Shantideva Class

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SF-03200
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Practice of Morality/Ethics

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is this reason that is worse
good evening everybody
when to take the role

gears this
holger
marty
this way i can also are those whose names i
norma
ha vivian's sign up your
leslie
they are walters to your friends there please
and the roses the tories their marriage their martha you virgin it
no marker
katie
katie now
liz
joe
here's how a job
very tucker
she's were familiar yeah john price
tom vaughan
where's for me i saw
or leave
really
all why
are you go
make june gun and i saw your diana
andrew
canal is there somebody who is not a guests just here for tonight who wants to be the whole class whose names was not called not read
okay so you know you need to register imaginary
anybody else
chris jordan concern
and going to join mercedes
bottom birth crackdown hundred practices are you going to be here for this deserves goes on for five more weeks and former is but i'm just here for sure there's no i won't put you in bearings here for tonight
your sister samantha climate my name is bob marley okay then
suzanne
marley
can i get everybody now
chances jersey so

i sit right okay so the people who were and i don't know what's the deal is for those of you in the silver workshop i don't know whether you is part of your but that regret or residence is part of their residency that they get think class and they don't have to pay for it i don't know about probably maybe the same i don't know but
dear of the goods and then other people like john probably and
not as anybody else you have to register maybe are edited register did you register for the class and sign up in the office nursing now yeah i do that
yeah unless you're just a visitor if you're gonna be here for the next i was planning on the then you have to go over and registered with classroom
okay
ha
so
last week were talking about
and our theme you know in talking about the six parameters
there's different ways of looking at this experiment is in the way that we're gonna focus on it is
the way the shanty day the focus is on it in his text
and those of you who have dalai lama's book is the same
that is a timestamp on bodhicitta
and what i'm trying to do is is get you
okay so that you have a firm idea in your mind and what this bullshit is and get you psyched up about it to think that it's very very important that it's something that you can almost taste and you definitely aren't interested in
and think is really really important and the most important thing this is what i'm trying to do every week remind you again and again and again
in try to give you good i used to convince you that this is the case and the main argument is basically that like i was saying last week it's like a light in the middle of consciousness that even though there may be
various wholesome or unwholesome are troublesome states of mind
in your mind and in your heart if the light of bodhicitta this attitude of awakening is shining in your consciousness everything is workable
even could be pleasant
although there's great difficulty because this mine of enlightenment is shining through
so therefore it's the best thing that there could possibly be because anything else would be like putting a good element in your consciousness which would only last for so long then what happens when there is no more good element and your continents you're in trouble this is beyond that because it's pervades all elements of consciousness whether positive or negative it's the inner
currently unselfish
a consciousness it doesn't see things self centered lee which is why we have so many problems as because our ordinary consciousness is self centered even if we don't think we're selfish most of us i think would say what we're not particularly selfish people were were generous were were kind and so on and
can i have sure that's true of everybody in this room still our viewpoint on gun reality and what we see a moment after moment is is like we're looking through self centered eyes because that's the nature of being human we see things from our own viewpoint is natural and yet seeing things in that way leads
to trouble various times particularly when things don't go according to our viewpoint nowadays and we suffer so if we had a mind that could drop that viewpoint and didn't insist on seeing everything from their perspective it would be a very spacious and peaceful mind even it would be bigger than our viewpoint and so even if our viewpoint was crossed
it would be big enough to include that and they might be some unpleasant as with that but it wouldn't be the same as when we don't have that wider view so this budget is really terrific i'm telling you this the best county data is telling you know what a great thing it is and this is why i mean and so that's why the title of the book in a flash of light in the
dark of night is saying that this bodhicitta could flash into your mind like that
it's as if the can be dark and there can be a flash of ot chicken
in any time but like a flash of lightning in the dark of night it only lasts that long and then it's gone you know and then there we are in the same state we were before this is very disappointing so what we want to do then is to learn how to extend the light from that flash so that we can you know haven't have
a mind that is pervaded by this life
almost all the time if not all the time which takes quite a of a deal of work and diligence in practice and so the whole text here in the whole practice of this experiment is all about how is it that you get that flash of light that make come up as i quoted from dogan last time it hits you
don't know where it comes from is it comes from our as dogan says our spiritual link with the buddha well i don't i don't know if that means exactly but the point is is not cause it's not it's not produced it's it's just as zucker activities function of the universe that arises in our mind from time to time how to nurture it how to
to make it
more powerful how to make it had a base our life on that's the question you know and that's what this whole text is all about so i'm gonna rely i will remind you probably every week about that because we're not used to the idea of what should we should really be thinking about it and and thinking of having in our minds all the time
whether or not such a thing as president on my present a little bit can we make more of it if it's president more can we maintain it and make it larger and development so on so that's that's really what we're all about in this sub
in this class and i regiment he stands as the first chapter saying that in other virtues fade away but this bodhicitta is is limitless
so the first thing we we were going to do is
now some of you weren't here so this this would may not worked perfectly because it depends on all of us
having come into class and every time and doing the homework
