Latest / Lama Lena Teachings / [2/25] The Flight of the Garuda — Session 1.2 (May 2020)

Transcript

[2/25] The Flight of the Garuda — Session 1.2 (May 2020) · Lama Lena Teachings

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Can you have your mic?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'll bring it to you.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Try and keep it as untangled as possible going this direction.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_03: Good morning.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: The delay this morning has been, as you can hear, me hunting up my allergy pills.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: The tree out back has gone into bloom.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I have woken up with a serious case of the Snorfuls.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: And of course my allergy pills were in a safe place.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: But I found them and that should come on soon.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: And then I'll stop snorfling at you.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: Sounds in the background are like I'm not the only one with allergies this morning.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: .
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: .
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: .
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: .
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: .
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: .
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: .
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Zogchen Jupe Lama La Sol Vahadeb.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: Urgen Pema Juni La Sol Vahadeb.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: Durjee Chang Chitilo Narudang.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: Marpa Mila Gompo Tsatsapa.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: Na Pupadang Palden Drupasuk,
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Kargyul Lama Namla Soluwade,
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: Ochen Lama Namla Soluwade,
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Druchen Lama Namla Soluwade,
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: Shatchen Lama Namla Soluadev.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Nyundrandan Yindulama Namla Soluadev.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think you could hand me the box of clinics from the bathroom?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: Thank
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: you.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: Pardon me, guys.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I believe we are on song two, the fundamental meditation.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: Emma Ho, noble beloved sons and daughters, listen without distraction.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: All the various Buddhas of the past, present and future have taught 84,000 books of scripture.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: Teachings as boundless as space itself, but all to one end, how to realize the nature of mind.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: The Buddhas have taught nothing other than this.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: All the sutras, all the tantras, this is where they point.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_03: Sutras point by analogy, by story, by example and logic.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: Tantras point by symbols.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: In the tantric images you visualize within Sadadhana,
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: each aspect,
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: each implement held in the hand,
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: each head, each garment,
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: each jewel, points symbolically at nothing other than this.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: The totality of yourself and of all beings.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: Self-secret.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: Because without anyone pointing at it for you,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: without the symbols,
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_03: without the logic,
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_03: without the stories,
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: without the analogies, you are extremely unlikely to look there.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: Because it does not move or make noise at you.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: And we are continuously focusing our attention at the stuff that dweebles.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_03: The moving.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_03: Things.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: Thoughts.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: Feelings.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: All the bits of phenomena that constantly grasp our attention.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: Because our attention is continuously grasped by this's and that's,
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: thingies, thoughts and feelings.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: Because of this,
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: we almost never turn our attention in another direction altogether to the thinker of
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: the thoughts.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: The feeler of the feelings.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: The perceiver of the things that you perceive.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: Too busy with this's and that's.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: If the principal root of a tall tree is severed,
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: its 10,000 branches and leaves will wither and die altogether.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: Likewise,
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: when the single root of the mind is cut,
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: the leaves of samsara, such as dualistic clinging, perish.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: Sogchen is the axe,
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: the very,
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: very sharp axe that cuts through the root of samsara,
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_03: the root of dualistic clinging, the root of the original oops.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: Allowing all of its manifestations of hopes and fears
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_03: to fall away in a natural manner.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_03: The empty house that has stood in darkness for a millennia.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: Is illuminated instantly by a single lamp.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: Likewise,
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: an instant's realization of the mind's clear light eradicates negative propensities
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: and mental obscurations created over countless eons.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: You'll never get it all picking it off one by one.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: By the time you understand where all your hangups and neuroses have come from,
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: you have created a few more in the process.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: And so on creating glitches,
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: pagchas,
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: neuroses,
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: habit patterns continuously in every moment of existence,
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_03: you'll never unravel them all by picking at them one by one.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, this one's in my way, I'll remove it.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_03: You'll just have another one turn up and fill its place to be in your way.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_03: You will never achieve perfection
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: by creating or removing this's and that's piece by piece.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's too big.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_03: Your pugchas, hangups, neuroses, they're too infinite.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: You can't fix it like that.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_03: The brilliance and clarity of sunlight cannot be dimmed by eons of darkness.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_03: Likewise the radiance of the mind's essential nature cannot be obscured by eons of delusion.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's right here, right now, always.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: In this now.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's what looks out from behind your own eyes.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: The looker, regardless of the looked at.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: The seer of what is seen,
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: perceiver of what is perceived, feeler of what is felt, thinker of what is thought.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: Gently, softly, Sort of sneaking up on it.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: So your incredible,
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_03: tricky mind cannot throw up another obscuration to catch your attention
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: and distract you.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_03: Gently, softly,
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: let your attention turn from the object of attention to the attentioner.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: To what is paying attention.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: Without narrowing your focus by attempting to analyze it,
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_03: feel it emotionally,
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: or perceive it sensorily,
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: simply gently turn your attention
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_03: and let go.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: Let go of the narrow focus.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: Allow your awareness to expand its focus of attention, seeing itself.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: Rondrich.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: Indetermined, it is the color and shape of the sky.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: You cannot say sky space is round, oblong, a tesseract.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: You cannot say the color of space is blue.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, there's a phenomena of the longer light rays of violet being reflected by
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: the outer atmosphere, causing the edge of the atmosphere to appear blue.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_03: But that's not what we mean by sky space.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: I so apologize for the sound effects.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: Sky space
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: is including all of outer and inner space.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: As far as your imagination extends, your mind extends.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_03: As far as your mind extends, Dharmakaya extends.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: Infinite beyond describing
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: Open and awake and aware.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_03: Utterly lucid with the ability to think, feel, and perceive.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: And yet without any limitations of what is thought,
