Longku FPMT: I'm not in your contact right now. So
Longku FPMT: so now I will do this
Longku FPMT: that we can get all of the choosing from you guys
Longku FPMT: the last one.
Longku FPMT: So this was the up until here was
Longku FPMT: just I think if you, if you if you all hear a little bit of context, it might help.
Longku FPMT: When you talk about when you talk about the 4 truths, have you heard
Longku FPMT: you all familiar with having heard about the 4 truths right. This is not something that you don't know of right. When you talk about the 4 truths. There's another way of talking about the 4 truths which is a little bit more detailed.
Longku FPMT: You might actually like this a lot. It's very interesting. They're known as the 4 Truths
Longku FPMT: with the 16 Aspects.
Longku FPMT: Right? I'm not sure if all of you you've heard of this. Of course.
Longku FPMT: the 16 aspects of the 4 truths like that. It's called. Yeah. It's very interesting, because all of these 16. So the 16 aspects are divided into each truth has 4 4 aspects. So 4, 4, 4, 4, 16. Why this is nice, especially in the context that we're discussing it right now is
Longku FPMT: each one of the 16 aspect
Longku FPMT: is used to prove the 4 truths.
Longku FPMT: and so to understand the root of suffering.
Longku FPMT: It's understood through 4 aspects to understand the truth of causes. It's understood through 4 aspects.
Longku FPMT: aspects, signs, reasons, attributes, characteristics. You can call it. Whatever you want aspects is how you find that most common translation.
Longku FPMT: Yeah.
Longku FPMT: why, this is helpful is because otherwise you just are. You just hear, oh, this is the truth of suffering. It means this, there's 3 kinds of suffering. Okay.
Longku FPMT: this is the truth of causes. This is what they are. This is it. This is the truth of cessation. This is the truth of the past, but when you do it with the 16 aspects for each truth, you are approaching it from 4 different explanations.
Longku FPMT: and when you understand it from the 4 different explanations, then you understand it. According to how the Buddha intended it to be understood, and how it was understood by later masters. Right? So for the truth of suffering the 4 aspects are.
Longku FPMT: you've already done it. The 1st one is impermanence. The second one is suffering, which we've done.
Longku FPMT: Okay, then there's a 3rd and a 4, th which we'll do today. Right now and then we'll stop. We'll just set the truth of suffering, because then it becomes too much. But just to give you a taste of how you can actually use reasons. And you can use this kind of reflection to actually try and get more in detail or in more depth with the 4 truths. Okay? So after you've done this. You've done impermanent, and you've done
Longku FPMT: suffering. Okay, the subject which you're thinking about
Longku FPMT: is your body and your mind right? Primarily also, mostly the mind. But your. These are known as the so-called aggregates. I'm sure these are terms you've heard of, right? So the aggregates are body and mind, basically, right?
Longku FPMT: So you're reflecting on the body and the mind as being impermanent.
Longku FPMT: which has its own resultant feeling that accompanies it.
Longku FPMT: And then you're also reflecting on it as being the nature of suffering, which is, it is the nature of suffering, because it is a base for all your difficulties or problems, and it is under the power of
Longku FPMT: contaminated causes. That one. Yeah.
Longku FPMT: Now the set, the 3rd and the 4.th I I find them very fascinating, and I think it'll be you might be interested.
Longku FPMT: They are.
Longku FPMT: This is nice. They are taught because when you hear the second, the first, st and the second.
Longku FPMT: our mind starts to find or try to find a quick fix solution.
Longku FPMT: and the quick fix solution is what the Buddha is trying to say. It's not possible by showing you the 3rd and the 4, th
Longku FPMT: how does it work when you think that your body and your mind are
Longku FPMT: the nature of suffering like you understand that it's in constant change.
Longku FPMT: It's constantly disintegrating. And again, now, disintegrating doesn't mean that it's vanishing. It just means that whatever is there in the 1st moment doesn't remain in the second moment. Right? That's all it means. We're not saying you're going to die this evening, or in 5 min. You'll be dead disintegrated. That's not what it means right. It means that every moment there's something new that was not there before.
Longku FPMT: and in each moment the new thing is being produced by a cause.
Longku FPMT: and the cause that is producing it in each moment is a cause that is contaminated or polluted. So in each moment everything new is arising, and in each moment that thing is the nature of suffering.
Longku FPMT: Why? Why is it? Why is it suffering? Because the first, st second, reason, because it is the basis nature of suffering, not suffering.
Longku FPMT: I think we need to make this distinction. Okay. Suffering means you feel pain.
Longku FPMT: Nature of suffering means. It has a nature that is going to not make you satisfied. So the Sanskrit word for this is Dukkha, which in Tibetan is, I heard recently a very beautiful explanation. Dukkha is the nature. Yes, Dukkha just means. Dukkha is a very beautiful Dukkha means like constricted space. It's like constriction.
Longku FPMT: So when you think of the word suffering, it's lack of freedom.
Longku FPMT: It's constricted Sukha, which is the opposite which in English we translate as happiness is like free space.
Longku FPMT: It's no sense of constriction. It's a liberated sensation.
Longku FPMT: So when we say the nature of suffering, we say the aggregates are bound by these causes that are not giving it a good nature or not giving it a pleasurable nature. It doesn't mean that you're suffering in each moment. Does that make sense? Because that's the problem with the English word. The English word suffering seems to be like torment torture. Right? That's not what it means. Is that okay? So that's what we're saying. The nature of the aggregates are now
Longku FPMT: the sec. The 3rd and the 4th
Longku FPMT: part are very interesting, because when you hear this, apparently some people say.
Longku FPMT: No, no, no, there must be something pure inside all of this.
Longku FPMT: That's 1 problem.
Longku FPMT: That's 1 doubt that creeps up. Okay.
Longku FPMT: that's 1 doubt that creeps up the other doubt that creeps up. That is
Longku FPMT: okay. Fine. My aggregates are like this, but
Longku FPMT: there can be some sort of intervention that will magically fix it.
Longku FPMT: So you look for a intervention from somewhere.
Longku FPMT: the second, the 3, rd and the 4th are the doubts that creep up to address these doubts there, the Buddha said, not only are the aggregates impermanent, and have the nature of Dukkha or suffering, but
Longku FPMT: they are selfless.
Longku FPMT: Selfless is the 3rd aspect
Longku FPMT: selfless means. They don't have a nature of any autonomy. There is nothing in the aggregates which is
Longku FPMT: pure by nature or good by nature. So even if you try to find the solution inside your aggregates or inside thinking there is something inside us that is
Longku FPMT: already okay, or that is going to fix the situation that doesn't exist.
Longku FPMT: And also there is no external thing entity that can come and change the situation.
Longku FPMT: So the 4th aspect is empty. If you ever read, you'll find online. The 3rd is selfless, and the 4th is empty, sometimes they change, sometimes 3rd is empty. 4th is surplus. That depends. Yeah, but are like things, selfless too.
Longku FPMT: Everything. Everything. So here selfless means.
Longku FPMT: If things are under the power of their causes.
Longku FPMT: They don't have any autonomous nature of being able to act by themselves.
Longku FPMT: So there is no self in anything
Longku FPMT: we're not talking about. Selfless as emptiness, selfless. We're not there yet. This is a different understanding of selfless. It just means, if something is.
Longku FPMT: there's an English. There's a Tibetan world which is very nice
Longku FPMT: under the power of it's translated in English. Have you heard of this other powered? Is how it's often translated. You heard of this? Yeah, other powered in Tibetan? It's
Longku FPMT: and it's very beautiful in Sanskrit. It's Paradantra. It means under the power of something outside something else.
Longku FPMT: Yeah.
Longku FPMT: So what the this aspect is saying is, the aggregates cannot have your body and your mind do not have any nature
Longku FPMT: that is autonomous, independent, that is fixable. That is good right now.
Longku FPMT: The reason is because whatever they have, whatever they are is because of the causes that make it
Longku FPMT: so. Here you're tackling the idea of having some sort of, and this was the kind of doubt that came up yesterday, which is, things are permanent things act on it but itself. They are pure right. That was that strange doubt that can come up by themselves. They're pure, they have temporarily they are defiled. Is that this kind of idea that we have.
Longku FPMT: which again, Buddha, nature is an important one. We'll do that if you want. Yeah, say, say, but so selfless means the no autonomy and no causes. Yes, so self will be no causes.
Longku FPMT: selfless, because it has no autonomy so self because it has autonomy, which then means it can't have causes. Yes, right? Exactly. So. Here you're saying it cannot have autonomy because it has causes. Yes, now this sounds very obvious, but we also discussed this yesterday. I'm a very one of my most
Longku FPMT: like one of my most precious teachers. He's 94 years this year, and he gives me a very good example for this. He says
Longku FPMT: he knows that his body is old.
Longku FPMT: he knows it so he knows he can see that there's old manifestations right? Ken is very old now. He can't. He needs help, even just to go to the loop, but he says, sometimes
Longku FPMT: I forget
Longku FPMT: that my body is old, and I try and just get up from bed and go to the Loo, and then I just realize that I can't get up, and I have to then call my assistant, and then he has to stand me up.
