my body has appeared, because the shape and color of the body has appeared. Report an error in the passage at 55:15 Highlight the passage at 55:15

55:35 But have I appeared through the force of, in the same way that the body appeared? The body appears because light bounces off of it and then goes into their eye organ and then that gets processed. Did light bounce off of me in addition to the body? Report an error in the passage at 55:35 Highlight the passage at 55:35

56:01 That's where you have to analyze the body and look to see if there is some Concrete entity which is not the body but is somewhere in the body or beside the body, whether on top of the body, underneath the body, something aside from the body, looking for that me. Report an error in the passage at 56:01 Highlight the passage at 56:01

56:29 So, you know, like sometimes, you know, I really mean it. So what is that? Why did I do that? Does that mean that I'm here? Am I some part of the... Report an error in the passage at 56:29 Highlight the passage at 56:29

56:43 Am I on the skin layer? Am I in the bone? Am I the pumping heart? Am I any of those things? You use normal, everyday language to decide. I can't be the heart because this person saw me. They didn't see my heart. If they saw my heart, I'd be dead. Report an error in the passage at 56:43 Highlight the passage at 56:43

57:15 So they didn't see me if I was my heart, but they did see me, so I'm not the heart. And then you look, now am I someplace visible but next to the body? Report an error in the passage at 57:15 Highlight the passage at 57:15

57:32 And you just do that kind of analysis. And you can do it until you're confident that the body is not... Report an error in the passage at 57:32 Highlight the passage at 57:32

57:47 The person or the person is not inside the body, the vessel for the body. Report an error in the passage at 57:47 Highlight the passage at 57:47

58:01 And there are further meditations, like the general characteristic of impermanence, you look at the body as being impermanent, both subtle impermanence and gross impermanence. Gross impermanence would be death, aging and death. Very important meditation. I noticed on the bookshelf in there, there was... Report an error in the passage at 58:01 Highlight the passage at 58:01

58:29 A commentary, translated commentary on Arya Deva's 400 stanzas. And it's done in chapters. In the first chapter it has over 20 stanzas with commentary by Kyal Sabje no less, who is one of Lama Tsongkhapa's major students, has become pretty much the authority on Lama Tsongkhapa's teachings that have followed today. Report an error in the passage at 58:29 Highlight the passage at 58:29

58:59 And the first chapter is all about the meditation on death. Very interesting meditations. So it's important to do those meditations because although, Report an error in the passage at 58:59 Highlight the passage at 58:59

59:11 well I can't say, I was about to say that everybody knows they're going to die, but I have met people who are still hopeful that science will come up with the cure. That they will figure out, because it's just logic, right? It's just, you just have to maintain the body and it will keep functioning. Just like my Volvo. All I have to do is keep maintaining it. I'm replacing every part, one at a time, until I can't keep up with the maintenance, but that's just because I don't have enough money. Report an error in the passage at 59:11 Highlight the passage at 59:11

59:58 If I had enough money... Then I could keep that vovo running forever, unless they ran out of gas. By that time I probably wouldn't need the vovo. But similarly, there are people hoping that within their lifetime, scientists will figure out a way to strengthen our immune systems and the other systems that replace, naturally replace the parts that get used up in such a way that they're... Report an error in the passage at 59:58 Highlight the passage at 59:58

1:00:32 The same quality as the original, which so far it doesn't work like that. And then all they have to do is avoid accidents. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:32 Highlight the passage at 1:00:32

1:00:45 And how are you going to do that if you're the guy I'm thinking of happens to be a skier. So good luck. But generally nobody thinks that they're going to live forever. But everybody acts like it. You know, we got plans for what we're going to be doing. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:45 Highlight the passage at 1:00:45

1:01:11 In the summer, we may have started planning at the end of last summer for what we're going to be doing this summer, right? Get the savings, go to Europe, you know, blah, blah, blah. Or let's go to Europe, I'll start saving today. When do you think you'll have enough money? About a year from now? As if I'm going to live forever, making those kind of plans. And retirement, what I can't really think about in retirement now, I'm going to have to work forever. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:11 Highlight the passage at 1:01:11

1:01:42 Oh, forever? Already thinking that there's no end. It's not as if the end is rushing towards us. It's like the end is that infinite perspective out there, that horizon that we'll never get to. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:42 Highlight the passage at 1:01:42

1:02:03 So we have to think about it because it's one of the most, the misconception that... That is really controlling our actions, that thinks that we're not going to die, is an incredible deceiver. Incredible deceiver. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:03 Highlight the passage at 1:02:03

1:02:28 The worst, I mean, if you have to buy a car, especially a second-hand car, which is why I prefer to maintain my old car. If you're going to buy a second-hand car, the worst thing that you can imagine is... You know, going to the lot of somebody who's going to take advantage of you, right? But what could that guy do? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:28 Highlight the passage at 1:02:28

1:02:57 They could sell you an old car and it might be a lemon and how much you're going to lose, right? It's going to be less than $10,000. For $10,000 you could get a new car someplace. That's all you're going to lose. But the misconception that makes you think that you're going to live forever. That you couldn't die tonight? You couldn't die a minute from now? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:57 Highlight the passage at 1:02:57

1:03:30 The misconception that thinks that one's going to just keep on living, that cheats you out of taking the essence of this life. It cheats you out of having happiness in future lives. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:30 Highlight the passage at 1:03:30

1:03:51 I mean, that's a heck of a lot bigger loss. Then four or five thousand dollars. Huge loss. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:51 Highlight the passage at 1:03:51

