[25] What Does it Mean to Dedicate the Merit and How To Properly Do So – with Andrew Holecek
11:52PM Aug 30, +0000
Speakers:
Andrew Holecek
Keywords:
meditation
merit
called
practice
mind
thought
world
bit
create
book
happening
mahayana
today
teachings
reality
read
deep
people
literally
tradition
Hello, everybody. Nice to be back. So we do this totally geeky thing right. We all briefly turn on our cameras so we can do our little hug fast Hello fast, nice to see everybody. The cool. I'm so glad to have you back around, let me know how things went with my dear friend Andy last week, I'm sorry. Who did I have last week. Jeffrey. Jeffrey, I obviously, I popped in in the background a little bit, I was up doing a week long program actually eight days my first live event in 18 months at chamalla Mountain Center and I recognize a couple people here that were with us for that week we had so much fun. At least I had fun.
Oh wait, now can you hear me. Oh, did you hear anything I said before that, or no, no. Okay. All right, I'll start over, nice to see everybody. Nice to be back. I was up at chamalla Mountain Center for eight days teaching my first live event in 18 months, we had really a nice group of folks. I think we had like 70 people all together which is really great, not that many on the land, but we had a really, I think pretty successful hybrid program. So it's nice to be back I'm catching my breath, you know this is like 40 Some hours of presentation time on my part and and had a couple hours to recover and now here I am flapping my lips yet again. So if you're new to what we do here on Monday nights, this is our ongoing meditation, kind of curricular track, and what I do is I will make some comments we're finishing today the last in a brief series that I introduced. Geez, you know, quite a number of weeks ago on merit the power of merit. Today I'm going to talk finally about how to dedicate merit and Jeffrey helped me last week, my dear friend. I'm trying to decide what to do for next Monday because that's all Labor Day, I'm kind of inclined holidays, to, to take that day off, but I'll reflect on that. And then I have a couple other instructors that are in the works for coming in to join us because I think the infusion of new voices is actually quite helpful so stay tuned on all that. And there's some really fun, interesting kind of restructuring in and updating this happening year at nightclub that I will be telling you about as it unfolds. So you know there have been some changes, we had to get rid of the movie night for copyright issues. We had to unfortunately at least transfer out of the umbrella of nightclub. The Dream sharing group for similar concerns. And so, we are thinking very strongly where we're going to be adding a couple things to fill in for some of the things that had to be taken away for liability issues. And one of the things that's in the works, that's, again, very nice, very early so I can't tell you too much about it, but I'm actually quite excited about this one. When I was up at Shambhala Mountain Center, and actually more and more and I want to do my teaching gigs. One of the things I share with with the people that I work with, because it's been more and more important for me in my life is, if what we're doing here, nightclub or with our meditation session grooves with whatever kind of Dharma spiritual meditative thing we're doing, if what we're doing here is not helpful to the world, especially the ecological situation. What relevance is it I mean what are we really doing here. Are we just trying to feel good. The spiritual bypassing issue is colossal in this business, it's very easy to subvert this material just into a more insidious form of Your Comfort plan, and so what I talk a lot about these days is not so much feel good. Meditation feel good spirituality but real good. In other words, the path is I've come to understand it over all these decades is not about feeling good, necessarily, unless you're talking about basic goodness it's about getting real in right now getting real is getting in touch with everything that's happening. I keep reading as everybody else's all these new books coming out. Bill Gates has a new one. I just read a study release of a study in the paper today this morning about how the young generation now is they're really having psychological problems, depression, sense of hopelessness because they're the ones that are really, they're inheriting this real challenging situation and it was a really very poignant article in what one riff and there was this little quote that really struck me as like Hey Mommy did. Did you really when you were young, were you actually able to see the blue sky, kind of thing. If you've ever been to Macau or I mean right now here in Colorado, where we're used to be blue all the time and I were just swamped in smoke from these big fires anyway. I'm not going to go too far up this tree right now but I am more and more into this kind of eco activism.
