As I just said a moment ago, the ancient teacher says, to the extent that we're involved in self-clinging, we live within this container consciousness. And turning it around, living within this container consciousness, we take it to be a self, or our self. Further, I mentioned that towards the end of the first chapter, Asanga teaches that this container consciousness has two characteristics, a common characteristic and a general characteristic, a common characteristic and an uncommon characteristic. The common characteristic of this consciousness is what we who live within it

[01:21]

know as the physical world. So if we live within the container consciousness, it has a common characteristic, which is the physical world. It has an uncommon characteristic, which is our individual sense organs, including the mind organ. So if we live within this world, which is this consciousness, the world appears to be a self. In other words, the world appears to be substantial. We live in a world because we believe in substantiality, and then the world we live in looks substantial. But the substantial world is our common cognitive version of reality,

[02:22]

which our mind makes into an enclosing reality, a world. The physical world is common in the sense that it isn't just my karma, all my karma which makes it. All of our karma, all of our karma makes it. Still, each one of us, every moment makes another contribution to the formation of the world we live in together. We all have made tremendous contributions, but of course there are many other beings, so our own contribution is small compared to the totality. But still, it's enormous if you look at it by itself. After last week's class, I was kind of contemplating this world,

[03:30]

this physical world. I was contemplating the many kinds of affliction in this physical world. The social afflictions, the wars that are going on now. And not only the wars, but the people who are making lots of money in these wars. It isn't just that children are fighting each other, but some people are getting rich and famous on this. And the wars, not only are they hurting human beings and animals, but they're devastating the planet. Then we have economic crises. Some of which comes from, again, some people getting very rich. Now we have a new wave of economic problems

[04:34]

coming from politicians fighting each other all over the world. Governmental deadlocks or gridlocks are also undermining and destabilizing people's sense of economy. Our attempt to get energy in this world from gas, from oil, and also now natural gas. The drilling to get natural gas in some ways is more poisonous to the land than the drilling for oil. Because in order to get this gas, they have to put 570 additives that go in with the drilling equipment in order to make the drilling equipment work properly. And all these additives, besides the gas itself, are poisoning the land.

[05:40]

So people who live around where these natural gas wells are, some of them, they can ignite their drinking water. Because the drilling has caused the natural gas to go into their drinking water. So we have all these afflictions in this world. And I think, well, what does meditating on this little book do in relationship to all these ills? How can my meditation on how my mind is contributing to the world

[06:44]

transform this world? And so part of my response to that is that my mind has been contributing to the formation of this world that I'm talking about, this world of ills. I have been contributing to this all along. How can now, with the aid of this teaching, how can my contribution be transformative in a healing, and in a way that heals, that can contribute to the healing of this world which my karma is making? So I check it out, and go right to work. How?

[07:47]

Well, I look at my version of the world the way it looks to me, because my uncommon storehouse consciousness is the way the world looks to me. And then the way I relate to the way the world looks to me is where I can make a contribution to the transformation of the world which we all make together. Well, what do I do? I look at the world from my particular angle. Now, maybe we all agree, maybe everybody in this room agrees that there's a financial crisis, but some people may say, yeah, there's a financial crisis, and I'm making a lot of money on it. I love this financial crisis. I'm getting richer and richer. Some other people, when they hear about the war, yes, there's a war, and I'm getting richer. Some other people...

[08:48]

I saw these two guys. They were human beings, and they were so happy that they got to be in the stealth bombers that dropped the first bombs on Baghdad. Kind of like, well, you know, I don't know what... It's kind of like, I don't know how I was so lucky as to be able to drop that bomb on Baghdad. Now, they didn't get any of the bad guys. They didn't get the people they were trying to assassinate, Saddam Hussein and so on. They killed a lot of civilians. They killed a few soldiers, too. But these guys, they thought it was cool that they got to drop these bombs and make this great contribution to the history of the world. That's their individual take on it.

[09:49]

But they see the same world we do. They see the bombs dropping on Baghdad and the fire. And they see, too. Eventually, they see the children that are maimed and killed. They see it, too. But they say, oh, I'm so lucky. So we have a different take, each of us, on this world, even though it's kind of shared. So how can I look at this? And I refer back to the beginning of the class where I asked you something about, do you want to be artists? So now I'm saying, do you want to be artists in the sense of not just doing... Do you want to be artists and do you want your artworks to be the transformation of the world? Of course, if you make a statue, the world has been transformed.

[10:52]

If you do a painting, if you make a garden, if you have a dance party, the world has just been transformed by your karma. How can we look at this world of affliction in such a way as to bring understanding and liberation to it even before the physical shape even changes? How can we bring peace and freedom to an afflicted world? And that's sort of where the personal part comes, because it's one thing to look at the bombing of Baghdad and think it's cool. It's another thing to look at it and think it's terrible.

