Latest / Lama Lena Teachings / [14/25] The Flight of the Garuda — Session 12 (Jun 2021)

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[14/25] The Flight of the Garuda — Session 12 (Jun 2021) · Lama Lena Teachings

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: Good morning.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: Today is our monthly continuation of Flight of the Garuda.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Please type into chat which chapter you think we're on because I'm not tracking this.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: .
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Shere singke bardushin labde, De dammab zan ta ta tusum chi,
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Zogchen jupe lama la solo wahadeb.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Urgin pamatunay la solo wahadeb.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Durjichang,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Chichiloh,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Narudang, Marpa, Mila, Gompo,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Tsatsapa, Na, Pupadang, Pal, Den, Drupa, So,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Kargyu, Lama, Namla, Soluwa, Dev.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Ochen, Lama, Namla, Soluwa, Dev.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Dhrudchen Lama Namla Sol Vahadev.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Kaginwadi Lama Namla Sol Vahadev.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Shakya Lama Namla Sol Vahadev.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Nyan du dang yun trun laman nam la sol wadib.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: Pa kwan du jong dang yir me pa,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: gun garab dur ji jin trag pa, jay ti dang nisu me pa,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: pa laman nam
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: chitin te,
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: What chapter do they say?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the consensus from the Dharma Hive Mind is that we finished chapter 11.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so today I guess we're actually starting chapter 12.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: So you understand that the unspeakable, inconceivable, Can only be shown by metaphor.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: And that metaphors are inexact.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Nonetheless, it's what we have.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: So this chapter is on the crystal metaphor and the dynamic of being.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: Nyando, my reading glasses.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, there may be a pair here.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: There may be.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I usually keep a pair in here.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: There are days when I need them and days when I don't.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Ha, lucky.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: There were.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: This is apparently a day when I do.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: There are times when point focus is more difficult and a pair of glasses help.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: These are not the strong ones.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Do you need those?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: I think I can do this.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: Listen again, Emma Ho, listen again to this vagrant song.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: There are two ways of defining the three modes of being.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: In terms of total presence and the universal ground of being,
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: and in terms of the process of appearance emanating from the total presence that is
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: the universal ground and being.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: We're talking Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya here.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: Clearly understanding these two definitions,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: you will intuitively recognize samsara and nirvana As pure lands of
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: the three existential modes.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: So here, this is the definition of the three modes of being.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: The structure original total, that structure original total presence.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: And we've used this metaphor previously in this text, but here it is again.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Original intrinsic awareness is like a crystal ball.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: Its emptiness is its Dharmakaya nature.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Its clear and natural glow,
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: its luminosity,
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: is the Sambhogakaya nature and the unimpeded medium of whatever appears within it.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Is the Nirmanakaya nature.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: Understand that these are not three separate things.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: They are three separate fingers pointing at the same thing.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: No thing.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: No thing at all.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: This is how the three modes of being are defined as original total presence.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: And although they are not identical to it, neither are they separate from it.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Just as the five colors of the spectrum arise out of a crystal when
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: the clear white light strikes it,
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: so the manifestations of the ground of being arise out of
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: the original total presence.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: When the clear light of awareness strikes it.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: In the process of manifestation,
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: the pristine emanations of the Buddha's pure lands and the bewildering emanations
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: of phenomena and of beings, all things whatsoever, are empty in essence.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: And this empty aspect of it is the Dharmakaya.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: Their nature is radiant, clear, transparent light, which is the Sambhogakaya.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: And the unobstructed manifest diversity is the Nirmanakaya.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: The apparent obstructions,
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: your belief systems, What you think is real.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: What you believe in.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: They aren't.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: This is how the three modes of being are defined as the process of manifestation
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: of appearance in the universal ground of being.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: Appearance.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: Stuff which you perceive with your sense organs,
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: your eye organ,
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: your ear organ,
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: your nose organ,
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: which smells,
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: your tongue organ,
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: which tastes,
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: your yee organ,
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: which rels your hand and touch organs,
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: your skin, which is a touch organ, which feels sensations of the touch.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: All of these are pure in their very nature.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: But in the moment of experiencing sensations,
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: you, me, us, everything, everybody interprets those sensations.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: And the moment we interpret them, see, touch,
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: Smell,
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: taste,
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: feeling.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: Those interpretations are made up by you in each moment of arising.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: This is original error.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: You think your interpretation of your sensations is real.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's not.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: Right now, you may be hearing some crunching in the background.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: I gave my squirrel a walnut this morning, which he is enthusiastically crunching at.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: That I believe that that sound of crunching is my squirrel and
