25 Bodhicitta & Vipashyana: What is Your Signal to Noise Ratio?

Olaso. So we’ve spent, in two weeks, in this kind of crescendo culminating in the explicit cultivation of both aspirational bodhichitta and then the venturing or engaged bodhichitta which we did yesterday. And one might think after that everything is an anti climax. But of course that’s only the beginning. That’s the beginning of the path. In that moment when this bodhichitta arises, not simply out of effort, you meditate, you cultivate, cultivate and then it comes up, but given the example earlier - turning the key in the ignition, you turn it and turn it and then after awhile you don’t need to turn it any longer, and actually shouldn’t, and then you just ease off and then the engine’s running, through your cultivation you arouse, arouse, arouse until it self ignites and so it continues of its own accord. And there’s a technical point in Buddhist psychology, Mahayana Buddhist psychology, about bodhichitta. There are detailed discussions, Glenn who is going to be away for just a few days knows these very very well. And in Buddhist psychology we have the principal mind, the so called principal mind and then the many mental factors, mental factors, right. Fifty one, fifty two, depending on the system. And the mental factors are arising concomitantly with the flow of the primary awareness like primary mental awareness. So you have the primary mental awareness and then these concomitant mental factors that can join with it.

[01:38] It’s interesting. I’m going to go onto a little tangent because it’s actually quite important. So the core there is just your flow of mental awareness, just basic raw presence, awareness and its mental right. But then it gets flavored, it gets conditioned, it gets how do you say, it gets configured. There’s a word, configured with these multiple mental factors that arise together with it, right. So there’s a very detailed analysis of this, of the principle mind and then the mental factors, and the mental factors are in fact emerging from the principle mind but in so doing they also condition it, okay? So anger, compassion, patience, and so forth and so on, there’s a wide variety of afflictive and non afflictive, neutral and wholesome, mental factors that arise. Well the very simple point here that I find quite intriguing, I suspect it’s quite deep, is that bodhichitta is considered primary mind. It’s not a mental factor that comes and conditions the primary mind. Your primary mind becomes bodhichitta. In other words it’s core, and in light of the comments I was making yesterday, that the very root of all of our desires, our wish to be free of suffering and to find happiness, the root is buddha nature. And here is the motivation that actually can satisfy, fully and finally, ultimately satisfy this fundamental eternal longing. Here’s the motivation.

[03:17] It would be quite odd if that motivation would be derivative and secondary when the aspiration is primary. It’s at the core, that this is the core meeting the core. So your mind becomes bodhichitta, right. It’s not simply configured by bodhichitta, your mind becomes bodhichitta. And that’s the undercurrent as you’re resting, you’re walking, you’re eating, doing all the stuff you do, that doesn’t mean you’ll never have any mental afflictions any longer. That would be nice if you did, but it’s not true. But that’s your core and sometimes it’s obscured by mental afflictions that come and go, but that’s your core and that’s why as Shantideva says, that when it’s arising in this way, that’s just now a continuum, it’s a flow, you’re kind of like a stream enterer into the flow of bodhichitta; that the, kind of the, you’re, you’re charging your battery, you’re accumulating merit with this ongoing motivation even when you’re just resting, right. That’s quite interesting.

[04:21] So, where to from here? That first level of bodhichitta when it arises in an uncontrived effortless way, and it’s said for those who’ve experienced this that, there it is, it’s kind of like always there, it’s like the pilot light that’s always on, right. And then it said when it’s arising, and the pilot [light], you don’t have to keep on relighting, relighting, relighting, it’s actually now on all the time. It’s said that just the slightest thing, you can just see something here that I won’t even give examples, but you can see something here or there and it will immediately trigger your bodhichitta which will become explicit. It’s always there like the pilot light, but then it’s a little bit of gas comes on and then poof the flame is there, right. So the bodhichitta is just raring to go, raring to become manifest. Then you’re a bodhisattva.

[05:12] So you’re an entry level bodhisattva. First the three levels of the Mahayana path of accumulation and the, they characterize that first level of bodhichitta as earth - like bodhichitta. Earth - like because this is going to be the ground, the basis for which the full maturation, the evolution, the development, the full flowering of your bodhichitta occurs as you proceed along these five paths, right. But then the big question that arose to my mind very early on to anybody who’s looking at this seriously is well - this sounds good, this sounds really good, how do you make it so that it’s irreversible? Because it’s not, yet. You could lose it. You could lose it. And the answer is - wisdom. There’s a very simple answer. The answer is - wisdom. It’s not just more compassion. It’s kind of like the wisdom becomes the armor that protects your compassion. So if you witness, or you are encounter some tremendous evil, some villainy, some malice, some malevolence that might crush your bodhichitta to the point of hopelessness, a feeling I can’t help such people. They’re beyond the pale, they’re beyond the scope, can’t do anything for them, and you want to just release them and say you’ll have to work this out on your own, but I just, I give up, and you just go for your own liberation. It could happen, right? And for that to protect you that you’ll never fall back into the pursuit of your own individual liberation with the aspiration to leave everybody else behind, for that you need to have your, you’d need to don the armour of wisdom, and then specifically, well wisdom is a very broad bandwidth, but the kind of wisdom, the cultivation of insight here explicitly referenced in the, kind of the classic, the most definitive presentation of the five paths, the ten arya bodhisattva bhumis or grounds - is The Ornament for Clear Realization, one of the five works of Maitreya, the Abhisamayālaṃkāra which is studied very extensively in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism where people are really studying well they will study this one deeply.

[07:18] And so there it is. To move, to transcend that first level which is noble and sublime but is also, could collapse. To get to the second stage of that Mahayana path of accumulation then you need to in a manner of speaking seal your bodhichitta with wisdom, with insight. And specifically as I mentioned before - The Four Applications of Mindfulness, your foundational, foundational vipashyana. Taught by the Buddha in the Pali canon and it crops up in many other contexts, as well. So this, I don’t want to spend long, we have text to cover today. But a very simple point which is enormously pragmatic. And that is for example when it comes to this whole trajectory, this continuum of meditations that we briefly explored, I gave you a taste of the town, a little spoonful of each one, starting from self directed loving kindness through the four immeasurables, the greats, the extraordinary resolve and then finally bodhichitta. We start frankly where it’s easiest. Some people don’t find it all that easy to develop love for themselves. But that’s actually where we need to start. There needs to be a genuine sense of loving kindness and many people don’t have that hard time, they actually do wish themselves to be happy. And so we start there.

[08:37] And then in the cultivation of loving kindness itself following the teachings of the Buddha, following the teachings of Buddhaghosa, the greatest of all the Theravada commentators, you start with yourself - wishing yourself well, that’s good. May I be well and happy, that shouldn’t be too hard. And then out to your dearest loved ones, that you already care so much about, whoever that might be. And then out to more casual friends, and then more out to neutral people and then of course finally out to the people with whom you have the greatest difficulty. Maybe they’re your enemies, and so on. So you start where it’s easy but then you extend outwards, outwards and when you do so it gets more and more powerful. Because by the time you can look your so called enemy in the eye, the person who has betrayed you, treated you horribly, and so forth and so on. Maybe despises you, maybe holds you in contempt. By the time you can attend to that person and feel that same sense of loving kindness, that same sense of caring as you do for yourself or your dearest loved one, you can give yourself a good handshake, you know. You’ve really made it, you’ve broken down big barriers and that’s going to just serve you so well, forever, you know. But of course that’s difficult. And so we don’t try to go too fast. I never suggest engaging in a practice where as you’re doing it you’re feeling hypocritical. I’m now going to focus on my enemy and I’m going to pretend like I love this person but I really don’t, I despise him. But I’ll pretend. Oh may you be well and happy, you son of a bitch. [laughter] I don’t believe in that very much. So there’s a theme, it’s a really good one.

