Longku FPMT: Going to try and do. What we'll try and do is we'll try and do is
Longku FPMT: share with you. This 1st in the 1st session. I want to try and demystify debate, because think the
Longku FPMT: and logic and reasoning it has a kind of very intellectual, all in your head, nothing to do with your heart, nothing to do with intuition, nothing to do with feelings or experience. And there's this big gap between how we think about debate
Longku FPMT: and what practices. So that's something that he's
Longku FPMT: unfortunately present. But it's not necessarily the correct understanding of what it is. So for the 1st session. At least, I just want to try and share with you what actually it means when you hear debate, logic, and reasoning in the
Longku FPMT: Indian and Tibetan Buddhist tradition, so like Israel says in an island tradition
Longku FPMT: place of debate is in Buddhism. That's what I'd like to do first, st
Longku FPMT: then second, and maybe the second session
Longku FPMT: share with you a little bit of how it works, so that after hearing all of this explanation, you can also have a little bit of practical understanding of what it is.
Longku FPMT: And then maybe, if there's enough time tomorrow to take what we've done and see how you actually use it in understanding and then practicing dharma.
Longku FPMT: So some very basic concepts. But we'll do it in that kind of debate format. So we get a taste for it.
Longku FPMT: Then you can see whether it's useful or not.
Longku FPMT: or relevant or not. Yeah. So that was the plan. If it goes in that order, we'll try and keep it in that order.
Longku FPMT: Because Phoenix mentioned, and Rinpoche has mentioned, and his Holiness the Dalai Lama also has mentioned many times.
Longku FPMT: I think it's important for us to
Longku FPMT: 1st understand what the word debate means. And when what do you like? The English word debate
Longku FPMT: doesn't do justice to what we mean by debate in the pillar interpretation
Longku FPMT: at all. So the 1st problem is a language problem. It's lost in translation right away.
Longku FPMT: I think. Is it the same here? I'm sure it is. When we say debate. There's 2 people who have 2 different positions. They both have to present their position, and the one who is more convincing is decided by a 3rd party or a judge
Longku FPMT: who is correct, or who has won that debate?
Longku FPMT: Debate doesn't necessarily have any validity or doesn't have any connection with truth
Longku FPMT: necessarily. Is that. How is that? How it's understood here as well, more or less, is it? Yeah, like debate is, who's better at debating? Or who's better at explaining or
Longku FPMT: transmitting ideas is a better debater.
Longku FPMT: Debate has no connection with what is true or not. Necessarily. Yeah. So that's not how debate is in the Tibetan tradition at all. Is that okay? Not Tibetan in the Buddhist tradition? Actually, because this is an Indian tradition. So that's the 1st thing. So I'll then try and explain what it means.
Longku FPMT: Also, the other important thing is
Longku FPMT: when we learn debate in the Buddhist tradition, you don't learn it as Buddhism.
Longku FPMT: You learn it as a tool to study Buddhism. So typically, there's 5 main subjects that they teach.
Longku FPMT: Of these 5 subjects Buddhism is one part.
Longku FPMT: Debate is a separate part. Then there is grammar.
Longku FPMT: you know, there's science, there's psychology, and then there's sometimes we do also medicine. So there's these 5 main sciences.
Longku FPMT: The Veit is separate from Buddhism.
Longku FPMT: Is that okay? So debate doesn't have to have any religious application. So when we discuss it today, debate is just taught in the beginning to be able to understand better. That's the purpose of debate. So by itself, reasoning and debate is a secular subject. It has no connection with Buddhist philosophy or with Buddhist studies.
Longku FPMT: Is that okay? So you don't have to use debate or this skill only for Buddhist studies.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, may I ask, where, then, is the technique of debate coming from is
Longku FPMT: good. So now we have to leave this one we have to get into. So I think maybe if you do a little do a historical like think of a little bit of the setting of where this emerges.
Longku FPMT: You are in India
Longku FPMT: at a time, actually, are any of you familiar with Aristotelian logic? Is this something you're familiar with, little bit?
Longku FPMT: Have you heard like syllogisms? You've heard of these things? Maybe? No. In the West syllogism, syllogistic reasoning and stuff like that. Okay, just keep that in mind vaguely over here. Okay.
Longku FPMT: In India, Buddhism developed in a country where there was already many other traditions there was Sankhya Yoga. These are all strong traditions that existed in India already. Right? So the Buddha didn't come in a vacuum. He came in a place where there was already many teachings and traditions.
Longku FPMT: Now the most important thing for us is all of these teachings are given by people
Longku FPMT: who are not creating the system. Their position, their point of view, is not that they're creating the system, their point of view, or how they explain it, is this is my observation of the world.
Longku FPMT: This is how I feel. Reality is
Longku FPMT: is that okay? That's how it starts. So when you have a Sankhya tradition, their tradition is saying, I have observed the world to be like this.
Longku FPMT: I believe, or I think, that this is what it actually is. This is how it works.
Longku FPMT: This is how things really are.
Longku FPMT: So they have one presentation.
Longku FPMT: Then you have a different philosophical tradition that has a different presentation. Then you have the Jayana tradition, which has another presentation, and then you have the Buddhists that have their own presentation. Now all of these are different schools of thought
Longku FPMT: that are all offering one view of the world right?
Longku FPMT: There is no book that is to be considered authentic
Longku FPMT: in Buddhism, right? The Sutras are not considered like the Bible or the Quran or the Torah, like we do here, right? There's a lot of observation that is made by people who are explaining to you what the world is.
Longku FPMT: and they have different explanations, and they all live in the same country in the same space
Longku FPMT: for them to be able to dialogue with each other. It's not enough to say, I believe this. You believe that you believe this, and you believe that we have to be able to speak to each other and test whether what I believe is true or not.
Longku FPMT: So to be able to efficiently dialogue and discuss with each other. They have devised this way of reasoning.
Longku FPMT: Does that make sense? So, you know, like in science, if you have to study the sciences, a very common language between physicists is mathematics.
Longku FPMT: Without mathematics you can't really speak to each other beyond a certain point. You get stuck right.
Longku FPMT: So for you to be able to study the sciences 1st you learn math, and then that becomes a common language that you can use, or if you're learning a new language, you learn grammar, you learn the grammar. You learn how the language works, and then you communicate with each other.
Longku FPMT: Similarly, in India, traditionally learning how to reason was propadetic.
Longku FPMT: Does that make sense? It was something that you learned before you studied, because when you learn it, then you have the skills to be able to think and reason and make sense of things.
Longku FPMT: That's where this was developed from.
Longku FPMT: There's also a theory. This has to be tested. I'm not sure but it's interesting for us in the West because
Longku FPMT: the Greeks were in India when the Buddha was there. There are a few Sutras where the Greeks spoke to the Buddhists.
