Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo - "The Supreme State of Mahamudra" p2/4

[Music] so in the paragraph which we started this morning I will read it again and then carry on with the the comments on it since beginningless time you have had you know if you don't believe in rebirth don't worry I mean of course it's taken for granted that we are reborn again and again since beginningless time if you don't believe that and you believe there is only this lifetime that's fine just act as if you did believe it because then if it's true you will be glad that you were very careful in this lifetime and very ethical and kind because you will carry that on and if at the end of this life Klink that's the end at least we led a meaningful life before we go so it's a win-win situation okay so don't worry just be good so since beginningless time you have had a continuous series of rebirths in this song szerik state all beings not only a limited number of them have alternatively been your parents that we dealt with this morning realize they have been kind to you as your present parents are now as your present parents but I'm now going the wrong way confused and deluded wanting happiness but engaging in activities that bring about the opposite it's so sad you know our modern society exalts those very emotional poisons which the Buddha said was the root of our suffering like our our greed for more and more acquisitions and fame and status and our aggression and anger and pride and so forth all of these emotions which caused so much inner suffering sold to us as if they were the route to happiness no wonder people are in despair no wonder they get more and more and and inwardly for more and more empty so this is the cause of compassion that we are so deluded that we are creating so much suffering for ourselves and for others in the pursuit of happiness contemplate this with intense loving-kindness and wish them happiness may all beings be well and happy with strong compassion wish them freedom from suffering may all beings be free from suffering may all beings be well and happy peaceful at their peace at their ease and may they be free from suffering with strong compassion wish them freedom from suffering persistently generate the great undertaking of bodhichitta the enlightened attitude that includes the fort I shall single-handedly establish them at the level of Buddhahood as much as possible try to eliminate self-cherishing and detrimental clinging to self-centered considerations through the highest intention of benefiting others become accustomed to giving away what makes you happy and taking others suffering upon yourself if you cannot actually do it just imagine it once you are familiar with this learn to turn whatever you do into something beneficial for others now many of you who are very familiar with the Buddhist path will recognize that that is discussing the practice of tomlin tumblin who doesn't know tomlin okay so very good the majority do well done so basically Tomlin is a practice which was promulgated in Tibet in the 11th century by a great Bengali master could dipankar are atisha and it is the essential point is a meditation for example make it practical we are visiting someone who is very ill they're lying there they're very sick and we feel very helpless so this tonglen practice is that with the in going breath we visualize that we are taking in all their suffering and the causes of their suffering not just physical but also from a Buddhist point of view comic and like sort of like a vacuum cleaner right we are sucking up all that darkness in the form of dark light it comes in through the nostrils goes down into the heart now at the heart there is we could visualize a little black pearl that little black pearl in the center of our chest in the heart chakra represents our ego mind the mind which says I'm really sorry that you're suffering but I'm glad it's not me right that that essential self-preservation mind so this dark energy of their suffering which we are inviting into ourselves strikes at this little pearl in the center of our chest our ego self-cherishing and because it is the opposite of what the ego would wish therefore the ego immediately transforms it is destroyed because if we can have that much compassion there is no ego so immediately as the dark light goes into this little pearl it transforms into like say a diamond or a white pearl which is the very nature of our mind the true nature of our mind which is never polluted never suffering it's beyond all of that in this text we will deal with it later what is the nature of the mind but the nature of the mind is completely pure and no matter how much we invoke darkness it can never be solid it never never ever can be stained so when we absorb the dark light into that pearl of self-cherishing mind immediately transforms into our true Buddha nature which we all share not my Buddha nature versus your Buddha nature everybody has the same it's therefore compared to space but we'll deal with that later in the text in the meantime this this dark pearl of self-cherishing my transforms into our true nature which is total compassion and wisdom and so with the outgoing breath we send out this this clear white light or golden light if you prefer and then that goes into the person who is sick and you imagine that all every cell of their being or their all their mind everything is completely saturated in this golden light of well-being and happiness and wholesomeness and so with the in-breath the darkness with the out-breath the light so Tong means to send Lin means to accept and one can do this in many situations we don't have to even have the people in front of us we can just think of them or if we have a photo or we could also or if people are themselves sick then they can use themselves in the sense that you know for example if I say some form of cancer then I can imagine that ever all the beings in the world who have this form of cancer may all that come to me and may my essential well-being go to them so we will again be like their substitute I would be so happy if I could suffer on behalf of all these other beings wouldn't that be wonderful so in this way it's a way of reversing our natural self defensive state of mind to opening the heart to tremendous compassion for all beings and wishing them that from our endless whirlpool of well-being that we may help them and many people who have practiced this like doctors and nurses come in and say well what's happened you know the whole atmosphere has changed it's a very powerful practice for helping us to overcome our egoistic clinging and for benefiting the object of our and we can use not just one person but as we become more practice and we can think of many many people it you know it we can use this in many many ways but the idea is to bring in the dark energy and transform it into light energy so the highest intention as much as possible to try to eliminate self-cherishing and detrimental clinging to a self-centered consideration so this is what it does we are being counterintuitive as far as we want to preserve our own well-being here we are inviting the you know the sufferings of others gladly accepting them if they themselves could be free so the buddha always compared this kind of love and compassion again as i say to a mother because a mother if the child is sick would gladly give up her own well-being if that child could recover its health just naturally she wouldn't have to try it would be a natural response to want to give her well-being for the sake of her child so the Buddha always say just as a mother loves her child her only child there we must cherish all sentient beings so through the highest intention of benefiting others become accustomed to giving away what makes you happy and taking others suffering upon yourself so this is this tonglen practice if you cannot actually do it then you imagine it which is what we are doing with this visualization once you are familiar with this learn to turn whatever you do into something beneficial for others so throughout the day we should keep that mind which is generating loving kindness and compassion for others and deep empathy for the suffering of others wishing if you find someone who is suffering just automatically imagine taking that suffering from them and in return giving them our well-being it's you know sort of an automatic response to the suffering we see so much suffering around us we read about so much suffering so this is a very powerful meditation in this kind of country where every day you are reading accounts of suffering of sentient beings not at this group of that group beings who are suffering may they be well may they be happy may they be free from suffering also now you're going to go in your envy tree you may have to deal with concrete dangerous enemies or with obstacles hallucinations and so on created by spirits intend on disturbing you or causing trouble no matter what happens instead of creating much wrongdoing by getting angry put on the superior armor of patience always expand your mind with love and compassion and try your best to be of help the more you cling to thoughts of