Establishing a Daily Practice: Discovering Buddhism (part 3)

0:14 Of course you have. It's Tibetan Buddhism. I see everything. Right, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 0:14 Highlight the passage at 0:14

0:26 Yeah. And then when you're doing full prostrations, there's different ways to do that, too. So that when, if you come, when Chidron is leading it, she may do, well, you guys probably haven't seen me do them, but I do them slightly different, and I learned mine from Gishima Mukundshuk. So I do them the way he taught us, because even though it looked different than the way Rinpoche does it in a lot of my... Report an error in the passage at 0:26 Highlight the passage at 0:26

0:51 teachers, because we had asked him to teach us. You know how it is when you ask a lot of them to teach. So Diana Wedigan and I do exactly the way he shows. But actually, I did end up seeing somebody else do them that way. It was kind of a relief. Somebody else in the universe doesn't have it. Probably taught by Geshe-Lohman. Report an error in the passage at 0:51 Highlight the passage at 0:51

1:12 When you're doing a full one, a lot of people then do this one where they come up when they're on their stomach. Report an error in the passage at 1:12 Highlight the passage at 1:12

1:28 But he showed us to do it kind of like this. That's it. I don't move my ball. Yeah, just a little bit. So you're actually visualizing you're at the feet of your guru and you're touching his feet or the hem of his robe. Report an error in the passage at 1:28 Highlight the passage at 1:28

1:49 It's not Superman. Yeah, but we'll learn. We'll learn. Don't worry. We'll go through the frustrations. And if I don't know if we're doing them in here or not, I'll have to check on time. man. Report an error in the passage at 1:49 Highlight the passage at 1:49

2:01 One of the announcements I was going to make after we do the motivation is that not only is Chidron going to do, she's going to teach prostrations to the 35 Buddhas on the 29th, but now Venerable Sangmo is also going to lead a session of the 35 Buddhas on the 19th of November. So she probably will be slightly different, and that's cool. It's nice to get a lot of different takes on it. Report an error in the passage at 2:01 Highlight the passage at 2:01

2:31 October 29th for the first one with venerable children and 19th with venerable song and all. So that's kind of cool. This is what nuns do when you ask them if they'll teach a Sunday class. Report an error in the passage at 2:31 Highlight the passage at 2:31

2:45 It becomes a practice, a how-to session, which I think is great because we don't have enough of those anyway. So that's usually, because that's what I did, right? I did the mandala. These guys are doing this. Report an error in the passage at 2:45 Highlight the passage at 2:45

2:58 Water bowls, yeah. So anyway, we'll get to announcements, but let's go ahead and take a moment. Report an error in the passage at 2:58 Highlight the passage at 2:58

3:07 Motivation and another mind. Or you guys can just humor me and let my mind. Report an error in the passage at 3:07 Highlight the passage at 3:07

3:37 Place your feet firmly on the floor. Report an error in the passage at 3:37 Highlight the passage at 3:37

3:52 Shoulders back and level. A Report an error in the passage at 3:52 Highlight the passage at 3:52

4:04 lot of the position that we take, a lot of the details of the meditation posture relate to this whole idea of the winds and flow freely and not be kinked or closed as much. Report an error in the passage at 4:04 Highlight the passage at 4:04

4:31 So extending our spine to Report an error in the passage at 4:31 Highlight the passage at 4:31

· · · silence, 1 minute

5:21 slightly open. Report an error in the passage at 5:21 Highlight the passage at 5:21

5:35 If they're open, the gaze should be off the tip of your Report an error in the passage at 5:35 Highlight the passage at 5:35

6:03 nose, deep cleansing. You Report an error in the passage at 6:03 Highlight the passage at 6:03

· · · silence, 1 minute

6:59 have to start over repeatedly and you never can even get to five, much less to really try to stay aware of where your mind is. Report an error in the passage at 6:59 Highlight the passage at 6:59

7:14 Start over. Distracted by noises on the street, bring it back gross Report an error in the passage at 7:14 Highlight the passage at 7:14

· · · silence, 3 minutes

10:05 ways or disease. Those Report an error in the passage at 10:05 Highlight the passage at 10:05

10:13 who seem like they have at all this basic level of dukkha. Report an error in the passage at 10:13 Highlight the passage at 10:13

· · · silence, 1 minute

11:14 And then imagine that feeling extending out not just for the people we can hear, the people in Report an error in the passage at 11:14 Highlight the passage at 11:14

· · · silence, 1 minute

11:57 the now. Imagine it spreading out not to all beings to Report an error in the passage at 11:57 Highlight the passage at 11:57

· · · silence, 1 minute

12:33 generate this thought. Truly, Report an error in the passage at 12:33 Highlight the passage at 12:33

12:39 with great compassion, Report an error in the passage at 12:39 Highlight the passage at 12:39

· · · silence, 1 minute

13:16 both in this wish, bodhicitta, to become enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 13:16 Highlight the passage at 13:16

· · · silence, 1 minute

14:06 Lately, she's been so busy. Chokar, actually, Tiziana, is taking the class down at London Medicine Buddha on Mondays and Thursday nights, the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. So she's not going to be able to come on Thursdays. Report an error in the passage at 14:06 Highlight the passage at 14:06

14:35 Does everybody else have it? Okay. With the wish to free all beings. I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment, inspired by wisdom and compassion. Today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 14:35 Highlight the passage at 14:35

15:09 With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain. Report an error in the passage at 15:09 Highlight the passage at 15:09

15:38 And dispel the miseries of the world. With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment inspired by wisdom and compassion today in the Buddha's presence and generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings as long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain. Report an error in the passage at 15:38 Highlight the passage at 15:38

16:07 Until then, may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 16:07 Highlight the passage at 16:07

16:22 To start with a couple of announcements, so the first are already made. I also wanted to mention, I know I mentioned it on Tuesday night, but I don't know if I did on here and this night, that Geshe-la is offering refuge and lay vows on the 22nd of this month, for those that are interested. And if people want to know more about what that means, Just contact me and I can call, I can talk to you. Sorry? If you want to. If you want to, yeah. It's not common to retake refuge, but it seems to be happening a lot here, so people do a lot. Report an error in the passage at 16:22 Highlight the passage at 16:22

17:04 I think it's kind of like you're strengthening your commitment or something like that. I see people doing that a lot. But traditionally it's not really necessary, it's not really done. Report an error in the passage at 17:04 Highlight the passage at 17:04

17:17 But I don't think it's a bad thing either. Report an error in the passage at 17:17 Highlight the passage at 17:17

17:24 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, unless you've broken them at the root, you don't have to. And it's not like with, because you can actually break the bodhisattva vows and tantric vows more easily. So you can retake those and do that for that reason. So lay vows, you don't really do that. Report an error in the passage at 17:24 Highlight the passage at 17:24

17:49 So often, but it's the same, I think. You're just kind of reaffirming, reaffirming. Report an error in the passage at 17:49 Highlight the passage at 17:49

18:00 Hello. Report an error in the passage at 18:00 Highlight the passage at 18:00

18:08 So you're playing with it. Yeah. Did you get it? Oh, money payment, money payment, money payment. Report an error in the passage at 18:08 Highlight the passage at 18:08

18:17 Yeah, so if people are interested in doing that and they don't know what that means, then just send me an email. Report an error in the passage at 18:17 Highlight the passage at 18:17

18:26 Have a conversation by phone or we can set up a time, have a cup of tea. Although we don't have that much time, but we have enough time. I mean, we can always do it by phone, actually. Report an error in the passage at 18:26 Highlight the passage at 18:26

18:40 And I do want to mention, I had sent you guys an email, but I don't know if I included you in, actually, because I think you're not on my list yet. Actually, I should make sure that you're on this list. Ricardo, would you... Look at this, we have three TAs now. Report an error in the passage at 18:40 Highlight the passage at 18:40

19:00 Start handing out different things. Report an error in the passage at 19:00 Highlight the passage at 19:00

19:06 Next Thursday at 6 o 'clock I'm going to offer a little class on how to offer water bowls. So if people are interested in that, just show up at 6 o 'clock. It would be great to let me know if there's anybody interested. I got those of you that are in the Tuesday night class. Yeah, Peter and Ricardo, I don't think anybody else. Report an error in the passage at 19:06 Highlight the passage at 19:06

19:26 But is anybody else interested? Yeah? Okay. Report an error in the passage at 19:26 Highlight the passage at 19:26

19:33 Sort of talked about making offerings as part of the seven limb prayer, that practice, but we didn't get into specifics on the water bowls except kind of what the different bowls refer to. But in terms of doing it as a practice, I didn't really do it. Yeah. So I just thought I would do it before class. Report an error in the passage at 19:33 Highlight the passage at 19:33

19:54 So that's great. I think we may have about six or eight people, so that's good. Oh, you know. You know the answer to that question. You'll get 1.2 million and everyone else. Report an error in the passage at 19:54 Highlight the passage at 19:54

20:17 No, I think it's generally the same practice. You know, like here, if you're doing it for the center, you might be thinking about different things. Or if you're doing Lama Zopa Rinpoche's house, thank you, you might... question. Report an error in the passage at 20:17 Highlight the passage at 20:17

20:11 I'll spot you. Report an error in the passage at 20:11 Highlight the passage at 20:11

20:14 ha, ha, ha, Report an error in the passage at 20:14 Highlight the passage at 20:14

20:34 Consider different things or keep different things in your mind because you're trying to bring abundance for all of his projects and things there. But it's basically the same ideas, I think. Report an error in the passage at 20:34 Highlight the passage at 20:34

20:46 I'm sure, though, that if Rinpoche has a commentary, it will be far more detailed than what I'm going to give you on Thursday night. First of all, we would probably spend the first hour on just the motivation, and then we might do the last hour on the dedication. Report an error in the passage at 20:46 Highlight the passage at 20:46

21:03 Fit in, you know, maybe 45 minutes on the bowls themselves. Report an error in the passage at 21:03 Highlight the passage at 21:03

21:09 And another thing I wanted to mention, just, I mean, I'll keep mentioning these until they happen so don't feel like, oh my God, there's all these different things happening. The water bowl class is clearly the next one. And the refuge I'll keep mentioning. And I'll keep mentioning about the prostrations just in case somebody comes next time that's not here. But Geshe-la is also going to give a detailed teaching on... Report an error in the passage at 21:09 Highlight the passage at 21:09

21:30 The preparatory practice of taking refuge and offering the seven limb prayer on December 17th as a Sunday morning talk. That would also give you more things to think about when you're doing that particular practice. And I also wanted to take a vote, and I meant to do this on Tuesday night, about what day people want for the practice day. Report an error in the passage at 21:30 Highlight the passage at 21:30

21:56 And the people that are in both classes get two votes. This is the way I'm making it fair because you guys are already, yeah, you're the hardcore team. But since I haven't taken the Tuesday night vote yet, I might do it by email, actually. But how many people, and if you don't care, what should I do? I guess if you don't care, then no need to raise your hand, maybe? Or raise your hand twice? Report an error in the passage at 21:56 Highlight the passage at 21:56

22:31 And if you're in both classes, raise both hands. But then you can't vote on the later vote. Okay, so how many people would like the 28th? Report an error in the passage at 22:31 Highlight the passage at 22:31

22:45 This is for the end of the course. At the end of the course, we do a practice day, which is a day, it's like a little retreat day. And it's a whole day. It's like 10.30 to 4. It's a Saturday, yeah. And so you work Saturdays? A lot of people do, yeah. It's difficult. Report an error in the passage at 22:45 Highlight the passage at 22:45

23:04 The 28th and the 4th. No, of this month. 28th of this month and the 4th of November. Clearly not the 4th of October. Okay, so starting over with that new data, how many people would like the practice day to be the 28th of October? Report an error in the passage at 23:04 Highlight the passage at 23:04

23:24 One, two, three, four. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 23:24 Highlight the passage at 23:24