[11:54]

But it's another thing to look at it and plunge into the creative process of the arising of this world. What I came to since the last class is, again, working with my own sense of this world of affliction and trying to meet that lovingly. And in that loving meeting, in that relaxed, playful meeting, to enter into the creative process by which this world of affliction arises, which it looks to me like that was what the Buddha did. The Buddha entered into ignorance, karmic formations,

[12:57]

ignorance and the afflictions of ignorance, how that leads to karmic formation, which gives rise to this consciousness, which makes a world and leads to further affliction and further karma and further worlds. He entered that and entered the creative center of it and then understood it and has been teaching us about this for 2,500 years. So I need to meet the things of this world, which is meeting the things of this mind that we share and meet it in my own individual way, lovingly and without attaching to it and playing with it to enter the creation of it and the understanding of it

[13:58]

and in acting the liberation of it, in a sense, even before anything changes. And that way of being with it, I think is the best way to be with it. And I think this teaching is teaching us not just how I can be free of this world, but how I can join the way this world really is happening and encourage more beings to join the actual way this world is arising and that this is the best thing we can do now. However, everybody is contributing to this. So it isn't like, again, it isn't like the afflictions are going to evaporate suddenly

[15:01]

if we enter into the creative process of their arising, but rather that that is what the Buddhas have done. They've entered that place and they've spoken to the other living beings who are creating the world from that place and invited them to enter that place and help others enter that place. And again, having entered that place and acting from that place, the action from that place changes the world in the future. Entering the place in the present doesn't really change the world. It's entering the world as it's happening and understanding the process and in that sense curing it on the spot before it's even changed. But then it also gets changed because it's always changing.

[16:03]

And all beings are contributing to the constant change of the world, the constant change of the physical world we live in together. We're all contributing to it. And right now, if we can enter into the creative process by which all our past action has made the present and all our past action will make the future, if we enter that place, that seems to me the point of this teaching. And this makes me feel not futile in the face of this inconceivably immense world of affliction. Another way to put it is if we can realize that this world of affliction is not substantial,

[17:07]

we can spread liberation in it. And again, living in it and believing it's substantial doesn't exactly make it worse. It just doesn't liberate anybody from it and it contributes to its maintenance. It keeps it going and doesn't liberate anybody. Plunging into the creative process of this world of affliction liberates beings and does not maintain it. However, it also doesn't destroy it. Because what's keeping it going is not even just what people are doing now, but what they have done in the past. So it has to keep rolling for a while. It's going to keep happening. But there can be freedom going along with it every step of the way. There can be compassion and wisdom and freedom every step of the way or not.

[18:08]

Lotus flowers can be planted in this world of affliction every moment or not. We can plant seeds of compassion and wisdom each moment or not. So, I think many of us do not have too much trouble being shocked by the afflictions. That part's somewhat available. Available. Now what we need to do is be committed to meet all this affliction with love. Not liking that these natural gas drillings are ruining the land. Not liking it. Loving it.

[19:12]

What does loving it mean? It means be kind to it. It means wish it to not cause harm. Even while it's causing harm, you wish it to not. Even while beings may be in danger or harm, you wish them to not be harmed. You meet all things with love and then you start, and you're committed to continue and then you start playing with it. Excuse me. And then you relax with it. How can we relax with affliction? Well, I don't know. Maybe if we realize that it is necessary to relax with it in order for it to transform. If affliction's there and I tense up with it, it seems to thrive. It seems to get more solid.

[20:14]

If I relax with it, then I realize there's room to play. And it can play with me. And that play can be lost by tensing up again. And if I can relax and play with what I'm committed to love, then I or this meditation will plunge into creation. And then there will be understanding. And then there will be freedom. And then the next moment. The next affliction arising as a result of this mind which carries all of our past karma and contains us all. The next moment. And then I'm committed to love whatever comes so now I can relax with whatever comes. I'm committed to relax and let go of likes and dislikes. And if I don't let go of likes and dislikes,

[21:19]

I'm committed to be kind to my not letting go and be kind to my not relaxing. And try again. If we just relax without this commitment to love all the aspects of this world of affliction, that might not be responsible. Maybe we would be caring too little. So we have to care a lot and then relax. And then play. And then plunge into creation. And then keep playing there and keep meeting what comes with love and relaxation. With committed compassion and relaxation.

[22:21]

So that's what I've been thinking about since the last class. I'm not feeling discouraged even though there's so much suffering. I see something good to do in this world of suffering. To practice these teachings and to study them and think about them and discuss them more and more. And to become great artists of compassion. Not I'm the artist making the art but we enter into this process, this creative process of compassion together. Yes?