demons or enemies the more numerous and intense the undesirable situations and harm caused by malevolent beings there will be knowing them all to be only manifestations of your minds deluded conceptions leave no more room for doubt about it and thus tame your mind over and over again well of course Tibetans have a great belief in good and evil spirits and so I will not push that one because I'm told a lot of people here do not believe in good and evil spirits but nonetheless sometimes when we are in retreat obstacles arise they may be in obstacles for outer obstacles and so part of the success of retreat it depends on how we deal with obstacles various problems I can't even remember what now but anyway I went to a lama and was going on and on about all my obstacles and he said if you call them obstacles they're obstacles if you call them opportunities they're opportunities so he wasn't some kind of New Age guru he was very very traditional guy but it's true everything which happens to us we can take onto the path and so therefore sometimes when things seem the most difficult and the most negative that is exactly the time when we will learn the most so here he's dealing with people who create problems for us sometimes in retreat we might have fellow retreatants who we have a problem with maybe they have psychological problems or we don't like the way they smell or something I mean people are always complaining about you know other people not themselves of course the others somebody I remember I haven't told this story I don't know doesn't matter ok centuries of Lycia was a modern french saint who entered among a Carmelite nun or a when she was 15 years old she died when she was 21 and she is the patron saint of France don't ask why but she kept a diary and one of the things she said was you know you have to imagine I mean there are like 36 women in this nunnery they never went out they never met other people just 36 they didn't choose all their best friends to go into the company right they went into the convent then they discovered who they were going to spend the rest of their life with imagine it I mean already you're too many if we close the doors and said you're never going to see anybody else again right you have to have just the first two rows so there was one nun there I mean that the the the chapel where they prayed was all stone so it made an echo was and the nun sitting in front of her who was going to be sitting in front of her for the rest of her life because it wasn't just a weekend retreat course made strange kind of clicking noises and they weren't regular and so you never know when she was gonna make this strange click which was resounded in the silence and there was Turia supposed to be involved in internal prayer and she was bathed in cold sweat waiting for the next click and so she realized that this woman this nun was not going to change and so since she was not going to change and this situation was not going to change the only person to change would be Taurus so she started instead of tensing up every time they said she began to cultivate love for this woman she would embroider special little bookmarks and other things to offer to her she would offer her when they met instead of going round another corridor to avoid her she would deliberately meet her and give her really her best smile from our heart not just pretending really trying to be as loving as possible until this nun said to Torres well I don't know why you love me so much and to race for if only you knew but what happened was that actually it worked suddenly she didn't feel that this clicking I mean the clicking didn't stop but it no longer bothered her right now she had become very fond to this woman and previously she hadn't liked the way she looked the way she walked away smell anything about her now suddenly she she felt this woods and and tenderness towards this woman so outwardly nothing had changed but inwardly everything had changed so she was practicing patience and so this is the point when we are in situations which are difficult for us instead of getting all upset and angry or full of self-pity and you know if we get angry then it just increases the the the problem it doesn't solve the problem not only is there an external problem but now there there's an internal problem too we have doubled the problem so how if we cannot solve the outer problem we can solve the inner problem which is our attitude our attitude what happens to us and especially to negative things which happen to us people who are difficult people who don't do what we want them to do how to deal with that skillfully and take that very obstacle onto the paths we can do it but it's it takes courage and strength it's not a weakness patience tolerance forbearance is not a weakness it's a strength getting angry and upset and wanting to hit back that's weak that's not strong anybody can do that little babies do that dogs do that anybody does that nothing special about that but what is special is learning how to use that difficult situation to develop loving kindness patience compassion that is extraordinary and therefore it is called the armor of patience because it protects us inwardly from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune if you have patience it doesn't mean of course that if we are in an abusive situation we just have to allow it to go on we can also be you know strong and and deal with something which is is not right but we deal with it from the point of view of compassion not from the point of view of anger it can look like anger on the outside but the inner motivation is not anger not wishing to hurt but wishing to transform the situation skillfully and sometimes we have to look tough to do that Chenrezig here is the Bodhisattva of compassion and he is shown there for white sitting on a lotus smiling sweetly everybody's idea of compassion but the other side of Chenrezig is Mahakala the great black one who is the chief of all the protectors and is shown in a various aspect that is also compassion sometimes compassion has to be ruffle but there's no anger there it's been transmuted into wisdom compassion I mean like a mother with a child I mean ever sometimes the mother has to be tough with the child and scold it but it's not because she hates the child it's because she knows the child needs to be disciplined or maybe it will harm itself so this is the point that we can take everything which happens to us everything which we experience and transform it inside to help us on the path patience tolerance forbearance is one of the transcendent qualities needed for Buddhahood it's not just meditation we have many qualities which we need to cultivate from the heart and one of them is patience and we cannot learn how to be patient if nobody upsets us right if we are all surrounded by lovely people who do exactly what we want them to do it's all very nice but what have we learned it's easy to be nice to people who are nice but but when people are not nice when people are difficult when people are rude or aggressive not retaliating with being rude and aggressive ourselves but appreciating that they are helping us they are putting a mirror to our own mind and that this is a wonderful opportunity to be patient this this is something which is really very important I mean we have a lot of text to get through so I don't have much time for stories but one that was in India we always regard as our object of patience the fr o that means the foreign registration office of the police where we have to go for renewing our visas and so forth and so one time I was lining up the effort did police there's some some of them are okay something not so okay um but you know whenever I go in I think okay this is a load young time this is the time for mind training right and so in front of me was standing a Western monk and he obviously must have been applying for his visa because you know three pages of forms to fill in and saw the officer who was dealing with him said this line is wrong you did this wrong so he said oh sorry I'll correct it no and he took the the thing and he he tore it in half and threw it back to the monk and said you can fill it all out again so the monk said oh yes thank you could you give me some new forms and some he had didn't inform I said thank you very much and then he turned round and saw me and then he grinned and he winked yeah that's it he was happy the the officer was happy and everybody was happy if he had been angry and upset and dadada then it would just escalated because he settled it right there you know that's the point I mean even in these very simple situations you know either we practice or we don't either we take adverse circumstances onto the path or we don't so this is why he's saying that once you are familiar with this learn to turn whatever you do into something beneficial for others so all the time during the day as much as possible we should try to be mindful and we should try to have a kind heart to whoever we made to each one as the Buddha said to each one their own self is most dear in other words we love ourselves most even if we don't like ourselves we still protect ourselves