23:30 So you have to remember if we take a vote on Tuesday not to vote again. Okay. And how many people for the 4th? Report an error in the passage at 23:30 Highlight the passage at 23:30

23:41 One, two, three, four, and it's all from two people. Okay, so so far it's matched. So I'll check in now with the, are you not able to come? Oh, either one is fine. Report an error in the passage at 23:41 Highlight the passage at 23:41

23:58 Ben, are you not able to come? But you might be able to come the 28th? That's a determining factor, okay. Report an error in the passage at 23:58 Highlight the passage at 23:58

24:20 Can you, is it possible? Saturday, of a class. Report an error in the passage at 24:20 Highlight the passage at 24:20

24:23 What are the hours? Maybe you could just come for the afternoon or come for the morning. Report an error in the passage at 24:23 Highlight the passage at 24:23

24:31 Yeah, and that's not good. Report an error in the passage at 24:31 Highlight the passage at 24:31

24:40 And your classes? Report an error in the passage at 24:40 Highlight the passage at 24:40

24:48 I don't see how you can do it. It's probably just not good during this time period. How long is your course? Report an error in the passage at 24:48 Highlight the passage at 24:48

25:00 Maybe it's just good this time not to. 10.30 to Report an error in the passage at 25:00 Highlight the passage at 25:00

25:07 But then I'm going to pull your vote back out then, so Peter stands alone on the 4th at this point. But he did have both hands, right? Really? Well, that's good to know. Okay, so we're leaning towards the 28th. Let me get a count from the Tuesday night folks. You'll be a swing, okay. But that's good to know, actually, because it seems like it's heavily on the 28th at this point. And that's your birthday, right? Report an error in the passage at 25:07 Highlight the passage at 25:07

25:40 Anyway, all right. Thank you. I meant to do that on Tuesday because then I could have given you an answer tonight, but I'll have an answer next week. Or I'll send out an email after I find out how the Tuesday folks are doing because I'm combining the days. So do people have questions or comments about their weeks or their readings? Report an error in the passage at 25:40 Highlight the passage at 25:40

26:01 So now we're going to use the talking stick. Up until this time, the people at home will be like, what are they talking about? I do actually have a lot of questions. Yes. It's a lot of material. It would be nice. I don't know if we're going to eventually do it or if we have time to kind of practice all this. Report an error in the passage at 26:01 Highlight the passage at 26:01

26:21 For example, there is like when we are doing the prostrations, do we do the taking refuge? You know, I take refuge in the Dharma, the Buddha, the Dharma, because I think that's what we do. When we start the classes, but then here in the point number three, we generate the mind of refuge in bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 26:21 Highlight the passage at 26:21

26:46 So we're repeating. And then in the seven limb prayer, then we're doing posturations again. The first point is posturation. So do I get up and do posturations again? No, it's mental. It's a mental exercise. Seven limb prayer. Yeah. Yeah, again, you're getting really caught up with the words. It's the experience you're trying to duplicate here. So it's not so much stopping everything and taking refuge again. Report an error in the passage at 26:46 Highlight the passage at 26:46

27:17 It's simply trying to generate that mind again, like learning what refuge is. Refuge basically has two prongs. You have a fear of what might happen if you have created so much negative karma that you... We're to die right now, basically. And knowing how karma works and that your next life would be determined by your karma. So you turn to somebody in that fear, the way that we did when we were little to our moms, you know. Report an error in the passage at 27:17 Highlight the passage at 27:17

27:48 And the second prong is faith or trust that the three jewels have the power to help us in this situation. So it's like that. So you just bring to mind that thought. It doesn't have to be, I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma. It doesn't have to be the words, you know? So it's just beginning to generate that thought. Report an error in the passage at 27:48 Highlight the passage at 27:48

28:10 It's difficult because this is your first class. So it's like you're getting all this information. So you just kind of try to be cool about it and try to, you know, work with, maybe I'll work with refuge this week or maybe I'll work with, you know, you're getting a lot of information, but you don't have to master that information in the course. Report an error in the passage at 28:10 Highlight the passage at 28:10

28:27 You know, because it's a short course in a lot of stuff. But what the point is, is to give you some ways to work with your practice materials so that it can kind of bring new meaning, a new way to look at the material. Tonight we're integrating some of the same material into the same meditation, but now we're bringing in an analytical meditation or meditation on the lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 28:27 Highlight the passage at 28:27

28:53 So it begins to expand it, so you just have to kind of go. So when you're doing the Seven Limb Prayer, it's basically you're bringing to mind, you know, if you've brought your, you know, Shakyamuna Buddha is acting as your merit field. Report an error in the passage at 28:53 Highlight the passage at 28:53

29:10 So when you're doing a Seven Limb Prayer, you're thinking of just like we did, one quality, and you're bowing down to that quality, but you're doing it in your mind. It's a mental prostration. So you're not getting up and prostrating. Report an error in the passage at 29:10 Highlight the passage at 29:10

29:23 It's just called the limb of frustrations, but it's a mental limb. And then offerings, you're not rearranging the offerings on the altar, you're just in your mind, you're visualizing skies full. And what that's doing is it's expanding your mind. It's like expanding this willingness to give. Again, what would I offer for that? Report an error in the passage at 29:23 Highlight the passage at 29:23

29:47 So... Yeah, so you're going through the seven limbs but you're going through them just trying to generate the experience like in a really brief way. Now, one of the suggestions was to take just to work on the seven limbs one day and that's all you do. So you get some familiarity with it or refuge or just the visualization of Shakyamuni Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 29:47 Highlight the passage at 29:47

30:14 Like practice that. Because the more you do it, the easier it is to suddenly bring up in my mind what Shakyamuni Buddha looks like. It doesn't take me nearly as long now as it did at the beginning. At the beginning you have to put some time into it. You have to think about what he looks like. And actually spending some time gazing at some images of Shakyamuni Buddha is a really nice thing to do. Plus it kind of gets the idea in your mind. So if you have images that you like. Report an error in the passage at 30:14 Highlight the passage at 30:14

30:43 Or you find images. You can look at those images and imagine them then as like bodies of light, you know, like made of golden light. So you practice by looking at somebody's artwork that's based on somebody actually saw the Buddha and then that image has been carried down. And so now it's become like this artwork and sometimes incredibly beautiful artwork. Report an error in the passage at 30:43 Highlight the passage at 30:43

31:12 But the reality was even more amazing. So we want to picture more of what the reality might have looked like. So we wanted to be living and breathing but made of light, which is difficult. So you just practice. So you might just take one. You might even take a whole week just doing that. In fact, at the end, you'll have six meditations. Report an error in the passage at 31:12 Highlight the passage at 31:12

31:34 And you could even do a week retreat and each day do a different meditation several times that day until you got more familiar with it like that. Report an error in the passage at 31:34 Highlight the passage at 31:34

31:43 Because you're not going to be able to sit there for five hours and then the next day do the same thing. You have to live. So the idea is just I'm giving you these practices and you're just picking and choosing and getting to know them all. We'll talk about it a little bit more in the material tonight. Stay open. What is a time that you should dedicate to this? Report an error in the passage at 31:43 Highlight the passage at 31:43

32:02 but because um Report an error in the passage at 32:02 Highlight the passage at 32:02

32:11 I took an hour and I was late for work. Yeah, yeah, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't lose your job over it. I mean, clearly an hour is great if you have it, but if you don't have it, then try to make it 20, 30 minutes max. And I wanted to do more meditation, but I just didn't have any time. I'm like, you have to cut here. No, you have to be realistic. So the meditation starts right at the end after the Mandela offering? Report an error in the passage at 32:11 Highlight the passage at 32:11

32:36 That's actually where the meditation starts, yeah. This is all the preparatory practices. Okay. And I dedicate at the end of the meditation or I dedicate at the end of the mandala offering? There's a little dedication at the end of the seven-long prayer, but that's just a tiny one. You're dedicating that prayer. But then there's one at the end of your whole meditation. Anytime you do any virtuous act, it's good to dedicate it so it doesn't get lost in case you get it from your cushion and scream at somebody. Report an error in the passage at 32:36 Highlight the passage at 32:36

33:07 Yeah, so the seven-long prayer, it's like, I know, you know. Report an error in the passage at 33:07 Highlight the passage at 33:07

33:11 Karen used to always say that too, right? That she would spend so long in the Seven Land Prayer that she wouldn't have any time to meditate. And that's actually great. If that's all you did in your whole life, that'd be fine. But the point is not to necessarily spend hours visualizing your prostrations or your offerings or regretting everything you've ever done or anything like that. Report an error in the passage at 33:11 Highlight the passage at 33:11

33:33 That's not really what we're doing here. What we're doing here is it's just a little prayer, and it's a prayer that... We're trying to experience. So you're trying to generate some feeling of refuge and bodhicitta and some feeling of a quality that you would like, that you are honoring. Prostration just means you're honoring and that you want it. You want to achieve it. So it can be, I mean, just simply thinking, you know, I want... Report an error in the passage at 33:33 Highlight the passage at 33:33

34:05 I want the kind of compassion that you have where you don't even care what any being is doing to you. You still love them and have compassion for them. That's the kind of compassion I want. And that's all. Then you move on to the next one. It doesn't have to be long and drawn out or anything like that. Offerings could be, I'm sitting here and, you know, I'm really tired and I don't feel like doing this and I offer this up to you. Report an error in the passage at 34:05 Highlight the passage at 34:05

34:29 Simple like that. It can be totally simple. It can be the best whatever you like. Best cup of coffee, best cup of tea, best breakfast, whatever. Totally simple. It doesn't have to be huge. It's nice to imagine skies of whatever it is you like. So if you really love coffee, then imagine skies or clouds of cups of coffee. Report an error in the passage at 34:29 Highlight the passage at 34:29

34:54 Really expand. What you're offering, rather than just one lousy little cup of coffee. Because you're offering it for your own enlightenment. They don't need your coffee. Report an error in the passage at 34:54 Highlight the passage at 34:54

35:09 It's just about expanding your mind. So just play with it. Report an error in the passage at 35:09 Highlight the passage at 35:09

35:25 Or tight. Tightness. I don't want you stinking coffee. Report an error in the passage at 35:25 Highlight the passage at 35:25

35:14 Yeah. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 35:14 Highlight the passage at 35:14

35:40 Yeah, see, and that's it too. We'll talk about that tonight too. A lot of the ones that at first, a lot of times when you're doing any of these meditations, whether it's the ones that I'm handing out in this class or any of the Lamrim meditations, you're just getting familiar with it. So you just are spending time, you're spending a lot more time reading. But then after you've generated some understanding of it, you just look at the words. Report an error in the passage at 35:40 Highlight the passage at 35:40

36:05 Precious Human Rebirth and the whole experience comes to your mind because you've spent hours with it over the years, you know, and it really does take a while. So right now we're getting your ground, you're getting like an outline, you're getting this is what you can do in a session and then now you just have to give yourself months of time and not all at once and not all at once in any session either. Report an error in the passage at 36:05 Highlight the passage at 36:05

36:31 Just split it up, play with this, play with this, and then try putting these together like that. Yeah. Stay loose. Report an error in the passage at 36:31 Highlight the passage at 36:31

36:43 So, yeah, I mean, we spent a lot of time in the warm-up here. So this is like the last couple of sessions have really been about the warm-up, especially the last session. Report an error in the passage at 36:43 Highlight the passage at 36:43

36:56 And we haven't even gotten to the meditation. So here's the meditation. Sorry? Yeah, exactly. I think, Catherine, we should be using the talking sticks. Report an error in the passage at 36:56 Highlight the passage at 36:56

37:14 I have a question about placement. I had written down, in terms of on the altar, I had written down that as you face the altar, the sūtra is on the left and the stupa is on the right, but in here it says the opposite. Yeah. Should it be, the stupa should be to the left? It should be, the stupa should be to his left. Report an error in the passage at 37:14 Highlight the passage at 37:14

