Transforming Problems Into Happiness: Episode 2

In episode 2 of Book Club with Sarah Sati, Sarah addresses the homework from the previous session and provides a brief recap and motivation setting practice before jumping into chapters 2 and 3 of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's text "Transforming Problems into Happiness.". She offers an opportunity to explore these chapters, once read, providing readers with a synopsis and interpretation of Rinpoche's words, before providing an introspective practice that leads into the practice homework for the week.

Book Club is an opportunity to take a Buddhist text and explore it deeply from a more Western perspective. The second book in the Book Club Series is Transforming Problems into Happiness by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. It is not necessary to own the book to enjoy these sessions, which combine reading, explanation, and opportunities for direct experience to the listener. See Sarah's live events to join the next session.

Transcript

Welcome back to book club.

I'm Sarah Sati,

And this is episode two in our new series.

This is my second time doing this.

And this time we are working with the book transforming problems into happiness by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

So I'm going to just jump right in,

Reviewing our last session.

In our first session,

We really set the stage for our journey together.

And we did this by discussing the context of the book and the author.

So if you weren't here for the first session,

I'll talk about this.

It's really no problem.

And that session should be posted soon anyways,

For you to watch.

But the author of the book is Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

He passed away in April of 2023,

But remains one of the greatest Buddhist masters of our time in Tibetan Buddhism.

And so I talked a little bit about Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

I talked a little bit about the book.

Julie,

It will be posted here on Insight Timer,

The last episode.

I talked a little bit about the book,

About the author,

And we did a little motivation setting,

A little bit of practice.

I explored some concepts that I just want to review very briefly here,

Because these are really the crux of the books.

I explored the concepts of Lojong and Lamrim.

And so just to quickly remind you,

If you were here or to give you some background,

If you weren't here,

Lojong and Lamrim are two important Tibetan Buddhist terms.

And they are really the foundation of this book that we are reading by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

So again,

Transforming problems into happiness.

Lamrim refers to the presentation of the stages of the systematic process for mind transformation.

And in Tibetan Buddhism,

We're really talking about mind transformation as it relates to attaining enlightenment.

Lojong,

On the other hand,

This concept refers to the practice itself.

So Lamrim is really about setting the stage for the practice,

The process,

Excuse me,

And Lojong is about the practice itself.

What are we going to do in order to achieve the aim of what Lamrim is pointing out?

And so this term points to what we're working on as we go through this text,

Which really presents a systematic process,

And then the adjoining practices necessary to transform suffering into joy.

A big endeavor,

Transforming suffering into joy,

A small book with a really big goal.

As a refresher,

Our homework from last week,

Each week I give a little bit of homework you can or you don't have to do,

But it helps just sort of integrate the teachings into your mental framework.

So last week we reflected on how we define happiness in our lives.

So I really asked you to look at,

We practiced a little bit with this,

And then I asked you to take this into the week ahead,

Asking yourself,

How do I define happiness?

And then considering the potential that the way you currently define happiness may be limited and may actually be leading to suffering in some ways.

So I asked you to look at that to ask,

Just as some background,

We're never taking things at face value in Buddhist teachings.

We're being offered an invitation to explore how these concepts may or may not be reflected back to us in a truthful way.

So what I mean to say here is that I said,

Hey,

I want you to ask yourself,

How do I define happiness?

And then ask yourself,

Could it be that my definition is limited?

And so we're really becoming investigators as we turn to the Buddhist teachings to help improve our lives.

So the homework was two-part.

One was to look at how you currently define happiness.

And then the second part was to say,

Is there a better way that I could be defining happiness that would have a more lasting effect?

And I'll talk a little bit more about the homework in a minute.

So today we're going to spend a little time,

As I said,

Going over the homework from last week's session.

And then I will read from chapters two and three of the text this week.

So you do not need to have the text,

Again,

Transforming Problems into Happiness by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

You don't need the text in order to participate in this book club.

We'll have a little time for practice,

I'm pretty sure today,

Based on this week's readings.

And then I'll again offer practice homework for those of you looking to really sincerely integrate these teachings into your life.

And it may be the case that right now you're just at a stage,

You just want to listen.

You're just sort of dabbling.

And it also may be the case that you want to go a little bit deeper.

And if that is the situation,

Then for sure you'll want to work with these homework assignments that I give.

And I don't have a circle here yet,

But maybe that's something for me to explore.

Thank you.

Yeah,

Please feel free just as a little,

Two pieces of logistical information,

Or maybe three pieces.

First of all,

It's Insight Timer.

These are free events.

If you do feel like donating to me,

No pressure at all.

I just want you to know that I use all of my donations,

100% of my donations to support other projects,

Philanthropic projects.

So right now I'm really focused on clean air initiatives or clean air support for children in Buddhist training schools in Kathmandu.

And so I'm currently beginning a philanthropic project where I'm working to raise money to put air purifiers.

Kathmandu has some of the worst air quality in the world.

The Nepalese people die at a rate of seven years earlier than the rest of the global population because of air pollution alone.

But this is also a place in the world where young children are learning the Buddha's teachings on a very deep and meaningful level.

And these young kids are going to go out into our world and help change it,

Transform it.

And I really want to be a part of supporting them breathing clean air as they're learning these things.

So I'm looking to raise money to put air purifiers in schools,

Specifically called the Theragarh School.

So that's piece one on donations.

If you feel like donating,

That's where your money goes,

So you know.

Piece two is if you want to comment,

Please feel free to have dialogue amongst yourself as this goes on.

But I do record these and share across multiple spaces.

This will be available on Insight Timer as a recording as well.

And so I won't be commenting as I go on the various comments that you post,

But at the end I will save time to comment and to have a discussion.

So I hope that's okay with you.

And then the third piece of logistical information is that I promised that this first recording would be on Insight Timer between now and the past session.

But unfortunately,

The time between uploading the past session and having it posted on Insight Timer was more than I planned for.

So for that reason,

Episode one is still not live on this platform,

But it's no big deal.

For those of you who didn't join last week,

This challenge is a beautiful thing.

We're really applying the book here.

It's a beautiful thing because you've come to this session totally fresh without any preconceived notions of what should be happening here.

And this was actually one of my tips for success in episode one anyway,

To just drop expectations about what should be happening.

So you are already in the game.

Just want you to know that.

And for those of you who've watched the previous episode,

You are also positioned perfectly to move forward.

Remembering here that when we come to this space,

We want to come free from expectation and we want to bring with us an open and curious mind.

