Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 52-minute session, Venerable Lobsang Namgyel guides practitioners through four meditation practices on thought transformation, working sequentially through jealousy, depression, unveiling Buddha nature, and lack of self-confidence. For jealousy, he teaches grounding techniques (breathing, shoulder tension release), then asks probing questions: What makes me jealous? Does jealousy actually help me get what I want? Would I even remain happy if I had the object? The antidote is rejoicing in others’ good fortune. For depression, he teaches examining the root cause beneath the feeling, questioning whether your dark thoughts are realistic, then shifting from self-focused suffering to visualizing compassion radiating from a light in your heart to those truly in need. The Buddha nature section focuses on recognizing your potential for wisdom and compassion, reciting aspirational verses, and extending loving-kindness especially toward enemies. Finally, for self-doubt, he counters negative self-talk by listing both faults and genuine positive qualities, recognizing that everyone has mixed attributes, and building confidence through understanding your inner wisdom and knowing when to seek help. Pitched at practitioners working with emotional transformation and Buddhist-based psychology.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 43 _4.mp3
UUID: a74327cc-880b-4702-9b47-d69a7e3e28fc
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: VenNamgyel Thought Transformation (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 52.4 minutes
Words: ~6,143
We finished out, I think. Yep. Jealousy. Okay. So if you experience jealousy, then again, sit down, do some breathing.
It’s always good to take three deep breaths because I think often we don’t breathe very well. And especially when we’re emotional, we’re not breathing at all. Know, it’s, you know, like this, isn’t it? Your breath is very high. And so connecting with the breath is really helpful in order to reconnect.
Breathing all the way down, breathing all the way out, breathing all the way down, breathing all the way out. Another technique I’ve developed over the years is thinking of breathing in peace and breathing out problems or breathing in peace breathing out emotions. So you could use that, just do that three times. If you accumulate your emotions in your shoulders, it’s really good to scrunch up your shoulders because we can often carry things here and then you get pain in your shoulders and you know you particularly feel it when you go to bed. So if you get that, you know, scrunch up your shoulders, move your head.
So try not to hold the tension in your body. And then connect with the breath, breathing in this, breathing out that or just deep breathing. And then we’re thinking about jealousy. So you think about a situation that makes you feel jealous. What would that situation be?
There’s a range of them, know. It could be your friend talking to somebody else. It could be your boyfriend or girlfriend talking to somebody else. It can be many situations. It could be somebody who seems to meditate much better than you.
That can drive you crazy. So what’s the source of your jealousy? Where does it come from? Think about the situation that makes you feel jealous and then how does the jealousy feel? Now this is not what we usually go into, is it?
We usually want to avoid the feeling of the anger or the doubt or the jealousy, but now we’re going into that feeling. How does it feel for you? Does it feel comfortable? Does it feel happy? Because if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t encourage you to do it again.
Alright? Then are there any thoughts that keep repeating themselves in your mind? This is what we keep saying in every meditation: What are the repeating thoughts? Because often it starts with a thought and then you keep building those thoughts in that same line. Remember, once you put the label, keep adding to that original label.
So we keep adding to the thoughts. So it could be, Why is she talking to him? And that’s not right. They shouldn’t treat me like this. And da da da.
And your mind keeps going on and on and on, building on the original thought. So there are any thoughts that keep repeating themselves. Then asking yourself, what’s the object I really want to have that nobody else has any right to? What do I want that nobody else has any right to? So is it an object or is it a person?
And then the question after that, why do I have more right to this than any other person? Yeah? Does it make sense? Yeah? So I really want this.
Why shouldn’t anybody else have it? Why do you have more right to it than anybody else? Because you obviously think you do. But usually we wouldn’t think about that. Usually we wouldn’t go into it.
Just we acknowledge, Of course I have more right to that person or that object. Of course, because I’m me. You know? I’m the center of my universe. So, of course I do.