Longku FPMT: And so the idea is, you can do all the reflection that it has causes. It is under the power of pauses, but sometimes you can still have this notion that temporarily I don't know why, but suddenly
Longku FPMT: you can have some aspect or some quality that is going to function by itself, not reliant on causes.
Longku FPMT: you know, like everything is determined by causes, but somehow, at some point this will happen by itself, like I have trained for many men, and this is very common with our mind, because we say, Oh, you've been studying for so long. I've been studying for so long. Why are you so much better than I am? Right? And so you don't identify a cause, and you think I'm stupid by my nature, or that person is intelligent because they are like that.
Longku FPMT: just randomly random in that sense. Yeah, so the idea here is nothing has that nature that is independent always there, because whatever is there is produced by some cause.
Longku FPMT: So if you realize that your aggregates are the nature of suffering, and you're expecting your aggregates to magically fix themselves because they have this kind of magical power, or they have this sudden power to
Longku FPMT: just by themselves fix themselves. That's not going to happen. So your body and your mind are not autonomous
Longku FPMT: because they are under the power of causes. That's the reason. So something has causes. It cannot have autonomy. If it has autonomy, it won't rely on causes. That's the one that's the reason that it used like you said autonomy can't mean causes right? This is something that you add to thinking that they're the nature of suffering to reinforce the idea that right now, unless we do something in a pragmatic way.
Longku FPMT: We will not be able to fix the situation. So you're trying to be pragmatic. You're not hoping for some sort of magical sudden change, you know, like tomorrow morning I wake up and everything is okay.
Longku FPMT: But we have this attitude many times. No, right, that's the 3rd one. The 4th one is. Not only can you not expect anything from inside to magically fix itself?
Longku FPMT: External intervention is also not going to fix it.
Longku FPMT: so it is empty, which is the 4th one empty means there can be no external intervention.
Longku FPMT: external intervention, and the reason is the same
Longku FPMT: because its nature has already been determined by causes, it's the same.
Longku FPMT: So by the end of the 4th one
Longku FPMT: you feel, or I guess the Buddhas felt that this is the situation. This is how I am, and I cannot fix this just by hoping for the blessings of someone, or just by going to a special place and receiving with blessings, or just by hearing a few words, and then magically getting, or by drinking blessed water, or by walking under a door with something on it. You know that's not enough.
Longku FPMT: These things are not enough, because if my aggregates, their nature has already been made by their causes, how is external intervention going to come in and fix it
Longku FPMT: right. You can't just come in and do. It's not like clinical surgery where you can come and remove something. Then nature has been created by
Longku FPMT: these causes. Yeah, is that okay? So they don't have a nature that will magically fix itself. Nor can there be some external entity that will magically fix itself
Longku FPMT: now. External entity. Then you say, like, what's the point of teachings? Why take refuge? Why listen to teachings that's not fixing it. That's telling you things that then you have to interpret, and you have to cultivate those causes to change the situation. There is no sudden intervention from outside that can magically fix things. That's what the
Longku FPMT: 4 aspects of the truth of suffering now, does that make sense?
Longku FPMT: But what are our medicines?
Longku FPMT: Medicine? But they don't fix? No, they enter inside. They have some time. They need to act. They need to act based on your constitution. For some people the medicine works for other people. The medicine doesn't work, and so when you take medication, it's not externally fixing it, it's acting with your body for you to get it fixed.
Longku FPMT: So it's still your aggregates that are making the change. The change is happening through your aggregates like food, even when you eat. That is external right? But the way food goes in, and it makes you healthy or unhealthy, is not instant.
Longku FPMT: It still needs some elaborations. So it's the same. You listen to teaching, but you need to digest it, you need to understand it, and you need to work with it. What we're refuting here is
Longku FPMT: sudden intervention. Does that make sense just sudden. You go to some you meet some teacher that you meet this, for in India the standard one is, if you bathe in the River Ganges, all your sins are purified, that kind of stuff we're talking about that kind of stuff, or you go to some teacher, you receive a blessing, and then you'll be fine, or there was. That's very common. This is very, very common. My parents generation. My father told me. He said this very sweetly. He said.
Longku FPMT: I used to keep going to meet all these teachers, and I was told that if you look at them in the aisles
Longku FPMT: and you get this blessing from them. Everything will be fine, and he said I tried so many times. It never worked so. The idea that there can be some external thing without you having to do anything like without working on your causes. Externally, some intervention can happen is not possible. That's the 4th one. Yeah, that's what it means. Okay.
Longku FPMT: fine.
Longku FPMT: Is that. Okay? Then this is all the bad news, right so far, this is all the bad part. Now, after all, of this, it's very beautiful, because, after all of this, now you have all the information required to know how to fix it.
Longku FPMT: and how the in the text it explains it is.
Longku FPMT: then you start looking at. What are the causes that are making your aggregates like this?
Longku FPMT: Because, after having done all of this, they are changing. The change is not great. They can't be fixed by themselves. They can't be fixed externally right. They can't fix themselves. They can't be fixed externally. You come back and you say, okay. So then the problem is in the causes that led to it. You go back there right? And then, when you go back to the causes that led to it. Then the explanation is now what I think is calling this Buddhist psychology.
Longku FPMT: You don't need to be Buddhist. You don't need to believe in anything. You're just thinking about how the mind functions. Okay? And the standard thing is the reason why there are all of these problems, or what is polluting the mind? The Buddhist answer is because it's always got craving. They all just give. This is one answer. So you know how we saw the aggregates are the nature of suffering because they have polluted causes.
Longku FPMT: Remember that one. Now the polluted cause is craving full stop. There's not much more to it not ignorance? Not yet. That's later, because what happens? This is another tendency that we have is we always tie everything to ignorance
Longku FPMT: and the problem when you tie everything to ignorance is ignorance doesn't give you the connection with how you keep making mistakes in the way that craving does
Longku FPMT: so. Whenever you will listen to any teaching
Longku FPMT: in the text where they're really explaining the cause of suffering. It's almost craving.
Longku FPMT: Then when you wonder, how do you get rid of craving, then ignorance is explained. But our problem that we have in many Western places and also in like when you're not, when you haven't done it properly, is, you want to take everything to ignorance immediately. It's too fast and you jump on ignorance. And then when you jump onto ignorance, you're like, okay. Ignorance is a problem. But you don't draw that connection with how it's the problem. But think about this. In the 8, in the 12 links of dependent origination.
Longku FPMT: Ignorance is the first, st
Longku FPMT: but when they tell you where you need to act, it's the 8th and the 9th which is craving and grasping. That's the real problem.
Longku FPMT: No, every teaching on the 12 links you will see how you attain liberation is by making sure that you get rid of the 8th and the 9.th Always, when you read any text, they will always say the cause of Samsara is craving
Longku FPMT: attachment always.
Longku FPMT: In fact, it's so clear that they speak of 3 kinds of craving. There's a craving for existence. There's a craving for annihilation. And then there's a craving for pleasant things.
Longku FPMT: It's always craving, because craving is something that we can experience as a problem. Ignorance is not so fast.
Longku FPMT: So this is another huge problem that again, my teacher, he mentioned a lot, he said, if you start always trying to connect things to ignorance without understanding, craving the impact it has is much less. You understand it with craving. And then suddenly, it'll make sense. So that's what we're going to try and do.
Longku FPMT: Craving is why our mind is polluted. That's what the tech. That's what the Buddha discovered first.st Okay.
Longku FPMT: how he did this is you took
Longku FPMT: now, again, definition craving. It has to be clear. Right? Annihilation is one. So 3 kinds. The 3 kinds of craving are one is you crave pleasant things.
Longku FPMT: Annihilation is you crave for unpleasant things to end. That's what annihilation. Yeah. And the 3rd one is you just crave to exist.
Longku FPMT: There's these 3, but they're all kinds of craving. It's very interesting. All the text will always speak of craving. And then, when you understood craving is the problem. Then they will say, and craving comes from ignorance. So you're connecting it like that. Yeah.
Longku FPMT: But craving by definition
Longku FPMT: doesn't matter. My definition. There's a very nice example for craving, which is oil and paper.
Longku FPMT: you know, when you put oil on paper, it just spreads, and you can't really separate it anymore. Like, if you get oil stains on clothes, I don't know. Maybe you have something good that can take it out. But generally it's a bad one. Right? Paper 100. So craving is a mental movement.
Longku FPMT: it's a mind that moves, it wants things, and the way in which it wants things is in a way where it doesn't want to be separated from them. So it kind of wants to mix with things or wants to possess things in a way where it can't
Longku FPMT: fathom or come to terms with being separated from it.
Longku FPMT: That's all it is. It's a mental movement towards something that that gives you joy or pleasure or happiness, and the quality that it has is of not wanting to be separated from it.
Longku FPMT: That's what the Buddha calls craving attachment. If you want, you know there's these other words, that's what it is. So it's there's an experience of something your mind
Longku FPMT: engages with something.