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: felt, and perceived upon the innate nature of the perceiver.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the real you, the big one.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_03: Not the little one that is the ever-changing personality you are accustomed
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: to is thinking of yourself.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: That is transient, an
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_03: object, moving, changing, and frequently annoying to yourself and others.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_03: Not that.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: The experiencer of having a personality.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: The thinker of the thought, I am like this, I am like that.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_03: The feeler of the feeling of self love or self disparagement.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: And it's not a one.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: For multiplicity in the aliveness of the universe is self-evident.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: And it is not multiple.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: For its innate singularity is also self-evident.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: Beyond even the hair of an idea of is or isn't,
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: here or there,
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: now or then,
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: For these are extremes and we're pointing between them at the middle way.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: The sky itself,
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: sky space,
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: infinite spaciousness of the universe in which the planets,
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: solar systems and galaxies dance.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: It is unaffected completely by black clouds or white clouds
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_03: arising.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: The sky itself remains itself.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: The clouds drift through arising and vanishing.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: They have no effect on the sky.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: The color and shape of mind's nature is indeterminate.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: It cannot be tainted by black or white conduct, by virtue or vice, good or bad.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, karma.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: Is the natural law of how the arisings arise causing each other throughout
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_03: the time-space continuum.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: The existence, the vastness of time and space are not affected by the arisings within it.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: There's a sticky wicket here of karma.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: Which is no more real than any of this.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: And yet for as long as you have preferences among this,
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: the natural law of karma allows you to steer towards them.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: No faking Dzogchen realizations.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: No pretending you don't care if you live or die.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: Eat shit or cake.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: You do.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so pay great attention to Gawa and Digpa and the actions of karma.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_03: Nonetheless,
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: although a natural law such as gravity and inertia
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: It is only about phenomena.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_03: Outside of phenomena,
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: it does not function for it is the natural law of how phenomena arises
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: and why one phenomena arises instead of another phenomena.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_03: So as long as you're attached to phenomena,
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: To what you think and how you feel and what you perceive with your sense organs.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: As long as you would rather be well than sick, loved than hated.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: Seen than unseen.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: As long as preferences arise to you.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: Pay vital attention to your conduct within this natural law with the understanding
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: that it only affects phenomena.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_03: And Zogchen is opening your attention beyond the minuscule realm of phenomenal thingies.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_03: Do you see that?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: Karma isn't real,
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: and yet it is very real to you.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: Gravity isn't real,
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_03: and yet you still have trouble flying.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: The citizen selves,
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: in which phenomena No longer is real enough to obstruct you and you pass
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: through walls and may find yourself flying in the air or walking through a rock.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: This is the phase of one taste and will not occur in your path,
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: in your mindstream until you have truly actualized
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: Recognizing the perceiver and the perceived as completely non-dual.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: Doesn't happen until you let go of duality.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: And we all have a tight grasp on that.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_03: Because you see there's me and there's this coffee.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: And oh, this coffee is outside of me.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: I want it inside.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, I perform an action and create a karma that my cup became empty.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_03: Fortunately,
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: through past actions and mutual interactions,
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_03: I have a wonderful Khandro who is currently refilling it for me
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: because I'm sitting here talking to you.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: This is samsara, this is stuff, phenomena.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_03: Do I care that I get another cup of coffee?
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, actually I do.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: Hence,
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: I pay great attention to my actions of Gawa and Digpa.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: Even though I know Beyond a shadow of a doubt and with complete certainty
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: that I'm making it all up.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: We are making it all up, but I still care.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: Do you care?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: No faking realizations.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: If a yogi finds himself
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_03: Able to fly.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: That happens sometimes.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: He is strongly advised not to fly over large bodies of water, especially if he can't swim.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: Before things stabilize, they wobble.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: If you find yourself at times walking through walls,
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_03: do not grab the idea that you will be able to walk through
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: the next one you encounter.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_03: You're likely to bruise your nose.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_03: Until such time.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_03: As the occurrence of rainbow body.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: Pay close attention
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_03: to your behavior, your conduct, activities of Gela and Digpa.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: Do not be fooled by intellectual understanding of Dharmakaya nature of mind.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: Do not be fooled by the great blissful feeling of open awareness.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: Do not be fooled by your own perception
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: of Chunyi.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: For as long as there is even a hair of separation between perceiver and perception,
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_03: remain carefully on the path.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: This is important.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_03: Although mind itself,
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_03: open awareness,
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: Dharmakaya,
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: nature of mind,
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_03: sambhogakaya,
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_03: nirmanakaya,
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: nature of mind, chani dharmata, Cannot be tainted by Digpa or improved by Gewa.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_03: This is true.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_03: Nonetheless, keep walking carefully on the path.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: Milk is the basis of butter.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_03: Butter is within milk.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: Butterfat, it's in there.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_03: 2% milk has 2% butterfat.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_03: Whole milk has 4% butterfat.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: Skim milk has had most of it removed.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_03: But butter is in there in milk in its natural state.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_03: If you do not churn the milk, you won't get the butter from it.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_03: This is an analogy that makes sense to the great nomad herdsmen
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_03: who are always churning milk in the summer to get butter from it.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: Practice or your true nature will not come out.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: Likewise, human nature is the ground of Buddhahood.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: But without the direct realization, sentient beings do not awaken.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_03: So walk your path, Sutra, Tantra,
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_03: Zogchen,
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_03: Chagchen,
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_03: until your mind stream of phenomena