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: the walnut I gave him is my interpretation of an audio sensation.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: It is neither real nor unreal.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: It might be my partner grinding her teeth because of technical difficulties.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: That also makes a similar crunching sound.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: It might be the cat that has wandered in to participate, stepping on a dry leaf.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: So many possibilities, your mind chooses one of them.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: And you believe it's real.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oops.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you believe it's really real.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Oops.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: See, believing it's real,
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: once that happens,
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: you either like it or you don't like it or you decide it's unimportant
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: and you can ignore it.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: Thereby you create karma for more, more proliferation.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: When you like it, you reach out for it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: And on finding my cup of coffee to be empty,
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: I create the action of requesting my khandro for a refill, if I may please.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, of course.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: As such, I create
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: a karma.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: The karma of lack of coffee,
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: which means I'm going to want more and more and more and more, unsatisfiably.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: We all do this.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't like your interpretation,
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: I interpret the cat there as bothering the squirrel and don't like it.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's not actually.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: My cat's much too fat to catch that squirrel or actually bother it.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: Again, another interpretation.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Everything you think is an interpretation.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: You are interpreting your sensations and creating the story of a reality around yourself.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's not really like that.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: Never was, never will be.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: And you'll never know.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: What's real from what is not?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Give it up.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Relax.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: Let go.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: Allow things to be as they are without trying to figure out how they are.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so notice the intrinsic awareness which is the creator of all The
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: distinction
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: between these two definitions is rarely made,
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: but it is vital that it be clearly understood.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: It was made clear to me, it says in the text, through Longchenpa's generous explanations.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: Longchenpa has written a number of beautiful,
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: beautiful texts on Dzogchen,
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: which once you are actually meditating on Treksha and have a good bit of experience
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: with it, you might find value in reading.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: Not in the beginning.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: It'll confuse you.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Too many words.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: In the middle.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: There are simpler texts for the beginning that will lead you more quickly to the middle.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: If you understand this,
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: then you know the entire universe of phenomena and nomina and the energy
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: that manifests it is and has been from the very beginning
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: the spontaneously originated mandala of the three modes of being and
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: that it is futile.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: To look for the pure lands of the three modes anywhere else.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's not in the north and the south, or the west and the east, or above and below.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: Ain't no heaven up there.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: Ain't no hell down there.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: And yet when you experience heaven or hell,
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: they feel just as real as this little temple feels to me today.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: No less.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: There are no places as such.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: Notice this.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: Notice your own innate creativity in spinning the wonderful and terrible
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: world you live in.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Notice how attached you are to it and to believing it's really there.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: Relax, let go.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: Start at the easy end with thoughts.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Follow your thoughts home and rest in intrinsic awareness.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: Not the idea of intrinsic awareness,
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: which is just another thought coming and going like thoughts of a peanut or
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: a pickle.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: Not the feeling of intrinsic awareness which is just another feeling coming
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: and going like feelings of love and hate, anxiety and relaxation.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: Not even the perception of intrinsic awareness.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: For perception is simply a combination of sensations of the six sense organs with
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: an interpretation interwove with them.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Those come and go.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: Intrinsic awareness is the experiencer of
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: That which comes and goes.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: Not the thingy which is doing the coming and doing the going.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Intrinsic awareness, Sambhogakaya nature of mind, is by its very nature empty.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: But it's not a big dead old nothing.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's vital.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's alive with the potential to think, feel, and perceive.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: And the multitude of those thoughts,
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: feelings,
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: and perceptions which arise in intrinsic awareness and never depart
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: from intrinsic awareness but dissolve back into intrinsic awareness is
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: the multiplicity of your creations.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: All and everything, including what you think of it and how you feel about what you think of it.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: That old Bilblah.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Bilblah is a Tibetan word that means entangle.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: It is what we call the yarn after the cats have been at it.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: I remember when our cats were kittens getting up one morning and coming out.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: And finding a great spider web of yarn woven between the two stories of my house up
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: and down the stairs and around all the furniture and two cats and
