Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this extended 251-minute session on the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, Venerable Lobsang Namgyel guides practitioners through the first five verses with detailed practical instruction and extensive Q&A addressing the core paradoxes of compassion-based mind training. He opens with preparatory prayers and Chenrezig visualisation, then methodically unpacks each verse: holding all beings most dear despite their suffering and vice; considering oneself the lowest while valuing others as supreme; recognising and averting delusions the moment they arise; holding even those overwhelmed by negative actions as precious treasures; and accepting defeat and offering victory when others mistreat us out of envy. Throughout, Namgyel weaves in contemporary examples—low self-esteem in Western culture, social media reactivity, parental discipline and child protection—and draws extensively on His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s example. He emphasises the balance between developing genuine confidence (not false humility) and transcending self-cherishing; working with compassion before attempting emptiness; and understanding karma as personal responsibility rather than victimhood. The session includes heated discussion on whether to defend children from abuse (answer: with wisdom, not anger), managing compassion fatigue, and the role of examining one’s own mind as foundational to practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2011 10 02 Ven Namgyel – 07 – Sun 2nd Oct.mp3
UUID: d3e7f0f7-338c-4f73-a806-cc0030635814
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: 8 Verses Thought Transformation (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Date: 2011-10-02
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 251.6 minutes
Words: ~28,431
Transformed. Even you, Magda. Even Melbourne can transform, isn’t it? Okay. So we’re going to start with a few prayers to prepare the mind.
Hundred and fifty nine. We’re not going to do the meditation yet, but we’ll just do seven limb prayer, the mandal offering, and the request. So we’re thinking about Chenrezig, the Buddha of compassion, and we’re trying to develop the mind of compassion. So we start with kindness, then we have love, then we can have compassion, and then we have bodhicitta. And bodhicitta is more than compassion.
So taking responsibility and saying, I’m responsible. I’m going to do it. So by myself alone and when Lama Zopa says this, it’s always very frightening because that word alone sounds really heavy, but it it’s the way it is. It’s by myself alone. I will liberate all sentient beings from their suffering.
But then you think, yeah, but hold on. How am I going to liberate all sentient beings from their suffering when I have all this suffering myself? So the point is to remind you of what you need to do in order to be able to liberate others. So you need to liberate yourself from your suffering in order to help others with their suffering. If you’re suffering and they’re suffering, you’re in the same situation.
It’s like two people drowning, and nobody knows how to swim. And so you have to learn how to deal with the suffering and transform the suffering, have realizations go beyond the suffering. So things need to change in order for you to be a benefit to others. So if you’re only thinking of benefiting others, can you really be a benefit? Is it realistic?
You know? This is what we need to think about. If we’re thinking, I’m going to help others, but you don’t help yourself, what are the resources that you have in order to help others? We actually need to do something for ourselves and use what we know in order to be a benefit to others. So we can do both.
As long as we’re ahead, you know, we’re a little bit further along, we can help others. So we keep moving. We keep helping ourselves using that to help others. So we don’t need to wait until we’re totally enlightened. We can still help others along the way, but we need to be realistic.
You know? Can we liberate all sentient beings from their suffering right now? Of course not. But that’s the aim. If you have that aim, you’re not excluding anybody.
You’re saying every sentient being. And, of course, this is conflictive. You know? The the mind says, well, let’s leave leave out this person, and let’s leave out them, and let’s leave out them. So we’re not doing that at all.
We’re including every sentient being. And I’m going to liberate them means I have to be really strong. I have to have the the, the mind of the warrior, if you like, the bodhisattva warrior, I need to be very strong in order to want to liberate all sentient beings from their suffering. So when we’re reciting these prayers, it’s to remind you Which direction are we headed in? Why are we doing this?
It’s not just for ourselves. Okay. So bottom of one fifty nine. Reverently, I prostrate to guru Avalokisvara with my body, speech, mind. I present clouds of every type of offering, actual and imagined.
I declare all my negative actions accumulated since beginningless time and rejoice in the merit of all holy and ordinary beings. Please remain until the end of cyclic existence and turn the wheel of dharma for living beings. Because of the merits of myself and others, may the two bodhicittas ripen, and may I receive the great enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. And then the mandala offering, which is transforming everything into a a perfect place. This ground anointed with perfume, strewn with flowers, adorned with Mount Meru, four continents, the sun, and the moon.
I imagine this as a Buddha field and offer it. May all living beings enjoy this pure land. May the guru’s life be long. May all beings equaling space receive happiness and comfort. May I and all others without exception accumulate merit, purify obscurations, and quickly receive enlightenment.
Precious guru, please grant me all realizations of the path from guru devotion to the completion of training, the unified vajra state. Please grant me blessings that my mind will become Dharma, that Dharma will become the path, that hindrances in the path may not occur, that I may cease all wrong conceptions and receive immediately the two precious bodhicittas. So you can put Chenrezig Avalokiteśvara above your head. We’re going to leave him there for a little while. Good to keep the text.
And then thinking, in this session on this cushion by what I’m doing, studying, meditating, contemplating, whatever activities I’m doing, may I do them in order to benefit others, and may I become enlightened in this session? So we shouldn’t be sinking, long, long time away. There’s two ways of thinking. One is, okay. I’ll be very patient, and I’ll wait three countless eons to become enlightened.
And the other way of thinking is others are suffering so much. I can’t stand the thought of them suffering. I must become enlightened very quickly. And so we can think very quickly on this cushion, may I become enlightened right now without a second’s delay. And then we spend a few minutes meditating on the breath, becoming aware of the sensation of the breath as we breathe in and out through the nostrils, allowing thoughts to disappear, breathing out thoughts.
As you breathe in, becoming aware of the spaciousness of your mind. So breathing in, space, openness. If anything appears in that space, breathe it out. Let it go. Just two more minutes.
And slowly bringing your awareness back to the room we’re sitting in, the cushion you’re sitting on, and the meditation we’ve just been doing. So following our conversations of the day before and yesterday, Did you go home and think of any problems, any questions, or everybody’s comfortable? Are you comfortable, Catherine? But don’t move for half an hour, and we’ll see if you’re comfortable, isn’t it? I have I have a question.
I was thinking Is there a self nurturing? Is there a self nurturing? Yeah. Or is it all self-cherishing? You don’t, do you?
Oh, didn’t you know that’s illegal? Right. Did they give you vegetables in the soup? Yeah. Well, I guess according to different cultures, different things are correct, incorrect.
Like, the Japanese love, some, or many, maybe many, love raw foods. There’s macrobiotics. So for people who eat macrobiotics, they think you really have to eat raw food. Otherwise, you can’t be healthy. And then for other people’s bodies, they need to eat cooked food because otherwise, they’re not healthy.
Like, every time I go to a Tibetan doctor, they always say, don’t eat salads. You know? Whatever you do, don’t eat salads. So over the years, I’ve developed a horror for salads. Whenever I come to the West, people always say, take you for a salad.
I go, you know, because I’ve got this now this cultural thing. In India, we don’t eat many salads. Right? In Mexico, you don’t eat many salads. So you can see in different cultures, different foods are popular.
And as, Buddhism went into different cultures, it tended to take on the flavor of the culture. And so the robes are different in different cultures. The rules are a little bit different. You have the basic rules which are the same, not harming others, trying to be a benefit if you can. Those rules are the same.
But how Buddhism went into the culture and mixed with the culture, whether it’s Korean or Japanese or Indian or Thai. I think there’s the differences. And so whenever somebody asks me a question like that, there’s no answer within Buddhism because there’s no self nurturing. You know? It doesn’t exist.
I’ve never read anywhere the Buddha said self nurturing. But what he did say in relation to food, drink, is when he left home, he went to every teacher. He said, teach me. They taught him. He became as good as them.
So he was extraordinary. And they’d say, take my disciples, ten thousand, twenty thousand disciples. This means huge power and prestige in those days. He said, no. No.
I’m not interested in that. There’s something you’re not teaching me. There’s something more, which is bodhicitta. He was searching for bodhicitta, but it didn’t exist. Then he tried ascetic practices, sitting under the tree.
And whatever fell from the tree, he would eat, And so he became really thin. I don’t know if there’s a picture or a statue here, but often you see a picture or a statue, a Buddha with the ribs showing an extremely thin, and people think, oh gosh, you know, Buddhism must be really hard if that’s what you have to look like to become a Buddha. It’s not for that purpose. It was to show a time of his life when he was experimenting with ascetic practices. So for six years, he did these ascetic practices.
No realizations at all. Then he fell when he was going to the river, and a young child going past said, you look so thin and so weak. Wouldn’t you like to eat some rice pudding? And he said, well, why not? You know?
Because he was a scientist. He was checking everything. Like he says to us, you check-in your heart. Does it work? Doesn’t it work for you?
Might work for you, but it doesn’t work for you. Right? So what’s important is does it work for me? So check-in your heart. Does it work?
So he said, well, six years of sitting here, my meditation’s terrible. I don’t feel good at all. I have no strength. And he was young. He was in his thirties.
Right? But he can hardly walk to the river. I might as well eat. So he ate, and he had this blissful feeling in his body and his mind, and he had an incredible meditation. And then he thought, uh-huh.
This is the beginning of the middle way. No extreme. So the middle way is there’s always two extremes. Eating too much, you know, you’re at Burger King or, I don’t know, Hungry Jack’s or McDonald’s or, you’re you’re there every day with your Big Mac or your double french fries or whatever it is, you know, that can be an extreme. And then you can have the other extreme, I hardly eat at all.
You know? So then Buddha said, well, neither of those extremes but find something in the middle, and he didn’t define what the middle is. We have to define for ourselves what the middle is. So if you want two bowls of soup and you want half a bowl of soup, nobody’s saying, in the Buddha’s Bible, it says no more than one bowl of soup, or you shouldn’t put milk and sugar in your tea. I mean, go to India and chai is very popular.
There’s no rules like this. The rule is take care of your body. This is for you to decide, isn’t it? You take care of your body. But if you’re taking care of the body more than you’re taking care of the mind, for you, is there a problem there?
Again, you’re not told this is a problem, but Buddhism is about the mind. You’re leaving the body behind. If you think you’re taking the body with you, you’ve got problems. You know? If you think you’re taking your money with you, you’ve got problems.
You think you’re taking your friends with you, you’ve got problems. So you keep thinking, so what is going with me? My yoga’s not going with me, You know, what the yoga’s done to the body. My clothes are not going with me. My partner’s not going with me.
My and you keep going through. So what is going with me? The only thing is my mind and the habits, the good habits, the bad habits, the actions, the delusions, all of that’s going with me. So how much nurturing does each one of us need? We need a certain level in order to be comfortable, peaceful, happy.
You know? Buddha said, very difficult to teach poor people. People are on the edge of survival if you go to them and say, you should meditate. And say, oh, forget meditation. I need water, I need food, I need shelter.
So Buddha said, first give those things, water, food, shelter, take care of the necessities, and then talk about the mind, then talk about Dharma. So there’s no particular rule, but I think what we’re looking for is a sensible balance, something that you have to decide for yourself. How much are you exercising the body? You know? If it’s too much, it’s excessive.
If it’s too little, it produces problems. How much are you eating? If it’s too much or too little or it’s out of balance, you know? Some people like to eat, oh, no, maybe drink Coca Cola. If they drink too much Coca Cola, maybe too much sugar.
Maybe, too much salt, it produces, water that you hold in the body. But for some people, they need salt, you know. So we can’t say in Buddhism, no salt, no sugar, no this, no that. What you have to decide for yourself is what’s the right balance for you? What gives you a feeling that you can meditate, you can benefit others, you can be worthwhile to others?
Because if you’re living on the edge of survival, you’re only thinking me, me, me. Even though you may not be indulging, you’re still only thinking me. And so just if you like to eat chocolate, chocolate. If you like to, eat french fries, eat french fries. What’s the problem?
But if it makes a problem for you, that’s when you need to address the problem. You know? So there’s no sort of sūtra I was just thinking the sūtra of self nurturing. There’s no sūtra of self nurturing, but there is a sūtra, called Sanghata where it talks about karma. And that’s interesting to read because you’re you’re reading about you put this out and it comes back.
Alright? So you have to be kind to yourself in order to be kind to others. If you can’t be kind to yourself, how are you going to be kind to anybody else? How are you going to offer them love and compassion if you can’t do it to yourself? So that is there.
There is an indication of that. It is put forward. That’s the way it should be. But then in our Western society, we can take everything to an extreme, and I think that’s when Buddha’s life comes in useful because he lived an extreme life in the palace. He said, you know, he woke up one morning after drinking all night and partying with numerous women because his father was keeping him distracted so he wouldn’t become spiritual.
So he woke up in the morning after the trans party, and he looked around, and he saw, you know, all these bodies lying around, not looking very attractive, and he thought enough is enough. So the palace was one extreme. Sitting under the tree was the other extreme, and then he came to the understanding the middle. Find a balance between the two. So I don’t know if that helps, but in Buddhism, you know, there’s never ever a black and white answer.
There’s always it comes back to your own wisdom and what you think is appropriate in your situation. Is it okay? Okay. Any other? Yeah.
Yeah. Low self esteem, low self confidence is a big problem now worldwide. And I think we talk more about it when we’re talking about, I said there’s one dangerous verse. Where is it? Ah, yeah.
The it’s it’s the verse coming, actually. When in the company of others, I shall always consider myself the lowest of all, and from the depths of my heart, others dear and supreme. This is very dangerous. So when we’re talking about putting ourselves down, then immediately you can think, gosh, I’m already as low as I can go. You know?
If you’ve got low self esteem, you might already be down there, but it’s not benefiting you. It’s not making you feel spiritual. Yeah. Because I think his holiness once said you you actually have to become somebody. That’s right.
That’s right. You his holiness in Delhi said once, there were only two or three westerners there, and I’d organized this teaching that his holiness gave. And we’d been running around frantically for three days getting everything right. And his holiness arrived, and he sat down. He said, you Westerners have got it wrong.
And I thought, oh, dear. You know, there must be something like a thangka upside down or, you know, we’ve done something wrong. Because immediately, started, you Westerners have got it wrong. There were only two or three of us. So I thought it was the altar or something, and he said, you think we’re trying to remove the ego completely, and it’s not like that.
It’s that we’re removing the negative ego. So in the beginning, the job is, if you have low self esteem, to build an esteem, but not into a pride. There’s a difference between pride, confidence, self esteem. Pride is inflated. Pride is an exaggeration.
Right? So good self esteem, good self confidence is knowing what you can do. So when you’re asked, can you do that? You know you can do it. So, saying you can’t do something when you can do it can actually be a bad sign within the Buddhist texts.
So you’ve got to be careful because we talk about humility. Oh, we’re supposed to be humble. But actually in the text it says, if you can do something, you should say you can do it. This is nothing to do with humility or pride, but it’s knowing yourself and then acknowledging, yes, I can do that. I’m not saying I’m the best at doing it, and I’m not the worst, but somewhere in the middle, I can do it.
You know? But what happens if you can do something and you say, oh, no. No. No. I can’t do that.
Well, one thing, it’s lying. You’re saying you can’t do it when you can do it, but it’s also a false it’s a sort of false humility. You know? It’s coming, actually, in many cases from, an arrogance. We say, no.
So all these matters, I think, they’re quite complicated because they’re overlapping. But I think the main one is low self esteem. This is it seems to be a disease now in the Western world. Yeah. Also, I’m just thinking, oh, it’s contagious because we’re all This is like a disease that’s spreading through the world, low self esteem.
