76 Writing Your Own Namtar - Empathetic Joy

Spring 2016: 76 Writing Your Own Namtar - Empathetic Joy

Olaso.

[0:04] So this morning, we make the transition from the second of the four immeasurables “compassion” to the third “empathetic joy”. And to clearly recognize the meaningfulness of the sequence here, we can go back to the false facsimile or the near enemy of compassion, which is, to use a really modern term: depression. Depression. Now depression arises for many, many reasons, of course, and I have no expertise in it at all. But as we are cultivating compassion, we are coming back, we’re attending closely to the actual reality of suffering and the causes of suffering, which is evil. And sometimes the evil, especially of which we human beings are capable of, staggers the imagination., ah, And so one attends to that, and it’s so easy, especially I think, especially for us, in the 21st century, more so than much of the 20th century, and the 20th century, more than 19th century and back. Just the amount of exposure we have, to the suffering and the evil in the world. Ah, for so much, most of the vast majority of human history, people by and large, would, you know, they wouldn’t travel and they had nothing of our communications. And so they would know what’s happening within maybe 10 kilometers apart. And so that could be a little bit manageable. Then if you think of all sentient beings, it’s kind of like, well, everybody in 10 kilometers, and then everybody else. And so that would be maybe a bit more manageable. Whereas we all know, we are now exposed to, on a daily basis, minute by minute basis, with CNN, and so forth, just all primarily all the bad things that are happening in the world. And so, especially when we do have this extraordinary amount of data, or information available to us, about suffering, the myriad manifestations of suffering, physical and mental, and then myriad causes of suffering, of mental afflictions of evil, of vices, then it’s so easy, I think, easier than ever before in human history, to be overwhelmed, and to feel helpless, to feel impotent, to feel as if there’s no hope, and to fall into depression. So that could be one cause of depression, there are many, many others. But here is one. And so the near enemy is called grief, is called despair, is called hopelessness, it’s called depression. And it may entail a lot of weeping and a lot of sorrow, a lot of sympathy for others, which is all very genuine. So nothing trivial about it whatsoever. But also, if we’re dwelling in just grief, and a sense of despair and hopelessness, then we’re really, how do we say, useless, useless to the world. Really, we can’t even help ourselves, let alone anybody else. So we’ve basically taken ourselves out of the picture. And then we become an object of compassion for others. Right? So then we’re kind of more a part of the problem, then part of the solution. And so then we have this marvelous sequence. We’ve looked at the segue from loving kindness to compassion, and then from compassion to empathetic joy. And we see that the natural antidote among the four immeasurables, for the near enemy of compassion, and that is grief and hopelessness and despair, is the next one, is empathetic joy.

[03:37] What it’s not, is some kind of a superficial look on the bright side of things, which is, you know, popcorn kind of psychology. It’s not that; it’s not that. Just as, for example, some of the French existentialists like Satre and Camus, I think, had very profound insight into the reality of suffering. I mean, they were very brilliant men, of course. But then, frankly, no vision, no vision of liberation, no vision of transcendence, no vision of extraordinary virtue, no vision of genuine happiness. And so they showed their courage by not committing suicide. Seriously, that, that’s how you show your courage in the face of this. If you can just stay alive, then you’ve, you’ve proven yourself to be a real man, and something like that, which is pretty bleak, and extremely bleak. And materialism just makes it more bleak. And of course, they were materialists. And so to balance is not a matter of look on the bright side of things, which is, you know, cheesy. Nothing you can achieve without formaggio, molto bene! [Italian words meaning: good] (laughter). I like cheese. But you know superficial, ridiculous. But rather balancing out. And so, insofar as we have these balances, you know, it’s all a matter of balance. But insofar as we have deepening insight and an opening awareness, the heart is opening to the suffering, especially the suffering of others who are so overwhelmingly more than ourselves. Then it must be balanced. It must be balanced by the vision, by joy, by insight. So His Holiness the Dalai Lama was asked, I think it was, I cited this many, many times, how is it that you’re so cheerful, when you are so clearly aware of the tremendous suffering of the people, the people of Tibet, the genocide, all they’ve gone through since 1950. And of course, the whole world, I mean, he’s not just focused on Tibetans by any means. And he responded: insight. Insight, wisdom, insight into emptiness. That was one of his responses to that question. And emptiness is liberation, emptiness is Nirvana. It is immutable bliss, immutable freedom, it is ultimate. And so to balance that, alright, well, good. But until we get there, until we have such profound insight, shamatha would be a good proxy. It’s not as good. But if at least you find that and then you know, all sentient beings have the capacity for finding such genuine well being just from shamatha, that will help the balancing. But until there, until then, you know, until we’ve gained direct insight into emptiness, until we’ve achieved shamatha, until then, then mudita, empathetic joy, it’s the ticket, it’s really the key, and it is balancing out.

