Latest / Lama Lena Teachings / [#7] Naked Awareness Spontaneously Arising (Apr 2026)

Transcript

[#7] Naked Awareness Spontaneously Arising (Apr 2026) · Lama Lena Teachings

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Continuation of Spontaneously
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Arising Liberation by Guru Rinpoche.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Before we start, because I always forget to do this at the end,
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: I want to remind you of two opportunities we have in case you want
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: to make some offerings.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: One is the Sopema Library.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's for people who don't want to do anything regular.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: Don't want to make any commitments,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: but just want to offer something at a particular time,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: like when you get your tax returns back, that kind of thing.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: So in Sopema, neither the local farmers who are Hindu,
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: nor the local Tibetans who are Buddhist, nor anybody else there,
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Except maybe a couple of high lamas like Antwo Rinpoche and Tashi have a habit
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: of owning books or bookcases.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: So there are no books in the homes.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: None.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Children get their school book and that's it.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: No other reading practice in any language.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: So some years ago, Tenzin started a library.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Tenzin Pochong, which is now called
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: the Tenzin Pochong Memorial Library after him.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: So, because he passed away
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: of an illness,
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: not uncommon in Sol Pema,
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: about a year ago, no, two years ago.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: This library, the first floor is children's room,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it's the only place the kids get to read fun books, storybooks.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: Their school books are things like My Cow is Brown, you know,
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: wonderfully interesting to a young kid.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: But there's all sorts of storybooks and picture books, really a good collection.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: And the kids come running in there with enthusiasm when school lets out.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: The next floor is Tibetan Dharma books.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: And adult stuff.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: There's a few story books for adults up there.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: There's Dharma books in a number of languages.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: And the top floor is Tibetan, old Tibetan texts that have been collected.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where the scholars hang out.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: Tenzin often kept the library open late for them.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: They come down from the high mountains where there are no books and no facilities.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: And come to study.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: So it serves a wide variety of people in both the Hindu and the Buddhist community.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: And since Tenzin died,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: I have been the one who has taken on coming up with the rent.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody else has taken on coming up with paying
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: the electric bill and all of that.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I also encourage people going over to bring books.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: You can't send them by post.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: Not allowed.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: India has funny rules.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: So if you want to make any kind of offering for the library,
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: send it on the page on the website.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Send it to Karen.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: What's Karen's last name?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Karen Prestwood.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: She's handling the donations for that.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because I am a lousy accountant and I get it all tangled up with gifts given to me
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: and yada, yada, yada.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, no, Karen's handling that.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: The other thing, if you're interested in something more regular,
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: is the benefactor program we have going, where we introduce you to one of the yogis,
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: yoginis. There's more women than men.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: As Yoginis, the men more tend to be monastics, ceremonial.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yoginis tend to be Sogchen Chabchen with some ceremony, a mix.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: We are often nuns as well.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: So what happens when you merge practices
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: with one of them by feeding them
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: While they spend practicing full time, you share the results, the Gewa,
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: the realizations.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's good for you who are in the time of your life where you have more money
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: than time, like where you hire the Mo and Go guy rather than doing it yourself.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: Feel free. For that, just send me an email that you're interested,
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: and I'll send you a lot more details about it.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: But I want to go on and get into the teaching, which is what you came for,
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: and not for my blurbs about the projects we've got going on.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: Bodhisitta is the key to all realizations.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: Without it, Dzogchen won't go in.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: It will not mature itself.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: It will become nihilism, which is flat and dull and deadly.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Bodhisitta itself arises as guru yoga.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: For your teacher is the emanation of all Buddhas of the fourth time,
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: which are in the fullness of time all sentient beings of the three realms.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: Hence, all practices begin and end with Bodhisitta.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: Zogchen, Jupelamala, Soluwadeb.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Urgyan Bhema Dunez
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: La Soluwa De.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Durjichang Chichilunarudang,
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Marpa Milagompo Tsatsapa, Na
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Pupadang Palden Drupasuk,
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Kargyulama Namla Soluwa De.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Ochen Lama Namla Soluwa Deh.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Nruchen Lama Namla Soluwa Deh.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Kaginwari Lama Namla Soluwa Deh.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Shakya Lama Namla Soluwa Deh.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: . . . . .
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I believe that we left off at the beginning of
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: However, that starts with the line when you are introduced in this way
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: through this exceedingly powerful method for entering into the practice.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: But what way?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Align your channels.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: Sit up just for a moment.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: You can slump later.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, you don't have to sit up.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: It just makes it easier to sit this.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're already really good at it, go on, sit in a pretzel.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're not and you want to do it easy, catch the pointing out the easy way,
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: then align your channels so it don't squeak when it goes in.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: You've got to be pretty used to what to do with squeaky channels.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: Pretty experienced in that to do it in a pretzel.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Squeaky channels, incidentally,
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: feel like disturbing emotions
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: or compulsive thoughts.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: If that kind of thing still bothers you, sit up straight.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Your teeth slightly apart, your lips slightly apart.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: Now, don't hover behind your eyes.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: Get down into your heart.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: This is where you practice from.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: You don't practice from up here.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: This is where you think from.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Practice isn't about thought.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: You can't think it.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: So drop down.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: Thought.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: Intent.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: What will we call it?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yi.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Lips slightly open, teeth slightly open.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Breathing mostly through your nose, but a little bit through your mouth.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: In breath is slightly shorter, ever so slightly shorter than the out breath.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a little tiny rest pause at the end of the out breath.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's not holding your breath and it's not forced to the point of air hunger.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a little tiny natural pause.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: Now your eyes, your eyes are your key.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: You see, your attention follows your eyeballs around.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Bear with me if you've heard this, it's still good for you.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: So if you look to the left, you'll notice that you are noticing with your attention,
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: you are paying attention to things on your left.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: You can't look to your right and not do that. Give it a try.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: Try not to.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: With your eyes open.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, Nando.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Comments from the end of chapter 10.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well did we?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: We might have.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's not where I left it, but okay.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: Translators, real quick, type in.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to continue with the pointing out wherever we are just
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: because it's all good for y'all.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Nonetheless, what chapter are we in?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: Type it in.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: I trust my iPad to keep track and I may have been looking something up in here
