So, it's very nice to see everybody and let's begin with some sitting and then we can have some discussion after that. and try to maintain a status, maintain a position, which we try to grab hold of it all the time in a very serious approach, a very determined mind. Not only serious, but we are very determined. And the whole thing actually seems to be that creating a lot of disappointment. Why it is creating a lot of disappointment? Because we try to absolutely possess and absolutely try to rule the whole situation. Actually try to be the boss all the time.

[01:04]

And when we try to become the ruler of the whole situation, there's not much breathing happening, there's not much communication because of fear, because of some kind of deception. some kind of deception is taking place in our mind. We could say in ordinary states, some kind of particular deception is taking place all the time. Because of that, the sense of freedom, the sense of liberation has been absolutely not seen. It's not been experienced. Why? Because of deception. It's self-deception. It's no one else's fault. No one else created that particular deception. It's one's own deception, one's own not being able to discover a particular part of oneself, the part of our open mind, the part of our basic sanity.

[02:10]

the part of the essence within ourselves not able to relate to that particular state, the mind becomes imprisoned, the mind becomes confused. And the more imprisoned we become, the more confused we become, the more fear, the more threatening situation seems to be. And then the way we react to those particular situations is very neurotic. What we call neurotic appears when the situation becomes very threatened and we lose our balance completely. we lose our whole sense of being. And we could say that there is not even an emotional balance at a particular state. And the question of the total sanity, an enlightened state or a total sanity, a goodness is out of question when there is not even an emotional balance. So it's important to have a

[03:12]

some kind of letting go, some kind of understanding of the situation and working with the mind as the mind as it is. So please use the breathing meditation here. You all sit very relaxed, very relaxed, very simple. And what you are doing is you're not doing anything particular, You're not doing any philosophical approach here. You're not doing any particular approach. What you're doing is working with those materials which we already have, whatever the materials are, whatever the materials of imprison are. So when you breathe out from your nose, You dissolve those particular emotions, neurosis, whatever the threatening situations are which imprison. But the very fundamental deception is that one who is trying to do everything, one who is trying to collect the whole thing, trying to be good too, is also deception.

[04:23]

Well, you should have some clear reference point to understand yourself. If you don't have the clear reference of understanding yourself, then you would have no place to start on. So on a starting point, we could say that we need some kind of good attitude, to have some kind of aims, and our aim is to become free. But at the same time, if you're thinking, I have to be free, I have to be free, that is also in prison. So that would not free you. So you have to have some kind of letting go. As long as you have some sense of letting go, there is a ventilation into the room, and there's lots of air, and you can breathe well, and we can be healthy. So when you breathe out, breathe in, You know, dissolve those emotions, thought, whatever, which is imprisoned, dissolve those things, and when you take in, there's nothing particular to work, just it's absolutely free and open, and when you breathe out, it has been dissolved.

[05:34]

So please sit and very relaxed, and let's do the meditation. So tonight we can discuss briefly about the approaching of, on the spiritual path. What is the importance of approaching the spiritual path? and what does it really relate into our personal life, into our lives. Now generally, a person approach to a study, a person approach to a study, any kind of life,

[06:42]

whether it's a spiritual study or spiritual path or let it be any kind of path, any kind of path. There is always a sense behind all of this approach that we want to know precisely the situation so that in that way we could achieve our goals, accomplish our aims. So we have experimented many, many different things. We have experimented all kinds of lifestyles in order to fulfill our expectations. and to know the situation clearly. But we find many times that what we originally have that intention of knowing the situation clearly sometimes turn out to be some kind of disappointment in our lives.

[08:05]

which is to say that you expected some kind of a particular result, a particular situation and the situation came out to be something different than you fundamentally or originally expected. And when that happens, we become disappointed and we get depressed and the whole life seems to be completely unclear, confused and in a big chaos. So when that happens, then we approach a spiritual path. Now we find, now that will give me the answer. So we approach, which is a good intention. There is always some kind of basic goodness, some kind of good intention all the time, no matter how you approach.

