Kopan November Course 2019

Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal // November 17 - December 17, 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS

KEY

karma

delusions

emptiness and dependent arising

guru devotion

impermanence

meditation techniques / path of practice

compassion

precepts and refuge

mind

reincarnation

Introduction (Day 1)

"Buddha": goal of Mahayana Buddhism; desired end result for all sentient beings

"Bu" = rid of delusions
"Ddha" = perfect virtues

The nature of consciousness

The brain is merely a gross indicator of what occurs in our mind
Mind/consciousness has many levels. Subtler levels of cognition than where we function on a daily basis. Accessible through single-point of focus meditation.
"Mind possessor" = other translation of Tibetan term for sentient beings
Mind is beginning-less (every effect has to have a CAUSE) and end-less.

Lam Rim: gradual path / course

Teachings of the Lowest Scope (Junior School) - control body/speech - wisdom
Teachings of the Middle Scope (High School) - control mind - wisdom
Teachings of the Highest Scope (University) - compassion / Mahayana

Buddhism is a worldview. Unification of psychology, philosophy, and religion.
HOMEWORK:

May I see my dreams as dreams.

Know/acknowledge that you are dreaming while you are dreaming

Upon awakening, acknowledge consciousness.

Notice that you are still alive. Break the assumption of permanence.
"I'm not dead yet!"

Meditation / Basics of Buddhism (Day 2)

Meditation

"Rigsin": knowledge holder
Meditate: to get to know
Defining Samadhi/Samatha

mindfulness: capacity to not forget what you're doing while you're doing it
concentration: focus to the point of reaching a subtler level of consciousness
mental discrimination is necessary to determine what is the chaotic mind vs. calm focus
samatha: single point of concentration
Samatha develops concentration/awareness, NOT virtue
Meeting your own mind/chaos. Seems worse before it gets better because we focus on the chaos.
Demands FOCUS and EFFORT to counter our addiction to wandering mind.
"There is nothing in the world that does not get easier with familiarity." -Shantideva

Job of being a Buddhist: being our own therapist. Simplest essence of Buddhism = source of happiness and suffering is our own MIND. Difficulty = being samsarists! Thinking the source of these is external; external blame.
The extent to which we suffer depends on the extent to which our views are out of sync with reality.
The extent to which we are happy depends on the extent to which our views are in sync with reality.
Psychology/understanding the mind = ESSENCE of Buddhism.

4 Noble Truths

Suffering
Causes
Liberation
Path

Causes of suffering and happiness: karma and delusion

Karma

Fruit of a past action. Every moment of what happens to us is determined by our own past actions.
Owning the flowers AND weeds in your garden.
We experience the fruits of our own mental action
We experience the fruits of the seeds we've planted in the past
The reason to be moral is to not harm ourself and others
Intention: straightforward mental action, not motivation (ex: "I will not kill that," not WHY)
Main motivation for us to develop good karma: compassion for ourselves

Delusion

Arises from the 3 poisons: attachment, aversion, and ignorance
Ignorance

Extent to which we are not in touch with reality. Main cause of suffering.
Root delusion: ignorance to the fact that there is no intrinsic self. Ego-delusion.
The ego is addicted to negativity; bias toward the bad things, not noticing the good even though it is there
Believing things that aren't true is why we suffer
Desire is impermanent! This is why it can never be totally satisfying.
Buddhist cosmology: humans live in the desire realm.
Definition of being in samsara: ego-grasping. True realization = emptiness = relinquishing ego and attachment.
FEAR is at the base of all delusion, ego-grasping, and aversion.

Attachment

Suffering from attachment = dissatisfaction. ("I'm not enough" / "This is not enough")
Delusion and attachment exaggerate and distort.
Doesn't fulfill us because it is never satisfied. Finds an object to provide pleasant feelings, becomes obsessed with it, and doesn't understand that the pleasure is fleeting.
Attachment blinds us to the suffering we cause others, and to the suffering we cause ourselves from the objects we are attached to.

Aversion

Anger, anxiety, annoyances, despair, depression. RESPONSE when attachment doesn't get what it wants.
Once we have the thing, in comes the fear of LOSING it.

2 Sufferings

Suffering of Pain: when attachment doesn't get what it wants
Suffering of Change: when attachment does get what it wants. What we mistake for happiness because we assume permanence

Solutions

If you can't change the circumstances, change the mind.
Our experience is determined by our interpretation of what happens in our lives.
If you can't change something, interpret it differently.
The way to true joy: abandoning attachment entirely.
There is nothing wrong with pleasant feelings! It is the means that cause problems. Sensory pleasure is fleeting. Mental pleasure (joy) lasts because it is independent of senses and conditions.
What we think really impacts our lives. All thoughts have consequences for us! Thoughts create mental habits that manifest. "What you think, you become."

Buddha Nature & Mind (Day 3)

Buddha Nature: (tathagata garba / fo xing 佛性): seed of enlightenment in all mind possessors

Like the seed of a plant, needs all the right conditions to manifest

Neuroplasticity: you're not stuck with the mind you're born with

Emptiness of ego = ego is not permanent
Every element of our mind is a habit, not set in stone; impermanent
Undoing the voice that says "this is me" and "from this, I am limited"

Contradicts modern neuroscience, which posits that our neural makeup controls our reactions, that we do not have the capacity to change, except recent findings on neuroplasticity

Attachment craves permanence
Mistakes of mind: attachment and grasping at permanence
Opinions derive from attachment and aversion; these things are not intrinsic to our mind.
The brain is not the mind, but rather is a physical indicator of what is going on in consciousness

Bipolar Analogy

MANIC = ATTACHMENT (getting what ego wants)
DEPRESSED = AVERSION (despair)
Idea: we are all bipolar, it is just a manner of the degree. All of it can be changed/reconditioned. NOT permanent.

"Junior School" (Day 4)

Junior School: basics of Buddhism. Control your actions (body and speech).
Truths at Basis of Buddha's Teachings (why to follow the Path):

Death is definite
Time of death is not definite
Action point: what to do to prepare for death (what karma do I want to bring with me?)

Purification

4 ways for karma to ripen:

Rebirth
Tendencies
Experiences similar to the cause (how others treat you)
Environment

Purification practice purifies karma
4 R's of Purification (4 Opponent Powers):

Regret

Not guilt!
Recount what you've done and instead of "I'm a bad person", ask "what can I do to fix it?"
Recognizing what ends up causing you suffering, and not doing it again out of kindness for yourself

Reliance

Refuge in the method (Buddha/Vajrasattva/practice)
Rejoicing that you've found a doctor
+ Compassion for those you have harmed
We rely on suffering beings to develop compassion.

Remedy

Thinking positively to counter negativity; the antidote (the actual practice)

Resolve

Decision to not do it again. VOW, be specific!
ex: "For three days, I will not smoke."

Purification = changing your mind

3 Facets of Practicing Buddhism:

Study
Meditate
Rituals

Don't need all 3; just what makes sense to you and resonates with you. Sometimes, the others will come along the path, down the line.

Two Universal Truths (Day 5)

Two Truths

Dependent origination: everything that exists does so based upon countless various factors; describes conventional reality; interdependence
Emptiness: describes universal (ultimate) reality; NOT nothingness, NOT nihilism. No intrinsic essence.

Meant to lead one to the MIDDLE PATH, not take on extreme views of 1 (ego-grasping) or 2 (nothingness).
TRUTH = conventional reality is all interdependent, and on an ultimate level, is absent of fixed essence (thus, all conventional things are impermanent).
Both truths necessitate and reinforce each other. Interdependence is the REASON for emptiness of intrinsic nature.

3 Principles of Dependent Arising (levels):

Cause & Effect
Everything exists dependent on its parts
Things exist depending on the MIND cognizing them

Emptiness

Emptiness only shakes us when we expected different! (The only person who sees the absence of something is someone who things there should be something.)
Emptiness = truth of the absence of things we assume do exist, like an intrinsic "I". Cuts root of ego-grasping. Absence does not connote bad - think, absence of cancer when you thought you had it. Emptiness is freeing.

Karma II

The point of karma is to own your conditions. Psychologically powerful. Not seeing self as an innocent victim => not having ANGER. Reduces suffering to own karma/own causes.
"Experiences similar to the cause" = inheriting the effects just like the causes (ex: I lied, so I will be lied to. I was generous, so others will be generous to me.)

Death (Day 6)

How to help others

Learn to hold your own emotions so that you can hold the emotions of others
Just by being there and saying "it's alright," you can lessen someone's emotional pain; often, no need to try to fix anything. First, we need to do this for ourselves, or else we panic with the other person when they need us.