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: for some other reason.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: So you type it into Slack, please, what chapter we're on, if you know.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: Don't guess at me.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: You got an end of nine.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: From Dorota. Yeah. Let's see. Come on.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: I need like a few more.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Enlightenment.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: Okay. You do that while I finish the pointing out.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Your eyes matter.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: Your attention will follow your eyeballs around.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I want you to focus your eyes on a point two meters in front of your nose,
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: an empty point in space.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: If you are facing a wall, turn around and face away from the wall
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: so that you've got two meters in front of your nose or three meters in front
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: of your nose clear.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: Now let go of that point.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Let your eyes do that thing that they do automatically in college when you have
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: a boring lecture and have decided to sleep with your eyes open
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: so you don't get caught at it.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: That thing.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: You let them do that.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: You will know you have succeeded with this gaze, this very specific Dzogchen gaze,
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: when central vision and peripheral vision are equally clear, not clear.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: If central vision is still clear and peripheral vision is still fuzzy, you have not keep trying.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: Now, of course, while all this is going on, you are thinking thoughts.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: All kinds of thoughts.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: The question is not what are you thinking,
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: but where are you thinking?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Find the ground of mind, mind itself, the source of thoughts,
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: awareness which is not aware specifically and pointedly of anything at all,
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: but wide open.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: Analogies for this are many.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: Matter moves in space the way thoughts move in mind.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: As far as your imagination extends, your mind extends.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: Infinite, empty,
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: but alive and vital.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: We call this the clear or the transparent light nature of the Dharmakaya,
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: its aliveness.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: The light by which the seer sees is
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: the analogy symbolically for the vitality,
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: the lucidity by which mind thinks.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: And all phenomena out there apparently is not really out there but is created
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: by mind arising in mind and dissolving in mind.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: Simply sit in a relaxed manner and watch it do
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: that while we continue on with the text.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: So people think we are on 10.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: It is certain that nature of mind is empty without any foundation whatsoever.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: Your own mind is as insubstantial as the empty sky.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: But don't take my word for this,
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: you should look at your own mind and see whether it is like that or not.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: Being without any view that decisively decides that it is empty.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: It is certain that self originated primal awareness has been clear
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: from the very beginning.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: If you grasp the idea that it is empty,
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: The belief system that mind is empty.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: You are having an oops.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: It is clear and lucid.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Transparent clear and lucid.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: When we talk about clear light, it's not something woo-woo that glows.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's not the way when you get good at this eye gaze,
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: everything gets sort of brighter and white.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's just your eyeballs dilating.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's a side effect.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: Rather, in mind's awareness of mind,
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: if there is thought and you take that thought as real and serious,
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: you are no longer resting in open awareness.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: Open awareness is Does not grasp a single thought.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: So what you need to learn most is keeping your awareness open,
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: not closing it with attention, on paying attention to something you think,
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: such as the mind is lucid and empty.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: Those are thoughts.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: They go in words.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Instead of that,
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Look for yourself.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: In the fullness of time, galaxies arise, are born.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: Suns go nova and even galaxies and local groups of galaxies fade away.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Space in which they swirl remains
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: unmoving and unchanged.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: The light which fills it is the vitality of mind,
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: not the light of suns and stars.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: That transparent light
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: With nothing to illuminate,
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: does not show itself to the eyeballs.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: And yet, forever present,
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: the lucid ability to think and feel,
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: which spins forth phenomena in every shade, in every color,
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: And every species.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like the heart of the sun, which is self originated,
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: you should look at your own mind and see whether it is like that or not.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: Although your personal personality,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: which is made of thought patterns and belief systems, channel patterns,
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: hopes and fears,
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: Will change, is moving, will come and go.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Was born, will die.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: Nonetheless, the vitality of aliveness, the current of your mindstream,
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: which is not personal to you,
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: for it flows in and out of all the other mindstreams joining within, separating from.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: Still, the sense of I, of experiencer,
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: Pervades the experiences of Samsara.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: Just as the
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: no sense of I, of an experiencer,
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: pervades the experience of Nirvana.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: And neither Nirvana nor Samsara are triumphant.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: But rather the combination of the two, which is the dance of phenomena, Chukuropa,
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: the play of the Dharmakaya.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: And if you tell me the horrors of this world are not playful,
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: look at the weird shit video games y'all like.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: Come on now, horrible shit is playful.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, why join video games
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: with monsters to shoot in them, who shoot back?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: Homo sapiens are like that.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: But look at your own mind, not your personality with its hangups and its fetishes.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: Big mind.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: No thing.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: Release your point focus on your thoughts and your feelings,
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: on the sensations of your eyes and your nose and your ears.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: Let go.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: Open awareness.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: And as the thoughts drift by,
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: arising and vanishing, nothing and nowhere,
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: Don't close your attention on any of them.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: None of them are anything other than thoughts.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: Open wide and practice
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: while sitting there with your channels in alignment
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: to make it easier, keeping your attention open.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: It is certain that this primal awareness,
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: gnosis, knowing,
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: which is one's intrinsic awareness, is unceasing.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's knowing without a thing known.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: If you can think it, you're having an oops.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: Your thoughts arise and vanish.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: Nary one of them has ever or ever will have substance or duration.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Do you not believe me?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: Set your pen down on a thought rather than the table.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: Don't try it with your coffee cup.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Computers do poorly with coffee and the keyboards.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: It is certain that this primal awareness,
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: this knowing which does not know a thing,
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: one's own intrinsic open awareness,
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: Has been there from beginningless time.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: One's own nature of Nirvana.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: Just as one's own nature of Samsara.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't come and go, your attention moves around between them.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: Your attention is moving.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Nirvana.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: The infinite openness of awareness cannot move, has never moved,
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: for there is no thing there to do the moving.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: For there to be movement, something, a finger,
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: needs to cross space over a duration.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: A period of time.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: It has to exist in both time and space.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: It has to have length of existence.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: And for it to move, it has to go from point A to point B.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: Without a thing to do the moving, without matter in space.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: There can be no movement, for there are no things that exist in time.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: Your thoughts we're looking at.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: Don't bother with phenomena yet.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: That comes after thoughts, feelings, sensations.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: Then we can try seeing the emptiness of phenomena.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: First, since thoughts support the feelings and the phenomena,