[10:20] And then we find this replicated in shamatha. In for example, Natural Liberation, classic text, revealed teachings from Padmasambhava. After a fairly quite and detailed explanation of the preliminary practices then he gets down to the main course and that’s shamatha as usual. But he starts out really in the shallow end of the pool. He says take a stick, a stone, or a flower, find one if you can. Some if you can’t, then find a doorknob, anything you like, find something you put right in front of you and then look at it and try not to be distracted. Cellphone, yep there it is, it sure is and it’s not going anywhere, yep. I’m focused there it is cellphone, cellphone Om Ah Hum cell phone phet. You just focus on it and boy that’s easy, that’s really easy, shamatha is not that hard. So you start out with a cellphone but they prefer sticks, stones, or a flower and you just focus on it. Focusing your visual attention, but of course your mental attention as well. Try to calm your mind so your eyes are not jerking all over the place, your mind is not wandering all over the place, just focus. But something that’s right there you don’t have to visualize it, it’s kind of like, here I am. Just look at it. And then and there’s the shallow end of the pool and then you just get, and then you set out on your shamatha expedition, and you get subtler and subtler and subtler until you come to the culmination of methods in Natural Liberation and it’s awareness of awareness. And he says now practice this one until you’re finished. Practice this one until your mind is settled in its natural state.

[12:05] So it starts really easy boy I can look at a cellphone, I can focus on it. Until awareness of awareness which is frankly pretty elusive, but it’s also very very deep. So we have that trajectory. Course to subtle, easy to difficult but in so doing your training training training your mind almost like kind of going to kindergarten, then first grade, then second grade. But you don’t just dump somebody in a really deep practice and have them flounder and get frustrated and feeling a failure and then quitting, you know. And that’s very easy to do. And so or just turn to lip service like just reciting the liturgy of bodhichitta. Or reciting the liturgy of bodhichitta 100 thousand times. Maybe, I’m sure that’s been found useful, that’s it and then you’re finished, you’re finished? Whew I finished both bodhichitta thank goodness, I finished my 100 thousand. Oh yeah, I’m a bit skeptical then.

[12:08] And then we turn to wisdom. So we have the, this gradual progression for developing from simple self directed loving kindness all the way up to bodhichitta. We have this trajectory from very coarse to very subtle of shamatha and then it turns out to be the same in terms of the cultivation of vipashyana of insight. Especially in the Tibetan tradition. I know very well in the Gelugpa tradition it’s just normal that going through the lamrim you meditate, you cultivate renunciation, bodhichitta and then you get to shamatha, you give a pretty tough one, focusing on a buddha image, not so easy. And then it goes right into prasangika, madhyamaka, prasangika, madhyamaka, vipashyana that’s like starting to climb Mount Everest about three feet below the summit. The air is thin, that’s subtle. This is why there are these great treatises so many by Tsongkhapa, and the great Indian pandits and so forth. The subtlety of this prasangika madhyamaka view is I mean it’s quite breathtaking. The air is very thin. So if you’re a great mountain climber already then you can breathe that air and get right to the summit. If you’re not, you’ll probably just get spaced out.

[14:18] And one can seriously, this is a very practical question, but if one starts there, this is classic lamrim. It’s taught a lot. If one starts there and is engaging in this analytical meditation, trying to find the object to be refuted and then bringing in different syllogisms and so forth, it’s classic practice. I have no doubt, there’s no doubt in my mind that this can be profoundly effective, transformative and liberating. But then we can ask, if you do it are you actually finding your mental afflictions subsiding? One may know how to do it and yet find that the arrows are just never striking the target. You’re doing this. You’re going through the motions and then you step off the cushion and is your sense of I, has it really softened? Is it evaporating? Is it actually, is the arrow striking the target such that your mental afflictions are subsiding?

[15:20] There’s a Tibetan aphorism [Tibetan phrase 15:24] nice one! I learned it a long time ago. Still remember it. And that is the sign of hearing, that the sign of hearing the teachings, hearing them and understanding them [Tibetan 15:39] become more calm, more serene, more composed. Just by listening to the teachings, really understanding them, taking them in, the aural transmission, aural teachings. You might get more calm more [Tibetan 15:54] peaceful and subdued. A sign that you really heard the teaching, right. But then [Tibetan phrase 16:00] but the sign of meditation, the sign that your meditative practice is working, just like the sign that you’re really hearing the dharma, you’re not just there as a student getting information, you’re really hearing it, you’re taking it in, the understanding arising from hearing and thinking is occurring. The sign that it’s working is that you are more composed, more calm, more peaceful, serene and so on. And the sign that your meditative practice is working [Tibetan 16:30] sign that your meditative practice is working is that your mental afflictions are subsiding. Radically, completely empirical you know. So here we are.

[16:42] So, I don’t want to go on long. But I will then go right to the point here. And that is as we turn to vipashyana, to my mind again especially as we are not Tibetans steeped in Tibetan culture, riding a 1000 year momentum of tradition, but as the Dalai Lama has so often said in speaking and teaching dharma globally, let’s not just teach Tibetan Buddhism. Let’s go bo back to the Indian roots, let’s go back to Shantideva, to Nagarjuna, to Chandrakirti, the greats you know and he keeps on going back to them. Because he knows Americans, Bolivians, Argentians and so forth we’re not Tibetan and so we shouldn’t just be kind of Tibetan mutants, like pretend you’re a Tibetan but you’re kind of a Bolivian Tibetan. [laughter] Or a Californian, you’re not a Tibetan at all. So Tibetan Buddhism emerged from its derivative it’s mutation a really good mutation of Indian Buddhism. But you look at the sources it’s Indian Buddhism overwhelmingly. It’s not Chinese Buddhism or Japanese it’s Indian Buddhism and then it mutated, it adapted to the environment and became richly, wonderfully Tibetan. And served them extremely well for a 1000 years as it became more and more and more Tibetan as it went on and they just felt more and more at home. Tibetans do not feel they’re practicing an alien dharma, a foreign import. They feel this is home, this is our, this is our dharma. [Tibetan 18:08] this is our Tibetan dharma right. But then there’s nothing we can do, none of us here are Tibetan. There’s nothing we can do to become Tibetan. We are where we’re from Singapore, America, Germany wherever we’re from. And so going back to that root and then from that root then whew you know let it assimilate to where you are and not to where the Tibetans were a hundred years ago.

[18:35] And so in this regard when you go back to vipashyana I think there’s a really really good reason to go back to the Indian sources, back to the Pali canon, back to the Tibetan, there’s the Sanskrit, the sutras, the commentaries and look closely at what is widely overlooked or marginalized in the Tibetan tradition and that’s the four close applications of mindfulness, it’s not emphasized in any of the four. Should be, well, why should I say should be? Frankly that’s a bit pompous. They did extremely well, so why should I come in and say you should have done it this way? That’s just ridiculous, I’m not going to say that. But might it be useful for us in a completely constructive way? I do get tired of being critical, it’s fatiguing. [light laughter] Sometimes it has to be done you know but I much more enjoy being constructive. So going back to these four applications of mindfulness once again we find that going back there we’re dealing with these very basic issues that are extremely real in our lives. The three marks of existence, permanent, impermanent, dukkha, sukha, self or nonself, annatā or natā, atman, this is where we live. And then on this final point there’s a sequence here so to dredge our minds, to saturate our minds in these four applications of mindfulness which are down at the base of the mountain. It’s where we live, you know. We don’t have to become great scholars, we don’t have to do extremely subtle logical analysis following the awesome, utterly awesome Tsongkhapa and the other pundits of Tibet and India.