And this is the best recipe for really gaining something from what we're working on.

So no matter who you are,

No matter what your history is,

Just rest in knowing that everything is perfect exactly as it is right now for you to be here.

That said,

Let's begin with a short motivation setting exercise before we go any further.

As I mentioned last week,

We'll always start our practice or our reading with this exercise to help us commit mentally to benefiting ourselves and others.

So however you are is perfect.

I already said that,

But I'm going to say it again.

However you are is perfect.

But if you feel to adjust something,

Perhaps taking a more meditative posture,

That's wonderful.

You can take a moment now to do that.

Maybe sitting up more straight or standing up a little more straight.

But if you're already physically comfortable or relatively so,

Then that is absolutely okay.

We're really looking for body relaxation as the number one part of our meditative posture.

So if you do adjust your body or not,

I want you to look at this action or inaction,

And I want you to ask yourself what the motivation was for the response.

What was the motivation for choosing to move or not move?

This is an important reflection as we begin heading more deeply into this text.

What is the motivation for any and all of our actions?

A motivation can show up in many ways.

It can show up as a feeling,

A thought,

An image,

And sometimes right when you look for the motivation,

It appears to be a thought.

Sometimes right when you look for the motivation,

It appears,

But other times you may sense a numbness at first,

And it isn't until later after some distance that the motivation presents itself.

So whatever is the case for you,

Know that your experience is perfect exactly as it is.

We're just asking,

What's the motivation if I changed my posture or I didn't,

Why?

And then I want to suggest something here.

It's just a suggestion.

I want to suggest that your motivation to move or not move has to do with your desire to increase comfort,

Joy,

Or happiness in some way.

Joy or happiness in some way.

And I want to suggest that this is actually an expression of your innate wisdom to take care of yourself.

So just listen,

Just sit however you are is good.

Just hear the words.

I'm suggesting here two things.

One is that your choice to move or not move was based in a desire to take care of yourself,

To find more comfort,

Joy,

Or happiness.

And two is that this desire is an expression of your innate wisdom for self-care.

You can simply hear this suggestion without having to make it true.

I'm not trying to force a perspective on you.

Rather,

I'm inviting you to look now and ask,

Could this be true?

Could your ultimate decision to move or not move have been motivated by your desire to increase your own joy?

Now,

Allow the contemplation,

The question to evaporate,

Like steam coming out of a boiling tea kettle.

We'll come back to this idea later.

And right where you are,

However you are,

Take a few deeper than normal breaths,

If that feels good.

Placing a little more emphasis on the exhalation.

And for just a moment in silence,

Allow your mind and body to settle.

As you begin to settle,

Take a moment to reflect on your motivation for participating Take a moment to reflect on your motivation for participating in this book club.

What motivates you to be here today?

You don't have to force an answer or an intention.

There's a real reason you came today,

And I'm just inviting you to allow that reason to show itself.

You can remember that motivations show up in many ways,

And sometimes they don't even show up right away at all,

And this is okay.

Whatever your experience is,

Is perfect,

Exactly as it is.

Just asking and looking.

And now,

Again,

I want to suggest that however your motivation is or is not showing up for you right now,

I'm suggesting the ultimate reason you're here has to do with increasing your comfort,

Joy,

Or happiness in some way.

And I'm suggesting that if this is true,

It's an innate reflection of your wisdom to take care of yourself.

This doesn't have to be true.

I'm just suggesting and offering an invitation to examine.

And you can ask yourself now about this.

Could this be true for you?

Is your motivation about increasing joy,

Comfort,

Or happiness?

And is this an expression of your innate wisdom?

Just ask and sit.

Now drop the reflection,

Take a few long exhalations,

And rest here.

If you would like,

With me,

We'll set our motivation as a group.

To do this,

Just simply repeat the words after me.

May my mind be clear enough to use these teachings.

May my mind be clear enough to use these teachings for the benefit of myself and others,

For the benefit of myself and others on the path to transformation,

On the path to transformation.

May all sentient beings benefit from my knowledge.

May all sentient beings benefit from my knowledge.

And may the world thrive in peace and joy.

May the world thrive in peace and joy.

If your eyes were closed,

You can open them and perhaps take a moment to look around the room you're in and just settle yourself as I begin to check in about the homework briefly before we start the reading.

Okay,

So let's talk about this homework for last week.

And if you want to post something in the comments,

Feel free again,

Feel free to chat amongst yourself.

If you want to post something in the comments,

Feel free again,

Feel free to chat amongst yourself and I'll talk a little bit more in discussion at the end.

But last week I asked you to define happiness for yourself.

Like how are you personally defining it?

And then I asked you to examine,

Did it reveal any limitations in your current understanding?

So I'm curious now,

You can just take a moment to ask yourself,

Even if you didn't do the homework,

Just checking in,

Do you have a definition of happiness?

That's one.

Sometimes we don't even know what our definitions of these really important concepts in our lives are.

And two,

Are you able to identify that your happiness definition has any limitations?

And if you took time this week to contemplate that,

Did you discover any new perspectives on what happiness means for you?

So you can reflect now on this.

Most of us,

And this is a gross generalization,

So please feel free to omit yourself from it.

Most of us are wishing for happiness in very temporary ways.

And most of us are wishing for it in ways that are specifically about our happiness alone in this lifetime.

And this is something that Rinpoche is going to talk about in today's reading,

This type of happiness.

So maybe you did or didn't find that this was true for you when you examined it.

But what we're really looking to do here is see that if we have a wish for ourselves to be happy alone,

I'm just looking for my own happiness and I'm just looking for it in a temporary way.

Like I want to get a yummy dinner tonight and that's going to make me happy or something even bigger than that.

Like I have to quit my job and that's going to make me happy,

Or I have to move where I live and that's going to make me happy.

These are all defined as temporary ways to achieve happiness.

So if we're defining happiness in this way,

We're just really looking to see how this wish,

This temporary wish is never going to leave us with lasting happiness.

And in fact,

Rinpoche is even suggesting that it is going to lead us exactly and always to suffering.

So the next side of this is,

Can we redefine happiness for ourselves in a way that creates ultimate happiness,

Lasting happiness?

And that was the second part of the homework.

So maybe you did or didn't come up with a definition for yourself,

But today in our reading,

We're going to find that Rinpoche offers us a definition,

A new definition of happiness.

And just to sort of briefly introduce that,

He talks about the ability to control our states of mind and to cultivate qualities that bring happiness and extinguish qualities that lead to suffering as the way to set ourselves up for lasting happiness.

