Latest / Lama Lena Teachings / [17/25] The Flight of the Garuda — Session 15 (Oct 2021)

Transcript

[17/25] The Flight of the Garuda — Session 15 (Oct 2021) · Lama Lena Teachings

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Are we live?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are live now.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sorry guys, I'm moving a little slow this morning.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's cold here.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: But be welcome to Flight of the Garuda.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Let's find where we are.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see if I marked a page.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're up to part 15.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: We're on 15?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And did you put your microphone up?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I did not.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, somewhere in here should be a part 15 marked.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Some days are slower than others.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Time is like that.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: What, y'all think that all hours are the same length just because
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: a little machine tells you it's an hour?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: And did we have hours before we had clocks?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: We made up hours, us homo sapiens.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: They're not real.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're all in your mind.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: ... ... ... ... ...
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: .
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: .
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: .
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: .
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Ochen Lama Namla Soluadev.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Dhruchen Lama Namla Soluadev.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Kaginwari Lama Namla Soluadev.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sakya Lama Namla Soluadev.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: .
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: .
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: .
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: .
• 3:37
  [music]
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: That last bit was written by Zigar Kenpo Chuchong,
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: one of Rinpoche's heart teachers,
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: the one who sent him to Jang Chu Dorje, the one who was his mentor.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: As he was growing up.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Very beautiful.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: A review of 14.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is about sensations of the six sense organs.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: When you touch something with your hands, you think, How rough.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: How smooth.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: When you taste something with your mouth, you think,
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: oh, that's good.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Or you think, oh, forgot to put cream in my coffee.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's not the case today, but,
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: you know, it could be.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I have to reassure my control that no, my coffee is perfect.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: When you smell something with your nose, smell the air.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: How is it there?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Fresh spring, fall?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it'll rain.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Smell your pits.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: How is that?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Different, huh?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you judge it.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: You have ideas about it.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: You have feelings not about the sensation, but about the idea of the sensation.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: You either like or dislike the flavor of coffee.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: If you like it,
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you dislike it, your
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: talking to yourself about it will be different.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: You will think, I don't like that.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: You will think that's bitter.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Or that's sweet.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Too sweet.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: You will have these thoughts and your feelings will be about the thoughts.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: All of these three things together,
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: sensation,
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: story, feeling, make up a perception, a row of perceptions together.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Each slightly different from the next make up an experience.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: You.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Person.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: John.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sandra.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: You.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: How have you become who you are, your personality, your entire character?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you like it or you don't, how'd it get there?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: You grew into it from experiences.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you made them up.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like time.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Not real.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Not independently existing.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Look at something you consider beautiful.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: This fine mandala on the altar.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: The Tonka's behind.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Look at something you consider ugly.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: I really need to prune that rose bush.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: See the thought, but I don't want to.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: See the next thought.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you have a feeling of attraction to the thing you like and aversion to
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: the thing you don't like.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so you perform mental and physical deeds.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: You either prune the rose bush or you do not prune the rose bush and
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: then beat yourself up for being lazy.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Experiences, they change you.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: It is important to intellectually understand how you do this and then
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: feel how you do this.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Intellect is in thought.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: Feeling is in feelings.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: See, perceive with your Yi, your mind, how you do this.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's in perceptions.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Let knowing this become an experience rather than an isolated intellectual phenomena.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: We seem to be going backwards.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Mental sensations.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine something you really want to happen happens.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine something you really don't want to happen happens.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Feel the mental sensation of happy and sad that go with these imagined occurrences.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Since all occurrences are imagined,
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: They're interpretations of sensation by thought and feelings around the thoughts.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Happy, sad sensations of the Yi.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: All of these sensations
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Arise in mind and dissolve in mind and never were made of anything other than mind.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Notice this.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: Gut level notice it.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just think it.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thinking it's just another story.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Feel it.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Perceive it.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Let it become a frequent experience by thinking it,
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: feeling it, and perceiving it again and again.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Notice it repeatedly.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: How you spin your, quote, reality.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Synopsis of 14.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: And moving on to 15.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Emma Ho, listen attentively, my noble sons and daughters.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna need my glasses.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Nyanda, would you grab a pair of reading glasses from the house?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: There's supposed to be one here that my hand comes upon.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Only it's not doing that.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: They've either sunk so far down, I'll never find them until I clean out that bag.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Not a Virgo guy, sorry.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Again, listen attentively, my noble sons and daughters, relax.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Let yourself be at rest in the free space of mind's original nature.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Align your channels.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Relax your muscles.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Relax the gaze of your eyeballs out of your habitual point focus.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's one of those days.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Either my text shrunk or my eyes are tired.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's much better.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Gazing into this mind at rest.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Abide in the infinite space of total presence.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Don't do anything.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Don't fix anything.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Don't change anything.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Don't improve anything.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Don't grasp anything.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Don't reject anything.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Relax and leave it be as it is.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Just this moment right now,