Not in a political way, and none of that stuff but basically just like what are we doing here, what really what are we doing here, what value is our meditation, what value is our nocturnal meditations. If we can't apply what we're doing to everything that's happening in the world right now. You know the world really does need help and we could be uniquely situated to help, and so I'm excited I've been in discussion with some really, I think powerful thinkers who may be willing to come in and do some presentations for us to kind of maybe just eco activism again very very nice and very, very early, can't say much more about it because it's very much on the drawing board right now. I listed I asked a listener who's helping us now to post in the Chat column, the three events that are really coming up that I'm super psyched about so let me just say a couple words about that, you know for nightclub members in particular the two weekend event, which I used to always in Sedona. But this year, because more and more people are still doing stuff online. And because of delta a little bit reluctant to travel I don't blame anybody for that. We're going to do two three day, month apart the each between each one to three day deep dive events. This is by far my deepest dive into the natural meditations. And every single time I do it I always add a ton of new stuff. So I get really pretty jazzed about this and so the I think the first link is to that. I don't remember the exact order that I sent them. The second one is in fact the new Sedona program in his stunning location in Arizona, which is based on this new book that I just wrote. Somewhere in the spirit of what we're doing here, a little bit in the spirit of what we're doing on Monday nights but obviously, a whole lot more depth, a whole lot more practice, you know, a whole week of this kind of thing, much more comprehensive much more rigorous, and then also a new program that we opened up on the nature of mind, this is a this is really for really deep divers, this is not for beginners. This is for people who want to take a really deep look into the nature of mind, this one's in Baja, Mexico of stunning resort called Planet Del Mar, probably the most beautiful resort center I've ever seen. So anyway, you can check those out. That's a lemonade stand in so what I want to do today is we're gonna start with just a little bit of practice because that's kind of really what we try to do here, but it's always, you know a little bit of a question Do we just sit in front of the screen and meditate for 15 minutes I mean that would be fantastic. Or do we juxtapose a little bit of guided meditations and interjected comments. With some practice with some q&a And I think that kind of middle way approach seems to work pretty well so I'm going to just say a few introductory comments. Then I'll reintroduce a practice that we've already done, and then talk about this third and final installation for now on the power of merit and how to dedicated properly so I'm not going to repeat all the other stuff like what is married, blah blah blah. So don't ask me questions about that, I've already talked about that if you haven't heard it, that's in, I think two to three previous riffs I've done on this topic, so today is going to be, how do you how do you dedicate properly and what value is that it's actually something along the lines again of this activism thing that we can actually be active, both using meditative and spiritual trajectories. That's a little bit what we're doing here. And then, obviously, in my integral approach to things, incorporating that with other activities, literally, like, how, how can we be the most effective in helping the world with everything that's happening. But part of the, the charter that I also mentioned a while back, is that we have you're already introduced and, you know, four months or so since we started this track we've introduced a lot of practices. And it's one of the near enemies of what's, but you know the tantric tradition or Bonjour Yama Tantra advisory on are the same, they're synonymous in a synonym for vijver Yama is Paya, Yana. UPA Ya Ya Na vehicle of skillful means it's actually the thing that differentiates McKinney Mahayana from bartering and so this is important because the tantric teachings have the same view
as the Mahayana teachings the same kind of aspirations the same provisions. It's just that the, the larger yonder slash Tantra, which is actually a subset, subset of the Mahayana. It has more skillful means, literally, the vehicle of skillful means who piano dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens and so that's one reason I'm writing, actually two books on this topic, one of which I'll riff on and Sedona, which are largely based on the experiences I had in my three year retreat where it was like going to meditation university I was exposed to literally dozens I have to say 16 Different meditations that I had to guess, yes. And so one of the near enemies of this vast I'm roaming terrarium this vast skill set is, is you can you just get a little bit dizzy or even discursive and all the practices themselves. There's just so many, and the five nocturnal meditations are just part of that right there's so many. and so instead of just like, continuing the charge forward and we will, there's so much more to present. I feel it's helpful at this point to slow down a little bit to stabilize to incorporate so that the platforms are established so that when we in fact do continue which we most certainly will, will have some real solid stability because otherwise if you're you're shifting from one practice to another. That can be subtly problematic, it can actually become discursive with the practices themselves. And so with that said for a few minutes since, you know, this is the meditation group and so we, you know, I shouldn't say should I almost I almost caught you know almost get tripped myself up by saying, Should I always say, Don't Don't shit on me, we shouldn't shut on each other. So I was gonna say we should meditate right Well, I think it's a good idea. I think it's a good idea to settle. Stabilize gather collect. And so I will just, I'm not going to repeat the extensive instructions I've already given with the practice of tranquility. Shall matter. But what I will do is I will spontaneously say as we settle into this space a few words about this practice whatever happens to come to mind, but I think maybe an augmentation in support of this foundation infrastructure practice is called Cian a and Tibetan Shemitah. In Sanskrit the word literally means tranquility, peace, qui essence. In the West, it's virtually used synonymously with mindfulness. But interestingly enough, technically speaking and I won't go too much into this but technically speaking, in the nine stages of Shamita mindfulness is cultivated at the fourth stage. So there are my Shama transcends but includes mindfulness. And so in particular to refine our understanding of this foundational infrastructure practice, the type of meditation that we're doing is technically called referential ciabatta referential chocolates, which means this is any type of meditation that uses a reference point, some kind of anchor or some kind of hitching post, whether it's a mantra, a candle. Doesn't matter, or in our case, just simply body and breath. Anything that serves as a hitching post for taming and training. The Runaway mind is a referential meditation. And so with that said, again, we can close our eyes and the I do almost all my meditations with my eyes open. But for me it's a little bit challenging when I'm looking at a screen, and there's all this stuff happening on the screen. So I, I tend to close my eyes. There are advantages and disadvantages to practicing with eyes open and eyes closed, practicing with the eyes closed can help one kind of reduce distractions center gather collect. But, you know, a slight shadow element to that is, unless we're blind we don't lead our lives with our eyes closed and so it's a little bit harder to mix the qualities of the meditative mind with life, with post meditation. With your eyes closed, but trust what feels right for you. And you can also, if you like, if you are keeping your eyes open, you can just turn your chair, or if you're on the floor and a Christian away from the screen. So there's just some more space, but for the next few minutes, let's just go ahead with proper posture. Settle gather.
Take a few moments to pacify the mind tame the mind. I will run like I mentioned just a few supporting augmenting comments as we do this for a few Minutes.
Just to briefly reiterate, recall that when the body is
stabilized. Attention, brought to the body and breath.
That becomes the reference, the reference point,
creates a kind of contrast medium of stasis stability canvas of shorts
that better allows us to see the play the movement of the mind. The silence and status, removes the camouflage of all the incessant relentless activity that masks. the activity of the untamed mind.
When a thought arises, remember it is never the enemy thoughts are never the problem in appropriate relationship to the contents of mind. That's the problem, grasping aversion attachment.
So we let the thoughts and mental content arise but then we let it go.