37:39 That's what I thought. Yeah, because here it says as you're facing the altar is what it says in the printed material. If the altar is on one level, the order should be from left to right as you are facing the altar, stupa, Buddha, scripture. But I think that's backwards from what I... Oh, sorry, I might have just screwed up. Yeah, it should be, the stupa should be to his left and the text should be to his right. Report an error in the passage at 37:39 Highlight the passage at 37:39

38:08 yeah so yes okay good yeah you Report an error in the passage at 38:08 Highlight the passage at 38:08

38:18 Tim checks just to make Report an error in the passage at 38:18 Highlight the passage at 38:18

38:23 Sorry about that. Yeah, I'll have to go look. Report an error in the passage at 38:23 Highlight the passage at 38:23

38:28 miss that. Report an error in the passage at 38:28 Highlight the passage at 38:28

38:36 My read of books, I have my nose in it at any given time. I came across this statement, actually I've seen it a couple, three times, about those of us... Who are, and I can't exactly remember the word, we're not all that bright. And so they do special things for the not bright ones. You know what I'm saying? So how do we decide? Report an error in the passage at 38:36 Highlight the passage at 38:36

39:03 I mean, I sort of feel like I'm not very bright. Report an error in the passage at 39:03 Highlight the passage at 39:03

39:16 So, well, no, I'm actually assuming that I'm not bright. We're not right. Report an error in the passage at 39:16 Highlight the passage at 39:16

39:05 you're confused, then you're feeling that right. Report an error in the passage at 39:05 Highlight the passage at 39:05

39:19 and so So I'm looking for guidance on how do I do it, because they said you have to get special ways of doing this if you're not very bright. So I'm looking for special ways of doing this because I'm not very bright. Well, for example, having as our merit field basically one figure kind of shows what we're working with at this point. Report an error in the passage at 39:19 Highlight the passage at 39:19

39:46 You're treating us as we're all unbright. I'm assuming, and then I'm assuming that if one of you is like really advanced, then you're just adding things all the time and just, you know, that's good. Yeah, I would rather do that than, as I have received the teachings, sometimes we're, like His Holiness, we'll assume that we are all not non-bright. Report an error in the passage at 39:46 Highlight the passage at 39:46

40:09 And he'll begin going into, or like Pivanka Rinpoche is assuming when he gives the teachings in the liberation. And he begins describing like 150 different figures in your merit field, you know, and it's like, yeah, basically this one. So I'm just making the assumption that if you are of that caliber, you'll probably go to Geshe-la. Report an error in the passage at 40:09 Highlight the passage at 40:09

40:36 And then say, Chokyi's just saying that we should use Chakirmini Buddha. Yeah, yeah, do not pass, go, do not collect $200, just go straight to Geshe-la. Report an error in the passage at 40:36 Highlight the passage at 40:36

40:48 They say, actually, in the days that Shakyamuna Buddha taught, of course, people would gain enlightenment during a single discourse, which is just amazing. The minds were clear, but also the karma was just really, really good at that time for those beings. And then it wouldn't take that much if they didn't. Report an error in the passage at 40:48 Highlight the passage at 40:48

41:10 They would suddenly go into one meditation and... you know, come out of it in Arhat or whatever. You know what I mean? It was just like things were popping in that time period. So I think most of us, many of us in this day and age are considered the non-bright ones. We're the ones that Buddhists have tried for eons to get us enlightened and we're still not. So actually we're going to spend the rest of the class sweeping. Report an error in the passage at 41:10 Highlight the passage at 41:10

41:39 And that's right. Focusing on dirt be gone, stain be gone. We're going to do that for several eons and then you guys are going to tell me how it's going. Report an error in the passage at 41:39 Highlight the passage at 41:39

41:56 I would just say you would just go straight to Geshe-la. I think that it is hard to tell whether we are. I just make the assumption that I am in that group usually when they teach those teachings. The dumb group? The dumb group, yeah. No, it, it, Report an error in the passage at 41:56 Highlight the passage at 41:56

42:14 I'll do some Report an error in the passage at 42:14 Highlight the passage at 42:14

42:45 cookies after. Anyway. Yeah, good, yeah. Okay, now everybody just put your head down. Well, I'll do some Report an error in the passage at 42:45 Highlight the passage at 42:45

42:50 So tonight we're actually going to talk about how you now, after you've prepared your mind with all of these preliminaries, and after Ricardo gets over, having his, sorry to talk about it, I know it is a lot of material. When I first came into this tradition, I was kind of floored by how much preliminary stuff there is. But then when you start realizing... Report an error in the passage at 42:50 Highlight the passage at 42:50

43:15 It doesn't have to be the words every time. You don't have to sit there reading 700 prayers. You just have to somehow enact the experience. Report an error in the passage at 43:15 Highlight the passage at 43:15

43:27 So you should be able to sit down. Eventually, after a couple of years, you should be able to sit down anywhere without any paper in front of you and do the whole thing in your head because you kind of know the basic. You bring them to mind. And then you'll also be familiar with the lamrim meditations. And you can just bring them to mind. You won't necessarily need something in front of you. Report an error in the passage at 43:27 Highlight the passage at 43:27

43:48 But until then, you will. So I'm giving you the something to have in front of you. When I first started meditating on the lamrim, I would have notes and books open here and quotes and little workbook things. And I kind of thought I was cheating. I didn't know that was right. I just didn't know how else to do it and I was in retreat and I couldn't ask anybody. So I'm kind of like doing it all like that and then you'd be like, you know, opening up your eyes and like kind of peeking and oh yeah, that's that. Report an error in the passage at 43:48 Highlight the passage at 43:48

44:16 And then because it's like you're trying to just familiarize yourself with it. Then the second time through, it's already a little bit more familiar, right? And you're like, wait a second, I really like that one quote. Where's that? Oh yeah, yeah. Then you memorize that quote or just the essence of that quote. You know, like it can be a really short one like for... Report an error in the passage at 44:16 Highlight the passage at 44:16

44:35 Death and Impermanence, that one by Lama Yeshe, I really, really love and I find it really powerful when he was passing away, when he was manifesting and passing away to his students and his students were clinging to him. He said, am I this body? Just like that. It's so powerful to me. It still gives me chills to imagine his voice ringing out. Report an error in the passage at 44:35 Highlight the passage at 44:35

44:57 So you'll get to the point where as you're doing this, without even really trying to, it's not like you're forcing yourself to memorize volumes of text the way they do, the Tibetans actually, those in class A. Report an error in the passage at 44:57 Highlight the passage at 44:57

45:10 You're just going to do, am I this, no, no. You can... that. Report an error in the passage at 45:10 Highlight the passage at 45:10

45:17 You'll just find quotes that work for you. And if you can't memorize them, you'll know you like them, so you stick them in your little lamrim manual so that at least, even if you can't do it without any prompting, like me actually, you'll have it all in one manual. And actually, Ani Karen created a really nice working lamrim manual that... Report an error in the passage at 45:17 Highlight the passage at 45:17

45:40 She also has a lot of space on the page for you to make notes. She's assuming that you're going to use it like this. You can write in quotes and you can add the things she left out like refuge or renunciation if you want to spend time meditating on those things as separate points. Report an error in the passage at 45:40 Highlight the passage at 45:40

46:00 It sounds funny, I think, to people from another tradition who don't have this whole idea of analytical meditation. So... Report an error in the passage at 46:00 Highlight the passage at 46:00

46:07 And this is a completely different idea of how one might contemplate the stages of the path to enlightenment. But in this tradition, it's incredibly important. And after having done it even badly, even in Class B for 10 years, I can really feel the changes in my mind. And you have to actually just sit and do it. Report an error in the passage at 46:07 Highlight the passage at 46:07

46:35 yeah so This class is really about, tonight's class is really about how you do it in a way that's going to become juicy for you, meaningful for you. It's not necessarily the details of the different, you know, like the nine point death meditation which we just did or... Some of the other meditations that you're given in each class, this is taking, and basically you can use this information from tonight's class for any of the Lama meditations and make it more meaningful. Report an error in the passage at 46:35 Highlight the passage at 46:35

47:16 These are just points that are useful for any time you do analytical meditation. So I just wanted to go back. I don't think I spent much time at the beginning really saying what the Lama room is. I know I did on Tuesday night, but I don't think I did so much on Thursday night. and um so i just wanted to mention that Report an error in the passage at 47:16 Highlight the passage at 47:16

47:36 Sort of the historical context for it. In Tibet, Buddhism came from India, of course, where the Buddha lived and flourished there. And then it came to Tibet in about the 8th century and was quite popular there, but it began to degenerate. And by the 10th century, different scholars were... Debating the different points and there was a lot of confusion and so a group decided to invite a really high master from the Nalanda monastery whose name was Lama Atisha to Tibet to clarify all these points and to reintroduce the Dharma to Tibet. Report an error in the passage at 47:36 Highlight the passage at 47:36

48:23 And it's said that when they came for him to request him, to formally request him, which there's an enormous story about that as well, Report an error in the passage at 48:23 Highlight the passage at 48:23

48:34 The amount of obstacles that they had to go through to get him there and what was lost. I mean, their lives were lost actually to bring the Dharma to Tibet. And he was told apparently that, or he had a premonition, that if he went, his life would be shortened by 20 years. And he decided to go anyway. He decided the benefit, which clearly has been true, outweighed. Report an error in the passage at 48:34 Highlight the passage at 48:34

49:03 The loss of his own 20 years. He actually spent his final, he actually said when he went, he told his sort of the hires up at Nalanda who did not want him to go, that he would only go for a short amount of time. And then war broke out and things like that and so he kind of had an easy out and he ended up spending 19, his final 19 years in Tibet, traveling all over. Report an error in the passage at 49:03 Highlight the passage at 49:03

49:29 So while he was there, the... Tibetans requested that he make the teachings a little easier to work with. And so he put them into this order that is called the lamrim or the stages of the path to enlightenment. He wrote a text that's called Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment, which became the basis of our current lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 49:29 Highlight the passage at 49:29

49:57 And he... Before that point, people were just trying to take individual sutras and work with them, which if you've ever done that, like on the days that we have sūtra readings, they can be incredibly difficult to understand. If all you had was the Heart Sūtra and the Diamond Cutter Sūtra and the Sangada Sūtra and some of the different sutras that the Buddha taught, and that's all you had, it would be difficult. Report an error in the passage at 49:57 Highlight the passage at 49:57

50:29 To understand. We've gotten very used to, within the Tibetan tradition, it was quite common to do commentaries upon the commentaries upon the commentaries. And the way they teach it, they say it's actually best to kind of work back towards the original, because the original is actually quite difficult to understand, and it really helps to read the commentaries first. Report an error in the passage at 50:29 Highlight the passage at 50:29

50:51 And they try in the commentaries not to really add anything, but to simply interpret, to try to interpret. And often they debated what that interpretation was. So with the lamrim, the lamrim just means stages of the path. Lam is path and rim is stages. Report an error in the passage at 50:51 Highlight the passage at 50:51

51:12 There are a couple of good lamrims. I mean, basic lamrim texts. There are a lot of good lamrim texts. Actually, the lamp on the path itself has been translated into English. The lamrim chanmo, which is Lama Tsongkhapa's. Um, um. Report an error in the passage at 51:12 Highlight the passage at 51:12

51:27 This version from the 14th century has been translated twice. Both of them are three volumes. One is headed by Geshe Sopa up in Madison and one is a whole translation group that was put out by Snow Lion. I think Geshe Sopa is still working on his. I think actually Venerable George is helping with that. Venerable George Chernoff is helping with that. Report an error in the passage at 51:27 Highlight the passage at 51:27

51:52 There's also a text that was based on lamrim teachings that were given in either 1921 or 1923 by Lama, whose name was Pabanka Rinpoche, who is the direct guru of many of our gurus or gurus' gurus. His student, Trijong Rinpoche, collected those teachings and transcribed them immediately, and it was actually published during Pabanka Rinpoche's lifetime, and that was... Report an error in the passage at 51:52 Highlight the passage at 51:52

