Stages Of Meditation: Book Club III, Episode 5

In the fifth episode of Book Club III, Sarah Sati reads from chapter 5 of the text Stages of Meditation. This book, by his holiness The Dalai Lama, serves as a concise commentary on the text of the same name by Kamalashila. Chapter five is a chapter worth listening to multiple times.

This chapter focuses on the cause of suffering and offers listeners insight into the presence and experience of it for all beings. Sarah recaps the previous session before reading and offers space for practical application through guided meditation practice, as well as practice homework between sessions.

Book Club is an opportunity to look deeply into a spiritual text using a Western perspective. Each session includes a practice opportunity, reading, synopsis of reading, and optional practice homework.

Transcript

Welcome to the fifth session,

This is the fifth session of Book Club Series 3 on the text Stages of Meditation by His Holiness the Dalai Lama,

And it's an honor to share this space with anyone who is listening.

We're just going to keep kind of going,

And as we're looking at this book and reading this text,

We're really continuing to explore these deep and profound teachings,

But trying to put a spin on them so they make sense and they're relevant to our more modern lifestyles.

It's been a little bit between sessions,

So hopefully you've had an opportunity to apply some of the things we have been discussing so far,

And we'll talk about that a little bit.

Today,

I'm going to read from Chapter 5.

This is a really long chapter,

So just prepare yourself for that,

And this chapter really is inviting us now to move into understanding the nature of suffering,

So it can also feel like a little bit of a darker chapter,

But it's important to just set the tone that understanding the nature of suffering isn't meant to discourage us,

But rather it allows us to awaken this compassionate sort of resolve that motivates us to want to free ourselves and others from suffering.

That's what we're really looking to do with the teachings from this book,

Is we're trying to unlock that natural compassionate motivation that exists inside of us and allow that to pervade all of our experience.

In today's reading,

We'll focus on the three types of suffering.

There's a lot in today's reading,

So I'll try to keep the synthesis to the most important points,

But we'll talk about the three types of suffering,

Hopefully a little more in-depth,

And these are the suffering of suffering,

The suffering of change,

And then something called all-pervasive suffering.

As we explore those,

Hopefully we're beginning to deepen our motivation for the meditation practice itself and the end result of the meditation practice,

Which is really this awakening of our compassionate heart.

And through this awakening,

We are strengthening our connection to every human being,

Animal,

Plant,

The earth itself,

The universe on a much deeper level.

Let's begin by centering ourselves,

Setting our group intention.

So however you are is perfect.

If you want to close your eyes,

I encourage you to do that,

And otherwise leaving your eyes open is also perfectly okay.

Maybe it feels good to take a few deep clearing breaths,

Perhaps in through your nose and out through your mouth or whatever feels good for you,

And maybe there's another technique you use to settle yourself.

Go ahead and bring that into your practice now,

Really just looking to let go of distractions.

And then reflect for a moment on what brings you to this practice.

What's your motivation for studying the Buddha's teachings?

Checking in what you hope to learn.

Maybe you're trying to transform something or cultivate something,

Just allowing whatever intention you have for being here to rise up in the mind.

And then together,

Let's set a collective intention.

And I'm just going to speak these words and you can simply listen and feel their meaning,

Trying to connect your lived experience,

Your felt experience to the sound of these words.

May our study and practice today benefit not only ourselves but all beings.

May we cultivate wisdom and compassion to alleviate suffering and bring peace to the world.

Maybe there's some way you want to seal that intention in.

I'm just going to gently place my hand to my heart and just let that intention resonate.

And then return your awareness to the breath or some other sensation that feels okay for you.

Nothing is right or wrong here.

And if your eyes have been closed,

Gently open them and welcome to our time together.

So just to briefly recap our last session,

In our last session,

We started exploring what is the structured path that leads to compassion.

And if you remember,

If you joined live or you watched the recording,

This was really the first stage being equanimity,

Developing a mind of equanimity.

So we spent some time reflecting on how all beings share this same wish to be free from suffering and to find happiness.

And we define that,

You know,

Suffering can be kind of a loaded term,

Like sometimes people don't like to use it actually at all.

Because in the Buddha's teaching,

Suffering isn't just meant when something really,

Really bad happens to you.

It's not just like your hair lights on fire,

Or you get a cut on your arm,

Or the person you love most in the world dies.

It's not just these major events.

But in the Buddha's teachings,

Suffering is also really mundane.

It's really like boredom.

Suffering can be just a feeling of dissatisfaction.

And so we talked about this equanimity in everyone's sort of ultimate underlying desire to just be free from that,

To be free from it in all its forms.

And that everybody also at the same time wishes to be happy.

So I love to think of it this way,

Like what people really are ultimately after,

Myself included,

Is to feel bad less and feel good more.

And there are all kinds of confused ways that we go about this,

Right?

It's not necessarily the most wise way that we try to achieve this.

And when we can position our minds in such a way that we recognize this truth,

That everybody wants to be free from feeling bad and to feel good and warm,

Then what naturally starts to develop is we cut ourselves and others a little bit more slack.

I think we talked about this in the last session,

The idea of a bias.

Like,

I'm only allowed to feel some emotions,

But other emotions are off limits.

Or I only allow people to be one kind of way,

But other ways I don't allow them to be.

And when we work with equanimity,

We are eliminating bias from our lives.

So it's no longer like it has to be this way or that way.

And in that way,

We're able to create some spaciousness around allowing ourselves and others to make mistakes,

To be flawed.

And knowing that ultimately,

Even those flaws and mistakes,

Even humongous ones like a rapist or a murderer,

Right?

At the core of their being,

They're no different from us in their wishes.

Just their method is wrong.

And so we are beginning to find that compassion is not restricted only to people you decide get it.

But actually,

That when we open ourselves to the truth of the way reality works,

We can begin to extend compassion to everyone,

Regardless of the kind of person they are or the way they express their desires in day-to-day living.

And that's really quite a beautiful thing.

And honestly,

It's like the differentiator between a community that thrives and supports and uplifts each other versus a community that suffers more and suppresses and oppresses each other,

Including the self.

So in our meditation,

We practiced a little bit also in our last session,

Working with this idea of equanimity.

And then I invited you to use that practice as a more,

As your sort of,

I'm blanking on the word right now,

But you know,

Your regular practice to use the equanimity practices as your formal practice and also to then begin to take it into your day-to-day life.

So not just in a formal way,

But also in a way that allows you to start looking out at the world and saying like,

Oh,

This person right in front of me,

They also wish to be happy more.

They also wish to suffer less.

So hopefully you had an opportunity to work with those practices in your life because today we're going to go a little bit step further.

But if you remember,

If you were here with me at the very beginning,

Then you remember,

I encourage you to think about this as a long game.

It's not just like today you are trying to be the best person you can be.

It's that today is one step towards opening yourself to your absolute maximum capacity when it comes to being a compassionate,

Loving human being on this planet.

So,

And that's really the approach of Kamalashila.

Kamalashila's approach,

And this is what became prolific across the Tibetan Buddhist tradition,

Is that it's a progressive path.

It's not like,

Boom,

Enlightenment.