Everything that we experience leaves imprints in the mind.
Death

Most important/helpful thing you can do is create a peaceful, positive environment as a person nears death.
Death is inevitable; approach to it is variable. Opt to release attachments and go peacefully.
Peace at death triggers positive/virtuous karmic seeds, leading to better rebirth.
Fear at death does opposite. This is the point of Buddhist animal liberation sanctuaries; help animals live in peace and die without fear.

Attachment II, Karma, and the Bodhisattva Path (Day 7)

Attachment

The more you get, the more you want. (re: object of desire); never fulfilling
When there is no FEAR, there is no SUFFERING.
Deepest attachment on the subtlest level: attachment to reputation. We feel like we are nothing until someone else tells us we are something. We crave being liked. Closest to ego-grasping.

Karma

Nothing happens without a cause. It is not luck. We are not passive, innocent victims of our lives. You can't change what happened, but you can change how you LOOK at it.
Owning something is not the same as BLAMING yourself. Blame implies self-deprecation or guilt; owning something implies taking responsibility for our gardens and learning from what we do, and learning from what happens to us.
There is no karma we can't change. Karma is impermanent.

Bodhisattva Path

Wisdom is NECESSARY to make compassion useful.
Compassion = empathy for all suffering of others.

Includes suffering of pain and suffering of change (suffering of attachment)
To understand this, crucial to understand own suffering, first.

bodhicitta: wish to help all beings attain enlightenment due to deep, profound compassion AND wisdom
Compassion does not cause suffering; ATTACHMENT does.

Samatha Technique and Emptiness (Day 8)

Samatha Technique

Avoid: excitement and dullness
Purpose: develop focus
Motivation: provide basis for insight, which necessitates concentration
Intention: place 100% attention on breath (clear, awake mind)
Develop: mindfulness (non-forgetfulness of mind with respect to a familiar object, with function of non-distraction) and introspection (alertness/vigilance; check up on mind for presence or absence of mindfulness)
When distractions arise during samatha: Relax, Release, Return
Buddha's only meditation instruction: "As you breathe in, notice you are breathing in. As you breathe out, notice you are breathing out."
3 ways to meet obstacles during concentration meditation:

Renounce: "these distracting thoughts will not serve me if I follow them."
Compassion: "all beings are met with distracting thoughts and distracted minds. If I can work on mine, I can help others do the same."
Emptiness: "these thoughts, and the mind generating/cognizing them, are empty."

Emptiness (Heart Sutra)

Meditating on impermanence can lead us to realize emptiness; antidote to ego-grasping

Gross impermanence: everything arises, everything ceases
Subtle impermanence: everything shifts/changes moment-to-moment

You can label things whatever you want as long as they function as what the label indicates.

ex: prison cell -> cave; prisoner -> monk; cup -> toilet (LOL)

Conventional reality = dependent arising // universal = emptiness. NOT opposite; go together!

ex: Where there is dependent arising I, there is also the emptiness of an inherent I.

Inherent: not depending on anything
4 Steps to Realize Emptiness

Recognize object to be negated
Establish parameters of search (separate or within?)
Examine: could it be within?
Examine: could it be separate?

Extremes: eternalism vs. nihilism ("the abyss of the great mistake")
Emptiness is a joyful realization! Shows that everything comes from the mind.
All meaning is created by the mind.
Emptiness = merely labeled

Mahamudra

Samatha technique of concentrating on mind
The "Great Seal": emptiness (intrinsic emptiness of character of everything IS the character of everything)
Concentration on clarity of the mind
Subtle wisdom to focus on the arising of "I" and its emptiness
Fear arising is the symptom of ego kicking in
Upon achieving concentration on mind, insight into ego and emptiness can occur
Mindfulness fish moves through mind without disturbing water, waiting to catch ego arising

Teachings and Teachers (Day 9)

Lam Rim

Lam Rim: Gradual Path (course to enlightenment)
Junior School (karma: controlling/not harming through body and speech) -> High School (understanding the mind: controlling thoughts) -> University (compassion; Bodhisattva path) -> Postgrad (Mahamudra: realize emptiness through concentration on mind)
When ego doesn't like something, that is when we really practice
Renunciation

Wanting to get out of own suffering; first step on path to enlightenment (self-compassion)
Always ultimately broadening to include all beings; working to understand own suffering to understand everyone's

Reducing Attachment

Begins with us understanding why our attachments bring us suffering. (Putting happiness into external conditions)
Not suppressing, but confronting/investigating, "Why is this harmful to me or others?"

Teachers

We have to be ready to learn, or even the beach teacher cannot teach us a thing.
Guru = Lama = Spiritual teacher (Sanskrit / Tibetan / English)
Choosing a teacher: crucial to look at their STUDENTS/disciples and verify whether you want to follow the teachings based on them (like looking at a tattooist's work)
Beneficial to see your guru as a manifestation of buddha to get the most out of the teachings

Taking Refuge: 3 Jewels (Day 10)

3 Jewels

Buddha

The Result
Sanggye (Tibetan): Sang = rid of the rubbish / Gye = full of the good
All wise, all compassionate, all pervasive.

Dharma

The Teachings
Knowledge of the Path

Sangha

The Spiritual Community
Fellow practitioners who have fully realized emptiness

Taking Refuge

Commitments:

Take refuge 3x AM and 3x PM ("I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha")
Make offerings every day (physical and mental; practicing generosity. Mentally offer first bite of food- OM A HUM, make physical offerings at altar)
Be kind to sentient beings
Practice/study dharma

Acronym: ROKD (Refuge, Offer, Kindness, Dharma)
5 Lay Person Vows:

Do not kill
Do not steal
Do not lie
No sexual misconduct
No intoxicants (root: non-harm, not breaking other vows)

Vows are psychology, not religion. Mental action. Reinforce daily; all about intentions.
Taking vows are like setting lifelong intentions for yourself. Psychologically powerful; deepening grooves in the mind.

Guru

Teacher.
Every teacher you take on in Buddhism should be seen by you as Buddha; if something later contradicts this, leave it.
Protect the mind against negative thoughts. Adopt wise/skilful thoughts, instead.

Altar

Have a beautiful altar that motivates you to practice.
Representations of body (image of Buddha), mind (stupa), and speech (dharma/mantra)

"Om Mani Padme Hum": great / jewel (compassion) / lotus (wisdom)

May the great wisdom and compassion unite within me.

The Mind & Attachment III (Day 11)

Studying/Understanding the Mind

All about the function of the mind, NOT the physical brain
2 ways mind functions: sensory consciousness (body) and mental consciousness (cognition)
Usually, we make BODY the boss, but body has very little power of cognition! MIND cognizes.

ex: eye consciousness only cognizes shape and color. The rest is conceptual.
All memories are stored in mental consciousness.

Conceptuality vs. Perception

Conceptuality: gross mental consciousness, emotions, opinions, virtues (rooted in reality, valid, source of happiness), delusions (NOT rooted in reality, invalid, source of suffering)
Perception: subtle mental consciousness, raw and NOT concepts, only seen in samatha, bare input

Buddhism asserts that delusions are NOT core to our mind; rooted in concepts that CAN be eliminated.
Conceptual Stories

Not valid because not reality.
Attachment: state of mind that exaggerates the positive qualities of something
Aversion: state of mind that exaggerates the negative qualities of something
While we still have attachments, we can be skilful, and attach to things productive, that keep us healthy and serve us. Ultimately, we aim to be rid of attachments altogether.
Disease of dissatisfaction: never enough.
DELUSIONS:

Attachment = ego-grasping x positive overexaggeration x misconception x assumption of permanence
Aversion = ego-grasping x negative overexaggeration x misconception x assumption of permanence
Ignorance = ego-grasping x overexaggeration of importance of I x misconception x assumption of permanence

Attachment

Honey-covered razorblade
It is also attachment to grasp the idea: "When I get rid of my attachment, I'll be happy." Still delusion.
Wishing the pain would go away = still delusion! Aversion!
Happiness/peace will follow ridding of attachments, but attachment to this idea won't help.
We need to learn that the world is NOT over when attachment doesn't get what it wants.
All about forming new habits.
Necessary to stop believing the stories that attachments tell us (e.g., that boy liking you will satisfy you and make you happy. Not true, honey!)
Giving stories less power/not believing them makes them weaker. They WILL lessen over time if you don't feed them! The wolf that wins is the wolf you feed!
When attachment arises, notice it, and don't be too hard on yourself. Instead, "Yes, this is here, and I'm working on it, good job." Live with cravings and try not to feed them.

Recognize that it is harming you, but be kind to yourself! Being upset with yourself only doubles the suffering of the attachment.

Pairs we conflate:

Love and Attachment

Love wants other to be happy even when self is not
Attachment wants other to be happy WHEN they make self happy too

Self-confidence and Arrogance

Self-confidence is humble; happy to meet someone "better" because not driven by pride
Arrogance over-exaggerates importance of self; low self-esteem = deflated arrogance

Reason for mindfulness/meditation: to train mind to distinguish delusion from virtue

Once you have identified a delusion, argue with it.

