1 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:12,440 Welcome back everybody to the Denver So Chimp podcast. 2 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:15,120 I'm here once again with Joseph Wagner and today we're going to 3 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:17,840 talk about setting up a daily practice. 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:21,760 This is so crucial. The foundation to everything in 5 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:25,040 a Dharma life is having a daily practice. 6 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:29,840 But I know for myself and almost everybody who gets started on 7 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:33,360 this, it can be hard, right, that the going against the 8 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:36,520 grain, as we talked about in the previous episode, is always hard 9 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:40,760 setting up a new habit. But the thing that's really come 10 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:44,520 clear to me that's really helped is to remember that's not a 11 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:47,440 discipline, it's a relationship, right? 12 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:50,320 We're developing a relationship to something new. 13 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,440 And so if you want to develop a relationship with a person or 14 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:58,360 with the Dharma and the lineage, you have to spend time together. 15 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:00,760 So I think that's really what this is about. 16 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:03,920 And Joe, you've got a really excellent daily practice and 17 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:06,080 have for many, many years. So maybe you could tell us about 18 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,800 how you developed it, what it looks like, and how our 19 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,080 listeners can really have something like that. 20 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:14,560 Yeah, happy to and welcome to everyone. 21 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,760 Happy to be back here. This is fun. 22 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:23,360 I think the first thing, I mean, I did it because I, when I got 23 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:26,640 into meditation, it was just felt, it felt like this is what 24 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:28,600 I need to be doing. So I've been sitting every day 25 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:32,440 since 1988. You know, this, it was easy for 26 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:34,640 me to get going. I was in college and I was like, 27 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:38,440 I don't know, trying to be interesting to myself or 28 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:41,200 whatever. But when I talk about this now, 29 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:42,800 I have a different way of looking at it. 30 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:46,720 It's slightly different. And that might be helpful to our 31 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:49,040 listeners. The way I look at it is we only 32 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:52,480 have today. I've been waking up for 50-6 33 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:56,080 years and I have yet to be able to have it be tomorrow. 34 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:57,800 When I wake up, it's always today. 35 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:04,120 And as a result of that, it's very important to recognize, you 36 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:06,720 know, it's like this screen right here, my hands up here 37 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:12,400 above where you can see when I get distracted there. 38 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:19,320 When you wake up in the morning, you come out of nowhere, right? 39 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:21,840 Where were you 2 seconds before you woke up? 40 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:24,160 No body, no thoughts, no nothing. 41 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:29,040 You just pop in and if you're paying close attention, close 42 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:33,840 attention, then you notice that right at the beginning of waking 43 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:35,880 up, you don't even know who you are. 44 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:37,400 You have absolutely no thoughts. You're just like. 45 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,560 And then here it is like little bits of snow falling on you. 46 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:43,280 Oh, yeah, I've got to do that today. 47 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:45,040 And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, yeah, work. 48 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:47,320 Oh my gosh, I got to do this. And the, you know, there's that 49 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:50,240 doctor's appointment and then all of a sudden your life is 50 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:52,080 back. But there's a you realize, you 51 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:55,000 come out of nowhere and then here comes your karma. 52 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:57,960 And then you're like, oh, yeah. And when you fall asleep at 53 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:01,200 night, you go, where do you go? You go no place. 54 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,840 So we really only have today, thinking about this has made a 55 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:08,680 lot of stuff possible for me because I probably can't, you 56 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:11,720 know, go to the gym every day for the rest of my life. 57 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:14,800 That sounds like an incredible thing I have to do. 58 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:18,040 Or in my case, Damian and I talked in a previous episode 59 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,160 about being vegan. Hard to think you'll never eat 60 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:24,560 another croissant. You'll never have another pizza. 61 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:27,640 Oh my God, you know what I mean? Like, that's, that's a lot. 62 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:30,760 But today I'm OK with not having a croissant. 63 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:33,840 And then those days stack up and it becomes a habit. 64 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:36,920 Till Gordon always said practice is a habit, just like 65 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:39,760 distraction is a habit. So we're changing it. 66 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:41,680 And in the beginning you have to be super conscious. 67 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:45,840 So you have this little, there's a period when you first wake up 68 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:50,360 for about at least 5 minutes for most people, unless if you don't 69 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:52,880 have 5 minutes when you wake up, then you got to change your 70 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:55,480 life, right? That's called turn the clock 15 71 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:57,840 minute earlier alarm and you're good, right? 72 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:02,440 To make up daily practice. You don't need 2 hours, right? 73 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:06,000 You really need like if you have 5 minutes, you can definitely do 74 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,400 it and it will build on itself. You know, you don't want to make 75 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:09,880 it. I got to meditate an hour or 76 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:11,840 it's not worth doing. That's a crazy attitude. 77 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:15,480 If you sit down and you do the three parts, which we'll talk 78 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:18,480 about as part of the daily practice in a second, then you 79 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:20,519 did it. The main thing is to recognize 80 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:22,800 when you first wake up you can do anything. 81 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:26,760 The road is wide. You can do anything with today 82 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:30,440 and, and the first thing you got to do is immediately meditate 83 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,160 because otherwise, you know, you'll get caught up, right? 84 00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:37,760 The phone and the stuff and the worry and the plan and the kids 85 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:41,000 and the stuff. So the first thing to do is 86 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,200 recognize you do have agency. It doesn't last very long, but 87 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:46,560 you've got 5 or 10 minutes of agency there. 