You are currently logged-out. You can log-in or create an account to see more talks, save favorites, and more.
Yontenzot
AI Suggested Keywords:
Name added
The talk delves into the nature of suffering and how it impedes the experience of joy, highlighting the importance of the present moment as emphasized in Dzogchen and Mahamudra teachings. It discusses the Four Noble Truths, focusing on the four principal sufferings—birth, old age, sickness, and death—and explains the cycle of samsara and the necessity of breaking through it with mindfulness. The distinction between mere understanding and the realization of teachings is explored, promoting a genuine spiritual practice. A critical theme is the practice of hearing, analyzing, and meditating on the Dharma to cultivate wisdom, fulfill one’s potential, and transcend samsara.
Referenced Works and Concepts:
- Dzogchen and Mahamudra: These teachings provide insights into living in the "nowness," facilitating the transcendence of duality and fear to achieve enlightenment.
- Four Noble Truths: Essential Buddhist teachings on recognizing and overcoming the causes of suffering.
- Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara: Highlighted for its emphasis on the rarity of human rebirth and the urgency of utilizing it effectively.
- Yunthinsa, the Treasure of Knowledge: A comprehensive text detailing various stages of spiritual growth from precious human rebirth to the Vajrayana view.
- Lupti (a text referenced): Described in relation to healing and the necessity of cultivating mindfulness to escape the sufferings of life.
- His Holiness Dujum Rinpoche: Mentioned for teachings on the importance of a truthful heart and moral integrity.
- Kadampa Geshe: Referenced in the context of impermanence and the practice of renunciation.
Key Concepts:
- Samsara: The cycle of birth and rebirth fueled by ignorance and desire, requiring mindfulness and spiritual discipline to overcome.
- The distinction between intellectual understanding and experiential realization: Both are necessary but distinct, with the latter being crucial for authentic awakening.
- Karma: Explained in terms of action and reaction, emphasizing mental and physical actions' role in shaping one’s experience.
- Merit and Positive Actions: Defined as the accumulation of virtuous deeds leading to spiritual progress and enlightenment.
- Renunciation: Viewed as a fundamental practice for cutting through attachment and achieving a state of enlightenment.
By focusing on these aspects, the talk emphasizes the importance of spiritual practice rooted in understanding and integration of Dharma teachings to transcend mundane existence and realize true enlightenment.
AI Suggested Title: Transcending Suffering Through Present Awareness
Side: A
Possible Title: Yonten Zat #2
Additional text: TDK D90, Normal Bias 120\u00b5s EQ
@AI-Vision_v003
Recording starts after beginning of talk.
You receive, you hear, you integrate, become part of that old medicine. And they all work on healing that suffering. Now suffering has many different states. There's a gross suffering, which appears like we have a physical painful. And then we have sometimes psychological suffering. We have suffering from losing something. We have suffering that we may not be able to keep that thing. There is a constant disappointment. The second food on the plate, so naturally the disappointment comes. It's like you have taken a, you are eating a very strong, tough food or something like a bone.
[01:08]
And now finally when you're able to chew that bone, crush that bone and chewing it, taking its juice, you know, and really enjoying the tastefulness, then now you're worried about the bone on the table. Oh, that's going to take a long time. So kind of that, our whole life seems to be in a tremendous hunger. There's a hunger into every state. Every impression is a hunger. That is the duality. That is the fear. And that is the main problem why we cannot enjoy, why we cannot be in a joyful state, because we lose the contact, we lose the contact of our presence, of being in the moment of the nowness. in meditation is called nowness, that present. If you do not worry at that stage, you just allow the space for any situation, which is taught in the Dzogchen teaching and taught in the Mahamudra, then one can be fully into that state.
[02:23]
But immediately the frustration comes when we do not know how to use that mind. We do not know how to relate to ourselves. And we create that fantasy, we create that idea of past, present and future. So constantly there is a tremendous fighting and struggling. So there is an end. There is no happiness while there is a struggle. The absence of struggle brings the enlightenment. Not the struggle brings the enlightenment. And now before we go any deeper into those teachings, first let's begin from the very beginning step. Now from the very beginning last time, there are four main sicknesses we have. There is always continuously, ceaselessly, continuously happening.
[03:26]
It's like a chain of thread which is connected and all the time happening. Those are the four main sufferings, the suffering of birth, the suffering of old age, the suffering of sickness, and the suffering of death. These are the four main sicknesses which we have, everyone has to go through. Every one of us, every human being has to go through. These are the four main sufferings. First is the suffering of birth. It's not that easy when we give birth. When we first landed out of the mother's womb, it's like, because inside of the mother's womb is so comfortable, it's so delicate. It's not easy also when being in the mother's womb. It's like our heads are upside down and we, our physical experience relate to the mother's behavior.
[04:29]
When the mothers take tremendously hard food, the child also experiences that because the body is connected with it. And if the mothers go through tremendous hard, very tough kind of exercise, then it's become very hard for the child. So there's tremendous difficulty from being in the womb of mother. And then when we come out of the mother's womb, when we first landed on the ground, it's like coming on a throne, pawn. Because inside it's very soft. And now coming out of that place and landing on the ground, it's like coming on a throne. So there's a suffering of birth. Thorn. Thorn. Thorn. What do you call it? Thorn. Thorn.
[05:31]
No, no, no. Thorn. Not on a throne. Thorn. Thorn. Just like the experience of... The experience of going on a throne is different. The experience of thorn. Thorn. That is the suffering of the person. And then there's a continuation suffering. We don't have to mention how much we think the child's, even the child's mind is very not sophisticated mind, but they too have their own sophistication because there is still a duality in the child's mind. ordinary child's mind. The ordinary mind has a duality mind, so there's a great deal of struggle happening all the time. The struggle to be free from the situation which parents set up for them, and to go and play which the parents do not let them play, and tremendous suffering one after another.
[06:35]
And then there's the suffering of old age. We all have to go through that. And the suffering of sickness. Nobody wants that. You are perfectly well and you can die. And this suffering of old age, sickness and birth and death, these are the four main sufferings which we go through continuously throughout the lifetimes, throughout the circle of life. Now these are very important to realize. If you do not start from the bottom, you would not know what's really then later on meditation means also. So all these teachings are important, you know, so therefore Buddha just did not give a meditation teaching straight away. He explained this thing from the beginning so we know what is the circle of samsara and what is the cutting through in the circle. And those two things are the main two essential points in the teaching.
[07:38]
So this continuation of this sickness, of the four main sickness, that we are suffering intensely into this. I mean, this intense suffering is there. How much, you know, when we are not well, how much suffering it gives us. And then all these things give us a lot of suffering. It's not that they give us a pleasure all the time. And what we do is we are complementing this suffering instead of cutting through this suffering. Now that has been the confusion part. We complement them, we decorate them by falsifying, by not being truthful to oneself. And that is like decorating and complementing this sickness. Whatever the sickness is when we falsify that we are not able to heal. We have to be very truthful to the doctor that where is the sickness is.