And this is the kind of happiness that cannot be altered,

Cannot be changed by the naturally changing nature of life.

So I wonder if any of you came up with any unique definitions of happiness for yourself,

And if yes,

I would love to hear them.

You can leave them in the comments or please feel free to message me later.

I'd love to engage in dialogue around this.

And today I'm going to offer more homework that will help us integrate these teachings.

But I just want to say it's a really helpful tool not to just hear the homework one week and maybe spend a little bit of time thinking about it and then set it aside and move on to the next week.

Actually,

We're looking here to begin to create this cumulative accumulation of the homework.

So each week the homework builds on the next week.

And what I mean by this is now we're going to take this idea that we may have an incorrect definition of happiness.

Again,

It's just a suggestion and we're just exploring it.

We're going to take this idea and then we're going to look at how we define happiness.

We're going to attempt to redefine it and we're going to add this to this week's homework in a way that allows us to build on these teachings.

So we're starting at the heart of the teaching and we're building outward from there.

And this is really going to lead to our deepest transformation.

So yes,

Please,

If you have some definitions of happiness that you came up with,

I would love to hear them in the comments.

And now I'm going to get to the reading.

So I talked last week about this in Buddhist teachings.

We have three ways of learning.

We have a teacher explaining something to you.

We have a teacher reading something to you.

And then we have the direct personal experience of the teachings.

And this book club brings all three of those together.

So right now we're going to get to the reading part.

I'm reading again out of transforming problems into happiness by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

And I'm reading chapters two and three today.

Just listen,

You know,

You don't have to do anything special to listen.

You can just,

Just hear the words and that's good enough.

Chapter two,

Developing a different attitude to problems.

The thought of liking problems should arise naturally,

Like the thought of liking ice cream or the thought of liking music.

In this challenging modern time with many problems and much unhappiness,

Human beings are especially overwhelmed by suffering and their minds are not resilient.

This is because they are unable to recognize as beneficial the problems and harm they experience and to see these problems as causes of happiness.

Human beings who have not encountered the Dharma are unable to recognize this and unable to train their minds in this recognition.

Instead of seeing all the problems you experience,

Whether caused by living beings or by situations and circumstances as problems,

You need to develop the habit of recognizing them all as beneficial conditions,

Supporting happiness,

And in fact,

Being causes for happiness.

But you can't change your perception all at once.

You must begin by trying to recognize small problems as beneficial.

Then gradually,

As you become more accustomed to this,

You can start to recognize larger,

More serious problems as good,

Even pleasurable,

And ultimately necessary for your happiness.

You will see everything that disturbs you as essential for achieving happiness.

But make no mistake,

The practice of thought transformation is not intended to eliminate problems,

But rather to enable you to use the problems you experience to train your mind to move step by step along the path to enlightenment and ultimate happiness.

It's not that you will no longer receive harm from other people or from circumstances or from disease and old age.

You will simply not be disturbed by anything that happens.

The events that the untrained mind perceives as problems cannot,

In and of themselves,

Disturb your practice of Dharma.

They cannot prevent your attainment of the realizations of the path to enlightenment.

In fact,

When you practice thought transformation,

Not only do problems not disturb you,

They actually help you to develop your mind and continue your Dharma practice.

How do you use problems in support of your Dharma practice and your attainment of happiness?

You have to train your mind in two ways.

First,

You stop the thought of complete aversion to suffering.

And second,

You generate the thought of welcoming problems.

When you have accomplished this and actually feel happy rather than unhappy to have problems,

Problems no longer become obstacles to generating the path to enlightenment within your mind.

The fault of seeing only problems.

We all come to harm from other beings,

From illness and from other events and circumstances.

As long as our mind is conditioned to identify such experiences as problems,

We will only find more and more people and conditions disturbing.

The smallest,

Most insignificant matter will cause great pain in our mind,

And we will become upset very quickly.

The root of the problem,

The true cause of our suffering,

Is not the external being or event that brings us harm,

But rather it is our strongly selfish mind.

When we habitually identify everything as a problem,

Even something so small as being given food that is a little cold causes great discomfort in our mind.

Something a little off with the way someone dresses or looks,

Something not quite in line with our own idea of how it should be,

Becomes the cause of great suffering.

If we hear a noise during the night that wakes us up,

We become incredibly angry.

The whole of the next day we complain about it.

I didn't get enough sleep last night.

Not getting enough sleep becomes an unbelievable problem and unbelievable suffering.

If a tiny,

Insignificant being such as a flea runs over our leg and bites us while we're sleeping or meditating,

It becomes an unbelievably huge problem.

Some Westerners spend thousands of dollars to go to Kathmandu,

But after spending just one night there,

They decide they cannot stand the uncomfortable conditions and fly back home the next day.

It is the nature of the mind to become addicted to certain ways of seeing things.

By habitually seeing as a problem every tiny thing that does not accord exactly with our self-cherishing wishes,

We exaggerate small things into huge problems.

If we see even small sufferings as big problems and get irritated by them,

We become unceasingly overwhelmed by a heavy,

Unhappy mind.

It then becomes extremely difficult for us to bear any problem whatsoever.

Everything appears threatening.

Everything appears unsatisfying.

Everything we hear,

See,

Taste,

Smell,

Or touch makes us unhappy.

Our mind exaggerates problems,

And we find that our life is filled with irritation,

Depression,

Paranoia,

And perhaps even nervous breakdowns.

We're constantly overwhelmed by our completely unhappy mind,

And it is very hard for us to be happy for one day,

For even one hour.

We have no opportunity to experience happiness if there is nothing that we like,

Nothing that is satisfactory.

Whatever we try,

Wherever we go,

Everything makes us unhappy.

Not realizing that this is our own doing,

That we have trained our mind to this negative way of thinking,

We point to external things,

Other beings,

Or circumstances as the source of our problems.

The more we think that our problems come from outside,

The more our anger arises,

Like a fire blazing as we pour more and more oil on it.

Our anger blazes higher and higher,

Bringing greater negative karma.

Then unbearably great anger arises,

Bringing even heavier negative karma.

We become angry at everything that appears to our senses,

Everyone and everything we see.

This state is known in the Buddhist teachings as all appearances arising as the enemy.

What is the alternative to this state?

The great 11th century meditator Milarepa is normally pictured keeping his right hand at his ear in a gesture of listening.

This is because everything appeared to Milarepa in the form of advice,

Everything appeared as a teaching.