88 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,480 And if you direct it to your cushion, you're going to 89 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:51,280 meditate that day. And then at the end of the day, 90 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:52,560 you're like, well, what did I do today? 91 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:55,520 You know, I freaking meditated. I'm a meditator because you're a 92 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:57,440 meditator. If you meditated today, even if 93 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:00,320 you practice 30 years in a row, if today you didn't practice, 94 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:01,960 are you a practitioner? I don't know. 95 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:04,560 So I think that's the way I first look at it. 96 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,920 Yeah, and I've developed this rule for myself as I've gotten 97 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:11,240 into adulthood. You know, like as a kid it was 98 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:14,000 super hard for me to have any discipline about any teenager, 99 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,400 even early 20s. But eventually I just learned do 100 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:22,440 all the hard shit first. Just get it all done first, then 101 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:27,120 one you can relax, then I'm free, which actually you get 102 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:30,440 kind of addicted to this feeling of like, okay, I've done all the 103 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:35,920 things and now I can like chill and I and I can enjoy my day And 104 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:38,760 you enjoy your day more when you know you've done all those 105 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:40,560 things and they're not haunting you, right? 106 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:44,280 Like those things haunt you, the, the days you don't do the 107 00:05:44,280 --> 00:05:47,640 things that are important to you, you know, you've on some 108 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:50,800 level, you've wasted some time that you have in this precious 109 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:53,080 human birth. And it's just like Joe said, 110 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:55,080 when you do something first thing. 111 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:58,180 So I think as a Dharma practitioner, this is a non 112 00:05:58,180 --> 00:05:59,920 negotiable, it's got to be first thing. 113 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:03,680 It it really does because it sets the tone for absolutely 114 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:06,280 everything else you're going to do with your your day. 115 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:12,720 And this is a also, like Joe said, start small And, and then 116 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:15,200 I was saying in the beginning, develop a relationship. 117 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:20,040 This has become something that you fall in love with and want 118 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,640 to spend more and more time. And there's a, of course, a 119 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:24,720 little bit of like pushing yourself, right? 120 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:27,240 Like you can challenge yourself to go a little bit longer, to 121 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:31,320 spend a little more time. And that's really helpful. 122 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:34,320 But if you make it into something you hate, you'll fail. 123 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:36,880 But it's a guarantee. That means you've had a bad 124 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:38,480 relationship with the Dharma, right? 125 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:40,640 That that that's the worst thing you could do. 126 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,960 You want to set yourself up to have a good relationship to the 127 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:46,960 Dharma. Yeah, exactly right. 128 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:51,480 You want set it up for success. That's why shorter periods are 129 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:54,880 better. You know, I'm when I teach at a 130 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:58,680 yoga studio on Wednesday nights and it's just a, you know, some 131 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:00,640 practitioners, but a lot of people who don't know anything 132 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:03,200 about meditation or they do some yoga, they want to have a 133 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:05,280 practice. I always say you need one minute 134 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:08,720 and it has three parts, the three excellences. 135 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:12,240 Is it OK if we talk about that? Now, if you have these things, 136 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:14,880 then the relationship that you have is, first of all, it's 137 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:17,440 intact and solid. And secondly, it will naturally 138 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:20,600 grow. And those things are so easy if 139 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:24,520 you are a Buddhist practitioner, the frame it in both ways 140 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:26,320 because some of our listeners, they, you know, they're 141 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:28,480 interested, but they're not necessarily Buddhists. 142 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:29,840 And that's okay. It doesn't matter. 143 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:34,040 They're just two different ways. The first thing is you got to 144 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:36,800 get on that cushion and it, and it doesn't matter if your 145 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,720 cushion is your bed. I I certainly think for 146 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:44,000 repeatability, it's good to buy as to invest in yourself and you 147 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:46,840 need to invest in Azabaton, which is the big flat cushion 148 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:50,600 that and then Azahfu, some kind of like cushion to sit on, you 149 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:53,160 know, keep your hips high. Almost all of us need that. 150 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:55,040 Even if you've been sitting a long time, you need to have 151 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:57,000 slightly elevated hips to have your back straight. 152 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,160 Everybody knows this. But if by having that, by 153 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:04,040 investing this and that can be like 150 bucks, not nothing. 154 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:06,360 You maybe can buy a used, but whatever. 155 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:09,480 By putting money in it, you're like, I'm going to get my 156 00:08:09,480 --> 00:08:11,440 money's worth. I'm going to do this, you know, 157 00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:13,640 And then you put that in a place that it doesn't have to move 158 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:15,400 around, Sit in the same place every day. 159 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:18,760 Then you start to see that same view, whether it's a window or a 160 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:21,960 wall, it doesn't matter. Remember Bodhi Dharma faced The 161 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:25,320 Cave for nine years, Cave wall, nothing interesting there. 162 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:27,560 So you don't think, oh, I can't do this 'cause I don't have a 163 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:30,400 beautiful view and don't doesn't matter at all. 164 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:32,600 You can sit in the dark, it doesn't make any difference. 165 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:36,720 You just have to be in the same place every day. 1st is to get 166 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:39,919 to your cushion. Secondly is to is to give rise 167 00:08:39,919 --> 00:08:41,799 to the thought. I am so lucky. 168 00:08:41,799 --> 00:08:44,200 I want to be here. I'm so lucky. 169 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:47,960 I'm just so lucky, right? You could be under arrest, you 170 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,560 could be in jail, you could be sick. 171 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:53,520 All these things are not happening and you are choosing 172 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:55,840 to do this? Amazing. 173 00:08:56,160 --> 00:08:59,240 That's the first thing, 'cause we then you sort of feel like 174 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:00,520 you're doing something really noble. 175 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:02,880 Wow, this is great. And you're more likely to repeat 176 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:03,920 it. That gets addictive. 