Longku FPMT: If that thing you believe gives you pleasure, or is a source of joy. Your mind wants to possess that
Longku FPMT: in a way where you don't want to be separated from it. That's what craving is. That's it.
Longku FPMT: Yeah. Aversion is the opposite. Aversion is your mind is perceiving something that you've recognized as a cause for your pain, or
Longku FPMT: we are just whatever pain and your mind wants to be separated from it. So you can actually think of these 2 things as movement, like mental movement towards something and distancing from something. This kind of action
Longku FPMT: is why we
Longku FPMT: do things, and apparently this action is the contaminated action. So when you say the mind is the nature of suffering because it has contaminated causes or polluted causes. This cause craving is the cause that we're saying so. We need to know the connection. This is what has been said.
Longku FPMT: Craving is the cause.
Longku FPMT: Craving is a polluted cause, and so we need to know the connection, right craving
Longku FPMT: or the mind. The mind is
Longku FPMT: the nature of suffering because it is under the power of craving.
Longku FPMT: Now our job is to draw the connection, if it is under the power of craving.
Longku FPMT: Why is it the nature of suffering?
Longku FPMT: And if something is not the nature of suffering.
Longku FPMT: why does it have to be free from creating.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, now, this is our job. So now the explanation has to be, how does craving lead to suffering? And how can
Longku FPMT: the absence of suffering be generated by the absence of craving.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, is that clear?
Longku FPMT: That's all that we have to do. Then
Longku FPMT: if we can make this connection, then the natural doubt is, how do I get rid of craving? Then? Only it makes sense right, because up until then you can keep saying, ignorance is the cause of suffering. But if you can't connect it, then how do you? Why would you do anything about ignorance? Right? So the 1st step is craving.
Longku FPMT: Can you understand why craving is a problem.
Longku FPMT: or do you need an explanation for it?
Longku FPMT: Craving is basically problem.
Longku FPMT: because one, it it is a state of mind which is unpleasant, is unhappy, but also because of the carbon, because you create the unwholesome actions, and you have to experience something.
Longku FPMT: Why? Why do you have to experience suffering because many people, especially I've heard many people. I think this is very common. If you hear modern people speak, they say no craving is not the cause of suffering. Craving is what makes you do things that make you happy.
Longku FPMT: So it's not the cause of South. This is a very standard doubt that many people have. I've actually seen this mentioned a lot. Have you heard this? Yeah, how can you say craving is bad
Longku FPMT: craving is very good, because craving is what makes you do things. If you didn't crave or you didn't desire anything, then you wouldn't do anything. All the joy that you have is coming from desire and craving.
Longku FPMT: So this is a very natural thing that I've heard many people say right? So
Longku FPMT: why is craving bad? Or how does craving create suffering is something that is explained in enormous detail
Longku FPMT: through reasoning, of course, always right. And the 1st thing this is craving is a cause of, or creates the mind having the need. So do you understand what this means? Though what they're saying is, the mind is constantly in a state
Longku FPMT: which is colored by or tainted by craving.
Longku FPMT: that's what it means. So the mind being the nature of suffering means, the mind is always
Longku FPMT: colored by a state of craving, even if it's not doing it, it's very close behind. It can happen at any moment.
Longku FPMT: And craving is this attitude of the mind, of wanting to possess things
Longku FPMT: that it believes make it happy. But even if there is under the power of craving in the moment, I don't feel the suffer it could be I don't. I couldn't care about it exactly. That's 90%. Okay, good. So what does this lead to? If that's the view. And it's absolutely true. If that's the view, then you know what's a great solution, mindfulness.
Longku FPMT: Because whenever you cultivate mental states free from these kind of thoughts, you're also creating a state where there is no actual, active craving. No.
Longku FPMT: you're in a state of neutrality.
Longku FPMT: and if you see that that state of neutrality doesn't have craving.
Longku FPMT: Then you're like, Well, that's fine. So why should I do anything about it? The Buddha over there said. In that moment there might not be craving, but that state still has the seeds of craving, so at some other point the craving will come back. It's like me right now. I don't have any fear of flying. Not at all.
Longku FPMT: But put me in front of an ad play. It'll all come back right away, just like you know Dennis Berkham. I don't know. He's an old football player. He used to play for the Dutch team.
Longku FPMT: He never flew, so every time Holland had an international football match he would take the bus if it was in Europe, and when they were playing in America he never went. So just never fly.
Longku FPMT: That's right. Now. Craving is the problem. Just never be anywhere where there is anything that you crave. And people do that when you have this austere kind of practices where you sit in place, or you try and remove all objects of craving from you.
Longku FPMT: That reaction is coming from exactly the thought that you have, which is exactly what the Buddha did for 6 years on the other side of the river. The Buddha did this for 6 years, because the teaching at that point was craving is the problem.
Longku FPMT: Remove all stimulus for craving from your life.
Longku FPMT: And the Buddha tried that for 6 years at the end. The Buddha, however, discovered. This doesn't work. The reason why he said this doesn't work is because while that stimulus is not there, I will not have craving, but the second, somehow it comes back, and the stimulus can be anything you understand. Like, you can be sitting in
Longku FPMT: the most desolate quiet place, and there's a bit of breeze, and then that can say, Oh, this is so nice! And then suddenly you get distracted, and you want to be somewhere else, or you have a memory of something nice. You wait, and then your mind catches on to that, and then you leave.
Longku FPMT: or you stop drinking for many years, and then one day, somewhere, you're sitting somewhere, and the smell comes from
Longku FPMT: grapes on the table, or something that reminds you of something, and then you take off right. It just requires one moment for some stimulus. You don't know from where to come. And suddenly that can just get activated again because the seeds are still there. So the Buddha suggestion was, instead of cultivating states that temporarily keep
Longku FPMT: the stimulus or the objects at bay. Is there a solution where you can remove the impulse entirely?
Longku FPMT: That's what he looked for. Does that make sense? That's what he did. So when he was on the other side of the river? When he left
Longku FPMT: he left, and his friend said, Oh, you have given into craving you've given into attachment and worldly pleasure because he drank
Longku FPMT: almost like bircher Muesley.
Longku FPMT: It was like this pudding right. He drank this pudding, and when he drank the pudding his friend said, Oh, you've given into attachment and worldly pleasure again. So you've broken your practice, the Buddha said, but that's not practice, because I don't think that works. And then he walked over the river. He sat down under the Bodi tree and he tried to find the solution to craving.
Longku FPMT: Do you understand that craving is the main target?
Longku FPMT: Yeah, it's not ignorance. It doesn't start with ignorance. Ignorance is how you get rid of craving. But craving is the target.
Longku FPMT: Okay, yeah, it's it's quite easy, because craving as a term is related to desire and desire is per se.
Longku FPMT: not all wholesome. Why, though most people think desire is very wholesome.
Longku FPMT: But I'm not thinking that I think this is something that you are like under a
Longku FPMT: on your tick Tock, or you know, like you.
Longku FPMT: it's not not. It's not healthy.
Longku FPMT: Desire. If you hold on to something that this may be a good, a good impact, then, I think, to hold on motivation, to do to do marriages things, you know. That's, I think, to hold on. This is a good but craving means to you.
Longku FPMT: Why is whole. Okay? So then, I think, now, that's like, how does okay, how is holding on to something good when not always, but it the term is more neutral.
Longku FPMT: and the craving itself is already okay. So then use not use the word craving, but wanting. Let's use the word wanting. You can use any word. My idea. No. So that yeah. But I'm not trying to use the term, because that's why I gave the explanation. I'm talking about the movement towards something and wanting it. That's the problem.
Longku FPMT: And to and to keep it, you know, yeah, fix forever want it, just desire it. That's a problem. So I think
Longku FPMT: if you just describe it with that, and then you, the word that you use should be the word that is most effective for you. Of course, if craving is already because I think in the West we have this idea of sin. You know
Longku FPMT: we have these like capital sins and all, don't we?
Longku FPMT: In Christianity? There's there's these things that are already considered sins right, and I think craving desire lust. All of these have already a bad connotation.
Longku FPMT: so if you use those words, then the word already is coming to you with a bad connotation, then you will be easily understanding. You will feel that. Okay, this is wrong over here. The word that we're using has a meaning. So again, this is an English problem. Try and divorce the word that you use from whatever
Longku FPMT: bag, like, whatever meaning you have ascribed to it. And just take it as this, this movement of the mind towards things that make you happy, and wanting to own them.
Longku FPMT: and not wanting to be separated from them, whatever that might be.
Longku FPMT: And then, if you have a teacher, or the teachings, or the 3 objects of refuse the 3 jewels.
Longku FPMT: This attitude to the 3 objects is also not okay.
Longku FPMT: So it's not the object that determines whether this is good or bad. This attitude is bad, right? So there is no merit that can be done with this attitude. There is no actual path for liberation with this attitude. Now, whatever word you want to use, you can, I think, take up. But I think this is the most important thing.
Longku FPMT: It means something already. So this is what desire means. So it's desiring, or what. Yeah, this is what desire means. So is that? Okay?