[06:31] We’re not going to, we’re not going to get any help from balance from the media, because they sell their newspapers and their other media, you know, merchandises, by focusing on the negative, because that’s what people are concerned with. But it doesn’t give us a balanced view. They’re not even trying, they’re there to sell their merchandise. Just like, you know, most of the rest of modernity is capitalism. They’re there to make a profit off of us. But a balance … So then we have to go out of our way. We have to go out of our way to attend to virtue, and happiness, to attend to it, to look for it, have our antenna up in that regard. Because it’s very easy to overlook, just from biological perspective, evolutionary perspective, we don’t have to be really concerned with virtue and goodness and happiness, because there’s not a threat. I mean, if evolution is really all about, and it is, survival and procreation, then if people around you are happy and virtuous, okay, then I can ignore them. Really, then I don’t have to worry. They’re no threat. Good. But if there’s somebody out there who’s miserable, he may retaliate. And if there’s somebody out there evil, then I have to protect myself. Now, that’s what I need to know about. And that’s what the news is about to do. It’s a very evolutionary biological perspective on the news: tell people what might be threatening them. And then so, and so they can prepare and be in a constant state of anxiety. ‘Fight or flight’ becomes the norm. The adrenaline rush becomes constant, right? So that’s mudita. But now, I want to introduce into this, because it just seems very timely and extremely appropriate. And that is a virtue that I’ve commented on in the past. And that is, bearing in mind that mudita just means taking delight. Taking delight, it doesn’t actually say empathetic, but it certainly means that. But it simply means taking delight. And so I’ve mentioned before, that in Buddhism, it’s very explicit in Mahayana Buddhism, that taking delight in one’s, in one’s own virtues, is a virtue. It’s not self, all the self self self stuff, it’s not our narcissism. It’s not self-congratulation. It’s not self aggrandizement. It’s not puffing oneself up as being … It’s, it’s actually not about me at all. It’s not about a person. It’s about the virtue itself. Right? Just one brief comment coming back to compassion that struck me as kind of important. And that is the object of meditation. We all have this, this, this key point: What’s your object of mindfulness? Whether you use Shamatha practice, you should have a crystal clear answer. And if you get it right, and know you have it right. Very important, right?

[09:22] It’s not enough to have it right. Because you have it right and you don’t know you have it right. You can be caught in afflictive uncertainty, especially with a subtle practice, like awareness of awareness. You may have it right. But you may not know you have it right. And then you equivocate, you get caught on, maybe I am, maybe I’m not. And then you can just, you know, fritter away your time. So for any practice, whether it’s … whether it’s shamatha, whether it’s vipashyana, or whether it’s dzogchen, to know what is the object of mindfulness, what are you attending to in the practice and the cultivation of compassion? What is the object of mindfulness? Anybody wants to guess? If you guess wrong, you’ll learn the right answer very strongly. (Student answers, "Aspiration.") No, it’s not, you’re not focusing on an aspiration. Ah, erh. Sentient beings? What kind of sentient beings. (Students replying, “suffering”). That’s the right answer. Suffering sentient beings or sentient beings who aren’t suffering at all, having a great time devoting themselves to greed, hostility, and delusion, and enjoying it. And there are such. And let’s be honest, there are people who enjoy violence. They don’t like it when it comes their way, but they enjoy inflicting on others, they get a kick out of it. And greed is a lot of fun. And delusion. Well, the delusion of I am superior, I’m something special. I am blah blah, that feels really good. I’m sure it’s a kind of high. Precarious, but it’s a high. And so yeah, so it’s sentient beings. It’s not the suffering and it’s not the evil. That’s very important, actually. We’re, we’re bringing out the scalpel here. But this is a very important scalpel. We’re not focusing on suffering, we’re not focusing on evil, we’re focusing on those sentient beings who are subject to suffering, mental afflictions, and call a spade a spade, evil. And then attending to them. And it could be one person. It could be a whole group of people, it could be whole groups of sentient beings. Attending to them, holding them in mind, then aspiring, “may you”, as you’re looking right at, right at them in your mind’s eye, “may you be free”, and then imagining them to be free. So that’s a bit of fine tuning. I’ve had such extraordinarily clear teachers: Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, Geshe Rabten, Gyatrul Rinpoche. When he’s bringing me through the, the Vajra Essence, just like, he just brought a scalpel to it, you know, so sharp, so clear all the way through. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, boy, what a sharp mind, really, that’s not praise or flattery. If you, you often give public talks, and it’s really sweet, and it’s kind of general. And then you see him sit down with his, you know, with professionals, oh man, that man has a mind like a razor blade. Wonderful. So any clarity that I can pass on, I just told you where it came from. Because I have, from my side, independent of all my lamas, I mean, do you think, to offer at all … [Pause]. Nope, nothing. (Laughter). I was checking. I really don’t have anything to say at all. [Laughs]. I wish I did. But no. (Laughs).