[08:40]
If you have a pain in your arms, if you say that I have the pain in the legs, then never the arm pain will go away. So it's like that we are constantly trying to do something being very false so that we are trying to show that we are well while we are going through a great, while we are going through a lot of suffering. It's such a superficial world, actually. It's very, very superficial if you look in different paths. And that is the problem. You know, really coming to the spiritual path, one has to wake up from the superficial. And it is our enlightenment, our happiness, it's a personal responsibility. You know, it's not a work of your friend or it's not a work of somebody else. When you take a refuge in the triple gem, it's not the job of the triple gem. Nothing can be done unless you're not ready to work with yourself. So we have to be honest and be correct and approach ourselves in a true manner.
[09:43]
That's very important. And then to take the right medicine. If we are constantly living, showing that we are well while we are going through a great deal of suffering, and trying to falsify, trying to escape, and always showing false, always showing superficial, always acting, always putting a mask on your face, you know, that doesn't work on the long run. We could falsify for one day, two day, but not every day. And even while you're going through that, there is no trust. You do not trust fundamentally. And those are kind of very sad thing to see that how we can get carried away. And now the point is not to get carried away, to get back to one's origin. So therefore the taking the medicine of the Dharma, how we take the medicine of Dharma? One is to hear the teachings. Hearing is not enough.
[10:45]
One has to analyse the teaching. Hearing is not enough. Understanding is not enough in meditation. He says, recognising is not enough, one has to understand. Understanding is not enough, one has to realise. Understanding is just like a patch, it's an intellectual mark. It is not the true quality of their mind, but it helps to understand the true quality of their mind. But there's an earth and a space difference between an understanding and a realization. They are completely two different things. And this is where many meditator people fall on the thing that they have an understanding and they think they have understood, but they haven't reached to their realization. So understanding and realization are two different things. Though understanding, you know, understanding is the image of the mind.
[11:47]
Image of the mind. If someone says, who has never been to New York, and who has never drank a Tibetan butter tea, for instance, a lot of you have never drank a butter tea. Some people might have, but I'm sure there must be people here who didn't have butter tea. So if I'm going to explain what is butter tea, we put salt inside and now there are many kinds of butter teas. Many kinds of butter teas. There's the butter tea which is superbly made and that kind of butter tea one cooks the tea for about one or two hours. And then after cooking and boiling the tea for one or two hours, then one has to put different ingredients of tea, like the quality of the tea, the older the tea, the better the taste of the tea, the ancient teas. And we put like ancient Chinese tea inside, many different kinds of tea in the main tea.
[12:54]
And now you must be wondering how that could be. You know, you have a picture anyway. And then we put butter with salt. We do not put animal butter. We put yak butter. But you make a picture. Yak butter is very tasty, very good. And it's yellow color. Kind of yellow, looks very yellow, very rich. Looks wonderful. Laughter And it tastes wonderful also. And then we churn the tea at least 100 to 200 times. Because the quality of the tea, the more you churn, the better the taste is with the butter tea. It mixes the whole butter and the tea totally. The less you churn, the stronger it is. Also it kills the caffeine, kills the caffeine of the tea.
[14:00]
When we boil the tea for about one or two hours, all the caffeine is over. Even it's very, very black tea, very strong tea, but it is very light when you boil it for long. And then it's very delicious. So similarly, when a person first go to meditation, here in meditation, first one here, then one understand, then you, you know, try to do, you know, try to figure out, you know, do a little bit of meditation or figure out by your mind now, you know, how to work, okay, I let go it, I let go, I let come, you know, a lot of things like that. But you haven't really tasted it real. To taste real water has to be very present to that moment. Then when you taste it, it's very different from the picture you imagine to what you see. It's like when you haven't seen India, but the picture you have and when you go there, it's different.
[15:04]
And when I first came to America, I have a different picture. And when I got here, I saw another picture. The way the New York was structured, I saw it differently than I have imagined there. I imagine everything to be very clean. It's true. Very, very clean. I imagine all the cars are shining, you know, all the roads are good. And when I first landed in New York, all the cars are dusty and a lot of things like that. And there's kind of dirt and things. I said, this is not possible. So it was two different things. Something like that. And exactly in the experience of meditation also, understanding and true experience are different. As long as you do not get touched with the true experience, the total trust will not happen. Total trust will not come into your experience.
[16:07]
It is like a patch. It's like a, you know, patch can be, get lost. Because it's an understanding. It's a projection. It's an image. And the realization will never go off. Because it's a complete clarity... seeing in oneself and therefore nothing can be shaken to the state. Nothing can disturb the state. So until one has not experienced the state it can be easily sidetracked because you know it's like you can be easily distracted. It's like, you know, someone, to a little child, someone wants to distract them, throw them out of their house, they show a chocolate, you know, and the child is very busy inside, never wants to come out. So you find out what they like, and you find out they like the chocolate. So you show a chocolate from the door, and then you go back, and go back, and then you throw the chocolate and you close the door and stay inside.
[17:12]
You know, it's like that. It's like that trip, the swimming trip, as I said. Until one has not gained the trust, you will be easily distracted. If someone is saying, oh, you are created, oh, that must be it, because you are still in a duality of imagination. If someone is saying, you are not created, oh, that must be right also. You see, you have no trust, you have no trust, you have no sense of true dignity means true enlightenment, no sense. You're just like, you know, just like a... it's called a flaky mind. It's like the paper which is carried away by wind. When the wind is blowing from the east, you are carried on the north, and when it is blowing from the north, you are carried on the south. It will happen. It's all the time happening like that. Until one has really not come to that trust, it's a state you cannot trust yourself. And now please don't be paranoid today.
[18:15]
Don't get paranoid in eating or whatever. But it's like that. That's called the samsara mind. There's no trust. One becomes vulnerable and one becomes just completely... You do not know. You do not know what to do with yourself after samsara. And one has to recognize that. We haven't recognized that. We haven't seen that. We think that we know ourself. And while our ego, self-deception, has been playing all this thing to us, you do not recognize it is your self-deception while you try to show how great you are, which is completely a very confusion state. So... One has to, one really has to, you know, that's why so many times, particularly in the school of Nyingma in Kagyu, it's emphasized so much practice, practice, practice, practice.
[19:29]
Early age people practice, practice. So you have the genuine experience. When you have that experience, the whole experience is a true experience of enlightened state. And until that, even you can read, memorize the 84,000 texts, you know the whole psychology, the whole philosophy of this world, you know, it's still, you know, you can't be distracted. If someone comes smarter than you, can easily distract you. Even you, for a Buddhist, you know, for a Buddhist-labeled person can read the 84,000 texts of Buddhist canon, you know. It's just like one is living in that duality of imagination. So it's a question that we have to solve this problem once and for all inside our mind to really clean up that confusion, that mess that is hanging there.
