Then and Now 24

Now, so rejoicing in the virtues of others is very explicitly a way of counteracting jealousy. Now one of the things you can do to start practicing this is, in your daily life, whenever you see somebody doing good, intentionally take joy in that.

And as some of you have noted in your comments, you’ll only be able to do that sincerely—not artificially—if you feel good about yourself. So, whenever you feel bad about yourself, open to that experience, not as a fact, but as a story. So you get used to regarding any feeling of being bad about yourself as a story.

Now that’s not going to work through it completely, but it’s going to be a very good start. Because through doing this, you will diminish the extent to which you’re identifying with that negative self-image.

And I am not saying replace it with a positive self-image, but in that open space, just see what’s there. And you will see, over time, that there is actually no basis for being jealous of others; that if they do good, that’s good.

And so, it goes through all of these lists, and this is all really mythic stuff, you know:

whatever root virtues were established from the time they
        passed into parinirvana until the dharma teachings disappear;
whatever virtuous roots were established in between manifestations
        of all the bodhisattvas;

Just whatever good all these spiritual figures have done. It finally comes down to whatever virtuous roots were established by ordinary beings.

Now, when you start doing this it may feel a little artificial, but as you practice it, it becomes more and more familiar. So it can build its own momentum.

Then the next section of preparation is requesting the wheel of dharma to be turned. This is a formal phrase for asking for teachings.

Now, strictly speaking, one should never teach unless asked.

When we were preparing for the three-year retreat in France, we were all busy building the retreat. One day Gyaltsen Rinpoche’s secretary came and talked to us and said, “When are you going to get around to asking Rinpoche for the empowerments?”

We didn’t realize—oh, that we had to ask for that formally. We were just waiting for him to give them to us.

Now this may seem a silly piece of formal ritual, but it really underlies something that’s very, very important. Unlike many religions, Buddhism is not a proselytizing religion, though there are a few sects which try to convert people. But, that’s really not the mainstream.

One of the—I don’t want to use the word precepts—one of the principles in Vajrayana, is not to teach to someone who isn’t interested. And so out of that comes this notion of formally requesting teachings. That way, the teacher knows that they’re teaching to someone who is interested. And there’s fertile ground here.

And it also means when you ask for teaching, you are expressing your interest. And so you are less likely to take the availability of teaching—the availability of guidance—for granted. Which is something, that when we’re hanging around in Buddhist circles, “Well, it’s always going to be there; it’s cool, we don’t have to worry about it.” But it’s not.

Learning has to start from our own interest, and in a certain sense this is saying, take responsibility for your own practice. And one of the ways you take responsibility is to ask for guidance and teaching, and not just assume it’s going to be given to you, which is essentially a passive role.

And then the next one, beseeching teachers, buddhas, not to take parinirvana.

The idea here is that you know, well, everything dies, everybody dies, even buddhas don’t hang around in the world forever. Getting enlightened doesn’t stop you from dying.

Now, there’s a heavy mythic element in here, in that somehow the buddhas are just manifesting life and death and so forth, and so they can pop off into their parinirvana any time. So you pray to them not to leave the world.

This is a very elaborate way of relating to the theme of impermanence. Things aren’t going to be around all the time. And so, by making this request, you’re actually reminding yourself that you’re not always going to have this relationship with your teacher. It’s something, it’s going to go the way of all relationships, that is, one day it’s going to be over. It will come to an end.

So even though it’s put into this very formal language, of asking the teachers not to disappear and go off, it really is a way of reminding ourselves that all things pass, and we need to make use of the opportunities that are available to us. Yep. Okay.

And then the last one, dedication, again I would suggest you translate this as virtuous roots, not root virtues. This is to counteract the tendency to form a self-image about doing good. You know, “I’m a good practitioner.”

Rinpoche, on this, used to say that when we do good, we dedicate it to the welfare of others immediately, before any of three emotions can arise: pride, anger and, uh, I actually can’t remember the third one…I think it’s desire.

One is, if we do good and then we think, “Oh, what a good person I am,” now we’ve corrupted the good. And if we do good and then get angry at somebody, we’ve basically annihilated the good.

And then if we do good and we think, “I need to do more of that to make myself better!” It’s kind of a greedy attitude. So, in the Tibetan tradition, as soon as we’ve done any virtuous acts—and we do this when we gather here—we dedicate the virtue at the end, before any of those emotions can creep in and corrupt the process.