It's like little bits,

Little bits over and over and over again.

And over time,

Those gradually accumulate to offer us a new way to relate to our experience.

And that becomes stable and that becomes spontaneous.

And those are signs that we are progressing.

As the Dalai Lama noted,

Before we read,

And I mentioned already,

We're going into chapter five today,

And this is really a chapter about suffering.

It's a long chapter,

So I'm going to get right to it.

But before we do that,

Let's just set our proper motivation for listening.

We're trying to eliminate the three flawed ways of listening.

So we don't want to be an upside down cup,

A cup with holes in it,

Or a dirty cup.

We just want to listen.

We want to open our minds and our ears and our hearts.

So let's set that motivation now as the Dalai Lama dictated for us.

Just connecting your consciousness to the ears and to the eyes,

To the nose and mouth and skin,

And moving that awareness from this inner maybe dialogue or chatter,

Moving it outward and opening it up.

You can just listen to the words.

I shall listen to the intermediate stages of meditation by the great Kamalashila in order to attain supreme Buddhahood for the sake of sentient beings vast as the expanse of space.

Okay,

So get comfortable,

Settle in.

I will do the same.

And let's listen to chapter five,

Identifying the nature of suffering.

The compassionate mind,

This is Kamalashila,

The compassionate mind has the nature of wishing all suffering beings to be free from suffering.

Meditate on compassion for all sentient beings because the beings in the three realms of existence are intensely tortured by the three types of sufferings in various forms.

The Buddha has said that heat and other types of pain constantly torture beings in the hells for a very long time.

He also said that hungry ghosts are scorched by hunger and thirst and experience immense physical suffering.

We can also see animal suffering in many miserable ways.

They eat each other,

Become angry and are hurt and killed.

We can see that human beings too experience various acute kinds of pain,

Not able to find what they want.

They're resentful and harm each other.

They suffer the pain of losing the beautiful things they want and confronting the ugly things they do not want,

As well as the pain of poverty.

The Dalai Lama,

After establishing the process of training,

By which we learn to see suffering sentient beings as lovable and attractive,

Kamalashila deals with the various types of miseries that torture them.

Three types of misery are the misery of suffering,

The misery of change and pervasive misery.

There's not one sentient being who is not tortured by each of them.

Sentient beings in the three higher realms in the cycle of existence may enjoy temporary contaminated happiness or some neutral feelings.

But in the final analysis,

They are under the influence of pervasive misery.

And as such,

They are worthy of compassion.

Kamalashila has also briefly referred to the sufferings of the beings in the hells,

The hungry ghosts,

Animals and human beings.

He further points out some of the unique causes that make human beings miserable.

There are those,

Kamalashila,

There are those whose minds are bound by various fetters of disturbing emotions,

Like craving,

Desire.

Others are in turmoil with different types of wrong views.

These are all causes of misery.

Therefore,

They are always painful,

Like being on a precipice.

The Dalai Lama,

Gods too have different miseries.

Kamalashila,

Gods suffer the misery of change.

For example,

Signs of impending death and their fall to unfortunate states constantly oppress the minds of gods of the desire realm.

How can they live in peace?

The Dalai Lama,

The text now defines pervasive misery.

Kamalashila,

Pervasive misery is what arises under the power of causes characterized by actions and disturbing emotions.

It has the nature and characteristics of momentary disintegration and pervades all wandering beings.

The Dalai Lama,

The misery of suffering refers to what we usually recognize as suffering,

Physical pain,

Sickness,

And mental anxiety.

What we usually recognize as happiness,

That is contaminated or impure happiness,

Is characterized as the misery of change.

Contaminated happiness is not perfect happiness,

But rather the mere absence of the grosser kinds of suffering.

Since contaminated happiness does not last,

But is brought to an end by unpleasantness,

It is characterized as the misery of change.

Pervasive misery refers to sentient beings' collection of mental and physical constituents known as the contaminated aggregates,

Which result from past karma and disturbing emotions and act as an agent to generate further karma and disturbing emotions.

There may be occasion when we are disturbed by neither the misery of suffering nor the misery of change,

But as long as we are not separated from our contaminated mental and physical aggregates,

They will continue to provide the basis for various kinds of misery.

And when they come into contact with the appropriate factors and conditions,

Suffering is bound to arise.

Therefore,

It is essential to think about these three types of misery.

The next step in this process of mental training concerns the will to be free from such misery.

It is crucial that we identify the true nature of these sufferings in order to generate a desire to be free of them.

Even animals understand the misery of suffering as unbearable and wish to be free from it.

Both Buddhists and non-Buddhists who seek the qualities of higher realms,

Like those of the higher levels of concentration and the formless world,

Understand the misery of change is unpleasant.

They are able to free themselves temporarily from the misery of suffering.

When they reach such higher realms,

Like those below the fourth level of concentration,

Where there's only the feeling of neutrality,

They are temporarily free from the misery of change.

Those in the fourth meditative stage and in the formless realms are temporarily free from the first two types of miseries.

Recognizing pervasive misery is the catalyst that stimulates individuals to seek the state of liberation.

When they apprehend its true identity,

They generate a sense of disgust.

They become aware of the disadvantages of disturbing emotions and their instability.

Understanding the flaws of the disturbing emotions must precede understanding the flaws of the contaminated mental and physical aggregates.

Seeing the flaws or drawbacks of the disturbing emotions provokes us to try to part from them.

When we eliminate our disturbing emotions,

We gain what is known as nirvana or liberation.

Proper identification of pervasive suffering and a strong dislike for it are the determining factors in the process of developing true renunciation or the will to gain liberation.

The text has mentioned the momentary nature of pervasive suffering.

This concept can be interpreted in two ways,

Which can be illustrated by an example.

First,

Anything impermanent disintegrates and changes every moment.

For instance,

An omniscient mind is impermanent and it too shares the same nature of disintegrating moment by moment.

Second,

An impermanent phenomena has no independent identity and is under the influence of other factors like its causes and conditions.

As such,

Pervasive suffering does not remain constant even for a moment,

But is in a steady process of disintegration and change.

Therefore,

See all wandering beings as immersed in a great fire of misery.

Think that they are all like you and not desiring misery at all.

Alas,

All my beloved sentient beings are in such pain.

What can I do to set them free?

And make their sufferings your own.

Whether you are engaged in one-pointed meditation or pursuing your ordinary activities,

Meditate on compassion at all times,

Focusing on all sentient beings and wishing that they all be free from suffering.

Begin by meditating on your friends and relatives.

Recognize how they experience the various sufferings that have been explained.

In the preceding lines,

The Dalai Lama,

In the preceding lines,

The author outlines the steps of meditation on compassion.

Compassion is the wish that all sentient beings be free from suffering and its causes.

In order to train the mind to be compassionate,

You must maintain a practice that includes both formal meditation sessions and awareness during the period that follows.

That is,

Not only should a practitioner train to generate a compassionate mind during formal meditation,

But also during activities like walking,

Sleeping,

Sitting,

Working,

And so forth.

If you can maintain such a program,

You will be able to make good use of the different experiences you have during the post-meditation period,

Which will enhance your development of a compassionate mind.