[20:31]
And until we don't do this endless curiosity, the endless question will never end. Never, never end. It will keep on producing. The whole life is that excitement. You know, even you go to a bar, even you go to see a movie, it's the excitement of your duality. Whatever you do is a consumption, is carried away by that duality. Whatever you do. You may be talking about something, you know, and you get hold to that idea for, you know, years and maybe a couple of years. And then one day you think maybe that's not right, it changed. And kind of that thing, constantly there's, now what you have been doing, you can, if you, when you really see something deeply inside, you have been wasting all this time. No matter what we think we have achieved or we have done, everything is proven to be something like a complete craziness, where there is no trust, there is no fundamental trust.
[21:44]
Everything is like a big play. And believing into that big play as a serious play, that's the play of the big boy and the big girl. Because the play of the little child is more like what they play with the toys. Now the play of the elderly people is like that is the biggest play of all. The biggest confusion of all. And one has to Until we do not awake, the awakened state means awake from that state of duality. That's really what awake means. So it's very different. Understanding and experience realization is different thing. It's very different. So when you do, you know, when you do your meditation, you just simply do it. Just simply do it and be in your present of that moment.
[22:48]
And just do not worry for the next moment. Do not be curious. That curiosity is the self-deception. To bring that is the biggest deception ever. So therefore one has to, in order to understand this thing, one has to hear the Dharma, then one has to analyze that. Now hearing is not enough, one has to analyze. One has to see, we have the intelligence. We have the intelligence what is right and what is wrong. So by that intelligence we can understand whether it's true or not, you see. It's like that, you know, the true intelligence. But intelligence will be deepened. The intelligence will be, until the wisdom mind is not attained, it's called intelligent mind. There's a difference between a wisdom mind and an intelligent mind. The wisdom mind has trust, while intelligence can lose the trust. There's a difference. The intelligence does not have full trust in itself. It has a certain extent of trust, but wisdom mind has like this bottom clear, you know, completeness, like the lowest of lowest has nothing to lose, like that.
[23:56]
But intelligence mind is still preserving something, the sense of losing it, you see. That is the intelligence mind. And it's like a theory of scientists. A scientist theory can be the 1979 scientist theory. Many of them are invalid by the today's scientists because someone finds something and the other previous theories become invalid. It's like that. So intelligence and wisdom is different. Now we have to use the intelligence. That's how every person begins with intelligence. Everybody begins with intelligence. And the blessing of an understanding of that intelligence and working on that path and the strength will be able to attain the wisdom. So intelligence is very important.
[24:58]
The person who does not have intelligence is in the state of tremendous blind faith. It's a blind faith. And the blind faith, if you have the blind faith for the right thing, you are lucky. But if you're the blind pastor for the wrong thing, then it's quite a big problem then. So you have to analyze. It's important, you see. And one should have the intelligence, the what which can analyze, the intelligence can analyze. When you hear the teaching, then you really know what is true and what is not true. Is it true that you are your mind's production? Or is it true that you are created by somebody else? There are many things, many kind of play of our mind which we can understand by this relative mind, the relative intelligence.
[26:08]
And then after some time, understanding a good relative intelligence, you would not be caught into a blind faith, into a blind world. And then you can have your clarity and eventually you can have your trust in your completeness of the United One. But until that, you see, you have no trust. So intelligence becomes a support to the wisdom mind, but it's different, very different. Intelligent minds and wisdom minds are like earth and space, different. They are very different. Intelligence mind can explain a lot of different things, but when it comes to actual experiences, there's a lacking. So the lacking will come when persons confront a real situation. When the real situation manifests, the person with the wisdom mind will manifest spontaneously, while the intelligence mind person, if he forgets certain ideas, then he would not know how to do that. Those are the signs of confronting the life situation in our life.
[27:17]
the one who is intelligent, who knows all the teachings by heart, you can remember, or you are very intelligent, and you can say about Hinayana teaching, you can tell about Mahayana teaching, you can tell about Vajrayana teaching, but that kind of state does not have the wisdom, does not have the cutting through, and also lack of trust in that ultimate. But yet, the self-deception is such that you think you know it. And then when it's really when you try to dig inside, then the fear will come. Because you have never given up. You have reserved the fear. So many things like that. So one has to analyze. And it's important. Buddha himself said, my teachings are not to be just taken just like that. Analyze and if you see. If you think it's right, then you do. And if you find it's not right, then you don't have to do.
[28:20]
So that shows that, you know, that is called the lion's roar. That's called the lion's roar. That shows that, you know, his teaching, that when you really go into it, you know, it is the true nature of our state. And therefore, you know, if someone does not understand, then we will do our prayer and wish they understand, but that's it. And it's not that, you know, that shows it's called the lion's roar because it's not imposing, there's no theory to that. That's why he said, if you see, you see my teachings, and if you see it's right, you do. It's to see that for rightness it is to be done. It's not to be accepted. Just merely I said so. That is how teaching has to be analyzed. First hear, then analyze, then meditate.
[29:27]
Those are the three ways of going into the path of enlightenment. Hearing, analyzing, and then meditation. Those three are very crucial states. The one who does not have the strength to analyze, it's a very, very flaky mind. Very, very weak mind. And we all have to do a lot of prayers and wish a lot of good things for that kind of state of mind. Truly, that kind of mind needs tremendous blessing, prayers from all the people. And it's a creed of fear, you see. When you're able to expose yourself, see yourself, you cannot, you know, because you are such and such. So many things like this in the world also are like that. So one should not have the fear. One should always be brave. You have to be brave to get out of samsara. You have to fight with samsara in a way. So you just can't afford to be weak. So hearing is important, analyzing is very important.
[30:29]
By analyzing you know the truth, you know what it is. And then the deepness of the realization will come by meditation, by practice. So three things goes. Meditation, real meditation and action in meditation is called. In teaching is called hearing and analyzing and meditation. Hearing, analyzing and meditation. Meditation is called view, meditation and action. That includes everything. You actualize your meditation into action in life. And this is, you know, it has tremendous opening. is encourage a person to be open, you know, in the teaching. Encourage a person to be open, to not to be scared, to accept who one is, and to work with it. So it's very, you know, very clear, actually.
[31:31]
Not to be afraid of one's self. Accept who you are, good, bad, or ugly. Accept who you are. And then work with that. And then one will see the truth in that. But a lot of times we hear, you know, think you are beautiful and it will be perfect later on. That never happens. So hearing, analyzing and meditation are the most crucial part for our enlightenment. Very important to see the truth. And it says, one who is not willing to do that, approach the hearing and analyzing and meditation, and try to abstain this quality, they are suffering and wandering on the plain grounds of suffering. Plain grounds, wandering on the, like there's a tremendous big field, you know, the field of suffering.