[23:39]

Say again? How it changes storehouse consciousness? It... In the moment you practice it, in that moment, the active consciousness transforms the storehouse consciousness. Well, the actual way you're thinking and relaxing and being playful, that transforms the storehouse consciousness. But it doesn't like... The storehouse consciousness doesn't just have one seed in it. It's got all the seeds from everybody's past karma. Now, in a sense, a new seed has been planted. It's a small change in a way. That's how it changes the storehouse consciousness.

[24:44]

But that seed that's planted when you practice this way, if you're practicing not just doing another good thing, in karmic consciousness, but you're entering into the creative process of karmic consciousness and understanding karmic consciousness, that transforms the storehouse consciousness in a different way than just doing something outside of creation. I'm not surprised. So, every moment of active consciousness according to this teaching is supported by all of our past karma. All of our past karma is represented by this unconscious support, container consciousness. So now we've got an active consciousness. If I were to think that now I would like to do something kind to someone,

[25:45]

that would transform the alaya. In a positive way. But it will be planting another karmic seed because I'm outside of the creative process of that wholesome intention. Another thing that might be helpful to say is, I said earlier, to the extent that I'm involved in self-clinging, I'm contained in this consciousness. I didn't say, but now I will. To the extent that I've entered into the creative process, or the process of creating this sense of self, to the extent that I've plunged into the dependent co-arising of this illusion of a self, I understand it as an illusion and I'm liberated from it. So then, I'm not involved in self-clinging and then I'm not in the storehouse consciousness.

[26:48]

Where am I? I'm in the world of truth for a moment. In the present. And the affliction and the delusions are right there. They haven't been changed. It's just that the meditation has thrown me into the process by which you are created. So now I'm not outside this wholesome thought. Me doing it. I'm lost in it. There's no self who does the wholesome act. So then I'm not in the storehouse consciousness anymore. And from outside of it, in a sense, from the wisdom of understanding it, a seed is planted, which is different from all the seeds that were planted within it. So it's a helpful question. If I'm inside the storehouse consciousness,

[27:51]

I take it to be a self, and then I do things, and I can do wholesome things, and they transform it positively. And they make a positive contribution to the world. If I treat the storehouse consciousness with compassion and relaxation, play, creation, and understanding, then I'm not in it anymore. I never really was. It's just that the mind created this enclosure. The closure drops away. And now that liberated way of being with this mind, it transforms it in a different way than another wholesome act of karma would. And of course different than an unwholesome state would. And these contributions transform a laya not to continue to be a container world,

[28:54]

a container consciousness, but to be the Buddha body, the true body of Buddha, which is not in the container consciousness. It is the completely transformed container consciousness. In the meantime, there will be positive contributions to the container consciousness too. Affliction will be... There will be benefits coming all the time of these afflictions. This compassionate encounter with all the afflictions does benefit them before they are completely understood. But if we are outside the process, which we usually are because outside the process means I'm doing it. Again, that still can be beneficial.

[29:58]

And you can be outside the process and still be compassionate. It's just that the compassion of me being compassionate to the affliction rather than me being totally immersed in the creative process of the affliction, that's two different kinds of compassion. But you need the one, you have to have the dualistic one first. The dualistic one we use to gradually wade into in some sense the dark, uncontrolled, disordered, not disordered but uncontrolled is better, unordered, unorganized life processes. Yes?

[31:00]

In the hope that this explanation might be helpful, the way I conceptualize it when I hear you talking about immersing oneself goes according to some things that I have thought about before. And so the immersing oneself feels to me something like swimming. Yeah. But often we're sitting on the edge, kind of tight, not knowing how to enter that kind of swimming place. And the way I conceptualize moving myself there when I sort of forgot how to get there is if I think in terms of just because of the work background I had, I think in terms of we all have security concerns.

[32:03]

We all have what? We all have security concerns. Yeah, we have security concerns. Union concerns, security, economic security, national security. Right, right, we do. We often polarize those by human rights or security, but if you think of everything in terms of security, and we work in the area of things within myself, that is what I define as myself, we often find divergent security concerns within ourselves. So for instance, maybe I'm an insomniac. I'm not, but I know somebody who is. And so I get really, really uptight about how am I going to sleep. But it's difficult for me to... I know that I want health, but I... I'm sleeping, but I also know that I want to

[33:04]

hold on to this... something tight in me that won't let me sleep. So if I meditate on those two securities enough, maybe eventually I begin to kind of swim in some creative area which helps me to be in the present to reconcile those. And there's a similar process that eventually... I mean, we all need lots of practice in that, I know I do. But I think there's a similar practice for people who don't use that language and don't use Buddhist language that can help sort of move them towards something like that when we define things in terms of reconciling divergent security concerns. Because often the way to do that is by learning how to swim in such a way as people find where there's common swimming together

[34:05]

as opposed to hard separate increases. Thank you for letting me draw on that. So if I may, I'd like to relate what you said to what I was saying. I'd like to relate what you said to what I was saying. I'm stimulated by the fact that you're saying something that sounds to me to be very much like the way I've been thinking. So in your example, I would say first, let's be committed to be very kind to these security concerns. Step one, committed love to security concerns. Two, relax with the security concerns. But it's hard to, I don't know what, I guess it's hard to appropriately relax with security concerns if you don't love them in the first place.