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: a dog quietly sitting in the middle of it.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: That was a bilblah, a useful word to learn.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: Your bilblahs
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: Your entanglements,
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: which is what makes things hurt,
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: what causes your personal suffering,
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: is made up of your thoughts, feelings, and perceptions all entangled in together.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: None of them are anything other
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: than the spontaneous dance.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Of intrinsic awareness which never moves.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: See things as they are rather than as you think they are.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Feel they are and perceive they are.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: By focusing your attention not on your thoughts,
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: feelings,
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: and perceptions But on where those occur,
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: with the understanding, of course, that there ain't no there to that there where.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: Nonetheless, follow it home, finding the seer of all that is seen.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: If people were capable of spontaneous,
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: reflexive recognition of just the six types of sentient life as the modes of being,
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: then without the necessity to perform even the slightest practice of meditation,
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: they would all attain Buddha's awakening.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: What are the six types of life?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: Godish.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: These are types, so I'm sticking an ish on the end.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: Asura-ish, human-ish, animal-ish, preta-ish,
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: hellish.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: These modes of being become so entrenched in an incarnation
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: That it is difficult to escape from your belief in the one you are currently experiencing.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Dream yoga is a method.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: Tantra is a method.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: Zogchen is a method.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: If you did not need a method,
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: my very words themself would be sufficient for you to see things as they are.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: But if what you get is something which comes and goes and wears off,
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: you're making it up.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's a subtle perception, a thought, a feeling.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's moving, changing.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's a phenomena.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: Don't grab it.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: Leave it to be free.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: And return,
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: settling your attention relaxedly
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: in the experiencer rather than the experience,
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: which is not your personality.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: Don't be staring at your personality.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: Your personality is all fucked up.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: So's mine.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: So what?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a personality.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: They come and go.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: You get a new one next time.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, you get a new one tomorrow.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: You get a new one in two minutes.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: They're always changing.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: They're not stable.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: None of us are stable in our personality.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: What never changes?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: What is inherently stable requiring no effort on your part to stabilize it?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: Is it self-intrinsic awareness?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Take refuge there.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: Rest there as that.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing special.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing to make your eyes bug out and your mouth drop open.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: No, oh wow.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: Just simple, ordinary isness.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: Further,
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: since the three modes of the ground of being are ultimately the Dharmakaya,
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: do not regard these three as different.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: It isn't that there is a Dharmakaya and there is a Sambhogakaya and there is a Nirmanakaya.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: Nuh-uh, not so.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: There is an ineffable, indescribable, Which is sometimes referred to by its empty aspect.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so pointed at from the aspect of Dharmakaya.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: Which is sometimes referred to as its vital aspect.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so pointed at from the direction of Sambhogakaya.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: Which is sometimes referred to in its creative aspect.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Which is referred to in the pointing as nirmanakaya.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: But just as my nose and my two fingers are all pointing at the same thing
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: from very different directions, but they're all pointing at that cup of coffee.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: Tibetans point with their lips.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: See?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: Three things pointing at the same thing.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: Not thing.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: This is a thing.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: Intrinsic awareness is not a thing.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: It is not made of matter.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_02: You cannot pick it up and put it over there.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: It does not occupy a point in the space-time continuum as it,
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: the very space-time continuum, arises itself.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: In intrinsic awareness as intrinsic awareness,
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: and so is part of the birth process of the creativity of nirmanakaya.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: They're not separate.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: Do not mistake them as so.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: We say the three jewels, but there aren't three.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: But to say there is only one is to state an extreme which is also incorrect.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: One could as easily say there are none or an infinite number.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: For the idea of one,
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: the idea of many, the idea of two, the idea of infinite,
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: those are thoughts.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Just like any other thought, they arise in mind and they dissolve in mind.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: And they were never anything other than mind.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: They lack both substance and duration.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: Your thoughts don't have duration.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you think that you've been thinking about lunch for the past half hour,
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: but actually you've been thinking many, many different things on the topic of lunch.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Each single thought, each single nom of nom talk, discursive thoughts.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: It becomes nom talk when the talks stick the noms together.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: You understand?
