Тим Ловенхопт — Книга 1: Совершенство мудрости, занятие 5

[Speaker 1]
Started. Yay. Sweet.

Thank you. All right. Cool.

All right. Hi, everyone. This is your time to ask the hard questions.

Please, if you can, turn on your cameras. It's so nice to see your faces. Ella, you look really cold.

No, you're just cozy. Okay. All right.

It's just nice to see everyone's face and it helps connect a little bit more, I think. Don't worry if you look like you got out of bed. Doesn't matter.

Thank you. All right. Cool.

All right. Now I feel like there's people here.

[Speaker 2]
Yay.

[Speaker 1]
All right. Questions. You can ask.

You can type them in if you'd like. And if you would like to ask your questions in your language, we'll just get someone to translate them for us. So no worries.

Okay. I'm waiting for you guys now. I don't have anything prepared except my tea.

That's fine. I'm surprised nobody has any questions. Come on.

I guess you're all enlightened. I'm the last one. Roxanna, yes.

Thank you. I'll be the first. So my question is related to this idea that I keep hearing in different classes, and it's about mental afflictions and the energy that you feel in your body, right, the prana, when one of them is rising.

And if we take the easiest example with anger, because that's usually the easiest one to notice in your body, right, because there's a very, what was the word I was looking for? The energy that you feel in your body when you're angry, it's very easy to notice, right? And you can either let it go, right, as soon as you notice it, just shut it down.

Or you can take the label, the anger, like the label off it, and then you can use that in your practice. But my question is, how do you use it in a way that is beneficial for you? Okay, that's a really good question.

Because I think, if I heard what you're saying, like when an affliction arises, right, there's a kind of, what I think Roxanna is suggesting is that anger, the experience of anger, right, it's just like the pet, right? There's something happening, right? There's something happening in the body.

Roxanna's pissed off at somebody, right? I'm angry at somebody, right? And so, like there's a kind of energy that happens with anger.

And then there's like, you know, because it happens so fast and so uncontrollably, right, it's like, you know, when you open your eyes and you look at this object, immediately it becomes a pen for you, you know, provided certain circumstances, right? You know, the dog walks in the room and immediately it becomes something, they start salivating and want to chew on it, right? So the difference between a dog and a human is, at times, well, not always, you might be able to recognize that, okay, yeah, I'm getting angry, right?

And if you practice this strong enough and you've done a lot of meditating on the pen, you've done a lot of thinking about it, you've had a lot of experience with your own two husbands or two partners or two wives in the kitchen scenarios, right? And then you start going, wow, you know, there might be parts to the anger, right? Like, oh, well, I'm like, what I think Roxanna was suggesting is, oh, there's a feeling of anger, right?

The part of anger that started in the body, maybe it started in the throat, maybe it started, maybe the heart started pounding, you know, I was getting yelled at the other day by somebody and I was standing in the grocery store trying to buy a birthday cake, okay? Like I'm trying to celebrate and someone's yelling at me on the phone and I'm watching the feeling of the anger, right? So where did the anger start, right?

You know, you start feeling your heart racing or the, you know, the face getting warm, right? Well, which part of that is the anger, right? Was it when the heart started?

Well, I'm not really angry yet, but it seems like it's part of the anger. Or was it, you know, when my face got red, my throat, you know, which part became the anger, right? I think one of the examples we used recently of, I can't remember whose text it was in, was like, if you're filling up a water bottle, right?

Like you're putting drops of water in, you know, which drop, right? Which drop filled up the water bottle, right? Which part of the anger, you know, like, okay, so I put the last drop in, right?

Now it's filled. Which drop made it full, right? All of them?

Well, no, they only became, it only became full after they were all in. So then you start analyzing it and then you're like, well, okay, something happens, right? You know, so which part of your anger then became labeled anger, right?

When did the seed open? That it finally was the last straw, as we say in English, the last straw. And then it finally became full blown, out of control, I'm pissed off anger, right?