and so recognizing that we recognize that in everybody nobody wants to be hurt everybody would rather be happy so even just by being polite even by being smiling and saying hello even that might actually change somebody's day we don't know especially if everybody around them is grumpy then somebody who smiles and says hello Shalom and maybe that changes everything we have much more influence on people than we think we do and so we should try to have a beneficial influence not make people's days more heavy more difficult even just a smile can change everything so we should remember that and during the day as much as possible every single being that we meet our first thought should be may you be well unhappy you don't even say anything but we can think it so you might have to deal with all sorts of obstacles and problems and if we say it's an obstacle it's an obstacle if we say it's a learning process and it's a learning process it depends on our own attitude not the external circumstances so don't get angry but be patient and understanding expand your mind with love and compassion and try your best to help the more you cling to thoughts of demons or enemies you know demons means anything antagonistic to me the more numerous and intense the undesirable situations and harm caused by difficult beings there will be knowing them all to be only manifest stating afterward even somebody who is an enemy has people who loved them I mean even if they only have a doctor they love somebody loves them and so we might see them as the enemy but other people see them as their dearest beloved who are we it's only our mind which thing's enemy or friend if we see that all sentient beings inherently have the possibility for goodness and they all want happiness then whether division we're all just human beings inhabiting this planet none of us actually are more special or less special than anyone else we all deserve love we all deserve compassion so leave no more room for doubts about this tame your mind over and over again whenever thoughts of pride or arrogance or aggression or wishing somebody rejoicing when you hear something has happened to people that you don't care for something bad has happened you're happy for that that's terrible that is really the pits when we hear that bad things have happened to people that we don't care for we should feel great compassion for them and their suffering and not rejoice in others misfortune ever instead of censoring people or making them unhappy by abusing or blaming them with harmful intention regardless of their high or low status let yourself be flooded with affection and loving kindness on seeing faults in others do not criticize instead look at your own faults and recognize them try your best to discipline this unruly mentality this unruly mind are bad dispositions and habits we need to look inside ourselves to see our normal responses and where they are positive to encourage them where they are not positive then we have to change them we cannot change the word if we cannot even change ourselves I mean we go around talking about all these high sounding principles but if our own mind is filled with negativity and division and discrimination how can we talk it's just talk so each one of us is responsible for our own mind heart no one else can do it for us even the greatest teacher in the world cannot change our hearts only we can do them they can advise what we should do but they cannot do it for us so you have wonderful opportunities here really really you are very privileged because exactly these things are facing you and how to deal with these these problems in your country skillfully to bring benefit as much as possible to everyone without discrimination this is a wonderful opportunity because otherwise people who hear about it see things on television but they're not living it you're living it and at the same time you're highly educated you're you're highly sophisticated in your lifestyle you are able to sync things through and and really evaluate what is truth what is not truth how much we are conditioned by our upbringing you are very fortunate so don't waste this opportunity really look at what you know what is the true situation and don't make excuses which doesn't mean again being hard on ourselves bashing ourselves over the head the Buddha said first we start with loving kindness compassion to ourselves but nonetheless during the day we practice the kind heart as the Dalai Lama said at the end of the day all we're trying to do is cultivate the good heart that has nothing to do with religion that has nothing to do with beliefs that has just to do with our human potential for goodness if we cannot even cultivate a good heart then what and then it's quite simple I mean all these people here you know you have lots of people to practice on some people are nice and friendly some people are not nice some people are even rude and aggressive they're all sentient beings wanting happiness and wishing to avoid suffering so we wish everybody may you be well may you be happy simple really it's not difficult the only problem is we don't do don't blame others we're very good at blaming all the problems on someone else over there it's not their problem it's our problem and this is good news because we cannot change out of circumstances so much we can change our inner attitude and our inner attitude radiates out to change the world change your mind change the world yeah if we don't change our mind the world is not going to change because the world is a projection of the beings who inhabit the world and especially the human beings we have the world we deserve we have created this world so don't blame other people so tame your mind over and over again so don't criticize don't look for the faults in others look at your own faults recognize them and try to discipline this unruly mind and owl are bad dispositions all our habits of thinking and reacting which cause grief for ourselves grief for others change it stop blaming everybody else we can change but it's nicer to think it's other people they should change then everything would be ok it's not like that shanty David gives an example he says that if we are walking on the earth barefoot then the earth is filled with stones and sharp pebbles and and thistles and so what are we going to do are we going to cover carpet the whole earth in leather so that it's nice for me to walk on that's not possible so he says but if we put leather on the soles of our feet in those form of shoes or sandals then we can walk anywhere and this is very true we are always thinking to change outer circumstances but first we have to change our own minds our own heart our own disposition and from that then everything can change even just a group of people who have good heart and good motivation and are in harmony can affect enormous changes there may be certain small and virtuous actions you still cannot perform when you see them being performed by others such as your guru or your Dharma brothers or other practitioners Lee devotees whoever regardless of their position do not become competitive or envious you we rejoice in their deeds and do your best by various means to accumulate a great amount of immaculate wholesome actions so when we see people doing good things when we see people doing bad things we should not censor them we should look at our own mind when we see people doing good things then we should rejoice we should be so happy to see people doing when we hear even of people who are doing beautiful things good things whether small or big whatever any virtuous action that we hear about or see we should rejoice we should think how wonderful that's very important also we not only look at all the faults we look at all the goodness very important to recognize goodness because as you know the media is mostly zeroed in on everything which is wrong and the more wrong it is the more publicity it gets but at the same time there is so much goodness going on which is not publicized which is not front-page news but there's so much of it most people in their hearts are good well everybody in that very hard so good but even in their superficial hearts are still you know would rather do good than to do evil even anywhere because if we do good it makes us feel better so therefore if you see anybody even doing a very small act of you know kindness or even the big things of kindness whatever we should just feel how wonderful and not feel jealous of them or envious of their attainment oh that should have been me that's very mean-spirited when we see goodness we rejoice so then sometimes we are thinking such a lowly person as I cannot help others you become frustrated and disheartened put aside these feelings and take on your yourself the sufferings of all beings no matter what unwanted events you encounter such as sickness misfortune feel joyful that's path karma is exhausted in addition imagine that you take upon yourself all the pain and wrongdoings and obscurations woe beings this when this actually does happen take any adversity on the path to enlightenment by means of such joyous determination in other words whatever happens to us we shouldn't