this series of meetings is going to concentrate on the teaching of the Noble Eightfold Path, NEP. I feel I should say something about the shortness of time or the limitations of time. We only are planning to have three classes. It was kind of a mistake. It turned out we thought we were going to have more, but just having three. So like our lives, there's some limitation. And this limitation has produced some effects on me in terms of a different approach to this teaching because of only having three meetings.

[01:06]

Basically, the different approach would be that I'm going to concentrate on just three of the eight folds. I want to say something that is often said by people who talk about the Eightfold Path, and that is that it's really a path. It's really a path. It's not like eight paths. It's one path. It's the path of the Buddha. But it can be talked about. These eight different ways, these eight different teachings sometimes help us understand the way the Buddha practices. But I think it's helpful to remember that really when any of them are done fully or truly, the other seven are there.

[02:18]

And that's one way to understand, actually, The practice of each one of them is, are the other seven there or not? What would it be like if the other seven were there? This will come up again probably, but I just want to say that as a basic orientation that you understand that they're really practiced simultaneously when they're practiced fully. when you first start learning these practices it may be almost like you're only doing one or two simultaneously but as you develop you start to realize that more and more of the aspects of the practice are coming into realization the in the first teaching the first sermon of the Buddha, he talked about the Eightfold Path and then continued to talk about the Eightfold Path for 45 years in many, many ways.

[03:48]

And I just heard a story that when the Buddha was just about to die, someone named Subhadra, one of the monks, came to ask the Buddha a question. And his attendant, Ananda, tried to discourage the monk from asking the questions because the teacher was so sick. The Buddha was so ill that he didn't want to spend any of his energy. But somehow the Buddha overheard him suggesting that the monk go away and said, and let him come and ask.

[04:56]

So the monk named Subhadra came and asked the Buddha something like, there's a number of spiritual masters in India. Which ones are truly, genuinely enlightened? The word Buddha was not made up by Buddha. It was a term which was already in use. It means the awakened one. So there probably were at that time other people walking around claiming to be Buddhas. And so when the Buddha was dying, perhaps some of his disciples thought, well, after he dies, perhaps we could go study with some of the other Buddhas.

[05:59]

So asking the Buddha which ones are really Buddhas, you could see maybe it's a good question. But the Buddha said something like, well, you know, I don't know what the Buddha said, but I heard Buddha said something like, You know, we don't have time to get into such discussions. It doesn't really matter whether they're enlightened or not. What matters is whether you want to liberate yourself or not. The question is whether you want to liberate yourself or not. If you do want to liberate yourself, then practice the Eightfold Path.

[07:01]

If the Noble Eightfold Path is practiced, then joy and peace and understanding are there. when the Buddha didn't have time for anything but important things, put aside certain questions which didn't directly bear on the practice. So the monk was wanting to know which people were enlightened and the Buddha turned him back to the practice at the end of his life. And that might have been the last Some people say that was the last little talk he gave. I don't know. But anyway, it was when he was very sick. The first talk he gave, I would like to read you some of it tonight and maybe more later.

[08:13]

This talk is called Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Truth or the Wheel of Dharma. Thus I have heard the Blessed One was once living in the deer park in Isipatana which means the resort of the seers near Varanasi There he addressed a group of Bhikshus, excuse me, a group of five Bhikshus, five monks. Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced. These two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life. What are the two? There is devotion to indulgence in sense pleasures, which is low, common, the way of ordinary people, unworthy and unprofitable.

[09:40]

And there is the other, which is devotion to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy and unprofitable. These five people he was talking to were yogis that he had practiced with prior to his awakening. They didn't necessarily live together, but they did share the same teachings. They probably had some of the same teachers, and they practiced in the general vicinity of each other, and they knew each other. The Buddha was a very highly developed yogic adept, and I think these people were also.

[10:43]

I could talk to you more about that. So anyway, he's giving a talk to people he used to practice yoga with prior to his awakening. and he used to practice self-mortification as part of that yogic practice. These people did not much practice indulgence and sense pleasures, these five, and the Buddha prior to his awakening. He gave up self-mortification and started to eat a little bit more these other monks these other yogis ate a little bit and he ate a little bit but almost to the point of dying they ate so little and he was like the most extreme i think and he started eating a little bit in other words gave up self-mortification and moved back but not all the way flipping over into indulgence in sense pleasures he like as you may have heard on

[11:51]

On the eve of his, or the day of his final commitment to meditation, which led to his enlightenment, he had some rice milk. Not too much, but some, which was a big infusion of energy compared to what he was eating before. So when he says to these people that self-mortification is one of the extremes, he's talking to them. Then he says, avoiding both extremes, the Tathagata has realized the middle path. Tathagata means the one who comes from the way things are. Tata is short for tatata. Tatata means the way things are, thusness.