[35:06]

So first, let's love these security concerns, ours and other people's, and let's relax with ours and other people's security concerns. Then start playing with the security concerns. Another way to put it, if we've got divergent security concerns, let's love the diversions. Let's love the difference, and then let's relax with the difference of security concerns. Not eliminate them. Just like not eliminate the security concerns, also don't eliminate the different perspectives on it. Love those, and then when we really love them, then relax with them, play with them, and then liberate beings from security concerns. With this ongoing commitment to being compassionate to them in the many dimensions of compassion. But not just that,

[36:08]

we also need wisdom, and wisdom needs us to relax with our compassion. The other thing which I just wanted to say was that this is like swimming, but it's like swimming in a very crowded swimming pool. If you go swimming, I usually do not swim in a swimming pool, I usually swim in large bodies of water, and if something touches me out there, I often am quite shocked. Usually it's a piece of driftwood, but if it's a seal, or a shark, it's really quite a shock. Or another person even. Because I get this feeling, I'm swimming, but there's nobody else swimming right next to me. So when someone touches me, it's interesting, do I respond with compassion, or like, what are you doing in my swimming area?

[37:09]

So what we're working up toward is actually to be swimming, but with people crowding us. So that all of our strokes are affecting everybody, and everybody's strokes are affecting us. We're compassionate to all that touching, and relaxed with all that touching, and playful with all that touching. But this is something to work up to. For example, you have to be relaxed with not being able to swim very fast in such a crowded swimming pool. This is a swimming pool for liberating all beings, not for moving quickly through the water. And as it gets more and more crowded, we get less and less shocked by each touch. When you're out there all by yourself, the first touch is quite a shock. But as it gets more and more dense,

[38:15]

another touch, it's not that big a deal. But we have to work, we have to train ourselves to be able to do this. And the full transformation of it is this Buddha, which is being touched by everybody, and there's no problem. There's nobody who can't touch it. But we have to work a long time before all the touches are welcome, and relaxed with, and playful with, and so on. Yes? It's not clear to me how, in any manner, that you describe as dualistic compassion, but in the process, from outside the process,

[39:20]

it's helpful. I don't see that, unless it's helpful to your own evolution. I don't see it being helpful in the common characteristic of a storehouse. It is planting a karmic seed still, and it's still a self-centered seed, even though the intention may be, in your mind, good. Well, people, to some extent, this compassion is appearing in the common characteristic of a lay, and people can see you practicing it. So other people can learn this dualistic compassion from you. So if it helps you, and they can learn it from you, it will help them. But you can, it seems to me, I can fall into the trap of a self-righteousness about being compassionate, too. Yes, but you could be self-righteous even before you started being compassionate. You already knew how to do that. So since you know how to do that, anything you do, you could apply that to.

[40:21]

Yes, and compassion is right at the top of the list. That's one of the best things to be self-righteous about. If you're going to be proud of something, that's a good thing to be proud of. But when you apply the same process of relaxation to your own compassion, and have that awareness that even though you're in this dualistic compassion, you're trying to be compassionate, in a sense, you need to relax with that and not be reactive. I mean, it's sort of... Yes, yes. I think of those two bombers you were talking about. I mean, there's a natural tendency to judge them and then feel sorry for them in their state, but that's getting in the way of actually entering into the process with them. Loving them dualistically would warm you up to loving them non-dualistically. But you're not going to be able to relax with them, really. I mean, you could say, OK, I'm going to relax with them, and I'm going to just hit them with a baseball bat. Fun. You know, just go, whacko!

[41:22]

I had fun. I enjoyed it. Well, that kind of playfulness, you are relaxed enough to hit them with a baseball bat, and it was playful, but you weren't really feeling generous towards them, and you weren't really being really careful and checking to see if there's any kind of violence in there, and you weren't patient with the discomfort you feel seeing that although you loved them, like if they were your boys, if they were your own sons, you know, you probably would feel a lot of pain to see them kind of being happy to bomb people. So you'd have to really practice compassion with them so that then you could be playful with them and creative with them and realize creation and understand that there's a reality right there

[42:25]

in the midst of their dualistic version of reality. And if you're being self-righteous at some phase in the process, you should do the same with your self-righteousness. Before you start, relaxing with your self-righteousness, because self-righteousness, unattended self-righteousness, can be devastating, can really harm beings. So first of all, I'm committed to like being very vigilant of self-righteousness in myself and in others. Hopefully no more vigilant of other people's self-righteousness than my own or vice versa. Because anybody's self-righteousness is a potential source of violence. So part of compassion is ethical training.