be downhearted we shouldn't get dispirited even if we are very sick or we come across so many obstacles nonetheless we should have that inner strength that thinks I mean in a Buddhist context we think if something bad happens like we get sick many obstacles come that that is clearing up bad past karma and so in that way it's a purification but in any case whatever it is whether you believe that or don't the important thing is that whatever happens to us we should take it as an opportunity to practice being okay about it not getting disheartened or self pitying but you know really thinking how can I use this situation to be of benefit to myself and of benefit to others so if we feel like that if we recognize that the important thing is not what happens to us but how we respond to what happens to us whether we respond skillfully or unskillful eeee then there is no fear a problem is that we are caught up in hopes and fears hoping that everything will go how I wanted to go and fearful that it will not but if we have the courage to recognize that everything which happens to us is a teaching for us is something which we need to learn and to to transform within ourselves then we are not so caught up in you know anxieties and hopes of course we are human beings and of course when something tragic happens we are sad I mean I'm not pretending but nonetheless whether once that happens we we grasp it it and we cling to it like it's our identity to suffer then it's a problem if we when something difficult happens yeah we are we understand we feel sad but then we don't cling to that and we try to make use of it then we can go on but if we growth people tend to grasp but suffering much more than happiness we are very perverse and so this suffering ego the suffering ego is actually a happy ego because the ego is perfectly happy to be miserable if we are miserable Mee Mee Mee Mee Mee isn't it when we are truly happy inside we're not thinking about ourselves so much we are thinking about other beings but when we are very sad when we are very feel very misused by life and and you know depressed it's only me me I don't care about out the people suffering it's me what about my suffering that's when the ego is inflates and inflates and inflates we should be aware of that really really this is why human beings are happy to be miserable because it's all about me am i suffering my family my this my that instead of opening the heart to recognize look I am suffering like this how many beings in the world are like why suffering like this may they be well unhappy I really understand how they feel because I also have experienced this so I will open my heart to embrace all these beings who are suffering as I am suffering then we are making use of our suffering but if we just turn it in on ourselves then we continue suffering and at the end of the day nothing is accomplished we are just angry miserable beings blaming everybody else for our own problems so this is very important this is also part of the tomlin that when suffering comes to us we open the heart instead of closing it thinking that we're something unique and special because I'm suffering surely in the whole world there's so much suffering we can identify with that and also when we are in a situation where we are really encountering so much suffering coming in on us there and even if we have tremendous compassion for that as many people do we also have to learn how to let it go how to evaporate it how not to cling to it like a heavy stone inside us many people in the helping professions burnout because they bring in so much suffering every day and sits there inside them they don't know how to deal with it and this is why in Buddhism it is said the nature of the mind is both compassion and wisdom like the two wings of a bird if we only have compassion and no wisdom then we are overwhelmed by the sufferings of others if we only have wisdom but no compassion then it's cold and distant we need both the wisdom sees well it's difficult to express but it doesn't it allows us to recognize that these these events are not a solid and real as we take them to be so in with his parlance this is called emptiness emptiness just means we give space we give openness so these things come in but they don't stay there they are able to allow them to also expand outwards I mean I think his horns the dalai lama is a very good example of what we mean here because you know every day people come to him from all around the world with their problems you know because they know he's in exile and he's very compassionate so people from all over the world who have problems they come to him and when he uses them you know I mean his heart completely opens and he's you know just crying away and they're crying he's crying everybody's crying I mean he feels it so much in his heart he knows what they are suffering but then five minutes later somehow he cracks some joke and everybody's laughing and it like the whole dark atmosphere has just opened up and lightened up and when they leave they're smiling and they feel like they've put down their burden and he's allowed it to dissolve that's his wisdom spected he doesn't end up heavily burdened with all the sufferings of the world he feels it tremendously as his own suffering but he can let it go that's why he keeps going that's why when people think of his holiness they think of his laughs they don't think of him you know being all upset and crying and so this is why meditation also helps us enormous Lee because it helps us to see our thoughts and our feelings are not as solid and real as we take them to be we experience that we experiencing open spacious emptiness of our thoughts and our feelings then our compassion arises naturally but it doesn't it's not something heavy it's healing this is why it's important to practice and to look at the mind not just be kind but we have to understand deep understanding is also necessary so we can think all such a lowly person as I cannot help others but you we mustn't think like that because all of us have good in nature Buddha nature means that our essential nature is completely perfect it's completely pure we embody love and compassion we are essential nature is empty but at the same time radiantly spacious and clear this is who we really are underneath all this you know thick clouds of all our conceptual thinking and emotions underneath that is the clear sky he's going to talk about this later but because of that we all have the potential to awaken if we had to get it from somewhere else then we might think oh it's impossible I can't do it but it's already there the the example is of a beggar who thinks he's very poor and so everyday goes out to you know just get a few shekels but all the time in his in his lowly Hut underneath there's a huge treasure he's really a millionaire but he isn't looking in the right place he thinks that his means that are going to come from someone else he doesn't recognize all the time that he's extremely wealthy and so that's like us we think that our happiness unhappiness depends on others we don't recognize our own wealth our inner wealth because we're looking in the wrong place so this is what again meditation is about it's about looking in the right place for our inconceivable wealth which we all possess so there's no point in thinking I can't do it I'm too stupid I'm too lowly I never accomplished anything me who can do it anybody can do it if we persevere and our patient and you know keep going so never let your mind wander hahaha you're in retreat here you're in retreat Trent never let your mind wander or be without concern for your practice always rest naturally in the conviction that the essence of this self arising mind has been empty from the very beginning do not grasp at the natural expressions of the mind the experiences of bliss clarity the union of these two but relax at ease avoid acceptance and rejection such as manipulating your meditation by thinking this is a meditation I am doing this this is what it needs so now he's jumped immediately into the sitting meditation of Maha mudra the essential point of the meditation is to leave the mind in its natural state and to be very relaxed it's not the kind of meditation where you tense up and strife and put forth a lot of effort it is about making the mind very open and spacious and aware so he is not giving instructions here or mom woodruf he assumes you will receive those from your own teacher but the point with the mom woodruf is that the mind stays relaxed we're not trying to do anything we're not trying to get anything we are allowing the mind just to be as it is and be aware of what is going on so normally in mam mudha meditations they start with the practice of schemata schemata is usually translated as calm abiding or tranquility meditation it means getting the mind one-pointed focused attention and at the same time this calming the mind as our attention span gets stronger then our discursive monkey mind naturally begins to calm down this is true in all Buddhist course you start by learning how to pay attention not allowing the mind to wander in all directions and at the same time as our attention