And Rinpoche used to say, it’s like taking a teaspoon of water, that’s the virtue that we’ve done, and if you just leave it, you know, the sun shines and it just evaporates and it’s gone. But if you take it and pour it into the sea, then it lasts forever.

It’s also very much in keeping with the whole Mahayana framework. In that, we’re entering into this extremely large, multifaceted, infinite universe, which spans all space and time. And so we want to plant seeds which are going to span all space and time. So everything is dedicated to the welfare of all beings. It’s a way of encouraging this attitude in this, not to think small at all, but to think consistently in terms of the totality of our experience.

Now, one of the things that I’ve said that I would do, and several people who’ve been listening to the podcasts have requested, is to go over the prayers that we do, before and after the teaching periods here. Could I borrow a copy of the prayers from somebody?

Thank you, Cara.

Student: [Unclear]

Ken; Yeah, parinirvana.

Student: [Unclear]

Ken: Oh, Thank you. Okay.

In the Tibetan tradition, we almost always start with some form of lineage prayer. Usually, the prayer reflects that teacher’s particular lineage.

In the Gelugpa tradition it would be like Je Tsongkhapa; in the Kagyu tradition it would be Vajradhara, and then coming through Gampopa to the Karmapas, often with Tilo, [Tilopa] Naro [Naropa], and Marpa.

In the Nyingmas, usually centered on Guru Rinpoche, Guru Padmasambhava, and so forth.

Here I’ve chosen a generic lineage, and that’s the lineage of the Perfection of Wisdom. The actual prayer was written by a woman in the twelfth century, whose name is Machik Labdron, who was very much a devotee of the Perfection of Wisdom.

As a young woman, she learned to read, and she just read Perfection of Wisdom sutras in the homes of the rich to earn money, for hours and hours and hours, and just absorbed the stuff very deeply.

So, Perfection of Wisdom, and the Perfection of Wisdom is regarded as the mother of buddhas. Buddhas are born from the Perfection of Wisdom. And then it goes through what are called the four thoughts which turn the mind to the dharma, four motivations.

The difficulty of obtaining the precious human form, which we went through earlier in our study of Jewel Ornament. And so, Give me the energy to realize its potential, and then impermanence, The ultimate foe, the Lord of Death.. And here the prayer is to live a life of no regret, so that when we die, we regret nothing.

And then the third is karma. The laws of the way things are is a way of describing karma, and the key to being free of generating karmic traits, which are going to cause suffering in the future, is to live without shame.

And the next stanza is about the six realms. The realms projected by the emotional states: things like anger, and pride and jealousy and so forth. So one, it says, not to take birth in these states. This means not to succumb or fall into those ways of experiencing the world, and thus be free of those emotions.

And then the next stanza is about where we go for refuge, the three jewels, and that’s covered in the talk on refuge, which was two—three or four weeks ago, probably.

And then the next one is about opening to loving kindness and compassion for all sentient beings.

And finally the last stanza is about knowing the nature of mind.

And then…Steve?

Steve: What about the [unclear]?

Ken: The four thoughts are—

Steve: Three…

Ken: Well the fourth one is the shortcomings of samsara. Which is the six realms. Okay?

And then we take refuge, and generate awakening mind. And that’s the Until I awaken, I take refuge in buddha, dharma and the supreme assembly. Supreme assembly refers to the sangha of bodhisattvas.

And then, Through the goodness of generosity and other virtues—that means the six perfections, which we’ll be coming to shortly in our study of Jewel Ornament—May I awaken fully in order to help all beings.

These four lines were written by Atisha in the eleventh century, and because they so beautifully and succinctly cover refuge and bodhicitta, these two sentiments, they’re used in virtually all of the Tibetan traditions.

We say them three times, so that we have time to reflect and absorb, and really feel the meaning in them. In the Tibetan tradition, we have what are called the three seals. There’s a seal of preparation, in which one takes refuge and engenders bodhicitta. Then there’s the seal of the main practice, which one does without conceptualization, and then there’s the seal of dedication, which we’ll be getting to in a moment. But this is the framework, in which all practice in the Tibetan tradition took place.

In order to remind ourselves that our orientation is for all sentient beings, we cultivate the four immeasurables, which we find in the next verse. May all beings enjoy happiness and the seeds of happiness is the immeasurable of loving-kindness.

May they be free from suffering and the seeds of suffering is the immeasurable of compassion.