[12:23] I’d like to have Dalai Lama, Geshe Rabten, Gyatrul Rinpoche, me,… but emmm, it doesn’t work that way, you know. I got nothing. Okay? Imagine playing a poker game. And then you show your cards, and you don’t even have a pair. It’s just like a six and a queen. [Laughter] And … that’s what I got. That’s what I got, I’m sure, I’m putting my cards on the table. That’s what I got. I got nothing. So the people behind me, they’re the ones, that’s… they actually have something to offer. So the point to be made here. In our world, it’s quite uncommon, from any side, from religion, philosophy, or science, to get any encouragement to take delight in our own virtues, because it just looks too close to ‘yak’. Oh, you’re so proud of yourself, you keep on talking about your own virtues, you’re so full of yourself, you’re so preening, blurh, obnoxious, please stop, you know. And that’s quite true. If people are talking about their virtues, and so forth, and all their accomplishments, after a while, it kinda like, after about five seconds, it really kind of gets tedious. Doesn’t it? Don’t care for it. I’ve had enough. But it is a virtue simply to be aware of, and take delight of, quietly, zipper over the lips, and to take, to be aware of, what good have you brought to the world? What virtues have you cultivated? What have you done that’s truly meaningful? In your past, in the present, and then not just a shrug? Yeah, that’s what I did. But actually, this, you’re just focusing on what brings meaning to your whole life. And you’re just focusing on what you’re contributing to the world. And it’s exactly these things, the cultivation of virtue, of compassion, [offerings?], and so forth, that are the only hope for the world. You know, we have all these forces of mental afflictions and so forth. They seem hell bent on destroying human civilization and desecrating the entire planet. I mean, it’s pretty massive now, right? And the only hope in the face of that is virtue. That’s it. It’s really, really simple. And there are very virtuous people who are not religious and many who are religious, and so forth, and so on. So it’s not a matter of sectarianism, it’s just virtue. It’s a marvelous word. I love the word. And so what virtue have we brought to the world, inwardly and that also is ignored. In our very extra, extra-spective, outward looking world. People are cultivating virtue inwardly just going to retreat, many times solitude, that like doesn’t count. You know, in this materialistic world, that doesn’t count, you know. Yes, it does. Oh, it counts massively, you know. When I hear someone like Gen Lamrimpa that spent 35 years in solitary retreat, I just go “Namo. Thank you.” Thank you, you know. Fantastic. We have always too few of those people just devoting themselves to practice. Always too few. So, that’s what I like to do in this meditation. I think I’ll keep the rest a little secret. Let’s have a 24 minute session. Mudita.

And as we’ve done before, let’s start … self referential, focusing inwards.

[15:38] [Bell rings]

[Silence]

[16:00] For those of us here and those of us listening by podcast. It can be very helpful, as you set out in your meditative practice, to pause for a moment and simply take delight in the opportunity, this precious human rebirth, this time of leisure, this time of opportunity. The opportunity to set out on a path of ultimate meaning, genuine liberation, perfect awakening. So rare, and inconceivably precious.

[16:52] Naturally this gives rise to a sense of gratitude. But then also a sense of responsibility. So few have such opportunity, such leisure, but for those of us who do, this implies an enormous responsibility. It’s time to offer our very best to the world. With such a motivation settle your body, speech and mind in their natural states. [17:19]

[Silence]

[18:55] Inspired by Tsongkapa’s statement that the easiest way to accumulate greater merit, to enhance one’s merit, is by taking delight in one’s own virtues. There should be no resistance here. And it’s not hard. So let’s direct the attention backwards now, backwards in time, back along the course of our own life history, to childhood, going at our own pace, moving from the past, up to the present moment.