You know, and I think as a practice, like here I am trying to buy a birthday cake. This person likes sprinkles, right? They like, you know, they like all of that stuff.

And I'm trying to order this cake, right? And I'm like, this seed is ripening of somebody yelling at me and I'm getting angry, you know, and that's what I really did. I just stopped.

I literally just stopped. And I was like, okay, because of the practice, I'm like, okay, this is coming from somewhere else. I've yelled at somebody else in the past.

I wasn't considerate of their feelings. I wasn't asking about their experience, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? I can go through all that.

But then I think Roxanna's question is, okay, so this energy, right? She's asking about the prana in the movie, the prana in the body. It's already started moving, right?

Like the flow is already opened up. And if you're able to say those things and recognize, okay, this anger is coming from not the person yelling at me on the phone or their blah, blah, blah to me. It's coming from me having been angry in the past or doing these same things to other people.

So then what do you do with the energy that started moving, right? Can you do something different with it? Can you transform it?

And I think the answer is yes. In that moment, if you can recognize the emptiness of it, right? Does anger have to be a pen?

Does the feeling of anger have to be the pen? Does the feeling of anger have to be anger, right? Now I would say there's certain things happening in the body when anger is happening, right?

That's choking off some areas, things are piling up, like it's not a good feeling, right? But if you can recognize that even the movement of the prana, that maybe you start feeling anger before anger happens and you go, oh, that's going to become anger. That's the place you can work from.

Because then it's possible that a different label could come out, a different seed could open up, right? Because there's no connection between this moment of anger and the next moment of anger, this movement of prana and the movement of prana over here. Because if you can get into that fabric and recognize the emptiness of it and where it's really coming from, you've cut off the continuity of that moment, the continuity, okay?

I want to get into Nagarjuna right now. There's a, you're cutting the root of it. And then maybe it could, another seed could open up and something like bliss could happen.

I don't know. Or neutral, relaxed. Hope that was helpful.

All right, got some questions. There you go. Thank you, Roxanna, for opening the floodgates.

Now people are asking questions. All right, Elena is asking, all right, I think Elena, correct me if I'm wrong. Okay.

I think what you're asking is, could you just ask your question again? I'm not a hundred percent sure.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, I would like to ask, because you're doing so, so lots of stuff and sometimes you overload with all the work you're doing and et cetera. And of course, if you're in such a very tight schedule, you already go through the tasks you have to implement and not for your practice. So how to keep all this tight schedule in lots of things, practice, because it's very important.

And for me, it's a big problem. As soon as I have, as soon as I'm busy in some project and when the project is overlapping each other, the first, which is where I have a problem, the first field, it's my practice. How to keep it solid, how to say, and not to have a problem in this field.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. It seems to me that a lot of people who, this is a common problem that people in our group have. We work too much.

[Speaker 2]
It is very interesting job. So you prefer to do this. For example, if I have to sit in meditation and I have to listen some class or I run to listen some class and it's nice job.

So it's even more complicated because it's very nice things. You want to learn more. It's more attractive as just sit and make some practice.

And what would the seeds, what kind of seeds, what type of seeds to plant, to keep your practice, because it's much more important or the same important.

[Speaker 1]
So I think you just answered the question about what the seed is without maybe knowing it.

[Speaker 2]
Maybe.

[Speaker 1]
You asked the question. So you believe that, you know, you're feeling that your personal practices, whether they're yoga, meditation, things like that are more important, right? But the seeds are ripening for you that other things become more important.

Like the prioritization of your practice, like you have a desire for it to be different, but the seeds are, excuse me, the seeds are ripening, right? In a certain way. So, you know, how do we prioritize our practice?

And there's many, many ways we can do that. And I think each person's a little bit different. Like we each have our own flavor of habits that keep us stuck, right?

So it's really hard to say, well, for you Elena, it's this, and then for Roxana, it's this. But I think it's, for me, you know, I'm a overachiever. I, you know, I do too much, right?

I take on too many projects.

[Speaker 2]
That's why I'm asking you, because you should be a very good specialist in this.