[12:59]

And gata means, and tatagata could be either tata plus gata, which means gone, So that means one who has gone to the thusness, gone to the way things actually are, which means someone who has come back from the way things are. So he refers to himself as someone who has realized the way things are and come back now to teach, a buddha. The Tathagata has realized the middle path. And realizing the middle path gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, insight, enlightenment, and nirvana.

[14:03]

And what is the middle path? It is simply the Noble Eightfold Path. So the first teaching on Eightfold Path is it's basically the middle way. It's a way of avoiding indulgence in sense pleasure or indulgence in self-mortification. That's Eightfold Path. The first way he talked about it. What does it mean? to relate to sensual pleasure, like eating, sleeping, sexual activity, chairs, clothing, baths, looking at flowers, looking at snow, touching a baby's cheek,

[15:14]

looking at your grandson, what does it mean to avoid indulgence in those pleasures? How can you look at a beautiful person without indulging in the pleasure of seeing them? and also without mortifying yourself by depriving yourself of what you need. Just to make sure, you know, that you're not indulging, just deprive yourself so extremely that you're sure you didn't fall over on the other side. What's it like to deal with these things in that middle way? This is the Eightfold Path. in terms of like practical life when you walk down the street on a windy and rainy night are you indulging in sense pleasure or self-mortification are you watching to see if you're balanced

[16:36]

Eightfold Path is about that balanced way of walking down the street. It is simply the Eightfold Path, namely right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. This middle path is realized by the tathagata, which gives vision, which gives knowledge, which leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment, and nirvana. And right in this case is in Sanskrit samyak, And in Pali, sama. And right doesn't mean right like the opposite of wrong.

[17:41]

It means right like real or reality or comprehensive. So it's reality view, reality thought. reality speech, real speech, real conduct, real livelihood, true effort, this kind of thing, this is the Eightfold Path. Then the Buddha said, after saying that, the Buddha says, according to this text, the Buddha says to these people, The noble truth of suffering is this. Suddenly he starts talking about the noble truth of suffering to these people. The first aspect in the Eightfold Path of right view

[18:56]

In a way, it has two aspects, two basic aspects. One is a kind of mundane right view, and the other is, I guess, super mundane right view or ultimate right view. And each of these aspects of the Eightfold Path can be presented in a mundane way or in an ultimate way. The mundane way of presenting, for example, the first one, right view, is to teach and, you know, come to see that karma, action, has consequence. That there is rebirth, that there are beings who have realized the way,

[20:05]

that we do have mothers and fathers and so on, that there is suffering. These are mundane views. The ultimate right view is basically to look at and recognize ultimate truth. And ultimate truth, the way the Buddha taught it at the beginning was he taught it by teaching the Four Noble Truths. Four Noble Truths was his way of teaching ultimate truth. And his way of teaching ultimate truth was actually to teach the first two truths which are conventional truth and the second two which are ultimate truth. It is ultimate truth that leads to liberation.

[21:16]

But in order to understand ultimate truth, we also must be taught conventional truth. So he taught four truths. The first two are conventional, and based on the first two, you can realize the second two. And the Four Noble Truths are the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the end or cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path, which is the Eightfold Path. So the first aspect of the Eightfold Path is right view. And the ultimate thing that right view looks at is the four noble truths, and the fourth truth is the eightfold path and circular. Now, before I go back to look at these

[22:19]

well, at the fourth noble truth or the right view, I want to mention that this text, the first text the Buddha taught, where he taught the middle way of avoiding these extremes, and that the middle way was what? The middle way is the Eightfold Path. But then he went into teaching the Four Noble Truths, so he, in the first text, introduced the Middle Way as the Eightfold Path, and then the first thing he taught about the Eightfold Path was what? Huh? No, but he taught the Four Noble Truths, but what, in teaching the Four Noble Truths, what's the first aspect, what's, I told you, the first aspect, he taught the first aspect of the Eightfold Path because he taught the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths are what right view bears on.

[23:24]

Right view is a cognitive process of training by which you add insight into the ultimate truth. So the first thing he taught, his first teaching to these people was the first aspect of the Eightfold Path, the right view. And not only the right view, but the ultimate right view, not the mundane. So he taught, in some sense, the highest teaching first to these people. Usually when the Eightfold Path is taught, or usually I should say when right view is taught usually they teach mundane right view and then the sort of true noble right view the one that actually is the view of liberation but he didn't even he didn't teach the first one he taught the second one and he didn't teach any other aspects of the Four Noble of the Eightfold Path to these people he started with right view super mundane right view

[24:28]

I, just today, struck me how come he did that? Why do you think, how come he started with the, sort of, in some sense, the most advanced teaching? If you're waiting, you can go ahead and answer it. Yes, read. . Well, in a sense, it is a foundation for... Right view is a foundation for the entire, all the Buddha's teaching because the Buddha's teaching comes from the Buddha who has right view. So it is his undead understanding leads to the teaching. But how come he wouldn't introduce the mundane right view first? Not only did he not introduce the other aspects, but he introduced...

