Quotes from Doug's Lectures Archive:
What's the definition of ego and superego?
April 19, 2025
Well, we're going to use a kind of psychoanalytic. I like Lacan better than I like Freud.
Lacan sees fundamental drive that's driving us is
So we spend our entire lifetime looking for attention from something that never could have given us that attention.
Freud sees it more as the basic driving of a kind of libido, an energetic field of drive. In every moment of our experience, we have this basic drive to move from one moment to a kind of desire. He makes it kind of sexual, but you can like generalize it and it gets a little bit less sexual.
So, the culture and society around has to repress that because the basic drive is just pleasure principle. It does whatever to goes towards whatever it wants. And of course the culture around us has to direct that or repress that. So this drive that's repressed.
And then we try to get our pleasures met in the real world. We're trying to release the energy of the libido to food and sex. This kind of release, he calls a catharsis. So we're endlessly going towards catharsis.
And the ego is the sort of strategic thinker who is constantly negotiating between the drive of our pleasure seeking existence to the actual conditions of the real world.
And a successful ego actually achieving those pleasures. The more we are succeeding in those, we have a strong ego, you know, the strength of the ego.
The superego is early on, when we're in the process of that, all the don'ts that we were given by our society.
When we were repressed, when that libido was repressed, it goes into an internal voice, introjecting an internal voice. You know, a person has an internal voice of don'ts that then, that then guides it. Don't do that, don't do that, you're bad, you're bad, you're bad, as an internal voice that takes the external world and puts it inside of us as an internal voice that speaks to us all the time.
There's actual two sides to it, there's the ego ideal. So a lot of times the superego is stressed because there's another part of the unconscious called the ego ideal, which is the positive voice.
The positive voice is when you do something good and your parents say, good job, good job. You feel that pleasure of doing a good job. You guys know that one? Oh good job, I did a good job. So you pat yourself on the cheek.
So once your parents stop doing it, you go out and get some ice cream after you do something. You have to reward yourself with the ego ideal, right? Because you go, oh I did such a good job, what am I going to do to reward myself? Well, I think I'll go get some ice cream.
Okay, so you have this kind of internal drama going on all the time. And why it's a complicated issue is because since it's the external world inside, the voice that's internal is giving you information that is actually very important when you're young.
It's not just important because it's a moral guide, it's also the entire structure of that culture in the superego.
And that's the biggest reason why there's success in families. It's not just intelligence, it's the passage of the normative constructs of a society from generation to generation into the superego, and then an internal voice that tells you how to be successful.
Coming from a successful family within that culture, you are going to have a lot higher probability to be successful. Because if you don't have a functional superego, then you have to learn everything on your own in reality testing without an internal voice of success that's already in there.
I don't want to keep going on in this forever, but that was 22 books on psychoanalysis in five minutes.
Well, we're going to use a kind of psychoanalytic. I like Lacan better than I like Freud.
Lacan sees fundamental drive that's driving us is
- the lacking that we have from being vulnerable in childhood,
- having a great neediness for the environment to support us,
- and then needing a constant sense of attention from our environment,
- and then projecting a prototypical maternal, paternal that doesn't actually exist.
So we spend our entire lifetime looking for attention from something that never could have given us that attention.
Freud sees it more as the basic driving of a kind of libido, an energetic field of drive. In every moment of our experience, we have this basic drive to move from one moment to a kind of desire. He makes it kind of sexual, but you can like generalize it and it gets a little bit less sexual.
So, the culture and society around has to repress that because the basic drive is just pleasure principle. It does whatever to goes towards whatever it wants. And of course the culture around us has to direct that or repress that. So this drive that's repressed.
And then we try to get our pleasures met in the real world. We're trying to release the energy of the libido to food and sex. This kind of release, he calls a catharsis. So we're endlessly going towards catharsis.
And the ego is the sort of strategic thinker who is constantly negotiating between the drive of our pleasure seeking existence to the actual conditions of the real world.
And a successful ego actually achieving those pleasures. The more we are succeeding in those, we have a strong ego, you know, the strength of the ego.
The superego is early on, when we're in the process of that, all the don'ts that we were given by our society.