[43:27]

And ethical training means to really be careful, vigilant and conscientious about all these afflictions, one of them being, one very powerful one being self-righteousness. So now I'm being careful with it. And also I'm being generous with it. I really am letting it be self-righteousness just like it is. As an act of generosity, I joyfully let this self-righteousness be that way without putting it down its slightest bit or puffing it up. And I'm patient with it because it could be quite uncomfortable for me to see in myself or in others. Then I'm ready to calm down with it and relax with it. And if I can relax with it and be calm with it, then I can start playing. Then the wisdom starts. But if I'm trying to be kind to someone who's doing something really violent and destructive, if there's any separation, we're in trouble.

[44:32]

And usually there is separation and we are in trouble. Now we're in trouble. And there's separation which is supporting that trouble. Their violent acts are based on a sense of separation. And I am feeling separate from them. However, now I'm committing to be compassionate to them. I'm going to be compassionate to these boys. And one of our bodhisattva vows is not to look down on people when they're doing stupid things. People can do stupid things without being below us. Because we do stupid things too. So we can see somebody looking stupid and we're right on the same level with them. Or maybe even looking up to them. Like they're stupid but not as stupid as me. And I'm not even that stupid. I'm just sort of mediocre stupid. And they're like slightly above average stupid. So I don't look down on them. But I also feel pain that they're hurting themselves

[45:41]

and hurting many others maybe. So I'm committed to practice compassion with them. And when I'm really clear about that, then I can relax with them. And maybe play. Carefully. How did you guys feel when you dropped the bombs? Was there research on whether civilians were hurt? Did you get Saddam Hussein actually? But you do this not to catch them. You do it out of love and out of trying to enter into a creative relationship with them so that all beings can be saved. And so that you are not separate from the process. You're trying to get yourself into the creative aspect of your relationship. This afflictive relationship. And then we find an understanding in that creative process

[46:42]

that there's not a separation. There's compassion but there's not me compassionate towards you. Or vice versa. We're in this together. And we do care for each other. And we have no separate life from each other. And the swimming pool is really packed. And we're completely free. And it's completely joyful. And then the next challenge comes. The next moment. And let's try it again. I'm remembering your teaching of not moving. And it's coming up to me as the first step in that situation of not being reactive. When you're reactive it creates a separation immediately. Or being quiet. Listening. Like when they say, Yeah, that was really something to drop that bomb. To really be quiet and listen to that. And be still.

[47:43]

It's possible. And maybe be amazed that they could say that. And then, of course, when you see the people that were around the bomb. The same practice. The same practice. No better or worse practice. The same practice. For the so-called victims of the bomb. They need the same love and flexibility and playfulness. They need also to be taught how to enter into the creative process of their affliction. Which most people say their affliction is greater than the affliction of these pilots. But we don't know that. We hear about what happens to these people

[48:48]

when they go back to America. And are thinking all the time about... Like somebody says, Do you think about that stuff very often? The guy says, No, just all the time. That's all I think about. I can't think of anything but. So, they seem to be sitting there okay, but maybe they're in hell. And they just say, Yeah, I'm okay. I don't know who's suffering most. Seems like everybody is. So, this teaching is about art.

[50:01]

But it's the art of world. It's the art of the world. It's the art of this consciousness. And every aspect of this world is an appropriate opportunity to transform the world. Poetry, dancing, literature, painting, cooking, sitting, all the things we do, every one of those things transforms the world. But this teaching is not just to do those things in themselves, but how those things transform the whole world. Because they do. And the more... Yeah, the more we're plunged in non-dually into the creative process, I think the better. The more alive.

[51:04]

Yes? I wonder about the role of permeation. You wonder about the role of permeation. Okay. Any more you want to say about that? No? So, permeation, that's sort of what Tracy brought up. When every moment of active consciousness, like right now I'm talking, this talking permeates this storehouse consciousness. Transforms it. Every active consciousness transforms the storehouse consciousness. In the present. And then the next moment arises and the permeation of the last moment is there, along with all the other permeations

[52:17]

from all the other past karmas that are supporting the arising of this state. And in this state, that state permeates that present, permeates that fresh past, permeates the latest past. So the past gets transformed in the present. And then that new past becomes the condition for the arising of the next past, which supports the next active consciousness. So that's all karmic consciousness operates that way. If we enter into the creative process here of the way this supports it and the way they support each other and the way they support and permeate each other, in the immersion in that process a new kind of permeation happens, in a sense. A permeation which transforms the storehouse consciousness away from being something that supports the arising of afflictive states

[53:18]

based on belief in self. So there's two kinds of permeation. One coming from outside the process, in a sense, or that's coming from understanding the process. And one coming from doing your best within the... Well, not doing... You can say do your best. And sometimes the best we can do is really unskillful. And sometimes the best we can do is really skillful. We can do really skillful things within this container where we still believe in a self and we can do really unskillful things within this container. And the unskillful make the world worse, make the container world more afflicted. But even all the good things, there's still a containment. And as long as there's containment, some people are making bad contributions. So the world is still going to be kind of a problem.

