Mind and its Potential — 2009-04-18

Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. In this 308-minute teaching, Ven Jamyang emphasizes that transformation depends on intention, not action alone. He explores the mind’s nature as clarity and knowing, introduces the six consciousnesses, and teaches labeling—recognizing thoughts as thoughts. Vivid experiments (imagining a lemon until saliva flows) show how we mistake thoughts for reality. By recognizing “I am thinking” rather than fusing with thoughts, practitioners gain perspective and choice. The guided meditation progresses through breath, body, sound, and mind using this labeling technique. He then addresses deeper work: understanding emptiness cuts the root of ignorance, while antidotes handle surface patterns. The teaching integrates Buddhist doctrine with Western psychology on habit and identity, closing with students sharing concrete shifts—greater calm, less reactivity, improved relationships. Pitched at those familiar with Discovering Buddhism or ready for integrated study and practice.

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File: 2009 04 18 DB Mind and Its Potential Med Day 18-04-09.mp3

UUID: 00fb05d8-d6a5-416a-afe9-41f40d51b490

Teacher: Ven Jamyang

Collection: Mind and its Potential (Ven Jamyang)

Date: 2009-04-18

Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide

Duration: 308.0 minutes

Words: ~25,685

Hear me? Okay. Please just kind of throw something at me. Something soft. Okay.

Please, by all means, I’ll try to speak up. As I mentioned, when I lose my confidence, then my voice goes down. You know, one thing that you over course of the module, the various modules of Discovering Buddhism which will be again and again emphasized is that it’s not so much what we do but why we do what we do which is very much determinant of the outcome, whether what we do is going to serve us to help solve our problems, bring about the kinds of changes that we want in ourselves and our lives, or whether there’s simply another complicating factor in all our already busy lives. We can’t really go by the external activity itself and say just by mechanically involving ourselves in whatever activity may be, that’s going to help me to solve my problems. It’s just another something we can check off on our list.

It’s not so much what we do but why we do, and this concerns ourselves with the motivation, the intention behind the action. If we have a beneficial intention both perhaps toward ourselves, additionally toward others, then even if we whatever the activity, whatever the external appearance may be, it will be beneficial. Even if we make mistakes. Remember I lived in Dharmasala in India, northern India where the seed of the Tibetan government in exile is situated where the Dalai Lama lives. And I was fortunate enough to have a few interviews with the Dalai Lama.

And one time I asked him, How do we know if what we’re doing is right? You know, how do we know if what we’re doing is coming from a place of wisdom? You know, was making what I thought at the time were some major decisions about what to do, where to go, and the direction of my life. And I couldn’t wasn’t certain which voice to listen to in the back of my head somewhere, whether it was wisdom or just delusion or how do you know? And he said, Well, more than that, we don’t.

But if we have have a beneficial motivation, it doesn’t make so much difference. If, you know, we can make mistakes, it’s okay as long as we have a positive intention. So in, you know, coming together as we do in your studies of Discovering Buddhism and coming together on the eighteenth of April, Saturday, we want something beneficial. I don’t know if you’re here just for fame and glory or for, I don’t know, profit. I think you’re if my guess is right, that you want to help yourself to lead a more worthwhile, meaningful, happier life, essentially.

That’s the bottom line. The Dalai Lama said that the meaning of life is happiness. A little we could actually maybe I’ll bring it out. It’s a little quotation by the Dalai Lama. It said the purpose of life is happiness and the greatest happiness that we can derive in terms of our inner happiness is developing love and compassion.

And there’s a great message in that for us, in our business in order to get the good life for ourselves. We often overlooked some of the essential components of what constitutes a good life. We hear basically I think to change for the better. We have to equip ourselves with some tools. But there’s a just when I was thinking of something to say just as a words of introduction or in order to help develop our motivation, I remembered this quote by Michael Looney.

I think you’re all familiar with him. He’s one of my favorites. Anyway, this is about change. God help us to change, to change ourselves and to change the world, to know the need for it, to deal with the pain of it, to feel the joy of it, to undertake the journey without understanding the destination, the art of gentle revolution. Amen.

So, you know, the bottom lying is that we need to change and we can but this change that we can make can be just for our own piece of chocolate cake, for our own ends, which I think is a necessary place for us to start. For most of us the only reality we know is our own self interests. And by all means we have to start from where we’re at. We can’t be idealistic, we can’t be theoretic in our practice. We have to get in touch with what is authentic for us, where we’re at now at the path.

It’s not a matter of what we’d like to be seen as, what we’d like to believe ourselves to be, but who in fact we are in the present. And then somehow what is being discussed, these various tools that we’re trying to equip ourselves, these strategies that we’re trying to work on actually have to touch the point where we’re at. Otherwise, it becomes a matter of abstract theory. It might be interesting, stimulating, but that’s not the final benefit that we’re trying to derive from these studies, is to bring about the kinds of changes. But this kind of change, and this is going to be emphasized again and again over the course of your studies, we can begin to expand the vision of what a good life might look like.

We can begin to, if only one other person besides ourselves. And I’d like to invite you as we sit here now. This isn’t meant to be a spectator sport. You have to involve yourself in the process and to just imagine if only one other person, someone that you maybe a parent partner or a child, that person that you’d like to be there for in perhaps a more significant way than you’ve been there for them in the past. That you maybe you’d like to be a little more caring, understanding, a little more patient.

In some way, we can go home at five o’clock today and be there for that person in ways that we couldn’t have been in the past. Wouldn’t our day have been worthwhile? Not just for yourself, but necessarily so, but in addition, for only one other person. You can imagine that person. Imagine just being able to bring a smile to their face or to help them to solve a problem which they’re dealing with.

Our day would have been well spent. It would have been beneficial if you could have that motivation, that attention that what I’m doing, I’m not doing just my own piece of chocolate cake. And I’m just not for my own narrow concerns and limited self needs, but for even if only one other person. You know, I emphasize one other person because we have to begin somewhere. You know, quite often we will recite and we’ll recite today when Geshe la comes, our teacher, and when we have a teaching at eleven thirty with our Tibetan teacher, Geshe Pema Tsering, for the sake of all sentient beings.

I don’t know all sentient beings. That’s kind of beyond my scope of imagination at present. Otherwise, what we’re trying to do actually is relevant and it touches our hearts in some meaningful way, then we can be like the person who says, Oh, I love humanity. I just can’t stand people. That’s all.

They really don’t. They love an abstract idea, which they call humanity, but not this person, not this person with their pimples and all their hang ups and their disagreeable qualities. Some idealized person, oh, love that. It’s easy, you know. So we have to begin with something that we can really love and totality of that person, you know, aware of both their positive as well as their negative quality.

It’s not so difficult to be kind and warm and fuzzy when the sun is shining and everything’s agreeable. It’s when things go wrong and people challenge us and push our buttons that we really begin to see where our love, where we’re really at along the path. So anyway, the point is in working with this motivation is simply to develop a sincere aspiration. I have to change, but I’d like to change not only for my own self, but I’d like to do this for you. So I’m doing this even though you’re not with me here now, I’m listening and reflecting and meditating for the both of us.

And then whatever comes out, even a jump of blah blah blahs, you know, in meaningless ways and the day is a disaster in all your terms of expectations, still it’s been worthwhile because your intention was beneficial and the result will be beneficial in perhaps presently unknown ways. But you can sort of begin to trust in that. Okay. But this idea will be expanded on quite a great deal in the future. It’s kind of a cornerstone, I think, of Buddhism, working with our intention.

Intention is karma. Karma is intention. Intention. So we’re going to be reviewing some of the ideas that we went through or you went through mostly over the course of this module on discovering Buddhism, mind and its potential. Hopefully we can develop, we can have some stimulating discussions and have some meditation around some of these points to bring about the kinds of changes we want.

I’d like to there’s one area I’d like to go into initially. And we talked about this last Wednesday night. Can everybody hear me okay? Just. Just.

Let’s see. Could you turn up that knob on the it’s simply the one called Throne. And now it’s on about four. If you could turn up to about four and a half before we start getting any feet. Is that?

It’s on four and a half. Okay. Maybe we’ll go to five. We’ll press it. No, stop, stop.

Okay. Let’s try that. I might try down there. The speaker the speaker’s there. There’s one on each Yeah.

There. Someone just There’s one on each? Yeah. Wave at me, okay? And I’ll speak up some more.

Last Wednesday night, and I’m sure Venerable Jamyang over the course of the Is that better? Yes. Okay, Good. Gentlemen, John, I’m gonna share I’m talking about the nature of mind. You know, we take the mind very much for granted.

We don’t but it’s just like the foundation of our well-being or our lack of well-being. It’s where we’re coming from, how we experience our world. And so, you know, it’s like the last frontier. We probably know more about, you know, the stock market than we knew about our own minds or the other side of the moon. But nonetheless, it’s something that we have to begin to gain some insight into.

We don’t operate our minds very well because we don’t know how they operate. So we’re revolting against the dominant theme of our society in terms of externalizing ourselves, and we’re trying to begin to practice in some type of introspection, begin to question and look at the nature of my mind and the way it’s unfolding and how it is it is how The mind that’s in its place and its way can make a heaven of hell, hell of heaven. It’s the dominant determinant of our experience of our world and our life, is our own mind in terms of our attitudes, our opinions, our ideas, and so forth. So we’re beginning with a very basic notion about the definition of mind. It’s not I don’t find it a particularly satisfying definition or nature of mind.

It’s a tough one when you get down to the very essential quality of mind. We can experience it quite readily, but to define it in intellectual terms I think is quite difficult. Anyway, we use the notion of clarity and knowing. And we talked about some of the different ways that we can define this word clarity. One way it is the factor of knowing or awareness.

It’s like the sky. You know, it’s like a container. It holds our experience, the various objects we come to know. Mind is the activity of knowing, the activity of being aware of something or other. We’re always aware of something or other.

The mind is like, in one way of looking at it, like a mirror, and we define a mirror by having the characteristic of reflecting something. If it’s not reflecting something, then it’s not performing the function of a mirror. So likewise with our mind. And just like the sky is able to accommodate, know, like the birds can fly through the sky and planes, and smoke can rise up through the sky, and the rain can fall, clouds can pass through. And sky itself remains unchanged.

It’s not affected. So the awareness, the factor of knowing, is much greater than objects which are contained within it. So what I like for us to do is to gain an experience of the very quality knowing of the mind. Normally, in our everyday life, and quite understandably, we’re more concerned with the object of our consciousness than the subject. We pay almost no attention subject of our experience.

When an eye consciousness sees the flower, our predominant attention is drawn toward the object, the flower itself. We’re not concerned with the consciousness which is seeing the flower. And I’d like for us to get a sense of the subject of these experiences. And this is most readily apparent and I think most practically adaptable in terms of some tool that is going to help us in a practical way in our everyday life, in terms of our thoughts. There are six primary consciousnesses.

Some of this is covered in this handout that was just given this morning, which you don’t necessarily have to look at today, you might want to look at in the future. It might have some useful information that you might want to reflect upon. Are six primary consciousnesses: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mental consciousnesses. They each have their respective objects. The object of eye consciousness is colors and forms, the object of your consciousness is sounds and so forth, all the way up to mental consciousness.

The object of mental consciousness is thoughts, images, pictures, feelings, emotions, the stuff of the mind itself, the objects of mental consciousness. If we can begin to appreciate this, I’m going to try to Time is already getting away. Thoughts are we’ll just talk about this very simply because thoughts are simply the words in our head. When we have words on a page, we call that text. When the words come out of our mouth, we call that speech.

When they’re objects of our mental consciousness, they’re more or less, we can say, in our head, we call those thoughts. Pictures, thoughts, images in our head. These are the objects of mental consciousness. Now, what happens, and this is So these thoughts are arising within the context of this clarity of mind. This clarity, this container of mind allows for thoughts to arise.

The arising of thoughts is the same act as thinking thoughts. There’s not two activities. The arising of a thought is the activity of thinking a thought. Now, I’m going to talk in a less theoretical way. I want to talk in a very practical way because I think this can be very useful.

Let’s try an experiment, okay? This experiment will take about one minute. Maybe just close your eyes for one minute, okay? Imagine you’re at your kitchen counter, you know, in your kitchen, and there’s a bowl with fruit and so forth on the counter. And there’s a lemon.

Okay. Pick up the lemon. Notice its yellow color. It’s it’s dimpled peel, the skin of the lemon. How rough the texture of the lemon is.

Bring it up to your nose and smell that lemony scent. Smells nice, doesn’t it? It’s a nice smell. And then put it down on the countering on a chopping block and take a knife and cut that lemon in half. And take that half lemon and place it in the palm of your hand.

Bend your head back and squeeze that lemon. And the juice is dripping from the lemon onto your tongue to the back of your throat. Okay. I’m just curious, how many people’s mouths watered in the course of the day? Part of you knew this was purely in your imagination, right?

There’s no limit there. Part of you knew that. I even knew what you were going to do. It’s still water. There you go.

So, though part of our mind was well aware, this is purely imagination, there’s no physical limit there, nonetheless part of our mind believed, accepted the fact, grasped reality that there was a lemon there. What’s indicative of that, the way that we can understand that that’s actually occurring is because we reacted physiologically as if there were in fact a lemon there. No different. As if there were a real lemon or imagined lemon. We’re trying to get some insight.

This is called cognitive fusion, to use the latest jargon, that we cannot distinguish between the reality and our idea about reality. We have an idea in our mind, an image, a thought, a picture of a lemon. And part of our mind cannot distinguish between our idea, our picture about a lemon and the lemon itself. And it causes us to react to what is in fact idea as if it were in fact reality. So we take our thoughts as if they were reality, as if what we’re thinking were actually happening.

