if the aspiration to Buddhahood has arisen at the beginning it's it's a very fragile sprout or a very fragile vulnerable seed and as I said earlier it's like a candle flame easily blown out and I was talking to somebody who had the thought, you know, that he was doing pretty well. And that thought that I'm doing pretty well with this aspiration to Buddhahood, that thought can blow out the flame. Because it's so fragile. The thought that you're doing fine can blow it out. Now, there's also a thought that you're not doing fine, that you're not... you're not living in accord with this aspiration, that can also blow it out.

[01:03]

So any thought you have about this wonderful aspiration could blow it out. So be ready for it to get blown out. But at the same time, if you have a thought like, I'm not doing well, or I am doing well, My practice of the bodhisattva way is really good or is not good. Either way, it's still your practice is your practice. But you can blow out your aspiration by grasping your views of your practice. And that might happen. But that's not the end of the world. Then now that it's been blown out, let's go look for it again. What was it again? What was that? What was the aspiration? What was most important? Did you say that? So he remembered.

[02:06]

He reminded me. But I forgot. But when I asked, he reminded me. Thank you. So we do sometimes get distracted, but actually we might not change our mind. We just get distracted. and into opinions and stuff. But those have consequence. They can disturb our practice. So we have to be very careful of what we think about our practice. We do think things about our practice, though. But be very careful about them. And generally speaking, be careful not to believe them. If you grasp them, then they're more likely to blow out this ungraspable, tender little flame. Yes, Patty? Did I say not to think a thought?

[03:10]

I did not say that. I said be careful of your thoughts. Respect them. They're powerful. And respecting your thoughts, which are powerful and can blow out your bodhicitta, not even your bodhicitta, blow out the bodhicitta, the baby bodhicitta. Those thoughts have that power. But if you're careful with them and respectful, if you respect them, that will protect the bodhicitta from them harming it. And again, trying not to have thoughts will blow out the bodhicitta. Because trying not to have thoughts is not is not respectful I would say trying to be friends trying to be respectful of bodhicitta is the same as trying to be respectful of everything including your thoughts about I'm doing okay you can think that it's alright but if you grab it trouble maybe big trouble but not

[04:30]

eternal doom. Just for the moment, you blew it. Like I was talking to somebody, you know, in AA, they have sponsors, and sometimes the sponsors get distracted, and then they're not sponsors anymore. But they can recover and be sponsors again once they remember the practice. But if you forget the practice temporarily, you're on the bench. or whatever, you're sidelined from the leadership position. Yes? So earlier, I think you said that this small flame can burn into a forest fire. It can grow into. So if I think something about the practice and block the flame, isn't that fire raging all around me?

[05:31]

There's two fires. One is the fire of bodhicitta. The other is the fire of the suffering that surrounds it. So the suffering that surrounds it will continue to burn. The question is, is this spirit of awakening for the sake of freeing all beings from the flames of birth and death? So birth and death sometimes is fire. But we have this other fire, which is the fire of the practice. And that, we treat that with respect, which means we don't touch it or turn away, and we should treat everything, everything that should be treated that way. So we're trying to free beings, we want to free beings so we can live in peace together. And that wish, when we get slugged by the suffering, we sometimes forget it. But we can recover I'm saying, what was my wish again?

[06:33]

And they say, you're a bodhicitta person. Oh, okay, thanks. Let's start over. Little flame in big ocean of suffering. But this little flame can learn how to be with it all and teach the whole ocean. Yes? So if you can't find it, you could say, where are you? Are you around here somewhere? I remember the other day I had a great aspiration. I had a really strong faith in something, but I can't remember what it was.

[07:36]

And being kind to not remembering it will prepare the ground for remembering. And like if you're talking to a Dharma friend, you say, I can't remember it. If they're mean to you, that won't make it easier probably. But they could say, oh, you can't remember it? No. Oh, now I remember. The question, oh, what was it again? What was that? Something really great happened and I forgot what it was. What was it? And to tell your Dharma friends might be helpful. And then, oh yeah, that's what it was, right. And do you still feel that you wish for that? Yes, I do. Now you remember. But being patient with forgetting helps remember. You may have heard about older people sometimes have trouble remembering things. Have you heard about that?

[08:40]

Do you remember here? Some of you remember that old people have trouble remembering. Some old people don't remember that. Anyway, generally speaking, I find that when I can't remember something, to be friends with not remembering promotes remembering. And being mean to myself between now and remembering does not help. It just is mean, man. And what I forgot was to be kind. So if I can't remember that I want to be kind, then being friendly to that will promote me remembering. Oh, yeah, right. I think Dalai Lama says, my religion is kindness. Maybe he forgets. I don't know. It's possible that he forgets. But when he remembers, it's the same story. Kindness. And joyful to be kind in the midst of all this suffering.

[09:43]

Yes? Well, some people... Patience has... Not too many people are practicing it. I should say a lot of people are not practicing it. Let's put it that way. I think actually a lot of people are practicing it and a lot of people are not. So there's a big what you call public relations firm which was founded for the sake of promoting patience. And so they say stuff about patience like patience is the greatest virtue. Have you heard that one? You haven't? Good for you. Almost everybody else heard that? Patience is the greatest virtue? Yeah, it's quite common. Now you've heard it. That's true, too. It is the third paramita. But also in Western culture, which you may have visited there sometime, they say in the Western culture, patience is the greatest virtue.