[54:19]

So we need to do this other kind of contribution in order for there to be freedom because it's going to be a long time before people are not making bad contributions. And even if everybody was just doing good karma, that wouldn't be enough. If everybody just did good karma for a long time, that would not be enough. In addition to that, we need to relate to this good karma because you can do good karma without much compassion. You can carefully pour hot water into a cup quite skillfully, but not necessarily wishing the welfare of all beings while you're doing it. And also not necessarily wanting to enter into the creative process. So skillful karma is not sufficient to liberate beings. We also must enter into the creation of the skillful karma

[55:24]

because skillful karma is still defiled by self-clinging usually. So we need to enter into the creative process of skillful karma to stop believing in self. And that's a new kind of permeation. So it's a permeation which is moving towards a time when the container consciousness is not containing anymore. Completely non-containing. Yes? Questioner 2 If there's action without self-clinging, is that free of good and bad in terms of the storehouse? Is it free of good and bad? Yes, it's free of good and bad. Questioner 2 So the action could be viewed by others as self-clinging?

[56:33]

You mean others could think that the person was exhibiting self-clinging? Is that what you're saying? Questioner 2 You could say that was a bad action. Well, you could say it was a bad action too. You could say that was a skillful selfless action or that was an unskillful selfish action, people could say. Yes? Questioner 2 In terms of the storehouse, the important thing is selflessness rather than the good or the bad. In terms of realizing freedom, the important thing is selflessness. But in order to realize freedom, we have to practice compassion towards whatever is appearing through the support of the storehouse consciousness. So selflessness does not come without, I mean accurate, correct, authentic selflessness does not come unless we're kind to the things which have arisen

[57:36]

from action based on self for a long time. So you said if there's action based coming from selflessness, is it free of good and bad? Yes. But that action which was free of selfishness and free of good and bad too, and free of the self of good and bad too, that action emerged from being compassionate towards all phenomena. If we're not compassionate, then our relaxation and our playfulness and our creativity is not going to give rise to authentic understanding. There will still be some self in it, I would say. Some clinging. I have an idea that one of the things that hinders relaxation is a belief that if there isn't self-clinging,

[58:38]

Say again? One of the things that hinders relaxation is what? If there isn't self-clinging, if there isn't self-control, then Simon may appear in the world and do bad things. You mean the thought that if there wasn't self-control, Simon might do bad things? Yes. It might stop Simon from relaxing. Like the full majesty of Simon being gifted life by the world. How that's going to appear, I don't know. That's right, you don't know. That's why you have to commit to great compassion before you try the fancy thing of relaxing. I first started talking to people about relaxing and I noticed that some people didn't want to relax. One of the main reasons was the reason you said. They thought, if I relax, I might go and slap everybody. Or I might lie to everybody. I might do all kinds of terrible things if I relax.

[59:40]

In fact, you might. But also people who aren't relaxed do all kinds of terrible things too. But maybe those people who aren't relaxed who are doing terrible things think, if I relaxed, I'd even be worse. So that's why I'm uptight. Because I don't want to be any worse than I already am. But some people might say, I'm pretty bad, but if I relaxed, I probably wouldn't be as bad. But we really don't know. The relaxation itself doesn't immediately make you a better person. It just opens the door to creation. Not immediately. You have to exercise the relaxation by being playful. You have to play with what you love. But if you try to relax with something you don't love, as my grandson does this. I grew up doing this. He goes from side to side.

[60:43]

Don't relax with things before you love them. First love them. Then relax. Then play. Then liberate. We have to love things before we liberate them. So if you really love, which includes really being generous, really exercising generosity towards, for example, someone, a person. Really be careful and ethical. Make sure you don't think you're better or worse than them. No dishonesty and so on. Really look at those ethical guidelines. Be patient with the situation. If there's no discomfort, you're not really being compassionate. If there is discomfort, then you can practice patience.