the homework was last time was to take off the practice of giving each week we're going to consider a practice one of the six parameters and last week we were us to study
what we could on giving
and
explorer and i gave many suggestions as to how we can work with giving
and then this week we're going to make a report and explore with each other how that was what we discovered if anything about giving
no somebody complained to me or tell me something about giving that is i wasn't surprised to hear this but i didn't really mention it and it's good before we discuss with each other about giving i should mention what this person raised they said you know i'm burned out on giving
i give a lot and as depleted me
so i don't want to do i don't know if they said this exactly what i make a sound marked better you know so i don't want to do this giving practice because it burns me i'm burned out and that i just want to i don't want to give
so i reminded and this of course we all know that's right in this happens so i remounted the person that
getting is not only giving to others are also we give to ourselves so that we could continue the practice of giving
in relation to ourselves
this is tricky though because how is this not selfishness how can you practice giving in relation to yourself and how this not be selfish
i think this is possible you know i think it's possible to give to yourself as if you or someone else give to yourself in an ansel standard way i think this is actually possible
and you know there's a lot of people in the world and they're all worthy right of receiving gifts why should we be less worthy than anyone else and plus were closer to ourselves than anyone so if you're gonna give you my as will give to everyone equally and you might as will start close to home so
if you have needs why not give to yourself so with that spirit in other words not i'm more important to me than anybody else
and why doesn't everybody give to me because i'm the only one who deserves to get anything not like that but more like everyone
deserves to receive and i actually have needs and i'm right here so why don't i start up
giving to myself with the attitude that there are other people also who need to receive and perhaps i or someone else will make offerings and gifts to them so that spirits i think it's actually possible carefully to give to ourselves and especially if we are in some way wounded
these
it's very important to give to ourselves down because we have needs and have warned due to causes and conditions and whoever and whatever conditions and causes created those needs and wants is suffering because were wounded so actually are healing from our wounds that are fulfilling our needs is beneficial not only to ourselves
but to the other causes and conditions if they're in their people involved in the people who are responsible are healing benefits them also so it's necessary for us in the spirit of giving to others and ourselves to actually give and that way says very important to realize that and not to see giving as a kind of the the practice of giving should not be
yeah depleting ourselves
it should be renewing us actually if it's if it's correct giving so i just wanted to say that a case other people may have
had similar experiences and it happens a lot
before go on
new mind
and some point five
okay
it literally means
the awakening thought or awakening consciousness or because body means to awaken
so as i was saying last time in the buddhists analysis of mind every mine there's to basically to big divisions of mine one is chitter which is the same shit as in bodhicitta the and the other one is fantastic a fantastic as all the stuff that's in the mind the different mental states than there may
the several operating in any given state of mind and chitter is the overriding consciousness that arises in response to a stimulus and i gave the analogy of a life that you turn on a life and then there's stuff in a room when you turn the light on his see what's in the room different chairs tables furniture the chairs and was a furniture or like the try ta saga
the different elements of mine she does like the light until the chicken is activated there's no consciousness so we have many like it for sleeping and there were not aware of consciousness although there is consciousness but should lives no conscious without and college shooter yes yeah
it's just it's yeah so this is a kind of light this is we're conscious without without having developer richard richer but the nature of our consciousness actually is bodhicitta
it's just that we're not we haven't come into contact with nature of our consciousness and this is an effort to come into contact with the actual nature of our consciousness into go
so yes we're still conscious and the fact that there is consciousness is
in a rudimentary form or new developed foreign bodhicitta
that's the secret is not an effort for us and away with them do a lot of work but actually it's natural to us because there's the consciousness is already luminous so as the customer educators and awakened consciousness yeah it is it seems to me know now on heritage's different perhaps from
something that we call awakening
not really it's it's actually the different the differences that bodhicitta is a is a way of talking about awakening it to emphasize the altruistic nature of it so in the teachings and bodhicitta it's always emphasized the altruistic nature of this mind that it's a mind that satisfy
i'd his own enlightenment
in order to save and help other beings but there's ambiguity in the texts you know when they you know i think i quoted you to you from dogan where he says it's not at all the same thing as enlightenment and then he says it is the same thing as enlightenment
because enlightenment that has a sense of inertness or all pervading this without a warm part
and bodhicitta is really enlightenment emphasizing the warm heart and the altruistic nature of his mind
so it's there's a kind of ambiguity there is not really clearly define as far as i understand the text differences voyages can come out of nowhere
well it's not cause it's not uncaused you can't say it is or isn't
so yeah
it's not it's not something it's not like i say
you know the ability to do quadratic equations which comes from teaching and studying and so on will learn how to do it
there is cultivation in the process of developing bodhicitta but the actual appearance of it is not cost
so that we don't i think the reason why that's emphasize to so that we don't think of it as a physician or something because is controllable was it like a stay in france than yeah like a state of grace
in a way although as will see as we go on here there's enormous teachings about how to cultivated and development and make it so it's not as if the teachings are saying well since nothing can be done have faith and something will happen there's a kind of paradox here the paradox of working very hard to develop and produce and extend but each other
the same time acknowledging that whatever whatever body to arises in the mind is not the result of your effort