[Speaker 1]
But it's how you view what you're doing, you know? And when something becomes an affliction, that's when you have to look at it. And what I mean by that is like, if I'm working too hard and my eyes start bugging out of my head, I start getting angry with people.

I'm not able to be patient with all the mud that gets slung at me, right? You know, then I know there's something wrong, right? If I'm uncomfortable, if I'm not sleeping well, you know, there's something not, I'm not doing something correct.

And really our practice, I have a couple of advices. One is our practice, whether it's in the outer world or inner world, should be enjoyable. It should be fun.

I love what I do, right? Like, I love getting up in the morning. I love coming to classes.

I love managing hotels. I love managing ACI, right? I love the teams that we have.

Like, it's not me, right? It's about the teams I work with. I love working with people.

I love understanding what they need and what they want and helping people reach their dreams and goals, right? So for me, when I don't love it, which there are times, you know, there's plenty of times where I'm like rolling my eyes and I'm like, really? But it's like, how do you bring joy to other people, which will ripen in bringing the joy back to you?

That's my first advice. Like really service, making service joyful. Like for me, every, when I'm in a good place, when I'm having a good day, you know, the things I do just flow.

I'm like, oh, here's my list of today's problems. You know what? If you've woken up every single day of your life, there will be always a problem.

There'll be always something to fix. There'll always be someone who's irritated or you're, you know, like, once you've done enough, you just kind of like, oh, there it is again. But it's like, how do you, like, how can you take those challenges and enjoy them versus being overwhelmed with them or getting afflicted by them?

That's one advice. The other couple of advices I have is to me, it is very important to have your own personal practice, your own personal time, right? It's where you get to look at yourself, look at your mind, look at the patterns that are ripening.

You know, what do I need to clean up? What's in the way? What's, you know, what's underneath those issues, right?

You know, the great thing about being angry the other day is I recognized most of the reactions I was having were because they were the same pre-programmed reactions I had to my parents. It was like reliving mom on the phone, right? Yay, okay, great, wonderful.

Like, that's not that person's problem, it's my problem, right? So my outer practice and inner practice are, I don't see a separation between them, right? So when I have too much to do, I'm like, well, take a note of everything that irritated you today, Tim, or upset you, or frustrated you, or you got sad about, or you felt lonely, or you felt unworthy.

Well, you know, I could give you the list and then analyze it in meditation, take it to the cushion. Third thing I would say is don't try to build meditation into your life, build your life into your meditation. You know, life will always be busy, life will always be loud, there will always be something to do.

It's called samsara. You know, the next tragedy will help happen tomorrow. It's going to happen, right?

We're in a broken place, like our minds, our eyes, you know, Abu Dharma says our faculties are broken too, right? So, you know, if we can relax around that truth, you know, it doesn't mean that when tragedy hits, it's easy. That's not what I'm saying.

But when things are non-tragic, when things are like, okay, it's not too bad today, there's always going to be something, right? Samsara, right? Things aren't too bad right now, that's when you really need to be practicing, because when the shit hits the fan, you're going to be happy you did, because that's when the test, that's when your test of your practice will come.

And the last thing I would say is that if you're feeling overwhelmed, like, let stuff go. It's not a failure. It's not a, it's actually a success to say, you know what, you don't need to do all that, Tim.

Give it to somebody else. Tim, you don't have to run the tech for Mixed Nuts anymore. The day before Mixed Nuts, I'm trying to figure out how the hell I'm going to do it.

And I'm like, you're an idiot, right? Like, you don't have to do that anymore. Let someone else do it.

Build a team, you know, give the karma away to somebody else. I'm so happy I did, right? You know, I don't need to, you don't need, like, the need to do something might be an affliction.

All right, here we go. Next question.

[Speaker 2]
Thanks, Tim. Thank you very much.

[Speaker 1]
Sure, you're welcome.

[Speaker 2]
Thanks for asking. Makes big, big sense. Thanks.