[61:46]

There needs to be patience because there is some suffering for beings. Beings are suffering, so we need to be patient with that because it hurts us to see it. So if we're really compassionate and then we are really calm with them, then we can start... Well, actually, as we start to calm, we start to relax. Then we start to open to the wisdom in the situation, to the selflessness with the person. So it's true, I think, to a great extent that we are... I mean, it's kind of wise to be careful not to relax with this Simon until Simon is really committed to compassion. And then we can relax him. And if he should hurt anybody in his relaxation, or if he should hurt anyone as he starts to play from that relaxation, we can point out to him

[62:47]

maybe that he hasn't been practicing ethics very well because he didn't notice that he was not really honest or not really careful or kind of put himself above someone or kind of was possessive. So those aspects of compassion, once he's committed to them, he would be able to be reminded of them if he forgot them as he was trying to practice relaxing with beings. Because he's already committed, he says, I'm up for this, which means I'm up for everybody helping me do these practices of compassion. But I don't just want to do them, I also want to do them in this relaxed, playful, creative way so that I realize that these beings and these compassion practices are not substantial, are not something that I'm outside of. I want to plunge into these relationships,

[63:51]

but I have to commit to compassion before I can plunge. And I wouldn't say plunge safely in the sense that nothing will ever go wrong, but so that if something does go wrong, I'm open to feedback that the compassion was overlooked. That was too rough, that was too strong. That wasn't quite true. Did you really mean that as we were playing together? When I was a kid, there was this thing called uncle. When I was playing with the other boys, I would say uncle, and they would lighten up on me. If they were sitting on top of me, I could say uncle. So they shouldn't put their hand over my mouth. And I think in wrestling too, you tap the person. I think in Judo too, you tap the person, which means, okay, I give up, let me up.

[64:52]

So sometimes we need to say, I'm going to enter into this playful relationship with you now. Are you ready? Do you want to do that with me? And then someone would say yes, but if you get too wild or too energetic, or even if you get violent, too violent, how can I give you feedback? And you can maybe discuss that beforehand. And so they say, okay, that's too much, I need a break. Like I sometimes say to people, you can go like this with me. I'm saying it to you too. You can go like this with me. Yes? I find sometimes when I'm relaxed, my mind opens up. If you relax what? Then I feel more loving and generous. Right, exactly. I was just listening to you. You have to love first before you relax.

[65:56]

That was what I thought. Well, I don't want to be strict about that. You have to love before you can relax. But I'm just saying, if you don't love and you relax, you can get in trouble with that. Again, I often tell that poem, by Yeats of The Mermaid, you know that poem? Once there was a mermaid who was very relaxed. And she found herself a sailor boy and took him for her own. She pressed her body to his body. And in her joy, she cruelly laughed and plunged down. She forgot that even lovers, she forgot in her cruel happiness that even lovers can drown. So her heart opened, but she wasn't committed to be careful with her boyfriend. So first,

[66:57]

I'm saying before you open and start going around kissing everybody and hugging everybody and showing everybody your tattoos, as an act of generosity. You're open-hearted, but they may not be ready for you. But first of all, I'm committed to be careful with you. And now I want to open my heart to you. But are you ready for this? No, no, I'm not. But I'm going to do it anyway. It sounds a little not relaxed as well. That aggressiveness doesn't sound very relaxed. Yeah, so you might think you're being relaxed, but not be relaxed. That's why you need to commit to ethics. And also committing to generosity before you relax means you're not attached to your version of what relaxation is. Like you say,

[67:59]

OK, I'm going to relax with you now. And somebody says, that's not relaxed. And you say, really? Well, tell me about it. Like we used to say back in the 60s in San Francisco, in the days of the hippies, people used to say, whatever, man. Now there's a new whatever, which is an insult, right? The new whatever is like, you're stupid and I'm not going to argue with you anymore. The other one was like, anything's OK. Remember that one? Whatever, it's OK. But if you tried to mess with that whatever, some of those people would get very violent with you. It had to be whatever. There was no way around that. Did you say whatever, man?

[69:05]

Could you drop that whatever? And maybe switch to some things are OK and some things are not? No. Everything's OK. Not just some things. Everything's OK, except I'm not going to give up everything's OK. That's the one thing that's not going to be dropped. Because that's the coolest. This is self-righteousness. Self-righteous hippies. And that was the end. That was the end of the hippies, is when they became self-righteous. At first they didn't even, they were kind of like, whatever, really? Wow, is that true? Amazing. Yeah? I would say that a lot of times relaxation for me is associated with seeing through a belief I have. Or turning it around the other way. This is about turning around the big belief. The basic affliction.

[70:08]

We've got to relax with the afflictions that come from this basic delusion. If we can relax with it and play with it, like, I'm separate from you, or I'm good and you're bad, or you're bad and I'm good. These basic afflictions, we have to at some point relax with them, but we shouldn't irresponsibly, unethically relax. So then we start relaxing and playing with them, then we become free of these views. Pardon? Well, again, it says in the early part of this teaching that the Buddha was careful to teach this container consciousness because it's very easy to take it as a self. Because he said, when you're in this consciousness, you take, you know, you have self-cleaning when you're in this consciousness,