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_03: And experience directly reflects infinite openness.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Keep walking.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Without pushing, without running, without going down a side path because it looks pretty.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_03: And loitering there for a life or two.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: Keep walking on your dharmic path from where you are right now in this moment
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: without faking a higher realization or a lower one.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_03: Without judging the moment, put one foot in front of the other and keep practicing.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, there are teachings about levels and boomies.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: They are not useful to you at this time.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_03: This is not the context they belong in.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_03: So stop trying to figure out where you are in the path and just walk.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_03: Just keep going.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: Through the direct perception,
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_03: the direct experience of the nature of reality,
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_03: through the practice of these instructions, all beings can gain freedom.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: Regardless of whether they're intelligent or stupid,
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_03: educated or not,
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: even a cowherd attains liberation if his direct experience is non-dual realization.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: So there are no prerequisites for this practice.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_03: You do not have to be Sane, intelligent,
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_03: stupid, educated, uneducated, successful, a failure.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_03: You do not have to be anything at all to walk this path.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_03: You just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: And why would you do that?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_03: Because somewhere in you,
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_03: experiential certainty that this path goes where you want to go has arisen.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_03: And that's called the Dzogchen faith.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: And it is not a religious faith.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_03: It is a faith from your own experiences.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: Which, later on you will see that you have made up.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: But in the beginning, you need a certain amount of faith.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_03: Both in the existence of the path and in the one who is showing you the path.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: In order to have the Humphah to decide to walk on the path.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, you're a tourist on it, having a look, seeing what it is, and that's fine.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_03: Those of you who do not have this faith arising will perhaps find another path in which it does.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_03: But I hope you don't stay stuck in your neuroses forever,
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_03: because that would be kind of unpleasant.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_03: When you realize the clear light of mind's nature,
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: the pundit's words of wisdom become redundant.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_03: How relevant is another's description of gur when your mouth is full of it?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_03: Some of you may be familiar with Guram.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_03: And you can almost taste it when I say the word.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: Some of you have never heard of it and have no idea what flavor I'm talking about.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_03: Gram in Tibetan.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_03: Gur in Hindi.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_03: Is made by boiling down the juice of sugarcane
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_03: and drying the result into lumpish forms.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_03: Tastes a bit like a cross between Brown sugar and molasses and cow hair,
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_03: because there's always some of that in it.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_03: Life being what it is.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: And road dust.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_03: You still don't know what it tastes like.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: When the opportunity arises and we are no longer in lockdown,
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_03: should you remember this teaching,
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_03: take yourself down to a shop that sells Indian food.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, in every major city there's a refugee community,
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_03: an expat Indian community that will have a few little bodegas,
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: little corner stores selling things, and they will have gur, it's called in Hindi.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_03: Try it then and you will know what it tastes like.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_03: This is an analogy.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_03: Or the direct open awareness of the nature of mine,
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: no matter how many words I use to describe it.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_03: Road dust.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_03: Cow hair.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: Brown sugar.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_03: Molasses.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_03: Perhaps a tang and a whiff of petrol from the machine used to crush canes.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_03: A very complex taste.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: Can you imagine it?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_03: You'll never get it right until you try it.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: Look, look at the looker.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_03: Wrong, Rick.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_02: Read by wrong, Rick.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_03: Awareness seeing itself.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_03: Even the pundit is deluded if he has no direct experiential realization.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_03: Existential realization.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_03: He may be skilled in explaining it, the nine approaches to Buddhahood.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_03: But he is as far distance from Buddhahood as Earth is from the sky itself,
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_03: if he knows it only from secondhand accounts.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: All beings are exactly the same distance from this.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_03: Space is here and now.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_03: It is the matrix in which all phenomena arises.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, the movie The Matrix was a very good analogy, but only an analogy.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: Layers within layers.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_03: You can keep your strict moral discipline for an eon, and all you get is happy.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_03: If you practice Gewa for an eon,
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_03: you may become emperor of a universe,
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_03: delightfully happy with everything you could want.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_03: It will end.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_03: It will cycle.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_03: You will forget how you did that.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_03: Use it up and fall off.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_03: You can patiently practice meditation such as Sine and Lakdong for an eternity.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_03: But if you have yet to see your own nature,
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_03: if you have yet to realize the clear light of mind's immaculate nature,
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_03: you will not extricate yourself from the real and the three realms of samsara.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_03: You will continue going up from the Gawa and, oops,
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_03: forgot to make more Gawa,
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_03: down from the Digpa and up from the Gawa and down from the Digpa.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_03: So diligently examine the nature of your own mind.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_03: What are you?
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_03: What does all that thinking that you're thinking right now about what does all that thinking?
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_03: What feels happy, sad?
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_03: What is it?
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_03: Where is it?
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_03: How is it?
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_03: What sees whatever is seen,
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_03: hears whatever is heard,
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_03: touches whatever is felt,
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_03: smells whatever is smelt, tastes whatever is taste,
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_03: emotes whatever is being emoted.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_03: What are you?
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_03: Tonight's homework.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_03: It will be easier to discover,
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_03: not thinginess.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_03: If you align your channels, they are less likely to squeak and distract you.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_03: Sitting either in a full lotus, a half lotus, or a Maitreya position,
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_03: Or a Japanese meditative position, as is most comfortable for you.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_03: Find your mind.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_03: In this instance, we define mind as the thinker of the thoughts.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_03: Follow your thoughts home.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever you're thinking, even if you're thinking about what is mind, where?
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_03: Are you thinking that?
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_03: Are there questions?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: There are.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: We have had some video hiccups.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_03: It happens.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: Where the frames are dropping, but we should still be on broadcasting.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: So, questions.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: Why is achieving shamatha... Am I pronouncing that right?
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: Shamatha?
