A general picture of practicing these six basic disciplines of bodhisattvas, which I've said before, is that there is a way of progressively practicing them and attaining them in dependence on the other ones. So it's challenging to practice each one, but then also while practicing one and focusing on one, we also are encouraged to remember that that one is independent on the other ones. So we're focusing on one but remembering the others are there to support it. and that will help us practice the one properly.

[01:06]

To focus on one of them and to kind of in any way forget the other ones will make the practice of that one less effective. So when you do practice one depending on the other ones you do attain you will attain them one by one. But if we practice one of them and forget the other ones, that kind of undermines that one. Also I said that there's this practice called the perfection of power which assists the development of concentration. And I will try to do more research on this one.

[02:13]

But what I say right now is that the perfection of power is developed by relying on good teachers and relying on the teaching and then we are able to have a contemplation that can transform lesser vows into greater vows or can transform our limited capacity into transcendent thought. And that assists the development of concentration. But when I say that, somehow that may not make that much sense to you, but that's what I would say at this time. Also, in speaking about concentration, I said that within the path of working for the welfare and liberation of all beings, one way the concentration practice is taught is to focus on that very issue.

[03:46]

The issue of the welfare and liberation of others. And also the issue of realizing Buddhahood for the welfare of others. And I also offered the Amazing statement that all happiness in this world comes from focusing on the welfare of others. And unhappiness comes from focusing on the welfare of oneself. And you quietly listen to that. But I also in reflecting on it I remembered that there is something called worldly happiness.

[04:59]

And worldly happiness is related to worldly unhappiness. And worldly happiness comes I think when When you gain something you want, when you receive something you want, you feel happiness. That's a worldly happiness. When you lose something you don't want to lose and you feel unhappy, that's a worldly unhappiness. When pleasure comes and you're happy, that's a worldly happiness. When pain comes and you're unhappy, that's a worldly unhappiness. And these are examples of, they seem to be happiness, it's called happiness and unhappiness, but it's worldly.

[06:04]

So in a sense when it says here, Happiness, I guess it means real happiness or spiritual happiness. Because people are happy sometimes just when they gain something. And then they become unhappy when they lose it. Whereas the spiritual happiness is not really jumping up and down, coming and going when you gain and lose things. It's looking for a way to be happy when you lose things that you like, or when you lose pleasure, you can still be happy. And when pleasure comes, you can also be happy. But you're not afraid of the pleasure going away. if you're focused on the welfare of others.

[07:12]

And you're not afraid of pleasure coming when you're focused on the welfare of others. But if you're focused on your own welfare, then you're actually kind of unhappy even when you're happy. because something good comes and you get happy, but then you quickly become unhappy even before it goes away. You can be afraid you'll lose it. And of course, losing things you like, you're naturally unhappy if you're focused on your self. So there is a kind of happiness that actually is kind of programmed into our nervous system. And there's an anticipation of happiness programmed, I think, as part of our nervous system that we have to deal with.

[08:19]

But that's the kind of happiness that basically is for our animal activity program to keep us moving. So I, generally speaking, I shouldn't say generally speaking, but some studies show that generally speaking, when people think of something positive and the possibility of a positive thing, they think that they will not, if that positive thing, and they take away positive things, when they think of certain things happening, they think that they'll be happy if those things happen. And if they think of other things happening, they think they'll be unhappy if those things happen. And they're often somewhat right that they are happy when those things happen and unhappy when those other things happen. However, the level of happiness and the length of time they think the happiness will last is almost always overestimated.

[09:29]

And for the unhappy things, the intensity of the unhappiness and how long they think it'll last is overestimated. So when we were coming down to the retreat, I was in the car and we were listening to the San Francisco Giants playing baseball. And I think Susan asked me something like, do I... I don't know if she said this, but she might have said, Do you feel better when the Giants win than when the other team wins? Or does it hurt you when they lose? I remember I saw this guy hit this ball into the air and it looked like it was going to be a home run. moved over to the right a little bit, and then the field got farther, the wall got farther away at that point, and it wasn't a home run.

[10:32]

And this guy made this amazing catch. So it wasn't even a hit. But if it had been 10 feet over to the left, it would have been a home run. And the guy who hit the ball was on the San Francisco Giants team. And... I did feel some pain for him that he didn't get his home run. But I also felt appreciation for the guy who made the catch. I was able to say, well, that was great. I didn't hate him for catching the ball. But I did feel some pain for this guy not getting a home run. Now, would I have felt pain if it was the other team not getting a home run? Or I should say another player who didn't get his home run would I have?