[20:06] It’s coming right back to where we live. It’s this entry level vipashyana which can make really an impact where how we are viewing reality here and now. And can really touch and subdue our mental afflictions here and now. I find that enormously important. So that’s where I would like to start. And that’s where I’d like to go from the bodhichitta from yesterday. Then, so imagine that you’ve achieved this now spontaneous bodhichitta but you want to now seal it so that it doesn’t fall back. Well then you go to the foundations of ultimate bodhichitta, vipashyana, insight into emptiness but we’re not going to leap up to the top of the mountain, Prasangika Madhyamaka or go directly to Mahamudra Dzogchen. That’s why don’t we spend some time at the base of the hill? And start just climbing up the hill go back to these four close applications of mindfulness, magnificently presented with greater eloquence and clarity and precision than anywhere else. And I find this in the Theravada tradition in the Buddha’s own teachings there, they’re the clearest there. The commentaries by Buddhaghosa there’s some very good modern commentaries, I think by Anālayo Bhikku an excellent, an excellent German monk, very erudite, really outstanding scholar and there are others as well, but he’s written an excellent commentary on the satipatthana sutta.

[21:23] And so just on this endpoint within this framework now, foundation the base of the mountain, of how to engage with vipashyana that is real, that really engages with your mind where you live now. Engages where your mental afflictions are now. Once again we find this beautiful trajectory and that is as a sequence in body, feelings, mind, and phenomena, it’s going from coarse to subtle. Coarse to subtle. You start out on the shallow end of the pool and you go deeper deeper deeper until you come to the fourth and that’s very subtle because it’s dealing with subtle causality, dependent origination. So that’s where I would like to go this afternoon. As if we are now moving from the initial state to the medium state of the Mahayana path of accumulation. And start cultivating these insights that can protect, guard our bodhichitta. So let’s do that. Please find a comfortable position. [sounds of retreatants moving to find a comfortable position]

[23:05] Meditation bell rings three times

[23:36] Entrusting ourselves to the enlightenment of the Buddha, to the path that he revealed, the dharma and to those who share the path with us, while embodying it to the best of their ability, the Sangha, with a sense of trust, with a sense of taking refuge, and arousing the motivation of bodhichitta, settle your body, speech and mind in their natural state.

[25:08] And focus on the culmination of this settling of body, speech and mind where your awareness comes to rest in stillness, you’ve allowed yourself the freedom to temporarily release all concerns about the future and past and you simply allow your awareness to rest effortlessly in its own nature, holding its own ground without focusing it deliberately on any object but simply resting, relaxed, still and clear. This is your baseline, this is your default mode, when there is nothing you need to do with your mind, then do nothing, and simply be aware, ready to do whatever needs to be done, when the time comes.

[27:18] So there’s a retreat, the retreat from all appearances, all the objects of the mind, all doing, and simply letting the awareness rest in its own nature. And then from this stillness and this quiet then we venture into the main practice and we will start at the entry level of directing the flow, the light of our awareness, to the entire somatic field, from the ground up. If you’re sitting crossed legged it’s where your buttocks, your thighs, your calves, and your feet are in touch with the ground. If you’re sitting on a chair, you know where to look. The contact, the sensations of your feet touching the ground, your thighs and buttocks in contact with the chair, supine position, you know. From there up to the top of the head the whole space of the body right out to the skin but permeating this whole three dimensional field, let the bright light of your awareness illuminate the entire somatic field and whatever arises within this field. Clearly there’s a variety of sensations. To give a very short list, we’ll begin with words and then transcend the words. Right where your body is in contact with the floor, the cushion you feel the firmness, you have no doubt that you’re not levitating, you’re not floating in midair, you feel the earth element, the firmness, the solidity by way of your sensations. So attend to those sensations that correspond to the earth element, firm and solid, having given these sensations a name and identified them, release the name, release any mental image and focus single pointedly on the referent, the sensations themselves. Knowing them without thinking about them or labeling them.

[30:37] Within this field you’ll find some area most likely just the mouth where you sense fluidity, moisture. This corresponds to the water element having labeled it, observe the sensations themselves.

[31:35] Within this somatic field you’ll notice some areas that feel cool, relatively, others warmer, you know the gradient from cold to hot, this corresponds to the intensity of the fire element. We’ve identified it, and now simply observe it, closely apply mindfulness to the gradations of the fire element, leaving behind the words and observing the referent.

[32:56] And then there’s the air element. Any sensations of motion, whether it’s tingling, vibration, the movements corresponding to the breath, any movements of the body within the body. These sensations correspond to the air element which by nature is in motion. If air were frozen it would no longer be air.

[33:51] So there’s a spread or a spectrum of the range of sensations arising within this somatic field and now in this basic elementary, foundational vipashyana practice of closely applying mindfulness to the body within, to our own bodies, add to this the element, the very familiar element of stillness and motion. Let your awareness be still. Not moving around within the body, not latching onto and identifying with any tactile sensation. Awareness still resting in its own place, still and clear, but illuminating the entire field of the body and whatever sensations arise within it noting them, ascertaining them from moment to moment.

[36:19] Now simply being aware of sensations with bare attention, this is not vipashyana, it’s the prelude to vipashyana. Vipashyana begins with the introduction of some degree of inquiry. This is classic, it’s been true for 2500 years. We can’t make up vipashyana all over again it’s already defined, it entails enquiry. Shamatha doesn’t, vipashyana does, there’s the difference. So we introduce now an element of inquiry and it’s a very basic one. We start simple. As we quietly from this still perspective of awareness resting in its own place as we observe this ongoing flow, of this range of sensations arising throughout the field of the body, we may regard these sensations as signals, these are the signals the body is sending you. And we’re making measurements. Bear in mind there is no instrument of technology that can measure sensations. They’re not physical, therefore they’re invisible to all of science or scientific technology, but we can observe of course, the signals, the appearances of these sensations.

[38:05] But there’s also the noise, the noise generated by the system that is observing the signals, noise generated by the mind. The chit chat, the mental images, the commentary, the labeling, the conceptual associations, the preconceptions, the list goes on and on. The noise generated by the mind whatever we’re attending to that veils and obscures, drowns out on many occasions the signals that are being sent to us by reality. So the simple question here is with this close discerning application of mindfulness, distinguish clearly between the signal and the noise. What is being nakedly presented to your tactile awareness? And to your mental awareness as you focus on the field of the body? And what’s the noise? What is your conceptual mind projecting upon this non conceptual field in terms of mental images, labels, thoughts, associations. Recognize what is perceived versus what is projected.

[40:33] This requires that your awareness is not cognitively fused with the noise, with the thoughts, the labels, the rumination and so on. This requires that your awareness is still, clear, as free as possible from grasping. So you’re able to observe the noise generated by the mind without being swept up by it.

[42:07] In this sequence starting with the close application of mindfulness to the body and then proceeding onwards from there we’re beginning with the coarse and proceeding to the subtle. We are attending to a configuration of matter and energy, the material body, clearly made up of atoms, molecules, cells and so on, no question. But something unique is occurring here. For every other physical entity in the universe, in the surrounding environment all manifestations of earth, all solid objects, all fluid objects, fire, motion, we observe them from the outside, we observe only their surfaces. We don’t know what it’s like to be a stone, or a mountain, or an ocean. We don’t know what it’s like to be fire, or wind. But here our awareness permeates this material entity, we’re viewing it from the inside out. And no one else has this perspective. You’re exploring the physical world from the inside out. And awareness that is suffusing the molecules and cells of your body, insider’s view on the configuration of matter and energy.

[44:21] So we may introduce now a second question. As you directly perceive this material entity of the physical body from the inside, is anything that you directly perceive, composed of atoms? These sensations of firmness, sensations of fluidity, of warmth, of motion, as you directly perceive them, do you perceive anything other than the immaterial non physical appearances to your awareness? Which is to say when you closely observe this material body from the inside do you actually perceive anything that is material? Anything that is composed of elements or particles of matter? Raise it another way. What you are directly perceiving, is it physical? Or is the very notion of matter, atoms, cells, a conceptual designated projected upon that which is immaterial? Is it noise of the mind? Sometimes overwhelming and obscuring the reality of the signal which is immaterial. Examine closely.