177 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:06,200 We want, we have to use addiction on, you know, to 178 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:09,120 benefit us in this case. And the second thing, this is if 179 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:11,360 you're not a Buddhist practitioner, you just have to 180 00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:13,680 think, I'm going to do this for the good of everyone. 181 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:16,640 I'm going to experience peace for everybody, which is what 182 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:19,160 meditation's about, right? That's called the first 183 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:21,720 excellence or the, OR the right orientation. 184 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:25,520 And if, if you are a Buddhist practitioner, then those first 185 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:28,200 two things are the same. You sit down and feel grateful. 186 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:30,040 You still have to get to your cushion and you still have to 187 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:32,080 give rise to great joy or gratitude. 188 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:36,320 And then you, you take refuge, you give rise to bodhichitta, 189 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:38,920 the standard things. And if you know the bodhichitta 190 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,280 aspect for non practitioners is I'm doing this for everybody. 191 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:47,160 I'm going to abandon my interest in this ridiculous life and I'm 192 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:48,880 going to be at peace for all beings. 193 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:51,040 Wow, That's incredibly noble, right? 194 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:53,080 Incredibly powerful. Makes you sit up a little 195 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:56,040 straighter and it makes your day worth it no matter what happens 196 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:57,760 the rest of the day. Maybe you're heading into the 197 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:01,600 worst day of your life, but you meditated, so it wasn't all bad. 198 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:03,360 And that's all we can really do, right. 199 00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:07,480 And then we'll, you know, that's the that's how you get there. 200 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:09,240 That's the beginning, The first excellence. 201 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:10,200 Go ahead. Yeah. 202 00:10:10,680 --> 00:10:13,840 Yeah. And for me, having an altar has 203 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:15,560 always been an important part of my practice. 204 00:10:15,560 --> 00:10:18,200 So if you're a Vajrayana practitioner, making some 205 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:23,000 offerings, lighting a candle, offering some incense grounds 206 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:28,000 your sacred world in your physical experience. 207 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:30,800 So I found that to be a very helpful. 208 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:33,320 Humans are very ritualistic. Most of us, you know, some 209 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:34,760 people don't like that and that's fine. 210 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:39,120 But for Vajri honest, we're into all of that stuff, right? 211 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:43,840 So we use, we anchor our experience in this sacred 212 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:46,680 reality, right? Like normally we're anchoring 213 00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:50,440 ourselves, just like you said, towards samsara, kids, job, 214 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:54,160 work, family, all the things I have to do today, we're taking 215 00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:57,240 refuge in that world. That's called taking refuge in 216 00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:00,560 samsara. So we want to instead shift and 217 00:11:00,560 --> 00:11:04,480 say, no, we're going to take refuge in the enlightened mind. 218 00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:09,120 And then we have all of these statues and tonkas and beautiful 219 00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:12,880 things that you feel a connection to that are a way of 220 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:16,000 representing this different point of view. 221 00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:18,600 And it's a little bit like feeding your kids or your 222 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:21,680 family, right? Like you're by offering incense 223 00:11:21,680 --> 00:11:24,680 and a candle, you're you're making a relationship, you're 224 00:11:24,680 --> 00:11:27,600 building a relationship, you know, like Trump or Boucher 225 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:31,520 called merit really relational energy, right? 226 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:33,480 So, and I think that's a good way to look at it. 227 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:40,200 Not an accumulation, not a self worth discipline code, not that 228 00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:43,200 it's you're investing in a relationship and by making 229 00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:45,520 offerings. How do you become close to 230 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:47,720 somebody? Giving gifts is a huge part of 231 00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:49,880 that, right? Like if you meet somebody and 232 00:11:49,880 --> 00:11:52,920 you give them something, you instantly have a connection or 233 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:55,440 they give you something or they give you some time or this they 234 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:56,800 help you with something difficult. 235 00:11:57,160 --> 00:12:00,400 Nothing bonds people faster than that kind of thing. 236 00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:04,160 So making offerings in the morning, I think is such an 237 00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:07,880 important and helpful way to make sure that you're 238 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:12,480 cultivating your relationship to the Dharma for the day, making 239 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:15,680 it your priority. My my priority relationship. 240 00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:17,880 And that's part of what you talked about this first 241 00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:20,800 Excellency. These are skillful means for 242 00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:22,360 doing that. So you can do it just in the 243 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:24,400 simplest of way, like Joe explained, just sit on your 244 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:26,480 cushion and get in touch with that. 245 00:12:26,680 --> 00:12:30,200 Or you can elaborate and do all of these things on an extra 246 00:12:30,200 --> 00:12:32,840 level that can be very helpful. Yeah, exactly. 247 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:36,720 I mean, I'm thinking about people who don't and are trying 248 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:38,680 to get started, but you're absolutely right. 249 00:12:38,920 --> 00:12:42,920 Once you have a place to sit, you need to synchronize that 250 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:44,920 area. Even if that all that is, is a 251 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:47,120 photograph of somebody you respect. 252 00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:50,720 Gandhi or freaking the Dalai Lama, whatever, you know, the 253 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:54,200 Buddha, a little statue can buy those statues everywhere. 254 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:57,600 Now you know, you can buy them online, Etsy, whatever, you 255 00:12:57,600 --> 00:12:58,920 know, can buy them from our side. 256 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:03,240 Oh, wait, wait, what? Maybe you're, if you're in 257 00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:07,120 Vajrayam, then Tonka's like Damien has like this one can be 258 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:13,200 very helpful. And it, it's sort of it allows 259 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:18,800 you to part from ordinary life. Right in the morning you get up 260 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:21,720 and maybe I'm not saying you shouldn't make a cup of coffee 261 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:23,320 or tea or whatever. That's perfectly fine. 262 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:25,720 You got to do whatever you have to do to get motivated. 263 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:29,000 This is not about self sacrifice as much as motivation. 264 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:31,480 So let's say you did that. You went, you're sitting on your 265 00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:33,920 cushion. Before you sit on your cushion, 266 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:38,360 if you have a picture or a table that you have set up as your 267 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:40,920 shrine, and there's a way to do that, maybe we'll have a podcast 268 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:43,520 about that. But even the simplest way, which 269 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:49,160 is just a table with a candle on it or a picture of whatever your 270 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:53,320 refuge is, you know, your teacher or whatever, just a 271 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:55,200 little statue of the Buddha, whatever. 