But we can go even beyond that. We take our thoughts as truth. More than that, we completely believe them. We take our thoughts as important. We take them seriously and give them our full attention.

We take our thoughts as if they were orders. We automatically, more than not, obey them. We take our thoughts as wise, as if we assume that they know best and we follow their advice. Sometimes we even take our thoughts as threats. Sometimes our thoughts can be or frightening.

They are simply words in our head. They are symbols for something which may or may not correspond to some find finable reality. You know, the word dog, the symbol dog, the thought ideal dog, it can’t wag its tail. It stands for it is a mental representation for something which is an actual four legged animal that does wag its tail and so forth. But we take it to be the real thing.

What we can do is like another experiment. Take a thought and you can personalize this to yourself, a reoccurring thought that often comes up for you that perhaps upsets you in some way. Just I am X has a structure, I am X. I am a failure, I am stupid, I am fat, I am lazy, lousy mother, I am a lousy father, whatever it is. That of savor that for a moment, see how it affects you or if it doesn’t affect you at all.

Some recurring thought that might Now, we’re going to put a phrase in front of this statement, I am X. That phrase is, I am having the thought. I am X. I am having the thought. I am fat.

I am having a thought. I’m a lousy father. I am having a thought. I’m a failure. How does that change?

What what is the difference in your reaction to that same thought when you put that phrase in front of it? That there’s something outside that thought. Okay. You create some perspective on it, don’t you? You don’t quite buy into it as if it were the reality.

Okay, let’s see if we can even step back a little bit further. I notice I’m having a thought, I am a failure. I notice I’m having a thought, I am fat. I notice I’m having the thought I’m a lousy father. What happens then?

It’s very difficult to mistake the thought for the reality, isn’t it? The image in your mind for the actual thing itself. This is called cognitive diffusion. You recognize a thought as a thought. You don’t mistake it for reality.

I am having the thought. I squeezing lemon in my mouth. Chances are you won’t have the same reaction. You won’t buy into the reality, as if that symbol, that idea in your head, were the thing itself. So this can have lots of practical applications in your daily life.

You begin to recognize some of your patterns, some of your stories, of this internal dialogue. You can begin to distance yourself, or you can create some kind of perspective. You can diffuse from the reality, as if you no longer have to take that thought as being the thing itself. And the way that we can do this is using this meditative technique called labeling or naming. And this is what I hope to do this morning in our meditation together, is to get you acquainted with this idea of naming or labeling.

And it’s a very simple idea. Simply going to more than not, we’re not aware of what our mind is involved in. And I talked about this Wednesday night, that more than not our attention is drawn due to unconscious habit we simply are reacting without awareness. Here, by naming, labeling, we’re gaining some perspective on what it is that our mind is actually involved in. We exercise awareness.

We are aware of what we are aware of. It sounds complicated, but it isn’t all that complicated. We become aware of what I’m actually knowing at this moment. I’m seeing a flower. And I can emphasize that I’m aware of what I’m knowing by simply labeling, naming, seeing.

Okay? I see a flower. I can simply I’m aware that I know I am knowing a flower or I’m experiencing a flower or I’m seeing a flower. I’ll just call it seeing. It’s not very original, but anyway, it’s good enough.

So we just use a shorthand notation. If you’re hearing something, I’m aware that I’m hearing. We call that hearing. We can do the same thing with thinking. When thoughts arise in our mind, I’m aware that I’m experiencing a thought.

We just call that thinking. So, by labeling it, you are emphasizing your mind what is actually the object of your present experience. Okay? It’s not the lemon, it’s the thought of a lemon. I thinking of, you know, this is shorthand notation, thinking, but if were to extend it, I’m thinking of a lemon.

So you don’t fall into taking that appearance as reality. And obviously, this has a lot of practical ramifications to everyday life. When you begin to experience, I’m a failure. You know, it’s a foregoing, you know, there’s something about you which has the quality of being a failure. Know, it’s like you’re describing, you are experiencing some reality about you when you have the thought, I’m a failure.

It’s a foregoing conclusion that you’re going to fail. But if you were to be able to get some perspective on that, I am having a thought, I’m a failure. It may be true or may not be true, but it’s only a thought. That we do know. That’s your reality.

That we can’t say for sure. Not that you’re a failure, but that you haven’t thought that you’re a failure. Big difference, a radical, huge difference between the two. So emphasizing what our present experience is, then we can begin to exercise some kind of choice. This is a helpful thought.

If it is, okay, then keep thinking it. If it’s not, then you don’t have to fuse with it. Now, is not an easy experiment. What we’re going to do is we’re going to begin with mindfulness of breathing, and then we’re going to do the simple breath exercise that we did Wednesday night. And then we’re going to I’m having a thought I’m confused.

I’m not confused. Just having a thought I’m confused. We’re going begin with relaxing the body, doing the simple breath exercise, then we’ll practice the mindfulness to stabilize the calmer mind. Also, when you’re working with the breath, you can use this labeling. Knowing that you’re breathing in, what do you know?

Can, in, I know that I’m breathing in. Develop this ability to label today. You know that you’re breathing in, just emphasize what it is that you’re actually experiencing. The in breath, we can just call it in. Breathing out, knowing that you’re breathing out, just label it in your mind out.

Okay, then we’re going to eventually switch to the body. We’re not going to focus on any particular sensation in the body, whatever dominant sensation comes up, without any judgment, without any evaluation, but labeling, feeling, or sensing, or pain, or pleasure. Just some simple note, denotation, so that you don’t get lost in the feeling, in this physical sensation. And we’re going to spread our awareness to sound, the soundscape about us. It’s pretty quiet today for a change.

Usually there’s a dance class going on next door, lots of sounds to work with, but there some trucks roaring down Port Russia, it could be. Or you can just the absence of sound. I’m aware of the absence of sound. Okay, that’s fine too. Maybe somebody coughs.

Hearing. Then the most difficult, and it’s not easy, we come to the mind itself, watching the mind itself. And here you have to I really strongly advise you to use this technique of labeling, naming, thinking. Otherwise, what happens? You’re going to identify with the thought.

You become that, whatever the content of the thought is. You’ve lost this observership, this perspective. You identify with the content rather than container. Thoughts are going to arise, Oh, this is worrying. And you become bored.

Or you can say, I’m happy to talk to someone. So just thinking, just as simple. But it can’t be done mechanically, it’s not a mantra. Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking. It has to actually describe what it is that you’re experiencing.

But just use this shorthand notation thinking. And then we can begin to get a sense of awareness itself. And within this awareness, these birds and planes and clouds moving, and the mind can be unaffected by them. And we’ve gained some perspective. Otherwise we hop on the plane, or we go up and smoke, or whatever.

That’s what normally happens. We get lost in the stories. Is that fairly clear? I think you’ll get a sense of the difference between the knowing quality of the mind and the content of the mind. And this is, I think, a useful insight, useful experience.

So let’s stand up and stretch for a moment. So maybe we could close the door, So taking a comfortable, firm posture. As we’ve been studying, there is an interplay or an interdependence between mind and body. So we can begin to approach approach the mind through the body in the sense that if we take a stable firm posture, this is going to be reflected in the quality of our mind. The stability, it will help induce the stability and calmness of mind.

If our body is agitated, this will reflect the quality of our mind. So the posture is important, but it should be comfortable, so that it shouldn’t introduce any tension or discomfort. We’ll begin with the process of relaxing the body. So this is the way that we can help relax the mind. So I’m just going to suggest moving through the body in different areas of the body.

And as we do so, just imagine, minimally bringing your awareness to these areas, if you can actually imagine what’s being suggested is occurring. So bringing your awareness to the crown of your head, the scalp, feeling the wrinkles in your brow, smoothing out. The pressure in around your eyes diminishing. The muscles of the face softening, relaxing. This feels as if the muscles were almost sagging.

It’s okay, you’re still beautiful. No one’s looking. You don’t have to hold that smile or the tension in the muscles. Your jaw is relaxed. Bring your awareness to the back of your neck and gently turning your head to each side a few times.

Loosening, stretching the muscles of the back of the neck. Relaxing the muscles of the throat. And bringing your awareness to your upper back and shoulders and perhaps rotating your shoulders a few times. Lifting them up toward your ears and just allowing them to drop comfortably to the sides, as you do so, feeling some kind of weight or burden that we oftentimes carry around on our backs moving down and through your body into the ground. Feeling some relief as if a burden has been lifted from your shoulders.

Bring your awareness all the way down to your hands. Your hands are soft and loose. Relaxing your lower arms and your upper arms. The chest is at ease. Relaxing throughout the heart area, the center of your chest and the lungs, the central region of the back, Stomach.

Releasing the tension that we oftentimes hold in our stomach muscles. Allow relax your lower back muscles. Your buttocks throughout your upper legs. Lower legs. Finally, your feet.

Loose. And bringing your awareness to your body in general, and just roughly scanning through the body from the top downward. As you do so, noticing any tightness, any tensions within the body, any areas of possible discomfort that may remain in the body. And focusing on those particular areas, breathing in and down into that area of tension, wherever it may be in your body, imagine as if your breath, along with your awareness, moves to that area of tension. And imagine as if you were breathing out from that area of tension upward and out and with that outward breath with the exhalation the tension diminishes.

Breathe in and down to any area of tightness. Imagine as if you were breathing out from that area of tightness. And as you do so, the tightness loosens. See if you can feel sensation, that experience. If there’s some area of discomfort, don’t avoid it or struggle against it.

Breathing Breathing in down to that area of discomfort and surrounding it like a mother cradling her hurt child, cradling it in the kindness of your breath and acceptance. Breathing out, softening, relaxing, allowing it’s okay if it’s there. A way of gently caring for that discomfort without pushing it away. Breathing into the areas of tightness and tension, possible discomfort breathing out from those areas. The body becoming relaxed, at ease.

A feeling of physical well-being pervading the entire body. It’s a nice place to be in the body. Sometimes we forget we’re so busy with our minds. There’s nowhere to go and nothing that needs to be done. No one to please.

Just an opportunity to give ourselves a break, a chance to rest. Just be the body. That’s all. As simple as that. Just experience the totality of your body.

Stay with the experience of your body. And we’re going to practice a simple breath exercise, breathing in comfortably and normally, but when you exhale, very gently extending the exhalation completely emptying the lungs. Again, allowing the lungs to fill naturally. Again, extending the exhalation completely emptying the lungs. And then bring your mind to the breath.

Just the gentle, easy in and out flow of the breath. Wherever the sensation associated with the natural breath is most clear and obvious. Just focus your attention on just that and it might be helpful to practice using the technique of naming, knowing that you’re breathing in, just giving that name in, knowing that you’re breathing out, giving a name out. Just naming your present experience, whatever it may be. If it’s distracted, just name distraction and then come back to the breath.

Bring your mind back to the breath. So we’re going to shift our attention to the body in the sense that whatever sensation, feeling is predominant in the body. Let’s become aware of that without any particular evaluation or judgment. But we want to emphasize what it is that our mind is involved in by simply labeling it, sensing or feeling. Shifting your awareness, your attention to bodily sensations, whichever is most predominant.

It could be the breath, for example, but it may not be. It could be your knees, the pressure of your buttocks on the chair, whatever. A feeling, maybe there’s a pain in the body. Maybe there’s a pleasure in the body. Becoming aware of that, and to help you emphasize, clarify that, give it a name.

Sensing, Stay with your body. Again, we’ll shift our attention this time to the soundscape about us, the various sounds. This should be quite easy at the moment. Becoming aware of the sounds about us, and to help you not become lost, to help clarify what it is that’s arising within awareness. Give it a name, hearing, listening, paying attention.

Sound is arising within the clarity of mind. Stay with the sound What other sounds are there? Hearing. Hearing. And now we’re going to shift our attention to the objects of the mental consciousness.

These will be thoughts and pictures. And to help us not to fuse with these thoughts, these pictures, to identify with them, to help maintain perspective. Use the technique of labeling them, naming, thinking. Or picturing, picturing, thinking, thinking. Thoughts thoughts arising within the clarity of mind, the vast space, open space of mind.

You have to watch closely. Stay aware. Stay awake. Use the labeling. Thinking.

Thinking. Just observing thoughts arising in the vast open space, the sky of mind, the clarity of mind. Stay aware. And then bring your mind back back to the breath. Easy, gentle, in and out flow of the natural breath.

Become aware of your body, maybe the pressure of your feet on the floor, your buttocks on the cushion, on the chair. Become aware of the sounds around us. In a gentle and relaxed, easy manner, become aware of your surroundings. Taking your time. There’s no hurry.

I’d like to discuss that with you, but I’ve got a bit of a time constraint. Deshala is going to be teaching, so I’d like for you to have a break before then. So keep in mind some of your experiences, and we’ll talk about later this afternoon. Okay? Let’s take a break.

Create this virtual. So we need we need to we need to deliberately deliberately produce this motivation in our minds. If we don’t do that actively, then a good motivation just won’t come about. When we’re talking about producing motivation giving rise some motivation we’re really talking about changing our minds, effecting a change in our minds because usually the way we go about our lives, we only we only think about ourselves ourselves and our own interests alone. And now we are we are producing, giving rise to motivation, is intent on on others.

So in in in this way we change we are changing our minds by producing this this thought that you know all sentient beings do not wish for any suffering they only wish for happiness and so may I benefit all sentient beings So So Geshe is then saying so he was asked to talk about mind and its potential today. And Geshe la was in the sense of mind, the first of all, is is is what we refer to. Geshe la was giving me three different words in Tibetan for mind. So then we have mind. We have consciousness.