[32:34]
Then living in that constant fear, confusion, you know, never wake up. Never a waking state. One is to wake up. You cannot live in confusion and fear. And it's time to do it. It's not that you don't start tomorrow, you don't start after one hour. You start right now. You have to begin working with yourself. You have to know, because if you don't do it, nobody can do it for you. So therefore you better do it for yourself. No one can do it if you don't. And then in one of the teachings called Lupti, one of the texts called Lupti, it says... When we... the nectar, the amrita. Nectar is for healing. When a person is very sick, in the deities, heavenly realms, the devas realms, they have nectar. And when you take that nectar, you get completely healed.
[33:36]
All your sickness and injuries and all the problems get over. Physical sickness. When you take the nectar, there is a healing. Similarly, when a person is born as a human being and then we do not take the nectar of Dharma, then we would never be able to be free from the suffering of the birth, old age, sickness and death. And then again getting sleepy, getting indulged into the very sleepy state of this confused duality mind, that person is sick for a long time. And that's very sad, not taking the medicine. So in many teachings it is explained one should wake up. The great Shantideva said, Attaining a precious human rebirth, which is like the boat to cross the ocean of suffering.
[34:40]
This boat is like a boat which can cross the ocean of suffering. Cross the great ocean of suffering. And it's very hard to attain this body again, which is like this precious boat. So do not sleep, O ignorant one, he said. Because if we do not find a way in this lifetime when we have this great opportunity to awake from this sleep state, then to awaken from this state again in the future is difficult. Never the struggling it will end. There's so much struggling, struggling. The Dharma teaches how to be present in yourself. It's not a new situation given to you. It's a situation which we are. It's a state in which we are to be into the state of joy. As much as the potential for the suffering is there, the greater potential for the true joyfulness is also there. And that's simply knowing the mind and not knowing the mind.
[35:41]
Knowing the mind is realization, not knowing the mind is the suffering of samsara. So then, now hearing the teaching, we are able to purify our obscurations of our mind. Because now we know the path, we know how to heal ourselves. And we are able to cut the doubt and suspicions of this confused mind. And then we are able to remain in the true nature of ourselves. And therefore we are able to be free from the lower experience of suffering. And therefore we are able to be in the state of blissfulness and joyful, which is the wisdom eye.
[36:47]
We are able to see the truth, which ultimately will lead us to the total transcendence of the samsara and then able to attain the state of full realization. Therefore it says in many sutras, by hearing you understand the truth, you understand the dharma. And by hearing you are able to abstain from the causes which brings the suffering. By hearing you abstain the unnecessary thing, you do not lose and waste your energy. By hearing you are able to attain the enlightenment. So therefore the hearing, the Dharma, it's very important from all those different versions. All important to hear. And what hearing and analyzing and meditation, you see, view meditation and action goes. By hearing, you actualize your life into the right pattern. And by actualizing that, you are able to not experience the pain and suffering which we go through before by doing the wrong thing.
[37:55]
And by hearing, we are able to understand, by hearing the introduction of the nature of the mind, we are able to recognize our mind and we are able to free ourselves. So those all come from the hearing of the teaching. So it's very important. The hearing of Dharma teaching. Of course we hear all kinds of things, but what is most precious is hearing of Dharma teaching. So, now in this teaching, in this teaching of Yunthinsa, the treasure of knowledge, it explains all the details from the precious human rebirth to impermanence, to all the causes, to the Hinayana levels, to the Mahayana's view, to the Vajrayana view, to the tantra.
[38:57]
So the earlier parts I would not explain much about, you know, we all, you all heard many things, many times, which I would explain, you know, the precious human rebirth, you all heard, you know, things like that. And we can't go every detail because this is about two, three hundred pages. And actually it's a study of one year in Tibet. This is a one year study. And we're just putting it in the weekend. But it's very important to go. You know, there's so many things missing, actually, so many things missing. And it's important to pay attention. When you pay attention to the, you know, just what we would say lower teaching, or something like small things, precious human rebirth, these are so important because we understand the value. When we do not understand the value, then we do not know how to value the higher instant flesh of realization also. So my teacher, His Holiness Thujjom Rinpoche, always used to say that, and many great teachers in the past have said, some people think that the higher meditation is greater, but we think the details are more greater.
[40:18]
Even they have this highest state of realization. Because one knows how to appreciate, how to value this thing, so you are able to keep that and able to experience that. So there are certain ngondra texts. There's a text called the Tantric Buddhism of Tibet. It explains very detailed about the ngondra practices and you should read those kind of books. Instead of always grabbing to a Dzogchen and a Mahamudra, once in a while, read those things. And you will know how to appreciate Dzogchen more and Mahamudra more. Otherwise, after some time Dzogchen and Mahamudra become like an image. You have no true jnana experience of Dzogchen and Mahamudra and they become like the true, it's like an influence to show yourself that I'm better because I have done it. While you do not really have a true jnana experience.
[41:19]
The true jnana experiences are like a sky mind. That is the true genuine experience. They are like a sky mind. They are like no obstruction at all. And if you have that, it's great. And if you see yourself obstructing, banging your head and breaking your legs all the places, it's also important that we pay much more detail into the other teachings also. So I would not explain much on the precious human rebirth because you have heard a lot of time, but I will go through briefly on the teachings. And then later on, the main points will be the view of Mahayana and the view of Vajrayana. There's a great detail of Tantra in these teachings. So now first thing, you know, it's very important to correct our view, correct our attitude.
[42:35]
Correcting our attitude means seeing who we are, accepting who we are. It does not mean that now someone else is great, you worship, and that's the only right way of thinking, and you just believe, and that is the best way, and you don't have to worry for anything. That's not called the correct way of thinking. The correct way of thinking means accepting who you are, respecting for what you are, and willingness to work yourself, heal yourself. Those are the right way of thinking. and to approach the teaching, hearing the teaching, analyzing it and actualizing it. Those are the right view and the right teaching. So that's what called the attitude. So attitude is very important. And one has to understand, you see, that likewise you are suffering, every being is also suffering. And we all share the same problem. The sensitivity is the same. So therefore when you see that as much as the pain is for you, therefore the pain is much for the other person.
[43:43]
It does not mean the other person do not have pain while you have the only pain. Everybody is going through pain. It's amazing actually somehow to really to believe that everyone has a pain. It's pretty hard, very hard. I'm seeing this much more clearer these days than ever before. I guess when I was very young I was a kid so I didn't know. But now when I grew up I'm seeing that wow, There's hardly you meet anybody who does not have any problem. There's some kind of depression inside, some kind of problem. And it's just like, you know, where are you going to find that place without any problem? There's hardly anywhere you can find it. Everywhere there seems to be a depression, there seems to be a problem. So it's very sad, you know, it's very really shocking and yet we try to live and yet we try to, you know, we try to make it much more grosser, we try to make it much more heavier, we try to teach each other in a state like that, you know, so the whole thing is called the work of samsara.