272 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:59,200 When you come up to that, you got a bow, right? 273 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:02,400 You got to show this is my orientation. 274 00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:05,920 I am aiming at this. I'm not going to take refuge. 275 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:07,720 And so I'm sorry like I ordinarily do. 276 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:10,520 Nor am I going to do my practice just so I can be more peaceful, 277 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:12,120 so my boss doesn't hate me as much. 278 00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:15,720 Not like that. But down a new road, you have a 279 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:18,440 new road. And so the way I, what I do is I 280 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:23,080 make, I make 4 prostrations, but usually it's 3 prostrations, 281 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:25,160 right? But you make prostrations to 282 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:27,360 your shrine. This is not idolatry. 283 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:30,840 This is a prostration to what is most essential in you. 284 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:34,920 This is a prostration in it's a reflexive prostration to that 285 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:37,200 aspect of you that you're trying to bring out. 286 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:41,080 You know, the, the, the awareness aspects of us already 287 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:42,920 exists. It's just covered over by so 288 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:46,840 many thoughts and emotions, so much karma and plans and so much 289 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:50,000 selfishness. Involuntary, not on purpose. 290 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:52,760 You're not at fault, but it is now your responsibility. 291 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:57,080 As soon as you get up and you walk in to your shrine room or 292 00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:59,680 your area or whatever. Maybe you live in a studio. 293 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:03,560 It's that corner. OK then you make 3 prostrations 294 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:06,760 or even just bow from the waist showing respect. 295 00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:10,640 I I know exactly when this took hold in my life. 296 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:15,680 I was in maybe fifth grade and I wanted to study martial arts and 297 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:18,400 my dad had studied judo when he was in college. 298 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:19,680 I didn't know anything about anything. 299 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:23,480 And he said there's a judo club downtown at the YMCA. 300 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:26,720 We went down there and I remember from the very first 301 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:31,520 day, we all turned and faced the picture of Jagoro Kanu, the 302 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:33,520 founder of judo. And we all bowed. 303 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:38,160 And then the teacher turned around and and we all bowed to 304 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:40,880 him, the sensei. And I thought that was, I was 305 00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:43,200 like, I'm really doing it. I was in fifth grade. 306 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:45,120 I was like, that was totally new, right? 307 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:49,160 Of course, I was genuflecting and, and Catholic in the 308 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:51,680 Catholic Church, but it wasn't, I didn't understand it. 309 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:54,040 And from that moment forth, I had this. 310 00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:58,200 And it's like you were saying, like I am, I am taking a new 311 00:15:58,200 --> 00:16:01,160 path. I am moving in a new direction. 312 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:03,760 This is the thing. And then the rest of your life, 313 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:07,280 the rest of your day, which is just the rest of your life is, 314 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:09,200 is influenced by that. You're like, well, I'm a 315 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:12,400 practitioner, right? You don't have to do anything to 316 00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:14,720 do it more than that. If you just sit down 30 seconds, 317 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:17,240 you're still a practitioner. And you did it. 318 00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:19,760 And you, you feel the wind at your back a little bit. 319 00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:24,520 At least I could. And and such a good container 320 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:27,240 for your day is just setting up your altar in the morning and 321 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:30,720 taking it down in the evening. Just the having to do that it it 322 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:35,400 it doesn't take very long, but having that ritual really helps 323 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:39,280 you set up your day with this bookends of like and I the way I 324 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:41,920 look at my altar is kind of like a blessings generator, right? 325 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:43,960 It's got all these important sacred things for it. 326 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:48,000 And when you make offerings to it and prostate to it, you turn 327 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:51,520 it on, right, You like turn on this generator and it starts 328 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:54,280 like feeding you through the day, even when you're not paying 329 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:57,080 attention to it anymore. It's feeding your life, your 330 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:02,000 house, the people who who around you, these blessings are pouring 331 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:04,960 out of it because it's activated by our devotion and by our 332 00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:07,960 commitment to the path. And so even if you did nothing 333 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:10,800 else, if you just set up the altar in the morning and bowed 334 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:13,760 and then went through your day and then closed your altar at 335 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:16,640 the end of the day and bowed, that I guarantee would begin to 336 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:19,599 shift your relationship to everything else in your life. 337 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:22,960 Since people don't know necessarily what you mean, what 338 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:24,359 do you mean? Does it mean you have to take 339 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:25,760 the table down and stuff? No. 340 00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:27,440 What? What do you mean by setting up 341 00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:29,200 and closing down? OK. 342 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:31,760 So yeah, like traditionally in Tibetan Buddhism, we offer 343 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:35,280 offering bowls with have water, flowers, incense, light perfume, 344 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:37,680 food and music symbols for all those things. 345 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:40,520 You don't have to do all those things, but you could light a 346 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:43,800 candle and you could kind of one way, a couple ways to go about 347 00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:45,360 this. Make sure there's a candle going 348 00:17:45,360 --> 00:17:48,320 all day long and then at the end of the day you put the candle 349 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:52,640 out, that sort of thing. Or you just make an offering in 350 00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:55,080 the morning and then you make an offering in the evening. 