Lessening of suffering -> growth of wisdom
Suffering always comes from within.
Last delusion to go = attachment to being liked.

Feeling of needing to be heard. Goal/ultimate result of practice: hearing ourselves.

Practice being content now! ("I'm fine as I am.")

Rejoice in progress. Change your concepts. List the good, your good qualities that are there right now.
Practice positive thoughts.
Pave way for future by dealing with your present! Don't stumble on present obstacles because focused on future. Deal with the now!

The Mind II (Day 12)

Buddhist Psychology

Our mind is the primary player in how we experience our lives, not external conditions.
External conditions are the catalysts for mental responses. Secondary to the mind.
We have caused all of the positive things that happen to us, as well as negative, but we are so focused on the negative that we barely acknowledge all of the virtues we planted to manifest the positive majority of our experience!
We must take responsibility for our own mental activity - WE cause our own happiness and suffering - or we will never see clearly/be happy.
We are inner beings; it all comes from within.
Our interpretations determine our happiness/suffering. (Emptiness!)
You only "deserve" what you create!

Delusions: attachment says "I deserve happiness," aversion says "I don't deserve suffering". Deserve here implies no law of cause and effect. Assumptions rooted in delusion!
Truth: we want these; False assumption: we deserve them.

View that things happen without cause is nihilism and makes us suffer.
It should be blissful to us that we created our own causes! Gives us ownership of our own lives, and reveals to us that we can actually change our minds.
Ability to help others is entirely dependent on our own knowledge of our own mind.
Virtues entail connectedness, interdependence, we; valid because based on dependent arising.

Emptiness = empty of independence

Delusions entail separation, independence, I; invalid because based on misconceptions.

Changing the Mind

Guilt: "I did this and I'm a bad person."
Anger: "You did this and you're a bad person."
Fundamental errors! "Criticize not the sinner, but the sin."
Regret: "I did this, and it caused suffering for me and for others, so I will not do it again." (renunciation)
Difference: not thinking you're a bad person, but owning it and motivating change.

Bodhisattva Path (Day 13)

Bodhicitta

Karma is like personal evolution/devolution
Bodhicitta: whole, complete, unchanging perception of other beings as more important than "I". So much compassion that nirvana becomes seen as the "lower happiness"
Compassion wing
Core of Bodhisattva Path: "As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world." -Shantideva
Crucial to have wisdom; compassion is not enough.
Exchanging Self for Others

Goal: love (wish for someone to be happy) + compassion (wish for someone to not suffer) for all sentient beings.
Easy for us to have this for friends (objects of attachment), but we also need to have it for enemies (objects of aversion) and strangers (objects of ignorance).
Accomplish through developing equanimity.
Equanimity: every sentient being is the same in that they all have an equal desire to be free of suffering

Logic: every being equally wants to be happy and to not suffer.

4 immeasurables: equanimity, loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy.

Need to be based in logic to be stable, not feelings.

Zopa Rinpoche Teaching I

"Cherish all sentient beings like yourself."
"What is called I is to be renounced, thrown far away... All the past, present, and future happiness comes from others."
"Now everything we do is to get happiness for this I, but if you look for this I you can't find it... that shows its nonexistence."

But "if you don't examine it, it looks like it is there." (A real I.)

"The moment you think 'I'm here in the world to serve others,' suddenly you've found happiness. Suddenly smile, suddenly feel connection with the people and animals, a connection with everybody. Suddenly your mind is relaxed, happy. Right there you find happiness."
"Every single thing you do with bodhicitta becomes a cause of happiness for all sentient beings."
3 meanings of life:

Better rebirth
Freedom from samsara (enlightenment)
Bodhicitta

Need to meditate on suffering to understand/develop Bodhicitta
Bodhicitta is a mental habit; practice! Dedicate daily/everyday actions to all sentient beings.
Main practice should be bodhicitta! This, not focus on nirvana, makes people the most happy, life the most happy.
"Even if you don't believe in reincarnation or karma, practice good heart," this is the most important. If you know all the dharma but don't practice good heart, your life is not meaningful. "Make your life in the world [meaningful] to serve others."
If you know compassion, "all the Buddha's qualities come to you without effort."

Compassion Wing (Day 14)

Compassion

Once you truly realize emptiness, you can't not be compassionate.
We often conflate attachment with compassion.
Crucial to have wisdom to have true, valid, useful compassion.
Careful that our actions are to reduce others' suffering, not to reduce the suffering we feel for others' suffering.
Developing compassion for suffering of pain AND suffering of change (happiness due to attachment, which turns into suffering of pain. Seems like happiness, but is contaminated.)
SOLUTIONS to suffering:

Suffering of pain => stop harming others
Suffering of change => stop attachment
All-pervasive suffering => realize emptiness

True understanding of compassion includes compassion for the victims AND the victimizers, the poor AND the rich, the sad AND the happy.
Lam Rim = Gradual Path. Wisdom is NECESSARY for compassion!
Maha Garuna: Great Compassion

"What can I do to help?"
Characteristic of bodhisattvas

Note: pleasant feelings are neither virtuous nor non-virtuous; whether we meet them with attachment changes how they impact our actions. Work with this.
Compassion culminates in Bodhicitta, not synonymous.
Radical thought: all sentient beings are kind.

Kind: facilitates my existence, for which we should be grateful
Dependent arising: "without sentient beings, I wouldn't exist."
Conclusion: "I must repay their kindness."

Self-Cherishing

Tibetan term for "selfish"; putting self first. Belief in inherent I.
Point of Bodhisattva path: Bodhicitta, abolishing self-cherishing.

Exchanging Self for Others

"Every sentient being is equal to me." (in terms especially of wanting happiness and freedom from suffering)
Presence of delusions provides limits on our compassion and wisdom
Equanimity chips away at delusion of division between self and others
Disadvantages to Me of Putting Me First: Others don't like selfish people! (Not nice to be around. We love to be around non-self-cherishing people)

Causes me suffering, as a result!

Advantages to Me of Being Kind to Others: Others like this, and others liking us makes us happy! Helping others helps us.
Culmination of Exchanging Self for Others: Tong Len

Practice of giving/taking
Practice: Breathe in suffering of others, breathe out your freedom from suffering to feel them.
Everyone is suffering + how can I fix it? + I can handle it!
Meditation on fixing suffering.

Zopa Rinpoche Teaching II

Heart Sutra

Prajnaparamita, Wisdom Gone Beyond, IS emptiness, IS Heart Sutra. Highest Wisdom of Buddha.
Most concise expression of wisdom in sutra: Sanskrit syllable "ah," negation syllable (अ )
Meditating on the Heart Sutra, not just reciting the words, is so important. Realizing emptiness = liberation from suffering.
Meditating on Heart Sutra = preparation for realizing emptiness.
All the samsaric pleasures are suffering of change.

"Train your mind to always watch your mind."
Look at your life, the mundane world, as a merely labeled hallucination.
Everything done out of a motivation of attachment, ignorance, or aversion causes suffering.
Your whole world came from your mind.
Where there is attention, there is meditation.

Compassion Wing II (Day 15)

Developing Compassion

Analytical meditation: using logic to argue the assumptions of ego
Bodhicitta = result of fully developed compassion. No more "I" arising in the mind, only thought of others. + Never give up, from lifetime to lifetime, to save all sentient beings to enlightenment and perfect all 6 perfections of Bodhisattva.
[The 8 Verses]

Put into practice at your level of capacity
We need to "learn to like problems like we like ice cream" (like what our attachment doesn't like)

Emptiness! Look at "problems" like lessons, helping train us to develop our mind + compassion

The people we deem "wicked" are deeply suffering (takes first knowing your own suffering to see this)

Tong Len Meditation: secretly take on suffering of others (wish to) relieve them. Envision you taking on black smoke of other's suffering, and sending white light to them. Offer your happiness/wellness to others.

Mental preparation for actually doing this. Do on and off the cushion.

8 Worldly Dharmas

Pleasure vs. Pain

Constant craving for the good feelings + keeping them // craving for ending bad feelings
Solution: like problems!

Gain vs. Loss
Praise vs. Blame
Reputation vs. Rejection

How we are seen

Practice: change/transform 8 worldly dharmas
Goal: to realize that all of these are based on attachment/grasping to "I", which is illusory, merely labeled, empty.
See life like an ILLUSION.