Recall that the instruction is to simply recognize the thought by using the label, the mental label, thinking, or in our context of nocturnal meditation, you could also use a label, labeling. Wake up. Then simply return back to the reference point of body and breath.
Always remembering the label is not a reprimand. It's merely an act of recognition that your mind has strayed.
Perhaps is a refinement. When the mind slows down through this practice.
You eventually start to see the space the gaps between your thoughts.
Which prior to any form of meditation, we're really not discovered the mind, and an untamed mind seems to be just a continuous relentless stream of thoughts, traffic jam. tailgating bumper to bumper, no space.
This is precisely where the genius of Shemitah prepares the ground for insight meditation, the passion, literally insight to see within shutter slows the mind but passionate allows you to see. See things perhaps never seen before.
Recall, whenever you get swept away, lost in thought, which happens all the time. That is a moment of non lucidity.
And every time we capitulate to that stickiness seduction and then proliferation, called Pro pancha in Sanskrit.
We are literally practicing lucidity,
which is precisely why we have so many non lucid dreams. What is found now is found then,
once again this is why many studies have shown that meditators have more lucid dreams, Because meditation is the practice of lucidity,
the exact same recognition of getting lost and thought returning the body and breath is exactly the same lucidity that will wake you up from a non lucid dream into a lucid one.
As of yet, you will not find meditation in standard losing lucid dreaming curricula. It is absolutely critical standard and Dream Yoga.
So when the mind does slow you perceive the gaps between thoughts. You come to realize that each and every thought arises as an independent entity standalone.
And when left alone. Self liberates completely harmlessly.
There is no overt causal relationship
between the thoughts that arise, there is a conditioning relationship,
and therefore with this practice alone we can strip, thought of its power to control us.
If we just leave them alone, each thought is completely harmless.
It's only strength and numbers, linking thinking where thoughts, Assume a power they do not inherently Have.
The reason it is so helpful to return and stabilize this practice is because it's very easy tempting to race to the goodies so called Higher meditations,
but without the stability born from this practice the other so called advanced practices have no foundation, it's like trying to focus a telescope or microscope, where the instrument itself is always shaking. You'll see things properly.
So one has to stabilize the lens of the mind Shemitah. Before that lens can be engaged to properly see proportioner.
Okay,
trying to find my little dinger and I can't find it in this mess that is my desk, so because I literally just got back, haven't had a chance to look at any questions that were submitted. If you in fact did submit a question, you can write it in the chat if you don't want to raise your hand and be called on but I want to say a couple of words about this merit thing. And again, that's why we did the shamoto because merit is a very brief practice, it's really a practice of dedication of your practice and so not a ton to say about the actual practice itself. Outside of stabilizing the view behind it and how to properly engage in it and so far one of the most compelling things to do here is to share what I have come across this and very interesting insightful comments from a handful of amazing teachers lamas, and scholars, and the first one very briefly comes from tool to tool up Chilkoot turned up, Roberta Toko 200 per PJ, wonderful, very deep scholar, Cambridge Harvard for many many years, and he's written about merit, rather extensively in his discourse on pure land teachings because in the Pure Land tradition merit is everything and that is where I learned the most about it. When I was studying Rhys doing research for the presentations I was doing, which I did, I think one or two with Bob Thurman, and there's an entire week long coming up, probably in two years, because it's really in the Pure Land tradition where married is central so central in fact that in some way inconceivable that it's actually the power of merit that is like a kind of cosmic currency that can literally create world systems like in fact pure lands, what we call Noah's topography geography landscape can actually be created by the power of merit. And that is in fact what happened with the generation of sukawati, the Pure land with the easiest visa access. It was actually created by the inconceivable stories of merit accumulated or countless lifetimes if you believe in this stuff of the monk Dharma Khara before he became the Buddha Amitabha, which is the principal Buddha, By the way, parenthetically of this realm and we live in the realm of desire. Of the three cosmological realms and Buddhist cosmology, we live in the realm of desire and Amitabha is the principal, what's called jhana Buddha meditation but of this dimension and Buddhist cosmology, parenthetically emanations of him would be Chen Raizy I wouldn't get this far, the great bodhisattva of compassion. Partners Ababa the tantric Buddha, they bought brought Buddhism from India to Tibet is an emanation, so you have Dharmakaya. Amitabha sambhogakaya Chen razie, near Molokai. Padma Sun bhava also the Dalai Lama's are emanations of this mindstream mnemonic high level as they'll come up as. So this is a marvelously rich wonderfully kind of cosmological set of teachings, largest form of Buddhism in the world by the way over 100 million practitioners. So married is critical to the puroland teachings and Tuco turned up in his wonderful book, peaceful death Joyful rebirth gives one of the rare few Tibetan renderings of pure land, teaching, highly recommended book. And in this book he says simply, with marriage energy is past that invisible levels, there's something and quote, energy is past that invisible levels there is some thing being communicated transmitted a trans temporal trans spatial dimensions. And that's why we said way back when I started this little merit riff that the view behind it is critically important because if you think the world is in fact made of matter, then what we do with our minds and hearts are is relatively inconsequential it's like a mosquito or peashooter against Mount Everest, you know what, what impact can my mind be if the world is made of matter, but the world is not made of matter. The world is made of mind, heart, mind, spirit, and therefore what we do with our mind has a lot more impact than we can even imagine. So a couple of quotes here this one is from Lewis Gomes. Professor, University of Michigan, actually, who wrote one of the best books on the Pure Land
