Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Opening with a verse from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” to set the evening’s motivation, Ven Jampa Gendun covers three areas in this nearly two-hour commentary on Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path. He first revisits going for refuge — the two causes (constructive anxiety and faith) and what the Three Jewels offer as practical resources for change — then leads a structured mindfulness-of-breath meditation training attention on the location, direction, length, and boundaries of each breath. The second half reviews impermanence with a detailed account of the dying process across gross, subtle, and very subtle levels of consciousness, the rebirth mechanism, and karma: its four general principles and the ten negative paths of action, illustrated through the complete-path-of-action formula for killing. For practitioners already following the series.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 16 3PA 2008 07 07.mp3
UUID: 8acc9677-1006-4697-8f26-de838a72a538
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Three Principle Aspects of the Path 2008-2009 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 2008-07-07
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 117.9 minutes
Words: ~11,854
Can you hear me okay? Can you hear me now? Yes. Good. Okay.
It’s a cold wet night. Is everybody warm enough? So we begin by as we always do in terms of adjusting our motivation. From Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself. I celebrate myself and sing myself and what I shall assume, you shall assume.
Every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you. So, you know, last few weeks we’ve been talking about what are the causes for going for refuge. This trying to understand what it might mean to go for refuge. This process of getting back in touch with some perhaps some of our deeper values, ways and means and values and goals of our life which we oftentimes get out of touch with for one reason or another. We lose sight of, we set aside, we compromise.
Compromise. Is the door locked? Maybe the door is closed. And so it seems as if it’s quite important to from time to time answer the door from time to time. To pause, to reflect on what is important to each of ourselves, what has meaning for ourselves, what makes me feel good about myself, and this thing called life that we’re all struggling with in one way or another.
And maybe we have to begin to straighten out our priorities and what is important for each of our selves. So this process of reprioritizing, we talked about involves two basic causes. One is constructive anxiety and the other is faith. Constructive anxiety was my sort of jargon, you know, for what is normally termed fear. Kind of a basic underlying anxiety or sense of unease that many of the difficulties, the dissatisfactions, reoccurring problems of our life are simply going to perpetuate themselves endlessly into the future, that nothing seems to be changing in terms of the quality of our lives.
We keep making the mistakes even against our better judgment, even against our will. And when we begin to step back and get some perspective on the forest of our life rather than being caught up or lost in the woods in each of the trees of our lives, we begin to develop a sense of foreboding, sense of weariness about it all. So this sense of, this undercurrent of anxiety is a constructive anxiety because it can help us to once and for all perhaps to get unstuck, to begin to analyze the quality of our existence and begin to look toward possible changes, how we can make life better for ourselves. But it has to be coupled with faith that things can be better, that we can in fact change. And we talked about what this faith was all about, the various types of faith.
In Buddhist faith, and we’re talking about this primary investment of positive significance, what we’re willing to put our time in, what we’re willing to put our energy in, create some space in our life. This going for refuge is directed toward three main objects, the Buddha Dharma and the Sangha. These three objects are seen as effective resources for bringing about the kinds of change we want to make in our lives, for solving some of our fundamental problems in our lives for the better. What is the ultimate concern to ourselves? What can bring about the goals and the values that we want to see our life expression of?
You know, most basically a trustworthy means for changing our lives for the better. So, you know, the Buddha Dharma and the Sangha I think we’ve talked about this a few times before. You know, Buddha is someone who is awake. And what does it mean to be awake? It means, first of all, it means a wisdom which sees ourselves and the world about us clearly, which knows ourselves and the world as they actually are, free of our habitual distortions and obscurations, free of our misconceptions, our illusions, our wrong understandings.
But more than just wisdom, it is also qualified by love and compassion. Sometimes it’s exemplified by that of a mother for only child, a burning desire that others be happy, that they experience freedom, that they experience all that we want for ourselves. And more than not, over and above that, willingness to do something to bring that about, in fact. And there’s a sense of personal power. You know, the mastery of body and mind, an inner strength of will.
There’s some kind of capacity to overcome adversity. There’s a sense that we can do something. We can be effective. We can make a difference in this world and to ourselves. So these are the you know in terms of the qualities which are internal to ourselves.
But Buddhism is trying to help us to see that a great deal of the quality of our lives goes beyond our own inner experience of well-being. That to lead a good life we also have to make effort in trying to find some way of being in this world with others. That part and a significant part of mental health is a social phenomenon in how we be in this world with others and how we relate to the people about us. So in terms of awakening it means means to purposefully and creatively participate in the lives of others. To, you know, these inner qualities of wisdom, love and compassion, or personal power, finding skillful and fearless expression and benefiting others and bringing about you know the helping others in the most meaningful ways with the best possible outcomes.
So you know when Buddhism talks about awakening essentially what it’s talking about are wisdom, love and compassion, and a personal power and how these find fearless and skillful expression in our day daily lives. So that this becomes our orientation. This becomes our refuge. Now there’s a there’s a little paragraph about the Buddha and the fact that he was awake. And this is essentially what Buddhism is all about, to help us to awake from the grandiose dreams of our egos, to help us to wake from the half slumber of ignorance.
So in this, the Buddha is walking down a road. It is said that soon after the Buddha passed the man on the road who was struck by his extraordinary radiance and peacefulness of his presence. The man stopped and asked, My friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a god? No, said the Buddha.
Well then, are you some kind of magician or wizard? Again the Buddha answered no. Well my friend, what then are you? And the Buddha replied, I am awake. So this is what the word Buddha means.
The word Buddha is a Sanskrit term, literally means to awake, one who is awakened. You know, Śākyamūni Buddha, the historical Buddha, the source of our present teachings of Buddhism was one such person. You know, though he was a human being, he was not an ordinary human being. He was an awakened human being. Śākyamūni Buddha was not always an extraordinary human being.
He became an extraordinary human being by his own efforts to make manifest in himself what is potential in all of ourselves. So the awakened person is regarded as a paradigm, as being the highest possible way of being in the universe. It’s like the ultimate outcome of the Buddhist path. And it’s for this reason that Śākyamūni Buddha is revered. He’s looked to as with immense gratitude for setting an example for ourselves, know, for showing us way, for demonstrating what is possible.