So we have mind, awareness, and consciousness. And then we have as as for this, then we have as for this so these these terms they’re all they have all the same meaning they are all mutually pervasive we say so I was gonna say, as for as for minds or consciousness, we have we have six consciousnesses. We have the sense consciousnesses from the five sense power, from the five senses. And then we have on top of that, we have mental sense consciousnesses right And so Geshe la was explaining when we when we talk about minds and mental factors. So we have this we have a a main mind, which, for example, is a visual sense consciousness, which is then apprehending a visual object.

And Geshe la wasn’t saying so that main mind is is that main consciousness is apprehending only the entity of that visual object, only the general entity of something which is suitable to be a visual object. In Gershell wasn’t saying that that main mind, generally speaking, is not apprehending the details and the finer features of of the visual object. It’s just apprehending the the the object as a whole generally. And then we have some and then we have what we refer to as mental factors, which accompany this main mind. And this is which are those which are the the minds these mental factors are then which will analyze and see all the details and the exact shape, the color, and so forth of that visual object.

Now Geshe-la was just making a point is this when we talk about mind and mental factors it sounds as if we’re talking about two different things but they are one consciousness. They are one thing. They are they have the same same substance. So so we have then the mind and its mental factors then observing a particular object. If if the mind together with with its mental factors does not observing an object, then it cannot realize and it cannot engage in all functions that it would by realizing it by the means of realizing it.

We all have this this consciousnesses, and we are all functioning. We’re using using it and realizing the things that we need to realize in order to function and engage in our activities and so forth. So we all have this main mind mind and this mental factors again the main mind just observing the general object in question that it has as its object and then the mental factors and analyzing and investigating and engaging with more detail with the the object in question. Now as for these these minds and and and their mental factors, Geshe la says we have there is the two general qualities to it we can have good ones and we can have good minds and mental factors and we can have bad minds and mental factors generally, again, this those good the so called good mind and their mental factors, again, they give us happiness. And those bad minds and mental factors they give us suffering and what the Buddha was teaching us is that we should cultivate and increase the good ones and decrease and eradicate the bad ones.

And guess if this was just quoting a a verse from the sutras, and I was just figuring out how to translate it. Basically, what the meaning what the meaning of the verse is is that the mind the nature of the mind, the very nature of the mind is is faultless, faultless, is free of any fault. That’s what we are being told. It’s clear light. Yeah.

So the the very nature of the mind is is clear light, and that and that is free of free of every fault, any fault. Is that is that what it is? And then we have another I guess I was giving us another quote from Maitreya where Maitreya was saying that all sentient beings have minds, have consciousness oh, sorry. Have all sentient beings have Buddha nature. And and because of that, all sentient beings all sentient beings have minds.

All all mind possessors have Buddha nature. And and because of that then all beings can attain enlightenment all beings are suitable to gain enlightenment to be enlightened So Geshe la was in giving at first, it was giving two reasons why all sentient beings are suitable to becoming enlightened, and then Geshe la was then going on to give three reasons. So so so the first the first reason is because we all have we all have access to the Buddha’s enlightened activities. And that that Geshe la explains the enlightened activities of the Buddhas are virtues. So we all have access to virtues.

And if by practicing virtue, we benefit in this way. Then the second one is that the suchness of the Buddha’s mind and the suchness of beings, beings minds is is not different at all. It’s not different at all. And then lastly, that all beings have Buddha nature. So that’s why these are the three reasons given that why we can all we are all all sentient beings are suitable to become enlightened.

Is that okay? So if we if we I guess I wasn’t saying. So if we can change the causes and conditions or if we can that influence our mind then we are we will be able to change our mind. We can change the conditions of our mind. So we can we can all then separate our minds from the all these faults, all these bad things.

I guess I was making reference to these bad minds that give us suffering. And then I I was giving three analogies. So for example, it is the nature of of the sky is is is free from the clouds. There are you know, the clouds are not staying the the sky or the space. And the nature of, the water is is free of sediments, of of the muddy sediments.

Again, the the mud does not stain the water. And the same with the gold. What is the the word that What? Tarnished. Okay.

And then and also the gold, the nature of gold is not tarnished also. And then Geshe la was saying as for the when we talk about the word the word in Tibetan for for Buddha nature is and Geshe la was saying, that the word which is in this expression, Buddha nature is translated as as the nature or some other people translate as the lineage. Is there a better way to translate that? No. It’s just that.

So this this we have two two types. We have the very emptiness of the mind. The very softness of the mind itself is one lineage, which is So the very the very emptiness, the very emptiness of the mind, which is its its emptiness, is the uncompounded nature of the mind or the uncompounded lineage of the mind. And the and then we have another aspect, which is and then and then the the very mind which is the basis for that it gets a bit technical for the which is the the basis for that emptiness of the mind that we’re talking about is is the compounded nature of of that, which is which is that aspect which we can change and we can increase, we can improve, and so on. And then by by improving, by freeing these two natures of the mind or of all the faults so by improving this uncompounded nature, which is the emptiness of the mind, by the end result is the, which is was the the the the nature truth body.

We attained and developed the nature truth body of a Buddha. And the and the other by improving and incrementing the compounded nature of the mind and we the end result in enlightenment is the wisdom truth body of a Buddha. And I was going back then. Mentioned the six consciousness that we were talking about. And the six consciousness we have the good ones and we have the bad ones.

Right? So we have those minds which have faults and those are the ones that we have to get rid of or we have to diminish and get rid of and those which are the good we have to cultivate and increase. So now we need we need to to gain an understanding of what it is that we have to get rid of and what is it we have to increase what what are these faults that we’re talking about? And what are these qualities that we’re talking about? And and in order to be able to do that, we rely then in the teachings of the Buddha.

And what what the Buddha was telling us is that these afflictions, the afflictive conceptions, afflictive emotions, they are these faults that we have to get rid of. And then in in the and then this as for the afflictions, the afflictive emotion conceptions are such things as attachment and then the one thing that can completely read ourselves of read our minds of of the afflictions, but completely from the root, read our minds of the afflictions is the realization of of of the lack of inherent existence of that affliction, of those afflictions. And Geshe la was in a sense. So by by realizing, for example, the lack of inherent existence of attachment, then we’ll be able to we we are able to rid ourselves of attachment because the the mind that knows the lack of inherent existence of attachment is a correct mind. Whilst attachment itself is a is a mistaken mind.

It’s a mind that is that then sees its object of apprehension as being as being inherent existence, as being very good, as being as having more qualities than it has or qualities that it doesn’t have and so forth. And when we realize the lack of inherent existence of their mind, also, we can then see the the the non reality of of this the attachment object. And then also the same with with the mind of anger. Again, if we would realize, again, the lack of inherent existence of the mind of anger, then, again, we can get rid of it because, again, that mind is also conceiving of its object of of hatred as being inherent existence and thinking of that object as being the one who is harming us and think of that harm as being inherent existence and so on and and wants to attribute to that. And when we can realize its lack of inherent existence, we can realize its fault because its object is not inherent in existence, and and and the the harm that is done is not inherent in existence and so forth.

So we can realize its fault, how it is mistaken, and we can correct that. And then we have another affliction, another of the main root which is then ignorance itself. And ignorance is is an an afflictive mind that does not know the actual way in which something exists. So it it, again, conceives of it conceives of its object as existing inherently. Things of of others existing inherently, oneself existing inherently, and so on.

So it’s a mind that does not know in which way things actually exist in reality. So and and the realization of the lack of inherent existence of phenomena is is again the opposite of of that ignorance, which is a correct mind. So again all these three poisons of attachment, hatred and ignorance again it is through realizing their emptiness. It is through meditating on emptiness that we can completely uproot them. Is no other way to complete rid ourselves of them.

And then so what and what does all that is the consciousness itself. So through through a in a sense consciousness, again, we realize when when a particular object, we consider it to be either attractive or unattractive, pleasant or unpleasant in any way. And then we we we bring that that realization then goes on to the mental sense consciousness. And all and and the object then is and then we have we have but then we are realizing we are then getting in contact with the object in this way. And all these minds, all these, the eye sense consciousness, the mental sense consciousness, so forth, They are all for us ordinary beings.

They are all confused minds. They’re all distorted minds. And then and the one the one who perceives a particular object to be either pleasant or unpleasant attractive or unattractive, good or bad. The one who is drawing those conclusions, who is thinking in this way is is, again, is the I or the self, which is also consciousness. And so then so it is all this all all of all of it is done all this work is done with the conscious.

All these things that we’ve been talking about, it’s all done with the consciousness. And so, again, and and even that I, that self, which, again, which is perceiving something to be good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, so forth, even that is consciousness and it’s also a confused consciousness distorted consciousness And Geshe la wasn’t saying and the majority of the consciousnesses that we have in our mental continuum is present in our mental continuum is now Most of it, they are the type of of minds of consciousness that give us suffering. The ones that we ought to strive to get rid of. And then as as for the good as for the those good minds, and assume you have you have gone through that, the good minds are the eleven mental factors. So every mind which is concomitant with any of the eleven mental factors virtuous mental factors.

Sorry. Virtuous mental factors. It’s a mind that should be cultivated and increased. Have have you have you studied these eleven various mental factors? So, again, Geshe la was saying, we have to then to cultivate those eleven virtuous mental factors, and we do that also in dependence on on freeing our minds of every fault we do that again by realizing emptiness by cultivating the wisdom that realizes emptiness so in dependence on that we can cultivate all the good qualities of our mind’s And Geshe la is explaining that, for example, the reason why we need to engage in this cultivation of emptiness because it is the only mind that can completely read, ourselves of all the afflictions from from the root whilst all the virtuous minds such as loving-kindness or compassion, which are very virtuous minds, again, if we when we cultivate them and when we have them, again, we can subdue those negativities.

We can subdue those afflictions. You know, we can stop them from manifesting for the time being. But we through this alone, we cannot completely uproot them. We cannot completely get rid get rid of them. Sir.

And Geshe-la wasn’t saying what what can the one thing that can completely rid ourselves of all the afflictions from the very root, from the very seeds is, again, the realization of the selflessness of the person and the selflessness of phenomena. So realizing the emptiness of the self of the person, this emptiness of the self of phenomena. And with this, by cultivating this realization, we can read ourselves in due time. We can read ourselves of all of all the afflictions. And then Geshe la wasn’t saying and again we in in engaging this cultivation of emptiness realizing the emptiness of those, afflictions and phenomena and so forth again we we we get rid of the afflictions in stages gradually.

We do not get rid of them at once altogether. So we need, you know, to realize the cultivating this realization of emptiness, we go eliminating these afflictions one by one, stage by stage. And we have in Buddhism, we talk about the five paths or the ten grounds, you know, which are stages of of, again, of purification and of eradication of these afflictions of these objects that are to be abandoned and so forth. Is that okay? So when we when we then when we then work in this way to to eliminate every stain from from the mind, from that, you know, from the mind that which we’ve been we’ve seen that is is is empty itself, the softness of that mind.

Again, when we when we work to eliminate in these stages gradually all the faults, all the stains of of that mind, even the very even the very subtle stains, the very subtle afflictions, obscurations, and so forth, then, again, we have attained when we realize the eradication of all these stains and obscurations, we have attained again enlightenment. We can attain enlightenment to Dharma, the Dharma body of a Buddha. And so so it is this it is the mind then that we have that we have to to change that aspect which it is this mind and that we have to change and this the mind being that if that that basis. The mind which if we engage with it in this way, in in order to change and purify it and and and eliminate all these stains and obscurations, then it will improve. It’s the mind that has this potential to change in this way.

And then if we if we just let it be as it is right now, again, by the force of all these stains, obscurations, and afflictions, by the force of those, it will it will deteriorate. And for changing our minds and transforming our minds in this way this is is only up to which one of us alone to change our own minds, to transform our own minds. It is we ourselves that through our study, through our contemplation of the teachings and so forth, for our attending to the teachings on on Buddhism and so forth. It is through our own efforts that we’ll be able to change our minds. It’s not it’s not up to anyone else to do that for ourselves.

So Praying for it alone will not suffice. Giving money cannot fix it. Fighting with it won’t help. What we need is to study it is our study and our contemplation that will effect change in our minds And even and even even if we were to you know, when we we say in Buddhism, we say, I’ll go for refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha. So even if we if you do that, I’ll go for refuge in the Buddha and, you know, the Buddha who has no faults and has all good qualities and so forth, and we pray for the Buddha to to fix our minds and so on.

Again, that will not read that also will not read our minds of all these faults. And Geshe la was quoting this this verse, very famous verse from the Buddha himself, which is saying, again, I cannot I cannot wash I cannot wash away your negativities or or your your negatives cannot be washed away with water. I cannot take all your suffer ings away from you with my hands. I cannot transfer all my realizations to you. The only way that you can help yourself is is by relying relying on my teachings, you know, studying the teachings and practicing the teachings.

Because if it was possible to wash away all our negativities with water, the Buddha would have done that already. If it was possible to take away all our sufferings, the Buddha would have taken it already. If it was possible to transfer all his good qualities and realization to us, he would have done it already. We’ll be enlightened already. It is not possible.

So again what we need to rely on the teachings of the Buddha in order to be able to affect these changes and Geshe la was saying not blindly also Geshe la was quoting another verse where the Buddha was saying, oh, do not accept my teachings blindly. Do not accept on on authority, on tradition, or just because, everybody’s following it. You should examine, and, you know, use your own discerning powers to to see for yourself what is really beneficial, what is not. So as I was explaining, the Buddha has given many, many different teachings to many, many different disciples, many, many different people in order to to to benefit them, to to accord with what they needed, in accord with what they needed. So we need we need to, you know, investigate.

We need to analyze those teachings, and we need to see for ourselves what it is that is going to be beneficial or not. English language is opening for questions if you have any questions to ask. Yes. That’s alright. That’s alright.