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: you gotta see through the thoughts.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: Each one without exception.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: Lack substance has no matter to it.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not even a photon in it.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Lasts for no time.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: What you think of as a thought is actually namthok,
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: a thought chain or a discursive thought.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's a thought with several ideas in it.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like a compound word, like coffee cup.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's not one thought.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: When you think of your coffee cup, that's several thoughts.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: That's the shape of the cup.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's what's in the cup.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's how you feel about the cup.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: All of that.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: So fast you can barely catch even a one.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because individually.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: They have no duration.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: This is sopa of the three words of Garab Dorji.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: The certainty that arrives from experience
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: that absolutely no thought you can think
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: has any substance or duration,
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: has any reality.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: They be just thoughts, a natural thing that happens.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: But nothing all that important.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: And there are no exceptions, don't you dare all of you ask me, but this thought might be real.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because I can only answer, nope, not that one either, however delightful it may seem.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like the main channel of a river that flows unceasingly to the sea.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: Look at your own mind and see whether it is like that or not.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: Think of the river.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: Water leaves it by evaporation, diverted for irrigation.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: Water comes into it by springs, by rivulets and waterfalls.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: And yet, the deep water of the center of the river,
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: the channel, flows onward.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: So your mind
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Flows onward forever.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Being this and that,
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: changing your personality mind,
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: unchanging real mind, big mind,
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: open awareness.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: With no conflict whatsoever between the two.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: This is the Ki to Zogchen, the lack of conflict.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: Between open awareness and thought.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: Where thought can happen all it wants.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: Without disturbing open awareness one wit.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: And open awareness can pervade everything.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: Without disturbing thinking one wit.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's the real treacher.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: It requires a great deal of practice.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: It is certainty or it is certain
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: that the diversity of movements arising
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: in mind are not apprehendable by memories.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: You can't remember everything you think.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: This morning, while you were having breakfast,
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: You may remember, oh, a thought or two that occurred around that time.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: But you sure don't remember all of them.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: Much too many.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: You might remember the topic they were on.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: Something you saw online.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: What's the idiot done this time?
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: But you had too many.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: To remember each and every one.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: It is certain that the diversity of movements arising
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: in the mind are not apprehendable by memories.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: They are like in substantial breeze that moves through the atmosphere.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: But look at your own mind and see whether it is like that or not.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: You can test it if you have a scientific bent.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: Set your phone to record.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: Go into a room by yourself.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: Say out loud everything you think for five to ten minutes and record it.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: The next day, play it back and see if you remember even half of it.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_02: But even without the experiment, just look.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is mind, mind looking.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: Watching the thoughts, bloop, bloop,
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: bloop, faster than that, tinier than that,
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: without substance, without sound effects.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: I was just blooping to be funny.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: Watch it go.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: Don't try to stop thinking.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: But don't pay no attention to what you're thinking either.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: Rest with the orifice of your attention wide open
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: without attempting to meditate
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: or being distracted.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: Relax.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: Don't poke at it.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: Leave it be.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: Relax.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: Release your point.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: Focus on what you're thinking, feeling, doing, being.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: All of it.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: Let go.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: And just leave it be.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: The key, another key, to treksha,
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_02: relax, let go, leave thee.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: Three words again, not Garab Dorji's.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_02: It is certain that whatever appearances occur,
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_02: all of them are self-manifested,
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: It means arise spontaneously without cause.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like the images in a mirror being self manifestations
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: that simply appear.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: But look at your own mind and see whether it is like that or not.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: This is the why.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: That you love so much.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: Why do I think?
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: Why am I thinking?
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: Not what am I thinking.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_02: Why am I thinking?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because you are lucid and can.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_02: Same reason a dog licks its balls.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: Because it can.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_02: It is certain that all the diverse characteristics of things are liberated
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_02: into their own condition.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: Look, ignorance is not a lack of knowledge in Tibetan.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: Marigpa is the word.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, we translate it as ignorance, but it doesn't mean what ignorance means here in the West.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: In the West, it means lack of knowledge.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: You don't know that there is a country named Georgia as well as a state.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people in America don't know that.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: So what you want to do
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: All of it.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: Marigpa.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: Ma, not.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: Rig, to see, the bird to see, like rigpa,
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: awareness, to be aware of, to see, to notice.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Pa, ER suffix.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: Marigpa is an obscuration, something in your way.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: So that you don't notice reality.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: You see, enlightenment is a natural state.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_02: This mess is unnatural.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's man-made.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's mind-made.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: When you stop making it up,
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: He will accidentally fall into enlightenment.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: But there is a process that must occur for this to happen.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: You must allow the display to complete itself,
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_02: which means you have to sit there
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: through the dance of Mara's sons and daughters,
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: just like the Buddha did.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: And everything you want will be offered.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't grab it.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: And everything you fear will come at you.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't run.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: And when that display has completed itself,
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_02: There will be nothing further to be done.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: Listen to Buddha's stories.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: Listen to the old stories.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_02: They're maps of how it's done.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: In these days and age,
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: the maps still work.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: At least looking at the guys in my generation who went over there and did it
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_02: the old way, maps worked.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_02: Now the next generation who learns it in English
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_02: rather than Tibetan, well, time will tell.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like clouds in the atmosphere that are self originated and self liberated.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_02: Look at your mind and see whether it is like that or not.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_02: Look and see how much you fight
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: to remain unenlightened and confused.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: How much you fear letting go
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_02: of your personality and your stuff.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's why there's a process called practice.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_02: Questions on chapter 10.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: Let's give it a minute.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: So one question reads, I know that fuzzy look I teach college.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: My question is, is it cheating to remove my glasses when I wear my glasses and try
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: to fuzz out my vision?