When we were repressed, when that libido was repressed, it goes into an internal voice, introjecting an internal voice. You know, a person has an internal voice of don'ts that then, that then guides it. Don't do that, don't do that, you're bad, you're bad, you're bad, as an internal voice that takes the external world and puts it inside of us as an internal voice that speaks to us all the time.
There's actual two sides to it, there's the ego ideal. So a lot of times the superego is stressed because there's another part of the unconscious called the ego ideal, which is the positive voice.
The positive voice is when you do something good and your parents say, good job, good job. You feel that pleasure of doing a good job. You guys know that one? Oh good job, I did a good job. So you pat yourself on the cheek.
So once your parents stop doing it, you go out and get some ice cream after you do something. You have to reward yourself with the ego ideal, right? Because you go, oh I did such a good job, what am I going to do to reward myself? Well, I think I'll go get some ice cream.
Okay, so you have this kind of internal drama going on all the time. And why it's a complicated issue is because since it's the external world inside, the voice that's internal is giving you information that is actually very important when you're young.
It's not just important because it's a moral guide, it's also the entire structure of that culture in the superego.
And that's the biggest reason why there's success in families. It's not just intelligence, it's the passage of the normative constructs of a society from generation to generation into the superego, and then an internal voice that tells you how to be successful.
Coming from a successful family within that culture, you are going to have a lot higher probability to be successful. Because if you don't have a functional superego, then you have to learn everything on your own in reality testing without an internal voice of success that's already in there.
I don't want to keep going on in this forever, but that was 22 books on psychoanalysis in five minutes.
Quotes from Doug's Lectures Archive:
How do we avoid the ego, the kind of energy which is not conducive as I understand it to the technique of self-realization?
March 29, 2025
We use the ego. We use the ego in cultivation. We use the will. And the will is definitely something that we have
When we're cultivating, we're cultivating after something we don't probably fully actually have a sense of. So we're making up our ideals of it, right? And so we're willing ourselves to some probably semi-fantasy of something, you know, right?
Even bodhisattvas are using their self and will up through many, many levels of their practice. This is where being human we have this energy, this will. And so we need to muster up that will to work on this project of cultivation.
And so it's a very thin line. It's a very thin line between using the will to, in a sense, get past will, or using the will to enhance illusory thoughts we have about ourselves that are based on the will.
And you can see it in cultivating, one of the problems with spiritual people is that line is really difficult line, because if you add any self to the achievement of any spiritual practice—whatever you pick up as something that you think you've achieved in any way—ultimately defeats whatever is that you're trying to do, right?
And you can see this all the time. If anybody knows anything about spiritual groups and stuff, there's like an infinite amount of this stuff.
Master Hua, probably his major thing was having us work really, really hard to do something really, really well, but don't attach to it at all.
So the trick is that you're working really hard on your cultivation, but at no time do you attach any identity to it: like I've actually achieved anything, or I'm somehow like special because I did anything. You just have to keep plugging along from the place of being the most simple, not attached person.
But you got to use the will at the same time. So you have to have a confidence, and you have to have a lot of will, but you just can't stop anywhere, you can't attach anywhere, you can't think you've achieved anything.
If you think you've achieved anything or you stop anywhere, then that's the end of that.
Wherever you stop, that wherever you take that on, you'll get entangled in that. And then you'll lose the spontaneousness of mind that you're actually working with every minute.
That's why you have to have precepts, because the problem with most spiritualism is that people are trying to be spiritual without precepts, and that when they try to go to the spontaneous mind at the place I'm talking about, there's a really close relationship between the spontaneous mind and the impulsive mind.
They have a lot of the same movement of euphoria, of freedom, of the spiritual and the erotic are just a split edge away from each other. Just a slight turn, one leads to entanglement, and the other leads to freedom.
And they're just the same push, they're the same energetic feel. And so that's why Shifu started precepts first, because if you don't have the precepts first, then for sure that distinction is going to be pretty hard to maintain, and you'll definitely go off.
The thing that's going to happen, as you see in most spiritual places, is that if you're not really clear at that place, then the energy of that place we're talking about could easily get entangled. And then the problem is all the people who are actually there for spiritual have a huge loss of belief and faith when it turns out that people are not actually coming from the freedom of that space, but there's still this entangled aspect.