[45:05]
And that is one thing why some people become monk and nun. They become monk and nun because they see that, you know, everything is just like fooling oneself. And for some, that is the path. For them, they try to get rid of that path. There is no end to that thing. So they're rid of that state. Because if you get engaged, you again build up that state. And the easiest way is to become a monk and man. And there are very few who has the Vajrayana technique. And even though who has the Vajrayana technique, because one has not approached this stage step by step, so there is a lot of side troubles. One does not know how to evaluate that state, so therefore one also misses the point. And who is going to get enlightened?
[46:09]
Very few is going to get enlightened. I can see like a star in the sky who will get enlightened. Because not everyone is really being honest. Not that you don't want to be honest because unconsciously one is caught in a state you do not know that you are not honest. You think you are honest. A person who kills somebody thinks one is honest. A person who steals something thinks one is honest. Everybody has a reason to explain that, you know. When you go to trial, there's something that the person who did the wrong has said. That person also has something to say. So we have something to always falsify the situation. So... So therefore... Otherwise, really, nothing is really happening truthfully. So when you really see this thing, it's not hard to renounce it, actually.
[47:14]
It's not hard to renounce it. It's like a disgusting thing is there. And sorry for saying a word disgusting, but it's really like that. And there is no hardship at all. There is no desire at all. So it's not hard for one who has seen that state and to renounce shape and then to renounce shape means renounce shape the duality, renounce shape the confusion. That's what you renounce shape. You're not renouncing your happiness. So that by renouncing the causes of that, you are able to see your true state or the true happiness inside yourself. That's what enunciate means. And we should not criticize those who are monks and nuns that they are, you know, some people criticize.
[48:16]
It's not good to criticize that. They're great. They're doing something right for them. And if you are a realized being and then you try to show them a path, you know, and they're stuck on their feeling of being superiority. Now there's also a lot of sidetrack. A beginning monk is fine. A beginner's monk is fine. But after some time you become a monk, you think, I'm a monk. Who you are? Ordinary. Again, this self-deception comes at this stage. Again, you are true presence of monkish laws. Again, you are caught in samsara at this stage. Now that is the time again to go back to the very beginning stage. So there are so many sidetracks. The ego is presently there to grab you, to hold you, not to let you go. So really it requires a tremendous strength and advice from the teacher and your practice so that one can get out of that.
[49:24]
Otherwise it's not easy. Without the support of the teacher and the spiritual friend and yourself willing to do it, it's almost a very difficult path. Very difficult. Or either you've got to be alone by yourself somewhere. It's not easy. We talk about a lot of Vajrayana teaching, you see. We talk about a lot of Vajrayana teaching, how you play with your energy and release them. But not anyone has been able to do it. So you are there where you are from the beginning stage. Why? Because you have not really seen what it really means. We like to hear how you let it come and go. But letting it come and go is the hardest thing to do. The true sense of letting it come and go is the hardest thing to do. But imagination, letting it come and go, we can always do. while someone is really spitting on you and kicking on you and telling all the bad things to you, and there you are so angry, but you say, oh, in the sutra it says, letting come and go, letting come and go, and you try to run away.
[50:40]
You do not want to see that person. You do not want to hear that anymore. You run away from the depression. You do not allow any space. Now where is the true letting come and go? That's how I happen all the time. A true letting come and go means there you are, you allow that state completely, and then you can really transmute that. But when you are using the other ways, there's no true letting come and go. True letting come and go has very different experiences. So, to begin, now we have gone through a little bit of detail about the Four Noble Truths, the suffering, understanding and recognizing the suffering, and the causes of suffering.
[51:49]
Now first is the recognizing the suffering. And the second is the causes of suffering. Now causes of suffering is, there are three causes of suffering. Virtuous, unvirtuous and neutral. The three states of mind which creates the whole phenomenon with the whole experience of the mind. The positive karma, the negative karma and the neutral karma. And there is mental karma and action karma. And you can put these three into both mental karma and action karma. In mental karma, there is good, bad, and neutral. In action, you have good, bad, and neutral. Before you go into action, first you go psychologically. That's called the karma. Mental karma.
[52:51]
You want to go to somewhere, first you think. Already you have created that karma. You struggle it. So there's a reaction to that struggle. You see, there is a struggle even by a mind. There is experience of the karma even you experience in the state of mind. Because you grasp. Why you experience that? Because you grasp. You have not let it be as it is. You have obstructed that nature. So therefore reaction immediately sets in. So you have a, you see, you project your enemy face. And it is enemy because you grasp to that. So therefore that projection becomes enemy. Something you don't like. And moment you grasp that projection, that has a reaction. Because that person is someone who does not like you. But if you are truly in the state of meditation state, a state of what we would say a truly state of the natural state of the mind, the enlightened state, then that picture will not affect you at one single point.
[54:04]
Now that's very different. Can you imagine how different it could be truly experienced? Even harder at this stage because grasping is there subtly, you see. You could project someone you don't like, but then how can I not be? Because that is how your grasping is. And just understand, grasping less mind is how it could be. You could see a form, but you would not be affected, for instance. Total unobstructed state. And one is there because right now the mind is almost like a magnetic mind. That is the ego, grasping mind. No matter everything it projects, you're close to that. And by holding it, there's a reaction. And mental karma has less strength and action karma has full strength. And mental karma is something you produce from your mind, somebody you don't like, or somebody you like, and the reaction is a kind of joy and kind of suffering from those projections, imaginations.
[55:10]
And then when you fully get involved into the whole process, when we get involved into that participating, into the involvement of that karma, then you experience the fullness. First you think of drinking a cup of tea. What kind of tea would you like? Oh, a good aroma Darjeeling tea. Then you are happy, you see. That's the reaction. Because you get reaction, because you are grasping to that. That is how the reaction manifests. You are grasping to that mind. And then you fully get involved into making that tea and then you drink that very good flavor of Darjeeling tea and then you get the whole experience. So it's called karma. That is called karma. There is nothing more karma than that. Some people don't understand what this karma means. Some people think karma only has to do with the Buddhists.
[56:13]
The karma only has to do with something. It's very wrong. Karma is, regardless of any label, it works. So that's called karma. The reaction, the action and the reaction is called karma. And now we, the primary fundamental confusion is grasping. But now, a lot of time we cannot relate with that fundamental confusion. Before we relate with fundamental confusion, we should relate with the limbs confusion also. Limb confusion. The limb confusion are the experience of short life, the experience of sudden death. Many things happen because of killing somebody in our previous life or in this life, doing something bad, the experience of something very negative immediately. So those are the limbs to clarify understanding the positive karma.