Longku FPMT: so some people have concluded that there is a strong connection between Greek logic and Buddhist logic, and that is very similar
Longku FPMT: now, which comes from which and who influenced what we don't know. They say that the Indian one is older, so maybe Greeks borrowed from that. But for you, when I'll try and explain it to you. If you heard Western logic, not mathematical logic, Aristotelian logic.
Longku FPMT: There's a big
Longku FPMT: overlap. So it's not that alien anymore. Okay? Does that mean that's where it comes from. As a system. Is that, okay, yeah, okay, now.
Longku FPMT: how does it develop? And this, I think, is the important one.
Longku FPMT: When you are, we all have shared experiences right? Like we have shared experiences of the world like, we see that the stable is hard. We say that we have a body, we have certain thoughts, we have certain feelings. This is all shared common. We don't need to explain this to each other like I don't need to tell you if you sit on the cushion, you won't fall through the ground.
Longku FPMT: or if you walk against the wall, you bang against it. If you walk through the door, you go through it, or that if you make a house and you make it stable, it'll last for a certain amount of years. This is
Longku FPMT: shared experience right emotionally. If you're angry, it leads to unhappiness. If you are distracted, you can't concentrate. These are all shared experiences. There's no difficulty here, but
Longku FPMT: there are also certain questions that arise that make you wonder why things are in a certain way
Longku FPMT: right, and that happens normally without having to rely on any spiritual tradition. Nothing right
Longku FPMT: in that observation, and you're trying to understand why things happen in a certain way.
Longku FPMT: People give different answers. That's how different philosophical schools came about.
Longku FPMT: So if the Buddha tells you, okay, look, everything that you are experiencing is constantly changing.
Longku FPMT: that's something that they say. No Buddhist talk about impermanence all the time. But if you look at the statue of the Buddha, which is statue, it doesn't look like it's changing. It looks like it's been there. It was there yesterday. It was there day before yesterday. So this impermanence is not obvious. Right then. The Buddha also says, everything is the nature of suffering.
Longku FPMT: but sometimes things don't feel like they're the nature of something, sometimes feel some things feel nice. They feel pleasant.
Longku FPMT: I mean, this is the 1st time I've come to Switzerland. It's probably the most beautiful country I've ever seen, so it is very beautiful, right? So to say. Oh, Switzerland is the nature of suffering is not something that you feel like you want to accept right to it, at least for me. Maybe you live here. So it's different. Right? Okay? I don't know
Longku FPMT: these assumption, these conclusions that you make are conclusions that you're making that are not visible.
Longku FPMT: You don't perceive the way.
Longku FPMT: does that make sense? None of these things are perceptible to you. You can't see change in any of these things. You can't see that all of this is the nature of suffering.
Longku FPMT: You can't. You can't see that there is no self.
Longku FPMT: We feel like there is a set. We feel like there is a person, and I do things, and I say, I want to do this. I don't want to do that. I would like this. I don't want that, so we feel like there is a person.
Longku FPMT: Now put yourself in a position where you have 2 different views. You have a non Buddhist view that says everything is permanent.
Longku FPMT: The self exists, and the nature of the self is bliss.
Longku FPMT: and then you have the Buddha and the Buddha says everything is impermanent. There is no self, and the nature of the self currently is suffering.
Longku FPMT: They are 2 completely opposite teachings. No, the same totally opposite things.
Longku FPMT: How do you decide what's correct?
Longku FPMT: What happens in India? In Tibet is, there's cultural conditioning.
Longku FPMT: So if you've been born in a Buddhist family.
Longku FPMT: or you come to a Buddhist center, or you've heard a lot of teachings for a very long time. Then everyone will say, Yes, everything is a permanent yes, everything is a nature of suffering. Yes, there is no self. But if next door. There was a different school with a different tradition. They would all be sitting in that room and always saying, Yes, there is a self. The self is permanent. Everything is a nature of bliss.
Longku FPMT: Okay, for someone like us, because we're not culturally produced.
Longku FPMT: I don't think any of you are culturally Buddhist, right? You're not culturally anything except maybe Christian, I don't know is Switzerland a Christian? Yeah, culturally, that's our thing, right? So if you are now deciding to explore another tradition.
Longku FPMT: How do you know whether what you're deciding to follow is correct or not? Why do you choose this over what you already have.
Longku FPMT: or why do you choose this? Amongst all the many options that are there?
Longku FPMT: Right?
Longku FPMT: There must be, or there should be, something that allows you to choose.
Longku FPMT: Now Felix and me had this discussion in the car until my parents, generation.
Longku FPMT: we had the fortune to have people like Lama Subarimbuche Lama, his Holiness Dalai Lama, traveling frequently
Longku FPMT: all of those great lamas. Right? We have lamas from the other traditions. We have had devokense, Rimbuchem, Rimbuche. We've had
Longku FPMT: all of these lamas coming in inspiring us.
Longku FPMT: Now, we don't have them anymore. They're not there.
Longku FPMT: we're of a new generation. So in this room already, there's 2 different generations, we can see? Right? There's an older generation and the younger generation for us. Okay, we don't have that. So how are you going to say? Yes.
Longku FPMT: I agree with what the Buddhist is saying.
Longku FPMT: One. You don't have the inspiration of all of these figures.
Longku FPMT: 2.
Longku FPMT: Everyone is saying something that could be different from what the other person is saying.
Longku FPMT: How do I, as someone who is interested or wants to know? How do I know which is correct, or which one I want to follow.
Longku FPMT: The reason why this is important, and you will have noticed. This, I'm sure, is, if you do something that is
Longku FPMT: temporarily making sense to you because of where you are in your life.
Longku FPMT: or who you have been exposed to, or something that worked for a while.
Longku FPMT: You will be.
Longku FPMT: You will believe this, or I will believe this until the situation changes. Then, when the situation changes and I have other needs, and I have other requirements, or I find myself in another place, then
Longku FPMT: none of this is helpful anymore. So you find people who have. And in India in the past it was very common. You come to India 1st you do Yoga? Then you do Buddhism, then you do, Advaita Vedanta, then you do Kashmirida, and then afterwards you go to Osho, and then afterwards you go to Papaji.
Longku FPMT: but everyone has done this. It's very, very common.
Longku FPMT: because for a while, when you were living with the Buddhists in Dharanshalla and his Holiness and Dalai Lama was teaching. It felt good. Then you went to Pune. You went to the that felt good. Then, later on you went to see Ramana Mahareshi that felt good. And so you did, but it's very common. And then, when we don't know actually what is being said, then we say, oh, yes, they all have the same message. They all mean the same thing, and the teaching style is different.
Longku FPMT: This is also another very common thing. Now, this is what his Holiness, with Dalai Lamache and our teachers are saying, this needs to be reworked, because if in 2025, we're still going to be doing it like that, then chances that pure dharma will remain are very, very low.
Longku FPMT: because we make a hodgepodge of everything we mix things up right is that okay?
Longku FPMT: Now, in this situation, what can be helpful?