52:21 popular in his lifetime, which is quite rare. And Trijang Rinpoche, of course, became what was known as the junior tutor of the current Dalai Lama. He's also the root guru of a number of, like, Riba Rinpoche. Actually, Pabanka Rinpoche was Riba Rinpoche's root guru. Trijang Rinpoche's Lama Zopa Rinpoche's root guru. Report an error in the passage at 52:21 Highlight the passage at 52:21

52:42 So, yeah, it's like... Report an error in the passage at 52:42 Highlight the passage at 52:42

52:47 And Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand is the name of that text, or Liberation in Our Hands are the same text, two different translations. So those are all what's called basic lamrim text. And you could, if you, you know, it's sort of like if you were deserted somewhere or if you went to prison, then those would be the books to have because they really contain everything you'd ever need to meditate on, but in different formats. Report an error in the passage at 52:47 Highlight the passage at 52:47

53:14 Some are more... Difficult to get through. Yangtze Rinpoche also has a lamrim text, Practicing the Path, that is basically sort of his interpretation of the lamrim. It's not necessarily following a root text, I believe that's true. And so the lamrim chenmo, chenmo just means great. So that's a long lamrim, so that's including the full lamrim. But there are also what's called middling lamrims, and an example of that would be Songs of Experience, which is a shorter text. Report an error in the passage at 53:14 Highlight the passage at 53:14

53:52 And then there are brief lamrims, and that's something for those of you who did presenting the path, the three principle paths, is considered a brief lamrim text, foundation of all good qualities, which will actually be in your homework tonight. Report an error in the passage at 53:52 Highlight the passage at 53:52

54:07 More words. Report an error in the passage at 54:07 Highlight the passage at 54:07

54:11 Or the glance prayer. If we look in the green book, there's actually a whole section of lamrim prayers that cover the whole lamrim in like 10, 12, 14 verses, like short lamrims. However, if that's all you had, you could also meditate on every single point. What those do mostly is inspire your mind after you've spent some time diving deeply into it. Report an error in the passage at 54:11 Highlight the passage at 54:11

54:38 Because up until now, it's kind of more words. But as you read those words and you spend time meditating on them, then they begin to mean something to you. Report an error in the passage at 54:38 Highlight the passage at 54:38

54:52 So how to meditate on the lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 54:52 Highlight the passage at 54:52

54:57 When you first start meditating on it, like I said, it might seem a little bit like a lot of words and it might seem a little dry. So you're starting to just look at what these things mean. Not so much with death and impermanence. I think death and impermanence is one that I think most of us can relate to in some way. Like we all know people who have died and it definitely can cut to the bone of your personal experience to think about your own death. Report an error in the passage at 54:57 Highlight the passage at 54:57

55:22 But some stuff we've never thought of before, like precious human rebirth. The fact that we all have, I think I can probably safely say that we all in this room have a precious human rebirth. We'll talk about that more tonight. And a sort of simplified version of that meditation is part of your homework tonight, actually, this week. Report an error in the passage at 55:22 Highlight the passage at 55:22

55:44 But again, not so much going through it in the traditional way, but trying to generate experience of getting it, that we have this really great window of opportunity. But most of us might. We have never thought about that. And so precious human rebirth is one that we kind of have to learn from scratch. The same is true when you're talking about the different sufferings of the different realms. Report an error in the passage at 55:44 Highlight the passage at 55:44

56:05 Most of us have never thought of that before. We might have noticed that people suffer, but we certainly wouldn't see that all beings are suffering. And that's a big one. So at first you kind of are just trying to learn the points and then... As you learn the points, then you're going deeper and trying to gain some experience of those points. And the first step is what's called review meditation. Report an error in the passage at 56:05 Highlight the passage at 56:05

56:33 I think in Tibetan it's Shargom. That's where you're just trying to learn the points. You don't necessarily have to memorize them, but you're trying to become familiar. It's what Ricardo was saying that he was doing, or what you all probably were doing. Hopefully, if you're doing your homework. Just becoming familiar with the seven limbs is a lot at first because we aren't so familiar with it. Report an error in the passage at 56:33 Highlight the passage at 56:33

56:54 Those of you that have taken the classes before with me know that I usually introduce it pretty early on, some form of the seven limb practice, so it becomes more of an experiential thing. Because I didn't get that when I was learning this. It was a prayer. It was like a separate prayer that you read. And I think it actually begins to have more meaning when you... Report an error in the passage at 56:54 Highlight the passage at 56:54

57:15 To sort of generate an experience for each of the seven limbs. So at first you start with reviewing it and then you go deeper and begin to have some meaning there or some sort of juicier experience with it. The lamrim is actually laid out according to what's known as the three scopes of practice. It's laid out according to the practitioner who... Report an error in the passage at 57:15 Highlight the passage at 57:15

57:43 It's meant for, basically. The lower scope means lower scope in terms of motivation. And this is a being who is, or a person, I should say, in our case. I mean, we could talk about it. It could be a god or a, I don't think it really would be a spirit. But anyway, I'll say a person. Report an error in the passage at 57:43 Highlight the passage at 57:43

58:07 This is a person who is really focused. They've gotten it that they're going to die, and they've gotten it that life goes on. The mind goes on, which is huge actually. How many of us really get that? How many of us live like we get that? But they've gotten it that they're going to die and they've gotten it that the mind will go on and so they're going to work for a better human rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 58:07 Highlight the passage at 58:07

58:26 So they also must get karma, right? They understand that if they do a positive act, they're going to get a positive result. So those are three huge realizations and that is a lower scope practitioner. So that's the minimum. That you need to even be considered a spiritual practitioner. So actually, for most of us, even though we'd love to all think we were higher scope in motivation, we've actually moved down to class F. Report an error in the passage at 58:26 Highlight the passage at 58:26

59:05 Yeah, we're definitely in K through 1. Yeah, so it's like we actually kind of have to work on it. yeah we're Report an error in the passage at 59:05 Highlight the passage at 59:05

59:17 We're in the Saturday group, right? Report an error in the passage at 59:17 Highlight the passage at 59:17

59:25 Actually. Yeah, I mean, it actually, there's the term lower scope and you immediately are like, well, I'm not in that. I don't want to be in that group, you know. But the reality is those are really big understandings to have and so we have to kind of cultivate those understandings. The next one is called the middling scope and that's where you have... Report an error in the passage at 59:25 Highlight the passage at 59:25

59:48 At least the motivation, I mean at least, again, where you have the motivation to get out of saṃsāra altogether because you start understanding the sufferings of saṃsāra, which is going to be discussed in Sanghi Kadra's class, the next class, saṃsāra nirvāṇa. She'll talk about the different sufferings. And we've talked about some of them in presenting the path, I think. So it's not just, you know, the headaches and the, you know. Report an error in the passage at 59:48 Highlight the passage at 59:48

1:00:17 Car accidents and things like that, but it's the sufferings that come from the fact that our bodies and our worlds are created by karma and delusion. So it gets more and more subtle, the types of suffering. So you have to spend time meditating on that, and then you begin to realize that even those beings who have incredible lives, like we were talking about in the motivation tonight, even those guys zipping through in their Lamborghini, for example, Who seem like they have it all, they're still suffering. And they're still wanting happiness. And they're still wanting to avoid that suffering at all costs. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:17 Highlight the passage at 1:00:17

1:00:57 So it's not really that great to just get a really nice rebirth where you have a lot of money and you have all you need. Or even a God realm rebirth. Because they're all still subject to karma and delusions. And so you decide, no, I want nirvāṇa. I want to get out of here altogether. That's called the middling scope in this tradition. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:57 Highlight the passage at 1:00:57

1:01:17 So the highest scope is where you apply the same reasonings that help you develop renunciation for saṃsāra, which is what I was just describing, where you realize that saṃsāra itself is flawed and you don't want any part of it. But now you're applying the same reasonings in your meditations to all beings. They're all suffering too, so why should I get out without them? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:17 Highlight the passage at 1:01:17

1:01:38 So I am going to attain enlightenment for the sake of all of them so I can help all of them get out of it too. That's what's called the highest scope. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:38 Highlight the passage at 1:01:38

1:01:49 So a lot of the early meditations, those in the lower scope, those in class B, are basically just trying to get us to wake up to what we have right now, this opportunity, especially with precious human rebirth, and that it won't last long with death and impermanence. It's just trying to like... Report an error in the passage at 1:01:49 Highlight the passage at 1:01:49

1:02:11 Slap some sense into us in a way, you know. So a lot of them are like that. They're just trying to, it's kind of like, if we believe the teachings that say that it takes a lot for us to create the precious human rebirth, and we'll kind of go into, or you'll actually be looking at what that means, the richnesses and the freedoms. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:11 Highlight the passage at 1:02:11

1:02:35 If we created this... By our own actions in our past life, if we begin to believe that karma exists the way we think it does, or the way it's taught that it does, then we realize that we actually prayed for a life like this. We actually wanted to create a life like this. We actually had a mission and it would have been a great thing to pray for another precious human rebirth to complete that mission. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:35 Highlight the passage at 1:02:35

1:03:01 And now it's sort of like, so we came on this mission and then life got so good we just forgot what we were doing. Which is really easy to do, right? I mean, we came here thinking we would do good and then we kind of got a little way late. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:01 Highlight the passage at 1:03:01

1:03:18 So these initial meditations are just to remind us, okay, you got everything you wanted and now it's time to use it. And so... They're really, really powerful meditations, but they're kind of just to get us going. The meditation on precious human rebirth, we actually think about all the possible situations that we didn't end up in, in detail, by imagining ourselves in those positions. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:18 Highlight the passage at 1:03:18

1:03:45 And then you're like, but wait a second, I didn't get that. I got this. That's great. So actually, you should end up, when you're doing a precious human rebirth, feeling motivated. And feeling positive, you shouldn't get too caught up in all the things right now, all the possible rebirths. Although you can use this meditation, all the lower meditations, to also develop compassion. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:45 Highlight the passage at 1:03:45

1:04:10 That isn't the end goal at this point. It's just to wake you up and get you to practice. That's kind of what it's about. But it's kind of hard not to feel some compassion for all the beings that were born in that realm, just because you lucked out. Of course, nothing is luck, right? It's all karma. But still, the point of it is just to kind of wake you up. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:10 Highlight the passage at 1:04:10

1:04:33 And even if you can't relate to the idea of lower realms, which is a hard one for people until you've kind of spent some time thinking about it, you can still look at the possible situations that people are born in, even in this country, even in this city, the kind of suffering that's going on right now as we speak. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:33 Highlight the passage at 1:04:33

1:04:55 It's enormous. And then looking at just the animal world, it doesn't take any imagination, really. It's just a little research and opening your mind to actually thinking about it. A lot of people think thinking about suffering is a depressing thing, so there's no point in it. But it actually, closing our minds to it or closing our eyes to it doesn't make it go away. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:55 Highlight the passage at 1:04:55

1:05:20 It just means we aren't seeing it. But it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. And the Buddha's point is that suffering does exist. And we're going to talk about how that plays into the whole reason we're on this path. The whole reason that we're learning those incredibly detailed meditations in the first place. It's not to increase your suffering, actually. It's to decrease your suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:20 Highlight the passage at 1:05:20

1:05:44 So you can actually, if you can't... Get your mind around other realms. You can just visualize the fact that you could have been born in any kind of hellish experience here. You could have been born in a family where everyone is in the gangs and it's impossible to get out of that world. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:44 Highlight the passage at 1:05:44

1:06:04 You could have been born in incredibly abusive situations where you can never get out of it. Or you could have been born as that guy in Lancaster and lived in that kind of hellish mind for 20 years Took all these people out with them. Or you could have lived in the minds of those little girls. I mean, there are hellish experiences right here. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:04 Highlight the passage at 1:06:04