Currently, How how how is is that it will change our relationship to those things, right, in a in a positive way? So Geshe-la wasn’t saying that we have we have to start by contemplating for how the how oneself is empty of inherent existence, how oneself lacks inherent existence. When we come to realize that I lack inherent existence, that I do not exist in the way that I thought I existed, and I do not exist in the way that I appear to exist, then, we also realize that I don’t need to strive so much for that I. I don’t need to, you know, to to work so hard for that I that that I thought exists, which it doesn’t exist in the way. This is.

I I will I will get there. Just but I’ll just I’ll just I’ll just finish. Just it’s okay. So and then also with the object of attachment, for example, because if you have an object of attachment, which you are wrong ly perceiving as being better than what it is or having qualities it doesn’t have, when we realize it’s like we had existence, then you will see for what it is also. So you, again, you won’t need to strive.

You won’t be caught up in striving to get it or to have it and so forth. So that helps. So when when you come to realize that something doesn’t exist and, know, when when you come to realize hear my words. When you come to realize that things do not exist in the way they appear to exist, and you just don’t relate to them in the way that you used to relate to them anymore. Really realize not just, you know, knowing having a little understanding that the little understanding that we have.

So when when you realize when you realize that something does not exist in the way it appears, that something does not exist inherently, then you also realize there is no purpose in getting attached to it then you won’t have the attachment anymore that’s how it will change your life when you realize it So when, you know, we we conceive of of our objects of attachment is existing inherently and we think it is really good you know and must really have it and so forth and when we come to realize it doesn’t exist in that way it doesn’t really have those qualities that we thought it had and we just don’t have the attachment anymore we’re not caught up in it anymore. And what I was asking the Geshe is what is the difference between having a mere intellectual understanding of it realizing it? Alright. Now we have an idea of what what it is. We don’t really well, we haven’t fully embodied this idea.

We we we have an intellectual understanding. What what we have all all we have the amount of knowledge that we have right now just allows us to have doubts about it, or maybe it is really maybe it does really lack inherent existence or maybe it doesn’t lack inherent existence, which way it goes. We we have we have we are in a in a stage of in this process where we still have doubts about it. You know? And and guess I want to say when when you when you fully realize it, then there is no more any doubt left.

There’s not any more trace of doubt left for one thing. And you know it for certain. Okay? It does lack inherent existence. As we as we knew before we generated these doubts about the the emptiness of phenomenon, we knew for sure that things exist in the way they appear to exist.

Things exist inherently. It’s there. It exists from its own side. Now we study emptiness. We have a little bit of doubt about it.

Okay. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. So, Geshe la is then Geshe la is explaining how we we we have we have read about it. We have listened to teachings about it.

So we can talk. We can say, oh, emptiness is the lack of inherent existence of phenomena. It’s the lack of true existence of phenomena. We can all say all these things. And we and and if we if we study really hard, we will have we have a very good idea, very strong, solid understanding of what it is.

But as it is, we have very deep in our hearts, there is still doubt about it. So when all every doubt has been completely eradicated, has completely disappeared about the lack of inherent existence of a phenomenon, then you have realized it. And then you have all those benefits that we’ve been talking about. And, also, Jampa was asking also, you know, if if one realizes this lack of inherent existence and get rid of attachment, you know, this in order to realize that doesn’t mean we have to get rid of all our possessions, our friends and family, and so forth. No.

That that has nothing to do with it. You know? Even though one might have rid oneself of attachment, one still keeps company with, you know, with people that you love and would still keep com still do your job, still maintain your possessions, you still nurture your body so that you can practice, that you can study and meditate, and all that. When does it come? It’s entirely entirely dependent on each one’s efforts.

Depends on how much effort you put on it, how much you how much how hard you study, how much merits, how much of this virtuous positive energy you generate and accumulate, how hard you you meditate, and and, you know, it’s all the entire dependent on the amount of effort that you put in. Is that good? It’s very difficult still. Absolutely. So maybe maybe there was a a bit of confusion.

I don’t know. Maybe maybe I didn’t. Do we have this? Do we have a list of the on the front of the book? The introduction, isn’t it?

I would just find here the the mental factors. Geshe la wasn’t saying if if of these eleven virtues factors that we were talking about, not all of them will be able to harm the very root of all the afflictions, which is ignorance. So we have faith. We have shame, embarrassment, nonattachment, non hatred. We have effort, pliance, conscientiousness, equanimity, non harmfulness, and then we have nonignorance.

And nonignorance is the one of these eleven virtumental factors that is able to harm ignorance and is able then to eradicate the very root of every other afflictive emotions conception. So not every not every single one of these eleven virtuous mental factors, if cultivated, which which we have to cultivate all of them, but not all of them will completely eradicate all the afflictions. They might subdue them temporarily, but not completely not completely eradicate. Is that alright? No.

You you can. You can. What we’re saying is that you can. What I’m saying is that we have eleven mental factors, virtuous mental factors, and there’s a not all of them can, but there is one at least that can. Right.

Okay. Okay. Which is non ignorance. Non ignorance can eradicate ignorance, which is the root of every other affliction. So and, also, on top of what your doubts, I was I was asking something else maybe to to shed some more light on it.

So if you if we were to engage in the cultivation of these eleven mental factors, you know, even though we might not have completely uprooted all the afflictions, how is it that it’s going to be beneficial in the future? Well, it is going to be beneficial in the future because they are virtues. As virtues, the results that they bring is happiness in the future, future lives, and so forth. And not only that, if you are habituating yourself with these virtuous mental factors, then you you have you’ll be developing this tendency or this propensity to have them stronger already in your next life and in in in the life after that. So it’s gonna be easier then to engage in virtue in the future and to build benefit in the future.

Does that help? That helps a lot. Thank you. Is that alright? No.

No. As we said, we it’s it’s stages. You develop in stages. There’s the realization. Yes.

Yes. So so the the the whole it it both in order to realize and it involves a whole process, which is gradual. So you have to start studying about it. Then, you know, you have doubts about it. Then, if you keep on studying, you keep on contemplating and then you eliminate those doubts and you develop an intellectual certainty about it and on top of that you keep on meditating until you eventually realize it directly and even after you have realized it directly and that’s not the end of it you have to still keep on familiarizing yourself with it and working to use it in order to eradicate all the obstructions and afflictions so it’s it’s a long road.

Is that alright? Okay. Do have any questions? No? Yes.

Yes? Understanding emptiness, how and and true nature of things mean things of people. How How is that different? Again, I’m not sure. Okay.

Okay. Okay. So what Jampa asked so Geshe, he was then saying, so what is the difference between I am not inherently existence and I do not exist? I am not existent at all. And the difference is, we are not completely in existence.

We are not inherently existent. We do not exist inherently, but we do exist conventionally. So there is a conventional self. There is a conventional I which is correct and true. Geshe la was again saying when we when we study emptiness and all that what we’re trying to realize is is the lack of inherent existence of the self not the inexistence of the that’s not what we’re trying to realize because because because the self does not not exist it does exist convention so so the eye it does exist and how is this that how is it that it exists for that mind which is not searching for that eye which is not investigating if the eye exists or not exists or how it exists then the eye exists and it’s there it’s coming going and performing functions and working and relating and so forth now for the mind which is searching for the eye which is investigating which is analyzing does the eye exist does the eye does not exist when you go after the eye searching for it for that mind, that mind’s not gonna find anything.

So so we say it doesn’t exist inherently. So Geshe la was saying when when that mind which is seeking for the eye does not find anything, know, it might come to think or it doesn’t exist at all, but it does exist. It’s not the case that it does not exist at all. It does exist it exists again convention so again, again, we shouldn’t, conclude that it doesn’t exist at all when we search for it and we do not find anything we shouldn’t conclude that it doesn’t exist at all because when we stop to search for it when we stop to investigate and analyze there it is it does exist and that that is and that is its existence its conventional existence so then so then I exist and, but not inherently I’m not inherent, not do not exist inherently And then when I guess I was just saying when we talk about the release when we talk about the realization of emptiness, you know, it’s not merely realizing that this it doesn’t exist when you look for it it doesn’t you don’t find anything but is this the full realization of emptiness is realizing again that it doesn’t exist in the way it appears to exist when we search for it we don’t find anything but that still exists exists conventionally.

So that’s the full realization of him. Alright. Of Oh, so then when we’re saying when we’re saying all sentient beings, we’re talking about, you know, an an humongous number of sentient So when when we’re talking about sentient beings, we’re talking about and this the the word in Tibetan is sem chen, and sem is mind. Chen is possessor. So every being who possesses a mind.

Furthermore, every being who possesses a mind with fault, with stains. Those are the that we’re referring to. This one. Is that This Is that all? So then every every when we’re talking about sentient beings, we’re talking about every being except fully enlightened Buddhas.

Fully enlightened Buddhas do not have any fault in their minds anymore. So everybody else who is not a fully enlightened Buddha is what we refer to as sentient beings, everything else that is not so So and not only human beings but every being who has a mind, every being who has every being who has feelings and so forth. So humans, animals, insects, beings that we can see and beings that we cannot see also, hell beings, beings on the hungry ghost realms and so forth, gods and so forth. All beings. Gods, goddesses.

Trees? She she no. That’s alright. No. They don’t have feelings of pain and pleasure and so forth.

So they are not considered they don’t fall under this category so again every every we were talking about this this six minds in the beginning of the teaching today right so every being who has these is referred to as a sentient being again in Tibetan the same thing again a mind possessor literally one who possesses a mind so everyone who has these is one who possesses a mind have consciousness everyone who has consciousness, everything who has consciousness all right And then in this way, every sentient being, every everyone who possesses everyone who possesses a consciousness is one who who wishes happiness for oneself and does not wish suffering for oneself. Alright? Except maybe the Buddha, I wasn’t saying, who are not concerned with themselves, only with others. So and if we we we can all I guess I wasn’t saying, but you you think about it, know, all these people all all people, everyone is thinking, you know, wishing happiness for themselves and not wishing any suffering from themselves. And in the same way that humans do also animals do insects do they all want happiness for themselves they all seek for food for shelter for protection and so on so when we talk about senshi means we’re talking about So we can see how how very precious all sentient beings are.

And they’re all all they’re all seeking happiness. They’re all, you know, seeking to avoid suffering. So, you know, we we should you know, we ought to strive for for their benefit to accomplish their happiness. Sir. In in in the Mahāyāna teachings, we we have have this one process of reflection, which is where we recognize recognize first that all all sentient beings have been our mothers, how greatly kind they have been to us, how we should repay their kindness, and so forth in these stages like this.

So we can see how if we stop to think about it, how throughout all our lives, in the end, there has not been one sentient being whatsoever who has not been, you know, our parents. And so we can see in this way how how all sentient beings have been greatly kind to us. You know? As as our parents, they have all been really kind to us. But not not only that, if even if we think in terms of this present life alone, we can see how just one one little bit of food, one grain of rice alone came to us in dependence on the efforts, the lives of of so many sentient beings, and how in this way they are so very kind and precious and important to us.

Just one one little grain of rice imagine how much more everything else Usually, we we are caught up in thinking how important I am, you know, and how precious I am and how I should protect myself and accomplish everything good for myself. And we see how that is not actually the case, how how precious and so very much more important are all other sentient beings. And this then is is the whole idea of the Mahāyāna and working for for all the sentient beings on that basis. Yes. They are as as innumerable as the as are sentient beings.

So our for us, we haven’t had the it’s not our time yet to to to meet with a Buddha, but still the Buddhas are innumerable. So Geshe la is saying. So because fully enlightened Buddhists have there is nothing that obstructs them at all. So whenever we, you know, we go for refuge with the Buddha or we make prayers and so forth, and we are thinking of the Buddha in front of us or making offerings to the Buddha, we think of the Buddha in front of us. Again, there there, the Buddha will be because there is nothing that can stop the Buddha.

It is totally unbounded, so to speak. So we should make offerings here or there anywhere, prayers here, there, anywhere, there the Buddha will be. Okay. Again, if if we if it is a worldly dignitary. So I was just explaining how how the Buddhas are different from ordinary beings.

I mean, if you are if it is a dignitary high authority or something like that if the person is present then again you do the offerings and you make the request and so forth whilst the person is present but otherwise if you just make offerings and petitions and so forth to a dignitary and so forth the person just doesn’t show up to answer your prayers or and so forth to receive your offerings so forth but buddhas are not like that buddhas have no limitations such as these. So And the reason is because such a Buddha has already eliminated, eradicated every fault, and has fully developed every good quality. So the person that being has a Buddha has no meets with no limitations. It’s totally unbounded, no obstructions. So we can one Buddha alone can answer and help many people at the same time, innumerable people at the same time.

The Buddha will answer everyone’s prayers. And if if if you were to make a prayer and if the Buddha were not to be able to answer that, then that will be a fault. But that’s then then you wouldn’t be a Buddha because to be a Buddha, you cannot have any fault. Or she. He or she.

Is that okay? This one. Alright. Or you could rewind me. Welcome to Buddha House.

So it was how did people find Geshe la’s presentation and teachings? Of questions came up, I noticed. And you got them all solved. So you just push the pause button. I’ll go get got Yeah.

I guess maybe just a few points that Geshe la went over. Maybe we can go over them again. One of them is that in working with the mind we can work in two levels and I think it’s quite useful to do that. One is more or less what we might say at a remedial level and the other is working at a far reaching deeper level of the mind. And what I mean by a remedial level is that all the various afflictive emotions, emotions such as attachment and hatred and jealousy and pride and so forth.

I don’t know, sometimes there’s said to be eighty four thousand of them. We could sit and count them if you like. Anyway, they each have a particular antidote. You know, there’s a particular pattern of mind and there’s a contradictory pattern of mind. So each of the afflictions has a particular contradictory state or emotion.