Longku FPMT: So let's not call it debate anymore. Let's not call it debate anymore. The Tibetan word is riglum.
Longku FPMT: which means nothing. I'll tell you what the translation is. Riglan means rig is reason.
Longku FPMT: Lamb is bath, so Riglam literally means how to reason, or the way of reasoning.
Longku FPMT: This Tibetan word, unfortunately, has been translated in English as debate logic.
Longku FPMT: which are words that in the English language, and I don't know in German what the words are. But I'm similar. I'm guessing right? They have Anglo-saxon western tradition meanings inside them.
Longku FPMT: So our 1st job is to separate these 2. Is that okay? So don't think of reasoning. And as debate and logic, because logic for us is like mathematical, intellectual, all in your mind. And the purpose is to trick someone, fool someone, convince someone that sounds like the purpose of logic and debate. That's not the purpose here in India and in Tibet.
Longku FPMT: reasoning is to try and understand things. That's it. Okay, then there's a technique that they use, which we'll explore. Is this much fine so far? Yeah, is that. Okay, okay, so we're not going to use the word debate. We're not going to use the word logic just to prevent this confusion, and we'll just use the word reasoning.
Longku FPMT: Is that okay?
Longku FPMT: Now, where do you use reason?
Longku FPMT: That's the next question. Right?
Longku FPMT: You don't need to reason to say that it's
Longku FPMT: 2, 40. No. One. You don't need any reasoning to prove this right. It's 2 40, you know it. Everyone knows it. It's fine.
Longku FPMT: You don't need reasoning to prove that the sun rises in one side and it goes on the other side. You don't need reasoning for those things. These things are clear.
Longku FPMT: What you need reasoning for is when you are trying to explore something that to you right now is we call it hidden.
Longku FPMT: We call this hidden does hidden make sense hidden means it's not obvious. It's not manifest. Does that make sense? Yeah, okay, so reasoning is used for hidden things. The best example that my teacher always uses is, if you go to a doctor with a symptom.
Longku FPMT: the symptom is what you can see right?
Longku FPMT: The symptom is, however, connected to a problem. There's an ailment or a condition that has led to the symptom. You can't see that condition right? That condition is not perceptible. So then, you have a symptom based on that symptom, they will try and draw a conclusion. They give you medication for that. If it works, then that was your problem. So that was the call. If it doesn't work, they try and come up with another.
Longku FPMT: So Covid sneezing fever, maybe Covid, and then you get treated for that, or you get tested for that right? So the best example for you to understand what reasoning is is this kind of medical practice of looking at a symptom and trying to find what the cause of that symptom is. Is that okay? Okay?
Longku FPMT: So now again, try and think of the teachings of the Buddha like this. The Buddha is someone who
Longku FPMT: was in the palace.
Longku FPMT: He was a prince.
Longku FPMT: He had a very comfortable life.
Longku FPMT: Right? Yeah.
Longku FPMT: The parents of the Buddha tried to make it as perfect as possible by making sure that he had no negative influences in the palace. So everything was beautiful, perfect.
Longku FPMT: The Buddha was experiencing enormous beauty and joy and comfort. But he was not happy with it. Right? There was something inside that he was saying was not okay, right? So the symptoms that the Buddha observed was that even though everything is so perfect and beautiful, something is not making me happy. So this is not going to be enough.
Longku FPMT: I believe that's a Swiss syndrome as well. Right like you have everything perfect, but something still, not the same kind of like that. Maybe the Buddha's palace was like Switzerland. I don't know. It's so beautiful here, my God!
Longku FPMT: Anyways, right? So there is something that is being observed.
Longku FPMT: and then there is a symptom that is arising. But something is not working
Longku FPMT: now. Why it's not working is not obvious, right? That's not obvious.
Longku FPMT: That's not obvious at all.
Longku FPMT: The reason it was not because it was not obvious. The Buddha said, Okay, if I stay here I'll never figure it out.
Longku FPMT: I have to get out and find something.
Longku FPMT: and then, when the Buddha went out, you've heard that story, you know. You're familiar with the story of the Buddha right the 1st time he goes out he sees an old person. Then he sees a sick person, then he sees a dead person, and then he sees an ascetic right, someone who's practicing in all of these situations the Buddha felt that
Longku FPMT: someone old age means this is not going to stay perfect.
Longku FPMT: Why is that the case? Sickness meant, even though right now this is fine, it's not stable or reliable. Why is that the case?
Longku FPMT: That was this is happening? Everything might be nice, but it all has to come to an end. Why is that happening? And then he saw the ascetic or the sick, or the
Longku FPMT: what is the setting fine? Yeah, it's okay?
Longku FPMT: And then he said, Okay, someone is trying to figure out why these things are happening. Right? So seeing the symptoms and the Buddha tried to figure out why it's happening. Okay, is that fine?
Longku FPMT: In trying to figure out why it's happening.
Longku FPMT: When the Buddha left the palace
Longku FPMT: he heard different kinds of teachings. He was given different solutions to everything, right?
Longku FPMT: All of those different solutions weren't just told to the Buddha. It's not like someone said, Oh, this is like this because
Longku FPMT: and left, they were all explained.
Longku FPMT: So there was a reason that was provided for all of these things.
Longku FPMT: Does that make sense? Okay? Now, each time a reason was provided. The Buddha was not satisfied with it, and so he went looking elsewhere.
Longku FPMT: And then, when the next explanation was given, that reasoning was not convincing. So then the Buddha went elsewhere. At 1 point the Buddha said, Okay, I'll try it.
Longku FPMT: I'm not sure but I'll try it. And he did 6 years of those austere practices, and it didn't work. So he said, This is also not okay. Then he went and sat under the Bodhi tree right when he sat under the Bodhi tree, the Buddha said, Oh.
Longku FPMT: the reason why these symptoms are happening
Longku FPMT: is because this was the discovery of the Buddha that led to them enlightenment, because, even though things look like this, actually, they are impermanent.
Longku FPMT: even though things look like this, they look pleasant. Actually they have the nature of suffer, even though things look like this. Actually, there is no self.
Longku FPMT: And when the Buddha realized these 3, then he said, Okay, now I have found the reason why
Longku FPMT: things are not gratifying.
Longku FPMT: And then he started teaching it. Now when he started teaching it.
Longku FPMT: If you are familiar with reasoning, you will suddenly see that the Buddha only gave explanations that are based on reasoning.
Longku FPMT: Is that okay? Yeah. Everything that the Buddha has taught. I mean everything, whether you're talking about Sutra or Tantra, or anything. It has been explained through reasons, and everyone in India and Tibet who has studied this. I mean, almost everyone. Okay, has learned it by understanding how to uncover and explore the reasons given by the Buddha.
Longku FPMT: Is that okay?
Longku FPMT: Is is that fine?
Longku FPMT: So traditionally, just because the Buddha says something is not good enough to say, I accept it.