1:06:27 So we don't have to imagine the beings that Pabampakari Rinpoche explains in great detail, which is kind of hard for Westerners to get their minds around. But if you just stay open to the fact that just because we haven't seen it with our own eyes, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist that way. And so it's just kind of like keeping your mind open. So when we do these meditations, they are really experiential. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:27 Highlight the passage at 1:06:27

1:06:58 And we want to use quotes and maybe instructions from our teachers and things from teachings. Like you might hear, especially if you're spending a long time, like Kendall told that story about how when Riba Rinpoche came to Land of Medicine Buddha, Ann was supposed to come back the next year, and so he told them all to meditate on precious human rebirth. Was it death and precious human rebirth? I think it was like two of the first ones. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:58 Highlight the passage at 1:06:58

1:07:29 And then he would be back the next year. Well, then again, it took him five years to come back, and so she meditated on it for five years, the same topic. And she never would have done that, she said. Except for she kept thinking he was going to come back, so she wanted to be doing what he said, you know. And what she found is that you could keep going deeper and deeper and deeper and that it begins playing in your mind between sessions and it begins like everything you're reading plays into it, like every magazine you pick up, every teaching you go to. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:29 Highlight the passage at 1:07:29

1:08:05 Suddenly, they'll say something that really plays into Precious Human Rebirth, and so you write that down, and that'll come into your meditation. You might even like it so much to write it into your little workbook. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:05 Highlight the passage at 1:08:05

1:08:16 So you're basically trying to look at it from as many different angles as you can so that it becomes something that means... And what you're shooting for in analytical meditation is what I call an aha moment. So you're contemplating something until you reach some kind of insight that shifts the way you were looking at this. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:16 Highlight the passage at 1:08:16

1:08:42 So it's no longer words. It's like it almost knocks the breath out of you for a second. It's like when you realize that you are going to die. You yourself are going to die. There's a really powerful example of it. Or that you don't know when you're going to die, the uncertainty of that moment, which is true for all of us. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:42 Highlight the passage at 1:08:42

1:09:04 I mean, none of us know that we're going to be here tomorrow. We just don't know that. And if you meditate on that, it will reach a point where you're just like, it's really, it's like, it's almost like your heart kind of gets, the head and the heart finally come together on this. You know, you've been kind of thinking about it and it's still kind of... Report an error in the passage at 1:09:04 Highlight the passage at 1:09:04

1:09:26 And all of a sudden it's like your whole body feels it. And that's what I call an aha moment. And then you try to hold this concentration on that as long as you can. It's like you're trying to put that seed in your mind's dream. And then of course your mind gets distracted because the mind does not want to think, especially that one, the mind does not want to think about that one. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:26 Highlight the passage at 1:09:26

1:09:47 So then the mind's like, oh, maybe we'll have lunch, you know. So then you try to finish it in an orderly manner, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:47 Highlight the passage at 1:09:47

1:09:55 You try to do that as much as you can in your meditation, so you're not just thinking your way through your meditation. You are aiming for an experience that, first of all, an experience, and secondly, to have that experience go boom deep into your heart in some way. So then later, after you've done this, for some amount of time, you look at those words, you know, death is certain, the time of death is... Report an error in the passage at 1:09:55 Highlight the passage at 1:09:55

1:10:22 Uncertain. And it means something to you. You can actually even see in your mind the kind of images that you brought to mind like the people who went to work and had no idea the kind of hell realm that they'd be in within a couple of hours. No idea at all. So that can spring to your mind by just reading those words. Those words are like triggers to bring back your... Report an error in the passage at 1:10:22 Highlight the passage at 1:10:22

1:10:52 Past experience, but you have to generate the experience first. So we're all impatient to have the experience like now, like tonight. Like you want me to hand you the experience. What I can do is give you the kind of tools that then you have to go and take into your meditation session and work at it. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:52 Highlight the passage at 1:10:52

1:11:12 And it may take you like it did. I mean, Pravanka Rinpoche, when you read Liberation in Your Hands or Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, Report an error in the passage at 1:11:12 Highlight the passage at 1:11:12

1:11:20 He'll say, work with this until you have realization. He'll say, don't go to the next topic. But we usually do. It's like, that's long enough. Work with it five times. Or one retreat, which isn't even enough. I mean, really, really, we should be doing at least a year on each topic, which is enormous to think about. But it's kind of like Peter's... Report an error in the passage at 1:11:20 Highlight the passage at 1:11:20

1:11:36 scene. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:36 Highlight the passage at 1:11:36

1:11:50 You know, practice when Geshe-Lah gave you that practice. It's like, just get started. Rather than thinking, oh my God, like I'm never going to have 22 years to work on this. You know, when I break them out, I get about 22. It's like splitting them more than they really are, but that's like kind of having several for the bodhicitta ones and stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:50 Highlight the passage at 1:11:50

1:12:13 But the point is, just get started. Because even if you just did a month on each topic... That's a couple years and we can do that, you know, that seems doable. Actually, one of my teachers said it's really good to kind of shake up your meditation every three months. So if you're working on a meditation for three months, then shift it after three months and go on to the next one. And three months sounds much less frightening than five years. And it would definitely still give you a flavor, even just 20 minutes a day for three months on the same topic. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:13 Highlight the passage at 1:12:13

1:12:46 Would start to give you some sort of taste. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:46 Highlight the passage at 1:12:46

1:12:53 I know, it is. Yeah, yeah, someone came up to me after the Tuesday night class and said, why wouldn't anyone not want to take refuge? And I said, oh, it's commitment. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:53 Highlight the passage at 1:12:53

1:13:04 It's making some decision that this is my path, yeah, yeah. I can give you lots of reasons that people, yeah, but I thought that was kind of cute. I was like, wow, well, that's good that you're not having it, but a lot of people get cold feet. So Prabhakar Rinpoche, when he's talking about analytical meditation, he talks about how it's nothing new. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:04 Highlight the passage at 1:13:04

1:13:28 We use it all the time to convince ourselves why we hate this person or why this job sucks or why nobody appreciates me or why I love this person too. There's that one too if I've met the person in my dreams. So he had a really good quote that said, for instance, when we reflect again and again on the reasons why we think that a particular object is attractive, we develop strong desire. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:28 Highlight the passage at 1:13:28

1:13:55 This is analytical meditation towards an object of attachment. It increases our desire. Likewise, when we recall again and again how a terrible enemy has harmed us, our hatred greatly increases. This represents analysis toward an object of hatred and it ignites our experiential awareness of hatred. So we're really used to it in that context. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:55 Highlight the passage at 1:13:55

1:14:16 Let's shift now to the spiritual domain where the aim is to increase an experiential awareness of different... Virtuous minds by repeatedly contemplating the various reasons that will elicit them, just as I described with desire and hatred. What you must do here is contemplate over and over again the most penetrating of scriptural citations and arguments, and in particular those arguments which are most effective for eliciting a spiritual transformation within your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:16 Highlight the passage at 1:14:16

1:14:46 the repeated contemplation of Contemplation of just a single argument evokes a sense of ever-growing anguish in your mind, such as you might feel on hearing of your mother's death. This is a sign that you are succeeding, so continue striving. So that's the other aspect, which I think Peter and I both alluded to the first night. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:46 Highlight the passage at 1:14:46

1:15:08 Meditating on the lamrim is an emotional experience like this. It's not an intellectual experience, and it's not an aloof experience. You're not trying to avoid. feeling something you're actually trying to elicit a feeling an emotion it doesn't mean that you have to cry every time you do an analytical meditation because you won't probably on your ones on emptiness you But it is an emotional experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:08 Highlight the passage at 1:15:08

1:15:48 And actually this is how you avoid that thing that I talked about, the insensitivity to the Dharma. It's actually increasing your sensitivity to the Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:48 Highlight the passage at 1:15:48

1:15:58 Geshe-la always says you experience this or you feel this from the depth of your heart. That's the way he always describes it. And actually that's what we're trying to feel, something from the depths of our hearts. If it stays on the surface, it's not shaking us up. But it takes effort. And you can't really do it in five minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:58 Highlight the passage at 1:15:58

1:16:19 You know, you just can't. 20 minutes, I think you can. You know, but you just have to go into it slowly and assume you're not going to get an experience. It's not like you're going into the meditation thinking, I'm going to have this profound experience. Because if you do that, you're like set up for disaster. But just know that your goal is to get to know whatever it is you're meditating on well enough so that it does begin to elicit this response. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:19 Highlight the passage at 1:16:19

1:16:43 And that it may take you a while to get a response. It may not be something that you accomplished this week or during the length of this course. I'm trying to do what His Holiness says, you know, have long view. We have to develop, he's always talking about how we have to develop both long and short view. Short view to have the urgency we don't have forever, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:43 Highlight the passage at 1:16:43

1:17:08 But long view and thinking, I'm going to take the time that it's, you know, that it's, that's necessary. I'm going to put in the time and it may take me more than one lifetime, much less thinking I'm going to take the rest of this lifetime. He says that especially Westerners always want quickest and fastest and it's not always best, especially when you're talking about these meditations. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:08 Highlight the passage at 1:17:08

1:17:34 So you just take one aspect of the Lama and you just go deeply, or the one aspect of the meditation and you go deeply into it. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:34 Highlight the passage at 1:17:34

1:17:44 And then another aspect is trying to have like a personal experience. And so Riba Rinpoche, when he was teaching about the Lama, he would give examples like trying to understand what it would be like for a being born in the hell realms in terms of being unable to study and practice the Dharma. And he said, imagine if somebody came to you with a burning stick of incense and just began burning you. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:44 Highlight the passage at 1:17:44

1:18:13 And while you were reacting to that, your Lama came and said, okay, I'm ready now to teach you the Lamrim. And you're like, well, that's great, but I kind of need to end this situation first. And that's just one little tiny burning stick of incense. So imagining a situation where your body, as they describe it, your body and the fire are one, how would you possibly have the time and the mental space to be able to contemplate the Dharma? Report an error in the passage at 1:18:13 Highlight the passage at 1:18:13

1:18:42 And then he said the same for the God realms. He said, imagine that you're watching the best movie that you've ever seen. And you're completely engrossed in the plot and the cinematography and everything is just like more amazing than you could possibly imagine. And all of a sudden your Lama came up to you and said, I'm ready to teach you the Lamrim now. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:42 Highlight the passage at 1:18:42

1:19:03 And you're kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's like, and that's what they say. It's like, it's not impossible. Like these beings, it's not like something that is impossible for them to be able to learn. It's just the situation, the conditions are such that it's highly improbable. And in the God realm, they also don't have any sense of suffering. And so it's kind of difficult for them to even get their mind around the fact that other beings are suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:03 Highlight the passage at 1:19:03

1:19:32 Here, at least, they say. As humans, we have both. So we can understand suffering even if we're not feeling it at this moment. We've had it at some point. We've probably had it today at some point. Even if we have the best of all possible situations. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:32 Highlight the passage at 1:19:32

1:19:50 So he also gave for the craving spirit. He said, just think about one day of your life where you were really hungry and thirsty and tired. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:50 Highlight the passage at 1:19:50

1:20:01 And how cranky. You get in how your attention span gets short and you become kind of depressed and listless and no energy. And that's just one day. So you actually try to remember a day that you felt like that and then imagine them being like that for what they say, eons. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:01 Highlight the passage at 1:20:01

1:20:23 So it's kind of difficult in that situation to even imagine being interested in the Dharma. So when we're contemplating this different possible rebirth as experiences, we're trying to imagine ourselves in that situation and we are actually bringing to mind times that we were suffering in the same way. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:23 Highlight the passage at 1:20:23

1:20:46 So if you ever have experienced burns, for example, then you know what burning, what your hand feels like to be burned. Rinpoche is always saying that. It's like we can't even meditate now. If it gets a little bit hot or a little bit cold in the room, right? I mean, so true. If we get a little bit tired, it's like, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:46 Highlight the passage at 1:20:46