For skillful meditators with well-trained minds,

Instead of all appearances arising as the enemy,

They actually appear as the opposite,

As a friend and a teacher.

Instead of disturbing us,

Everything appears as beneficial and supportive.

To skillful meditators,

Everything appears as bliss,

Everything appears as a manifestation of emptiness,

The ultimate nature of all things.

And so skillful meditators are unhindered by problems.

Seeing the benefit of problems.

When you perceive a problem,

If you remember the benefits of having problems and approach it with the practice of Mahayana thought transformation,

Your problem becomes desirable.

Instead of hindering you,

Your problems become good and useful.

No matter how many problems you have,

There is no point at all in being disturbed or irritated by them.

When you meet miserable,

Undesirable conditions,

It is extremely important to think over and over again of the great shortcomings of perceiving them as problems and of being irritated by them.

There is no benefit perceiving circumstances in this way.

It is simply unnecessary to see them as problems.

You may have a measure of control over certain situations,

But there are others you just have to endure.

For example,

No matter how upset you are that your house is not made of gold,

You have no power to turn bricks into gold.

And no matter how upset you are that the sky is not the earth,

You can't turn the sky into the earth.

There's no point in expending even a moment's concern about such things.

No matter how much you worry about any external problem,

And no matter how irritated you become,

Your irritation cannot make the problem go away.

As the Indian master Shantideva explains in the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life,

If a problem can be solved,

There's no point in being upset about it.

There's no reason to be angry and no reason to be depressed.

And if the problem is something that cannot be changed,

There is also no point in being unhappy and disliking it or in becoming angry.

Therefore,

No matter what happens,

There is no point in being angry or depressed.

No matter what happens,

There is always a reason to think this is a favorable beneficial condition.

For example,

When someone is bitten by a poisonous snake,

Cutting away the flesh around the bite is regarded as beneficial,

Although it's painful.

It's not considered harmful because it protects one's life.

According to the Tibetan system of medicine,

When a disease contaminating the inside of your body shows some sign of coming out,

It generally means that you are getting better.

It's coming out of the body instead of staying inside,

Getting larger and larger and lasting a long time.

This is regarded as a good thing.

It's still a sickness,

But it's nonetheless regarded as good.

Identifying the harms you receive as problems has great shortcomings.

Think of all the problems you've experienced in your life and contemplate over and over again the result of seeing them as problems.

Has it benefited you or not?

Try to see as clearly as possible the shortcomings of this attitude,

Then generate a very strong positive motivation determining that from now on,

No matter what problems I have to face,

I won't become irritated by them.

I won't identify any circumstances or obstacles I experience as problems.

I'll regard them as positive.

Generating this brave,

Determined attitude is extremely important for your thought transformation practice to succeed.

With this strong motivation as a foundation,

Proceed to train your mind until you become like an experienced horseman.

Even though his mind may be distracted,

He's able to manage the horse effortlessly,

No matter what it does,

Without falling off or endangering his life.

He is able to cope better because his body responds naturally to the way the horse runs.

Similarly,

When meeting miserable conditions or obstacles,

An experienced thought transformation practitioner immediately and effortlessly recognizes them as good.

The thought of liking the problem arises naturally,

Like the thought of liking ice cream or the thought of liking music.

When a person who enjoys music hears music,

The thought of liking the problem arises naturally.

The thought of liking it arises naturally,

Without any need to consider the reasons.

When you meet undesirable conditions,

If you spontaneously recognize them as good,

You will be happy.

During times of criticism,

Poverty,

Difficulties,

Failure,

Sickness,

Or even imminent death,

Nothing will disturb your mind.

You will be consistently happy.

Effortlessly,

Naturally,

You will recognize the benefit of problems.

And the more you see the benefits,

The happier you will be to experience difficulties in your life.

By training your mind and becoming accustomed to not seeing problems as problems,

Even great problems of the mind and body become so easy to bear that you experience no difficulty when you encounter them.

Problems become enjoyable,

As light and soft as cotton.

Seeing problems as joyful.

It is essential to be well prepared before actually meeting miserable conditions,

Since being able to use them as a basis for virtue and happiness is extremely difficult.

With prior training,

However,

You can more easily apply the thought transformation practice you've been practicing.

To transform problems into happiness,

It's not sufficient simply to see that problems help your practice of virtue.

This alone is not enough.

You must clearly recognize that your problems are actually necessary conditions for your practice of virtue,

And you can derive continual,

Stable happiness from this.

During difficult times,

Remember that your problems are benefiting you immensely by allowing you to achieve not only temporal happiness,

But also happiness in future lives,

As well as liberation,

And the ultimate happiness of enlightenment.

Even though your problems may be very heavy and difficult to bear,

Remember that they are the most joyful things to have,

Because they benefit you continuously.

As long as you see something as a problem and allow it to irritate you,

You cause that problem to disturb your mind.

While this is happening,

There is no way to transform that suffering into dharma practice.

But when you are able to stop seeing problems as problems,

You are able to use suffering in your dharma practice.

Problems actually enable you to increase your good karma.

They become the cause of happiness.

It is not enough to hear me say these things.

This has to come from your own experience.

Of course,

You can't suddenly face big problems and transform them into the Buddhist path.

As much as you're able,

Train your mind to transform small sufferings.

Then,

When you experience big problems or great disasters,

Even death,

The most fearful thing of all,

You will be able to infuse them with virtue and use them in your dharma practice to move further along the path to ultimate happiness.

Stopping the thought of disliking problems and generating the thought of liking them makes the mind happy.

With this attitude,

You can always maintain your practice without depression or discouragement.

Because you've cultivated a strong belief that experiencing problems is desirable and joyful,

Even though you may have a problem,

It will not disturb your mind and you will easily be able to bear it.

This is how you can utilize disease and other problems in your life,

Such as adversities or adversaries that you believe are disturbing your happiness or your dharma practice.

Even if these things persist in what they are doing,

They will be utterly unable to interfere with your happiness and so cannot disturb your mind.

In short,

Train your mind to see the beauty in all problems.

In order for problems to appear desirable to you,

You have to stop looking at the shortcomings of situations.

Put all your effort into looking at the benefits of problems.

Whether a life situation is wonderful or not depends on the way your mind perceives and interprets it.

You can choose to label an experience wonderful or problematic.

It depends completely upon your mind,

Upon your interpretation.

Your experiences will definitely change as you change the way you look.

When I was in Lawoodo Cave many years ago,

I found a text called Opening the Door of Dharma,

The Initial Stage of Training the Mind in the Gradual Path to Enlightenment.