Longku FPMT: It has never been good enough.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, Evan, but everything that Buddha has said
Longku FPMT: people have had to think about it, reason it, discuss it, gain conviction themselves, and then
Longku FPMT: follow the teachings of the Buddha. That's how it's being done for 2,500 years. Is that okay?
Longku FPMT: Yeah. Now, if you think about it in India.
Longku FPMT: and maybe some of you've heard these stories, the emphasis on trying to gain conviction in the teachings through reasoning was so much
Longku FPMT: that if you lost a debate, so there's personal use of reason. And then, of course, there's a cultural and societal manifestation. Right? Culturally, if you lost a debate with a non Buddhist.
Longku FPMT: all of you have to convert. Did you know this? You must, yeah, traditionally, in India, if I am a Buddhist teacher, and I am
Longku FPMT: saying something. But another teacher from a different tradition doesn't agree with me.
Longku FPMT: We engage in a discussion.
Longku FPMT: The importance that we have to have in conviction in our own teaching is so strong that if I cannot hold my position against you.
Longku FPMT: me, and all of my disciples have to convert to your tradition.
Longku FPMT: This has happened many, many times.
Longku FPMT: There's the most common story is in Lalanda.
Longku FPMT: This is a very beautiful story
Longku FPMT: in Nalanda there was Nalanda. Is this very famous Buddhist College university? No.
Longku FPMT: there was this master who called Ashwa Gosha. He came to Nalanda. He was a non Buddhist scholar. He came, and he apparently defeated everyone in Nalanda. So for a while everyone in Nalanda was practicing Hinduism. They had to. That was the rule.
Longku FPMT: Nagarjuna, is he here?
Longku FPMT: Nope, do you all know who Narajana is? Have you heard of Narajana in hotel?
Longku FPMT: No, no, he's there. He's there! He's there! See that tanka there!
Longku FPMT: There's a Buddha in the center at the bottom. There's a person who's got
Longku FPMT: snakes on top of his head, cobra that's not arson. Right
Longku FPMT: and on the left, at the bottom is Asanga.
Longku FPMT: Okay, these are the, and on top, on the right is Manjushri, and on top. On the left is Maitreya. These are the 2 big traditions of reasoning that came out of India, Nagarjuna on one side and Asangha on the other. Okay.
Longku FPMT: Nagajuna is 1st century idol.
Longku FPMT: Nagarjuna was the used to teach in Alanda, but at that time he was in South India, where he lives.
Longku FPMT: So the Nalanda sent a letter of desperation, saying, Please come. Something very bad has happened. We can't win. Please help us right? This actually happened. So Narajuna was in South India, and he said, Okay, I'm going to go.
Longku FPMT: At the time Narajuna was too old, though, so he had a student called Arya Deva. Have you heard of anyways, Arya Deva, his student Nagrajuna student.
Longku FPMT: So now Alyadeva said, I'll go and represent the Buddhist. You please stay
Longku FPMT: because you're old, and it's a long distance and all. So Narajna said, Okay, I have to prepare you before you go. So now I'm going to hold the Buddhist position. You debate against me or you reason with me.
Longku FPMT: Okay, it's.
Longku FPMT: And when Ayadeva started to debate with Nagarjuna, Nagarjuna was so well versed in the non-buddhist position that at 1 point. Ayadeva almost believed that his teacher was a non-buddhist. That's how much in India they place emphasis on gaining conviction of your position when you are arguing against somebody, or when you're thinking about another position, you have to know it completely before you can say it's right or wrong.
Longku FPMT: So Nagarjuna was holding the position so well that his student felt that he was actually not even Buddhist.
Longku FPMT: And then Nagrajuna said, Okay, now you're ready. And he sent Aryadeva. Aryadeva went up.
Longku FPMT: and what Ashwa Gosha used to do in the morning was in a slightly belittling way, used to count the monks
Longku FPMT: win Nalanda by hitting them on the head.
Longku FPMT: This is what they see
Longku FPMT: with a slipper to count them. So, as the months were walking by, he would go 1, 2, 3, right infiltrated inside. And that day there was one extra person who was counting. So he said, What is this? Who are you? And then Ayadeva says, Okay, I'm here, let's now now let's sit and debate with each other.
Longku FPMT: The story goes that Aryadeva defeated Ashwa. Gosha! Ashwha! Gosha was not happy. He tried to run away. Aryadeva pulled him back and locked him in the library.
Longku FPMT: In the library Ashwar Vosha started to read the text again.
Longku FPMT: and when he started to read the text. He developed faith in the teachings of the Buddha because he saw that his earlier way of thinking might not have been correct because of how Aryadeva reasoned with him.
Longku FPMT: and he is the author who's written the most beautiful life of the Buddha. So currently, when you read this text on the lives of the Buddha. It's written by this man
Longku FPMT: who was 1st non Buddhist, he debated with Ayyadeva. He gained certainty in the teachings of the Buddha, and then he
Longku FPMT: converted to Buddhism and started following the teachings. That's the attitude that one has traditionally in India and in Tibet. That's the attitude with which you approach the teaching. This is a story.
Longku FPMT: Why is this important to you? Right? The same thing has to be relevant to us.
Longku FPMT: Because if you start practicing and you are practicing, but you feel that what you are practicing is correct
Longku FPMT: without having tested what you are practicing, or without really having checked.
Longku FPMT: You can never say for sure that you will be able to hold this position, and this belief will remain with you always
Longku FPMT: for various reasons. One
Longku FPMT: in this life you might find yourself exposed to some other teaching that suddenly sounds convincing, convincing. So your original belief can crumble.
Longku FPMT: Second, you might die, and if it's true that there is rebirth. You could be born somewhere else. And so all the effort that you have made in this life in trying to practice
Longku FPMT: that's also finished right
Longku FPMT: her. If you're not convinced in what you're doing, it's going to reflect in how much you care about your practice.
Longku FPMT: because if you are sure that this is the only alternative, then it's very natural that you will want to practice. If you're not sure but you believe it for some other reason, then your practice will be equally
Longku FPMT: unstable or equally strong. So the strength of one's conviction in one's belief
Longku FPMT: is going to determine how you act and how you think and how you practice
Longku FPMT: the conviction that you get has to be something that is working for you. Does that make sense right? That's why reasoning is important personally, is that okay?
Longku FPMT: So reasoning is important for us, because if we are going to commit our time, our energy, our resources, and our life to something, we should at least be sure that what we're going to do is correct or true. Otherwise why would you want to do it? There's no reason to commit so strongly to something. Okay? So this is the importance of reasoning. Does that make sense traditionally why they have done it? Is this, okay.
Longku FPMT: do you have anything that you'd like to add clarify? Good.
Longku FPMT: Yeah.
Longku FPMT: And you said you might die.
Longku FPMT: What in in mid context is that relevant to listening?
Longku FPMT: So, his Holiness. Okay, I'll tell you another story. You know, Lamrib, the text
Longku FPMT: in Tibet there was, there used to be this teacher, very famous teacher. I think it was.