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: this very here and now in this time-space continuum,
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: as you move through the time-space continuum,
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: occupying moment by moment, the next moment ain't here yet.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Past one's all gone.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Relax into this one.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, again into this one and this very one as well.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's a dynamic balance.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's not static.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: For within all the here's and now's, occurrences occur.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Sensations arise.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thoughts arise.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Feelings arise.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Leave them be as they are.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Let them do that.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: They all,
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: by their own nature,
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: not from you having to poke at them, Have absolutely no substance, no weight.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Nor do they have any duration.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's your action that sticks them together.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Leading one after the other, making a thought chain, nam talk.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Leave them be nam.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Don't talk them.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Just this right now, relax.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Don't point at it like a bird dog.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Slide into it like a soft bed.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Leave it as it is.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Know therefore,
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: beloved children of my heart,
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: That a quiescent mind is an empty mind in a state of total presence.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And the thoughts have perfect ability to arise in emptiness as emptiness.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: You do not have to perform the chore of accepting or rejecting them.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: You do not have to perform the chore of hooking them together Into coherent ideas
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: in your language.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Leave it be.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing there.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And everything there and everything itself is from its own side,
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: not because you do something to it, is naturally empty.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: It cannot not be that.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: A thought cannot become weighing a kilo or an ounce.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: A thought cannot last for more than a moment.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: If you've ever done shine,
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: resting in stillness, you will have noticed just how fast they arise and vanish.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you have done the Inner Body Ruchen,
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: the Pointing Out Retreat, you will also have noticed this.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: When you focus your attention on the thoughts and connect them together
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: into stories, the stories appear to have duration.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: But just as a string of beads contains individual beads,
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Just as a wave of water has little water molecules bumping into each other,
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: sending the waveness rolling into the shore without the molecules moving more
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: than their own width.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: And a hydrogen atom with two oxygen atoms stuck to it is not very big.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: What rolls into shore is the movement, not the water.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Go sit by a still pond.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Throw a pebble in.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Watch how the ripples appear to move.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: And yet the water does not move.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thoughts are like that.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot keep one.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: Try it.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Hold that thought.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Look at it wiggle.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: See how it changes?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: How you're thinking many, many, many, many, many thoughts about holding that thought.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot, even if you try, with your full intensity, make a thought hold up a cup of coffee.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: A hand can.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm imagining a hand there.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not letting go.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Not of my coffee.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to fix your thoughts and make them empty.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to fix your thoughts and make them go away.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: The same for feelings and perceptions.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing wrong with them.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: They are empty.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: How can emptiness bother you?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Such is my introduction, initiating recognition of quiescence as an adornment of mind.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Mind itself.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Infinite, open, and empty.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: As far as your imagination extends,
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: your mind extends into the past,
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: into the future,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: into the east, into the west, into the south, into the north, above and below.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: You can imagine many things in all those directions.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine the Percy's arm of our Milky Way.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's quite some distance away.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine the edge of the Milky Way.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine standing far from the local group of galaxies that orbit a still point
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: and watching them swing around.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Go further,
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: imagine all of these little local groups
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: of galaxies surrounding their own still points,
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: orbiting a greater still point in the greater universe.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Keep going.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: You see, mind is infinite.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: As far as your imagination extends, your mind extends.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: As far as your mind extends, Dharmakaya extends.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Infinite open awareness, it's not just a big dead old nothing.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's alive.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: It thinks, feels, perceives.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: It can't stop, except temporarily.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: It is lucid and luminous with what we call clear light nature because it is light by
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: which a seer sees in the pitch dark.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: You can't see nothing.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, light is the symbol of awareness, infinite open awareness, you.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you too, all of us.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Not my mind or your mind because you and I, we interact.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: You guys send me emails, you join groups and we talk.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: We interact.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Your interaction changes me.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: My interaction changes you.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: We are not separate.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: We're little nodes in a great web, interconnected throughout time and space.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Notice this.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just think about it, feel it.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just feel about it, perceive it.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: When you think, feel, and perceive together, create the experience of this and make it a habit.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: It will free you.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: As it will change you from a grasping,
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: fleeing animal
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: totally caught up in their imaginary world
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: to one who relaxes
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: beyond time and space.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: This is just the instruction manual.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Y'all need, y'all got born with a mind and no instruction manual for it.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: This has been a problem, hasn't it?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: You kind of did random things to it.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: And some of them worked and some of them didn't.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: But think how nice it is to have an instruction manual for how to work with it.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Which basically says in these words and that words, in other words and many words, Relax.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Stop grabbing and shoving at stuff.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Stop chasing stories that you're making up.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Stop running from other stories that you're making up.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Relax.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: This relaxation, which is the union of emptiness and bodhicitta.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because bodhicitta is utterly natural when you recognize that utter interconnectedness.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: You could no more harm another than you could stick your right hand in a fire.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: It would hurt.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: You notice this.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's innate.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Why do we not experience it?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because we are too busy point focusing on our personal hopes and fears.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Look at mind with mind.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Infinitely open.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Not a big dead old nothing.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Alive and luminous with awareness.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: And that very awareness gives birth to the creativity which creates in nothing