[Speaker 1]
I think a lot of people have that question, so thanks for asking. That's a cool question. All right, this was, Nikita translated it.

I like this one. We're going to play here. Okay, cool.

So the question is, I'm going to keep going too far. Okay, the question is, in some worldviews, that there's a concept of a soul in the body, right? You know, we come to this life, we have to fulfill the purpose of that soul, right?

And then you move on and, you know, and you go to heaven or hell or something like that. So then the question is, in terms of Buddhism, is the concept of a soul like a seed vault, like a place where we store the seeds? And that person is connected to the idea of a kunshi with a soul, right?

And does, is there a higher purpose to the place where the seeds store? Like, is there a purpose that the, like a soul purpose that we have? I like this question, because this is fun, you know, because we have a feeling, at least I have a feeling, you know, that there's a me, right inside of me, right?

There's this body, right? There's this head, there's this brain, right? But there's a feeling that there's a me inside of me, right?

Like, there's a me, which is, like, if I cut off my finger, right? Yeah, it hurts. But if I cut off, you know, it heals and everything.

Like, if I don't have a finger anymore, I still have me, right? There's still a me there. And I think there's an ego that really desires that, right?

Like, after I die, my body dies, it goes on somewhere else, like I want it to. And I think it's really comforting. And I really don't think there's much of a difference in the concepts, you know, in some religions and Buddhism that there is, they think of it differently, but there is a continuation, right?

Buddhism will say, yeah, your seeds ripen again, into another life. Christianity will say, your soul goes, goes back to heaven, or it goes to heaven, or they don't really explain where it comes from, but it goes to heaven, okay? Or hell, if you're a bad person, right?

So there is a continuation. You know, and frankly, all of the systems, including Buddhism, it's hard to really wrap our minds around, because we don't have, we typically don't have a direct experience of it. Right?

Like, I don't, I don't know what happens afterwards. I hope, like, I hope these, you know, the class starting next Tuesday, what happens next? We're gonna dive into those texts.

Yeah, I get to advertise my tech, my class. Great, thank you. Right?

But what does happen next? You know, what is our purpose? Like, I think the question is, when you ask that question, it's like, what is our purpose?

And there's this cool concept in, in the text that's called, you know, it's your calm, like your special, your special purpose, the thing that you're especially good at. Like, when you do it, it's like being in a, it's like floating down a river in the most easiest way possible, that you just get yourself in a boat, you're doing your special thing. And that you don't even have to row the boat, you don't even have to let guide it, it just goes right down that river.

Right? Now, if you didn't, and then I like to think of it as if you're doing something that kind of goes against your natural, inborn talents and tendencies. It's like trying to row a boat up the river.

You know, the waters coming this way, you're going this way, right? And you know, you're fighting, you're trying to get up the river and the river is like, it just laughs at you. It's like, good, good, good.

Yeah, whatever. Right? And I think so much, so much time is spent fighting against things versus allowing, you know, what is it that really impassioned you?

What is it that gets you up in the morning, keeps you going, and will keep you going much beyond what's, you know, your body's limit, you know, where you're like, I could do this for another four hours, but I should sleep. Right? Or you fall asleep during it, you just, the book falls on your face, you know?

And so how do we find what that purpose is? How do we find that? How do you think?

Come on. How do you think you find that calm? If you haven't found it already, you have to look in the chat.

Right? I mean, it's, it's, I mean, the answer is always seeds, right? Seeds.

It's always seeds, but, you know, feel good to feel good. Yeah. I mean, it's think of like, let's think about how to, like, one of the things that I, that I did when I was working in more, you know, more corporate setting, I had a, I had a team of people, I was the, had a team of project managers and, you know, then a team of like creatives and writers and editors and all these people, publishers and all these teams of people doing stuff.

And I, and I made an effort to figure out what does everyone on the team want? Like, what do they need? Like, what is it?

What gets them excited? Right. You know, I spend time at lunch with them, you know, we'd go out or a group of us would go and I'm just making mental notes.