On the other hand,

If you do not cultivate awareness and mindfulness during the post-meditation periods and you let your mind wander,

The progress of your meditation will be slowed.

This is definitely a fault to be corrected.

You must try to retain the flavor or essence of your meditation as you go about your other activities.

This will greatly aid the progress of your realizations during the sessions,

And those realizations in turn will contribute to your spiritual development during the post-meditation session.

This is how you can enjoy a stream of meritorious energy.

Then,

Having seen all sentient beings as equal,

With no difference between them,

You should meditate on sentient beings to who you are indifferent.

When the compassion you feel toward them is the same as the compassion you feel toward your friends and relatives,

Meditate on compassion for all sentient beings throughout the 10 directions of the universe.

The Dalai Lama When you are meditating on compassion,

If you specifically focus on a sentient being who has experienced suffering,

As we did during our meditation on equanimity,

Your meditation on compassion will be more effective.

Initially,

You can visualize the intense suffering of beings in the unfortunate realms.

You can also meditate on compassion for those who are indulging in forceful negative actions,

Which possess the three factors of intention,

Action,

And completion.

Although they may not presently be experiencing great misery,

They are accumulating powerful causes to experience it later.

If you meditate along these lines,

It will greatly help you train your mind to become compassionate toward each and every sentient being in the cycle of existence.

All of them are under the sway of disturbing emotions.

Slaves to the ignorance that is a misconception of true existence and self-centeredness.

Kamalashila speaks of all sentient beings as being equal.

This can be interpreted in two ways,

Ultimately and conventionally.

The equality of beings on an ultimate level does not obviate the existence of friends and foes on the conventional level.

However,

When your meditation focuses on the unfindability of objects on an ultimate level,

It counteracts attachment and hatred by countering the misconception of true existence.

These are some of the many techniques by which to train to develop an even-minded attitude.

It is important to maintain this kind of meditational procedure and accumulate the positive potential of merit.

Eventually,

Our ordinary compassion toward miserable beings can be enhanced and transformed into a more purified state.

The compassion we feel at present is usually mixed with attachment,

But the presence of this compassion also indicates that we have the basis for true compassion.

Occasionally,

We also generate spontaneous compassion toward strangers in great pain,

Wondering what we can do to alleviate their suffering.

This is an expression of our innate compassion.

It is crucial that we recognize this fact,

Cherish this compassionate thought,

And then promote and enhance it.

If you do not possess this innate compassion,

Try to cultivate it and make every effort to develop it.

In due course,

Such compassion,

However insignificant it may seem to be at present,

Can expand infinitely.

The text now explains the measure of having cultivated such compassion.

Just as a mother responds to her small beloved to her small,

Beloved,

And suffering child,

When you develop a spontaneous and equal sense of compassion toward all sentient beings,

You have perfected the practice of compassion.

And this is known as great compassion.

The Dalai Lama,

In the depths of your heart,

You have great care and concern for your beloved child,

Whatever you are doing.

Whether you are walking,

Sitting,

Or talking is there.

If you are able to cultivate such a mind toward all infinite sentient beings,

Thinking how good it would be if they were free from suffering,

And if such a mind arises automatically without your needing to rely on special reasons,

This is an indication that you have cultivated genuine great compassion.

Whatever realizations you want to cultivate,

You must first know what the object of your attention is and what causes and conditions you need to cultivate to be able to generate such a realization.

You need to do some preparation.

Having gained familiarity and some experience in such a process of practice,

You may not need to cultivate any additional understanding.

But using analysis and investigation,

You should cultivate a strong feeling within that really moves your mind.

That is called actual experience,

And it is of two kinds,

Contrived experience and uncontrived experience.

Contrived experience refers to those feelings that arise within your mind as a result of using subtle reasons and depending on quotations from the scriptures.

When you do not engage in analysis and investigation,

You do not get such experience.

After having cultivated such a contrived experience,

If you continue the process of strengthening and developing it,

A time will come when you encounter a particular situation such that without having to rely on a quotation or a reason,

A strong feeling automatically arises within your mind.

That is called uncontrived experience.

When you achieve such an uncontrived experience of compassion,

That is an indication of having cultivated a genuine great compassion.

Then the text discusses the process of meditation on loving kindness.

The measure of having cultivated loving kindness is similar to the measure of having cultivated great compassion.

Compassion is a mind wishing that sentient beings be free from suffering and loving kindness is a mind wishing that they meet with happiness.

Loving kindness induces compassion and compassion induces the special attitude.

The special attitude here means that you not only mentally think how good it would be,

If sentient beings were free from suffering,

But you voluntarily take responsibility for actually engaging in the work of delivering sentient beings to the state of liberation and helping them remove their sufferings.

And this induces the awakening mind of Bodhicitta,

The Dalai Lama,

I mean Kamalashila.

Meditation on loving kindness begins with friends and people you are fond of.

It has the nature of wishing that they meet with happiness.

Gradually extend the meditation to include strangers and even your enemies.

Habituating yourself to compassion,

You will gradually generate a spontaneous wish to liberate all sentient beings.

Therefore,

Having familiarized yourself with compassion as the basis,

Meditate on the awakening mind of Bodhicitta.

Bodhicitta is of two types,

Conventional and ultimate.

Conventional Bodhicitta is the cultivation of the initial thought that aspires to attain unsurpassable and perfectly consummated Buddhahood in order to benefit all wandering sentient beings.

After having taken the vow of compassion to release all of them from suffering,

That conventional Bodhicitta should be cultivated in a process similar to that described in the chapter on moral ethics in the Bodhisattva Bhumi,

Generating this mind by taking the Bodhisattva vow before a master who abides by the Bodhisattva precepts.

The measure of your cultivation of the awakening mind of Bodhicitta,

The Dalai Lama,

Is similar to the cultivation of compassion.

First,

Cultivate Bodhicitta as a contrived experience.

Then you cultivate the awakening mind of Bodhicitta as an uncontrived experience,

Which is the state of the genuine awakening mind of Bodhicitta.

The great Indian master Shantideva has said that all of the sufferings we see in the world arise because we are so self-centered,

Because we wish only for our own personal happiness.

All of the happiness we see in this world arises because of our taking care of the welfare of other sentient beings.

He says that there is no need to elaborate further on this point.

If you examine the difference between the state of the Buddha and an ordinary being,

It will easily be understood.

The Buddha worked for the benefit of other sentient beings,

Achieved omniscience,

And now has the capacity to benefit all sentient beings,

Whereas we ordinary sentient beings,

Even though we've tried our best to fulfill our personal well-being,

Because of our self-centered attitude,

Not only have not achieved omniscience,

But we're still in the cycle of existence.

Even in the case of the achievement of nirvana,

If we pursue it mainly for our own self-interest,

It will be just solitary liberation or liberation without omniscience.

This is also due to the self-centered attitude.

Even on a day-to-day basis,

All good qualities within this world,

Such as feeling mentally at ease,

Having many trusted friends and relatives,

And living in a place where you are not deceived by others,

Are the result of concern for others' welfare.