tradition and translating the three principal puroland texts both from Sanskrit and Chinese tremendous scholar. This is what he says the power of good deeds can be harnessed directed and transformed so that through good deeds one becomes capable of affecting the life of others and even capable of working wonders. Good deeds can affect changes in reality merit can produce wondrous deeds and events, and hear how he talks a little bit about dedication, so that's our topic for today. The fruits of marriage which would normally mean future blessings to its possessor can be turned into something else rededicated or turned over to someone else transferred merit shapes human destiny. But its possessor has a degree of control over the way in which it will shape the future and quote and so whether you know it or not, you know, marriage is a subset of karma, right. And so whether you know it or not, we're either doing meritorious or D meritorious actions that have vast repercussions towards ourselves and towards others. And so, what Lewis is saying here is that the merit of our own practice, our lives. The goodness of all the things we talked about earlier, remember generosity discipline, patience exertion meditation and the Army does the four Brahma Vihara is all the classic ways that American be accumulated. Well this natural kind of reserve is obviously installed into your account so to speak. That's what creates That's why they say in the Bardo teachings that merit karma, creates laser red carpet for you in the Bardot's, the power of your goodness, the power of your karma, the power of your merit will take good care of you. But we're going beyond that because this is a Mahayana ideal now. Indiana's you know mostly fantastic no criticism whatsoever Hinayana Tera Vaada mostly about cleaning up at home. Mahayana great the vehicle as vehicle liberation of others becomes more important. And so therefore, Now it's not just what we can do for us but it's what we do for others which, interestingly, I think joins in beautifully with this kind of eco activism trajectory that I think we're going to try to implement here, no kind of putting money, our money where our mouths are so here's where it gets really interesting. There's a very interesting supporting statement two of them actually from chemical cartel revenue which I found very compelling. If you dedicate merits to one person around one situation then that marriage will ripen only once, and the marriage will be exhausted. But if you dedicate the marriage of all sentient beings the mirror becomes inexhaustible marriage can also create affluence and wealth for you. But this karmic ripening happens just once and is exhausted with the mind of enlightenment, the mind of bodhichitta the mind of putting others before yourself. The mirror becomes inexhaustible. How interesting is that. And then this one, I found really interesting. When I read this it was like, whoa, back to Kimball Carter. People often wonder why so many rulers of the past had the power to create so much suffering and destruction in our world. This power and destructiveness shows the power of their individual prayer. Why were they so powerful, why did they have the power to destroy half the world. It's because of the merit, they accumulated. Without the merit, they would not have been able to have that kind of power. But while the merit was there their prayer was what we would call a reverse prayer a negative prayer, which caused them to use their power to create great harm. This is why we must be cautious as Buddhists to always add to any accumulation of merit a proper wholesome prayer for the well being of ourselves and all sentient beings. The point is this.
Whenever you are accumulating merit you accumulate it with a particular wish in mind. And that wish that prayer becomes the most important factor in how the merit comes to fruition and quote. So this is really interesting. So with the aspiration, we haven't really done much with aspirational practices. So aspirations frame things on the front end, they act a little bit like steering wheel. Dedication of merit, kind of directs frames things from the back end like a rudder. And so with the combination of aspiration leading and dedication, following so to speak. That's how we direct the stream of our activity in the powerless therefore created by what's called sometimes the mind stream. So one last comment actually from Joe can pull up MPJ. And then we can open it up for discussion. Tools are very powerful so telcos, you know this is a Tibetan word Sanskrit is nirmanakaya, the telcos are, you know, many of you know this term, these are their voluntary reverse the people who like most of the great religions that we know in the world, His Holiness Dalai Lama Karmapa all these great things these are true whose voluntary incarnates took a principle is actually super interesting to discuss a little bit beyond our scope for today but this is what he says tools are very powerful. If they do something good, it's very beneficial and influential. But if they do something bad, the power is equal parent radical interjection. This may be of some explanatory power in terms of when these jokers do interesting things that are perhaps not so great, right, why it can have so much negative influence. Because of this, so back to MPJ. So sometimes it can be very dangerous. If the Toku does not develop the power given to him in a positive way it can be very destructive. For many people, and he can even destroy himself and grow. Now how interesting is that. So I'm going to let this particular track, go for now. Because to refine it further, honestly, it's a colossal topic. And I'm going to reserve it for when we are when I returned to talk at great length about the puroland tradition, because that's where least for me, I learned just a tremendous amount about this thing that we colloquially flippantly. Almost like okay I'll do it because they told me to do it but I don't really get this stuff. Once we get it once we understand the phenomenology once we understand what's really happening here that's briefly why we had this little track. It will empower both our dedication and our accumulation because if we realize what we're doing here has a whole heap more power than we think. We'll be more careful with what we do, we'll be more careful with dedicating we will be more careful with engaging in meritorious actions. And so remember I think if I, when I started this thing was after my niece had died, you know she had this drug overdose overdose and we lost her. And then it was so sweet. Remember, bittersweet where I came on just 20 minutes after I got this news and we dedicated the merit of that session, remember to her. And so that's what maybe thinking a little bit about sharing of the mechanics of that because especially when someone dies when they're in this very fluid. Bartles state this malleable kind of liquidity. That is in fact when merit becomes super important because that's because of the malleability, it's a little bit the image they gave us like when a person is alive. It's a little bit like a, you know, big stump on the earth where it takes 25 people to move this big stump. Well doubt is like putting that stump in water, where then one person can move it. And so the liquidity the fluidity, the emptiness is both a blessing and a curse. It's a curse because there's no ground and it's can be highly disorienting and stabilizing and frightening. But the great promises in fact the liquidity can be used where there that kind of push that we can send, whether you believe it or not, and part of what we're doing here is perhaps to help you believe it as a lot more effect than you think. So with that said, for the remainder of our time, you can chat throw something in the chat column. I think we got a couple people raised hands. So we can start with the Nisha Myra, Alyssa, do you want to release them we can start with them and then I'll try to scan the chat for written questions. Okay, there's a couple in there so cool. Excellent. Okay. Okay. Hi Andrew Hi, where are you, where's Hawaii.
No Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, piece of Yeah, little piece of heaven, huh, yeah, fantastic. My litter Pure Land. How can I help you today.
Yeah, first you were brilliant. Last week, I have, you keep surprising me with more and I appreciate it so thank you. But two things I have two curious thing when we were in meditation today. You mentioned that there's that space between the thoughts so each thought has a condition or relationship. Correct. So is that cause and effect relationship, I mean the causes and condition relationship, it's more, I use that term.
Yes, exactly. This is a good one. And this is really it's it's quite challenging to look deeply into this Myra, it's like, oh my gosh this simple question is really quite deep. So when we talk about the world of my interestingly enough my raw, When we talk about the world of Maya. We're talking about the world of illusion, and fundamentally both Buddhism and by Devadatta and other non dual traditions really talk about the principal characteristics of what we call Maya is in fact, space, time and causality itself. And this is an astounding statement in other words, space and time are not given their constructs. When you see the world is is the kind of the background template of space and time and again, you've heard me say this before even Einstein said there is no space and time. Even Einstein said this space and time are constructs. And so therefore, same with causality. At the level of absolute reality there is there actually is no causality. And if you want to really plow into this and I really recommend it, especially someone with your intellect myRA is read the work of Nagarjuna, the moolah majestic occurred, fundamental entrance to the middle way. Read it, read it again, because I had to I just could not wrap my mind around this stuff, it took me the longest time, he was like, What are they talking about fundamentally the guardian. Really the most influential powerful Buddhist philosopher arguably in history of Buddhism. I mean, even to this day philosophers logicians still in fact I just picked up I just got it in the mail today, a book by Carlo Ravalli the great Italian physicists called Helga LAN which is a marvelous exposition on his latest rendering of quantum mechanics, where he actually close in the garden at length. And so in the gardener has has to this day, had a monumental impact on thinkers, and this book that just came out by one of the most, I think preeminent theoretical physicists on the planet Ravelli. There's an extensive riff on his deep admiration for the gardener, and so in the garden a decimates causality. And so, causality conditionality space and time only work within the relative arena. And so when we slow down and we start to look at the discontinuous nature of reality, the quantum nature of reality that everything is basically pointillistic that everything is therefore literally confused flicker fuse together to create the world that we know we slow down, we start to deconstruct that we start to see the actual independent arising of every phenomena that arises and so there's so much to say here my friend but one thing that I think I started to talk about here is you can look at thought in a non dualistic way, there is this thing called non dualistic thinking. And that is non linking thinking dualistic thinking is linking thinking. Every, every thought is linked up it seems to be immediately caused by the next but it's not it's just simply conditioned. And so, when we start to slow down decouple D link our thoughts, we're actually experiencing a type of non dualistic thinking thinking devoid of the super imposition of the thought. And this is a profound liberating insight because you strip thought of its power, you realize, just like that. Isn't there a band called strength and numbers, or something like that. I think so that it thought only has the power that we miss attributed to it when we mistake it to be continuous in this massive kind of torrent, when you slow things down, you realize that you, you know you're castrating thought you're diluting it you're stripping out of its power. And then you start to see each thought rises independently, but what's, what comes into play here then is you may know, again, such a great question so much to say very subtle, is that in that space between thoughts, it's exactly the same space is between lives. No. Can you hear me.
Yes I do.
Wait a second, so you can sign out because your account or sign up on another device. That's weird. Can you still hear me. Yeah, I can hear you was weird, I mean my zoom thing just did something really weird. So, you start to realize via that the way to really study like what is it that continues like what, what, It's not causalities conditionality. And so it's the way to understand this is to look at the Four Laws of transitional karma, remember, heavy proximate habitual random. And so what we're seeing here is the momentum the push, mostly proximate karma. That seems to create this illusion of causality. So the Buddhists are very specific, they make differences they make even a relative reality, they make the difference between causes and conditions. But both of those don't exist in the realm of the absolute so I'm throwing a lot of noodles against the wall.
I just, yeah, I just i was in meditation. So one more thing I just been realizing a little bit, that when you have your eyes opens and you're entering this shamaton meditation, the body that you perceive you step back and look from the back is the same as the dream body and
isn't it oh good for you. Good for you. That is a fantastic insight, exactly, no different. It's no different, and you enact it, you know, you think, right, because they're pre existing but you actually enact it you co created in the very act of perception, just like in a dream so if that's actually your experience Bravo, That's beautiful. Good for you. Thank you. Thank you.
Brilliant, brilliant yesterday's first two sessions were just like, oh my gosh, comments, like
it was, I just thank you. Thank you for being here Barry was there I noticed a couple people here that were there. I had so much fun during this week it was, it was such a gas and especially the see some of my peeps. My nightclub members. It really made my heart so thank you, my dear. See you around. Okay, hi, Alicia fire away. I'll try to look at some of these. Oh so Jeffrey was 45 minutes late last week, oh my gosh I am so sorry. You know it wasn't fair to Jeff It wasn't fair to Alicia because at least it because they're both here for the first time and I was locked in this program, and I couldn't break away so my deep apologies. I apologize for that. But anyway, and they share Are You There Are you do you need to be unmuted.