351 00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:56,800 That could be another way of doing it. 352 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:01,360 When you have the big elaborate Tibetan style, then you lay out 353 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:04,040 all the offerings like the incense and all these things, 354 00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:07,240 and then you put them all away at the end of the night and 355 00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:10,880 close the altar. And then when you go on retreat, 356 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:14,120 you keep your altar open and you just change things out. 357 00:18:14,120 --> 00:18:16,760 So this is a way of it's starting to connect your 358 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:21,480 psychology to this sacred world and you can see how it 359 00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:25,680 immediately anchors your physical life in this sacred 360 00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:28,120 reality. So there's a lot of ways to do 361 00:18:28,120 --> 00:18:29,240 it. And as you said, we should do 362 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:33,600 one on having a stride, right? But if you just want to do 363 00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:36,160 something, you could just put a cookie on there in front of the 364 00:18:36,160 --> 00:18:39,000 Buddha and light a candle and light some incense. 365 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:41,160 That would be perfectly lovely and you could do. 366 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:43,600 Then at the end of the evening, you could eat the cookie as a 367 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:47,120 blessing and kind of vow again before you go to bed. 368 00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:51,920 So any from the most elaborate to the most simple, just 369 00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:55,320 bookending your day by your relationship to this altar can 370 00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:58,240 really help you sacralize, sacralize your life. 371 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:03,960 Yeah, and just so we people leave this particular pod with 372 00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:11,040 knowing like something they can do, you can use real candles and 373 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:13,880 that's beautiful, but I wouldn't leave burning all day just in 374 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:16,160 case. So I personally for years have 375 00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:18,320 been using electric candles. They look really good. 376 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:21,160 And I practiced very early. So it's like nicely flickering. 377 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:22,960 It's good. You can buy those in Amazon. 378 00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:24,960 So you just come in and you could turn them on. 379 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:27,040 You could leave them on all day, or you could turn it off the end 380 00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:29,160 of your session and do it again at night if you want. 381 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:31,920 If you're interested in the offering bowls, there's usually 382 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,000 7. Sometimes they have individual 383 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:35,720 offerings, sometimes they just use water. 384 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,840 You can use three bowls, 7 bowls, one bowl. 385 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,520 And each morning you would just put the bowl there and you would 386 00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:46,400 fill it up with fresh water and offer that to all the masters. 387 00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:50,280 May they have enough to drink. May this symbolize my offering. 388 00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:52,640 And at the end of the day, you pour that in a little bowl and 389 00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:55,560 you offered in a plant. Don't pour it down the toilet or 390 00:19:55,560 --> 00:19:57,360 sink. You just, you pour it in a plant 391 00:19:57,360 --> 00:20:00,360 or throw it outside and you turn the offering over and the next 392 00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:02,760 point you start again. And then you, your book ending 393 00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:09,320 your day, as you said, with, with this sacralizing energy. 394 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:13,760 And, and as you said, it is like a battery or like a machine. 395 00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:19,160 Your shrine is like a machine, like a kind of like a wheel. 396 00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:20,480 You're starting it in the morning. 397 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:22,240 You have to try hard. You got to get up early and you 398 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:24,560 got to sit still and you're turning in it, but it turns for 399 00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:27,840 quite a while after that. And then sometime after, if you 400 00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:30,600 practice regularly, you'll go to crank it up and you'll realize 401 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:33,000 it's still turning. The energy is going. 402 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:36,480 I went and visited Damien. He had me stay at his house when 403 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:39,440 I was out in Seattle now that long ago over the summer. 404 00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:42,920 And I could feel the freaking like a heat coming off that 405 00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,160 thing. He's got a, he's got a big fancy 406 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:47,680 shrine. I felt great, you know, and I'm 407 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:51,520 sure it must permeate your, your condo building. 408 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,440 You must, you know what I mean? People, whether they know you or 409 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:57,160 don't know you, there's a certain kind of energy that 410 00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:00,040 comes off of doing that stuff and you can feel it too. 411 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:02,920 Can offer incense. If you don't like incense, it's 412 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:04,080 OK. You don't have to. 413 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:06,720 You can make elaborate offerings, as you said, are very 414 00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:09,080 simple. One bowl of water, 7 bowls of 415 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:13,920 water, no wools of water, one stick of incense, a dozen 10 416 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:17,200 candles, 1 candle. But that even just one 417 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,080 prostration or one bow is enough. 418 00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:26,000 Be like I am setting out in a new path, not completely at the 419 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,000 mercy of my circumstances or my emotions. 420 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:32,040 A new path toward the good of all beings. 421 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:35,360 That's the basic thing, right? So that's all the preliminary, 422 00:21:35,360 --> 00:21:37,640 the first excellence. Yeah. 423 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:41,440 And one more note on the shrine before we have a whole episode 424 00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:46,760 on that, is you can put on there what you want to plant seeds on, 425 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:48,640 right? So it's like a garden or a 426 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,600 machine, like you said. And so the different statues 427 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,920 they represent or Tonkas or whatever, they represent 428 00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:58,200 different qualities of Buddhahood that you are working 429 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:01,600 to foster in yourself. So you get to have choice about 430 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:03,080 that. Like you really dig Tara and 431 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:04,400 you're like, I wanna be like Tara. 432 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:07,840 So putting Tara on your altar and the making offerings to her 433 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:11,160 every day starts to build that relationship and you start to 434 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:15,760 become more like Tara every day. And Tara starts to bless you and 435 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:19,680 your environment every day. So that's some of the fun of 436 00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:23,560 this that you really get to choose and you get to design. 437 00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:26,960 And if your teacher gives you something special, then that's 438 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:30,320 an important thing to go on the altar because that has extra 439 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:33,560 blessings that connects you not only to whatever they gave you, 440 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:36,160 but also to them as your teacher. 441 00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:39,880 So this is how you can really look at all of this and really 442 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,760 see it as something that's really supportive, not not some 443 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,320 another task that you have to do it. 444 00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:47,880 It's something that you feel inspired by. 445 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:51,040 Yeah, absolutely. And you can put any whatever on 446 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:54,160 your altar, that or your shrine table that makes you happy. 