which it sounds like a kind of logical twist twist them in our but actually you can see that the the the logic of it in the sense of it in an actual experience
because that's how it feels it feels like you're making effort and practice
but you don't see a connection between the effort you're making and any result you see the effort as a kind of joy as a kind of your job as what you do i mean you know he just make that effort you need food everyday
you don't really you just want to do at this is what you do you don't think all this food is now making this the this happen so you just make that kind of effort and then the feeling is of a freely given state of mind and happiness coming not necessarily as a result of an activity
so there's a kind of extensive gratefulness about it
yeah refining the who were crush dempsey's now
a buddha where some days on
and at the something you experience something
ah this voyage into the experience like the
let's say that percent of their
there was a co-teacher to give given the enthusiasm just presented a spin before well wealthy
kind of complicated because he can see in the early one
one view of buddhism is that a bodhisattva isn't the person who is working towards being included a pretty buddha
in the body surface career begins with the arising a body children
then they develop bodhicitta and at the end of that course of study they become a buddha so it's real clear that a buddha is a hierarchical higher than a than a bodhisattva and bodhicitta is more immature than enlightenment
this is very clear in the
polygon at texts but with the rise of the mahayana in the my on texts and the proliferation of text more and more if they've got into the idea of voted to to and more and more they were stressing altruism and in a saving all sentient beings and this this great bow and more and more
it became can i know when i started the anatomic a suitor i was trying to do this point out you know and it was very clear to me that that there was a purposeful
a contradiction in sometimes they would give the
old explanation and sometimes they would confound but each of the enlightenment
big because they wanted to emphasize that a lot they wanted to show and then like i like a quarter last week dogan says our way our xin way is not to become a buddha our way is to become a bodhisattva
so originally bodhisattva was preparation to be buddha but later it became almost a higher ideal than good and an almost identical
so
actually though he were still working on developing go to to so why would we worry true
whether the difference between that and full enlightenment because you know we're not there yet so i spoke to a new thing and easier think but is easier yeah you don't hey hey
having them
so i don't know how everybody
what you all did or how you worked with the practice of giving it i put out a lot of ideas last time so what i want to do and this is what have i like to try to do every class is just everybody just pair up with whoever is next to you and i have a little bell and are giving everybody about two or three minutes first one person
will say how they practice giving this last week or what they can understand what their struggles were and then all the little bell
and then the other person will say but their experience was and then after that to make sure that everybody really listened well because that's hard itself i'll get some holiday people did you hear anything good
few restaurants so you get reporting about what you did but you'll be reporting about what you heard from your partner okay then we'll hear maybe three or four or five
thanks about what practice was now i recognize that and a lot of people are good for the time and so couldn't have done this and then like all classes in school not everybody does their homework
the can expect no one hundred percents homework so now you say something else
talk about something you feel or have thought about what the conversation we just had an hour anything that's relevant to the topic not like you know what you had for dinner or something
but something that has to do with the topic at hand
and
if you can't think of a single thing to say they just fall silent during that time and then when the bell rings the other person to talk
and we'll see what happens
one problem as i was doing my homework today reviewing my practice for to week one thing occurred to me that my fill of difficult about this net is this can get pretty personal
you know and and so i would say we should all agreed that we will be not go around telling other people about what
somebody's practices or not and also there's probably ways of i was trying to figure out a way that i could report my experiments with giving without
being too personal you know like not using names are not defining the situation exactly what sort of generally
so i tried see and i supposed if it feels like it's too personal and you don't know each other well now we make switch and there's something you'll different
but i would like to try it okay and then next week we'll have another practice to work on
so every everybody would get someone just right next to no nearby course it's better for someone you know
okay nobody asked someone
i've been around and and food
there's an extra person areas and needs a partner you need a partner i'm been going on
okay here another either
one hundred and you'll find a partner but i'm not sure you you know there's a partner over here
maybe you two guys who haven't been here should discuss ah
okay and andrew there's somebody over here
it was gonna be here for a while now
yeah because they took us out
i if she's kind of most everybody
is there anybody who doesn't have a partner
everybody has to be included announcers everybody has a learning community august
you don't have a partner august okay i'll be a part of because you have an indiana
okay ready okay let's start you
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you can stay there is with your practice with your school or something
diversity inclusion
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there's anybody anybody hear something that surprised them or that oppress them about the practice of giving
yeah yeah i heard them
my partner say
as they were
as the trying out some giving out
one of the reasons they were doing that was to work with an attitude
officer to death as they had which wasn't doing them any good so that realization i wasn't doing any good i felt reserve but there's a great observation that have i was so that the that make it easier to get rid of that attitude
apron
anybody else
i heard my partner's say that
she dances giving and
surrendering to the process of the fascist period and heals herself changing
who have process without effort to the zone
anybody else good our primary highlight the idea of them
ha ha well of when he is and it's and in particular context he gets back tenfold you know what it is that against sort of effortless gaming but when i first most is that he stressed that he went into set aside a time when you would be devoted to himself