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: Not necessary for making progress in the stability of trepture.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_03: Because trepture is inherently stable and you do not have to hold it still.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_03: You don't want to simply crawl up your own ass or snuff yourself out like a candle flame.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_03: You don't want to delete the vitality, which is the ability to move, perceive, and feel.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_03: You've got to learn to meditate while thinking.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_03: Now, Samatha is useful.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_03: It is helpful in the path that includes Samatha.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_03: In Mahamudra,
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_03: when you focus Samatha on seeing the seer,
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_03: it is like having a very bright, coherent beam of attention.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_03: But it's not going to stabilize Treksha because Treksha,
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: it only stabilizes your awareness without moving.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_03: Because it is focused on stillness.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_03: And you've got to include all of it, not half.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: When looking into the space of the mind,
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: I feel my mind puts boundaries so that the space of my mind shrinks.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: How do I overcome this?
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_03: So that's a feeling that your mind puts boundaries.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_03: An emotional sensation, let's say.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_03: Where are you having that sensation?
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_03: Keep looking.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_03: Not where do you think the boundaries are,
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_03: but the very experience of having or not having boundaries.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_03: Where do you experience that?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_03: Certainly not within the boundaries.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_03: For to experience something, you need to focus on it.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_03: You need to perceive it.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the field
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: Find the field of the perception
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: of the boundaries.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do you understand?
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_03: me move on to the next question and see if they ask a more detailed thing or if that worked.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: How not to push to get it and still maintain the discipline of simply sitting?
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: Just sit there.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_03: Why not?
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_03: Ah, if you do not have the habit of just sitting there
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_03: so that it is
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_03: a fairly automatic occurrence for you from time to time,
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_03: Then in the beginning,
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_03: you do have to use intent and force,
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_03: at least to the point of choosing to sit there and not do anything.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_03: Neither meditate nor not meditate.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_03: Just sit there.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_01: Could you please talk about refraining from eating meat to the path of growing Buddha cheetah?
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_03: If physiologically your genotype and your culture and what is available
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_03: where you are is able to refrain from eating meat, that is a good thing.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_03: You should do that.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_03: However,
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_03: some people Don't metabolize well and end up getting vitamin B deficient
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_03: and quite anemic and very lungish without some meat in their diet.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_03: Everything is alive.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_03: Unless you become a grain and fruitarian,
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_03: eating not even the green stalks or the roots,
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_03: you are unlikely to be certain that you are not killing something.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_03: Some plants are sentient.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_03: Sentient beings moving through the bardo will often attach themselves
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_03: to what are otherwise Simply karmic decorations,
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_03: part of the background, not living.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_03: And you never know where or which has it.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_03: More important would be to approach the entire universe with gentleness,
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_03: without causing wanton harm.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_03: To anything, even stones and twigs.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_03: Because there's life everywhere.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_03: And unfortunately, the karma of our species.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_03: In India, where vegetarianism is common,
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_03: There are an incredible number of birth defects from women
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_03: who are vitamin B deficient and have other vitamin deficiencies.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_03: What do you call it?
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_03: Where the spine is exposed?
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: Bifida.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_03: Spina bifida or bifida.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_03: Really common.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_03: I've seen way too many cases in a small town.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: Most of the women are vegetarian and the men aren't,
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_03: which is
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_03: counterproductive physiologically where women
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_03: of menstruating age often need greater nutrition and especially if they're going
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_03: to be having childbirth or nursing.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_03: If you are in a Situation both internally and externally that you can be vegetarian,
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_03: that is better.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_03: If you can source the meat you eat
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_03: from places that have treated the animals well,
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_03: that's also good.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_03: Personally,
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_03: although I eat meat,
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_03: having gone anemic too damn many times,
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_03: trying it not,
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_03: I avoid things from chicken farms because I know how they treat those poor things.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_03: So pasture-raised eggs.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I do eat pasture raised chicken and wild caught fish and humanely farmed meat,
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_03: grass fed, pasture raised, which is the kindest I can be with my metabolism.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a personal choice.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_03: If you can be vegetarian, go for it.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_03: But be careful of being vegetarian while In your childbearing years
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_03: for women,
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_03: do get checked for anemia.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_03: Do take the necessary supplements, especially if you are considering pregnancy.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_03: We are evolved as omnivores.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_03: And even in those cultures that have been vegetarian for centuries,
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_03: There are still untoward side effects from it,
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: especially among the women of childbearing years.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_03: And that's about the best answer I can give on that.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_03: If you do choose to be vegetarian,
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_03: get your bloods checked occasionally and make sure you're taking
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_03: the proper supplements or balancing your diet in a proper way that works
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_03: for your personal genetics.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_03: Vegan is even better.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_03: But make sure, get your bloods checked, make sure things are running properly for you.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_03: When you're young,
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_03: you have so damn many reserves that effect can creep up on you
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_03: and you won't notice it in how you feel until it's rather serious.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_03: Maintain your health because this is your vehicle on the path.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_01: Could you explain why you emphasize Gewa instead of Sonam?
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_03: Sonam translates as merit.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_03: Sonam is seeing the
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_03: beneficial actions as bits.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas I see them as waves.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I have never liked that word, even in Tibetan very much.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's more limiting and Gawa is easier to see as waves of activity that radiate outward.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_03: Ways of openness, relaxation.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_03: That radiate outward from the doer to all the recipients and reflect back.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_03: And create a wave of Gewa in the universe.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_03: Sonam, it's more like you might collect a whole bunch.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_03: And although, and count them.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just not quite Tibetan enough to count.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_03: Although whenever I'm doing Korah, the Tibetans ask me of how many did you do?