Zopa Rinpoche Teaching III

Impermanence

KARMA RABRIB

A star, a defective view, a butter lamp flame
An illusion, a dewdrop, a water bubble
A dream, lightning, a cloud
See all causative phenomena like this

"I" = valid base aggregates (form, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors, consciousness), but beyond these, is merely labeled
Freeing that "I" is empty and impermanent.
"I" exists only on a very subtle level - Middle Way between nihilism and eternalism.
It is like "I" doesn't exist. This is the reality. "It is not that it doesn't exist, but it is LIKE that."
Nihilism destroys/disregards dependent arising. Things DO exist on a subtle, dependent, conventional level. "Empty" DOESN'T MEAN "doesn't exist." Means "doesn't exist by itself," "doesn't exist independently." Otherwise, emptiness looks like NIHILISM. So, "I" does exist in mere name, but "REAL I" does NOT exist. This is the source of IGNORANCE.

"real" meaning "existing on its own side"

So, don't cling/grasp!
Nihilism is karmically the worst for our minds. "Nothing matters" = no cause and effect = despair.
Paying attention to emptiness - that whatever you are doing in any moment is not REAL - is the best meditation. Do this all the time. (eating, walking, toilet, etc.)

Not real = merely labeled. Appears, but doesn't exist, like a dream.

Wisdom Wing (Day 16)

Emptiness and Dependent Arising (2 Truths)

"Whatever depends on circumstance is empty of nature."
Emptiness and Dependent Arising seem separate but are the same.
Levels of Dependent Arising

Cause and Effect

Every condition is the result of all of the causes before it - to the beginning of the beginningless universe

Everything exists dependent on its parts

And the inherent essence of the thing cannot be found in any of the parts

Everything exists dependent on the mind labeling it

Minds create everything.

Delusion works to exaggerate. Attachment exaggerates deliciousness, aversion exaggerates ugliness, ignorance exaggerates inherentness.
Every level of dependent arising works to lessen ego-grasping and self-cherishing.

Opposite of ego-grasping: emptiness
Opposite of self-cherishing: compassion

You can change your whole world by labeling it differently.

Meditation

Tibetan: gom (to familiarize)
Types:

Concentration (samatha)

Preparation for meditation. Developing focus. Necessary for vipassana.
Good to do in morning, to provide basis for understanding what happens during the day (in the mind)
We can only achieve a mind of clear concentration when we live our lives (off the cushion, too) in virtue, in morality. Body and speech and actions done in virtue. Otherwise, not possible to achieve clear mind on the cushion.

Analysis/Insight (vipassana)

Experiential understanding/discrimination of delusions and virtues. Logical, intellectual thinking leads to insight. Need concepts to learn truths, not mystical! Analytical!
Use Lam Rim meditations. Clear, gradual path. Clear objectives and methods.

In all meditations, always helpful to set a motivation and intention at beginning, and dedicate at end.
When trying to understand something:

Get concentration
Go over point by point analytically

Mahamudra: mindfulness fish watching intently for "I" arising.

Realizing nonexistent ego = real non-duality

Ken Rinpoche Teaching

Worldly Phenomena

See phenomena as rainbows. Enjoy the pleasant ones while they are there, know they are impermanent, and do not cling to them. Bring mindfulness.

(Relationships, friendships, jobs, etc.)

Like a rainbow or a sand castle; these things will change and disappear, and we do not need to cry. Expect the changes. Expect them ending.

Dharmakaya: enlightenment body

Enables Buddha to manifest in infinite places (buddhas, gurus, lamas, etc.)

Tibetan "OM": made of three Tibetan letters, which represent body, speech, and mind
ཨ = ah (emptiness)
ོ = oh
༠ = m

Right View & Precepts (Day 17)

Enlightenment in Different Views

HINDUISM

Enlightenment (moksha) = dwelling blissfully in Atman/the Universal, Eternal Soul, Self

Buddhist view of moksha: peak of samsara, deep belief in intrinsic self (getting comfortable in samsara)

Interconnectedness (Universal Self ) + Creator (intrinsic things made by God/Atman, out of our control)

PERMANENCE leads to attachment
Leads us to feel helpless, like victims of an existence we play no role in creating.
Happiness that doesn't last. Leads to ego-grasping and suffering. Continue to cycle in samsara. Misunderstanding of sources of suffering (outside "my" mind). Why it seems we can't get out.

BUDDHISM

Enlightenment (nirvana) = realizing the emptiness of all things, freedom from "Self," dwelling blissfully in emptiness.

Deeper, more freeing realization (getting out of samsara)

Interconnectedness (dependent arising ) + Emptiness (mind creates everything)

Gives us agency, we create our own reality. FREES us from attachment.
IMPERMANENCE leads to understanding emptiness.
Inspires us to practice, knowing that our minds create our experience/how we can serve others to learn the same.
Happiness that lasts because free of delusions. Understanding causes of suffering: karma and delusions (inside mind). Why we can get out.
Interdependence.

Nihilism = opposite of connectedness. Everything devoid of karmic relation/cause and effect. Emptiness = meaningless.

Emptiness

Heart Sutra: "Form is empty. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form; form is also not other than emptiness."

Form: conventional phenomenon, dependently arising, exists as merely labeled.
Emptiness: needs conventional phenomenon! Characteristic of dependent phenomena.

Emptiness characterizes dependently arising phenomena. Dependently arising phenomena exist because they are empty of existing in isolation. MIDDLE WAY / Non-Duality = when things appear simultaneously all the time as dependent and empty. Subtle, like things don't exist.

8 Mahayana Precepts

Do not kill - protect life
Do not steal/take what is not freely given - protect property
Do not lie/deceive others - speak truth
Do not engage in sexual activity - wisdom of sexual conduct
Do not consume intoxicants - wisdom of consumption
Do not sit on high seats - preserve humility
Do not eat at wrong times - eat 1 meal (11 AM - 12 PM)
Do not wear perfumes/ornaments, sing, dance, or play music - renounce frivolity

Reason: to generate bodhicitta. Hardships to renounce/sacrifice for the sake of clarifying the mind to benefit all sentient beings.
If precept accidentally broken, recite mantra of pure morality:

OM AMOGA SHILA SAMBHARA / BHARA BHARA / MAHA SHUDDHA SATTVA PADMA VIBHUSHITA BHUJA / DHARA DHARA SAMANTA / AVALOKITE HUM PHAT SVAHA (3x)

Zopa Rinpoche Teaching IV

Importance of Teacher and Teachings

Endless meditation does nothing without a teacher to guide/teachings to meditate ON. Sometimes just a few words from a teaching is enough to cause a "click," an awakening!
No guru = no realizations.
Tibetan monks spend years JUST studying, memorizing texts, barely meditating. Then, they go on retreat and meditate on what they memorized! Many years - long practice. Many years study // many years retreat.

The Grand Illusion

We spend our lives suffering because we believe that the hallucination produced by our mind is real. Realizing emptiness/merely labeled = unbelievable, happiness because no longer believing the hallucination. Let go because there is nothing to hold on to! No "I" to cling to. Do not fall into nihilism/fear. Go through the other side. Merely labeled; things, like "I," do exist on a subtle, interdependent level. But we will only suffer if we attach to them. Make sure you know Dharma well, and know both truths (emptiness + dependent arising), and remember compassion wing, bodhicitta!
Need all conditions to come together to achieve realizations. Like a plant needs the seed, water, soil, sun; you need a guru, teachings, concentration, right view, virtuous motivation.
Eliminate delusions through logic, reason! This is the way to achieve lasting realizations.
Aggregates and their labels exist differently, but not separately.
"My karma persuaded, therefore, I receive this harm." Harmer will incur karma too. If you harm back, there is no end. Leave it. Karma will take care. Practice compassion.

Wisdom Wing II (Day 18)

Delusion & Reality

Deluded cognitions: we cognize phenomena that don't exist! Delusions add decorations/projections onto valid conventional phenomena.

ex: chocolate cake does exist on a conventionally valid basis. Our projections of deliciousness or aversion are based in invalid delusions, reflections imposed by mind.

Mind is like a reflection. When water is still and clear, things appear as they are. When water is turbulent or dirty, appearance is distorted, but we believe the reflection. If we recognize the delusions, we stop believing the distortions.

Danger: we get addicted to our misconceptions. When we understand the misconceptions, initially we are shocked!
ex: Look for $7K in bank account, but it has $0. First thing we see = absence of $7K, because we expected $7K. Eventually, we just see reality: emptiness of $7K. Like this with inherent I, as well! We cognize absence of intrinsic I, emptiness of independent I, because we believed/expected this "I" to exist. Like discovering absence of cancer when you thought you had cancer! Joyful!

4 Points of Analysis

Establish object to be negated (clear idea of what you are looking for)

"I" that doesn't depend on anything
Most difficult point

Establish parameters of search

Where could the "I" be found?

Examine whether object could be found in one part or the whole, within the 5 aggregates

Would "I" be in the 5 aggregates? In the hand? Within body and mind?

