78 Have a Heart Like an Ocean

78-2016 Retreat - Have a Heart like an Ocean

[00:00] Olaso.

[00:09] So this retreat, towards which we’re gradually approaching the end has been quite clearly embedded in the Buddhist context, you knew that before you came, in terms of Buddhist worldview and of meditation, a way of life, which is really the only way to teach mahamudra, there’s no such thing as secular mahamudra. That’d be silly, it wouldn’t mean anything, it would just be, I don’t know, wouldn’t be anything. And so it’s really wonderful just to be able to immerse oneself into a thorough integration, of a way of viewing reality, a way of practicing a way of leading one’s life, that has three elements in profound integration. One of these is the pursuit of happiness, which all beings share. Another one is the pursuit of virtue, which many beings share, to seek to be a better person, or better people. And then the third, the pursuit of understanding, knowledge, which many people share. And then the modern, in the modern context, the discipline that has been clearly the most successful in the latter is science, of course, the pursuit of knowledge. And they provided us with an enormous amount of knowledge. But these three pursuits in modernity, contrary to the medieval period, and we’re not [refers to someone in the audience by name ??] correct me if you think I’m wrong, she’s more of an expert than I am. But in contrast to the medieval period, these three pursuits of, of happiness and virtue, and knowledge, understanding of reality, in the modern world these are seen as quite independent, having nothing to do with each other. I think that’s my impression, completely, just disintegrated. And that is, I’ve, I’ve been, I’ve had the good fortune and that’s all it is, I’ve had the tremendously good fortune to be able to study and teach in superb Institutions of Higher, Higher Learning, Amherst College, just a jewel of a college, could never have gotten in if they had not given me a full scholarship. And so there I had the opportunity to just meet extremely bright professors and students. And so, and in various fields, I studied philosophy, I studied science, I studied religious studies, history of science, and so on. And then I had the good fortune, again, to have a full scholarship at Stanford, and so once again, met a lot of bright people. What I found, and there was an article just recently, I think, in the New York Times, why intelligent people aren’t more happy. There seems to be no correlation. It’s not a criticism of anyone, it just seems to be there’s no correlation between being exceptionally bright and knowledgeable and being happy. I haven’t seen any at all, generally speaking, that is in Western academia, Western civilization, modern civilization. No connection, I know a lot of happy people. Haven’t we all? Not a lot of happy people. But many of them have no interest in virtue, they’re just having a really good time, you know.

[03:25] And no interest in the pursuit of knowledge because they’re having a really good time. And then, you know, growing up in a Christian family and knowing missionaries, missionaries are all of my family tree, like fruit just dropping to the ground, a lot of people devoted to virtue. I say that with respect, whether as missionaries, whether it’s social workers, as school teachers, as nurses, doctors and so forth, haven’t found them to be exceptionally happy. Lots of burnout, lots and lots of burnout, sometimes happy, but generally, not so much. In the medieval period, the pursuit of happiness was really, they understood the wisdom tradition, people like St. Thomas Aquinas, they understood, what’s happiness is really about eudaimonia. Eudaimonia, genuine happiness. Well, if we go right back to Aristotle, you cannot conceive of or pursue eudaimonia, which is genuine happiness, without virtue. That’s not possible. And the highest virtue is knowing reality. And so the pursuit of knowledge, pursuit of virtue, pursuit of happiness, were completely integrated. And that was true from the time of Aristotle and right through the medieval scholastic era. Would you say that’s a safe generalization? Okay, I’m glad. I’m glad, yeah. If Renata gives me a thumbs up here. And then along came modernity, Martin Luther, Galileo, Columbus, and so on. And they did something quite wonderful. They shattered the relative stagnancy, the complacency, the sense that we’re through, which was rather common among academics in the early 17th century, late 16th century, that we have the Bible, and that’s God’s own word, doesn’t get any better than that. And we have Aristotle, the philosopher, THE philosopher, and then, you know, other philosopher, the philosopher, and then Thomas Aquinas integrated these two, and it’s just a masterpiece of staggering brilliance. Because, of course, because Aristotle wasn’t a Christian. And so to integrate his view with Christian theology was quite a masterpiece. It took great ingenuity. But then I think the complete and whole, and then if it’s complete and whole, it doesn’t have to move, and people like Galileo, and Luther and others, shattered that complacency. And they shattered the integration. And so natural philosophy struck out on its own, it became science, and religion rather than being including the quest for knowledge, which is very much part of the early Christian tradition, right, became a matter of faith, belief, and obedience and virtue to be sure. And the pursuit of happiness became more and more hedonic.