but have an opportunity for giving came out that seem appropriate you would do that and life
so when i like about his he's choosing to give and is very mindful cast specific way and for specific duration and it's got kind of a fallback plan of the you know self-giving
there too so when so he's giving but not on a thoughtless way but in a very high for
considered when it's part of why why would so now
kansas
i'm kind of said
instantly being with people
top image in his life right with the now asking themselves has you get to we often
now
yeah i'm undertaking and ah we looking at how okay
given situations where we can see was a junior turned to get them
the man how of things he is down to do with
danny rubin
when there's an opportunity for everybody to in fit to just quietly himself about of people to enjoy forever miss that name
just firstly last furniture
why
letting things alone as a form of giving certain
yeah
well my partner had a very interesting thing to stay back on the way we measure that gives intake process and everything he was just going to give up measuring like you this you do that because they do you do it all in stop measuring was just getting back on
when she enjoyed that
yeah the perfection of giving because these are perfections as we discussed last week they say in the sutra that there's no giver no gift and know receiver
so no measurement
not even though even consciousness of giving no idea i have now given
even then only not getting credit or making measurement but also not even thinking of oneself as giving
the it's almost comes down to just a pure being being in an openness almost
it's no consciousness is given
okay well that seem like an okay thing to do
like people like to say and reliably to thank you all will do that again at the end of the class so give you your homework the next time
and that has to do with the this parameter
which is the sheila parameter
the poor
the perfection of
right conduct or morality
now we're talking about a situation in which we are aware of and are somewhat familiar with photo chipped it
it's not foreign to us
and in so far as it arises in our mind
we have to nurture it and kind of nurse it along
definitely not a
floating a decrease and maybe even increasing a little bit so it's a kind of guarding and protecting and nurturing feeling about about this mind
so what that means is we have to what what puts the line out is a
huh
various ways that is talking about a foot and sanskrit the term is closure
which we would translate as she filed state of mind
or negative states the mind or afflicted emotions these are the kinds of translations of different authors use
we all know you know what we're talking about jealousy rage you can read you know i fear all kinds of emotions that arise in the mind that are unpleasant and that tend to remove us from our experience and remove us from any kind of sense of
this bodhicitta so
the skill of
understanding
oh these negative states being able to discriminate them and identify them and see the causes of them
and to make our mind and body large enough to work with them so that we're not because of times would characterize as these afflicted states is that they're honest and they have us in their grip before we even know it
and we don't even realize you were angry or were jealous or whatever it is we don't realize that were already acting on it and the result of that is is you know the darkening of our consciousness
so now that we have had this flash of lightning into our lives and we are motivated to see that it's possible that we could extend it and see tremendous benefits of extending it were really kind of interested now and honing down on what are these afflicted states of mind how how can we see them more
up or closely and work with them
and that's the practice of morality
no
usually you think of morality and in fact that and in the old good as very of morality actually had to do with i mean there's only three possible kinds of ass right
does acts of body speech and mind
all acts or extra by speech of mine and so in the in the or rules of conduct
the vinny rules in the sense of morality in buddhism i had to do with facts of speech and body things just not do
but here the the the most important focus is on mind
not necessarily although it did not unrelated of course but the focus here is on working with negative states not so much on how to behave and are not to behave but rather how to discriminate and work with combined because after
but our bodies featured effects are month to work with our minds in effects
in accuracy spooky the practice of morality and discusses at length the sixteen bodies that precepts
and
is it but in a way the sixteen versa
pulling from sheila as it's discussed by shot data
are almost like cause
they raised questions about behavior
see the ultimate point in each kind of conduct that we engage in
here it's a kind of more of a black and white situation
although ultimately the root of negative emotions as well as positive emotions is identical
and in the end we have to
get beyond any kind of sense of separation
between ourselves and our experience
still
at this stage of our practice
and we're better off not getting involved in an aspect of things because the my cause us to be unclear about the difference between positive and negative states of mind so someone says positive and negative negative states a minor fundamentally not different it's truth
and it's true that in the end we have to let go of both
but at this stage in our practice when we're trying to nurture bodhicitta as too dangerous to try to practice that way we're not really stable enough for it so it's better for us to see and never returned to do right now has learn to discriminate between positive and negative states and to
accumulate enough positive states so that the mine is is cooler and calmer which is gonna help our meditation practice and allow us to him
clarify the nature of our experienced more easily
so

is
called and are in the stephen bachelor translated as a
conscientiousness forget how the book read by handy
see andrea has a decir book to gear drive
i would you hold it up i just want to show people this is one of the best books you've ever read as great book
and it's all about practice of giving
it's called the gifts and the author is lewis hyde
and it's a terrific book i mean he talks about giving from an anthropological point of view historical point of view he goes in analyzes poetry i mean it is he talks about buddhism but will be right away and
so you should worry this book i mean that you'll be delighted with it
and the thing is that louis night as a friend of mine he's a wonderful person and the reason i thought of it is that for we have why would our donors did a great thing that came forward he said i want to donate money to you but i don't want to just be for any old thing what i wanted to be for his i want you to have a scholar in residence program
so i said boy as the greatest thing i've ever heard so we're going to have a stolen business program and get as somebody's going to come every summer and live with us for about a month and just hang around and do their scholarship for their work and then they're gonna give a few talks and you know be around