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: as nothing,
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: in emptiness as emptiness,
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: without substance or duration, infinite thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: The law by which what is created next?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Is called karma.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's a natural law of how it all works.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: Got nothing to do with good or bad.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Any more than gravity has to do with good or bad.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: A good man falls off a cliff and an evil man falls off a cliff.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Together.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: They both hit the bottom at the same time and just as hard.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: Makes no nevermind.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: Karma.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a judgment.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: We all have infinite karma because we have lived in pursuit of our hopes and fears,
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: grasping and rejecting time and time again from beginningless time.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: In the doing of all those deeds,
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Gawa and Digpa, deeds which are beneficial, And deeds which are
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: non-beneficial.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: In all the doing of that, in infinite time, infinite amounts of karma has been created.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: If what comes up for you is a negative result, you are not a worse person.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you are stricken by poverty, sick,
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: unlucky,
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: than if you have everything going your way at the moment,
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: wealthy, healthy, blonde and thin even, whatever.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Paris Hilton has a lot of suffering.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: No matter how thin, blonde, wealthy, and healthy she is.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Do notice, y'all.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Do not blame people for their negative karma.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: There's no fault here.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's no entities here.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's interconnected.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: Just nodes.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Consider this.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: Then as thought moves through the mind,
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: the thoughts that arise and vanish spontaneously, observe how it is manifest.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: It moves not the slightest degree out of the space of empty radiant total presence.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: Notice this.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: While thinking.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Notice it often because it's always like that.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Know therefore that an active mind is still an empty mind.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: The activity arises in total stillness as stillness.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: The stillness is vital and alive with the potential for activity which occurs.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing occurs.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: No thing occurs.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: Such is my introduction, initiating recognition of the movement of mind as its play.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's all it really is, the play of the Dharmakaya.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Chukurolpa.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Play of the Dharmakaya.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: Innately, this empty, open awareness is playful.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you were here yesterday, I talked about the playfulness of Tara.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's natural to mind.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: To play with thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: No matter how large or violent the rolling wave,
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: it cannot escape the ocean, not even for a moment.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: In the same way mind,
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: passive or active,
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: Cannot escape total presence and emptiness to the slightest degree.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to make this so.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's always been so.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's not new.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to do anything to keep it that way.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Just notice it.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's all.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: Again and again at all times and all on all occasions.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Notice the already known dharmakaya nature of mind, gom.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Just notice it frequently.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: If it is quiescent, like in shini, a state of total presence, relax.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: If it is active, whatever arises is the radiance of that total presence itself So relax.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing to get upset about.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: Even the emotion of upsetness is nothing to be disturbed by.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: For it cannot disturb the stillness.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: It is made of stillness.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: It cannot disturb the infinite empty nature of mind in all its vastness,
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: for it is never anything other than that.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: Relax.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Stop trying to fix it.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: Stop trying to get your mind into some other state that you think would be better, happier.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Leave it be.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the way it always has been.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Don't put an overlay of trying on top of this.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just notice it.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: The assertion that the mind is quiescent,
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: that the assertion that the mind in quiescence is in meditation and that
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: the active mind is out of meditation, in and out.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: Session and break signifies failure to understand the inherent emptiness
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: of both quiescence and activity, stillness and movement.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: It indicates that quiescence,
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: movement and total presence,
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: these three are not yet recognized as being fused into one.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: Hence we have something called Chultra Naljor in Mahamudra,
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: which is a way of breaking down Treksha Zogchen into steps for those who prefer
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: to take steps rather than just go in head first and flail around until they get it.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Both work.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Depends on your personality, which is more comfortable.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: Do it the way that's easy for you.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: Why not?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Chultra Naljur, the yoga of dancing stillness.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: Once you have truly determined that all of your thoughts,
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: by your own experience,
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: not because I said so,
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: that all of your thoughts without exception
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: are moving,
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: changing, without substance or duration.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that this is true of your feelings and your sensations.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Once you are clear that everything you perceive or experience is moving,
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: including the experience of stillness or the perception of stillness,
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: Once you know the difference between the moving and the stillness, find the non-difference.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot stabilize a thought, a feeling, or a perception.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you cannot stabilize the idea of tawa, of stillness, of Dharmakaya.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot stabilize the feeling of it.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's moving.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: Feelings are moving.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot stabilize the perception of it.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: Perceptions are moving.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: It itself is inherently stable beyond the movement, containing the movement, as the movement.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore,
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: beloved sons and daughters of my heart,
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: because quiescence and movement are both states of total presence,
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: and because in the past you have fully comprehended both these states separately,
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: now in your existential praxis, what the hell does that mean?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: Existential praxis.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Praxis?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: P-R-A-X-I-S.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: Any idea?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, I thought that was a...