This is one of the major reasons that Shifu's Dharma has been able to maintain, to the degree it has for all this time, is that the stress put on certain elements of like precepts and blah, blah, blah, blah that seem to a lot of people, especially in the 60s, very religious and limiting, actually were the foundation of being able to get to these realms of more spontaneous mind, where you can use the will in a really strong, powerful way without getting it entangled and so forth.
We use the ego. We use the ego in cultivation. We use the will. And the will is definitely something that we have
When we're cultivating, we're cultivating after something we don't probably fully actually have a sense of. So we're making up our ideals of it, right? And so we're willing ourselves to some probably semi-fantasy of something, you know, right?
Even bodhisattvas are using their self and will up through many, many levels of their practice. This is where being human we have this energy, this will. And so we need to muster up that will to work on this project of cultivation.
And so it's a very thin line. It's a very thin line between using the will to, in a sense, get past will, or using the will to enhance illusory thoughts we have about ourselves that are based on the will.
And you can see it in cultivating, one of the problems with spiritual people is that line is really difficult line, because if you add any self to the achievement of any spiritual practice—whatever you pick up as something that you think you've achieved in any way—ultimately defeats whatever is that you're trying to do, right?
And you can see this all the time. If anybody knows anything about spiritual groups and stuff, there's like an infinite amount of this stuff.
Master Hua, probably his major thing was having us work really, really hard to do something really, really well, but don't attach to it at all.
So the trick is that you're working really hard on your cultivation, but at no time do you attach any identity to it: like I've actually achieved anything, or I'm somehow like special because I did anything. You just have to keep plugging along from the place of being the most simple, not attached person.
But you got to use the will at the same time. So you have to have a confidence, and you have to have a lot of will, but you just can't stop anywhere, you can't attach anywhere, you can't think you've achieved anything.
If you think you've achieved anything or you stop anywhere, then that's the end of that.
Wherever you stop, that wherever you take that on, you'll get entangled in that. And then you'll lose the spontaneousness of mind that you're actually working with every minute.
That's why you have to have precepts, because the problem with most spiritualism is that people are trying to be spiritual without precepts, and that when they try to go to the spontaneous mind at the place I'm talking about, there's a really close relationship between the spontaneous mind and the impulsive mind.
They have a lot of the same movement of euphoria, of freedom, of the spiritual and the erotic are just a split edge away from each other. Just a slight turn, one leads to entanglement, and the other leads to freedom.
And they're just the same push, they're the same energetic feel. And so that's why Shifu started precepts first, because if you don't have the precepts first, then for sure that distinction is going to be pretty hard to maintain, and you'll definitely go off.
The thing that's going to happen, as you see in most spiritual places, is that if you're not really clear at that place, then the energy of that place we're talking about could easily get entangled. And then the problem is all the people who are actually there for spiritual have a huge loss of belief and faith when it turns out that people are not actually coming from the freedom of that space, but there's still this entangled aspect.
This is one of the major reasons that Shifu's Dharma has been able to maintain, to the degree it has for all this time, is that the stress put on certain elements of like precepts and blah, blah, blah, blah that seem to a lot of people, especially in the 60s, very religious and limiting, actually were the foundation of being able to get to these realms of more spontaneous mind, where you can use the will in a really strong, powerful way without getting it entangled and so forth.
Quotes from Doug's Lectures Archive:
How can I use being in meeting with someone I don't like to cultivate?
February 15, 2025
As soon as you're around another sentient being, everything is cultivation. Because sentient beings are very irritating.
So as soon as you're around other sentient beings, then you have an incredible opportunity to cultivate every minute because you can watch what's going on in your mind to relate to the other people.
You can see how much you're always gentle with the heart. You're always patient. You never lose a moment of loving kindness. You're always listening carefully to what everything's about. You don't have any idea you want to push on everybody else. You're always aiming towards the outcome and not your views. Your views become unimportant compared to the outcome.
You know what I mean? We could look at 20 or 30 things in our interaction with other people at work that would all be cultivating and changing the dynamic of the relationships.