1:21:13 So Rinpoche said also when he was using examples from his own life, because of course his own life was personal experience enough, he actually was born into a noble family in Tibet and he had everything, you know, he was raised. With people serving him, he was a Rinpoche so he was considered a high Lama. Immediately came into the monastery as a high, you know. Sort of had it all and overnight he was like pulled out of that environment and paraded through the streets of Lhasa and people were throwing garbage and throwing at him and hitting him with sticks and then he was pulled into a prison camp for 21 years. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:13 Highlight the passage at 1:21:13

1:21:51 And tortured repeatedly. And he was saying, you know, that this basically can happen to anyone. And so it's sort of like, again, we think about these people in 911 and how quickly their lives changed. And we think somehow our mind glosses over the situation that we're in. And we think just because it's a good day today. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:51 Highlight the passage at 1:21:51

1:22:16 It's totally an invalid argument, reason-wise. It's not logical in any way, but yet we've been using it for a long time and it seems to be enough. It's kind of like, I'm healthy and I'm not that old. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:16 Highlight the passage at 1:22:16

1:22:33 So the Dharma is basically trying to wake us up. Because the Buddha, this is the number one thing. He's like, if you can't see the fact that we're all suffering and that we're in this situation, you're not going to be able to do anything. you know, so, you know, and I mean, it's just kind of. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:33 Highlight the passage at 1:22:33

1:22:46 You're just going to sit back and not do anything. So these meditations are basically wake-up calls and giving us this sense of urgency to get started. To do our practice, to actually apply the teachings in our lives. And then you begin, the more that you're working with a certain subject, you begin looking around you during your daytime and it starts coming to mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:46 Highlight the passage at 1:22:46

1:23:18 Actually, as you start getting this kind of urgency in your practice, you don't want to waste any time. Especially with the death and impermanence meditations, I think it begins to bring this kind of... Report an error in the passage at 1:23:18 Highlight the passage at 1:23:18

1:23:30 Fire into your practice. And so you start coming up with these creative ways to be practicing all the time. If you're ever around Lama Zopa Rinpoche, it's sort of like you're flying and you're offering all the lights. You're blessing every bug you see. You're looking around at the people in the store and you're realizing how tired. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:30 Highlight the passage at 1:23:30

1:23:53 They are and how sad they are and you're starting to develop compassion while you're waiting in line. It's not like you have to be sitting on your cushion in order to be practicing and expanding your mind. You are starting to do it as you walk down the street. You're doing it every moment of your existence, not in a neurotic way, but just in a creative way because you really are beginning to use that time all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:53 Highlight the passage at 1:23:53

1:24:21 And this is practice. I mean, I don't think practice is doing just these meditations on the cushion and then going about your life the same old way. The whole point is to begin changing the way that you're living your life. And one of the points that Kendall is making is she was saying that basically you have this option to either contract or to expand. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:21 Highlight the passage at 1:24:21

1:24:50 And you can find yourself contracting and basically you're limiting yourself, which is what we always do as ordinary beings. The Buddhas have no limits. Their mind is limitless. Their bodies are actually limitless. They are constantly expanding out. We can't even imagine how expansive they are. We're usually doing the opposite. And if you find yourself doing that, it's like just becoming aware of whether you're contracting or expanding is practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:50 Highlight the passage at 1:24:50

1:25:20 And you can find it. You can actually find yourself while you're doing these prayers, contracting. If you're getting like all hard and kind of tight about it, like what Peter was pointing out, then that's contracting. You should probably stop, take a break. But the trick is kind of to just become more and more aware of your mind and the fact that as you experience the world around you, are you opening? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:20 Highlight the passage at 1:25:20

1:25:48 Or are you shutting down? As you see the hungry guy, are you shutting down? You don't want to look at the suffering? Are you opening and trying to develop compassion? And being kind even if you don't have any money. Nobody is saying to give something that you don't have, but just keep your heart open as much as you can. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:48 Highlight the passage at 1:25:48

1:26:08 Actually, not even that, just be aware when you're not. And so I wanted to just mention to you the goal of Buddhism, because I think sometimes Buddhism gets... Twisted and people sort of think that Buddhism, that the whole reason that we do these meditations, that we develop a practice, that we establish a daily practice, is basically to just get calm in the face of all this suffering and be unattached to it and die aloof and calm. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:08 Highlight the passage at 1:26:08

1:26:41 Nothing could be further from the truth. The Buddha actually taught about suffering when he... He got enlightened to the first teaching that he gave us on the Four Noble Truths. But before that, he actually resisted teaching entirely. He did not want to teach. And his reasoning wasn't that we were all Class B. But it was to some extent. He kind of thought, what could people possibly do with this information? Report an error in the passage at 1:26:41 Highlight the passage at 1:26:41

1:27:06 Because his basic message, what he discovered, is that it's possible to reach a state where we don't suffer. We don't die. He's trying to actually teach us how not to die, which is radical. Most people, even now, much less 2,500 years ago, wouldn't get that. So he was kind of like, how could I possibly teach this? How could they possibly get this information? Nirvāṇa is a deathless state. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:06 Highlight the passage at 1:27:06

1:27:34 Enlightenment is a deathless state. I mean, it's hugely radical. He talks about this in the Heart Citro, but I think we miss it, you know. There's no aging, there's no death, there's no inherently existing aging and death. So he saw reality as it was and transformed his mind and became fully awakened and he realized that it was possible to live in a state of being that no longer suffered or died. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:34 Highlight the passage at 1:27:34

1:28:08 And so finally when he taught us about it, the first noble path, The first noble truth is suffering, but then the second is that there is a cause. The third is that there is an end to that cause, an end to that suffering. And then the final is that there is a path. And we forget that a lot of times. I think we focus a lot on the fact that there is suffering, but that's basically to get you to a certain point and then you move on. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:08 Highlight the passage at 1:28:08

1:28:37 It's not to get stuck there. And it's certainly not to just get calm and endure the suffering and then die. I mean, that's not the point of Buddhism at all. So our total motivation is to be able to reach this state ourselves. And even if we don't do it in one lifetime, which of course is the best goal, is the highest goal, is the possibility once you enter Tantra. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:37 Highlight the passage at 1:28:37

1:29:05 To know that it's possible and even just to gain that confidence that it's possible is enormous. But we forget that. We forget what our goal is. And sometimes we didn't even know that was our goal. And just to try to imagine what it would be like to live in that kind of reality, to not have any kind of suffering at all, like either in your body or your mind, is kind of amazing. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:05 Highlight the passage at 1:29:05

1:29:31 Not even the slightest agitation. Or dissatisfaction. So not even like the big ones, like anger, which is of course actually enormous when you think about even just going through one day without any of the big ones. But then imagine going through one day without any type of suffering at all. And in fact, bliss. Buddhists actually experience bliss in every pore of their being. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:31 Highlight the passage at 1:29:31

1:29:56 Like their mind is in bliss, their bodies are in bliss all the time. A clock brings them bliss. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:56 Highlight the passage at 1:29:56

1:30:05 It's kind of amazing to think about. But he's saying that it's possible. I did it and you can do it and there's a path. So it's really good to keep that in mind because this is the point. This is what we're working toward. Otherwise, it can just become this really interesting hobby. And you get all the things for your hobby and outfit your... Report an error in the passage at 1:30:05 Highlight the passage at 1:30:05

1:30:28 Your hobby room. But you miss the part, as Rubina says, you've lost the plot. It feels good, and then if you get to a meditation that doesn't feel good, you might skip it. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:28 Highlight the passage at 1:30:28

1:30:43 Which, of course, some of these lower ones don't feel as good. But it also helps you, if you remember this, it also helps you in the long haul, because this takes a while. Even if we're going for it in this lifetime, it's going to take us some serious effort. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:43 Highlight the passage at 1:30:43

1:31:00 So we have to keep this in mind all the time. And Lama Zopa Rinpoche actually says that it's quite good if you're focusing on one little part of the whole lamrim, say precious human rebirth, they actually say that it's quite good to read like a glance meditation or a short lamrim prayer each day and to stop when you get to your section. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:00 Highlight the passage at 1:31:00

1:31:28 Which is what your homework will do. You stop when you get to your section, you do your contemplation there, and then you resume and finish that prayer. And the reasoning is that you get the imprint of the entire lamrim. What we do in the morning at the puja that the nuns do, we change lamrim prayers. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:28 Highlight the passage at 1:31:28

1:31:49 There's a number of them out there. Everybody gets to choose. Everybody has their favorites. Or if you're just facing a really bad time and you want to hear your certain prayer again. So you can kind of spice it up a little bit. And there are really short ones too. So there are ways that you can kind of get the imprint of the whole path. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:49 Highlight the passage at 1:31:49

1:32:16 The problem is that there's a lot of material in this class that if you're brand new to the Dharma, it can just feel like, You know, um, Report an error in the passage at 1:32:16 Highlight the passage at 1:32:16

1:32:14 And, um... Report an error in the passage at 1:32:14 Highlight the passage at 1:32:14

1:32:24 A shopping list of more and more things to add to your day. But there are certain things that our teachers suggest. And one is that we think about karma and emptiness every day. How karma and emptiness work. And we haven't talked about it in a lot of detail here because it's covered in a lot of detail in other classes. But it's really, really important to understand because it's how we create our reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:24 Highlight the passage at 1:32:24

1:32:48 And it's actually what makes Buddhism possible. I mean, becoming a Buddha possible. Enlightenment possible. And karma is just this idea that what the Buddha would call a natural law like gravity, that you do a positive action and you get a positive result or pleasurable result. You do a negative action and you get an unpleasurable or suffering result. And that is happening constantly all the time and that everything we experience we've created the causes for. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:48 Highlight the passage at 1:32:48

1:33:20 Nothing is going to happen to us if we did not create. The causes for it. And if you want a result, you have to create the causes for it. So it works that way too. They say if you want to know what your past life was like, look at your situation now. If you want to know what your future life is like, look at your mind now. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:20 Highlight the passage at 1:33:20

1:33:43 Where are you headed? What are you doing? Your actions now, your mind now are what's going to create your future existence. So if we don't have an understanding of karma and emptiness, we need to develop one because that's what really is going to change our... behavior now, it's really going I think that's the most exciting thing about Buddhism, to be honest. Compassion is wonderful, but that's covered in every other religion. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:43 Highlight the passage at 1:33:43

1:34:10 Karma and emptiness aren't. I think every religion has some form of love and compassion. Bodhicitta, perhaps not. Bodhicitta is definitely unique to Mahāyāna Buddhism. And it's easier to relate to, right? Peter and I are always saying that the bodhicitta is always like the easier one to get our minds around. Emptiness is a lot more difficult. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:10 Highlight the passage at 1:34:10

1:34:31 But understanding, even in the simplest way, how karma and emptiness works totally pervades. And then it can change the way you work with your reality. And the basic idea of it is that things don't exist in an inherent way. So, for example, I might have a favorite song. And if I play my favorite song for you, I could probably guarantee that not everybody in the room would think it was the best song they had ever heard. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:31 Highlight the passage at 1:34:31

1:35:01 And we've had this experience, right? Or, you know, I have a new best friend and I introduce him or her to you and you all, you know, like nine-tenths of you hate this person. Or we think our enemy is inherently existing and that if I had my enemy on my right and my best friend on the left that you guys could all look at them and tell which was which, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:35:01 Highlight the passage at 1:35:01

1:35:23 Because it should just be exuding, you know, disgustingness and deliciousness from either one and, of course, the appropriate one. And so this traditional teaching that they give is that Things are perceived differently based on our own karma. We create their karma based on our actions. So if you have a base of liquid, say a liquid in a glass, three different beings would see it differently based on their karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:23 Highlight the passage at 1:35:23

1:35:48 Their karma is forcing them to see it in a different way. So a human being would see it as a glass of water, for example, whereas a god being would see it as a cup of nectar. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:48 Highlight the passage at 1:35:48

