Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 67-minute talk, Ven Robina Courtin addresses a feeling many face: the sense that practicing Buddhism is impossibly hard. She begins with the root of this struggle—attachment, a deep conviction that we’re never enough, which triggers anger and self-blame when we don’t get what we want. Courtin then lays out the practical method: become your own therapist by identifying the distorted thoughts you tell yourself, then rationally disproving them, just as you’d correct “two cups are on my table” by looking carefully and seeing only one. She explains why preliminary practices—visualization, mantra, devotion to a teacher—are not optional ritual but essential training to prepare the mind for this work. Finally, she situates all of this within karma and dependent arising: every thought plants a seed. For those ready for rigorous self-examination.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2011 09 10 – 02 – session2.mp3
UUID: ba9194da-d848-4821-93d2-b90ecfd54cb7
Teacher: Ven Robina Courtin
Collection: z Robina Courtin 2011 – too hard (Ven Robina Courtin)
Date: 2011-09-10
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 66.7 minutes
Words: ~12,968
I thought it was about forty bucks. Well they’ve come become more oh really? That’s all? That’s not much. No, I can’t cope with the pressure, I just like to see the results.
It’s funny. If they’re winning a lot, then I’ll watch it, but it was too close, I just can’t stand the pain, it’s just I have a mental breakdown, I can’t bear it. Well that’s what else, where else would it be? Not my toes, baby. And I can’t stand the pressure, I repeat.
So any questions? Yes. To others. Yes. No.
That that see that’s the point. That is the irony of ego. If we really analyze, every one of us recognizes what he said. Every single one of us, we focus on our negativity, we criticize ourselves constantly, we’re guilty, blaming ourselves. In other words, that’s the see the point is okay.
Very interesting. The fundamental day to day suffering is attachment, which is this which is it’s got this we’ll talk about it more later, but it’s this deep sense of dissatisfaction. Alright? Attachment actually at its bare bones is deep dissatisfaction. Meaning, this is aching feeling that nothing is ever enough, that I never have enough, that and crucially that I never am enough.
Therefore, when it doesn’t get what it wants, aversion arises. And aversion and when it’s a gross level is anger, and that either goes out to someone else or it goes in. So it’s just the way saṃsāra is. Having attachment, which is dissatisfaction, which then gives rise to always wanting something more. And that means, you know, if it’s samsaric, I want another cake.
If it’s spiritual, I’ll be happy and I’ll be happy when I get a cake, so we go for the cake. Well, I’ll be happy when I get a new girlfriend. If it’s spiritual, we just simply bring it to them. We’ll say, oh, I’ll be happy when I get less angry, or I’ll be happy when I practice more. I’ll be happy when I meditate better.
So we’re never satisfied. It’s the big trick, you know. So therefore, aversion arises, therefore criticism. It’s just the way ego is. It’s not even an exception, you know.
So this is why we have to consciously work on this and hear these very clear conceptual stories which are viewpoints, and see how they are not accurate. And this is where we really get to be our own therapist about ourselves or anyone else. You hear these words, and we literally rewrite the script. And that honestly, it’s like Buddha is a cognitive therapist. The real way we’re talking about practice here is you hear these words in your own mind.
And what do we do? What’s your name? Rafael. What do we do, Rafael? But don’t we believe that?
It’s like you just read in a book, Rafael is no good, and you go, that’s true. You know, when someone else says it, we get very injured. Right? But what we say it ourselves all the time, we’ve got this running commentary all about Raphael. He’s not enough, he’s not this, he’s not fat enough, he’s not thin enough, he’s not big enough, he’s not small enough, he’s not best enough, he’s not we that’s the nature of attachment, and that then it manifests as anger when we can’t fulfill it, you know?
Yeah, there you go. So the the job of being your own therapist is to slowly, slowly hear this dialogue, and don’t just hear it, but then you have to argue with it. So it’s sort of like, you know, let’s say we’re being very rational about this is about facts. This is why it’s so interesting. If you could say to me there are there’s two cup Rabina, are two cups on your table.
No. I say, Rabina, you know, Raphael, there are two cups on my table. Now that’s a thought. Would you agree that’s a thought? This is a main point.
Now listen carefully. Do you agree that that’s a thought? Now let’s look if it’s an accurate thought or an inaccurate thought, which means the thought has to relate to something, doesn’t it? It’s not just in the sky. So we take that thought, and because we know the meaning of one, the meaning of two, we all speak English, and we’ve done a bit of math, we know the meaning of table and cup, we use our eyes, we’ve got good twenty twenty vision or whatever, we look at the table, and we go, well, Roberta, actually you’re mistaken.
There’s one cup on your table. Now that’s a thought as well. Do you agree with these people? One of those thoughts, they’re both thoughts, one is inaccurate, because you look at the table, and you see there’s no relationship, and you look at and then one is accurate. You see my point?
It’s really simple. So then you would rationally point out to me, well, Rabina, you’re actually mistaken in that thought. And then I’d go, oh, oops, Daisy, you’re right. Do you understand? But now I’ll say to you, oh, Rafael, it’s not accurate.
You know, you’re doing quite I thought you’re doing quite well. You know, you meditate a certain amount, you’re trying to be a better person, and that’s probably accurate. But Raphael is addicted to sinking he’s not good enough. No. No.
No. You’re wrong, Rabina. I’m hopeless. This is the irony where in other words, if you’re addicted to believing there are two cups, I’ll go I’ll say, if I’m addicted to believing there are two excuse me, there are two cups on my table. Why do I think that?
First, listen, this is exactly how saṃsāra works. Because I’m so used to believing in that lie that even now two cups appear to me. I’m so used to my lie. I’m addicted to my lie, and now I’m defending it, and I believe it’s true. That’s why we don’t you know, if if you say, you know, like for example, if I blame you, Rafa you know, look to that girl again, Rubina, Rafael, you know, and because I’m jealous.
Right? And you simply say because it’s true, but Rubina I didn’t. Let’s say it’s true. You’d think I’d prefer the truth. You’d think I should go, oh, what a relief.
Thank God you didn’t. Do you see my point? But what am I gonna oh, you’re not speaking too. I saw you look at her. We love to believe the lies.
This is the addiction of ego. This is the tragedy. Are you hearing my point? In fact, I’m so jealous that even repeatedly he tells me the truth, other people prove it. I still won’t believe it.
Can you hear my point? Because we are addicted to the delusions. This is the terrible irony of ego. We’re just addicted to them. That’s why.
It’s just so painful. So it’s pay it’s hard for us to be reasonable. It’s not that so then what we do, we do the other extreme. We then think, you know, we ought to think I’m a creep, or I think I’m the cat’s pants. But they’re both distortions, they’re both exaggerations.
Do you understand my point? We’ve got to be truthful, we’ve got to be accurate. It’s a question of being accurate, which sounds so boring in a way, sounds mathematical. We think it’s all about feelings, but the component of pain is the is the disturbing part. Beneath it is this elaborate story, which we’ve been believing for eons, Buddha says.
So it’s really hard to even see how it’s a lie, and because ironically, we’re addicted to the lie. We’re addicted. In other words, ego loves negativity. You understand my point? So that’s why we just have to be rational and clear and hear it and be brave enough, Raphael, to actually tell yourself the truth and try to be brave to know that there probably is an element of truth, that I am working hard, I am doing my best, I am doing reasonably well, good enough.
It also says we have to learn to be happy now instead of I’ll be happy when. That means be happy with being a creep, being happy with being overweight, being happy with being fat, being happy with being not so good at music. You got it’s painful. It doesn’t seem right to us because we’re so addicted to believing perfection. But you got if you learn to be happy now at grade one, then you’re gonna be happy when you do grade two.