This was the only general text I found there,

Among the many other handwritten manuscripts of initiations and deity practices.

I must have read a lot in that text about the shortcomings of grasping onto worldly things such as material goods or fame.

After that,

When local people brought me offerings,

For example,

A plate filled with corn and rice,

Or maybe they put some money on top,

Which according to their custom is called a mandala,

I was very fearful because I realized the dangers of those offerings.

I was afraid of receiving a reputation and becoming famous.

There was much fear in my heart because I saw the pitfalls so clearly.

So you see,

At that time I was trying to practice dharma.

Now,

However,

I've sunk completely into the quagmire of worldly concern.

I love how he ends that chapter.

Okay,

We're going to read chapter three and then I'll do a brief synopsis of the of the two chapters together.

Chapter three is a little shorter.

Happiness and suffering are created by your mind.

Happiness and suffering are dependent upon your mind,

Upon your interpretation.

They do not come from outside,

From others.

All of your happiness and all of your suffering are created by you,

By your own mind.

Buddhist teachings tell us all of existence depends on the tip of the wish.

All happiness and all suffering depend on our wish,

Our motivation.

The most oppressive suffering of the hell realms and the highest happiness of the state of omniscient mind come from the mind.

With few exceptions,

All actions we perform with our body,

Speech,

And mind out of worldly concern,

Concern only for our own happiness in this life alone,

Are non-virtuous and thus result in suffering.

All actions of body,

Speech,

And mind done with the wish that seeks happiness beyond this life,

Seeks the happiness of future lives,

Or seeks the happiness of all beings are virtuous and cause our happiness.

Through these actions,

We can experience happiness in future lives as well as in this life.

All actions of body,

Speech,

And mind done with the wish to achieve liberation from the bondage of karma and disturbing thoughts are virtuous and are themselves the cause of liberation.

And all actions of body,

Speech,

And mind done with the wish to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all beings are not only virtuous but are also the cause of enlightenment.

Once you realize this,

You perform positive actions all day and night,

And all these actions become the cause to achieve the ultimate and peerless happiness of the state of enlightenment.

This is why the Buddhist teachings say that all of existence depends on the tip of a wish.

Everything depends completely on the mind.

Temporal and even ultimate happiness depend completely on your wish,

On your own mind.

Different results come from different types of wishes.

All suffering arises from the misguided wish for your own temporal happiness in only this life.

This kind of happiness seems to be happiness,

But it is really only suffering.

This is samsaric happiness,

Which cannot be found because it does not exist.

However,

From the wish to achieve liberation comes liberation.

From the wish to achieve the omniscient enlightened mind comes the omniscient enlightened mind.

Thus,

Samsaric suffering and ultimate happiness come completely from your own wish,

From your own mind.

If you closely examine your own experience,

You will see that happiness and suffering are dependent upon your mind,

Upon your interpretation of events and circumstances.

Happiness and suffering do not come from outside,

From others.

All of your happiness and all of your suffering are created by you,

By your own mind and motivation.

You will experience suffering if you cultivate and indulge in anger and you will experience happiness if you practice loving kindness,

Compassion and patience.

Your suffering and happiness are the direct result of the way in which you take care of your own mind in your life on a day-to-day basis.

If you closely examine your own experience,

It becomes very clear that suffering and happiness are not created by other living beings,

Not even by a being such as God or Buddha.

You are the creator of your own happiness and suffering.

Happiness and suffering are manifestations on emptiness.

By recognizing the benefits of suffering,

You are able to identify suffering as good and this will bring you happiness.

But this happiness depends entirely upon properly understanding the benefits of problems and then on that basis,

Identifying problematic situations as good.

It's not a question of will,

But of understanding.

When you skillfully understand challenging situations in this way,

You are then able to realize this situation is not a problem.

I'm not suffering,

I'm happy.

As with the suffering we previously perceived and believed in,

This happiness comes entirely from our own minds.

There's not the slightest happiness existing anywhere else.

The happiness that appears to exist externally out there is empty.

It exists in dependence upon the nature of the feeling and the thought that labels it.

Thus,

Happiness is a manifestation of emptiness.

It is the same with suffering.

When you do not realize the benefits of problems but identify them only as interferences,

You will turn them into real problems,

Labeling them with the thought,

This is a problem.

Your label causes the situation to then appear to you in a certain way.

You've called it a problem,

So it appears to you as a problem.

The status of problem is merely imputed to that particular feeling by the thought that labels it.

In reality,

Even though the problem appears to exist self-sufficiently,

To exist from its own side,

It is completely empty.

Thus,

You can see how suffering is also a manifestation of emptiness.

When you look at or think of yourself,

Of what you call I,

It appears to exist from its own side.

You impute true,

Independent existence to the self and to what are called the aggregates.

The Buddha taught that a person is made up of five components or aggregates.

One material component,

The body,

And four mental ones,

Which include our thoughts and emotions.

Without the aggregates as the basis upon which the I is imputed,

Even if the thought that labels I arises,

The I does not thereby exist.

Conversely,

In the absence of the thought that labels I on the basis of the aggregates,

Even if the aggregates are there,

The I does not exist.

Thus,

You can see that thought simply imputes a self to the mere appearance of the aggregates and to the different activities performed by the aggregates.

Thought merely imputes,

I am sitting,

I am practicing dharma,

I am meditating.

Your mind imputes I to the aggregates performing these various activities.

In reality,

The self that seems to exist and do all these actions is merely ascribed to the aggregates,

Nothing more than this.

Truly,

The way the self exists is not the slightest bit more than this.

In reality,

The I is only what is merely imputed by thought on the basis of the aggregates.

And yet,

Even though the self is merely labeled by thought from its own side,

It appears to exist as more than what is merely imputed by thought.

It is,

However,

Completely empty.

Even though it appears to exist from its own side,

This self-sufficient existence is just not there.

It's a complete hallucination.

Not even a single atom of the self has true independent existence.

The self that performs various activities,

Experiences,

Samsara,

This self can achieve enlightenment through practicing dharma.

It's nothing more than what is merely imputed on the aggregates by thought.

This is the self that does exist.

Now you can see very clearly that all the other ways the self appears to exist are complete illusions,

Complete hallucinations.

This false self is what is referred to in the texts as the object to be refuted.

Any belief that the self exists in any way other than as merely labeled on the basis of the aggregates should be abandoned.

This teaching has implications beyond the nature of the self.

One of my teachers explains that the superstitious mind imputes a mere label to everything.