1:04:03 So it's, you know, and even if you've thought about, you know, death and the meditations, there's a whole nine round death meditation, there's imagining what it'd be like at the time of death, there are all these meditations that one could do. And even if you've done those for, say, a few years, if you forget the conclusions of those meditations, then guess what's going to start coming back up? Report an error in the passage at 1:04:03 Highlight the passage at 1:04:03

1:04:33 The idea that you're going to live forever. And then that will cheat you. So if you can get the conclusion that this life is impermanent, death is definite, the time of death is uncertain, the only thing that's going to help me at the time of death is my Dharma practice, I have to practice now, I have to practice purely, I have to practice continuously, I have to practice strongly. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:33 Highlight the passage at 1:04:33

1:05:05 Then you have to keep... Mindfulness of death creates that kind of determination. Good to keep in mind, not to forget it. Good to bring that close to you. And then there's subtle impermanence. We identify so much with our body. I've got an 18-year-old daughter. She has one pimple on her face. It's the worst thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:05 Highlight the passage at 1:05:05

1:05:40 It's the worst thing, so then she'll try to get rid of it and then it gets worse, right? And then she'll go out to breakfast this morning and she sits away from the harbor so nobody else can see her face because of the one little pimple that she popped. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:40 Highlight the passage at 1:05:40

1:05:57 How can you do that? Are you your body? From her point of view, yes she is. She is. And yet... Report an error in the passage at 1:05:57 Highlight the passage at 1:05:57

1:06:14 63 years ago at 2 o 'clock in the morning, that's when I acquired my body. Before that, I didn't have this body. I was something else. After some time, I'm going to leave this body. And before I had this body, how many bodies have I had? The Buddha looked to see if there was any beginning to rebirth. He couldn't find any. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:14 Highlight the passage at 1:06:14

1:06:47 One of his disciples, I think it was Modgalayana, I'm not sure, he tried to look for a beginning and the Buddha whispered someplace in the Samādhi of going back lifetime after lifetime, I've already been there, you can't find it. If I couldn't find it, you can't find it. So how many bodies have I left behind? There's not enough room on the planet. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:47 Highlight the passage at 1:06:47

1:07:20 You'd have to stack them. Impossible. You would end up filling space with all the bodies that I've had. And yet I keep going. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:20 Highlight the passage at 1:07:20

1:07:34 The Buddha said, the end of all acquiring is losing. So we acquire these bodies, we lose these bodies. We acquire it and then we're going to lose it. We invest so much in it. Dress it in the finest clothes. Take it to the best restaurants. Take it out for walks. Take it to trainers. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:34 Highlight the passage at 1:07:34

1:08:03 Do the best things to it. Give it massages. All of these things. Put nice oils. Become experts on oils. Become experts on tea. Become experts in anything that will help our bodies. We do all of these things. We're the best friend of these bodies. The best. Nobody else would do these things for our body. We do these things for our body, complete ingrate. In the end, it kills you. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:03 Highlight the passage at 1:08:03

1:08:34 Very simple. And you leave it behind. We acquire it, we leave it behind. Finish. We have it for a little while. Changes all the time while we have it. The older you get, the more you notice. Wake up in the morning, not too bad. Look in the mirror. Lines aren't so long, not so deep. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:34 Highlight the passage at 1:08:34

1:08:56 Hmm, don't have to get some more hair color. You have all these kind of thoughts. But it's always changing. Never remains and we lose it. Any product, anything that's come together through effort, through energy, can't sustain itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:56 Highlight the passage at 1:08:56

1:09:20 It immediately wants to fall apart. Immediately. Especially when the causes that put it there have ceased. The causes that put it there... Are themselves impermanent. They change moment to moment. It's just like a candle flame. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:20 Highlight the passage at 1:09:20

1:09:41 Moment to moment, it looks like the same flame. Conventionally, we can talk about the flame. But in fact, we know that that flame is constantly changing. Because what is it? It's made up of fuel. The candle whacks. It's been transformed. It's been melted. It's been made into a gas. It goes through the wick, is consumed by the flame, and the candle goes down, lower and lower. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:41 Highlight the passage at 1:09:41

1:10:17 That fire, that flame is changing. It's made out of different sources from the candle. It's changing all the time. Any product is incapable of remaining a second moment unchanged. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:17 Highlight the passage at 1:10:17

1:10:38 So, even though it appears to be stable, permanent, unchanging, solid, reliable, it's changing all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:38 Highlight the passage at 1:10:38

1:10:52 Like our body, it's changing all the time. So subtle impermanence, gross impermanence. Misery, every part of this body is subject to pain. Well, I understand the brain has, you can't feel pain in the brain. I thought that was very interesting. So, you know, they'll numb your skull and your skin, but once they start getting into the brain, they don't have to inject any, you could be, you know, talking, oh, how's it going, sir? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:52 Highlight the passage at 1:10:52

1:11:29 Have you reached the pituitary gland yet? Let me know. Whatever. But they can, so not the brain, but almost everything else. Have you ever had a shooting pain? Report an error in the passage at 1:11:29 Highlight the passage at 1:11:29

1:11:44 It just passed through you and then was gone? Of course, we all have. Isn't it great when it goes so fast? We never knew that we were going to feel pain in that particular part of our body, but it seems like every square inch of our body, we can feel pain. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:44 Highlight the passage at 1:11:44

1:12:04 And we do. And even the actions that we do in order to increase our health are painful. Exercise? I hate going to the gym, but I have to go to the gym. Otherwise, I start feeling terrible, put on weight, can't move. So I have to go to the gym. Do I like going to the gym? Not at all. Why should I like going to the gym? Report an error in the passage at 1:12:04 Highlight the passage at 1:12:04