I think one problem is our world is moving very, very fast. It’s not like the old days with, you know, before TV. You hardly knew about the rest of the world. If there was a disaster in the other parts of the world, six weeks later, you might hear about it. You know?
Everything was very slow. But you think of how things have speeded up. And now, particularly with mobile phones and smartphones, there’s a lot of information coming very quickly through these phones. And so our reaction to that can be really quick. But is it reasonable?
Is it balanced? You know? This is my concern now about communication because we’re often replying very quickly, but from a negative point of view, which reinforces low self esteem. If you send a message saying, you know, something bad, and then the bad message comes back, this can, reinforce your low self esteem because you’re getting attacks. You said the wrong thing.
Somebody says the wrong thing. It bills. So I think we have to be careful with communication. We need to meditate in order to become aware of our potential. We’re not the negative emotions.
We’re not the surface, the waves. We’re something much deeper. But unless we meditate, we don’t become aware of the depths and the beauty of the depths. We’re always just on the surface managing, going from one one situation to another. And then, if we become aware of low self esteem, low self confidence, then I really advise people to keep a diary, to stop every two hours and become aware of your thought patterns, your habits, what you’ve done in the last two hours.
And what this does is it gives you information about yourself. What are you good at, and what can’t you do? And what you can’t do, you can improve. What you can do, you can pat yourself on the back, and you can say, well done. I think another problem is we tend to look outside for praise.
You know? And the eighth verse, we’re coming to praise and blame. There’s another hairy issue. You know? Should we be looking for praise?
Should we be so bothered about blame? This is another reason we’re so, attached. And when we’re attached, we can develop low self esteem because others are not providing us with the affirmations we’re looking for. Should we be looking for those affirmations? Yeah.
But where does the ego come from? Well, the ego is always there. I mean, ego, I don’t know the word is used in Buddhism. We we start to use it because it’s a Western idea. Right?
But is there something called ego? What would you define as ego? Well, sounds like a mind that’s very full of itself. Yeah. When we say big ego, if we really try to define it.
Right? It sounds like a mind that’s very self-cherishing. So maybe to put it in a Buddhist context, we could say somebody with a low self esteem, but because of that low self esteem, they’re referring everything to themselves. Right? Yes.
Yes. So you look at your world through yourself. What about me? Why are they looking at me like that? Why are they doing that to me?
Why are they saying that about you know? It’s everything is relating to me. So that’s the self-cherishing mind without confidence, without esteem. And so which do we work which do we work on? Which direction do we go in first?
Buddhism would say, if you can work on the ignorance, believing the ego exists, the self exists, cut the self. Remove that self. From my point of view, as a teacher teaching everywhere, I think first we have to improve the self. If there are psychological problems, you know, like low self esteem, low confidence, these things, first, bring that up, you know, improve it, make it balanced. Then once it’s balanced, then you can cut it because you need a very good confidence in order to cut the self, in order to remove the self.
To say I was going to say before, but I left it out. When we’re saying I will liberate all sentient beings by myself alone, it could be a little bit arrogant, couldn’t it? Like me. You know? By myself, I’m going to do it.
So there would be the other extreme that we could go to. One extreme would be low self esteem, low confidence. But what about the other extreme? I’m going to do it by myself. You know, off I go.
That also could be a problem. So there you have, again, the two extremes that Buddha would talk about, and somewhere in the middle is what we’re looking for. The balance between confidence, knowing what you can do, having the ability to do things, but without taking it to an exaggeration, being too inflated. You know? So there’s an inflation that happens when you have low self esteem and strong self-cherishing associated with that low self esteem.
Because when you have low self esteem, you feel that you’ve got to get it all for yourself. Others are not giving to you. You feel you’ve got to give it to yourself. So there’s the strong self-cherishing. Then it’s hard to develop compassion for yourself.
Then it’s very difficult because even difficult to develop compassion for yourself because, you’re surviving. You’re looking for the cake. You know? So where’s the cake? My cake, the cake I like.
You know? When you walk into a room, it’s sort of like you’re looking for the cake. So first, again, you need to satisfy the basic needs, not to be needy all the time, but then to find a way of using the information that you have about yourself. What do you like? How do you like it?
And use that information in order to make others happy. But you need the motivation. I want to switch this around because what I’ve discovered from self-cherishing is it’s endless. Endless. It doesn’t finish.
You know, the it’s it’s to do with desire. And desire, trying to satisfy desire with more desire, with more consumption, is like drinking salt water. You drink more and more and more in order to remove the thirst, but the thirst doesn’t go away. You just keep drinking more and more and more. And so does desire and shopping and consuming satisfied desire, it creates more desire.
It creates a habit of desire. And so what we’ve discovered, I think just through our own research, is shopping with the desired mind doesn’t satisfy us for very long. Again, it produces more desire. So how to break out of the cycle that we’re in and become cherishing others rather than self-cherishing. Because what we’ve discovered is, ultimately, self-cherishing isn’t satisfying, doesn’t make us happy, because we’re always looking, you know, and I I want that.
I want that. I want that. I need that. Why do you have that? Why don’t I have that?
So we can become jealous also. We can become angry because of our perceptions coming through the self-cherishing mind. And so when you get to the point where you’re really fed up of that, oh, I’m tired, Then you start to want to cherish others instead of always just for me. And that’s when the movement happens. Some small movement that starts you looking at others and their needs rather than only yourself and your needs.
There’s there’s got to be some way of shifting it. And I think it’s karmic, but it’s also to do with conditions. So we have to have the karma for the compassion to appear and then the conditions for it to appear. You need a combination of the two. So that’s what makes people like you extraordinary.
Thirteen people out of one million. Well, we can’t count you. How many in Melbourne? How many in Pondicherry? A million.
Three, four, five. Thirteen people out of five million. Right? Then you start to think these people are extraordinary, not in a in an egotistical way, but in the way that the karma has met with the conditions which produces a change of mind. I’ve had enough of this self-cherishing.
I really want to do something more than that because self-cherishing is virtually on the survival mode, virtually hanging into saṃsāra. You know? I’m hanging in, and with a little bit more interior design, maybe I could make Samsāra acceptable. Maybe Samsāra would be okay. But often say to people, you know, it’s like having a cancer on your, hand here, and you keep scratching.
And then you go to the doctor and the doctor says, oh, that looks like cancer. And you say, oh, no problem. And you put an elastoplast over the top, you know, a band aid, so you don’t see it. That’s like Samsāra, You know? We sort of cover it up, buy some clothes, buy an iPad, buy an iPhone, buy buy buy buy buy.
We sort of cover up the nasty bit, the suffering. We cover it up and then, oh, it doesn’t exist. But you’ve got the Band Aid and still there’s a bit of scratching going on, you know? We don’t want to deal with the scratching with what’s underneath the Band Aid. And so, low self esteem, low self confidence can give you that feeling, I don’t want to deal with these problems.
I don’t want to deal with the suffering. I’m just surviving. Don’t give me even more. So for that person, they need to start monitoring their behavior. In the day, what do you do that’s positive and negative?
Because people with low self esteem usually think they’re the worst. They’re awful. They’re terrible. Nobody likes them. They really put themselves down.
So by monitoring their behavior, they find a lot of good that they do every day. Then they start to think, actually, I’m not as bad as I thought I was. The self confidence starts to come back up. I can do things. I am quite good at doing things.
You know? I’m not as bad as I thought. And then as you build the self confidence and self esteem, try to bring it to the middle, but often it goes to another extreme. It’s inflated. It becomes pride or arrogance.
And then you need to work on the pride and arrogance to get it back to the middle, and then you start to work with the ignorance, cutting the root of all of these problems. Yeah? We go on. Aye aye. They’re trying to get us out.
I know their system. They switch off the air. So we’re going to the the second verse. So we’ve talked a little bit about it. When in the company of others, I shall always consider myself the lowest of all, and from the depths of my heart hold others dear and supreme.
So this is, working with arrogance and false pride. So thinking I’m better, I’m more handsome, I’m more beautiful, I’m more intelligent, I have more money than you. I have a better car than you. This type of thinking generates a lot of pride. So we need to think in a different way.
And so what this verse is offering is saying, be a servant. Be a servant to others. Don’t think you’re superior to others because we’re all the same. We talked about this yesterday, that whether we’re male, female, whether we’re, an ant, a bird, actually, we all want happiness and don’t want suffering. So in that way, we find the equanimity between all beings.
Want happiness, don’t want suffering. The other way to find the equanimity is by thinking all beings have been my mother, my father, my brother, my sister. So in that way, also, I’m connected to all beings. Find a system that works for you that gives you this feeling of connection. Then once you have that feeling of connection, as I said yesterday, how kind sentient beings are to me, not to them, but how kind they are to me, then how can I repay that kindness?
What can I do for them? So in the second verse, it’s virtually saying, I’m like a servant to others. You know? They’re not they’re not paying me, but I’m offering myself as a servant. So what can I do for them that would make them happy instead of referring always to myself and what would make me happy?
This is the the shift of attitude from self-cherishing to cherishing others. So when we have a false pride, an inflated pride, then it stops us from benefiting others. It’s like a big balloon where the water’s running off the balloon. You know? You want something to stick, something to stay.
And so when you’re inflated, anything good that happens, it just sort of rolls off you. Well, of course, you give me a present. I deserve it. You know? I’m the biggest.
I’m the best. I’m the most wonderful. That’s the inflated pride. Then the opposite, the low self esteem, don’t give that to me. I’m not worth it.
No. No. You know? So that can also be something false. It is false.
So where’s the middle? When we compare the human body, the insect, maybe we think as a human, we’re superior to the insect. Right? Think of the human body, our human situation, our potential, then think of the insect, maybe, a grasshopper. Right?
Not the kung fu grasshopper, but just an ordinary grasshopper. So you have a a grasshopper, human being. Which would you rather be? I can see you thinking. This is such a difficult question.
What would I rather be? You know? So, of course, immediately, the mind thinks, oh, well, of course, I’d rather be a human. Right? But then think about the insect.
Think about how insects just go through their life. Do they have the negative emotions like we do? Do we think, you know, they have greed, anger, jealousy, hatred, pride. I wonder if grasshoppers go around thinking, I think I’m the best grasshopper in the world, you know, or, oh, I’m such a useless grasshopper. I can hardly hop.
Isn’t it? When you think about it, it’s something particularly human, isn’t it? These type of emotions. When you think about grasshoppers, ants, they’re just going about their life, collecting some food, feeding themselves, looking after their children, collecting some food, feeding. That’s it.
Quite innocent, you know, without this mind that is trying to cheat, is trying to show something other than they are. So we can lie, we can be devious to get what we want, and yet we think we’re superior to the grasshopper. We think we’re superior to the ant, the cow, the cow in the field. You know? One of my students used to say when we were driving through Mexico, she said to me, we’re talking about things, and she said, how wonderful to be a cow.
Because they just stand in the field chomping away. They look very peaceful. So I started going on and on and on at her about being a cow. Yeah. It’d be really wonderful to be a cow, wouldn’t it?
Especially if you’re a male, you’re a bull, and so then you get carted off and you get cut into steaks, and the next minute you’re in McDonald’s, that’d be very nice, wouldn’t it? And then, that’s right. I hadn’t thought of that. I don’t want to be a male cow. It’s a bull.
I want to be a female cow. Okay. So, because we’re talking about next life, what does she want to be? So then she’s thinking and she’s saying, yeah. I think being a cow is gonna be really nice.
She was a psychologist, by the way, so she wasn’t an uneducated woman. I think being a cow is gonna be really nice. I said, but, you know, I think you should be more specific about the country that you want to be reborn into because there’s different conditions for cows. So, oh, that’s right. She said, I’ve never been there, but I heard New Zealand is very nice.
I said, oh, yeah. New Zealand’s very nice. The grass is very green. It’s good for cows, but, you know, they don’t have many cows anymore. Oh, oh, I see.
So but I would like to go to New Zealand. I said, but you know they also spray to kill the wombats. So would you really like to go to New Zealand? Oh, no. I don’t think I want to go to New Zealand.
So where can I go? And we had this long conversation about becoming a cow. In the end, she decided she want to become a human. So the good part of the conversation was she she changed her mind. But when we were comparing the life of a cow to the life of a human, actually, the cow’s life in some way seems more desirable.
They’re more innocent. They just have those big brown eyes. You know? Those big brown eyes don’t look at you angrily and what are you doing? You know, like this.
Just they look like they want some grass. They wanna be happy. But us, we can become devious. We can tell lies. We can cheat.
We can steal. Right? So in this verse, it’s saying, when in the company of others, be careful. Don’t cheat them. You know?
Don’t become devious. Don’t be sneaky. Don’t go around. You know? The snake, isn’t it?
So the snake goes like that. Don’t be like that. So be careful. Consider yourself the lowest of all doesn’t mean consider yourself as a doormat. There’s another mistake.
I lie down. I let people just do what they like with me. It’s not saying that. It’s saying you need to have a strong enough pride where you can say, I’m the lowest. This is a little bit complicated.
You need to be strong enough to say, I’m down there. I don’t need to be on top the winner. I can be the loser. I can let you get what you want because there’s people who need to win. So if you need to win, if you need to be the boss and I’m the servant, okay.
I’m the servant. You tell me what to do, I’ll do it. But not from a wimpy, oh, well, alright. If you do you know, not like that. You’re actually doing it from a position of strength.
So I think this is a little bit complicated and something you have to discuss in your in your discussion group because this is not going to be easy for us to put into practice without having a low self esteem. We’re not trying to develop low self esteem. We want to have a good confidence, a good esteem, but so good that we’re able to say, you win, and it doesn’t destroy us. I’m your servant, and it doesn’t destroy us. It actually makes us stronger, more spiritual.
So this is a difficult one. Just something to say about pride. When we have pride, we separate ourselves from others. And where we want to be is connected to others. Where we feel most comfortable is with a connection.
And what pride does is automatically, it separates you. It puts you on top of the mountain. So you’ll sit on top of the mountain, alone, cold, looking down at everybody else, having their party and enjoying, and you’ll think, well, why am I up here? Why are they down there? Maybe you wanted to be up there, but in actual fact, it’s not a very comfortable place to be.
So the definition of pride is taking something and exaggerating it. So maybe you’re good at, I don’t know, programming computers. But if it’s pride, then you’re exaggerating what you can do into something that’s not possible. I’m the best computer programmer in the world. Right?
And so that’s where pride then separates you because it’s become unreasonable. So knowing whom what we are is essential for becoming enlightened. It’s what I call the internal GPS system. We need an internal GPS. If you don’t know the aggregates where you are right now, you can’t go anywhere.
Right? So if you’re gonna put the aggregates in, you have to say presently at Buddha House. If you don’t know you’re at Buddha House, you can’t put the aggregates. So that’s why you need to know your qualities, your downfalls, but not use your downfalls as another way of cutting yourself. You know?
Oh, you’re the worst. You’re terrible. Blah blah blah. Not inflating, not being low self esteem, somewhere in the middle. Know who and what you are, and then know where you want to be.
bodhicitta enlightenment. Okay. Who? In the world? What’s his name?
Never heard of him. So would that be Australian? Not Germain. Oh, that’s why I haven’t heard of him. Now if he was Australian, okay.
So if he’s the best in the world, can he say he’s the best in the world? Is this correct? Can he say, I’m the best, but other people can still beat me if I don’t train hard? Right. It’s realistic, isn’t it?
That’s realistic. But if he arrogantly says, I’m the best in the world, like that quality is mixed with him and can never change, what will happen? He’ll get lazy. He’ll stop training. The next meet, he’ll lose.