May they not be separate from true happiness, free of suffering is the immeasurable of joy. And, May they rest in great equanimity, free from preference and prejudice is, of course, equanimity.

Then at the end of our teaching periods, meditation periods, we do the dedication prayers.

Again, in the Tibetan tradition, the conclusion of practice actually had three kinds of prayers: one was dedication, second was aspiration, and the third were prayers for good fortune for all. And we have these in very concise form here.

We have three dedication prayers. The first is to use this goodness to overcome unwholesomeness, that is, the enemy—wrong action. And so, through that, freeing all beings from the vicissitudes of samsara.

The second is a verse from the Shangpa tradition, which I like as a way of dedicating merit because it’s dedicating it free from any conceptual mind, to dedicate it in the realm of totality.

I do not cling in any way
To the virtue and goodness I have generated.
In order that all beings may benefit from it
I dedicate it in the realm of totality.

Which means to say that I have no sense of having done virtue, or of there being virtue; I’m just free from any conceptual mind. So, a total openness.

And the third verse here is a traditional one:

This virtue and all virtues gathered in the three times
I dedicate as all buddhas do
To supreme non-residing awakening.
May I attain the state of union in this life.

This term non-residing awakening, refers to—it doesn’t reside in samsara, that is, in confusion, and it also doesn’t reside in the quietude of nirvana. This isn’t the nirvana the way that’s understood in the Theravadan tradition, but in the Mahayana tradition.

One form of nirvana was kind of a place to become free of samsara, but you weren’t really working for the welfare of others. So, it’s just a really nice way to hang out indefinitely. But the term non-residing awakening means you’re not resting in confusion, you’re not resting in that kind of passive expression of wisdom. You aren’t resting anywhere; you’re fully engaged in life itself.

Then, aspiration, we just use one prayer here, and this is the aspiration for bodhicitta, or awakening mind.

And then finally, good fortune prayers, there are many, many forms that these can take. These are ones that I came across which I liked. The first one is based in the Vajrayana: The energy of the lineage teachers or gurus uses the metaphor of clouds gathering in the sky.

Out of that, a pouring down of abilities into us, which is the abilities that come through practicing deity meditation, coming down like rain, and then through that, activating the awareness, which takes symbolic expression, in the dakinis and protectors.

There’s awareness, which knows exactly what to do. It doesn’t depend on deduction or inference. There’s just that very, very, direct knowing that’s at the very heart of all of us.

The two aims here—Good fortune: may the two aims come about naturally. The two aims are the aim for ourself, which is freedom from samsara, and the aim for others, is that the welfare of others be taken care of so that they are also free from samsara. So the two aims refer to ourselves and others.

And then, the last verse, again, is the power of aspirations; the power of dependence and conditions, or interdependence; and the power of what is. It’s the power of being itself. May all these various forces, produce good for the world. And it’s a prayer that good fortune spread everywhere for all beings.

So this is the framework of prayers that we use at the beginning and end of the meditation sessions here. Okay.

Now we turn to the…yes, Chuck?

Chuck: Are the prayers more of a learning tool than a praying to something?

Ken: Well, many of the prayers embody so much teaching, that when you read and memorize them it’s a way of just taking that stuff in. So, in that sense, yes, they are a learning tool and can be very useful as a learning tool and as a reminder. But also these are prayers, these are sentiments and attitudes that you’re forming.

And you can, in a certain sense, yes, you are praying to the teachers; you’re praying to the buddhas. Now, you can say, “Well, what am I praying to? They’re just reflections of my own mind.” But in that sense you’re praying to the awakened aspect of your own mind, even if you don’t know it. So that it actually communicates with you.

So, this is, you might say a conversation, a very deep conversation you’re having with the totality of your own experience. So that it leads you to relate to your own experience in a way which moves you towards awakening. You can look at it that way. Okay?

Chuck: Thanks.

Ken: All right. But many people find, because they have connections with a particular figure, or particular expression that they feel like they’re really praying…praying to Tara or to Guru Padmasambhava or to their teacher or something like that. And it allows all of their emotional energy to go into this. And that pouring of emotional energy into prayer, just opens one up hugely, so that things can actually come in.

So I find that sincere prayer takes you right into the depths of your heart. And when you pray that way, things can happen very, very quickly. Steve.