1:12:25 It's just work, effort, grunting. I try not to grunt. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:25 Highlight the passage at 1:12:25

1:12:34 And then that's hard, to be a rigorous workout without making noise. Even that's hard. So then something simple. You have a little itch in your ear. Scratch it. The next day. It's infected. So simple, so little things, everything can go wrong with the body. It's miserable. Then you can also meditate on the impurity of the body. It gets rid of the idea that the body is pure. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:34 Highlight the passage at 1:12:34

1:13:09 And conventionally, the human body is, well, especially the female body, is the image of beauty. If you go into Google... And Google Images and you type in beauty, you will have page after page of beautiful women's faces. Page after page. And each page is like 30 images. That's the image of beauty. So, what's the problem with that? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:09 Highlight the passage at 1:13:09

1:13:45 Well, no problem, unless you're attached to it. And if you're attached to it, then... You're in trouble because attachment is uncomfortable in itself and it causes all kinds of bad actions and it can lead to a lower rebirth. So it's just nothing but trouble. So how do you get rid of attachment? You meditate on the impurities of the body, such as in chapter 8, is it 8? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:45 Highlight the passage at 1:13:45

1:14:18 I think it's 8. In Bodhisattva Charya Avatara by Shantideva. It's the chapter on concentration. And he mentions all these different faults. And he didn't just make that up. I mean, that's traditional, classic meditation to get rid of the attachment to the body. And he was trying to persuade his listener to give up whatever they were doing and to go to the forest and meditate. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:18 Highlight the passage at 1:14:18

1:14:52 So it's the chapter on concentration. So you have to... Be on your own in a quiet environment, not engaged in any other activity, and meditate. So to be able to do that, you have to give up lots of attachments. And one of those attachments is an attachment to your body. Because in those days in India, they were like, they were the NFL of meditators in those days. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:52 Highlight the passage at 1:14:52

1:15:15 I mean, those guys, they would just go out to the mountains. Or they'd go out to the forest. And they would sit at the base of a tree. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:15 Highlight the passage at 1:15:15

1:15:26 Would wear tree bark for clothes. So they would sit at the base of a tree because if you built a hut, then some other meditator might come by who's older than you and say, I need your hut. And because you're a gentleman and that person is older than you, you would have to give it up. So if you're sitting at the base of a tree, just exposed to the elements, you won't have that problem. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:26 Highlight the passage at 1:15:26

1:15:57 So they practiced that kind of asceticism in the good old days. I think even in India they do it now sometimes. I wouldn't be surprised. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:57 Highlight the passage at 1:15:57

1:16:07 But, I mean, it's rare these days to find anything like that. Even the Tibetan meditators say they have some place that will keep the rain and the cold out, but still pretty basic. And you have to not be worried about your body and what it's going to look like. Whether it's going to be dirty or whether it's going to have a nice complexion or all of that kind of stuff. You eat whatever it takes to stay alive to meditate. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:07 Highlight the passage at 1:16:07

1:16:38 That's all. That's all you're interested in. Just enough fuel to meditate and to keep going as long as you can. So you have to give up all kinds of attachments to be able to do that. So that's another part of the meditation on the body. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:38 Highlight the passage at 1:16:38

1:16:58 When meditating on empty and selfless, the only difference, now generally speaking in wisdom literature in Buddhism, those two words are synonymous, empty and selfless. However, there are some contexts in which they're different and it is just like, it's just language, sort of verbs. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:58 Highlight the passage at 1:16:58

1:17:27 And it is... Empty refers to that which is possessed by a truly existing person, whereas selfless refers to the person not being truly existing. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:27 Highlight the passage at 1:17:27

1:17:44 So something is empty if it's not the possession of the truly existing person, like that. But that's a subtlety that you don't have to worry about. You can just meditate on the emptiness of a truly existing person. That's fine. Because in fact, when you meditate on the emptiness of the person that there is no truly existing person that possesses this, you're not meditating on the possession, you're meditating on the possessor. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:44 Highlight the passage at 1:17:44

1:18:24 Because that's the one that we're grasping at as truly existing. Existing in its own right. As if it's appearing to our mind. Through the force of its existence, rather than something that is created by name and thought on the basis of something else appearing, like my visual form appeared to somebody and then their thought created Pende, which they were taught, but it's still their thought that created it and linked it with that appearance, said Pende, I see Pende, that's the language. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:24 Highlight the passage at 1:18:24

1:19:01 But in fact, the pende that they're perceiving, that person, is created by their thought. There's not a concrete object here appearing to them. Their thought created it. It's like a magic mirror. You know, mirror, mirror on the wall? The face comes from the side of the mirror instead of from the magician in front of the mirror. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:01 Highlight the passage at 1:19:01

1:19:22 The face comes from the mirror. Similarly, conceptually constructed objects come from the mind. The mind makes them appear. Rather than being external objects like a physical object and so on appearing. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:22 Highlight the passage at 1:19:22

1:19:42 So one does that with the body, one does that with feelings. The feeling is basically the experience of pleasure, pain and neutral, which is neither pleasure or pain. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:42 Highlight the passage at 1:19:42

1:19:55 And every one of our visual perception, auditory perception, all of these other different kinds of consciousnesses have the capacity to experience pleasure or pain. When they experience the object. It could be a physical pleasure of pain, it could be a mental pleasure of pain. And so one meditates on that, and one can meditate on the impermanence of that, the misery of that, the lack of there being any truly existing person who has those feelings. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:55 Highlight the passage at 1:19:55