Śākyamūni Buddha, in other words Śākyamūni Buddha is honored as a teacher, as an exemplar, as a guide, you know, as an ever present reminder of what we too are capable of becoming. It’s by appreciating his extraordinariness that we begin to better understand how deceptive our seemingly ordinariness really is. And we begin to better appreciate ourselves and what we too are capable of becoming. So by understanding how he achieved what he achieved then we are able to clearly understand how we can do the same. So the essential significance of Śākyamūni Buddha as what is called the jewel of Buddha is that and as a central object of Buddha’s faith is having fully experienced the same path that we too are trying to experience for ourselves.
Know in his having that path for himself he became a trustworthy guide for ourselves who are trying to, you know, to journey along that same path. What we have faith in, that will be our refuge. You know, where our heart lies, where our treasure lies, that’s where our heart will lie also. So Śākyamūni Buddha is, as a refuge, is looked upon as a shore of refuge. But the ultimate Buddha refuge, the ultimate jewel of Buddha is the Buddha within each of our own hearts, hidden away within each of our own hearts, at least for the present.
Know what this comes to mean is that our ultimate refuge is none other than each of our own eventual awakening, our own Buddhahood that each of us will eventually achieve. You know it is only this Buddha, ourselves as Buddha, who is able to help us in all situations at all times in all possible ways. You know, ultimately we go for refuge to something that we are the final transformation of. Something which lies with, at least in its seed form, within ourselves at present. And we have to have a kind of faith in that.
A faith in ourselves and the basic goodness ourselves and in the basic goodness of life itself, that we can change and we can become the best possible persons we can be. We aren’t always going to be this way, that things will be better, we will live a better world leading a better life. We have a kind of a faith, a trust in all that. And it inspires us and helps us to move toward what the priorities, those ways of being which we find most important, most meaningful and valuable for ourselves. But we have to do something, don’t we?
You know, it’s one thing to aspire, but it’s another thing to actually bring what you aspire to and just translate it into some kind of practical reality. And that’s the Dharma. We actually have to work with the means. We have to make these teachings our own. You know, there’s various realizations that the Buddha himself and herself, that many Buddhas of the path realized for themselves.
We too have to realize for each of ourselves. You know, I mean, that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You know, we have some methods to work with, but we have to implement those methods. We have to make use of them. Truth of things, most basically.
And this process that we’re talking about, this process of change, occurs within the social context of a spiritual community, the Sangha. And then we need others. Mental health is a social phenomena. We need others to inspire us, to advise us, to guide us, to share with us emotionally, spiritually, materially. And that we depend upon others, and they depend upon ourselves.
So these are what the Buddhisms call our refuge. That is they necessarily have to involve some kind of priorities in our life. You know the inner focus of our life becomes Buddha, which we implement by means of the Dharma in the social context of the Sangha. But again and again trying to raise the level of our motivation, you know, the why behind and the purpose for all of what we do. It’s a hard one.
It’s a hard one. We’re so habituated to our egocentricity, our self centeredness, our selfishness, our exaggerated self concern that we can’t think of any other way to lead our lives but in terms of what’s in it for me and oftentimes at the expense and exclusion of others. But if we examine it, and Buddhism is asking us again and again examine our life and how it’s being led, we might begin to see some feeling, some inkling that maybe this exaggerated self concern, I’m number one, center of the universe approach to our life just isn’t working. That maybe there really is an alternative, another way. And we have to begin somewhere in some kind of practical reality, you know, if only one other person.
We can’t become a Buddha for ourselves alone. The very struggle for that becomes an obstacle to its achievement. But the moment we open our hearts to even one other person, in some as best altruistically as possible, setting aside what’s in it for ourselves, what’s in it for me, then Buddhahood is possible. Another way of being is possible. In that very moment, there’s some kind of peace in our heart.
There’s a taste of liberation. The tight bound in these chains are self concern. This me, me, me, my, my, my, my, my, mantra that keeps running through our head. In that moment, there’s a release of our hearts and a possibility for real change for the better in our lives. So you can think, is there one other person who you’d like to be there for?
Not what’s in it for you as best you can, setting aside your own agendas, own material, but simply wanting to make another person happy. Maybe it’s a parent, maybe it’s a partner, maybe a child. It’s not so important who, but just at least one other person in your life exists in that way for you and bringing them to mind again and again and making your spiritual path as a means to be a benefit to them in addition to yourself. And then, you know, at least we’re heading in the right direction. And then we’re going beyond this reinforcing a lot of dysfunctional ways of thinking, those types of thinking and being which haven’t gotten us anywhere.
And we can feel, we can rest assured that we’re going to be better people living a better life and a better world for having done that. And we simply begin to accustom ourselves to that way of thinking, that way of being in our world, in our life. And it becomes like a style of how we lead our life. And then things will get better. We can feel confident in that.
We can have some kind of faith in that. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity and the other perfections may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity and the other perfections, may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings.
I go for refuge until I’m awakened to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Through my practice of generosity and the other perfections, may I become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. May all sentient beings have happiness in the causes of happiness. May all sentient beings be free from suffering in the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings be inseparable from the joy that is without sorrow.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for some and aversion toward others. Reverently I prostrate with my body, speech and mind, represent clouds of every type of offering those actually arranged and imagined. I disclose all my negative actions accumulated during beginningless time and rejoice in all the virtues of superiors and ordinary beings. Please remain until the end of cyclic existence and turn the wheel of dharma for migrating beings. I dedicate all virtue, my own and that of others, to the great awake.
If you’d like to stand up and stretch before we do, you’re welcome. So you know we we kind of as part of our practice one of our fundamental practices is mindfulness and using the breath as a skillful object and the cultivation of mindfulness. And I thought we’d carry that a little bit further this evening in our meditation. Mindfulness essentially is a systematic cultivation of attention a type of attention which is we learn how to pay better attention. Asking ourselves, you know, what am I actually experiencing in the present moment?
Bringing ourselves back to our actual lived experience. And we can, you know, we use this, we use our breath as a way of cultivating this style of being. You know, in a way there are two modes that we live our life with. One is the doing mode and the other is being mode. And most of us have become habituated to the doing mode and which is quite necessary in practical means.