[11:36]

And maybe I might not have. And that's like that's like worldly unhappiness. Can you watch these games and really appreciate these amazing athletes on both sides and really have joy for the skill of the players, no matter what kind of uniform they're wearing. And I think you can do that in a spiritual way, really being happy for these people being skillful, and being happy for them even being happy for their spiritual happiness which comes from their devotion to the other players and to the welfare and health of the game, to the welfare of all the fans.

[12:37]

It might be that way and you just have spiritual joy for them. especially if nobody from your hometown is in the race. And I just, in my notes here I have this little article and I wrote on the top of the article focusing on our own happiness and the name of the article is Power Lines And it's about what has been termed, perhaps not too respectfully, as the law of attraction industry. There's a law of attraction industry.

[13:39]

And it has to do with, it's sort of like the power of positive thinking kind of thing. So it's like, It says that your thoughts have physical power and you can think yourself into being rich. And I guess that's a book, there was a video and then there was a book called The Secret and The Secret sold 90 million copies. And there's a picture here of the person who wrote the article, and she has a big heart in front of her with a dollar sign on it. So I don't know if that's so respectful of this person, but anyway, that's the picture. And she did get rich.

[14:43]

But they said something in the article which, you know, kind of, it sounds a little bit like the Buddhist teaching, which is, you are the Michelangelo of your life. And the David you're carving is yourself. So it's a little bit like the Buddhist teaching that, you know, your thoughts, your actions have consequence. And that, so in a sense, the actions you're doing right now are creating your life. And it's a little bit, it also is the actions you've done in the past are also part of it too. But anyway, what you're doing right now is really important because what you're doing right now is the work of Michelangelo. And you're carving your David right now. So this relates to...

[15:50]

the issue of free will. Yeah, look to see whether if it's spiritual or worldly or maybe both. But anyway, you're happy, right? Well, we want that I postpone this issue because the issue of free will is a philosophical issue. Now, will is a psychological phenomenon, but the debate over whether will is free or not is a philosophical issue. And philosophical is related to the word Sophia, philo-sophia.

[16:56]

loving Sophia, and Sophia is the goddess of wisdom. So now we're on the wisdom practices. We're coming to the wisdom teachings, the wisdom practices. So it would be appropriate to study the cause and effect of will. Studying the principles and discussing causation around will is a philosophical topic. In other words, it's a topic, a wisdom topic. When you're practicing giving, you're not necessarily considering a free will. You're not necessarily debating or contemplating whether your giving is by free will or not. But now, with the proper preparation, we hopefully can discuss the issue of free will.

[18:00]

And I guess one thing I would say is that the Buddha taught that actions have consequence. In other words, actions influence our future. Actions create our future. However, the Buddha also taught that that this influence or this creation is not strict determinism. And some people look at the Buddha's teaching and interpret it through strict determinism and that I think is not really in accord with the way the Buddha taught it. If will is really free, then that would be another kind of determinism.

[19:05]

And if will is determined, then there would be no point in practicing because the things you do would be already determined, and the consequence would be determined, so there'd be no point to try to practice. If there was no relationship between what you do and what happens, there would also be no point in practicing. So the issue of free will is kind of like, what's the word, it's... it's hard to actually get a hold of whether the Buddha is teaching free will or not. But there must be some play in the situation, otherwise there would be no point in paying attention to your actions because your actions would all be already set.

[20:19]

So if you paid attention to him, that would be set. And if you didn't pay attention to him, that would be set. And the consequences would be set. So the tradition puts a lot of emphasis on paying attention to your actions because of... And the basic definition of action... The definition of action, of thought action, of speech action, and bodily postural action, the basic definition of it, in a way, is will. Will or intention or volition. Volition and will are very similar words. There's nuances there between motivation, intention, volition, and will. But they're kind of all reasonable translations of a term that the Buddha used called chetana, which is a definition of karma, definition of the kind of action that has consequences relative to spiritual evolution, relative to bringing happiness to others and being happiness for yourself.