[57:20]
We would not have to go through those experiences of suffering, which, as I said, the root confusion is the confusion of grasping the duality. The moment you have a grasping, there is a duality. It's natural. Instantly you grasp, there is a duality. You do not have to make that second stage. It is there automatically. That is the duality. And then the limbs confusions are many small things, the details of it. And that we can understand by karma. And simply understanding karma, you can improve your life. You can change your life the way you want it to be. if you want to experience the life of the devas, all you do is tremendous positive karma. You don't kill, you don't, you know, you always respect, you value the respect, and you love, and you be kind. You know, those are happiness, those are the causes of happiness. And the reaction will be psychologically and engaging practically into that, the reaction will be that, even you don't want it.
[58:28]
But while we are planting what? Look in our state of mind what we are doing. We have a thought either with a jealousy, either with anger, either with a desire, either with a hatred, or with some kind of trick. You know, a kind of planting mind we have like that. So how can we expect an open mind and joyful mind and a blissful mind? How can you expect something like that? So that's called the wrong approach and expecting, you know, expecting something different and which will never happen. So therefore we're always dreaming, you know, that's our problem. So only choice we have is to dream. So only choice we have is to dream, you know, we don't have choice to experience it, so we dream about those things. And we write each other, you know, I wish you a very pleasant thing such and such. We don't have to wish, you know, if we do the right thing. So that seems to be the only, and we somehow unconsciously, we seem to acknowledge that we are dreaming, so we write, you know, I wish you this and that.
[59:42]
So, So mental karma and actual karma it's very important to understand. And now understanding it, then further on, you know, first we begin by those stages, then further on it goes deeper and deeper and deeper to the state of, then you will fully understand what is the state of Dzogchen and what is the state of Mahamudra, and what it says, relating with that most delicate part of the mind, the most subtlest part of the mind, then one is able to break through that. cut through that most subtle part of this confusion, primary confusion. But before we get to that stage, we have so many problems, and those problems we can minimize by understanding the right approach to the karma.
[60:53]
So that is the second noble truth. First is the suffering. Second is understanding the cause of suffering and not to get engaged in the future from now on into those actions. And it's important, you see. And as I said, you know, how can we, we need to change. Our mind is, you know, there are five passions. The anger, desire, jealousy, hatred, and envy. And any thought one has at this stage is either directed by one of them. You could hardly find a state of attitude which is free from those five states. Either it's happening from some kind of envy, either it's happening from jealousy, either you're having from desire, either you're having from anger. Doing those five things mixed together, or some are stronger, some are less, the intensity of karma we produce is such. So we are very much ailing. It's a tremendous confusion.
[61:56]
That's called the confusion. The mind which is ailing from the five neuroses. And now the medicine of the Dharma is to heal from this thing, is to be free from this, is to express oneself without neurosis. To express oneself with neurosis is the samsaric mind. And to express oneself without neurosis is the enlightened mind. And we have that quality. It's not we have to buy it, we don't have to borrow it, we don't have to rent it. It is there. It's just how you present yourself that's the difference. and to knowing how to present, that is the main thing, the relationship between you and yourself. So the second noble truth is the causes, And now understanding the causes, then by accumulating the merit. Now what does merit mean? Merit means by not engaging oneself into negative neurosis states, therefore we are able to experience the joyful, experience the happiness, the lightness, the unobstructed.
[63:14]
That is called the result of the merit. There is no other merit than doing something positive. Positive is called merit. It's another word for positive is called merit. You know, some people get lost in words. They think, oh, there's, like we sometimes we think, oh, there's, you know, there are different names for mind in Buddhism. There are names, the mind is called in Tibetan, sen, it's called yi, it's called namshi, it's called namto. You know, there are many names. And there are many names for the enlightened mind. It's called Tathagata Garbha. It's called Dharmakaya nature. It's called three kayas. It's called the nowness. It's called the fundamental state. It's called the basic sanity. You know, all these things are labeled, but it is to understand in one's language, and basically they mean one. But sometimes we think, you know, there are 20 different states like that, and get caught in the words and in the form.
[64:21]
So it's not like that, it's basically the same thing. So now, that's how the merit is also, the positive is called merit, there is no other merit than positive. Mind, positive speech, and positive thought. His Holiness Dujum Rinpoche, in one of his teachings, he said, one should, most important thing a human being, or any being, you know, one should have is a very good heart, and a very truth heart, truthful heart, and a good heart, and a stable heart in that truthfulness, stability in that truthfulness. And so those are the three qualities, stability, truthful, and a good heart. Good heart, stability, and truthful. Those are the three qualities how our mind should be. And then, naturally, by understanding the cause of suffering, nobody would like to go back to that problem, you see.
[65:31]
When you really, really look deeply inside, I would not be surprised all of you become monk or nun also. You know, tomorrow everybody will start shaving their head and hair and start becoming monk and I would not be surprised in any way. It is like that. It's possible. Because it's something you really see that. You see, there's no point in, again, putting yourself into such a state. There was one Kadampa Geshe, and he was doing his practice, and he was practicing impermanence. And while he was practicing impermanence all the time, he thought, I never know when I'm going to die. It's true, we never know when we are going to die. The next breathe in we were able to take in or not, we never know. You breathe out and there you are stuck. There you are. And we never know when it will strike us. So there he was doing his practice and each time when he go to, outside his cave there was this big thorn and he always felt that was been uncomfortable, you know, each time when he walks his clothes get caught up and, you know, and he felt that he has to remove those thorns.
[66:48]
And then he asks, why should I go and remove them? I may be dead. And what's the use of it? I better do a meditation than that. What's the point of doing life? So it does not mean that one should not engage in life. But there are certain values, the more important values, is to free ourselves from our depression, from our confusion, than any other thing else. And it seems that at the moment we are giving a lot of time to our depressions and entertaining them while we are losing the true qualities in our life. That's happening. So therefore we are not able to escape from this state. This is truly happening. So that is the, now able to free from that causes, then the true awareness, awakened state arises. Seizing all those causes of karma, then the awakened state arises by understanding the true nature of emptiness. That is called the third noble truth.
[67:52]
Now emptiness, as you all pretty much know what it means now, It's not something nothingness, and it's not something something also. It is something to, as I said, it cannot be projected by mind, it cannot be imagined, but it can be experienced by the mind. So the understanding of emptiness will cut through the obscuration of all the neurosis and all the defilements. And that stage is the awakened state, the third stage. And to get to the stage is the path, the path where you follow, where either you become a layman practitioner or you become a monk practitioner or you renounce. There is a renunciation all the time. It does not mean that the monk can not renounce it. We also renounce it. We renounce our confusion, our duality somehow.
[68:55]
You can call that as a renunciation. So one way or another like that we approach on the path and that is how a brief explanation on the path. full of the truths. And so we have to be very careful in every action, every speech, everything we do, we have to think carefully and we should, you know, be a little bit more insight, sensible on the beginning stage, not to be very crazy. Even you may not look very exciting to other people, but it's better for you on the long run. Because if you be very exciting, on the long run you know that it didn't pay you very well. Then again we get caught up, caught up, caught up, we get trapped, trapped, trapped. The excitement and happiness is to whom?