You know we have ideas, we have goals for ourselves, and we implement the means in our various ways that we do in achieving those goals. But in this goal orientation and bringing about these ends that continually struggling in one way or another to achieve, more than not we’ve lost the art of being. Just the present moment is enough. I’m enough. What I’m experiencing is enough, is sufficient.
I need no more. I have enough. Learning simply to abide in the present moment with the quality of the present moment I think is a real life skill. And that’s what this practice of mindfulness can help us to reorientate ourselves with, being with the present moment, whatever it might be. It might be listening to a friend.
It might be eating a meal. It might be watching your breath, learning how to pay better attention. So I thought we would refine that ability in terms of paying attention. So I’m just going to ask you to work through an exercise. We’re just simply going to, for example, look at the location of where this sensation of the breath is most obvious and clear to ourselves.
And we’re going to watch to see if that location moves just to help us to sharpen our attention. We can look at the direction of the movement. We can look at the relative length of the movement of the breath. And there’s various just simply an exercise to help us sharpen our attention. Okay, so first we’ll start with just a general relaxation of the body, working through the body, grounding ourselves in the body, and then we’ll practice the six part breath exercise, and then we’ll practice our mindfulness of breath.
And just coming to focus on wherever the physical sensation is naturally associated with the breath is most clear and obvious to yourself. And then after some time then we’ll just simply we’re going to work with some exercises with regard to that focus of our attention on that sensation of the breath. So taking a comfortable firm posture. We’re getting in touch with the body starting at the crown of the head, the forehead, the scalp, feeling the wrinkles in your brow beginning to smooth out. The pressure in and around your eyes diminishing.
The muscles of your face softening, relaxing. The jaw is relaxed. I’m bringing your awareness to the back of your neck, perhaps gently turning your head to each side a few times. Just very gently stretching, loosening the muscles of the back of the neck. And bring your awareness to your upper back and shoulders.
Perhaps rotating your shoulders a few times, Lifting them and allowing them to drop comfortably to the sides. Feeling this burden, this weight that we carry around on our back moving down and through your body into the ground. And bring your awareness all the way down to your hands. Your hands are soft and loose. Relaxing your lower arms.
And your upper arms. Your chest is at ease. Relaxing through the heart throughout the heart area and the lungs and the central region of the back. The back, your stomach, and releasing the tension that we often hold in our stomach muscles, allowing your belly to go soft. Relaxing throughout the abdominal cavity.
And keeping your back straight, your trunk erect, relax your lower back muscles. And your buttocks. And your upper legs. Thighs. Your lower legs, And your feet.
Bring your awareness to your body in general. Just scanning through your body briefly. Notice any tightnesses, any tensions within the body, any areas of discomfort. Focusing on those particular areas, consciously relaxing, softening, softening, feeling the tension diminish, the tightness loosen. If there’s an area of discomfort, don’t resist it.
Don’t struggle against it. Be kind to yourself. It’s part of who you are at present. Surround it with a gentle acceptance. Acceptance.
It’s okay. Allow it to be there. Your body becoming comfortable, at ease. A feeling of physical well-being pervading your entire body. It feels good to be in your body.
Just be with your body. Stay with your body. Nowhere to go. Nothing to do. Nothing needs to be thought about.
Just be your body. Stay with your awareness of the body. Just rest in your body. And we’ll practice the six part breath exercise. Breathing in comfortably, normally.
Breathing out, extending the exhalation. Completely emptying your lungs of air. Again, breathe in comfortably normally again, extending exhalation, doing this six times individually. And when you’ve completed the breath exercise, bring your mind to the breath. Where ver the sensation associated with the natural breathing is most clear and obvious to yourself.
If it’s helpful, can use the techniques of counting and noting the breaths. Bring your mind back to the breath. Sitting up straight in tall like a mountain. Now we’re going to work through a number of exercises in refining our attention. We’ll begin by looking at the location.
Where is the location of the sensation associated with your breath. Pay attention to that location and see if it doesn’t move around over time. Watch the location of the sensation closely for some time and be aware if it moves. And we’re going to direct our attention toward the direction of the movement of the sensation. Is that sensation that you’re focusing on, is it moving in and out?
Does it move up and down? Does it move from side to side? What is the direction of movement? And does that direction of movement, does it change over time? Be aware of direction of movement, that’s the sensation of the breath.
The direction of movement. Now we’re going to look at the relative length of the in breath and the out breath. Is the in breath longer than the out breath or is the out breath longer than in breath? Or are they equal? And does that length, that relative length, does that change over time?
So watch, pay careful attention, and be aware of the relative length of the breaths. The length of the in breath, the length of the out breath. Which is longer? Which is shorter? And does that change over time?
Pay attention to the length of the breath. I’m going to look at the degree of clarity. Which is most obvious and clear to you? Is sensations of the in breath or the sensations of the out breath? Or they’re about equal.
Which is most clear and obvious? And then finally, we’ll look at boundaries of the in breath and the boundaries of the out breath. See if you can notice the beginning of the in breath, the end of the in breath, the beginning of the out breath and the end of the out breath. Can you be aware of when you begin to breathe in and when the in breath stops, when you begin to breathe out and when the out breath stops? The boundaries of the in breath and out breath pay attention to those.
Watch closely. Pay careful attention. Are you interfering with your breath? Are you breathing deeper than you normally do in order to strengthen the sensation? If you are, then stop interfering with your breath.
Just allow the body to breathe itself. And then get in touch with your body, some feeling sensation within the body, perhaps feeling of your buttocks on the cushion, the chair, your feet on the floor, some sensation feeling within the body. And in a relaxed and easy manner, become aware of your surrounding, taking your time. So we’re doing something of a review. We’re going to begin the third of the three principal aspects of the path, the awakened mind.
But before that we do that we’re going just we’re going briefly over the first two principal aspects of the path. The first being the will to awaken, this determination to be free, to change, to get ourselves unstuck, simply most. And what kinds of changes do we want to bring about in our life? We want to awaken our hearts and our minds most essentially, ultimately. And in his text, Tsongkhapa is telling us how we can begin to go about doing that.
Freedom and richnesses are hard to find, and life does not last long. So freedom and richnesses, you know, beginning to count our blessings, that we have everything we need. There’s no reason for us to wait for something else, for better conditions, for something else to come along. We have both the internal and external conditions necessary to bring about the kinds of changes we want to make in our lives. But this opportunity to bring about these kinds of changes isn’t going to last forever.
