ACI 1 «Основные учения буддизма», занятие 7

ACI Course I, Class Seven: Bodhichitta and it Benefits
July 29, 1993
transcribed by: Louise Rosenthal



[unclear] That is the same thing as {sem kye}...{chang sem}[repeat], {sem kye}
[repeat], {chang sem}[repeat], {sem kye}[repeat]. Okay. {Chang} stands for...
{changchub}...so half of that stands for {changchub}.     {Changchub} means
Buddhahood. The {chang} part means "to clean out, to clean away", and the
Buddha has {chang}ed his two obstacles, what are those?

[student: Bad deeds.]

Yeah. One is an ob...one is a, what do you call it, obstacle to knowledge and one
is an obstacle consisting of bad thoughts, and he has removed both, he's the only
being who has removed both. Once you remove both you are Buddha. The
word 'buddh' means to like wake up...but the Tibetans translated it as
{changchub}.     {Chang} means "to clean", {chub} means "to understand, to
comprehend". So the word for buddha in a...one of the words for Buddha, or
Buddhahood, in tibetan, is the person who has cleaned out those two obstacles,
and who has spread, or who comprehends all objects of knowledge.
Simultaneously, in one instant, the Buddha knows everything. He's omniscient.
Is he omnipotent? Can he do anything he wants?

[students: No.]

No. Okay. Cannot. If he could there would not be cancer, there would not be
horrible car accidents, okay? Those sufferings would not exist, if he, if he had the
power to, you know, say, oh it shouldn't be like that, he would absolutely,
definitely do it.

[student: Because of his compassion.]

Yeah, of course, and his knowledge...he knows about it, he cares about it...so
he'd definitely do something, but he can't, it's our own karma, right? Okay,
{sem} means "mind".

[student, Fran Dayan: I'm sorry, he has no...he has omniscience but not what?]
Omnipotence. He is not omnipotent. The christian god or the, the western god,
the jewish god or the christian god is supposed to be omniscient, he knows all
things, he's supposed to be also omnipotent, which means that he...

[student: He couldn't be compassionate, right?]

Apparently not. [laughs] [laughter] I mean that's pretty bad. It's a, I mean I, I a, I
don't debate christianity much 'cause it's not, I mean it's better to concentrate on
your own practice. But, yeah, that one point is pretty insurmountable. [laughs]
[laughter] All right, {sem} means "mind". So this is a...the sanskrit word for this is
what? The sanskrit word for {chang} alone is...is 'boddhi'.

[student: [unclear] {chang} or {changchub}?]

Both let's say.

[student: They're both?]

Yeah. Together.

[student: Boddhi is {changchub}?]

Yeah.

[student: Michael, is there an expression, {changchub kyi sang}?]

Yeah.

[student: Is that the same as {chang sem}?]

Same, yeah, it's common to make a tibetan two syllable word out of a four
syllable word, they love two syllable words.

[student: 'Cause they love to what?]

They love two syllable words. Okay? So this is the tibetan word for boddhi-
chitta. You sometimes see chitta spelled this way...it's because in...they mean to
differentiate between two chow sounds, so they use like the italian, 'chu', yeah,
okay? But, a, I don't think they sh...you know, that's only for scholars, so they
know which sanskrit letter they use and it's...I think it's incorrect to use it in a
book, because people will say 'boddhikitta'. It's, it's only to differentiate between
two letters that we don't have in english anyway. Okay? Boddhichitta. The first
thing to notice about this...I, I'll give you its definition, the rough definition,
okay? The wish to achieve enlightenment...for all beings. And it grows out of
renunciation because renunciation is fed up with the suffering of this life, for
yourself, and a lot of people didn't get that quite straight on that last homework,
and {chang sem}, boddhichitta, looks at other peoples, "Oh, they have the same
problem I have, they have the same suffering I have." Renunci...the, the state of
mind, Kyabje Pabongkha says, is the same state of mind...renunciation and
boddhichitta, the wish to achieve enlightenment, are the same thing. Same
feeling. It's just that one is focused at just me, and the other is focused at all
sentient beings. But it's the same state of mind, to want to get out of suffering.

[student: Did you say it grows out of renunciation or goes out, what did you
say?]

Aahh, you have to have renunciation first because, you can only have
compassion by truly understanding...it's not compassion for someone who
doesn't have a house, or someone who's got cancer, or someone who's got AIDS
or something like that, it's compassion for anyone who has samsara, or who is
{samsama}, which means what? Those five impure heaps, that they can't stop,
okay?

[student, John Stilwell: So, so what you're saying then, that boddhichitta is really
feeling for the root of their suffering not the external manifestations of their
sufferings.]

Yeah, no, no. It, it's concerned for their samsara. [unclear] I mean of course that
will be a natural outcome of having boddhichitta, is that, you know, you would
try to help homeless people and things like that. It's, it's kind of...be suspicious of
people who talk about boddhichitta but not helping the guy next to them, you
know? It seems so...probably a little strange, you know.

[student, Vilma Staiano: So then you would feel the same toward everyone.]

Yeah, 'cause everyone has these five parts. Everybody has the same problem. I
like to think of it as a...I was on a plane one time, going to Chicago and, they
made us...they circled for a long time, they started to go like that. Then they
said, we think we're going to crash now and ah, please take your shoes off and
take off all jewelry, 'cause as the plane burns, it'll burn through your fingers and,
you'll be able to run faster if you don't have shoes on, and, you know, and then
they said, now get down like this and, and, you know, then they started to crack
up, you know...