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: Each single nom lacks duration.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't even exist for an instant.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: It also completely lacks substance.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: You can't even sit on it.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: Unlike an old board.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: Lacking in substance and duration.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: It is completely without characteristics such as one, many, here, there, inside, outside.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: Those are all thoughts.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: Leave them be.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: They're just thoughts.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: They come and go.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: Let them go.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: Let them come.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: Finally reaching the end of the path after appearances manifesting in
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: the ground have spontaneously dissolved back into the ground.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't mean solid ground.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: Means intrinsic awareness is what we're referring to here as the ground of mind.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's not ground.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: All the words are wrong.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: They point.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: They are not what is pointed out.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: When the dynamic of universal Dharmakaya is revealed, the ultimate goal is attained.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: Thereafter,
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: without stirring from the space of Dharmakaya,
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: the two aspects of the Rupakaya,
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: being Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya,
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: are displayed like a rainbow and there is an uninterrupted stream of activity To
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: the benefit of all being.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uninterrupted by believing,
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: grasping, shoving, or ignoring.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so we complete song 12.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: Are there questions?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: Give me a few.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: Song 13 will be quite long.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is resting in intrinsic awareness the same as being aware of awareness?
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: Being aware, not as it is used here, being aware of awareness is something that comes and goes.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: Resting As intrinsic awareness is always the case, it does not come and go.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: Only you're noticing it.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: You're being aware of it, noticing it, comes and goes.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore it is a construct, a made by mind.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a vibration to intrinsic awareness?
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: All vibrations, the sound of silence, not a specific one.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing specific for all specificities,
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: if I pronounce that anywhere near right,
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: arise in that as that,
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: so all vibrations are within that, and yet it does not move or vibrate.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: It is sometimes referred to,
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: the vibration of it, as the sound of silence, the sound of one hand clapping.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: But these are fingers pointing, not what is pointed at.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: When was the first time you heard the phrase,
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: it's the stories, and it clicking in as an afterthought?
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: Damned if I know, long ago.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: And Rinpoche would sometimes,
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: when I'd be all in a tizzy about something I thought had happened or was happening
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: and that I didn't like, and I'd be in a tizzy and da-da-da-da-da-da.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: He'd be like, stop telling yourself stories.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Give it up.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: Or at least stop telling me your stories.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: Take them out of here.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: But I really can't point to a single moment.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: It was a gradual arising awareness for me.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: There are people for whom things happen singular moment wise.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: And there were profound single moments in my training.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: I remember Rinpoche turning to me once in the middle of God knows what and saying,
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: Have you noticed?
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: It was a windy day that day.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: We were sitting outside.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: I think he was cooking lunch.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: And he sort of looked at me once and said,
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: have you noticed the sky is not blown about by the wind?
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: Why so it isn't.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: Intrinsic awareness is not blown about by the wind of thinking.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's one that says, could you please clarify what the two definitions are?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: I guess it was mentioned earlier.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it was in the very beginning of the text.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: And let me go refer to the text for that, because it's an unusual way of phrasing things.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: The two ways of defining
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: do not seem wildly separate to me,
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: but
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: the three modes of being exist in total presence,
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: undone, undoing, without requiring anything from you, and
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: This total presence is the ground of being in which all appearances, all phenomena emerge.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: So both the definition of it,
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: it is always still there,
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: doesn't happen, and the definition of it, it is in a continuous state of happening.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: These would be simple ways of putting it.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: You see,
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_02: when we talk about phenomena,
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: we're referring to what is called inner and outer phenomena.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: Inner phenomena are your thoughts and feelings.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: They appear to you to be going on inside of yourself as a reaction to a bit
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_02: of outer phenomena, which appears to be going on outside of yourself.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: All phenomena,
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: all the thoughts,
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: feelings,
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: and perceptions which are sensations interwoven with thoughts and feelings
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: arise
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: in
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: and as
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: The ariser,
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: the aware-er,
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: the intrinsic awareness which is always present and does not come and go.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: Although the noticement of it comes and goes,
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_02: the looking at it, the perception of it comes and goes.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: When you are aware of awareness, you are perceiving awareness.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_02: But awareness does not depend on your perceiving it.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: It perceives everything always.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: There is no doing that you need to do in order to be it,
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_02: because you are that and always have been.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: It is your inherent, intrinsic Buddha nature that has always been your true self.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_02: Occluded, smooched, obscured.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_02: By your belief in your creativity and what you create.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: Phenomena, thoughts, feelings, and the interweaving of sensation with those.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: What is it called?