Our life does not last long. This introduces the notion of death. The reason that we contemplate death is to help us to appreciate our life most essentially, to help us to get our priorities straight. In the face of death, a lot of our seemingly important preoccupations pale into insignificance. We get we get we come up with what is most important to ourselves.
In in this way, death becomes like an ally. It keeps whispering, you know, in our ear. What is most important for you? And are you living that out in your everyday life because you aren’t going to be here forever? So we went through this nine-round death meditation to help us to overcome our misconception that we’re going to live forever, that somehow we’re immortal, or that even if we were to accept our mortality, that death is some vague and far distant future.
It’s not going to happen anytime soon. Is time enough? We don’t know. Death is inevitable. The time of our death is unpredictable, and at the time of our death, the only thing that’s going to be of any benefit to ourselves is the development of our own mind.
All the material necessities and entertainments that we expend our energy and time gathering and pursuing at the moment of our death won’t be of any use to ourselves. And even our loved ones, those who sincerely want to benefit ourselves, they can’t go with us. And even our own body, which we take such good care of, which we clothe and give the best food and spend so much time in making it comfortable. At the time of our death, it’s going to be like a piece of meat in a butcher’s shop window. It’ll be of no use to us.
Only, you know, there’s a I think it was the sixth sixth Dalai Lama said, all that is written with ink on a page can be lost with the workings of a single drop of water. But what is written in your mind is there for eternity. So, you know, the only thing that’s going to go forward is what we have written in our mind, the biography of our life, and the quality of our ways of thinking and speaking and behaving, and the development of our own mind. So I, you know, this to kind of bring this home perhaps a little more, this is a review. So we went into some detail originally when we talked about this, but I’m talking about the dying process because it makes it plausible.
You know, as I think I probably mentioned last week, in the in the West we identify life with the body. And when the body with the demise of the body, body, the I, the person, the life ceases. That’s pretty much the notion of our thinking around rebirth and so forth. But if we can begin to see some kind of mechanism beyond the body, perhaps the notion of rebirth might take on some kind of real significance for ourselves. We can open ourselves to the possibility that death death is not the end of it all.
And thereby we might take up we might take the notion of creating a better future life for ourselves in a more serious fashion. So this ordinary physical form, this body composed of all the material elements, it’s inevitably going to it’s subject to inevitable decay and a deterioration and finally it’s going to die. So all the causes of death, due to old age at the end of our life or whether it be due to accidental causes or some occurrences in the course of our life. Whether we have a natural lifespan or is there some unseen, untimely interruption in the course of our life are all due to the power of our karma. Any outward happening which might be viewed as an apparent cause of our death is seen as a cooperative condition.
The deeper causes of our death, interruption is an interruption to the life sustaining karma which maintains our existence, which maintains our life. So, you know, these cells of our body are controlled by karma and we’re going to talk a little bit about karma in doing our review. Any breakdown of the cells, you know, either naturally or by disease is due to a breakdown in the continuum of the karmic flow, is supporting this body, this entity. You know, that which is, you know, we’re being sustained by this karmic flow, the shaping of our body, the maintenance of our body. And each of these cells in turn is a combination of the four elements, you know, earth, water, fire and wind energy.
So the, you know, four elements are like four forces or principles which work to support our form. So, you know, for example, earth element is the principle of solidity and hardness, you know, that which the maintenance of a physical structure, that which keeps this pattern of this configuration maintained over time. So all the, you know, we’re talking about all the dense, solid, hard parts of the body, the flesh, the bones, the skin, the teeth, the hair and so forth. These are predominantly constituted of the earth element. The water element is the principle of cohesion, that which binds all of these elements together.
You know, fluids and the flowing substances of the body, you know, the blood, the lymph, the saliva, the urine, and so forth. The the the fire element is the warmth of the body, you know, that the measure of the average entity of of vibration at a micro scale within our bodies. And then finally, the principle of wind energy. So this is the principle of motility or movement. You know, which animates the body, you know, the, the, the currents of energy which flow through our body and the, and the energy that we’re taking in by way of the air that we breathe into our body.
But all the movements within in the body itself, the flowing of the blood, the swallowing of saliva. These are all and most importantly is that the wind energy serves as a vehicle for consciousness. So these all these elements in various combinations, they constitute our body. All of that we come to know, all the things about us, including our body, are evolutes of these four principles. These all serve as a basis for gross mind.
And coming to an understanding there is some kind of plausibility of the mechanism of rebirth, it’s important that we begin to develop a sense of the notion that there are various levels of mind. Is gross mind, subtle mind, and extremely subtle mind, a very subtle mind. So the elements, this physical embodiment is associated with gross minds. By gross minds we mean the six gross consciousnesses. By the six gross consciousnesses we mean the five gross sense consciousnesses: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body sense consciousness.
You know, the eye consciousness which sees colors and shapes. The ear consciousness which hears sounds and so forth. So these are all dependent upon, are intimately connected with the gross embodiment. The sixth consciousness is the mental consciousness. And this acts to coordinate all this input from the other consciousnesses in conjunction with thoughts and images and so forth.
But there is another level of embodiment and there is a corresponding more subtle level of consciousness which is associated with that particular level of embodiment. You know, this is the body which is constituted of channels, wind energies, and drops. So within the the the channels are there are seventy two, said to be seventy two thousand pathways within the body. These are the channels within the body. You know, this this elaborate structure of wind energy pathways and they’re arrayed along the central axis of the central channel within the body.
There are five channel centers, you know, moving from the mid brow upward and down to the genitals. Or sometimes these channel centers are referred to as chakras. And from this radiates out all the various channel pathways of the body. And these branch out, keeping branching out until they’re said to be, there’s a total of seventy two thousand channels in the body. And these serve as a pathway for the wind energies to move throughout the body.