[09:12]

But somewhere in the middle or somewhere things seem to be going wrong sometimes. And that seems to be the problem that... It seems to be that person have lack of understanding of knowing the nature of their life. which is to say that definitely to not know the nature of the mind creates the confusion, the reflection of the mind creates a confusion instead of creating a clarity, instead of giving the experience of freedom, it gives an experience of more chaos and more imprisonment when the mind is not known clearly. So yet we are very strong, very determined. So we make all kinds of struggle. And then the second approach is a spiritual approach. So when that happens, then there are all kinds of ways we approach the spiritual path.

[10:26]

But many times we miss the actual point of the spiritual practice. Why we miss the actual point of spiritual practice? Because we do have a sense of some kind of, some kind of, some kind of a notion which is a way of escaping from the situation. So when that happens, the person does not transplant the friendship in oneself. In the Buddhist path, it's called the bodhisattva mind, the compassionate attitude towards oneself, the friendly attitude towards oneself. And how to work with oneself is that compassionate, that friendship, that friendship within oneself, which once that friendship is transplanted in oneself, there is a wisdom and skill at that time appears in the mind.

[11:45]

Their minds keep the bird to clarity, we can say. Their minds keep the bird to the precision of the mind nature. At that time, the reflection of the confusion doesn't manifest into life. The reflection, the echo... or we could say the echo seems to be precise, or you are able to have a sense of freedom. You're able to free that particular whole situation at that time when the mind is known precisely. Of course, there's a great deal of level of mind. When we talk about mind, the mind's deafness, the mind's freedom is very, very deep. the question. It's a very, very big thing. But a person do sense a great sense of opening, a great sense of freedom and a precision into oneself at that time when the friendship that bodhisattva mind is transplanted in one's heart. So when that friendship, when that bodhisattva mind is transplanted into our heart, then we become more

[12:59]

brave in working with our life situations. We find out that the only way we can free and work with the situation is working with the situation, not trying to escape with the situation. You can escape this way or you can escape that way, but it will hunt you back. Wherever you go, it will go after you. Basically, one of the ways we try to escape is taking vacation. The thing which developed into a world is actually trying to escape from the... And we have a wonderful name we call, you know, taking a vacation, relax.

[14:02]

But actually it's coming out of a particular kind of fear that the whole world is so threatening that you want to stop working with the situation and leave the whole thing and go somewhere else that you don't even hear the name of the whole thing. Yeah. And of course it doesn't happen when you get back, the whole thing is waiting for you there. Or even your vacation may not be absolutely relaxed and perfect, there is some, it's like hunting, it's like hunting, like a shadow follows all of it. So the whole thing goes like that, keeps going like that, as long as person doesn't really know how to work with the situation properly. Things doesn't get solved. Things change their form from one threatening situation to another situation.

[15:03]

It may change its character, it may change its form, it may change its color, but they all hold the basic quality which is threatening. which is still uncomfortable, still a very powerful thing, which is a very powerful deception. So there is a fundamental deception. In Buddhist teaching, the fundamental deception of not able to have the sense of freedom and sense of openness is a notion that the mind develops a notion of survival. that there's a fear all the time, you need to survive. And the whole thing is absolutely a deception. In order to being there, you don't need to have the notion of survival. And when we have this fear, this particular very powerful deception, then this deception projects

[16:13]

everything as something opposite into your life. They seem to be threatening. They seem to be bothering to you. There is no sense of complete communication taking place in our life. Everything is you have to adjust. You have to make a lot of adjust. You have to change a lot of different things. And a basic sense of fear that what's going to happen to me? All the time that you try to create a fence, you try to create your own little world, there's no sense of complete space. And why the space is not there, though the space is there, but why a person doesn't experience the space, is because of that fundamental deception, which is the survival.

[17:19]

Me. That projection, which keeps the mind uptight all the time. And the mind experiences tremendous uptightness, the mind experiences tremendous fear, So then at that time, when we completely become so neurotic, become more and more smaller and smaller and smaller, we get more and more uptight, we get more and more threatening, and we cannot trust hardly anybody because we cannot trust, know ourself, we don't trust ourself. If a person doesn't know oneself, there is no way of trusting oneself and no way of trusting the world. So it's become very unfriendly actually to oneself. So how we can begin skillfully to become friendly is to approach simply in some sense of letting go that fear. That's what you have to work. That particular survival, that which keeps, you know, keeps changing its face, keeps changing its experience from all kinds, from time to time, that we really take a very big, very big, very big deal sometimes into that experience, that whatever arises into the mind, you try to possess that.