Okay. This person loves playing, loves being with their children. This person loves hiking.

This person loves food, right? Very few of them love their work. Okay.

That was also really depressing. But so what I did is I designed the projects that had the team working in a way. So each of those people could fulfill their passions.

This person wants to spend time with their children. So guess what? I would set timelines on projects so that that person could go home and watch, be with their children.

Right. Actually, frankly, what I did is I set timeline, made people set timelines and push them really hard so that they didn't have to work overtime. They could go home at five o'clock, right on the dot.

We're going home, guys. Get the work done. You know, and I inspired people to like, yeah, guys.

So everyone would like inspire each other to get stuff done. And not like dawdle and relax. Like, yeah, we'll just come in on Saturday.

Who wants to give up their Saturday to come into work? Right. So I consciously was working to plant seeds with these people.

The seeds planting was giving them the space to do the things they want. Okay. To come in on Monday.

Hey, Kevin, how was your how was flying your drone? How did that go this weekend? How are the drone flying?

You know, let me see that. Let me see the video you took. You're like, oh, yeah.

And you show me the videos. I'm like, yeah, whatever. You know, I'm not really like whatever.

But in my mind, I'm like, this is what he's interested in. So I'm showing interest in his passion. He loved his drones.

He loved taking these videos, you know, and he would show me on Mondays, and he'd look forward to showing me on Monday, the video he took. Right. And then I'd celebrate with him.

Because this is what he really liked. You know, so what's your purpose? Your purpose to give people what they want, what they like?

Very good. Yes. Good.

Your purpose is to give people what they want. And sometimes that means being wrong in an argument. Okay, I was wrong.

Sometimes that means, you know, just giving people what they want and need. What if then, okay, then you're like, oh, well, what about my needs? Yeah.

You ever have that argument with yourself? But I have needs. You know, that's the only way that you get what you want.

Okay. You know, I mean, don't hurt yourself and don't not take care of yourself. But rejoicing in what other people need, what they want, even if it's not quite the right thing to do.

Actually, let me rephrase, it is the right thing to do. Because you see how happy they are, you see how they relax, you see how, you know, this is what I just kind of imagine this is what like a enlightened being does. They just look at you and they're like, well, Tim doesn't get it yet.

Let's give him a cookie. All right, Tim doesn't get it yet. All right.

Let's give him a 30 year project to translate a book. You know, and they sit there now, is that the thing that's going to get, you know, is that cookie going to get Tim out of suffering? No, but it's a long ram.

It's a step on the path. Right? You know, I really think if you have a harmonious work environment, a harmonious family, you know, that's the way we're going to create an amazing world together.

Right? How much nicer is it if everyone's just getting what they want? Even if, like, even if you know that the quality of the work is not as good.

I'm the most, I was the most anal project manager ever. One of the things I did, I worked in translation. And the amount of detail that you need as a translator from beginning to end till you have that final translated piece in artwork requires excessive attention to detail.

Right? And I was that person. And I extended it to everyone around me.

I don't understand why you don't care the way I care. I care like this. And so you should too.

You know, like, I had to unwind a lot around that. Like, is it better to have everyone harmonious and there's a little error on that translated piece? If everyone's getting along, okay, we'll fix it later.

Right? Okay. But if everyone's relaxed, now, how do you relax around the person who really wants the details to be perfect?

Well, you know, then create systems to let, for them to be happy to give them work that they can then make the details perfect. Because it's good to have good, we need to have detail-oriented people who want it perfect. Right?

But, you know, understand that there's a, it's so much better when everyone's just getting along and you just give people what they want. Give them the cookie. Okay.

Let go of the control. And then you'll amazingly see what ripens for you. Don't forget to rejoice in that too.

All right. Here we go. I don't know the answer to this question, Jasmine.

The question is, the palm leaves that Geshe-la talked about were written by Buddha's disciples after the Buddha passed away. Was it written in Pali? Some of them were Pali.