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: After, I'm paraphrasing here,
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: what is it called after doing mantra and the meditation and going into
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: a trance-like state and then I start seeing either different Buddhas or Tara
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: or Dakinis in the sky or the clouds?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: That is called Shinne, resting in peace or in stillness.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: It is a trance-like state and In that state, visions occur.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: What you perceive are called visions.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: The state in which you perceive them
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: is a kind of shiné, possibly tending towards lat-dong.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: A trance-like state of resting in stillness.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: It is an auspicious occurrence, but it's not enlightenment.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's an experience.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: Do not grab it.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_02: Do not shove it away and make it go away.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: Don't grab it and try to keep it.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: Leave it be just as it is right there where it is.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: No poking.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_02: Just leave it be.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Can you say more about Dzogchen practice and the dance of Sambodakaya manifestation?
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: Dzogchen practice is an oxymoron.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: The real Dzogchen.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: True Dzogchen.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: There is nothing to practice.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: No doing involved.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: Simply resting in not doing,
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_02: allowing the occurrences of the display to complete themselves,
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: and so being free.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: However,
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: That instruction
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_02: is difficult to follow as you will inevitably try to follow it or do it.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: That won't work.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: So there are preliminaries to Dzogchen, ways in.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_02: They're considered in the category of Dzogchen, but they're not real completion stage Dzogchen.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: For an example of a text of completion stage,
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_02: Sogchen, read the Cuckoo Song, the Cuckoo of Awareness, the Song of the Cuckoo.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's titled like that in English.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: There is nothing to be done, nor any doer to be doing it.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: But until such time, One practices relaxing one's grasp on phenomena.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: This is called meditation, gom.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: One is introduced by the teacher and through the blessing of the lineage,
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: perceives and notices
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: for a moment as a glimpse the very edges
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_02: of one's own intrinsic awareness,
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: which has no center or edge, mind you, but still the glimpse arises.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: And having seen it by the blessing of the lineage,
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: having had it pointed out to you by the teacher,
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_02: you return your attention again and again
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: To that which is called Tawa.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_02: And relaxing further and further into it.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_02: As experiences come and go, arise and dissolve.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: And neither grabbing at them nor shoving at them, but in complete relaxation,
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: Your
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_02: intent
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: winds down,
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: relaxes.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: This is easier if your intent lacks personal desperation.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore,
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: Arising first before practicing Dzogchen,
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: the intent to practice this for the sake of all life synergizes with
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_02: the open awareness which is part of all life.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it makes it just a bit easier.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_02: The practice of Dzogchen called gam is simply using the tool of mindfulness
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: to return one's attention to open awareness again and again while eating
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: and sleeping, while walking and talking at all times and on all occasions.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_02: Notice the already known Dharmakaya nature of mind.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: Simply that is the practice of Dzogchen.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_02: But there are sticky points, places people get stuck in that process.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: Hence, we have Rue Shen, Long Dei.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_02: We have specific prescribed forms of preliminary to get you over certain humps.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_02: And they are prescribed usually according to where you are stuck.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_02: Speech rushen.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: And the word rushen means separating.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_02: What you are doing in rushen is separating the perception or projection of tawa
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_02: from tawa itself so you don't become confused by this.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_02: Something done early on before Trultra Naljur in the Mahamudra process.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: Something done later on in the Maha'ati process.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: So the speech rushen
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_02: works with your intent towards phenomena.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_02: Helps you to not have so much need to mess with stuff,
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_02: to fix it all, to get it perfect.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_02: The Outer Body Ruchen works specifically with the inability to not do so
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: that you keep doing all your practices and are unable to not do them.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_02: And have them happen anyway.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_02: You can't find the muscle to relax for not doing.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's like finding the muscle for wriggling your ear.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_02: Some people can find it, some people can't.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_02: The inner body ruxian
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_02: is useful for when you have Glitches and formations stuck
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_02: in your chakras, which everybody does.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_02: Unfortunately, it's a bit of a buggy practice.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_02: That is, it gets lots of side effects, including an increase of emotions for some people.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I insist on people already having methods of dealing with that before they try it.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: There's a process.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see, outer body, speech.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: The inner mind, Ruxian, I teach openly as a retreat online.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Pointing Out.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: I believe it will be happening again soon.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: You can check on the calendar.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be going up in the next few days.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if it's full or not,
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_02: but what you do is you sign up on the website for a retreat that I teach,
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_02: which I teach on Zoom,
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_02: and I limit the number of participants to 50 so I can see them all
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: on one computer screen.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: My computer goes to 50 faces.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, I lose track of who's with me.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: And these retreats are individually led over a weekend.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a variety of them getting scheduled in the near future.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: The way you get one scheduled,
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_02: if it's not scheduled,
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_02: is you sign up for it on the website, express your interest in attending that.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_02: And once enough people have expressed interest,
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_02: once we've accumulated around 50 people,
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_02: we put it up on the website and take a waiting list even.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_02: We go up to about 56 because somebody can't make that date.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: As awareness of awareness is mind-made,
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: then resting in intrinsic awareness,
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: is it just to be in the flow of the river no matter what comes and goes
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: without any doing?