[18:43]

And naturally, in a common sense, we can say when you try to possess something, you get some kind of burden to look after it. But of course we could say that when you have that, then you could enjoy it. That's mind. But after some time it changes its nature, it becomes more and more complicated and things turn out to be something opposite, absolutely disappointment than what you expected. But that's not to say that you should not have your expectation or whatever you have in your mind, your goals, you should do it. You should do it and there has to be a healthy way of doing it properly where there is a sense of letting go at the same time.

[19:49]

So in that way you are able to breathe properly and you are able to experience that properly without being imprisoned. Because that very notion of that I have to, I have to become just extra... It's become exaggerated, actually. That particular notion has nothing to do with the real life, has nothing to do with what you're doing. It's just an extra concept. It's an experience, quite a powerful experience, which keeps you away from all kinds of situations, very powerful, try to be very closed, it has a nature of very closed mind, very narrow mind, and doesn't allow a person to communicate. And if you do communicate, there's very little space all the time.

[20:53]

So when the space is very little, we feel, though the space is always open, space is very spacious, but when we don't experience the spaciousness of the space, then we do experience very threatened in order to protect our little space. So the more we try to protect it, the more uptight and the more smaller and the more crowded it becomes. There's a great deal of struggle, continuously. And then, naturally, we reflect mindless neurosis, aggression into the world. There's a sense of aggression. That there is no respect, there is no friendship, there is no openness. Tremendous aggression, arrogant. And absolutely, in one sense you could say a person even doesn't have a proper contact within oneself too.

[22:01]

Because neurosis doesn't let a person have a clear sense of grounding, clear sense of presence in oneself. It doesn't let that. It has a sense of a tremendous powerful deception that it pulls apart a person into two parts. So therefore a person experiences a great deal of depression, you know, because it's not well connected on the ground. It's not being proper. There's something very powerful pull apart. And you feel the pain of that pulling apart. You constantly feel the pain, depression. And then there is a sense of clarity, but the sense of clarity seems to be not very precise at that moment. And there is a sense of thing that you know it is not working well. You kind of have a sense that you're not dealing with the situation properly. And then there is a sense of guilty.

[23:06]

A sense of being hard on oneself. Now that's again not the actual proper way of approaching because you are again in a way feeding that particular deception. And what is the deception? That me, the notion of survival, that I have to be very, very good, so I have to experience that very wonderful thing. That I actually doesn't exist in a way. But sometimes we think quite in a wrong way when we say the I doesn't exist, then you are almost disappearing into the thin air. That's not the case. You are very solid, you are on the ground, you are on the earth, you're drinking your teas and you're putting on your clothes and people can see that and whatever color you're wearing But that is to say that the whole deception, the whole confusion in their mind has been removed at that time. And when that's been removed, you are just there clearly and without being going through the whole turmoil, the whole chaos, the whole turbulent within oneself.

[24:22]

It becomes ceaseless at that time when their minds become liberated. Their minds become freed. Freed from where? Freed from the deception. So the main problem seems to be a very powerful deception. And when the deception has been liberated, the person becomes very down to earth. The person becomes very precise and a clear wisdom burns into their mind at that time. And at that time, you take a fundamental responsibility. Your responsibility, your practice, your skillfulness become more and more proper and more and more deeper. There is a whole world seems to be cherishing. There seems to be something you can relate to the world and you can understand with the world at that level. There is something you can talk with the world and the world understands, and you understand the world. But still that, deception is not liberated. There is always a wall. Even in the closest family, you know, in your family or in your friends, there is always a wall.

[25:29]

And the wall not only with the other people, but within oneself, so many divided personalities. And all those personalities are the display of the deception. And we try to keep maintaining that deception for a long, long time. And it has to be. And that deception is a very powerful fear. And without that fear, there is no way the deception can maintain itself. So it's a very tricky question. When we look deeper into the mind, it is quite tricky. So you should sit a lot. You should sit and let go. And then there will be a precision will arise into the mind in cutting through that whole deception. And then a true sense of friendship grows into oneself. So, and that's called the bodhisattva mind.