Do we need to unmute her. And Lisa. Lisa. I don't hear her asked to unmute. Hi. Oh, there we go. Okay, hi, hi, nice to see ya. I'm a huge fan of Nagarjuna myself. Yeah, thank you, he's a rock star. Have you ever you read the characters.
Yeah, yeah. Amazing quite that far but I've just started to study, you know, sort of the middle way teachings and then, yeah, and then you know it's funny I just realized that I lived in the state and the city where Nagarjuna was away, I mean, there's myths around it but yeah I live in Hyderabad. I was born and raised in Hyderabad and we would go to Nagarjuna conda which is basically no way you know they take us on these cool excursions and whatnot and at the time I didn't really have gotten into Buddhism, so yeah, I don't know, I've just been just having now reading about him, I'm just so I'm so inspired by
just what he's accomplished. No, he's, he's absolute Colossus and and really it's a look, I say this sometimes if you're not shaken shocked by what Nagarjun is saying you don't understand it. I mean it is that powerful. It is it is just a total mind Twister when you read it. So anyway, for the deeper divers, really want to understand the nature of emptiness, the Middle Way teachings in The Guardian, I mean change security I mean these guys are, poof, right. So, anyway, how can I help you today.
Yeah, so I just wondered like what you just said, I mean, you know, we study and we contemplate, and we put all this effort into these things right yeah I mean, that's part of our, our spiritual work. And then, yeah, I'm just wondering like, I don't know everybody just seems pretty settled and happy and like you said, we're just cozy in our little corner right. Where do you start to actually work with this material. I mean, each person I suppose it just manifests differently, right. I mean, how you're going to how it's going to rock your world is going to depend on on you. But anyway, I was just thinking more you know in terms of experiences that might come up along the way you know I've heard things I've heard you say sometimes that, you know, bodhisatta was maybe on the foot, you know, first booty or something well i selflessness, I was like, okay, where does that, where does that leave me, mine is 100 level, somewhere 1000 level, what I meant, mean is, you know, Is there some sort of a progression to this process and then, you know, we have these glimpses of, of, of egolessness and selflessness. And I just wondered like, you know, how does that. I mean, if I don't know if it's possible to in the time you have. There's a, there's a little bit you could share about how does that process even, you know, for, for someone who's on the path of reflecting meditation, I don't know people say you don't even get to meditation, it's basically just study and, and if so, then what's the point of just studying right like I mean, it seems that it's, it's, until you move on to the next stage of actually reflecting and you know taking it to heart. It seems that it's, it's not going to. It seems to me that it would just be good. Forget about the material right it wouldn't wouldn't be as inspiring.
Yeah. So great question so you know this is where you need to understand the kind of that Gnostic pedagogy right, you know that there's this tripartite approach ingest digest metabolize hearing, hearing contemplating meditating and so we need to study because it creates the view. Right View first and foremost of the Eightfold Noble Path right view so we study study study to work with the map to install the GPS to really turn our mind in the right direction, you know, replacing fake news with real news so the study is critically important. But if you just remain at the level of study you just remain a philosopher in the pejorative sense right of what value is that are you really going to be changed. Are you really going to wake up. No you won't. But it's extraordinarily helpful even even beautiful elegant philosophy is very, very powerful, but it's not going to transform you until you engage in really deep contemplation, really deep reflection, where what do you do you start to digest, you start to bring the material from your head into your heart into your body, and in so doing, and I use this image a lot it's a, it's a filtration purification system right so the more you drop into your body, deception can't follow you into your body, conceptuality in the garden is brilliant as all that is it's still at the level of concept it's still the most impure way to know. So eventually through a process of purification filtration embodied in the Indic tradition of the three wisdom tools the three pillars of Vedanta, there's so many others. You bring the system, you bring the teachings from your head. You know, as I say transforms cerebral data into synthetic fibers so the teachings drop into your body you contemplate them. And then, even then, eventually, even that has to drop even further into the ultimate, ultimate stage of metabolism, meditation, it's the only way. And so when you're dealing with, especially with things like emptiness. You cannot grasp this with the conceptual mind you can get really close Manjushri is played, you can refine it, refine it a gardener, refine it, refine it, refine it. But eventually, and this is the genius of the guardian of these are templates of truth that are in resonance with reality, they're called should have accomplice in Sanskrit, and the genius of these contemplations is they're so resonant with reality, that they can eventually collapse into reality. In other words, you're really thinking you're really reading you're really contemplating pausing. And then, poof, you get it, but you'll notice that that moment that you get it, it's actually a trans conceptual experience is your body that gets it, so you study for sure study study study contemplate contemplate and then meditate, meditate, because that's the only way you're really going to get it. And then it's going to be, it's going to stick with you because it's your body that gets it so it's your body that remembers that it's your body that feels it. And so that's the genius, in my opinion of these pedagogical wisdom, jewels, that is much deeper than philosophy is much deeper than any kind of Western intellectual tradition as important as that is, because first of all allows you to see for yourself, this becomes then not inferential valid cognition, but you'll get direct valid cognition becomes your direct experience. And that's when you really going to change so there's so much more to say here but I'll pause to see if that's going in the right direction.