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: Translator swallowed a dictionary.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Practice as a distinguished from theory.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's a good word.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: In your continuing practice of experiencing this,
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Without believing that experiences can be stabilized.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: Condition yourself,
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: the node that thinks it's you,
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: the constantly moving, changing,
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Nirmanakaya manifestation as personality.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: That thing that answers to your name.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Sam.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: Condition that thing,
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: that constantly changing karmic clump,
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: which is inherently empty,
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: being made of thoughts,
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: feelings,
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: and perceptions of the moment,
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: without duration or substance,
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: but nonetheless condition it
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: in the experience of quiescence And movement as
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: the same thing.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: We break here for questions.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: It is important that you understand what has been said here.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: Are there questions?
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: Can we have a train of thoughts while being in total presence?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: Try it and see.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: This has to be your own experience, repeated.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: In the song, when they're talking about total presence, is that Rigpa?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: Rigpa literally means the see-er.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: To rig is to see.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: Rig, the verb.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: Pa acts here grammatically as the ER suffix.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, it is the seer.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: Also known as awareness.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: The seer, the experiencer, the feeler, the thinker.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's not really there.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: Separate from anything else.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: How can we discern the value of thoughts on and off the cushion as emptiness
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: if we have to deal with daily life?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: Just deal.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: While again and again noticing the inherent nature of thoughts,
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: feelings, and perceptions right while you're having them.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: You can wash the dishes while doing that.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to a person.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: Take a walk.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Next time you go to a grocery store,
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: that's out of your natural environment slightly,
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: but something we all do,
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: do this at the grocery store while choosing and selecting your groceries.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: It'll slow you down a little bit at first.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: Do it anyway.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: Give yourself a little extra time for your usual amount of time at the grocery store.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: Not much else to do these days, you know, with COVID and lockdown.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: We're not going to parties.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're all a little bored.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Might as well practice, eh?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're actually all both bored and stressed.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: This helps.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: With both.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us about working with a candle in Dzogchen or Tantra?
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: How do we meditate with the candles?
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the same way you do with a pebble.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's important if you do this that there's no draft.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: You want the flame to be very still.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: And please don't use an electric flame, like an electric candle.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: If it's a plug-in,
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: the 60-cycle second that you cannot consciously perceive is still going
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: to affect your tsa.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's a battery-powered,
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: they're designed to flicker just a little bit in a repeated pattern,
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: and that kind of repeated pattern is going to affect your tsa.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: So use a live flame if you're going to.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: Some people use a little tiny statue.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: I've always liked pebbles because, you see, there's nothing to them.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: They don't take on any great import.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: They're just a pebble, utterly simple.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm a very simple-minded person when I'm not into astrophysics.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: Next.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: There are not too many questions for this section.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, here we go.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something to be said about the point of noticing?
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: Can that be understood more?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: The point?
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: You mean the why?
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: Does it need to be?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is the way the person's put it here.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, have you noticed you're insane?
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: The point of noticing is to lead you to sanity.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you have not noticed you're insane, what the hell are you doing practicing Dharma?
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_01: We cause ourselves suffering with our actions,
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: with our obsessions,
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: with our neuroses,
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: with our foibles, with our eccentricities, and with our normal bits.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: How much of your time do you sell for money?