[26:34]

And that takes place In all kinds of life situations, whether the person is teaching, or the person is sitting, or the person is cooking a food, or washing a dish, or whatever you're doing, there's always a sense of freedom, not being imprisoned. And when that sense of freedom takes place, then sometimes you even see that you are trying to be too good is also in prison. Or sometimes you may even find that you are trying to go to a church and become very religious, that's also in prison. But we don't want to think we did it. Oh, wait a minute, you know, you sound very dangerous. The church cannot be good, particularly, you know, church is the place of Buddhas and church is the place of gods, or whatever we can call it.

[27:42]

But Buddha means one's essential mind. Buddha Shakyamuni said, If you see me truly from the essential way, then you've seen me. If you see it from your basic fundamental sanity of our mind, the purity of our mind, the sanity of our mind is called the Buddha nature. But if you always look something external as some kind of physical way, then in that way, one doesn't really, you could say that's the historical Buddha, but you have not seen your inner nature of your own sanity. So, but when we have a true sense of openness, the person becomes very, there's experience of great love, tremendous friendship, respect, a dignity, and very precise and simple. There is no room of, there is no, the whole room of the arrogance and neurosis become absent at that state.

[28:51]

But as long as we have that very strong, very strong notion of that survival, you know, that very strong notion of me, me all the time, there is always some kind of problem there. You can try to think you are good for two days, but after 30 it will go away. Because it's conditioned. You try to condition. You haven't seen the unconditioned nature of your mind. You still haven't transcended that whole deception. So in our practice, when we do the sitting, it's very, very skillful. It's become very beneficial that you will experience a great deal of space and a precision arising, the precision which cuts your own neurosis on the spot, which doesn't allow that deception. And it's not going to happen just by one or two times sitting. You have to do this every day for an hour or half an hour.

[29:55]

And then integrate. When you work with the world, you can see yourself sometimes. We get a lot of time, basically most of the time, when a person at the beginning finds a lot of neurosis. That's clear. There's nothing to be hide. We find very threatening, so then we say, we immediately show that... Okay, here I am. And that's a sense of aggression, actually. And we could call it great names like, this is my pride, this is me, you know, wonderful, and whatever. We have all kinds of given names for that. But actually, it imprisons you. And how does that happen? Your sense of fear. You get threatened. When someone particularly, you think that you've got to be... responded in a particular manner, situation, and you don't find the situation like that, then you feel threatened and then you want to show your aggression at that time.

[30:55]

That's very powerful deception. And then who becomes imprisoned? You become, because it's your space. You have to deal with your own space. If you don't deal with your own space, no one else will deal with it. And it will keep continuing, growing into your cell. We call it growing like a fungus. It grows into your space. No one else. We could try to, at that moment, it seems that we are like yelling on a person or we are kind of throwing that particular neurosis on that person, but actually it's growing very strongly, and then it keeps building that stronger and stronger and stronger, and after some time it becomes absolutely claustrophobic, absolutely filled that there is no sense of sanity left at all into our space of mind. So there has to be a friendship. That's where the whole friendship begins. If you really, really do care of yourself, you need to transcend from the deception. And then gradually the whole gross neurosis begins to dissolve and there's a sense of lightness taking place.

[32:01]

There's a sense of something, clearness taking place. And then there's a celebration at that time that you see that how it works and how you can do it. And you see that the response at that time. I think that's very important. So, thank you. That's all I have to say. And if you have any questions, you can ask me. You say the neurosis is survival, aren't it? Yes. Yes. Sometimes survival seems to be built into the system. Perfect. There's the system of deception. Survival is built into a system of deception, and when you find that whole notion of survival being threatened, which actually has nothing to do on our basic sanity level, has nothing to do, but the whole notion of survival plays a very powerful display, then immediately that survival will take place and relate with some kind of your personality, you know.