Yes I was. Since, this, this sounds like this. Monday Matt is sort of dedicated to kind of the meditation side of things, my question was more on the meditation side more than conduct side. Okay. And my understanding also is that sort of, kind of, also the third degree again conduct so I was thinking more kind of on a meditation, then see more specifically on meditation,
say a little bit more about that then, because it's that
exam. Right, yeah. So you know it's like, it's like maybe in meditation, you know, maybe you're able to rest with, with, you know, contemplation and then maybe something opens up, you get some kind of flash of of kind of timelessness or just the sense that, you know, this, I don't know. And that's, that's sort of been my experience you know flashes here and there, but I've just not I'm just wondering what that means and, you know, and then the game that you're talking about like does that really get to a point where you could gaze at it I mean that's just for me it's mind blowing
to get you know, you use the physical gays, the gays of the eyes to invite a correlative gaze of the mind's eye. And so eventually you won't see it that way you will literally see it we have to be a little careful with that. But the thing that the other thing that you said that I think is really the important thing here is, is like you know Houston Smith said so famously right, you mentioned even use the word flash you know you have these flashes of insight flashes of openness. And you know what did he say so, the, the, kind of the trajectory of the path is to transform right transform these flashes of illumination into abiding light. You also mentioned the boonies that's in fact what creates progress from the first Bhumi to the 10th Bhumi, is the lights just flash more, you're you know you're flashing more and more and more and more until until you reach the 10th Bhumi, then the lights around all the time, right, and so is that a little bit more of what you're asking. That kind of thing.
Yeah, I think you're kind of answered I think what I heard you say was that you don't really see beyond those flashes in meditation, at least at our kind of our level.
What do you mean when you say flashes that because we just say more about what
is right so you know you get these moments where you, where I've had the, the sense that, you know, just kind of moment when you kind of focus on the momentary ness of the moment, you kind of go beyond the moment in some ways, kind of the sense that, you know, it's just this, knowing that the moment doesn't exist in some ways, is more than the moment, right, there's this this knowing, but it's only a flash and then you're back again and you know you're Yeah please I'm sort of, yep. Oh, what does happen you know, and then I'm
Yeah, you've had, you've had brief contact with reality. Basically, and it's it can be a flicker of emptiness a flicker of that in fact, if we didn't have, even some modicum of that level of contact we would be psychotic or catatonic Sikhism schizophrenics I mean we have to have some degree of contact with reality, or we could function, even in a relative way. And so, you know what you're saying there is also really compelling, you know, excuse me, you make contact with the present moment. You meditation and eventually discover that even the present moment does exist, you start to see exactly what I was saying earlier with the Guardian, you know, time, space, these are constructs which means, even the present moment is provisional. Even the present moment doesn't exist but we use it because it's the closest thing to relative reality that we have to absolute reality, and eventually just to put in languaging you enter through the conduit of the present moment you enter the fourth moment, what's already last calls, but a standard time. I love it. The fourth moment that is Padmasambhava coin is beyond past present and future. And that's the timeless, eternal moment that that transcends time and that's where you contact reality and that's the kicker we do it all the time we just don't recognize it. It's just through these practices and studies we can come to recognize it more readily more open to it more frequently, where then it becomes more kind of constant experience and still that kind of stability and continuity sustenance of the opening is actually what constitutes the path. And that's why I really, I mean meditation is the most important thing for sure, but you need in my estimation, you need to have the previous Gnostic hearing contemplating evolve, and understanding because if you don't have the proper understanding, you can have a meditative experience and go completely off the rails with it. And so therefore you need both. And that happened to me I mean I had some really cosmic experience experiences in my 20s. I had the experiences before I had the understanding, and it really became a big problem, where I you know I thought jeez I'm losing my mind here in this because my experience was premature. I didn't have the doctrinal infrastructure to understand what was happening became really dicey for me. So therefore you need both. You need the map, sometimes to help you understand the territory and you need to kind of dance at least in my experience with both until eventually you can just burn the map, but we're not there yet. So something like that. Okay,
thank you Andrew. This helps. I'm sure there's more to chew on it
more to chew on war to digest and metabolize. Cool. Okay, sorry about that Andrew my computer spazzed out as a cheers did. Yeah I did something weird but I think we're okay. Yes. did you happen to see the question about the 50% off coupon. Uh, yeah, Canada's right, I can't, I, that's something I can't correct right here now but if you're a nightclub member you will definitely get it. And there's always a few hiccups along the way so contact us behind the scenes, we'll make sure that coupon works for you, I simply don't have the wherewithal to do it right here and now, we will make it happen.
And then there was another question. Evelyn asked if there was a hierarchy of meditation.