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_01: You can always get more money.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: You can't get more time.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: And yet you sell at least a third of your time for money.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: People take jobs they hate and stay with them.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of nutty.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_01: Sure,
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_01: you take weird jobs sometimes in strange places because you need the money to get to
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_01: the next place.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: But you don't keep them forever.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: You take them until you find something you like better.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: Unless you are afraid of job hunting.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: In which case, Once you have one, no matter how bad, you cling to it.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: These are the insanities I'm talking about.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: You will have your own.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: We all have some.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: This is the way out.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's the point of practice.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: The way out of suffering.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: Look, all of your suffering is about not getting what you want.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: Or having what you don't want happen to you.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: Or losing what you have.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or fearing
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: that what you don't have is going to get you.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: That you don't want.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: Not being able to get rid of what you don't want.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: Bad job, extra 20 pounds.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: An illness.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: All of your sufferings are involved in your hopes and fears and come from your hopes and fears.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: This cures hope and fear.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hope and fear arise from the oops,
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_01: the primal oops,
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: that everything else and you are inherently existent and separate.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_01: That mistake,
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: that error of perception
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: perpetuates grabbing and shoving desire aversion and
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: the continuous creation of karma.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_01: Every time you grab something and try to get it closer, you're creating karma.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_01: Every time you put effort forth, you create karma.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_01: Every time you try to get away from something you don't want,
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: you create the karma of that something pushing at you.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_01: It just works like that.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the point of this is the end of suffering, very simply.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_01: Next.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that cat wants something,
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_01: but I don't know what.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's just bored.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the question is,
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: it's easier to practice this when everything is going well,
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: but when a strong experience is happening to me,
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: I experience that it was not possible for me.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: What can I do?
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_01: Practice it more when everything's going well until it gets easier and easier.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_01: Begin to practice when there are Not quite so strong experiences and slowly work your way up.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's like skateboarding.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: First, you practice keeping your balance on the level ground.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: Then you practice going up and down slight hills or jumping small curbs.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_01: You don't start practicing those loopies in the beginning.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_01: You start practicing on the gentle stuff and work your way up in skill.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_01: The same.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_01: Don't expect yourself to be able to do loopies the first time you step on a skateboard.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_01: Not going to happen.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_01: You're going to bust your head open.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier you mentioned something about being in the grocery store and that person missed that.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was about noticing in the grocery store.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, next time you're in the grocery store,
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_01: notice the nature of mind
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_01: and the nature of the thoughts that is occurring in mind,
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_01: as well as the feelings and the sensory perceptions.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: Notice how it all arises in infinite open awareness.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: Notice infinite open awareness.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_01: Notice the arisings arise in mind and dissolve in mind without leaving mind.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: First, try it at home on the cushion, the easiest place.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, once you can do that and you can do it while walking around your house,
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: take it out somewhere simple like the grocery store and try it there.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's all.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's a good place to practice because everybody goes to the grocery store.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is it okay if energies coming up and releasing want to move the body in meditation?
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: Resting in stillness seems to release spontaneous movements of release.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_01: If that happens in the beginning, it's okay to release it.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's muscular tension and you're working on it.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_01: But at some point that should complete itself.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, it simply becomes a resistance.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_01: Resting in stillness is easier to do with the channels in alignment and the muscles
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: of the body completely relaxed.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_01: I suspect if you are having this experience that you are paying too much attention
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: to your body, which will cause it to have itches and discomforts.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: You can always find something that itches or hurts.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: Go on right now, all of you.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_01: Pay attention to what your body's...
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_01: I have an itch over here.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't even have noticed it.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's a minor one.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that could be adjusted too.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you can keep wiggling all the time if you focus on physical sensation.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_01: Stop it, you two.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_01: Catfight.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: So...
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_01: You let that out in the beginning,
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_01: maybe the first 10 minutes of a session,
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: but if it keeps happening throughout the session,
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_01: it's some kind of resistance that you're experiencing.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you might try a Vajrasattva practice to see if you can relax or wash
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_01: the chemicals that are causing it out of the muscles,
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_01: that are causing that need for
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_01: Muscle to tense and release.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_01: Other things you can do to help that not happen is a session of half
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: a yoga stretches
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: with muscular contraction and release before you sit down.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because it could be you're just not getting enough exercise these days.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: Next question.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: Is it mind and the content of mind that we should notice?