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_03: And I never have any idea because I meditate while I do Korah.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_03: I don't count.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'm either immersed in a mantra with a slight visualization or I'm doing prayers
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_03: or I'm just meditating Dzogchen.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not counting how many times I walked around the lake.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_03: But for Tibetans, it's very important to count.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_03: So they know they did something.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_03: If you need to keep track and know you did something, then think of them as Sone.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_03: And see if you can create,
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_03: not amass, a big pile of them filling the universe benefiting all sentient beings.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_03: If you would prefer to think of them as Gewa,
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_03: Think of it as waves of relaxation and open-hearted,
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_03: great-heartedness that radiates outward and reverberates backwards and changes
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_03: the tone, the sound tone of the universe slightly.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_03: And if you've been reading the news lately, it needs that.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, does it need that.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, it also needs a mountain of Sonam piled on it.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_01: Could you explain a little more about the path of Zogchen in our lineage?
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like,
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_01: after the introduction to the nature of mind comes meditating while thinking and
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_01: then working with emotions and outer russian?
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_01: Can one practice just meditating while thinking alone?
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, one might be able to do that and have it go all the way.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_03: One might, another might not.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_03: So there is still method.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_03: If you see the nature of your mind truly as it is, Unequivocally.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_03: It never goes away.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't come and go.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's not moving.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_03: And you have no problem meditating while thinking, while not thinking, while shitting.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_03: And it's all exactly as it is, and there's nothing more to be done.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_03: But if you get stuck anywhere, we do have methods.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_03: Such as working with emotions, if that's where you're getting stuck.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_03: Such as purifying the emotional chakras if that's where you're getting stuck.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_03: All the different ruchens.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_03: If you keep doing and you can't find the true not doing of utter relaxation,
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_03: we have a method to help you over that.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_03: If you're fine with thoughts but you keep getting tripped up when you get upset,
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_03: We have something to help you with that.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_03: If you keep believing your thoughts,
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_03: no matter how much you see this and know this,
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_03: nonetheless,
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_03: they catch you up and carry you away and you're distracted again in the middle of
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_03: a fantasy and it all seems real.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_03: If that's a problem for you, we have something to help with that.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_03: These are top method.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_03: But they are not necessary unless you get stuck in the place that requires
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_03: that particular method to pry you loose.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_01: Along the lines of the inquiry upon asking who is the watcher, feeler,
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_01: thinker,
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: etc., a great space opens, but at the same time, the old reified sense of I appears.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_01: How to proceed from here?
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_03: Notice that you are that space.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_03: Not you see that space.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_03: You are that space.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_03: Next.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_01: Could you tell us a bit more about Chogchen, please?
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_01: I find Chogchen hard to grasp and think it might suit me better.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_03: It might very well.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_03: Chogchen is a more linear path.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_03: Dzogchen dumps you in at the deep end, and you either swim or you don't swim.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're drowning in this way or that way, they've got different kinds of life preservers.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_03: They will toss you if it happens, but they dump you in first.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_03: With Dzogchen, you are given a nice introduction, and you begin with sine, with an object.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_03: If you all like,
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_03: and you send in a request for a Mahamudra,
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_03: Teaching online like this, that can be done.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_03: It may have been done recently,
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_03: but it can always be done again if we get enough requests for it.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_03: So feel free to send requests to Jan,
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_03: Jan Owen at JanOwenChico at gmail.com
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_03: for requests for upcoming teachings.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_03: To go too far into Mahamudra right now
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_03: would perhaps be confusing since we're in
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_03: the middle of Maha'ati and the beginning stages at least are quite different.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_03: But if you wish to practice Mahamudra, go get a pebble the size of the end of your thumb.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_03: It should be a most uninteresting pebble.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so don't get something fancy or that attracts you.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_03: Get a really ordinary little pebble.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_03: Smooth pebbles are a little easier than rough pebbles, little river-washed pebble.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_03: I usually hand them out when I'm teaching in person.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_03: Sitting with your channels in alignment,
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_03: Place the pebble where your gaze naturally falls
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_03: and focus your visual
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_03: and your attention on the pebble and keep it there.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's the first step.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_03: Very easy how to understand.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_03: Some interesting things will occur over a few weeks.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_03: Of resting down with the pebble.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_03: You see, the pebble isn't going to do anything.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_03: But your mind will.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_03: And it will teach you a great deal
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_03: about how it does that.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're thinking of beginning Mahamudra, get yourself a pebble.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_01: I have troubles understanding how a thing like gravity, in your example, isn't real.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_01: Is it not real because it only exists when I perceive it?
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_03: It is an interaction, not a thing.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_03: Gravity is an interaction between mass and the space it's in.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_03: We'll read some of the physics on gravitation theory.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_03: And there's no such thing as gravity.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_03: It's an interaction between things.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_03: Matter and space.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_03: It is named the law of gravity.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_03: On this planet, it has a certain...
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_03: Speed of falling.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_03: Speed's not the word I want.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_03: Velocity.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_03: Where you fall at a certain rate which continually increases as you get closer to
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_03: the object, but it's an interaction between matter and space.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_03: And if you examine quantum physics, you will find out that matter doesn't exist either.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_03: So no, I'm just talking pure physics.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_03: None of that's real.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_03: Physics is fun.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_03: If you like to play with your intellect and you're tired of reading Dharma texts,
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_03: go read quantum physics.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_03: Delightful.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_03: Daily Lama's got some interesting comments out there on quantum physics.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_01: Could you speak about the blessing of the guru being helpful at perceiving
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_01: the mind's true nature?
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_03: Well,
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_03: if you don't trust someone enough to look where they're pointing and put a good bit
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_03: of effort into it, you'll never get there.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_03: You won't really actually do the practice because you're not going to do it
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_03: if you don't know if it works or not.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_03: You actually have to believe it works or at least that it's got a good chance
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_03: of working on you for you to give it a good old college try.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_03: For you to try hard and allow that to flip over into not trying at all,
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_03: which is effortless, but not without.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_03: But for you to even look where someone is pointing,
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_03: you've got to trust them to be not pointing you in a dangerous or stupid direction.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah?