Longku FPMT: I don't know how how we understand. How is whiteboard like in
Longku FPMT: our language, in English and German, whatever?
Longku FPMT: These words already have a bad feeling no, like you should not be a
Longku FPMT: desirous person. You should not be lustful, you should not be attached. We already have this right. But what we're thinking, if it really means what is being said here, that I don't.
Longku FPMT: because I don't know what you're thinking when you use. What do you mean when you use these words
Longku FPMT: when in the West they say desire is bad. What do they mean? Like the passions you should control? Tame your passion? Isn't that something we said, actually, sometimes people they want to be passionate. Oh, yeah. But what I understand now is that it is always how you
Longku FPMT: interpret. Yeah. You know, if I say the desire and tense
Longku FPMT: very quickly, I see negative. Yeah, it's myself made it negative. Yeah, it's a neutral thing, but it's me. But depends. What is desire? What do you mean when you say desire?
Longku FPMT: Yeah, that's what I said. So you you want something to get, and you want to hold it. And it's like, make you excited, but not lasting. It's not lasting. Yeah, it makes use that. Yeah, it's it's not really
Longku FPMT: It's an extreme. Also. Why.
Longku FPMT: there you go.
Longku FPMT: It's impermanent. And then it's over, and yourself with them.
Longku FPMT: That's 1. Yeah, that's 1 that's 1. So I make an example. I just came back from India, and I love it really there. So I was so happy to come back. So now
Longku FPMT: I feel constantly, I think, when can I go? So this is like a desire, but it makes me unhappy because I can't go now. But then, when you're in India and you have desire towards India. What's the problem? What if you move to India? So then that's not. But it will not last, because I will definitely not stay forever there, but you can. You can move to India. My mother moved to India. You know what I mean.
Longku FPMT: So if you're looking for a problem, then the problem has to be identified. Little bit more, because right now, and what you're describing is what all of us do.
Longku FPMT: I don't like to live in India, so I'm going to immigrate to the West, and then everyone moves abroad in India, and then I don't like living abroad. I like living in India, and then people migrate to India or now in India. We don't like India. We move to Thailand because that makes me so. The impulse with desire to recognize it as a problem, I think, has to be a little bit more refined in the understanding, because otherwise it's like
Longku FPMT: this is not making me happy anymore. Now I'll go there. This is not making me happy anymore. Now I will go there. So yes, one problem with desire is, if the thing that you have desired towards is not lasting. Then at some point it will lead to
Longku FPMT: some sort of delusion. That's obviously one right, that craving, you know, the word craving the term that I want to say. It's for me. It's always a little bit related to desire, which I find is not a good thing. Yeah, but I think my only like my only suggestion is, try and not think of desire and craving the way you already are, because then maybe this, what is being explained will not be
Longku FPMT: how they are explaining it, and then the problem. And but you understand this, however, you identify something is going to determine how you act as a result of it. That's the scary thing. So if you identify desire in the way that you are speaking about it, then you will act to remove desire based on how you've identified desire over here. The way that desire is identified
Longku FPMT: is then given an antidote which, if you don't feel is actually desire or works to fix desire. You won't do that. So then the path that the Buddha speaks is not relevant to you.
Longku FPMT: So if what the Buddha says is desire you identify as desire, and then you identify that as a problem. And then you see that the antidote the Buddha gives works for that desire that you have that you have now seen as a problem, then you will want to cultivate the antidote. Otherwise it's theory.
Longku FPMT: right? That's what the Buddha says. That's what it is. That's how it works. So I always have a problem with words. But I've become so familiar with now, just letting go of the word, and just thinking about the meaning that it's easy for me. I do see that it's a problem, especially in especially with people who have very strong familiarity with one way of thinking, these become really big problems.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, it becomes like cement. I have to navigate between languages. So it's easy for me to get out of this thing. Yeah, okay, so that's what the 1st thing is. But now so again, the thing is, if it's under the power of desire, or whatever word you want to use. I don't know. What word can we use
Longku FPMT: cravings craving? Then it has to have the nature of suffering this connection. If you can make, then we're in a really good place, and we have 45 min. So how do we do this? I'll tell you what the Buddha said, he said. If there is craving.
Longku FPMT: then you will always do things. You will always gravitate towards things, and when you gravitate towards one kind of thing, it automatically makes everything that is the opposite unpleasant.
Longku FPMT: So it creates a bias. It immediately creates a bias between things.
Longku FPMT: Yeah.
Longku FPMT: as soon as you create a bias. You've already set up the world as good for me, not good for me, neutral.
Longku FPMT: When you do this, you will always be then propelled to take the good things. You will always feel like you want to be away from unpleasant things, and you will be unfazed when you are in neutral spaces.
Longku FPMT: So the bias that it creates is the 1st problem.
Longku FPMT: The second problem is along with creating the bias. It also acts as a result of that bias. So it strengthens the habit. That's the 2 main problems that it has. Right? It creates a bias.
Longku FPMT: And while creating the bias, it picks up on things.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, does that make sense? What do you mean by that?
Longku FPMT: It creates a bias? But while seeing something good, it's not just. It has an appearance of something pleasant, it is simultaneously wanting to go on to it. So it makes you act out of that impulse, and when it sees something unpleasant. It doesn't just observe it. It also makes you want to be distanced from that. So craving is the perfect place for you to then generate attachment towards things you want and aversion towards things you don't want. So you're automatically your mind starts
Longku FPMT: acting in these different ways, right? It's the space for acting in these ways.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, and what's wrong with acting in these ways? Now, this is where the trick is.
Longku FPMT: The problem with acting in these ways, it seems is that these ways are based on expectations that are not real. So the problem with craving everyone knew
Longku FPMT: in India all traditions knew. The problem is craving.
Longku FPMT: Okay, Buddhist non-buddhist. Everyone knows the non-buddhist decided to use austerity as a tool or other things in the text. You find lots of other parts. In the second chapter there's a whole section on various paths that are used to try and get rid of craving
Longku FPMT: up till here. This is common to all tradition. This is the problem with gravy. The solution
Longku FPMT: that the Buddha thought was the problem with craving is that it has an unrealistic expectation.
Longku FPMT: That's where
Longku FPMT: the teachings of the Buddha distinguish themselves from other ones. Does that make sense? Up until now this is common. The problem with craving is common to all Indian tradition.
Longku FPMT: This is not unique to Buddha. What did they say? So they said. The problem with craving is that it has pleasant things nearby, so you should get rid of pleasant things.
Longku FPMT: So you know, Indian, that's very common. You see all the fakir concept. They do all of these self mortification because they want to reduce their craving. That's why they do it.
Longku FPMT: Some people said. Another. Tradition said, craving arises from
Longku FPMT: thinking that you are your aggregates, and so you need to cultivate the view that there is a permanent self outside.
Longku FPMT: and that needs to be cultivated. These are all solutions to get rid of cravings. In the second chapter, Acharya Dharma Kirti identifies a whole series of what he believes are wrong antidotes to craving. He argues against all of them, and then, he says, the only antidote to craving is
Longku FPMT: wisdom, because the reason of the problem with craving is ignorance.
Longku FPMT: But this is all coming from creating.
Longku FPMT: But what do they say
Longku FPMT: is, is craving, doing to you this what we just said same thing? Are they saying the same thing? Same thing, same thing. Craving makes you make the world in a certain way.
Longku FPMT: You. It divides things in a certain way. So even you'll have these beautiful stories. There's actually a very nice story, someone quite recent.
Longku FPMT: Can you walk in?
Longku FPMT: It's not a great examples. Can we use it? If
Longku FPMT: so, in India there was this very.
Longku FPMT: I think, Ramakrishna Mission. Yeah. Have you heard of him? There's this Ramakrishna Mission. I think he was the only person who was allowed in in Banaras. There's these, you know. There's these 12 places in India, where there's these very sacred shiblings.
Longku FPMT: There was a very sacred sibling in Manaras, called Kashi Vishwana, which is like one of the 12 main preliminished places.
Longku FPMT: He was one of the only places he was allowed to make an offering. So in India we have this attitude a lot. He was allowed to make this offering where he offered his species in urine to
Longku FPMT: the shiveling shiveling is. It's like the it's this little stone that represents Shiva.
Longku FPMT: and it's very, very sacred. And he was. He actually made an offering of this. So in India we cultivate Aghori, there's this entire tradition of people who try and break this duality between good and bad, because seeing things as positive and negative is identified as a problem. So craving being the source of this is very common now. They all cultivate different paths. To do this the Buddhist path is different.
Longku FPMT: but the problem with craving is identified by everyone is the same, because if I see something as if I see you as good, then everyone who is different from you. Naturally my mind will start saying, Okay, these are not good people
Longku FPMT: very naturally, and then I will feel distant and irritable, or
Longku FPMT: scared, or unhappy when someone like unlike you is there, and when someone who's familiar to you. I will feel close, and then, when someone like you is behaving differently, I will feel aversion towards you, so that craving sets up the perfect foundation for disappointment, delusion constantly acting, not getting things that you want. It's the perfect ground for being in a constant state of push and pull and tension
Longku FPMT: right now the problem with craving. If it's the object.