And then he’ll he’ll deflate because he went from arrogance, you know, as if it’s mixed with him his personality with him, with his e what we call ego. So his ego became inflated, and then that seems to be a self protection. But what it is, it’s a self destruction. Ego is what destroys you. Because when you’re e what we call ego is, I think, extreme self-cherishing in the West.
You know, we say ego. When you’re very self-cherishing, you’re very full of yourself. I’m incredible. I’m number one. And believing it, and then that harms you.
And so then the harm comes back to you. Something really bad happens. And those people can go into depression. They can become suicidal because they go from the top to the bottom. You know?
I saw a, what was he? A swimmer on TV this morning. Did you see he he had a skateboarding accident? And he said that, actually, there was a hit and run driver who hit him, and, that’s why he’s injured. And then he had to say publicly, I’m really sorry.
I fell off my skateboard. And they said, so why did you lie about it? And he said, I felt really embarrassed. There’s self-cherishing. He wanted to protect his, reputation, who he thinks people think he is.
I’m thinking, who is this guy? I thought he was a monk, per se. So and so monk. You know? And I’m thinking, oh, it’s a monk.
You know? And then I saw him. And why do people do things like this? Because it’s your self-cherishing, protecting negative things. We come to when we come to the eighth verse, protecting, praise, wanting praise, not wanting blame, gaining things, not wanting to lose things.
So we’re protecting certain things with our self-cherishing, And it it actually works against us. It comes back to bite us. You know? We throw the boomerang and it comes back. So realistic, I’m in the best in the world at the moment, but if I don’t keep training, I won’t be.
But inevitably, I won’t be. Sooner or later, I’m gonna be number two, number three, and I’m gonna disappear. Look at the old film stars, you know, who keep having the operations. From here down, they’re looking good. Right?
Joan Rivers is seventy, I think, seventy six now, seventy eight. She looks incredible. Her face looks incredible. But I think when she takes her clothes off, it must be a worry because underneath, she’s seventy eight. Right?
But from here down, she’s seventy eight. From here up, she’s forty. So this is a nonacceptance of who and what you are. It’s gone beyond just a bit of it’s gone into an ego, a self-cherishing problem. You know?
So then that person, if they’re always looking up here, must think, oh, I’m young. But you take your clothes off and you think, oh gosh. I’m old. You know? So it must be a real problem to be like that with this this up here and this down here.
You look at your hands and you think, I’m old. You look at your face. I’m young. It’s a confusion. Right?
You’re not accepting who and what you are and your potential to be better than that. So this acceptance of who and what we are gives you a good self esteem. But, also, we can accept moving on. I’m not I’m not in this position forever. I can have more compassion, more love, more wisdom, but I must accept this is my starting point right now.
You know? Very good, not so good. This, this, this, whatever it is, without judgment, without criticism, this is what it is. This is the starting point. Yeah?
Clear? You okay? Okay. Anything else about that? Number three.
Vigilant. The moment a delusion appears in my mind, endangering myself and others, I shall confront and avert it without delay. Gosh. So now we’re supposed to be so vigilant that we actually know when the delusions are appearing. Often, delusions appear.
We’re screaming and shouting or we’re irritable, and then we realize, oh, there’s a delusion. Right? So average is knowing you’re experiencing a delusion when you’re experiencing it. You’re throwing the dishes, you’re screaming out of the car window, you’re really angry with another driver, that’s experiencing the delusion. But now it says, be vigilant.
So you have to have concentration, not so easy to develop. Right? We need a daily practice in order to develop concentration, concentrating on the sensation of the breath or counting the breath. Start with a simple practice every day, five, ten minutes, and gradually extend it. Don’t start with too much.
Start with little. If you start with a little meditation, you feel you can do it. You build your self esteem. But if you start with too much, you give up. Okay?
So start with a little, do it every day, and don’t see it as insignificant. Even a small amount of meditation becomes significant. Then, nowadays, I give people a day off, like Saturday or Sunday. If you if you have a a day off from work, you can’t have the day off today, but six days a week do your practices, seventh day don’t do it, don’t get up and do your meditation, don’t do your practices, if you have a commitment you have to do them, but don’t do it on the seventh day. But there’s a there’s still a but but put what you’re meditating on into practice on the seventh day.
So it’s not that you’re free, you’re meditating on wisdom or you’re meditating on compassion or you’re meditating on, concentration. On the seventh day, put it into practice. So this is your practical day. The others are more like the theoretical day. So an example I I often give is if your mother or your relative really likes to shop and you don’t, and you’re meditating on love, what makes you happy, on Sunday, go shopping.
And people say to me, but I hate shopping. I say, right. Go shopping. I’m not saying every week, but one day, say to your mother or somebody who likes shopping, I’ll come shopping with you. We’ll go shopping.
We’ll have lunch. We’ll spend the day. And you don’t allow yourself to be irritable, angry. You do it in a loving, compassionate way. This is putting your Dharma into practice.
Otherwise, we’re on the cushion saying love and compassion, and in life, we’re not being loving and compassionate. We’re not even being kind. So do your practice, but find a day to put it into practice. So being vigilant, being aware of delusions. So like I said, this monitoring, and I’ll talk about this more in healing disturbing emotions, but basically monitoring your behavior to get to know your major delusion.
That’s what you’re looking for, the major delusion. We’ve got many delusions. Buddha found eighty four thousand, but we’re looking for the major delusion that keeps appearing in my life. Endangering myself and others. Because when there’s a delusion, then there’s karma, and the karma and delusion come together and produces an action.
More boomerangs that we’re throwing out. Do you know how many karmic imprints there are in one second? Don’t know? Okay, Magda. You’re good at writing, aren’t you?
To the board. So I don’t have to get up with all this equipment. Can you write for me three hundred and sixty five on the left on the left side? Three, six, five, one second. Hang on there.
This is one second. Three hundred and sixty five karmic imprints in one second. Now multiply that by sixty, and then draw a line, and then multiply that. So that’s one minute. Okay?
Then multiply that by, say, ten minutes. So multiply by no. Under the line. Yeah. So and then and multiply by ten.
So somebody can work that out. I can tell you it’s hundreds of thousands. So something like a ten minute practice produces hundreds of thousands of positive imprints, and a negative action produces hundreds of thousands of negative imprint. We’re we’re causing a lot of suffering because of karma. Thank you.
This is why it’s consequential. You’re shocked, aren’t you? You didn’t didn’t realize how bad it is. We think it’s only one second. You know?
We do this. We click, and we say, oh, it’s only one second, or it’s only a few seconds. But in one second, it’s three hundred and sixty five boomerangs with razor blades on the edge of the boomerangs. So you throw and these deadly ninja boomerangs go out, three hundred and sixty five per second. Go out and around, and in the future, you’re sitting there thinking, oh, life.
It’s incredible. You know? I’ve got the relationship, the car, the house. I’ve got everything and chop. And you think, why me?
It’s not fair. Because of the pause between cause and effect, like I said yesterday. But then this makes it really, really serious stuff. Right? Because you’re thinking, now three hundred and sixty five times sixty, one minute, times angry for one hour, two hours, five hours, one day, two days, you know?
We can be angry for days, or have jealousy for days, have hatred for weeks, months. This is when it becomes a very serious habit. Because the more you think and do things in the same way, the more it becomes a habit that’s repeatable. It becomes easier and easier to do it. So this is why we need to be vigilant.
So it says vigilant. You know, it’s like you’re being really careful now because you don’t want to experience the result. And if you do realize that you’ve done negative things and the consequences are much worse than you thought, you need purification. So there’s a purification class coming later because I decided how we should finish. I think it’s in November.
There’s a day of purification Because I think when you study all of these things, you come to the conclusion, gosh, I need to purify. You know? There’s a lot of stuff that I don’t want to experience, and that’s a good thing. But now what do I do? So we have Vajrasattva.
We have thirty five Buddha. We have mantras. We have many methods. So I decided, actually, what we need to do is do more purification so that we don’t have a guilty feeling. We have a feeling we’ve purified and removed the causes of suffering.
Otherwise, it says, endangering myself and others. The endangerment to myself is all these boomerangs coming back. I think I’m okay. Nothing happened. You know?
I got really angry. Nothing bad happened. We don’t realize it’s coming back around. And what did it do to others? When we have these negative emotions, we harm others.
So being guilty doesn’t do anything good. It disempowers you. It stops you. When you’re guilty, you can’t move. You know, it’s like the kangaroo or the rabbit with the headlights.
It’s like this. So having regret means you realize that you’ve done negative actions in the past. They weren’t skillful, but you didn’t know better. And now you know better. And so with that increased wisdom, that increased compassion, and love, you want to change things.
And with that mind, you can purify. Is it clear? Because in Mexico, this is a big, big issue. People becoming guilty. You know, and then just holding on to that guilt and not changing their present situation.
So we’ve we’re averting this danger to ourselves and others. And then when the negative emotion does appear, the last part is it says, I shall confront it and avert it without delay. So use the antidotes. Look at it straight on. Don’t turn away from it.
We need to be very strong. We’re Bodhisattva warriors. We’re looking at it straight on, and we’re saying, that’s a delusion. Name the delusion. You know?
Say, it is a delusion, and I must do something about it. I must confront it and do something about it. Use the antidotes. Right? So, in healing disturbing emotions, we talk much more about the emotions.
So when we enjoy the objects to which we’re attached and we experience pleasure, we get attached. We have sensory objects. We get attached. Think about when you’re walking through the supermarket and they’re blowing, the smell of freshly baked bread at you or coffee. Right?
So they brew a pot of coffee and they have a fan and they’re blowing it, and you’re walking through the supermarket and then you think you start thinking coffee, you know, or, bread. Right? There’s your sensory pleasure, and we’re attached to it. And so immediately, we experience the sensory pleasure, whether it’s touch, sound, taste. Whatever it is, the mind immediately grasp onto it and wants to hold onto it.
So we have sensory pleasure. We need pleasure in order to have some happiness, but we need to look at the delusions as something that does not really produce happiness. What’s the nature of anger? What’s the nature of attachment, desire, of pride, of ignorance? Think of the delusions.
There may be a temporary pleasure at the time, but is it long term happiness? So if the pleasure is in the chocolate, if your happiness is in the chocolate, you’re attached to chocolate, and you want to really eat chocolate, you eat one bar, and then you think, now I’m happy. Two bars, three bars, four bars, are you still happy? Coffee, you drink one, but two, three, four, five. If the happiness is really in the sensory object, the more we have of it, the happier we should be.
But in actual fact, it becomes a suffering. So that’s how the temporary pleasure goes back into a suffering. It’s not a permanent happiness. So these delusions sometimes give an illusion of pleasure. But in actual fact, there’s an underlying pain and suffering in them.
And so that’s why we need to give them up. Renounce them. Give them up. Do something about them. What will give you happiness is caring for others, cherishing others, having compassion for others.
These are also emotions, but they’re positive emotions and that they do something good for others. But these harmful emotions, hurting, you know, Where whenever we hurt anybody, then we’re hurting ourselves and we’re hurting others. It’s not going to produce long lasting pleasure. Then even something subtle like desire. Oh, I really must have, you know, that chocolate.
Because I’m emotional, I really need some help. So I’m going to eat chocolate. So you buy your favorite chocolate, and you eat one bar, and you think, oh, life. Now I’m happy. You know?
But the happiness doesn’t last very long. Then you need to repeat it, and then you have another one, and then another one. And so that shows you the happiness is not coming from the object. It’s coming from the mind imputing onto the object happiness. It’s an imputation.
It’s not actually happening from the object side itself. However, in chocolate, there is, a chemical, isn’t there? That chemical lasts a little bit of time. I don’t know. How long does chocolate last for?
Do you know? It’s not long, is it? How long? Yeah. You know, apparently, when you’re in love, it lasts serotonin, isn’t it?
It lasts for a year or two, and that’s when you fall out of love, you know. Then you start seeing the reality, the underwear hanging on the the lamp and, you know, the mess all over the house and you think, what was it I fell in love with? So serotonin from the the love chemical in chocolate supposed to be similar. So we have to maintain a balance rather than going into the extreme, the depression and and the anxiety and the panic, and then needing sensory objects to get us out and then becoming attached to the sensory objects because we see them as the way of getting out of the whole of the problems, we need to find a more skillful way, maintaining maintaining spiritual balance. Okay.
So we’ll stop there. Have your tea. Relax. We’re doing quite well. We’re on the third verse.
We’re really rolling along today, isn’t it? So twelve o’clock, we start again. Jack, you did such a good job last time. Can you can you do that at twelve o’clock? And then and everybody knows at the same time.
Okay. Thank you. You can go. Have a nice cup of tea or coffee. Okay.
So we’re up to number four. Whenever I see beings who are wicked in nature and overwhelmed by violent negative actions and suffering, I shall hold such rare ones dear as if I’d found a precious treasure. So, there’s two aspects to this. One is when you see somebody negative, It says here wicked, but, overwhelmed by violent negative actions and suffering. So somebody who’s really experiencing a lot of problems and there’s a reaction towards you.
What’s your instinct? Of course, you know, you feel you want to push them away. You want to remove them. So the thought transformation text is promoting you into not rejecting them, but still keeping them close if possible, seeing them as a a precious treasure. So, seeing them as their potential, not just for their behavior right now, but the potential that’s there for them to become enlightened.
So that’s one thing. But then the other thing is, Lama Zopa says that when somebody does something really negative, they experience very negative results. And so this person can be experiencing, skin problems, can be experiencing, mental problems, very serious emotional problems. So when we see somebody who’s experiencing very serious issues physically, mentally, whatever it is, then understand that they’re experiencing that because of their previous behavior. So there’s a great suffering that they’re experiencing because of their previous behavior, and so therefore this is like, the proof of what happens when you do negative actions.
You know, you’re not suffering at the moment, but you see them suffering and you think, gosh, you know, I’m so fortunate that I’m not suffering. But you see the result of negative actions in other suffering. So don’t reject them. Don’t push them away. This is nothing to do with you.
Their negativity is not to do with you, but if you, take it on, if you own it, then you get this, sorry, you get this feeling of, I don’t like this person, I hate this person, why is this person speaking to me like this, I don’t deserve this, you know, all that sort of thing. But in actual fact, how this person is behaving is because of their previous negative actions, and you are just a condition. You’re just a person. But what’s your part in this? You must have done something negative in the past to be experiencing the result.
Not necessarily with that exact same person. You know, I think we become very specific in karma where we think, if I harm, let me see. If I harm Fred, when Fred reincarnates and I reincarnate, we’ve got to find each other again in order to fix the debt, to fix the problem. Right? It’s not like that.
It’s you harm Fred, then you’ve got karmic imprints of harm. And then you’re going to meet somebody in the future, but not necessarily Fred with whom you’re going to experience this karma. So, you know, don’t think that you have to meet the exact person and fix the exact problem with that person. It’s that we’ve done so many actions, positive, negative, neutral. We’ve done so many actions that we’re going to experience various actions with various people, various creatures, And in the future, we’re going to experience it, but not necessarily with the same with the same one.
Just find something. So here it’s saying, beings wicked in nature, wicked meaning, usually, we would reject them. That person is a bad person. I don’t want anything to do with them. Out.
So in this case, not rejecting them, but thinking, what can I do for them? How can I help them? Is this something that you can do? So often just by them being around a good person can be beneficial, but at least don’t reject them. Don’t want them to go away because you’re wanting them to go away is the opposite of your bodhicitta, your love, and your compassion.
So in this situation, you have somebody extreme, isn’t it? It’s an extreme situation. And in an extreme situation, the feeling of aversion could arise, and then we think, I really don’t want this person to be around me. It well, it all depends on where you’re at, if if we’re being honest. You know?