span or our mindfulness becomes stronger then simultaneously the distracted mind becomes quieter this is as I say basic principle in all Buddhist meditation schools tera vaada my honor of Adriana whatever the first thing we have to do is tame the monkey mind and we tame the monkey mind by learning to develop an awareness of what is happening and the easiest way for most people to develop that attention is through focusing on the breath this is because the we're all breathing normally when we breathe we are not conscious that we are breathing now we are going to give our attention to the breath as it comes in as it goes out this is not funny young it's not a breathing exercise we just breathe normally and just are aware of the breath as it goes in we breathe and we know that's all and so if what happens normally I mean this sounds very easy but any of you who have meditated know that it's all sounds very simple right I breathe and then I know I'm breathing and then breath one breath to breath Rui I wonder why they serve that for lunch it was really quite strange and off we go you know and then after a few minutes whoops press right back to the breath and then a few breaths I know god is so boring okay that's enough we go in the past in the future anywhere except now the point with the breath is that we cannot breathe in the past or in the future we only breed now so it's a very skillful way to bring our mind into the present moment if we are not thinking oh now I'm breathing right which is again a discursive mind making comments but if we give our full attention just to the breath as it goes out and comes in then in that moment we are present and when the mind wanders off we bring it back no recriminations we just bring it back oops mind-wandering bring it back it goes off again bring it back goes off again bring it back some people find it useful to therefore count the breath so we breathe in and then on the out-breath one breathe in on the out-breath two up to five or ten and then start again if in the meantime we break it we have minds wandering off again start back at number one not as a punishment but as a way for us to see as our attention span begins to get stronger Oh before I could only get up as far as three now I've managed five and then eventually you know it begins to get easier the point is to relax we're not in competition we are just trying to breathe and know we're breathing so that is the first stage to be able to settle the mind and then when we are able to give genuine attention and it stays there for a little while maybe a few minutes so that our sense of what we're trying to do is not just calmly at the discursive mind what we're really trying to do is to develop the ability to be aware normally when we think we are carried away by our thoughts we are the thoughts we get swept along by our feelings and emotion and our mental chatter like a river we're just completely submerged and swept along so what we are trying to do now is develop the ability to observe the ability to be conscious of what's going on instead of swept along by what's going on this is very important in Buddhist parlance again it's it usually called mindfulness now mindfulness has become a big catch word but it is this ability to be aware in the present moment what's happening so after we become fairly confident of staying without wandering too much we have a sense of being able to observe the observer becomes stronger our mindfulness becomes stronger then we turn that searchlight away from the breath onto the thoughts themselves and then it's like sitting on the banks of the river watching the river going by we're not blocking the river we're not damming the river the river is not the problem problem is our inability to observe it so and our identification with our thoughts and our feelings that is Who I am we believe our faults and this is a very big problem so here we are learning how to set back and just watch the thoughts flowing by without jumping in and getting carried away by them well you could think of it like a movie screen you know we are watching a movie but we are at the same time not acting in the movie we are just observing it and knowing we are observing it it's just a movie might be an interesting movie or a boring movie I mean the mind can be very interesting the mind can be extraordinarily boring it's usually very repetitive but whatever is going on in the mind the contents are not important the important thing is knowing what is going on just watching them go by and recognizing they're just thoughts they're not me they're not mine the thoughts this is an enormous step forward if we can accomplish that much we have accomplished a lot it's by no means the end but it's a very very good start and everything else basically rests on our ability to know the mind without getting always just plunging back into the stream and getting carried away again so this is why he's saying never let your mind wander so what he's saying is again that people you know they get into meditation and they get a bit bored and then the mind wanders off and it's all fascinating god I hadn't thought of that before mmm and then off we go and then you know half an hour later whoops there goes the Bell and where was our mind so whenever we recognize that the mind is wandering as soon as we recognize that we have to be very strict with ourselves however fascinating our memories or our fantasies or ideas maybe drop it and go back to just observing the mind without judging it altering it in any way being concerned with what is in the contents of the mind during this is during practice strict practice during strict practice we do not judge the mind if we have beautiful thoughts or really stupid ridiculous thoughts angelic thoughts evil demonic thoughts they are just thoughts they are not me they are not mine let them flow and observe and don't be concerned with you know during practice don't be concerned with the level of the thoughts nice thoughts or stupid thoughts or what kind of thoughts it doesn't matter they're just thoughts it's very important during the day we can be more discriminating if we see negative thoughts we recognize them and and try to change them into a positive thinking but during formal practice we don't make any discrimination we just see thoughts as thoughts emotions as emotions not me not mind empty why do we solidify our force our beliefs our ideas make them so hard and intractable and because I think it I believe it it's true obviously if I believe it it must be true he might believe the opposite but that's because he's stupid he should believe what I believe cuz I know so like this you know we can see the world is in a horrible mess because we believe our own thoughts but I thoughts are changing all the time they're just impulses of energy some thoughts are very good thoughts helpful some thoughts are really not helpful a lot of it is due to our own conditioning you know people born in a in a Jewish society grow up Jewish people born in a Buddhist society grow up with this we might have very different ideas but it's because we have been conditioned and some of those ideas are good ones if we examine them and valid and some of them maybe are not so good and create lots of problems I mean for everybody the whole world over so we shouldn't always believe what we think we should recognize that thoughts really are just empty bubbles they might be very colorful very brilliant but if you go pling they're empty they're not real they just afford just an impulse so much problems in this world are created through believing our thinking not examining it properly with wisdom sooo so never let your mind wander that means as soon as we see the mind is wandering off bring it back we have to be a little strict with our mind right now mind behave yourself so therefore sometimes for some people to have a short session it's more helpful a short session and then relaxed and then another session then relax in another session keep them short some people find that it takes some time to settle down and therefore a longer session works better for them so I think it's important for us all to decide what what works best for us and even if we are sitting and not moving we can again the example is of of tightening and then loosening and then tightening and then loosening you know in the mom mudra it comes this idea that sometimes we have to say ok now I'm not going to think any thought except what I'm doing right and for a short time and then just relax and then again tighten up and then relax so sometimes that's very helpful for people also especially if the mind is becoming very wandering a lot and becoming chaotic you know just say now look here in mind you get yourself together we're going to practice properly we're not wasting time so for a short time you know type and then relaxed again type relaxed if that works then that's good I mean there are many approaches we have to find what works best for us but the important thing is to develop the ability to be aware then whatever happens if we know it no problem if we don't know it because we have lost our awareness and we are distracted then we have to bring