Examine whether object could be found outside the 5 aggregates, separate from the 5 aggregates

If "I" is outside the body and mind, why do things that happen to the body and mind affect the "I"? ("I" as "soul")

Need really clear concentration to do this analysis. SO subtle.
"I" does exist on a subtle level, not separate from parts (valid base = body and mind), but different from them (label does not equal parts). Same entity (interdependent), but different phenomena.

Something that depends is something that lacks independence. (Essence of dependent arising + emptiness teaching. NOT opposite; always simultaneously true.)

Generating Bodhicitta in Daily Life Practices

When entering a room, think: "May I lead all sentient beings into nirvana."
When exiting a room, think: "May I lead all sentient beings out of samsara."
When climbing stairs, think: "May I lead all sentient beings on the gradual path to enlightenment."
When descending stairs, think: "May I come down from the rocky peaks of my pride."

"All happiness in the world comes from benefiting others; all suffering in the world comes from cherishing myself."

Zopa Rinpoche Teaching V

Bodhicitta

You can't achieve true happiness until you orient to what you can do to help other sentient beings. Bodhicitta/intent to free all sentient beings of suffering is the greatest happiness you can achieve.
"Dedicate your life for others." Then, "wherever you are, you are happy."
Every practice in Buddhism is preparing us to have our minds consistently in Dharma, motivated by bodhicitta, meaning that why we do what we do involves all sentient beings. So, we consistently live in a mindstate of connectedness with all being. This is the way to be free of suffering.
Bliss of Bodhicitta: Living always in mind of interconnection.
True bodhicitta leaves nobody out.
Even one prostration/one mantra done with bodhicitta benefits numberless sentient beings.
Dedication to Dharma must be internal, or external actions generate no merit. Dedicate merits and intentions always to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings.

Bodhisattva Perfections (Day 19)

6 Perfections of the Bodhisattva

Generosity

What can I give to help?
Giving without any expectation of return or thanks to all sentient beings
Giving what a being needs (material things, spiritual advice, protection)

Morality

What can I do to help?
Actively helping others, not just harming
Requires wisdom to know how to help others

Patience

Accepting/welcoming things we can't change
Not giving up, but bravely welcoming the problem while you chip away at it. Not passive or angry. Brave!

Perseverance (Joyful Effort)

Discipline to not fall into laziness
Knowing the benefit motivates us to do it
Opposite: laziness *
Most difficult and most necessary. Never giving up! Confidence in goal.

Control body/speech
Renunciation

(of sensory pleasure; emptiness)

1-4 = perfecting compassion wing; 5-6 = perfecting wisdom wing
Do things according to your capacity at any moment.
Breaking down the barriers between ego-grasping (self-cherishing) and true compassion/connection with others.

Practical ways to implement:

Generosity: budget money to give to people on street. Carry cash dedicated to this!

When paying a bill, be happy to give! We have to pay anyway, so be happy to do it.
Do not think of receiving; think of giving.

* Kinds of laziness:

Can't be bothered
I'll do it later (develops aversion, guilt, depression)
I can't do it

If we convince ourselves of this, we will never grow! Consider possibilities before denying.
Courageous mind to practice thinking, "I want to do it"; then, we start generating possibilities.

Zopa Rinpoche Teaching VI

Oral Transmissions

So helpful/important to receive oral transmissions of the Dharma. Incredibly beneficial to hear/listen to teachings from gurus; can awaken mind, spur realizations, more than reading. Especially if passed down through lineage.

Purification

All hells, wars, suffering are results of projections from negativity in the mind. Thus, purifying every day can undo this negativity. Mind creates everything, including samsara and nirvana. Form mind how you want to experience world. Purification incredibly powerful to create positive imprints in mind and remove negative. (ex: Vajrasattva practice)
Very wise to purify every day. Cannot harm, only help!

Take advantage of the incredible freedom of human life.

"Life is as impermanent as a water bubble."

Walking Meditations

Mindful of everything seen as merely labeled (empty; generates wisdom) ... OR ...
Mindful of bodhicitta, doing everything with intention of benefiting all sentient beings (generates compassion) ... OR ...
Mindful of kindness, the kindness of all sentient beings you see, from numberless lifetimes (generates gratitude, equanimity, loving-kindness)

"You must practice, otherwise just here then gone, you never get free from all the problems, all the anxiety, all the depression. Then, this human life you get, is not interesting."

If you believe that dreams/hallucinated appearances are real, and cling to them, you cheat yourself. Practice looking at all as empty.

Meditation, Refuge, & Bodhisattva Attitude (Day 20)

Kadro-La Teaching

Gom - Meditation - to Reveal Inner Wisdom

Conventional reality and ultimate reality are not separate; simultaneously true.
We need to practice to develop the wisdom to see this.
All sentient beings have the wisdom to understand ultimate reality; already within us, and we just need to learn how to access it and use it correctly.

Our undertaking: to recognize what are the illusions that obscure our view of ultimate reality.

Becoming aware of subtle impermanence; change is constantly occurring in every moment.
Illusion = permanence/clinging, + consequent attachment
Reality = acute impermanence
"Even if [worldly pleasures] are in the nature of suffering, we are illusioned and look at it as happiness."
"Seeing the feeling of joy [from sensory pleasures] as suffering is a challenge." But these objects only give temporal happiness.
Is it really our ultimate goal to get temporary objects of happiness?
False belief in self-arising I is the enemy to our true happiness. "Though there is no self, our hallucinated mind grasps onto this self-identity."
Impermanence is due to the interdependence of cause-dependent phenomena. Causes & conditions are always changing.
Just wishing temporary goodness for some person does not help to achieve bodhicitta; we have to eliminate the misconception that temporary happiness is even a goal to aspire to, and we have to eliminate the misconception that people are different in terms of "deserving" happiness/freedom from suffering. Need to cultivate wisdom on nature of suffering + equanimity + emptiness to develop true bodhicitta.
Once you understand emptiness, "anything you feel as suffering, you can turn into a cause of happiness." - bodhicitta, compassion for sentient beings who suffer because deprived of this understanding
"Our joy and the joy of others are so interconnected and of the same nature."
"The more you understand how things are interdependent, the more your concepts are accurate."

Interdependence = more accessible concept than emptiness, so more swift method to develop bodhicitta

Meditation and regular life: develop habit of seeing interdependence. Analyze.
Faith generated based on reason and logic will always grow stronger.

Taking Refuge II

Taking refuge is not into a specific sect of Buddhism; all of Buddhism at once. (cross-traditional)
Person who gives refuge = precepter, not necessarily your main guru, and they give refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, not in themselves.
Taking refuge = vows and commitments that are meant to help us be ethical people. (Generous, kind, mindful, respectful, dedicated to wisdom/compassion). Not for Buddha, Dharma, or Sangha; for US. Not based on a "feeling," based in logic and knowing this path will benefit us and others.
Refuge Song:

SANG GYA CHHO DANG TSHOG KYI CHOG NAM LA // JANG CHHUB BAR DU DAG NYI KYAB SU CHHI // DAG GI JIN SOG GYI PA SON NAM GYI // DRO LA PHAN CHHIR SANG GYA DRUB PAR SHOG (3x)
I go for refuge until I am enlightened // To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly // By my practice of giving other perfections // May I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. (3x)

The Bodhisattva Attitude

Motivation is the fundamental piece, in every action in the Mahayana framework, that determines the positive or negative character of an act.

If motivation is to benefit sentient beings/others, action is probably in line with the Bodhisattva Path.
Sincerely decide that your motivation is to benefit sentient beings, in whatever you do. Most of the time, our default motivation is attachment; programmed. Any time we can remember to set a motivation of bodhicitta, it changes the whole color of the action.
Motivation gives meaning to an action.

Also crucial: wisdom! Wisdom to know how to help, how to actualize compassion.

"Meaning well is not enough. You have to have wisdom." -Lama Zopa

Motivation: remind yourself WHY you do what you do.

(Why am I waking up in the morning? Why am I studying Dharma? Why am I eating this food? Why am I doing this job? Why am I having sex? Why am I smoking weed? Why am I writing these words? Why am I still alive? ---> To work to realize my own enlightenment in order to help all sentient beings.)
All of these ^ are colored by motivation. All could be out of attachment OR compassion.
Even if it feels like empty words sometimes, set motivation for bodhicitta anyway. Becomes genuine.
Motivation determines virtue vs. nonvirtue.
Practice = to remember to do this!

Bodhicitta & Karma (Day 21)

Zopa Rinpoche Teaching VII

Bodhicitta

"When you are unhappy, remember bodhicitta." -Kyabje Khuju Lama Rinpoche
("then, you see your life so meaningful, beneficial for sentient beings. Your mind has joy." -Zopa Rinpoche)
Best practice/meditation for us: Tong Len

Taking suffering of others & giving them our happiness. To practice bodhicitta.