[25:32]

the ultimate aspect. I think what came to me today is that the reason why he did that is because of who he was talking to. Who was he talking to? Huh? He was talking to the yogis who were on a par with him. Now, when actually later in the history of the Buddhist tradition, when they actually, they maybe say the Eightfold Path, starting with, you know, maybe they say usually, first, right view, right intention, and so on. But when they actually teach people, they usually start by teaching right conduct, right speech, and right livelihood, because they usually start by teaching people ethical discipline, which those, what is it, three, four, and five out of eight, those three bear on ethical discipline. They usually train people in ethics first. And in training those ethics, actually, you're starting to warm people up to the middle way, Train people not to eat too much or eat too little.

[26:38]

Not to talk too much or too little. Not to talk harshly and so on or too sweetly. Teach people how not to do and not to have livelihoods which harm people. These monks, these yogis, they had for years, had the livelihood. Do you know what their livelihood was? What? Huh? Yeah, begging. Or actually, their livelihood wasn't begging. Their livelihood was being yogis. And yogis, they do the yoga practice, and then they go collect their food so they can do more yoga practice. If people find out they're not doing yoga practice, they don't give them any donations. And people would find out. They'd say, this guy just eats, and then he goes and sleeps the rest of the day. it's okay to sleep part of the day but you're supposed to be working on your yoga practice at least you know at some point maybe through the night these people were excellent yogis so they they were practicing right livelihood in other words they weren't harming anybody to get their food and they probably and they also weren't lying because they really were great yogis

[27:54]

And also the last three out of eight, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration, they were already experts at those three because you have to be really good at those in order to get into the very developed yogic states, concentration states, meditation states that they were already in. So they actually were already doing right conduct, right speech, We don't know about right speech. Maybe they were sitting around, you know, the campfire or the alms bowl and bad-mouthing other yogis. We don't know. But anyway, I think if they had been, the Buddha would have started with right speech. But I think they were pretty good at right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. But what they weren't good at And they probably might even have been good at right intention.

[28:58]

But what they weren't good at was the right view. Nobody had heard about this thing, nobody had heard about these Four Noble Truths before. So that's why they were actually prepared to hear the new teaching. The teaching which the Buddha, the Tathagata had discovered, namely, middle way you see they were still and they were still over on the side of self-mortification to some extent and they didn't understand the middle way but the only part of the middle way he really had to focus on at the beginning was just getting their view right and now and and also these people knew about the mundane aspects of the right view, because they already knew a lot about how karma works. They were already, you know, people who were practicing yoga because they believed and to some extent understood that karmic activity has consequence.

[30:10]

That was part of the drive the base of there. So they already actually heard probably mundane, they already understood to some extent mundane right view, but they didn't know about the super mundane. So here we have in the first teaching of the Buddha he's giving in some sense the culmination teaching for the Eightfold Path, which is a teaching of Four Noble Truths. And I think that's why he just started out that way. I think if he'd been talking to some other people, he would have talked differently. And this scripture fits easily on one piece of paper, this size piece of paper, 8 1⁄2 by 11, written in this size of type, just not very big scripture.

[31:23]

which you probably will hear the whole thing pretty soon, one of those five woke up. And then, within the next two weeks, all five woke up. And within the next month, all five not only woke up, but they integrated their enlightenment and became fully enlightened. fully liberated what we call arhats. And there's a number of reasons why I could imagine it went so fast. Number one is we're highly disciplined, trained yogis. Number two, they had the Buddha as their teacher like basically 24 hours a day for a month. So here we have the beginning of the Buddhist Sangha and where the teaching and the practice is moving along according to the tradition very rapidly.

[32:36]

So before I turn to the way the sutra taught, I'd like to mention to you again the mundane right view mundane right view the main part of it and in some sense the main part of right view mundane right view is also the main mundane teaching of the Buddha Buddha's teaching the main mundane teaching is the teaching of I say mundane because karma is the way the world works, and there is no karma ultimately. There's not really the working of karma. As it says,

[33:48]

The third truth is the cessation of suffering, which means the cessation of karmic processes. So karma doesn't ultimately exist. If it did, we'd never be able to become free of it. However, we must accept the mundane workings of karma. Otherwise, we will not be able to understand that karma is just a mundane phenomenon. we will not be able to successfully study karma unless we think it's important to study karma. And if we don't study karma, we will just stay enmeshed in its extremely powerful process. So once again, I just want to tell you that I am postponing opening you up to the ultimate right view that the Buddha opened up to these disciples, first of all.