Some of them were, I believe, were written by disciples. I don't know enough about that to really answer the question. But I can find out, I can direct you to some people who do.

So ask me later. All right. This is kind of a cool question.

Okay. This, who asked this question? Vasara.

Hi Vasara. Is this the same Vasara that is in Taiwan? Maybe?

I don't know. Yes. Cool.

Hey. Awesome. Okay.

This is a great question, Vasara. So Vasara is asking that Geshe-la once said that a partner can help us improve our spiritual practice faster. So here's the question.

Is this because a partner presents us with more problems and challenges? If so, the feeling of the problems also comes from my seeds. That's true.

So as long as I have the seed of the problem and feeling, is it not necessary to plant a partner to practice with spiritually because the seed will come back anyway? Yes. That is a very, very insightful question.

I'll say it again. I don't even know if I have to answer the question because you asked it and you understood it. So Vasara is asking, you know, that having a partner can be a very quick path.

Okay. Because living close with someone else who has their own wants and desires. Right.

And you have your own wants and desires. Will probably come in conflict with each other. Like this is why I don't spend a lot of time with other people.

Because I don't have to get in conflict with them. Just joking. So the question is, where does that conflict come from?

Where does the challenge come from? And Vasara said, if they're coming from my seeds, the problem is the seeds, not the partner. And that's absolutely correct.

So if you don't have the seeds taken care of, they will have to ripen. If it was planted, it has to ripen. So that's correct, Vasara.

Absolutely correct. Like the best thing is like, if you have one enemy and they finally go away, don't think that you're not going to have another enemy next week. Because you will.

Those same seeds will ripen in someone else. It is so hilarious and annoying. It is hilarious.

Like I've gotten to the point that I'm like, I just laugh. I'm like, oh, there you are again, my friend, my enemy. There you are again.

I missed you. And that's when I start. Of course, I don't say that to the person who's acting like my enemy at the time.

But I'm like, I missed you. There you are again. Don't think because somebody goes away, the seeds are going away.

So they can ripen through anybody. This is just a word of caution. That doesn't mean that just because it's coming from you, that you should stay in something that's not correct.

Okay. All right. If you're in a situation that's like it's abusive, you're being hurt.

Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Fine. It could be it's your seeds are ripening. Yes.

But that doesn't mean stay. Okay. You have to, this is where wisdom comes in.

Right. This is where wisdom has to, you have to check in. Like, is this a problem that I want to stay and deal with?

Or is this a problem that is so inappropriate that, you know, it's time to cut it off. Right. You know, then you can still work on the seeds afterwards, of course, but please, please, please don't, don't just say it's coming from me and then be a martyr and then suffer more.

Okay. Find the help you need as well. That's my caveat.

Now I'm going to take a little detour, which is what I like to do that. The power of having a partner is that they will ripen seeds. Like if you see them correctly, it's the power of having a teacher, right?

Like don't, you don't have to think of a partner as a partner. They can be a teacher too. Right.

You know, maybe not a spiritual romantic partner, but you know, your teacher will do this for you. Your romantic partner can be your teacher. Your romantic partner can be your spiritual teacher.

They can be your spiritual partner. Like they're just words. Right.

And those words come with expectations, right? Like what does it mean to have a husband? What does it mean to have a wife?

What do you think it means to have someone like that? What are the rules, right? What's the rules of being married, right?

What are the rules of having a partner? You know, every relationship defines its own rules, right? But most of the time we don't even know the rules that we're operating under.

The expectations, the unexpressed expectations we have of other people and more so those expectations we have once they become lovers and partners. Right. And guess what?

And if you, they will draw things out of you that you didn't know were there. And if your practice is strong and you have that, like you've taken the time or you take the time in your partnership to practice, right. You know, and if you can see them in a very special way, you can purify things very quickly, but the ripening of those seeds may be extremely uncomfortable, be very uncomfortable.

And then you have to know when it's like, Hey, let's just go for a bike ride, babe. Let's just ride bikes. Okay.