447 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:57,720 Statues, talk us, photographs, whatever. 448 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:00,400 You keep it a little clean. It's like a little corner of 449 00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:02,960 excellence in your life. No matter how chaotic the rest 450 00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:06,400 of your life is, you're like, I still have this, my little merit 451 00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:09,480 generating machine. So that's that's definitely the 452 00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:12,560 right thing. But to get back on the track of 453 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:15,400 like your daily practice, you can do it at one minute, you can 454 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:18,120 do it in one hour, whatever you got the first excellence, which 455 00:23:18,120 --> 00:23:21,480 for non Buddhists or like people who aren't haven't taken refuge 456 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:24,080 or aren't comfortable with that, I'm very lucky. 457 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:25,720 I'm going to do this for the good of everyone. 458 00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,440 That covers everything for Buddhists. 459 00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:30,960 I take revenue in the Buddha diamond Sanga. 460 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:33,880 I generate Bodhi cheetah. I'm making up your mind, you 461 00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:37,200 know, the regular Buddha stuff. But either way, that's all the 462 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:39,760 first excellence. Then the second excellence is 463 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:42,720 the excellent main part, free from concepts. 464 00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:47,000 This you have to learn from your teacher or whatever, wherever 465 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,760 you're studying or books you're reading, all you are really 466 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,960 doing is thinking I'm going to do this for the good of 467 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:55,000 everyone. And then doing that, whether 468 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:58,840 it's Shamata, one point of focus, body scanning, Vipassana, 469 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:02,840 whatever, you know, any kind of practice, yogic practices, 470 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,280 holding your breath, you're practicing tonal, whatever. 471 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:11,520 That part should be as free from conceptual analysis as you are 472 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:16,040 capable of being, right? And usually for most of us, the 473 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:18,480 actual meditation state does not last very long. 474 00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:23,040 So you do it over and over, like drops of water filling up a big 475 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:24,640 bucket, right? One drop at a time. 476 00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:29,600 You let B, you get distracted. Oh, yeah, You let B, you do that 477 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,880 10 times. You do that 1000 times. 478 00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:34,720 And you sit for one minute, You sit for 10 minutes. 479 00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:37,920 It doesn't matter. If you do that part, then that 480 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:41,320 generates a certain energy. And that energy is then 481 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:43,480 dedicated. At the end is the third 482 00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:45,680 excellence. And that's a complete session of 483 00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:47,120 meditation. Just those three things. 484 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:49,040 Don't think you got to do this one hour. 485 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:52,400 You literally could do it one minute and you'd be fine. 486 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,280 You come in, you lick little bow, you sit down. 487 00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:58,360 You think I'm going to do this for the good of everyone? 488 00:24:58,360 --> 00:25:00,840 I'm lucky to be able to do it. I'm going to do it. 489 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,080 May all beings be peaceful like this. 490 00:25:03,120 --> 00:25:04,640 Then you show them how to be peaceful. 491 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:09,640 Hey, it's time to get up. Then you get it. 492 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,400 Then you dedicate the merit. You can do that with a famous 493 00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:15,720 prayer by this merit, or you can do it in your own way, in your 494 00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:18,640 own language, thinking whatever goodness has been created here 495 00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:21,000 may all share in it. That's all it takes. 496 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:24,720 And then you did it. You freaking checked that box. 497 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:28,440 You're on the path. You nobody who practiced, you 498 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,280 know this people might have practiced longer, but you're in 499 00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:33,360 the category of those who meditate it. 500 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,440 And that feels good, don't you think, Damien? 501 00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:38,600 Right. And, and I, I want to recommend 502 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:41,280 for people too, the other benefit of having that bookend 503 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:44,600 at the end of the night is to also start to look at this as 504 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:46,800 your whole day is your session, right? 505 00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:50,040 We want to, in addition to doing whatever practice we're doing on 506 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:53,440 the cushion, we want to preserve our mindfulness and our loving, 507 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:56,440 loving kindness and compassion through the day. 508 00:25:56,440 --> 00:26:00,560 And if you're trying to do that, then you are practicing all day. 509 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:03,280 And then, you know, in Tibetan they call it a tune, right? 510 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:04,680 That's like a meditation session. 511 00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:07,920 So you want to have a 24/7 tune. That's the goal. 512 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:10,400 You want this to bleed. You don't want to. 513 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:14,320 There have met people who their Dharma practice stays on their 514 00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:17,360 cushion and then it doesn't come away from there. 515 00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:20,280 It doesn't inflect the rest of their life at all. 516 00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:23,240 It's just like something they do and then they have their life. 517 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:26,800 We don't want to be like that. We want our session to be our 518 00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:31,600 life. So finding a way to draw it out, 519 00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:34,240 you know, when you get up from your cushion, don't go so fast. 520 00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:38,960 Bring it, draw it into your day as you start to go make 521 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:42,000 breakfast or go take care of the kids or whatever, Try and draw 522 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:45,440 that thread of mindfulness into whatever you're doing. 523 00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:48,560 And now your whole life is becoming a practice session. 