around and now
practice with us and it's going to be great and and lewis hyde is going to be the first scholar in business and i'm very excited about this is coming probably of early august early september
and he's now and he lose his amazing when he writes a book he devotes his whole life to and takes him about fifteen to twenty years that's allowed to come to write a gift the gift was published a long time ago
the book like kind of like them my beginner's mind was never a best seller but every year to keep buying it and but has always imprint you know so now he's writing another book he's been i writing this book for about fifteen years now he doesn't think he's done even close not saying it's close
writing
and i don't know what the title of it is but it's about trickster figures and so what he does it you know it's like you know anybody who's interested in scholarship it's a dream kind of situation where what it does this kind of gets an idea like giving and he just sort of pokes around you know and one thing leads to another and he follows up all the leaves and each that ties them all the
yeah and writes about himself as trickster thing has taken him through all sorts of different scholarship
and he does a lot of anthropology and mostly anthropology and literary studies and it would help me here the summer so look for announcements about this in august and that's you have to come and inherent your of talk as is is grant anyway
that's very apropos because it's about giving
back to us the files data mine
and morality
student a serve translation of the word closure
is disturbing conceptions
and the survey because these days of mine are inherently disturbing we don't like it you know it's not pleasant usually when we're angry and fearful and so on although some people might find it pleasant but i guess is that
most people who find a pleasant if they slow down long enough to actually feel what it felt like would not find a pleasant there's a kind of rush and on inflicted states of mind and when the mind is very course such a rush of emotion could be a feeling like a good thing but it's the mildness becomes more subtle it becomes really hurt horrendous to sell the more you mm
meditating on more you case in those states are mine and so is the problems increase
okay because the more sensitive you are to afflicted states and the more you want to get away from them so you can't stand it anymore and you're forced to meditate more and work with your my more because you just can't take anymore
so i i'm pretty sure that as far as i can tell these states are unpleasant
southern that's why they're disturbed and their concessions because they are based on a concessions in a sense of unreal
because
anger and greed and so on are based on you know erroneous conceptions and ideas about how the world really is mostly having to do with the fact that
we feel that we're out of connection with other things so
we feel like we have needs that need to be met when in fact in connection with other things there's nothing to need and nothing to worry about
so i'm not seen a connection between ourselves and others
gives rise to these mental states and effect we are connected effect were completely implicated in each other we can't live with each other understand ourselves except in relation to each other and so all these male states are fundamentally unnecessary
so in the text just over likens the mind for one else to arranging elephant you know or a fire
kind of raging around without any
choice for any sense of purpose going around in all directions destructively
what you want to do instead is to cool and calm down the mines so that you can begin to of penetrate emptiness and see things clearly
this is the ultimate way to eliminate the files there to mind because like i say when you see that there's no separation between ourselves and others when you see that the distinctions are empty of any reality and the clashes are gone
to suggest k l e s h

so conscientiousness is chapter four conscious to anxiousness or carefulness
and that means that attitude of mind that adheres to what is positive and wants to get rid of what is negative
so that an english the word conscientiousness this pretty good word we have a person's conscientious has always diligent always make an effort wants to do what's right doesn't undo what's wrong seems to care about that and apply effort in that direction
so that's the first thing we need to develop is a sense of conscientiousness non non laziness in relation to all this right because i often laziness as a great problem you know and spiritual development right because we're all kind of lazy
i mean i think it's a universal situation
so we're always looking for ways to steer ourselves to action and that's why you know here we are in the temple here we have lots of agreements
to help each other show up and do the practice that's a reminders and we really need all of them actually
in a way it's like a spiritual practice is nothing but a reminder not to just come to our senses in right now because as we saw constantly forget to do that
so conscientiousness
no
a shoddy david brings up several important aspects terms here that i want to try to distinguish for you
this which in sanskrit is off ramada a p r a m idea formato conscientiousness that add to that i just spoke up
then there's another
attitude of mine called smirky s m r t i which is mindfulness
but am particularly mindfulness in a sense of remembering his memory
is the faculty because you can be conscientious
but if you forget to apply what you know about negative states of mind you have a good attitude but nothing happens right
so you have to remember to actually be presently
and notice what's going on so a kind of awareness but an awareness that brings you back over and over and over again so in zazen for instance we applied this when our mind wanders we bring it back so the way we instruct the zaza and as we said enough be with your posture and your breath
and if your mind wanders bring it back so as not as if some people think well my mind wandered so i wasn't really doing is awesome
know if your mind wanders and you bring it back even if you bring it back five hundred times you know in the forty minute period it zaza because you're exercising this faculty of smirking
so to bring it back to come back to remembering awareness is a crucial
element of alarm that you need to have and or to began to do this work of discriminating
the negative mental states and other
this is this is kind of subtle i think i'm really fascinated piece pieces together our steadiness is called the think i forget who was the middle is to and dalai lama calls or alertness he also calls it another place places mental mental scrutiny because the title of justified
in chelsea just as commentary calls a discriminating alertness and in another book i have by recalled the meditation emptiness of professor hopkins calls of introspection