Longku FPMT: then you will try and always surround yourself with pleasant things. If it is the duration of the object. You will try and surround yourself with things that last longer.
Longku FPMT: You'll always find some trick, and we all do that. These are all things that we do. The Buddhist answer to this was craving is coming from a mistaken notion. Yeah, a wrong idea.
Longku FPMT: a wrong interpretation of things. And it's very simple. What the Buddha felt was the problem. The Buddha said, craving comes from a notion that you exist autonomously.
Longku FPMT: Just that guy.
Longku FPMT: And you have to draw the connection. Okay, so it was.
Longku FPMT: the nature of the mind is polluted because it comes from craving.
Longku FPMT: Yes, that was that. So now you have to try and make the connection between craving and
Longku FPMT: nature, of suffering, right power under craving and nature of suffering. That's our connection. We have to make that connection, then craving
Longku FPMT: can be removed.
Longku FPMT: So craving, right or craving arises from a notion of an autonomous self. So the idea here is craving comes from a notion of
Longku FPMT: are you existing autonomously, autonomously, therefore, means that you have power over things. That's literally all it is.
Longku FPMT: Yeah. Okay. So the Buddha said, craving comes
Longku FPMT: the fact that you have craving and make you engage and try and do things
Longku FPMT: is because you have a notion that you have some some form of autonomy.
Longku FPMT: that there is a you now look same thing with happened with the watch. You know that you have a body. You know that you have a mind. You can reflect on your body, and you can reflect on your mind and know that it is impermanent nature of suffering. Yes, but you can also have a notion of you. You can have a notion of the hands of the watch, the numbers of the watch, the battery of the watch of the clock, all of those things. Those are the parts. But you can also have a notion of watch
Longku FPMT: that's separate, and then you feel like that is constant. You just did it before you did it
Longku FPMT: the same thing with the body and mind.
Longku FPMT: even though you might have understood that your mind is under the power of causes. Your body is under the power of causes. As long as you have a notion of you
Longku FPMT: as a unitary singular thing, this will always appear as autonomous same thing with the watch. The watch appears like it's unchanging and autonomous. The parts are changing, the Buddha said. As long as you think you exist autonomously.
Longku FPMT: You will feel that you have a sense of agency over things. If you have a sense of agency over things, then craving is your best friend, because craving is telling you what you should take and what you should get away from.
Longku FPMT: So the solution that the Buddha said is, if you think that there is an autonomous self
Longku FPMT: you will naturally act upon. What craving has the world, the way craving has made the world.
Longku FPMT: So the problem for all of this is that there is idea of autonomous self, the autonomous. You can use many words, but I think autonomous is a good word. Does it make sense to you autonomous. If you say independent, it doesn't have the feeling of agency. Autonomous has a sense of agency with it. No.
Longku FPMT: so autonomy. You feel that you exist autonomously. That's the problem. According to the Buddha. And what's about the soul? There is no such thing. That's the problem in India. The soul we call Atman. The soul is an autonomous entity. Yes, yes, that's what the Buddha is the.
Longku FPMT: I don't know if it's the only one.
Longku FPMT: But as far as I'm aware Buddhism is the only tradition on earth that says there is no such thing.
Longku FPMT: isn't it? As in Buddhism it's
Longku FPMT: so. I'm not sure about Jan's. I don't remember that correctly, so I don't want to say anything wrong.
Longku FPMT: I might. I believe they also don't speak of soul, but I don't know how they do it, or maybe they don't speak of a Creator. They speak of soul. I don't know what it is.
Longku FPMT: but everyone else in India speaks or so.
Longku FPMT: Not only you know what the funny thing is, they say, realizing the soul is how you get over craving the Buddha says the opposite, the Buddha says, realizing that there is no soul is how you get over craving. So soul is the self autonomous. Yes, yes, okay.
Longku FPMT: How we understand it. But I don't know what soul means in a Judo-christian background. So Atman is the word that we use in India. Atman is a word which is something that is not. Your body is not your mind, and has agency over your body and mind.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, the Buddha said. As long as you have that notion of you having a sense of autonomy.
Longku FPMT: then you will act. If you realize that you don't have autonomy.
Longku FPMT: then you don't have to. But if I don't have autonomy, what is the I that is it
Longku FPMT: the eyes, what you have said earlier, the watches.
Longku FPMT: It's in my soul. Then it's just something that you believe to be some sort of unitary thing that is there. But it's not really there. There's no I. Now, these are all the kind of issues that you should have.
Longku FPMT: That's exactly the kind of issue that you have. And, in fact, after the in Dharma Kirti's text, see the kind of questions you're asking are all there. That's why I'm telling you this, because then you at least know that there is somewhere that you can go and read and refer to later. Because Dharma Kirti says, says this statement that I just said, and then there's a someone who asks him. He says, Well, if there is no eye, then who attains liberation, and who does things
Longku FPMT: and says, the idea that you have a self that can do things is the problem. When you realize that there is no such self that can do things, or that is doing things is when you attain liberation, and you can actually do things when you have a notion that there is a self that is doing things is what's holding you back. So liberation is getting rid of the notion that there is this self, and still being able to function.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, okay. So the
Longku FPMT: thought I for us is very closely accompanied with this notion of autonomy, and Dharmagit also gives an explanation of how this is. He says if you're speaking to a sick person and an elderly sick person, and you say, would you like to change your body, exchange your body for a young youthful
Longku FPMT: person in the prime of their health. You're all nodding right? You do say yes. If you say someone who's extremely intelligent, and someone says, Would you like to maybe have their mind? You do say yes, right?
Longku FPMT: Yes. So this is how Dharma Kirti explains it. I mean, this is how the commentary explains it. The commentary says it's like a shopkeeper
Longku FPMT: who wants to exchange their goods for better goods.
Longku FPMT: You feel like this is possible. Only if you feel like you are in possession of your goods and they are under your control.
Longku FPMT: Right? If you realize that the shopkeeper is not anything other than the goods. This is hypothetical.
Longku FPMT: If the shopkeeper was not really there, and all that was there are the goods. Can a shopkeeper change goods? You don't even have that thought right. There's no space for that thought. So the idea that we have this autonomous notion of agency over the world
Longku FPMT: is easily demonstratable by saying, by asking yourself, Would you like to switch your body with someone else? Or would you like to change your mind with someone else? And if your mind inside you say yes, I would. That thought suggests that you feel you have agency over things.
Longku FPMT: That's why you get frustrated when things don't work out. That's why you take credit for things when you do them. Well, that's why you hold people responsible when they do things badly, or you blame them when they do things badly, or you give them a lot of praise when they do things well. All of these
Longku FPMT: mental reactions are directed at a notion of autonomy.
Longku FPMT: This is what the Buddha said. Now we need to see whether it's actually there or not. We haven't done that right. But this is what the Buddha identified. So the difference between other parts. And this is the Buddha said, the cause of craving is a notion of autonomy.
Longku FPMT: Yeah.
Longku FPMT: And so if you want to make it like this, and the notion of autonomy or self grasping is the cause of craving, because it has a notion of autonomous agency. That's why.
Longku FPMT: if you have a notion of autonomous agency, you will have craving.
Longku FPMT: If you don't have a notion of autonomous agency, you cannot have creating. That's the connection we need to make.
Longku FPMT: Does that make sense?
Longku FPMT: Yeah, is that okay?
Longku FPMT: Fine.
Longku FPMT: Yep.
Longku FPMT: this is not even high prasanghika. Madhyamaka. This is basic Buddha, yeah, this is basic common to all traditional
Longku FPMT: anathma, anatha, basic Buddhism is that okay?
Longku FPMT: This is the 3rd seal.
Longku FPMT: Everything is selfless and lax. Everything is empty and selfless right? This is what the Buddha said. Our job is to make the connection.
Longku FPMT: Can you make a connection between? If there is a notion of autonomous agency there will be craving. Is this clear to you?
Longku FPMT: Can you try and make sense of this?
Longku FPMT: Yeah, if there is no notion of autonomous agency.
Longku FPMT: Can you have craving?
Longku FPMT: So now, hypothetically, you're sitting, and you have no notion of autonomous agency. Okay, you don't have it. And you see something pleasant
Longku FPMT: or something desirable. How would you react?
Longku FPMT: I don't care if you see something unpleasant that is making you suffer. How do you react
Longku FPMT: when you don't care? Can you engage in things that will lead to disappointment? That's liberation.
Longku FPMT: That's the video picture.
Longku FPMT: Nirvana is not something. Fancy, it's not a nice place, that's all it is.
Longku FPMT: that's literally all it is. It's a mind that doesn't have this autonomous feeling anymore. So if something pleasant is there great, if something unpleasant? Is there fine.
Longku FPMT: something neutral? Is there? Fine? Your mind is not disturbed
Longku FPMT: by wanting things, making all of these plans getting out of it. Getting out of all of these plans. Does that make sense? It's a piece.
Longku FPMT: It's in a state of peace.
Longku FPMT: This is the 4th seed, Nirvana.
Longku FPMT: Yeah.