We keep thinking I’ll be happy when I get grade twelve. When you get there, you’ll still be unhappy. That’s tricky. You got a tricky go. We have to learn to be happy now, which means you change the dialogue.
You change the story. I’m doing okay. You praise yourself. You honestly, I’m not joking. This is what daily practice is, people.
It’s not cosmic. But you it’s hard to do it unless you have another practice. This is where the creating virtue comes in. We’ll discuss this one later. This is the this is the actual practice of being a Buddhist.
This actual job of seeing your mind, controlling your body and speech, doing some concentration, hearing Buddhist teachings of the mind, and then seeing your own mind. This is the actual job of being a Buddhist. When you start doing this, you’re actually on the case. But it’s not easy it’s not easy to do without lots of other practices, which is where all these classic Buddhist things comes in, you know, and that’s where I’ll talk about that later. You need to give yourself a boost.
The mind isn’t strong enough to do this job just on its own. We’ve gotta do the purification practices, which sort of purify your mind at a very deep level that we can’t notice that enables you to see your mind every day. They taught it that’s why they call them the purification practices or the preliminary practices like making the water bowls, doing the prostrations, which just seem like religion to us. But they have a very profound effect on our minds. They help deepen purify at a deeper level.
You understand? It’s very interesting. So we’ll discuss. This is the bare bones job of day to day. You hearing me, Rafael?
It’s very clear, isn’t it? We just gotta be courageous to do it. You see what the thing is we want other people to tell us we’re doing well. We’re hungry for other people to approve of us, but we have to learn to approve of ourselves. Because I can everyone in the world can tell you you’re a nice guy, but they are interesting if one person says you’re not, which one do you believe?
Let’s prove what we think ourselves. You know, if someone says you’re really nice, oh no, I’m not. Someone says you mean, oh, because you believe it totally. This is proves ego. It’s just we’re so tricky, we’re so ridiculous, you know.
Where our my mother used to say, she’s right, we are our own worst enemies. You know? Someone else? Yes, darling. Yep.
Yep. Yes. Right. Yes. How would that look?
Explain to me. That’s right. So in other words, you’re seeing you’re looking why that person, you know, shouted because he’s had constipation, or his wife was mean to him this morning, or the weather’s bad, he’s got a headache. You mean like that? Looking at the situation.
Yeah, very reasonable. Yeah. Yes. I hear you. Yes.
Yes. That’s right. Yes, that’s right. It’s true. You’re stepping back, aren’t you?
You’re stepping back from it. And that’s really the application of I think that’s another way to put it, I’d say, you know, Buddha says a bird needs two wings, wisdom and compassion. So this is really more like the application of wisdom, you’re stepping back and seeing it more reasonably, which is wisdom, you know. Then you can have compassion when you see it that way. Yes.
That’s right. That’s right. Exactly. Totally perfect, darling. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Someone else, any points? Yes. If we define using the okay. In our materialist world, we use all these words.
We’re very familiar with all these words, but I think the definitions are different. Therefore, we’re talking actually a different language. So it’s really, really important we know exactly what Buddha means by it. In fact, let’s look at the way we use it. Freud brought this up.
It’s just a Greek word for I. That’s all it is, you know, or something. I’m sorry, I’m not Greek, but let’s something like that. Isn’t it? Somebody.
Something like that. Okay. So that and they don’t even use it much, it’s like the Spanish, it’s sort of implied in most of the verbs, you know, but we just this is Freud, so we’ve got a multitude of definitions of it. So here, even it’s not strictly speaking. It is the correct word.
Self or I is the word in Buddhism. And strictly speaking, you know, we’re using it we’re using it a bit loosely. So what we mean by when we say it loosely here is the neurotic sense of self, the the ego grasping, this this neurotic delusion called called marigpa in Tibetan or ignorance in English, which primordially grasps and it’s beneath attachment and everything, but grasps at its sense of self, a mistaken sense of self, a neurotic sense of self. So it’s true is also a viewpoint. So strictly speaking, the Buddha’s point is this.
This ego ego grasping is grasping at a sense of self that he actually saying doesn’t even exist. You know? It we’ve got we’ve got a fantasy sense of self. But so that’s the loose way we talk about ego is we’re not quite correct, but it’s good it’s good enough for the discussion. You know?
So in other words yeah. Yeah. Write that. If it if you okay. To use the word ego as we’re using here, then when you have the Buddhist way of saying it is when you’ve got when you understood interdependence and emptiness, which is the real wisdom teachings, when you’ve understood this, you’ve got a valid sense of self.
And how it would feel then would be spacious, interconnected, compassionate, wise, calm, fully content, very blissful, very loving, very wise. In other words, your but your sense of self, which is sort of pinhead big now, full of fear and panic, would be as vast as the universe. So in a correct sense of self, we just wouldn’t use the word ego, that’s all. Do you understand? The real point, Buddha’s saying, is not to get rid of something and end up with nothing, it’s to get rid of the rubbish, end up with everything.
Not kidding. How you’d be if you didn’t have this neurotic sense of self, you’d be vast and amazing and clear and wise and extraordinary person. No. You would as I’m saying, you wouldn’t use the word ego then. So we’re not we’re not communicating it.
So let’s say it again. Go on. The point is what I’m getting at is a bit of a a loose cheap way we use the word ego when we speak when I’m speaking here. The strict correct use of the words is this. Ignorance in the mind, which is the root delusion, which runs everything, which is primordial, and we don’t even see it.
This particular misconception, liar, delusion, disturbing state of mind, which is the base of all the others, believes totally in a very concrete, solid, inherent, intrinsic, pointable, real me ness, self, ego. And it’s it’s it’s energy is fear and drama, and then it because it doesn’t get then then its main voice is attachment. And when it doesn’t get what it wants, you have aversion, and then jealousy and depression, all the others come as a result. So it’s this hierarchy of delusions that are the problem. And my way of speaking loosely is that these are the voices of ego.
It’s just a way of talking. So strictly speaking, this neurotic sense of self, the one that ignorance believes exists doesn’t exist. So it’s not so much a strictly speaking, it’s not so much a question of getting rid of ego. It’s getting rid of the belief in ego, strictly speaking. So speaking loosely, because we have this neurotic sense of self now, we are miserable and fearful and angry and jealous and depressed and harm and lie and kill and steal and therefore suffer, and that’s saṃsāra.
So getting rid of that belief in ego means the discovery of the real self, if you like, which is spacious and wise and loving and compassionate. This is a loose way of talking. Then there’s no neurotic. You know how I right now is I this and I that and she this and he this and all this I is the main player, isn’t it? And this unhappy sense in our head, isn’t it?
So when you got this correct sense of self, it’s like there’s mainly an experience of interdependence and pleasure and joy and love and and others. There’s no longer a vivid sense of a separate sense of self. That’s when you’ve got real that’s when your mind sees the truth. That’s when your mind has realized emptiness, and therefore you have also compassion. So you can so that so one other way they say it, there’s sort of like a wrong eye or right there’s a wrong eye and a right eye.
There’s an eye that does exist, and there’s an eye that doesn’t exist. This is the emptiness one. Maybe we’ll go into it later a bit. But speaking loosely, ego is the problem. A belief in this neurotic sense of self is the problem.
Yeah. So in that the answer to that question therefore would be there’s no benefit to ego in using this way of talking. In the neurotic sense, no benefit whatsoever. That’s right. Someone else, anybody?