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_01: The content of mind is made of mind.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_01: You should notice that.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_01: Simple-ness.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_01: Content of mind is not a separate thing from mind.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_01: It is mind.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's what you need to notice.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like that.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_01: All the arisings in mind arise in mind and dissolve in mind with nary
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_01: a one having substance or duration.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: Notice the lack of differentiation between mind and its arising,
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_01: between Dharmakaya Infinite open awareness.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sambhogakaya, the lucidity of that infinite open awareness, which is inherently part of it.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: And nirmanakaya, the creativity of that lucidity, which is inherent to infinite open awareness.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_01: Notice the lack of difference Between mind and the arisings of mind.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: Between stillness and movement.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_01: Eventually, try it in a grocery store once you can do it in easier circumstances.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_01: Eventually, try it while fighting with your spouse.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hardest time, in my experience.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_00: When I try to do this, I never seem to get it right, but sometimes it's just obvious.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_00: How do I find that obvious place without creating more drama?
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: By noting it when it occurs.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: And relaxing into it again and again.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_01: Practice.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a matter of practice.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_01: Anything you're good at.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_01: Are you a musician?
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_01: How much do you practice or have you practiced your instrument?
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_01: Are you an artist?
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_01: How much do you practice drawing?
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_01: Driving?
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_01: Do you drive comfortably, easily?
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember learning to drive and practicing parallel parking?
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_01: Bicycle?
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_01: Remember when the training wheels came off?
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't just get on a bicycle and ride.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_01: You practiced.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_01: Even walking.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_01: Although you may not remember that early.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_01: You practiced.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you fell down a lot.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_01: Before you got good at it.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: Same way you do anything else.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_00: You practice.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_01: You get good at anything else.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_01: You get good at this the same way.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta practice.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_01: Look.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_01: Holding up a word.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_01: Don't read it.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_01: How many of you were able to look at that word successfully without reading it?
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_01: All you well-educated folks.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_01: You can't look at a word, a street sign, or a billboard.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_01: Without reading it, can you?
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_01: How'd that happen?
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you can remember back before you learned to read,
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: when the cat in the hat was hard to sound out.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_01: Or in my generation, Dick, Jane and Sally,
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_01: See Dick run.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_01: Run Dick run.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_01: Spot sees Dick run.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_01: Spot runs.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_01: Remember that one?
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_01: That was hard to read once.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: Easy now, isn't it?
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: How'd that happen?
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now you read whole thick books like this.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: Remember when a book without a picture on every single page was scary?
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_01: Too hard?
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_01: You preferred comics?
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_01: Graphic novels?
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_01: How'd you get that way that you can't not read now?
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_01: How many hours did you put into learning to read?
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sort of figure it.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, a lot of us, we took refuge from the mean kids.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_01: Me at the top of a tree with a book up there.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody ever looks up when they're looking for you, including the bullies.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I climb very well.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_01: Consider how many hours you spent reading before you
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: couldn't not read.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_01: In the same way, put the same hours into meditating until you can't not meditate.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_01: Just like reading.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_01: You can do it.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_01: You learn to read.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_01: You can learn this.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_01: You just got to put some time into it.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_01: Take refuge from difficult situations in practice instead of in a book, perhaps.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_01: I don't mean stop reading altogether and practice instead.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_01: You can't.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_01: You're addicted by now.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_01: But take about half the time you spend reading now,
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_01: or watching TV,
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_01: or whatever your addiction is, YouTube, social media,
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_00: and spend it practicing.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_01: Just half.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_01: Start with half.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_01: Until it becomes even more fun.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_01: A better refuge than a book.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is clarity just a sense organ meeting a sense object with no thoughts?
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_00: What's the difference between this experience and emptiness?
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_01: Clarity
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_01: is when a sense organ is stimulated.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_01: You're assuming there's an object out there.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that it's actually the way you perceive it.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_01: Understand an ant will experience the very same leaf that you're experiencing quite differently.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_01: So your
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_01: experience perception
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_01: is usually
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_01: mix When you see an object,
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_01: that object will be full of connotations and past experiences.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm looking at a throw pillow with little stars on it.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_01: Would you hand me that pillow?