Longku FPMT: He was zholiness. He came to India. He was in no in Darjee Lane, and his Holiness compared him to like second Milarepa, so he was an extremely well versed master when he would teach Lamrim in Tibet.
Longku FPMT: He was teaching Tibetan people. So he said, Okay, culturally, you all believe this already. You've been brought up by hearing you will die, you will be reborn, and there's the hells you should attain liberation.
Longku FPMT: You should be kind, Bodhicitta. He would teach all of lamarin. And then, when he came to the section on insight.
Longku FPMT: he said, Now go and learn reasoning.
Longku FPMT: I can't teach this to you.
Longku FPMT: If you are born in a place where culturally you feel that the teachings of the Buddha are true, but you have never tested for yourself whether they are true, then you will keep believing in the teachings until your situation allows that.
Longku FPMT: But if you die and you are born somewhere else where the situation around you is different then. Your conviction earlier was
Longku FPMT: temporary. Circumstantial situation, can't you?
Longku FPMT: For you? You are not culturally produced
Longku FPMT: right now. The culture is telling us because we're in dharma centers, and we have access to teachings that this is how it is. But if let's say we die and we're born again hypothetically.
Longku FPMT: and you're born somewhere where there is none of this.
Longku FPMT: Then how do you think without having got conviction now that you will feel like the teachings of the Buddha are true, or that things really are important, or that there is no sir, or that the nature of Samsara is not satisfied
Longku FPMT: right now we feel like that because we hear it. We're familiar with it, and we keep saying it kind of like in India. When I was young everyone used to say, if you want a good career, you have to be a doctor and a lawyer. No, a doctor and a engineer.
Longku FPMT: 3rd option lawyer, nothing less.
Longku FPMT: Now it's totally changed right? So earlier. Why did everyone in India believe that these are the 3 best professions? Not because they had thought about it, because that's what it was culturally.
Longku FPMT: Then suddenly situations started changing. You can make money in different ways. There's many new professions. Artists are suddenly making more money than before. And so now parents are saying, maybe you could become a Youtube influencer instead of becoming a doctor. It's true, though, right? So it's just, it's circumstantial.
Longku FPMT: So if your conviction in what you do is not based on some sort of reason.
Longku FPMT: then your conviction is really dependent on the situation around you.
Longku FPMT: And so when we say precious human life. It's precious because we have access to it now, but if we don't make use of it now, next time around, there's no guarantee that this is how we're going to get it.
Longku FPMT: So this is the context. If you haven't used reasoning a little bit
Longku FPMT: to gain conviction in basic Buddhist ideas, then
Longku FPMT: it's very shaky ground foundational display.
Longku FPMT: Does that? Does that kind of make sense?
Longku FPMT: I can tell you hundreds of examples like this, my own father, who, Felix rightly said, was considered a very learned person.
Longku FPMT: But then, after I learned reasoning, I saw that many of his things were based on.
Longku FPMT: He was very eloquent, and he could hold a lot of ideas together, and he was brilliant, but it was he wasn't sure.
Longku FPMT: And the second you tested certain things. They weren't working for him like he wasn't sure about certain things.
Longku FPMT: And suddenly, then we have the same teacher. Fortunately, my father and me, we have the same teacher. So my teacher started saying, Talk to your father, tell him this, tell him this, tell him this, and suddenly my father started changing. So when he passed away. When he had Covid he was sitting in his room for about 2, 2 and a half hours every day, really making an effort, because suddenly he said, Oh, I can start tasting the teachings a little bit. Finally.
Longku FPMT: this is after 40 years of practicing it. He was the director of a center. He received teachings from all the Lamas.
Longku FPMT: So now, if second is saying this, and his Holiness is saying, this is because if you just learn this little thing.
Longku FPMT: Then every time you hear something you can test for yourself whether it's true or not. That's it. Then when you test for yourself, and you find that it's true.
Longku FPMT: No one needs to tell you this is good. Do this. No one needs to tell you. Take time out of your life, spend time practicing every day. It'll happen automatically. There's no need to do it right like I have this summer problem for a few days. No one needs to tell me. Now, don't drink coffee, I know. Like, until my stomach is okay. Don't drink coffee
Longku FPMT: right before, when I was like, no, maybe it's okay. I'm not sure the doctor would say, don't have it, but I'm like, no, I'm not going to believe you. I'm going to have coffee now. I've experienced it enough. I know that this is the case. Don't do it right? So that's the power of reasoning. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? Okay.
Longku FPMT: yeah, are we? Are we good with this? Yes, please.
Longku FPMT: But just now what you explained is actually the power of experience. Yes. But how do you experience things that are not obvious.
Longku FPMT: That's where we need to get to. You know what I mean.
Longku FPMT: How do you experience impermanence in a world where everything that you are surrounded with suggests otherwise.
Longku FPMT: and by permanence we don't mean later on things would change
Longku FPMT: impermanence. We mean, as things exist, they are disintegrating. That's what it means in this room with that pillar and all of you sitting here for the last 45 min.
Longku FPMT: where does my mind get an experience of impermanence where?
Longku FPMT: So the experience is transformative.
Longku FPMT: But if you cannot perceive things, how do you get experience of that right? That's the point over here. So there are many things that like. For instance, when the Buddha said, This is the nature of suffering. He didn't say, When you're having a bad day, that is the nature of suffering, he said. Everything is the nature of suffering
Longku FPMT: right now, while I'm sitting with a healthy body
Longku FPMT: and a happy mind in a nice place. This is the nature of suffering. How do you experience that
Longku FPMT: while I'm saying, Atisha, lift the glass, Atisha, get up and go outside. Atisha. Say this, think this. Go here, do this, do that. Where does my experience tell me there is no self?
Longku FPMT: It doesn't.
Longku FPMT: My experience is not telling me this because my experience is telling me the opposite.
Longku FPMT: This is stable
Longku FPMT: invest in a house because it's stable. Better invest in land, because that's the most stable. Right? Buy land. Don't buy a house. If you buy a house, don't buy an apartment, buy an independent house, because that's stable right?
Longku FPMT: Be happy, therefore do mindfulness do calm, abiding.
Longku FPMT: Go for vacation, live in a quiet place.
Longku FPMT: have perfect grass like you do in Switzerland. Beautiful trees that's perfect. That's the nature of happiness. You'll be happy if you do this, cultivate the self, because if you don't have pride, or you're not confident
Longku FPMT: you will get trampled over the world, and our experiences tells us the opposite of what the Buddha says. So how do you take things that are so different from what you live and try and have an experience in the beginning. You need something to bridge that to bring that into your life. No, that's the problem. And if we only rely on someone else's explanation to bring that into our life.
Longku FPMT: Then that's where it gets slightly flimsy. That's the problem.
Longku FPMT: Does that make sense? Yeah. So there's a lot of technical things under which you're familiar with right? But here, that's the main point. So how do you take things that are not part of your experience and bring them into your experience.