[06:27] So now we’re living in a desegregated world, we fell apart. And then we’ve shared our disintegration with the rest of the world. So here we are. So we all know that it’s difficult in this world to maintain emotional equilibrium, emotional balance, so for everybody. And for those of you who know, my work, even, even peripherally, you’ll know that I’m kind of championing a model of mental health and well being based on the four types of balance: attentional, conative, conative, attentional, cognitive, and then finally emotional. And so I just like to briefly address this before we return to the third of the four immeasurables. And that is emotional balance. There’s excellent work done in this field by affective psychologists, such as Paul Ekman, of course, and others. A lot of wisdom to be found in philosophy, a lot, a lot of wisdom to be found in multiple religious traditions around the world, around the world. So nobody has any monopoly on this. When I present it, in a kind of this, kind of my standard model of too much, too little and dysfunctional, having an emotional hyperactivity disorder is being just overly, overly, emotionally sensitive, overly reactive, overly hyper emotional. So it’s always flying off the handle, extremely sensitive, lacking stability, not grounded, emotionally deficit is just being dead within, out of touch with one’s emotions, and then there are dysfunctional emotions, which are just entirely inappropriate and harmful to the situation. So when it … but addressing the issue is an enormously important issue that many people are interested in that now that we have a term emotional intelligence, and corresponding to this emotional balance, then in terms of practices for that, there’s some again, very good ideas, theories and interventions for modern psychology, which are, I think, many of them are being incorporated in the cultivating emotional balance program that Paul Ekman and I devised, and what I contribute from the Buddhist side, of course, are the four immeasurables and that may seem a little bit about out of place I would certainly bear criticism for doing that. Emotional balance, emotional balance. Well, the first type of the four is that imbalances is cognitive, right? But I put the four immeasurables over there on the category of emotional and soul if we had a really good debater say, hey, Wallace, [Slaps hands in the Tibetan debating style], what’s up with that? You said loving kindness is aspirational. It’s not an emotion. [Slaps hands again in the Tibetan debate style]. And you said compassion is not an emotion, it’s an aspiration, should be cognitive [Slaps hands again]. I’ve just beat myself up.

[09:17] Well, at least empathetic joy is an emotion. Equanimity, not so sure. But empathetic joy is definitely emotions, not an aspiration. Simply taking delight in. Ala Buddhaghosa. When you come over into the Tibetan tradition, even the third immeasurable winds up being an aspiration, right? [In Tibetan ??] Just that. May all sentient beings never be parted from happiness devoid of suffering. So they may get aspirations all the way through. The fourth one is also an aspiration. So then [makes sound and slaps hands again] Again clobbered in every single one. I hate when that happens. But what I want to get to, before we go to the meditation, which will be very simple, is that so while all four immeasurables can be construed as conative, sure, and at least, at least two out of, two out of four, I’ll come back to an a metaphor given a lot, because they think it’s simple, and it’s straightforward. And that is a cup of water, in this case, tea, and drop, drop a candy or stone in it. [sound of stone dropped in a cup of water] I won’t but you know what would happen, drop, drop a stone in a cup of water. And if you were a little, little gnat on the surface, you know, trying to escape from the water, and somebody dropped a stone in that cup, that would be the end of the world as you know it. Really, seriously, you probably that would probably be it, you probably, you know, this massive tsunami, you know, a quarter of an inch high it would come in and you’d be, you’d be dead. And if the other, other little gnats, maybe it’s a community of gnats, kind of swimming on the surface. You know, mass murder, one stone. So it’s a big deal. For the equilibrium within the cup that one stone is a big deal, it really totally upsets the balance. Take, take the same liquid, put it into a swimming pool. Drop the same stone, hardly makes a ripple. Take the same liquid, put it into a pond or a lake or an ocean and drop the same pebble and even the ripples are hardly even noticeable. But it’s the same liquid and the same stone.