[21:39]

So paying attention to volition is strongly recommended by the tradition. But not because if you pay attention you're going to get control of your volition. And if you've got control of your volition then your volition would be in control of the consequences. It's just that among the many factors the many factors that determine what happens, volition is the one that the Buddha really focused on. But also people say, well how can I remember to pay attention? How can I remember the teachings? How can I be mindful? In some sense, people have to control themselves into being mindful. But if you could control yourself into being mindful, if you could control yourself into remembering, there would be no point to make the effort to be mindful.

[22:47]

Because mindfulness wouldn't make any difference, because what's going to happen is going to happen no matter what level of mindfulness you have, because that level of mindfulness you have is just going to be given to you, and then that's going to have its effect, so there'd be no point to practice. But again, if mindfulness doesn't have consequence, there will also be no point in practicing it. But it does have consequence. It influences the way we act, and the way we act influences the way the world is. The world, and the Buddha taught, the world is created by the karma of all beings. That's what creates the world. That doesn't create a world, however, where everything is strictly determined or where things are totally random and chaotic. It doesn't determine a world like that.

[23:49]

It makes a world in which there's teachings about paying attention to our action in the world. And I would say that Reality is not necessarily a world. Worlds are things which karmic consciousnesses create. Worlds are kind of enclosures where living beings who have karmic consciousness live. But the worlds are not ultimate truths. The worlds are enclosures as a consequence of minds that are enclosures. And again, the happiness in a world depends on our intention. So if our intention is focused on the welfare of others,

[24:52]

The teaching is that there will be happiness in this world even if you're simultaneously a person whose mind pops up a little happiness when pleasure comes and pops up a sadness when pain comes. Even if your mind thinks, well, it would be fun to have some ice cream or it would be fun to have a good meal, And then you go and you have the good meal, and it is kind of fun, but not as fun as you thought it would be, and the fun didn't last as long as you thought it would. And sometimes, even though it's fun, you actually, right when you start to eat, you get distracted and never notice that it was fun. Because you think of something else that would be more fun before you even notice how fun it was to eat the good meal. And it looked like it was going to be a good meal. And even that thought that it was going to be a good meal, you started to feel a little bit happy.

[25:56]

But just as you started to eat, you thought of something else that would be even more fun than this. So you hardly even noticed how fun it was. And the little bit of fun that you almost noticed was just a flash before you moved on to something else. And somebody asked you, was that a good meal? You said, I don't know. So even being a person like that, having a nervous system like that, which we do, and hearing teachings, so we watch ourselves, we say, we watch our mind go, well, that'll be so much fun. And then you say, yeah, but it won't. It won't be that much fun. And as a matter of fact, it won't even necessarily be any fun. It might not even happen. But if it does happen that we do this thing, it often is a little bit fun. But it won't be as much fun as it seems here.

[26:59]

And you can watch and see and verify for yourself that it's not as much fun as you thought it was going to be and it didn't last as long as you thought it would. they do research on people who, like college kids who are looking forward to a game, and they see how happy they are right after... they see how happy they think they'll be, then they see how happy they'll be after the game when they lose, and they see how unhappy they are after their team loses, and then they see how happy they are after their team wins, and they ask them if... how that compares to how happy or sad they thought it was going to be, and usually say, well, I'm not as sad as I thought I'd be. I am sad, but not as sad as I thought I'd be. And I am happy, but not as happy as I thought I'd be. And a week later, the level of happiness of the person seems to be about the same, whether they won or lost. You can observe that in yourself.

[28:04]

And in other words, you can notice that you're wired that way. And that will change the way you practice when you think of doing something you think would be pleasurable. It will change it. And you may not like the way it changes because on the worldly level, something you used to get, you won't get anymore. namely the sense of, this is really going to be fun, and then believing that. You'll think, oh, this is really going to be fun, and you think, but it probably won't be as fun as I think it is right now. And so I'm losing that naive sense of how much fun things are going to be. And I'm sorry about that. I feel sorry. So all this is going on, and a person like that, if they focus on the welfare of others... which is a kind of will. It's an intention to focus on the welfare of others.

[29:06]

Your mind, your nervous system still goes through all this other stuff, but there's this happiness that is quite a bit bigger, you might say, than which team wins or whether ice cream is really going to be a delicious and wonderful and long-lasting pleasure as you think it's going to be. And you do think it's going to be. And maybe, again, you think, well, should I go to baseball games with people and should I go to ice cream parlors with people? Since I realize that this is vanity. And the answer is, focus on the welfare of others And you'll be happy. And from that practice you can tell whether you should go to the ice cream parlor or not. But you're not going to the ice cream parlor primarily for the pleasure you think you might feel or even that you know you're not going to the ice cream parlor even for the ice cream at all.