For example, that which is an access and directing the dirt to hatred is love. They are like hot and cold water. You cannot have love and hatred simultaneously with regard to the same object. Hatred wishes that the object experience harm. Love wishes that the object experience happiness.

So they’re antithetical. They’re like hot and cold water. So as one contradictory class increases, just like the heat of the water, then the other necessarily diminishes. So as we become more loving, we naturally become less frequent and less prolonged and less intense hatred. The same holds for all the various other afflictions attachment and pride and so forth.

So this way of working with the emotions is quite useful. It’s quite necessary. So we have to work with the we begin to understand what are some of our predominant patterns, afflictions, and begin to purposely cultivate that which contradicts that, whichever according to our basic needs. That said, we also at the same time want to work at a more profound and deeper level, the basis of all the afflictions, which is ignorance. So here we’re trying to cut the very root of the afflictive emotions.

If you cut the root of the afflictive emotions then all that grows from that root, the branches, the leaves, flowers and so forth they will all wither away by themselves. So the root of our afflictive emotions is ignorance. But it okay? But here by ignorance we don’t mean oftentimes we use the word ignorance in common Western usage to mean a lack of knowing about something.

I don’t know astronomy. I’m ignorant about astronomy or astrophysics. I don’t even know what’s on the other side of that wall right now. I presume there’s a parking lot, but there might be lots of cars out there, there might be no cars out there. I don’t know.

I’m ignorant about that. That’s not what we mean by ignorance. We mean an active misknowing, an active misunderstanding. And this is particularly with respect to the way things exist. So we’re not concerned whether the table exists or not.

We can understand that with our eye consciousness. We’re not mistaken with regard to the existence of the table, but we are mistaken with regard to the way table exists. We’re not mistaken with the I exists. Jamyang exists. Person exists.

Exist. I’m speaking. You may be listening to me. I don’t know. Anyway, these work quite well.

We’re not calling those into question, the existence. But what we are calling into question is the way these exist, the way the I exist, the way you exist, the way this table exists, the way everything exists. With regard to that, we’re making some basic mistakes. That function of the mind, that aspect of the mind which is making that mistake we call ignorance. That which acts as an hittitude to that is wisdom.

Wisdom understands the way things in fact do exist. We can if just in the case with the hot and cold water or contradictory classes of emotions, we can increase that wisdom to the degree, the more that we come to understand the way things do exist, to that same proportion degree, ignorance will decrease. Until we can actually develop wisdom to such an extent that this particular pattern of mind, which we call ignorance, can no longer arise in the mind. The wisdom is continually manifest. It predominates all our thinking, all our relating with the world.

There’s no space in that mind for ignorance to arise. Ignorance can be completely and forever removed from the mind. It will never arise again. And therefore, all the various afflictive emotions, hatred, jealousy, attachment and so forth, are supported on that basic misunderstanding the way things exist, then it’s like pulling the rug out from underneath them. They will cease to themselves.

It’s like one of the favorite analogies that is used in coming to understand emptiness in its relation to mental development is it’s drawing toward evening, it’s getting dark. And you’re walking along a path in the forest and there’s a coil of striped rope lying along the path. And due to conditions of darkness and so forth, the shape of this striped rope and so forth, there appears to you a snake. And you react to that appearance with fear, with aversion, suffering in some way or another.

So there is an appearance of a snake. So we can’t deny that appearance, but what we can begin to does that exist the way it appears? Is there really a snake there? So we, you know, we work up our courage, we get a stick and get our torch, and we can begin to poke around the grass where we see that snake. And he said, well, maybe it’s a dead snake.

It’s not moving. And then, well, just got it doesn’t have a head on it. It’s a strange matter, oh, gosh. Now, a certain point we have doubt. Maybe it’s not a snake.

You know, our mind’s not sure anymore. At some point oh my god, how stupid. No. Don’t say that. How how understandable but mistaken.

Mistaken. But all the fear, all the aversion, all the suffering that arose in dependence upon what was a mere appearance ceases in and of itself. We don’t have to do anything about it. It dissolves into the emptiness of snake, into the absence of snake. There was never anything there to begin with to be afraid of.

We thought there was, but that thought was mistaken. We can extend that to the I and all the objects about us. We are making some basic mistakes in terms of the way things appear to exist. We are projecting a fantasized way of existing, a hallucinated way of existing upon all things at all times. This is what we have to investigate and come to understand.

Once eliminate the grasping at those appearances to be true, just like we cease grasping at that snake to be real, then all of the various afflictive emotions and the suffering induced by those afflictive emotions will cease of themselves. They’re all based upon a wrong consciousness, which is ignorance. Does that make sense? Mhmm. The hard part the hard part oh, maybe there’s no hard part.

It trying to get a feeling, a sense of what inherent we use this fantasized way of existing. See, it’s pervasive to all of our experiences. It’s like trying to explain to a fish what dryness is. Well, first, in order to understand dryness, they have to understand what wetness is. And so in our face, that we can’t we we can’t we can’t get a sense of what in this experience is we’re mistaken with respect to which.

Like, try for a fish to understand what wetness is. They they’ve never known any other anything other than that. So it’s like you’re talking about some, you know, some fantasy, which it is. You know? And to you know, A fish will be the last to know what wetness is.

Isn’t it that to think about that as well that when the fish is swimming in water, it’s not wet, it’s just immersed in water, but it’s only when you take it out. And it would know it dryness. It would wet that it’s wet, like, because it’s in dryness thing. So it’s wet. Like, it’s even more of a hassle because Yeah.

You know what I mean? I just get this feeling that I can’t even see something because I’m so immersed in it. Like, I can’t if I’m a, like, a fish seeing water, well, it’s not it’s seeing water. It’s just in in it. It’s the sun.

It can’t distinguish that within its experience. Yeah, because it’s in it. It’s so close, it’s so pervasive, it can’t single that out. Geshe la, we talked a little bit about what realization is. Sometimes we blow up this idea of realization as if it was some magical state, lightning bolts and sparks and light bulbs going off and so forth.

But, I mean, we have realizations all the time. But realization, as Geshe la mentioned, it’s like you’re wearing sunglasses, right? And you are outside and in the distance there is a snow mountain and you see that snow mountain as green. Okay? And, you know, okay, no big deal green snow mountains.

But maybe you relate with it as if it were green. You’re not quite relating to it in keeping with its true nature. So what a realization is, a realization is induced by, as Geshe la mentioned, by study, contemplation, lots of knowledge, building up your information. Really realization is not like getting twenty Ph. D.

S becoming an encyclopedia, building up more and more knowledge. It is actually an elimination. It’s like when you take off those sunglasses and you see the object for what it is in its true nature. So it is the elimination of something that we were unknowingly imposing, superimposing upon the object. We see the object in its true nature.

It’s always been there in front of us. Reality is always there. But it’s raining reality, but it kind of washes off like a duck’s back. So realization is when you remove your superimposition upon the way things actually are and you see it for what it actually is, it’s as simple or as complex or profound as just that. So it’s not about getting lots of information but using that information to remove a level of falsity, superimposition, the hallucination that we all live under.

And mentioned, wasn’t going to talk about this, but anyway, if this is useful, I don’t know. It’s easiest to begin with the I, the Self, because this is one of our most intimate objects that we can identify, this hallucinated way of existing. I’ll talk about this very briefly and very roughly, very roughly. But I think it may be useful to get some sense or feel for it. We have a sense that there is something at the core of our being, some entity which we identify as I, as the real me.

And this becomes most clear and vivid to ourselves when we experience strong emotions. You know, like, I can’t stand you. I can’t stand you. It’s like almost we’re pointing to something inside of ourselves. Or, you know, I I can’t go on without you.

I can’t live without you. What that I. You know? You know? I’m the best thing that ever came to Adelaide.

I’m not talking about my body. I’m not talking about my mind. I’m talking about me. There’s something there that we identify as being unchanging, independent, solid singular unit, which we identify as ourselves, as the real I. We experience ourselves.

It may not be obvious to ourselves, but all the various inflected emotions, they arise on that basis, grasping at just such a type of I. And dependence upon that, if we see something that’s threatening to that entity, why do we feel so guilty about what happened in the past? Why does death seem like such a threat to us? If anything is regarded as a threat to that I, we develop hostility. If anything seems to enhance that I, we develop attachment.

We want to make that object we want to bring that object and make it a permanent part of our self identity, to make it mine. That’s the project of ignorance. There’s like this thick black line between I and other. We want to keep everything that’s hostile on that side of the black line, line, on that side of the boundary, and everything that’s positive and enhancing my existence on this side of the boundary. So we begin to relate with the world in terms of avoidance, hatred and attachment.

I and other exist. If there’s no other, there’s no if there’s no you, there’s no I. If there’s no I, there’s no you. It’s conventionally existent. If there’s no high, there’s no low.

If there no big there’s no small. They exist in relationship relatively, conventionally. Know, we can ask, Is my ring finger long or short? When in and of itself independently it’s neither. Relative to my little finger, it’s long.

Relative to my middle finger, it’s short. So it’s relatively long or short, not absolutely so. But we have a sense with the eye that it exists absolutely, not Okay, so this is this independent, solid, concrete, something at the core of our being, this I. Ignorance grasping at that appearance, it appears as being true. That’s the way it really exists.

Wisdom says, No. That’s a falsity. It appears that way, but it doesn’t exist that way. So who’s going to win? You know?

It is better in the footy, isn’t it? You know, they got the wisdom and ignorance of battling out the AFL championship. So the anyway, that I don’t know if that’s helpful. Anyway, you’re going to come to this in the modules of Discovering Buddhism. I think the next to the last module is wisdom understanding emptiness.

But anyway, it’s touched on over the course of most of the modules in some way because it’s a central feature of Buddhism. And otherwise talking about Buddha, talking about liberation is just wishful thinking because in fact without the understanding of emptiness or this wisdom there’s no way removing the afflictive emotions such that they will never return again. We would just have to put up with life is just a bitch and get on with it as best we can. We’d have to learn how to we could go to a psychotherapist and they would teach us how to get along with snakes, how to love snakes. That’s fair enough, immediately at some level, but that’s not ultimately what we’re looking for.

Yeah, that’s right. On this throne, there’s a body and mind. I mean, you can’t see my mind, but you can see my body. Okay? But you just have take my word for it.

There’s a mind here. Sometimes it doesn’t appear that way, but anyhow. in dependence upon this particular body and mind, I label I, self, Jamyang. On your body and mind, I label what is your name? Karen.

Karen. Karen. Karen. Karen. Karen.

In the third seat in front row, all these labels. So in dependence upon a basis, a body and mind, we apply a label. Jump a man, human being, Australian. And it works. That Australian exists.

That I also apply the label I to this. So whatever my body does, I say I do. My body is sitting on the chair. I can say quite legitimately, I’m sitting on the chair. My mind is thinking various thoughts, say happy thoughts.

in dependence upon I can say I am thinking happy thoughts. So that’s what we mean by the I exists relative to what it’s being designated to, this particular body and mind. And as was mentioned, it also exists so it exists dependently. It exists relative to this body and mind. I exist relative to other.

The concept that we now have of the difference between I and other is very much more solid than it actually exists. It’s very fine and subtle. I only exist because other exists. I mean, you’re not me, I’m not you. So we can make that relative distinction, but it’s not an absolute distinction.

If I pinch this body, you don’t feel the pain. I feel the pain. So we can make that kind of distinction. But it’s simply a relative distinction. But we have a sense that that boundary is so much more than it actually is.

It’s a very subtle distinction between I and other. I don’t know, does that help in a small way? This is even harder than emptiness, coming to understand what conventional existence is like. There’s just these appearances, but they function. They actually work.

Until we get a real table, we’ll make use of this one. This will stand in the meanwhile. It’s able to support the flowers and the books and so forth. Okay. Let’s see.

Lots of paper up here. So what I was going to talk about, we talked a little bit about the mind the mind’s nature being clarity and knowing and different interpretations of the word clarity or simply clear or clarity. And this morning we experimented perhaps, to gain some kind of experience of it. One of the meanings of clarity is that it is like the space in which allows for the arising of objects within the mind, the appearance of objects within the mind. Within the mind, shape and color arises.

Within the mind, sounds arise. Within the mind, thought arises. And so these are objects of these awarenesses. So there is the knowing and within that space like clarity of the mind it allows for objects to arise. And I don’t know, when we move to various objects in our meditation this morning, if any, we went from first the breath and then the body, and then we became aware of sound, and then we became aware of the mind itself.

And part of that exercise, and it’s not an easy exercise by all means, I’m not saying it’s not, is that one normally we identify or we become so totally wrapped up in the object. But by the process of labeling we can maintain some perspective. We are aware of what we’re aware of or we’re aware of what we’re knowing. And then you can get a sense that objects are just arising within the space, this skylight quality of the mind, this clarity of the mind. First there were sensations and then there were sounds and then there were thoughts.

These are simply objects of the mind. They arise within the clarity of the mind. Did anybody get a The awareness remains the same. It’s the container, like the sky. And then these various bodily sensations, sounds, thoughts are allowed to rise within that container, within this sky like quality of the mind, the clarity of mind.

It’s just the different objects arising within clarity of the mind. How do people experience that? Did you like it? Did you like the meditation? Anybody have anything like to share around that?

I’ll share something. Please, yeah. I’m tired of. I found actually when we were bringing our awareness to it all along, I was putting my awareness to mind and thoughts and pictures. I was getting lots of things happening all at once, lots of things flying at me, and then I just had space.

And no matter how much I tried, I’d get pictures around the table. So no matter how much you tried. Yeah. Okay. And?