1:20:33 And one thing about feelings is that... So feeling here is specifically defined. In everyday conversation, we use the feeling in many different ways. But here it's defined as specifically the feeling of pleasure, the feeling of pain, or that which is neither pleasure or pain, a neutral feeling. And the thing about feeling is that it creates attachment. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:33 Highlight the passage at 1:20:33

1:21:08 If it's a pleasurable feeling... We get attached to not being separated from the object that produces that pleasurable feeling. If it's a painful feeling, we get attached to being separated from the object. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:08 Highlight the passage at 1:21:08

1:21:29 And that kind of attachment is one of the fundamental causes of rebirth. If you're familiar with the 12 links of interdependent origination, Report an error in the passage at 1:21:29 Highlight the passage at 1:21:29

1:21:43 craving and grasping Report an error in the passage at 1:21:43 Highlight the passage at 1:21:43

1:21:48 Different levels or degrees of attachment. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:48 Highlight the passage at 1:21:48

1:21:56 So if you train, we're already well trained in craving and grasping at any feelings that we have during the life. So for sure at the time of death there's going to be something arising that pleasant or unpleasant experience will occur which will cause An attachment to being separated or an attachment to not being separated. For example, as one is dying, if one's not dying all of a sudden, if there's a moment to think, there might be the thought arising. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:56 Highlight the passage at 1:21:56

1:22:38 Like, for instance, you could be dying of some illness. So it's taking a little time. And the thought might arise, you know, you're thinking, well... I'm going to be separated from my friends, my family. I'm going to be separated from my car. I'm going to be separated from my golf clubs. I'm going to be separated from seeing these beautiful summer days. I'm going to be separated from all these familiar things and the thought might arise. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:38 Highlight the passage at 1:22:38

1:23:09 And I'm going to be separated from me. I'm going to cease to exist. Whoa. Whoa. Now that could create a really strong attachment, a very strong grasping, holding on to that sense of self, one sense of existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:09 Highlight the passage at 1:23:09

1:23:35 And that is the cause of rebirth, right there, the essential cause of rebirth, the continued existence of that person, which is conceptual construct, but... Controls all the actions of the mind, including seeking some identity that corresponds with the sense of self, some form, interactions, whatever, and then one takes rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:35 Highlight the passage at 1:23:35

1:24:11 And all due to a creative process, actions, causes, producing a product, impermanent, having nothing to do with one's Fundamental true nature. Because the thing that one is grasping onto is a construct. It's a creation of thought. It's not something that precedes thought or is fundamental enabling thought, which is more to our reality than a construct. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:11 Highlight the passage at 1:24:11

1:24:53 Like there's the sky or the space above. And there's clouds forming. Is a cloud the essence of the space? No. It arises in the space. It disappears back in the space. Similarly, the thought of me arises in the mind, disappears in the mind. It's a construct. So we take birth and we die because it's a product. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:53 Highlight the passage at 1:24:53

1:25:21 It's a creation of something that's not our fundamental reality. And through grasping at it to continue to exist, we continue to take rebirth. All because of feeling. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:21 Highlight the passage at 1:25:21

1:25:37 Attachment to being separated from the unpleasant feeling. Attachment to being not separated from the pleasant feeling. So it creates a cautious attitude towards feelings. And then the mind, which one sees as oneself. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:37 Highlight the passage at 1:25:37

1:25:59 Because I'm experiencing, I'm knowing, I'm the observer, I'm the doer, I'm the actor, I know. We often identify with the mind. But when you observe the mind, you see that it's, you can't, you know, for instance, if there's a potter, a potter makes pots, okay? So the potter functions by making pots. And you can see them at their wheel with the clay. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:59 Highlight the passage at 1:25:59

1:26:32 But you can differentiate between the potter and the function of making the pot, right? You can see them, they're different. And the potter can stop making a pot and get up and get a cup of coffee. Whereas with the mind, you can't identify the mind separate from its function of knowing. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:32 Highlight the passage at 1:26:32

1:26:55 It can't like, well, I'm going to take a break from knowing right now and go make a cup of coffee. We impute these concepts of the agent of knowing as the mind, but it is the act of knowing. That is what the mind does. That is the mind. But the act of knowing is changing all the time because it's knowing different objects all the time and it can be differentiated as very different knowings. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:55 Highlight the passage at 1:26:55

1:27:34 There's the knowing of visual objects, which is very different from the knowing of sounds. And then there's correct knowing and incorrect knowing, like misconceptions that we can have. That's a very different knowing. It's almost like not knowing. And then there's not knowing and knowing that you do not know, but it's still a form of knowing. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:34 Highlight the passage at 1:27:34

1:27:54 But there's so many different types of knowing that takes place. And which one are you? Report an error in the passage at 1:27:54 Highlight the passage at 1:27:54

1:28:03 Well, I'm the knower. Which knower? The knower that... Was there a moment ago? Or you're a new knower, related to the past knower, but not the same knower as the last knower. But I am the same. Any fool could know that. Ah, but that's just a convention. It's like, let me see your baby picture. That's you, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:03 Highlight the passage at 1:28:03

1:28:28 You seem to have changed. So yes, that's you. Conventionally, we can speak. But nobody wants to think that they haven't changed a bit. Since they were a baby? Come on. We've got, I mean, maturity, knowledge, language, all of those things we worked hard to cultivate. We've got to, you know, take credit. You're not the same. But conventionally, you can say, oh, that's me when I was three years old. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:28 Highlight the passage at 1:28:28

1:29:05 Okay, fine. Conventionally, that works. But the fact is, too, that you have changed. Change goes on moment to moment to moment. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:05 Highlight the passage at 1:29:05