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_03: Guru Yoga.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_03: Especially as some of the pointing over time goes against some
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_03: of your self-survival, self-preservation instincts.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_03: And if you don't trust the person holding your hand,
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_03: you're not going to walk out on that bridge.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's far down there.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_03: So without trust in the teacher and without trust in the teachings and the lineage,
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_03: you're not going to practice it.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_03: And if you don't practice it, it's not gonna work.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_03: And if you practice it half-assed, it's not gonna work.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_03: And you think maybe it's real and maybe it isn't and I'll give it a little try and see.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_03: You know,
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_03: that's fine in the beginning,
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_03: but eventually you're gonna have to give over the half-assedness of that and go
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_03: for it.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_03: You're not gonna do that without trust.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_01: How can I relax?
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_03: Try getting really, really tired and then trying it.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like go chop some wood.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_03: Or if you don't have wood chopping, go dig a hole and then fill it in.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_03: Or mow your neighbor's lawn with a push mower.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_03: Do something kind for someone else that gets you physically really, really tired.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_03: But not so much mental tired.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm talking not about intense computer work.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_03: Full-on physical work.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_03: Get the body tired while the mind still has some non-exhaustion and the body is tired.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then try it.
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you just get the mind tired, you'll fall asleep.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_03: Get the body tired.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then sit down with your channels in alignment and relax.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_01: Next.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_01: Is it okay to never have questions?
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_03: Questions many people do, but some people don't.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_03: They just go do the practice.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_03: That's fine.
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_01: How should we balance working with our mind,
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_01: for example,
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_01: overcoming mental health issues, And leaving the mind alone as in Dzogchen practice.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_03: Take your meds.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_03: Practice goes with the meds when you have a chemical imbalance
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_03: and most mental health issues are a chemical imbalance.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_03: Not all, but even PTSD creates a chemical imbalance.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_03: You can use Western modalities
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_03: and definitely use meds as necessary.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_03: You'd be surprised the number of tulkus,
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_03: great llamas,
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_03: who are born in families that have a genetic chemical imbalance that runs through
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_03: the family.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_03: And have to take medications in order to function properly and practice properly
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_03: to repair the genetic imbalance.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's a karmic thing.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_03: It happens.
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_03: More than you expect.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_03: Take some form of antidepressant.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_03: So...
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_03: Your meds are not bad.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_03: Leave the bind alone is the one Western modality that won't work well
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_03: with Zogchen is Freudian analysis.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_03: But I believe that's gone out of style.
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_03: You can do EMDR.
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_03: You can do some of the more, what is that method?
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_03: Nyando, do you know the name of it?
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_03: Cognitive therapy?
• 1:09:40
  SPEAKER_03: Cognitive therapy works great with Zogchen, actually, at no distress.
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_03: And most antidepressants do not interfere with Zogchen practice.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's the best answer I can give you.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_03: There are certain retreats at certain times that you should not be doing
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_03: when suffering from certain mental illnesses because they are likely
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_03: to aggravate them.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_03: So if you are considering doing a retreat with me
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_03: and you have a mental problem
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_03: that is active, please discuss it with me privately.
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_03: Before undertaking the retreat, privately means by email.
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_03: And that was just a safety issue,
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_03: because there's a couple of particular things that don't go with a couple
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_03: of particular practices,
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_03: but I don't want to go into a whole public blah blah on that.
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_03: Dzogchen doesn't do well with Freudian analysis.
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_03: They kind of go in such opposite directions that for many people,
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_03: doing both at once are confusing.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_03: Not necessarily for everybody,
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_03: but if you are doing both at once and it's confusing you, don't be too surprised.
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_03: And if it's not, that's great.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_03: Next.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Is resting in the nature of mind meant to feel very plain and ordinary?
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes experiences of bliss,
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_03: clarity,
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_03: grumpiness,
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_03: all this arises and passes and you just rest in the nature of mind in
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_03: an ordinary way with it all.
• 1:11:48
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, it's pretty ordinary.
• 1:11:53
  SPEAKER_03: But quite extraordinary also.
• 1:11:57
  SPEAKER_03: It actually won't fit into categories.
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_03: Of ordinary and extraordinary.
• 1:12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Next, can you please explain about luminosity?
• 1:12:14
  SPEAKER_03: Luminosity is a word in the English language.
• 1:12:21
  SPEAKER_03: What we are actually talking about is ocell,
• 1:12:29
  SPEAKER_03: clear light.
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_03: The radiance of awareness.
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_03: Tibetans are a visual culture.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_03: This is why the word awareness, Rigpa, is literally the word see-er.
• 1:12:52
  SPEAKER_03: Rig is the verb to see.
• 1:13:02
  SPEAKER_03: Functions as the ER suffix.
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_03: So awareness is see-er.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_03: When there is no light, the see-er cannot see
• 1:13:18
  SPEAKER_03: in the pitch dark.
• 1:13:22
  SPEAKER_03: And yet the perceiver of mind,
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_03: mind itself is able to perceive phenomena, thoughts, feelings, and stuff.
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_03: So the symbol of that ability to have experiences of natural mind is light by which
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_03: the seer sees.
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_03: Radiance, luminosity.
• 1:13:53
  SPEAKER_03: It is Sambhogakaya vitality.