Every single happiness you receive completely by the kindness of sentient beings.
Bodhicitta -> Bodhisattva -> Buddha

All dependently arisen! Consequence of your own virtues/loving-kindness/compassion, which led to virtuous actions, which benefited other sentient beings... and, resultantly, the kindnesses returned to you. So, the best way to generate happiness for others and yourself is to be kind and remember that all sentient beings have, through endless lives, been kind to you.

Samsaric Suffering

"By my experiencing this, may all the sentient beings become free from all harm and suffering, and achieve enlightenment."

Makes your own suffering useful.
With this practice, you have no obstacles, because you use every problem you have to help all sentient beings obtain enlightenment.

Tenzin Zopa Teaching

Mahayana Precepts

Consequences of precepts: make world safer for all sentient beings; more compassion; repaying kindness of all sentient beings; generating virtue, benefiting us and all beings.
"I dedicate my life to the benefit of all sentient beings."

Karma

indefinite karmas: depend on conditions to ripen

We create the conditions by what we cultivate (virtue/bodhicitta vs. attachment/aversion)
We thus inherit the "experiences similar to the cause" for the karmas we provide conditions for

definite karmas: will ripen, but degree/intensity is not set. Also depends on conditions
Virtuous motivations weaken negative imprints
Crucial in day-to-day practice: seal merits in emptiness. (Cause is empty, result is empty, actor is empty)
Most important in all actions: motivation (why you do it) and intention (what you mean to do; "I will __.")
Why do prayers for others when we inherit our own karma?: Because we create/influence conditions for their positive karmas to ripen.

If someone prompts you to say a mantra, for example, you've created merit, and so have they, because they were a cause for you to create merit. Share in positive impact!
Provides temporary and ultimate benefit to wish well on others.
Everything we experience leaves an imprint in our minds, even cows.

"If you think suffering is good, then no suffering."

Merely labeled! Makes samsara beneficial.
If it weren't for problems, then we wouldn't be practicing. Problems bring us together!

Lam Rim (Day 22)

Mindstates

Virtuous states of mind literally cannot make us suffer. If we are suffering, it is attachment (sometimes, in disguise!)

Lam Rim (The Path)

Map of the precise path (psychology path) to understanding the mind/reaching enlightenment
Junior School (control body/speech) -> High School (understand mind) -> University (develop compassion) -> Post-grad (realize emptiness in context of bodhisattva path (Vajrayana); expedited path to enlightenment (Tantra))
All together culminate in Buddhahood
Wisdom = high school. Includes realizing emptiness. Can achieve individual nirvana.
Bodhicitta = university. Bodhisattva Path.
Modes of meditation to learn at each stage of path: get concentration (samatha, focus), then analyze (insight, analytical meditation)
The deeper the focus when analyzing, the more potent and lasting the insight.
Insight meditation is actual meditation; concentration is the means/prep to get there.
To analyze, you need substance to analyze. This is the teachings. Whatever you are trying to learn. Day-to-day, workings of own mind.
Useful method: concentration in AM, insight throughout the day.

Tantra (Vajrayana)

Most advanced level of Buddhist psychology; express lane to enlightenment
Using bliss triggered by object of attachment as a tool to combine with concentration to access higher states of mind

Only possible for those who have already eliminated attachment
Very advanced practice!

Utilize energy. Energize mind.
Buddha pantheon:

Vajradhara = main Buddha in Tantra, Sakyamuni in Tantric form
5 Buddha families: each represent purified delusions. Each person identifies most with one deity (buddha). Portrayals = visual language.
Visualizing self/others as deities (buddhas) = all about emptiness.
Manifest/cultivate what you need and what will be helpful for you to see + what you want as end result
Empowering to see self as like the Buddha/deity, through lens of wisdom/emptiness, as what you aspire to become.
5 Buddha Families

Vajra: Blue color / Akshobya buddha / Space element / Anger delusion / Nature of Phenomenon wisdom
Buddha: White color / Vairochana buddha / Water element / Ignorance delusion / Mirror-Like wisdom
Ratna: Yellow color / Ratnasambhava buddha / Earth element / Miserliness delusion / Equanimity wisdom
Lotus: Red color / Amitabha buddha / Fire element / Attachment delusion / Analysis wisdom
Karma: Green color / Amoghasiddhi buddha / Wind element / Jealousy delusion / Achieving Activities wisdom

Khadro-La Teaching II

Understanding the Mind

Mind creates all problems. Delusions are like poison: "if we don't understand poison as poison, we will not be aware of it. But when we understand and recognize the poison as poison, we can be wary of the poison."
Buddhist psychology #1 goal: recognize poison as poison, delusion as delusion

Crucial first step to understanding + subsequently changing mind to rid of delusions
Can't do this if you don't know what you're looking for

The way to subdue the mind is to understand the nature of our mind
"If we use our wisdom to subdue our minds, it will help everyone, not just ourselves but everyone around us."
In the most difficult times (sickness, deep suffering), bodhicitta is the only thing that helps.

Restarting the Path: Lam Rim 1 (Day 23)

Zopa Rinpoche Teaching VIII

Bodhicitta

"When you are depressed, remember bodhicitta."

Pull out Lam Rim book and meditate on teachings about bodhicitta. Otherwise you'll look to things outside yourself for happiness, and it won't come.
"WRITE THAT DOWN!"

Realms of Rebirth

Lower Realms (manifestations of delusions)

Hells = manifested aversion
Spirits = manifested attachment
Animals = manifested ignorance

Current Realm

Human = most useful; can help most sentient beings and study Dharma

Higher Realms

Gods/Devas = eons of bliss, but not helping sentient beings, just using up virtuous seeds until reborn in lower realms

All ^ = desire realms; SAMSARA
Nirvana (without bodhisattva path) = not reborn! Not desire realm.
Pure Land = not samsara; pure light body. Study Dharma with Buddha, get reborn next as human, express way to enlightenment, become bodhisattva to help all sentient beings.
"His Holiness gave advice: even if you don't believe in reincarnation, still study Dharma. Still helps. Like studying science of mind."

Two Truths

Emptiness = Exists Dependently
Things exist while they are empty; things are empty while they exist.
Understanding that things exist only in mere name remedies attachment, prompts disidentification.
5 aggregates (valid thing to be labeled) + label (exists dependent on mind) are not separate, but different.
"If you see subtle dependent arising, ignorance won't arise."

Morning meditation: "This breath is dependently arisen, impermanent, and empty." / "This is a new breath. This is a new moment. This is a new day. May I make the most of it and not take it for granted."

Fundamentals of Lam Rim, Part 1: JUNIOR SCHOOL 1

"One day closer to death. One day closer to enlightenment, also." - Most optimistic Robina lecture beginning ever
"Feelings aren't facts." - Ru Paul
Buddha = end result of Path.

Bu = rid of delusions // Ddha = perfect virtues
Establishes Buddhist view of nature of mind as not inherently deluded; POSSIBLE to NOT have delusions, and to perfect virtues.
No "soul," no "creator." Non-physical mind = consciousness
Mind is personal, our own, not made by others (parents, people we interact with, etc.)
What is in our mind: our own mental habits
Necessitates hypothesis of continuity of consciousness
Gives us ownership of our mind

View of how reality is:

Impermanence
Death is definite, time of death is not
Action point: at time of death, what imprints do I want in my mind? What rebirth do I want?
Suffering = extent to which our views are out of sync with reality

Rebirth

Body we get is the result of actions we do, imprints.
Realms of existence = mind states, consequences of 4 elements interacting with our minds. Easiest to see: animal realm. Others = different manifestations of reality / how mind functions.
Wake-up call: those rebirths (lower realms) have so much suffering. How do I not get that?

Refuge

Find a doctor and take refuge. (Guru devotion + refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha)
Dharma name: meaning = something to aspire to.

Thubten = Buddha teachings (Lama Zopa first name)

Bottom line to refuge and vows: committing to not harm sentient beings.

Top priority: don't kill.
Helping by not harming.
Do your best according to your capability.

Lam Rim 2 (Day 24)

JUNIOR SCHOOL 2
Karma

Control actions and speech to NOT HARM others (thus, reduce own suffering)
Natural law in which all sentient beings live
Makes us in charge of our own lives and minds; we create our experiences, our happiness, our suffering
4 ways karma ripens:

Rebirth
Tendencies
How others treat you
Environment

Renunciation: being fed up with suffering and knowing the causes (and, therefore, how to stop it)

On this level, out of compassion for ourselves. Needs to start with us.