Longku FPMT: So these 4 are like the basic pillars of Buddhist.
Longku FPMT: If you want to really understand and practice Buddhism, these 4 have to be clear to you. I'm not saying you have to believe them. The Buddha doesn't say, believe these things, he says, at least understand that this is what it is.
Longku FPMT: Okay. Then you can have a whole host of problems with this selflessness thing.
Longku FPMT: Okay? But in the lack of an autonomous okay, now, is that fine? So far, can we put a full stop on this. Yeah, okay. Now, the next step. This is a beautiful step. If you realize this, you will also realize it about someone else.
Longku FPMT: If you don't have autonomous agency. There's no real reason why someone else should. It's the same thing right
Longku FPMT: now. Think of it like this. If someone is misbehaving, how do you see them as somebody who craves
Longku FPMT: it doesn't know
Longku FPMT: that he's suffering. Maybe if you see someone who is acting very kindly towards you, how do you see them
Longku FPMT: somebody scraping. Maybe, too, when you see other people, and you see that everything they're doing
Longku FPMT: is coming from the same space that you earlier were coming from
Longku FPMT: what is your reaction towards them?
Longku FPMT: Naturally, it's somewhat empathy, even if you don't say compassion, you empathize because you've gone through that. No, and you suffered like crazy up until now. Now, suddenly, you're like, wait. This is not even a problem.
Longku FPMT: I've never had this autonomous agency. The belief that I have is what's propelling me doing this madness all the time? It's never been there so instantly. It's like they also say it's like putting cold water in boiling water. It's just room. Right? Then you look at the world and you see other people, and you see that they're still doing this, even if they're harming you
Longku FPMT: like you are actively being harmed by someone. But now you see that they're not doing it in a sense of autonomous agency, they're doing it compelled and propelled by their own upbringing and their backgrounds. Right
Longku FPMT: when you. It's even when you do therapy. You see, your parents are the problem for everything you've done, and then you extend it. And you say they are the product of their past. And suddenly, even, they're not the problem. And you don't know where to look for the problem anymore. What do I do? But your mind is at peace
Longku FPMT: for a while. You can be okay. I don't have anyone that I can point blame if you do this on yourself, and you understand it on others. A very natural reaction is going to be at least empathy.
Longku FPMT: Very, very naturally.
Longku FPMT: So then our childma, Kirti says, if you understand, this
Longku FPMT: empathy is very natural. It comes naturally to you. Yeah.
Longku FPMT: So you're not a dead piece of wood.
Longku FPMT: You have a lot of concern, and you have a lot of empathy towards others.
Longku FPMT: and as long as you still have this you have a lot of empathy and concern for yourself. You want to put an end to this as well.
Longku FPMT: So then your practice can become rich. And if you want to do, Bodhicitta, and do Mahayana and all of these other things. You have something to go on because you understand that other people are not really in control. They're not doing things out of some sort of nasty.
Longku FPMT: calculated, planned, very clear thing. It's just it's all just madness acting on madness, kind of thing, right?
Longku FPMT: And that gives you peace apparent. But if I have peace, why should I do anything
Longku FPMT: so good now? There! But are you okay with the piece thing so far. Yes, now this is where this is
Longku FPMT: terabyte. Right?
Longku FPMT: The Thera Bhada Buddhism is this, you attain peace. Now Mahayana suddenly comes.
Longku FPMT: and Mahayana comes and says, no, no, no, no, no.
Longku FPMT: You also have to do something for other people. Okay, that's what we we get told. As people who hear Mahayanati we almost made. We're almost made to feel guilty. If we don't care about someone else.
Longku FPMT: it's actually something. No, no, it's bad manners. If you think only about yourself. How can you let your mother, who is so kind, suffer while you are happy? They do say these kind of things. So you hear these versions of teaching which is almost like making you feel guilty about not being concerned about others. It's very common.
Longku FPMT: But the point is this, when the Buddha taught the Buddha taught for different people.
Longku FPMT: for some people. When you've attained this feeling of peace for yourself, you're done.
Longku FPMT: They're like I'm done. I don't want to do anything else
Longku FPMT: for them. The Buddha said, Okay, fine. You're done. Liberation. Be happy, some people.
Longku FPMT: And this is character.
Longku FPMT: Okay, it's personality. Some people
Longku FPMT: will say, I am at peace, but they will see someone else, and they will naturally feel empathy. They will not feel the need to do anything. They'll feel empathy. Okay, you just say
Longku FPMT: you're doing the same thing I made. You're making the same mistake I made. If you're embodying that experience right?
Longku FPMT: Some people will say
Longku FPMT: you are doing the same mistake. They'll feel empathy, but they want to do something. It's a natural tendency that comes up okay for those people who say, I want to do something.
Longku FPMT: Then the Buddha taught Mahayana.
Longku FPMT: Okay. So in India, even Bodhicitta was not taught to everybody.
Longku FPMT: What was taught to everybody was how you attain liberation because everyone wants to be happy. No one wants to suffer but for those people who felt
Longku FPMT: that they were not okay with just having done it for themselves. They also want other people to not feel, not have the same fate, and that was a natural feeling that they saw. Then they taught Bodhi Jitta.
Longku FPMT: does that make sense? So now we, as individuals, we need to see when I think about liberation, and I can
Longku FPMT: simulate, it's like a simulation. I simulate a state of peace.
Longku FPMT: probably in the beginning. You don't want to do anything for anyone ever again. You're like, I'm so happy finally. But then you talk to someone, and you see someone do something really horrid.
Longku FPMT: And you see someone going through a lot of difficulty. And you see someone misbehave with you, and instead of looking at them as responsible agents or autonomous agents, you see that they are just as much under the influence of the same rubbish that you've had to experience your whole life and your mind will might. You might feel a moment of tenderness towards them, and in that moment of tenderness you're like, I really wish I could do something for you.
Longku FPMT: That is, when you know that you have that seed of trying to generate Puddita from now
Longku FPMT: all discussions of Mahayana make sense before that.
Longku FPMT: Talking about Mahayana is like forcing you to do something that you don't want to do.
Longku FPMT: That's why you have Shabakars. What is Shabakar? Shabakar? So there's 3 parts no Shabakar called heroes.
Longku FPMT: They listen to teachings.
Longku FPMT: They feel care and empathy for others, so they'll share it with you like I've understood how to attain liberation.
Longku FPMT: I'll share with you how to attain liberation. I'm not going to make so much of an effort. If it's beyond my ability, I'm going to let it be. If you and me think alike, I'll share it with you. If you and me don't think alike.
Longku FPMT: I'm not really going to try and make an effort for you. So they're called hearers. Shavaka means to hear. Okay, so they still care. This liberation gives them empathy, and they even teach. They'll even give you teachings. They share it with others.
Longku FPMT: But they're not going to go out of their way.
Longku FPMT: Pratika Buddhas are called solitary realizers. They're like rhinoceros. Have you ever seen a rhinoceros in the wild? They always hang out by themselves?
Longku FPMT: Pratika Buddhas are like I have attained liberation. I don't want to see anyone. Let me be by myself.
Longku FPMT: I want to attain liberation by myself. For myself.
Longku FPMT: The Buddha taught how to attain liberation for them. It's not like, he said. Oh, you are very bad people. You should generate Bodhi Chittam. No.
Longku FPMT: you are Shavaka, you are Pratika Buddha. You attain Buddha for yourself. This is how you do it.
Longku FPMT: 4 noble truth! But we just did. Then there were some people who said, No, you know.
Longku FPMT: at least, my friends, I want to try and do something for.
Longku FPMT: or I also want to try for others. But I'm not able to for them. The Buddha said, Okay, now, I need to teach you how you can take this mind of caring about some people and extend it to everybody.
Longku FPMT: And I'm also going to teach you a path that when you extend this wish to benefit everybody, you can actually attain a result that is going to benefit everybody.
Longku FPMT: That's omniscient Buddhahood.
Longku FPMT: So for those kind of people, the Buddha said, I'll teach you, Mahayana. I'll teach you how to attain Buddhahood.
Longku FPMT: But if you don't have that feeling. Then sometimes Mahayana can sound like you're being
Longku FPMT: guilted into doing things. Does that make sense?
Longku FPMT: So when you do this and you generate this feeling, you generate this feeling.
Longku FPMT: then you have to see which category you fall in.
Longku FPMT: and I don't think anyone should feel guilted in saying I have to do this. I don't have to do that. If you've taken certain commitments and you have Bodhisattba vows and all, then it's another discussion.
Longku FPMT: But as a beginner it's extremely important to at least generate the wish for liberation, 1st for oneself, because if all of this is not clear for yourself, then sitting there without knowing what to do and say, I want to benefit all sentient being all sentient being that my mother, I want to do something. It might be like a good aspiration, but you don't know what to do with it. No, it's not, it doesn't make any sense to you.
Longku FPMT: So that's how
Longku FPMT: the Mahayana part works. But then, when you want to do Buddhicitta, it's the same. This never goes away. Even how to attain Buddhicitta is explained through reasons how you can attain Buddhahood. All the stages of the path. It's all explained through reasons. Okay, so reasoning will never stop.