The great thing about being around other sentient beings is if you're going to get along with them, you have to cultivate.
Basically if you don't cultivate, you can't get along with other sentient beings. Unless they're doing something for you. Unless there's something you want that they're very, very wanting to help you with, then you get along pretty good as long as they're doing it for you. But as soon as they're not doing it for you, then they are very irritating. And of course, if they do something that doesn't agree with you, they're really irritating.
As soon as we're with other people, that's the ground of cultivation.
If you look at Shifu's teaching, he didn't send us out into the woods to meditate. He put everybody together, the CTTB, in total chaos.
He said, "Meditate in here because if you can make progress with these people, having a little bit of patience and trying to actually get something done that isn't just your point of view against everybody else's, then the Dharma will actually grow as you guys get along and actually make any progress in your cultivation.
And whatever progress you think you're making in your own mind that's not being carried out in the interactions of all these people isn't real. It's just something you're making up.
As soon as you're around another sentient being, everything is cultivation. Because sentient beings are very irritating.
So as soon as you're around other sentient beings, then you have an incredible opportunity to cultivate every minute because you can watch what's going on in your mind to relate to the other people.
You can see how much you're always gentle with the heart. You're always patient. You never lose a moment of loving kindness. You're always listening carefully to what everything's about. You don't have any idea you want to push on everybody else. You're always aiming towards the outcome and not your views. Your views become unimportant compared to the outcome.
You know what I mean? We could look at 20 or 30 things in our interaction with other people at work that would all be cultivating and changing the dynamic of the relationships.
The great thing about being around other sentient beings is if you're going to get along with them, you have to cultivate.
Basically if you don't cultivate, you can't get along with other sentient beings. Unless they're doing something for you. Unless there's something you want that they're very, very wanting to help you with, then you get along pretty good as long as they're doing it for you. But as soon as they're not doing it for you, then they are very irritating. And of course, if they do something that doesn't agree with you, they're really irritating.
As soon as we're with other people, that's the ground of cultivation.
If you look at Shifu's teaching, he didn't send us out into the woods to meditate. He put everybody together, the CTTB, in total chaos.
He said, "Meditate in here because if you can make progress with these people, having a little bit of patience and trying to actually get something done that isn't just your point of view against everybody else's, then the Dharma will actually grow as you guys get along and actually make any progress in your cultivation.
And whatever progress you think you're making in your own mind that's not being carried out in the interactions of all these people isn't real. It's just something you're making up.
Quotes from Doug's Lectures Archive:
How can I turn what we are doing at work, like spreadsheets, into exercises for cultivation?
February 8, 2025
Well, you know, all the things you're doing is using the same enlightened mind. There's never a moment that you're not using the enlightened mind, no matter if you're doing a spreadsheet or not.
You have to realize that it's all using the same mind, but it's using it in a different way.
If you really worked at it, you could use every moment, stay a slight distance away from the activity and actually observe the awareness of the activity.
But again, the actual concentration on the spreadsheet and doing it strategically efficiently could be a good use of concentration because the main reason people can't get stuff done is because their mind's being taken off on all other kinds of stuff instead of staying efficiently on that.
You can use the meditation mind to be much more effective and strategic, but you just have to realize that that is using it in a non-reflective way. It's using it externally into the condition, not reflecting back on itself in terms of actually seeing the foundation of it.
You don't want to confuse the two, but it's not completely different. And in fact, this is why there's a direct relationship between blessings and success.
Go back to what blessings are: ability to have virtue, concentration, stillness, awareness. You can put that to work in a worldly way and have strategic aspects that figures out how to, with no effort at all. And many people are successful.
The problem is that it doesn't go anywhere. It uses up blessing and it creates confusion.
But it's not a different concentration. It's the same concentration. It's the same mind. It's the same Buddha mind. But if it's used outside the conditional, then you only get something conditional.
And it will change. Everything conditional will change. So you can maybe be successful for some amount of time using it that way but at the end of the day, you don't gain anything in any profound sense because you just gain something in the conditional sense.