And ultimately,

The possibility of achieving enlightenment is also due to this mind.

In other words,

If we compare ourselves with the Buddha and calculate how many faults we have and how many perfect qualities a Buddha has,

We will be able to discover the drawbacks of self-centeredness and the advantages of concern for the welfare of other sentient beings.

Because of the practice of cherishing the welfare of other sentient beings,

The Buddha achieved omniscience and is now the embodiment of wonderful qualities,

Whereas we ordinary sentient beings are in a way the embodiment of faults because of our self-centered attitude.

The Buddha first cultivated a mind concerned for the welfare of other sentient beings and then enhanced it and finally perfected it.

This is how he actualized all the wonderful qualities of a Buddha.

Therefore,

We should realize that here and now,

We have found this precious human life endowed with excellent qualities and we are free to engage in spiritual practice.

In our spiritual endeavor,

The most profound practice is the practice of compassion and the altruistic wish to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.

There is no better practice than this.

Therefore,

All of us,

Including the Lama,

Should endeavor to cultivate a compassionate mind in our daily life.

If each of us,

From the depth of our hearts,

Were to cultivate a mind wishing to benefit other people and other sentient beings,

Then we would gain a strong sense of confidence and that would put our minds at ease.

When we have that kind of calmness within our minds,

Even if the whole external environment appears to turn against us and becomes hostile,

It will not disturb our mental calm.

On the other hand,

If our minds are agitated and disturbed and we harbor ill will toward other sentient beings,

Even though they have no harmful intention towards us,

Our own attitude will make us see everyone as harsh and negative toward us.

This reflects our own mental attitude,

Inner feelings,

And experiences.

For this reason,

We will live in constant fear,

Worry,

Anxiety,

And instability.

We may be wealthy and have abundant material facilities at our disposal,

But as long as we are disturbed within our minds,

We will have no peace.

We may be surrounded by our relatives and best friends,

But because of our own internal mental attitude,

We will have no happiness.

Therefore,

Our inner mental attitude plays a very dominant role.

If we have calm and control within our minds,

Then even if everything around us turns hostile,

Nothing will disturb us.

In fact,

For such a person,

The whole environment is a friend and contributes to his or her mental calm.

Of course,

There are many reasons for taking care of ourselves,

But we must know how to look after ourselves and pursue our interests in an intelligent way.

What we want is happiness,

But if in its pursuit,

If in the pursuit of our own personal happiness,

We ignore the welfare of other sentient beings and only bully and deceive them,

The results will be negative.

If we really want happiness,

We must acknowledge that it comes about by taking care of other people.

Therefore,

We should not forsake the welfare of other sentient beings.

Even if we do not engage in spiritual or religious practice,

Provided we understand that we have to live interdependently,

We will have a peaceful and harmonious life.

We are social animals,

And we cannot think about living an isolated life with no dependence on other people or other sentient beings.

Whatever you do in all walks of life,

Whether you're a farmer or a businessman,

You have to depend on others.

Even within the family,

You have to depend on the members of your family.

This is why people normally live together among families and friends.

There are very few exceptional cases to this,

Such as the meditating yogis who live in solitude high up in the mountains doing spiritual practices.

Because it is a reality that we are,

By nature,

Social animals bound to depend on each other,

We need to cultivate affection and concern for other people if we really desire peace and happiness.

Look at wild animals and birds.

Even they travel together,

Flock together,

And help each other.

Bees do not have a particular legal system.

They do not follow any spiritual practice,

But for their livelihood and survival,

They depend on each other.

That is their natural way of existence.

Even though we intelligent human beings must also depend on each other,

We sometimes misuse our intelligence and try to exploit each other.

That goes against human nature.

For those of us who profess to believe in a particular religious practice,

It is extremely important that we try to help each other and cultivate a feeling of affection for each other.

That is the source of happiness in our lives.

The fundamental teaching of Buddha is that we should view others as being more important than we are.

Of course,

You cannot completely ignore yourself,

But neither can you neglect the welfare of other people and other sentient beings,

Particularly when there is a clash of interests between your own welfare and the welfare of other people.

At such a time,

You should consider other people's welfare as more important than your own personal well-being.

Compare yourself to the rest of sentient beings.

All other sentient beings are countless,

While you are just one person.

Your suffering and happiness may be very important,

But it is just the suffering and happiness of one individual.

Whereas the happiness and suffering of other sentient beings is immeasurable and countless.

So it is the way of the wise to sacrifice one for the benefit of the majority,

And it is the way of the foolish to sacrifice the majority on behalf of just one single individual.

Even from the point of view of your personal well-being,

You must cultivate a compassionate mind.

That is the source of happiness in your life.

Irrespective of whether we profess a particular religion or not,

We must be warm-hearted.

We must cultivate compassion,

And in that way,

We will be able to lead peaceful and meaningful lives.

In the case of Buddhist practitioners,

And particularly Mahayana Buddhist practitioners,

How should we engage in the practice?

Even when we talk about helping others,

We are not talking only about giving them temporary benefit and help,

Like food,

Clothing,

And shelter,

And so forth.

Because these things will not bring long-lasting happiness.

Therefore,

It is extremely important to investigate the possibility of achieving long-lasting and ultimate happiness.

We must judge whether it is possible to eliminate sufferings from their root.

Irrespective of whether we are able to practice or not,

We should at least cultivate the mental courage that is willing to eliminate suffering and achieve a state of total cessation of suffering.

That will bring strong mental confidence and determination.

Therefore,

As Mahayana practitioners,

We should think I will help countless other sentient beings to overcome suffering.

That should be our pledge.

But if you examine your own present capacity,

Let alone helping countless sentient beings,

You do not have the ability to eliminate the suffering of even one sentient being.

Sufferings arise from specific causes and conditions,

Which are collected by individual sentient beings.

That being so,

It is extremely important that individual sentient beings know what is to be practiced and what is to be given up.

What brings suffering and what brings long-lasting happiness?

We must show sentient beings the right path,

Which brings happiness,

And the wrong path,

Which brings suffering.

Therefore,

When we talk about benefiting other sentient beings,

It is through showing them the path and helping them understand what is to be given up and what is to be practiced.

Sufferings arise in order to do so it is extremely important on the one hand that what you are going to teach to other sentient beings does not remain hidden to you.

You must understand the meaning of the path.

You are going to show other sentient beings.

For example,

The more advanced a student is in his or her studies,

The more that student needs a teacher with better qualifications and greater knowledge.

Likewise,

In order to show the right path to other sentient beings,

You must first have trodden that path yourself.

On the other hand,

It's not enough that the path you're going to show other sentient beings is not hidden from you.

You should also know that what you are going to teach other sentient beings is going to help them temporarily and ultimately.

Without that knowledge,

Your teaching may not suit their disposition and interests.

It's not enough simply to say that I'm doing this with correct motivation.

Of course,

If you do,

There will be no need for regret,

But that does not guarantee that it will help other sentient beings.

It is for this reason that the scriptures explain the need to actualize different categories of clairvoyance.

Being able to know the minds and needs of other sentient beings.

Therefore,

There are two factors involved here.