[19:37] As if you did a search, using a search machine on the internet, do a search, “virtue in my life”. Click. The virtues you’ve cultivated, you’ve embodied, you’d shared with the world. Good you’ve brought to the world. Privately and publicly. Go back to childhood and move gradually forward through time, through adolescence to adulthood. On to the present moment. When you identify virtue, pause, attend to it. And take delight. This is what brings you joy. This is what brings your life meaning. This is how you find the path and proceed along the path.

[Silence]

[22:00] For the moment what we attend to is reality. Make a point of attending to the reality of your cultivation of virtue, your maturation, the growth of compassion, wisdom and other virtues over the course of your life. Let it be real for you. Inspire yourself, encourage yourself.

[Silence]

[24.28] The object of mindfulness is virtue. And virtue has no owner. Anymore than suffering or mental afflictions have an owner. So whenever you see it in your life, without reservation, take delight. [24:51]

[Silence]

[27:24] Come right up to the present and take delight. For those of us here, take delight in your practice over the past six or seven weeks, your motivation, your sincerity, your effort, your courage.

[27:54] Now let’s start again. Once again direct your attention back to early childhood, at least in your imagination back to infancy, and now with this, a second question, another search. Recall the kindness, or the kindness as shown to you by others. It would be quite natural to begin with your parents, especially your mother, but also the father, providing you with this inexpressibly precious human rebirth, nurturing you, caring for you, the love they showed. And take delight in the virtue shown to you by others. And in that taking delight, of the same nature of that delight, there will naturally arise a joyful sense of gratitude, not a sense of being in debt, or burdened by gratitude. Quite very much to the contrary. Delightful gratitude, a joyful thanksgiving. Move through your childhood; teachers, friends, relatives, neighbors, … make it personal. Those who have enriched your life, cared for you, helped you in a myriad of ways to become the person you have become today. Through your childhood, your adolescence, early adulthood, to the present moment. Attend to the virtue of the kindness as shown to you by others, take delight, in the spirit of thanksgiving. [29:58]

[Silence]

[37:12] And let’s come up to the present with those listening by way of podcast. Consider the kindness of others to you and your recent past, who have helped you to become the person you’ve become to have this leisure, to cultivate virtue. All those who have helped you along the way. And for those of us here, consider all the beings around about, the people at the Institute, the surrounding community, those raising our food, your fellow Sangha members providing their spiritual friendship, their Dharma friendship. All those who have contributed to your well being. Rejoice in the virtue shown to you by others in the spirit of thanksgiving. [38:06]

[Silence]

[38:41] And then for just a short time release all objects of mind, simply rest your awareness in its own nature. Knowing itself. Knowing the one who knows.

[Silence]

[39:42] [Bell rings]

[40:05] So now it’s kind of an obvious time to invoke Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog. (Laughter). Yeah. It’s like plain sight. If the universe doesn’t have one, absolutely true history, and we can’t go back to the Big Bang, and then trace it forward, and nobody’s ever been able to do that, we can only make measurements in the present, right? And then what’s your system of measurement? What are the questions you’re asking? And a specific past rises relative to your measurements and your questions and how you conceive makes sense of your observations. And so there are multiple histories, basically, an infinite number of histories. And if we consider how many data points we have, how many moments of life have we had in this lifetime, and how many do we remember, it’s an absurdly small percentage, which means: however you’ve thought of your past until now, that was one of many, many versions. Bear in mind, we can also make false measurements, we can remember things that never happened. That’s, that’s not uncommon. In which case there’s, there’s noise. That’s not valid. Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog, they are no fools. They’re not just saying, oh, make up any reality you like, oh, it’s so so much more sophisticated than that. It’s brilliant science, not goofy hippie, make up your own reality business, or solipsism or what have you. And similarly, there are, there are ways of, there are people who are delusional, make up false histories about themselves, have a false sense of who they are. It’s called delusion, right? So acknowledging that, on the one hand, there’s one extreme, the other extreme is there’s one absolutely true history. And I will now tell you my life history, what really happened, I’ll write my autobiography. And this is what really happened. Nonsense. That’s one version based on some very selective data points. And we don’t even necessarily voluntarily choose them. I mean, if you thought about your memories, when you’re 5, 10,15, 20, were they really the most important things that happened in your childhood and adolescence? Was it more like you’re throwing dice? Just what comes up? You know, I mean, it’s certainly not representative of your whole childhood, adolescence, and so forth.