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: The prescription works overtime to focus my vision.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yes. In your case, take off the glasses.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: Some people find that they cannot do it with their glasses off.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: They're just too blind.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_02: However, many people find that it is
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: a lot easier to do the Dzogchen gaze with glasses off.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: So go ahead.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: Take your glasses off whenever you're doing this.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_02: All these little things like sitting up straight, taking your glasses off,
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: breathing a certain way, having your lips a certain way.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: Everything but the eye gaze.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_02: I am quite certain is not necessary,
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: but is simply makes it easier and you should do everything you can to make it easier
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_02: in the beginning.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe even finding a quiet place to do it in for some people.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_02: That makes a difference in the beginning.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: Once you're good at it, go do it on 42nd Street or in the middle
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_02: of the French Quarter on a Saturday night.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_02: You find your place.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_02: The most sound-based, stimulating place.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_02: But don't do that in the beginning.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_02: It just won't work.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: Later you can challenge yourself with different things like that.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think the gaze may be part of it.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: I know there is a flicker in my eyes even when I do short glances.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's just this, you can't even barely see it, but.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's me going back and forth from point vision to open gaze.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'll do it while talking to people.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'll do it on all sorts of occasions.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's gom, second word agarabdurji.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_02: It is a method of practice that is very effective.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: Especially for people in the midst of their life.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, when I try to practice this,
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: thinking instantly stops, going blank.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: What do I do then?
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: Just sit there in blankness for as long as it lasts.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_02: A thought will arise.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_02: You'll hear a noise.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: You'll have a thought about it. You'll have an itch.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_02: You'll have a thought about it.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_02: Thinking will reinsert itself.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: If it does not within half an hour, we'll talk in group about that one.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_02: But give it a try.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: One moment while I find it.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: If I hold to one kind of thought and repeat it, like anger at being cut off,
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: I guess in traffic, doesn't that become the cause for the next thought of anger
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: to arise or does it just make it easier to choose anger?
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_02: It makes it easier to choose anger.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: It creates the karmic cause.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: It makes a groove.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um,
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: It connects the channels and makes those wider so that it's more easily for the qi
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_02: to flow in that anger pattern than it is for it to flow in another pattern.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_02: In Western science,
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_02: your neurons have connections and neurotransmitters move,
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: chemical neurotransmitters move between those connections.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_02: What acid does, LSD,
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_02: Is it ups the gain, the volume of the neurotransmitters,
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: the electric, because it works with electrons and valances.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_02: So when it ups the valance
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: and the charge of the electrons in some way or makes
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: the neurotransmitters more numerous
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: so that it overflows its
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: usual channels
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: and goes every which way.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: Which is why you think things in acid and you see patterns
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: that you wouldn't see otherwise because you're jumping the walls
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: of the maze you usually run in.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: So this maze that you usually run in,
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_02: you are creating by repetition.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_02: You repeat a mantra.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: Or a prayer in words and knowing you have to know what they mean.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_02: Even the mantra, you should have some inkling of what it's about.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_02: So you repeat these things to make a groove, a pattern.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_02: Because what are you if not a clump of patterns?
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_02: Personality-wise, anyway.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: You can adjust it.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: How can someone practice this if their thoughts are mostly verbal,
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: like mental chatter, rather than visual?
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_02: Read a book with a talk radio show on in the background that somebody else is listening to.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe the kid's watching something on TV and you're off.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_02: You can still hear it, but you got a good book in front of you or something
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_02: on your cell phone that you're really into and you're not listening to that set
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_02: of words.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like that.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_02: Just because it's happening doesn't mean you have to listen to it.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, why does awareness feel limited to my body and senses instead
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: of being expansive or, quote, sky-like, end of quote?
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: How can I move beyond this apparent limitation?
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_02: This has to do with your habits
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: and habitual thought patterns and belief systems.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_02: So somewhere in your education,
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_02: You've been strongly convinced that you end at the edge of your body.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: So you need to experience.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_02: Other than that, I would recommend to you the Speech Ruchenne.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_02: We may well be doing it in Canada this year.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_02: Or possibly somewhere in the States as well.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_02: And we can ask Misha to schedule it in Europe.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's really a nice one.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I have taught it online, but it's so much nicer to do at a retreat center,
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_02: not in a city.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_02: Because I can really teach you how to do it well and show you stuff there.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: We were in person the last time somebody asked me your question
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: and I simply knocked him over with a seed syllable and he fell
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_02: over and rolled backwards and got up and didn't believe that anymore.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_02: But unfortunately right now, I do not have that opportunity with you.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_02: So let me teach you how to knock things over with a seed syllable.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_02: Speech Roushen, come join me next time it's happening.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_02: In the meantime,
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: practice following the attention gaze
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_02: into relaxation and allow
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_02: the thoughts and ideas that you end at your body
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_02: to simply be thoughts and ideas
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_02: that you are not listening to.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_02: They're arising and vanishing, arising and vanishing.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_02: So you relax.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_02: Rest in the gaze.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_02: Don't try to do anything.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_02: Don't try to expand.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_02: Don't try to contract.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_02: Just sit there with your eyes in that non-point focus
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_02: and let your thoughts play.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: Do not try to see anything that is a particular way I may have described.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_02: Do not try to see anything in the way you may be describing.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: Leave it alone, don't grab it, don't close your mouth around it.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: Just sit there not listening, not paying no attention.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_02: As one of my Native American teachers, Bernie, would have said,
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_02: no, never mind.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_02: He's a very good teacher.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, hang on, let me get it here.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_00: How to make big life decisions such as choosing
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: a job or where to live if thoughts aren't real?
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: Just sit with them.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes the obviousness
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_02: Of the answer will simply arise.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_02: There will be an easier flow towards one rather than the other.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_02: A simpler flow or a more amusing flow.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: When a major decision must be made,
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_02: one rarely has enough factors to make the right decision.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_02: One thing I learned as a paramedic in those days is that any one
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_02: of five possible effective decisions will do.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: Just make it within a timely manner.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_02: There isn't always one decision that's better than all the others.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_02: Often there's a range of decisions
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: That might be very workable.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it really doesn't matter which one you pick.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_02: In my experience, many of the things I did
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_02: for some logical reason gave me something wonderful,
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_02: but it had nothing to do with the logical reason I picked them for.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_02: For example,
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_02: I got into becoming a paramedic because I was tired of being corporate
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_02: and telling other people what to do and I wanted a job
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_02: where I just did things myself and didn't have to supervise others.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yes, that was true of it,
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_02: but I became fascinated by medicine and went quite far in that field.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_02: So the reason you make your decisions
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_02: in logic doesn't always turn out
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_02: to be what you get out of them.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: This one's practical.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need to continue focusing
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_00: on the empty space two meters in front of me while practicing?