To create a complete karma:

Intention ("I won't kill that mosquito")
Motivation ("I don't want to create suffering")
Action (Not killing mosquito)
Consequence (Mosquito lives)

Purification

4 Opponent Powers (Purification Process):

Regret

Acknowledge what we've done to harm sentient beings and regret out of understanding that we don't want suffering

Rely

Understand interconnection of sentient beings and generate desire to help all beings we have harmed, and who have harmed us

Remedy

Imagine Vajrasattva sending purifying nectar like a hose through our crown, sending all negative karmic imprints of speech through top + body through seat (bottom)
Mantra 3x or 21x

Resolve

Commit aloud to not do it again. Vow. Decide. Give timeline.
ex: "I will not kill for 24 hours." or "I will never kill again."

Regret purifies experiences similar to the cause (how others treat you).
Reliance (compassion and refuge) purifies environmental karma.
Remedy purifies rebirth.
Resolve purifies tendencies.

Emptiness

"With ignorance, heavy darkness, defective view: seeing a coil of rope, the terror arises because we see a poisonous snake, but there is no snake there." (-5th Dalai Lama)
We have fear because we labeled the valid basis of the 5 aggregates, and we forget that we imputed the label. The valid basis and the label are not separate, but they are different phenomena. Same with the shape "M" and our cognized label of the sound, "m." Same with the body and mind and our cognized label of "I." Due to the wrong concept that the aggregates and the label are intrinsically linked, we suffer. Until we see the aggregates as aggregates rather than immediately as the label, we live in ignorance. We must realize emptiness; we must see the rope as absence of snake, we must see the body and mind as absent of I. Valid base functions as label, but it is NOT the label without us projecting the label onto it.
Labels involve the decision to PROJECT the label/meaning onto its valid base. Requires profound concentration to intercept the projection before we believe it as true.
Emptiness is a common characteristic of all phenomena.
Emptiness and dependent arising prove each other. The simultaneous 2 truths of appearances and emptiness is the Middle Way.
"Emptiness of inherent I" is NOT the same as NOTHINGNESS. Is a true phenomenon that needs to be cognized.
Basis & Label are interdependent.

Guru Devotion

Guru: person heavy with qualities
Person who gives you refuge/vows becomes at least one of your gurus, if not your root guru.
Most beneficial to see your guru as Buddha. Enables you to learn the most from them. Logical. The more seriously you take it, the more you get from it.

Zopa Rinpoche Teaching IX

Taking Refuge

Buddha (doctor) + Dharma (medicine) + Sangha (nurses to help administer medicine)
Need all three.
Buddha: teacher, your own nature, what you aspire to
Dharma: core of refuge, teachings to rely on
Sangha: to inspire and support your path
Daily practices:

Refuge 3x AM & PM
Offer food to Buddha/all sentient beings
Kindness/compassion to all sentient beings
Dharma practice and study to control mind

12 Links of Dependent Origination (Day 25)

Zopa Rinpoche Teaching X

4 Negative Thoughts

Attachment to this life

Never virtuous
"If you renounce attachment to this life, then that is a Dharma practitioner."

Attachment to future samsara

"Renunciation from samsara [is a necessary] cause of liberation from samsara."

Self-cherishing

"If you have selfish mind and no bodhicitta, then none of your actions become a cause of enlightenment."

Holding to "I" as truly existent (root of samsara)

"If you hold the I as truly existent, then you don’t have right view... and everything else does not become antidote to samsara."

All ignorance, wrong view.

How to Seek Liberation

"If one does not try to reflect on the shortcomings of true suffering/samsaric pleasures, seeking liberation does not happen exactly. If one does not reflect on all-arising, the source of samsara as karma and delusion, one cannot find the root of samsara. Rely upon renunciation of what binds you to samsara. Seek liberation like that." -Lama Tsongkhapa (founder of Gelug Tibetan Buddhism)

How to not fall into Nihilism

Things do exist interdependently. It is only on an independent basis that they don't exist.
ex: if body does not exist, why do we get hungry and eat? Get sick and need medicine? Interdependent with base aggregates.
When you try to grasp something by itself, it disappears, can't exist. (Tibetan "shigpa", not there.)

How Karma develops: seed = cause (past act/tendency), gardener/sun/water = conditions to ripen
Understanding Emptiness: Implementing

Practice mindfulness on emptiness every day.

So helpful in process of ultimate realization of emptiness.

ex: notice daily items as merely labeled and entirely dependent on other things.

Review teachings on emptiness to meditate on.
Also very useful: mindfulness of impermanence.

12 Links of Dependent Origination

12 Links: how delusion and karma binds us to samsara

Ignorance (consciousness conceiving inherent existence; "I")
Karma (compositional actions)
Consciousness
Name and form
Six senses
Contact
Feeling
Craving
Grasping
Existence
Birth
Aging and Death

Because root of samsaric suffering is ignorance, belief in inherent "I," realizing emptiness (no inherent I) is the only way to break the cycle.
Gardener analogy: consciousness (seed) + karma (soil) + ignorance (cultivator)
Breaking the 12 links: break between 12 and 1 when EMPTINESS is realized.
Tankha depiction: ignorance at center of wheel of life

Pig = ignorance/ego-grasping
Pigeon = attachment
Snake = anger
Pigeon and snake both come from mouth of pig. Root delusion.

Buddha pointing to moon disc, which represents enlightenment

Crucial to remember impermanence death; motivation to use life now, help sentient beings! Life is precious, remember that it is not permanent.

Lam Rim 3 (Day 26)

HIGH SCHOOL 1

5 Aggregates

Form - physical
Feeling - mental factors
Discrimination - mental factors
Compositional Factors - mix of all phenomena that are not mind or body (ex: karma)
Consciousness - mental continuum

Lowest Scope: control body and speech/physical actions = aggregate 1
Middle Scope: control thoughts/mental factors = aggregates 2, 3, and 5
#5 = epitome of merely-labeled self
5 aggregates are impermanent on subtle level; change moment-to-moment. On gross level, consciousness is beginningless and endless.

In Buddhism, abstract phenomena can be "permanent" (ex: cessation of suffering, buddha mind), but conventional/concrete phenomena are impermanent.

In framework of karma, hope is useless; just opposite of fear. Useful = determination! Hope implies no understanding of cause and effect. Useful to be determined to create causes for the consequences we desire. Like botany, we don't just hope plants will grow, we know they will because we plant the seeds.
Becoming a bodhisattva: "You can only help when you don't need help."
Sentient beings = any being in samsara. Buddhas are not sentient beings.
4 Noble Truths: Doorway to Mind

Suffering: the problem

Suffering of pain, suffering of change, and all-pervasive suffering

Causes of Suffering: the sources

Karma: fruits of past actions (suffering = from non-virtuous past actions)
Delusions and non-virtuous actions created by them. Non-virtues root in delusions.
BUDDHIST MODEL OF MIND: Lo Rig

Mind & Awareness
Epistemological Model: how mind functions. 2 ways: sensory consciousness and mental consciousness. Origin of conceptuality.
Bare perception is not the same as conceptual perception.

Cessation of Suffering
Path to Cessation of Suffering

"Getting wisdom is the method of getting happy, and getting rid of delusions is the method of getting wisdom."
Mental States/Factors

Virtuous: valid concepts, root in connection
Non-virtuous: invalid concepts, root in separation
Mechanics: other factors of mind; intention, attention, mindfulness. Neither virtuous nor non-virtuous.

Feelings - present in every mental state

Positive: tendency=attachment
Negative: tendency=aversion
Neutral

Attention: mental engagement. What we work to cultivate.

Basis for good memory, mindfulness, and awareness.
Mindfulness practice: noticing sensory feelings before reactions arise.

Every cognition requires form, feeling, contact, intention, and attention to be a coherent thought. We need to cultivate these factors to use them well (for concentration and awareness).
Mental factors of object attainment

Directed mental action involves aspiration ("I want __"), appreciation (belief), mindfulness (working memory), concentration, and intelligence (fine discrimination).

Wisdom alone (intelligence) or concentration alone is not enough. Need both for realizations like emptiness!

Lam Rim 4 (Day 27)

HIGH SCHOOL 2

6 Root Delusions

Ignorance

Assumption of intrinsicness of all things and of inherent "I"; root of all delusions

Attachment

Main cause of suffering

Aversion

Attachment thwarted

Pride

Blocks learning and understanding, rooted in inherent "I" ignorance

Deluded Views

Extreme views, mistaken views convinced of intrinsic existence; prevents middle way; belief in our own views as superior

Doubt

Disbelief in true things

Recognizing your main delusion (one which makes you suffer most) can give you deep insight into yourself.

Attachment manifests as intense ups & downs (bipolar, OCD, hyper mind; expectations and disappointments)
Aversion manifests as anger
Pride manifests as getting easily offended/feeling unheard

Secondary Delusions

Anger -> belligerence, vengeance, spite, envy, cruelty
Attachment -> greed, excitement, hautiness (thinking a lot about what we have)
Ignorance -> concealment (hiding our non-virtues from others), dullness, laziness, forgetfulness, inattentiveness, faithlessness (in things worthy of confidence)
Attachment + Ignorance -> pretension (showing self as more than you are), dishonesty
Attachment + Anger + Ignorance -> shamelessness (no conscience), non-wisdom (indifference), distraction, non-consideration for others

Delusions exaggerate/decorate reality, giving rise to misconceptions.