Let’s carry on then. Okay. So we have this mind, not physical, continuity, beginningless, endless, has its marvelous potential to be perfect because the positive states are at the core of our being, and the negative ones are adventitious, therefore can be removed. Our mind doesn’t come from creator, from mommy, from daddy, it’s not physical. This is the essence of Buddhist thing.
The law that runs it is called the law of karma, which is cause and effect, which is everything you do, say, and think, leaves an imprint, which ripens as experiences for oneself. Negative actions, which are actions done with body and speech based upon a delusion, ripen a suffering. Positive actions based upon a virtue, ripen as happiness. We want happiness, we don’t want suffering. Therefore, we learn to look at the mind, hear Buddha’s view, and then begin our own therapist, and begin to look into the mind and observe the delusions and what they are and how they cause suffering so we can change them and get rid of them.
That’s Buddhism. Okay? In a nutshell. One minute. That’s the course on Buddhism.
Buddhism in a nutshell. So what I want to do here, after lunch I wanna go into more of business of all the other practices, how you create virtue. But I wanna really get to the fundamental core job of working on your mind, and then how you enhance that by doing these other practices, and the meaning of what practical meaning of virtue. Okay? So the thing I wanna do here is go more detail, and let’s try to see logically how enlightenment is possible, logically.
How the mind is naturally pure, logically. Not just a nice belief, you know. Because it’s not difficult to prove. And the key to it is understanding how everything in our mind is is an opinion, a viewpoint, a view, as they say in Buddhism. Everything is a viewpoint.
Attachment says, oh, what a delicious, what a lovely cup. That could be good, if it could be, you know, a good cup. The art might be really nice, and you know, that cup appeals to me. I analyze it. Look, I remember taking Lama Yeshe down one time down in London, took Lama Yeshe down Hyde Park, and on Sundays all the people put their art on the fence, you know, and I was taking him along there, and he went, attracts.
The way he said it was very lovely. So I look at the things attract you, they grab you, this cup attracts. I don’t know what it is, I think it’s the yellow that attracts me. So I’d say, oh, that’s a nice cup, and I’d go towards it, you know. Let’s say it’s a cup like this thing, look at it.
Dirty, moldy inside, brass, ugly look. I go, yuck, you know, and I move away from it. That’s called aversion. So the one here is it I I have attachment, I go towards it, and aversion moves away from it. Okay?
These are the two we run we’re going between these a million times a day. Attachment’s a default mode. So attachment’s energy is this is is like this aching sense. The energetic level of it is an aching feeling of not being enough. They call it simply dissatisfaction.
I like to call it neediness. You know, with this emotional feeling of we know it. We feel it. Sometimes it’s so vivid, naked. You just feel dissatisfied.
What’s missing? Something you look in the fridge. Look here. Ring up someone. Nothing seems to work, isn’t it?
That’s the ordinary junkie mind. Ordinary attachment. Dissatisfaction, kind of irritated, agitated, something’s not right, you know. And usually it comes into I’m not right. So you look for something, which is what attachment does.
It goes reaches out and then it hankers after something. And then it’s looking like a vampire for a nice object of sensors to grab you. Oh, there’s something. Oh, I’ll have that. And then of course, the belief of attachment is when I get it, I’ll feel full.
So we dump it on cakes, people, sounds, smells. This is the gross level. The more advanced level, the more deep, sorry, sophisticated level of attachment, which is really taught in the in the Mahāyāna path, which is where they call it this weird and wacko phrase called the eight worldly dharmas, this is eight different ways of describing attachment at a subtler level. And that’s the deeper one, like I mentioned here, Raphael, the attachment to my sense of self, my the attachment, particularly, sorry, to reputation, the craving for other people to approve of me. This is the deepest one of all, but forget that even now.
This attachment goes out looking for something to fill up this gaping hole to bring satisfaction. This is the and so the this is a absolute stinking, rotten, lousy lie. Because it’s eons old, we totally believe it, and this is the meaning of saṃsāra. We’re all junkies. You know?
So the second it doesn’t get what it wants, the second it is thwarted, aversion arises, which is the opposite. And that strongly expressed is called anger, internally expressed is called self hate or guilt, blame, you know. That’s its nature. That’s its function. And we go between these two a million times a day, and I I’m not kidding when I say that’s the bipolar mode.
We’re all bipolar dears. It’s just a question of degree. I’m not kidding. Up and down like a yo yo get it. You know, you have a whole day when things go well, you’re up on the excitement mode.
So maybe you don’t wanna fly in the sky and be Mozart, that’s extreme level, okay, but it’s just your up mode, all excited, everything’s great. It’s because attachment got it what it wanted all day. So you’ve gone nuts, you know, I’m so happy I found my soul mate, I’ve now finally found happiness when you meet the person, you know. You’re in heaven up in the sky, you can’t even reach you, you’ve gone way over, you know. Total attachment, finally I found happiness, now I’ve got it.
You’ve written this entire novel for the next eighty years. That’s bipolar, people. I’m not kidding. And then what happens? He leaves you, and the bubble bursts, and you go crashing fifty stories down where?
As far as you went up, you go down. That’s the other mode. That’s aversion. Hopeless despair, kill yourself, or kill him. That saṃsāra people join the club.
So the point I’m getting at here, shockingly to us, they, you know, they are at their bare bones. These are conceptual states of mind. They are elaborate stories. Like Like all these nice words you say, they’re like a script that we write. But we’ve been saying it for eons.
We came fully programmed with these scripts, and we believe them as absolute truth. That is why it is so hard to change. That’s why. Because they’re we’re addicted to them. As Lama Zopa says, they’re so addicted that we don’t even know we have a story, because we think whatever we see is true.
I believe for so long there are two cups. I actually I’ll kill you to defend my truth. I am right. That’s saṃsāra. That’s saṃsāra.
And we grasp at this as if if you it’s almost like if we change it’s like as if you have to rip your skin off to change these stories. We’re so terrified, you know. It’s just very interesting. So what we have to do is get to see how they are conceptual stories, to hear them, you know, underneath the emotion, the physical energy, go beyond to listen. That’s why it could be a therapist, you go into your own thoughts, not the event.
The thoughts, the thoughts beneath the feeling, beneath the physical. And it’s a really tough job. But that’s the job. And then you have to what do you do with it? You step back and you’re being very clear and analytical.
You know that one is one and two is two, and a cup is a cup and a table. And you look carefully and you say, no, that’s an incorrect thought. The correct thought is there’s one cup. So you know it’s a wrong thought. You’ve to decipher it all.
And that’s why being your own therapist is not easy. You gotta have enough courage to do it and to hear carefully. And you can’t hear it unless you’ve heard Buddha’s teachings on the model. You know, you can have Jung’s model of the mind if you like. But like talking here, we’ve be so clear about our definitions because Buddhas are so precise.
You know? Don’t underestimate this. It’s extremely important. So let’s look at how if all things in the mind are viewpoints and some are in sync with reality and some aren’t, the ones that are causing happiness are the ones that are in sync with reality. There are either two kinds.
They’re virtuous state. They’ve got a they’ve got a morality or a virtue about them. And I’ll describe this in a second. And then there are some that are merely correct, like one plus one is two. There’s no morality there, it’s just a fact, know, provable fact.
Well you know the the virtuous states of mind fascinatingly, which are directly opposite to the negative. Remember the negative have two characteristics. One is they’re they’re they’re disturbing, and one is they’re liars, which means you ought to see how it’s a concept. So let’s look at the positive. They are not disturbing.