524 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:50,480 And this is when it really like takes off. 525 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:53,680 Because if you do this over years and months and and you, 526 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:58,160 you extend the amount of time you sit, eventually you can't 527 00:26:58,160 --> 00:26:59,520 tell when you're practicing when you're not. 528 00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:04,760 It's all one thing, and that's really when I think the Dharma 529 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:08,760 has the most benefit, right When it's really all the time. 530 00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:10,800 You're living it, then You're living it. 531 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:13,520 Yeah, Yeah. And then you actually have a 532 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:16,120 session about how to carry it through your day. 533 00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:17,880 And we can we can talk about that too. 534 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:21,200 Yeah. And I want to say that just one 535 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:24,280 note about that. The key to integration is daily 536 00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:27,160 practice, right? There's some people who try to 537 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:29,960 think I can just integrate and that's all. 538 00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:31,680 In my experience, that doesn't work. 539 00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:35,920 You you need to anchor that morning and even if it's just 540 00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:38,400 for one minute, like Joe said, even if it's just a short period 541 00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:42,240 of time, we need that dedicated, you know, could you have a 542 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,720 relationship with somebody you never sat down and had a 543 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,520 conversation with? You know, if you never connect, 544 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,040 if you would, that wouldn't be a relationship, right? 545 00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:52,360 If you just wave to them as you walk by, that's not a 546 00:27:52,360 --> 00:27:55,080 relationship. You got to spend some time 547 00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:58,320 together and that's a. Good way to integrate. 548 00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:00,920 You don't have a form. You need formal and informal 549 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:03,240 practice sessions. The goal is to do what Damien 550 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,160 said and have it be indistinguishable. 551 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:09,600 But for all of us, until our minds are, you know, very, very 552 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:13,720 pure and we never go away from the view and I don't know 553 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:17,480 anybody like that, then we need formal sessions too. 554 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:20,720 So, and those should be bookended with, you know, making 555 00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:24,280 aspirations, taking refuge and and dedicating the merit. 556 00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:28,040 Even if you do intend to come back and practice, still 557 00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:29,920 dedicate the merit whenever you have the chance. 558 00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:32,560 Yeah, yeah. The way I look at it is like you 559 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:36,160 have your whole day is 1 container with the three 560 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:39,240 excellencies, but then you have lots of little 3 excellencies 561 00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:42,160 all through the day that are contained in this big container. 562 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:45,960 And that way your life is becoming practice, right? 563 00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:49,560 That way everything. And and that's you also find 564 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:51,800 that that some of the integration that it just you 565 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:55,440 could one minute, 1 minute here, one minute there, just like, 566 00:28:56,040 --> 00:29:00,000 yeah, it doesn't have to be this big elaborate thing. 567 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,600 And that way you can feel like you're building your 568 00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:08,040 relationships with Dharma. Maybe just before we close, we 569 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:11,120 talk a little bit about how you pushed it, right? 570 00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:15,120 You and I both practice a lot. How did you get there? 571 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:22,880 Well, I think it does grow on you, but you do have to. 572 00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:26,960 I found that my life arranged itself to allow that. 573 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:33,440 It's a long time ago now, but I've had several step UPS at 574 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,160 different times where I was like I was for many years. 575 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:38,560 I was practicing about an hour and I thought, oh, that's pretty 576 00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:39,520 good. And it was pretty good. 577 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,800 But then I realized it just wasn't practicing enough to get 578 00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:45,120 enough. I needed to do more. 579 00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:47,560 So then I was like, let's see, let's see. 580 00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,840 And then I went through a period of getting up at 3:00 in the 581 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:53,920 morning because of soak cherimiche for three or four 582 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:56,440 years. And that is intense. 583 00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:59,200 But then you have a lot of time. You gotta do something cuz it's 584 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:03,120 still dark at six, you know, and you're like been up in there for 585 00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:05,160 three hours. It allowed me to have more time. 586 00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:12,080 But yeah, I don't know. I think that, you know, if you 587 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:17,920 can go, if I guess the first way to do it is to see can I make it 588 00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:20,080 a month without missing? And if you start to make it a 589 00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:23,800 month or two months, then you can make a vow like I'm not 590 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:25,680 gonna not meditate. I'm gonna meditate no matter 591 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:27,400 what. And once you do that, then 592 00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:31,520 things in your life will respond to that and because that's a 593 00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:33,760 powerful vow to make. Don't do that right in the 594 00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:36,120 beginning. Get a habit going more likely to 595 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:39,200 succeed. I I say to everyone and I tell 596 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:43,040 myself it's much more powerful to meditate one minute every day 597 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,680 for a week than it is to meditate only on Saturday for 598 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:49,080 three hours. You just your mind needs regular 599 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:53,160 we there is only today you got to practice today. 600 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:57,240 It doesn't matter how long if you do that regularly, I think 601 00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:02,640 as long as you feel, you know, as long as you're, you have 602 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,040 enough time in the morning and if you don't, you need to just 603 00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:07,880 get up a little earlier, then it will naturally grow. 604 00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:11,080 That's been my experience to go from like sitting an hour to 605 00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:14,440 sitting like more like 3 hours. You really have to have a life 606 00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:17,640 that will support that, you know, and, and that's something 607 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:19,840 you just have to make aspirations and then hopefully 608 00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:21,920 things will arrange themselves that you can do that. 609 00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:24,760 I I don't have any other secrets unfortunately. 610 00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:28,880 Well, and the other thing that that I learned from you and that 611 00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:33,040 has been really helpful for me is to cycle through practices. 612 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,120 So you know, everybody who's in the Vajriana starts off with 613 00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:37,840 nundro. So you go through and you 614 00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:40,200 accumulate your nundro. That's what you spend your time 615 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,840 doing in the mornings. And then once you do that, then 616 00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:47,120 you do the the three roots practice and Yidam practice, 617 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:51,840 etcetera. But having dedicated chunks of 618 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:55,440 way of like accomplishing right where you do all the mantras 619 00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:57,840 where it's 100,000 per syllable or whatever. 