All experiences,

Good or bad,

Are simply the gathering of causes and conditions.

We label our experiences and the mere label that we have imputed then appears to exist from its own side,

Independent of our mind.

In reality,

Nothing exists from its own side.

Nothing exists independently.

Everything is empty of existing from its own side.

What this means is that there's no point at all in becoming attached or angry in response to anything that incurs because our experiences are empty of existing in this way.

We don't have to experience them as problems.

We can totally abandon disturbing thoughts.

Excuse me.

Okay.

So this is deep reading.

I want to hit this point in.

.

.

I can see we're going to go a little bit over time today,

But hopefully that's okay with people maybe at like 15 minutes over.

The end of chapter three is a really heady end because what Rinpoche is basically telling us is that,

Look,

Put everything aside.

If you really want to be happy,

Recognize the nature of reality and the nature of reality is emptiness.

Then he goes on to explain the empty nature of this idea of a self-existing.

He's basically saying,

If you can understand this,

He's like,

It's not will,

It's not effort.

We're not just forcing ourselves into it.

What we are doing,

Transforming Problems into Happiness by Lama Zopa Rinpoche,

What we are doing here is we're working to understand a new way of experiencing reality than what we were originally taught when we were born.

Maybe that we've been gifted throughout our whole life and even generations past.

So we're looking to understand that reality is empty and this is the essence of reality.

When we can connect to this,

We see that nothing has this self-existing or concrete quality that it usually appears to have.

I'm angry at something.

Well,

If there's nothing really to be angry,

There's just pieces of anger.

A thing happened and my heart rate increased.

I began to get a little bit hot.

I had a fear that I was going to die.

Then all of these pieces culminate in what we label as anger.

Rinpoche is telling us,

If we can really understand this and we understand by exploring in our meditation practice and beyond,

Then we develop the conditions for a permeating constant happiness.

Because Rinpoche is suggesting in this third chapter that all of our problems,

All of our suffering and all of our happiness are consequences of our mind.

So I want to go back to chapter two for just a brief moment and talk about the key points.

In chapter two,

He's saying,

Look,

The first thing we need to do is we need to train our mind to see our problems as benefits.

He's saying problems aren't going to disappear.

So all of these practices where we are thinking we're going to like get rid of problems in our lives,

That is itself a problem.

You're never going to get rid of things like dying and disease and other people that you love dying and losing all your things.

This stuff's never going to go away.

You still might get fired from your job or your dog may die or whatever bad thing happens in your life.

That's never going to not be the case in life.

So we have to do a few things to become happy.

If it's true that we can't get rid of our problems,

We have to see our problems differently.

And he gives us a few different steps for this.

He says,

The first thing that we have to do is stop any aversion to suffering.

And the second thing we have to do is welcome our problems.

And we need to train our mind to view our problems as helpful.

So the way to do this,

This is great.

It sounds all wonderful and easy and simple,

But it's not obviously,

Or else all of us would be somewhere else right now instead of here listening to this.

The way to do this is to start to contemplate how have problems been beneficial in our lives.

And Rinpoche says,

We really want to create a habitual reaction to liking problems.

And I love this so much.

He says,

We want this to arise naturally,

Like when we see ice cream,

We want to love our problems as much as we love ice cream,

Or I don't really love ice cream that much.

So if you're like me,

It'd be like as much as we love chocolate,

Or I don't know,

I really love cappuccino with soy milk.

So let's say that for me,

It would be,

Can I learn to love my problems as much as I love a soy milk cappuccino?

And as soon as I get a soy milk cappuccino,

I just feel immediately happy.

Can I feel that same way as soon as a problem arises?

And that's what we're looking for in our lives.

And additionally,

Rinpoche says,

We want to do this when now we want to do it now.

And we want to do it with our small problems.

Like right now,

There's a bunch of flies here in the Netherlands and they keep getting in the house.

And so this feels like a problem to me,

But it's a small problem,

Right?

It doesn't have a really big implication in my life.

So I want to train with things like that.

And in this way,

When big problems arise,

I will be prepared for them.

So we're looking for the small problems in our lives.

We're looking to train with those so that it really becomes a habitual retraining of the mind.

And really to clarify this point of Rinpoche,

He says,

We're not suggesting to think merely that problems are helping us.

That's actually the wrong view.

It's not just like,

Oh yeah,

Here I am.

It's a problem.

I'm going to learn a lesson from it.

That's wrong view.

The right view is that problems are necessary and that they bring happiness.

And as Rinpoche says,

Like I just mentioned,

We can learn to love our problems when we view them that way.

So as soon as they come up,

We're ready,

Like we are with ice cream or with our cup,

With cappuccino,

Ready to just dig in with our mouth watering.

Okay.

So this is chapter two,

And that's sort of like,

This is what we're working to do.

We're working to stop hating problems,

To start loving problems.

And then we're looking to make that a habitual response.

Chapter two is a little bit longer,

But it's actually chapter three,

Which is quite short.

That is the deeper of the two chapters because in this,

He begins talking about concepts that are actually quite hard to understand.

Specifically the concept of emptiness,

Which for many people,

When we say emptiness,

You think of nothing,

But that's not how emptiness is defined in Buddhism.

It's not nothing.

Emptiness is definitely not nothing.

Emptiness is the lacking of an inherent,

Independent existence.

So this is what we're talking about when we're saying empty.

We're saying there's no anger,

Look for anger and find it.

There's nothing there.

If you look outside,

There's nothing there.

If you look inside,

All you find are pieces of anger.

There's no self.

There's nothing there.

If you look for the self,

All you find are the aggregates.

We have to remember we're reading a Buddhist book.

There are a lot of Buddhist terms.

If you're not familiar with any of these terms,

I highly recommend the first book I did,

The heart of the Buddhist teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh,

Because he really covers everything in that book.

That book is so good.

And that's the first book club that I used for,

Or book that I used for book club.

And that goes into a lot of these concepts if you're not familiar with them,

But you can also like Wikipedia them or whatever.

But basically that's what we're talking about when we're talking about emptiness.

We're looking to see that our happiness is a product of our mind.

That's what Rinpoche says.

And we're not taking this at face value.

We actually have to ask the question,

Is this true?

Is our happiness coming from our own mind?

And we want to look and we want to examine,

Are our problems our own fault?

And we want to look and we want to examine again and again and again so that we begin to have direct experience with these teachings.

Because it's not enough just to hear the book or to hear me talk about the book.

You have to have a personal experience with the teachings for them to have an impact on your life.