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of my favorites, but every time I look at it,
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think of Lama Kunzang,
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: Karmagyalpo Rinpoche,
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_01: who had a t-shirt in the days when none of us had very much,
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_01: so we all wore the same clothes all the time, that had that pattern.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was dark blue with like white or silver stars on it.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it always makes me think of him.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_01: Every time I just glance at it, Lama Kunzeng's t-shirt comes to mind.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_01: Back in the caves when we were all kids and nobody had nothing
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_01: and everybody was young and practicing and
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_01: nostalgia.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_01: So clarity is the ability to see things without overlaying them.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_01: With assumptions,
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_01: past experiences,
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_01: or rather,
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_01: since that's not going to happen as long as you're a sentient being,
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_01: the ability to perceive things while recognizing that the sensations of
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_01: the sense organs Combined with the stories dependent on past experiences,
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_01: create the perception about which you have feelings to create the experience.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_01: And when you see natural mind and you see that happening in natural mind
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_01: as natural mind without reality or substance,
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_01: without substance or duration,
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_01: then you are able to perceive clearly.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the stories have no weight.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: They never did.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot reach clarity
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_01: to my experience other than through this method.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_01: Although you can temporarily experience a sensation of it
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_01: by successfully doing working with emotions practice in extreme states of anger
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_01: or fear.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_01: Those will often arise as an experience of clarity.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_01: And no, I cannot describe it really in words for you.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it happens to normal people, like if somebody shoots at you and misses.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_01: You see the barrel of the gun.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_01: You see they're aiming right for you.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_01: They pull the trigger.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_01: You hear the bang.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know you're dead.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_01: And they miss.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_01: At which point you have time to duck.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's often arising an experience which is like the reflection of the moon
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_01: in mud puddle compared to real clarity.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_01: But you can sort of get an inkling that way.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't recommend you go out and have people shoot at you.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_01: It'll happen of its own accord anyway.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_01: This is America.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_00: Next question.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_01: Americans are going crazy.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_00: Meditating, I see thousands of little dots moving in space or changing shadows.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_00: Should I break this experience with pet or just observe it?
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_01: Those are called rica.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that you have a word for it.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_01: Many people while meditating see rika.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_01: Rika are a symbol of the vitality of natural mind.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_01: You don't need to break that nyam, but you also should not specifically focus on that nyam.
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's simply a symbol of the emptiness of meditation.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_01: Being vital and alive.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_01: So accept it as such a symbol.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_01: Notice the vitality.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_01: But it is not itself the vitality.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_01: OK, there's a big Mahamudra debate as to whether the sky is mind or the sky is like mind.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer is Mu.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_01: The same for Rika.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't worry about seeing Rika.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's really common, but I do not recommend you focus on it.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_01: Just keep practicing.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_00: How do we trust the open awareness and not get seduced by stories and NAMM talk?
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_01: How can you not?
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_01: But it's so obvious.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_01: All I can tell you in response to that question is keep practicing.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_01: At some point it will seem obvious to you too.
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_01: How can you trust it?
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_01: How can you not?
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's so obvious.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let me see if
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_01: I can remember.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_01: I flailed around a lot with Rinpoche,
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_01: and his answer when I asked such a question,
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_01: which is kind of like the Ma,
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_01: are we there yet questions,
• 1:09:45
  SPEAKER_01: was to just sit there and laugh and send me back to practice.
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that's about all I can do for you.
• 1:09:51
  SPEAKER_01: Go practice.
• 1:09:54
  SPEAKER_01: Not something I can answer for you.
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Negative thoughts that worry us.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_00: We are consumed by them.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do we try to let them go?
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yes.
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Release them into their natural state.
• 1:10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Don't follow them.
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_01: But certainly don't try to suppress them or stop them.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Just see what they're made of.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Again and again and again and again until you're sure.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_00: What if you see Rika when you're not meditating?
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can see him.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_01: No biggie.
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Leave them be.
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_01: They're not going to do anything.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're just there.
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let the symbol remind you of Bodhicitta,
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_01: the innate vitality of the universe, the life force that makes everything go.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing goes.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And next question.
• 1:11:27
  SPEAKER_00: After we pop trekshid with pe, is that clarity?
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_01: It might be.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Hetewa is a blankness.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Clarity is not disturbed by thinking or not thinking.
• 1:11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Clarity, it means transparency.
• 1:11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Selwa.
• 1:11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Which is the same word that is used for a water glass.
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_01: It is clear.
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_01: It is transparent.
• 1:12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Your thoughts are transparent.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine I'm holding a pumpkin.
• 1:12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Halloween's coming.
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a big pumpkin in my hands.
• 1:12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Visualize it as hard as you can, as solid as you can.
• 1:12:24
  SPEAKER_01: See the pumpkin?
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_01: See, it was transparent.
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_01: The nature of thoughts are clarity, transparency.
• 1:12:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure what you're looking for there that you're claiming is clarity.
• 1:12:52
  SPEAKER_01: A sensation of transparency?
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Sensations come and go.
• 1:12:57
  SPEAKER_01: You can get a sensation of transparency.
• 1:13:01
  SPEAKER_01: It'll go away again.
• 1:13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Easiest way I know to get a sensation of transparency is take about
• 1:13:07
  SPEAKER_01: a thousand micrograms of LSD.
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Some people don't like feeling transparent.