So the wind energies themselves has a it can mean anything from the wind, the actual air that we breathe in and out, but also in a more subtle level, the wind energies, the energies that are flowing within our body. These are instrumental in all the various functions of consciousness. So the energies are like a cooperative condition for consciousnesses. in dependence upon the level of wind energies, we will develop a corresponding level of consciousness. So in dependence upon gross wind energies, we develop a gross level of consciousness.
in dependence upon a more subtle level of wind energy, there is supported upon that a more subtle level of consciousness. And then finally in terms of the subtle level of body, are not only are there channels, wind energies, but also drops. And these are said to be something like the pure essence of the essential fluids from our parents. From our from our father had said that we we inherit a white drop and from our our mother had said that we inherit a red drop. These combine together to make the original form of our body, of our physical form.
But there is another level of consciousness. There is another level of body and therefore another level of consciousness which depends upon that more subtle level of body. And this very subtle body is a very subtle life sustaining energy. And this serves as a basis for the correspondingly very subtle consciousness. This very subtle consciousness is called the mind of clear light.
It is said that together this very subtle subtle mind wind energy in combination with extremely subtle or very subtle mind resides at the heart center, you know, within the central channel of our bodies. And this is what you know, when this gross body ceases, the body shuts down. And with that, all of the gross consciousness which depend upon the gross body. As death process continues, the subtle body begins to deteriorate, to begin to shut down. And likewise, that subtle level of consciousness which depends upon the subtle body, it too ceases to function.
But there is a very subtle level of consciousness which depends upon the very subtle level of wind energy. It is this which goes on to take rebirth. It is the bare minimum of essential life. Essentially dying is the separation of this very subtle wind energy combination with very subtle consciousness. It begins begins to shut down gradually from the grosser to the more subtle.
And with that there is a ceasing of the function of consciousness from the gross to the very subtle until we come down to the very subtle wind energy in combination with this very subtle consciousness. When the bond between that and our physical embodiment ceases, when it weakens and finally separates, that is death. That most subtle wind energy in combination with subtle most consciousness is us, is I. Why? Because it carries written upon it our evolution ary history.
It carries the carry of what we call karmic seeds. So it is unique to each of us. It is this entry and due to the force of karma, force of karma, which is driving this consciousness and the afflictive emotions of craving and grasping, that this consciousness is drawn into a fertilized ovum of our future parents. It is the entry into the fertilized ovum of the subtlest consciousness in combination with the subtlest energy which constitutes rebirth. Okay, what you okay.
You know, that gives us some sense of mechanism of the diff but we’re getting some sense of there are varying levels of consciousness. And with that, there is there is a level of consciousness which is not dependent upon the gross body. Therefore, even with the demise of the gross body, still there is, you know, this jampa, this person that I’ve grown to know so well with this particular physical embodiment, he will cease. He will be no more. But something else will go on.
And there’s an intimate connection between that something else and myself. You know, I played a part in shaping who this something else is and the quality of what they will become. On this, you we have this combination of subtlest mind energy and subtle most consciousness. It’s a lot to say every time, anyway, this combination. This is minimal basis for labeling I.
I am not my body. I am not my mind. I have a body. I am not the body. I have a mind.
I am not the mind. And we talked about the logic of this previously. I is continually imputed, labeled. You know, just like a newborn baby. You know, you have a body and mind.
And they say, What should we call this baby? And the parents make it, they decide, Let’s call it Johnny John. Okay. So they give it the name John and then it becomes known to everyone as John. When, you know, when they see the baby they say there’s John.
So John is a human being. It’s not a name. A name is sound. It’s a word. John is a human being.
But John is dependent upon that body and mind. But he is not the body. He’s neither body nor mind. But John’s existence is is dependent upon that body and mind. John is dependent upon this particular body and mind.
When this body and mind ceases, John ceases. But there is a subtle level, this combination in which the I, the self, the being is continually being labeled. It, you know, this, it will, by the force of karma and craving and grasping, it will reassociate itself with a grosser physical embodiment. In dependence upon the grosser physical embodiment, we label I, self, person, jampa. When that gross physical embodiment, when the connection between the subtle most consciousness and mind, when it weakens and finally separates, that grosser level of embodiment, along with those grosser levels of consciousness, cease to function and deteriorate and return to the elements.
But this combination never dependent upon that gross level. And it will continue on by the force of karma and craving and grasping to reassociate itself with another physical gross embodiment. It could be that of a dog. And dependence upon that dog’s physical anatomy, that physicality of that dog, it will generate an appropriate coarse consciousness or mentality of a dog. Then when the energy which maintains that bond, between that gross embodiment and the subtle most combinations weakens and finally ceases, then that gross embodiment ceases and that gross consciousness ceases.
But this combination continues to move on according to the karma, according to the effect of emotions of craving and grasping. So there’s a continuity from life to life to life of a subtle most I, a mere I, continuing on. And it reassociates and disassociates, reassociates and disassociates with various physical gross embodiments. You know this is what it means to say, I was born as a dog, I was born as a human, and I was born as a cat, cockroach, then I was born as a human. There are these various physical gross embodiments which is associating with and disassociating, continue over and over time, endlessly.
But there is a continuity of a mere I. And upon that mere I, this combination of subtle most consciousness and subtle most energy, it was like a rider on a horse, is written upon it all of the various actions. It’s particular to us in the development of our own mind and all the kinds of karma that we’re continually creating, the various actions that we involve ourselves in. So it’s very unique. It is us.
That’s who I am most essentially. So, you know, the idea of the notion of rebirth comes down to where does the first moment of consciousness come from? That’s where the notion, the proof of rebirth comes, comes down to. You have a moment of conception, the first moment of consciousness, from where does that first moment of consciousness come? The materialist would hold that it comes from the brain, the nervous system, the body essentially.
Everyone would agree that nowhere in all of nature does something come from nothing. It’s always preceded by something similar in type to itself. Nor we would, at least in the non theistic interpretation of life, that we hold that it was created by a creator God. So where does that consciousness come from? The material that’s hold, it comes from the body.
Now there is always within nature a similarity between a result and its cause. So what is the essential nature of mind? It is that which is clear and knowing. This word clear can be taken in various interpretations, but one interpretation, one meaning is it’s non physical. The mind is non physical, non material and knowing.
That’s the essential quality of mind. The essential quality of matter is its physical. So within nature and we can check this out and it’s useful to examine this and reflect upon it, there is always a similarity of type between a result and its cause. Fire doesn’t come from water. All the various types of, you know, whatever we can think of in terms of the things about us, we can always trace them back to some cause which is similar in type to itself.