So we need to look again and again.

And so Rinpoche goes on in here in chapter three,

He defines happiness for us,

Just like we did in our homework last week.

The first happiness he calls samsaric happiness.

And this relates to the Sanskrit word,

Which is often defined as like cyclic change or the changing impermanent nature of experience.

And this he says is when we wish for our own temporal happiness and only in this life.

So he's telling us this is a narrow view,

The wish for only me to get a lot of money in this life.

And that's just an example.

This is an example of what he's referring to.

If I say,

Oh,

My happiness is based on how much money I have right now,

Then he's saying,

Okay,

This is a narrow view of happiness and it actually is suffering in disguise.

The other type of happiness he's defining,

And this is the happiness,

Dare I say that we're all after,

Although maybe some of you really only want money in this life right now,

And that's your choice.

The other type of happiness he defines as ultimate happiness.

And this is about identifying the mind states that lead to happiness and how to cultivate them.

So he's giving us some directives here.

He's saying that states of mind,

Like loving kindness,

Compassion,

Patience,

Generosity,

Wisdom,

These things lead to our happiness,

But he's saying it's not enough to just have good qualities of mind.

We also have to get rid of the negative qualities in our lives or diminish them.

Things like anger or greed or envy or jealousy.

And then he goes into talk a lot about emptiness in this chapter.

And that's something we have to really sit with,

Which we will do in just a moment together.

But just to kind of conclude the synopsis,

Rinpoche is giving us a few directives,

Stop resisting problems,

To start believing that problems are necessary and lead to happiness,

And then to stop indulging emotions like anger,

Greed,

Envy,

And jealousy.

And the way to do this is to see them as empty.

And then to begin cultivating emotions like compassion,

Generosity,

Loving kindness,

Patience,

And wisdom.

This is a clear process that Rinpoche is presenting for how to find the lasting happiness we're ultimately after.

And as we move forward in the next chapters,

We're going to find that Rinpoche begins to tell us even more how to put these steps into action.

So don't worry if right now you're like,

Wait,

How could I ever get rid of anger?

Like I'm an angry person because so-and-so is always mean to me or whatever reason you have for anger because people always do things wrong because my coworkers are never listening or my children are not obeying me or some kind of thing like that.

Next chapter is we're going to start looking at how to do these things.

But for this chapter,

It's enough that we're just simply exploring,

Is it true that thinking of problems as problems leads to more problems?

Is that true?

That's really what we're asking ourselves today.

And if that's true,

Can we start to view our problems in a way that feels good?

And so,

Yeah,

These short chapters have deep and intense implications.

And I want to practice now with you.

I know we're a little over an hour today,

But hopefully you can stay for our practice because practice is where we take this invitation and we use it to begin exploring these things.

And this practice is actually also this week's homework.

So we're going to sit together.

However you are is perfect.

I really believe that.

But if you want to adjust your posture,

If you want to get in a more meditative position,

Please do that now.

Lengthening your spine or sitting up more straight.

This is okay.

And then take a few longer exhalations and invite your mind to settle.

Now,

I want you to bring to mind a problem,

Not your worst problem,

But a smaller problem that you're currently facing.

Really bring it to mind,

Try to see it,

Feel it,

Explore it deeply.

And as you explore it,

I just want you to notice what your initial reactions and feelings are And as you explore it,

I just want you to notice what your initial reactions and feelings are towards it.

And then keeping this problem in mind,

Ask yourself,

How does labeling it as a problem affect your emotions and your mindset?

So the question you're asking yourself,

How does labeling this as a problem affect my emotions and my mindset?

When we ask questions in our meditation practice,

It's important to remember that answers come up in many different ways.

So don't have an expectation here.

You may hear a thought,

You may experience a feeling,

You may have nothing at all come up.

And it's not until later on when you get some space from the practice that an answer arises.

So just ask the question and then in a totally expectationless way,

Simply sit with the asking,

How does labeling this problem in your life affect your emotions and your mindset?

And now let's try to shift our perspective for a second.

This is a total imagination.

What if you imagined that this problem that you have in your life,

And it can be more than one problem.

What if you imagined that this problem was actually a benefit?

What if instead of seeing this problem as a problem,

You saw it as good,

You liked it,

You wanted it even.

So just for a moment in your mind,

Imagine that you love this problem as much as you love soy milk,

Cappuccino,

Or ice cream,

Or whatever it is for you.

Even try to try to bring a physical smile to your face as you look at this problem in this way.

It's just an imagination.

Don't worry,

Nothing's going to change about it.

Just imagining here that you're actually happy to have this problem rather than upset by it.

And taking this problem as a benefit,

Rather than upset by it.

And taking this perspective for a minute,

Just sit with this perspective and observe how does it change the nature of the problem?

And you can play with this for a few moments here,

I'll give you in silence,

Just like applying this imagination to as many small problems as you like for seeing how does viewing this as a problem cause more problems and then pretend the problem is a benefit and play with seeing how this new view lessens the impact of the problem.

If you lose your focus,

Don't worry.

Rather than seeing it as a problem and making it a bigger problem,

Try to see even losing your focus as a friend,

As yummy as ice cream or cappuccinos.

And then just bring your attention back and play a little bit more,

Maybe even now using that experience of losing your attention as a problem to play with in this practice.

Wherever you are in your process,

Just let the question,

The contemplation,

Just let it fade away,

Evaporating like steam coming from a boiling tea kettle.

Just rest here for a moment,

Allowing any experience to be okay.

You can open your eyes if they've been closed and just look around and maybe even see the world with these new eyes.

Imagining here that as your eyes open or as you come out of this practice,

You have no more enemies,

No more problems.

Hey,

So this is the homework for the week.

It's not just something I want you to do here.

And now with me,

I really want you to spend this entire week looking at all your problems and seeing how labeling them as problems is maybe leading to more problems.

And then I want you to play with imagining you are in love with your problems.

This is not just something I'm offering to you,

This is not just something I'm offering to you to do as like,

Oh,

Here I am,

Kind of rotely bringing out this book club without any deep work on my own.

This is also something that I play with.

So I say this with a smile on my face.

Actually,

It's funny because this fly is like buzzing around in this room right now.

I do not like these flies.

And I'm thinking my stomach is gurgling,

There's flies in the room.

There are so many small things and I'm laughing to myself because there's so many small things in our lives that we view as problems.

And as Rinpoche was talking about,

We allow it to irritate us.

And that irritation grows and grows and grows.

And now let's say that I really allowed these things to be problems,

My stomach gurgling,

Like,

That's a problem.