[35:00]

And I'm giving you a teaching which the Buddha did not give at the beginning but the Buddha gave later to other people who did not have this kind of background. He gave the teaching because some people, believe it or not, actually thought that karma did not have consequence and was not important to study. The Buddha said, among all different types of wrong view, the most devastating is to reject the teaching that karma has consequence. That is the most debilitating wrong view.

[36:07]

And wrong view is the source of our suffering and all the unskillful and cruel things we do. But the worst aspect of wrong view is to reject karma, the teachings of karma. Of course, you know, rejecting karma means not that you don't keep doing karma. It means you reject the teaching of karma. So when I say reject karma, I shouldn't say I should. Rejecting the teaching that karma has consequence. What people usually do is they try... What people are usually involved with is trying to do something to improve their situation. People are usually trying to... Oh, excuse me. People are either trying to improve their situation or keep their situation from getting worse.

[37:11]

Which is similar to if your situation's okay, you're trying to keep it okay. If things are going well, you try to do something so that they'll continue to go well. If they're getting off track, either you try to get away from it or try to control it in such a way that it will be better, get back on track. That's what people are mostly involved in. Have you noticed that people, that's really common, right? This is called karma. When you or I do something to try to make things go some way that we would like them to go. Does that sound familiar? Like driving a car. Try to keep the car on the road. Not off the road. Do you ever do that?

[38:15]

And I actually hope that you all will drive home tonight or walk home safely but me hoping that you walk home safely really i wish i hope you do because it's kind of a rough night me hoping that is not you know here i am the master right it's not karma but when i drive my car maybe it's me trying to get my car on the road and not off the road then I might be doing karma. But wishing you well is not karma. It's virtue. It's not like I'm trying to control you into staying on the road. I just hope you... I don't even hope that you stay on the road. I just hope that if you're supposed to be on the road, if being on the road is safe for you, that you'll be on the road. And I hope you're off the road if being on the road is not safe.

[39:18]

In other words, I really hope that you're safe. I'm not so much hoping that you're in control But my hoping that is not me trying to do something to control the situation. The mundane teaching here is that what I do to control my life is relatively insignificant compared to the consequences of me trying to control my life. trying to control my life has consequences and those consequences are much more influential on the quality of my life than my attempts to have a good quality life in other words what happens is not determined by me what happens in my life

[40:26]

or my relationships is not under my power. Does that make sense to you that that might be the case? Pardon? I said, what I'm saying, the teaching I'm giving here as a teaching of karma is that I do not have the power to control what happens. what does happen is not divorced from my attempts to control what happened because my attempt to control what happens is part of what's happening when i'm trying to control what's happening that's happening that i'm trying to control okay but my attempts to control do not have much influence on what happens But what does have a much bigger influence is that approach to life.

[41:31]

The approach of me trying to control has a big influence on my life and my relationships. Because putting my energy into trying to control is to act out of the belief that I, by myself, under my power, is really what I should be concentrating on. rather than concentrating on other power. Like, for example, power of the common consequences of me acting from self-power. The mundane right view is encouraging us to pay attention to these kinds of issues. To look at, do you actually not think that karmic activity has consequence?

[42:33]

And if you say, well I think it has consequences, yes. Do you think that it's like on a par with... Do you think that the consequences of karma are on a par with the consequences of you trying to control things? Actually not consequences. efficacy of your attempt to control you think they're on a par with the consequences of your time to control if you do you then you're encouraged to study more to realize that mostly the consequences of this approach are much more powerful than this approach because the consequences of this approach are the consequences of wrong view not totally wrong view, but wrong view in the ultimate sense. So you might have mundane right view in the sense that you say, oh, I think what I do based on my view that I am in power here, I think that has consequences.

[43:39]

And the consequences it has is that I don't understand ultimate right view, because when I understand ultimate right view, I understand that what happens is not due to my power. And I'll just give you a, what do you call it, an advanced thing. The place where you find this out is when you study the second noble truth. Because the second noble truth is the origin of suffering. And the origin of suffering, first there is craving. But that craving is what leads you to act as though you could control things. If you weren't craving, you might say, well, since I'm not craving, I guess I could just sit back and take a different approach. In other words, I could like walk across the room, but not with a sense of me controlling myself across the room. But I could sort of like see, I could see how actually lots of things are coming together to support my walking.

[44:43]

that really it's many other conditions really that make possible my walking. You can do that meditation. But if you're in a state of craving, it's hard to do that. Maybe what a lot of people do is say, later. I'll do that meditation later. Right now, I just got to get across the floor. And I got to keep myself going in that way. So... So I'm bringing your attention to the mundane aspect of Right View, which is to start looking at the causal processes around doing karma and causal processes around the teaching that karmic effect is much more powerful than anything we do. The consequences of our actions are more powerful than our short-term sense of efficacy, like I'm going to move this bell from here over to here.