How much can you do? You know? How much can you take? How much can you do? Right?
So that’s why there’s no there’s there’s there’s an ideal, but none of us is the ideal because none of us is enlightened. Each one of us is somewhere on the path from way back to middle to nearly enlightened. Each one of us is able to do different things, different times. Some of us are able to put all a verses into practice, and some of us can’t put any of them into practice. Some of them think, well, that’s a very nice ideal.
I wish I could do that, but I can’t. So find the verses that you can start with, that relate to what you’re experiencing, where you can start and start, and then the other verses become an aspiration, become something that you’d like to put into practice, but you can’t do it right now. So it’s very good to have inspiration, the ideal. It’s also very good to know where you are, less than ideal, and then find the point, you know, that you’re starting from and then the path to get to where you want to be. We need both.
We need now, an understanding of our situation, and we need to know what’s the ideal, what’s the perfection. When we talk about enlightenment, Buddha, I think sometimes we shouldn’t be using these words. Probably thunder and lightning is gonna come now. Anyway, I think sometimes we should take away these words because I think we can use these words too much. And so in the end, it doesn’t mean anything to become enlightened, to become a Buddha.
Oh, yeah. You know, I really want to be a Buddha. But what does it mean to become a Buddha? It’s a perfection. Right?
It’s removing all the negativities, all the karmic imprints, all the delusions, even the subtle obscurations. You’re removing everything, and you’re able to actualize all the good qualities, all the beneficial qualities. So it’s a perfection. So when we’re comparing ourselves to perfection, what we come up with is imperfection. I understand.
I’m not perfect. So if you have low self esteem, then you pick up the stick much bigger than this one, and you say, I’m bad. I’m useless. You know? Because in comparison to them, what am I?
This is when precious human rebirth is very important, that you have a human rebirth, but you have incredible potential. You can become enlightened in this lifetime. So therefore, what you have is unbelievably precious, unbelievably important. But then don’t get arrogant about it. Don’t get proud about it.
It’s just what it is. Right? So each time we move our positions, there’s always a danger of making another doubtful position, negative position. Because as we shift from one position to another, we have to rebalance like suffering. Isn’t it?
Sunsara is like suffering. You never surfed before. So you think, oh, that looks good. I must try that. So they give you this whacking great board that’s really heavy, and you tie it to your ankle, which seems like a really stupid thing to do.
Because if you’re going down, you know, you got this thing tied to you. So it seems awkward and difficult, and you have to paddle out. So I just imagine staying on the board, paddling out, difficult with all these waves. And the waves are the delusions, you know? So another wave comes, another wave comes, and you’re paddling because you want to have control.
You want to have this ability to maintain your equanimity, your composure. Then you have to climb onto the board. And you you try you get one knee, the board goes. And you sort of slide one leg on, the board goes. You know?
So you have to develop a method. How can I get onto this board, which is slippy and seems a bit dangerous, and the waves are going like this, and then stand up and surf over the waves? So this gives you an example of saṃsāra and how usually we’re in the water and not on the surface. We’re not usually suffering over the surface. We’re usually falling in, falling in, falling in.
But now we recognize, oh, I’ve been falling in. Now I want to surf. I want to have some skill. So you have to have a sense of confidence in order to even do this, to tie the board to yourself, to swim out, you know, to try and climb on. There’s got to be a sense of confidence.
I can do it. And then once you’re up there, for sure, you’re going to fall. Inevitably, you’re going to fall. But do you use falling to pick yourself back up as an opportunity to pick yourself up, or do you use it as an opportunity to beat yourself again? Oh, I knew it.
I knew you couldn’t serve. You know? So if you’ve got low confidence, low self esteem, you beat yourself and you say, I knew you couldn’t do it. Others can do it, but I can’t do it. I’m the worst.
So it’s like you’re beating yourself down. So you can see in anything even ordinary. We need skill. We need confidence. We need the ability to keep going back and trying and trying and trying, not to give up, but to use your enthusiasm to keep going because you’re focused on the ultimate goal, something really worthwhile, not something temporary, just climbing on the board falling off.
Not that, but the ability to control the mind and to move the mind into the direction of qualities, of wisdom and compassion, bodhicitta. Perfection. So that perfection needs to inspire you. Otherwise, you’re saying enlightenment, but no connection with enlightenment doesn’t relate to me, my situation. But when we really think about perfection, when we think I’d like to be perfect, what does perfect mean?
Removing everything negative, improving everything positive. And so each one of these verses is addressing a situation. He’s saying, now listen. You started dealing with this. Now this might happen.
And you started dealing with that. Now this might happen. Because this guy, Langri Thangpa, was a thought transformation practitioner, and he experienced all of these things. So as he started to practice transforming his self-cherishing into cherishing others, what he discovered was ego came up, pride. Well, I’m a thought transformation practitioner.
You know? Am I famous? Who? Who? What’s your name?
No. You’re not famous at all. So pride can be the obstacle. Then your delusions arise, you know. Now your delusions can be the obstacle.
So then in your delusions, you think the delusions are real. The way you’re viewing the world is real, not a delusion. It’s reality for you. Again, another obstacle. So how to remove that obstacle?
So we’ve been through, sentient beings, them being so important because they’re the field of merit, as important as Buddha’s. Not more, not less, as important. So now we’re viewing all sentient beings in a different way. And then we go to the second one. I’ve seen all sentient beings, and what’s my relationship to them?
I’m the servant. Instead of wanting to be higher than them, I put myself lower than them. Not because I’m useless, not because I think I’m useless or not because I think I’m bad, but because they want to be on top. They want to be better. So give it to them.
Let them be, let them be mentally where they want to be. But spiritually, because you do this, you become stronger. You become more powerful because you’re letting go of your attachment to being on top, always clawing. You know, I must be on top. And when you do that, you lose.
So you’re letting go of something. You’re breathing it out, letting go. That person wants to think they win. Let them win. It’s like playing golf with the boss.
Isn’t it? You never win. Never. You wanna keep your job, you lose, and you smile. Oh, look at that ball going in completely the wrong direction.
I don’t know how. You have to be a really good actor. You know, I don’t know how. Usually, I’m good at golf. So it’s letting go.
But we’re not just doing it for the boss, We’re doing it for all others because we want them to be happy. This is their temporary happiness. But our goal is something more than that, bigger than that. Their happiness is very small. Why not give it to them?
Our happiness is much bigger. We’re looking for perfection. So then we came to, now we’ve got all sentient beings, where the servant to all sentient beings, now be really careful because your delusions are now going to start to appear, because you’re with sentient beings. So you start to get a bit irritable. You know, sentient beings are so irritating, you know.
If there were less sentient beings on the road, I’d be happy. This is where your mind can now start to go. Or your pride. I’m so incredible because I’ve got love and compassion, and look at this person. They’ve obviously got no love and compassion.
So you can start to look down on others because of your appearing to be superior. You think you’re superior, but in actual fact, now you’ve made yourself inferior, spiritually inferior because you thought you were superior. So your your pride now makes a problem. Your arrogance makes a problem. And so because of the conditions of all sentient beings, we’re now triggering the delusions because sentient beings are a condition for the delusions to appear.
And there’s eighty four thousand delusions, so there’s a lot that can appear. So be really, really careful when the delusions are appearing. If you respond to the delusions, you’re going to create more delusions, more negative karma, and here we go again. Our goal is out, not in. You see that sign?
It should say exit to enlightenment or something like that. But anyway, we’re in Samsāra, we’re looking for the exit, not that door. You know, you look for the door that says exit. That door doesn’t say exit, so if there’s a fire, you want to look for exit and run for that way. We’re in Samsāra, the building’s burning, we need to find the exit quickly.
So Langri Tangpa is pointing out, be careful. Don’t go down this road. Don’t go down this road. Don’t go that way. There is one way to go.
The way I’m guiding you, not the extreme, not the extreme. Just stay on this middle path, and you’ll be okay. So it’s quite clever. Then he says, we started dealing with the the delusions as they’re appearing. Now the danger is a really difficult person, very wicked, and you’re into bodhicitta.
No? No. Think. Love and compassion, bodhicitta. And now this wicked being being appears, and you think, is not good.
Right? Can you imagine how your mind could become judgmental, critical? Don’t want this person around. Out. Right?
So now he’s saying, be really careful because this person is experiencing the result of their negative karma. They’re already experiencing a lot of suffering. So how are you going to respond? Are you responding to their appearance? I mean, in the old days, was leprosy.
The appearance of leprosy, smallpox, but it could be cancer, AIDS. I mean, look what happened when, AIDS become became visible. Don’t go anywhere near, you know, don’t use the same toilet seat, all this sort of thing. So that was the rejection of people who were suffering. When I was in London in, Mañjuśrī Institute, Jamyang in London, in the eighties, I went on a training course to look after people with AIDS as part of the Buddhist center.
And, on that course, one of the first things they said was, do you think that by sitting on the toilet seat that somebody with AIDS is used that you can catch AIDS? And people said, yes, you know, it was very common to think this. And so there was a rejection of people who were very sick. I can catch it. This is dangerous.
So when we see somebody who’s experiencing the result of their negative actions and their suffering, be really careful with your heart because we want to maintain our connection. Be open, be kind, and recognize this could be happening to me. I’ve probably created the same causes, but I’m fortunate I’m not experiencing the result right now. I have time to purify. They didn’t know.
They don’t have time. They’re experiencing it right now. So this wicked, difficult person becomes the cause for more love and more compassion. In, Mexico, we were talking about the kidnappings and the murders. People ask me what to do, and I say, you have to have compassion for them.
And they go, you know, compassion for the murderers, for the kidnappers. So, yeah, you have to forgive them. You need to have compassion for them, and you need to do Dharma practice in relation to the victim and the victimizer, both. We’re one-sided. We see that one person beating and the other person being beaten.
So we go for the person being beaten, and we forget about the person beating, not recognizing the person beating is the person who’s going to suffer more in the future. So that person deserves compassion, and this person deserves compassion. So be careful with the the mind that decides, I like this one. I don’t like this one. Then no compassion.
So the fifth verse, when out of envy others mistreat me with abuse, insults, or the like, I shall accept defeat and offer the victory to others. Out of envy. So this is an abusive situation, particularly mentions abuse, insults, or the like. So any very difficult situation where you are doing quite well because they they’re envying you, so you must be doing quite well. Your life is is going okay.
So now you’re doing well in your spiritual practice, which is affecting your life. Now somebody’s looking at you and saying, well, that’s not good. Why don’t I have that? This is what envy is. You have something that they want to take away from you.
They’re jealous. Okay? So when somebody’s envious, it means you’ve got something good. Now you’re about to destroy it because they’re saying bad things to you. I hate you.
You’re ugly. You’re the worst in the world. La la la la la. You get angry. You respond back.
You’ve just created the boomerangs. So now it’s saying, accept defeat and offer the victory. So when somebody’s abusing you, they’re saying you’re ugly, the worst, do you have to fight back? Do you have to say it’s not true? I’m not like that?
Or can you let it go? This is the challenge that he’s providing you in this situation. He’s saying this is going to happen. We’ve created the causes. We’re going to experience the result.
So we’re doing well. You know, nice house, nice car, partner, spiritual practice, whatever, and somebody comes around and says, it’s not fair. I don’t like you. Why you why have you got these good things? Why don’t I have these good things?
And so they want to hurt you. And because they want to hurt you, then do you feel you want to hurt back, or can you let it go? Can you give them the victory? In which case, you win. But in a conventional sense, we usually want to win and for them to lose.
So if they abuse us, we want to abuse them back. They abuse us more, I abuse back, and it goes backwards and forwards. So which direction do we want to go in? The more spiritual direction or the worldly direction? So when people say negative things to you or about you, how does it affect you?
Again, we’re coming to this in the eighth verse, but I’ll just mention one thing. When somebody is very negative about you, you know, they can say your boss can say, you’re the worst worker, the worst employee I’ve ever had. You’re terrible. What do you do? Do you think about it?
Is it true? Am I? And therefore, you use it for change? Or do you immediately say, I’m not? You know, or do you immediately think, I’m not?
So watch the reaction that we have to criticism. When we’re criticized unjustly now think of unjust criticism. This is like somebody with a bow and arrow. You know, the arrow has poison on the end. Somebody shoots the arrow at you, the arrow lands at your feet, it didn’t hit you.
They wanted to hit you, but they shot the arrow, it landed at your feet, you pick up the arrow, and you say, looks like poison to me. Then what do you do? You stab yourself with it. Oh. I think I’m poisoned.
Why did they do this to me? You know, it’s not fair. I’m a good person. So take responsibility. Understand that from your attachment, you’re actually picking up the arrow, you’re stabbing yourself, and then you’re saying, why did they fire this arrow at me?
Why are they poisoning me? The negative words can’t do anything unless you hold on to it. And then once you hold on to it, we don’t want to let it go. How many times do we lie awake at night, you know, you put the arrow by the side of the bed. I think I’ll go to sleep now.
Put the arrow there, and you lie there and you think, and then and then and then and then just a few more. You know? I’ll just stab myself a few more times, and then I’ll feel better. And then we keep picking it up, putting it down, picking it up, putting it down. We can’t let go of it because we don’t have the training to let go.
We’re in an attachment society. We’re not taught detachment. We’re taught attachment. Somebody says something bad, respond. Do something bad back.
Or if not, suppress it. Swallow it, push it down. But there has to be a third way. You know? Not suppression, not angry, screaming, shouting, but a third way, using your Dharma practice and working with it.
So there’s another Dharma practice, picking up the arrow, knowing it’s poisonous, and stabbing yourself, and then saying, why is somebody doing this to me? It’s not fair. It is fair because you picked it up. You stabbed yourself. So choose which you want to experience.
Are you going to poison yourself or not? So when the words appear, let them go. Practice thinking this is just like the wind blowing, and the wind is blowing past my ear because that’s all it is. It’s just energy. It’s just wind, and you choose to let it go.
You don’t own it. You don’t take it on. You don’t use yourself to stab it. You don’t hurt yourself. So when we’re obsessed with the self, with self-cherishing, it’s important to accept defeat.
The defeat is to the self. The defeat is to the self-cherishing, not to the good qualities. Okay? Each time, we’re attacking the self-cherishing, not the good qualities. So that’s where it comes to, well, can I do this practice?
Is it beyond me at the moment? This is something that you need to decide. Are you strong enough to be able to accept defeat to the self-cherishing but transform it into cherishing others. This is the the hard part. Yes, my dear.
Formulate. No. It’s okay. When it’s individually, we know that we’re attacking the self-cherishing, and we should accept that. When it’s for others, we should not accept it.
So when it’s for others, for their welfare, for protecting them, we should do something, but then we have to do something with wisdom. Love and compassion move you. With love and compassion, this is such a strong feeling, you know, that I must move. I must do something, but there’s a danger because it’s too much emotion. So wisdom is cooling and stops you and says, hold on.
You don’t exist the way you thought. The person that you’re dealing with doesn’t exist the way you thought, the action doesn’t exist the way you thought, so it takes away the power of the ego, the self-cherishing from it. So look at it clearly, and even though the harm is like an illusion, even though the harm is like a dream, still there’s harm. Right? But it’s like a dream.
But if you’re in a dream and you have some some I don’t know, like a tiger chasing you in a dream, you’re terrified. You wake up in a sweat, You know, think, oh, thank goodness it was only a dream. But in the dream, because you thought I’m real, the tiger’s real, there was a danger of dying, of being attacked, of being eaten. Right? So a nightmare, I think, is a good example of how when we believe in everything, there’s a reaction to the situation.