[47:05] Meditation bell rings three times session ends.

[48:27] Olaso. So it’s widely noted I mean universally noted and I think in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism that if you’re going to move beyond the sutrayana practice into vajrayana and that would include the Mahamudra and Dzogchen, it’s not enough to realize the emptiness of inherent nature of yourself as a person or personal identitylessness. It’s not enough, if you’re still reifying and for those of you have had some background in vajrayana then this should make really clear sense quickly. If you’re still reifying your body as something that’s inherently existent really made of real matter and so forth. And you’re reifying everybody around you and you’re reifying your environment as really out there objectively in and of itself, then you slammed the door on your face to practicing vajrayana. You’re not going anywhere, you’re not even starting. Because you’re locked in, you’re locked in a prison of reification the only freedom, the only wiggle room is just yourself. [chuckles] But you have no room to move. So this is why it’s said in the heart sutra, Avalokiteshvara says [Tibetan phrase 49:47] that it’s not only, he says it’s the five skandhas also, remember it? The five skandhas also are empty of inherent nature, not just the self. Shariputra has figured out the self, he’s got that, he’s a good sravaka. [mild laughter] But it’s not just that the skandhas, the five skandhas, the body, feelings and so forth. It’s not just that they are empty of a self, there’s no inherently existent person in there, well they’re real, that in fact is the Theravada position. It’s pretty deep but then I think it’s limited. Realizing the emptiness, that there’s no real agent in here, no real self, self existing self, but it’s so easy and it’s kind of so obvious but of course my body is real. Shall I start slapping it, show you how real it is? My feelings are real, gosh what’s more real than my feelings? And mental events, kleshas are real, my goodness, they really beat me up. Virtues are real, oh I like them, I like them. The surrounding environment well there we are, I mean what’s more real than Tuscany? There it is, I mean therefore plain for all to see. It’s very very easy, it’s taking appearances at face value.

[51:03] But what if appearances lie? What if they’re misleading? And so [Tibetan phrase 51:09]. The skandhas themselves are also empty. So as we set out on this expedition of the four applications of mindfulness we’re not going to be going too slowly because we’re heading toward Mahayana, the Mahamudra is coming, is coming, is coming soon. So we want to be prepared when we meet the big tsunami of Mahamudra. That we’re already have gotten our feet wet. In probing into the very nature of the body. Not only that it’s devoid of self, but what else is it devoid of? Is it in fact devoid of all of our labels? Devoid of any intrinsically existent materiality? Is the very notion of materiality something we’re super imposing upon experience? Or is it something we discover? So times a moving. And we want to get back to the text.

[52:11] I’m going to be moving pretty quickly again today because he’s, the Panchen Rinpoche is demonstrating once again his extraordinary erudition. As I said he’s called Panchen, maha pundit for a good reason. And so he’s going over these lightly and I’m going to go over them lightly otherwise again we could slow way down and never even finish this text in six weeks. And he will after giving the overview, he’s already finished now his overview which he said would be concise. It was pretty concise. The vajrayana approach to Mahamudra and now he’s going to go to the Sutrayana approach to Mahamudra. But again he’s going to show, show the spread, he’s going to show the array. That it’s not just one lineage or one tradition, in fact it’s very diverse, very rich and he’s going to address that. And then he’ll get down to it. After he’s done that. Then he’ll get down to it. He’ll say now let’s get down to practice, explicitly here’s the lineage I’m passing on, and cultivate shamatha vipashyana within this Mahamudra context. But let’s get cracking. So here we are.

[53:12] This time I think I’ve not missed where we are in the text. So now there’s a promise to teach sutra. Or sutrayana, Mahamudra in detail, so he promised to do it and he’s going to carry through. So the promise to teach sutra Mahamudra in detail here it is we go to the root text. As for the former remember he said there’s sutra and there’s mantra approaches, the former is the sutra approach so now we’re getting to that. He wanted, even though the other one’s more advanced that’s not the primary focus of his text so he just says let’s get this out of the way, there’s vajrayana. And he contextualized it within the six yogas of Nairopa and so forth, we’ve done it. And now we’re going to go back to that which is more elementary the sutrayana approach and he’s going to really unpack this in much more detail. But he, first of all, he’s going to spread out, spread the whole table and show look here’s some of the range of approaches to sutrayana, mahamudra practice. So the root text, his own root text states here.

[54:09] As for the former, sutrayana mahamudra, it is a way of meditating on emptiness directly taught in the three mothers the prajnaparamita sutras, the Perfection of Wisdom sutras are often called mother, yoom. I’ll explain that in just a moment. So but there’s these three bandwidths, these three broadly speaking three versions, extensive, middle length, and concise. The Heart Sutra is just about the most concise. And the Prajnaparamita Sutra, the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, 100,000 shlokas or 100 thousand verses, well that’s the extensive. And then there’s various versions in between. Ten thousand and so forth and so on. So he’s saying in this context, now of mahamudra we will be then meditating on emptiness in accordance with what? In accordance with the prajnaparamita sutras.

[55:02] The supreme arya The Supreme Arya Nagarjuna has stated that there is no path to liberation apart from this. And that is if you’ve not realized the perfection of wisdom, if you’ve not realized the nature of the existence of phenomena, how they are empty of inherent nature and they do arise as dependently related events, then you can not be free. One could easily interpret that as a very sectarian, kind of same old, same old religion saying we have the only way. And I would understand if people do that, it’s not my perspective though. It’s simply this point, that if the fundamental nature of how anything exists from galaxies to mental events, if the fundamental way they exist called [Tibetan 55:47] how they exist. It’s ontology, in what manner do elementary particles, galaxies, plants, animals, mind and everything else. The fundamental way that phenomena exist is that although they appear, everything appears as if it exists by its own inherent nature, it looks that way. I look over at David and David seems to be right there gazing back from his own side, really there, you know. That’s how it looks. And l look at rainbows and it looks they are really there. I’d like to see what the rainbow looks like from the back side. And I want to see what’s the rainbow look like when you’re looking right on the edge? You know because it’s really there. It seems like you should be able to move around and see it from all different angles but then, ah that’s strange. You can’t. That must mean it’s not there right? Because if you can’t look at it from multiple sides then it can’t be there in the first place. But then if they’re not there, how come you can photograph it? How can something that’s not there be photographable, photographable? How is that possible? How can it not be there because if you try to go right under the rainbow and look up at it from the bottom it’s not there. And yet looked at from the right angle, you can photograph it. So it has to be there.

[56:59] So, it’s not there from its own side and yet it is there, you can photograph it. It has causal, it arises in dependence upon causes and effects. Right, that’s pretty obvious. You need sunlight or something like it and you need rain or something like it. Then you get rainbow colors, these causes are very clearly. And moreover they influence. You say, oh look at the beautiful rainbow. It causes us to say ooh, how lovely. Or we photograph it. So it arises in dependence upon causal conditions, it has causal efficacy, it influences other things, and yet it’s not there. So it is both empty of inherent nature and yet it is a dependently related event, that has causal efficacy. Okay now if, and what the prajnaparamita sutra is saying, you know like the rainbows, everything else. [mild laughter]

[57:50] Dream like, a dreams another great one. It’s not really there. There’s nobody there, there’s no home there, there’s no mountain there, there’s nothing there, there’s nothing there at all. And yet within the context of the dream there’s causal efficacy taking place all over the place. Two kids can be throwing a ball back and forth, bom, bom, bom , bom bom. Hey, oh, you threw it too hard. Oh you hit me on the head you start crying, you know. And yet there’s no ball, there’s no kid and yet the ball influenced that little kid, he’s crying because he got hit in the head, oh. And you wake up feeling really sad, ohhhh, he bumped his head. [laughing] It’s causal efficacy and it’s not there, right and so that was a little snippet. Perfection of Wisdom not really there from it’s own side and yet it still has causal efficacy. If that’s true, there it is just an open statement. If that’s true. If that’s how things actually exist, and how they don’t exist. They don’t exist by their own inherent nature. If that’s true, then how could you possibly awaken to the nature of reality and not know that? That doesn’t make any sense. If liberation is by knowing reality as it is and if this is true, then there is no way to the liberation without knowing this. If it’s not true, then that’s, then that’s easy, then we just throw it out. But if it is true, then you have to know that. And that’s what Arya Nagarjuna is saying. There’s no path to liberation from this. There is no path to liberation without knowing reality as it is and this is a core core aspect of reality.