[45:56]

Or like a few minutes ago, I picked the bell up to ring it, but there was no little striker in here, so I cleverly hit it with my finger. So pretty good, huh? But if I think of that in terms of like, see, here I am, pick up a bell. Somehow what happened here is we got a bell without a thing inside. That happened. I didn't make that happen. Did any of you make that happen? How did that happen? We don't know exactly, but we got this bell. It doesn't have one of those little strikers in the middle. So I provide an external striker, which is starting to wear my fingernail out. Now, if I think of that as, hey, I got back in control here, I pick up this cup, I get this unexpected... I pick up this bell, and I get this unexpected situation, and now I can get back in control here because I'm a clever boy.

[47:00]

Mundane right view is to be careful at times like that and start to notice... Was that like taking, attempting to get controlled again? Or was it something else called virtue? And what's virtue? What's the difference between virtue and karma? Can you ring the bell with your finger, with your fingernail, snap your fingernail in there as a virtuous act? And can you do it as a karmic act? Doing it as a karmic act is, you know, Here I am in this class. It's time to ring the bell. The bell doesn't work properly. I'm going to make it go my way. And what I do is going to make it happen. So when I whack that thing with my fingernail, this is something I accomplished by myself. That's karma. Now, for me to notice that that was karma and watch how things go when I operate that way,

[48:09]

That's mundane right view that I would think that there would be consequences that are greater than my being able to get this bell to ring. There's consequences greater than getting the bell to ring due to my thinking karmically about it. But what would it be like if I rang the bell as an act of virtue? How would that be? What would the difference be? Yes, right. And what would the difference in my thought process be? If I'm arrogant or conceited, then it's karma. See, karma is basically conceit. Conceit means you exaggerate the situation. You give yourself too much credit. That's conceit. You do something and you give yourself too much credit.

[49:12]

You don't notice. You ignore your interdependence. You ignore many conditions. Okay? Now, before we can switch from our arrogance and conceit, which is basically an aspect of our karmic approach to life, Before we're going to be able to give that up, we have to start noticing that we're doing it. And part of the reason why we might start noticing that we're doing it is because we've heard the teaching that the consequences of our karma are really very powerful. And it would be good to study our karma. So even if I'm still doing this karmically, I can still practice mundane right view by acknowledging that that was karma, and that that will have big consequences, which I don't, and I don't know what they will be.

[50:18]

And that, see, that's part of the consequence is I don't know what they'll be. In other words, the big effect of me acting karmically is I don't know how it's going to work out. I don't know how it's going to come down. And the things I do know about, and which I'm, which are coming from my own arrogance, Those are relatively insignificant for my happiness and freedom. This is mundane. This kind of consideration is training in mundane right view. Yes. Pat, did you name Pat? Yeah. A person described as a control freak. Yes. A mundane right view. A person who is described or who themselves would describe themselves as a control freak Such a person is a person who has this arrogance and conceit because you wouldn't be a control freak if you didn't think that you could control something.

[51:20]

Now you might feel like you're not being successful. You might feel like, I don't have things enough under control. But you still think it's possible for you or somebody to get under control because you have this narrow view of yourself. Namely, you think that you're the powerful one in this area. That when you're suffering, you can do something to fix it. Which is different from when they're suffering, there can be liberation, but not because you fix it. Because one of the primary reasons why there is suffering is because of this attitude of, I'm going to fix it. So right view is not that you would stop being a control freak, but that you would admit you're a control freak and you would remind yourself the consequences of being a control freak are much greater, much more powerful than all the successes that you've ever had as a control freak.

[52:27]

For example, if you're a control freak and then for one year or ten years or forty years or sixty years or seventy years Okay? This is part of the rebirth thing too, sorry. But anyway, if you're a control freak, at a certain point you're going to lose your ability to control. Have you ever seen old people, how they have trouble controlling? And they sometimes try even harder than before and they can't. And the young people look at them like, wow, old age is really something. They can't control anything and they're trying harder than than before. It's so sad. But that's nothing compared to the life, the life-constricting consequences of them trying to control. So a right, mundane right view is that you, that you start to open up to

[53:33]

that you're opening up to, you're training yourself to open up to, that the karmic approach backfires big time, bigger time than trying to control and failing. If you try to control and fail, you've got problems, right? You feel bad, you try to control and you didn't. Well, not always. Sometimes you try to control and you find out that it was good that you didn't. But whether you're successful or not in controlling, is to remind yourself that approach is going to have consequences, and those consequences are not what you're trying to control. It's like incomprehensibly complex how it's going to work out, but it's going to work out, and the way it works out is going to come back to you. So one of the expanded definitions or the full definition of mundane right view is knowledge of the owner of the karma.