1:29:19 So which one is you? Or are you just a convention, conceptually designated, depending upon these moments of knowing, Report an error in the passage at 1:29:19 Highlight the passage at 1:29:19

1:29:41 which are changing, different, sometimes mindful, sometimes not mindful, sometimes distracted, sometimes this, sometimes that. But it's me. Ah, but it's... If that's me, which me? The me that was there a moment ago? Or the present me? The present mind. But you won't be here in the next moment. If you're this moment, you won't be here the next moment. So then, what are you? You're just a construct using a word, me. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:41 Highlight the passage at 1:29:41

1:30:18 A concept of formation of how you use the word me that you bring up through your conceptual mind. Under different circumstances, such as when you're observing an act of knowing. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:18 Highlight the passage at 1:30:18

1:30:39 It's not the mind. And there's even language that describes that. Like when we say, my mind. I wish I was born with a smarter mind. It seems like a possession in that phrase. And that's perfectly valid. Like Chandrakirti, who is the champion. of the Prasangika school. His interpretation of Nagarjuna is known as Prasangika and Lama Tsongkhapa's special teacher Manjusri said you should rely on Chandrakirti to correctly understand Nagarjuna. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:39 Highlight the passage at 1:30:39

1:31:27 And Chandrakirti, he's famous for insisting that the only way to know things Is by finding out how those things are described in everyday life. If you do an analysis, like an anatomy class, if you're going to know the body, the first thing you get is a scalpel. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:27 Highlight the passage at 1:31:27

1:31:57 And then you get a body, and then you start cutting, and you start looking. But if you're looking for the body, you won't find it. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:57 Highlight the passage at 1:31:57

1:32:06 You won't find the body in the body. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:06 Highlight the passage at 1:32:06

1:32:12 But we have this tendency to think that within all these objects there is the essential object in there that I just do an analysis and there it is, I can find it. But that's like looking for the body in the body, looking for the cup in the cup. That's an absurd analysis. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:12 Highlight the passage at 1:32:12

1:32:40 An acceptable analysis is to look for the cup on the table. To look for the body in the room, like that. That's a reasonable analysis. And Chandrakirti is saying, because nothing exists in its own right, everything exists interdependently. And the way we identify specific objects is not because there is a real, isolated object that exists in its own right. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:40 Highlight the passage at 1:32:40

1:33:15 As a defined essence, but rather it's because of how we have learned to think and talk about it. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:15 Highlight the passage at 1:33:15

1:33:30 It's really a challenge if you really get into it because we have learned a lot from analyzing things and cutting them open, but we go past the object that we're cutting. You learn all about the components. That make up an object. And sometimes it becomes a fallacy to understand an object by means of its components. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:30 Highlight the passage at 1:33:30

1:34:03 Sometimes you get a different understanding of the components than you have the object. Because all of those components have to work together in a certain way to get the object which is the collection of all of those components. But even that is something created by thought. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:03 Highlight the passage at 1:34:03

1:34:24 So that is meditating on the mind and then meditating on phenomena. There's these books like Mind and Mental Factors and Mind in Tibetan Buddhism and there's all these books that have a presentation. Even Jeffrey Hopkins' classic Meditation on Emptiness has a presentation of the main minds and mental factors. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:24 Highlight the passage at 1:34:24

1:34:53 Main minds are referring to the sensory consciousnesses like visual consciousness, auditory consciousness, and so on. And mental factors are components of each main mind. So the main mind makes an object appear and apprehends the object. But the mind is doing other things as well, experiencing the object. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:53 Highlight the passage at 1:34:53

1:35:20 Having the intention to have gotten you to the object, holding the object by different characteristics of the object, becoming attached to the object, being detached from the object. There's many different other factors. And these factors, there's like a group of 51 of them, and one text is 51, and another text is 48. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:20 Highlight the passage at 1:35:20

1:35:43 It doesn't matter how many there are. The Buddha said there's a lot more than just that. But he identified specific mental factors that were functioning in the practice of cultivating concentration and would interfere with the practice of cultivating concentration. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:43 Highlight the passage at 1:35:43

1:36:04 So you have like the six primary delusions, 20 secondary delusions, and you've got like... All of these, the 11 virtuous minds, you've got object ascertaining mental factors, mindfulness is included in one of those, intelligence is included in one of those, a number of these things. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:04 Highlight the passage at 1:36:04

1:36:26 And when you look at these, you'll see, you'll have an even more appreciation of mind as being a concept designated on functions, activities that are taking place. And some activities oppose other activities, like detachment opposes attachment. It's not just the absence of attachment, it is a way of looking at an object that enables you to be detached from the object. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:26 Highlight the passage at 1:36:26

1:37:12 Shantideva, as I mentioned in that one chapter, he has all these great images of the body, that if you entertain those for a moment, then... You get detached. You know, he'll talk about... Oh, never mind. You can look. You can look. But very useful images. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:12 Highlight the passage at 1:37:12

1:37:37 So that develops detachment, which is the opposite of attachment. So then you have these different phenomena, some opposing others, so that's not the self. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:37 Highlight the passage at 1:37:37

1:37:51 And they oppose other states of mind. Not a self. A self is like something that is... Constructed in addition to that as a way of referring to all of that, as a way of talking about all of that, but is not any of that. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:51 Highlight the passage at 1:37:51

1:38:14 So through such investigation, one gets these conclusions that comes to mind, and then through mindfulness, through recollection, you keep that close to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:14 Highlight the passage at 1:38:14