[59:22] Here in accordance with his view So now Panchen Rinpoche is saying look I’m following, I’m following this great path of Nagarjuna and his interpretation of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, because that’s what he did. Here in accordance with his view I will give guidance on Sutra Mahamudra by way of pointing out [Tibetan 59:47] means to point out. Pointing out instructions, you’ve all heard that, I think it’s a very clear translation. by way of pointing out the nature of mind. So you see we could be pointing out the nature of galaxies or elementary particles or all kinds of things. But the Mahamudra approach is we’re going to go right to the nucleus. And point out within the broad array of the wide variety of phenomena that are examined in the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras and in the writings of Nagarjuna. I mean he studies everything. He examines everything, space, time, matter, everything. But within this broad array of phenomena, a wide variety of phenomena, we’re going to go here in Mahamudra which is characteristic of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. We’re going to go right to the nucleus and that is point out the nature of mind. Expounding it in accordance expounding it according to the teachings of the lineage gurus. Okay, so he’s told you what he’s going to do.

[1:00:46] So there’s the root text, and then to his commentary. Of the two ways of meditating on Mahamudra, the way of meditating on the former, the sutra system, is as follows. So now he’s going to start. It is the way of cultivating Again we’re not meditating on wisdom as if wisdom is the object that we’re thinking about. See it’s cultivating wisdom. That’s another, it’s a better translation for ghumba in this context. I discussed that earlier. It is the way of cultivating the wisdom of realizing emptiness that is shown directly in the three Mother Sutras, the extensive, middle length and concise Perfection of Wisdom. They’re called sutras for the following reason from this Madhyamaka perspective, specifically this prasangika Madhyamaka of going from Nagarjuna to Chandakhirti, Shantideva and so on. The interpretation of mother sutra is as follows. And that is, it is said this classic Indian Indian terminology or metaphor, that a single woman may partner with a male of the Brahman caste, right, the Brahman caste and then her children are known as Brahman. She may partner, she may have a spouse who’s of the satria class and then her children are satria. Or she may partner with somebody from the shudra class and then her children are shudra. Same mother but depending on who she partners with then the children bear the lineage, the patrilineal lineage, that’s just the way it was. We can like it or lump it, but that’s just true and it’s been true in many many cultures.

[1:02:31] And so if one approaches the perfection of wisdom from the, with the sravaka motivation, bear in mind it’s not a school. It’s a motivation, it’s an aspiration right? If one does so with a sravaka motivation, the sravaka motivation is the male, the father and the father enters into the mother perfection of wisdom and yields the child of a sravaka arhat. That’s what happens because your motivation, it’s the same mother, but because the male was a sravaka then the child is the sravaka arhat, that’s what she’ll give birth to. The union of the sravaka motivation with the perfection of wisdom will give rise to a sravaka arhat, right.

[1:03:16] And then we have a PratyekaBuddha, the Pratyeka, those following you know path of their own individual liberation, same thing. They also go, and so there’s the male and if the Pratyeka Buddha then enters into the mother, Perfection of Wisdom, then you become Pratyeka Buddha. That’s where it culminates. Whereas if it’s with a bodhisattva motivation, the bodhisattva is the male entering into the into the mother, prajnaparamita then what comes out of that is a Buddha, right. So that’s why it’s called a Mother. Depending on what it’s united with in terms of motivation and then of all the skillful means, the six perfections for the bodhisattva, the three higher trainings for the sravaka, emphasis on dependent origination, the twelve links of dependent origination for the Pratyeka Buddha then someone else will emerge. So that’s why it’s called Mother.

[1:04:05] So this way of meditating is praised in The Mother of the Conquerors so it’s a classic text as you can see. As the true life of the path of the three vehicles. Sravakayana, pratyekabuddha yana, bodhisattvayana It is said that apart from this way apart from perfection of wisdom there is no other kind. there is no kind of contrary path contrary, incompatible, there is no other kind of contrary path that leads to liberation. So it’s a strong statement, but we find this everywhere in science, you know. And that is if something is true, then it’s just true. I mean it’s not being sectarian, saying this is the way things are if you don’t understand that, then you don’t understand the bigger picture.

[1:04:59] And so The Supreme Arya Nagarjuna teaches. It is said that the path to liberation that is definitively upheld by the Buddhas, the Pradayaka Buddhas and the Sravakas is this one alone and no other. This is certain. This is certain. So this is clearly from the Mahayana perspective, I mean the Perfection of Wisdom sutras are Mahayana sutras and speaking from that perspective and so this is why it’s stated from this perspective that if one realizes only personal identitylessness or if your realize only that your five skandhas are empty of a self. That they’re impermanent, that they’re nature unsatisfactory nature, unsatisfying nature, duhkha nature and that they’re devoid of self, anatman then this will cleanse a whole bandwidth of your mental afflictions. And that will be wonderful, you’ll be much lighter for it. You’ll be much more at ease for it, you may have much less suffering as a result of that. Because it’s a whole bandwidth of mental afflictions that arise from grasping to the impermanent as permanent, the dukha as sukha, that which is not self as self, there’s a whole bandwidth that arises in dependence upon that. If you cut those delusions then all the mental afflictions that would arise from it they won’t happen anymore. So that’s really wonderful. But do you know the nature of reality yet? Do you know the nature of your skandhas? Do you know the nature of your body? Do you know the nature of your feelings? Do you know the nature of the surrounding physical universe? And if all you know is it’s empty of you, then well that’s a good start but you still don’t know the nature of reality. So how could you be free? How do you, how could you become an arhat? And still not know the nature of reality? If this is in fact true. Then if this is not true then there is no problem. But if it is true how could you wind up being an arhat and still be in the dark about the actual nature of existence of everything apart from yourself? Still reifying everything, how could that possible and the prajnaparamita and Nagarjuna, Chandrakirti say well it’s not possible. It’s not possible. You must realize this to be free. So this is certain. So it is said.

[1:07:12] Jeffrey Hopkins was one of my mentors, one of the finest Tibetan Buddhist scholars alive and I’m glad to say he’s still alive. He made a comment years ago that I remember because of course a lot of Western many, I won’t say how many, but many many Western buddhologists, western trained, academically trained oh scholars of Buddhism and pretty much, I think pretty much like yeah all Theravada scholars, and some of them are outstanding really really good scholars say well the Buddha’s teachings are in the Pali Canon, come on. That’s where the Buddha’s teachings are. And the Prajnaparamita this came on later, this came on much later, this came on centuries after the Buddha. The Buddha didn’t teach that. That’s you know made up. And then they just marketing purposes whatever they said the Buddha taught it. But he did not, the Buddha didn’t teach that. Want to see what the Buddha taught look at the tripiitaka Sutta, Abhidhamma, Venaya, that’s the Buddha’s teachings and all this Mahayana stuff that’s just kind of later fabrications attributed falsely attributed to the Buddha. So that’s very widely believed I understand. That’s not a silly thought. But Jeffery Hopkins added a very interesting perspective here that made an enormous amount of sense to me. Because he studied this quite extensively for decades and decades, outstanding work going back to the sutras, the great commentaries of Nagarjuna, the commentaries of Tsongkhapa and many others in the lineage. And looking to this he said you know if you really fathom the import of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, if you really get it, you may be just unavoidably drawn to the conclusion nobody but a Buddha could have taught this. I think he’s right. I think he’s right. That if the Buddha didn’t teach that I’d want to have an interview with him, say Buddha why didn’t you teach this? This is so profound and it so transcends this very wonderful introductory level of impermanence, dukkha, non self, but now this is just kind of this is kind of just takes the breath away, the profundity, the extensiveness of this Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. The subtlety of this vast all encompassing insight into emptiness but how that relates to dependent origination, the very core of your whole teachings is all about pratityasamutpada, it’s just breathtaking. If you didn’t teach this then there must be some better buddha that did. But there isn’t any better buddha, so you must have taught it. And if I didn’t understand exactly how that occurred well I can live with that. But if this is true then oh the buddha must have taught it. Because how could he have skipped this? Frankly from my perspective that was Jeffrey Hopkins, salute to Jeffrey Hopkins.