You know, it’s like that. So now we’re looking at, But why? And it helps to subdue the jealousy a little. And you start to see how you are are creating your own suffering situation. And not just that, you know when you are jealous you are really harming the people you like.
It’s terrible. Because often anger comes after jealousy or angers with jealousy. Does my jealousy help me to get what I want? Does your jealousy help you to get what you want? Not usually, does it?
What do you want? I think it’s good to put in there, what do I want? Because you know when we’re jealous, say you have a boyfriend or girlfriend, you’re jealous of that person because they talk to somebody else. Does your jealousy give you the love that you want and the closeness that you want? Or does the jealousy separate you from the person that you want to be close to?
Which way does it go? Because when we’re jealous, we separate more. We don’t bring ourselves closer, do we? So actually we’re getting the opposite of what we want. We want more love, but jealousy gives us more separation.
Does my jealousy help me to get what I want? So the object or the person, does your jealousy help you? This is another important point, isn’t it? Because we often think jealousy is helping us like anger helps us, but does it actually help us? Do you get what you want when you’re jealous?
You usually find the answer is no. Is this person or object really important in my life? So you’re jealous about this person or that somebody else having a tape recorder that you want or MP3 or whatever it is. But if you could get that object, is it really important in your life? Do you really want it?
And would you really be happy when you had it? Would you remain happy? So that’s an interesting one, isn’t it? Because usually we think, if I get that person or that object, then I’m going to be happy. And then you’ve got the exaggerated mind that says, forever.
You know? Never going to stop being happy once I get that object. Again, it’s the exaggerated mind. Then here’s another nice question for it. Why is it so difficult to feel happy when this other person has it?
Why is it difficult for me to feel happy when another person has it? Somebody said to me once, my girlfriend fell in love with somebody and I felt so upset because it wasn’t me who was falling in love. So if you’re single, your girlfriend’s single, she meets somebody but you don’t, what do you think? I’m so happy for you, you know? I want to throw a party for you.
Or do you think, Why not me? Why her? Why not me? So even it can be a really good friend and you want to feel joy that she’s found somebody, but there’s some sense of jealousy that I didn’t. It can happen like that.
So why is it difficult for me to feel happy when the other person has something that I don’t have? Now, the conclusion of the meditation is: When I rejoice in the good fortune of others, both of us will be happy. When I rejoice in the good fortune of the other person, both of us will be happy. So when I’m jealous, I’m not happy, and the person towards whom I’m jealous is not happy. But if I can change that, and then I rejoice in the happiness of the other person, then that makes me happy and automatically it makes the other person happy.
It’s not creating their suffering. And then the last one is, if you try and give the object that you really want, if you try to really give the object to somebody else, then feel happy about your generosity. So if you’ve kept thinking, want this, I want this, I want this, then once you get it, you can actually give it to somebody else. If you can practice generosity with it, then this is an amazing practice. But maybe you have to just practice in your mind.
Maybe we’re asking too much. The minute you get your MP3, you give it away to somebody else. I think it’s asking too much. But you can practice, you know, just in your mind. You practice giving an MP3 to this friend for Christmas and this one for birthday.
Keep giving away MP3s or keep giving away partners. Keep practicing generosity. I don’t mean literally. You’d have to keep finding many new partners. You’d be online constantly, you know?
But just practice giving what you feel really attached to, what you feel really jealous about. You practice giving it in your mind, because that creates the potential in future to be able to give rather than leaving it as it is. Right? So jealousy is a small mind, isn’t it? It’s about me.
And what we’re trying to do is create the giving mind, the open heart, wanting to give. Alright? Everybody’s okay? Okay. Depression.
Here we go. Eyes down everybody. So I think even if you’re the happiest person in the world, there are times when you feel depression, aren’t there? Everybody feels depressed. But depression can go on week after week after week, year after year, you know?
Then it’s a different situation. So there’s short term depression and then longer term depression. So from your experience of short term depression, you wake up, it’s pouring with rain, it’s freezing cold, it’s a Monday morning, look out the blanket, that’s it. You know, I’m not going to work. So not that, but you know, a really depressed state of mind where everything’s really black and hopeless and cold.