Let's just relax. You know, you know, don't take your practice too seriously either. Right.

You know, that's where good communication comes in. It's like, Hey, look, I know this is coming from me, but I need to just go ride bikes. Like, you know, take time, take, take time to connect us as people, you know, and, and don't take it too seriously and take it seriously.

Ella, this is a really good question. What you just said, and I want to say, this is something I would love to say. Ella said, I just realized that my partners are my daughter.

Or, or my cat. Right. Right.

Oh, my daughter or her cat. Oh, got it. Okay.

Got it. Okay. Okay.

So it's still the same point. Actually, I meant and her cat, but you typo. Yeah.

So the cool thing about this, when your seeds are, when you're looking at things in a certain way is anyone can be your teacher, right? Anyone can be, can take that role. You know, somebody asked me a beautiful question the other day.

And, you know, when we say partner, it doesn't need to be a person, right? You don't like, there doesn't need to be an, you don't have to feel this pressure, like, Oh my God, I'm never going to get enlightened unless I have a boyfriend or I have a girlfriend, you know, or I have a, you know, I get married, like, no, stop. Like, don't turn, don't turn the search for a, to enlightenment into an affliction.

Okay. Don't, don't, because the world can be your partner. You can fall in love with the world, you know, your service to other people, like the way you treat other people, you know, what if you treated them like the most highest being there is like this person needs something like, Oh, this person is enlightened being.

I need to like, I need to feed them. I need to help them. Right.

The same prana, the same energy, the same powerful seeds are planted in those scenarios as well with the right view of it. So if you're, if you are single and you're like, you know, I just don't want, I just don't like, you know, like you're, you're, as I said to someone earlier, I think it was Elena. Like we all have our own individual, like karmic configurations, like our operating systems, like, you know, you've configured your operating systems already configured in a certain way, right.

Came out this way, you know, then it came out this way. Then you had family in a certain way. Then you had friends in a certain way, you had life in a certain way.

So your programming, like your, your configuration is different, right. Unique. And maybe your configuration is like, you know, I just don't like people that much.

I have, I want to save all people, but I just don't want them in my space. Like I got three cats, that's enough. As an example, right.

You know, maybe being romantically single is what you want. Like, you don't, like, you don't want to have a romantic partner. That's totally fine.

You know, enlightenment is not inaccessible to you because you don't have a partner who lives with you, who annoys you all every morning, right. I mean, I'm not saying partners annoy you, like, like there's a, there's huge benefits to having a person around a lot, right. But you don't need it.

Like the need is the affliction, serving other people, helping other people. You can generate the same benefits and energies from that, that you can from someone who lives with you. It's different, you know, but it's not really that different, right.

It's all dependently arising anyway. The seeds are just going off, right. You know, so don't turn it into an affliction if it's not your thing.

Like, okay, well, or even if you want a partner and you're just like, you can't find them or they're not showing up or you live in a place like Sedona where everyone is retired and they're, and they're tourists, right. Okay, fine. No, be happy with what's rising, right.

And you can get the same benefits without turning it into an affliction. So that's what I wanted to say about that. We got two minutes here.

I'll answer one more question. I want to skip this question, but I'm not going to hold up. There's two here.

I'm trying to choose. Okay. I'm going to answer this question about from pure gold.

Oh, I can't read the Chinese yet. Somebody said, here we go. So if we think about life as a, you know, think about our mind stream as like a spaghetti noodle.

I'm here right in this moment right now. The spaghetti noodle goes infinitely backwards and it goes infinitely forwards, right? I'm always in the middle of the spaghetti noodle, right?

There's always infinity backwards. There's always infinity forwards. Okay.

So I'm here right now, right? What determines what seed will sprout in the next moment? And if there's an infinite number of seeds to choose from, how are they ordered?

So I don't have time to go through all of it. But there is a thing called the five priorities, four priorities. I think it's four priorities.

Five by four. Yes, it's four priorities. Like the orders in which seeds will ripen.

And they're determined by certain factors. And I don't have them written down. And it's actually the one I don't have fully memorized.