It might be initially to have compassion is is it feels like suffering because your tears are coming, and it feels aching. But just compassion, which is a virtuous state of mind, it’s under the heading virtuous. In its nature, it is it is it is it is sort of like a pure thought. Because why? It’s virtuous first.
Why is it virtuous? Why is it not disturbing? Is it not disturbing? Because what and and the second okay, the second point is it is not delusional. This is really simple.
This is a very interesting way to think about it. What do you mean it’s not delusional? What’s that mean, you know? Well let’s look carefully. Let’s say, oh.
Oh. Somebody’s mad at somebody. There you go. That’s a good little sign. That’s an interesting yes.
There you go. A little heart beat, you know. Oh. Oh. Oh.
Okay. So there you go, some calming appearance just popped up. So let’s look at how, let’s say I’m talking to Raphael. Okay? And let’s say we’re having a nice little chat, and I’m listening to his stories, and he tells me about his headache, and I tell him about my consTibetion.
He I empathize with him, and he empathizes with me. You understand? Listen to me carefully. And we’re agreeing with each other, we’re smiling, we’re friendly, and we’re being sympathetic. Right?
Now that simply speaking means there’s love in our hearts. Love means, oh, may Rafael be happy. I’m thinking may he be happy. We’re not thinking it, but there’s there’s there’s an evidence of it there because I’m listening to him, and he’s listening to me. There’s empathy there, which is called compassion.
Love and compassion are the essential virtues. Love is may he be happy. Compassion is may he not suffer, and then you grow those to a profound degree. So look at the experience that in that in that connectedness, sorry, in this exchange, there’s a sense of connectedness. Wouldn’t you agree?
There’s a sense of harmony. Right? There’s a sense of interdependence, isn’t it? There’s not a vivid sense of I over here and a vivid sense of him over there. There’s more like a we there.
Now that’s reality, Buddha says. Buddha says in reality, just naturally, the way the world is that everything is interdependent. Things exist in dependence upon each other, which is the actual wisdom teachings. Are you getting my point here? That’s just the way things are.
Now, look, when love and compassion are even slightly prevalent, isn’t that our experience? Is it therefore, what’s the feeling? It’s a very nice feeling, isn’t it? A sense of connectedness, of not being separate, of connectedness, of warmth, of communication, of harmony. That’s the way virtues are.
Can you hear my point? So when you got to some extent any virtue, you’re in touch to some extent with the truth, which is that everything is interdependent. Are you with me people? Now look what happens when I get upset when he insults me. Suddenly, he says something, and suddenly I get upset, you see my eyes go, what?
I did not do that, Raphael. Suddenly, face goes long. What’s happened now? Suddenly, delusions have arisen, Delusions have come rampant, and my sense of I is upset, and I feel offended, and I get angry, and what’s happened? The sense of we has been cut in half, isn’t it?
And now there’s two vivid separate eyes. I’m believing in my drama, suddenly he looks ugly to me, suddenly I look ugly to him, I’m accusing him, he’s accusing me. That’s the delusions, and then the zero sense of interdependence, isn’t there? So when you’ve got a delusion, aren’t you stuck in yourself? I is the central voice.
You feel lonely, bereft, miserable, needy, hungry, angry, sad, cut off. Isn’t it not true, people? That’s the experience of how things don’t exist. Are you kinda with me? Things aren’t that way.
When you’re depressed, doesn’t the world look revolting? Someone else who’s happy says it’s not like that, Rabina. It looks rather lovely and nice. No. It doesn’t.
It looks miserable. So it’s proving that our mind is what is projecting. Our mind tells a story, so our mind is making things up. In reality, everything’s interdependent. But when you’re angry like this, there’s no feeling of interdependence because they’re liars.
Are you hearing me, people? So the virtues, conventionally speaking, are in to some extent in touch with reality because of the sense of connectedness. That’s why compassion, like you’re talking, it’s really wisdom as well. When you have compassion, you also have wisdom, which means there’s some sense of interdependence. When you have ego, delusions, the zero sense of interdependence.
There’s just this vivid sense of a poor self pity me who has everything done to me and it’s not fair. You get my point? That’s what suffering is. That’s why they are delusional. They’re lies.
They’re not reflections of reality. There’s a subtle level of reality. This is where the emptiness teachings come, and we don’t think of it this way, you know. Are you understanding me my point roughly speaking, people? So if it is true then that the delusions are thoughts, they are assessments of something, we have to sort out how they’re liars.
So, like, you know, John did sleep with somebody else. That’s a fact. We’ve gotta check the facts from the fictions. That’s a fact, so that’s not that’s not the problem. That’s a fact that we can prove easily.
So what’s the stuff that is a lie about that? That’s the anger in my mind. So what does anger say? What’s the concept called anger saying? It is saying, he is evil.
Well, that’s a slight exaggeration. He’s not. He slept with someone else. He did many good things. So it’s it’s an exaggeration.
He is the cause of all my suffering. This is just not true. I mean, we all know it’s exaggerated when someone accuses you, you know. It’s just in other words, delusions exaggerate. They rush out to make a big story.
Like our mothers say, we make a mountain out of a molehill. These wonderful sayings that our mommy says, you know. It’s a lot it’s an exaggeration of the facts. You get my point? The bare bone facts.
So the facts are correct, he slept with a girl. You could even argue objectively with laws of morality in the world because we have a commitment to not sleep around that he’s broken his vow to me. You can say that’s true, and if he keeps doing it, I might have to make a decision to say see you later, John. So it is you can still say even he did something wrong, that’s also a fact. Be with me people.
But the anger one is the exaggeration on top of the facts, and that’s the part we have to extract. And that’s the tricky part because it’s hard to distinguish the facts from the fiction. So in other words, this is where it’s really tricky. So attachment for the for the cake, let’s say. There is a cake.
It’s a chocolate cake. You can even say it win the blue ribbon at the show. It’s the best chocolate cake. You can even argue this professionally, a really good chocolate cake. No argument.
They are facts you can prove conventionally. But attachment, what it’s not satisfied with the facts. It it it decorates on top of the facts things that aren’t there, a divine delicious cake that in its nature is delicious, and when I eat it, it’ll definitely bring me happiness. That’s the lie that we have to then to see how it is a lie. You get my point, people.
And so it’s to extract the truth from the lies, and that’s the tricky tricky job to do. That’s what we have to do. Being your own therapist is not an easy job, but you can’t do it until you have this model. This is I’m speaking directly from Buddhist psychology here. Using words we know, but this is the interpretation of the mind according to Buddha.
You with me? So you gotta know that first so you can apply it. Otherwise, it’s you know, how can you? You can use Freud if you like, but we’re not dealing with Freud here, but that’s your call. So now get to the point.
If it is true so now the root lie of all, the biggest lie that we’re talking here, the lie the root lie, the mother of them all, the root delusion as they call it, the biggest misconception, but so primordial, we don’t even think we think it. I mean, okay. What’s the what so the lie of attachment says that a cake is more delicious than it is, and when I eat it, it’ll make me happy. Now we recognize that. But the the ignorance, the root delusion is saying that I exist that that that there’s an intrinsic me here, you know, that I exist self existently.
Well, who thinks that? We never thought we thought that, did we? You understand my point? If if you you know, attachment we recognize and we hear the definition of how it works, but ignorance that grasps that a self existent me, who thought you ever whoever told us to grasp that a self existent me, and whoever thinks they grasp, we don’t even know this because we don’t even recognize it. Are you with me, people?
But this is the way that Buddha says it’s working, but it’s so primordial. It’s so deep to see, so hard to see. So it’s like this. Buddha says that belief that I exist self existently is a lie. You don’t, he says.