First,

The path and the teaching that you are going to show or give to other sentient beings should not be hidden from you.

And second,

You must understand the suitability of such a teaching to the disposition of other sentient beings.

You need to understand what disposition sentient beings have inherited from their past lives.

Therefore,

Unless you become a Buddha yourself and achieve omniscience,

Your help and guidance may prove to be of only temporary benefit.

Cultivating an aspiration to help other sentient beings becomes a cause for cultivating the second wish,

Wanting to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.

These are the two levels of the awakening mind of Bodhicitta.

Such a mind cannot be cultivated in a mere few months or years,

But this does not mean it cannot be cultivated at all.

If you continue your practice to cultivate Bodhicitta,

A time will come when you will be successful.

For example,

In the initial stage,

You may not even understand the meaning of the word Bodhicitta.

You might wonder how you could ever cultivate such a mind,

But through repeated practice and familiarity,

You will gradually come closer to such a mind.

It is the nature of conditioned things that they change,

Depending on causes and conditions.

So it is important to recall the advantages and benefits of such a mind and cultivate a strong determination to achieve it.

Make ardent prayers.

Whether you sleep,

Walk or sit,

You should think how good it would be if I could cultivate such a mind.

Try to cultivate Bodhicitta even on an aspirational level.

If you spend your days in such repeated and persistent practice,

You can definitely develop it.

Make the determination to cultivate it even if it will take many eons.

As Shantideva prays in his guide to the Bodhisattva's way of life,

As long as space endures and as long as sentient beings remain,

May I too abide to dispel the suffering of all sentient beings.

When you engage in a project or an activity that helps other sentient beings,

There is no question of a time limit.

You must do it continuously.

This is how you should train your mind.

If you think you will achieve enlightenment or Bodhicitta within a few days or months,

And if you think that you will get enlightened after entering into a retreat for three years and three months,

You are mistaken.

When I hear the suggestion that you will attain Buddhahood if you go into retreat for three years and three months,

Sometimes I jokingly say that this is just like a communist propaganda.

I tell my Western friends that wanting to practice the most profound and the quickest path is a clear sign that you will achieve no result.

How can you achieve the most profound and the vast in the shortest way?

The story of the Buddha says that he achieved Buddhahood after three countless eons.

So harboring an expectation to achieve Buddhahood within a short time,

Like three years and three months,

Is a clear indication that you will make no real progress.

We have to be practical.

There is no use in fooling others with your incomplete knowledge.

You should also realize that whether you achieve Buddhahood or not,

Your purpose is to help other sentient beings.

Whether you find yourself in heaven or hell,

Your purpose is to help other sentient beings.

It does not matter how long it takes.

You should determine that the altruistic intention to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings will be your only practice,

Whether you live or die.

You must train in cultivating such a mind and understand the aspect and the object of such a mind.

Once you gain inferential experience of such a mind,

You should receive the Bodhisattva vow,

For the vow should be received after you have cultivated a strong wish to engage in the deeds of a Bodhisattva.

What is the Bodhisattva's way of life?

It is the way of life that follows naturally from having cultivated the awakening mind of Bodhicitta.

Omniscience is achieved only through the process of purifying the disturbing emotions within your mind.

It cannot be achieved merely through wishes and prayers.

We have to train in eliminating all the specific disturbing emotions by relying on specific antidotes.

All the activities of a Bodhisattva can be included in two major categories,

The practice of skillful means and the practice of wisdom.

If the practices of giving,

Ethics,

And so forth are to be perfected,

They should be supported and influenced by the practice of wisdom.

Without the practice of wisdom,

The first five of the six perfections cannot actually become practices or perfection.

In order to cultivate such wisdom,

You must first cultivate the genuine,

Unmistaken philosophical view that is known as the view of the Middle Way or Madhyamika.

What is the view of the Madhyamika?

There are four schools of philosophical tenets within the Buddhist tradition.

Based on an explanation of the first three systems of Buddhist tenets,

You can understand the meaning of selflessness on a grosser level,

And this will lead finally to the subtle Middle Way view of the selflessness of person and of phenomena,

Which is contingent on an interpretation of interdependent origination.

Having established such an unmistaken correct view and gained conviction in it,

You will be able to realize emptiness.

However,

Even when you have understood the wisdom,

Realizing emptiness,

That alone will not become a powerful antidote to ignorance if it is not supported by other practices such as giving,

Ethics,

Patience,

And so forth.

Mere understanding of selflessness is not sufficient to defeat the disturbing emotions.

Therefore,

It is important to cultivate a practice that unites a calmly abiding mind with special insight.

In order to develop special insight,

You must first develop a calmly abiding mind.

Calm abiding is single-pointed meditation,

Whereas special insight refers to discriminative awareness.

Through the union of these two,

You will be able to engage in a fruitful practice of both method and wisdom.

Kamalashila.

After generating the conventional awakening mind of bodhicitta,

Endeavor to cultivate the ultimate awakening mind of bodhicitta.

The ultimate bodhicitta is transcendental and free from all elaborations.

It is extremely clear that the object of the ultimate,

Stainless,

Unwavering,

Like a butter lamp,

Undisturbed by the wind.

As I explained earlier,

Conventional bodhicitta refers to the aspirational bodhicitta.

What is ultimate bodhicitta?

What is transcendental?

And what is mundane?

There are various explanations.

All the specific levels of an ordinary being are known as mundane.

And all the spiritual levels of a superior being or arya are known as transcendental or super mundane,

Super mundane.

You achieve the transcendental level when you achieve the path of seeing for the first time.

This means that you have realized emptiness directly.

Although it is possible merely to understand emptiness before achieving the path of seeing.

This text,

Stages of Meditation,

Belongs to the Yogacharya,

Yogachara,

Svavantrika,

Madhyamika,

Yogic Anatomy Middle Way,

Yogic Autonomy Middle Way.

So when I explain the points made explicitly in the text,

I will do so according to this way.

But I will elaborate according to the Prasangika Madhyamika Middle Way,

The consequentialist Middle Way tradition.

There are aryas or superior beings.

Among those practitioners known as hearers and solitary realizers who realize emptiness,

But an arya on the Bodhisattva path realizes emptiness directly because he or she is assisted by the profound practice of method.

Such wisdom directly realizing emptiness acts as an opponent to specific disturbing emotions.

When we talk about the Four Noble Truths,

The true path actually refers to the wisdom realizing emptiness found within the mental continuum of a superior or arya being.

This is ultimately bodhicitta.

This ultimate bodhicitta is also said to be free of all elaborations,

Particularly in the context of the various categories of emptiness,

Such as the 16 emptinesses,

The 20 emptinesses,

The two emptinesses,

And so forth.

Although there are as many categories of emptiness as there are types of phenomena,

When you realize the emptiness of one specific phenomena,

You also realize the emptiness of all phenomena.

The ultimate nature or emptiness of all phenomena is of equal taste and of the same undifferentiated nature.

Even though the nature of emptiness of all phenomena is the same and all the different aspects of phenomena,

Such as whether they are good or bad or the way they change,

Arise from the sphere of emptiness,

You should understand that emptiness itself cannot be found apart from the subject or the object.