Well, it was just empty. But there was just this sky like vast open space? Basically, yeah. Basically. Well, what about not basically?

Well, It’s just how it was. But initially it was congested. Yeah. And it became there was nothing. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, that’s great. That’s a good was that a pleasant experience? Yeah. I thought it was.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That can be very you, you know, quite spontaneously or naturally, but also, you know, you can cultivate. And then the various busyness of the mind settles down.

And there are these gaps when it’s like, you know, thoughts arise like the waves on an ocean. You know, arise and then they abide. If they’re neither repressed nor indulged in, they return to the ocean themselves. They cease of themselves. And there are these gaps when there’s just like space like openness.

Yeah, that’s the relative nature of the mind, the clarity of the mind. That’s a good thing. That’s a good thing. You had a realization. Anybody else wanna share, Lou?

Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I was focusing on different objects, say, for instance, sound Yeah. And my focus was there, but it quite often drift off down the things. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like thoughts or, you know, make So you’re becoming aware of what you’re aware of? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That’s important. That’s a good quality to cultivate. I mean, there’s like a continuum of awareness.

One end of the continuum is single pointed concentration where we develop the ability of the mind to remain focused upon a single object for as long as we desire. So the mind doesn’t waver, it doesn’t wander, it’s not distracted. Pump, just pump, set it there and it remains there. On the other end of the continuum of mindfulness awareness is what we call choiceless awareness, where we don’t try to determine the object of mind. We just allow the mind to become involved in any object that it naturally tends toward, which we normally do.

But in this, we try to be aware of what it is that we’re aware of. So we just allow the mind to move toward whatever is most stimulating in our inner environment as well as our outer environment, but we maintain awareness. Know, hearing, thinking, smelling, tasting, hearing, but we’re maintaining awareness from moment to moment. So it’s quite a useful exercise. It has lots of practical it’s quite useful.

Most of us are running on automatic pilot most of the time. Most of what we pay attention to is directed by unconscious habit. And in that we tend to perpetuate many of our old patterns, ways of seeing things and interpreting. You know, we talked a little bit about this Wednesday night. Why is it so hard to change?

I don’t know. Maybe it’s not. Maybe this is my own fixation. I sometimes wonder, maybe, why is there this why can’t we become another person the next moment? You know, I want to be a loving person.

Okay. Decided. Now, I’m a loving person. Let’s get on with it. What’s the problem?

Lack of knowledge too. I might not know how to become a loving person. Yeah. Can’t you just decide? Can’t you have the strength or will to do anything that you want?

So it’s like some of the yeah, it’s like one of the you know, karma, one of your modules of beyond specifically, another important area of Buddhism, has many different results. Amongst these various different types of results is a result which corresponds to its cause in terms of behavior. It’s just a fancy way of saying habit. That is, it’s like we have a tendency to repeat the same ways of thinking about things, interpreting things, viewing things. There’s like a momentum that’s coming from the past.

And unless we’re aware, this momentum will carry itself into future as well. Our minds aren’t blank slates. They have a great deal of our evolutionary history encoded in them. I mentioned this on Wednesday night in terms of the karmic seeds, these predispositions or, as Andrew said, habits and so forth. And unless we begin to become aware of what are some of my predominant habits and so forth, unless we’re aware of what we’re doing, we will, in our unawareness, we will tend to perpetuate the same patterns of ways of thinking and thereby the ways of experiencing our world.

Our world is participatory universe. We are continually involved in world making. And the rules that we’re making, that we’re following in making, that we make use of in bringing about our lived experience aren’t working very well for us. Unless we become aware of this process that we’re involved in and begin to interrupt it and make better choices consciously, we’re simply going to you know, it’s like a boulder rolling down a hill. You know, it has a certain momentum.

And it takes, you know, depending upon its mass and so forth, you know, it takes a lot to deflect that boulder from following its path, doesn’t it? You know, a little twig will just run right over, a little tree will run, but maybe a tree might bounce off and if you had a big boulder that smashes the pieces in that particular what? Okay. So we have to offer some resistance to these past patterns. We have to become aware of them.

We have to know when we’re beginning to act them out and offer some resistance. Otherwise they’re going to play themselves out ad nauseam. That’s what I think. I say when you get sick and tired of being sick and tired, you find a way to get well. That’s why I think awareness is terribly important.

Mindfulness is terribly being aware of what it is that you’re doing, what’s happening in your mind. You know, what happens when you get your button pushed? You know, before it’s all the reactive patterns have been played out, before you’ve acted out. You know, we tend to perpetuate our patterns which actually keep us stuck in them. Notice and I talked to this about last night, last Wednesday night we notice and dwell upon data that seemingly confirms our patterns and we tend not to notice.

We tend to forget or we discount anything which disconfirms. For instance, somebody who thinks of themselves as being bad or unkind, I mentioned definitely pay attention to those times when they let people down, when they treated somebody in an unfriendly manner or even if it wasn’t intentional, when they acted And they will tend to not notice. We have almost a cultivated unawareness to those acts and activities and those that data which dis onfirms our present sense of who we are. You know, there’s times when we did act kindly, when we did act caringly, for example. Even when they’re pointed out to them, we find some way of discounting them, of dismissing them, Oh, that’s not really me.

That was an exception. I was having a bad day. I don’t know. You know, we interpret everything, you know, like to everything that seems to you know, the world seems to continually confirm our beliefs about it and who I am and my place in it. You know, that frown on that person’s face over there is not because they have a headache.

It’s because they’re disapproving of me. I’m doing something wrong. Know, we find people whose patterns agree with ours. A person who has a pattern of it’s all your fault tends to be attracted to somebody, I cause a lot of trouble, don’t I? It fits.

It’s like a key in a lock. They live happily ever after, making life miserable for each other. Somebody with an I’m no good pattern is intrigued by You’re not much, are you? So these are dysfunctional relationships. Anyway, that’s another story.

There’s a I think I have it. Can you talk about that? Yeah, please. That, I think that’s why for me the the question this morning about existing in that makes that I exist conventionally, but not ultimately is a really important one for me because there’s something about that existing conventionally that and I understand it as as grasping and that. But I also think from my background, there’s a really a strong sense of maybe it’s actually for everyone in one form or another that who who I am, that I have to be for others.

So so growing up in a sense where I didn’t have a sense of who I was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sense of who others expected me to be.

And so that’s who I would have to be. Yeah. So I would have to be a lot of different things for a lot of different people. Yeah. So then, yeah, who who that what am I trying to say?

Just that sense of that even at the conventional level of resistance, and these are the kids I work with too, for someone to say to them, you exist as you, not not as all the things I want you to do. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It is enormously difficult just to just to get a sense of who they are conventionally.

Sure. Let alone Ultimately. Ultimately. Yeah. No.

I agree. So we have to do a lot of homework. Mean, the teaching some of these teachings are I mean, we should study them and work with them, but we are at the same time, we’ve got a little catching we’ve got a lot of background work to do. You know, finding our own voice. You know, there’s a you have to be somebody before you can be nobody.

You have to create an ego in order to feel Is that what that could be something? I I find the word ego can be quite problematic, but just using a very loose sense, you need a stable coherent ego before you can transcend it. Otherwise, you’re fooling yourself to some degree. And we yeah, so a lot of a lot of background work needs to be done for most of for most of us. Some people don’t need it.

You know, they can so we have to work from where we’re at. But, you know, but put it in the context of all these Buddhist teachings and making use of all these teachings, but at the same time doing some we need some yeah, some of the work as you’re talking about. I’m quite sure of that. I mean, that’s my experience. You can’t it would be nice if we could be someplace else and we could just get on with being loving, compassionate people.

It’s like these kids would say, Oh, it’s really easy to change, actually. You know, when you say, why it hard to change? You know, why is change so hard? Yeah. Yeah.

And I grew up, it was very easy to change. Yeah. But the locus is about Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, it’s different motivation. A survival. Becomes a performance. That’s right. Yeah, yeah.

And that doesn’t work. It doesn’t work, but it doesn’t work. I mean, you can be terribly skilled at performance, but it’s not an authentic way of life. No, that’s right. Not fulfilling, meaningful.

So at some point you have to maybe become aware of that fact. It’s not an easy it’s not an easy path that’s growing up, is I’d I’d like to just share this little comic with you. It’s a some of you might have seen it before. You know, this this is high and lowest. I don’t know if you think American comic strip, but it’s published in sometimes in Australia.

So there’s two boys walking home from school. And this one, the first boy, he just got his exam results. Okay? So this first box says, That new teacher really did a number on me. And in the second box he says, I thought I got a B on that test and he gave me a C.

And the third box he says, How did he know I was a C student? So, you know, it’s like there was this new teacher who really didn’t know this kid. And this kid said, I’m gonna pull the wool over his eyes. I’m gonna pretend like I’m a B student. You know?

But this teacher was too sharp. He saw through his pretense, his performance, and he saw down to his essence. And he could see that he was a C grade person. It was kind of oozing out of him. It was obvious.

Anybody who really was an experienced teacher, could tell, what is who are you kidding? You’re a C grade person. And, you know, and this this kid’s gonna go on to get a C grade wife, you know, get a C grade job, have a C grade family, teaches kids how to be C grade people. And, it’s kind of a self perpetuating, self fulfilling prophecy in that way about who we conceive of ourselves to be, having a permanent, unchanging, independent identity about who we are. And it becomes a tremendously limiting force in our lives.

If you believe you can or if you believe you can’t, you’re right. We have to begin know, emptiness, one of the positive it can be talked about very abstractly, selflessness and emptiness. But one of the positive viewpoints of emptiness is that it says that things are open ended. They aren’t fixed. They’re dynamic.

You know, we have no inherent nature. It’s just like I told I mentioned Wednesday night, there is this this stuff of the mind which is open to our transformation. It has the potential. This is our Buddha nature. We can make of this stuff.

You know, we don’t have you know, it’s just this reoccurring patterns, this momentum from the past, which makes it difficult to take this stuff in the mind and shape it the ways we might like. But nonetheless, these afflictive emotions, this Geshe la I tried to point out, are not truly existent. They’re not inherently existent. They too are open ended. They too can be transformed.

The situation is workable. We don’t have a fixed identity. Know, I’m a C grade person or whatever it might be. I’m a man. I’m a woman.

If you want to pick an identity, probably the best one you could have is I’m a Buddha to be. I’m a Buddha in working process. Wasn’t the boy in the comic strip trying to do that first? And the teacher put him back in the category. How did he know I was a C grade student?

I mean, he’s actually saying. I know. But he wasn’t just trying to be a beaver. Mean, ultimately, why try to be anything? Well, that’s true too.

And I don’t see that he was trying to pull the wool. Just read that into it just for a dramatic effect. Okay. Thanks for that. So I thought and we’ve got about fifteen minutes to the break.

Last night last night. Can’t say last night. It seems only like last night. Oh, yeah. Someone she’s not here today.

I must have gave her a bad answer. So stupid, I can’t do anything. You know, is, you know, pain, you know, as I mentioned, my bumper sticker is reality is attention. What we habitually pay attention to becomes our reality and making conscious choice about what we pay attention to. This woman was talking about positive affirmations and she didn’t put it in that way, and I mentioned about meditating on the fact what you did last year and so forth.

So I thought this is I think quite useful to look at what we do right, to begin to resist this habitual putting ourselves in our individual boxes, you know, whatever wrappings they might come in, we put ourselves in a particular box. And quite often these boxes aren’t an accurate reflection of what it is in fact we do do. So anyway, I thought we would just try this in a very conventional way. There’s a story about this I can’t remember. Oh gosh.

I have a senior moments. Senior moments. You’ve earned them. I’ve earned them. I’ve been thinking about I’ve been thinking a lot about the hereafter lately.

I go to the cupboard and I think, What am I hereafter? I was thinking of something. I mentioned it Wednesday night about a student going to his teacher. I did the naw, shucks. Let’s I thought we’d meditate on this meditation is just a matter of yeah, I did, didn’t I?

We’re just going to work in terms of constantly choosing to pay attention to what we do right. You know, this isn’t you know, some of the self affirmations, you know, you kind of drone on about, you know, I’m wonderful there’s this voice in the back that says, sure. You know? Who are you kidding? Is we actually are looking to what we actually do.

Who we are now is what we have done. What we do now is what we will become. We can begin to make a habit of that person that we want to be. So we look to what we do do. So this isn’t fantasizing.

This isn’t simply product of imagination. Looking for things that we do do and that we more than not dismiss, that we discount because it doesn’t quite fit into our self image at present. But this self image isn’t probably serving us very well, so it’s useful to begin to try to disrupt it, intervene in some way. So we’re just going to look, bring to mind something that we did more than one year ago, something that we did positive, that we feel good about more than one month ago, more than one week ago, up to one month ago, yesterday up to one week ago, and then today. And by something good, again.

You know, if you can’t think of anything that you can feel good about, what does that say? What does that say about you? I think that’s worthwhile to reflect upon in itself. It’s not that you haven’t done anything worthwhile. Good.

It’s just why is it that you can’t recall that? Do you simply cultivate an unawareness? An amnesia, cultivated amnesia with respect to the good that you do do? I’m beginning to question that. So, again, it’s not a matter of finding a cure for cancer or winning the Nobel Prize.

It can be just something, you know, if somebody drops something, you pick it up. Or just a smile. You know, it’s up to you, just something that you can feel good about. And you congratulate yourself. Just go over the top.

It’s okay. There’s such a thing as a bodhisattva’s pride, the pride of feeling good about it. Please, you know, congratulate yourself. If you don’t congratulate yourself, probably no one else will. So we’re gonna do that, okay?