and bachelor the bachelor cause i'm guarding alertness
yeah the sanskrit is some diana s a p r a j n y a some try yeah yeah some for yeah
and so it means this alertness or mental scrutiny or introspection
and it's the faculty of mind
that
makes a judgment and discrimination about the mine that's arising
so if you like
if you're holding a teacup
if you have an attitude of i really would like to hold a teacup in a level way
this you know so you have a teacup uganda
you not just picking it up unconsciously without thinking about it you really have an attitude about how you and hold it
so conscientiousness is that attitude
mindfulness is being aware that you're holding a teacup
now i'm aware i'm holding a teacup zone addition to my attitude of wanting to hold it in a certain way i now have an awareness of holding i know i'm holding him
when i noticed that i'm not holding a straight
and i hold it straight than that's discriminating awareness or introspection
so these are three different things because they are sophisticated and subtle this is at three different things to be developed one is a general attitude of diligence
a second is an awareness of what one is doing
because an attitude without awareness is no good and awareness without some discrimination is not sufficient
now this is a very tricky point for us especially i think because a lot of times when we try to apply discriminating awareness we get tripped up in judgment and self judgment
this is a problem
this teaching of saturday data assumes a kind of sufficient faith and a healthy enough ego
that when we discriminate you know whether another holding a cup level we're not gonna start complaining about ourselves like how can get can ever hold a couple of minutes
can we have no awareness of anything if that happens that you know right away that's not helpful because i'm at last my practice of what i'm trying to do here and i now involved in a kind of self centered negative for gov
the file you know conceptions here room relative to myself which has now taken me far away from this diligent effort i'm trying to make the home down my mind to lettuce is the ravine so it's very tricky for us and so sometimes i think that it might be better and so we have to be able to figure out for doing that
no
if we're doing that then it's not a good practice discriminating alert awareness is not a good practice for at that time
and i think myself shanti do who doesn't say this but for my own experience and also from studying other text that emphasize him of mindfulness in the other ways
that is also a good practice simply to be aware there's a kind of awareness golf bear attention without discrimination
this may be more helpful than discriminating awareness
so maybe we need a long time of practicing that way
before we began to develop discriminative native alert awareness if that discriminate of awareness is going to activate self a negative self consciousness
so
that's tricky however with enough practice i think of
their attention
the mind becomes more stable instances of this kind of negative
discrimination against ourself
side and then as possible to gently introduce
identifications of and ngos to negative states of mine
so that's why these three different discriminations of different possible ways of looking at are us the dalai lama has a grid of sentence of one of in his chapter on this discriminate of awareness he says in this way
the mind like a drunken elephant
managed by the three poisons and the three poisons or
a great hate and delusion or and other words wanted to hold onto something even our life
what did to get rid of something like a bad state of mind or on unpleasant situation
for being confused about the to
this is the essential root of all that the file states of mine so this is what and this is natural all human beings have this and it's that the root of all the file states of mind so are mine
under the
ah you know power of these three poisons becomes like a drunken elephant raging around
that's as that mind will be tied to the pillar a positive actions by the rope of mindfulness and tamed by the hook
of discriminative awareness
so mindfulness is like the rope that holds us to the pillar of positive actions
and awareness is the hook and actually gets us to get elected when an elephant i guess they came on the hook the current lift up the leg or whatever
so you can see and that's a good analogy because if the hook because gets you draws blood
then just stay with the rope and eventually
the often comes down this by being tethered even without the book but the hook at a certain apply in the right way with enough skill and not drawing blood will actually help for the right time
salami
sure if you stances which here
another thing that's the little shocking i think i told you that the first time that whenever i read the shoddy they have a text at length i'm in detail many problems come up these kinds of lists like the one i just shared with you discriminate of awareness can be a problem for us and this this is a problem because
to deva really gets into this and he talks about these files takes a mine as our worst enemy and that we should
yeah trampled these state of mind kill them and science of work
he says here
ah
and to do this to to eliminate the final stages of mine will be my soul obsession for
holding a strong grudge
but disturbing conception such as these destroy disturbing concessions and for the time being or not to be abandoned in other words i know that the hate my disturbing sessions is a problem but i gonna apply hatred to them just to get rid of them and then once they're gone i'll deal with the hatred and so hard i feel that i haven't
was that the filing states the minor gone it would be better for me to be burned they have my head cut off and to be killed rather than ever bowing down to these ever present disturbing conceptions
so i mean he's really working at working out the history of
but but actually it's a good thing because we don't really see how bad our anger and all the stuff that's in us is we don't think of it as being a real problem we think of it as well that's just me but it's not me it's actually a defiled state of mind as arising that actually is very destructive so he's kind of
second is you to realize that you will be better off having your whole body burned down there you know
thinking that these were all right let alone not waging absolute nuclear war against the
common enemies will expelled from one country simply retire and settled down in another
the one their strength is recovered they didn't return
but the way of this enemy my disturbing concessions is not similar in this respect
a misdemeanor
means are like desk
dust
thus them he does just off the table and cousin yeah
yeah that's the common enemies right you get rid of them
maybe maybe means once you once you read get rid of these they're gone
when like the candidate is just take her to get ready hatred because this kind of case of and sky as fat as gone and once it's gone it's gone so it's it's worth it