[11:42] Okay, the metaphor is very straightforward. We are deeply habituated, I am and I think other people are, habituated to really having thoughts and emotions and desires and memories and anticipations and all of that mental activity really like, like bees swirling around a hive, swirling around, swirling around. I-me-mine, I-me-mine, I-me-mine, you know. Just as you are observing the thoughts that are arising throughout the course of the day, just see how often I-me-mine comes up, you know. As opposed to one other person matters, that person or all sentient beings and so on. I mean I-me-mine tends to figure pretty, pretty prominently. And the I-me-mine is one cup. And in that little world for what we attend to is reality, if what I’m attending to, and that which is a very much what I’m thinking about and focusing on and hoping and fearing about. If that’s all really fundamentally about me and mine, me and mine, me and my family, me and my possessions, me and my students, me and my projects and so forth. I-me- mine. And then adversity strikes. In other words life happens. Then big deal. Then I’m blown away, I can’t have … I can’t meditate, I can’t meditate today. I’ve just got this email. It’s just such a bummer. Such a bummer. Somebody criticized me. [Laughter]. He said such and he quoted somebody else and said this, this undermines Wallace’s work. Ohh, my whole work is undermined because somebody said something. Bummer. They should never do that. They shouldn’t be allowed to do that. Nobody should be allowed to do that because I’m right. This really pisses me off. I’m gonna have to write a letter of retaliation. I’m going to meet the person and call him down. Okay, corral. [Laughter]. I have to win. I have to win. [Nalgil in Tibetan??]. Pride means I win, yeah. I win. [Repeats Tibetan word].

[13:44] So it’s a big deal when adversity, like criticism, or any kind of adversity comes and falls in a little tiny cup of I-me-mine, how can we … but then that means emotional balance will never happen. You’ll never have it. Doesn’t matter how long you live, doesn’t matter where you go. Adversity will still come, whether from outside or inside, your health, and so forth and so on. So the fourth, the fourth type of balance will never happen. Just because reality was not designed to be user friendly. Just what happens in the world, just kind of starting with aging sickness and death that doesn’t turn out too well. But all the things along, along the course, they’re just peppered with adversity. And so emotional balance, emotional equilibrium will just never happen. So then what can be done and that is, get a bigger cup. In the trading of your cup for a swimming pool, if you get a swimming pool, trade in for a lake. Get a lake, trade it in for an ocean. And how can we do that? Very practically. By attending to those around us. In their sorrows, their disappointments, their fears, their pains, their struggles, their adversities, and attending closely. That’s all it is. Attending closely, with your heart and your mind, with your eyes and your … and your wisdom, attend closely. And what happens is just you know, like, it’s inevitable, if you really attend closely to somebody else’s suffering, you’ll feel it. And you can’t help but care. In which case your cup just grew bigger, you know. And so this is where empathy comes in. And where compassion starts to break down barriers, not just for me and my, my family, my group, and so forth and so on. The barriers start to break down as we attend to the media. And we see the latest catastrophe, the latest bombing, the latest earthquake, the latest political catastrophe, and so forth. Economic hardship, so many, and attending and lingering, let it be real, let it be real. Every time you do that, the heart gets larger, the space of the mind gets larger, right?. But of course that can be overwhelming. We all know that. And then that feeling of helplessness, and so forth. And so to balance that, and go out of one’s way, since we’re, how do you say, we’re being forced fed the news of adversity of the world, we’re getting that if you read any of the media, you’re going to get that every single day. So then we have to be more attentive, more put up … turn on the search machine, to attend to the joys of others, the joys of others, and these are to be attended to. And by attending to them, they become real, it’s very simple. If you tend to something that doesn’t exist, and attend to it in a sustained fashion, it will appear real to you. Right? That’s just the way it is. And so, all the more if you attend to something that is real, well, that will let that become, appear to you be taken in as real. So attending to the joys of others.