Now what Buddhism is saying is that that the first moment of consciousness necessarily has a preceding cause. It didn’t come from nothing and moreover that cause must be similar type to itself. There is only one other thing that which is similar in type consciousness. That is to say that which is non physical and knowing. Space is non physical, but it’s not knowing.
Matter is physical and moreover is not knowing. So they’re saying Buddhism is trying to come get across the idea that the first moment of mind of this life must have a cause and that cause must be similar in type to itself and that cause can only be the last moment of mind in the preceding life within the continuum of that individual. The last moment of mind in our preceding life was the direct cause for the first moment of mind in our present life. It’s similar to matter. You know, even the physicists are up against the wall with this one.
You know, where did the first atom come from? That first bit of matter. Buddhism would say there was no first moment of matter. That matter must had had a cause similar in type to itself. And that that preceding cause was a previous moment of matter.
That mind is beginningless. It it, you know, this is, I think, a very difficult notion for us to wrap our minds around. I grant that. But each of our continuums of mind, if we trace back, it always had a preceding cause. We will never find that first cause.
Likewise, with regard to material universe. You know, Buddhism would go along with the Big Bang theory. This universe, you know, had a beginning, but there are infinite numbers of universes and more universes are coming to existence and going out of existence in infinite numbers of times. But if we were to trace back, we would never find the first moment of matter. We would never find the first atom.
Each necessarily has a cause similar type to itself, a previous moment of matter. Matter and mind are not convertible one to another. They each have their separate continuums. They are coming together of body and mind and then they separate, come together and separate. Because death is primarily seen as the demise of the body and associating the I with the body, we naturally think death is the demise of the I.
But as I try to maybe demonstrate in some rough and superficial manner, we have never been our bodies, we have never been our mind. And moreover, we are labeled to both our body and mind, just like John is labeled to the body and mind of this baby. And moreover, this consciousness to which we are labeled is beginningless. And this wind energy which is associated with it, in its subtle most level, it too is beginningless. So in this verse where Tsongkhapa is saying that life does not last long, he’s trying to point out that our priorities have to change, that we have to expand our perspective in some way.
You know, the, you know, the doctrine of rebirth, if it is taken seriously, holds the implication that death is not the easy relief from sorrow that many of us imagine it to be. That it’s not the going out of existence, you know, like the blowing out of a candle flame. It’s gone. That minimally we must come to some extent take into account the prospects of future lives as well. You know, creating for ourselves, know, putting some time, some energy, some into creating for ourselves a platform, you know, conditions necessary whereby we’ll be able to carry on our practice from life to life to you know, this journey that we’re all on, whether we’re aware of it or not.
You know, just as we, you know, we put our some of our money at least in a super fund, a pension fund, you know, that can take care of the latter portion of this life. In terms of our priorities and gaining some kind of perspective, in putting something aside for our next life in terms of what we do and how the types of karma that we’re creating for ourselves so that we can carry on our practice uninterruptedly in our future lives as well. So we’re trying to change our priorities to some degree in some ways so we don’t get completely caught up in each tree as we come to it. We’re stepping back and getting some kind of perspective on our lives, not only this life but many lives. So in the next verse, know, Tsongkhapa is going to help us, you know, as a means for altering our priorities still further, you know, broadening our perspective still further.
You know, it it is a means for, you know, the means by taking this notion of human liberation a little more seriously. You know, I find it some, you know, rather than dealing with our problems piecemeal, you know, coming to each tree, dealing with that one by one by one, beginning to see the forest of our problems and beginning to to deal with the fundamental problem of the human condition. You know, what it means to be an ordinary human being, what it means to be a sentient being living a life under the control of karma and afflictive emotions. So here Tsongkhapa says, Thinking again and again about the unvarying relation between actions and their effects and the sufferings of cyclic existence will alter the priority you give to future lives. So, you know, we’re trying to gain perspective, we’re trying to change our priorities, we’re trying to change.
First, in terms of this life, beginning to take into consideration the possibilities of future lives and therefore altering our actions, how we’re going to expend our time and energies, we’re going to make use of our lives, keeping in mind in some degree or some manner or way or other that this isn’t going to be the easy end, that we’re going to continue on and making some kind of provision for that in our thinking and the way we lead our lives. But now Tsongkhapa say, let’s step back even a bit further. That no matter within this system that’s called cyclic existence, this continual cycles of this perpetual dissatisfaction one way or another that we’re continually experiencing the human condition or the condition of a life lived under the force of karma and afflictive emotions that even at the best is not good enough. It’s always flawed. There’s it never we never get exactly what it is that we’re looking for at a deeper level in our heart of hearts.
So maybe we can begin to take up the the notion of liberation from this in a more serious manner. So Tsongkhapa says, thinking again and again about the unvarying relation between actions and their effects. So this involves reflecting upon karma. Our actions are causes and the effects of the causes in terms of our experience. Not just our immediate experience, but the long range effects of what we do.
You know, as you sow, so shall you reap, that kind of notion. So we have to begin to look at our karma. But also, Tsongkhapa says, and the sufferings of cyclic existence. So, you know, this involves getting some kind of perspective on our problems. Overcoming our addictions to ignorance driven existence.
You know, this this tendency, this to reify ourselves, that our struggle to maintain a sense of solidity, you know, of a self, independent self, you know, the maintenance of an unchanging identity of who we think we are. I’m this person, I’m this much beautiful, I’m this much intelligent, I can expect this much happiness out of life. What I’m worthy of, what I’m not worthy of, the kind of mentality we have set out for ourselves and the kind of world, you know, this kind of self fulfilling prophecy about what we’re going to experience in the course of our lives and who it is that’s actually experiencing it. So, you know, what goes on to take rebirth is the continuum of the very subtle wind energy in combination with the being, you know, with our mind. This is the being.
So this continuum is conditioned by our past actions. You know, as I mentioned, is written in your mind is written there for eternity. Our actions leave a residue on our mind. What we think, what we say, what we do, it just doesn’t end there with the thinking, with the saying, with the doing. Some kind of impression is left upon our mind, residue.