1:38:26 And as you keep that close to you, then you naturally are disinterested in. I want to abandon the objects that are causing problems and you want to acquire or cultivate the antidotes to these ones that are causing problems and are qualities that are beneficial. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:26 Highlight the passage at 1:38:26

1:38:53 And so you get into this practice of abandoning the faults that you have and not accumulating faults you don't have. Acquiring qualities that you don't have and developing the qualities you do have. That's basic Dharma practice. And through that, you enhance your concentration through mindfulness, through effort, through the imprints left in the mind from former lifetimes. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:53 Highlight the passage at 1:38:53

1:39:29 All of those help, you know, like the person who's a natural. There's natural meditators, because they did the work in former lifetimes. They still have to make some effort, but the results come easier to them. And investigation, because through the cultivation of concentration, you can do certain investigations that enable your mind to become more and more refined. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:29 Highlight the passage at 1:39:29

1:39:59 And by means of which one gathers various psi phenomena, ESP, psychic powers. Like a Tisha, in his Bodhipatha Pradipa, lamp of the path, he said that in order to practice generosity, the bodhisattva has to cultivate psychic powers. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:59 Highlight the passage at 1:39:59

1:40:31 Why is that? He says, because how do you know whether this gift is going to help or harm the person that you give it to? Report an error in the passage at 1:40:31 Highlight the passage at 1:40:31

1:40:43 So if you have psychic powers, you can see the mind of the person. You know how they're going to use the object. Are they going to take the object and improve their life? Are they going to take the object and hang themselves? What are they going to do with the object? Are they going to take that object and then get in the car and go out? Report an error in the passage at 1:40:43 Highlight the passage at 1:40:43

1:41:02 You're going to give them a car, they get in the car, go on the highway and get into an accident? Is that what's going to happen in their near future? So if you have psychic powers, you can know those kinds of things. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:02 Highlight the passage at 1:41:02

1:41:13 One more thing on the list. Psychic powers we need now. But apparently these things are possible with cultivation of concentration, which is unusual in our society, although there have been examples of people who did some pretty unusual things and they were recorded and the like, so they must have had some kind of... Report an error in the passage at 1:41:13 Highlight the passage at 1:41:13

1:41:45 Psychic powers acquired somehow by concentration in this lifetime or a former lifetime. And then there's the practitioners in India who are still capable of cultivating those things. One time there was this event, it was sadhus were gathering in a place that was special to Shiva near Kopan and the other side of the road from Bodha. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:45 Highlight the passage at 1:41:45

1:42:17 So a few of us went to this place to see what it was about. And I remember Lamyashi shouting at us. He said as we're going, he didn't want us being like ordinary tourists. He said, you discover the absolute nature of Shiva. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:17 Highlight the passage at 1:42:17

1:42:37 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:37 Highlight the passage at 1:42:37

1:42:42 So we went there and there are all these sadhus. And these sadders, I mean, there's... Amazing guys, you know, just like they haven't changed for thousands of years. They wear their loincloth, they have their matted hair tied up or whatever, have different designs or whatever painted on their body or their body covered with the ash from the sacred fire and stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:42 Highlight the passage at 1:42:42

1:43:10 There were hundreds of them. And sometimes sadhus will show that they're Legitimate meditators. So some friends of ours had been there, gotten there earlier, and one guy comes back and he says, you've got to see this. And so he took us over and there's this guy, a sadhu, and it's right next to a river. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:10 Highlight the passage at 1:43:10

1:43:33 So he gathered this like soot, very fine mud from the side of the river and caked it over his face, over his nose and mouth, cloaked it. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:33 Highlight the passage at 1:43:33

1:43:49 No way. to breathe and I mean people looked they got this close to see if there was something like straws or something and I watched his abdomen because that has to move if you're gonna breathe right that has to move so and he didn't have any shirt on so I could watch his abdomen and we got tired after a while and went and had tea and then came back again and we watched him for Like four hours. And he was sitting on a blanket. He had pictures of different saints and holy from all traditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:49 Highlight the passage at 1:43:49

1:44:31 There were Christian saints. Everybody was there. And he would just sit there with his eyes open for people to look. And if the kids were coming around to take some of the paisa, coins that people would offer, he'd take his stick and wave them away. Or if somebody made an offering, like one of the women that was with us, she offered him like an orange. He wasn't going to be able to eat it at the moment, but he offered it. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:31 Highlight the passage at 1:44:31

1:44:59 And he picked it up and he like made a ritual of accepting it, put it back down again. So we were watching this. And there was a small group of tourists, you know, like see the world in two weeks. So there was a small group of tourists that were coming by and there was this one. European or North American woman who was with the group and she was wondering what all these people standing around this yogi, what this was all about. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:59 Highlight the passage at 1:44:59

1:45:29 So she kind of worked her way through and she saw him and she screamed and she went running back to her tour group and turned around with this look of shock and fright on her face because what she saw It was something either impossible or somebody was trying to commit suicide. Just there while people were watching. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:29 Highlight the passage at 1:45:29

1:45:59 Both shocking things. So, you know, this guy wasn't flying. He wasn't demonstrating any other psychic powers. But he did something that I couldn't do. I could hold my breath maybe a minute. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:59 Highlight the passage at 1:45:59

1:46:18 And we're told that there's some practices, like in Tantra, for instance, where you meditate on subtle channels in the body, that if you bring the winds into the central channel, you don't have to breathe. So he was demonstrating that he could do that. And if you can bring your winds into the central channel, then you can cause the most subtle consciousness to arise, the consciousness of clear light, the most subtle, the indestructible consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:18 Highlight the passage at 1:46:18