You exact you in fact exist independently, and we’ll go into this. Now, finally, when we’ve realized the truth of this, which is what you can get when you get single point of concentration, you’ve heard the teachings on emptiness, you then go into the meditation, and you finally get the insight into that truth when you see that truth, like the truth of one cup, when you see that truth, you then first the first moment of your indirect insight into that truth is when you cut the root of saṃsāra. You now have moved into nirvana, and you perfect that, and then you finally have achieved enlightenment, and you’ve removed from your mind all the lies. Can you hear this people? Can you hear my point just intellectually, or is it confusing?
Okay. So if you so okay. Now the thing. I think there are two cups on my table. We both agree that’s a thought.
But we agree if we look objectively, it’s not a correct thought, because we look at the table and we see there’s one cup on my table. Right. Now let’s say you point the truth out to me. And you say, Rabina, there’s one cup, and you give me all the logical reasons, and I finally go, oh, right, you’re absolutely right. Oops a daisy, there’s one cup on my table.
What happened to the other thought? There were two cups on my table. What happened to that thought? And what caused we’ve done this before, right, some of us? What caused it to disappear forever from my mind?
What caused it to disappear from my mind? Of? Of seeing the truth. So if I’m wavering, say my eyes are weird, and I’m wavering and I’m not sure, what do you mean there’s one? I it looks like two to me.
Let’s say that. Then I’ve to keep looking, keep researching, keep analyzing, get new glasses, and eventually I’ll see the truth with absolute certainty, won’t I? So when I am convinced of the truth, that conviction in my mind of the truth annihilates the lie, doesn’t it? You understand? So in other words, Raphael says to me, Rubina, I didn’t look at her and I really believe it, then I no longer think that he looks at the girl.
So all these delusions are eons old, believing in the self existent me, being attached, angry, jealous, proud, all believing all their elaborate stories, eons old, Deconstructing all this, removing them all, purifying our minds, listening, slowly arguing with ego’s view. Finally, when we finally deconstruct and get all the way down to the the deepest one and remove it with the insight into emptiness, which we’ll talk about, that is the first moment when you climb out of saṃsāra into nirvana. You now begin to become what they call a superior being. It’s the first moment that where you’ve cut the root of the lies, and now you’re proceeding to continue to perfect that until eventually you’ve removed all even the subtlest imprints of delusions from your mind, and now that’s enlightenment. So it’s a logical thing.
Enlightened mind is a mind that no longer believes or even sees any lies at all, but simply is in sync with reality as it exists. It’s just psychological. Right? It’s kinda tasty, isn’t it? And it ain’t religion, people.
It is not a belief system. That’s the biggest joke of all time. So you gotta have some confidence before you get there in the system by thinking about it, but the process itself is psychological application, work you do with your own mind, and you get the experience of it. It’s a real, doable, practical, psychological thing. Are you with me?
Okay. So that’s why Buddha says the mind is in it is is at its core is pure. That’s what he means. And the the virtues, you can’t remove the virtues from your mind. That’s the interesting point, because they’re truth, that’s why.
They’re indestructible. You can’t remove it. It’s like saying you can remove H2O from water. Don’t be ridiculous. If you have no HCO, there’s no water.
So there’s no virtue, there’s no mind. Virtues cannot disappear because they are simply an assessment of truth. That makes sense, people? So this is your job as a Buddhist. This is the actual job.
But to do it isn’t so easy. So it’s a bit like, and I always use this example, but I’m sure I’m twenty years out of date, I always think of Michael Jordan as a great basketballer, probably a grandfather by now. But never mind, it’s like you go to Michael Jordan and say, hey man, show me how to get the ball in the hoop, because you notice that getting the ball in the hoop is the point of basketball, isn’t it? Everything is geared to getting the ball in the hoop, and the biggest number wins, isn’t it? Right?
I should say I should go to Brett Kirk and ask him how to get the ball through the goal sticks. Yeah, can, I’m in Australia, can use that example. So it’s like going to Brett. Have you heard of Brett Kirk? There you go.
I beg your pardon? He did indeed. Anyway, I go to Brett, and my sister, he’s one of the famous swans, and she just adores Brett. Then last year I managed to meet him, we had there was even a story in the Sydney Morning Herald and he went and did it, we sold him on auction. We had breakfast with Brett for our auction, and so sort of like Brett’s my friend you know, I thought I felt like I was taking Jana’s boyfriend, I felt so bad you know.
I come along as non football fan and take her to Brett. Anyway, if I go to Brett, I say hey man, tell me how to get the ball between the big sticks, which is the point of football right? Now, this is what the point of football is, so the point of being a Buddhist is doing this job I’ve just described. Oh, great. I’ll go look at my mind.
Start changing the thing. Not good enough. So just he so what he’ll what will Brett tell me? He’ll say, we’re gonna go and train for ten years, lose fifty, you know, twenty kilos, get fit, probably have to, you know, be a rover anymore. I’ll be a good rover because I’m short.
So, you know, you’ve gotta get fit and get muscles and go to the gym for two years, you have to do jogging for ten miles a day, you do this, you go to the beach, you do yoga, you do something else, like what he does. Then you then you’ll get the ball in the sticks. Oh, Brett, you didn’t hear me. How do I get the ball between the two big sticks? And he’ll repeat his answer.
So it’s not as easy as walking up with a football just getting through the big sticks, is it? You gotta train. You gotta prepare, and that’s what they mean by preliminary practices. All your jogging, all your diet, all your meditating, all your yoga, which doesn’t look like it relates to getting the stick big sticks. You get my point?
It’s absolutely crucial to prepare your body and mind to be able to do all the manipulating of the ball to get it between the big sticks. You get my point here? That’s why just doing this job of being your own therapist, because we are profoundly untrained. We are complete, like, overweight junkies who cannot possibly even run a meter would collapse. So we have such addicted to these wrong views for so many eons, Buddha says, that just to start changing it is almost like too sophisticated.
It’s too subtle. We can hear it, and we should inspire us. We’ve gotta do a lot of training to prepare our mind to be capable of actually achieving it. You with me, people? That’s what the practices are all about.
That’s what the practicing of virtue is all about. You see, virtue strictly speaking, bare bones virtue is having a good thought. That’s it. Non virtue is having a bad thought, but all the other drama that goes around them, you know, that’s that’s they’re the bare bones of virtue and non virtue. So creating merit is increasing the virtues in the mind, decreasing the non virtues.
But there is marvelous, delicious, powerful ways of doing that at a very big level that really give you a rocket boost to practice. You know? So that means all the practice in relation to the Buddha. The practice you know, all the different practices that the Tibetans bring into their thing. You know?
I mean, you go to a Zen monastery, you won’t hear this stuff that I’m about to talk about, which is in the Tibetans. That’s why many people think this is all just extraneous and has no meaning. This all just looks like religion. So it does take time to hear it and think about it. But, you know, like yesterday.
Okay. So, like, you know, yesterday we did the bodhisattva vows or the refuge. It cut this you know, this is where the devotion business comes in, but grounded nice, not all up in the sky airy fairy rubbish with so much attachment we just talk nonsense, know. But to really see that we do have a human heart. We do want to feel good.
We wanna have we wanna be inspired. We look at a picture or see a guru or a Buddha or something, we wanna just be not cold and analytical about it. You wanna be moved by it. You know? You wanna be moved by it.
You wanna be inspired by it. Again, it’s the analogy of Brett. If you start to really look into football and you start to see it all and you practice, you you look at Brett and you’re so moved and inspired because you know how hard he’s worked. You know how far he’s gone. You know what he did to get there.