And karma is situated within the Buddhist understanding of the natural law of cause and effect, which operates throughout the universe. The things and events as well as our own experiences come about through causes. They are a result of a combination of causes and conditions. They are not, they don’t happen by chance, by accident, and they aren’t the creation of a supreme deity. So what makes karma unique within the general law of cause and effect is that it involves intentional actions.
It is an agent. We are agents of actions. So, you know, the natural law of cause and effect, you know, operating in the world, you know, where fire rises from wood, where where, you know, flowers grow from seeds, where mountains are worn down by water. This is not term karma. You know, there is no agent involved in this.
It’s just the natural process within the world. In order for a causal process to be karmic, it must involve an individual’s intention. This intention leads to a particular action. Our actions are causes and they initiate a series of reactions, the end result of which we ourselves as the agent of that original action undergo some type of result, a particular experience, for better or worse, depending upon the quality of that action, that intention. So karma is concerned with the relationship between causes and effects internal to sentient beings, to people like ourselves.
So, you know, whether, you know, like you have a tree, a limb falls down from the tree, that’s simply external operation the law of cause and effect in the natural world. But a person standing beneath that tree and that limb falling upon them, that is explained in terms of that individual’s karma. So the mechanism in which an individual’s intention, like motivation. That’s why we always talk about motivation at the beginning of our talks, beginning of our practice. Because it is the quality of that intention, the motivation, which is very much going to determine the quality of the result.
An individual’s intention leads to a particular bodily or verbal action, activity, work. This leaves an impression upon the mind, some kind of seed is implanted within the mind. That process of intention and leaving of a residue upon the mind and that very seed itself, this is what we mean by karma. When this seed meets with the proper activating condition, some type of result will be experienced. And that quality of that result will correspond to the quality, the nature of the causal karma.
So we discussed karma. We discussed karma in general and we discussed it in particular ways. In general we can talk about what is called the four general principles of karma. So the first of these general principles is the certainty of karma. So happiness and unhappiness are invariably the respective results of positive and negative karma.
And there is never an inconsistency with regard to this correspondence between correspondence between the nature of the cause in terms of our actions and the nature of our result, our lived experience. From positive karma comes happiness. In other words, from negative karma comes unhappiness. It’s not as if there’s no one overseeing this. There’s no punishment.
It’s just variables bringing about predictable outcomes. What we mean by negative karma are those types of actions which bring about undesirable results. What we mean by positive karma are those types of actions which bring about desirable results. That’s all we mean. There’s no moral judgment being made.
If it didn’t matter what we experience, it wouldn’t matter what you do. But the fact is it does matter what we experience. Therefore it does matter what you do. That there is this consistency between the ethical quality of our actions and the exponential result of what we actually go through in terms of happiness and suffering. This is what the Buddha was mostly interested in.
Now whether God exists, you know, the nature of the universe, you know, left that to the theologians. He was interested in the problem of suffering. Anyway, is life just a bitch and then we die? This was a pressing question for him. Because, you know, we can argue till the cows come home about the nature of God and so forth.
But we can’t, no one can reasonably argue that none of us want the suffering, that we all want to be happy. That’s pretty well accepted by us all. And so given that, that it matters what we do because we want to be happy. And from the Buddhist perspective, you know, what is why does shit happen? You know, all the philosophers since the beginning of this time have been trying to figure this one out.
Is it just the verities of life, you know? Or is it God intervening? Is it simply by, you know, serendipity? It just happens, accident. Be terrible if it was, wouldn’t it?
Then we wouldn’t least, you know, know, that we wouldn’t all of it has a sense it’s beyond our control, whether it’s in the God or whether it’s by accident. Buddhism is saying it’s within our control. It’s not by accident nor is it in the hands of the supreme deity. It is our own hands in terms of our own behavior, our own thinking, our own ways of speaking and acting. The second principle of karma is that the general principle is magnification of karma.
And this was the notion that even from insignificant actions come about, you know, highly increased results, both positive and negative. The third principle or general principle of karma is that action not performed, its results will not be experienced. This simply means that if we do not create a cause, we will not experience the effect of that non created cause. If you want a specific type of result, then we necessarily must create the causes to bring about that result. I mean this is pretty logical thinking in a way, it’s just common common sense.
But then common sense isn’t always that common, you know. If you don’t want to experience a particular result, then stop creating the causes. Don’t bring it around. That’s the notion here. And then, fortunately, the fourth general principle of karma is that karma is not dissipated.
And this has or sometimes the word that’s used is wasted. karma is not wasted. That is to say that, you know, that all the various actions, what we say, what we think, what we do, leaves some kind of impression, some kind of residue on the mind. We call these karmic seeds. It’s a useful term.
It has the idea of some kind of potency that when activated brings some kind of result, like a flower seed, bringing about a flower. That kind of notion. And moreover, this is not going to be lost. It’s not going to deteriorate over time. It’s not going be lost in the shuffle of taking rebirths.
It’s there, written in your mind for eternity. And this is going to be we’ll talk a little bit more about this even in this review it’s activated upon by a countervailing agent, a destructive agent. So what is written in our mind, and we have so much written in our mind, volumes and volumes written in our mind, is going to remain there. And it’s going to remain there. Then we discuss karma from particular points of view, you know, particular categories of karma as a means of, you know, these general principles and finding some application in our everyday life, putting these general principles into practice.
So, you know, human mind has countless thoughts and out of these thoughts arise countless actions. So in order to formulate virtually an infinite variety of actions into a system that we could easily understand, that we could learn and practice, the Buddha condensed all the most easily occurring and the heaviest types of karma into general categories of what’s called the ten negative paths of karma and they’re opposite, the ten positive paths of karma. So the ten positive paths of karma or actions, they oppose or prevent the ten negative. Okay? They’re antidotes for the ten negative.
So, you know, we have to in order to create a positive action, in order to create one of these ten positive paths of karma, we have to know, well, what are the ten negative paths of karma? What are the consequences of those ten negative paths of karma? And based upon that understanding, We use our discriminating wisdom to oppose those negative attitudes, our habitual ways of acting which aren’t in our best interest. So what are the ten negative paths of karma? Know, we begin there are three of body killing, stealing, sexual misconduct four of speech lying, divisive speech, harsh speech and senseless speech.