Emptiness refers to an object being free of intrinsic existence.

Things depend on causes and conditions.

This very dependence on causes and conditions signifies that phenomena lack independent or intrinsic existence.

It also demonstrates how all the diverse aspects of things that we experience arise because they are by nature empty.

When we talk about emptiness,

We are not dealing with those different aspects.

We're dealing with phenomena's ultimate reality.

It is from this perspective that the state of emptiness is referred to as free from elaborations.

It is also explained that emptiness is uncontaminated.

As the verse of homage to Nagarjuna's fundamental wisdom makes clear,

I pay homage to that being sublime.

Amongst the Buddhas,

The propounder of the teaching,

Who taught that things arise through dependence and that there is no cessation,

No birth,

No annihilation.

No permanence.

No coming and going.

No separate meaning and no sameness.

Thoroughly free from elaborations and completely at peace.

Emptiness and dependent arising are two sides of the same coin.

From the perspective of dependent arising or the conventional perspective,

Things arise,

Things can be produced,

And things cease.

The verse I've quoted from the fundamental wisdom means that things are not produced,

Do not cease,

And are not annihilated,

Nor are they permanent in any independent way.

In terms of time,

There is also neither any independent annihilation nor permanence.

From the point of view of the object,

There is no independent going and coming.

Nagarjuna described eight categories of elaboration,

For example,

Production and cessation and how they do not occur independently.

It is said the Aryas or superior beings whose direct perception of wisdom is uncontaminated have not seen the independent existence of the production or cessation of dependently arising phenomena.

Their minds see only the ultimate truth,

Emptiness,

Which is free of all elaborations.

Ultimate reality,

Or ultimate bodhicitta,

Is described as extremely clear.

It is referred to as ultimate because it is the object of engagement of an ultimate wisdom.

It is also called stainless and unwavering.

In other words,

The wisdom of a superior being in meditative absorption is a wisdom that is a combination of a calmly abiding mind and special insight.

Such a combination is achieved by first cultivating calm abiding.

Once you gain stability with regard to the object of investigation,

You can focus your understanding upon it without being disturbed by the mental laxity and excitement of conceptual thoughts.

Such wisdom is referred to as unwavering and is compared to a butter lamp undisturbed by the breeze.

This ultimate bodhicitta is transcendental and free from all elaborations.

The way to achieve this is explained in the following lines,

Kamalashila.

This is achieved through constant and respectful familiarity with the yoga of calm abiding meditation and special insight over a long period of time.

The unraveling of the thought sutra says,

Oh Maitreya,

You must know that all the virtuous dharmas of hearers,

Bodhisattvas,

Or tathagatas,

Whether worldly or transcendental,

Are the fruits of calm abiding meditation and special insight.

Since all kinds of concentrations can be included in these two,

All yogis must at all times seek calm abiding meditation and special insight.

Again,

The unraveling of the thought sutra says,

The Buddha has said it must be known that the teachings of various types of concentrations sought by his hearers,

Bodhisattvas,

And tathagatas are all contained in calm abiding meditation and special insight.

The Dalai Lama.

A calmly abiding mind refers to a state of mind in which your mind abides on the object of your choice and in which the mind is not distracted to external objects other than the object of your mental focus and meditation.

Your mind remains stable,

Focused on the object,

And free from laxity and excitement.

Such a mind is also referred to as single-pointed concentration and through its stability,

You are able to achieve mental bliss.

Special insight refers to gaining special insight into the ultimate reality of the object on which your mind is focused.

There are two categories of special insight,

Mundane and transcendental.

There could be different objects according to different categories of special insight,

But here special insight refers to the mind that focuses on emptiness.

Buddha Shakyamuni taught these two practices,

Calm abiding and special insight,

And they are the only methods by which you can achieve all the levels of concentration.

Therefore,

The text states that since calm abiding and special insight are equally important,

You should cultivate both qualities.

Kamalashila.

Yogis cannot eliminate mental obscurations merely by familiarizing themselves with calm abiding meditation alone.

It will only suppress the disturbing emotions and delusions temporarily.

Without the light of wisdom,

The latent potential of the disturbing emotions cannot be thoroughly destroyed and therefore their complete destruction will not be possible.

For this reason,

The unraveling of the thought sutra says concentration can suppress the disturbing emotions properly and wisdom can thoroughly destroy their latent potential.

The Dalai Lama.

Merely meditating on calm abiding will not enable you to eliminate obscurations to enlightenment and the disturbing emotions.

Even if you achieve calm abiding meditation with reference to emptiness,

That alone is not enough to remove the obscurations if it is not supported by the practice of special insight.

Kamalashila.

The unraveling of the thought sutra also says even if you meditate with single-pointed concentration,

You will not destroy the misconception of the self and your disturbing emotions will disturb you again.

This is like Udrak's single-pointed meditation.

The Dalai Lama.

Calm abiding meditation alone will not be able to remove the afflictive emotions and destroy the misconception of self.

Disturbing emotions will rise again and disturb you once more as happened in the case of the non-Buddhist master called Udrak.

He meditated on calm abiding for a long time in the course of which his hair grew very long.

While he was completely absorbed in single-pointed concentration,

Some of his hair was eaten by rats.

As soon as he rose from his meditation and saw that rats had eaten his hair,

He became angry and thus his disturbing emotions came back again.

Although the disturbing emotions did not arise while he was absorbed in single-pointed meditation,

That they returned after he rose from his meditation clearly shows that calm abiding meditation alone does not put an end to the disturbing emotions.

Kamalashiva.

When the selflessness of phenomena is examined specifically and meditations are performed on the basis of that analysis,

That is the cause of the resultant liberation.

No other cause can bring peace.

The Dalai Lama.

So specifically examining the selflessness of phenomena means that by employing special insight or discriminative awareness,

We can be liberated.

We cannot employ any other technique to achieve liberation or nirvana.

Kamalashiva.

Also,

The Bodhisattva section says,

Those who haven't heard these various teachings of the Bodhisattva collection and have also not heard the implemented teaching on monastic discipline who think that single-pointed concentration alone is enough will fall into the pit of arrogance due to pride.

As such,

They cannot gain complete release from rebirth,

Old age,

Sickness,

Death,

Misery,

Lamentation,

Suffering,

Mental unhappiness and disturbances.

Neither do they gain complete liberation from the cycle of the six states of existence,

Nor from the heaps of suffering mental and physical aggregates.

Keeping this in mind,

The Tathagata has said that hearing the teachings will help you gain liberation from old age and death.

The Dalai Lama.

So you should listen to explanations of the meaning of suchness and then meditate on it,

And that will help you to achieve liberation from suffering.

Kamalashiva.

For these reasons,

Those who wish to attain the thoroughly purified transcendent wisdom by eliminating all obscurations should meditate on wisdom while remaining in calm-abiding meditation.

Okay,

All right.

Wow,

What a big chapter.

Because the chapter is so long,

I'm going to offer a synthesis and then I'm just kind of debating on the next session being just purely practice-oriented because we've really covered a lot of ground so far.