Then you start off by trying to feel that in your heart. How does it feel? Again, without getting distressed about it and in any of these meditations because they’re quite emotional. If you start to feel emotional, breathe in some air, breathe it into your system, breathe out the emotion, sort of try to keep calm about it because it’s really important to look at the emotion of each situation. So feel it in your heart.
How does it feel to be like this? Then you’ve got that feeling in your heart, then the next step is, Why am I so concerned about something? What is it? There must be something that you’re depressed about or really concerned about. What is it?
So you’re trying to get to the root of it, aren’t you? Yeah? You’re going more deeply than just I’m depressed. So often we just say, I’m depressed. And then you found friends and tell them, I’m really depressed today.
And then they say, Yes, you must be. And then you really are. And so that’s it. But now why? Go underneath it.
Again, look at your thoughts, look at the repeating patterns. Is there a habit in there? Is it every Monday morning? Is it every Friday? Is it every time you need to go to the dentist?
So there could be something that triggers the depression. Again, is there a thought that keeps repeating, I don’t want to go to work, I don’t want to go, you know, like that, over and over. Then the next one is, am I only concerned about myself, my own problems and my own pain? Because depression is usually like that where you go in, isn’t it? You isolate yourself, you go in and you’re now thinking: Me, my problems, my pain, which increases the depression.
You are adding more energy to the depression. So now you’re analyzing. Am I only concerned about myself? The answer comes back, absolutely. Am I only concerned about my own problems?
Definitely. Am I only worried about my own pain? Oh yes, you know? So the honest thing is, yeah, this is the way it is. When I’m depressed, this is the way my mind is.
I’m all about me, right? But now the next question is, but am I being realistic about my situation? Is this realistic? Right? Because we looked at the exaggerating mind.
Maybe it’s exaggerating. It could be somebody said something, a situation at work. Many, many things happen and we take it on board and we really exaggerate it and then we become depressed about it or some people become angry about it. So what’s your response? Are you being realistic?
Then the next one is, you’ve already thought you’re helpless, hopeless, hungry, completely alone, poor, cold. Are you helpless? Are you hopeless? Are you hungry? Are you completely alone?
Are you poor? Are you cold? So think of all the negatives that you are thinking about your situation. Are you really that? Because you can say, I’m the worst in the world.
I’m this, I’m this, I’m this, I’m this, I’m this. And you just leave it like that. But now you’re challenging it and saying, Is it true? Are you really like that? And then, how many people in the world are really helpless, hopeless, hungry, alone and cold?
So not what we’re saying, but how many people are really experiencing that? So We just say it with our mouth, but there are people in the world who are really experiencing those sufferings. Now this is where you switch it around. So you went from poor me, depressed, alone, you know, this introverted feeling. The next one is, now you try to feel some compassion for those people who really are suffering.
The ones who are cold, helpless, alone, etcetera, because we know they exist in the world. Now you try to feel some compassion for their suffering. And to do that we have a visualization. Because otherwise you say, Feel compassion. How do you feel compassion?
It helps if you have a visualization. So you imagine a small light, maybe like a little candle or a little light in your heart that becomes brighter and brighter. So it starts off small but it gets brighter and brighter. And you open your heart and you let the light shine out to other people that really need some love and affection. I understood what you were miming.
Imagine imagine a little light in your heart like I’m thinking a lighthouse but less than that. You want to make it up to a lighthouse but you start with say a candle. It’s easy to imagine a candle isn’t it? So just like the flame of a candle in your heart and gradually that light intensifies. It gets whiter and whiter, brighter and brighter, more and more.
Okay? So it’s growing. You open your heart and you let the light shine out to other people that really need some love and affection. You don’t need to know them. If you know them, you can think about them.