[69:57]
To yourself, right? You're not doing it for anybody else. You're doing it for yourself. For yourself, you have to see that before anything you do, you should think it carefully and then you do things which you do not hurt anybody. Behaviors is very important, I think. I believe that for human beings, communication of human behavior is so important so we do not hurt because every state of mind is very fragile. It's a very fragile mind. a very, very sensitive mind. Everybody has a very sensitive and a fragile mind. So it's almost like a piece of crystal, you know, a very delicate crystal which can be broken. So one has to be careful not to break that. What we have to break, break the duality, but not, you see, one has to be careful. To put it simply, one has to be careful. And then you will know how to be careful when you know that, for instance, like full novel truth more profoundly and you know the importance of the compassion which will naturally arises, then you would not, you become very skillful.
[71:15]
You become very skillful in communicating to other people and therefore you are able to help yourself and help a lot of people and then we can create a good society, an enlightened society. we can create a united society. We cannot create an enlightened society as long as you don't give up that situation for them to work with. You have to create situation. Always we have to create situation. We have to create situation for everything. And for enlightened state and happiness we also have to create situation for that state. And that is the path and work of Dharma student to create that kind of situation. You have to create. At the beginning one has to create. Teaching is a creation, a possibility for a person to learn. And for you to actualize that it's a creating, you actualize that teaching into your practical so other person can see it and can become like a mirror.
[72:16]
We have to be like a mirror. True minds become like a mirror to see what's happening to the other person. So other people see you as a mirror and you are like the mirror where they can see through you. So those are how the Four Noble Truths work step by step. Now, we will be quiet for a while. We will go through a session of meditation for a while. You might notice that that your mind is not staying in the present. That you are in the future.
[73:26]
That you wanted to have that experience of the present itself is a deception. So that one has to do it like that and then it will come. So now, we have gone through the Four Noble Truths and And we have understood that the preciousness of the human body, which is extremely rare to find, which is an accumulation of tremendous positive karma, and therefore we are able to have this body. And that is not enough. It's a question of impermanence. We never know when death can strike us. It can be any moment. It can be tomorrow. It can be this evening. It can be any time. We cannot say. We cannot judge that for our ages.
[74:27]
It cannot be judged at all. So it's totally a question of our karma, how long we live and we don't live. And we do not know how long we live and we don't live. And now purpose is, and many people now ask the question in our life, what is the meaning of the life? We all ask, what is the meaning of the life? Is the meaning of the life to have successful life? No matter what the answer it may be, it seems that the question of life from a very ordinary point simply seems to be a question of survival. You know, somehow you had to do something. So you do it. And sometimes you are able to make it colorful and sometimes you are not able to make colorful.
[75:28]
But no matter what, you just have to do something. So... So we should not get attached to something colourful. And we should not hate ourselves if we are not able to produce that colourful. Because there is really not much meaning eventually whether we make it colourful or we don't make it colourful. They are the make-ups of our mind and it cannot be trusted, those make-ups. So they are simply a reflection of our mind, reflection of our karma. So there is actually nothing really we can trust in samsara, the thing is. Everything seems to be supporting our depression. Everything seems to be putting us into more pain and more suffering. Now really what is there to trust? There is really not much to trust, you see. You do something, it's a question of a chain of reaction.
[76:32]
You get attached to something, it's become painful afterwards. Whatever you do seems to be a painful experience in certain life. And this is something very true. We do not accept, we do not know, the point is we have lost our awareness, the awakened state of being in our state, very natural state, what we call the present of nowness. So therefore now everything we do is like we are constantly... We cannot enjoy anything. We cannot have a very good party. Never we can have a very good party because we are constantly looking for the next party. While we're going through this wonderful dinner table and everyone talking to each other, there are very few rare moments where we enjoy the, we just enjoy the present moment.
[77:34]
Constantly we are trying to find out, you know, and how to improve something better and how to tell something nicer and kind of things like that. So, as long as we are not able to free ourselves from the absence of struggle, never the time will come to be free from the satsang. So, the news is not very good in samsara. Yes. And you came to hear that news. And I have to tell the truth. But it's important to hear the news as it is so that we could work it out what to do. It's a reflection. News is a reflection of the world, like that. So,
[78:38]
the precious human rebirth. Now precious human rebirth is understood in many different ways. The rareness of the precious human rebirth from the example of the example of the ring, one tree ring on this ocean. For example, the whole universe is like an ocean. And then on top of this, on the ocean, there's one ring, just one ring. On the entire universe ocean, on the entire big ocean, there's only one ring. And underneath that ocean, there's one blind turtle. And this blind turtle raises up on top of the ocean once every hundred years. And once every hundred years when this blind turtle raises up, you never know where that blind turtle will raise up. And the ocean is such big. And besides, it's blind. Plus it's blind.
[79:40]
It cannot see the ring. If it's lying on that side, it may, you know, if it has eyes, it may go there. But it may not go there because it's blind, it may go here. So sometimes you miss by, you know, half an inch. So like that, the precious human rebirth is when the blind turtle comes up and accidentally gets its neck into that ring. And to get a precious human rebirth is even more scary rather than that. That's the example of the precious human rebirth. And when we do not understand that value, how difficult karma is, and you can understand that karma also later, how difficult it is, you would not know how to appreciate it. So it's difficult to attain preciousness. And nothing is permanent. Every day is changing. Who you are yesterday, you are not today. You are a completely different person than yesterday.
[80:41]
You do not have the state of mind as yesterday also. Yesterday what you are thinking at this time, you are not thinking today at this time. And the whole chemical also changes. The chemical, you know, the whole chemical also is a connection of the past and the present comes and the future goes, and the future comes and the past goes. It's a continual chain of emergence, new rebirth, continuous rebirth. And that is caused by the production of our mind, the chain of the mind, which is called the samsara mind, the chain of reaction, the action and reaction. And even if you look to the powerful people today, they are simply names and runes. All of us in this room, after 100 years, we will be simply an empty name. Some of our grandchildren will say, oh, such and such was there when my grandfather was such and such there.
[81:50]
And, you know, there used to be such and such. And after 500 years, they will ask where our ancestors are. And right now, we're all from Fairfax. They would not know. And we've simply become ancestors. After 100 years, we've become ancestors. And now yet we try to, you know, make up so much, we try to, you know, do so much work. What's the point? So, so many things that we think that we are like the permanent structure of this thing. And it's not really, as I said, it's not a nice thing to hear like that, but these are very true things which is going to happen to us. We heard the great, the King Arthur, you know, the King of England, the King of all these things, the powerful people. And, you know, George Washington, there's simply a name today. There's no more than an empty name. So what is now, where are those people? Now that is the question. And where are we going to be in the future?