But when we understand this is a dream, it takes away some of the power of the situation. Right? The ignorance of the situation. So we need to recognize abuse as abuse. Anger is anger, You know?
Not say, oh, it doesn’t exist. It’s just like a dream. It exists, but just like a dream. So then this stops you from reacting too quickly, and then evaluating the situation and thinking, well, if I did this, this could happen. If I did that, that could happen.
So what would be the most beneficial thing to do in this situation and the least harmful? It’s extremely difficult to find a perfect answer. Because we’re in saṃsāra with negative karma and delusion, we look for the perfect answer, but it virtually doesn’t exist. Each time, there’s always a downfall. But what’s the minimum downfall?
The minimum harm? The maximum benefit? Each time, that’s what you’re looking for. You won’t find the perfect answer. You know?
And you can really stress yourself out trying to find the perfect answer. If I could do something for the children but not harm the others, oh, this would be perfect. You know? But you find that by trying to help the children, you harm somebody else. And then you become like a doctor, you know.
If you have cancer, you know, the example I gave before, you have cancer here, What are you going to do? Put a Band Aid over it. That’s not wisdom. Take the Band Aid off. Leave it as it is, but it’s growing.
Or go to the doctor and the doctor says, you need an operation. Or you might need radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and an operation. And you say, oh, that’s a lot of pain and suffering. And he says, yes, but less than if you do nothing. Right?
So there’s an appearance of something. We need to cause pain and suffering in order to remove even greater pain and suffering. And that’s skillful means. We must do it because if we don’t, then we’re not practicing from our bodhicitta, from our, good, feelings. So turning away from pain and suffering because we don’t like pain and suffering doesn’t work.
Sometimes we have to have temporary pain and suffering in order to produce more pleasurable feelings, a better situation, giving up something in the short term for something better in the long term. But if it’s about you, only you accept the attack on the self-cherishing. If it’s about others, you should not accept. This is what the thought transformation text says. It’s if it’s not about you, put your ego, yourself, yourself cherishing one side.
I’m cherishing others. What can I do for them rather than what can I do for me? This is very different. Yeah? Because often people ask, well, then in society, when we see problems, thought transformation means we don’t do anything.
Thought transformation is about me, not about tolerating your problems. It’s a it’s about tolerating my problems. But your bodhicitta is about others. It’s about you. It’s about benefiting you, helping you, not helping me, benefiting me.
Up to now, I’m very good at benefiting me, helping me, cherishing me, caring for me, kind to me. Now transform that into helping others, doing things for others. So you see problems in others, and then you say, can’t see them, you know, back to the books. I must meditate. No bodhicitta.
Right? We’re we’re not seeing others’ problems and others’ suffering. It’s not bodhicitta. Yes. And you may be wrong, but you have to accept that.
You you just you think it through on the cushion. You think it through on the cushion. Well, which way? Which way? Which way?
And you choose what appears to be the most beneficial, least harm. But others have got their karma, their delusion. It can all go wrong. And then you think, well, at least I sat down, and I tried to work it out. I did my best.
But if you don’t sit down and try to work it out, you just respond, and then it all goes wrong and you think, I knew I shouldn’t have done anything. You know? Stupid me. I always interfere and get involved and la la la, you know, we’ve sort of again, we beat ourselves. So the important thing about sitting is thinking through.
I often say to people, Lama Tsongkhapa said, if you have a problem and you can solve it, why worry? If you can’t solve it, why worry? Right? So in either case, why worry? But then people say, but I have a problem, you know?
And they say, yeah. It doesn’t say do nothing. It says if you have a problem and you can solve it. So what you need to do is write down the problem. So this is what I advise when people have problems, write it down.
It makes it very clear what the problem is, and then write down possible solutions. If there’s no solutions to apply, why are worrying? If there’s nothing to write. If there are solutions, you write down, one, I could do this, two, I could do this, three, I could do this, and you think, well, which is the best of those? You have something to do.
Why aren’t you doing it? Why are you just worrying? So it’s a it’s a fine line because we need to be careful not to be quickly reactive. But, also, we need to be careful not to wait too long because others are suffering. Again, we’re in a sort of gray area.
You know? There’s no answer how long to wait, but in each one of our situation, out of our concern for others, we want to do something, but we don’t want to harm it’s hard you know but nobody said saṃsāra was easy you know this is reality Any other questions? One, two. Fear, can be posit can be positive. There can be a positive fear of, future suffering.
So say, for instance, you study the hell realms, and then you think, I’m really afraid of the hell realms. I don’t want to go to the hell realms. That can be a positive fear. Negative fear is that, you’re afraid, and then you don’t do anything positive as a result of the fear. Well, I think the antidote for fear is having faith, you know, having refuge, and then, not having doubt because fear, doubt, anxiety, you know, there’s a few emotions that tend to appear around the projection of what could happen in the future.
So I think we need refuge. I think we need courage. Courage is the opposite of fear. Strength, enthusiasm, the ability to put something into effect, to remove the fear. So for instance, if you’re afraid of the hell realms, you really don’t want to suffer, and you’re afraid, and you think, no.
I don’t want to go to the hell realms, but you continue to do negative actions, then the fear didn’t produce something positive. The positive fear is when you see something negative, you decide you don’t want to experience it, and you have regret for the previous negative actions, and then you do something very positive to counteract the negative actions to produce a better future. Then the fear is removed by the thinking process. But often people just have fear. They’re afraid of change.
They’re afraid of the future. They’re afraid of two thousand and twelve. You know? Will we will any of us live through two thousand and twelve? All around the world, people are talking about this now.
But, you know, I say to them, well, is there anything you can do about two thousand and twelve? No. So then the best thing to do is really live your life today so that if we are all going to die, we take something useful, beneficial with us instead of just having the fear of dying in two thousand and twelve. You could be doing death meditations and get really depressed. I’m going to die today.
I’m really afraid of dying. Or you could do death meditations thinking, wow. Life is so important. I must not waste my life. Same meditation, same way of same thinking.
I’m going to die, but the effect that it produces is completely different. One is fear negative. One is fear positive in the sense of it motivates you into doing something. So Lama Zopa says fear can be very positive. There’s even a book out on it now.
I think I think it’s called positive fear by Lama Zopa. It’s a whole book on fear. Because we’re afraid of fear, interestingly. In our society, we don’t like fear. We don’t think it’s positive at all.
But Rinpoche says it can be extremely positive as a motivator. Yeah? Ganesh? Right. Yes.
Let me tell you a story, Ganesh. This is a a lunchtime story before you get your lunch. When I was in Copan, the very first time, I bought the Lonely Planet Guide to Nepal. I have no idea where Nepal is, but I’m going to Nepal. Right?
So I buy, outrageous things, trekking boots, even though I’m going to a monastery. So in the Lonely Planet, they say you need trekking boots, so I buy trekking boots that cost me a fortune, and, I bought trekking socks, I bought, underwear, you know, for the trek I was going to do up, Mount Everest apparently, so I I bought all this stuff, hardly used it. So when, I was leaving Copan, I changed all my plans, and I decided I was going to go to India to Bodh Gaya. His Holiness was giving some teachings in Bodh Gaya, so I had to change all my plans, so I had to sell everything I had, so I put a sign in Copan, this is for sale, cheap prices, sold everything. So I thought, oh, this is good, you know, I got the money, I can go to, Bodh Gaya.
So the last evening, it’s traditional for people on the course to get together and have dinner. So we had to go to a hotel, a vajra hotel, which is a little bit out of town to collect somebody to walk with us into town. I mean, in those days, Kathmandu was very dark and, a little bit scary, you know, in the evening, so this lady didn’t want to walk by herself, so we picked her up, we’re walking into town, I have this money in a bag like this. Okay? So I have this bag.
This is very good I’ve got this bag with me. I have a shawl, and this bag is under the shawl on the left hand side. I’m being very specific so you understand the dilemma in this. Like this, and the money is at the very bottom of the bag with a whole load of stuff on top. Suddenly, a very strange man appears on my right hand side, and we’re walking down this dark street with a few of us.
So I’m in the front. This strange man appears, Nepalese, and these other westerners are behind me talk, talk, talk, talk, you know. And I’m talking to this man, and we’re talking about emptiness. So we have this very strange conversation, for about twenty minutes, walking down this dark street. Now remember, my bag’s over here.
He can’t get to it. He’s over here. We’re talking and talking, and at one point, I thought, this is Lama Zopa. The way Lama Zopa talks, it’s Lama Zopa. He’s disguised or something, but it’s Lama Zopa.
It’s an emanation of Lama zopa, but it’s Lama zopa. And he vanished. You know, I sort of turned to look at something, and I looked back. He’s gone. So I thought, well, that was strange.
And nobody else really seemed to have noticed him much because they’re behind and chat, chat, chat. We get to the restaurant. I’m sitting in the corner of the restaurant where there’s no window, no door. I’m in the very far corner, there’s a long table, and I’m there all evening with my bag on the chair next to me, you know, hanging from the chair. Nobody can get to my bag.
At the end of the evening, I’m looking for my money to pay the bill with everybody else. Guess what? It’s gone. So then I lay awake all night thinking, but how was it stolen? Who stole it?
You know? On and on and on. Now how am I going to go to India? Now I’ve got no money. Blah blah blah.
So, literally, I was picking it up and stabbing myself joyously, you know? Twelve o’clock, one o’clock, two o’clock, on and on and on, but who, but when, but where. It couldn’t have been him. It couldn’t have been in the restaurant. How?
How? Then it came to me. I’m a bit slow. It came to me. Lama Zopa said in the course, if you say something’s been stolen from you, you make that person a thief.
But if you give it to them, they’re not a thief. You practice generosity. So I thought, uh-huh. So this is the answer. I have to give this money not to have it stolen because by practicing generosity, I get merit.
This is good, you know, whereas if it’s stolen, it’s bad. Bad for them, bad for me, because I’ve made them a thief. So at three o’clock in the morning, I said, okay, I give up. I gave you the money. Because also if you take bodhisattva vows, you say, I don’t own anything.
I’ve given it to all sentient beings. So also Lama Zopa said in the course, if you’ve given it away, how are you being stolen from? You’ve given it away. It’s not yours. You’re just taking care of it, but it’s not yours.
Right? So I also remember this, and I thought, okay, I took Bodhisattva vows, it’s theirs. Somebody is reclaiming their money, and I must have stolen. So this person’s reclaiming what’s been stolen. Right?
So I go through all these thoughts, go to sleep very happily. I wake up in the morning, very happy, got no money, but I’m very happy. Meet the people that I’m going with that had a collection. What they collected was like a dollar off, but virtually the same as what I had stolen. It came back.
They didn’t know the amount, but what they collected was virtually the same. Then I thought, okay, you know. So I think the answer is in, if you say they’re an abuser, they become the abuser, I become the abused, they’re the thief, then I’m stolen from, You know? So once you put that label, it exists. For you, it exists, and their karma is in accordance with how you view it.
Are they stealing from you, or are you offering it? Are they stealing from you or are they reclaiming what is theirs? The action is the same, but how you view it is different. So when somebody’s abusing, if you say, you are abusive, then your mind changes. You become self-cherishing.
You have to respond. You feel you want to respond. Right? But the response is coming from self-cherishing. So if you can take the self-cherishing out and then you’re cherishing the other without the response from me, from my self-cherishing, what’s the best response for you?
Maybe nothing, maybe something, maybe stop. You know? There was there was somebody, a while ago who, for no reason that I could see from my own side, but kept being angry with me and abusing me. And so this went on for a few weeks, and, at one point, I thought, oh, this has to stop now. This really needs to stop.
Not because I was angry, but because I got really worried that for the other person it was becoming a habit, you know, a way of responding. And it had never happened before with this person, but suddenly it started. It was like a karma appeared. And so one day, she was being again a bit abusive, well, very abusive, and I said, stop. You have to stop talking like this, you know.
And she was really shocked, you know, but I said, I’m not accepting it anymore, you have to stop, you know. And then that was it. It stopped. So our initial reaction immediately, you’re ugly? Might be, well, you’re ugly too.
So we have to stop that. But how long do we does it need to go on for? As long as it’s constructive. For me? But if there’s now a fear, a worry, a concern about the other, we need to do something.
Not because we’re upset, we’re angry, we’re concerned, we’re loving, and we’re kind towards the other. And this is the dilemma of the bodhisattva. You know? Is it about me or is it about you? And it can be often quite subtle, can’t it?
You know, that you think, oh, definitely, it’s not about me, but really it is. So put a pause into the response and keep checking. Is it about me or about you? Does it answer you? I thought it was a good story.
I never forgot that. Never. It was a very good teaching. You know? Because I I lay awake thinking, but how?
You know, but how? But how? But how? It drove me mad. It couldn’t be this guy.
It couldn’t be in the restaurant. But how? But how? And I was sure it was something to do with this guy, and he was talking about emptiness. How doesn’t exist.
You know? And then my money just vanished. And then one minute money there, next minute money gone, vanished. You know? We had this incredible conversation, and it’s like twenty six years later, and it’s still here.
It’s still something that I can relate to as, I needed to transform my mind. You know? And in these very difficult situations, your mind does not want to transform. Your mind says, no. We’re not going there.
Stop. You know? So each time, we need to keep reiterating, this is my value. This is what I believe in. Yeah.
Okay. So we will dedicate. So let’s use I hope you’re not fed up, but I like Śāntideva so much, and I think it’s so applicable to what we’re doing. So if you go to thirty two, we’ll dedicate with Śāntideva. May all beings everywhere play by sufferings of body and mind, attain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits.
May no living creature suffer, commit evil, or ever fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored and finding repose. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food, may the thirsty find water and delicious drinks.
May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy, may the forlorn find hope, constant happiness, and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvests. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again.
May the frightened cease to be afraid and those bound be freed. May the powerless find power, and may people think of benefiting each other for as long as space remains, for as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world. Thank you. So we should consider the discussion groups. Are you here today?
Excellent. Group one, how many people do you have? Four? Goodness. You’re a very popular group.
Which falls which falls in group one? One, two, Oh, Simon’s off today. Okay. So you got three. And then group two?
You’re three. And then group three? You’re two. And then group four, it’s you two. So you know dharma or you don’t?
A little bit. Who are you with? You and you. Maybe you can be with with Jack and Catherine. Is it okay if I call you Catherine?
Catherine. You like Oh, yeah. Ah, Kathy. Kathy. The but then it would have to be Kathy.
Oh. She likes the tea. It’s really hard when you have this, the instinct of Catherine, isn’t it, to change it to Catherine. I’ll try. I’ll try.
Okay. Maybe it’ll slip out every now and then. Catherine. Yeah? But I’ll try.
So have a good lunch. And where are you two meeting? Where are you? You’re in here. Yeah.
So in here. Okay? Okay. So you got a lot to talk about today, and then I’ll see you three is tea as usual, three thirty. Again, we have a discussion.
Thank you. It’s okay. So I thought we’d start with the meditation. Otherwise, we never get it done, do we? Well, don’t look so joyous.
Thank you. What pea? So the, Chenrezig meditation that we did yesterday, but I’m just going to do it for the verses that we’ve already talked about, not all of it. We’ve already done the prayers, so this is just the actual practice. So it’ll be about ten or fifteen minutes.
So then, thinking that our motivation for listening to teachings, for discussing, for meditating, for reflecting is to achieve the mind of bodhicitta in order to benefit countless sentient beings, including the enemy, including the person we don’t like. Because countless sentient beings are suffering, we need to achieve this bodhicitta as quickly as possible, not depending on others to do it, but to feel I’m responsible. I must benefit sentient beings. In order for me to benefit sentient beings, I need to remove my delusions, my negative karma, my obscurations to omniscience. So in order to remove those obstacles, I’m meditating on Chenrezig, the Buddha of compassion.