And so,

Yeah,

I might do that.

We'll see.

But I do want to offer a synthesis and I actually want to start at the end with that synthesis because I think it's really important.

Well,

I don't know,

Maybe I'll start at the end.

I'll start in the middle.

It'll all come together.

In this chapter,

What's really happening is,

So the last chapter focused on equanimity,

Right?

Like,

Okay,

What are we doing?

We know we're developing this awakening mind of bodhicitta.

Great,

Wonderful.

How are we doing that,

Right?

There's a specific way that we are doing that.

And the first step in that,

What is it?

It's equanimity,

Developing the mind of equanimity.

And again,

Just to rehash that,

That's just really saying,

We recognize that all beings want to be free from suffering and all beings want to have more happiness.

And then the Dalai Lama now invites us to look at the next stages there forward.

And then he ends with this whole conversation,

Kamala Sheila and the Dalai Lama end with this whole conversation on emptiness.

And this is a really important,

This is something that we really don't want to miss in this chapter.

It is not enough to find mental calmness.

That is only one side of the practice.

If what we are really after,

If what we are truly after is complete liberation from the affliction of negative emotions,

Then we have to cultivate insight.

What does that mean?

That means that it's not enough if your practice is simply sitting,

Calming,

And resting.

The Dalai Lama is saying,

That is great and wonderful.

And that is wonderful.

But then the next stage is to really explore the nature of reality.

We now want to understand what is true about the way things work.

And the truth is,

There is nothing that is self-existent.

So we can go all the way back to a few sessions ago,

Right,

Where we talked about there is nothing that is permanent.

There is nothing that is unchanging.

And there is nothing that is independently existing.

So if there is nothing like that,

What is there?

If you've been with me,

Maybe you remember,

There is impermanence,

There is change,

And there is interdependence.

And we want to realize these things.

We don't just want to read some books about them and spend all our time congratulating ourselves for how great we are at being chill when we meditate.

Because the minute somebody starts working on the house next door with construction tools at 6 a.

M.

,

All of a sudden,

We're on the phone with the police or we're knocking on their door,

Telling them how they're disturbing us during our meditation practice.

The aim is to become undisturbable.

That is the aim.

That is liberation.

So I just,

I can't impress that enough upon you.

Liberation is when nothing any longer destroys that peace that we've cultivated.

Whether we're sitting in meditation and it's totally quiet and peaceful,

Or we are in the middle of Times Square and it is absolutely chaotic and crazy,

We maintain that sense of equanimity,

Open-hearted compassion,

And genuine loving kindness.

And so why do I want to impress that upon you?

I want to impress that upon you because if there is one thing you need to know,

It's that the practice of meditation doesn't just stop with learning how to be mindful.

Oh,

Well,

Now I'm really present,

So I got it.

You hear the Dalai Lama and Kamala Sheila reference this.

They say,

You know what happens when someone believes that that's the end of the practice?

Pride arises.

You know people like this.

Maybe you yourself are like this or have been like this in the past.

You think you know something.

So then all of a sudden,

You become slightly arrogant or someone you know thinks they know something.

So all of a sudden,

They become slightly arrogant.

The possibility of knowing is absolutely endless.

So arrogance is absolutely flawed.

And all arrogance does is perpetuate the suffering that we experience in our life.

So we want to approach meditation first from the position of,

OK,

I need to calm.

I need to rest.

I need to find some one-pointed attention.

That's important.

And then next,

I need to use that skill.

I need to use that quality to investigate the nature of reality.

So,

So far,

We have been given an absolutely clear road map to cultivating the omniscient mind of a Buddha,

Right?

So we recognize compassion is the absolute fundamental practice.

We follow in stages,

First working with equanimity,

Recognizing it for people we love,

For people we're friends and family with,

And then moving into people we're indifferent with,

Maybe enemies from there.

And then we apply.

Wait,

I don't want to go too fast.

And then we wait.

We practice and we wait.

So,

You know,

Today,

I could introduce the next step.

The next steps,

Compassion and then loving kindness.

But I don't even want to,

Because honestly,

Who among us has already fully recognized equanimity?

You know,

Maybe somebody,

Maybe it came really quick and easy for somebody.

You sat,

You practiced a few times and boom,

Everywhere you go in every interaction you have,

You're like,

Same as me.

Wishes to be free from suffering and have more happiness,

But likely not.

Like the Dalai Lama says,

It's not a fast fix.

You're not going to go on any app,

Any,

You're not going to go anywhere and get a downloaded meditation.

And in a day,

Two days,

Three days,

Three years and three months,

Be free of those mental afflictions.

It is a long and steady road to the cultivation and expression of these innate qualities.

So it's like,

What do I want you to do?

I want you to settle in and I want you to get ready for the ride.

The hero's journey is not learned a new thing,

Had a great time doing it,

Recognized its value,

Used it in the world and had ultimate success.

That's not the hero's journey.

The hero's journey is learned a new thing,

Struggled to learn it,

Forgot it,

Learned it again,

Tried to use it,

Used it wrong,

Used it again,

Kind of got it,

Tried again,

Practiced again,

Challenged and trials and tribulations.

The hero's journey is earmarked by challenge and time.

So it is really important that if you are someone that you are studying the Buddhist teachings or you want to study the Buddhist teachings or you really want to get the ultimate liberation from meditation where you are no longer bound by afflictive emotions.

And let me tell you something like,

In my personal practice,

The big aha moment was when I realized that my wish to be free from mental afflictions,

Disturbing emotions,

Was the benefit to other people.

Every time I'm consumed with envy,

Greed,

Hatred,

Lust,

Anger,

Jealousy,

Whatever,

You name it,

Right?

Any level of ignorance,

Any time I'm consumed by those things,

I hurt other people directly or indirectly in small and big ways.

And my friend,

So do you.

So what do we want to do?

We want to stop hurting other people.

We want to recognize the truth of reality.

And when we do that,

We stop hurting other people.

We stop getting involved in the play that creates more and more pervasive misery.

And so I'll go back a little bit now.

So what was happening in this chapter was Kamala Sheila and the Dalai Lama,

They were going a little further.

They were saying,

You know,

First we recognize compassion is sort of the ultimate practice.

And then we work with equanimity.

And then we work with compassion itself,

Which is wishing for others to be free from suffering.

And you see why it's so important to have equanimity first,

Because if you get into that practice right away,

And I see it all the time,

A teacher wants to jump right in or a student wants to jump right into compassion,

But they don't have any grasp of equanimity.

So they go in there and,

Oh,

I can't feel compassion for so-and-so.

Well,

I can feel compassion for everybody,

But not my sister.

I'm going to tell this story.

I was at a retreat in Northern California.

I'm in the Dutch Caribbean now,

But I'm from California.

And I was at this retreat.

It was like a New Year's retreat or something.

And it was with Sharon Salzberg.

So maybe you know her.

And she was doing all this work on compassion.

And it was really a beautiful practice.

And we were doing this breath practice,

Breathing in.

I'm doing the best that I can,

Breathing out.

And so is everyone else,

Breathing in all of the time.

So we were repeating this.