[30:17]

You're going to go with the other people. And you also don't not go to the ice cream parlor knowing that it won't be as much fun as you think it would be or that they think it would be. And you also don't go there to be a wet blanket. Although they might think you are and stop inviting you. Because they say, oh, let's go get the new flavor of it. And you kind of go, okay. And you say, well, don't come with us. You stay here. Stay in the car. Okay. Oh, look at these new flavors. Get this guy out of here. The proprietors won't let you in the room. But they might bring you along anyway because they might be devoted to the welfare of others and want to bring you along. So while we're trying to get various kinds of happiness for ourselves...

[31:24]

there's another practice or there's another practice which goes on which gets this other kind of happiness which is which is the big one and that one can be accessed through the practice of focusing on the welfare of all beings and you can tune into this huge overarching happiness and there could be also I guess a huge overarching unhappiness for those who are not devoted for those who are just devoted to themselves so both it's possible to have two people both of whom are bopping around with worldly happiness you know going to ice cream parlors and baseball games and stuff and their nervous systems are doing these calculations and stuff and they're guessing that what will be happy and sad and then also noticing perhaps that it's not the way they thought it would be or not.

[32:29]

Like children notice that hardly at all. So we're doing that. This is our ordinary human activity. One person while they're doing it is focused on their own welfare and there's this big unhappiness over them which is bigger which is there even when even when what they wanted, they got, or when pleasure comes. It's over their happiness and it's over their unhappiness. It overarches their worldly happiness and unhappiness. It's this big unhappiness. The other person who has the same kind of nervous system and playing the same games with, oh yeah, oh no, they have this big overarching happiness, this atmospheric joy, which is there as long as they keep making donations for the welfare of others.

[33:37]

That keeps the huge overarching happiness over the whole city, which is filled with some people who are working for the happiness of others, and that makes happiness, and it's filled with people also making an overarching unhappiness. Yes? Intention is the way your mind is kind of like structured or, yeah, it's kind of the way your mind is structured or it's kind of like, I often say, the watershed of your consciousness in a moment. So you wish to do something and part of the reason you wish to do it is you think it might be beneficial and

[34:41]

or you think it might be fun and sometimes you're intending to do something and you don't think it will be fun like maybe you might be going you might be on a baseball team and you might be going to a game that you think you're going to lose because the other team is you think is better trained than your team yeah Well, it's like if you pour water on a landscape, the way the water flows is the watershed. So if you have a flat surface and you pour water on it, it's hard to see where the water would flow. If it's really flat, the water just kind of puddles or beads on the surface, right? It won't run anywhere. The force of its fall determines the pattern of the water on a flat surface. But if the surface was, for example, if this piece of paper, if I just take it and bend it like this and you pour water on it, the water will run down the sides and run down these two sides and go out the ends.

[35:58]

That's right. That's right. You don't decide what your watershed is. Even though one of the things in the watershed is what seems to be your current decision. A decision is part of what makes the shape of it. You're right. You don't get to determine it. You, the person who has this watershed in her mind, don't determine the watershed. Just your mind arises and there's various mental factors that opinions and so on, but you don't determine your opinions and you don't determine the pattern of all your opinions and desires. Right. So what does determine it? Well, basically it's determined by past action and present circumstances. Yeah, well, it doesn't seem like there is free will. At the same time, we're not saying that past karma completely determines the present shape of your consciousness because the way your consciousness arises depends on other beings.

[37:17]

So if you had a history of, I don't know what, doing certain activities, that does condition you or predispose you to have similar kinds of experiences or actions in the future. But some unusual or in a way the current environmental factors also determine what comes up. So for example, I can speak English, But if I'm in a foreign country or even if I'm in the United States and I see Hispanic people and I see they're speaking Spanish, the way I speak English would change. They would affect the way I would speak English. So I can't really decide beforehand whether I'm going to speak English or not. So my ability to speak English determines my ability to speak English, but not completely, not 100%.

[38:31]

Otherwise, then there would be, of course, then there would be no free will. But it's not totally determined, so in a way there does seem to be free will or some freedom in the will. And so if someone teaches you to pay attention to your will, you couldn't control that they taught that to you. And you can't control that you heard what they said. And you can't control that it's sunk in. But when you hear the teachings of the Buddhas, that changes you. So that now when your will comes up, you can watch it. But you can't control that you're going to watch it, and the Buddhas can't control that you'll watch it. The Buddhas can't go over and turn everybody into meditators. They kind of want everybody to meditate, but the Buddhas can't determine you to meditate.