So there’s we have a human heart. We need to kind of grow this human heart. That’s what devotion means. That’s what faith means. You gotta have this.
It’s not this is a it’s not a cold analytical mathematical thing we’re trying to do, although you can be as clinical as that when you come to the bare bones. You need to be. We’ve got to put sort of the heart package onto it. So you know you know, when you did that yesterday, it was quite a good feeling there. There was a sense of devotion, and feeling the presence of the Buddhas and and being inspired to want to be like them.
You know? All that part, the heart part, that’s all necessary for us, absolutely necessary for us, you know, because we have a human heart, a little beating heart. This is and this is where it really comes very much too, of course, to the to the function of the teacher, you know, the lama, the guru, the one who is heavy with qualities, the translation of the word guru. It’s like the Brett in your life. Football isn’t clinical.
You can’t just look in a book and learn how to do all the technicals. You’ve got to put the heart there, and that’s where the person comes. The person like Brett embodies footballer. You’re moved by it. You’re inspired.
You know, when the person who who bought our the one who bought our auction, she won the auction. We did it on eBay. Know, we sold Brett for breakfast, and this lady in Sydney won the auction. Right? So she had Brett over.
She’s got twin boys who both play football, sixteen year olds, so they play they cook breakfast for Brett. They were completely blissed out. They could not it was like meeting God, you know. They were so excited. So then they are technically learning football, but their little hearts made a huge leap when Brett comes over and and inspires them, and they made him breakfast.
Can you imagine? We have a human heart. We need that component. But not just see, often we think of religion as that only. We’re all airy fairy and up in the sky, you know.
If you’re not doing this part, it that part doesn’t last long. You gotta have the nitty gritty hard work of day to day kicking the football, and then you have to have the inspiration part which keeps you going. You need this. We’re human beings. You know?
Anyone who learns anything, a musician, football, cake making, you gotta be inspired by the human example in front of you. I remember a friend of mine in London who was not Buddhist, and she had a Buddhist husband. She was always so confused about what enlightenment was, all this stuff, know. She couldn’t get it, and she went to the Royal Albert Hall and heard his holiness, and she was in tears afterwards. And I said, would you like to be like him?
Oh, she said, yes. I said, well that’s enlightenment. So we need that kind of courage too, you know. So that all these practices where you so they’re related to the Buddha, and they’re related, of course, in this tradition to the guru as the guru, the the personal embodiment of the Buddha. That’s why we need the teacher, you know.
Now we can’t force if you haven’t got a teacher, you haven’t got a teacher. But it’s why it’s so necessary to have this living example in front of you, your breath, you know, who can keep you moving and inspire you. That’s all. That’s their job. That you’re not gonna you know, they’re not so the creative view is that they do it.
But the the Buddhist view of devotion, of faith, is that you meet this person, then you cultivate the view that this is the Buddha, and then you then you use them. You personally use them as your goal, as your living image of what you want to become, so it gives you the courage and the inspiration. So when you know so that’s one part, which is really major, and I can think myself if I have my teachers. You know? I can’t imagine being Buddhist without them.
I can’t imagine would have no heart somehow. It would be cold, you know, like having no football in front of you. You understand my point, people? Because we’re human beings. That’s all.
Nothing mystical about it. It’s practical. So then you you you they’re encouraged. So then the practices, all these virtuous, you know, these what time’s lunch? We’ve hours of hours of time yet.
So all these, you know, putting them traditionally now, the the what do you call this? Preliminary practices, they call them. They’re preliminary mainly in the context of getting to the highest level where you take an initiation, this kind of thing. You know? That’s why they call it preliminary.
But there’s day to day practices that a person, you know, who is a Buddhist and is committed to the path, you’d start to do these kinds of practices. So you’d you’d bring into the component into your practice. You’d start with your mindfulness. And then you’d add visualizing Śākyamūni Buddha, or you visualize Chenrezig, or you visualize Tārā, these kinds of things, as an embodiment, which is from tantra, an embodiment, you know, an embodiment of the qualities that you are trying to cultivate. So maybe it’s helpful to talk about that here for a second.
What these deities are, you know? It’s such a crucial part of the Tibetan Buddhist path, right? So sort of like the universe, not university, which is university. Then you’ve postgraduate, and that’s tantra. So what’s that in the Mahāyāna path?
Simple way of saying it is in the Sūtra part of the teachings, the Hīnayāna part, there’s the the idea of the Buddha, an enlightened person. There’s so mister Śākyamūni, you know, we have mister Śākyamūni Buddha from two and a half thousand years ago, who was a prince who left home, cut his hair off, wore raggy old robes, and then, you know, discovered reality in according to his view, and then taught for fifty years. That’s mister Buddha. So the pictures we see of this, you know, one with a lump on his head. Oh, there’s the medicine Buddha.
Oh, there he is, looking very handsome, the medicine Buddha. That’s very nice, isn’t it? Who painted that? George? Oh, George is gone.
Okay, never mind. Where’s mister Śākyamūni? Is he? Oh, there he is. Okay.
So it looks a bit weird, isn’t it? With his orange light body and his lump on his head and his bowl and everything, and all this business. It’s not how we think, right? It’s just it’s Indian, you know, it’s Indian art basically. But basically it’s just culture, isn’t it?
So the aim is to get past the images, past all these weird strange art, which looks so peculiar to our minds, you know, the West. And all this is all this is is an elaborate visual representation of certain states of mind. Buddhism from a to zed is psychological. If it isn’t, it’s a load of rubbish, and I really mean this sincerely. So don’t think of this stuff as just ritual or religion or some strange thing.
It is strange. Why? Only because it’s a foreign language. You know, if French is you know, this is esoteric, but French is esoteric to me, I don’t speak it. When you speak it, it ain’t esoteric.
So when you know this language, it’s a foreign language to us, and it’s very weird, and even the way they hang their thangkas with these cloth and everything, you know, it’s Tibetan. But let’s analyze what that means, you know. You know, if I shake hands with you, we know what that means. It’s just a ritual. It’s ritual.
Don’t you agree? It’s a ritual. But we’re so used to it, we see it as real. But, you know, in in in Tibet, you don’t shake hands. You shake a Tibetan’s hand.
They don’t know what to do. They’re of all limp. You know how you sort of have to have a strong handshake, isn’t it? And so you you you put your hand out to Tibetan and completely foreign if they’re not if they’re not used to Westerners. They kind of hold your hand all limp and it’s the weirdest experience because we think what kind of handshake is that?
You get my point now? Because that’s a culture for us, it’s just ours. What they do if you meet your Lama, bonk heads, you know, like Tibetan and New Zealanders do their noses or something. It’s just culture. So for us, it looks like a ritual because we don’t know about it, but for us for a handshake is normal.
It’s only because we but it’s our ritual, isn’t it? You understand my point? It’s really important to have this objective view about things. So this is just Tibetan coming from directly from India. Tibetans didn’t this is all Indian art.
They’ve got this style, but this is Indian. The mantras as well, they never translated the mantras as all Sanskrit. Okay? This is right back to the direct line to the lineage of all the great Mahāyāna tantric practitioners, you know, in India a thousand fifteen hundred years ago, whatever. So what is it?
It is simply a visual language. That’s all it is. That’s all it is. So here, for example, you’ve got chap standing up on his legs with long clothes on. He’s got a whole white stuff around.
That’s a thousand arms. That’s called Chenrezig. Chenrezig means compassionate eyed one. He’s a manifestation of compassion. It’s a visual language that according to this culture represents compassion.