Steve: Hi, before we get off the subject, I’ve wondered about the term prayer in Buddhist teachings as opposed to in many other religions. Obviously it’s the same word. Could you elaborate a little bit, because my instinct about it is, there is something different quality to it…in this.

Ken: Well. In Catholic contemplative work, there are several different kinds of prayer recognized. There’s petitionary prayer, where you’re asking for something. There’s ejaculatory prayer, which is just a spontaneous expression of feeling. And there’s contemplative prayer, which is what we would call meditation. And these are all different forms of prayer, and I think there are additional ones. Those are the ones that I’m familiar with.

There’s the centering prayer: Lord Jesus have mercy upon me, a sinner. Which is used very much as a mantra in Catholic contemplative practice. And these are all regarded as different forms of prayer. So, when we use the word prayer in the Catholic context, we’re really talking about meditation, in many different forms.

When we talk about prayer in Buddhist practice, we have very explicit meditation practices, but those can, and often do, include various forms of prayer, particularly in the Tibetan tradition. And the word prayer—there are two kinds of prayer, broadly speaking. One is…the Tibetan is gsol debs which means, literally, to ask for something. So again, it’s petitionary prayer.

And then the other is smon lam, which basically means aspiration, giving rise to big thoughts. So you’re aspiring to these wonderful things.

Now the lineage prayer at the beginning that we did, you know,

Perfection of Wisdom, mother of buddhas and union of refuges,
I pray to you from the bottom of my heart.

then you go through and you’re asking for various things. And you’re asking for these various spiritual qualities.

Now, going back to what Chuck said, just a few moments ago, are you praying to something? Well, yes you are, you’re praying to the Perfection of Wisdom. Whether you regard that as a goddess—because there is a Perfection of Wisdom who has four arms, etc., in the iconography—and feel a lot of faith in that, or you regard the Perfection of Wisdom as the wisdom aspect of your own mind…in a certain sense, it doesn’t make any difference. That you can relate to either of those, there’s an emotional element that goes into that, and in praying to the Perfection of Wisdom for these spiritual qualities, if you really let yourself feel how much you want that, and you open up emotionally to that, then it becomes very powerful. And for some people it’s more powerful as a symbol, for some people it’s more powerful as a god, or deity or goddess. That’s really up to the individual practitioner.

When you’re taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, strictly speaking, those aren’t prayers in the ways that I’ve just defined in those two kinds of prayers; these are repetition of sentiments. They’re ways of reminding yourself, and taking that very, very much to heart.

The four immeasurables, again, are sentiments that you’re seeking to engender in yourself.

When you get into prayers such as the Mahamudra prayer, which you’ll find a translation up on the website, and other things, these are the things, “may I do this, may I do this”—it’s a way of giving expression to your spiritual aspirations. [Aspirations for Mahamudra] And as you may recall that one of the two kinds of bodhicitta, awakening to what is apparently true, is the bodhicitta of aspiration and the bodhicitta of engagement, and bodhicitta of aspiration is all about saying, “May I do this, may I do this, may I do this,” and just being big and big.

Because when you think this way, then your mind actually becomes more open and becomes bigger, and allows you to open to the fullness of your experience. So these prayers are, when you take them to heart like this, very, very powerful methods of practice. That answer your question, Steve?

Steve: Yep.

Ken: Okay, Randye.

Randye: You’re using the word aspiration, and I’ve never thought of these as intercessionary but rather a statement of intention and commitment, which is what we talked about a few weeks back, about taking refuge itself.

Ken: Yeah. The aspiration prayers are very much a statement of intention.

Randye: But not just as an aspiration, but as an immediate-this is what I’m striving towards. I intend to work towards this.

Ken: Mmmm-hmmm.

Randye: Is that—

Ken: Yes. Both of those.

Randye: Okay.

Ken: Yeah. But if you give rise to aspirations, then you give yourself something to move towards. Was it Browning who said, A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?

Randye: I can aspire and sit there like a lump on a log and do nothing, or I can aspire and start moving in that direction. I think that’s the distinction I’m trying to make. That this is a statement of intention to move, to actually do something in the world.

Ken: It’s very much a statement of intention, but as Rinpoche used to say, When you can’t do something, aspire to do it. And it sets something in motion, so that it creates the conditions which can actually bring about the ability to do that.

Randye: To do that. Okay.

Ken: Okay.

Randye: Okay.

Ken: Okay. Alex.