But just generally, we know out of six billion human beings in this world, there are lots of them who need love and affection. Particularly now, you know, with all the economic stuff that’s going on, there’s many people who are really going to suffer in poor countries. In the countries like this, the effect is not so great. But imagine if you’re already on the edge of being poor and then you go back into poverty. Like China was just coming out of poverty, nearly two billion people, and then they sink back into poverty.
India, you know, over a billion people, it’s the same thing. More than half of them are poor. So any economic crisis, people go back into their suffering and so think of them needing love and affection to have some warmth in their life. Imagine that their suffering decreases because of your light. So as they receive that light, then it automatically diminishes their suffering, whatever their suffering is.
So this was just being offered. Okay? Nothing for you. But now you realize that you can use this light also for yourself and you radiate love and affection to yourself. And you fill your whole body with light and you sit there simply enjoying it.
So you gave it out to others and then you realize you can use this light for yourself and then you radiate that love and affection to yourself. You fill your whole body with the light and then you enjoy it. Just feel really happy that you’re full of love and affection. So that’s the antidote for jealousy, for anger. These emotions that separate you from others and this willingness to give to others is really the answer to solving your problems.
Okay, now we’ve come to unveiling the Buddha nature. Flex those fingers, Grace. Unveiling the Buddha nature. I have quite a lot of positive aspirations which you may find difficult to write down. Hannah is going to email all this out to you anyway, especially for lack of self confidence.
There’s a really long one. After I’ve finished, I’ll leave all this on table so that if you want to write it down here, you can. Anyway, she’s going to email it to you. Okay? Unveiling the Buddha nature is, is it possible to develop myself to change and transform into somebody that I admire?
First you want to be somebody that you admire, not in a proud way, not in a look at them up on the mountaintop, but which qualities would you really like to have. Right? So you’ve got where you are, where you’re starting, but where do you want to go? What do you want to transform into? So what you admire is what you become, isn’t it?
When we look at people we admire, that’s potentially what we can become. So is there a potential in me for wisdom and compassion? Do you believe there is a potential in you for wisdom and compassion? And do you want to use that potential? So is there anybody that thinks they don’t have wisdom and compassion, potentially?
Grace? Do you think you have a potential of wisdom and compassion? Was that a yes? A real, I can do it. See?
Absolutely. That was a real Auckland absolutely. Yeah? So we need to have that strong feeling, I do have the potential of wisdom and compassion inside me and I want to use that potential to utilize it for others. Okay?
So to get that strong feeling about it. Now here comes the thing positive. Maybe you could write this and I usually say to people, have Post its. You have Post its, don’t you? The little yellow Post its?
Yeah, write Post its. Put them on the fridge, put them in the bathroom, put them all over the house. Put one in the car. You have to find the ones that are appropriate for the time. So the first one is, May I be free of anger, free of attachment, free of confusion, free of pride.
So it’s free of anger, attachment, confusion and pride. And you may want to change the wording slightly according to which is your strongest problem. Alright? If you got all of them, you can go for all of them. But or more than that.
The second one is: May I be free of the problems that arise from such distortions of my mind? May I be free of the problems that arise from such distortions of my mind. Because it’s anger, attachment, confusion and pride are a distortion of the mind. They’re a delusion. So may I be free of the problems that arise from such distortions of my mind.
The third one is: May I recognize and cultivate my potential of loving-kindness? May I recognize and cultivate my potential of loving-kindness, compassion, wisdom, patience and all other good qualities. May these good qualities grow for my well-being and the well-being of others. May these good qualities grow for my well-being and the well-being of others. May my fears, worries and sorrows fall away.
May I find the joy of love and peace in my heart. May I find the joy of love and peace in my heart. So I’ll read the whole thing. May I be free of anger, free of attachment, free of confusion, free of pride. May I be free of the problems that arise from such distortions of my mind.
May I recognize and cultivate my potential of loving-kindness, compassion, wisdom, patience and all other good qualities. May these good qualities grow for my well-being and the well-being of others. May my fears, worries and sorrows fall away. May I find the joy of love and peace in my heart. So then you are sitting there in this meditation having said this, then you feel this joy and peace right now.