our awareness back again so never let your mind wander and be without concern for your practice am i doing it right what did it say what did she say now what was I supposed to be doing is this right is this really awareness I'm not awareness am i wandering no no I'm not wandering I'm just chatting to myself but that's not wandering I'm thinking about meditation and so forth let it go okay don't be concerned are we doing it right are we not doing it right just do it just whatever is happening really try to know it not judging it just knowing this is what's happening in the mind at this moment rest naturally in the conviction that the essence of the self arising mind has been empty from the very beginning so the mind our ordinary conceptual thinking mind is endlessly expressing itself but it's empty it's not real it's not solid it's not enduring very important really to understand that this is just just it Rises but it's it's you know I mean again we can think of like a movie if you think of a movie then you know you have all these little separate transparent squares with the light from behind shining through onto a screen but because of those little frames those transparent frames are moving so fast it looks like we have projected reality outside of ourselves so one aim of this kind of meditation is that as our awareness becomes stronger our ability to observe the mind becomes stronger the the frames begin to get slower and slower and slower the mind begins to quieten down and then it can happen that the previous thought before between the previous thought and the next fourth like between two frames there's a gap and if we have pure awareness we see through the gap to the nature of the mind so even in schemata which is the first it can already give us an idea of the empty spacious luminous quality of our pure awareness so this is not just a beginners practice so with naturally in the conviction that the essence of the self arising mind I mind just keep going we don't have to make it come we don't have to you know manufacture thoughts so it's always coming but they are not solid they are empty they are not real they're just pulsations of energy running through the mind so we don't have to grasp at them we don't have to cling to them we can observe them sit back and observe the river going past sit back and watch the movie but we know it's a movie I mean in the movie if the heroine dies in the last act you know where we're you know but we don't go out and commit suicide we know it's just a movie whose it was saying alien was saying that she won llama we know who wonderful llama who is the abbot of a wonderful yogini nunnery in Tibet and he was very you know he had always been in Eastern Tibet he was very naive and he went to Lhasa and somebody took him to the cinema and he'd never been to a cinema before so he was terribly impressed and he was explaining to his friend the next day about this film which he had seen and how wonderful it was and his friend said oh that sounds really good I should go and see it and he said no no you can't he died in the end so we bail like that we believe everything you know and it's just a projection so always rest naturally in the conviction that the essence of the self arising mind has been empty from the very beginning do not grasp but the natural expressions of the mind or the experiences of bliss and clarity or the union of the true you know sometimes when we are sitting and meditating great sense of great joy and bliss arise from inside or suddenly everything becomes very clear and vivid and it's very easy to grasp at these kind of very pleasant experiences and want to repeat them you know if we have suddenly very beautiful experiences great lists arising naturally we would like to think that that is a sign of great progress and next session I want great lists and so that grasping is a big obstacle again if horrific experiences come or if blissful experiences come there just experiences they're just a movie you know you can have vampire movies or romances I mean it's not just a movie we don't have to believe it so it's very important especially when very pleasant experiences of rise in our practice not to grasp with them there was one very famous meditation teacher in America and he used to be a monk under this wonderful terawatt in forest meditation teacher could ajahn Chah and so this monk this American monk he went to argent char was mostly about sweeping and everyday life nothing special and so this monk goes to Burma where he's doing very rigorous meditations and he has all these experiences of bliss and light and extraordinary experiences and he comes back to ajahn Chah and he tells him all these fantastic experiences and visions and all these wonderful things which happened to him in Burma which never happened in Thailand and ajahn Chah saying Oh wonderful wonderful more things to let go of he was so wise I don't cha and that's the point because you know whatever we cling to is clinging and we are trying to go beyond grasping right so he says here therefore that do not grasp at these natural expressions and mind less clarity union of the two but relaxed at ease whatever comes up just relax and observe avoid exception and rejection such as manipulating your meditation by thinking this is meditation I'm doing this this is what I need in other words don't start analyzing the meditation while we're meditating and rejection and acceptance means that we like the good feelings and we are rejecting any negative feelings that come up I mean if we consider it like to change the metaphor if we consider it like an ocean then mostly we are on the surface of the ocean we are with the waves and the undercurrents the waves go up the waves go down and we're swept along with them sometimes we help sometimes we're down and now we are calming the surface waves and so then our consciousness begins to go down through the surface down deeper into the ocean now what are we going to meet in the ocean we might meet friendly dolphins a beautiful golden fish there's a very beautiful fish they're friendly nice or we might meet sharks or jellyfish monsters of the deep we don't know what we're going to meet down there the ocean is very deep so we must not evaluate whatever comes up we observe it accept it whether it is fear or very traumatic memories or a lot of anger some people experience great rage there they are sitting quietly and natural as we begin to release the inner energies in our subconscious so we don't know what's going to come up some people have great bliss some people have great anger our great fear but whatever it is we should observe it and accept it but don't cling I mean this is a whole other level but the important thing is that whatever happens in our mind it cannot hurt us we are safe we shouldn't fear even fear itself so in the meantime don't be self-conscious and my meditating right is this the right way is that not the right way just relax just relax and observe do not be absorbed by a continuous state of delusion in which you are not recognizing the undercurrent of subtle wandering thoughts whatever thoughts of subject and object arise recognize them simply recognize them without grasping relax in that state of awareness other than this forget about the fabricated process of struggling with remedies to eliminate the undesirable which is suppressing something and pursuing something else so here we are just relaxing we are not trying to change anything or alter anything or supplant one kind of thought by something else we are just allowing things to be how they are in an open spacious mind in a spacious open mind like the sky black clouds thunder lightning white fluffy clouds rainbows the sky can accommodate everything it's not discriminating whatever arises arises and then eventually fades again so it's important to when we are watching the mind to also see the subtle underlying subject-object dichotomy in the mind because you know sometimes the surface thoughts begin to calm down but still there are other underlying tensions and feelings there so more and more as our awareness becomes clear we begin to see what is happening here in the ocean of the mind not just the surface waves but also the undercurrents slowly slowly slowly we are trying to understand our mind the levels of the mind normally we just exist on the very very surface and that's what we identify with but once we start looking at our mind we can recognize we cannot be the surface mind because that's changing moment to moment moment our thoughts are racing by so how can we be our thoughts they might be repetitive sometimes we have pretty boring thoughts like reruns of some soap opera but nonetheless because the mind is changing moment to moment moment we cannot identify with something which is so full of change and then who is observing them because that's the next question if we can observe the mind then we are not that consciousness which observes I mean you noticed there is a separation so that is the the next question to start asking us as we're looking for reality we're looking to find the fundamental nature of the mind and so the first thing we come across is our tumultuous