Alex: When the line says, The laws of the way things are work internally, I was wondering if you could say more about that? To me it seems that, you know, the way things are comes about both from, you know, internal sort of experience and also the external world.

Ken: The laws of the ways things are refers exactly to the workings of karma. Internally here, refers to in our experience. So, in this sense, what’s being referred to here, is that whatever we experience has been set in motion by our own actions. And that it’s internal in that sense.

So that, anything that happens to us—the way that we experience it—is the product of our own conditioning. And in this sense, it’s telling us that we are agents of our own experience. That is, we—through what we do—determine how we experience things.

Alex: Does this mean anything else other than that? Because it seems like, beyond just sort of a cause and effect of specific actions, there’s also a sense of, you know, in meditation practice, maybe it’s kind of a transformation…of…sort of our kind of mental and physical energy.

Ken: I think it means all of that. But it’s primarily referring to the actions that we do in body, speech, and mind. Shaping our experience.

Alex: Thank you.

Ken: So now we’re going to turn to the actual ceremony. This has all being laying the groundwork. Don’t forget, this is the ceremony in the tradition of Shantideva. The actual vow is relatively short. On page 163 [Gyaltsen], you’ll see,

From the beginning to end
Of beginningless and endless samsara,
In order to perform limitless activities for the benefit of sentient beings,
In front of the lord of the world,
I cultivate bodhicitta.

In most of the ceremonies, the form that is used now is on the next page, on the top of page 164:

Just as the previous sugatas
Gave birth to an awakening mind
And just as they successfully dwelt
In the bodhisattva practices—
Likewise for the sake of all that live
Do I give birth to an awakening mind,
And likewise shall I too
Successfully follow the practices.

Now, that’s repeated three times. This is the awakening mind as aspiration. And you’re saying—what one is saying here, is that, just as all of the buddhas of the past have done, they gave rise to awakening mind. They engaged in these activities, so, this is what I intend to do. I am going to do this; it’s an aspiration or an intention one is forming. And one repeats it three times in the presence of one’s teacher, in order to take, for that aspiration to really take root in one’s heart. But that is the actual bodhisattva vow in this tradition.

And then, you see the conclusion is making offerings. This is basically a way of celebrating: and meditate on vast joy and happiness about the great accomplishment.

The point here is to celebrate what one has done.

Now, another exercise I could have given you, so we’ll just do this quickly here.

What happens in you when somebody celebrates something that you’ve done? You know, that maybe you won a race, maybe you won a contest, maybe you just did something quite well. What happens in you when somebody celebrates that? Alex, we’ll start with you.

Alex: What happens when somebody celebrates…?

Ken: Something that you’ve done.

Alex: I don’t know. Nobody celebrates anything I’ve done.

Ken: [Laughs] Okay. Chuck.

Chuck: Well, you feel good about it. You know, like, if you’re playing basketball and you hit a basket, and somebody says, “Good job!” you feel good that you did something right.

Ken: Right. And what’s the effect on you going forward?

Chuck: You have energy to do it again.

Ken: Right. You get confidence?

Chuck: Yes.

Ken: Right. Okay. Steve. What happens to you?

Steve: I wonder how much I can get paid for it? [Laughter] I think that what Chuck said is that it encourages or motivates, to continue on whatever path…

Ken: Okay.

Steve: …that you’ve embarked on.

Ken: Cara, what about you? Where is the other mic?

Cara: I don’t know. Steve’s hogging them.

Cara: Umm…I don’t know!

Ken: That was a wonderful batch of cookies you just made! They were so goooood!

Cara: See, I knew it was going to come back to pastries. I’m so predictable.

Ken: Well, it just happens to be what you are engaged in these days.

Cara: Well, my final project last term was I made pâte sucrée with white chocolate and with a lemon-lime cardamom curd, with mixed berries and raspberry compote on top.

Ken: You didn’t bring any here!

Cara: No, I didn’t. I gave it to the nine-year-old that I spend most of my time with. And the look of joy on her face when she tasted it…because a child will not fake it for you.

Ken: So that look of joy was her celebration of it.

Cara: It was. Well, I felt like all of the love energy that I put into making it was, like, I felt, like, “Wow!” you know. This little person totally digs what I’m doing. And I’m doing it because I want her to dig it, and I want her to know that there’s love in it. So it feels like, you know, like there’s a real joy in it, because it’s something that I can give to people.

Ken: So you feel good about yourself and it has an effect on you. Doesn’t it?