[10:54]

That's a bumper sticker. But also, In Buddhism, they say patience is the primary condition for awakening. So anyway, since not many people are practicing it, we have to, like, really beat the drum for it. It's really the primary. You've got to do this. You cannot be a Buddha without patience. In other words, if you live in a place where there's no opportunities to suffer, it's pretty hard to practice patience when you don't have any pain. kind of needs pain to practice patience. Well, it turns out we have it in the samsara. So, in other words, you need patience to be a Buddha, so you need pain to be a Buddha. And Buddha's got plenty of pain all around her, no shortage, and it's always present with her. So she always has a chance to practice patience.

[11:57]

It's really important. The other ones are, too. But somehow people need more encouragement to practice patience, I've noticed. With the generosity and the ethics and stuff, they say, OK. When patience says, no. Patience is basically saying, no. I'm not up for this suffering. No. I'm not going to be here. No way. We've got to say, yes, I'm going to be here with this. I'm going to settle into this suffering. I'm not going to be concerned for how long it's been going on or how long it's going to last. I'm going to take this tiny little bite of suffering. Can I understand? That's necessary for Buddha. To be a Buddha, you do not have to eat suffering in a minute of suffering or ten minutes of suffering.

[13:05]

You don't have to take it in big bites. That's not necessary. You can take it in tiny bites, like in the present. But you have to do that. As a matter of fact, that's the best way. Because you can take a tiny bite of extreme pain, but you can't take a big bite, like a week of big pain. But you can do a moment, maybe, and Buddhists do that. And they know that's omnipresent, this suffering is omnipresent, and they accept that they have to keep practicing patience. You're welcome. Yes? Yeah. It's steadfast. Yeah.

[14:06]

It's open. It's being open to the suffering. Say again. You can't say what? No, the steadfast, open, clear is the practice. That's the companion to the suffering. Hopefully, we have an open, steadfast presence with the suffering. That's the companion. That the suffering needs that companion in order to settle down and leap beyond itself.

[15:09]

Suffering is actually constantly leaping beyond itself. And we have to be with it in order to jump with it. Yeah, that's good, too. It might not be what I think it is. That's part of being generous. That's part of being careful. Maybe what I think is happening might not be true. That's really good. Also, but not what I think is happening is definitely not true. That's not very kind either. But might not be, and might be, might be false, might be true, might not be true. This is good. This is part of being a generous bodhisattva. What I think of you all, although I think you're great, It might not be true. What I think might not be who you are. Maybe. Maybe it is, but maybe it's not. And this pain might not be what I think it is either, but I have to be with it anyway, even though it's not what I think it is.

[16:19]

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The patience frees up a lot of energy that's being wasted, resisting being present. And then the next practice is enthusiasm. So now you can really develop your wholeheartedness after you're not wasting all that time trying to get away. Want to hear one more thing? Yes? When Buddhahood happens, one knows what is so and what is not so. Buddhahood doesn't really happen. But in Buddhahood, which doesn't happen. In Buddhahood, one knows what is so and what is not so. That's right. As opposed to essentially being like, we think we know what is so, but we don't.

[17:33]

It's wise not to believe what we think. It's wise not to believe what you think. But it's also wise, even if you think things that are not true, it's wise to be respectful of what you think. Buddha respects what we think, even though it may not be so. So our delusions are, don't really. Don't hold up to truth. They still should be respected. Buddha respects them. Buddha respects us, no matter how stupid we are. Buddha respects us. Buddha is devoted to foolish people, even if they're not bodhisattvas. Yes? When you say that when thoughts arise to ascension minds, that is a letter from Timas. Would I say it's a letter from emptiness?

[18:36]

I don't know if I would say that. But I heard you say it, and I respect that you said it. I thought it was kind of worthy of respect. Everything's a letter from emptiness. That's Barbara's bumper sticker. Everything's a letter from emptiness. But I would say everything's empty. I'm okay with that. But that teaching I might not say to everybody. Why? Because they might not be settled. If they're not settled, they might think, oh, if it's empty, I don't have to settle. If suffering is empty, then I can just spend my time trying to get away from it. Because it's empty. No problem in trying to get away from something that's empty. But If you try to get away from things like suffering, your understanding of everything's empty is very superficial.

[19:41]

And a superficial understanding of emptiness is really, Nagarjuna says, those who do apprehend their superficial understanding of emptiness, he didn't say those who hold to a superficial understanding, he says those who hold to their view of emptiness. But a view of emptiness is a superficial understanding. Emptiness, when you understand it, you can't get a hold of it. Those who think you can get it, they're very difficult to teach. So for those people, we don't maybe say, let's forget. I didn't really mean that. Let's forget. I'm sorry I brought it up. Let's go back to suffering. Let's go back to form and feeling and confusion and fear. And when you're settled, maybe I'll bring up emptiness again. But not now. It's not time for that teaching. If somebody's practicing the bodhisattva precepts and they hear about emptiness, they might think, whew, what a relief I don't have to practice these difficult precepts anymore.

[20:45]

I never really did understand them, but it doesn't matter because they're empty. Forget about it. You're not an emptiness person. Just go back to the precepts, which are telling you how to be careful of your ideas. Anything else you want to bring? I was going to bring up number three, but I think maybe not. Unless you beg me.

[21:29]

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