Longku FPMT: Now, just the
Longku FPMT: emphasis is different. Now, why can you generate the wish to attain Buddhahood for other people? Why is that accurate, or how do you cultivate it has been explained? Does that make sense? But this is the basis. So when she says, renunciation first, st this is
Longku FPMT: indispensable for enunciation, because without this that
Longku FPMT: I am the nature of suffering, I don't have any control.
Longku FPMT: I am impermanent, and that this is all coming from self grasping.
Longku FPMT: and that the notion of self grasping is having a sense of autonomy, and that I can remove the sense of autonomy which will just destroy or just evaporate craving. And therefore I can attain liberation. If you can't understand each one of these points.
Longku FPMT: What are you doing like? How are you generating renunciation towards what
Longku FPMT: you have to renounce Samsara? To attain? Nirvana
Longku FPMT: renouncing Samsara means you have to renounce affliction. Affliction means you have to renounce craving. First, st you have to understand how craving is a problem. Then you understand where craving comes from. You understand that craving can be removed because ignorance has no foundation.
Longku FPMT: and then you can generate the wish to attain liberation. That's pronunciation
Longku FPMT: without renunciation for yourself. How can I say, I want to help you that it's not. It's just. It's
Longku FPMT: wishful thinking, too.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, does that make sense?
Longku FPMT: Yes, it's unfortunate. I I mean, on the one hand, I feel bad because I feel like I'm being
Longku FPMT: sounding harsh. But, on the other hand, I think it's also important that it's clear how it's explained properly
Longku FPMT: right, because otherwise we do a lot of other things, and you can spend a lot of time doing things that don't hit the mark. This is how, at least traditionally, this is how Dharma is taught. This is how, then, people practice. Dharma. Okay.
Longku FPMT: the last thing just to close in all of this the most important thing, and maybe that's the most important is
Longku FPMT: when we say there is no self.
Longku FPMT: What I think you need to understand is
Longku FPMT: the Buddhists are claiming that the self has never existed.
Longku FPMT: It's not something that's there now, and you are telling yourself it's not there.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, it's never been that.
Longku FPMT: So the idea is you're trying to see things for how they really are.
Longku FPMT: I'm trying to see myself for how I am right now. What's preventing me is this notion of an autonomous person? I feel like I have autonomous agency. I think all of us do.
Longku FPMT: There is no such thing.
Longku FPMT: So the Buddhist concern is not with giving you some sort of
Longku FPMT: practice where you invent or you create some fiction.
Longku FPMT: and then you believe that fiction and you strengthen that fiction. And then that leads to liberation, you know. That's 1 way to do it right
Longku FPMT: when you do visualizations. It's almost like fiction. It's like you're visualizing yourself as something. You're not. Then you're strengthening that, or a self-affirmation. You might not be very intelligent, it could be. But you tell yourself I'm beautiful. I'm great, and all of that. You tell yourself a fiction, and you strengthen that fiction that can only last as long as those causes hold it together.
Longku FPMT: Here. You're not trying to create a version of things and believe that you're trying to test and see whether your current version of reality actually tallies or is true.
Longku FPMT: So you're trying to know whether there is a cell
Longku FPMT: after having understood that this notion of a self is the cause of craving.
Longku FPMT: That's why it's B.
Longku FPMT: It's practical. Does that make sense
Longku FPMT: practical and pragmatic means? It coincides with what things really are. It's not a fiction. Do you understand this? Does this. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Yeah, I think it's really important. Because if it's a fiction.
Longku FPMT: then why is your fiction better than another person's fiction.
Longku FPMT: Why is your version of things better than saying there is a self right?
Longku FPMT: You're testing whether things really exist in the way they exist after having done all of this reflection.
Longku FPMT: and having understood that craving is coming from that.
Longku FPMT: Okay, when you understand that that is not there, but that has never been there, then craving can be removed.
Longku FPMT: otherwise it will only last as long as you can keep it together. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. But when you when you realize that there is no self
Longku FPMT: autumn as yesterday, you said you still can suffer.
Longku FPMT: Yeah, but suffer comes on craving, doesn't it? Yes. So if you don't crave, then how can you suffer? You will experience suffering, but it doesn't do anything to you.
Longku FPMT: So how can you experience something that doesn't do anything to you. I really wish we had a little bit more time. Do you know why? Because when we did, craving as the cause of Samsara
Longku FPMT: what we haven't been able to do is do it in a little bit more detail with the 12 links.
Longku FPMT: But just as a teaser.
Longku FPMT: Oh, this needs so much background, though.
Longku FPMT: Yes, yeah, this needs a little bit of background.
Longku FPMT: But basically, just in short, I don't want to even say this, because I don't know how you all think. I'm sure some of you already believe that rebirth is
Longku FPMT: a given.
Longku FPMT: Many of us believe that, do you? Good, do you? You do, do you?
Longku FPMT: You all do right, most of us who already believe in rebirth.
Longku FPMT: Now we can do this discussion for you who's not sure. That's why I'm resistant or reluctant, because, first, st you have to understand how rebirth works right again in this famous second chapter, which now I think I've said a hundred times. There is an entire section that Acharya Dhanva Kirti devotes to giving reasons why rebirth must exist, because he says, if you don't understand rebirth, your understanding of suffering is very limited.
Longku FPMT: Your understanding of suffering is in this life.
Longku FPMT: and if your understanding is in this life, but there is nothing afterwards
Longku FPMT: you won't make enough of an effort, because you're like, anyways, I'm going to die. So what right?
Longku FPMT: So there is one way to talk about the 4 truths within this life, which is what we've done right now.
Longku FPMT: But then there is another way which is talking about the 4 truths on the basis of understanding that rebirth
Longku FPMT: must happen.
Longku FPMT: and it's based on the mind cannot just random come from matter. There is some continuation of mental events. That's how you talk of rebirth. Okay.
Longku FPMT: so I'm assuming that this is already there. We haven't discussed it. We're taking it for granted just to do this last thing with Felix said. Just because we have only 10 min right
Longku FPMT: when you do rebirth, when you die from one life to another.
Longku FPMT: why does your mind carry on to a bad place.
Longku FPMT: If each book is the nature of suffering.
Longku FPMT: why are you connecting constantly after you die to something that's not helpful for you?
Longku FPMT: Do you see what I mean, like each time you die. Technically, this body, which is the nature of suffering, it's done. Your mind, which is the nature of suffering, is done.
Longku FPMT: Why do you connect to something that is just as bad, if not worse?
Longku FPMT: Right? And there it's the same thing craving.
Longku FPMT: Because just before you die, you have this craving that makes you want to latch on to something
Longku FPMT: when you latch on to that something where you go from the very beginning.
Longku FPMT: from the very beginning is a body and a mind that is not just tainted by ignorance.
Longku FPMT: It's very like it's genetic. Makeup is polluted
Longku FPMT: so you can attain liberation, and still have a polluted body, and still have suffering that you have to experience because it is the result of
Longku FPMT: contamination.
Longku FPMT: Does that make sense so? Our hearts will still feel pain, but pain doesn't bother them. That's the thing.
Longku FPMT: They feel pain. There's no aversion towards it, because they have no craving anymore. They don't have this notion of autonomous self
Longku FPMT: so they can still feel pain.
Longku FPMT: But they don't. It doesn't make them suffer. Does that make sense? Yeah. So liberation is not
Longku FPMT: palace with beautiful songs and great feelings. It's none of that. It's just no more notion of autonomous self. There's something very funny. They say there's Arhats who, because of the bad habits they walk like monkeys. Really.
Longku FPMT: there's also our herds who, because of their bad habits, they have very abusive speech.
Longku FPMT: They still use abusive words.
Longku FPMT: But it's not coming from a not notion. It's just habit. So all you need to understand why I'm saying this is all that is important to understand. Here is how craving comes from self grasping, and how craving in turn is a cause for
Longku FPMT: suffering. The nature of suffering. Once that goes away, whether you feel physical pain, whether your arm is being chopped off, whether you are sitting in a beautiful place, and the sun is, and you have great sea doesn't matter anything. Does that make sense? In fact, another image that gives, which is very funny. I find it very beautiful is, if an Arhat hypothetically. An Arhat is there.
Longku FPMT: and half the Arhat's body is being chopped up
Longku FPMT: with a knife, and slowly, and it's and, on the other hand, someone is giving the ara the massage with sandalwood paste. There's no difference
Longku FPMT: in his experience. One is very painful, and one is pleasant, but there is none of this movement towards these things.
Longku FPMT: it's still in a state of peace. So the fact that you feel pain doesn't mean that
Longku FPMT: you have to have a reaction to it, because it's just a result of some cause.
Longku FPMT: and it's there, and it will be there. It will then eventually go away like that. Also understand that the pain is not really there. No, now we haven't got there. That's the pain is really there. It's a real thing, but there is no wish to run away from it, there is no wish to appropriate it.
Longku FPMT: So if you just understand, this, is there, it's there.