I'm doing the best I can,

And so is everyone else all of the time.

And we do this practice collectively for a while.

And there were a few hundred people there.

And after the practice is over,

They open the room up for comments or questions or whatever.

And someone takes the mic,

A woman,

And she says,

Yeah,

I'm really getting it.

I'm doing the best I can all of the time.

But you know what?

My sister isn't.

And in that moment,

It was like 20 light bulbs went off.

It was like my heart burst open.

Because that is how hard it is to really believe these things.

It's not that you can sit and just repeat a mantra,

And all of a sudden,

You're like,

Yeah,

I believe it.

It takes however long it takes.

So settle in for the ride.

Unker down,

Settle in,

And just keep on practicing.

And so we start with equanimity,

And we work with that until it really roots in our being.

And then we develop compassion.

Then we say in an absolutely unbiased way,

I'm able to wish that other sentient beings are free from compassion.

And then we wish for them to be happy.

So after we say,

Wow,

Spontaneously,

I just feel myself wishing compassion for everyone,

For friends and family.

And that's really how it comes about.

It is spontaneous.

All of a sudden,

Something is happening,

And you find yourself spontaneously feeling compassion for someone,

Spontaneously experiencing a felt sense of love for someone,

Someone you know,

Don't know,

Someone you love,

Someone you don't love.

At the base,

We all love everyone.

Everyone.

So you want to start there.

I hesitate to move us forward.

I used to teach at a university,

And it was so hard to move forward in the curriculum because I had students that couldn't even write a complete sentence.

This was at the university level.

And I just remember,

Like,

This internal struggle with wanting to give the next thing,

Because if they weren't already getting the first thing,

What good was it to give the next thing?

And I'm inviting us to kind of look at that approach in our own lives now.

If we are still suffering from a lot of internal bias,

Then let's do the practices.

You know,

Next session,

We will do these practices just to get a taste of them.

But stay with where you're at until it really has an effect,

And let go of the expectation that that effect will be spontaneous or instantaneous,

Or that it won't be quick at all.

You know,

Let go of that.

So the other thing that I just briefly want to touch on that the Dalai Lama and Kamala Sheila talk about are these three types of suffering.

This is the suffering of suffering,

The suffering of change,

And this all-pervasive suffering.

So the suffering of suffering is like you wake up in the middle of the night and you can't get back to sleep.

And now you're upset that you can't get back to sleep.

And so that upset at not being able to get back to sleep keeps you up more.

So we sort of create a story around an immediate problem,

Maybe a natural suffering.

And then that story actually persists.

It keeps that suffering persistent.

And then we have the suffering of change.

And this is just,

You know,

This clinging,

This desire that we don't want anything that's good to go away.

We want it to just stay with us forever.

And when it doesn't,

Because that's the natural way of the universe,

You know,

We really suffer deeply from that.

And the third one is this all-pervasive suffering.

And if we go back to the beginning and I talked about how,

You know,

Suffering is maybe a word that not everybody is really comfortable using in the teachings of the Buddha,

Because it wasn't so much that it was just big suffering.

It was that dissatisfaction is considered suffering.

And what the Dalai Lama and Kamalashila are basically saying is that this sort of underlying current of dissatisfaction is inherent in conditioned existence.

And this undercurrent is because of our basic ignorance.

And so we want to know that.

We want to really study the types of sufferings in our lives because they start to make us sick of it.

You know,

It's like you begin to say there's just no good coming about here.

Whether I'm rich and famous and have every possible resource in the world,

Or I'm the poorest person on the planet,

And I don't even have a cardboard box to call my home.

No matter who I am and where I am,

I have that.

Because that is what is sort of innate to this conditioned relative experience.

It's just dissatisfaction.

Even the most perfect circumstances,

The minute you look at the less than perfect aspects of them,

Which are always there,

You're dissatisfied.

And so we want to start to study,

Where did suffering come from?

Where is suffering at?

Where am I experiencing it in life?

And can I develop a sort of revulsion to it?

Can I find myself just sort of sick of this conditioned existence over it?

I'm tired of this.

I'm tired of never being satisfied.

I'm tired of always wanting more.

I'm tired of things never being good enough.

I'm just sick of it.

And when we develop that really felt sense of just being totally sick of it,

Then,

Then we really create a motivation for liberation.

Then we're like,

I'm so,

So sick of it.

I would do anything to be rid of it.

And then we say,

Now the Buddha's teachings are starting to make some sense.

And now I'm going to go all in.

I'm going to go all in.

And that motivation keeps us going.

It fuels us for the long,

Hard road ahead because meditation is not peaceful roses lying on a pillow top mattress.

It is not that.

It is hard work.

It is reframing the entire framework of the mind that you have right now.

So,

You know,

That could depress you or that could inspire you.

Like,

What is my potential?

What is my capacity?

And I invite you to look at it from that lens.

Like I have this in me.

I have this in me.

Can I express it?

And then we start to do the work to do just that.

So this is a chapter that I think people should listen to a million times.

You know,

You should reread it.

You should listen to it.

Like the Dalai Lama says,

And this is funny because actually in this book club,

I was originally going to read this other book,

Not pointing out the Dharmakaya,

But Everyday Consciousness and Primordial Awareness by Trungpa Rinpoche.

And it's an excellent book.

But I was rereading it in preparation for book club.

And I thought,

You know what?

This is not the right book to read.

First of all,

I don't get to really know you.

You know,

Like I'm reading,

I'm talking to you,

But I don't know you.

And so I don't know where you're at in your practice or where you're at in your training.

But second of all,

It's like the preliminary work before we start going like deeper into the philosophy of things.

That's really what's needed right now in the world.

That's what I believe.

And so,

You know,

The Dalai Lama is talking about when we're teaching something,

It's not just that we want to just regurgitate words we've heard.

We want to have direct experience with the thing that we're teaching.

We want to have direct experience with it because it's that direct experience that allows us to interpret it for an audience that doesn't have that experience yet.

And so that's really important when finding a teacher,

You know,

Finding a teacher that has direct experience.

I think in the spiritual realm,

Like anyone can call themselves a teacher.

And so often that is what happens,

You know,

But the direct experience is really the differentiator and having a teacher that's going to impart wisdom versus a teacher that may actually impart more ignorance.

Okay,

It's long today.

It's long.

So let's close.

I'm going to stick with the homework from last session.

Keep working with equanimity.

Next session,

Maybe we'll have just a practice session together.

No reading,

Kind of give us a break from the reading for a minute to check in with our practice and see where we are.

But before we close,

I just want to offer a closing dedication as usual.

So however you are is perfect.

Maybe bringing your mind back to that initial motivation,

What brought you here in the first place if you were here with me at the beginning.

And then just listen to the words as I repeat them.

May the insights and compassion cultivated today benefit all beings.

May we develop the wisdom and courage to meet suffering with clarity and kindness.

And may our practice contribute to the liberation of all sentient beings.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

I'm Sarah Sati,

And this recording will be made available on Insight Timer.

So I hope you have the opportunity to listen to it again.

And until next time,

I will see you soon.

I hope you have a beautifully productive practice in the in-between.