[1:10:05] But I feel exactly the same way about the teachings of bodhichitta and the bodhisattva way of life. Let’s face the fact the Buddha was a, the Buddha was a, Buddha, he was not a Sravaka Arhat, he was not a Pratitya Buddha, he was a Samyaksambuddha, he was a fully awakened Buddha and he himself did follow the Bodhisattva path. There’s no question, nobody doubts that any reputable scholar. And he refers to bodhisattvas and other bodhisattvas in the Pali canon. So how could one who’s a buddha not teach extensively the path that led to the type of awakening he’s realized? How could the teachings on the bodhisattva way of life not be taught by a buddha? That he would confine himself only to the teachings for the sravakas, because that’s pretty much who we get in the Pali canon. How is that possible? That doesn’t make any sense to me at all. None! And the teachings when you look into them, I mean we just did inspection into bodhichitta yeah? I think you’ve maybe understood, maybe you’ve understood more deeply than I, the impact, the import of bodhichitta. Who could have taught that except for a buddha? The buddha would have skipped this and left it to somebody else to make it up all by themselves? That makes no sense to me at all. So do I understand how this historically occurred? Well I understand, do I know that’s the case? No I don’t but I figure nobody but a Buddha could have taught the bodhisattva teachings like this and nobody but a Buddha could have taught Perfection of Wisdom. That’s my sense of it. And we’ll see more about why that is the case later.

[1:11:41] This is certain. Not only that in the vajrayana too there is no different view other or greater than this. So this is widely accepted in Tibetan all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. And that is in vajrayana whether it’s the kind of the lower more primitive like kriya, kriya tantra, or kriya yoga or whether it’s the higher tantras and so forth and so on. There’s a consensus here that within the context of vajrayana when there are references to emptiness which are everywhere and not just personal identitylessness but emptiness of inherent nature of all phenomena. The emptiness that is being referred to in the context of vajrayana is nothing other than and in no way superior to the emptiness being referred to in the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, there’s no difference. There is difference in skillful means. So wisdom it’s the same. You either do or not have the wisdom of realizing emptiness. But then what is that coupled with? There’s the mother, who’s the father? And what is that coupled with? Well in terms of skillful means not only are there different skillful means for the sravakas, Sheela Samadhi Prajña, versus the Six Perfections. But then between sutrayana and vajrayana there’s a whole array, vast array of skillful means of methods. In vajrayana you do not find in the sutrayana. Which is the whole point of taking the fruition as the path which you don’t do in the sutrayana. So the skillful means are different. From one level of tantra to the next they are different, different, different all the way up to highest yoga tantra, or unexcelled yoga tantra, anuttarayoga tantra, right up to there. The methods are different. Then you go to Mahamudra and Dzogchen, the methods are different. The methods are different but the wisdom is always the same. Okay, so the mothers the same, fathers come and go. [laughter] Sound familiar? [Alan chuckles] And frankly the fathers like to sleep around, I’m sorry, but they do.

[1:13:36] So as the exalted Sakya Pandita teaches in the Perfection of Wisdom and Secret Mantra Secret Mantra again Vajrayana there is no explanation of a different view. If there exists a view that is greater than the non elaboration and that is the complete transcendence conceptuality or conceptualization if there is a, if there exists a view that is greater that the non elaboration that is the Perfection of Wisdom that view would entail elaboration. That is the Perfection of Wisdom transcends, transcends all conceptual frameworks, there’s complete consensus there. If there were something that were superior to it, then it would entail reintroducing conceptual frameworks. Since it is unelaborated there is no distinction, there’s unelaborated the Perfection of Wisdom there’s no distinction between Perfection of Wisdom and the Wisdom you find in vajrayana. Thus in his commentaries of Definitive Meaning these are referring to emptiness as opposed to provisional meaning which pertains to the whole range of phenomenal reality or relative truth. In his commentaries of Definitive Meaning the prophesied Guardian Nagarjuna that is to say in the Mahayana sutras Nagarjuna is very explicitly prophesied by the Buddha. the prophesied the guardian or protector Nagarjuna opened the way for the scriptures taught by the conquerors. opened the way, he elucidated, he made them accessible, inviting, he systematized them. One of his followers one of the followers of Nagarjuna, the great jewel Atisha teaches; Who has realized emptiness? The ones prophesied by the tathagata, who are they? Nagarjuna and his student Chandrakirti who saw ultimate reality. The instructions transmitted from them are the Buddhas, no one else’s. In other words, they didn’t make it up. They’re interpreting the teachings that came from the Buddha by way of the Perfection of Wisdom, the Diamond Cutters Sutra, the Heart Sutra and so on. The source is the Buddha, but these are the ones that are illuminated and made it very clear.

[1:15:39] Thus this Mahamudra guidance is given according to Chandrakirti discussion, this shows among the follower of Nagarjuna there are those who understood his teachings in terms of Svatantrika Madhyamaka I am not going to go into any details there but there’s a whole school there with sub schools and then there is what is widely regarded, very widely regarded in Tibetan Buddhism, all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, as the pinnacle of Buddhist philosophy and the supreme and most subtle interpretation of Madhyamaka and that is the Pradsangakha Madhyamaka and it was Chandrakirti perhaps more than anyone else who clarified, illuminated that. So this Mahamudra guidance is given according to Chandrakirti’s discussion of the view of Arya Nagarjuna. The Way of Pointing Out the Mind is to be expressed according to the precious aural teaching of the holy gurus who possess the uninterrupted blessing, transmission of the holy scholar adepts, the pundits and siddhas. So the classic teachings are to be found in the text. The actual pointing out, this is where you get the pith instructions, from an experienced, preferably a realized teacher who actually points out the nature of your mind to you. Such that you can actually fathom not only the phenomenal nature of your mind but its ultimate emptiness of inherent nature. For this you rely upon the aural instruction, the pith instructions of the lineage gurus. If you ask well why is what is taught here called the great seal? So we come back to the etymology of maha mudra, why is it called that? Now we’re in sutrayana context.

[1:17:16] It is taught in the King of Concentrations Sutra, the Samadhiraja Sutra the nature of all phenomena, the nature of all phenomena is the seal. Accordingly the nature of all phenomena, emptiness is the seal. And when that is realized you are freed from all troubles. So that is great or supreme. It is great to be free of all suffering. And how do you get that? By realizing emptiness. And so it’s a seal and that’s why the seal is great. That which is great is supreme and immeasurable. So there’s the etymology of Mahamudra in the sutrayana context. It’s referring to emptiness and the realization of emptiness. Different traditions of Mahamudra stanzas. Okay so there’s the heading different traditions of Mahamudra, different traditions okay stanzas 11-12. So now the sage’s teaching referring of course to the Buddha the sage’s teaching was found in eighteen schools So these are the ways people interpret, interpret, they find their own, they find the shoe that fits, it’s not a bad thing. It’s not sectarian rivalry, just people coming in with different levels of understanding, different backgrounds, temperaments and so forth. They’ve been doing this in all traditions. There are different ways of interpreting Kant, different ways of interpreting quantum mechanics, different ways of interpreting all kinds of things and then you have schools of interpretation. Right, happens everywhere. It’s not a bad thing and this is what has happened in Buddhism so found in eighteen schools, the sage’s teaching was found in eighteen schools equally able to accomplish the result, freedom. So this is Panchen Rinpoche’s saying look there are eighteen different schools but they all work. They’re all efficacious. It’s not like some are just wrong and the other ones are right. No, I think he said these are different eighteen approaches, what actually work. They do result in freedom.