Longku FPMT: Is that okay?
Longku FPMT: Then there's 1 more thing that I'd like to demystify for you.
Longku FPMT: Okay, there is no word in traditional language for intuition.
Longku FPMT: It doesn't exist. It's an English
Longku FPMT: or a Western. It's a word in Western languages. Yeah, I think in is there a word inclusion? Yeah. Right? And in the Latin language, it's a very common thing, right? Okay?
Longku FPMT: So this idea that we have in the West. And many of us say this.
Longku FPMT: I am not a very logical person.
Longku FPMT: I am not very good with
Longku FPMT: concepts. I like to have experiences. I like intuition more
Longku FPMT: right. This kind of thing is another thing, I think we need to consider a little bit together.
Longku FPMT: Yeah.
Longku FPMT: is that okay, cause I don't even know what frankly, I'm not from I'm from India. So I've heard
Longku FPMT: intuition used a lot. I don't really know what intuition means.
Longku FPMT: Thank you for me. Intuition is like.
Longku FPMT: I have a feeling about something, and I feel it very strongly. And then oftentimes it comes to
Longku FPMT: is that is that what inspiration is? What is intuition? Exactly. I don't really know. My understanding is that that you have a sensation.
Longku FPMT: And then, later on, you found that that was correct. So something like that. Right? So you have a feeling, and then, later on, what you believe or what you felt strongly came true. That's intuition, right? But we say it's intuition before the thing came true.
Longku FPMT: isn't it? Most times right? But the thing is
Longku FPMT: everything that you just know. Does it always come true?
Longku FPMT: If you ask me and my wife, I don't know if she's here. All my intuitions are wrong. Every single time I have any kind of intuition the opposite happens.
Longku FPMT: I wake up with a strong feeling that something's going to happen. It never happens. Yeah. So my point is, even when we use the word intuition, intuition happens in a moment when we feel something very strongly, you know, and we say, I just know it
Longku FPMT: until the thing happens.
Longku FPMT: How can I say that that's correct or not?
Longku FPMT: Because a lot of times. We base a lot of our lives on these very strong intuitions. I had a friend. Oh, this is really funny. I had a friend. He was from Australia. He was in Dharamshala, and he was meditating in front of a Buddha statue.
Longku FPMT: and afterwards he said, I had a very strong intuition. I need to learn massage.
Longku FPMT: I was like, Okay, sure, it's possible. Why not? Though he learned massage? It's not going very well
Longku FPMT: right. And it's been now 5 6 years, and it's not going well, so we can say no. His intuition will later show that he is correct.
Longku FPMT: and that later on, somehow his life will work out. But in the meantime he's got really nothing to go on on this intuition. So I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm not saying it's right. I cannot pass judgment on anyone's intuition, not even my own. But my point is, if we only rely on intuition
Longku FPMT: and on feelings for things, then the chances that whatever we feel is right is also a little bit.
Longku FPMT: I don't know. It's it's not, it's precarious. No, it's a little scary. It can be scary, right?
Longku FPMT: So the alternative to that is.
Longku FPMT: And now this is now. So now we're saying, Okay, so we've gone from intuition and feeling, and we're now going cerebral. Now we're all up in the head, right? That's what it feels like. It's fine. It's normal. But the thing is
Longku FPMT: you're using this as a tool
Longku FPMT: to generate this. That's where I think we don't understand. So like Venerable said, you're using all of this reasoning not to stay stuck in reasoning.
Longku FPMT: You're using all of this reasoning to transform that into a realization. And then that becomes an experience. Yeah, that's why in Buddhism the mind is always on the heart. That's why they do this. No, and when they do, thinking they do this, but
Longku FPMT: when you connect this, it has to connect to this. So even traditionally, if you only reason just for the sake of reasoning.
Longku FPMT: The word that is used for such people is the bad logicians.
Longku FPMT: They call them intimate talking emba, which means the bad, more like the reaction.
Longku FPMT: the perverse reason. Logicians who are arguing just for the sake of arguing
Longku FPMT: right? So there is this danger.
Longku FPMT: But it doesn't mean that if you are reasoning, it's only for the sake of arguing price.
Longku FPMT: There's a very beautiful statement that Chandra Kirti says in his clear words, he says, if, after having explained everything to you so clearly.
Longku FPMT: you still argue against me, despite having seen that you have a problem.
Longku FPMT: or that what you believe is wrong, then I don't speak to madmen. I have nothing more to say to you.
Longku FPMT: so the reasoning is done to a point when you should be able to taste what you are reasoning.
Longku FPMT: When you get a taste for it, then you can leave the reasoning, and then you can cultivate meditation.
Longku FPMT: So this divide between conceptual mind and experience and intuition and
Longku FPMT: thinking is not there. If you understand properly, traditionally, how to use reasoning, does that make sense. Yeah, it's something that we feel more in the West and in the modern world. Because I don't know why. Right
Longku FPMT: is that is that okay?
Longku FPMT: That's fine sink is for control.
Longku FPMT: I don't know why it did. I really don't know why
Longku FPMT: you have control over things if you think so much. Also, maybe we've been thinking so much, and we're not very happy, so we feel like thinking never makes you happy. I don't know it could be, you know. I don't know why it is. I really don't know.
Longku FPMT: Okay, but traditionally, that's not how it's used. Is that is that okay? Yeah. Is that fine?
Longku FPMT: Okay?
Longku FPMT: We said, 3, 45 need for us so much I can speak soon.
Longku FPMT: Have you followed?
Longku FPMT: Is this okay? So far? Yes. Am I speaking too fast?
Longku FPMT: I still have. Yeah. So what? Okay? This I didn't reason. But you know, we say, when we listen to teachings, think about it and try to integrate it that we put an imprint. Yes, and when we die, that somewhere in this imprint will ripen. Yes, yes.
Longku FPMT: yes, I think. Yeah. Yeah.
Longku FPMT: So there, sometimes I have to say there sometimes I just can't hope.
Longku FPMT: There, I don't have a certainty. And what you told that it can be completely
Longku FPMT: gone. And so that was a little bit almost shocking. It's frightening. Yes, yeah, I'm sorry. But if that's the case, then that's really the case. So see, it's like this. Now, this is the very beautiful thing about okay.
Longku FPMT: I think you can think of it like this.
Longku FPMT: You know, people who have coma, and they suddenly forget everything.
Longku FPMT: It's quite common, though it's the same person, it's the same life.
Longku FPMT: So the fact that you can forget things that you have learned is obvious.
Longku FPMT: We don't need to think about next life, for that. Right? People can get into coma. They can wake up, and they can have forgotten the language. They can have forgotten everyone. They know
Longku FPMT: people in their later ages. They can have dementia. They can also start forgetting things they know. But what you see, even in Buddhist masters
Longku FPMT: who have dementia is not that they have a lot of information.