[42:19] But here’s an agenda. We put up, we activated the search machine. And the life story that comes out of that is very inspiring, isn’t it? Whereas it’s very easy. People do this a lot. Think of the crappy things their parents did to them when they were children. And then the crappy things that the parents and other people did to them when in adolescence and the people, and then when they’re in their 20s, and 30s, the crappy things that people did to them, and then in their adult lives, the crappy things that other people did with them, and the crappy things people are doing to them now. And they come up with this dismal life story, and then surprise: they’re depressed. It’s kind of going out into the … out there and just starting eating dirt and say, “Oh, I feel sick”. Why did you eat dirt? There’s a nice bread up there. I mean, we have nice little snacks here, you know, in the main house, why did you eat dirt? You know. And so, you know, there’s, there’s enough misery coming to us from outside, aging, sickness, death, calamity, injury, sickness, and so forth. There’s just no reason to generate our own misery by making up the story of our past, that is a complete downer, and then feeling bad about it. So make a better story. It doesn’t mean of course, I’m going to just say it again, it doesn’t mean making up some silly fiction, that’s delusional. But there are multiple pasts. And so when Tibetans write, this has been going on for centuries, when Tibetans write, they write what we would call a biography, actually, scholars call it a hagiography of the great Lamas of the past, going back to Nagarjuna and so forth, back to the Buddha himself, but through Nagarjuna and then through the whole Tibetan tradition. When they write, when they write biographies, basically, they’re never biographies. Like we have in the West. In the West, it’s pretty much this happened, this happened, this happened. And the biographer tries to find out important things and so forth, because there’s way too much data. And nobody wants to read a 10,000 page book about somebody, you know, even if you had that much data, right? And so they have to be selective, but basically, it’s just: I’ll just tell you, as far as I can, what objectively occurred. And then you read it, and then you’re finished, right? So you got some data about a person. That’s not how Tibetans write. They’re hagiographies, because they don’t even call them biography. They don’t even have a word for biography. [Tibetan word sounds like:‘logyu’] just means ‘story’, but that means that any kind of story, an account, they call them ‘namtar’. They call them namtar. It’s a Tibetan word, they have hundreds of: Milarepa’s namtar, Tsongkapa’s namtar and the list goes on and on. And namtar means total liberation, total liberation. And so the whole point of writing the story is to inspire others to achieve liberation. And show how this person, he or she, whoever it may be, Machig Labdrönma.

[45:11] Sera Khandro, many, many, not as many as I would love to see but there are certainly many great female saints or great adepts in the Tibetan tradition. But the whole point of this is to inspire, to lead others on their own path of liberation. So I’ve often commented that when you’re practicing shamatha, Tibetans say … [in Tibetan ]. I’m accomplishing shamatha. That is not like in practicing, I may or may not accomplish shamatha. And who knows, and then I, oh, maybe I can, maybe I can’t. Go into afflictive uncertainty. But every moment that you’re on the cushion, flat on your back, or whatever, and you’re applying yourself to practice with sound motivation, with intelligence, every moment you’re accomplishing shamatha, right? Well, every moment you’re applying yourself with an understanding of the path. If you don’t have an understanding of tpath, you can be practicing Dharma, there’s no path. I’ve made that point many, many times. But when you clearly have a vision of path, which is everywhere to be found, if you know where to look, and you’re following that, then you are proceeding on the path. You are cultivating the path, you’re on your way, you’re, you are achieving liberation. You’re achieving awakening, you are achieving Buddhahood. It’s not like one day it’ll happen or maybe not. How long will it take? You know, like, like that? No, it’s, it’s every moment. So, interesting part of this though, one of the most, one of the most inspiring for many people, thé most inspiring of all the namtar of Tibetan yogis is the story of Milarepa. And it goes back to his childhood where his uncle, when, when his father died, his uncle treated him, Milarepa and his mother and his sister, with just greed and malevolence and nastiness and so forth. So great, great suffering. And then of course, his mother encouraged to retaliate. And he did and he killed all those people. That’s part, a part of his namtar. Was he achieving liberation when he was under the heel of his uncle, when they were being robbed of all their possessions and mistreated? And you know, exploited? No. When he set out with the intention to retaliate, and sought out someone, a sorcerer, who could teach him this black magic, was that? No. When he killed all those people, was he in the process of liberation? No, of course, he’s killing people. There’s no upside to that. But that’s part of the namtar. Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future. That’s his past and then that inspires us. Most people will look at that with relief, say, “well, gosh, at least I haven’t killed 35 people, you know. And if he could do something that awful, and still, you know, achieve such liberation, then there’s hope for me”. [Tibetan name, sounds like: Ben, near Taktse town]. His story is not as well known. He was a bandit. He was a toughie, he was like mafia. And he’s not put a happy smile on, happy face on. He was a tough guy. He was like, you know, head of a, head of a banditos out in eastern Tibet, tough guy. And killed, looted, robbed, and so forth. And then a turning point, he was a great yogi, you know, one of the big kadampa yogis. It’s part of his namtar, that they really screwed up. But then they liberated themselves from their own evil. That, for many people, is more inspiring than just hearing about a Tulku who’s identified as an incredible being when he’s two years old, and then he just got better and better and better. This… well, that didn’t give me any … I don’t know what to start with. (Laughs). Because all I did when I was born, is pee over the doctor’s head. And that was, that was my claim to fame, you know. (Laughs). So no flowers, nothing, and (makes sound). Got a really good pecker.