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't feel relaxed. It feels tense.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: No, you have misunderstood.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_02: You find that spot and let go of it is a method
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_02: of developing that open focus gaze,
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_02: the Dzogchen gaze.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_02: You can also develop it by going to a boring lecture after pulling an all-nighter.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_02: You will find yourself Learning from sheer necessity how to sleep with your eyes open.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_02: You can get that gaze by just relaxing your eyeballs.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_02: So the two meter point is just one
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_02: of the many methods offered To get
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_02: that relaxed gaze, it is not the gaze itself.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_02: You focus on the point and then you release your focus on the point.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_00: If I am able to look at phenomena without paying attention to it quite often,
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_00: what does that mean for my Dzogchen practice?
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_02: Well, now, what you want is the happy medium, the middle way.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_02: If you look at phenomena and pay no attention to it,
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_02: you're likely to get run over by a bicycle.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_02: Especially if you're in Europe or Amsterdam.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_02: Man, those guys are fast.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not a... You start.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_02: In the beginning, you are paying no attention to the phenomena.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_02: But at some point, there is balance developed.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_02: The reason you start with no attention...
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_02: Is because for several eons, life upon life,
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_02: whether you were a bug or a god or a demon
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_02: or some other critter on this planet
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_02: or another that swims in the water or some kind of jellyfish, whatever you've been,
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_00: you've been paying attention to phenomena.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: For most creatures, the world is divided into two categories, edible,
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_02: And will eat me if it catches me.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: So you either pursue food or you run from being food.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: This is the reality of most animals,
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_02: which you have been many times.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, this is the reality of most humans, which you have been many times.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: You run from the IRS and you pursue wealth with which you buy food.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's a little more complicated,
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_02: but mainly you're looking for a nest and food to eat in it.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_02: And in mate, you got to attract the mate.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not unlike the birds.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: What you want to do
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_02: is be able to
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_02: Have open awareness
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_02: which includes both the infinite openness of mind
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_02: and the phenomena
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_02: without either one canceling out or disturbing the other.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_02: Sambhogakaya nature of mind.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_02: Phenomena is nirmanakaya.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_02: Openness, this is analogous, don't take me too literally.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_02: Openness is, open awareness is Dharmakaya.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_02: And in the middle is that life force essence, that lucidity, Sambhogakaya,
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_02: where all the gods are born.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: So what you want to be able
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_02: to do eventually is stand in the middle
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: as that Creativity, not the creations,
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_02: and not the space in which the creations will arise, but the creativity itself,
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_02: Sambhogakaya.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a very good beginning that you are able to rest in openness
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_02: and pay no attention to phenomena.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_02: But now start walking around and try not to trip over you.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_02: The many things in the world that exist for you to trip over.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_02: Walk in the forest, the surface is uneven.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_02: While holding that open awareness, good practice for you next.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_02: Start with ignoring phenomena.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_02: You have such an imprint, such a habit pattern.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost an obsessive compulsive doing Of focusing on a phenomena.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_02: Exclusively.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because eons makes this pattern, this groove,
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_02: this wide channel that do that.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_02: That everything tries to flow through.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_02: In order to change it, you go to the opposite extreme for a while.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_02: Get good at perceiving the opposite extreme, which is the openness, the emptiness.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_02: As an antidote to the fullness and intricacy of phenomena.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then you find the happy
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_02: middlemen where they're both equally
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_02: vibrant and real.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_00: When I let go, I am scared of what will happen if I don't do my life chores.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_00: But when I'm not letting go, I am too stressed and tense to focus on what I think I should do.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: What do I do?
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_02: Nundro.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_02: Ordinary Nundro first.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_02: And if that doesn't resolve the problem, extraordinary Nundro.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's what it's for.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_02: It will resolve the anxiety around Zogchen.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_02: Generally, you try Ordinary Nundro, try Zogchen again.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_02: See if that did it or if you need a few more tries.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_02: Now do Extraordinary Nundro, then try it again.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_02: See if it's easier this time.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_02: If it's not, do a full Yidam practice for a full year.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then that should have done it.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_02: If not, we need to go look at how you're doing the yidim practice,
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_02: because if done properly, that will do it.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_02: Now, if you are over 50,
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_02: I will make you an attenuated nundro.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_02: That is, if you cannot do the whole thing.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_02: If you have small children,
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_02: I will make you an attenuated nundro.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, you're perfectly capable of doing a nundro.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_02: If you need one, we can try a partial one and see if it works.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm pretty adaptable.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_02: If you have a physical problem,
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_02: you're in a wheelchair, you have a bad back,
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_02: you're obviously not going to do the prostrations.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_02: We'll figure an alternative.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's not all by rote.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's for when you're teaching a thousand monks in a giant monastery.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_02: Then you have to do it that way.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_02: There's no other way to make it go in.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_02: And they're all the same age.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they're all teenagers.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_02: We have the opportunity to get a little bit what works for the individual here.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's because I have been not getting too big on purpose.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_02: Not getting too famous on purpose.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_02: And certainly not getting rich on purpose.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_02: I live in a little one bedroom, what do you call a shotgun shack in New Orleans.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_02: And have a wonderful life.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because I want to be able to give what I got,
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_02: which was individual attention.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's why the groups.
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, next question.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_00: The question is,
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_00: do my thoughts arise and pass or is it just my attention that is moving?
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_02: Your thoughts arise and pass very quickly.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_02: So fast you can't even separate one.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_02: They arise in like little chains.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_02: But yes, your thoughts move.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_02: Your attention moves to and from your thoughts, so that also moves.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_02: Many things move.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_02: Have you found what doesn't yet?
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's Mahamudra.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_00: Next question.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_00: What are the eye floaters?
• 1:08:15
  SPEAKER_02: They are called tigli.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_02: When you have that eye gaze right
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_02: and you are actually in either Shinne
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_02: or the beginning of Lactong Treksha, you will notice that they stop moving.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_02: They are very useful for that noticement.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_02: They have other uses in other practices, but that is their use in this practice.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, there's another kind of eye floater.
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nyan,
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_00: do you remember the name of the little ones?