So it is important to have that feeling of being joyful and being peaceful. And then we go on to the next bit. Just three little parts, but now it gets difficult. Okay, next year, next course, I’ll tell you the rest. So now it’s going to get difficult.
Now you have to have this feeling of joy and peace, openness, and now we go for it. May all people, especially my enemies. So this is the hard bit. May all people, especially my enemies, discover and develop their potential for loving-kindness, compassion, patience and so forth. May all people, especially my enemies discover and develop their potential for loving-kindness, compassion, patience and so forth.
That’s a tough one. Especially when you’ve had aversion towards them or anger. This is what we wouldn’t normally do but now we’re offering this. We plant a seed that will ripen into the ability to do that for your enemy. Then the next one, may all people, especially my enemies, we’re relentless, aren’t we?
May all people, especially my enemies, be free from all the problems caused by their confusion. May all people, especially my enemies, be free from all the problems caused by their confusion. And then may all people, especially my enemies, find love and peace in their hearts. May all people, especially my enemies, find love and peace in their hearts. So you are still in your meditation and you have said this, you have offered it.
So you did it first for yourself. Now you have offered it to them, especially my enemy. And then you imagine that they all experience love and peace right now. And then again it’s a similar visualization of imagining a drop or a flame, a brilliant white light at your heart, which is your pure nature. This is your nature, you know, this white light.
This light of purity and love fills your entire body. So you start with this little light, it fills up your whole body, and it’s full of purity and love. And now you open your heart and yet you let the light emerge in all directions. Every direction around you, up, down, all around. You send out love and purity to all beings.
Then you imagine that every being who is touched by this light is purified of suffering. So that’s why the purity, you know, to purify their suffering, to remove it, and that they experience love and peace. But you can offer any qualities you want to. So if you are particularly working on anger, love is very good to offer, peace is very good to offer. Jealousy, same.
Okay. Do anybody need me to repeat anything? You alright? Grace? I knew it.
Where were we? May all people, especially my enemies. In the affirmations or after that? Oh, okay. Oh, imagine every being.
Yeah, okay. So who is touched that light, who is touched by it, is purified of suffering and experiences love and peace. But like I said, you can adjust it according to your situation. Okay. Anybody else?
You okay? You exhausted? Hang in there. Hang in. You got the show.
Just keep thinking the show, the show. Okay, next one is, so that’s it, unveiling the Buddha nature. So now, the lack of self confidence. Self confidence. Take three deep breaths, Breathe out the problems.
Breathe in the peace. Sit quietly. Then you ask, who am I really? Who am I really? Because remember, this is somebody who lacks self confidence.
So they’ve got strong negative messages about themselves. So now you ask, What are all my negative qualities? You can make a list. What are all your negative qualities? Sven, you will be there for years.
You need a computer with a bigger disk. So write down all your negative qualities. Right? Because we say, I’m no good at this and I can’t do that. You’re so good at that, and I’m useless at that.
Just remember all of that. Write it all down. What are all your negative qualities? After you’ve done that, now you ask the question, that list, does this mean I’m the worst person in the world? Am I the worst person in the world?
Because usually, we say, I can’t do that. I’m the worst person in the world. Does it really mean that? Then the next thing to ask is, how many people do I know in this world without any negative qualities? How many people do you know without any negative qualities?
So how can I expect myself to be perfect without any faults? It’s good, isn’t it? Because you’re really counteracting these negative messages that you keep saying about yourself. You expect yourself to be perfect and you allow others to be imperfect. Know?
Now you understand they’re imperfect, I’m imperfect. We’re the same. Now, you think about your positive qualities. So now write down your positive qualities. I hope there’s more than one.
Or there might only be one. I breathe. I eat. I sleep. I’m sure there’s more than that, so find them, you know?