[54:35]

That's what mundane right view is. So who's the one who's doing this stuff? The one who's doing this stuff, the one who thinks that she's doing this stuff, that's the karma lady, karma man. And this mundane right view is not just to be a karma man, because most people are karma men or karma women, it's to know who owns the karma and what happens to them. But you don't actually, I shouldn't say what happens to him, but to know that the one who's doing it is going to get these big rewards. But even whether you're skillful in your karma or unskillful, the rewards, although some are good relatively because there's good karma and some are bad, all of them keep you in the calm machine where you're going to keep being driven to do more things to fix your situation. right view ultimate right view will be help you change your attitude and in the meantime as you start to practice mundane right view and more and more see how things happen interdependently rather than by your own power you start to gradually be convinced that your own power route is unreliable you start to get discouraged about

[56:08]

you trying to make things work right for you and or the people you love. Not to mention you trying to make things go bad for the people you don't like. But even trying to, even the point of view of I'm by my power going to make things go well for these people I love, even that keeps you in bondage. And these yogis were good at doing things which they were very skillful. They were good at things which controlled them into excellent mundane states. But they didn't have the teaching which is, yes, you get in these excellent mundane states, but the consequence of thinking that you got yourself into them, you know, these excellent mundane states did happen. These people did get in these great states. But thinking that they did it by their own power put them in bondage while they were in these great states.

[57:12]

But if you get into a great state, but you understand how you actually get there, then you didn't get there by karma. You got there by virtue. See the difference? So, but first of all, you have to start admitting if you're still in the karmic thing of arrogantly thinking, I'm going to get myself into this concentrated state, I'm going to get myself into this job, whatever, or I'm going to make things go this way or that way. The mundane right view is this attitude is trouble. And I'm, and, and, yeah. Yeah. That's Monday Review. This person said to me recently, she was, I guess I'm, make a long story short, she was like pretty freaked out. And, you know, hysterically upset about something.

[58:20]

And she said, well, this just shows me that I have to protect myself. And then she said something like, what's the source of all this suffering? And she asked that question. And I said, you just said it. And she said, what? And I said, well, what do you think you said? She said, well, the situation... this situation is forcing me to protect myself. She thought that was the source of the problem, that the situation of these people actually kind of like taking advantage of her, that that situation where she was kind of being abused, that was the source of her suffering, leading her then into feeling like she had to protect herself.

[59:23]

And I said, no, you said it. That's not the source. You said it. So what do you think I'm going to say the source of the suffering is? What? Protecting yourself. Not protecting yourself, but close. What? Thinking that you have to protect yourself. That's the source of her problems. But it's fine to protect yourself. And matter of fact, you should protect yourself and you should protect other people too. But to think and to worry about protecting yourself is the source of your problems. And whether you protect yourself or not, if you do protect yourself and you think and you're going around, if you go around thinking that you have to protect yourself, even if you do protect yourself, you're still miserable. If you go around not protecting yourself and you think you have to protect yourself, you're miserable. But if you Don't go around thinking that you have to protect yourself, but the time comes when you should protect yourself, and you protect yourself, you're fine.

[60:32]

And when you don't have to protect yourself, you don't have to protect yourself, and you're fine. The thing is, protecting the self is the problem. Protecting the self. And protecting the self goes with... The other side of it is, I'm going to fix this situation. But you should protect yourself. Everyone wants you to protect yourself. Every reasonable person wants you to protect yourself. Every kind person wants you to protect yourself. You should protect yourself, but you don't have to be concerned about protecting yourself in order to protect yourself. And I said to her, for example, if you're walking down the street and somebody comes near you and they, I don't know what, start to fall down or something, and you help them and protect them from falling down, How do you feel? I don't know if she answered the question, but I think she said, well, you feel great. You just help some person, protect some person. You feel great. If you're about to get hurt and you protect yourself, you feel great.

[61:36]

But when you help this other person, the reason why you feel great is because you weren't going down the street worrying about protecting this person. You just protected him and you feel, God, that was great. That was wonderful. And you don't even necessarily slip into, I did it. Because you weren't thinking, I have to do it. You just did it. I mean, it just happened. But you didn't really do it. It couldn't have happened unless they started to fall, you know, unless you were there. All these things came together, and this wonderful thing happened called their protecting from falling down and hurting themselves. But there was no worrying on your part about protecting them. So you were fine. But if you're going around worrying about protecting all these people or protecting yourself, you're miserable until the time for protection comes during the protection and after it's over. So there's the origin of the suffering. So the origin of suffering is connected to the mundane right view, which we're supposed to now start zeroing in on how we're trying to protect this self.

[62:39]

and watch how we try to do something about that, and see how unreliable that approach is, and start to learn the way of virtue, which is to act negatively without the sense of your doing it, or positively with the sense of how all other beings are helping you do every single thing that you ever do. And if you can't see this like the other helping you, then just say, I'm still blind. And once again, mundane right view is to notice how trying to control blinds you. Start to notice how because you want to control, you can't see how everybody's helping you. And the more I admit how my attempt to control blinds me to see how other things are helping me do everything I do, the more I admit that, the more I start to see how all other things are helping me.