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's the difference between Dharmakaya being a big old dead void with nothing in it,
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_03: nothing happening,
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_03: never ever,
• 1:14:07
  SPEAKER_03: no life,
• 1:14:08
  SPEAKER_03: dead, dead universe, which is not the case, obviously,
• 1:14:16
  SPEAKER_03: and this innately vital
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_03: Dance of stillness that we all are.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_03: That vitality that pervades everything is called the clear light nature
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_03: of Dharmakaya and is often referred to as the luminosity of emptiness.
• 1:14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Next.
• 1:14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Could you please give a brief definition of trection?
• 1:14:53
  SPEAKER_01: What it is?
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Cutting through.
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's the meditation which cuts through the crap.
• 1:15:07
  SPEAKER_03: It cuts through that which binds the moments together into a linear is-is and isn'ts
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_03: of phenomena.
• 1:15:19
  SPEAKER_03: It cuts through karmic formations, neuroses.
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_03: Traction, cutting through.
• 1:15:29
  SPEAKER_03: Next.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Why is physical alignment so important?
• 1:15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Spontaneous contemplation in a hammock happens a lot living in the Mexican coast.
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yes it does and that is fine too.
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_03: However, to make it easier for most people,
• 1:15:51
  SPEAKER_03: we begin with alignment.
• 1:15:53
  SPEAKER_03: You see, the thoughts ride on the qi.
• 1:15:58
  SPEAKER_03: The qi flows in the channels.
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_03: The channels have pagcha, cricks, karmic formations stuck in them.
• 1:16:08
  SPEAKER_03: When the qi passes over those cricks,
• 1:16:14
  SPEAKER_03: You experience certain sensations of the six categories,
• 1:16:20
  SPEAKER_03: such as pride, jealousy, overthinking, selfishness, desire, and fear, hatred.
• 1:16:31
  SPEAKER_03: These are categories.
• 1:16:35
  SPEAKER_03: So they're very distracting until you're good at it.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_03: So you sit with your channels in alignment to minimize the internal distractions of
• 1:16:49
  SPEAKER_03: the chi whistling over the cricks in your channels.
• 1:16:55
  SPEAKER_03: Just as you often take a deep breath in through your nose and slowly out
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_03: through your mouth to slow and settle the chi because it makes it easier.
• 1:17:06
  SPEAKER_03: But once it's easy for you anyway, it Doesn't matter what arises.
• 1:17:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's all the play of the Dharmakaya, so sit any which way, and if it whistles, who cares?
• 1:17:25
  SPEAKER_03: But if you find yourself distracted by the five poisons or overthinking,
• 1:17:34
  SPEAKER_03: can't shut up, then align yourself again
• 1:17:42
  SPEAKER_03: And settle that way.
• 1:17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Next.
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Letting go is not something I can do, but it happens by itself, almost by grace.
• 1:17:56
  SPEAKER_01: How can I invite that kind of grace to occur?
• 1:18:00
  SPEAKER_03: Under what circumstances does it occur?
• 1:18:05
  SPEAKER_03: Invite those circumstances.
• 1:18:11
  SPEAKER_03: Perhaps when you are tired.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_03: Perhaps when you are not tired.
• 1:18:14
  SPEAKER_03: Perhaps when you are sitting on the deck or in the garden.
• 1:18:19
  SPEAKER_03: Perhaps when you are in your library.
• 1:18:24
  SPEAKER_03: What do the moments in which that grace arises for you have in common?
• 1:18:32
  SPEAKER_03: By returning to those commonalities, you might encourage it.
• 1:18:42
  SPEAKER_03: Also, no, let me leave it there.
• 1:18:47
  SPEAKER_03: Leave it there for now.
• 1:18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Next, can you tell us about Ghana Chakra?
• 1:18:56
  SPEAKER_03: No, I don't know what you're talking about.
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_03: Ghana.
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_01: G-A-N-A Chakra, all one word.
• 1:19:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, that doesn't ring a bell to me.
• 1:19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Try another descriptive word for it and ask again.
• 1:19:13
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 1:19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Can resting in the basic nature feel like ignoring or withdrawing from the external world?
• 1:19:22
  SPEAKER_03: Not if you're doing it right.
• 1:19:24
  SPEAKER_03: That would be resting in stillness,
• 1:19:31
  SPEAKER_03: which is only part of the true nature.
• 1:19:36
  SPEAKER_03: For example, if this paper As an analogy, is the true nature of mind of reality.
• 1:19:46
  SPEAKER_03: One side is blank, but that's not the totality of the piece of paper.
• 1:19:52
  SPEAKER_03: The other side has writing, but that's not the totality of the piece of paper.
• 1:20:01
  SPEAKER_03: You see, both.
• 1:20:08
  SPEAKER_03: So if you are withdrawing, you're getting caught in stillness.
• 1:20:13
  SPEAKER_03: This is Dzogchen, not Mahamudra, where you do spend a time withdrawn and caught in stillness.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_03: Conversely,
• 1:20:23
  SPEAKER_03: if you are over distracted,
• 1:20:25
  SPEAKER_03: if all your paper is full of writing,
• 1:20:28
  SPEAKER_03: then you do need to withdraw a bit to leave your home and family to go find
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_03: a hermitage.
• 1:20:36
  SPEAKER_03: Where you can focus your attention on this.
• 1:20:41
  SPEAKER_03: That's not forever.
• 1:20:43
  SPEAKER_03: That's to get past the stage of over-distraction.
• 1:20:51
  SPEAKER_03: We also have to come out of that retreat eventually and get past the stage of under-distraction.
• 1:20:59
  SPEAKER_03: Middle way, all the way.
• 1:21:04
  SPEAKER_03: Nonetheless, if you suffer from over-distraction, retreat is useful.
• 1:21:15
  SPEAKER_03: If you've gotten all high and realized in retreat,
• 1:21:18
  SPEAKER_03: you'd better come out and drive test it in reality.