Guilt = mental illness, delusion, destroying our lives! We must not to believe it. Rooted in anger!

Important to know these delusions as they fit into the model of mind in order to label them when they arise and counter them.
COUNTERING Delusions

Get concentration (CONCENTRATE)
Recognize and argue the thoughts (LABEL AND CHALLENGE)

Countering anger: patience
Countering pride: remind yourself of something you can't do
Countering attachment: remember impermanence and emptiness. Tell self: "This will not and CANNOT fulfill me." + Imagine object of attachment as broken, gross, etc.
Countering jealousy: appreciative joy

Method: Working hypotheses

Regarding reincarnation, karma, mind as not brain, etc.: take the things as working hypotheses. Keep looking into them, studying, seeing what makes the most sense logically as you gather more information. Don't need to believe things blindly! In fact, this is exactly what not to do, in Buddhism. If it doesn't make sense, don't believe it! Find answers on your own.

UNIVERSITY

Requires wisdom wing (knowing how actions impact suffering = junior school // and what suffering is/where it comes from - delusions, the mind = high school) to develop useful compassion.
Compassion Wing

Can't have compassion for others that we can use to help unless we have compassion for ourselves, which has motivated us to understand our own suffering.
Bodhisattva vows: guidelines for cultivating 6 perfections (generosity, morality, patience, perseverance, concentration, and renunciation) to teach how to enact compassion/put others first
Crucial to have right motivation and act with wisdom

Demands being aware of motivations behind all you do. Conscious always of what will most benefit others.

Core to many of the vows: speaking badly of any part of the Buddhist path/teachings, or harming one of the 3 Jewels (e.g., turning people away from Hinayana/pratimoksha, which is the necessary basis for Mahayana practice)
When we become drained by trying to help others, this means we don't have the wisdom yet, as we are still driven by our own attachment.

When we don't have the wisdom yet, we can get confused between attachment and compassion.

2 Wings

Wisdom (pratimoksha): protecting you from incurring suffering by exercising caution with actions and speech
Compassion (bodhisattva): helping others reduce suffering by putting their benefit first. Need wisdom to do this.
One is not inferior to the other! Wisdom wing is the essential training for the compassion wing.

Lam Rim 5 (Day 28)

GRAND REVIEW

2 Wings

Reducing delusions makes us more stable because we are more able to cope with our lives in a wise way
Working on your mind is the basis for developing wisdom, which is essential for actually benefiting others.
Wisdom gives way to benefit; compassion gives wish to benefit.

Karmic Tendencies

Karma is created by mind and followed through with body and speech.
Everything you do develops a habit. The stronger the habit (the more times reinforced), the more embedded the tendency. In view of karma, these tendencies pass on with consciousness through reincarnations.
We need to understand that the reason for us to be moral is NOT for others to approve of us: it is to prevent our own suffering out of self-respect. Non-harm to OURSELVES automatically leads to non-harm to OTHERS.

How to Enact Wisdom Wing

Look at world through lens of karma (causes & effects/results)

"Wow, they incurred that from a cause, and they will reap the results"

Recognize delusions in others and remember that you have them, too. See things as ways to learn more about your mind.

"Thank you for showing me more about my mind/how to be/how not to be."

How to Enact Compassion Wing

See everyone as equally deserving compassion, and try to understand that everyone equally wants to be free from suffering.
Send compassionate thoughts to all, and when wisdom is in place, act on this compassion to help. While wisdom developing, do your best with what you have.

Motivation

The real thing that makes anything beneficial is the motivation behind it.

ex: being a teacher for the status and money is out of attachment (non-virtue); being a teacher for benefiting/helping others is out of compassion (virtue)
Until we have true bodhicitta, we add compassionate motivation to all we do, whatever activity/job

Understanding your own mind is the essential prerequisite for understanding others and having real compassion (for victims and victimizers because both are suffering from delusions that we have too)

Karma

Must rid our minds of idea that we are all born innocent. If we accept view of karma, lets us be rid of anger that arises out of feeling "I don't deserve it"/"they don't deserve it"

Doing what is beneficial

Biggest regret among dying people: not following their heart & doing what was expected of them.
Aspire to do what is most beneficial. This might mean tough choices that don't look the most beneficial, to others.
If you like studying Buddhism, do it! Use your intellect for benefit, to yourself and others.

Lam Rim 6 (Day 29)

GRAND REVIEW 2

Bodhisattva Path

Every thought and action of compassion plants the seeds in our mind, makes imprints, to produce more of the same.
Wisdom wing = controlling body, speech, and mind to reduce our own suffering (morality of restraint)
Compassion wing = "controlling" to reduce others' suffering (morality of benefiting others)
Exchanging self for others by breaking self-cherishing and, through wisdom wing, developing bodhicitta
It is impossible to suffer from compassion. We suffer from attachment.
Perfecting stable equanimity, loving-kindness, compassion, and appreciative joy.
Bodhicitta: bodhi (awakening) citta (for all beings through our compassion; action = take suffering of others and never give up)

Knowing what is best for the person you are helping (requires wisdom)

Purification

Such a psychologically intelligent practice to do this at the end of every day.

Regret: reflect on day and what you've done
Rely: take refuge in doctor (Vajrasattva or Buddha) and have compassion for self/those you've harmed
Remedy: visualize doctor helping you purify regrets
Resolve: commit to not doing what you regret again (give time frame)

Then, go to bed with a happy mind and start again tomorrow.

Attachment

Remedy attachment (dissatisfaction, anxiety, depression) by channeling energy into one thing + working on getting samatha
Why does it matter that the "I" is merely labeled? Because then, we don't need to be attached to it, and shouldn't be because that makes us suffer!

SUMMARY: Point of Buddhism

Things do not exist in the way we see them; we cognize based on conception (through lens of concepts/emotions) rather than raw perception due to deep habits. Emotions are conceptual stories with physical symptoms. Once we realize that all of it is in the physical mind, we know we can rid ourselves of the lies/exaggerations our conceptions tell us. The way to do this is all through single-pointed concentration. The subtlest lie, and the underlying truth that every teaching leads to, is that there is no inherent "self," emptiness. Once we realize emptiness, bodhicitta is the only logical result (no independent things = everything and everyone interdependent = we are the same = we all can be free of suffering = we must help each other to get there).
Working on our own minds is how to help others.
PATH: control body and speech + understand/control mind + cultivate compassion => emptiness + bodhicitta
Essential to distinguish virtues from delusions. Need samatha to watch mind to do this; microscope of mind.
Karma: motivation determines character of our actions. Intention ("I will") + motivation (why) + action + result (completion)

Employed in bodhisattva path; doing everything with bodhicitta means motivation is compassion
Controlling mind = altering our motivations to be positive/virtuous rather than based on attachment.
While we still have attachment, add bodhicitta to what we do/how we are attached. Beneficial motive rather than guilt! (for anything; bingeing, smoking, sex, etc.) Notice emptiness, add compassion.

Skilful means to work with what we have; same action, different result. Makes us conscious, less driven by habits.

Daily Practices (Day 31)

Bookend day with a little practice right at beginning and end of day. Discipline!
Beautiful altar helps motivate. Somewhere you like to go.

Enlightened body (image of Buddha + guru), speech (dharma book/mantra), and mind (stupa)
Om Mani Padme Hum: "May perfect compassion and wisdom take root in our hearts."

First things upon waking up:

Notice "Wow, still alive." Smashes ego-grasping and permanence.
Take refuge and point MIND in right direction. ("May I take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha to work on understanding my mind for the benefit of all sentient beings.")
3 prostrations and/or go to altar to make physical offering. And/or sit, or read. (BODY)
Vow to speak only positive/non-harmful words all day and be kind. Motivation of bodhicitta. (SPEECH)

End of day:

4 Opponent Powers (purify!) Be conscious of seeds sewn that day.

Acknowledge harmful acts/speech (regret), gratitude for method to help/compassion for harm caused to self and others (rely), mantra/prayer/visualize purifying (remedy), then decide to change and for how long (resolve).

When eating throughout day:

Think offering first bite to buddha/3 jewels/all sentient beings to slash attachment.
"Thank you for all of the causes and conditions that have led to this food being here. I offer this food to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and to all sentient beings everywhere. May I use the energy I obtain from this food to benefit all sentient beings."

Commit to doing what is most beneficial.
Dharma study: online courses, reading, retreats, go to centers.
Remember emptiness and bodhicitta.
All for YOU, for YOUR benefit. Becoming your own friend and owning your mind.