then he says that diluted disturbing conceptions exclamation point when forsaken by the i have wisdom and dispelled from my mind where will you go via that's what is like the enemy goes away and my comeback but once these are uprooted where will they go bump this fear where will you dwell in order to be a
able to injure me again
so the results is so you know we fight against our enemies but the enemies gonna come back later and we don't bother fight against the disturbing concessions when they're much more destructive and plus we can actually win
the permanently because they'll be gone
so but weak minded i have been reduced to make no effort if these disturbing concessions did not exist within the objects the sense organs between the two and or elsewhere than where do they exist and how do they harm the world they are like an illusion thus should i dispel the fear within my heart and strike resolutely for wisdom
for no real reason why should i suffer so much in health in other words of disturbing conceptions are the read are the result of confusion about what's really going on we are confused about the nature of ourself in an nature of others and because of that confusion we have these feelings of jealousy and anger and on so forth once we see
see the truth of this they're gone
and so why don't we met and look how destructive they are now why don't we make the big effort you say
once we see the truth of of the of the illusion that is the source of all these that there was greed hate delusion we want something because we think we don't already have it you want to get rid of it as we think is a threat those things are so
we already have but we need and nothing is threatening so why do we allow this to happen but why do we why do we have a world like the when we have to me this is the interest stuff right
disturbing conceptions ignorance and hatred are very potent i mean we're really talking in terms of our just our own minds and the unpleasantness in our lives of hatred and ignorance but in addition to that there is hatred and ignorance to the max
hopefully and i believe that none of us fear would push it that far but we know that people do and they kill one another they blow things up right because of these negative emotions
which are
pointless because they're based on mistaken notions about reality once we see that they're gone and we have ears
and if we don't see that look what happens
look how they look the consequences so we'd better do it can we really can't waste any time we really better devote ourselves to this what could possibly be want more important than this
so he says the concluding stance of this chapters of therefore having thought about this well
i should try to put these precepts into practice just as they have been explained
if the doctor's instructions are ignored
how will a patient in need of cure be healed by his medicines
so in other words now you know we've talked about this you understand this but as meaningless i going to the doctor and in explaining a condition but you don't take the medicine
and the medicine is to do the practice of discriminating these thing and be getting through
you know i need discriminate the more and more subtly give you an enraging hatred and anger we all recognise but have a hatred and anger than before it quite develops
because after you know if you wait to was raging usually it's of your cock you actually can't really do anything there except now
grit your teeth what you can do best thing to do is just like not hit somebody right because then things escalate so you can just don't join them
but was completely overtaken you you really pretty powerless to make go away so what about two steps before it overtakes you can you recognize that discriminated with greater and greater subtlety and apply more positive states at that time so that it does not come here
so
i you know there's a in the analysis of of mine it lists a different you know i told you what should the in itasca well as i think fifty one fifty two delineated a fantastic us and those are divided into all these different categories and i'll just read the list here
of there's there's six or the fifty one six the fifty one are called the route places visited basic ones and then there are twenty secondary clashes that come from the rockledge to the roof clashes our desire anger pride
ignorance doubt and confused views views about self another that aren't true those the route afflictions
they can reduce down that greed hate and ignorance but a little fuller view of on those six and your prize ignorance doubt and mixed up views
secondary clashes are defined as
belligerence
he let me i just started you'd enjoy these belligerence resentment concealment spite jealousy greed deceit the simulation haughtiness harmfulness non shame
not embarrassment these are the opposite of to virtuous states than mine called shame and embarrassment which we think although what good at hours but actually the very good because if you didn't have shame and embarrassment you wouldn't stop when it is something that was nice upgrade
since this way a shame and embarrassment or very positive they call him the guardians of the world
because that's what keeps us all from the shaft bearishness ashamed embarrassed and are positive virtuous states of mind but they are lack of them is a defilement see ora ora glacier for inflicted a conception forgetfulness which is the opposite of mindfulness not introspection went to the opposite of
introspection and distraction
there are many different systems of the course for this is one particular
map of them
okay so now for homework
here's what i was thinking and you know again i always to say that you know you figure out your own way of doing this and you know it can evolve on your own during the week
but i was thinking after homework
not the homework is obviously to be aware of and work with she filed for we could let's say a disturbing conceptions these disturbing conceptions to be able to identify them and learn as much as you can about them
like
what cause what caused it can you see what caused this is very interesting to actually look and see what what was the immediate cause was a long term cause can you identify an immediate cause and a long term costs of an afflicted of emotion or a disturbing consumption can use i want to destroy
you haven't you ever thought of joseph what caused that thought of jealousy and the shore of the short run conditions and what was the background a long range conditions
now the question of that's one one thing that's the best main thing is to identify these states are want to try to find causes for them the second thing is to see if you can identify in yourself the presence and and cultivate the presence of these three aids to working with mental states which are
conscientiousness
mindfulness or remembering river in i a mindfulness
and discriminating awareness
safe you can
you know of course these things are all made up right but but you know when you make something like this up what happens is you start noticing different things about your mental state these are towards right