[71:12]

and when you have self-cleaning you're in this consciousness. So then when you hear, if you're in this consciousness, and you hear about this consciousness, which is being taught to us to help us get free of it, we're in this prison and we're being taught about the prison. But this prison is a prison for people who have self-cleaning. When they hear about the prison, they think the prison is substantial. They tend to do that. So that's why we have to warn ourselves, and we're studying this text with a group of priests, and one of the priests keeps saying over and over again, that seems like a self, that seems like a self. And this teaching of this storehouse consciousness came into disfavor after a few hundred years because people felt like, it's just too much like a self, we've got to get rid of it. But even people who didn't believe in it anymore, they thought other people will see it that way. So we don't want to give them such a good chance

[72:15]

to misconstrue Buddhist teaching as a self. But now I'm bringing it up again, about a thousand years later to you, hoping that this time we won't have that problem. Or rather, when we have that problem, we'll notice it and help each other. Because, after all, this is Berkeley. I was wondering if the container is actually describing what an idea is. The container is describing what an idea is? And how an idea or belief affects somebody. Say again? It's describing how an idea or belief can imprison somebody. Yeah, this teaching of the container consciousness is describing how it can come to be that ideas imprison people, yes. This container consciousness is giving us some help

[73:18]

to understand the creative process of delusion. And then the explanation of the process of creating delusion can make a self out of the explanation too. So we should be careful of that. And kind of like, yeah, if you can think of any mistake that could be made, we can make it. If you find any mistakes being made, please let us know. We welcome notification of any mistakes. Because we are mistake makers. We're not like, hey, we make some mistakes, but there's a limit on our mistakes, so don't tell us that we make unendless mistakes. No, we could make endless mistakes. So if you see any mistakes, please let us know. We welcome them in this study. This is a study of delusion. This is a study of mistaken views. That's what we're doing here. We're studying mistaken views,

[74:20]

which lead to other mistakes based on those mistaken views. Mistaken philosophy. But we're also trying to be compassionate in this process so that we don't get discouraged and stop studying our delusions. Because in order to understand them and be Buddhas, we have to understand delusion. Because Buddhas study delusion. Yes, Jenny? So are you saying that, let's say someone is acting violently towards you. Yes. Someone is self-righteous. So if you practice with them in this way of compassion and relaxing, is that a way to encourage them to not be violent? Yes. So we have this amazing story of Buddha meeting a super-violent person named Agulimala.

[75:20]

So he meets the guy and he tells the guy, I'm your friend. And the guy doesn't believe him. And they talk for quite a while. There's various versions of it. But they talk for quite a while. And the guy says, No, I don't believe you're my friend. I'm going to kill you. So then he tries to kill the Buddha, but he's unsuccessful. And he's so amazed he's unsuccessful, he says, How come I can't... He says, I'm going to kill you. So the Buddha starts walking away. And he starts running after the Buddha to kill him. And he can't catch him. And he yells out, Hey, monk, why can't I catch you? And the Buddha says, Because I stopped. And the guy snaps out of his insane, violent mind, wakes up, and becomes a non-violent disciple of the Buddha. And then, in real life, it takes a bit longer. In real life, it takes a while to become a Buddha. In real life, it takes a while

[76:22]

when a murderer comes up to you to say, Hey, friend, I'm here for you. And then when he says, Oh, yeah? Well, thank you. I'm going to kill you. It takes a while to be able to walk away from him in such a way that he can't catch you. To get that skillful took the Buddha quite a while. And so if it took the Buddha quite a while, maybe it'll take us quite a while. Or the person who's violent. Or the violent person. Well, no, I'm just saying. Yeah, well, there's also cases where the Buddha... Sometimes people try to hurt Buddha, but the Buddha could not snap the person out of it like that. In some cases, he could immediately... In this case, he instantly snapped him out. Well, no. First of all, he warmed him up by talking to him about friendship for a while. Then, when the guy started running after him, he snapped him out of it right away. But he also knew that he could see that this guy was ripe for transformation. But there's other cases where the Buddha tried to help people

[77:22]

and they didn't snap out of their violence. He wasn't always successful. His cousin, actually. One of his cousins was violent towards him and he couldn't snap his cousin out of it. So even the Buddha couldn't snap everybody out of their insanity, but he was successful with a lot of people. So we have this tradition of studying ourselves so that we can free ourselves from our own delusions and thereby become able to teach others how to study themselves so that they can become free of their delusions. So, in a sense, we are learning to be martial artists so that when people approach us violently, when violence comes, we are committed to meet it with love,

[78:23]

which means gracious, careful, patient, and calm. And then we are ready to enter into a wisdom relationship with it. But it takes a lot to be that committed so that when someone says something that is rude, or insulting, or violent, we immediately come back with kindness, and stillness, and listening. Immediately. It takes a lot of training to do that. But that's what we are talking about. And the proposal is that we can get better at it. And that the people who apparently got really good at it trained a long time. They said, I didn't instantly become skillful. I trained a long time, and I did become skillful after a long training. And it was hard. But I'm glad I did it.

[79:26]

Please carry on the work, they say. Thank you very much.

[79:38]

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