1:46:45 and then you can use that to meditate on emptiness, or... I mean, most yogis, if they just get the clear light consciousness, they've done it. They just feel like they've done it. You know, you just feel like, you know, indestructible mind. That's the indestructible mind. If you can stay in that state, then in the Tibetan tradition, they refer to achieving enlightenment in one lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:45 Highlight the passage at 1:46:45

1:47:10 And there's, in the fine print, it says, like Milarepa, achieved enlightenment in one lifetime on one body. So that implies the achieving of enlightenment in one lifetime but more than one body. So how does that work? So the way that works is that through the force of meditation you're able to generate these subtle minds like the subtle mind of clear light and then through the death process you don't forget who you are. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:10 Highlight the passage at 1:47:10

1:47:53 The usual death process, because your whole personality, your identity is based on concepts, concepts are not the most subtle mind. They dissolve. They're gone by the time the subtle mind arises. So then when the grosser consciousnesses start to develop again, you won't generally, with there are exceptions, but generally, you won't remember who you are because you've got a gap. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:53 Highlight the passage at 1:47:53

1:48:24 Whereas a person who's been able to generate the most subtle mind of clear light, they can sustain their memory of who they are. And if you can sustain the memory of who you are, that's considered a life. So you can take other rebirths, but that's still considered one lifetime because you remember who you are as the same person. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:24 Highlight the passage at 1:48:24

1:48:48 Well, a person is, yeah, you can say it's the same person. You know who you are going from one life to the next. So, you know, here's somebody who could do something like that. Because how else could he do it? I never heard of any other method of not breathing other than centralizing all the airs in the central channels. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:48 Highlight the passage at 1:48:48

1:49:07 So that's my assumption of what he was doing. I never saw that before. Never saw it since. But that's my amazing story from the East. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:07 Highlight the passage at 1:49:07

1:49:21 Concentration. If you have good concentration, you can do that. There are very common methods, like Tumul meditation. Concentrate on the short arm, the center of the central channel, in the center of the navel chakra. You can cause the energy winds to enter, abide and dissolve in the central channel. Voila! Because as the energy winds abide in the central channel, then the consciousness absorbs from gross to subtle. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:21 Highlight the passage at 1:49:21

1:49:52 You can then start... Developing skill with using subtle consciousnesses. That's not easy. First of all you have to have the subtle consciousness and then you have to train it. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:52 Highlight the passage at 1:49:52

1:50:06 Because it's just, I mean for a while, it's just beyond words, impossible to describe, that's how it is. And then you have to, and I don't even know how you would do anything with the subtle consciousness because all the training that I've ever had is mostly sūtra. And that's all based upon words and concepts and like that. But when you get to the subtle minds, there's no concepts involved. But they still have mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:06 Highlight the passage at 1:50:06

1:50:38 They still have attention, intention. You can still direct them to different objects. And how you would direct it to emptiness without a concept of emptiness? I don't know. I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:38 Highlight the passage at 1:50:38

1:50:53 But it's a different world, the realm of the highest level of Tantra. It's a different approach. But it's a very skillful approach because there you can actually achieve enlightenment in one lifetime as opposed to three countless great eons. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:53 Highlight the passage at 1:50:53

1:51:16 So a person who is strongly motivated to achieve the welfare of all living beings and can't wait. You know, like for instance, if your mother died and you wonder where she is, and if I was a Buddha, I could go immediately right there. So why aren't I a Buddha? Report an error in the passage at 1:51:16 Highlight the passage at 1:51:16

1:51:36 So you want to achieve Buddhahood right away. So how can you achieve Buddhahood right away? Why do you become a Tactic practitioner, Dalai Lama? One time I requested some teachings from him. We were talking about this. In good old days in Dharamsala, you could have private audiences with the Dalai Lama. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:36 Highlight the passage at 1:51:36

1:51:55 You didn't have to be, you know, like... A VIP or something, just an ordinary person. And you could sit and talk to him. And he was saying that, yeah, in five years, he said, you could meditate and achieve Buddhahood in five years, he said, if you're qualified. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:55 Highlight the passage at 1:51:55

1:52:20 He said, that's the trick, he said. He says, there's no amount of time specified for how long it takes to get qualified. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:20 Highlight the passage at 1:52:20

1:52:31 Yeah, like these things called three-year retreats. It's not as if you're going to get enlightened in three years. It's not written anywhere. And friends of mine who did the first three-year retreat in the West, it was Kala Rinpoche, and had the retreat center done, and these people who did it. A lot of the retreat was intensive education. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:31 Highlight the passage at 1:52:31

1:52:59 Not just sitting and meditating the whole time. It was intensive education. They learned chanting, drum playing, musical instruments. They knew how to learn the pujas. They did all of these kinds of things in addition to practices. But it's not enough time. One friend of mine, he said, boy, some of those practices are very difficult. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:59 Highlight the passage at 1:52:59

1:53:21 And sometimes you might not have the right body for it. So then you need a different kind of practice. So who knows? Some people are able to do it. There was a Lama who came to San Francisco who is a student of Kala Rinpoche and... San Francisco? Karma Ling? Is that San Francisco or LA? I'm not sure. Lama Lodro was his name. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:21 Highlight the passage at 1:53:21

1:53:53 San Francisco, right. He's still here? Yeah, I met him. I helped organize a course that Kala Rinpoche gave. And when I was the principal teacher at the FPMD Center in Santa Monica. So he helped organize his course and I met Lama Lodro there and he told me his story. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:53 Highlight the passage at 1:53:53