to help you so if you are the sudden say now do i know is there now present in in my mind and attitude of conscientiousness if you ask yourself that question i was not everything looks different because you begin to notice
oh no how there isn't
have you actually i'm i don't get it there right now
but my life of our practice of in basically i'm out to lunch that's what's really going on
and but if you don't ask yourself is there the presence of conscientiousness you might never noticed that in fact we spent a lot of time and that state of mind
you know completely not really i mean what is going on our mind i think a lot of time there's a kind of them all a subliminal
a habitual i think there's a kind of dream that goes on during the day is only me that were not aware of that usually has to do with something that happened that created
the disturbing concession that we're really not interested in looking as and so it kind of we can we fixate at that point and it's like man and a dream repeating over and over again all day long we're going through the motions of walking and talking and having conversations with people and doing things and there it is the whole time is there and we haven't read
the noticed it and we could actually sleepwalk through an entire life think of it you could do this
and it would be a shame you know what would really be ashamed because they're not only would you never have had a chance to live this precious life but also the joy that you could experience would be completely gone and not only that but the possible good that you could do for others and enjoy that you
can bring to others lives would be completely out the window and you probably would very likely be instead of and enjoyed other people's lives via drag on the system
so the stakes are high and it's really a shame and and time goes by and that's it
nobody says here's another chance
no
not if you want to look at in a past life perspective that were there is another chance there's another chance but you'd have a terrible first
no you won't be more as a human beings say if you choose
somebody must turn the waters
anyway so these kind of tools to see what is they're discriminating alertness can use this tell the difference between is there conscientiousness and is there i remember it
the elephant
a heavy casualties
anyway in the next week will next week will check it out we'll see in our what it was like to and if you have problems with any this that far the experiment to if you find that you can't do it or you resisted you want to hear about that to resistances to these things or the own workability over the impossible that were a possibility of doing this
it is also interesting so don't feel like the know it's a certain we don't know where it will take you wherever it takes you even if it takes you to reject the whole thing that's interesting to see what you come up with guess what if you were you said that as you stop about consciousness mindfulness democracy concierge
business conscientiousness and mindfulness and discriminating awareness
in other words being able to tell the difference between one was little state of the other
yeah aesthetic difference history marcin that you rent your process like that after on what's happening
oh there's courses difference because of it's better to know about it afterwards than that know nobody it at all and then you ought to catch up to shock eventually see like the buddha
on it that fast and so as ever it looks like see the buddha looks completely serene and happy and as if he never has any afflicted emotions but that's because the buddha is alert enough and discriminating enough to be right there before they have a chance to take over so mostly they happen and we go through our life like that and we don't
even say we you know you know what it is so much better afterwards to look back and say aha what could happen if wow i should have done that that's good and then better yet is the so we noticed like next week a week later he noticed better will notice two days later better yet to notice one day afterward a better to notice ten minutes after and then like right now
and then noticed before it even happens it's like catching yourself before you catch a cold you can feel a cold coming on and you do something then you never get to call
like that
i listed in there
no no it means that he's got an old one more time to can't right now oh you want it and want to write all is going on the stairs
extent of the single six hundred and six
no i'm mostly speaking for the standpoint of shanty davis and taken or she talks about this from a different angle altogether
okay the six route clashes our desire anger pride
dangerous
doubt
and wrong views
wow views
wrongdoers meaning specifically meaning about the nature of self and other and they'd survive and yeah
wrong views about reality
so okay
so anyway
round
it's mentioned in lots of different with his books if your this if you look up books audio books in the library will probably have some stuff about that i'm getting i was looking up in a book called meditation on emptiness
the other stare at times when down is considered positive a virtue yes yes well this kind of damage is that that you know usually from as perspective two different totally different kinds of doubt are distinguished
one kind is the kind of referred to here which is a kind of negative or corrosive that
it's this when you doubt your own abilities practice doubt the practice itself he doubted the value of your life those kind of does don't really get you anywhere because they paralyze that they don't allow they don't they don't spur you on to more practice they actually kind of make you give up and take a break or
even worse
from negative states of mind like well the hell with anyway i'm gonna go and get drunk in a who cares cancelling that canada so generally speaking that canada is not helpful acceptance so far as you can take it so far that you realize it's not helpful and then make a strong motivation so you can
get drunk every night for five years at the end of which time you may say wow this this course of action is not helping
and then maybe you'll have serious motivation to do some different
the other kind of doubt is them
doubt that is questioning doubt
so what is my life what is dharma
it's the kind of doubt that doesn't just take things by rote and on faith but investigates so it's investigative doubt
and that kind of doubt that kind of questioning is very positive effect fact as necessary as one of the factors of enlightenment it's than absolutely necessary and certainly and in is made it to an art form and cohen study it's all about their countdown
using that kind adapted to sharpen
the mind and raise energy
but they're two completely different than the the in english
the same word happens to cover them but there are two different sanskrit words the considered to be two different mental states altogether
well i think we should in those of you will enjoy with the facts straight and present our going to about over there but we will chance of for wagner
the