So visualizing above the crown of your head, a thousand arm Chenrezig. White in color, radiating white light in every direction. In Chenrezig’s heart, there is the seed syllable, hree. So after I recite after I recite each one of the verses, Then immediately, from Chenrezig’s heart, blissful white nectar comes through the crown of your head, removing the obstacles to have realizations of this verse. Determined to obtain the greatest possible benefit from all sentient beings who are more precious than a wish fulfilling jewel, I shall hold them most dear at all times.
From Chenrezig’s heart, from Hree, the blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations, especially those that prevent you from holding others most dear. The nectar brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta, which holds others most dear. In the second verse, when in the company of others, I shall always consider myself the lowest of all, and from the depths of my heart, hold others dear and supreme. The blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations, especially those that prevent you from considering yourself the lowest of all and from holding others dear and supreme and brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta by which you consider yourself the lowest of all and hold others dear and supreme. Vigilant, the moment a delusion appears in my mind, endangering myself and others, I shall confront and avert it without delay.
And the blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations, especially those that prevent you from confronting and averting delusions the moment they appear. It brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta and the wisdom of shunyata, which automatically extinguishes all delusions. Whenever I see beings who are wicked in nature and overwhelmed by violent negative actions and suffering, I shall hold such rare ones dear as if I have found a precious treasure. And the blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations, especially those that prevent you from holding wicked sentient beings dear and brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta, which holds wicked sentient beings as dear as a precious treasure. The nectar comes through the crown of your head, removing all obstacles, bringing with it realizations, a change of mind, a change of heart.
When, out of envy, others mistreat me with abuse, insults, or the like, I shall accept defeat and offer the victory to others. And the blissful white nectar purifies all obscurations, especially those that prevent you from accepting defeat and offering the victory to others and brings all realizations, especially the loving, compassionate bodhicitta, which accepts defeat and offers the victory to others. Thinking your body and your mind full of blissful nectar, full of love and compassion and wisdom for all sentient beings. That the mind of bodhicitta is the medicine for all the sufferings and all the problems that sentient beings experience. And through this thought transformation practice, we can actualize bodhicitta.
And then slowly becoming aware of the room we’re sitting in, the cushion you’re sitting on, and the meditation we’ve just been doing. So back to you. Group four. Excellent. Not so excellent.
Oh, I hate it when I do that. It’s a toughie. Being best. It’s being a giver rather than a taker, isn’t it? When you’re self-cherishing, it’s me, me, me, me.
But when you’re cherishing others, then you’re looking at their situation, their happiness. What can I do to make them happy? And worldly people need to win. Basically, you know, you give them the victory. It doesn’t affect us at all, you know, because giving the victory is something they need, but not something we need from a spiritual standpoint.
We’re not talking about, in an ordinary materialistic world. We’re talking about in the spirit, in the mind. So in order to develop bodhicitta, if you win in an ordinary sense, you actually lose. And this is what’s difficult about it because you have to keep going back to it’s not the ordinary way, it’s extraordinary way, isn’t it? So you have to keep going back to so what’s extraordinary in qualities rather than what’s ordinary?
In the the ordinary world, we want to win. We want to be on top. But if you have a good self esteem, you can say, oh, you know, you win. No problem. You win.
And then actually what a lot of people then say is, no, no, you win. No, you win. No, you win. Then it becomes an argument about who wins. So it’s interesting that when you’re in an argument and you want to win, the argument continues.
And when you say, no, you win, it’s okay, Then they also change their mind. They want you to win, and then you want them to win. So I think the path of of least resistance is what this is showing. Don’t keep putting up a lot of resistance, a lot of negative energy. And by not doing that, you’ll have a happier life.
You’ll be better off, others around you better off. So I think it’s good. Well, the enlightened group, isn’t it? Yes, Ganesh, you have something to say? It’s unusual for you to be quiet?
You can pray for it. Yeah. May not may not be, but I think what he’s indicating is different situations that can happen. Now you’re doing quite well. You know?
Because as you’re working through the verses, you’re improving your situation. You’re getting better and better. There’s a halo appearing above your head. You know? It’s got Hindi written around, but it’s halo.
So you’ve got this halo going, you know, the halo effect. I used to say, you know, slightly on the side, modern looking, you know? So there’s a halo going on, and then somebody else says, and where’d you get that halo from? I want a halo like that, you know. It’s it’s that sort of thing.
When we talk about halos, you know, it’s sort of indicating somebody’s doing well. So you’re doing well. You’re being nice. You’re being kind. You’re being compassionate.
You’re not reacting back with negative emotions. And then somebody sees this, and they don’t like it. They feel envious. You know, I wish I could do that. But instead of responding with rejoicing, they’re responding with negativity.
And so if you experience people being envious and then people being negative because of it, if you have a resistance to it, it hurts you, and it gets worse. So, actually, by working with it, it gets better. But the other thing you can do is you can actually pray. Please, may people envy me. And when they do, please, may they abuse me, insult me, and do terrible things towards me.
I hope this happens to me. And so when it happens, then you say, thank you very much. I’m glad this is happening to me, not to others. So when we say, I don’t like this. I don’t want this to happen.
We set up a a response, you know, a a resistance to the negative happening. So you already have the resistance, and then it happens, and so the resistance grows stronger. So when you say, please give it to me. If anybody should be abused, it should be me. Not them, only me.
If it happens, then you say, oh, this is great. Thank you very much. Like, praying for a guru and the difficult person appears. Then you think, thank you very much. Now I have a guru.
So we have to know different methods to know what is practical, what works for your mind. That’s why I try to approach it from different angles, because one method is not going to work for everybody. So for some people, they can use the verses for transforming. Some people maybe need to think, I hope this happens to me. Some people may think, this is completely beyond me.
You know? I’ll I’ll try verse number one and stick at verse number one for a while. That’s enough for me. Even that is incredible, isn’t it? Just that starting is incredible.
So whatever you can do, I rejoice. I think it’s amazing. In this day and age, this is like being a monk or a nun in Buddha’s time. The power of transforming your mind is like you were in Buddha’s time. You know?
But now, we have so much difficulty and resistance around us to developing these beautiful states of mind. If you say, oh, I’m a really angry, nasty person, people say, oh, good. Yeah. This is you know, you must be successful in business. Right?
So the more ruthless you are, the more you you more devious you are. Well done, you know? So if you’re honest and open and kind, not always appreciated. So what do you do in those situations? That’s what we’re exploring.
I don’t think all the answers are in here, but it gives you a general view in order to work with bodhicitta. Then there’s a seven point thought transformation with many more many more points. But this is a very good beginning because what you’re experiencing is like an illusion, isn’t it? It’s all just like a dream, like an illusion. Does the problem really exist from its own side?
It’s only a problem when you label it problem. Problem doesn’t exist until you say problem. But once you’ve said problem, oh, I think that person envies me or is jealous of me. Once you think like that, then from your side, there’s a response because you’re already making a concept that you’re projecting onto the person. So where’s the problem coming from?
your concept, which is now coming back at you. Anyway, you’re intelligent. You’re intelligent. You can understand this. Right?
No need to go on. Magda, look happy. You you got a crease between you. Oh, it’s your it’s your crease. You know?
You’re a young woman. Bloom. Who is three? We are three, but actually oh, yeah. You are three now, isn’t it? Dalai Lama?
The Delhi Lama. Oh, the Dalai Lama. Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Right. I think if you have a complete realization of emptiness, there is no self that arises because self is a construct. It’s a concept that you create. So I blah blah blah. So I think what happens, and this is just conjecture because I’m definitely much lower than what I’m talking about, I think what replaces the negative emotions is the positive emotions, the love, the compassion, you know, the movement to alleviate the pain and the suffering.
In order to have the movement to remove the pain and the suffering, because you have realization of emptiness, you need to have a memory of pain and suffering. So you’re not presently experiencing pain and suffering. There’s a memory of what it is to experience pain and suffering, so that’s your clairvoyance. And you have clairvoyance understanding the minds of others, so you do understand their pain and suffering, but you’re not experiencing it yourself. So there’s a feeling.
It’s something like gathering together all the imprints of compassion, and then that propels you in the direction where you can be of the most benefit, where you can alleviate the most suffering, but there’s no feeling of I that’s moving. It’s just what you do. At the moment, we feel I work. I sit. I go.
I’m angry. You know, like that. So we have an I, which is based on ignorance, and then we grasp onto that I. So when you have realization of emptiness, then there’s no longer an I to grasp onto. So the I disappears.
Then you have merely merely labeled I. On the base, human being, we have merely labeled I, which is Jack. Right? So on the base, we put the label Jack, but then why we say merely labeled is because when we look for Jack, the label, we can’t find the label. The label doesn’t exist as much as Jack doesn’t exist.
And yet, Jack is, able to be labeled. We can put the label. It’s not that Jack doesn’t exist at all. Jack exists in a certain way as empty of inherent existence. So when we look for the I, the I ness doesn’t exist.
It exists in a conventional way. Don’t start your sentences with but. It’s not good. Or you could use Lama’s helpers however. Yes.
Yes. Yes. There is your mental continuum. Yes. How do you go from mental continuum then to I?
Right. Or or not. If you’re a Buddha, there are no karmic imprints. But say you don’t say you’re a Buddha. Well, maybe it doesn’t look like a Buddha, but maybe it’s a Buddha.
Right? A Buddha in a blue jacket, merely labeled Jack. So take away say Jack now has no karma, no delusion. What have you got left? Now what are you?
Yeah. But no. But what are you know, if I take away your delusions, your anger, your hatred, your jealousy, or the eighty four thousand, if I take that away from you, if I take away your negative karma, now what have you got left in your mental continuum? Right. And so then there’s a feeling to move towards the suffering, but without the I.
It’s like a mealy labeled I. It means, you don’t have this feeling of a a solid identity, I arising, because there isn’t there is no I like that. I know what you’re saying by the thoughts. You’re now you’re you’re working on the the mind of the level of mind and thoughts. Right?
And so that’s me. That’s who I am. Right? And so then doesn’t that exist? Is that who I am?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Just like just like that and that. Right?
If you don’t put the label clock, does clock exist? Oh. Right. Right. Right.
So then if you come to mind, if you’re positing mind as the I, am I this thought, or am I the next thought, or am I the next thought? Right? So if you have an angry thought in this moment, and the next thought is a patient thought, am I the angry thought, Am I the patient thought? Or am I many thoughts? Or am I no thoughts?
I, if you talk about I. You know? Or am I merely labeled, meaning empty even the label is empty, not existent as we think, as if you write it in the air. But in the air, even maybe you leave some imprint, you know, or write it in the water, maybe you’ll still leave some imprint. But if you take away even that thought of imprint, merely labeled I is okay.
But more than that is not okay. Because once you say I exists, then it exists dependent on something. If it depends on the mind, then which moment of mind does it depend on? This moment, last moment, next moment? Is it all the moments?
And then if it’s all the moments, it can’t be this moment, this moment, this moment. It’s like an it’s like, an overview of moments, isn’t it? So that’s why we say, merely labeled on the base. Not this moment, not this moment, not this moment. But we feel in this moment, oh, I’m angry.
You know, so the I is angry. And then we apply patience to the I or love to the I, and then it changes. The mind changes. The feeling of the flavor changes. And now we can put another label.
I’m patient. So we had an angry eye. We had a patient eye. So, is my eye angry, or is my eye patient? Yeah.
So you have this, pure potential, the emptiness of the mind. And because of the emptiness of the mind, anything can appear because of past karma, because of past delusion. So anything’s possible. But once you put labels that are concrete, you know, written with superglue, it’s like that. You know, my eye is like that.
I am this type of person. Then it becomes inherent. It seems to be unchanging, inherent. But, actually, it’s impermanent. The mind’s impermanent, changing moment to moment.
This thought leading to this thought leading to this thought, and on that continuum of thoughts, placing the label I. But then you might think, ah, so then the label exists. Right? I I know I can’t find I in this moment, this moment, this moment. But if I say I over all the moments, then I exists.
Like that. So then, then the next argument is, no, even the label doesn’t exist because the label is dependent upon the parts. It’s not independent. It’s dependent. Right?
And so because it has parts, it can’t be inherent. It must be moment to moment in, impermanent, not inherently existent. And then is Jack this this mental continuum, there’s another interesting thing, this mental continuum which we call Jack, when he dies and then he goes into the Bardo and he has an intermediate state, is it the same mental continuum? Right. Right.
Yes. You you think now my my body. Right? And I need another body. So then you’re looking for parents, and then you see the sperm and the ovum, and then you think, my new body.
So imagine if you didn’t have an eye. Imagine that eye wasn’t in the equation. Would it make you feel different? You can put a label to it. You’re saying it’s mine.
When you talk about Jack, you’re saying it’s mine. Yes. Does the mental continuum change or the mind change or the body changes? Well, the mind changes at one point. The mind doesn’t change.
It continues. The form that it takes changes. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
We have we have this conventional I that we need in our world to say, I’m I’m doing this. I’m doing that. I’m not doing this. Right? But in actual fact, it goes beyond convention.
It goes into possession, my body. Right? So you’re saying, you’re talking about I in a sort of way as if we have an I, but it’s not possessive of of the body. But in actual fact, it is possessive. Right.
And this is the source of our suffering because of that I. Right. So okay. So then when you’re not attached to the I, when you have this realization, then what state of mind is that? Right.
But if you only have emptiness without compassion, then what’s that? But you’re not you’re not enlightened. So you’re now perceiving suffering. You you look at suffering and you say, uh-uh. But I’m empty.
You’re empty. Suffering empty. Therefore, nothing to do. Right? So this is the fault of emptiness before compassion is with only emptiness, you’re negating the object of suffering.
You’re saying doesn’t exist, not necessary to do anything. So the reason why we meditate and think about everything the other way around, compassion first, emptiness after, is because with realization of compassion, you’re accumulating countless, merit because of the sentient beings you’re motivating towards, and this helps you to have realization of emptiness, and then you’re on the bodhisattva path. So with with the motivation of benefiting all sentient beings, compassion coming first, love coming first, there’s no fault. You can have your eye, your selfish eye. You can transform it into a nonselfish eye, a cherishing other’s eye, and then you can see the emptiness of that eye, realize the emptiness of that eye, and then you’re on the bodhisattva path, where you still have an eye because you still have gross delusion until eighth level bodhisattva.
So there still must be some sense of I in there, some sense of grossness. Right? It’s not that you’ve completely indicated all I, all delusions. There’s still delusion, but it’s all becoming, easier to work with. Right?
But where where do we start? The point that we’re at now, we’re talking way beyond where we’re at, but where we’re at now, we very much feel there is an I. If somebody attacks you, you know, and says, Jack, you’re a thief, would you be able to say, just like air blowing past my ear? Well, if I do, maybe. It can be worse when you didn’t do it.
I’m publishing it in the Buddha House newsletter that Jack stole my biscuits, right, At at at the last workshop, and, you know, it this feeling would come up. I didn’t do that. Right? So then it feels very much like the I exists, and that’s the I to remove. Right?
To negate. Because that I will make you want to respond, want you to do something. That I is based on ignorance. But the ordinary I, my body, without the attachment, my body, my leg, my walking, whatever, it’s not gonna cause a problem. But it’s when the emotion is involved with it, then it causes a problem.