1:54:18 So he went to do a three-year retreat and his father didn't want him to do a three-year retreat because his father thought that he might die in the retreat. He'd never see him again and he was getting sick. He had some kind of pneumonia or something. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:18 Highlight the passage at 1:54:18

1:54:36 TB, coughing up blood and everything while he was in retreat, but he decided that he would stay in retreat because he wasn't creating negative karma while he was in retreat. If he went out of retreat, the odds are he would create negative karma. So he decided not to. So one of them died, but he didn't. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:36 Highlight the passage at 1:54:36

1:54:57 He survived, he got over his illness, and he succeeded in generating different experiences. Tummo meditation, that kind of thing. So then he became, Kala Rinpoche made him a three-year retreat leader. And then eventually he asked him to man the center here in the West. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:57 Highlight the passage at 1:54:57

1:55:21 So, you know, there are people who, and even if you have Tummo practice, you can have what they call a type of ESP. And you can anticipate things that are going to happen. It's not the fully cultivated. To have the full cultivation of these ESPs that are being described in the Sūtra, you have to have shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:21 Highlight the passage at 1:55:21

1:55:49 And then in addition to shamatha, you have to start working on what they call the concentrations, which create mentalities that are beyond the desire realm, form realm level. You might be still a human being, but you have... You cultivate a mind that's in another realm. And then you have fully qualified of these ESPs that you can see the future, you can see the past, and it's accurate. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:49 Highlight the passage at 1:55:49

1:56:14 And it's not just sometimes you can and sometimes you can't. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:14 Highlight the passage at 1:56:14

1:56:21 So yeah, so if we develop our mindfulness, which is completely important, not only is it essential for cultivating such special concentrations as mental quiescence, But it's also essential for ordinary practice to keep in mind the conclusions that we've made through listening and thinking about the teachings, keeping them close to us, not forgetting them, applying them in everyday action, moment to moment, as much as possible. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:21 Highlight the passage at 1:56:21

1:57:00 So important. So I wanted to talk about mindfulness in general and how it's practiced in the sūtra tonight. And then tomorrow I'm going to get into the Song of the Four of Mindfulnesses. So if you can make it, please come, because there's only four. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:00 Highlight the passage at 1:57:00

1:57:25 Okay, Report an error in the passage at 1:57:25 Highlight the passage at 1:57:25

1:57:34 so we were going to do a dedication prayer and 2.59 was that? Really? I was right? Oh, okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:34 Highlight the passage at 1:57:34

1:57:51 And this will be done specially for Lama Zopa, right? Swift recovery. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:51 Highlight the passage at 1:57:51

1:58:00 So we'll do this in English, okay? Report an error in the passage at 1:58:00 Highlight the passage at 1:58:00

1:58:05 Though he's the father producer of all conquerors, as a conqueror's son, he produced the thought of upholding the conqueror's dharma in infinite worlds. Through this truth, may the conqueror Lama Tsongkhapa's teachings flourish. When a viewer, before Buddha Indrakruti, he made his vow, the conqueror And his offspring praised his powerful courage. Through this truth, may the conqueror Loesang's teachings flourish. That the lineage of pure view and conduct might spread, he offered a white crystal rosary to the Sugata, who gave him a conch and prophesied, through this truth, may the conqueror Loesang's teachings flourish. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:05 Highlight the passage at 1:58:05

1:58:47 His pure view, free of eternity or destruction, his mind meditation cleansed of... dark, fading, and fog. His pure conduct practiced according to conqueror's orders. May the conqueror Lozang's teachings flourish. Learned, since he extensively sought out learning, revered rightly applying it to himself. Good, dedicating all for beings and doctrine. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:47 Highlight the passage at 1:58:47

1:59:13 May the conqueror Lozang's teachings flourish. Though being sure that all scriptures, definitive and interpretive, were without contradiction, Advice for one person's practice. He stopped all misconduct. May the conqueror Lozang's teachings flourish. Listening to explanations of the three pitakas, realized teachings, practice of the three trainings, he's skilled and accomplished. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:13 Highlight the passage at 1:59:13

1:59:39 His life story is amazing. May the conqueror Lozang's teachings flourish. Outwardly calmed and subdued by the hero's conduct, inwardly trusting in the two-stage practice, he lied without clash the good paths of Sūtra and Tantra. May the conqueror Lama Tsongkhapa's teachings flourish. Combining voidness, explained as the causal vehicle, with the great bliss achieved by method, the effect vehicle, heart essence of 80,000 Dharma bundles, may the conqueror Lama Tsongkhapa's teachings flourish. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:39 Highlight the passage at 1:59:39

2:00:12 By the power of the ocean of oath-bound Dharma protectors, like the main guardians of the three beings paths, the quick-acting Lord, Vejravana, Karmayama, may the conqueror Lozang's teachings flourish. In short, by the lasting of glorious Guru's lives, by the earth being full of good, learned, reverend holders of the teachings, and by the increase of powers of its patrons, may the conqueror Lozang's teachings flourish. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:12 Highlight the passage at 2:00:12

2:00:47 So if anything that you've heard here tonight is of benefit to you, then please don't forget it and practice it. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:47 Highlight the passage at 2:00:47

2:01:08 Oh, thank you very much. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:08 Highlight the passage at 2:01:08

2:01:13 All right. Since 2 in the morning. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:13 Highlight the passage at 2:01:13

2:01:20 Poor mother. She was scrubbing the floor, she said, before she went to the hospital. And then when I got there, I almost came out in the elevator. And when I did come out, I was 10 pounds, and the nurses called me Superman. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:20 Highlight the passage at 2:01:20