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, if you cannot do that.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_02: But if you are trying to do that, that's not that.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_02: Many people think and have this little accident in Dzogchen practice
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_02: where they think that they will now
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_02: do the resting in the flow and going along
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: with whatever happens, but they're doing that and it won't work that way.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_02: You have to not do it.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_02: You have to be it.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_02: For as long as you are there
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_02: Then there is separation between doer and dun.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_02: I wonder if that squirrel is going to actually touch that cat.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: The squirrel is playing with the cat.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, yeah.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like six inches away from each other, almost touch noses.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, she's also the one who's been attending today's teaching.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't appear to want to hurt it,
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_02: although she does have bat-at-it instincts,
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_02: but it also feels it's much faster than she is.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's looking for another walnut.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_02: I gave it, too.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's more.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: Next question.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: If deities are symbols for intrinsic awareness,
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: can we take refuge in any deity that we are drawn to,
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: such as Hindu or Christian deities?
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, not all archetypes are symbols of intrinsic awareness.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_02: Deities are a wrong word.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_02: Deities are not symbols of intrinsic awareness.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: Deities, gods, are simply another mode of being for sentient beings.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_02: They have their own hangups and their own karma.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_02: And most of them are that.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: Certain symbols which are archetypes,
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_02: not deities, may be used as symbols of intrinsic awareness
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_02: in Tantra with training.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: Please do not confuse deities and gods with archetypes.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: You see the archetypes exist in your energy channels.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_02: 52 and 48, I believe.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody correct me on chat if I get my numbers wrong.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I believe there are 52 fierce ones in your brain and 48 peaceful ones
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_02: in your heart in the channels that come off of farm form and off of heart.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_02: Chakras.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: They are simply personifications of the natural shape of those channels.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_02: They're not gods or deities.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the questions we have remaining are all generics.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're not related to the chapter we just did.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's okay.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: Give me a couple.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is the universe deterministic or do we have free will?
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_00: Is enlightenment meant for some people and not others?
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_02: The answer is yes.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_02: Some human beings may attain enlightenment in this life.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_02: Others may take a bit longer to do so.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_02: Next life or the one after.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: It is said that from beginning the path of Dharma to full enlightenment, it takes 400 lives.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_02: Some of you may have already been working at this for 399.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_02: Others for 278.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_02: I doubt these numbers are in any way exact.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_02: Say that question again.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is the universe deterministic or do we have free will?
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is enlightenment meant for some people and not others?
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_02: You may have
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_02: just a little bit of free will
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_02: if you're lucky.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_02: Most beings
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_02: Are trapped in thinking,
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_02: feeling and perceiving whatever it is their karma to think,
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_02: feel and perceive and have no way out of that to obtain free will.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: However, within practice, it is possible to obtain some ability to steer.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_02: However,
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_02: in the long run,
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_02: the noticement will arise that there is no such thing as living beings,
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: which are in any way separate from intrinsic awareness.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_02: So the idea of free will or lack of it is a concept of thought, just like any other.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_02: Next.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: In meditation is the practice of focusing your awareness on
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: the sound-like vibration inside your head as beneficial as focusing
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: on your breathing?