Well, you know, all the things you're doing is using the same enlightened mind. There's never a moment that you're not using the enlightened mind, no matter if you're doing a spreadsheet or not.
You have to realize that it's all using the same mind, but it's using it in a different way.
If you really worked at it, you could use every moment, stay a slight distance away from the activity and actually observe the awareness of the activity.
But again, the actual concentration on the spreadsheet and doing it strategically efficiently could be a good use of concentration because the main reason people can't get stuff done is because their mind's being taken off on all other kinds of stuff instead of staying efficiently on that.
You can use the meditation mind to be much more effective and strategic, but you just have to realize that that is using it in a non-reflective way. It's using it externally into the condition, not reflecting back on itself in terms of actually seeing the foundation of it.
You don't want to confuse the two, but it's not completely different. And in fact, this is why there's a direct relationship between blessings and success.
Go back to what blessings are: ability to have virtue, concentration, stillness, awareness. You can put that to work in a worldly way and have strategic aspects that figures out how to, with no effort at all. And many people are successful.
The problem is that it doesn't go anywhere. It uses up blessing and it creates confusion.
But it's not a different concentration. It's the same concentration. It's the same mind. It's the same Buddha mind. But if it's used outside the conditional, then you only get something conditional.
And it will change. Everything conditional will change. So you can maybe be successful for some amount of time using it that way but at the end of the day, you don't gain anything in any profound sense because you just gain something in the conditional sense.
Quotes from Doug's Lectures Archive:
Sometimes I just let others have what they want just to keep peace, but then I don't feel good about it and the true feeling ends up coming out.
February 2, 2025
You know, first of all, I have to say you're attached to peace. Recognize and cop to that, okay?
Because we can be attached to anything, you know. We can be attached to peace. We can be attached to a very good thing.
Peace is not a bad thing, right? But in the context that we're talking about right now, it's a lack of freedom of mind though because you're looking for, in conditional situations, where "I can be at peace."
You'll see that a lot of being at peace is self. I'm not critical. I mean, we're all self. The self likes to be at peace, I don't disagree at all. I think it's a wonderful thing to be at peace. So don't get me wrong.
But do you see in you wanting to be at peace there's already an attachment, even though it's to something really good. And that attachment keeps you seeing, in the dynamics with other sentient beings, the interaction with them and what's actually going on in that process of them.
There's already a judgmentalism or a reaction or interpretation of their actions as occurring in your interpretation of being at peace or whatever.
So from this view, it's not that you're not paying attention to it. But you're still where the self has an opinion or an attachment, and then seeing how to experience it.
Can you experience the other person, not from the place of that self that like peace, but from the place of their actual process of their karmic conditions? What about the no place that doesn't like peace or not like peace?
And that's not a less aware place. That's not a nihilistic place. It's not an avoidance place. Is that right?
You know, first of all, I have to say you're attached to peace. Recognize and cop to that, okay?
Because we can be attached to anything, you know. We can be attached to peace. We can be attached to a very good thing.
Peace is not a bad thing, right? But in the context that we're talking about right now, it's a lack of freedom of mind though because you're looking for, in conditional situations, where "I can be at peace."
You'll see that a lot of being at peace is self. I'm not critical. I mean, we're all self. The self likes to be at peace, I don't disagree at all. I think it's a wonderful thing to be at peace. So don't get me wrong.
But do you see in you wanting to be at peace there's already an attachment, even though it's to something really good. And that attachment keeps you seeing, in the dynamics with other sentient beings, the interaction with them and what's actually going on in that process of them.
There's already a judgmentalism or a reaction or interpretation of their actions as occurring in your interpretation of being at peace or whatever.
So from this view, it's not that you're not paying attention to it. But you're still where the self has an opinion or an attachment, and then seeing how to experience it.
Can you experience the other person, not from the place of that self that like peace, but from the place of their actual process of their karmic conditions? What about the no place that doesn't like peace or not like peace?
And that's not a less aware place. That's not a nihilistic place. It's not an avoidance place. Is that right?
Quotes from the Archive: Doug's Lectures
January 25, 2025
It wasn't being filial to your parents, bowing to them. It was recognizing that in the family relationships, you already have conditional ties that are so profound and so strong and make up probably three quarters of your existence in the eighth consciousness of this lifetime of all your reactions and interpretations of those experiences.