[16:59] And every time you do that, if you tend closely, attending to a little child on that one little, what do you call it? child thing in the park? Have you seen it? It’s kind of like a little slide. Have you seen it? I don’t know, on the left side, when you walk in after the village, look down with that little kind of quasi- cutey pretty little soccer field is, you know, for kids, just this side of it is, I don’t even call it but it’s a kid-like park thing. They get to play playground except for, it’s just one thing. And I saw one boy, with his mother sitting on the bench, and he’s going up and he’s playing by himself sliding down. He’s having a good time. And it’s peaceful, and his mother’s relaxed. That’s a really simple park there. It’s one boy, one mom, a little boy having a good time. That’s what I saw yesterday, you know. Attend to it and it will become real. The boy was safe. Didn’t have to worry about land mines or kidnappers (cell phone sound, inaudible]. Or cell phones. [Laughter]. Attending to, letting no innocent pleasure slip by unnoticed and unappreciated. The only time we don’t take delight in is malicious pleasure. Something is unhealthy. Unwholesome. But everything else is grist for the mill. So to be attending to it, people enjoying a meal, people enjoying a walk, people enjoying pleasant conversation. Children enjoying riding a bicycle, along the street, and the mother watching them carefully. Man enjoying walking his dog, a woman enjoying tending to her garden. So many little things. Then your heart gets bigger, goes from a cup, to a swimming pool or to a lake or an ocean, as we attend to. And not only attending to the joy, but also wherever those that are … there’s anyone who’s cultivating the causes of joy, causes of happiness. And in short, we can call that virtue, that’s good enough. Virtue is a cause of joy. Let’s be delighted in whatever their worldview as a political affiliation, nationality, and so forth and so on. If they’re applying themselves to virtue, then time to attend, time to take delight. Time to rejoice that we’re not alone in trying to bring something good to the world. Just a very brief allusion to later on when we come to Mahamudita. Maha, maha, all of the great loving kindness and so forth. We know that, as I said before, and we will return to those next week. But from the perspective of rigpa I think that’s the only … as I said before, I think that’s the only perspective from which this type of resolve actually makes sense, right? Because it does say I alone, it does say that, I, big emphasis on that first person singular, I take upon myself responsibility of releasing, you know, bringing all sentient beings to happiness. Okay, but clearly, unless you want to just go into crazy land, that is valid only for one perspective, Buddha nature, where you don’t need to have a team of Buddhas getting together. Because there’s one for one, one for all and all for one. What one Buddha does, all the other Buddhas do, what all the Buddhas do, one Buddha does. And yet, nevertheless, you won’t be insignificant .

[20:46] So from that perspective, from that transcendent perspective, which is non local, and even outside the context of time, then from that perspective, that one alone, perspective of dharmakaya, then to make that resolve, I shall bring all sentient beings to happiness and its causes, release all sentient beings from suffering, because it makes good sense. But as long as we’re operating where we normally operate, you know, that is most of us anyway, from the perspective of sentient beings with limited lifespans, very, very limited abilities, very local, very brief lives, and, and, and having defects, mental afflictions, and so forth, limited in our capacity to be of service. As long as we’re viewing other sentient beings and the needs of the world, from the perspective of being a sentient being, then there’s clearly really only one hope. And that is, can we transform this world so that economies are sustainable, the environment is sustainable, that we’re nurturing other species rather than wiping them out, that we’re caring for the atmosphere rather than polluting it to death. And overall, caring for the natural habitat, caring for other species, caring for each other, and giving our most brilliant minds the task of seeing how can we live in harmony, in the midst of all the diversity of worldviews, ethnicities, and so forth, and so on. There’s so much intelligence here. There should be a way Israelis and Palestinians, for blacks and whites, for Chinese and Tibetans, and the list goes on and on and on. There should be a way really. This isn’t inconceivable. And so putting our minds to this. So from the perspective of sentient beings, I think there’s really only one hope. And it’s collaboration. It’s collaboration, finding people with shared vision, shared hearts, shared motivation. And then working together and networking, networking, working together, sharing vision, encouraging each other kind of Sangha, a Sangha, of restoring the balance of the planet, serving humanity and all the sentient beings on the planet. And it’s really embracing the notion of Sangha beyond all ideological barriers, you know, and divisions, cutting down, breaking down barriers. And then with that vision, then I think there’s really hope. There’s so much intelligence, the problems are enormous, but by and large, we created them. That’s, that’s the good side of global warming. That it’ss not just inexorable forces of nature that are going to, you know, torch us. Actually we created it but if we created then we should be … be able to stop doing it. If it is a force of nature, like a solar flare that’s going to torch us, or the sun’s going supernova, don’t worry about it, or big asteroid coming, if you’re worried about it, it doesn’t help. There’s nothing we can do.