Okay, I'm going to write a note to self because four or five people are saying they're not getting the 50% That's a big that's a big problem that's a big deal. So, note to self, I will make sure that problem is fixed ASAP because that's, I can see why that's a little bit annoying so thank you for the feedback on that. I appreciate it. I'm sorry. at least go ahead I cut you off. That's okay, um, Evelyn just asked if there was a hierarchy of meditation. Oh yes. Also Evelyn, it depends a little bit on what you mean by hierarchy. Yes, there's a hierarchy in the sense of transcend but include right so this is important that each, each particular meditation has a very specific and necessary necessary but not sufficient. That's what they say right necessary but not sufficient. So, for instance mindfulness shamoto that we're doing today is necessary but not sufficient, that it won't liberate it to dates. And so therefore there is a hierarchy of what's called transcend but include where each practice as a hierarchy. And these, this is very interested so interesting, interesting things to say here this is called an actualization hierarchy, not a dominator hierarchy so an actualization hierarchy, means that each practice supports the previous practice augments it but also transcends it. And this is really quite beautiful. This is the really, this is the extraordinary contribution, especially of the non dual traditions where these practices in the Tibetans here honestly Nanda Shiva Tantra and the Tibetans to me, I don't know any other traditions that have as many skillful means. But there is this kind of hierarchical approach, but yet this is where you have to understand it's an actualization hierarchy in other words, it doesn't mean that one is like higher more superior more elite. No, without the lower, the higher don't work so you need them all. So on one level you can say the higher is more advanced yes provisionally. But, you know, you can't run before you walk. And so we have to walk and so there's absolutely positively hierarchy, and how that actually can be unpacked is a rather large enterprise we're somewhat doing that in this meditation track. And eventually with some familiarity, you'll see how that unfolds for you, but in a short answer, absolutely, positively. Okay, what was the book just mentioned, oh yeah piece of wood just joyful rebirth, there it is. Okay, in a garden. Yeah, na GA RJ you and a Nagaraju Na, Helgoland Helgoland not Helgoland hell algo hclg Yo la MD Helgoland. Okay. Okay, here we go. Alright I'm just looking at the chat thing here. Yeah, we environmental activism, yes. Joanna Macy Will this ever will this help I've read all her stuff while the world for the love, David. While love for the world David Lloyd gave me that book. Yeah there's Carlo Rovelli Helgoland making sense of the quantum revolution. So Danny Yeah, stay tuned, where I'm hoping maybe I can even get David Lloyd to come in and do something for us. I'm going to see him this week we're going to chat. Okay. I'm sorry. Good.
Okay, you just want them to contact you at your email that's listed on the actual event
itself android android android hollowtech COMM that will definitely get to me I'll get to my team, and we will fix it because that something's wrong. Sorry. We will definitely fix that that's that's frustrating. So I will make that a really high priority. Reach out to my peeps, as best I can, so. Okay. Any, anything else anybody else I'm scanning the chat column, it looks like we're maybe okay for now. All right.
Did you get Evelyn second question is there order then in the styles of meditation that one should pursue.
Yes there is, but that is a really big topic. Let me read it here. Is there an order then in the styles of the meditation that one should pursue. Evelyn, it depends on your interest in which path you elect to pursue and what speaks to you, there's definitely an order. You know, there, there isn't, like, well I shouldn't say there isn't, because there could be. There's a general kind of trajectory path of these sorts of practices, and in fact the book The, the book that I'm going to be riffing on that I just wrote for The Sedona retreat is largely exactly about this question. What what are the kind of basic trajectory of meditations standard before he gets to Tantra. So you've got this is a really big question again you know you've got all the sutra level practices which are brilliant fantastic there are so many helping one understand them, like what what goes beyond mindfulness, all the practices, some of which we've introduced on the track. There was definitely a set of progression along those lines. But unfolding that obviously, I mean they're there. This is really big, you know, even mentioning them is not such a simple thing so you got all the suture stuff in the world of tantra stuff. It can be a little bit confusing it can be a little bit bewildering. And so, you know, ah, short of sticking with us, and maybe looking I'm trying to think of what's already in print that could be of some benefit to you. The books that come immediately to mind for me, my dear friend reginal Ray, to two big books indispensable reference in my book, in my opinion. First of all, it's called indestructible truth. That's on the Hinayana Mahayana schools and teachings, you'll see so many meditations there. And then the second volume secrets of the virtual world. All the tantric practices are in that. And so it's going to be different from tradition to tradition, the terabyte in Indiana people have their own thing, the Mahayana has have their own thing, then the country has have their own thing. And so they're, you know, it's almost a, I wouldn't say an embarrassment of riches, it's just an abundance of riches, there's so much there, And they can be a little bit bewildering actually, it's like stepping into an amazing store for the first time is like oh my gosh, which I'll do I go and where do I go. And so, I recommend Reggie's books and then you know in a much more user friendly, I wouldn't say user friendly because he's a user friendly, Perhaps a little bit more accessible ways is the book that I'm that I just wrote and I'm going to be riffing on in October in Sedona. So because it's such Sedona is not sold out yet Barry we've got a couple more spaces, thanks for asking. We got some room for that there will not be a hybrid component this is inside only. I mean on site only because the meditative ones. I don't think you can really do this effectively online. So we're not going to have an online hybrid on this one, but like the nature of mind one and prana, no way on that, because some of these practices are so subtle so nuanced. I don't, there has to be some kind of person to person transmission quality. And so I do a lot of stuff obviously online but these don't translate that way. So is that kind of it for now, everybody. We're about about where we tend to close up for today anyway so thank you everybody, great to see everybody. We do this totally geeky thing at the end right where now not only do we turn our cameras on, but we temporarily everybody unused if you want to when we do this completely ridiculous hug fest where we just say thank you to everybody, if you want. Until next time, if you can unmute everybody that would be awesome. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. I'll stay in touch for next week I'm not sure what we're gonna do for Labor Day, I'm still thinking about that, but good to be back with you all always so fun to see everybody. Hang tight, cool things are happening. Thank you so much.
Oh dedicate the memory Yes, dedicate let's do it okay I'm gonna say thank you thank you thank you here we are talking about merit and we forgot to dedicated oh my god what a bonehead right. No, I'm just gonna say what we say in what the way I was taught. You can use any language you want, doesn't matter, you can even just gesture with your hands but the languaging I was taught was by this mirror that nations may defeat the enemy wrongdoing. From the stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness, and
then everybody. See you, bye everybody. Bye, bye, bye, bye bye.