That if you lose track to what those dynamics are, you lose track to your own mind.
With family, you can't do that in the same way as with friendship because you cannot not deal with family, whether you like it or not, whether you're with them or not, because a third, a half, or whatever of your actual unconscious psyche is your interpretations and reactions of your relationships with your parents, siblings and so forth in the first 9, 10, 12, 15 years of life, right?
From the time I started in the Monastery until I took my parents through dying in their house at 97, one of the most interesting things is going back with your parents and seeing the transformation over like 50 years of your cultivation. And the level at which your interaction with your parents is constantly changing as you're uncovering the dynamic of that reactive qualities of your personality.
As you're with your parents, you actually see yourself reacting in the same way and them reacting in the same way, you know what I'm saying? And then you see more and more and more of those dynamics and how they work, and it's actually a major element of freeing yourself from them.
Filial piety is a major way of seeing, in the actual dynamic, how those dynamics have created the construct of your unconscious that's reacting in a certain kind of way.
Seed Reflection Questions
Does Doug's perspective on filial piety shines a different light on your relationship with your family?
In what way would you change the way you interact with them?
It wasn't being filial to your parents, bowing to them. It was recognizing that in the family relationships, you already have conditional ties that are so profound and so strong and make up probably three quarters of your existence in the eighth consciousness of this lifetime of all your reactions and interpretations of those experiences.
That if you lose track to what those dynamics are, you lose track to your own mind.
With family, you can't do that in the same way as with friendship because you cannot not deal with family, whether you like it or not, whether you're with them or not, because a third, a half, or whatever of your actual unconscious psyche is your interpretations and reactions of your relationships with your parents, siblings and so forth in the first 9, 10, 12, 15 years of life, right?
From the time I started in the Monastery until I took my parents through dying in their house at 97, one of the most interesting things is going back with your parents and seeing the transformation over like 50 years of your cultivation. And the level at which your interaction with your parents is constantly changing as you're uncovering the dynamic of that reactive qualities of your personality.
As you're with your parents, you actually see yourself reacting in the same way and them reacting in the same way, you know what I'm saying? And then you see more and more and more of those dynamics and how they work, and it's actually a major element of freeing yourself from them.
Filial piety is a major way of seeing, in the actual dynamic, how those dynamics have created the construct of your unconscious that's reacting in a certain kind of way.
Seed Reflection Questions
Does Doug's perspective on filial piety shines a different light on your relationship with your family?
In what way would you change the way you interact with them?
Quotes from the Archive: Doug's Lectures
January 18, 2025
Yogacara gives you a purpose to your cultivation. It takes your cultivation and organizes and structures it. It helps you see what you're doing in meditation: stilling the sixth consciousness so it has some space to observe from.
And then you see, “Oh, to the degree I can still it, I have some space to see. I can see the power of the emotion that arises. Well, some emotions have a lot of power and some don't. Well, that's because they were planted with more or less charge and I paid more attention to them with a certain amount of desire.”
It tells you, “Oh, well, that's highly charged. I can't get rid of that emotion.” Well, then you might have to use an artificial means of repression. Some require repression, some don't. Many pass through without any effect at all.
You have to get to know yourself. How do you get to know yourself? Know the charge of what's arising so that you know where your weaknesses are and what takes over your consciousness faster than other things. Is it food? Is it cars? Is it feeling lonely? Is it not getting enough appreciation from people?
I mean, where's your problem? You’ve got some problems. I don't know what it is. But something happened that you bought into that’s now your narrative and you now use to read everything through.
You're gonna have to get rid of that narrative in order to cultivate because whatever narrative that you come here with has all your weaknesses, problems, issues, and your interpretations built into your "self". That self right now is your biggest problem because you read everything through that narrative. You’ve gotta get rid of that.
So, why Yogacara? To get rid of self and have something to put in the place of self, which is just a mechanism of a process of change. There’s nothing there in the eighth consciousness. There's nothing there in the world's receptacle. There's nothing anywhere. There's just a flow of thoughts and emotions and so forth.