[1:19:06] Although there are numerous tenet systems or philosophical systems of interpretation that explain Mahamudra So you go from one school to another to one scholar to another, you’re not, they’re not parrots, they’re not just repeating verbatim what other people say, there are interpretations that are different. Although there are numerous tenet systems that explain Mahamudra, it is taught that they are equal in effecting obtainment of the ultimate result, the unity of Mahamudra. In other words yes, there are a wide variety but they all work, unitive mahamudra, we can understand that in different ways but how about the union the unitive experience of the nonduality of dharmadhatu and dharmakaya, that could be a good place to start. It is explained thus so that one may gain mastery in categorizing the countless excellent systems promulgated by holy persons. So why is he saying this. Why is he taking this very ecumenical approach? This very radically non sectarian approach? Why is he doing that? Well so that we can get the big picture. And he’s doing, his approach here which I tremendously admire, and not all Tibetan lamas or Indians follow suit, some are very sectarian. Again that’s just true everywhere, you know. All kinds of fields. But Panchen Rinpoche is not. But then there are all kinds of reasons to be non sectarian. The reason could be benevolence, kindness, patience, humility that’s well let’s all get along. You know. That’s better than not getting along, you know. Or, remember that movie, what was that movie called? Pi something, Life of Pi, Life of Pi, it was really cute I mean it was cute. But but this boy’s you know [Alan with an Indian accent quotes a line from the movie] It’s all one. It’s all one whether you are a Hindu, Buddhist it’s all one, you know. Well [slight pause] not really, but I appreciate the sentiment. Better that than getting out your gun and saying you’re all wrong unless you agree with me. Because there are people who do that as we well know.

[1:21:11] So he’s not just being nice here, he’s actually being radically empirical and His Holiness the Dalai Lama adopts exactly this view, he says so. And that His Holiness who is clearly, very deeply trained, thoroughly trained in the Gelugpa tradition but also has really significant training in others, he’s looking after all of the Tibetan people, that is a factual statement. And that’s all schools including all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, he’s there to protect them all as much as he possibly can to nurture them, to support them, as much as he can. And he may takes exactly this position. That whether it’s Kagyu, Nyingma, whether it’s you know, Sakya, Gelug and so forth all of these are yielding the result, all of these work. They are different and they debate. Lama Nyingma Rinpoche debated vigorously against Tsongkhapa and Sakyapas debated against the Gelugpas and the Gelugpas debated against the Kagyupas and they’re clapping and shouting and singing and dancing and laughing their heads off. I have done it myself. And it’s a lot of fun. It’s actually a lot of fun and it really sharpens the mind I can tell you. I did it for years. And if you really know how to do it, you really get into the flow of it, just say whoa, here it you’re getting sharp here because you don’t always just take your own position, you’ll take another position, you’ll be challenged to. What is Baba Vega’s position here. [sound of hands clapping] And now you’ve got to be defending Baba Vega, tomorrow you may be defending Buddhapalita the next day you may be defending you know somebody else. So you’re forced by the very process of this celebration of scholarship in the traditional Tibetan context to learn how to slip into multiple shoes and defend them from their perspective and the next day you may be refuting the perspective you defended the day before. It makes the mind flexible, sharp, critical and the people who have been trained in that, the gelugpas are very much, they’re the ones I know best, they tend to be extraordinarily articulate. I haven’t met the two geshes here, but I know something about them already. They’re really sharp, they’re really clear, they’re very articulate, and they speak with great clarity. I know that already because I know the training they’ve received, right.

[1:23:32] So, but the point here is this I don’t want to belabor the point and that is His Holiness the Dalai Lama or Panchen Rinpoche and so forth these ones who are not sectarian who are embracing the diversity and saying well but they’re converging in on the same point. Where is that coming from? And it’s not just because they’re nice, they are nice, it’s empirical. You ask a really simple point and that is the great masters of the Kagyu tradition whose view is different in some ways from the Gelugpas and the great masters of the Gelugpa tradition, the great masters of the Sakyapa, the great masters of the Nyingma tradition within this fold of Tibetan Buddhism is there clear evidence that the great masters the siddhas, the adepts, not just the scholars. Those who put in 20, 30, 40 years of meditation full time, is there evidence that those trained in each of these four schools are manifestly achieving the highest states of realization? The answer is yeah. Yeah, they show it. They show it, not everything is hidden. They show it. A person shows rainbow body, that’s kind of evident. You can’t fake that one. And so his Holiness the Dalai Lama looks at this and says you know we’re finding this everywhere in all the schools, people manifesting signs of the highest states of liberation. Ordinary people wouldn’t understand that any more than ordinary people, you know, untrained people understand very advanced mathematics. But the great yogis they recognize each other.

[1:24:54] That’s the thing, like the great mathematicians recognize other great mathematicians and other people like myself I wouldn’t have a clue. If I bumped into Sir Andrew Weil who won the Abel Prize for solving Fermat’s last theorem. I could talk with him for hours and hours and hours and I wouldn’t have a clue. I mean it’s just not humility it’s true. I wouldn’t have a clue whether he’s a brilliant mathematician, mediocre, or total faker, I wouldn’t know. Because I don’t have that level of understanding. But another mathematician of his calibre when he wrote his, I mean that blows my mind. When he wrote his 150 page proof of Fermat’s last theorem, it came out in 1994, I think it was. There was a flaw. A flaw, in one line of the reasoning. His fellow mathematicians found it. And they pointed it out to him and he said oh you’re right, back to the drawing board. A year later he had a eureka moment, cleared it up, presented it again, and then they said ahh, Namo, Namo, Namo [laughter] Satu, Satu, Satu you have solved the theorem that was thought to be unsolvable for 300 years. Man and he finally got it, took slow on the uptake, 20 years to get his equivalent of the Nobel prize, the Abel prize, but they recognized, they recognized a flaw, a flaw in a 150 page proof. I can’t even imagine that you know, I’m a dunce. Well it’s the same. This is all internal, you can’t show somebody your brilliance in mathematics unless they’re brilliant in mathematics. How do you show it. Lots of squiggles rather than fewer? [laughter] I can do squiggles. Want to see my squiggles? They don’t mean anything, but they can be pretty cool you know.

[1:26:47] The great, the great yogis they recognize each other. When His Holiness just saw Khunu Lama Rinpoche he saw him and he prostrated. He saw. Other people see, ah a nice old Indian man. So that’s why, because they actually yield the result, that’s why. And not just because we’re being friendly and non sectarian. They actually work. It’s like medicine. There may be 20 different ways to cure a disease, but if they all cure the disease and even if they’re very different, hey they all work. They don’t have to be compatible with each other. They don’t have to agree with each other. They can be complementary and that’s enough. But all that really matters when all is said and done is, did it heal or not. Did it bring you to awakening or not? That’s all that really matters. Not orthodoxy, efficacy!

[1:27:39] So I’m going slowly here I wish I could go faster. I love it too much, I’m attached. So there we are. So we’re back to the root text, Joining the conate so this he’s doing a big panoramic display here, Joining the conate, that’s a tradition, the amulet box, the tradition, the five fold equal traits the four letters that’s a tradition, pacification that’s a tradition, severance or shur that’s a tradition, great perfection, you know that one and guidance in the Madhyamaka view these and other teachings he says in the root text are called by many names individually but when examined by a yogin who or yogi who has mastered definitive meaning who really knows what’s going on, has been well trained who has mastered definitive meaning of scriptures and reasoning and possesses inner experience That combination of superb erudition and profound experience, when you have those two together they come down to a single view. That’s what he’s saying here. If you are very erudite and you’ve studied with an open mind, without prejudice or bias and you have profound insight into yourself then you will see this is the way it is, they’re all complimentary. They come to the same view the same realization. Je Gampopa, the great disciple of Milarepa developed students by way of the six topics, the five fold meaning and joining the conate. Although there are some discrepancies in versions of the root text for joining the connate I read it as follows.