Now you don’t know it by looking. We don’t know anything by looking. If you’ve never seen a handshake, you don’t know what it means. It’s not saying, I’m a handshake. Hear my point carefully.
But when we know the meaning, when we interpret it, don’t we? We interpret a handshake as what it means. Do you understand my point, people? So here, you see a weird white painting. It’s Tibetan coming from India, but it it it he is called Chenrezig, the emanation that rep it’s a visual language representing compassion.
He’s got a thousand arms to show that he wants to help a thousand sentient beings, you know. Then you have another one like Tārā, there she is the third one down on the off coming from the right. She’s green. She’s got a foot out. She represents so he represents one aspect of enlightened mind.
There are three essential ones, compassion, then there’s wisdom. Is there any Mañjuśrī here? One with a sword. Where? Oh, there he is.
The end the end one down there, he’s orange. He’s called Mañjuśrī, which is Sanskrit. It means gentle voice. Sri is like lord. So he means gentle voice, and he represents wisdom.
The sword cuts through ignorance. Okay? So he’s an orange body, but it’s an emanation. It’s a manifestation. It’s a visual language that someone created.
You know, it’s all conventional reality, doesn’t come from the sky, it’s a convention which means we created it, we agree to it, that’s wisdom. This one is compassion, and the one next to him is compassion, the four armed version of Chenrezig. And the one in the middle, the green lady, she represents the third crucial quality of an enlightened mind, which is called power. You have to have compassion which wants to benefit others. You need the wisdom that knows how, but hey, you need the main one, action.
Actually, the ability to do it. That’s power. The three essential qualities of a fully developed mind. Wisdom, compassion, power. Tārā represents that.
So her leg is out. Her right leg is out showing she’s in the action mode. Her eyes are slightly big. They’re not in the meditative pose. She’s ready to leap up and help others.
That’s the action one. She represents action, power, success, cutting through the obstacles. He represents open heart, loving, compassion. This one represents wisdom, things as they are. It’s a combination of these three states of being that is our potential, and these are just visual representations of those.
So in your meditation, you, you know, you you gotta buy into the fact that he’s Chenrezig. Like, you gotta buy into a handshake means welcoming. Hear my point. This is conventional reality. This is the meaning of emptiness.
There’s no absolute handshake from its own side. I’m sorry. It’s over the time in certain cultures, putting your hand out used to be just men. Ladies would do it, wouldn’t we? But now we all have a strong handshake, you know, because we’re all equal.
So you put your hand out and somebody grasps it strongly, and it’s a really good sign of affection of of mutual mutual respect, isn’t it? We so where does that come from? We have made it this, people. This is the meaning of emptiness. It’s not existing from God from its own side.
Over time, we have cultivated this habit of putting your hand out and shaking it strong, and we have a massive meaning. Guess who put the meaning into it? We do. So same here. You learn it first.
You learn. This is Chenrezig. It’s not from his own side, Chenrezig. It’s a convention. We buy into the fact that a handshake means this, so we’re gonna buy into the fact that this is Chenrezig, and he means compassion.
You don’t have to. That’s your call, but that’s what it’s used for. So you think, okay. I’ll learn about Chenrezig. He has this.
He has this. He’s learning blah blah blah, holding this, and I that you visualize him out there, light body, you know, I’ll give explanation of this later. It is an emanation of compassion. I wanna become like compassion. This is like a mirror image of what I wanna become.
And then, of course, you add the guru component if you’ve got this understanding, you’ve got the teachings. You’ve got your spiritual teacher in a human form, you know. Let’s say his holiness. Let’s say we think he’s okay, and he’s a heavy with knowledge person. So we imagine our teacher is oneness with Chenrezig, and Chenrezig is oneness with our lama’s mind.
Our lama’s mind manifesting as Chenrezig for me. They call this the guru-Buddha. You know? And there’s a great power in this because it makes it personal. So then you do all these visualizations, light coming and this, that, and you say the mantra.
The mantra is a Sanskrit. It’s a sound that represents that compassion. So by buying into this and doing it every day, guess what you will cultivate? Don’t be surprised. You’re gonna cultivate compassion, dear.
Not from its own side, not coming from Chenrezig, coming from your buying into it, and you’re becoming it yourself. Are we communicating? This is emptiness. Emptiness is implied by Buddha’s entire philosophical view of the universe. Emptiness is the implication.
There’s no inherent I, no inherent anything. We make everything what it is. This is the meaning of emptiness. So this is one method of cultivating compassion. Even it’s just like you sit there every day and you have loving thoughts.
I love this, and I love that, and I love Raphael, and I want people to be happy. Excuse me, how will you feel when you get up? You don’t wanna go kill somebody, do you? Because you just trained your mind in loving thoughts. Well, that’s all this is.
Nothing esoteric, people. It’s just psychology. But you’re utilizing this system, Of course, it’s got vast and marvelous meaning when you really learn all the philosophical approach gradually gradually, you go into it, you take initiations, you get the commentary. It’s highly sophisticated psychology, goes to levels and levels and levels. Very fascinating, you know, but this is a simple way of describing it, simple psychological way of describing it.
So there’s nothing in Buddha’s teaching that is just meant to be ritual. If there is, you don’t do it. Okay? As Tsongkhapa says in his songs of experience, there is no contradiction between scripture and practice. That means there is no contradiction between the recipe and the cake.
What is a recipe by definition has to bring you a cake. Right? You can’t just put three oranges in the recipe because it sounds nice. You get my point. You won’t get a chocolate cake, believe me.
The recipe has to be rigorous and accurate, doesn’t it? So a recipe on its own is boring words, isn’t it? You can’t eat a recipe. But if you do it properly, you’ll get a delicious cake. So the same here.
There’s not a single syllable of Buddhist teachings that can’t be finally experienced, that can’t that won’t lead you to your realizations. If it is such a thing, throw it in the bin, please. It does it’s nonsense. It’s just superstition. This is so important to understand.
So of course it is overwhelming. You know, like for example, Linda comes from a, you know, she comes from a Zen background. Right? Zen, isn’t it? Sorry.
Where are you? Betsy. Sorry. Betsy. I beg your pardon.
Betsy. Yeah. Not Linda. So Betsy comes from a Zen background, so it must have been quite a surprise initially, all the ritual stuff. The philosophical she likes.
But the ritual, you got you got to unpack it like I’m doing here to make it reasonable, you know, otherwise we just leave it as superstition, leave it as weird and religious, and I don’t wanna do that, and I’m not sure where all that goes. Oh my god, you know? You don’t have to. You take it your own peace. But this is a crucial part of the practice.
And once we understand the meaning, then it’s not so it’s no longer esoteric. You make it yours. You know? It’s a really valid, real experiential, powerful practices. And the reason why they’re so powerful, this why it takes time to think about it, is because they are related to the enlightened beings who do exist.
So any practices that you where you hook into the energy of the enlightened beings, the all the lamas would say that there’s just like unbelievable power in those practices. Infinitely more. You you know, almost you could say, watching your breath, which is extremely important to get mindfulness and all these things, for an hour a day is marvelous. You know? But one second of it, Lama Zopa says even saying the word Buddha because of what it means, the connection it makes for you, and what it triggers in your mind.
And then by visualizing the Buddha and imagining becoming the Buddha and saying the and imagining wanting to benefit sentient beings, the inconceivable amount of virtuous thoughts, good karma, merit you create by those few thoughts is a million times superior if you wanna compare to watching your breath. You wanna do them all. Right? But some practices are super potent, and the ones that are connected to the holy beings because of the power of the holy beings are so tasty and help us create merit really, really, really easily and purify the mind at a very deep level. You have to think about this, but this is the way they say.