And then three of mind, harmful covetousness, harmful intention, and wrong view. So these are termed the ten negative paths of karma. We can talk about what is called a complete path of karma. In its complete form it is the heaviest form of that particular action. And what do we mean by a complete action?
In talking about a complete action, if we can use the basis illustrating it. Oh my goodness. I’ll just finish this very quickly. On the basis of killing, okay? So I said that the various negative paths of karma, the first one, there were three of body, the first one is killing.
But there is what’s called a complete path of action. And complete makes it the heaviest type, heaviest form of that action. So if we talk about the components of a complete path of action in terms of killing. The first is that there’s a basis. So a basis, we’re going to name four.
It takes four components for a complete path of action. The first is basis, somebody to kill naturally enough. We need to, you know, if there’s nobody to kill, we can’t have a complete path of action of killing them. The Buddhists, they don’t leave anything, no stone unturned, you know. The second is thought, okay, thought.
The thought has three parts and this is important and I’ll explain why this is important, why I’m pointing this out. Is that first there has to be this thought has three parts. It is a recognition, that is a clear and unmistaken recognition of the object to be killed. The second is motivation, that the state of mind in which you fully intend to kill. And the third is some kind of afflictive emotion.
You you can kill out ignorance, you can kill out of hatred, you can kill out of attachment. And then that’s the second, which had three parts. The third component is the actual action itself. You actually have to do it. And we’re talking about complete path of action.
And fourth, the sentient being has has to die. Now the reason I went through all that is because we kill. We kill almost every day. When you drive your car, you kill. You know, that’s the human condition.
We bring harm even if we don’t intend to. Now in terms of the of our what are the common consequences of such a way of acting? We’re killing. If we if we were to, you know, make use of this formula of these four parts to complete that action, what we’ll see is that in terms of thought there was no intention. So it is intention and motivation which is the most powerful of these four components.
So even though we had a basis, maybe we ran over an insect on the way here, probably, or a worm at least, yeah, even though we actually killed, there was the actual commission of driving over the insect, the worm. And even though the actual worm died, there was no intention, there was no motivation. It said that there will be, it is a neutral karma, there will be no karmic consequence. So, you know, we went through the ramifications of this understanding. You know, even if we have to kill, you know, you know, for example, white ants are eating your home.
Problem. That’s the nature of our situation. And you can’t say you don’t intend to kill them, but at least reduce the force of your motivation, you know. And we’re going to talk about developing a sense, you know, and not rejoicing, Well, the exterminator really did a great job. I’m glad I got rid of those.
You know, you can do it with a sense of regret. You know, I need my shelter. I need my house. I’d rather not regret, you know, I’ve got to do this. I feel it’s necessary.
And so your intention isn’t quite as strong and your motivation isn’t quite as afflicted. And there is so therefore the karmic and there but in the end there is a karmic consequence. Know, it’s not as quite it’s not as strong as otherwise would be the case. Yeah. We’re gonna continue more with karma next week, okay?
We’re going talk about the fact that and this is important for us, you know, that we have all these karmic imprints, these seeds, even the ones we can’t remember, but even moreover, the ones that we’ve created from our past lives are within our present mental continuum. When it’s just like a seed, when it’s planted on the earth, and when it meets the correct, proper and appropriate cooperative conditions like water, soil, and so forth, that seed is activated, that potency is translated in some kind of physical expression. The seed grows to a plant and flowers. Likewise, we have all these various seeds in our mind at present. But we can do something about them.
And this is important, you know, that we we karma isn’t predestination. You know, we we can begin to make choices and we can begin to take control, both in the types of karma that we create and, you know, but we don’t have to let our past undo our future. There there we can intervene in the process. So anyway, we’ll talk a lot about that next week, okay? So it said that, you know, we created some positive karma tonight.
You know, we developed some kind of positive intention for our listening and for our discussing in the ways that we do. And with that positive attitude, all of the actions which flow from that, you know, our listening, sitting in terms of our physical posture and so forth, all become positive. And we’re that there and we’re going to talk more about this. You know, one of the four general principles of karma was the actions are not dissipated, but there was a qualification unless acted upon by a countervailing force. With regard to positive actions, one of those countervailing forces is anger.
Anger and so forth or even regret, negative regret or misguided regret can weaken and destroy the positive karma that we create. One way that helps us to ensure that this positive karma, which we create so little of, isn’t destroyed by all this anger that we’re so accustomed to, is by dedicating it. You give it some direction. Dedication is a particular mental function of the mind, a mental factor of the mind. It is that which directs toward a mind which is directed toward a goal.
What we aspire to. It could be something very mundane. You aspire to, you know, to graduate from college or to earn more money, you it could be that. But also, we can aspire to something beyond that, and we can have a greater vision of why what we might become. We can dedicate it. We can aspire to liberation, to helping others, to Buddhahood.
And within that, we associate this positive energy of this karma that we created, becomes associated with that mental factor of aspiration, such that the karmic force of this action will facilitate the achievement of that goal of what it is that we aspire to. You know, the finest thing that we can aspire to and the best way we can make use of the positive actions that we do create is by dedicating to perfect and complete Buddha, ourselves as Buddhas. And it said that in such a way, that little drop of positive karma that we create is is becomes part of this great ocean, a virtue of all the Buddhas. And until that ocean dries up, that little drop of positive karma that we created, that we dedicated that way, that will remain. And it will continually bear positive results endlessly until we ourselves achieve the goal of Buddha.
So if you’d like, we can dedicate together. Beings everywhere plagued by sufferings of body and mind attain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no living creature suffer, commit evil, or fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and deaf hear sounds.
May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored on finding repose. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food. May the thirsty find water and delicious drink. May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness and prosperity.
May there be timely rains and bountiful harvests. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again. May the frightened cease to be afraid, and those bound be freed.
May the powerless find power, and may people think of benefiting each other. For as long as space remains, for as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world. Through these skillful actions may I quickly become an awakened spiritual master and lead each and every living being to that awakened realm. May the supreme jewel, the awakened heart that has not arisen, arise and grow. And may that which has arisen never diminish, but increase more and more.
In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being. Powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin, Gyatso, please remain until saṃsāra ends. So if you’d like to get a cup of tea, we’ll have a discussion together. Kindly wait, have a good evening. Thank you.