Cara: It does. It makes me want to do more of it…

Ken: Okay.

Cara: …for others.

Ken: Right.

Randye: It’s a different…little bit different feeling about—well, actually, for me, probably a lot different feeling—about doing good, versus doing good and having somebody recognize it.

Ken: Mmm-hmm. So you do good, and somebody, you know, maybe not somebody, maybe everybody in the universe, celebrates. What effect does that have on you?

Randye: It’s a real validation, and a motivation…

Ken: Mmm-hmm. Okay.

Randye: …to continue and do more.

Ken: Okay. Pat. You’ve had a few things celebrated that you’ve done.

Pat: Well, I know, but I actually realize what people acknowledge about me is not necessarily what I feel good about. Like, I was on the news the night of the anniversary of the war, so all these people keep saying to me, “Oh, we saw you on the news! You know, there she is! Blah, blah, blah!”

And I was, like, so embarrassed, and all I could think about, and I kept saying to people. “Oh yeah, you know, aging chick protesting war.” Because that’s how I see it, you know. Rah, rah, rah.

Ken: If you let that go, what would you feel?

Pat: Aging chick, protesting the war!

Ken: Okay. Fine.

Pat: No, I just felt I did my job.

Ken: Okay.

Pat: So I did my job. And I was…I didn’t feel particularly…you know, it’s like I did my job.

Ken: Okay. Elena.

Elena: Well, it’s kind of similar to what she said. Yeah, it is, but Cara, she made me think about something that I did like a year ago.

I made some french fries, like the way I make them; it’s sort of an Italian thing. And they were like, very good, I have to say. And these two kids that I was babysitting, they just got, like, completely insane. But I was happy about it, but also a little embarrassed.

And I will always feel that at the end, like there’s always a little embarrassment.

Ken: Okay, thank you.

Ken: So, many of you have said that when somebody celebrates what you’ve done, it inspires you to do more. Okay? This is why we have the celebration here at the end. Because now you’ve given rise to this attitude to help others, and feel that the whole world is celebrating what you’ve done. It inspires you, it gives you confidence. It allows you to say, “Yeah, I’m really going to do this!” And it just pushes more momentum into that.

That’s the point of making these offerings and having this vast joy and happiness said about it. And then as we just referred to, ordinarily you would conclude the ceremony with doing the dedication.

Okay. Here we are at 9:30, so we should close here. What I would like you to do is read over the rest of the chapter for next week. There’s a ceremony in the tradition of Dharmakirti, which is a little different, in that it covers both aspiration awakening mind, and engagement or action awakening mind.

First is on page 164, and the second is on 167. And then, on 168, it goes through the benefits; we won’t spend a long time on that. It’s pretty straightforward.

And I want to spend a little bit of time on what causes one to lose this intention of awakening mind because that’s important. And we’ll be going into that in more detail in the next chapter, Chapter 10. Because it’s how you train in the aspiration of awakening mind. So that’s what we’ll be doing then. And in terms of homework, let’s see.

In terms of practice. Yeah. It’s getting a little bit ahead, but one way in which one violates—or loses—the intention of awakening mind, is summarized in two things: succumbing to despair and rejecting a being.

Student: A what?

Ken: Rejecting a being. Saying, “I’ll never help that person ever again, no matter what.”

So, over the next week, I’d like you to look at, and keep track of, to what extent you fall into despair about being able to help others. And if and when, the attitude like “I’m never going to help that person”—a hardening in oneself, if that ever comes up. Yes, Randye?

Randye: Today is my ex-husband’s birthday [unclear]. No, I’m just kidding.

Ken: Okay. It’s your ex-husband’s birthday. Good place for practice. We’ll go into more detail about that next week. But that’s where I’d like to…because these are two really important attitudes, and I’d just like you to explore how frequently they come up, when you fall into them. And what effect it has on you. Okay?

Student: Where are those prayers, those bodhicitta prayers that you talked about? The aspirations? That you were talking about.

Ken: You mean the…oh, those were in there, in the prayers that we do in the end. You mean like the Mahamudra prayer and so forth? You’ll find—

Student: They’re not all in there, are they?

Ken: No, no. You’ll find a bunch up on the website. I mean, there are hundreds, thousands, of these in the Tibetan tradition.

Student: All right. But you put sort of your favorite up on the website?

Ken: I put ones that I’ve translated up on the website. There are many more but I just haven’t got around…