As soon as you have I, you have my and mine, you and yours. You have duality. You have separation. Right? So that’s where you need to think.
If I have I, me, mine, you have you, yours, duality. And that’s where we get reaction. Doing, and in that doing, creating more causes of ignorance, more actions, and we get trapped in this me, you. This is mine. This is yours.
That’s you. You. Yours. Me. Mine.
Separation. So when we have nonduality, we still have all of this, but the possessiveness dissolves. You know? It’s it’s here. It’s usable, but without the me, mine, you, yours.
Just maybe try to soften the edges of I, me, mine, you, yours, and try and develop more of a nonduality, which is where bodhicitta takes us. All the same, We all want happiness. We don’t want suffering. We’re all similar. Right?
It starts to take away the hard edges of us being separate, individual, alone. We start to merge and start to soften, and then we see we all depend on upon each other. You know, maybe that’s a good way to go, just depending upon each other. Looking at the kindness that others do for us, how we can repay that kindness. I think this this is a good place.
But if we think too much about emptiness, we can get confused by it, and then we start to withdraw. Emptiness is a withdrawal. You know? It’s it’s cold. Emptiness stops you.
Compassion moves you. So that’s why we have both. But first, develop your your compassion, your love, and then you start to think about the emptiness of the I with the compassion and the love, and that’s when you find your bodhicitta. You understand? Okay.
So, Geshe-la, you are not in group four. I know. Oh yeah, that’s true. Okay. Yeah.
Yes. Who is transforming the thoughts? I am transforming my thoughts. Merely labeled eye. Yeah.
We we feel that there is an eye very much, don’t we? What we’re talking about is the eye that arises in response to the situation. That’s when you should meditate on the emptiness of the I. Ganesh, you stole my biscuits, and you go, I did not. Very then, really, there’s a strong eye at that time.
Right? But most times, it’s a sort of wishy washy gray eye, not really findable. And so that’s why we talk about when we’re experiencing the delusions, it’s a really good time to say, now I’ve got you, you know, I you feel that it’s here or it’s here, you know, it’s somewhere definite. So now where are you? And you go into the body and you say, now I’m gonna get you.
I’m going to grasp hold of you. And it moves and it moves and it gets smaller and it moves. So I often say to people, if the eye really existed the way we think at the time of autopsy, they cut open the body. Right? And let’s say, uh-huh.
Here’s the liver. Here’s the kidneys. Here’s the heart. Blah blah. And here is Jack.
A blob of Jack. And they put it in a jar, and anybody came into the room would say, oh, there’s Jack, if that eye really existed. And in the Copan course recently, Lama Zopa said, if anybody finds their eye, I’ll give them a million dollars. That’s how sure he is. You can’t find it.
And yet, we’re absolutely sure we’ve got one. And we agree to that. We are sent to that. And this is the ignorance that we’ve had from beginningless time, that we’re sure there’s an eye. And so this antidote, if we just go for the emptiness of the eye without the preparation of all the other things, is actually too difficult.
In the monasteries, there’s a very slow progression over time leading to the emptiness of the eye. And the emptiness of the eye is the culmination of their studies, and it’s five years. From morning till night, six days a week, and then meditating on it, debating on it for five years. And if you’re extraordinary, then another three years in retreat. So eight years altogether on emptiness.
So I often say to Westerners, you know, in some way, I think we’re often quite arrogant because we read a little something or we hear a little something, and we say, oh, yeah, you know, I get it. I understand emptiness, but it’s so subtle. It’s not how we think. It’s much much more subtle. And so we need to spend years on this, sort of preparing the mind and doing many things to soften the mind.
And so I think where we need to concentrate is compassion, because we have problems with compassion. We have a basis of wisdom from our education. So if you keep on working with compassion, it gives you so much merit that when you approach emptiness, you’re going to have a great understanding of emptiness. But if you start with emptiness, you’ll confuse yourself. You’ll think there is no I, there’s no doer, therefore, there’s no doing, there’s no thought transformation.
Finished. You know? And that’s the wrong way around. We need to feel there is suffering, There is an alleviator of suffering. There is an action to alleviate the suffering.
We need to think of that first. And then we say, uh-huh. So where’s the I that thinks of suffering, and where’s the suffering? And where’s it? And so then with this strong feeling of it exists, then you can look for the emptiness of its existence.
But if it’s all a bit gray, we don’t get it. You know? It’s gotta be very definite. Lama Yeshe used to say, the people who are very difficult, like very positive, very negative, they can have realization of emptiness. The ones who are a bit not quite sure if there’s an I or not, not quite sure if they’re suffering or not, they’re gonna have problems.
We need to become really definite. Jack exists. Right? There is definitely a Jack. There’s a Jackness, like Loch Ness, so there’s a Jackness.
Right? Cut the hair, and you can oh, oh, grow the hair. We have a Jack. Right? And then we can say, okay, now I’m looking for Jack.
But you say, well, I’m not sure it doesn’t is it here or here? It’s sort of like, looking for something, but you don’t really know what you’re looking for. So if you have something very definite, then you can look. So a compassionate Jack. Jack is becoming very egotistical because of his compassion.
Gosh. Remember the days when Jack was humble? Now Jack has become difficult. He’s got a huge inflated ego over his compassion. Now Jack can look for Jack.
Right? Because it’s so big, it’s very obvious. But if in our ordinary everyday life, we’re making Jack small, we can’t really find that Jack, but I feel Jack’s there when he’s negative, then we can’t approach it. You know? So the more definite you make it, the easier it is to cut it, to remove it.
And then what you’re left with is the movement without the eye, the compassion without the eye, the love without the eye, the bodhicitta without the eye, the generosity, the morality. You know, everything still exists, but without the eye. We can put the eye as a mere label, but doesn’t exist more than that. But at the moment, it exists more than that. We have the merely labeled eye, and we have the definite eye, and the absolute eye, and the real eye.
You know, we have I. It really exists. Not when we think about it, but instinctively. You know? I’m I’m not saying when we think about it, we think there’s an I, because when we think about it, we say there is no I.
Can’t find the I. So there’s wisdom there. When we’re not thinking about the eye, the eye appears and truly seems to exist. Right? That’s the dangerous eye.
That’s the eye we want to remove. So I think, first, generate great love, great great compassion. Include everybody within your compassion. And then with the merit of all sentient beings, you’re going to have understanding of emptiness because that will that will assist you. It will give you the merit to be able to do it.
We can talk a bit more about it tomorrow because all of this concerns emptiness. If things really exist, you can’t transform it. You know? If it doesn’t really exist, we can transform it. So it’s all based on emptiness.
Was that it? That’s all you people did? Any questions? I can only assume. I mean, I can’t call him.
Hello, Delhi. How are you? You know? But I can assume. His holiness needs to appear to us in a certain way so we’re encouraged to do things.
So his holiness always wants to appear the humblest, the smallest, the lowest. You know, everything that it says here, he does it. Right? And so if he said, oh, I know all of this, and I don’t need to read it, then some people would say, oh, then I also don’t need to read it. So I think whatever he talks about, he talks about in a way to inspire others into doing it too rather than, saying, I don’t read texts.
I don’t study. I don’t need to meditate. I just have I have realizations, so I don’t do any of that. His life is, like a picture show of showing us how to lead an enlightened life, how to be special. So instead of just saying, I am special, he leads a life and tells us how to be special.
He says, when I was young, I was difficult. You know? I was difficult because many children now are difficult. So he says, I was difficult, and then people said, oh, well, that’s good. So if he was difficult, I can get better too.
If he says I was perfect, I was born on a lotus, I came up from a lake on a lotus, I was perfect from the beginning, then you think, oh, dear. You know? What am I going to do? I was definitely not born perfect. So everything he says, I think it’s very calculated to create an impression on people.
Not calculated in a bad way, but in a very positive way, that he wants to appear, of the people like us, of the people. Just like us, I was a very ordinary person, and what I did was I changed my mind. At some point, because of Tibet, because of the situation, I had to change. And that’s when he says, around fifteen sixteen, he started to change. That’s when they asked him, would he become the leader?
Would he lead all of his people? So he became responsible. And so, then he had to take on all the suffering of Tibet, you know, his people being tortured, beaten, abused. He had to take on all of that and work out politically what to do, spiritually what to do. I mean, obviously, from what he did, it’s not ordinary.
But he’ll say, this is what I had to do. You know? So I think when he’s saying, when I’m waiting for a plane, I’m reading eight verses. What he’s saying to us is, when you’re waiting for a plane, read the eight verses. Instead of saying, you should read the eight verses, he shows that he reads the eight verses like that.
I think this is much more inspiring than saying, you should do it. I don’t do it, but you should do it. When he was in Mexico, he came out sort of walking like an old man. Awful. It was really heartbreaking to see him walking in this very old way.
And he sat down and he said, oh, dear. I tell you, knee problem. You know? And laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, but knee problem. And then when he got up at lunchtime, he had to sit on the edge of the throne for a while before he could move because he’d been sitting cross legged.
So then then he put his legs down. He put his shoes on early. So for about ten or fifteen minutes, his legs were over the edge so that he could prepare his knees, and then they had to support him as he went out. And I oh, dear. You know, this is terrible to see from so strong.
And then in the afternoon, he came back. And then they say the next day when he taught at the stadium, completely gone. He was walking really strongly. He was flicking pieces of paper at people. He was laughing and joking.
So I think each time, it’s a manifestation of something to produce something in us. So if we’re hardhearted, maybe he softens it slightly when you see he’s limping because you love him, you care about him. And so you go, oh, you know? But if it doesn’t manifest in that way, maybe your heart doesn’t soften. Lama Zopa having a stroke.
You know? So many people have written to me and said, oh, it’s so awful, you know, seeing Lama Zopa like that, but also how incredible that he’s laughing and joking and you know? Completely not showing what we would show, showing us how to be when we’re sick. So again, another manifestation of what to do. Or we could go into husbands, oh, poor me.
Poor me. Why me? Oh, this is awful. You know, whinging and moaning constantly, and then the nurses put a notice on the door, be careful. You know?
Whinging and moaning happening in here. Nobody wants to talk to you. When I was with Geshe Wangchen in nineteen eighty seven, I think, he had a goiter in his throat and diabetes. And I put him into hospital, and he had huge operation. It was from here to here cutting.
You know? And they had to dig the the, growth from his thyroid, they had to dig it out. It was so deep down. The surgeon said to me, I had to get a something like a big long spoon and dig it out. It was so big, and it was strangling him.
So he couldn’t breathe, and he couldn’t eat. And that was from huge mass. And so I think the first day, he was recuperating. You know, you come out the operation. The next day, I go to visit.
He’s missing. I said, well, where is he? The nurses said, oh, you can’t stop him. He’s all around the hospital. So he he was shuffling around with all these bandages going from room to room, and it was the London clinic.
So it’s an extremely expensive clinic, you know, Elizabeth Taylor goes there. All the film stars, rich people. So he’s going from room to room. Hello. How are you?
How are you feeling? So he was the darling of the whole hospital, because he’s got this big bandage, but going around saying, are you alright? How are you feeling? You know? So again, showing how you should behave when you’re putting this into practice.
If you just talk about it, it’s not such an effect, is it? But when you say, oh, well, this is what I do, so this is what you should do too, I think then his holiness as students really pay attention. You know? But it’s just a show. I’m absolutely sure his holiness knows his back to front, inside out.
He lives this, you know, very much he lives it. When the Chinese say, he’s a splitist, he’s a troublemaker, we don’t like him, he must say, ah, now which verse is that? Yes. I think number five will do it. He immediately puts it into practice.
But he’s saying to us, when you have problems, read through. You know? I think it’s very good to have them printed out, and, you know, you can just randomly take out a verse and read it through the day, or yellow post its, put them in different places. But to keep reminding yourself, this is the way I live. Not the old way.
This is the new way. I think it’s it’s a constant reminder of bodhicitta. Anything else? People often ask me, you know, why do the lamas look like this? Why do the you know, why?
Why? If they’re enlightened, they manifest in a way that benefits the students. Their life is to benefit the students, and that’s the way we should think of any teacher that if they appear in a certain way, they’re appearing in that way because it’s the most beneficial for your mind. So I remember Lama Lhundrup saying once, if there’s a dog who needs help to become enlightened, the Buddha appears as a dog because that’s appropriate for the dog. I mean, that’s compassion, isn’t it?
So if it’s a human, we need a human Buddha. But maybe also we need a dog. You know, there’s a story of Asaṇga being in the in the cave for so many years, no realizations, came out of the cave after twelve years, sees a dog with maggots, and then thinks, how can I save the dog? How can I save the maggots? And it was Maitreya, the Buddha of love.
Looked like a dog, but it was actually a Buddha. Because of Asaṇga’s, negative mind, he was seeing dog, but actually it was a Buddha. So when he developed the mind of love and compassion, Maitreya transformed into a Buddha. And then Asaṇga said, I must take you to the village. I must show everybody there’s a Buddha here.
Maitreya said, don’t bother. Maybe one person will see something. Most will see nothing. So he put Asaṇga, you know, Asaṇga put Maitreya on his shoulders. He went around the village saying, look everybody, a Buddha’s here, Maitreya, you know, so incredible.
You know, the singer’s really gone off now, all those retreats. Couldn’t see anything. One lady saw an old dog around his neck. So my choice says, you see, I told you, you have to have a mind that can perceive a Buddha. So his holiness doesn’t appear in that way, you know, as something beyond us.
He very much works on being on our level, not superior, but just like us. This is incredible compassion, really. Yeah. Okay. Two.
Okay. We’ve got a few points. Okay. Obviously, we’ve spoken about holding enemies dear, and we’re wondering if you’ve got any examples of when, you know, you’ve His Holiness, you know, of every time His Holiness goes anywhere in the world and teaches, the Chinese say publicly to each government, don’t allow him to speak. He’s a troublemaker.
He’s the enemy. And if you want to be our trading partner, you will also treat him as your enemy. And every time his holiness teaches and he says, compassion, love, there’s no negative response at all. He only responds thank you very much. He only responds in a very positive way that we need to be friends, we need to work for the benefit of others, and this is what we should do together.
You know? So very much his holiness is the epitome of this one when he’s dealing with the Chinese. He doesn’t show any irritability. There’s no negative response. It really is truly from his heart.
I want to turn this into something positive. You can be as negative as you like, but I’m going to respond in the most positive way. So from his side, there is no enemy. From their side, they produce enemy. They project enemy.
So I think if you if you look over the last fifty years, no matter what, his holiness keeps going with this. I think there’s many other examples, but, you know, this would be the very public example, and it’s very, good to read, his holiness’s books, you know, the biographies, things like this. Some of my teachers what was his name? There’s one teacher in, Nepal. He was tortured for twenty five years by the Chinese in Tibet before he came out and came to Nepal.
And, he’s a a very high rinpoche. And I said to him, it must have been so difficult. And he said, the most difficult thing is not losing bodhicitta, you know, to maintain bodhicitta, not to lose your compassion for the person beating you. And they were were really beaten. You know?
We have nuns in the Copan nunnery who were tortured. I have a friend who was trying to escape from Tibet and tried to escape three times and each time was tortured. As a fifteen year old, he was as a monk, he was caught. He was stripped naked. He was hum up by his fingernails, electric, electric cattle prod, then sent back to the monastery because he was too young to do anything else.
They could torture him, but they couldn’t imprison him. He escaped again. They again, they caught him. Again, they tortured him. The third time, he escaped to India.
I asked him about how do you feel? He doesn’t have any negative feeling. You know? It’s because of this. The Tibetans have a very healthy psyche.