[48:54] So it’s not a really inspiring start. (Laughs). And I don’t know what your story is, but you know, nothing special from my side. But that’s it. They’re selective. They’re not trying to hoodwink anybody, and whether it’s really evil, they’re sometimes very happy. But if and only if the person transcends it, if they just screw up, screw up, screw up, then that’s not a namtar. That’s just one more sad sentient being. And then why write a biography? We all know about how many people are just, you know, perpetuating misery. So that doesn’t need a biography, you know. So that’s that. So write your, write your namtar. That’s what I am suggesting. Write your namtar. Including the ways you screwed up in the past. As long as you’re transcending them. If you’re not, then … (laughs) … go away. We’re all here to, you know, overcome our previous hangups and vices and so forth. So write your own namtar. And tell your namtar to yourself, you know, to inspire yourself, to let yourself know you actually are on the path and every moment, every day that you’re applying yourself to it, you’re on the path.

[50:04] Okay, before we break, just a final comment for post meditative, I … if you made this a regular practice, it would probably do you a lot of good. I doubt that many people do it, I teach it a lot. But I would really encourage this upon, this third immeasurable, especially where it can have the most transformative power of great benefit, you can actually see, is in between sessions, post meditative state. We have plenty to do on the cushion, and this is a wonderful thing to do on the cushion. And when we go back to this practice tomorrow, and extend it further. But in between sessions starting today, and this is absolutely an attending to people listening by podcast, all of you equally here. You’re not in retreat? So what? You’re on this planet, you’re practicing Dharma, so practice Dharma all day. And here’s one way to practice Dharma all day. And that is, again, your search engine. Antenna up in between sessions, in between sessions. Attend to the kindnesses of others. Little things, like I was just walking over here, and it was a tiny sprinkle, and there was, there was Julia., There was Julia with an umbrella where we kind of made eye contact, and it’s like a sprinkle, like I’m just getting my hair a little bit, you know, done. And we kind of smiled and said “I don’t need the umbrella”, you know, but she was right there.

[51:24] Thank you, you know, and then we talked and she was, you know, I was wiped out yesterday, by the way, my stomach crashed. Much better today. So then she was asking me “but what would you like for food today? What would you like for today?” Gosh, you know, like my mother! My mom’s passed away, but now I have Julia. (laughs). This just blows me away. Like, wow, she’s so kind, so attentive. She’s not … and she’s a volunteer. She didn’t even get paid for doing this. She has to do, she has to help me for free. Tough luck, you know. But these little things, you attend to them, you take delight in them, it’ll change your whole life. And if you keep your … but it’s easy to overlook. It’s easy. Well she’s just doing is her job and then answer her questions. And like a businessman. You’re doing your job, I’m doing my job, okay thanks carry on. And then you come right here and not even see it. That’d be a bit, I guess, easier to do, I suppose. Not easy for me. Because I have my antenna up. So I have the antenna up all day. And when you see it, know you’re seeing it. And then why not take delight? Take delight, and not only outside, inside also. Virtuous is virtue. So suffering has no owner; neither does virtue. And so then you don’t have to be embarrassed. Or feeling, you know, like you’re doing something improper by taking delight in your own virtue because virtue is virtue, whether it’s Julia’s virtue or your virtue, my virtue, who cares? Take delight and enjoy your evening. Now I really mean it. (Laughter).

Transcribed by Shirley Soh

Edited by Veerle Wauters

Final edition by Rafael C. Giusti

Transcript formatted and posted on the website of the course by Rafael C. Giusti

Discussion

Ask questions about this lecture on the Buddhism Stack Exchange or the Students of Alan Wallace Facebook Group. Please include this lecture’s URL when you post.