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_00: I just remember they're in the eye rather than...
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, not those. Not those?
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, the ones that you see as little... Tiggly? No.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_00: Ring cells. No?
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_00: Not ring cells. Okay.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_00: Rika. Rika, thank you.
• 1:09:18
  SPEAKER_02: There's another one named Rika. I'm old.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_02: I have nominal aphasia.
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I can't remember the noun. Rika.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_02: And those are teeny tiny.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_02: And if you look at the sky, you see them everywhere.
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like just little tiny dots that arise and vanish real quick
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_02: and you can't really follow them with your eyes.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_02: Those are Rika.
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_02: Those are the symbol of the life force that permeates...
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_02: The aliveness that permeates the sky,
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_02: the open awareness, the sky-like nature of mind.
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_02: Rica. So there's Tiglis and Ricas.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Can you speak more about mother and child luminosity uniting?
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_02: Mother luminosity of ground.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Sambhogakaya, mother luminosity of Sambhogakaya.
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Mother luminosity of mind.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_02: This is the lucidity, mother lucidity of mind.
• 1:10:27
  SPEAKER_02: Mother luminosity of ground.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_02: We call it mother because it's always been there and always will be.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_02: It is not dependent on you perceiving it,
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_02: knowing about it, acknowledging it, being aware of it.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_02: Or any other such thing.
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_02: It is not dependent on you.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like the sky which needs no pillars to hold it up.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_02: This mother luminosity
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_02: of ground requires
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_02: no no cause.
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_02: And requires nothing from you to be there.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_02: You don't achieve it.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_02: You might notice it, but it doesn't care if you notice it or not.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's there anyway.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Always was and will be.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_02: Not dependent on whether you see it or not, notice it or not, perceive it or not.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_02: This is what is called the stillness of Mahamudra, the mother luminosity of ground.
• 1:11:53
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the child luminosity
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_02: of path is that infinite open awareness
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_02: that is pointed out to you by your teacher and that you practice.
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_02: It is called child luminosity of path.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Because it has been shown to you for you to perceive it.
• 1:12:20
  SPEAKER_02: That perception is dependent on it being shown to you.
• 1:12:26
  SPEAKER_02: It is path, you practice it.
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_02: It is of you,
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_02: in you, but it had a beginning.
• 1:12:41
  SPEAKER_02: It is an experience, a perception.
• 1:12:46
  SPEAKER_02: You can lose it again with senility,
• 1:12:50
  SPEAKER_02: with death, with sufficient digpa.
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_02: It can be lost.
• 1:13:02
  SPEAKER_02: It can be lost.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because it was gained.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_02: You found the path.
• 1:13:08
  SPEAKER_02: You found a teacher.
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_02: A teacher found the right way to show you personally.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so you personally saw this openness.
• 1:13:22
  SPEAKER_02: When the two come together, the always was and will be.
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_02: And the mind made temporary.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_02: When they merge after enough practice
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_02: of the child luminosity of path,
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_02: after enough practice, it
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_01: merges with the mother luminosity of ground,
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_02: which cannot be gained or lost.
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_02: So as the two become one,
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_02: you will not lose it again.
• 1:14:06
  SPEAKER_02: With death or senility.
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_02: But that requires the practice for those two to merge.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_02: Important.
• 1:14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_00: You sometimes say that you had the introduction to the nature of mind,
• 1:14:32
  SPEAKER_00: but then somehow lost that recognition.
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_00: What is the cause of this?
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I am sometimes worried.
• 1:14:41
  SPEAKER_02: Being an idiot.
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_02: Doing stupid shit, getting distracted.
• 1:14:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I had the introduction to the nature of mind a thousand times.
• 1:14:54
  SPEAKER_02: I was my teacher's translator.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_02: He was always introducing people to the nature of mine.
• 1:15:00
  SPEAKER_02: I had to translate it each time.
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it probably took about a thousand times before it went in.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm a dork.
• 1:15:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a lucky dork.
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_02: I got to spend 50 years hanging out with my teacher,
• 1:15:17
  SPEAKER_02: being his translator and serving him, his chapter.
• 1:15:23
  SPEAKER_02: That was an amazing good fortune that I was able to do that.
• 1:15:32
  SPEAKER_02: You can lose it by being distracted, by stopping practice,
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_02: by getting into something else and having too much fun.
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can lose it, at least temporarily, by all sorts of things.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_02: However, through the kindness of my teacher, he simply Gave it to me again.
• 1:15:56
  SPEAKER_02: Don't think he would have bothered if it was just me.
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_02: But as his translator, I had the good fortune to be present every time he gave it to anybody.
• 1:16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that was an amazing piece of good luck.
• 1:16:14
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 1:16:17
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see.
• 1:16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I feel that I am able to not pay attention to the rising phenomena,
• 1:16:28
  SPEAKER_00: thoughts or feelings like anger,
• 1:16:31
  SPEAKER_00: but then often I feel they come back stronger and more intense.
• 1:16:37
  SPEAKER_00: What should I do?
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Don't worry about the feelings.
• 1:16:45
  SPEAKER_02: Start with the thoughts.
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_02: There's a retreat coming up, working with thoughts.
• 1:16:51
  SPEAKER_02: If you can get in, I highly recommend you do that.
• 1:16:57
  SPEAKER_02: It will give you a lot more basis
• 1:17:01
  SPEAKER_02: of really how to see through your thoughts
• 1:17:05
  SPEAKER_02: while thinking them.
• 1:17:07
  SPEAKER_02: Because in order to work with a feeling effectively, it's got to be naked.
• 1:17:13
  SPEAKER_02: That means the thoughts that support it need to have been stripped fully from it.
• 1:17:20
  SPEAKER_02: This is done by specifically thinking those thoughts while looking through them
• 1:17:27
  SPEAKER_02: at nature of mind.
• 1:17:28
  SPEAKER_02: Hold your hand up like this.
• 1:17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Now look at your fingerprints.
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_02: Now look at the computer.
• 1:17:39
  SPEAKER_02: Look at your fingerprints.
• 1:17:42
  SPEAKER_02: Look at the image on the computer.
• 1:17:46
  SPEAKER_02: Do you see how you can do that?