Longku FPMT: It's that the way they act in whatever state they are, is completely transformed from how they were before.
Longku FPMT: That's because the imprint that they have wasn't just an imprint that gives them a memory.
Longku FPMT: It was a change in their behavior. It was a change in how they see the world.
Longku FPMT: So what you're trying to give gaining conviction and we come to that is, not having a memory that is very strong.
Longku FPMT: Gaining conviction is gaining conviction that right now, as I am looking at this, this thing is impermanent, and then my behavior will transform, based on that.
Longku FPMT: so I might not remember the word impermanent. I might not remember which text and which page and which
Longku FPMT: verse, how it's explained, but my behavior with the world will be that things are impersonal.
Longku FPMT: So when you're talking about conviction that is arising, not through experience, by
Longku FPMT: grounded in reality, then it's like you have one version of things, and you can have another version of things. And this version replaces that version, and as long as one is stronger the other one will be weaker, but they just keep. It's a dance of
Longku FPMT: strength which is stronger, which is more powerful. So when we're talking about being able to lose an entire thing. It's because we can spend so many that we can spend an entire life accumulating 100 million umanipadnes and mantras and memorizing texts and reciting prayers. But if your mind has not become familiar with impermanence.
Longku FPMT: selflessness, nature of suffering, emptiness, Bodhicitta.
Longku FPMT: it'll all go. This will all go.
Longku FPMT: I know that the best way to consider this is, if it's true that there are infinite lives. If it's true that there are infinite lives, then it's true that at some point we've heard something about impermanence.
Longku FPMT: But if you look around, how many people go around knowing this is very little.
Longku FPMT: So the fact that you can lose all of this is very possible.
Longku FPMT: So the imprint searching for imprints is the
Longku FPMT: I'm not saying this in a bad way. It's the lowest expectation that one can have.
Longku FPMT: It's very important because you also need that familiarity and access. So you need all of those things but
Longku FPMT: imprints and just hoping that imprints will carry on, is the lowest expectation. When his Holines, Dalai Lama, says we should be 21st century Buddhist, he says, after having heard and gotten the imprints. Now check whether those things you heard are true or not. So in the second one, hearing and contemplation, contemplation is where you use reason
Longku FPMT: right? So it is very frightening it. It really is frightening.
Longku FPMT: Yep.
Longku FPMT: even both you said the same thing. I now have the 6 foot. Everyone is my mother. I have to remember their kindness. Then I have to do this. I have to, because you can do this a million times, but there's no change.
Longku FPMT: But someone has the transformation. They have full amnesia. They're still going to behave with everyone like they love them equally. They care about them equally right. So you're still trying to get the transformation. But the transformation that is coming from the realization is a stable transformation. The other one is just a new habit. You've just learned something new.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, it's like you learn a language. You don't speak it for 30 years. You forget it. Same thing, the same thing can happen with dharma. Also.
Longku FPMT: right?
Longku FPMT: Yeah, does that make sense?
Longku FPMT: Yeah, it is a little bit frightening.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, for me, it comes down really to the experience the deeper
Longku FPMT: in your experience that you don't lose, that you don't lose. But you know what you know. I think Ayur Deva also says, if you even generate doubt with respect to emptiness. Once the ground of Samsara is shaken, you've heard this. Have you heard this words? Yeah, especially about Samsara? Yeah. So the point is, even when you reason, if through reasoning, and we have to check this more. But can you imagine if in your mind right now.
Longku FPMT: you're not telling yourself this is impermanent, but you have complete
Longku FPMT: 100% conviction that everything you're seeing everywhere you go. Everyone you talk to is in every moment disintegrating, you have 100% certainty. With this.
Longku FPMT: 2 days later you might forget it. 5 min later you might forget it. But the second you remember this, it comes crashing in so strongly that it can just completely transform the way you are.
Longku FPMT: but just saying everything isn't permanent. Everything is impermanent. Repeating it again and again, doesn't have that impact.
Longku FPMT: So if you reason it and you understand, look, this doesn't look like it's changing, but it is. It has to be. That can be very transformative.
Longku FPMT: Like a sick person who sees I have this disease, I need to fix it. Their attitude in life will change.
Longku FPMT: So the example. You know, the example over here is
Longku FPMT: it's a mother who's lost her child. It's a very bad example, but a mother who's lost her child. That feeling that she has. It spills over into everything she does. There's slight sadness, no.
Longku FPMT: or someone who is extremely happy and has won the lottery. They might be doing the same thing. But inside there's something that has changed so that joy and happiness starts to permeate everything they do. So when you understand something with reason, and you're sure that it's like that. It starts to just
Longku FPMT: become part of your life.
Longku FPMT: Then it becomes part of you. Did you still need to transform it into a strong grounded experience. But already that is powerful. Yeah, and that you can't lose.
Longku FPMT: Do you know where else it says this? You've heard in the text. It says.
Longku FPMT: the accumulation of merit you can burn.
Longku FPMT: You've heard this merit can be burned. Wisdom can't be burned. Why, like?
Longku FPMT: Because wisdom means you're seeing it for what it is. You can't stop seeing something for what it is nice to see.
Longku FPMT: They say this huh! Merit can be burnt. Wisdom can't be burnt. Wisdom can't be burned, because wisdom means once you've seen something, and you know it like that you can't not know it. But can you can your mind become kind of diluted like foggy, so you cannot see any more. Yes, yes. So when you have the. So when they say when you get understanding of something, it's not enough, and you need to cultivate it. No. So you've heard this threefold model hearing, contemplation, meditation.
Longku FPMT: Have you heard this?
Longku FPMT: Okay, this is like the Buddhist party line.
Longku FPMT: 1st you have to hear, then you have to contemplate, then you have to meditate.
Longku FPMT: This is what they say. When you hear the teachings, is listening, that's imprint.
Longku FPMT: Then you have to contemplate means. Use reasoning.
Longku FPMT: Then, when you use reasoning, and you understood, then you don't keep reasoning. You know it. Then you stabilize, then you meditate.
Longku FPMT: So even in the Buddhist model of how to practice, there is necessarily something to do with reasoning.
Longku FPMT: yeah. Okay, yeah. Okay, is that fine?
Longku FPMT: Now, the last thing that might be the good news part
Longku FPMT: reasoning doesn't mean you have to spend your whole life.
Longku FPMT: sitting there and thinking and reading and debating and discussing. That's not what it means.
Longku FPMT: Reasoning just means you have to gain conviction in what you're trying to understand.
Longku FPMT: and when I'll explain it to you in the next session
Longku FPMT: for some people, it happens naturally, it happens quickly.
Longku FPMT: For some people. It happens just by hearing things.
Longku FPMT: For some people it requires a little bit of effort for other people. It might require more effort. But reasoning doesn't mean
Longku FPMT: now that means that after I have heard this, I have to spend the next 25 years in a monastery studying text 12 HA day. That's not what it means it just means there's a little tool that has been taught. And when you learn this tool you can apply it to everything, and when you apply it to the teachings. You can try and get certainty on that, that's all it means.