So you want to stand up and stretch for a moment and then we’ll meditate on this. So taking a comfortable, firm posture. So we’ll begin with just a few mindful breaths. This exercise, bringing the breathing in comfortably, naturally. But when you exhale, exhaling the exhalation, very gently forcing air out of the lungs.

Quite often we’re shallow breathers and we build up a lot of stale air in our lungs. So in this way we can begin to really refresh our minds and bodies. It also begins to stabilize our awareness, our attention. Breathing in comfortably normally, just breathing out, extending the exhalation, but doing it in a gentle fashion. And then bring your mind to the breath, just the easy, gentle in and out flow of the natural breath.

And you might want to try counting the breaths and or labeling your experience, naming, or just bringing awareness to the sensations associated with the natural breath, wherever they’re most clear and obvious. Could be at your abdomen, could be at your chest, in your nostril, on your upper lip. Focusing on one of those areas. Bring your mind back to the breath. Now we’re going to meditate on appreciating and valuing ourselves.

Recalling something that you did or had or were more than one year ago. So just looking back and bringing the mind something that you did, something that you had, some quality, or something you were that you can feel good about, that you can appreciate and value. Be pleased for yourself, congratulate yourself, really go over the top. That was a wonderful thing I did. I really like that about myself.

That’s really an admirable quality, something good about me. I appreciate what you do, who you are. So recalling something you did one year ago or more, bringing it to mind and really savoring it, really valuing it, feeling good about it in yourself for having done it or having been it. And we’re going to do the same again. We’re simply going to change the time period.

Over one month ago, but less than one year. More than one month ago, but less than one year. Reviewing that time period, bringing to mind something you did or were, some quality about yourself, and really appreciate it, value it. Give yourself a pat on the back. Be pleased with yourself.

Again, we’ll do the same, simply changing the time period. More than one week ago, but less than one month ago. More than one week ago, but less than one month ago. Again, changing the time period. Yesterday up to one week ago.

Yesterday up to one week ago. And then finally, something that you did today or something that you are today, bringing that to mind, congratulating yourself, feeling good about yourself, being pleased for yourself. And then bring your mind back to the breath. And then get in touch with your body, feeling sensation within the body. And the sounds around us.

And slowly become aware of your surroundings, taking your time. So let’s take a break, have a cup of tea, whatever. Yeah. This is called a half lotus or half agia. Right on the left thigh or whatever you can do.

That’s right. So then there’s that’s the double? So the right is right is always over the left. Right hand over the left hand, and the right the right leg over left. Did you get comfortable after a while?

Yeah. But you you don’t wanna hurt yourself. Yeah. So it’s a like when you watch television, just sit on the floor sometimes. Westerners, they have to begin to open your hips up because they don’t sit.

So just sitting with you and just allowing your legs to come down. And there was one yoke position that I was talking about was pregnant where you had your leg up and you push it down. Yeah, we gotta be careful about pushing. Hopefully this handout maybe you have used to and you want to take home and look at it and study it for some time. So I guess what we’re doing this first module of The Mind and Its Potential is trying to develop some foundation in terms of looking at the very foundation of our practice and our ultimate happiness is the mind itself.

Becoming acquainted with the mind, the nature of mind, both in its conventional ultimate nature. The conventional nature is just the fact that it’s a clarity and knowing, and this clarity has all these various meanings that the afflictive emotions are not in the nature of the fabric of the mind itself. You know, these are kind of these pieces of information, I think, can be quite helpful in that we are not the problem. The problem is the problem. The problem is the afflictive emotions, and we have never been the afflictive emotions.

Sometimes we become so saturated with the problem it is as if we are the problem itself. So it’s a process of externalizing the problem, and in the sense that, not that, you know, the problem does not abide within the nature of my own mind, and therefore it’s workable. There can be a notion that, you know, that I am the problem, and as long as I exist, the problem is going to exist. And the only way I’m going to get rid of this problem is by doing away with myself. These little tips, descriptions of the mind is dynamic in nature, it’s open ended.

We can make up this stuff, you know, whenever we have the skill and the willingness willingness to put forth the effort to make of our minds. It doesn’t have any inherent nature. In Zen Buddhism they have a saying, Mind’s nature is Buddha nature, and Buddha’s nature is no nature. So, the mind is as if it’s workable. It’s open ended.

Then, looking at our Buddha nature, I think Geshe la was coming at the place. There’s two think I mentioned this Wednesday night there are two metaphors that we can make use of in terms of our practice, and sometimes one is useful at different points and when we’re experiencing going through our various attitudes toward our practice and so forth. One of them is that, you know, there’s the path and a path is a metaphor. You know, metaphor you say life is a bowl of cherries. That’s a metaphor.

It’s a way of organizing our experience and making sense of our life. Life is dusty bitch and then you die. You know, that’s another metaphor. You know, we live by metaphors, whether we’re aware of it or not. So metaphor is a path and it denotes a journey, doesn’t it?

It’s, you know, I’m here, and this is where I want to get to. And so there’s a process of, I have this potential, like a seed, and I can transform this seed by, By applying myself to the various practices, this potentiality can go over to actuality, and I can become the result that I’m seeking to achieve. I can achieve the goal of the path. And that’s a perfectly useful metaphor, and that describes part of past. But again, as we mentioned this the other night, Wednesday night, another metaphor which is quite useful too is, you know, when this skylight quality of the mind, you know, there a natural purity to the mind.

We have an innate intelligence and caring, which is it seems as if it were in the nature of the mind itself. The very fact that even at an organism, a single celled organism, there’s approach and avoidance. An approach and avoidance requires some, we can call it intelligence or discriminated awareness. This is going to enhance my existence. This is threatening to my existence.

Even in a single cell organism, the mind has this ability to discriminate. Discriminate. Then it also, just the fact of not approaching that which you see as threatening shows a caring. I want to maintain my existence. This seems to be innate to the mind.

You know, we call that caring. I call it caring. Moreover, there is this metaphor, this other metaphor, like the opening of a lotus. There is a primordial perfection which has always been, which needs no cultivation, which needs the open state of being, the awakened state of being. Just like when I talked about realization, it’s a removal of some obstacle which prevents us from directly experiencing reality as it actually is, nakedly, barely.

And likewise, if we just the path is not so much actuality going over to potentiality, but the revealing of a perfection that has always been, but it’s lies obscured, even from ourselves. In your handout, I think there’s some nice metaphors that some of the past these are Indian masters, on page six of your handout trying to help us to get a sense so we don’t feel so bad about ourselves. That, you know, when the clouds become all that we consume our vision. Our vision is only cannot go past the clouds and the pain and confusion. Just knowing that behind there’s a sun.

It’s a temporary aberration. So a Buddha within a decay decaying lotus. So these are all trying to get at this notion of some perfection which lies pre existent within all our minds. A Buddha within a decaying lotus, honey surrounded by bees, grain in its husk, gold gold within filth, treasure beneath the earth, the shoot of a great tree and a small fruit, the statue of a Buddha wrapped in rags, the future ruler in the womb of an ugly woman, precious image within a clay mold. In just that way, obscured by the stains of the adventitious afflictions, the element of Buddha exists in all beings.

So, you know, it’s maybe it can we can take some heart in that in some difficult times. That in spite of the confusion and the pain that this is simply a cloud passing over, it’s not always going to be like behind the clouds there’s always this sun of our own basic goodness, own basic sanity. And so we have this foundation, the mind itself. And we have within this mind is Buddha nature, that which is the seed or the element which is we will bring to the achievement of the goal. In We are taking refuge in something of which we are the final transformation.

It is only this Buddha, ourselves as Buddha, which can help us in all ways, at all times, in all possible manners, ourselves as Buddha. It’s just the development of our own mind. We have to grow. Essentially, this is all we’re talking about. Then beginning to appreciate that we have the opportunities to grow.

And this was the notion that again was introduced Wednesday night. I would think Venerable Jyam Young went through these ten freedoms and eight richnesses, and we talked about these very briefly Wednesday night. I don’t use them per se, they’re listed in the handout. There are various listings of them, you know, on page nine and ten. So these are the traditional presentations.

To be honest with you, you know, I work I study and I work with these traditional presentations, but I also try to make take these teachings and try to make them my own. And this means I have to somehow convert them into things which actually move my heart, I actually feel some meaning for me at present. And I don’t like to share my delusions with you, but what I’m forced to do at times if I’m going to communicate as one westerner to another. So I work with the traditional ways of seeing things, but additionally I have to find some way to put these in my own language, my own terms, my own things, ways that have meaning for me. So, this is why it comes down to this kind of presentation where I begin to look at freedoms and riches, not so much in terms of past and future lives and so forth, but in terms of you know, just appreciating our counting our blessings at present.

You know, and this is we went through this and I thought we’re going to meditate on. For example, you know, freedom is coming from a negative point of view, things that I’m free of. So, you know, we have to appreciate our own minds that we have this potential, that we’re not stuck, we’re not quite the person that we have habitually conceived ourselves to be. You know, getting creating some kind of doubt around that. There’s a nice quote in here by Lama Yeshe.

Lama Yeshe, just to the right of the Tibetan bookshelf this is a Tibetan bookshelf, by the way to that right is a portrait of a rather angelic face. That’s Lama Yeshe. Lama Yeshe was the founder of the FPMT, foundation for the preservation of Mahāyāna tradition. And he died about, I guess it’s been about twenty three years ago. And I think it shows the difference that one person can make is strictly due to him that we’re sitting here now in this building, that Buddha House exists.

FPMT, which now has about one hundred and fifty retreat centers and monasteries and nunneries around the world. It’s due to his compassion and wisdom and inner strength that this organization exists and that so many people are being benefited even though he’s To your left of the Buddha image is his reincarnation, Lama Osel, who was born in Spain. I guess he’s now about twenty three years old. So was Lama Yeshe was a real master psychologist. He could have, you know, is back in the hippie days.

You know, he could have these old, these freaks and these hippies, you know, they be in there with their chilums, you know, smoking their dope, they had long beards and long hair, and twenty four hours later they’d be doing prostrations, you know, and they’d be all cleaned up their act, you know. He was quite something, his ability to work with people. He was a real master, and he really could communicate. And on the bottom of page eight, I like this. The main dealing, the problem, what is the problem?

He had creative way with it, the linguist language, so you have to kind of get into his headspace. The main dealing, the problem, what is the problem? It is ordinary recognition. I am the poor man, poor woman. Do you understand?

Perceiving, holding poor one, poor object, poor quality, and perceiving also such poor acting ugly, having lower opinion of my body, lower opinion of quality. This is the worst symptom to be healthy, to be liberated. That is the main dealing to eradicate the cut. As long as you decided, having preconception that I am the self pitying one, you decided already that you are the bad guy. You decided already.

So when you decided you are a bad guy, you always do bad actions. Anyway, I’m worthless. I’m a bad guy, so I do bad one. Of course, that’s the way it’s true. So, you know, it doesn’t work.

There’s no sense in keep telling us this story. It’s of no use to anyone, either to ourselves and those about us. It’s a type of pride in the end, that I’m special. I’m especially especially bad. And it prevents you from getting on with Anyway, you aren’t especially bad.

I’m sorry to tell you. I hate to dismay you like that. So we have this Buddha nature, we have this mind that’s open ended. We are not the problem, no matter what the problem, no matter how cloudy sky might appear, and the situation is workable. And moreover, we have to count our blessings, that we have what we need.

And there’s a relationship between fact, value and action. If you begin to recognize a fact, you will value it. If you take it for granted, you won’t value it. So we have to count our blessings so we don’t take them for granted. This is what are some of the facts about our lives and what it is that we have so that we value it.

And upon valuing it, we won’t let it go to waste. It’s usefulness for ourselves. So this is usually done traditionally terms of the Ten Freedoms and Eight Richnesses. Ten things of which I’m free of, eight things of which I have. In terms of freedoms, you know, we talked about this Wednesday night, but I think we have to be aware that some degree we have cultivated unawareness with regard to a lot of what would be useful, pragmatically speaking, to pay attention to in our lives.

You know, what would happen if I were born in Calcutta on the streets begging? You know, I’ve been there. I’ve seen it. I mean, these are the kinds of images that I use. I hope I’m not misleading you, but if you were in Dafur, in a refugee camp, continually being raided, raped, you know, you can’t even be afraid just to walk out together, firewood, you know, it’s dangerous.

In that kind of situation, relax enough to open to other possibilities in terms of your inner development? It’s out of the question. You’re just trying to feed your family and yourself for that day. It’s not an option. Know?

You, you know, most of the Anyway, I think you get the idea. If you were mentally disabled, mentally challenged, intellectually challenged, psychotic, undergoing debilitating chemotherapy, or you’re actively addicted to drugs, alcohol. These things which create such an impediment that our minds, certain options are closed off to us. They’re such an impediment that they’re almost overwhelming obstacles to our having the luxury be able to direct having the kind of the circumstance to be able to direct our minds toward these issues which are going to promote ways of cultivating our mind. Know, I think it was Billie Holiday said, you know Billie Holiday?

She said, Don’t preach to me about God when my stomach is empty. You can’t listen if you’re hungry. First you take care of your stomach, then you can listen. Otherwise your mind is just closed off. An obstacle.

It’s a karmic obstacle. The teachings might be there, but you can’t hear them. There’s nothing you can act upon. You can’t do anything. So how do their future lives pan out?

Because I’ve often thought about this. Yeah. In what way? If all the teachings are closed off and we haven’t got the opportunities, you know. But you do.

No. You do. I do. I feel very privileged, but I mean the people in Calcutta are all these sorts of Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, there’s only yeah, that’s true.

How can they improve their future? How can they improve their future? Causes in the past to experience this present situation. So we’ve practiced generosity in the past, we’ve practiced ethics in the past, and so forth. And so these individuals, they have to create the same causes.