Longku FPMT: So yeah, there's no notion of self. So there is no one who needs to run away from this pain. There's no one who needs to latch onto this pain. It's not there. So for all of this. So if you all want to check whether this is true. Now.
Longku FPMT: there's a test very beautifully explained. The test is every time you do something.
Longku FPMT: try and see whether it is preceded by the feeling of an autonomous eye
Longku FPMT: every time this is the test.
Longku FPMT: and in the commentary it says this, you can verify for yourself very easily. I want to drink water. Is it preceded by a notion of an autonomous self? You know what autonomous means right. Autonomous means that you can do things. You have agency over things.
Longku FPMT: That's what it means. Yeah, agency over things means that therefore things are not under their causes.
Longku FPMT: There's a contradiction between these 2. Right? That's what the tested. And if you see that every time you do this it is preceded by a notion of an autonomous I.
Longku FPMT: Then you can imagine that if there was no such autonomous self.
Longku FPMT: how you would act, or how you would behave differently.
Longku FPMT: and that is the proof of liberation, if possible, without having done rebirth, because when rebirth comes into the picture, then it's 12 links, and then it's a lot more, and then you can add Madhyamanka, and then you can add Bodhit, and you can do a lot more. But this is just very, very basic renunciation. How you go about doing that? Yeah.
Longku FPMT: Ever act?
Longku FPMT: They would, because they they would feel sympathy for people. They do. Of course they do. That's also very natural tendency that we have for themselves. No, they don't have any need for anything.
Longku FPMT: They don't need to do anything. Why.
Longku FPMT: yeah, there's nothing. Why, you understand. It's peace. It's you're finally at peace. If you if you feel pain
Longku FPMT: and you don't care about it, you're not going to change
Longku FPMT: the situation. So you. She's paying like you keep feeling okay.
Longku FPMT: Or if you can change it because it's I mean, that'll depend. No like, you know, if it's terminal pain, and you can't do anything about it. We'll be fighting it. I'm assuming an R will just be there and be like, yeah, okay, it's there.
Longku FPMT: It's a very different mental state. It's a very, very different mental state.
Longku FPMT: And then, when you do, Madhyamaka, then it's even more beautiful.
Longku FPMT: So then you use this reasoning, and you take it forward, forward, and then you do the thing that you were asking before you can take it towards emptiness. And then it's just
Longku FPMT: that's very beautiful. But this is just basic. Yeah, very, very basic.
Longku FPMT: I can understand this question because this is
Longku FPMT: it's very difficult, you know, because, as you said, it's a state of mind, because even very
Longku FPMT: high realized teachers, when they have a problem, a medical problem in the body, they they search also for.
Longku FPMT: or medicine and all. It's not mean that when you are on this in this mental stage, you don't care about the body when you have one, it depends why they do it. There's another beautiful story of a llama who had a urinary tract infection, and he was living in spitty in the mountains.
Longku FPMT: and it could easily be fixed. But he said, Okay, well, nothing's happening fine.
Longku FPMT: I'll just die.
Longku FPMT: So I mean, like, if you've attained liberation right?
Longku FPMT: It doesn't matter. If you understand. If your concern is not for other people. If you're not concerned about other people, then your mind is at peace.
Longku FPMT: If your mind is at peace.
Longku FPMT: then you will not make an effort to do the standard things that we do.
Longku FPMT: So. The Dalai Lama only made the operation only for other work 100%.
Longku FPMT: There's no other reason why his Holiness would even feel the need to do these things. There's no reason, even these lamas, when they do these things if okay. But can you imagine other state? You've attained peace?
Longku FPMT: You don't have to do anything more for yourselves.
Longku FPMT: Your only concern is other people. So you need a medium to interact with them.
Longku FPMT: If your medium is defunct, then you need to fix it. But the motivation behind it and the action behind it is so different from how we would do it. So then they would do all of these things. Yeah, but it's not driven by our ours is self-preservation. I can fix it. I can act as very different. No.
Longku FPMT: so just try. And always, whenever you're thinking about it, try and bring this autonomous thing, and see if it really is the driving force. If you find it to be the driving force, then you can make the connection with craving and how craving works very easily.
Longku FPMT: Yeah. But the order is the one that we started. It starts with impermanence. You do 2 causes, causes impermanence, suffering. You remove the 2 doubts, and then you see that it's coming from craving and craving comes from an autonomous self, and then you can sit and try and be concerned with selflessness.
Longku FPMT: So selflessness really is only taught
Longku FPMT: at the truth of cessation before that it's not there.
Longku FPMT: you know. It's actually so beautiful won't do that all then
Longku FPMT: teaching us? Because tomorrow is the 1st week. Oh, yeah, tomorrow's 1st time. This is what the Buddha said. Oh, by the way, this is what the Buddha said tomorrow.
Longku FPMT: 2,000, however, many years ago. This is what the Buddha said when he sat down in Sana. This is what he said. He didn't teach emptiness. None of that fancy stuff. He sat there, he said, this is what's happening. This is how you attain liberation. So you can read. Actually, if tomorrow you read the 4, the Sutha on 4 exactly tomorrow, we read the sutta of the phone. Yeah, this is what it is. And there's the 16 aspects of the fall.
Longku FPMT: and I think you'll find many things online about this as well. So
Longku FPMT: it's Chris. Oh, Sean, please, please, what's
Longku FPMT: it?
Longku FPMT: Chat 50. Model 8, 30.
Longku FPMT: I think this is with anyone.
Longku FPMT: Can we read it out, or should we not read it out? Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Sorry. It says when one practices Dharma intensely, one is sometimes accused by non-practitioners of being fixated attached to it. How can one counter it?
Longku FPMT: I don't know how you can go to. I don't think
Longku FPMT: I think the hardest thing is. If someone else doesn't understand why you're doing it, then you will. Everyone will feel like as fixated with it. So I think, if but what I've noticed is this, at least in my case.
Longku FPMT: because I grew up in Delhi I have a lot of friends right? None of them practice. None of them are very concerned with, so, frankly speaking, so for the longest time
Longku FPMT: they've looked at me like I'm slightly crazy like I don't know now he's gone off, and now he's now sitting with his teachers, and now he's now living in Dharamshallah by himself. No one really understands. This is very natural, right?
Longku FPMT: But if you understand it well.
Longku FPMT: and you don't do it in a way which is.
Longku FPMT: I think, if you do things in a way which are very like religious or very custom, and they're very ornate, and with a lot of ritual and all. And you don't understand what you're doing, then it's very difficult for you to
Longku FPMT: explain or share it with someone else, whereas if you do it properly, and you've understood what you're doing, at least in my experience with the people I know. Eventually they start to appreciate what you do, because there will always be a moment when
Longku FPMT: something that you've understood that you really benefited from you can
Longku FPMT: share, or it comes up in conversation. But otherwise I just do my own thing. This is, I just feel it's better to do my own thing and not try and explain it to anyone, and if they think it, I don't fine, let them think it doesn't really matter, but I think the more scary thing is while they think it. If I'm not sure of what I'm doing, and I'm not doing it properly.
Longku FPMT: then
Longku FPMT: the misinterpretation that I can have to them is detrimental to me, and also to how they perceive the dharma. So I feel a dual responsibility. One is for myself, and one is also with the Dharma, where, if the stuff, I say, or how I share it is kind of flaky or not clear.
Longku FPMT: Then it's like you're in a cult. Everyone will feel like you're in a cult. You're sitting in a room with all of these things right. It's weird. It's really weird. You wake up and you walk around with a mala. So I think if what I've noticed, at least in my experiences, the more I'm I feel grounded in what I'm doing. I don't feel the need to share it with anyone, and if ever it comes up, at least it's something that I can that they can make sense of. Otherwise it's too abstract. That's how I've done it so far, at least. Yeah.
Longku FPMT: okay. I think I'm done.
Longku FPMT: I don't know. Do you think it's good would be good to for me? No, no.
Longku FPMT: So okay, we just a short moment of silence to
Longku FPMT: actually from inside, from our inside, appreciate what Atitisha taught us
Longku FPMT: yesterday and today is extremely, extremely precious.
Longku FPMT: and that we have the chance to be here to also online to have listened to it
Longku FPMT: together, we create an energy.
Longku FPMT: And this energy we dedicate
Longku FPMT: from the death of our heart actually to default our wisdom, our understanding
Longku FPMT: the way how Atisha told us the way, how we can read in the texts, and also listen to teachings also from his own, his Dalai Lama to all other holy beings
Longku FPMT: that we really can develop this wisdom.
Longku FPMT: and even further, that we can develop
Longku FPMT: the great compassion that leads to enlightenment, to Bodhicitta and enlightenment that we can become
Longku FPMT: most beneficial for all center beings.
Longku FPMT: So we spread this energy also now to the world, which is so elite of compassion and reason.
Longku FPMT: and we dedicate also our energy
Longku FPMT: to the very long and healthy life of all our holy teachers, especially his only Stalai Lama
Longku FPMT: and all the teachers we are connected to, and we know who teach the pure time.
Longku FPMT: See?
Longku FPMT: Thank you.