Longku FPMT: You can do it by yourself. You can do it when you're thinking you can do it. When you're walking, you can do it when you're reading. You can do it when you're discussing. It's not. Now, please. All of you join a monastery, come and study for the next 10 years. That's not what it means. Yeah. So that's the
Longku FPMT: the part which I think we need to understand. So this 1st session was just demystify what it is. I still haven't told you how it works.
Longku FPMT: Is that? Okay, yeah, that's fine. Okay. Should we carry on
Longku FPMT: doing? Great. What would you like?
Longku FPMT: There's still actually time.
Longku FPMT: Yes, indeed. Are you
Longku FPMT: half past? Okay, so we do 10 min. Okay, so then, before the break. Let me just quickly tell you how it works.
Longku FPMT: and another, okay, so no, I won't tell you guys, I'll tell you another important thing.
Longku FPMT: The the the premise of why Buddhists believe reasoning work is the same premise
Longku FPMT: for saying everything is dependent on something else.
Longku FPMT: So dependent arising is the same
Longku FPMT: ground for talking about why reasoning is possible.
Longku FPMT: Okay, yeah. So I'll tell you what that means
Longku FPMT: when you say things are dependently arisen or dependent origination. You are saying.
Longku FPMT: If something exists, it exists because it depends on something else. That's what it means. No dependent arising.
Longku FPMT: So if this exists, it can't exist independently, autonomously, objectively, inherently. You can use 100 different words, but the idea is, it doesn't exist in isolation. It is dependent, reliant, contingent on something else
Longku FPMT: which means the existence of everything depends on the existence of something else.
Longku FPMT: That's the basic principle of dependent horizon. Right
Longku FPMT: reasoning is using this principle to follow through. Why.
Longku FPMT: if something depends on something else, and that is
Longku FPMT: how things really are, then my job.
Longku FPMT: as someone who is thinking is trying to understand that connection.
Longku FPMT: That's all, it is right.
Longku FPMT: So if being impermanent
Longku FPMT: depends on having causes, which is what the Buddha said, right? There's those 4 seals. Have you heard of the 4 seals. You're familiar with the 4 seals.
Longku FPMT: all things that has all compounded things or composite things. Everything that has parts is impermanent. That's the 1st thing which means impermanent means. It's changing every moment.
Longku FPMT: Second one, everything that is contaminated, and we haven't even discussed this. But we will, is the nature of suffering.
Longku FPMT: The 3rd one is, there is no self, and everything is empty, and the 4th one is Nirvana is peace. These are called 4 seals, because, as someone who's Buddhist?
Longku FPMT: These basic ideas? You should know.
Longku FPMT: If you don't accept these basic ideas, then you're not in sync with what the Buddha is saying.
Longku FPMT: The 1st one is everything that has parts is in permanent right? So Buddha is saying.
Longku FPMT: impermanence depends on causes and parts.
Longku FPMT: This is what the Buddha says.
Longku FPMT: We can see causes.
Longku FPMT: We can see parts like we know that this has parts right.
Longku FPMT: We know that all of these flowers have caused.
Longku FPMT: If it's true that this makes it be impermanent. My job is just to understand how
Longku FPMT: having causes means. It has to be impermanent.
Longku FPMT: that's all. It is. At the end of the day. Yeah.
Longku FPMT: the Buddha said. Everything is empty.
Longku FPMT: the Buddha said. Everything is emptiness because it is dependently arisen.
Longku FPMT: Emptiness exists because dependent arising exists. My job is to understand the connection between these.
Longku FPMT: the Buddha said, everything is a nature of suffering, because
Longku FPMT: it is produced by negative emotions.
Longku FPMT: I have to make the connection between these 2 things.
Longku FPMT: Yeah.
Longku FPMT: Buddha said. If something has material, it has to be made up of particles. I don't see particles, but I can connect these 2.
Longku FPMT: So reasoning is using dependent arising as its groundwork.
Longku FPMT: Does that make sense?
Longku FPMT: If you have certain symptoms, it depends on a disease or on a problem.
Longku FPMT: The doctor's job is to make the connection between these 2.
Longku FPMT: That's a good doctor, right?
Longku FPMT: A good doctor sees a symptom, understands why it exists and makes the connection correct.
Longku FPMT: That's diagnosis great.
Longku FPMT: That's what we're doing. The Buddha saw causes. The Buddha understood impermanence. We have to make that connection. The Buddha saw that we. Our mind is disturbed.
Longku FPMT: he said. If the mind is disturbed, it has to be the nature of suffering. We have to make that connection.
Longku FPMT: the Buddha said, everything is
Longku FPMT: under the power of something else. We saw that therefore there is no self, the Buddha said, that we have to make that connection. That's where reasoning. So reasoning is just trying to make the connection between 2 things. That's all it is.
Longku FPMT: So it's a lot easier than what it sounded like before at the end of the day. All you have to do is see a symptom and try and see where it comes from, and make that connection. That's it. Yeah. So in that way, if you look at Buddhism, it's very pragmatic, because you're essentially hearing the reflections of someone who's made observations about the world. And they're saying, look, I saw this. I'm telling you that this is because of that. I'm going to explain it to you. You figure it out for yourself.
Longku FPMT: I experienced this. This experience can only happen if it is like that.
Longku FPMT: I'm telling this to you. I'm explaining it to you. Now you go and figure it out.
Longku FPMT: That's all that it is at the end of the day, that's all it is.
Longku FPMT: Now this goes from 4 noble truths all the way to everything that the Buddha taught.
Longku FPMT: So you've heard that famous verse where the Buddha says, monks and wise men don't trust my words just because I said them like a goldsmith cards. You heard this. That's what he's saying. Saying. Look, I saw this. I understood that this is happening because of this.
Longku FPMT: and I'm telling you how I understood it. You check whether it's true. If you think it's true and you feel that it's true, and you experience it to be true. Then you can follow what I've said before. That don't follow what I've said.
Longku FPMT: Yeah.
Longku FPMT: does that make sense? That's also why Dalai Lama says, don't leave your own traditions, stay in your own religious tradition, explore the teachings of the Buddha. When you explore the teachings of the Buddha, if you feel that they make sense to you
Longku FPMT: if you reason them, and you see that the connections that the Buddha is making are true, then you can consider becoming Buddhist. But don't make that jump in the beginning. You've heard him say this many times. Right? That's why he says this. Okay, so now is that that's kind of the setting, the setting of the usefulness of reason. Then we can take a break, and then afterwards we'll actually look at how it works and how we break it down. Is that okay? Yeah. And if you have any questions, please say, just intervene right away. Don't feel hesitant.
Longku FPMT: hey? Thank you. Thank you.
Longku FPMT: So half an hour break, sure
Longku FPMT: is holding a step. Once on zoom.