[1:29:05] Let’s read just a little bit more otherwise we will be here for a long time. The connate ultimate reality of the mind it’s [Tibetan 1:29:12] I have to pause dog gone it. [Tibetan] so to translate it as mind itself is fine but it doesn’t really tell you much. [Tibetan] is not just the mind itself like you know, like Mary Kay herself or Claudio himself, it’s not like you know, it’s not it’s much more than that. Dharmata just doesn’t mean phenomena themselves. Dharmata means the ultimate nature of reality. The ultimate, it means emptiness. It’s the ultimate mode of existence of phenomena. Chit dharmata and chitta and that’s the ultimate nature of dharmas is dharmata, ultimate reality. Chitta-ta is the ultimate reality of the mind. Not just its phenomenal aspect. Get right down to the core what is at its core it’s the ultimate reality, chitta-ta. Well here he says it. The connate you’re born with it, ultimate reality of the mind is the dharma body that’s dharmadhatu, excuse me dharmakaya. Well that pretty much says it all. It’s not just your mind itself is dharmakaya, it’s the ultimate reality of your mind as dharmakaya.

[1:30:16] Connate concepts are waves of the dharmakaya. Effulgences, displays of the ocean of dharmakaya. Connate appearances are the light of the dharmakaya. Appearances and the mind are connately inseparable the fundamental theme of nonduality which is not prevalent in the Theravada tradition and absolutely prevalent in all Mahayana schools are inseparable, they’re nondual. Appearances and mind are connately inseparable and indivisible. The meaning of this statement is that from the point of view of acting mainly to develop admiration and reverence and to counter clinging there are three divisions, the four preliminary practices, the two aspects of introducing the main practice, afterwards applying one’s experience to whatever appears. So beginning middle and end. The preliminary practices are those that are generally taught while the two main practices are indicated as serenity and insight. So the preliminary practices are generally taught, they’re taught everywhere. The four thoughts that turn the mind, teaching renunciation and bodhichitta, the parting from the four desires you just find these everywhere. But then we get to the main practice in this context, it’s shamatha and vipashyana. Serenity is one of many good translations of shamatha. And it’s dinner time.

[1:31:50] So we’ll pause there and I’ll try to move ahead tomorrow. But we come back. So this is again we’re entering into his richness of his erudition and he’s going to show more of it before we’re finished here. But in the meantime when you put down the text, I really invite you to go back to ground level vipashyana and the central theme here as I pack up is absolutely core and it’s useful today, it’s useful for the next six weeks and it’s useful for the rest of your life and until enlightenment. And that is and it’s absolutely critical you can not practice vipashyana without it, you cannot be non deluded without it, and that is really learning through experience how to distinguish, finessing subtlety and subtlety and greater subtlety of the distinction between what reality’s presenting to you and what you’re superimposing upon it, between appearances and the conceptual projections. And there just isn’t any situation in which that’s not important. Because it’s so so easy everywhere to get caught up in our fixed ideas, our preconceptions, our assumptions, our beliefs, our projections, our associations the list goes on and on. And have them blot out the reality that’s right in front of us. That involvement, that entanglement, that immersion in, our own conceptual fabrication, the noise of the mind, immersing in that, all we hear is noise and it blots out the signal. So we’re simultaneously caught up in cognitive hyperactivity disorder because we’re assuming noise is something we’re picking up rather than creating. So that’s a cognitive, that’s a schizophrenic, that’s a person psychotic can’t distinguish between the noise of your own mind and actually you know what’s going on.

[1:33:43] So we’re caught up simultaneously in the cognitive hyperactivity of being caught in the grip of our own noise and assuming it’s true and the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In the meantime like a cloud covering the sun it blocks out the light of the signal. What’s actually happening and not in some mysterious deep profound way but just what’s happening what’s being presented to us. This isn’t conversation between parents and children, between people in the workplace, between politicians debating with each other. And so on and so on, it’s everywhere. Are you listening to the signal or are you just hearing the noise of your own mind? Are you having, while you’re engaging in the debate are you in fact engaging in just a soliloquy with your own mind? [mild laughter] It happens a lot, doesn’t it? It happens a lot. So I’ll just end as I’m packing up on one of my favorite analogies. Because I’ve seen it and it’s incredibly impressive. As many of you know I had the tremendous good fortune to live for more than a year in the home of the Dalai Lama’s personal physician. I think arguably the greatest Tibetan physician alive and he’s still alive. He’s incredible. He’s like 18 years a personal physician of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and was the man is a genius and I lived with him and I learned Tibetan in his home and then I translated for him probably hundreds of times both in India and then later in the United States and I studied a little bit. Just on a very primitive level Tibetan medicine but the point here I’m getting at is taking pulse. It’s just staggering. And that is they use three fingers, on one wrist and then another three fingers left and right, on the other wrist right. They will do surface pulse, they’ll press somewhat the intermediate pulse, they’ll press deeper for the deeper pulse, they’ll rotate their fingers to the left and pick up a pulse and rotate them to the right to pick a pulse. Are you doing the math? And that’s one for each side. They are picking, this is the way they say it. They say that the internal organs and the various processes in the body are sending signals, messengers, they’re sending messengers that are the pulse. All we pick up is fast or slow or fibrillating and so forth. They’re picking up the pulse, they’re listening so closely to the signal with so little noise although they are extremely well informed. That they’re picking up the individual functioning of different vital organs throughout the body as they rotate their fingers left and right. They press a bit deeper and a bit softer. Breathtaking. Dr. Yeshe Dhonden told me you can tell pretty much everything from the pulse. But if you want to have another perspective then you ask for the urine sample. You can tell almost everything from the urine sample. But it’s like going to a doctor, can I have a second opinion as you get the first opinion from the pulse, the signals from the pulse, the messengers by way of the pulse and then what looks, I mean you look at it and say well this is primitive. What’s your technology, I mean western medical doctors have a fantastic array of technologies wonderful, I’m so glad they do. You know the technology of a Tibetan doctor? A cup and a chopstick. [laughter] I’m serious. Pee into a cup, should be a clean cup and a chopstick to stir it. And then they’re examining, they’re picking up the signals from the urine, the size of the bubbles, how fast they form, how fast they dissipate, the gradients of color within it, the degrees of sedimentation, the list goes on and on. You get almost everything from either one but then you cross vector and then [snaps fingers] you nail it. This is listening carefully to the signal and you really and it takes at least two years to get a handle on it, of taking pulse diagnosis, two years. And it takes a lifetime to become a master. It’s really quite breathtaking. That’s signal, that’s signal, they have no technology. They don’t even have thermometers. Really don’t even have thermometers. They’ve got their fingers and their eyes and their smell. And occasionally they’ll taste. The really good ones don’t need to do that anymore but I’m sure for the medical students they make, take their share of urine, your turn, your turn. [laughter] So signals to noise. There it is, this is absolutely crucial for vipashyana. But it’s also crucial for having healthy relationships. And crucial for running a business. And crucial for running a government. And crucial for being a scientist in any field of science. Signal to noise, signal to noise. You’ve first got to be able to distinguish between the two. If you conflate them you’re screwed. Distinguish between the two and then see what you can do about diminishing the noise. That’s vipashyana.

Good that will keep you busy for a day.

Transcribed by KrissKringle Sprinkle

Revised by Cheri Langston and Rafael Carlos Giusti

Final edition by Rafael Carlos Giusti

Discussion

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