There’s no result without a cause. I I guess there’s a couple of ways to look at it, but one way is, know, we’re limited in what we can do now, and we can’t even help ourselves to a large degree. And though it is really beneficial and very admirable to wish to help others, maybe we have to begin by developing ourselves, in terms of our ability to be able to help others, and then we’ll be able to fulfill that wish to help others. Can we do both, Jampakana? Is this justice while we can’t do No, Otherwise, maybe this aspiration to help others is just lip service.

I agree one hundred percent. I agree one hundred percent. And for many, maybe, that’s one of our main practices. I agree one hundred percent. I guess we have to know ourselves and what actually is authentic for ourselves.

Freedoms and then richnesses. This is looking at the same situation from a positive point of view, in terms of, you know, that we are human beings, we have minds. We have kind hearts. We have relatively healthy bodies. We live in a country where we have social and political free of political and social persecution.

What would we be doing if we were living in Swat Valley right now? The Taliban was running the show. I can guarantee you we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing here. You would be at home, grinding. I mean, they can’t even go to school, let alone.

We have countless opportunities to pursue our creative interests, whatever kinds of We can do almost anything. We have a high standard of living and we don’t have to do all that much. I find that amazing. And I imagine people in India, most of the people in China, most of the people, you know, a great number, a couple of billion people, it’s beyond their imagination that we could have such a high standard of living, live in such luxury and have to exert so much effort to have it. They couldn’t fit that in their mind.

You know, they work eleven, twelve hours a day, seven days a week, and they don’t have onefour of the standard of living. You know, the average worth a dollar a day. Why? If you’re saying that everything has cause and effect, I see that. Okay, so someone who is actually quite fortunate then is because of what they did in the past.

That’s right. So you can you deserve it. You deserve it? Pardon? You deserve it?

Yeah. But how do you get to the how do you keep from to that point where I am white, rich, middle class, therefore I deserve it and too bad about all of you? And to me that’s setting up There’s a difference between discernment and judgment, isn’t there? I mean, we’re not making any judgments, but there is this discernment. Live in this kind of situation, and because it’s useful to think of this, it’s pragmatic, because by acknowledging it, you’ll come to value it, because we are a privileged minority.

And then say, Well, how can I make best use of this, what this opportunity presents me with? You have not only an obligation to the person who you were in the past, who created these calls for you, but maybe if you have a sense of social justice, that we have an obligation to do something to help others who don’t have the same privileges we have. And this may take the form of, Well, I’ve got to work on myself so that I can really develop the ability to be of benefit to others. It may take the form, I’d like to help them lift them up. And if you don’t, then don’t know.

It’s like in your back. Minimally we should try to recreate the platform which we’ve created in this life, in the future life. Probably won’t become a Buddha in this life. Sorry, but it could happen. You have to make allowances for that possibility, all right?

He might slip up. So you want to create the conditions whereby you can carry on this kind of practice from life to life. So there’s a gradual unfoldment. We have to take some long term cosmic perspective over this journey. I think that’s useful.

And therefore, beginning to take considerations of recreating the kind of causes we have now, which brought about the present result. So taking advantage of our present result to create those causes, can of course try to go beyond that. There are exceptions even in difficult circumstances like some of the women in Afghanistan who are actually trying to actually educate girls and do the right thing against horrible pressure. So to me, they are leading in some ways a privileged life because even though it’s extremely difficult, they’re actually able to serve in a way that all of us can’t. Sure, yeah, I agree.

It’s very admirable, isn’t it? Tremendous Really, it’s quite amazing. Yeah, there’s lots of stories out there which are really inspirational. So we have to do that, but they aren’t, you know, how are we going to emulate them within our own circumstance, in our own particular story? Yeah, I don’t know if I could do that.

I don’t know. Anyway, I thought Shall we meditate for about fifteen minutes? Okay. Would you like to stand up and stretch? Okay.

So we’re just going to work with some of these ideals around our freedoms, which is looking at what we have from a negative point of view, that we have an absence of something, that we’re free of these hindrances, these obstacles, and then looking at it from a positive point of view that we have lots of endowments. Endowments. Have the circumstances. We’re trying to create a platform, a basis, which we believe in and that we’re enthusiastic about going forward, Overcoming this sense of poor me. I don’t have what it takes.

I’m going to have to wait until some better circumstance comes along or until I’ve got my life together and then I’ll be able to do it. The excuses, the compromises that we’re continually making one way or another are something we can all do. Taking a firm comfortable posture, we’ll begin by just this simple breath exercise. Just refreshing, invigorating the body and mind, taking in a breath normally, comfortably, but extending the exhalation. And bring your mind to the breath.

Now we’re going to meditate on what is traditionally called our freedom and richnesses, just counting our blessings. First, beginning from a negative point of view. What could you do in terms of your own self development, growing, bringing about the kinds of changes that you want in your life, in your mind? If you were born on the streets of Calcutta having to beg from morning till night in order to feed your family for that day, what options would be open to you in that kind of situation? Or if you live in a refugee camp in Darfur, what’s that like?

In terms of growing, making the kinds of changes that you want. Or if we lived in an area which was ruled by the Taliban, What kind of freedom would be lost then? Or if you’re in serious pain, seriously ill. If you’re intellectually What can you do? Or your family tried to prevent you from your interests, created obstacles, Or there simply weren’t any teachings or teachers just weren’t there.

We want the penny to drop. The fact is you’re free of all those possible circumstances, all those scenarios. You’re free of all of that, of living in Calcutta, living living in Darfur, of having obstacles placed in your way by your family, by illness, where there aren’t any teachings or teachings, you’re free of all that. Isn’t this just not part of your life? Free of all that.

So let’s look at the positive side. So you have an intelligent mind, a kind heart. You have that. That may not be all that you wish for, but you have that at some limited extent at present. You can acknowledge that fact.

You have a relatively healthy body. That’s pretty good. We live in a free country. We can do anything, go anywhere. That’s pretty fortunate.

You have all your material necessities easily met. You don’t have to work all that hard. Sure, sometimes. But in general, you still have leisure time. Time to pursue your interests and still have a high standard of living.

Good food and clothes, comfortable house, car. Pretty easygoing. Pretty good situation. So you’ve met with some the teachings and some really fine teachers. You’ve got everything you need.

You have freedoms. You have choices, options, and a way of life, and inner qualities become anything that you want to be. That’s a reality. It’s not wishful thinking. It’s a fact.

Just hold on to that, that feeling. How precious this opportunity really is. Have some compassion for yourself. Take care of yourself. Use this opportunity well.

I’d like to ask that you take a minute and reflect back on what kind of differences you see in yourself, in your relations, whatever, from the beginning when you started Discovering Buddhism till today. Have you noticed any differences from the time that you started discovering Buddhism, this module, up till today? Even if they’re only slight, it’s useful to reflect and be aware of them, to take note of them. What kind of differences do you notice? What’s different from when you started and now today?

What’s different? And then bring your mind back to the breath. Getting in touch with your body. The sounds around you and your surroundings. So we have a few minutes left.

It would have been nice if we could have went around and shared some differences that we see. Would anybody like to share what came up for them? In terms of differences? Yeah. Yeah.

I feel a really important shift of my mind towards what’s important in life, I guess. Yeah. Like, a a really important deeper commitment to us to to to what I want to seeking a spiritual path and to and just, you know, being with it and working towards this. And that’s quite new. Oh, good.

Thank you for that. Thank you. You. Anybody else, please? I’ve found myself checking my thoughts a bit before they become actions, which I think is a a reasonably good skill to pick up.

Mhmm. Yeah. For me, prior to that, it was action then. Uh-oh. So now I’m actually thinking.

Sounds great. Yeah. It’s good. Yeah. Yeah.

Excellent. That’s a good thing. I find I’m less grasping at things, taking things for granted like you used to. Like, you know, like, you’re never happy with what you got, and you always wanna strive into something more.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You realize it’s just a futile effort. Yeah.

There’s always gonna be something that you’re gonna be trying to grasp at. It’s gotta stop somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. It pretty well where where we are.

Just don’t realize that. Thank you, Andrew. That sounds great. Please. I’ve been sort of on this, I guess, path now for probably eighteen or so months, and we were talking about it at our break.

And the more I do it, the more I can laugh at myself. All those things that everybody else has said, I’m a lot calmer. I think more about things and, you know, acting. I used to act and then then knock myself around the head a few times afterwards and a lot lot more peaceful within myself. Yeah.

And, yeah, and I think being able to now even if I have a bad day, I still find things to be happy about. Wow. Yeah. Whether it be circumstances or work or whatever it is, if anything bad happens, I sort of put that aside and I still find happiness. That’s a very bad watching.

Yeah. Should we should we we almost have time. We just I mean, if you if you if you don’t wish to, can we just go around one by one and share? Realizing that I am not my emotions. You’re not your emotions.

Does that look Not all the time. No, sometimes. So you can make a choice sometimes. Relationships have improved out of sight, particularly in work. I’ve made a lot of new friends, and I guess I’m respecting other people’s opinion a lot more.

Yeah. It’s changed my life, actually. That’s nice to hear. Thank you. I just feel calmer and more ease with myself.

Yeah. Yeah, a bit more happier about my life. That’s positive. So I don’t mean to put people on the spot. But thank you for that.

I have had a really big time since we started this course. I’m I took some action one day of just simply thanking someone from a much, much deeper place inside myself in a way that I hadn’t. And as a result of that, from her point of view, she was then able to tell me that she was in pain. And as a result of that, she went to hospital. And as a result of that, she had a heart attack in the hospital, not somewhere where there was no medical attention.

Yeah. As a result of that, her life she died twice in the hospital and was revived. And so what I understand is some people have said, oh, you saved your life. You saved your life. And my sense of it is not that.

My sense of it is actually, they’ll probably save mine. But my sense of it is thanking, the simple act of thanking, of deepening and widening and just saying, I know I’ve said thank you before. I’m just saying it from much deeper. Thank you. Thank you.

Meant that you just don’t know where that’s gonna go. I had no idea about the hospital thing or any of that. Know? But I begin to see the importance of my actions, my positive actions Uh-huh. In the world.

Not just this not just that, but but particularly thankfulness because thankfulness is what? For her. And I knew it opened a door in me. Yeah. I just knew it as soon as I said it that it opened some door that had not been opened.

And she said, yeah. And I knew that because that’s why I couldn’t say what I said, which is I’m really not well. I need to go to hospital. So she wouldn’t have said it otherwise according to her silence. Wow.

Thankfulness, just positive action. Made a difference. Made a difference. Yeah. Thank you.

I’ve become stronger and calmer, less reactive, which is really good for me. Yeah. And recently dealt with something that was two years ago. I think I would have been really no. I would have been weighing in great agony.

A year ago, I would have been really angry. And this time, I dealt with it calmly, not without some sadness, but calmly and kindly. So that was good for my self respect as well. And the other thing is that I’m laughing about things I just had quite a day yesterday yesterday with friends, and they said, Sarah, you would have got upset about that before, now you’re laughing! And they’re concerned that I’m not getting upset.

Is really quite fun, but it could be worse, couldn’t it? Yeah. Okay. I can relate to what everybody’s said this afternoon. It brings a new perspective into your life, having these teachings and a greater understanding.

I’ve learned not to take things so seriously, putting a lighter side into things. That’s a lot. Yeah? It’s a lot. Thank you.

I I think that I’m the the concept around the sky with the Yes. The different actions within that and thoughts within that has been really enlightening me. And it’s just looking at it in a different way. Yeah. And so that it’s just a thought has been a really useful for man as well.

Yeah. And I do I feel calmer as well. Good. Good. Good.

So thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I think this idea of looking at the mind is really useful just to get some perspective on it for myself and my mind, but also realizing that, you know, everyone else’s minds are probably slightly crazy as well. Situation, but it’s good to have I think it’s nice to have this perspective, you know, leads to not taking the story so seriously.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And just making your life a little bit calmer, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. That sounds positive. I think the comment about crazy leads straight into me. I had complete breakdown, which left me best to alike, and I’m still recovering.

And although I didn’t come to this particular module, I’ve been seeing quite a bit before I stopped. I’ve So and I think what these teachings have been doing for me is well, I couldn’t describe myself as a Buddhist. It’s provided a foundation that I feel I have in common with it. Like, it’s sort of it fits for me. And, yeah, it’s a foundation where I can finally get myself completely back together again.

And then, well, I’m gonna be fantastic. Not for me. Yeah. So it’s it’s a gradual process. But these teachings have been, yeah, food for us all.

Good. Good. Thank you. Please? Okay.

I guess the best way I can describe it is I’ve been reading, I guess, about Buddhism and things like that Yeah. For a long It’s like reading about dancing or something. It’s true, like, the homework. It’s the only time in my life I’ve run to get to home, oh, I’m gonna do this way. You know?

And so it’s really lovely for me to just put those practices, and there’s a real practical application of all that stuff. I guess there’s a difference between me and me. Fantastic. Thank you. The next module is Learn to Meditation.

That should be good. I think Kris Dille is going to take it while Jamyang’s away. Think you’ll find it quite valuable. She’s a good communicator and has some experience. So I wish you well.

Okay? Thank you all for a nice day. Just before we go, I want to show everyone where Jamyang’s leading us. Just on behalf of everyone here, thanks for all the teaching that you’ve given. Not me, but everyone here.

I’m very appreciative. Thank you, everybody. Miss you a lot. Thank you. Yeah.

That’s very kind. Thank you all. Teach in New South Wales? Purposely not making lots of plans. There’s a saying that the Dharma does you, you don’t do the Dharma.

I’m trying to seeing what emerges. Trust in emergence. Thank you all. The body will leave on the thirtieth. The line’s gone.

I don’t know if it was all here.