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's a depth-focused thing.
• 1:17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So thoughts are by their nature transparent.
• 1:17:56
  SPEAKER_02: Always happen. You can't get an opaque thought if you try.
• 1:18:04
  SPEAKER_02: So, and I'm not going to do the pumpkin thing again, man.
• 1:18:06
  SPEAKER_02: You've all seen it infinite numbers of times.
• 1:18:09
  SPEAKER_02: Thoughts are transparent, accepted.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_02: If not, go watch last week's chapter.
• 1:18:18
  SPEAKER_02: You look right through them at nature of mind while thinking those thoughts
• 1:18:22
  SPEAKER_02: that support the emotion.
• 1:18:24
  SPEAKER_02: So that stupid idiot can't drive.
• 1:18:28
  SPEAKER_02: Why did he do that?
• 1:18:29
  SPEAKER_02: We almost had an accident.
• 1:18:31
  SPEAKER_02: He should have used his blinker.
• 1:18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Those thoughts.
• 1:18:38
  SPEAKER_02: Think them while looking through them and watch them vanish as they do when seen through.
• 1:18:48
  SPEAKER_02: Now, anger has a name.
• 1:18:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's called anger.
• 1:18:52
  SPEAKER_02: You differentiate it from fear and excitement by naming it anger.
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_02: Strip the name.
• 1:19:03
  SPEAKER_02: Look through the name.
• 1:19:06
  SPEAKER_02: What you have now is a naked emotion.
• 1:19:14
  SPEAKER_02: Find it in your body.
• 1:19:16
  SPEAKER_02: There's a sensation somewhere.
• 1:19:19
  SPEAKER_02: Fear and anger usually somewhere in the solar plexus, and I also get it in my shoulder blades.
• 1:19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Got stabbed between them once.
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_02: It leaves a tightening when I'm afraid or angry.
• 1:19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Look through them.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_02: Now, once you've found it in your body, don't focus on where it is in the body.
• 1:19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Let go of the focus on the body.
• 1:19:59
  SPEAKER_02: Just sit there feeling the feeling.
• 1:20:04
  SPEAKER_02: Accept it.
• 1:20:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's a sensation.
• 1:20:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's a physical sensation.
• 1:20:09
  SPEAKER_02: Don't focus on the sensation.
• 1:20:13
  SPEAKER_02: Don't Refuse the sensation.
• 1:20:15
  SPEAKER_02: Just leave it be there as it is.
• 1:20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Don't try to make it go away.
• 1:20:19
  SPEAKER_02: Leave it alone.
• 1:20:27
  SPEAKER_02: Now that does something very
• 1:20:31
  SPEAKER_02: interesting with feelings.
• 1:20:39
  SPEAKER_02: But you can't do it until you're really good with thoughts because they'll try to bounce back.
• 1:20:45
  SPEAKER_02: Again and again, the thoughts that explain why you're angry that justify your anger,
• 1:20:52
  SPEAKER_02: or the thoughts that explain why you shouldn't be angry that try
• 1:20:56
  SPEAKER_02: to suppress your anger, one of these two,
• 1:20:59
  SPEAKER_02: are going to bounce back every time until you're good at working with thoughts,
• 1:21:04
  SPEAKER_02: which is why we're going to break it down into a retreat.
• 1:21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Short version is three words of Garabdurji,
• 1:21:11
  SPEAKER_02: but I'm finding for people it helps a lot to break it down into working
• 1:21:16
  SPEAKER_02: with thoughts, working with feelings, working with sensations,
• 1:21:22
  SPEAKER_02: working with perceptions.
• 1:21:27
  SPEAKER_02: So you got to get working with thoughts good or the others won't work.
• 1:21:35
  SPEAKER_02: Do we have more good questions?
• 1:21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what we have is a practical question about the retreats.
• 1:21:42
  SPEAKER_00: The questionnaire is from India, so they're not able to attend in person.
• 1:21:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is speech russian, specifically.
• 1:21:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:21:59
  SPEAKER_02: I believe you can get a visa to Georgia from India.
• 1:22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Probably.
• 1:22:07
  SPEAKER_02: However, if it's a financial issue, I won't be back in India.
• 1:22:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you might be able to get one to Israel, and those are two places I may be going.
• 1:22:24
  SPEAKER_02: I won't be back to India this year.
• 1:22:34
  SPEAKER_02: We may consider Doing it,
• 1:22:39
  SPEAKER_02: allowing those people who cannot be there in person due
• 1:22:44
  SPEAKER_02: to visa problems, primarily.
• 1:22:50
  SPEAKER_02: This is why by doing it in the States is pointless.
• 1:22:53
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody can get here.
• 1:22:55
  SPEAKER_02: They're nuts at the moment.
• 1:23:00
  SPEAKER_02: We may let you join online, but I will ask you for that weekend...
• 1:23:07
  SPEAKER_02: That we do it in person, and I let you join online specifically,
• 1:23:14
  SPEAKER_02: that you go out in the countryside.
• 1:23:18
  SPEAKER_02: Don't do this in Delhi.
• 1:23:23
  SPEAKER_02: Unless you've got a good rooftop.
• 1:23:26
  SPEAKER_02: You could do it on a rooftop.
• 1:23:27
  SPEAKER_02: No, the pollution's going to get you.
• 1:23:30
  SPEAKER_02: Get out of the city.
• 1:23:32
  SPEAKER_02: Go up into the Himalayas.
• 1:23:34
  SPEAKER_02: Look, you can get to the hills in eight hours
• 1:23:41
  SPEAKER_02: by bus, a night bus.
• 1:23:47
  SPEAKER_02: There's good places up there to do it.
• 1:23:49
  SPEAKER_02: You just want a nice place with a view where there's nobody around to be bothered by it.
• 1:23:55
  SPEAKER_02: If you make it to Solpema, I'll tell you where to go.
• 1:24:02
  SPEAKER_02: But not during monsoon.
• 1:24:05
  SPEAKER_02: Don't go up to the mountains in monsoon, old buses fall off them.
• 1:24:10
  SPEAKER_02: Let's try the next question.
• 1:24:12
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, why is it so difficult to accept how easy it can be to view
• 1:24:19
  SPEAKER_00: the nature of the mind sometimes?