[82:51]
We are doing much work for our body than for our mind. There's also one thing. We seem to be constantly concerned about our body, which is simply, a body is just like a mind is the main thing. If we do not take care of the mind, the body is just like, body is like our servant. It's the slave, you know. And if you listen to the body, it seems like we are putting so much energy into our happiness of body that we constantly miss the main essential happiness, which is the mind. So we get caught up in our forms. And in many teachings it says that if you want your mind happy, you have to go through physical painful. And if you want your mind suffering, then you make your body happy. which means you can sleep. And you make your body happy, very comfortable, while you can go through many sicknesses.
[83:58]
If you do not exercise, or if you kind of do not... Things like that. If you make your body happy, then your mind will be unhappy. Now you do not achieve anything. particularly on the state of enlightenment, one cannot afford to be lazy at all. There's no time to sleep also. So to make the mind happy, to get the state of complete happiness, which is the realization, one has to be a little bit disciplinary in body. Now you discipline your body. Body becomes the vessel. Body becomes the boat. Body becomes the transportation to that. Your body becomes, you know, where you do your prostration, where you sit in meditation posture, where you, it's become the main command. You have to be the command inside. Your mind is, not your body. We like, we are surrendering ourselves to our body, you see. when we just let the body completely become lazy.
[85:03]
And it's very easy to be in California because there are so many beautiful beaches here. So all you have to do is to pack up some hamburger and Coca-Cola and go to the beach and sit there and waste all your day. and just doing nothing. You watch people, what they're doing, you know, and then you come back, and then you're not happy, and then again you go and, you know, try to escape from the situation like that. So we are putting a lot of energy. There's a lot of confusion. Partly it has to do with the suffering of mind, which we try to escape from the situation. We try to escape from our present state. And then we do not allow that space for those depressions, we go to those places. And then we are not going with the most present state, we are going with the escape view. We are not going with a true state. We are going with a very fearful state of mind going to those places. And then also you see that you are so lazy that you don't want to do any study, any teaching, any practice.
[86:08]
So there are a lot of things one has to make, you know, one has to take the pain on the body. If it's painful, it would be a little pain. Without some pain there is no blessing. Without effort, there is no true realization. So it will be painful. When you do meditation, it will be painful and sick. But you have to go through. You have to be strong to let it be. Because your self, your nature, your mind is much more precious than simply this body. This body is like, you know, it's a corpse. When your mind is gone out of this body, no use, you see. Even your dearest friends, if it's a wife or husband or children, they will all don't come next to you, you know. They will put their nose, oh, it's dead, you know. That's all they're going to do to it. It's true that's how they will do to it. We know how. Look at the hospital. It's like put the dead crops away, you know. and then they put it in the icebox, you know, it's no use. But the point is, I'm not saying that we disrespect the body, we should put more emphasis into their mind, which is the main experiencer of everything.
[87:19]
We should know their mind, so for knowing their mind, the disciplinary, the little bit of pain, has to be endured. If you cannot endure the pain, then never, never be the answer. Everything what we are in samsara and in nirvana state, in the realization and in achievement, everything is by effort. And without effort, one cannot attain and one cannot achieve. So effort is very important. And one has to make, discipline the mind and discipline the body also to be able to try. Now mind, again, now putting emphasis on mind means, okay, now you think too much, that does not mean also. You have to, you know, we produce karma all the time, so we better produce a better karma. And then also at the same time we know how to release them. So there are two important things in the mind disciplinary. The right action, the right speech, the right speech, the right action, and the right way of releasing the space.
[88:25]
Those are very important. The whole process involved in our life. So there seems to be some kind of disciplinary work we have to do. And even though it will be difficult, but later, you know, you will think that, oh, what that lama said was right. One day you will understand. Even though you will go through a little bit of pain when you're doing the frustration, but after some time you will come that, oh, it was right. Or, you know, even you came to do a meditation, body does not mean you have to do a frustration. Or you just sit and you don't let yourself, you have a sense of your mind that you're not like a dead person, almost like sitting in the sun and just completely forget about everything and just trying to live in a struggling of past, present and future. Those who live in the sun, they are not afraid of their mind. They are not in a state of enlightened mind.
[89:25]
They are constantly living. So much fear is there. They want to escape and create a dreamland. where you live in the dream, create those fantasies, and you live. And you're so afraid to get away from that. So again, when you get back to the other side of the world, it's not like that. So again, you go back, and you lie down, and like that. So one has to evade, one has to cut through, and we have the potential to do that. It's not that we miss something. We all have the potential to do that. So effort is very important. And those who can do meditation and prostration, it's great. You should do it. It's important to do. To endure a little pain, it's fine. Even if you have little bruises and injuries on your knees, it's worth it. But if you are not ready to endure those kinds of things, then it's like they have saying that, you know, then it's not very good.
[90:28]
It's like mama's boy, mama's child, they say, you know, one who never work, it's like their hands are like mama's boy. So, in frustration and things like that, it's all cleansing up our body, speech and mind. So therefore, meditation, frustration, these become very, very important on the path of disciplinary. Now all this teaching, you know, understanding the Four Noble Truths and the precious human rebirth and then the impermanence, all these are disciplinary, all these are understanding of the mind and how to discipline the mind. You naturally come to discipline yourself without imposing a disciplinary on yourself. You really understand the value of them so you don't have to impose disciplinary, you see. When we do not understand the value of them, then it is imposing. Then it's very hard. But when we do understand there is no need to impose, you naturally have the strength to do it. So therefore, it's very different.
[91:32]
And to understand that by hearing, by analyzing, and by doing a practice, you will understand. And then by valuing it, you will be able to go much deeper into it. So those are the important disciplinary stages. and virtuous action and unvirtuous action, the approach of the mind, how the mind reacts, all those things. There are so many ways, you know, so many ways. And though in a way we know that, but in many details a lot of people don't know it. But knowing is not enough, you have to really actualize. That's the second important thing. So, the disciplinary actions and the right view, you see, the right view, the right speech, the right action, these are so important in our life if we are able to attain a realization. Then it's important. But if you're not interested in attaining realization, then you can go to the old familiar, old style, which is the old duality style.
[92:37]
But nobody wants to be in the pain and suffering, so therefore, There are a lot of changes we have to do and we have to learn those things and we should be doing those things. Those are important. So today we will leave on this disciplinary thing. There are a lot of materials to work on this stage. And please think on this matter. We have gone through many levels of work today. And these are very important. Because later on, for you to understand much, much detail from the sutra point, then from the Vajrayana point, what it means, It will be understood by understanding this value of the teaching, what I taught in the Four Noble Truths today, and then all this teaching which I gave today. So now, if there's questions, let's discuss questions. But if my thoughts are coming through as I'm baking a potato or whatever I'm doing and I'm trying to meditate, and then I try to become present,
[93:54]
@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_90.48