gross thinking at the top and then we are cultivating the ability to observe to be aware which is a more subtle level of consciousness but that subtle level of consciousness is still dualistic there is an observer and the observed right there is subject and object this is what he's talking about so whatever thoughts are subject and object arise simply recognize them without grasping relaxed in that state of awareness so what we are doing now we are developing the ability to be mindful so we start with something simple like the breath that helps us to develop this ability to observe then when that is fairly stable and we can really experience that we are really focused on the rise and fall of the breath and it's more or less constant now not too many breaks then we take that ability to observe to be mindful and turn it back on the thoughts themselves so then we recognize that these thoughts are just flowing endlessly chatta chatta chatta chatta chatta they cannot be me and mine because the moment they arise they have disappeared again but there is the observer so there's the subject and the object right so then the next stage is to drop the object and just be aware of being aware right it's like the the traditional example is of an eagle flying you know if you see a big bird like a falcon or an eagle gold and they're flying almost no effort not like little birds pigeons and things but that Eagle is not asleep that ego is totally focused it's said to look between concede objects on the ground between six and ten miles eagle-eyed totally aware of what's going on down there what it's lunch is coming up so like that totally awake unaware but at the same time totally effortless right got it usually at the beginning because if this happens then we think oh look now I've got it then you've not got it so we in the beginning often this this sense of being open and spacious with just aware of being conscious of being conscious usually we're conscious of something now we're conscious of consciousness we just know without knowing any one thing we just there's that quality of knowing so that usually it takes time to to really be able to rest in that for any long periods of time but it's a bridge to an even deeper level of the mind so whatever thoughts of subject and object arise simply recognize them without grasping relax in that state of awareness rather than this forget about the fabricated process of struggling with remedies to eliminate the undesirable which is suppressing something and pursuing something else at this time we just have to be aware there's no worries about good thoughts bad thoughts transforming thinking or you know applying an antidote or any of that there's just this open spacious awareness which we don't have to do anything to because if we do them we've already lost it it's just there okay so that is like a bridge back to the essential nature of the mind the essential nature of the mind which we all possess is compared to space or the sky because it has no center it has no boundaries it's not my nature compared with your nature space is indivisible for example if one said to you well in this in this theater what was there then you will say well there was a platform and a table and there were chairs and there were people and there were lights but really there is space if there was no space none of these other things could exist we only can be here because there is a space to be here and at the same time even these solid objects a space on an ultimate level so where is space not I mean you are here you come to this theater today and you find your seats and then you go out and then you come back in and then someone is sitting in my seat that's my seat you're sitting in there and people really come to fisticuffs over that but we are all breathing in and out the same air I cannot say excuse me this is my air you can't read mire even deadly enemies facing each other up breathing in and interchanging at a very intimate level because we're breathing in taking down into our lungs taking out so this is a good example for the nature of the mind in that it's indivisible and it doesn't it's not owned by anybody at the same time nature of the mind is not just space and the other good thing about space is an example is that you can't grasp it you can't see it smell it touch it taste it and yet it's all around us everywhere right but we can't grasp it but the mind is not just space it is also knowing it is aware space is not aware but the mind is aware the very nature of the mind is this open empty spaciousness and knowing so that knowing that the fundamental level of the mind is non-dual in other words there's no subject and object all the other levels of our consciousness including mindfulness have a subject who is mindful and an object but at the very nature of the mind which is like this open spacious clarity and awareness there is no sense of separation I versus everybody else non I this is why I'm saying there's a very deep level we're all very intimately interconnected with all beings not just human beings animals insects probably also plants and trees all of us we are very intimately connected but we don't see it because of our dualistic thinking so meditation is to introduce - the nature of the mind and having been introduced to the nature of the mind to then cultivate that until we are always in that state of non-dual awareness which in subject terms is called Rico in Mahamudra terms it's called Tamati shepper which means ordinary mind so the nature of the mind in Mamadou is called the ordinary mind but it's not what we think of as ordinary mind it's Ordinary because it doesn't have it's not decorated and fancy and you know all thrilled out it's very very plain in that way it's very ordinary it's not light and visions and lists and all these things it's very very ordinary like space can't grasp it we can't see it we can't taste it touch it but it's the foundation of our being and in that level of awareness we know and it is the very foundation of genuine compassion and genuine wisdom so all meditation genuine meditation is to get us back to our fundamental nature our pure primordial awareness which is never contaminated no matter what we do it's always just there it's there we just don't see it because we're too busy talking so mom would result in and most practices are really the mom mudra practice is to relax the mind and ever deeper and deeper levels so that the nature of the mind reveals itself you can't do it by effort because who is making the effort I am making the effort but it's the eye which is the problem and all genuine all genuine spiritual traditions not just Buddhists Judaism Christianity Islam any Sufis they all recognize that our true nature is obscured by what they call the small self this this sense of I is obscuring our innate divinity in theistic terms they all know that and so all their practices of the Mystics in all the traditions is about how to overcome the small I so that we can open up into something so much faster that normally is covered up and we don't recognize so this is the Buddhist approach the Buddhist approach is through meditation on the mind and recognizing you know letting go of layer after layer of inattention until the mind is open spacious and completely aware completely awake this state is not a state of blanking out it's a state of waking up it is compared to when we are in a dream state we believe our dreams we think what we're dreaming is real if it's something frightening our heartbeats if it's something pleasant then we feel joy and so forth you know what while we're asleep we believe our dreams the moment we wake up we recognize how that was just a dream and we think now we're awake but to those who are genuinely awake who are genuinely enlightened they say this is still just a dream and so our ordinary conceptual thinking mind is compared to the dream and it and mirages you could say a movie we think it's real but it's still just an illusion and so the purpose of meditation is to wake up what means to wake to wake up and stay awake 24 hours a day so that's that's the the the part he hasn't he is expecting that you're going to get tea instruction from your teachers so he's not going into explaining the different stages on the path very clearly he assumes you know what you're going to do when you get there but anyway without grasping relax in that state of awareness other than this forget about fabricated process of struggling with remedies to eliminate the undesirable which is suppressing something of pursuing something else once you have recognized the stark clear awareness that transcends the dualistic mind and is absolutely uninfluenced by thoughts of the three times we're not thinking of the past or the future or even the present we are just aware of what is happening without grasping keep it always present through mindfulness with or without effort so in the beginning of course we need to make efforts to be mindful because our mind is accustomed to wandering all over the place and being distracted and so in the beginning we have to put forth some efforts who try to remind ourselves to be mindful and disciplined