Yogacara gives you a purpose to your cultivation. It takes your cultivation and organizes and structures it. It helps you see what you're doing in meditation: stilling the sixth consciousness so it has some space to observe from.
And then you see, “Oh, to the degree I can still it, I have some space to see. I can see the power of the emotion that arises. Well, some emotions have a lot of power and some don't. Well, that's because they were planted with more or less charge and I paid more attention to them with a certain amount of desire.”
It tells you, “Oh, well, that's highly charged. I can't get rid of that emotion.” Well, then you might have to use an artificial means of repression. Some require repression, some don't. Many pass through without any effect at all.
You have to get to know yourself. How do you get to know yourself? Know the charge of what's arising so that you know where your weaknesses are and what takes over your consciousness faster than other things. Is it food? Is it cars? Is it feeling lonely? Is it not getting enough appreciation from people?
I mean, where's your problem? You’ve got some problems. I don't know what it is. But something happened that you bought into that’s now your narrative and you now use to read everything through.
You're gonna have to get rid of that narrative in order to cultivate because whatever narrative that you come here with has all your weaknesses, problems, issues, and your interpretations built into your "self". That self right now is your biggest problem because you read everything through that narrative. You’ve gotta get rid of that.
So, why Yogacara? To get rid of self and have something to put in the place of self, which is just a mechanism of a process of change. There’s nothing there in the eighth consciousness. There's nothing there in the world's receptacle. There's nothing anywhere. There's just a flow of thoughts and emotions and so forth.
Quotes from the Archive: Doug's Lectures
January 11, 2025
Mindfulness, you're watching the mind, watching when it moves. Watching. That's why I say all the time, particularly look at irritation and judgment. You know when your irritation is arising, that the self has been messed with in some way and you're already on your way to something.
If you can see, you can use these markers. If you could just not be irritated so much, that's more important than all the sitting. In terms of your karmic conditions, to not be irritated for seven days is a more powerful effect karmically than sitting three hours a day and then getting irritated.
If you notice if you sit more, you can get more irritated. I don't know if anybody finds this. In other words, you’ve got to be very careful because if you get attached to meditation in a certain kind of way, then everybody's irritating you because they're messing with your stillness.
Okay, well, yeah, they're messing with your stillness, but the thing is that you're really working at the level where you're not getting irritated. You're not just working at a level where your stillness is in an artificial samadhi. You see what I'm trying to say?
Mindfulness, you're watching the mind, watching when it moves. Watching. That's why I say all the time, particularly look at irritation and judgment. You know when your irritation is arising, that the self has been messed with in some way and you're already on your way to something.
If you can see, you can use these markers. If you could just not be irritated so much, that's more important than all the sitting. In terms of your karmic conditions, to not be irritated for seven days is a more powerful effect karmically than sitting three hours a day and then getting irritated.
If you notice if you sit more, you can get more irritated. I don't know if anybody finds this. In other words, you’ve got to be very careful because if you get attached to meditation in a certain kind of way, then everybody's irritating you because they're messing with your stillness.
Okay, well, yeah, they're messing with your stillness, but the thing is that you're really working at the level where you're not getting irritated. You're not just working at a level where your stillness is in an artificial samadhi. You see what I'm trying to say?
Quotes from Doug's Lectures Archive:
So, what can I do with the irritation that arise?
January 5, 2025
I pretty much will say, you know, a person's kind of doing their cultivation is as good as their lack of irritation. You move the amount that you're involved with people to the level of the ability to not get irritated. You become a Bodhisattva to the degree you don't become irritated.
Right now, you can't take yourself. Once you can learn to take yourself and not get irritated—which is a big project—you take on one other person and then that's really irritating. One other person? That's beyond the pale. Okay? Then once you've worked on one person, you could try another. You know, a friend. Remember, we go through this in the Path of Purification.
Start with yourself, loving-kindness toward yourself, then move towards one other person. It suggests taking a teacher or something rather than a friend and don't start with an enemy. It's too much and you're gonna fail, okay? You can work your way through until you develop a sense of this at a larger and larger scale, and that's your process of becoming a Bodhisattva.