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_02: Neither one is particularly beneficial.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_02: Focusing your awareness on the sound-like vibration inside your head is likely
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_02: to drive you nuts and cause lung and a headache.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_02: Focusing on your breathing is likely to habituate to focusing on your breathing so
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_02: that when you eventually attempt to non-focus with a non-object,
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_02: you'll be stuck noticing your breathing and find yourself having a devil of
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_02: a time putting it down.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore, I do not think either of those methods are particularly useful.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_02: Not in the long run.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_02: Although they may make you feel good for a little while here and now,
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_02: so will a joint or a beer.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_02: And they're a lot easier to get a hold of.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: Next.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: Is Lactong practiced within the path of Dzogchen?
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_02: Lactong is a term used in the map of Mahamudra.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: It is not a term used in the teachings of Dzogchen.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_02: However, it refers to a practice which is much the same as Treksha.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_02: Next.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_00: What practices would aid in remembering past lives?
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_02: There is a retreat on that, I think, next weekend, if you are qualified.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_02: There are certain bardo teachings and bardo practices which aid in the memory.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_02: However, this is not commonly taught and certainly not taught to the general public.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_02: There are prerequisites to get into that retreat,
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_02: such as you must have done a Chenrezig retreat first and had signs of completion.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_02: You also need to be not under the care of a psychiatrist.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_02: Or if you are, I want to note from them that it's safe for you to do this.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's a retreat that some people get into trouble with.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_00: Next.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: How could the spontaneous recognition of the six types Or the three modes lead
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_00: to all beings attaining awakening?
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because we're all in this together.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_02: There is no real separation.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_02: All beings are not separate entities.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_02: They are simply nodes or intersections.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_02: In the vast web work,
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_00: In past lives you came to remember,
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_00: what was a very impactful or insightful teaching or experience in relation to
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: the current teachings?
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_02: I remember being an idiot drowning in a mud puddle while drunk.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_02: Gives me perspective on my current personality
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_02: and does not increase my pride.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: God, I was such a schmuck.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_02: Some kind of Roman soldier somewhere in Europe during the long periods of that.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_02: I can't locate it better.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_02: I thought I was a fine figure of a man but actually didn't have mirrors
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_02: in those days and no I wasn't and I was a bit of an idiot and I got drunk and fell
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_02: over in a mud puddle and drowned.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_02: Stupid life.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think realizing just how stupid most of my lives have been was really useful.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_02: Next question.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_00: How do we practice traction while walking and while talking?
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_02: By short moments,
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_02: quick glimpses,
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_02: glancing, checking to see if your mind is still there or if you've lost it.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: So what you do is On the cushion first in the morning.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_02: You sit and relax in treksha, as treksha.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_02: Later on during the day,
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_02: five or six times,
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_02: you sit down somewhere on a bench,
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_02: on the toilet, on a chair, on the ground, on a rock.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: And for 30 seconds to one minute, you re-relax
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_02: into that, into Tawa.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_02: If you do that,
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_02: it will become easier for you while walking and talking to quickly check and see
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_02: if Tawa is still there without grabbing it or focusing on it.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_02: No grabby.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_02: Quick glance.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like I just did while I was talking to you.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_02: There, I did it again.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_01: Again.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_02: That fast.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: 50, 100, 200, 1000 times a day.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_02: Just check.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_02: To remember to do this, it is sometimes useful to wear a ring that you don't normally wear.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_02: Change it up, switch fingers, switch hands, so that it bugs you just a little bit.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_02: Every time you notice the ring,
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_02: use it as a mnemonic to remember to check and see if your mind is still there.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's how you begin that practice.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_02: You do not try to stabilize Tawak.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_02: Tawa is inherently stable.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_02: You're just checking to see if it's still there and really is inherently stable,
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_02: like the teacher said.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_02: Until you're sure,
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_02: beyond a shadow of a doubt,
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_02: that although your noticement of Tawa comes and goes, Tawa itself
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_02: Pervades all phenomena throughout time and space.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_02: Is the source of all phenomena throughout time and space and beyond the time-space continuum.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_02: But you don't get sure from taking my word for it or reading it in books or hearing about it.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_02: You get sure by your own repeated experience.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_02: One more question,
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_02: and then we may have gone as far as we need to today, unless there's more than that.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's fine.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_00: One question is, do you work with astrology in your practice?
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_00: If so, are there any meditations you know of that work with the planet's energy?