[23:40] But you know, insofar as the catastrophe, a catastrophe is taking place in the environment that is brought about by humans, in a way that’s the best news possible. Because that means we create it, we can undo it. You know, in principle, we just need to be intelligent enough and have the motivation. So there it is. So empathetic joy, you know, have a … have a heart like an ocean, that’s it. Have a heart like an ocean, and that emotional balance will come for free. Okay, let’s meditate.

[24:09] [Bell rings].

[24:32] It’s not enough to be fortunate. It’s important to know that you are fortunate. So as a meditation it’s not enough to meditate correctly, you need to know you’re meditating correctly. So with the awareness of our enormous good fortune, in this broader context of the human population, the sentient population on this planet, our enormous good fortune, to have this leisure and this opportunity to simultaneously in a thoroughly integrated way devote ourselves to a path that is a path of knowing a path of virtue and a path of genuine happiness. All of a piece, all utterly integrated. How tremendously fortunate to have this opportunity and this leisure to devote ourselves and to take full advantage of this opportunity. With that comes responsibility. Taking the responsibility and let’s arouse bodhichitta. To repay the kindness of all sentient beings. By achieving perfect awakening with the greatest benefit of all, and with this motivation, settle your body speech and mind in their natural states.

[Silence]

[26:54] Let’s return to the main practice. Let’s draw from the wisdom of Buddhaghosa who himself draws from the wisdom of generations upon generations of Buddhist contemplatives before him, tracing back to the Buddha himself. When he says when you practice this mudita, first of all, bring to mind someone you know, who by disposition, by character, very frequently simply embodies a sense of good share of well being, of happiness. There are such people. By nature, cheerful, upbeat. [Pause]. Bring to mind such individuals or groups of individuals. [Pause]. Attend to them, let them become real for you. [Pause]. With each outbreath, with a visualization that you’ve done before, if you like, breathe out your, your joy, your empathetic joy, taking delight, quiet satisfaction, appreciation for others’ joys. You may bring to mind other successes, worldly successes. I think healthy and happy families doing well in their work, enjoying their work, enjoying their lives, enjoying their possessions. Take delight in others’ good fortune. [Pause]. And breathe out the light of gladness. Glad when people find what they seek. Find the happiness they seek. Find peace, find safety, find refuge. Those refugees from Syria, for example, who find safe havens, are welcomed with open arms, with open hearts. And finally such relief, safety at last, and a way to simply make a living. Rejoice in their good fortune. [Pause]. Everyday the media highlight the suffering of suffering throughout the world. Of all kinds of which we’re very well aware. We should be equally aware how many people respond, individuals, organizations, sometimes corporations, sometimes churches, sometimes governments, and so on. Recognizing the plight of others, the needs of others who are not capable of helping themselves.

[32:05] And so many people of all different types of ideologies, belief systems, ways of life, wealthy and poor, have only modest income and so many people helping, being stirred, caring and expressing their caring with a wish to help. We can’t even count the number of people doing this every day. In the east and the west and poor and rich countries. So much goodwill. {Pause]. Attend to it. Take delight in it. [Pause]. In all those and there are so many millions of them. Who’re doing what they can to help others find hedonic well being. Food, shelter, clothing, education, health care. Take delight in all of those who are dedicating themselves in part or in full.