It's just the scale of your ability to deal with other living beings as you find them without getting upset or, you know, irritated. At least start by not being irritated with them all. Okay. Does everybody see what I'm saying?
Seed Reflection Questions
Does using loving-kindness in the place of irritation work for you?
Does it work in the moment when you are getting irritated, or does it work better when you step away from the heated situation?
I pretty much will say, you know, a person's kind of doing their cultivation is as good as their lack of irritation. You move the amount that you're involved with people to the level of the ability to not get irritated. You become a Bodhisattva to the degree you don't become irritated.
Right now, you can't take yourself. Once you can learn to take yourself and not get irritated—which is a big project—you take on one other person and then that's really irritating. One other person? That's beyond the pale. Okay? Then once you've worked on one person, you could try another. You know, a friend. Remember, we go through this in the Path of Purification.
Start with yourself, loving-kindness toward yourself, then move towards one other person. It suggests taking a teacher or something rather than a friend and don't start with an enemy. It's too much and you're gonna fail, okay? You can work your way through until you develop a sense of this at a larger and larger scale, and that's your process of becoming a Bodhisattva.
It's just the scale of your ability to deal with other living beings as you find them without getting upset or, you know, irritated. At least start by not being irritated with them all. Okay. Does everybody see what I'm saying?
Seed Reflection Questions
Does using loving-kindness in the place of irritation work for you?
Does it work in the moment when you are getting irritated, or does it work better when you step away from the heated situation?
Quotes from Doug's Lectures Archive:
Why do I get irritated by the same person all the time?
December 28, 2024
The two things to watch all the time for the self are irritation and judgment. Irritation and judgments arising: self is there.
In an interaction, you can see when irritation is arising when the self is reemerging into the space. It's not giving the other person space because they're not doing things the way you want or you're not being recognized. Some insecurity of yourself or desire is being triggered, and now that causes irritation.
You're not actually relating to somebody when you're irritated. You are relating to your irritation, right? Then you get really justified and it turns into anger. The self then has full rein and you're absolutely right. Your self is in its full glory and anger. Anger and the self is justified in every way, and the energy of it is so wonderful. It feels really good and if you can find somebody else to join in, it's even better.
You want to see how well you're doing? I always figured that I'm doing as well as my worst moment. I'm not doing as well as my best moment. My best moment was artificial. My worst moment was probably where I'm really at, okay?
I'm particularly interested in irritation because that gets to being upset, and angry, and judgmental. It goes down a road very quickly and gets you really caught up in some really fierce stuff.
If you can stay away from that place where the irritation is arising, it gives you a lot of freedom in interacting with people, with yourself. It shows you where the issue is really arising in yourself, where the self is being messed with in some kind of way. We all have different dynamics of what we get irritated at.
Seed Reflection Question
What triggers your irritation? Is it difficult to look at it or is it possible to have a sense of humor about it?
The two things to watch all the time for the self are irritation and judgment. Irritation and judgments arising: self is there.
In an interaction, you can see when irritation is arising when the self is reemerging into the space. It's not giving the other person space because they're not doing things the way you want or you're not being recognized. Some insecurity of yourself or desire is being triggered, and now that causes irritation.
You're not actually relating to somebody when you're irritated. You are relating to your irritation, right? Then you get really justified and it turns into anger. The self then has full rein and you're absolutely right. Your self is in its full glory and anger. Anger and the self is justified in every way, and the energy of it is so wonderful. It feels really good and if you can find somebody else to join in, it's even better.
You want to see how well you're doing? I always figured that I'm doing as well as my worst moment. I'm not doing as well as my best moment. My best moment was artificial. My worst moment was probably where I'm really at, okay?
I'm particularly interested in irritation because that gets to being upset, and angry, and judgmental. It goes down a road very quickly and gets you really caught up in some really fierce stuff.
If you can stay away from that place where the irritation is arising, it gives you a lot of freedom in interacting with people, with yourself. It shows you where the issue is really arising in yourself, where the self is being messed with in some kind of way. We all have different dynamics of what we get irritated at.
Seed Reflection Question
What triggers your irritation? Is it difficult to look at it or is it possible to have a sense of humor about it?