[63:54]

And the more, another way to put it is, the more you try to control what's happening, the more you blind yourself to the beauty of life. To the beauty of how things are actually happening. The way things are actually happening is almost unbearably beautiful. That's what right view sees, ultimate right view. In the meantime, we need to bring our attention to the approach of controlling is the approach of blinding. And the approach of blinding yourself has a much bigger consequence than not doing anything at all. And also, in the meantime, I am blinding myself. So now I'm admitting I'm still in this process. So there I am again trying to control things. And that's another moment of danger. Okay, was there some comments? Yes?

[64:57]

What's your name again? Tracy. Tracy. You're in the not understanding phase? Yes. Okay. When we say karma, sometimes I think you say karma is just an action. Sometimes when I say karma, I think it means Okay, so let me say, karma is the action. And then there's a teaching, which is the mundane right-view teaching. The teaching is that karma has consequences, that action has consequences. But it's not just action. It is volitional action. And it's not just volitional action, because Buddha could also have volitional action.

[65:59]

it's volitional action of an ignorant person. That's karma. And that has consequences. And the consequences of karma are greater. For example, again, just take this bell. Now, right now I'm just going to set the bell down. It fell over. Now I'm going to drop it from a height. And this is a little dangerous because I don't own this bell, so whoever owns it might hate me for doing this, but I'm dropping it from a height. fell over also. Anyway, those are some things which just happen now. But, you know, did I think I'm doing this when I did that? This is for, like, maybe we'll figure that out later. I said, I really wasn't that heavily into it. Like, you know, whether I did this or not. And I think that's part of the reason why I got surprised. And I could see I got surprised. And in joy, I did it again. one of the signs of practicing virtue is, I think, there's more surprise.

[67:01]

And it wasn't like I was trying to get it to go a certain way. I wasn't. If it had gone up, it would have been fine with me too. Matter of fact, I would have been really delighted and probably you would have also. No, it didn't. And when I caught it just then, I wasn't like trying to, you know, if I wasn't that much into controlling it. So, anyway, If I was thinking, I'm going to control this thing down to the ground, and if I was successful or unsuccessful, that would be like more or less important to me. This is kind of a minor thing, right? But if I just put this down, this minor thing of just putting it down, but really trying to get it to come down and not fall over, if I did that, the teaching of that would be karma, that I was trying to get this to go down and not tip over. Not that I'm going to drop it and see what happens, which is not so much like karma. It's more like, hey, let's study how things happen. Karma is like, I'm going to put this down and try to keep from going over.

[68:02]

And if it doesn't go over, then I did it. That's like a simple karmic thing, OK? Now, if I cross my legs like this, this is a typical one, and I tap my knee with this thing like this, see, I'm tapping my knee, but it's not bouncing up, right? That's because, I don't know, it's just the conditions aren't for popping up there, aren't they? And I'm not putting up myself, right? There it is. I guess I had to hit it harder. There. Yeah. So I found out. But the reflex was not karma. I didn't think I did that. Did you think I did it? Unless you thought maybe I did it. Yeah. So anyway, she has that thought. But that thought, you know, that thought, I think he did it volitionally. That thought is not actually karma. That's just a thought. But her thinking, maybe that she's going to control me into being a better boy, that she can do that, that would be more like karma.

[69:12]

So karma is like, not all your activity is karma. Salivation is not karma. It's an activity. It's an action of your salivary glands, but it's not actually karma. But when I think I'm going to do something by my own power, that's sort of like the key, the quintessential karmic function. I'm going to do this. That's karma. The teaching of karma, which is accepted under mundane right view, is that that way of behaving has consequences. That when you have that attitude, that attitude will have consequences. And the main consequences it has is it binds you and keeps you in ignorance. It also is coming out of the basic belief, the basic misconception, that you exist independently of other beings.

[70:17]

It's a byproduct of this basic misunderstanding. The basic misunderstanding, the fundamental source of the suffering, is what I said before. It's that self-concern. I have to protect me. Concern with me. And it's sort of like, rather than concern for others, well, yes, but also it's a concern based on, even if you are concerned for others, really you still think you're... Even if you're concerned for others and you still think as you independently exist, you're still scared because you're concerned for them, but one of the main reasons you're concerned for them is whether they're going to like you or not, whether they're going to support you, whether they're going to approve of you, whether they're going to kill you, whether they're going to promote you, because you're still basically thinking you're cut off from them. So being concerned from them and being devoted to them is a good practice to help you understand to what extent you really do feel separate. Whereas if you're not devoted to people, you can continue to feel separate without even noticing that you feel separate when you are devoted to people it helps you more see understand your feeling of separation i propose to you i'll say that again being devoted to others helps you understand that you feel separate from them more than not caring about them when you don't care about them of course it's because you don't it's of course because you think you're separate from you right