So I can't answer it directly. And if someone has the four priorities, please put them in the chat. So there is a determination in a way of the, how to prioritize, how to move seeds to the front of the line.

And one of the main things, and this is just a main practice for everybody, you know, is to, the more coffee meditation you do, and I'm not just talking about, you know, thinking about the good things you did or the four steps process you did, but the emotion that you put into it, like the real feeling that you have, there's a reason why one of the perfections is called joyful effort. There's a reason why joyful effort turns into leadership. There's a reason why, for the same reason, it's why rejoicing in the four steps pushes seeds to the front.

There's something about joy. There's something about feeling good. And I'm going to leave you guys with that as to think about and to meditate on.

Like, I'll go back to Roxanna's first question, which is a perfect way to end, right? What does anger feel like in the body? And then when you think of the four, the four flowers, what does the world look like to you when you're angry?

Thank you, fearless sage. There are your four priorities, and they happen in that order. What is the world, like when you get angry, when you start feeling the anger in your body, what does the world start looking like to you?

When you start feeling joy in your body, what does the world look like to you? And I'm not just talking about the birds and trees, you know, what are, how do other people react? How do other people act around you?

How do other beings act, right? How do they act around you in anger, and how do they act around you in joy and happiness? So I would take that into your meditation and then just say, okay, well, how does joy, you know, how, why is that the fourth perfection?

Why does joy create leadership? Why does joy in the four steps move water seeds faster? And then how does it push seeds to the front of the line?

And I'll leave you with that one, you know, because I think you have to experience it yourself to embody it. Cool. Great questions today, everyone.

You didn't even ask me anything hard about the texts that I don't know anything about. So good. Excellent.

So what's coming up now is yoga with Vimala. I'm not sure if she's here yet. She's probably just joining very shortly.

So I guess we'll start in about 10 minutes. Thanks for your wonderful questions. And, you know, and thanks for being, sticking with this.

This is like, this is like, this is the hardest, this is the hardest part of any of the classes that we have, right? You know, we're translating from a language that we don't understand. We're translating ideas that we don't understand, right?

And we're trying to do all of those things together. You know, and the most beautiful thing Geshe-la said yesterday was he said, this isn't a religion and it's not. It's how do we take these ideas and translate them into ways that we can make them real in today's life, right?

What's real for you when you get off the cushion, when you get out of class, Elena, and you go off and do your thousand things, right? What's real for you then? What's real for us outside of all of this?

You know, and that's the, you know, that's what we're doing. We're struggling to make it real. You know, that's the, you know, I think that's the, and the fact that you're here and wanting to do that and spending the time with it, like, please rejoice in that.

Like, do you, I think you want to make a change. Like, it feels like the people here want to make a huge change in their life and have a huge impact in the world, you know? And, and I can see you and I can see it.

I can see it ripening. So thank you all. Please stay.

And now we're going to pass the class off to Ms. Vimala Sperber.

[Speaker 2]
Hey, Timmy. Hi, everybody. God, you're awesome, Tim.

Such a great teacher.

[Speaker 1]
As are you, Vimala. I've learned from you all the time.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, I will learn from you too, all the time.

[Speaker 1]
Vimala is such, I'm just going to, I'm going to sell Vimala and her yoga class right now. You know, Vimala is a beautiful heart practitioner. It's so wonderful.

Like, I've learned so much about how to connect with my own, my own heart in, in a way that I, you know, I'm, I'm like the, like, make a list type of person, you know, and Vimala has taught me that, like, okay, that's, that's nice, Tim. Go, go into your heart. Like, go into like a, a different place.

You know, and I've learned so much from her in that, in her yoga classes are phenomenal. So please stick around, do your yoga practice. I'm not because my problems have started.

No, just, I'm going to go do some hiking later today. So thank you all very much. And Vimala, passing it off to you.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. I hope everyone can hear me. I'm disappointed Timmy won't be here, but, and I hope I don't disappoint you.