You’re kind to people sometimes, you do help others. I mean, we forget about the good things that we do. So really think about the qualities that you have, the qualities that you show others. And then somehow, when you’re lacking the self esteem, you deny all those qualities. You just, you know, put them away.
They don’t exist. I’m the worst in the world. Now, think about your positive qualities. And if you can’t, keep a diary every day. For a whole week, write down every day the good things that you do.
And then go back to this meditation and you’ll have some information. Whenever you do something good in the day, just spontaneously you do it. This is what you do, what you’re used to doing. Write it down. So that after a week you’ve got some information.
Okay? So what are your positive qualities? Can I not at least help people, care about them and generate compassion? So don’t you have that ability to help people, to care about them, to generate compassion? Just that feeling.
Don’t you have that? Everybody has that. So think about how much you do help people, how much you do care, how much compassion you do have. And then again, we think about doesn’t everybody have good and bad qualities? So go back to thinking about now everybody, not just you.
Doesn’t everybody have good and bad qualities? Bless you my child. So do I have to hate everybody? Because when we see bad qualities, do we hate them because we have bad qualities? We don’t, do we?
That’s when compassion arises. So when we see bad qualities within ourselves, what do we do? We hate ourselves for it. Why? It’s the wrong response.
You need to give yourself compassion and love and kindness the same way as you would to somebody outside, to somebody external from you who’s got bad habits, bad qualities. So why do I have to judge myself so hard for being human, for having good and bad qualities? Why do I have to judge myself so harshly? And can I forgive myself for all my negative qualities? Can you forgive?
Then the next one is, once you’ve investigated this whole situation of no confidence, You’ve got the information, you look at the information. Do I believe I can improve myself or am I absolutely hopeless? Is this a hopeless case? Yeah? And you’ll see with the information you have, of course it’s not hopeless.
But often the message that we say is, I’m hopeless. This is a terrible thing to do. I’m hopeless. I’m useless. I’m you know, like this.
And what you keep saying is what you become. So we’ve got to drop this. Logically, you look at it and you say, I am not hopeless. I do good things. And yes, I do have negative things that I do, but that doesn’t turn me into hopeless.
You have your inner wisdom, so you can make good decisions and you can handle your own problems. You do have this wisdom inside. Right? And we’ve all experienced it, but we need to have more of it. So believing that you have that inner wisdom inside is the beginning of developing your confidence.
And that even if your problems are very overwhelming, you’ve got huge problems, you can always decide to ask others for advice. And that’s a positive thing. So that’s not lack of self confidence, it’s that you’ve seen that you just don’t have the skills to be able to deal with the situation. You decide to ask somebody else for advice. And that’s not from, I’m the worst person in the world, I don’t know what to do.
But it’s a healthy decision to ask for financial advice. Know, people make a mess on their credit cards and they just don’t know what to do, you know? Now I owe sixty thousand dollars but I’m not even looking at the total because it’s so frightening. And so they leave it alone, but actually you go to people who specialize in this, they know how to change the situation. So financial things, we may not know how we got into the mess, but we need help to get out of the mess.
It’s okay to ask for help. Relationship problems, if you’re not getting along so well in your relationship, get professional help. That’s not lack of self confidence, it’s very healthy. Now I’ve got a special dedication prayer and it’s very long. Here we go.
This is your dedication to specially counter a lack of self confidence, especially for that. May I be equanimous, equanimous, equanimous, isn’t it? To have equanimity, such a difficult word. May I be equanimous, Equanimous, equanimous. Yeah?
I said it before okay, and now I’ve messed myself up. May I have equanimity? Free free. But the word here says equanimous. To me it sounds like equestrian or something, you know, riding horses.
Anyway, may I have equanimity is another way you could say it. Free from attachment, anger and prejudice. We have this the four immeasurables, right? This is a bit more specific. May I have equanimity?
Free from attachment, anger and prejudice. Really important to think about the prejudice. The mind that says, when you see what you are, we point outside and say, I don’t like that person. You have pride, you see pride, you don’t like it. So you don’t like that person.