• 1:24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because we are obtusificators, all of us.
• 1:24:30
  SPEAKER_02: Some teachers are worse obtusificators than others.
• 1:24:35
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody makes it all that complicated
• 1:24:38
  SPEAKER_02: because we like complexity.
• 1:24:43
  SPEAKER_02: It is entertaining.
• 1:24:47
  SPEAKER_02: This sounds like you might be scared it's going to be boring.
• 1:24:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's not.
• 1:24:56
  SPEAKER_02: But
• 1:24:59
  SPEAKER_02: In our frantic lives here in the West,
• 1:25:04
  SPEAKER_02: and I'll double say this to y'all if you're in LA or New York.
• 1:25:10
  SPEAKER_02: Here in the Big Easy, it's not a big deal.
• 1:25:13
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're in LA or New York or maybe even Chicago,
• 1:25:17
  SPEAKER_02: the really big cities, Paris,
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_02: Berlin, Amsterdam, it gets
• 1:25:33
  SPEAKER_02: Faster and more complicated and that becomes habitual and it's really hard
• 1:25:39
  SPEAKER_02: to slow down when you wanna.
• 1:25:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I'd give that as the reason.
• 1:25:54
  SPEAKER_02: Any else good ones?
• 1:25:56
  SPEAKER_00: One other one, is this practice similar To how when you watch your thoughts
• 1:26:02
  SPEAKER_00: as you fall asleep at some point,
• 1:26:04
  SPEAKER_00: they just become automatic and you are observing them.
• 1:26:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, people, some people,
• 1:26:16
  SPEAKER_02: not everyone, does that while falling asleep.
• 1:26:28
  SPEAKER_02: However...
• 1:26:31
  SPEAKER_02: It is good to do it while sitting up too.
• 1:26:37
  SPEAKER_02: You're observing them, but it is not enough to just observe them.
• 1:26:42
  SPEAKER_02: You have to have a duel.
• 1:26:45
  SPEAKER_02: You have to look through them at the ground on which they happen, the where of them,
• 1:26:50
  SPEAKER_02: the vastness of mind.
• 1:26:52
  SPEAKER_02: You have to open the orifice
• 1:26:56
  SPEAKER_02: of attention Not just watch the thoughts
• 1:27:00
  SPEAKER_02: while you're going to sleep.
• 1:27:03
  SPEAKER_02: Similar but not the same.
• 1:27:06
  SPEAKER_02: Another question.
• 1:27:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're kind of branching out into more general topics.
• 1:27:12
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, then I am going to let this go here.
• 1:27:16
  SPEAKER_02: We're at the usual hour and a half.
• 1:27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this is a really good stopping place.
• 1:27:24
  SPEAKER_02: Chapter 11 next time.
• 1:27:28
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody help remember in case I look something open this text and lose my place.
• 1:27:32
  SPEAKER_02: Let me hit a bookmark.
• 1:27:37
  SPEAKER_02: And let me go back to the previous bookmark.
• 1:27:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:27:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Gayle on
• 1:28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:28:18
  SPEAKER_02: Gopashos.
• 1:28:22
  SPEAKER_02: As all Buddhas have done in the past before me,
• 1:28:28
  SPEAKER_02: As all Buddhas will do in the future after me.
• 1:28:33
  SPEAKER_02: As all Buddhas do in the present with me.
• 1:28:40
  SPEAKER_02: I offer any Gewa created by this teaching
• 1:28:45
  SPEAKER_02: and listening to
• 1:28:52
  SPEAKER_02: all beings
• 1:28:53
  SPEAKER_02: in the whole wide universe.
• 1:28:58
  SPEAKER_02: We are complete. Yes, Nayando?
• 1:29:00
  SPEAKER_00: If we could put in a mention for our translate.
• 1:29:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:29:04
  SPEAKER_02: If you have been listening to this in a language other than English,
• 1:29:11
  SPEAKER_02: or even if you've been listening in English,
• 1:29:13
  SPEAKER_02: but like the vast diversity of this particular sangha,
• 1:29:20
  SPEAKER_02: which is an online sangha,
• 1:29:24
  SPEAKER_01: All over the world, all cultures, all colors, all everything, all backgrounds.
• 1:29:31
  SPEAKER_02: Then please support your translators.
• 1:29:36
  SPEAKER_02: Send them a little gift.
• 1:29:38
  SPEAKER_02: There's a page on the website where you can send them a little gift.
• 1:29:42
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't even have to be that much.
• 1:29:44
  SPEAKER_02: It lets them know you care.
• 1:29:46
  SPEAKER_02: They are all volunteers.
• 1:29:50
  SPEAKER_02: None of them get paid for it and some of them are pretty broke.
• 1:29:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I would take it as a kindness if you did that.
• 1:29:59
  SPEAKER_02: And in the beginning, I talked about the library and the benefactor program.
• 1:30:07
  SPEAKER_02: If you're a starving student and are having trouble feeding yourself,
• 1:30:12
  SPEAKER_02: please do not offer your grocery money.
• 1:30:17
  SPEAKER_02: Send a quarter to a translator,
• 1:30:23
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody for the library.
• 1:30:26
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't even have to be much.
• 1:30:28
  SPEAKER_02: Don't beggar yourselves.
• 1:30:31
  SPEAKER_02: Don't send your family's food money, okay?
• 1:30:37
  SPEAKER_02: Because some people get very enthusiastic and they do that and that is really not necessary.
• 1:30:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's the gesture that makes a difference, that creates the karma.
• 1:30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Visualize it as a million and send a quarter.
• 1:30:54
  SPEAKER_02: Or a dollar. By now, a dollar buys what a quarter used to buy.
• 1:30:58
  SPEAKER_02: I used to be able to get a hot dog for a quarter.
• 1:31:01
  SPEAKER_02: I can't even get one for a dollar now.
• 1:31:04
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway.
• 1:31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yesterday at the Festival 750.
• 1:31:11
  SPEAKER_02: And that was for an ordinary hot dog.
• 1:31:16
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, we are complete for today.
• 1:31:19
  SPEAKER_02: I will see you next time on this topic and on other topics.
• 1:31:26
  SPEAKER_02: We're complete, Nyando.