eventually it becomes second nature and then we don't have to make any more effort we just naturally are in the state of mindfulness when you meet the very great practitioner you see very clearly there completely present and yet you know they're obviously not making any particular effort to be present they just are and so everything that they do seems even just picking up a cup of coffee or tea seems meaningful just because they are in that state of complete open spacious awareness at all times but it doesn't make them kind of zombie like you know I mean it sounds like it's not like that you know I mean that these llamas are very energetic they're running around all over the place I mean the Buddha himself spent after his enlightenment he'd spent forty five years wandering around north-east india you know talking to everybody and organizing his community and so forth he was very active he didn't just sit under a tree the rest of his life so you know also with these great practitioners where their lamas are just ordinary people you know they look like ordinary but you know they're not ordinary you feel it you know there's something about them which is not ordinary but one cannot always put ones finger on it because you know they're not carrying a little sweatshirt saying I am enlightened so this we start where we are and the first thing is to really take seriously the ability to be aware everything which we receive all the impetus which we receive through our sixth sense doors that is our eyes ears nose taste touch and mental door everything which arises and he has impact on our sense doors is immediately there is an automatic response of like dislike or indifferent usually it happens so quickly we not even noticing it mostly things just slide through us because we have so much impetus coming especially through the eyes that we don't have time to register what is happening and so some meditation techniques are for slowing everything down so that we become more conscious of what's actually happening but anyway normally everything which we see in here and taste touch there is an immediately reaction of pain pleasure or indifferent or neutral and so that's how it is that doesn't matter but if we are not aware of that then what happens is if it's a very strong impetus we grasp it it and then if it's something like something pleasurable then we start to you know feel greed comes up grasping desire to possess and so forth or if it's something unpleasurable then we feel irritation annoyance rejection and even anger this all start with just a little spark but because we are unaware we can it becomes larger and larger and larger until it overwhelms us so these are the essential three poisons right there you know desire and aversion and and this basic ignorant saw delusion which comes through our apathy about not caring one way or another so we need to be conscious of what's going on in our mind not just when we're sitting in retreat but during the day also as much as possible to really be aware observe the mind and especially during the day in our everyday encounters then when there is a negative thought comes up to be aware of that and change it when there is a positive thought to encourage it this is he's talking about when we're in formal retreat where we don't touch the contents of the thoughts we just observe them but during the day it's very skillful if we have a lot of irritation annoyance anger to to look at that and apply an antidote such as patience loving kindness compassion or just seeing it look right now I am angry even just the awareness of negative emotions can often transform them normally we're not aware and therefore we're carried away if we are aware then we begin to take control over our own mind otherwise we're slaves of our minds whatever is in the mind along we go and our mind is not a kind master leads us into all sorts of problems and troubles so it makes sense since we live in our mind to be the one who is in control that situation why should we be slaves to our own mental processes and our emotions swept up and down on the ocean now up now down now up now then we need a boat and the boat is mindfulness when time I was in Malaysia and they had a t-shirt with a very nice t-shirt we should really get someone to drone on where it showed big waves and on top of the waves this was Malaysia with a surfboard and on top of the surfboard sitting cross-legged was a meditator and underneath the slogan said riding the waves of life be mindful be happy that's a nice t-shirt so the key to learning to understand the mind and to becoming the Masters of our mind instead of the slaves is our friend mindfulness because that is what it's we just have to be more aware what is happening not just outside but inside because that's where everything transforms inside if we are really conscious if we are really mindful then everything changes we don't have to do anything it changes this Australian monk called Adam Brahm he has invented a new word kindfulness which is beautiful it's a combination of mindfulness and being kind if we can just be kind for during our day that would be an enormous step forward and we can all try to be kind for more conscious and present with an open heart towards all beings everybody can do something it's not based on our particular beliefs right I mean just to be more aware more present and with a good heart there isn't no particular religion about that or non religion it's just how to be a better human so all of us can do that we can all try the best we can to be kind for and it helps to have times for formal sitting it does help there's no doubt we are trying to learn a new skill then we need to have you know good guidance and definitely set apart time for practice recently we were in Latin America and we were among countries we visited with Brazil and Argentina who are football mad and in Brazil no Argentina they had given me a hotel room which overlooked what they saw as a nice big open space which they thought was nice in the city but it turned out it was a football field so from early morning 5 o'clock in the morning to midnight there were teams out there often many different teams practicing practicing it was pouring with rain it was miserable weather cold rain pelting with rain they were all out there practicing kicking a ball and falling all over the place you know I mean you you long for it and then you fall over and roll over and you're completely covered in mud they loved it and I thought if they can put so much effort into something which is essentially so useless and yet and and uncomfortable you know why is it that we have such resistance to a nice simple practice like just sitting and look here anyway okay so can we leave it just there I think and we will dedicate we can just do the short dedications it's in Hebrew on the page 24 it's for those of you who might not know it is a Buddhist practice whenever there is something which is considered to be a good act a wholesome virtuous action like all of you giving up your time to come here and listen to me talking it might be considered a waste of time but on the other hand you did it and there you all are so good for you and as a result that is considered to be a positive action compared to what you might have been doing this you're sitting there so then we dedicate the merit to all beings not any particular group I mean we can think if there's anyone in trouble or it's suffering especially that we can in our mind especially dedicate to that person but in general we're dedicating it for all sentient beings that they should be running happy so please recite in Hebrew if you want or English if you want whatever you feel like okay so somebody's leading thank you so thank you all very much please leave the whole mindfully okay mindfully means that we are conscious of our body and the movement the Buddha said that we should be aware when we are standing sitting walking or lying down we should know the postures the four postures we should be aware of our body as we are moving and so please in situation also try to be aware if you can of the mind at the same time if you can't do both then in the beginning concentrate on on the postures because that's easier right just when we're sitting now we're sitting when we're standing we know we're standing when we're walking we know we're walking when we're lying down we know we're lying down that's not difficult but normally we don't do it while we're walking we're thinking a thousand other things the one thing we're not thinking about is that we're walking while we're drinking a cup of tea or coffee we're thinking a thousand things we're not thinking about the taste and the action of drinking so it's to settle the mind back into the present moment what is actually happening in this moment well what is actually happening is you're going to stand up and you're gonna walk out so try to be aware of that okay okay [Applause]

Channel: DFI Israel

Views: 26,484

Rating: 4.8441558 out of 5

Keywords: Tenzin Palmo, Jetsunma, Mahamudra, Dharma, Meditation, Buddhism teachings, DFI, Dharma Friends

Id: AhVDHz-Jv44

Length: 117min 11sec (7031 seconds)

Published: Tue May 29 2018