[39:32]

And they can't even determine that you'll hear their teaching. Yet they do teach people, and some people hear them. And sometimes the Buddhas teach, and they know that only one person in the group that they're talking to will listen to them. Because they can't control all the people to listen to them. They have a lot of power, but they don't have the power to control people because that's not the kind of universe the Buddha sees where things are determined. Yet the Buddha knows that there could be some influence. So the Buddha teaches. And the Buddha says... Karma, which is basically your will, has consequence. So it's good to pay attention to your will, to your karma, because it has consequence. And when you pay attention to it, this is a key ingredient in the process of liberation. So the Buddha doesn't have the free will to make you

[40:37]

have free will. And the Buddha doesn't have free will to make you not have free will. In other words, when the Buddha says, be good, from then on you have to be good. When the Buddha says, avoid evil, practice good, and benefit beings, the Buddha cannot control you to do that. So you say, so you have free will. But you can't make yourself do it either. Once you hear it and you think, you can't make yourself think, that's a good idea, so now I have free will, so I'm going to make myself avoid evil, practice good and benefit beings. So you don't have the free will to do that. And again, you don't have the free will to want to do it. You wouldn't be able to have done that if the Buddha hadn't told you that teaching. When the Buddha tells you that teaching, Lo and behold, you think, I would like to practice that. But you couldn't make yourself do that. But somehow when the Buddha met you, and you somehow wanted to listen to the Buddha, in that meeting, the teaching was transmitted.

[41:50]

But it wasn't transmitted in a way that from then on you're controlled by Buddha's good wishes for you. Did you get that? When you meet the Buddha, what's the Buddha's intention? The Buddha's will. The Buddha's will is, may she enter the unsurpassable way and quickly attain Buddhahood. That's the Buddha's will. But the Buddha's will doesn't even control the Buddha's next will. But the Buddha's next will is the same. And then the Buddha meets you and you meet the Buddha. When you meet the Buddha in that meeting, the Buddha's will is transmitted to you. But it doesn't control you into being that way. But when that transmission occurs, this is actually the process of enlightenment is starting.

[42:51]

That you hear this teaching, the process of enlightenment is started. The wisdom practice is happening. But also, the Buddha tells you these practices, the Buddha tells you practicing giving is good. So all these practices are conveyed to us by the Buddhas, but the Buddhas cannot control us and they cannot control themselves in the way they tell us these teachings. And the teachings they tell us say, I, the Buddha, am not in control of the way I teach you because I teach you according to you. I teach each person differently. So the way I teach, I cannot predetermine. The Buddha can't either. So the way I teach is not predetermined. It's determined, but not rigidly, not strictly. So I wish all beings to enter the great way, but the way I express that varies according to the circumstances.

[44:00]

So I don't... And that, in some sense, you say, well, that's good because then that's what really works for people. The Buddha isn't always doing this, trying to get everybody in the same way to do the same thing. But in a way, the Buddha is trying to get everybody to do the same thing, but it has to constantly vary. And because of the dependent core rising around the Buddha's goodwill... it's possible that it would be conveyed in just the right way for us, for each of us, in a different way. But the Buddha is not in control of us, we're not in control of the Buddha, we're not in control of ourselves, and yet in this communion there is a possibility of the transmission of the teaching and the practice And sometimes, and then people do the practice, and then that has influence on more practice, but not strictly. You don't let go. Zip into practice, boop, and that's it, and you stay on the practice thing uninterruptedly.

[45:04]

No, you don't. It's not uninterrupted right away. It's interrupted. So then you get teachings. Any interruptions going on here? Yes. Well, let me check. Or maybe you don't even check. You don't even listen to the teaching. Is there any interruption in the practice? Then a little bit later you get the same question. Is there any interrupt in the practice? And that time you say, oh yeah, there is. Would you like some instruction about what to do about that? No. Or yes, and then you get instruction about what to do with the interruption, which is the instruction is these practices. And you get instruction about how you can become uninterrupted even though you don't have free will and you can't make yourself uninterrupted and uninterruptible. You can't make yourself that way and yet you can make yourself that way. But you make yourself that way in this not strictly deterministic way which means not strictly free will. So this tradition is saying it is possible to be free

[46:11]

Freedom and liberation are possible but not in a strictly deterministic way and not in a random way. Like freedom is possible but how it happens is totally random. So there's no point in practicing. Or freedom is possible and it's determined and so you don't have to practice. So somehow we have to practice and we're not even in control of being able to practice. But we get the message that it that if there was strict determinism, there would be no need for practice. It would be nonsensical. But things are not undetermined, because if they were, there also wouldn't be a point of practice. So someplace in between. And the teaching is about a middle way. Does that get you started on your philosophical investigations?