[33:08]

So in a case, let's say, call it like in a case of an office executive. So the office executive goes there and the secretary or all the workers, whatever, they will come and they start, you know, the executive goes and he sees that they're sitting on his chair and at that time he feels threatened. But that's not to say that, you know, one should be, everyone has to be crazy, I'm not saying. But you have to deal with the situation at that moment clearly. Because if you don't deal with the situation clearly at that moment, if you start, if you start to kind of feel very threatened, and then we don't see that we're threatened. That's the biggest deception. We kind of take it very personally, now I'm going to fight back. Now the notion of the deception is absolutely like obscured.

[34:09]

You don't, you just, you know, your whole sense become like that. Very powerful neurosis after a particular time that you don't even see that. Okay, all right, this is my fear and my fear is kind of arising in a particular way. One doesn't see that. One doesn't see that. One just, just at that time express the whole situation very powerfully. And that's the whole danger that one becomes more and more, in a way we could say, obscured in a particular way. So the whole meditation is to have that sense of that powerful deception to remove, to let go. And then you may see the person sitting and you could say, you know, please excuse me or whatever, and you don't hold that aggression to yourself and you don't pollute yourself in that. At the same time, you can relate to that person and show that person some sense of dignity and way of working because that person may have some problem too.

[35:11]

So you're able to skillfully deal with the situation. So we don't identify as much with this idea of who we are? Is that part of it? The idea of who we are doesn't have to have. If you are so free, you just shine. But the more we feel threatened, we become like dark. Actually, we're sinking into a darkness at that time. A skillful being is very important. A skillful being. When there's a skillful mean, skillful mean would not all the time be in a conventional sense that, you know, compassion. Let's talk compassion. Compassion in a conventional sense is someone who smells all the time, is someone who is all the time beautiful. But compassion, true compassion takes in many different forms.

[36:15]

And the true compassion doesn't have a single sense of aggression, even in the most rightful form. But we have lots of smiles with a lot of deception that we know, like when in a business deal. Everyone smiles at each other and that doesn't mean anything. Suppose the need for survival goes beyond neurosis into compulsion. What is compulsion? Someone is using alcohol or sexuality or their mind in a way that they go totally to sleep. It isn't just kind of neurotic, but... Obsession. Obsession, addiction.

[37:17]

So much so that they can't really be aware of what it is they're doing because it's... kind of going from neurosis into sickness. Does what you're saying still apply? They don't know what they're doing? They're lost in what they're doing. They're using alcohol or sexuality or certain kinds of behavior. That is neurosis. That is absolute. That's like... As long as the display of the deception is taking place, they are all called neurosis. The display of the deception. don't people get so lost sometimes that they're not able to really see what they're doing? Oh yeah, that's in a case of very strong addiction, very strongly addicted in any kind of situation, or strongly addicted in one's own... which I said is a very danger after some time you won't see that you have been... that you are really trying to hold a situate personality which really doesn't exist in a particular sense, you know, that whole notion of survival, and then you try to throw the whole aggression on the other person.

[38:31]

One doesn't see that. So then what does happen? The whole thing gets imprinted in your space of mind. And then it hunts you. It hunts you. That seems to be the problem. There is no person taking a fundamental responsibility in working with oneself. If a person doesn't with one's own space, then there is no sense of freeing that. We always think that, okay, if I can win it, then we are free. But that doesn't happen like that. It kind of hunts you back because your space is a direct experience of one's own mind. So what can you do when you know you're addicted, but every time you get addicted you can't be aware of it? That's very hard. It's very hard. Yes, unless there is some kind of good connection or whatever, some friends are there to help. It is very hard. One would suffer for a long time, all I can say.

[39:35]

And the most extent we can go is to suicidal, the extreme of that. When that rises higher and higher and higher, then one will suicide. That could happen. Rinpoche, what is the, in terms of how you described your talk tonight, what is the key sense of planting bodhicitta in your heart, in your day-to-day life? It's to work with our situations. Because situations, actually all kinds of situations are a great blessing, you could say, in a way.