[34:03] To help others have their basic needs met. To find a hedonic well being. Rejoice, take delight. [Pause]. Breathe out the light of your happiness. Let it show. Express it when you see it. Call attention to it. Not your happiness but the good that has been brought to the world.

[Silence]

[35:24] Then there are those who are devoting their lives to helping other people cultivate virtue, cultivate the causes of happiness. The underlying causes, the causes of eudaimonia of genuine happiness, sustainable happiness, that is not competitive, that is inexhaustible in its source. There are many, we find them in the scientific communities and academic communities, all the religions of the world and other wisdom traditions. People, institutions, organizations encourage people, helping people, guiding people. Cultivate, to cultivate virtue, ethics, cultivating the mind. Take delight in all those who are doing it.

[Silence]

[38:28] And then there are those who are guiding others not only in virtue, not only in the practice of dharma, be it a Buddhist, Christian and so on, but actually guiding others on a path. There are many and not confined to Buddhism, but a true path that leads in the direction of liberation to freedom and not simply the perpetuation of mundane well being. Take delight in all those who are teaching those who are practicing those who are devoting their lives to freedom, to the fully integrated pursuit of knowing, of virtue and of genuine happiness. Wake into freedom, to awakening. [Pause]. Maybe the path to freedom begins with a simple step of practicing mindfulness. [Pause] Maybe just learning how to relax. We ought to start somewhere. So take delight in all those who’ve taken even the first step or many steps thereafter on the path to freedom. [Pause]. And we come full circle, and invite everyone to reflect once again upon themselves, their own situation, each of us unique, in a unique situation in the center of our own mandala. Time to take stock, time to evaluate. What are your opportunities? Is there a path before you or is there confusion or no interest? Is the path clear? Is it accessible? Are the opportunities there? Is the leisure there? Is it something that is more important? And if so, what? What is that? They said so classically that a fully endowed human life with all leisure and opportunity is more rare than a wish fulfilling jewel. More precious than a wish fulfilling jewel. So if you’re just alive, what will you do with it? Does this come with any responsibility? If we don’t take full advantage of it, what do we think is the likelihood of acquiring such an opportunity in the future?

[Silence].

[44:32] So once again fully appreciate the opportunity that lies before you. And as the Dalai Lama told me many years ago when I first met him, the greater the opportunity given, the greater is your responsibility to repay the kindness of sentient beings. [Pause]. Let’s shift as we come to the final minutes of the session with delight and our own opportunities, our leisure, imagine how would you love to repay the kindness of the world? All those who have enabled you to have your present leisure and opportunity, how can you best repay their kindness? What would you love to offer to the world and breathe out with every exhalation, breathe out the light of repaying the kindness of others. Joyfully, loving. [Pause]. And simply let your awareness rest in its own nature, knowing itself.

[48:04] [Bell rings].

[48:27] So in the teaching I’m doing in the afternoon, sometimes they’re very gnarly, gnarly. That is, for example, trying to distinguish between the object of reputation of this Sautrantikaa Madhyamikas and the Prasangika Madhyamika. Not so easy, Anna, can help you out. I’m too stupid, Ben can help you with it. I studied it 30 years ago, and now I’ve forgotten. [Laughs]. That’s difficult. This is not difficult. Not difficult. So your marching orders as you’re setting out on the highway, up to the great city of Pomaia, keep your eyes open. Keep your eyes open. You know it’s, by the way everybody listening by podcast, it’s one more gorgeous day in Tuscany in the spring, and it’s peaceful here. So keep your eyes open. Anybody enjoying anything, be happy. Share their happiness. Let your heartbeat be like at least like a swimming pool. Enjoy your day.

Transcribed by Shirley Soh

Revised by Rafael Carlos Giusti

Final edition by James French

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

Discussion

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