• 1:21:26
  SPEAKER_03: It'll wear off.
• 1:21:30
  SPEAKER_03: And you'll be fighting with your wife again.
• 1:21:34
  SPEAKER_03: Next question.
• 1:21:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's a clarification.
• 1:21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Ganad Chakra is Sok in Tibet.
• 1:21:44
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 1:21:45
  SPEAKER_03: I thought you were talking about a chakra.
• 1:21:46
  SPEAKER_03: It's spelled completely differently in Tibetan.
• 1:21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I wasn't.
• 1:21:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's okay because we're typing in English.
• 1:21:55
  SPEAKER_03: That's Sok.
• 1:21:55
  SPEAKER_03: That's an offering puja where you gather together wonderful things and you offer them...
• 1:22:04
  SPEAKER_03: To symbolically to the symbols of Sambhogakaya.
• 1:22:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure what you want me to say about it.
• 1:22:15
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not going to teach you how to do one right now.
• 1:22:20
  SPEAKER_03: But there are many that occur here and there.
• 1:22:24
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody must have them online at times on the Traditionally,
• 1:22:28
  SPEAKER_03: we do a Guru Rinpoche sock on the 15th of the month.
• 1:22:32
  SPEAKER_03: This is Tibetan calendar, so full moon.
• 1:22:35
  SPEAKER_03: And new moon, we do a Tara sock on the 8th, like a Dakini sock.
• 1:22:41
  SPEAKER_03: And we generally do Chud as a sock feast on the dark of the moon.
• 1:22:47
  SPEAKER_03: So someone may be doing this online, either as a group or otherwise.
• 1:22:53
  SPEAKER_03: And if you are interested, you should try to find them.
• 1:23:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, there are more questions.
• 1:23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Have you done or do you recommend doing a dark retreat?
• 1:23:10
  SPEAKER_03: For some people, sometimes I recommend that under certain circumstances.
• 1:23:19
  SPEAKER_03: I myself have never had the karma to be able to actualize that,
• 1:23:25
  SPEAKER_03: although I would like to, but it requires quite a commitment of time.
• 1:23:30
  SPEAKER_03: Couple of months.
• 1:23:33
  SPEAKER_03: And a very specific place.
• 1:23:35
  SPEAKER_03: I know where some of the places are, but I don't know where I can get away with that much time.
• 1:23:43
  SPEAKER_03: At this time.
• 1:23:45
  SPEAKER_03: Back in the day when I had the time, I didn't have the place.
• 1:23:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I have not had that fortune.
• 1:23:53
  SPEAKER_03: And do not therefore teach how to do it.
• 1:23:56
  SPEAKER_03: But they do exist here and thereabouts.
• 1:24:00
  SPEAKER_03: One more question.
• 1:24:09
  SPEAKER_01: If we practice the six nails of tilopa, is that effectively the same as treksha?
• 1:24:19
  SPEAKER_03: The six nails of tilopa
• 1:24:24
  SPEAKER_03: are instructions that go with treksha.
• 1:24:30
  SPEAKER_03: But they are not designed to be instead of.
• 1:24:39
  SPEAKER_03: They are adjunct.
• 1:24:42
  SPEAKER_03: They are an advanced practice where you already need to be capable for those to work
• 1:24:51
  SPEAKER_03: of at least glimpsing clearly nature of mind as it is.
• 1:24:58
  SPEAKER_03: Otherwise,
• 1:25:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's too easy to take those in a context which is not a context of Dzogchen Chagchen
• 1:25:12
  SPEAKER_03: and they won't work out of context.
• 1:25:19
  SPEAKER_03: True of most teachings actually, they require a certain context to be effective.
• 1:25:25
  SPEAKER_03: Teachings are antidotes.
• 1:25:28
  SPEAKER_03: Methods to antidote certain bumps that arise on your path,
• 1:25:34
  SPEAKER_03: how to climb over that fence,
• 1:25:39
  SPEAKER_03: how to get across that river where there's stepping stones or a ford or a bridge.
• 1:25:48
  SPEAKER_03: So the instructions of how to get across the river is not all that effective
• 1:25:56
  SPEAKER_03: for getting over a fallen tree.
• 1:26:00
  SPEAKER_02: On a path.
• 1:26:03
  SPEAKER_03: Context.
• 1:26:04
  SPEAKER_03: Context is everything in all the teachings.
• 1:26:08
  SPEAKER_03: And teachings out of context can even do harm.
• 1:26:19
  SPEAKER_03: Because someone will practice, if you take a medicine and you are not ill,
• 1:26:29
  SPEAKER_03: If you take antibiotics,
• 1:26:32
  SPEAKER_03: antibacterial medicine for a virus illness,
• 1:26:37
  SPEAKER_03: all you're going to do is disturb your digestion and your biome
• 1:26:42
  SPEAKER_03: and cause digestive illnesses.
• 1:26:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's not going to affect the viral illness.
• 1:26:51
  SPEAKER_03: Practices are medicines.
• 1:26:56
  SPEAKER_03: Certain practices, like in Sutrayana, are like vitamins.
• 1:27:03
  SPEAKER_03: Probably good for you and very unlikely to do any harm.
• 1:27:07
  SPEAKER_03: Go ahead, take them.
• 1:27:10
  SPEAKER_03: Once we get into Tantra, we start needing more specific illnesses for the prescriptions.
• 1:27:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's it for today.
• 1:27:25
  SPEAKER_03: Go practice.
• 1:27:28
  SPEAKER_03: Go find your mind.
• 1:27:57
  SPEAKER_03: I know when I'm done is when my voice starts making that noise.
• 1:28:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'll see you all tomorrow, same time, same place.