[40:47]

because they provide you either to become enlightened or they provide you even to sink down. So we have to choose a clear sense into ourselves. Definitely there is no one who wants to sink down. But one has to awake. That's the whole question. Awakening mind comes here. The Bodhisattva mind is called the awakening mind. Awake from the situation which sinks. And when the mind experiences the sinking mind, then the sinking mind has that experience of disappointment and things turning out in a completely chaos. That's the experience of sinking mind. The experience of awakening mind, the whole situation which is there, one is able to work with without any sense of neurosis at that time. Of course, your neuroses are there, but it's a way to work with your sanity so that you are able to free your neuroses.

[41:55]

And without this very basic neuroses, there is no way of even planting some kind of friendships. So actually we should not be seeing the neurosis as something bad. Of course, if we do not work with it, then it could completely put a person into a tremendous chaos and go to the extent of suicide and all kinds of things. But in the midst of all this thing, we can still work with and we can take this joy and celebration of being able to do it. able to work with the situation when those neuroses arises, and then we will have a sense of a sanity experience into ourselves. I think that seems to be the main thing, working with the situation. What do you have to say about suicide? That's the... There's the bottom of the sinking mind.

[43:00]

Suicidal. The person becomes absolutely claustrophobic. There is no space at all into their mind. The experience of fear is tremendous. Everything seems to be threatening to you. Every little bit seems to be threatening to a person when a person goes to that extent. That even you drink a cup of tea seems to be very threatening. It's called your whole situation. The mind experiences a particular world at that time. The whole world seems to be against you. That kind of neurosis builds up. And how does that build up? Just because collecting and putting more and more aggression, more and more neurosis. And a person does experience, one can reach that state. So we are at a very high potential for that state also, if a person is not awake, not careful.

[44:07]

So then the whole thing seems to be against you, and then you feel very threatened, and either you have to stay absolutely away from things, like the Vietnam's veterans, those who are completely staying in the jungles, and some of them, I wouldn't say everyone, but many of them, they can't have contact with the world. It's so difficult for them. Or a person reached worse than that where everything seems to be against you. Even your one little thought seems to be against you. And it's a very powerful experience. And one has to work out. And everything happens because we are not letting enough air into the room. And that is to say, not letting go. Not letting go All kinds of psychological problems happens from that.

[45:20]

We try to possess, we try to possess, every little thought arises. And then this tremendous struggle. The thoughts get liberated. But we don't see that. We don't see the precision of the wisdom. We don't see the precision of the wisdom. So what we do is we try to see where does this thought fit into which category of our lifestyle. So we have lots of different categories and then sometimes they all seem to be struggling at each other and then there's a tremendous disappointment. Can you give some suggestions how to shift gears and realign it?

[46:38]

Shift gear is you need some kind of mindfulness, very important. And where do you function that mindfulness is with the life situation. particularly for a person who is working in the city or working in the office, you always need, in order to function your sanity, your freedom, your liberated mind, you need to work with the situation when those neuroses begin to come very strongly, you need to kind of cool down. You need to kind of work with that so that there's a sense of letting go, give more space. You have to give more space to yourself and you have to give more space to the other person. So in that way you are communicating completely a sanity being expressed and work functioning on both levels, not only within yourself but on the other person level too, which is very hard. We lose the mindfulness and we just try to think of ourselves all the time and we lose the other person.

[47:47]

But the deception is when you try to make yourself completely like safety, try to make yourself completely safe, then there's a deception come which you want to throw out the whole anger and the whole aggression of the other person. So in that way you become more imprisoned. Actually it seems to be the other way around, you know. You know, what in the education, what in the ordinary education one is taught is one should always be strong and you have to fight back. There seems to be a problem in education where actually that's not the way. And if you want to have a sense of freedom, a sense of sanity, you have to respect the other person also. And when you have the sense of clearness in yourself, naturally that person have more space. And in that way this both space communicates. So you have to help the other person also.

[48:51]

In that way you help the complete situation instead of struggling, fighting to each other. Sometimes if I find myself in a situation of a sinking mind, I use mantra. Would you recommend that to try to get back on track? If it works, it's great. If it works, whatever you do is fine. So I guess tonight we can leave here so there doesn't seem to be much question.

[49:54]

And thank you very much and please have a good evening. Thank you, Ricochet.

[50:01]

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