1:36:04 And a craving spirit would see it as a totally undrinkable substance like pus. And in none of those cases can they change what they're seeing. Their karma is forcing them. They can't just decide. You can't just decide if the dentist is drilling on your teeth, that it's a pleasurable, blissful experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:04 Highlight the passage at 1:36:04

1:36:27 We can't do it that way. We have to create the causes for it to be a pleasurable, blissful experience. Which seems bizarre, but I'm sure the holy beings do not experience drilling on their teeth in the same way that we do. Just the same way that Rinpoche didn't experience the torture that he went through in Tibet in the same way. So all three of those beings looking at the liquid are having a valid perception based on their own karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:27 Highlight the passage at 1:36:27

1:36:54 Their karma has created... Their perception of this liquid. And even more subtly, their karma has created the basis that they are seeing, perceiving. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:54 Highlight the passage at 1:36:54

1:37:08 So we can't go into it that much here, but I know another example actually that Geshe Michael Rhodes used to always give, so he must have had a screaming boss. But the screaming boss example is a good one where if you are sitting at work and your boss comes in and starts screaming at you, for you... Usually it's a negative experience. You're unhappy and in fact you'd probably hate the guy. The person next to you could be totally delighted actually because they can't stand you. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:08 Highlight the passage at 1:37:08

1:37:40 Or they might just love the boss, whichever. And the woman next to you could be completely neutral and just tune the whole thing out. And they're just thinking about making dinner tonight. It's not even a blip on their radar screen. The boss is not inherently bad and his screaming is not inherently bad or good. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:40 Highlight the passage at 1:37:40

1:38:01 It's all being interpreted differently due to the karma and the specific beings. And then he also taught this thing about the pen, you know, that it's basically a cylinder with a point and two different colors and some writing on the side. And I see it as a pen and think it's inherently a pen, but a dog would see it as something to chew on. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:01 Highlight the passage at 1:38:01

1:38:22 And would that be any less valid for the dog? No, because he can't change his perception of it. He has this karma forcing him because he's created the causes for that karma. I am the karma seeing it as a pen. A tiny ant might see it as this death-wielding tool that is coming at him. And none of those are invalid perceptions. It's simply based on our karma. So I know that's a lot, but they say that it's actually really good to... Report an error in the passage at 1:38:22 Highlight the passage at 1:38:22

1:38:56 To increase your understanding of karma and emptiness all the time through whatever means. Geshe-la teaches on karma and emptiness a lot in different ways. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:56 Highlight the passage at 1:38:56

1:39:07 Coming to classes, coming to these classes, reading, thinking about it, trying to think about it when you're out in the world, that's not existing the way I think it does. I'm forced to see it this way because of my karma. Even in your own world, you can kind of think, if you're having a Boca burger, if I'm having a Boca burger, I can guarantee you that my brother would not see that as an inherently wonderful thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:07 Highlight the passage at 1:39:07

1:39:28 I can guarantee you that he would not. So you can kind of look at just little examples like that to make it a little more... accessible, you know. What we might think of as a really wonderful thing in San Francisco, there are a lot of cities in the world that would not, a lot of people I should say, in cities of the world or small towns of the world that would be horrified by what we think, oh that's really great. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:28 Highlight the passage at 1:39:28

1:39:53 So I think you can kind of play with it in your mind. They say it's really, really good to remind yourself of it every day in some way. The more you understand of it, of course, the more you can do, but even just little ways off the cushion. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:53 Highlight the passage at 1:39:53

1:40:10 The main thing is that you just begin working with it a little bit at a time and then try to get some taste, some feel for it. So, um... Report an error in the passage at 1:40:10 Highlight the passage at 1:40:10

1:40:25 I haven't really mentioned concentration meditation as something to work on. And some teachers actually really discourage it. Lama Zopa Rinpoche actually says, you know, you're not going to get very far with it in the city until you're in long retreat. But some teachers actually really encourage us to try. And I actually think it's a good idea to try. Venmo Rinpoche really thinks it's good to just go ahead and try, even if your conditions are bad. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:25 Highlight the passage at 1:40:25

1:40:51 Geshe-la is always like... You know, it's almost like impossible as far as he's concerned. And then he acts out how loud it is. Last night in class alone, I felt so bad because Venable Tsongkhapa was here for a couple of days before she takes off for Texas and Montana when she's going to teach. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:51 Highlight the passage at 1:40:51

1:41:08 Last night alone in class, I mean, we must have had like six different sirens and enormously loud. And like they would park right out front or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:08 Highlight the passage at 1:41:08

1:41:17 It just was so incredibly loud and at one point Gashila just kind of like stopped and kind of just looked at me and I was just going, I'm so sorry. So loud. And that's just trying to listen in class, much less, you know, taming your mind. So this class does not get into concentration meditation. We do it a little bit more in the wisdom class. But it's really, really good, I think, even just to do a few minutes of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:17 Highlight the passage at 1:41:17

1:41:46 And literally I do mean a few minutes of it. I don't mean 40 minutes of it. I mean two minutes of it. Which is why I usually try to start with some sort of breathing meditation so you get some feel. That can be a concentration meditation. You're trying to keep your mind on the object. Concentration meditation is that. And a little color your mind is moving until you reach some insight and then you apply the concentration meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:46 Highlight the passage at 1:41:46

1:42:10 But if you don't have... Any concentration, you're not going to be able to do the analytical meditation either. It'll just become an intellectual exercise. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:10 Highlight the passage at 1:42:10

1:42:29 Oh, it's not to say you shouldn't. I just don't want to add to everybody's laundry list of what you should do in one day. So I'm just... For you? You can do 40 minutes. No, it's wonderful. It's a great goal, actually, to be able to do it. Realistically, with our lives the way they are, we can get overwhelmed and then not do anything. So I'm trying to keep the list short. And then, of course, you can always do more of, well, it can be any object. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:29 Highlight the passage at 1:42:29

1:43:04 It can be, yeah, it can be a visualization. It could be a stone. It could be, often it's the breath and it's trying to keep your mind one with that object. But yeah, the breath is actually a good one, but they say virtuous objects are better to do. So a visualization of one of the Buddhas or your guru or whatever, Nagarjuna, they say is actually better than the breath, but sometimes it's more difficult. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:04 Highlight the passage at 1:43:04

1:43:38 I find it more difficult. I actually prefer the breath. So anyway, no, it's not that you can't do longer. All of these you could do longer. You could spend an hour on your Lamrim meditation, an hour on your concentration meditation, an hour on your preliminaries. That would be great. I wanted to suggest some ways to just, you could split it up. So if most of us have a little bit of time in the morning, a little bit of time in the evening, for example, which not all of us do, and I'll talk about that. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:38 Highlight the passage at 1:43:38

1:44:13 If you only get to the point where Shakyamuni Buddha comes to the crown of your head, you can actually stop there. And you just keep him on the crown of your head all day. And it's actually not a bad thing to kind of remember occasionally that he's on the crown of your head, you know, especially if you're kind of using up the last of something and not thinking about somebody else or cutting somebody off in traffic. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:13 Highlight the passage at 1:44:13

1:44:32 It's kind of like, oh, the Shakyama Buddha's right there, you know. And then at night you come back and he's right there and you start right in. So wherever it was you left off. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:32 Highlight the passage at 1:44:32

1:44:45 Or... What I do in the morning, actually, I try to do almost all of my practice in the morning, and I have to split it up. We have a puja, and it happens every day at 7.30 no matter what. So if I get up early enough, I can do all of my practice before, but if I don't, then I'll do some of it and then take a break for the puja and then come back and finish it. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:45 Highlight the passage at 1:44:45

1:45:05 And for me, that works better and have very, very small practice at night because my mind is just... But some people actually their mind is better at night. And so you just have to play with it and see maybe you're more relaxed at night, you know, because you don't have to go rushing off to work. I actually have one good friend who is quite a meditator who does her whole practice at night. She prefers that. She doesn't feel like is rushed or is pulled. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:05 Highlight the passage at 1:45:05

1:45:31 And sometimes I actually prefer meditating at night too because I don't feel that kind of like, oh my God, I have to run downstairs. Energy. I can just... Relax and just go for it. So it just depends on your mind and it depends on your schedule. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:31 Highlight the passage at 1:45:31

1:45:48 Then that would be class C. I think you have to be waiting outside. So I think that's it actually. There's one last thing that is good if you're just so tired and you want to include like your little lamrim prayer but you just really don't have any time to do lamrim meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:48 Highlight the passage at 1:45:48

1:46:12 It's actually really, it's fine to just read it, but in a sort of reflective state of mind. But you can actually read it while you're doing mantras. And at first it might be a little funky. You might feel a little like you're rubbing your stomach and patting your head or rubbing your head and patting your stomach. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:12 Highlight the passage at 1:46:12

1:46:34 But it actually, it's like a time that your mind is kind of blessed and open because you're... Saying these mantras and then you're opening up to the Dharma at that same time. And so it's like a kind of a way that you can do it if your mind is tired or if your body's tired but you're not letting it go altogether. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:34 Highlight the passage at 1:46:34

1:46:55 And actually this sometimes comes up in retreat. If you're doing a visualization like a day to retreat, like Vajra Safra retreat. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:55 Highlight the passage at 1:46:55

1:47:04 It's one of the early ones that you do. And this happened for me when I was doing it. And your mind gets tired holding that visualization for literally hours at a time. And so I started reading the lamrim while I was doing the mantras because, of course, you're trying to do your 100,000 mantras, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:47:04 Highlight the passage at 1:47:04

1:47:22 And I thought I was cheating, actually. But I thought, well, at least it's the lamrim, you know. And then it happened for me in my next retreat. I just totally started going through the whole lamrim during the mantra. I actually was meditating on the lamrim. I would set up the visualization and I'd still be doing the mantras, but then I would actually be meditating on the lamrim, starting with Guru Devotion all the way through emptiness and then starting over again. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:22 Highlight the passage at 1:47:22

1:47:49 And I actually thought I was cheating, but I didn't know what else to do. I was in way over my head. And then about... Two or three years later, during a teaching, Rinpoche brought it up that it was actually really good to do. And I was so relieved, actually. And Munso was there from Rinpoche's house, and she just began crying because she had had the same experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:49 Highlight the passage at 1:47:49

1:48:11 She had done like a one-year retreat, and she just found that her mind couldn't hold visualization that long. And so she would do, while she was doing the mantras, she would do either a lamrim meditation or a lamrim reading. And it's actually absolutely fine to do. So I put that in there so that you guys, if you ever resort to that, you won't feel like I did, that you were, you know, like sort of the class F students. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:11 Highlight the passage at 1:48:11

1:48:38 But it is another option, too, in your daily practice. I remember Rene actually mentioned that to me. He said, you know, maybe just to focus on, and actually Geshe-la said the same thing, focus on concentration meditation and then just read the lamrim. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:38 Highlight the passage at 1:48:38

1:48:53 Read a little bit of long rim every day. And so it's an option if you just, because a lot of us are really, really busy and we don't have time for all of these things. So how are we going to get the imprints, you know? And there is a lot of power to the imprint. So that's like kind of the easy way. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:53 Highlight the passage at 1:48:53

1:49:13 Peter's fun tips to know and tell. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:13 Highlight the passage at 1:49:13

1:49:25 Oh wait, you're not talking in the talking stick. No, somebody at home will be like, what is he saying? I want to know this tip. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:25 Highlight the passage at 1:49:25

1:49:33 If you have like a Tibetan singing bowl or tingsha or something that makes a pleasant sound, it's actually helpful if you're doing a lot of mantra and you're losing your train of thought to just strike that softly. And for some reason it's able to bring the mind back. And I've been doing that lately because, of course, I have a lot of mantra to do. And sometimes you can just space out and go into a zone. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:33 Highlight the passage at 1:49:33

1:49:57 And actually if there's something, it has to be a sound thing. It really makes your mind just kind of come back to the point. So anything like a singing bowl or tingsha. I've even done this. Yeah, anything. Yeah, because if your mind is starting to get tired and you're starting to space out. It really helps bring the mind back in a good way. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:57 Highlight the passage at 1:49:57