Does this make sense, people? So, you know, slowly slowly, as you progress in your practice, you take on these parts. And this is where the heart gets included. This is where the heart starts to, you know, you get courage, and you connect with others, and you connect with the holy beings, and you aspire to be like them, and get inspired by it. It’s hard work, and this is where it works on your mind at a very deep level.
It’s like that it really prepares you to do the actual job of listening to the teachings and working on your mind. As Holiness says, don’t just do this part. Lots of people think being a Buddhist means the holy part, doing your mantras, doing your prostrations. Many people like this. That’s fine.
You’re sowing seeds for the future. But he says it’s not enough. You’ve got to listen to Buddha’s views. You’ve got to study the things. You’ve got to be your own therapist, do this day to day work of the nuts and bolts of getting the ball between the big sticks, you know.
Not just the jogging, it’s not enough. You’ll miss the point. You get my point? Good. Yep, go Rafael.
Yep, yep, sure. That’s right. Which one? Sorry. Cultivated.
Right. What makes you say that? Why do you think that? Okay. Okay.
Okay. Okay. Well, then maybe that’s good that you do the other stuff. Let me give you an example. Okay.
Let’s say you’re a really good gardener. Okay? Possible, isn’t it, to be a good gardener? So what is it what is what is what is a gardener doing? What’s the essence of what a gardener is?
Yeah. For what? For what, darling? Just keep it simple. For what?
No. No. Don’t keep it tricky. You said the perfect answer, but what does a seed do? When?
In the future. In the future. In the future. Now if you wanna be so when, you know, you’re a gardener and you wanna have a garden, what do you have to imagine before you put one seed in the ground? What do you have to think about?
Your garden in the future. You have to visualize your garden, don’t you? You have to visualize. Have know how many acres, how many seeds, and over here on this plot, and this plot here, and then over there. You have to visualize the future, don’t you?
That’s this baby. You’ve got to visualize the future, and then by sowing the seeds now, you use your mindfulness to sow the seeds right now. When you’re sowing your seeds, Raphael, you are the reference point is your future. You’re focusing on sowing the seeds every second, but a seed does not exist from its own side as something you look at right now. What is the meaning?
That’s that’s the meaning of a really ignorant person watching what I’m doing every minute. That’s self existent. There’s no benefit, no meaning whatsoever. That is pure ignorance like an animal. They’ve got good mindfulness.
Your mindfulness of what you do now has to be in the context of interdependence, because what defines a seed that you have to be mindful about planting now is the fruit it will bring in the future. So you add the mindfulness to the awareness of cause and effect. So your mindfulness is used not just to look at the present, that’s mistaken. It’s to know the law of how to grow a garden, know that positive seeds will bring you the trees you want, know that negative seeds will bring you the weeds you don’t want. So your mindfulness is in selecting every thought, action, every second now that will ripen in the future, not because you want it in the future, because it’s just the nature of things how they are.
Seeds will grow into the future. So given that the future will be the present of fifty years later, you better have a tree that’s nice. Are we communicating? That’s practice. Does that make sense now?
Good. Good. Okay. This is how it’s just it’s a it’s a dependent arising, you know, not just we get too concrete. I think we misinterpret the meaning.
It is Buddhist teaching for God’s sake. But it’s in the in the bigger context and just merely watching what I’m doing from moment to moment. That’s a really gross misinterpretation. It’s actually ignorance. There’s no context.
There’s no dependent arising, and it’s not recognizing the simple fact that every thought you have now is a seed that will bring a future. So given that that’s the law of nature, you better check which seeds you’re gonna bloody grow now, so you the future that you get will be the present of then will be what you want, sweetheart. You with me? It’s crucial. That’s your context, but when you’re growing the seeds, of course you’re focusing on now.
You’re not living in the fantasy of all the beautiful trees, you’ll fall over yourself and plant the wrong seed. You with me? Okay. Not a balance, bugger balance. I mean it.
It’s a wishy washy view. It is not a balance, it’s a question of view. Don’t you don’t balance botany with growing, you’ve got to have botany in order to grow. It’s not a balance, it’s being common sense. Excuse me.
You with me? Good. Okay. I think it’s lunchtime. Go on.
Okay. Let’s think. Okay. Lunch is just a view. It’s just a bunch of carrots and peas out there, okay?
And soups and breads and butter, but you think about it. Where’s the butter from its own side? Where’s the bread from its own side? It’s only habit that we see it and we smell it. We go, oh, label bread, and then the attachment comes and we shove it in, you know, all excited with our view, our fantasy of it.
As Lama Zopa says, when we really finally realize the true nature of, in this case, bread, he says, it’s as if it’s almost as if there is no bread. It’s almost as if it is an illusion. It is not an illusion. There is bread, but what does exist is so subtle, it’s as if it doesn’t. It’s really tasty.
So bring a fresh view to the bread, the soup, the peas, the carrots. Okay? Let’s think. It does not exist from its own side. It is not inherently bread, carrot, soup, or anything else.
We have made it this. We have labeled it this. So we buy into it that it’s this. So now we see it, therefore it’s empty of having an inherent nature. Now we see it as bucket loads of delicious nectar in the sky, just from, you know, fantasize.
Imagine. And now we imagine we’re going to offer it to all the gurus, and all the Buddhas, and all the suffering sentient beings pervading space. And then we see them all, imagine, just imagine them experiencing the bliss of receiving it. Now what have we just done, Raphael? One minute, what do we what do we what seeds have we planted?
What was that vision? What do we just think? What were the thoughts? No, what are these thoughts we just had? Oh bug and nourish.
Rafael, what were some of the thoughts I said to think? The last few thoughts, what were they? What what were some of the thoughts I said to think in that one minute? Do you remember any of them? Okay.
Fine. Because you you weren’t there. That’s fine. What? Yeah.
I said visualize the whole beings full of and everyone experiencing the pleasure of having. Now that three seconds of unbelievable Chenrezig thoughts. You see, every thought is a karma, and every thought leaves a seed, and every seed will ripen according to the thought. This is the meaning of karma and also of emptiness. So just the thought of wishing to offer to the entire universe is inconceivable seed that will bring the fruits of vast compassion in the future if you keep nourishing that thought every day.
This is being a Buddhist gardener. Are you with me? So you we’d sort we call it a fantasy because we think what’s in the mind is a fantasy, but Buddha says every thought counts. Every thought is a seed. So we better choose which thought you want, baby, because it will ripen in the future.
You’re programming your mind, basically, like you’re putting seeds in the ground, you know. So choose your thoughts. Choose your seeds. So you can be paralyzed from the neck down and be practicing Dharma twenty four hours a day by positive thoughts. Don’t underestimate that.
We think we think in the West, oh, it’s only in the mind, therefore it’s fantasy. That’s what you even knew what was, fantasy. That’s how we think because we’re so materialistic. We’re so nihilistic. It’s the exact opposite for the Buddha.
It doesn’t mean you only have the thoughts and keep your hand in your pocket. But by having the thoughts of generosity every day, guess where my hand will go when I see a poor person? Because I’ve trained myself in generosity, and my hand will suddenly reach out and give because I’ve trained myself in my mind first. So it’s utterly marvelous to have positive thoughts. Do not underestimate it.
You with me? Okay. So go and enjoy your lunch now. Because Lama Zopa says, once you thought like that and blessed it that way, the bigger your stomach, the better.