620 00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:02,720 If you're a more experienced practitioner, this is extremely 621 00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:05,160 helpful. For me, it was been, OK, I'm 622 00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,520 going to accomplish this Sadhna. And then you feel like you did 623 00:32:08,520 --> 00:32:10,880 something right. You spent like 6 months doing 624 00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:13,520 this every day. And then you get to go like have 625 00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:17,080 a little fire puja or something at the end and, and you you feel 626 00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:20,280 like you really accomplished something and this really helps 627 00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:23,120 you. For me, it really got my juice 628 00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:24,880 going a lot more. No question. 629 00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:28,320 Yeah, we, we can talk more about that for advanced practitioner, 630 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:30,640 advanced meaning people are really into it. 631 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:35,160 If you are doing sadhna practices, you know, cycling 632 00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:37,400 through them can be valuable. I know in the ancient India, 633 00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:39,800 they were supposed to you only had one yidam and that was your 634 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:43,440 main thing for your whole life. We are so short. 635 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:47,520 I should say, me, I am. So my focus is so short. 636 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:50,320 My ability to stay on one topic is so short. 637 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,000 For me, it's better. Every year I try to do a cycle 638 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,160 of vajra kilaya, some vajra kilaya sadna that I have, dispel 639 00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,480 some obstacles and say that mantra 100,000 times per 640 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:02,240 syllable. Then maybe it is done. 641 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:05,360 Tara is calling me and I do a little Tara or whatever. 642 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:09,480 And you do feel if you do that, that well, I really did that, 643 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,360 you know, I did that. Wow, now I'm going to do this. 644 00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,840 I'm doing a new, not new to me. I did it once before, but not 645 00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:19,880 for some years. It feels so good to revisit that 646 00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:22,960 and and I can see my plan. And it makes you psyched, 647 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:25,080 staying psyched. That's probably what you're 648 00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:27,360 really saying. You got to figure out how to get 649 00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:29,760 psyched. So I'll say one more thing about 650 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,960 your practice sessions. I don't know if we went over, 651 00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:38,120 but just in case we didn't try to finish your sitting while you 652 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:40,080 still feel like you should sit longer. 653 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:42,640 That is really important. I learned that from Kempo 654 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,440 Sultrum Yonso. If you finish when you feel like 655 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,600 you still got not just more in you, but you want to do more, 656 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:50,720 you'll be anxious to start again. 657 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,120 Well, if you wait till it goes the other side, which can 658 00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:56,360 sometimes be like only 30 seconds later, then you're like, 659 00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:59,520 I'm glad I got that done. That's not a good attitude. 660 00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:02,640 So when it's going really well and you're like, oh, I've been 661 00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:04,680 sitting 10 minutes. I could probably sit another 5 662 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:09,000 minutes, but I'm not going to. It feels you're like there's 663 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,520 some part of you wants to and that helps you also meditate 664 00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:13,560 during the day, have something to integrate because you're 665 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:15,960 like, you're still, that energy's still high and then 666 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:18,320 you're looking forward to your next session and that's awesome. 667 00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:22,199 And and we can do a whole nother session on this too, but the 668 00:34:22,199 --> 00:34:26,360 part of the accumulations and working on it is the sides that 669 00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:30,560 you'll see things in your life that are letting you know, hey, 670 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:33,120 it's working. You're connecting to this 671 00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:37,520 practice and that, you know, like Joe said, being psyched. 672 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:40,800 If you take nothing else from this episode about how to build 673 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:45,280 the daily practice is make it something you want to do, make 674 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:47,719 it exciting, make it something you're stoked about. 675 00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:51,040 That's part of the beauty of Tibetan Buddhism is we have so 676 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:53,440 many methods. So you find something that 677 00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:56,600 you're into to help juice up whatever you're doing. 678 00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:59,040 And then it doesn't become this chore because I started off 679 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,800 doing, you know, shamat of a pasta 45 minutes a day. 680 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:08,280 It was painful and it was valuable and I saw results. 681 00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:12,680 But sitting for 45 minutes staring at a wall with no 682 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:16,080 anything else was really hard for my ADHD brain. 683 00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:20,920 It was really hard to do and I wouldn't recommend people start 684 00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:23,840 like that now because it could have easily turned me off, 685 00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:25,920 right? It was, it was a hard thing to 686 00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:28,880 do. Vajriana, we get to like seduce 687 00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:31,640 ourselves, right? We get to magnetize ourselves 688 00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:34,360 onto building this daily practice. 689 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:38,640 And then, you know, we can build it up or shrink it down 690 00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:40,600 depending on where you are on the path. 691 00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:44,920 But just having that daily session, like you said is so 692 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:50,240 important just every day because we only have today and really 693 00:35:50,240 --> 00:35:52,880 thinking about maybe the four thoughts a little bit like today 694 00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:55,360 might be my last day, right? And. 695 00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:57,240 On this day, you didn't meditate. 696 00:35:57,600 --> 00:35:59,480 You've been practicing every day for 12 years. 697 00:35:59,720 --> 00:36:02,360 And then that day you're like, and then you get hit by a car. 698 00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:05,560 That would be such a bummer of embarrassment. 699 00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:07,600 So then you gotta do it. Every day. 700 00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:10,800 You gotta do it. Yep, it's like wearing clean 701 00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:12,760 underwear, they say. Because like if you get in a car 702 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:15,000 accident, you want to make sure you have clean underwear. 703 00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:16,160 You know what you thought about that. 704 00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:20,880 Well, thank you again, all of you listeners. 705 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:23,960 I hope this was helpful. We'll we'll return to the many 706 00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:26,720 different topics that came up during this like your shrine and 707 00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:29,960 looking for signs and these sort of things, which would be fun to 708 00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:31,840 talk about. But thank you for watching. 709 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:34,840 We really appreciate you and we'll see you next time.