1:50:18 Or kind of bring to mind Rubina's voice. Get to the point. You're wasting your time. Or, you could die tonight! Report an error in the passage at 1:50:18 Highlight the passage at 1:50:18

1:50:33 But that's actually good to have a nice sound, too, because I haven't thought of that. I always just kind of do this or, you know, just something like... Because that can just startle you and your mind is just getting kind of mushy. What I like about a singing bowl is that, of course, it's a penetrating sound, but it goes on. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:33 Highlight the passage at 1:50:33

1:50:53 And you can kind of follow that and it brings your mind back into a concentration point. Right, right. But, of course, you don't have to run out and buy an expensive singing bowl. You could use anything that has a pleasing sound that you could use to make you focus again. Your cup. But also, that's kind of for almost like for dullness, right? For sleepiness, dullness. I have found also for agitated mind, just simply reminding myself that nothing is more important than what I'm doing right now. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:53 Highlight the passage at 1:50:53

1:51:22 And that can often kind of jolt me back in because I'll immediately be thinking, I need to go set up the gum. Like it's just my mind is always doing that and it's just kind of like choking nothing. And often using your name too. Nothing is more important than what you're doing right now. Whether it's focusing on your breath for 15 minutes or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:22 Highlight the passage at 1:51:22

1:51:44 What about listening to meditation music while you're meditating? I heard two things about that. Yeah, in this tradition it would be not so great. Actually more distracting than not. But it is possible. I think it... I would say during a meditation, probably best not to have any external noise. But it is possible to listen to a guided meditation that might be taped or on CD or something like that and have that be a good experience for you. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:44 Highlight the passage at 1:51:44

1:52:19 You would just probably want to keep your finger near the control because if you're going into, like when you're leading yourself, you can decide to take 30 minutes for an experience that's suddenly coming up, which is one reason why I like. Solar retreat more than group retreat. You just have more freedom for that kind of thing. If you're going really well, you can just stay in session. If it's not, then basically stay for the minimum, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:19 Highlight the passage at 1:52:19

1:52:44 But if you're in a group, it's harder to do that. If you're leading yourself in a Lamra meditation and you're having a really deep experience of it, you can decide how long to stay in that experience. If you're being led even, you know, like by a tape or something like that, it's a little harder. I don't know how it is if you're reading it. No, you're actually just, Peter, you're actually having your scanner voice thing read it to you rather than a person. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:44 Highlight the passage at 1:52:44

1:53:12 Because if I were having a person read it to me, I'd have to have the game rules be really clear. It'd be hard. I think it'd be hard. You wouldn't be able to go as deeply, I would think. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:12 Highlight the passage at 1:53:12

1:53:23 But I don't know, maybe if two people have been together for as long as you guys have been, then maybe it's easy to make those rules. I don't know. But yeah, that's what I would think, Ben, is that it would be more distracting. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:23 Highlight the passage at 1:53:23

1:53:53 Right, right. Set the mood. Well, you could always do that kind of during your prayers, and then when you went to the meditation, you could turn it off or something like that. I actually have to use sometimes, what are they, ear covers? Not earplugs, but ear covers, those things that like... Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:53 Highlight the passage at 1:53:53

1:54:13 Policewoman. She used to wear them in the firing range. Or if you're using a certain generation of us know who that is. Or even I think Charlie's Angels did it too. There's always like the girls. I don't know what that was about. Maybe the guys don't need to cover their ears. Yeah. Stuff and death. What did you say? Huh? Report an error in the passage at 1:54:13 Highlight the passage at 1:54:13

1:54:40 But I have to kind of cut out sounds, actually, because the nun in the next room who shall remain nameless says all of her prayers out loud. And it's just loud. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:40 Highlight the passage at 1:54:40

1:54:51 Actually, the house sounds also at one point were loud when we had a different group of people in the house and people would just sort of hang out in the room, which happens to be right underneath mine at the dining room, and just talk and stuff like that. So Venerable Ninja suggested that to me, that nun who led the practice day that one time, which is coming up again next month, she suggested getting those. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:51 Highlight the passage at 1:54:51

1:55:14 And they actually work really well because they at least make it sound like it's in another part of the house. And they don't put you to sleep the way. For me, earplugs are like immediately it's time to go to sleep because that's the way I use them. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:14 Highlight the passage at 1:55:14

1:55:35 I think whatever works for you. For me, using them, I go to sleep. I just immediately, I'm like Pavlov's dog, I just go to sleep. I've just for years used them. Actually since I moved into this house I started using them. I don't know, I think ultimately you want to be able to not give energy to the external sounds. So I think there is that argument for not using it. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:35 Highlight the passage at 1:55:35

1:56:03 because um you because what you But although you might reach a point where your concentration is so improved that if you took the earplugs out, then it wouldn't bother you. I don't know. I think one of the points of meditations is to learn not to, especially concentration meditation, is to learn not to put energy into that external noises and things. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:03 Highlight the passage at 1:56:03

1:56:24 So you're basically withdrawing your senses. Yeah. But, I mean, if you can't do it, if you can't concentrate at all, then you've got to get a start. So I've got the ear covers to at least get a start because otherwise it's... It's too, especially if you know the words that the person's saying. And they're saying them in English. It's kind of like, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:24 Highlight the passage at 1:56:24

1:56:47 Yeah, white noise. People do the white noise thing. Actually, that's another thing, Ben. Well, maybe white noise would work. You know, just kind of a humming kind of noise. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:47 Highlight the passage at 1:56:47

1:56:58 Catherine. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:58 Highlight the passage at 1:56:58

1:57:01 You can say them that way. They don't have to be. Yeah. And you certainly don't have to say them very loudly. It would be really kind if you didn't. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:01 Highlight the passage at 1:57:01

1:57:24 I actually don't. Sometimes if I say them out loud, I'm just whispering them. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:24 Highlight the passage at 1:57:24

1:57:34 Warn me not to get an apartment next to you. Anyway, so I'm going to give you guys your homework, and please don't freak out. Every time it's taking the same meditation, but it's adding more to it. So you can kind of... Think of it that way. So this is taking the same meditation on Shakyamuni Buddha, which Peter brought up. That's why I was startled on Tuesday night when you said, I really love the meditation on Shakyamuni Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:34 Highlight the passage at 1:57:34

1:58:01 That's for this class. So I think it probably confused a lot of people in the refuge class who was probably thinking, we didn't get that meditation. I'll probably get all these emails. No, no, it's okay. Well, I was startled too because I was like, wait a second, did we do Shakyamuni Buddha? it? Report an error in the passage at 1:58:01 Highlight the passage at 1:58:01

1:58:19 Right, right. Not the secret Shakyamuni Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:19 Highlight the passage at 1:58:19

1:58:27 With the special white, red and blue colors. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:27 Highlight the passage at 1:58:27

1:58:35 No, I know. Actually, it's great to do both classes. I think they really play into each other a lot. So this is taking the Shakyamuni Buddha practice and you're going into it and you're actually going to incorporate the lamrim meditation in the middle of it. So you can... Discard your old homework, don't discard it actually, but you can put it aside and take this one and it's also going to kind of show you how you do like the seven limb practice in just like a blip, blip, blip, blip. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:35 Highlight the passage at 1:58:35

1:59:03 Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, we're for the class B. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:03 Highlight the passage at 1:59:03

1:59:10 Also how you do refuge and bodhicitta is blip, blip. How you make your request is blip, blip. You know, we're not necessarily reading a, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:10 Highlight the passage at 1:59:10

1:59:20 Sixteen line prayer three times, which is actually what we do during the puja in the morning. You are actually just making the request in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:20 Highlight the passage at 1:59:20

1:59:29 And you're offering a mandala. I don't think I have you offering a mandala. But anyway, you're offering the universe. And then you're going through the foundation of all good qualities is your lamrim text. So some of this is that text. And then you're stopping at the second verse is understanding that the precious freedom of this rebirth is found only once, is greatly meaningful and is difficult to find again. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:29 Highlight the passage at 1:59:29

1:59:52 Please bless me to generate that mind unceasingly, day and night. The mind that unceasingly day and night takes its essence. So then it goes into an explanation of what you can think about in order to cultivate this mind that really appreciates your precious human rebirth. And so there's like a little, this whole section is what you meditate on or analyze to think about a fact that you have this great opportunity right now. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:52 Highlight the passage at 1:59:52

2:00:18 That's right there. And then you go back and you just continue repeating your little prayer until you get to the end. And then you do your request and then you imagine that he's really pleased and he absorbs into you and then you dedicate. So it kind of goes like that. So it should be somewhat similar to what you've been doing except less time on the preliminaries and more time on analytical meditation, which most of you have been doing in other classes, but some of you this will be your first. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:18 Highlight the passage at 2:00:18

2:00:45 And so we'll see how you do with this. And if you have questions like the ones that you had, feel free to email me. I'm totally happy to answer questions so that you don't spend the whole week agonizing about the 7th prayer or whatever. Let's see which of the TAs jumps up at this point. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:45 Highlight the passage at 2:00:45

2:01:04 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:04 Highlight the passage at 2:01:04

2:01:11 I wanted to give you a break this time, but it didn't happen. I haven't really been leading you in meditations in class, but we will try to do one next week. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:11 Highlight the passage at 2:01:11

2:01:25 Maybe we can take time to go through this one. In some way, it doesn't have to be all of the points, but in some way that hopefully will trigger some experience for you. So let's just take a moment to dedicate what we've done. So just come Report an error in the passage at 2:01:25 Highlight the passage at 2:01:25

2:01:48 into a quiet place in your mind again, maybe take a few deep breaths and let go of what you're just getting ready to go do, much less what you've just done. And just kind of let it all sort of settle down in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:48 Highlight the passage at 2:01:48

2:02:11 And maybe think about the fact that we just spent a couple of hours of our precious human life that will never come back again, but was so well spent trying Report an error in the passage at 2:02:11 Highlight the passage at 2:02:11

2:02:22 to understand how we can make our practices fuller, more complete, and give our minds the kind of imprints that most beings don't have access to. Most humans don't have access to on the planet. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:22 Highlight the passage at 2:02:22

2:02:53 So let's just dedicate this class and any understandings, insights, new questions, ideas that we've gotten to being able to actually apply the teachings in ways that feel really, really good to us, exciting to us, and Report an error in the passage at 2:02:53 Highlight the passage at 2:02:53

2:03:18 hopefully help us work with our minds, transform our minds, Awaken our minds. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:18 Highlight the passage at 2:03:18

2:03:31 If Report an error in the passage at 2:03:31 Highlight the passage at 2:03:31

2:03:40 we can do the dedication prayers. We'll just do them. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:40 Highlight the passage at 2:03:40

2:03:48 We'll do them in English and Tibetan. Why not? So the dedication prayers section is the second from the back. And we'll do the first two on page 5 and then their counterparts in Tibetan. And then we'll do the first one on page 15 and its counterpart in Tibetan. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:48 Highlight the passage at 2:03:48

2:04:14 Due to the merits of these virtuous actions, May I quickly attain the state of a Guru Buddha and lead all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the supreme jewel bodhicitta that has not arisen arise and grow and may that which has arisen not diminish but increase more and more. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:14 Highlight the passage at 2:04:14

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:05:20 Shup Sam Chokrin Po She Kye Pan Am Kye Kyur Chi Panyam Pha May Pha Yang Gong Ne Gong Dupel Varsho And then on page 15, First Holiness the Dalai Lama and all our teachers. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:20 Highlight the passage at 2:05:20

2:05:47 In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and good. All-powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso, please remain until saṃsāra ends. Gangri-ra-we-kor-we-shin-kam-dir Pendang-de-wa-ma-lu-shung-we-ne Chan-re-zik-wan-ten-zen-gyat-so-hi Shabbai Sitte Bardu Ten Yur. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:47 Highlight the passage at 2:05:47