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_01: It freaks them out.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not recommending that.
• 1:13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, I didn't say go take acid.
• 1:13:19
  SPEAKER_01: I said it often gives a sensation of transparency as if you're not really there.
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_01: As if you could see through your hand.
• 1:13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Just a sensation.
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Drugs cause it.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_01: You get lots of sensations from taking drugs.
• 1:13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Just more sensations.
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're having sensations right now.
• 1:13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Your sensations are transparent.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_00: All phenomena arises in mind.
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_01: There is no phenomena that does not arise in mind.
• 1:14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Mind itself, in all its luminous lucidity and infinity, is utterly transparent.
• 1:14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, that which arises in mind and is made of mind is transparent, clear.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_01: So don't let it bother you.
• 1:14:24
  SPEAKER_01: You can see mind right through the thoughts.
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to look around them or stop them to see natural mind.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_01: They're transparent.
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_01: You look through them.
• 1:14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Mind is there.
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_01: They're made of mind.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can you explain what Zantal means?
• 1:14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Zantale.
• 1:14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Utter blankness.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_01: The moment after pe,
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_01: vast open blankness,
• 1:15:07
  SPEAKER_01: before in between all of the moments,
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_01: at the end of this moment,
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_01: when this moment has ended and the next one has not yet arisen, zantale.
• 1:15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when extremely busy, all you can do is rest between the moments.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_01: When I used to travel with Rinpoche,
• 1:15:33
  SPEAKER_01: we'd have to do that because
• 1:15:35
  SPEAKER_00: there wasn't any resting in the moments
• 1:15:39
  SPEAKER_01: at times.
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Next question.
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_00: I can hear a pitched sound, not tinnitus, when mind is relaxed.
• 1:15:53
  SPEAKER_00: If I do not pay attention, it vanishes.
• 1:15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Is this similar to the visual dots?
• 1:16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Possibly.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm listening.
• 1:16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not something to pay any mind to, and it is similar to Rika.
• 1:16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Are we running out yet?
• 1:16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are.
• 1:16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay guys, I am not going to take you on to the next chapter.
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_01: The next chapter is Introduction to Zogchen with Cautions.
• 1:16:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's a long chapter and it's really important.
• 1:16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the chapter we just did must be eaten, chewed, and swallowed before the next one.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do you understand what to practice this month until the next Song 16, Introduction to Zogja?
• 1:17:04
  SPEAKER_01: See if we get any response to that last question, because it's important.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_00: We'll give everybody a couple of minutes, I think.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, while thinking and while not thinking,
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Notice the infinite open awareness of the thinker and be that.
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Your thoughts are transparent.
• 1:17:34
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to make them go away to see natural mind, the mind in which they arise.
• 1:17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Look right through them.
• 1:17:42
  SPEAKER_01: They always have been transparent.
• 1:17:45
  SPEAKER_01: You can't even make them opaque.
• 1:17:50
  SPEAKER_01: So first on the cushion,
• 1:17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Then while doing minor chores and things around the house,
• 1:17:58
  SPEAKER_01: and then while going to the grocery store,
• 1:18:02
  SPEAKER_01: over the next month, rest,
• 1:18:07
  SPEAKER_01: relax in natural mind
• 1:18:13
  SPEAKER_01: while seeing the thoughts arise and vanish again and again
• 1:18:19
  SPEAKER_01: in every instant without having
• 1:18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Been made or created of anything other than natural mind being utterly transparent
• 1:18:31
  SPEAKER_01: without substance or duration.
• 1:18:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a doing.
• 1:18:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's simply not a refrain from obscuring that to yourself while thinking and while still.
• 1:18:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's your homework.
• 1:18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Get that working before we go on to the next one,
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_01: which has more to do with
• 1:19:06
  SPEAKER_01: how when that is working, it manifests.
• 1:19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Geywandi
• 1:19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Nyur Duda
• 1:19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Chichi
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Sala
• 1:19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Gopashu
• 1:19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Notice the inherent ultimate bodhisitta.
• 1:19:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's completely natural
• 1:19:59
  SPEAKER_01: in the fullness of interconnected awareness,
• 1:20:05
  SPEAKER_01: which is neither multiple nor singular.
• 1:20:13
  SPEAKER_01: And the closest reflected emotion to it is love.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like the moon in a mud puddle,
• 1:20:22
  SPEAKER_01: it's bigger than love, because love has sticky stuff stuck to it, hopes and fears.
• 1:20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Consider what love would be without the sticky stuff.
• 1:20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll see you next month.
• 1:20:43
  SPEAKER_01: We are complete.