[47:14]

No self. You still have a hard time with that. Okay. You have a self. You just don't have an independent self. Yeah. And the non-independent self you have Well, there's also intention. Yeah, the non-independent self is where intention lies, right? Because there is no independent self, so there's no place for intention to be in something that doesn't exist. But you don't have that anymore? Good. So you have an interdependent self, and the interdependent self is just everybody other than you. You have a dependent self, which means you don't have a self other than dependence.

[48:24]

So all your dependents are what you are. You have no self in addition to that. A self in addition to what you depend on would be an independent self. You don't have that one. So you have a dependent self, and the dependent self depends on, for example, your intention. this kind of self you are moment by moment you have a wholesome self or unwholesome self depending on your intentions but you're not in control of whether you have wholesome or unwholesome intention you're not in control of the you are not in control of the dependent self that you are but also everybody else isn't in control of you either because you're not strictly determined by the things that you depend on. Therefore, there's freedom possible. But I am nothing in addition to my dependencies or the conditions that create me.

[49:31]

And I'm uniquely that way, and so are you, every moment. Yes? it's related to what she's saying about free will. It's like, I think about how I got here, to this place, and I feel like I'm really lucky, and I'm really grateful. All those circumstances, you know, they're bringing me here, and I have the illusion that I've made some kind of choice for the way I step forward to meet those people. I've seen that part of me. Part of will, part of your will every moment is a kind of appearance of decision. It's not, well, it's a decision in the sense of, it's as much of a decision as we ever have. Usually the decision in our mind at a given moment is the kind of decisions we have in our mind in a given moment.

[50:34]

But there's no substantially independently existing decision. So you can make a decision, like I can make a decision to tell you that we're 15 minutes beyond the beginning of breakfast. It's scary, huh? But I didn't, you know... I didn't say that, what I just said. I seem to have made the decision to tell you that. I said I did, but it had to do with you bringing up the issue of decision-making. Otherwise, I might have just said that we're 15 minutes beyond the beginning of breakfast. Somebody said, well, you decided to do that. And I said, well, I guess you could say that, but I might not have said that I decided. But this time I said, I decided to tell you that because you brought up that topic. So there seems to be, the mind does seem to decide to pay attention to this rather than that, or that rather than this.

[51:40]

It does seem to pay attention to certain things and not others. So in that sense, it looks like a decision. But the mind doesn't make the decision. It's just that when it looks at one thing rather than another, you can sort of impute decision to it. And that's usually there in every moment of consciousness. It's an apparent choice to pay attention to this rather than all the other things. So a decision is sort of an appearance in our intention. Something good to know about and take care of and be mindful of. But as you meditate on it more and more, you realize that none of these facts, that our will or our intention You know, because it too is like another dependent phenomenon. You can't actually get a hold of it. And that's why this discussion is a wisdom discussion. Because it leads us to the understanding not only of our action and our world, but all the conditions that make our actions and our world.

[52:42]

They're all other dependent phenomena. They all lack independent self. And so if we pay attention to our karma, it is conducive to being able to have more opportunities to pay attention to our karma. If you pay attention to your karma, it doesn't mean, zip, you're now always tuned into your karma for the rest of your life with no interruption. It's just that it's conducive. It influences your ability to continue to meditate when you meditate. but it doesn't control you into being a meditator. You don't have the free will to make yourself without free will. And you also don't have the deterministic power to make yourself into someone who is determined. You don't have either of those. And yet, teaching keeps coming. Pay attention to your intention. Pay attention to your karma. And you will be rewarded by the ability to pay further attention to your karma.

[53:44]

And as you pay attention to your karma, you'll notice how your karma is built. You'll notice how your intention is created. And you'll understand the emptiness and the ultimate truth of the whole situation. And liberation will come with that wisdom. So now, breakfast time.

[54:01]

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