And I allow that to be a problem.

Oh,

No,

Can people hear it?

Or the fly buzzing around?

Oh,

No,

That's bothering me.

And then I allow that problem to grow and grow.

And then my child walks in the room.

And now I'm on edge.

And now I'm really on edge.

And so what do I do?

My child has a need or a want and I snap at her,

Right?

This is how it goes.

This is not like an unusual thing.

All of us have had this happen,

Even if it's happened unconsciously,

Because we're just not even with ourselves when it's taking place.

Small things irritate us.

And then when we see them as irritants,

They build up and they cause other problems that are much bigger in our lives,

Like disconnection with our own children or our partners or problems at our work or ongoing problems with our relationship to ourself.

So we want to use these small things and we want to laugh at them.

And what I've noticed,

At least from my own practice,

Is that things become a lot more funny.

That's really my real experience is life becomes a lot funnier.

This is a problem.

No,

No,

I love this.

Or wanting it as a thing in my life saying,

Yeah,

I like this problem.

Bring it on.

Bring it on.

When I practice this for myself,

Which is a lot more right now because I'm in the middle of this book club.

And so I always put everything I do to my own life.

That's one of the reasons it's valuable.

The work that I do is also because it benefits the people in my life and myself.

And I get in this place of physically,

In a somatic way,

Really like,

Yes,

This problem,

Come on problem.

And it just makes life more fun,

A lot funnier.

And so I see,

I see that direct experience and that's what Rinpoche is inviting us to do,

To have that direct experience with it and to really get juicy with it,

To make it somatic.

Because when we have that direct experience,

Not once,

But again,

And again,

And again,

And again,

In our lives,

Then eventually on the very deepest level,

We experienced this mental transformation so that it's natural.

It's a spontaneous experience that when a problem comes up,

We view it as actually a benefit,

As actually leading to our problems.

In my own work,

I call everything I call,

I have this thing of this way of calling things.

I say,

Escaping from backwards land.

I think Buddhism really captures this.

In much of the work we do in retraining ourselves in Buddhism,

It's flipping experience on its head.

It's like,

I used to think problems were problems,

But when I approach it from this Buddhist perspective,

Boom,

Now I see problems as benefits.

I used to think anger was anger,

But boom,

Now I see anger as wisdom.

That's really something that we're doing when we start working with the Buddhist teachings to transform our own lives.

And it doesn't really matter what layer of the Buddhist teachings or what lineage of the Buddhist teachings we're working with,

Because all of the Buddhist teachings were about this.

We're flipping reality on its head,

Seeing it for what it is,

And then moving into that as much as possible to have direct experience so that we transform our mindstreams because everything is a product of our mind.

If we didn't have this mind to reflect back to us,

To see through,

Hear through,

To taste and touch through,

To think through,

To feel emotions through,

Then there would be nothing.

And that plays into this experience of emptiness,

Which is pretty deep.

And I'll try to get into a little bit more next week.

So just again,

The homework this week is to really practice deeply as much as possible.

You have to remind yourself,

Maybe put sticky notes up around your house.

Whenever you encounter a problem,

But you don't even have to be encountering a problem.

I do this when I go on a walk,

I'll go on a walk and then I'll just think of all the problems that I have.

And I'll play with this visualization of imagining that I love them.

And it really changes you.

It really changes you.

I promise you.

So throughout the week,

Just play with this on a walk with yourself.

Anytime you're alone with yourself,

You can play through your mind,

All of your problems and try to love them rather than hate them.

And then just rest your mind in this natural state,

Not labeling like this problem is so bad,

Or it needs to be a certain way,

But just simply allowing the mind to be open to this experience and reflecting on how this practice changes your experience.

And then for the homework piece,

For those of you that are practicing,

You can always write down your observations and,

And bring them here.

Okay.

So I always said,

I'm going to keep these between an hour and an hour and a half.

And I see we went a little bit longer today,

But we're still not at an hour and a half.

So I'm feeling like I met my,

My goal.

We're coming to the end here.

And I just want to thank you for your time and for joining this session,

Just reminding you that our goal here,

We're challenging our existing conceptual models of reality.

And we're offering ourselves new ways of relating to experience new ways of defining reality that leads to more lasting joy and peace.

This is no small endeavor people.

This is like the biggest,

This is the biggest goal we could have in our lives.

This isn't just like,

Go get a college degree,

Make a lot of money,

Buy a house,

Get a partner,

Have a kid or whatever dream you have for your life.

That's really like a standard American dream,

Or also a Dutch dream,

A sweeping generalization,

But I digress.

It's that's a goal.

Those are goals,

But now we're talking about the biggest goal of all.

And you can truly imagine the biggest goal of all is can I live a truly happy life?

And if yes,

How,

And so we're looking at how,

And we are saying it is possible to transform suffering into joy.

And then we're following a process to do that.

And it is a big endeavor.

So I really want to just congratulate you on your intention to undertake this massive endeavor and be here today.

I really look forward,

And I hope to connect with people.

So if there is a way to send me messages,

Maybe I need to investigate this idea of a circle so that I can communicate.

I really would love to do that.

Please feel free to connect with me in any way that exists outside of these sessions to talk about this session.

And I look forward to next time.

Next time we're going to go over chapter four and five,

And we'll go over the homework we'll do.

It'll begin to follow the same format.

I think we're going to end up having five sessions for this book because there's a closing session I'm really envisioning for us.

So again,

I take this recording and I'm going to be adjusting the recording from session one so that that will be able to go live on Insight Timer.

There was just a small issue on my end with that.

And then this session should hopefully have no problem and be up right away.

As soon as Insight Timer goes through,

They have a process of going through all the content before they post it.

So hopefully you have an opportunity to review it if you were here today or share it with people who you think it may be of value to.

That's always of benefit.

So again,

Thank you so much for your time,

For your energy,

For your presence,

For your commitment to being a beneficial human being on this planet.

May we all benefit ourselves and others,

And may we all attain enlightenment in this lifetime.

Reviews

💖oh, does this hit home, and btw I treasure my homemade soy milk cappuccino every morning with cinnamon powder and that's my jam💖

Thank you💟I love and look forward to my problems, like ice cream

Another very interesting 'Book club' recording. I'm so grateful Sarah posted posted this, because I couldn't make the Live session 2 or 3. For once in my life I'm actually excited about doing my homework! 😀 Thank you Sarah ☺️ Namaste 🙏🏼

P S. Are you going to upload Part 3?