So be careful prejudice. May all living beings have equanimity free from attachment, anger and prejudice. May I be able to help all living beings to become free from attachment, anger and prejudice. I will help all living beings to become free. I will help all living beings to become free from attachment, anger and prejudice.
May I be happy and have the causes for future happiness. May all living beings be happy and have the causes for future happiness. May I be able to help all living beings to become happy and have the causes for future happiness. I will help all living beings to become happy and have the causes for future happiness. May I be free from suffering and the causes for suffering.
May all living beings be free from suffering and the causes for suffering. May I be able to help all living beings to become free from suffering and the causes for suffering. I will help all living beings to become free from suffering and the causes for suffering. May I never be separate from the ultimate happiness, free from all suffering. May all living beings never be separate from the ultimate happiness, free from all suffering.
May I be able to help all living beings, never to be separate from the ultimate happiness, free from all suffering. I will help all living beings, never to be separate from the ultimate happiness, free from all suffering. So this, I will help all living beings. Beings is missed out. As you’re going through these four immeasurables, it’s similar to the four immeasurables, but it’s wishing them well and then saying, May I be able to do it?
You know, a wish. And then it says, I will do it. So it’s planting the wish in your mind stream and then it’s coming to the determination. Yes, I’m going to do it and you plant that seed. So just repeating this every day helps to give you the confidence and the ability to be able to do it.
It gives you that strength of character. Okay, any questions? Excellent. It’s all clear. Yep.
So I’ll leave this here in case anybody wants to copy. Is there anybody who doesn’t have USB or email? You’re a modern lot. Yeah? So I think Hannah’s going to email this to you, isn’t she?
But if you want to just check anything, I’ll leave it here for you. And we’re going to dedicate and then you get yourselves a cup of tea. We’re slightly early so it means you’ve got a bit more time for the discussion group and then you can get yourselves a cup of tea and then you can be drinking your tea during the discussion group. There’s no particular topic today, just to talk about everything that we have discussed on the weekend and different responses to it and what you feel about it, etc. Then we come back here at quarter to four.
Hannah will come around your discussion groups five minutes before the end and she will let you know it is five minutes and come down to the Gompa in five minutes. And I see somebody waving her arms around at the back trying to get rid of the flies that are buzzing around her head. Yes? I am shocked and horrified that somebody would enunciate that sort of wish in such a holy environment. But you don’t care at all, do you?
If you’re going to get nervous and stressed out if you don’t, I would go and do it first, and then go to the discussion group. So you’ll be in the same discussion groups as yesterday and you know where they were, so then you go and have your cigarette, you come back and then you join your group. Same goes for anybody else. I know for those of you who smoke and don’t smoke within a certain period of time, you can get quite jittery. Isn’t it?
What to do? Slowly, slowly. Yes, Grace? Any being with a mind. Any being with a mind.
So then mind is the mental continuum, the awareness that passes on its awareness from moment to moment. So sentient beings usually that it can move under its own volition and it can change under its own volition. So even amoeba is a sentient being. You can have amoeba, single celled sentient being, up to the most complicated sentient being, which is probably us, and then including formless sentient beings and sentient beings with a subtle form, like the Bardo beings, God realm, demigod realm, hell beings, beings who created a hell are also experiencing a subtle realm. We can’t see it, but they’re experiencing that suffering.
And then animals. So there’s six realms, and they’re all sentient beings. But we don’t include trees, you know, things like that, but we say they’re living and sentient beings inhabit them and use them, and that’s why you should protect the environment. Because we’re symbiotic, you know, we rely on each other. So that’s why you just don’t think, Well, I’m a human being and I can cut down all the trees and I can do this.
So you recognize that the trees are there for living beings and also good for us, that sort of relationship. So sentient being means any being with a mind. Okay? Okay. So we will dedicate with Śāntideva, verse two forty six.
So we offer all this positive energy, incredible amount of energy that we must have accumulated because