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_02: I personally do not.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_02: However,
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_02: if you get yourself a good Tibetan calendar,
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_02: It will tell you what's in the Tibetan Almanac,
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_02: which is your basics of which planets are doing what,
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_02: therefore what the day is good for.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_02: There's days that are better for one thing and better for another thing,
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_02: certain kinds of ceremonies.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_02: There are days when you really shouldn't start anything new,
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_02: although it's good for ending things.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_02: By the astrology.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_02: So get yourself a Tibetan calendar that gives those details.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_02: I believe they exist.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_02: They're out there because it's an almanac in Tibetan.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_00: And an app actually.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_02: There is an app for this.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_00: At least one or two.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_02: So go play around with it.
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_02: Find one you really like.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_02: Send me the URL and I'll take a look.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't found a favorite one since the one I really liked went out of business.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_02: I am not an astrologer.
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, no, I do not practice that myself.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_02: There are those who work with it much more than I do.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_02: Old Lama Lobsang, may he still be alive, was an excellent astrologer.
• 1:05:59
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't seen him for a year in Solpema, and he's not one to be online or email.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_02: One of those discreet and secret llamas.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_02: He has to...
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_02: I've had to pull him out of walls before when he's accidentally walked through them
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_02: and almost get caught.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_02: While drunk.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_02: Drinks like a fish.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing, amazing man.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_02: An old carpenter.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_02: Some of you even may be a sponsor.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_02: He has a couple of sponsors.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_02: He was still alive when I was last there.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_02: Almost 90.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_02: I think we may be done for today.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_02: This was one of the shorter but more profound chapters.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_02: Practice it until next month when we will begin.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_02: 13.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_00: Instructions in Creative Emotivity.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_02: This is working with emotions and it's a big gulp and we'll probably spend a couple
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_02: of weeks doing it.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_02: I also do it as a retreat, working with emotions, which is actually the basis of chapter 13.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_02: It won't work for you until you see thoughts for what they are.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_02: If you can't do that, you can't work with emotions by this method.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_02: So spend the next month Getting to know what your thoughts are made of,
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_02: which ain't nothing nowhere.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_02: But find that out for yourself by your own experience,
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_02: by watching them arise and vanish in intrinsic awareness as intrinsic awareness,
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_02: also known as Tawa.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_02: Practice.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't work if you don't practice.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_02: If I could do it for you, surely I would have.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_02: But I can't.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_02: You'll have to do the practice yourselves.
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_01: Ge-wandi-nyur-du-dag,
• 1:08:43
  SPEAKER_01: Che-che-sa-la-go-pa-shukh.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_02: Guys, we,
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_02: including the squirrel,
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_02: the cat,
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_02: and the bugs,
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_02: and everything else, are all in this together, both Samsara and Nirvana.
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_02: Two sides of the same paper, Samsara,
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_02: written on, Nirvana, blank.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_02: Can't separate them.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're all in this together.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_02: Now tomorrow, I have a treat for your friends and relations.
• 1:09:47
  SPEAKER_02: Tibetan magic.
• 1:09:51
  SPEAKER_02: How to magnetize wealth and diminish depression.
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_02: Using the basic principles of Tibetan Sorcery.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Fun, yeah?
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't Dzogchen tomorrow.
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's simple.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_02: How to make it hurt less for a little while using magic, which is damn useful around here.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_02: So if you have problems,
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_02: Come tomorrow.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_02: If you have friends or relations who aren't that much into Dharma,
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_02: but are a bit into magic,
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_02: are not afraid of magic,
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_02: and have problems in their life, you can invite them too, because this is wide open.
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing it for some relatives of mine who are not particularly Dharma students.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_02: But who are beset by problems, anxiety, depression, poverty, and such.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm teaching what to do about that in a very mundane magical sorcery method around here.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_02: Today was Sogchen.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Tomorrow's Krim.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_00: They're both good.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_02: They have their uses.
• 1:11:29
  SPEAKER_02: If you are beset by so many problems that you can't practice,
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_02: you may just have to step back and do a little magic to deal with the problems,
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_02: and
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_01: then you can
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_02: practice.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's not always either or.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, I'll see a lot of you tomorrow.
• 1:11:48
  SPEAKER_02: Same time, same place.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_02: We are complete.