[71:44]

And acting on not caring about them, you just keep thinking that you're separate from them without even noticing that you think you're separate from them. But when you're devoted to them and still think you're separate, then you start noticing that you think you're separate because when you're devoted to them and they don't do what you would like them to do, then you notice, hmm. Because if you ignore people, you don't expect them to be nice to you. But when you're devoted to them, you think, well, how can they never say thank you? To me. As a matter of fact, I'm devoted to this person and they thank somebody else. I heard them say, I'm so grateful to you, Beverly. But I did that. So being devoted to people helps. If you are at all self-concerned, if you do believe you're separate, being devoted to people will help you see that more and more vividly. And the more you're devoted to people, the more clear it will be to you if you believe that you... if you do believe that you're separate, the more clear that will be to you.

[72:53]

And this is part of mundane right view, is to become more and more aware of the karmic machinery and how that sense of separation makes us uncomfortable, and then that sense of separation combined with feeling uncomfortable because we're separate, leads us to try to do something about it. And that makes even bigger problems, which feed back into the situation and make it harder for us to meditate on how we do feel separate and how we're uncomfortable about that and how we're doing karma about it. So, that's why, I mean, not that's why, and the the difficulty that you're having following my conversation may be due to the fact that you're not very, very highly adept yogis. And that you have to work really hard on right speech, right action, and right livelihood in order to be able to follow this teaching which the Buddha gave to these highly developed people.

[74:02]

But anyway, you're getting it. You're getting this... the wisdom teaching first rather than rather than ethical teaching first you're being treated in some sense almost like Buddha treated his first disciples except a little different because I'm not teaching you the mundane right view also so my plan is to work on this one more week and then go to right livelihood because it was requested but also when i think about it it's good because i think actually livelihood is one of the main places uh where people actually have a hard time practicing right view and right intention so i'm i'd like to talk about right view and right intention the first two which are the wisdom practice the first one's to develop your insight the second one is to develop the intention based on the insight and then take that intention into your livelihood so if we can do this at the end of the third or three weeks

[75:07]

you will have a way to start working with your livelihood and check out, basically, are you or are you not applying these teachings to it? And it may be that what you'll say is, no, I'm not. But that would be good, too, if you're not, that you know it again. Most people have no clue about how to practice right livelihood. If you have enough of a clue to find out that you're not practicing it, you're doing really great. That make sense? At least you know what... where to look and the place you look or the first place you look to see if you're practicing right livelihood is well what's your intention do you have the kind of intention which goes with right livelihood you can actually look and see and the right intention would you you could have the right intention if you have right view so that's my plan for this uh course okay so i think that was pretty challenging evening but um this is like I said this is one of the kind of like what do you call it one of the transformations of the teaching according to circumstances right three weeks this is what's happening and you know I didn't try to make it this way I'm not in control here and I'm not trying to be in control

[76:37]

Much. But when I am, then I have a teaching which says, watch out, kid. You're getting off the path. But to notice get off the path means you're doing karma. But not entirely off the path, because if you notice, oh, this is karma, I confess it, and this is going to have big consequences. and not try to do it in a more virtuous way, not so much trying to control, then it's included in the practice. So you might look this week to see, you know, when you're driving your car, are you trying to control it? Or are you trying to, like... And actually, somebody said that you shouldn't give this instruction to people who are driving heavy equipment. So maybe you shouldn't do this when you're driving your car. I take it back. But when you're walking down the street, are you trying to control yourself? Are you worried about controlling yourself and protecting yourself?

[77:39]

Or are you just like step by step doing the appropriate thing, responding with everything, with the support of gravity, you know, your inner ear, which helps you balance all these things, you know, the information about where you're intending to go, the weather conditions, the other people. Are you just seeing how this is all working? Or are you just like kind of saying, forget that. and arrogantly trying to get yourself down the street over to there and that's your approach and if so then you identify the karma and then listen to the teaching which says there are big consequences for that approach much greater than for example not getting to where you're going for your spiritual welfare you might be better to slow down and hardly walk at all and tune into like the dimension of virtue which is to walk just for walking rather than walk as an opportunity to try to control the world. That's more important to your spiritual life than getting from one place to the other by your arrogant karmic habit.

[78:49]

So maybe with cars it's too hard to try to apply this meditation. But when you're walking, when you're washing dishes, when you're brushing your teeth, When you're talking to somebody who you love, these kinds of situations are excellent for like seeing if you catch yourself. Are you trying to control it? Are you trying to practice meditation? So check it out, please. Thank you.

[79:16]

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