They don’t suffer from anything bad that happens to them. Whereas we, I tell you, we’d be in the mental hospital or we’d be with the psychiatrist for twenty years, Israelis come to Dharmasala to find out what are the Tibetans doing that they don’t have mental scarring from these very bad, very difficult situations. Because the the Israelis have similar situations, you know, very heavy situations, and they wanted to know how are they doing it? Why are they okay? I mean, I’ve seen people come out of Tibet, and they’re laughing and joking.
I’m not talking about after years. As soon as they come out, it’s as if they’ve never been there. Doctor Chodak, his holiness’s doctor, escaped, I think in the nineteen nineties, blind in one eye because he’d been beaten so much, he was blind. Immediately, his holiness said, oh, he’s a great doctor. He becomes my doctor now, and I knew him.
Oh, no. It must have been earlier because he came to London. Must have been in the nineteen eighties. So, he came to London. He checked Geshe Wangchen, and they’re laughing and joking.
He’d only been out one year. And already he’s traveling in the world. He’s checking people’s pulses. Incredible. Like, there’s no effect.
And if you read his story, it’s really an amazing story of survival, really, really survival, doctor Chodak. So not a Rinpoche, not a Geshe, not a a person from a monastery, a doctor who, lived the life of compassion and embraced the enemy as part of my karma producing the enemy, producing the abuse. You know? This is a radical way of thinking. Not they’re the problem, but I created the problem.
Like that. Anything else? Yes. We were we were talking about practicing I think it’s interesting because always this issue of how to develop compassion comes up when it’s to do with children. It’s it’s a very emotive issue.
You know? I have friends who have a child, and I’m very close to this child since he was born. I’m his uncle, you know. And sometimes I speak to him on the phone, he’d say, uncle, my father hit me. My he beat me.
And I say, why? And not for a a very big reason. So I speak to the father. I’ve told you many times you must not beat him. And beating can be like this, but for the child, it’s beating.
You know? I know they’re not beating, but for this child, he’s being beaten. Right? So I don’t even like that. So to maintain my equanimity in in relation to this child being beaten in his mind, and for the father, it’s hardly anything, is very difficult.
You know? But if I don’t maintain equanimity, then I go against the father for the child, and this, does not help the situation. So when we have compassion for both sides, I feel compassion for the father who’s beating. I know that as a child, he was beaten a lot by his mother. A lot and really hard beating.
So his model, his way of taking care of a child is through beating. But then I keep explaining to him, this doesn’t help. And when you beat a child, what happens is that child becomes a beater. And maybe it’s gonna beat you one day, you know, because this child’s getting bigger. So maybe he’s gonna attack back one day, and then you’re in trouble.
So I try from different perspectives to explain. I think, if you have a respect and a love and a compassion for the person you’re talking to, you try to find a way of explaining, of approaching the difficult situation. But if you get angry, already the other person feels rejected, feels your judgment and your criticism. So I think the most difficult thing is to stay calm, to stay balanced, and then from that perspective, explain why not. And not just why not, but then what to do.
You know? I talk about time outs, putting them on a chair, you know, punishment. I mean, I’m not saying children never need to be punished. Sometimes you have naughty children, you know, so what do you do with them? So I watch programs on child upbringing, because when people say to me, well, what do you do?
I say, uh-huh. So I watch this program, you know. So you have to try and, modernize, not just go with what we knew, you know. In my day, you did something even at school. Out came the ruler, you know.
My teacher had a ruler, and you got it on the hands or you got it on the legs. Nowadays, they’d be in prison, You know? Wouldn’t be allowed. But in my day, beating was normal. So then if you continue that, nowadays, you beat children.
Nowadays, p children don’t have the psyche to be beaten. It’s not in their culture. So when it happens to them, it’s shocking. They can’t cope with it. In my day, it was how many did you get?
You know, was it six or twelve? Like that. And it was more of a sense of I I got ten of the best, and, it I didn’t cry, you know. So you could brag about it. But these days, I I don’t think children can cope so easily with beating.
So I think, as adults, we need to constantly be changing our minds. If we’re good adults, we educate and we inform ourselves. But not everybody is educated and informed or wants to be. I also think it’s fairly easy for me. I think it’s very easy for me.
If I’m not with a child twenty four hours a day to say, don’t get angry, don’t get upset, don’t beat, because I’ve been with Lama Zopa twenty four hours a day, and I know how I I sometimes I get to the brink, you know, where I think, oh, I don’t think I can do this one more day. You get so tired mentally, physically exhausted, you know, day after day after day. So it’s easy when it’s not my child to say, oh, you should do this and you should do that, but try taking care of the child for a month or a year or ten years. It’s not so easy. So I think when you have compassion for the parent and the child, you try to find the best advice, you try to find something that works for them.
And if you can’t, I don’t know what you do. You know? If it’s extreme, then maybe you have to apply extreme measures. That’s also in the bodhisattva vows, but it has to be very well thought out. If you’re going to go extreme, consider what you’re about to do.
You know, if you once you’ll explode the nuclear bomb, you can’t take back the nuclear. So be very careful before you press that button. It may seem like it’s appropriate, but maybe it’s inappropriate. It it causes harm. So I think, there has to be a lot of wisdom involved with these emotive issues, particularly around children.
You know? Because I can feel in myself, whenever I see just out a mother having problems with the child and you see that the mother hit on the legs, you go, oh, you know, there’s immediately that feeling, oh, you know, because you can remember it in your own childhood. So abusers become abusers. You know? Abuse become abusers.
We continue it on. So these these are the hard issues. But at least if we can have compassion for both sides, it takes away some of the emotion of aversion, anger, and then from that perspective, we may be able to think of the best thing to advise, the best thing to do. This is my experience of being in in these situations, personally, of, I don’t go just for the child story. I also listen to the the parents’ story because there’s both sides.
You know, when they say, this child’s been so difficult and blah blah blah, and I say, well, beating isn’t gonna help. Right? Beating doesn’t change the situation. It makes the child more resentful and more angry. But the parent has to have respect for you in order for you to listen.
So if you’re angry with the parent, they don’t listen. So it takes time to develop the relationship. And I learned all this from Lama Lhundrup, who was the abbot of Copan. I watched him with the small monks who are very naughty, really naughty. You know, you see them in the pujas.
They’re flicking people’s ears, and they’re flicking pieces of paper, and then the disciplinarian turns around. They’re all like you know? And then the disciplinarian looks another way. They’re you know, like this. And they’re incredible.
They’re tiny, but they’re demons. You know? And then sometimes they get taken to Lama Lhundup, and they sort of stand there like this. And Lama Lhundup talks so sweetly, you know, very quietly and very sweetly, your motivation, benefiting others. You know?
And he talks about all the positive things, your potential, the things that you can achieve, and they start crying. Alright. I’m really sorry. You know, I didn’t mean to do it. I won’t do it again.
Never shouts at them. Never beats them. Couldn’t stand to see the monks beaten, but talks to them in a very particular way. It’s really from the heart. It’s incredible.
And then? Okay. On compassion again, obviously, these days I wonder. I wonder. I think if you are developing compassion and you have the strength of your convictions, it is good to see it.
However, I think sometimes we are overwhelmed by how much we’re seeing. And so I think we need to be aware of the power of images, particularly the power of TV. So I tell people, be very careful about the programs you watch. If you’re watching violent programs, you’re putting violent images into your mind, and your mind believes it as if it’s true. Violent games, your mind believes it as if it’s true.
When you’re going, you know, the mind thinks you’re really killing people. It doesn’t see images as if they’re mental image. It believes they’re real people and you’re killing them. So this is putting very negative imprints into the mind. So I think that, watching the news over and over and over, and you become depressed about it and bleak about it, I don’t think that helps.
I think, you know, maybe watching once a week to keep in touch, okay, but watching day after day after day and reading newspapers, doom, gloom, you know, like this, I don’t think it helps in developing compassion. I think that as you’re developing compassion and your mind’s becoming stronger, and then you see the suffering, it confirms what you should be doing, liberating yourself in order to liberate others. But if it’s if it’s affecting your mind in a negative way, don’t do it. You have to check. Is it positive or negative?
If it’s stop. If it’s positive, continue. You know? But you know yourself. For you, it might be good.
For you, bad. For you, good. It’s not the same for everybody and not the same every day. Sometimes you get on, oh, oh, you know, I feel terrible. You switch on the news and you think, oh, you know, then your mind’s going down, down, down.
It’s getting worse, worse, worse. And then some days, maybe you’re sinking, oh, you know, life, it’s so amazing, so incredible, then switch on the news. You know? Like the death meditation. The death meditation is when you’re too high.
So maybe the new, you’re too high. And when you’re low, watch a good movie, you know, a romantic comedy or something. I’d something that’s gonna bring you up. But don’t watch the news when you’re down. Watch the news when you’re up.
Yeah? I think you’ve answered our last point. You’ve you’ve just said in terms of compassion fatigue and how to avoid it. I think take take a break, you know, when you need to. In the fourth perfection, it says, sometimes we overload, sometimes we just can’t do anymore.
Take a break. And you say this is a break, and I’m going back to compassion. But at the moment, I need a break. And in the break, do things that make your mind happy. Go out, go for walks, watch a good movie, but don’t keep pushing and pushing and pushing until you get to the overload stage.
You know? Oh, Dharma. Buddha house, never wanna see them ever again. Like that. We see this in Dharma students.
They’re not being skillful in their application of the Dharma. So it’s a very good point. Thank you. Where’s my group one? Do you have any questions?
It’s never basic. Uh-oh. Yes. I think I’d hate to see from you a complicated question if that’s your simple basic question. It’s a foundation.
My goodness. Yeah. But it’s certainly not simple. You know? It’s foundational, but it’s not simple.
I think by studying dharma, you start becoming aware of the drama. So Dharma is the mirror. Dharma becomes your guru before you have a guru. The guru is the best indicator, the best mirror. But anyway, the Dharma is the most important guru because the Dharma is the path that you follow.
So when you’re studying the Dharma, the drama mind becomes apparent, and maybe you think you like that drama mind, or maybe you don’t. You like the delusions, the afflictive emotions, or you don’t. So I think, in studying and practicing, or trying to put into practice, the Dharma, it starts to become obvious as to who you are and what you want to be. This seems to be, for me, the starting point, not what you thought you were, but what you actually are, what are you actually bringing to the table, you know? I’ll tell you my own experience.
When I first came into dharma, I thought, the end of this life, enlightenment. After I heard the Dharma, I was convinced. The end of this life, enlightened. That’s it. It wasn’t arrogant, it was just I was convinced it would only take this life.
Then I started to do retreats, and my teacher was Geshe Lama Konchog Rinpoche, who had realizations of the Lamrim. And after, doing some retreat, I went to him and I said, well, you know, something’s happened. I started off thinking after this life, enlightened. Then I started to realize it wasn’t gonna be so easy. There was more than I realized going on underneath, you know, appearing.
So then I thought, well, in the next life, I’ll be a Rinpoche or a Geshe, you know, like that. And then after more retreat, I hope I’m just a even just a human being. And then after that, I started thinking, oh my goodness, I’m going to the hell realms. You know? So by this time when I talked to him, I was at the point of I’m going to hell.
And he said, now you’re practicing Dharma. So I think we go through a progression of in the beginning we think, I’m nearly perfect, You know? It’s incredible. I’m on the edge of perfection. And then it becomes a bit more practical, a bit more practical, a bit more practical.
Because as you say, we don’t know who we are. We’re told who we are. We’re told what we’re going to be. And so our investigation into ourselves is so important. But in relation to wanting to be a benefit to others, then it’s not selfish.
It’s wise. So I think very important is to study the meditation, but also then when you have something tangible that you’ve learned to do retreat on it. If you don’t do retreat on it, you don’t go deeper. You’re on the surface, you know, with the board. I’m sure I can get on top of this board.
And day after day, week after week, month after month, just trying to climb on the board. But in the retreat, because it’s much more intense and you have the power of the group increasing the power of the activity, you actually manage to get on the board and you actually manage to surf. So I think, in order to go deeper, we need a variety of activities. But the first one is studying. Then from studying, we contemplate.
And then from contemplation, we meditate. And in meditation, we become aware of our potential, but then what is overlaying the potential? What’s obscuring the potential? What are the habits? What’s what are the negative emotions that keep appearing?
The I that I really think exists. So we start to understand, the personality and then how to use the personality in order to strengthen the positive and remove the negative. So I think, it is important to study, but it’s very important to meditate. We don’t do enough retreat. I mean, what we’re doing in this weekend is like the tip of the iceberg, but it’s pretty amazing.
In the city, to be able to do this, it’s pretty amazing. I mean, don’t you go home and you feel a little bit different? Thank you. Otherwise, I’m not coming tomorrow. I can tell you.
Enough is enough. But, you know, we go home a little bit changed with new thoughts, wanting to act in a new way. So, I think doing retreat on a regular basis is really, really important. Lama Yeshe used to say, you should try and do a month every year. If not a month, three weeks.
If not three weeks, two. If not two, one. At least a weekend. Well, we’re at least doing the weekend, and we’re having understandings from the weekend. But you need to continue that on to get to know who you are and what you’re bringing to the table.
And then, ultimately, you remove that anyway, but it’s true. I really like this idea of knowing who you are, knowing your potential, which is perfection, but knowing that you are not perfect, and it’s okay to not be perfect. You have your good and your bad. You know, there’s a mixture in all of us. Some more, some less, but there’s a mixture.
But what’s the pattern? We’re looking for the pattern in the delusions. Once you found the major delusion, that’s the one that you start working with. That’s the one to remove. Because by removing the major delusion, all the others crumble.
They start to fall apart because they’re reliant on the major delusion. But We had a question about where you find the eighty four the list of the eighty four thousand delusions. I’ll give that to the office. Thank thank you, dear. I’m sure you have it in your computer.
It must be in one of the, the teachings, one of one of these, but, you know, it said eighty four thousand delusions, and then Buddha stopped and said now now is enough, you know? If you study the, low rig mind and mental factors, then it gives more more of the, the breakdowns in there, and that’s a good thing to study. There’s a book by Lati Rinpoche. Isn’t it? Mind and mental factors by Lati, there’s one by Lati Rinpoche, and I think one by maybe Geshe Rabten, on the mind, and then the, factors of the mind.
So if you’re interested in that, that’s a good thing to read. And then it starts to break it down into, smaller dom smaller denominations, smaller divisions, categories, rather than just saying desire, hatred, ignorance. You know? There’s like very few, but it starts to get more and more and more. But you see for beginners, we need the few.
If we have too many, we think, oh, there’s no. No. No. Please. This is too much.
So if we start with desire, from desire attachment, and then from that, we can have jealousy, hatred, you know, like that. You start to see how from one, others appear. So, this is a good way of starting. But, you can look in the library for, mind. There’s a book called mind, Lati Rinpoche, and I think another one by Geshe Rabten.
And this is very interesting to study mind. Geshe Loden also. I think there was a transcript on mind from Geshe Loden. You might have it here. Yeah.
Bill will help you. Okay. We’ll dedicate the merit, and then tomorrow, we have more time we can discuss. So page thirty two. You may do it.
You may do it. Yeah. May all beings everywhere play by sufferings of body and mind, obtain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no living creature suffer, commit evil, or ever fall ill. May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression.
May the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored on finding repose. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food, may the thirsty find water and delicious drinks. May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness, and prosperity.
May there be timely rains and bountiful harvests. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments. Whatever diseases are in the world, may they never occur again. May the frightened cease to be afraid, and those bound be freed.
May the powerless find power, and may people think of benefiting each other for as long as space remains, for as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world. Thank you.