[student: Then they say April fools? Or a.]

No, it was like a...and the, the emotion in the plane was a few people cracked up
and then at most people got this most incredible feeling of brotherhood, like,
okay, I might die right now so, you know...

[student: Here's my watch friend.]

[laughter] No...we felt this love between people because you're all in the same
situation, like you're all gonna die in the next ten minutes or not, you know?
And you felt this real incredible love for each other, and at, at that point, as the
plane's coming down, you, you don't get this thing of, oh, I don't like this guy's
face or this guy, his elbow hit me when he put his seatbelt on. [laughter] It,
it...the time is gone, you know, all you're thinking is, well, I might die with all
these people, let's be, you know, let's be warm to each other, we were really
warm to each other, it was incredible, you know and then...we didn't die, so.
[laughter] We were, we were exactly in the same situation. I mean, if you think
about it, you are in...we are currently, you know all of us suffering, it's the same
situation. In, in Kyabje, I mean Je Tsongkhapa says, if you fell off a cliff with
somebody else, would you argue on the way down, you know, I don't like your
breath, you know, I don't like your face. [laughter] We're all in the same
situation, I mean, we all have fallen off the cliff already, the plane is going down,
I mean, so be nice to each other, what else do you have to, to do, you know?
You're all gonna die shortly, so why fight? I think...who was it, some Perry, or
something like that...he went to the north pole, he didn't make it, he's in a small
house, it's like nineteen twenty, for hundreds of miles it, it snows like twenty
feet deep. He knows he's gonna die, but he has like five days to think about
it...and, and his journal is very beautiful and towards the end he seems to get like
this feeling, he said, he said you know, his last entry said like, my god, please
take care of other hu...please take care of humanity, or something like that, his,
his reaction was some kind of love for everyone, you know, 'cause he had
nothing else...he knows he's gonna die, and he got this very mellow sweet
feeling, you know...and that's what it is, simply. Okay, {chang sem}. {Sem kye}
means the same thing. Normally you'll hear it referred to in tibetan as {sem
kya}. When we talk about the three principle paths we use {chang sem}. It
means the same thing...okay?

[student: What's {kye}?]

{Kye} means "to develop" or "grow".

[student, Paul: {Samsem} still means mind in both cases.]

Yeah. So I ask you, is boddhimind...if you have boddhimind, are you necessarily
a buddha? Can you get boddhimind before you become a buddha?

[student: You have to get it before, much before.]

[student, John Stilwell: That's not all the aggregates, that's part of the aggregates
being cleaned.]

But isn't boddhimind the mind of a buddha?

[student, John Stilwell: Yeah, [unclear] ]

Yeah, it is not the mind of a buddha, so people translate it sometimes as
boddhimind it's a very dangerous translation. Makes people think that this is the
mind of a buddha, it's not. It's the mind which would like to become a buddha,
okay? It's the state of mind in which you would like to be a buddha, okay, but
boddhimind does not mean buddhamind...different thing, okay? {Chang sem},
boddhichitta, doesn't refer to the mind of a buddha. Yeah.

[student, Paul: So unlike boddhisattva then, buddhas wouldn't have boddhichitta
anymore.]

Why?

[student, Paul: Because if you're wishing for something that you already are, I
mean, it makes no sense.]

There's a big debate about it in the monastery.

[student, Paul: No, I mean I know that the debate about whether buddhas are
still boddhisattvas or not I can understand that, but, on the other hand...]
Well they still have desire to be a buddha. In fact, buddhas still go for refuge.

[student, Paul: So while not all beings who have boddhichitta are buddhas, all
buddhas have boddhichitta.]

Yeah, so I want to go through the combination, okay? Just so you know, I mean
these are technical things. You become a boddhisattva...when you get {chang
sem}. {Chang sem}, when the first moment of {chang sem} arises in your mind,
you are a boddhisattva.      They are simultaneous.       What makes you a
boddhisattva is having {chang sem}.

[student, John Stilwell:     Just the aspiration?    Just the thought of aspiration
[unclear]?]

It has to be really, really powerful and deep.          We distinguish between
preliminary boddhichitta and real boddhichitta. There is a boddhichitta that you
can get before that, they call it sugarcane boddhichitta because it's really sweet
but it's hollow on the inside [laughter] meaning it's not really powerful yet, it's
not really the real thing.

[student: So this is the real...]

Yeah this is the real thing, [unclear] yeah, yeah, yeah, and very difficult. There's
a joke in tibetan, when you do the {sangye chudang tsokyi choknam la}, the
second part of that is, is the wish. It's called, 'the wish'. And people say, well I
got the wish 'cause I recited that before class...look, it's not that easy, y'know, it's
one of the hardest things in the world to do. This wish means...it's not just a wish
that you were a buddha, it's like some incredibly strong state of mind which we
will get into next week, next class.

[student: I thought that they were only boddhisattva until you perceived
emptiness directly.]

Now I'm about to talk about that.

[student: Okay.]

Alright?

[student:   Michael?     One final question.    Is one of the characteristics of true
boddhichitta that it is irreversible or could you have it and lose it?             Real
boddhichitta.]

It's, it's, it's...you will study in [b: Amisamancara], which is the perfection of
wisdom, which is your next course. It takes us twelve years in the monastery,
you may do it in like in one year...there are certain subjects which are set aside,
they're taken...in fact, this is the textbook, I, I helped edit it. These, these texts
were missing until about five years ago, a lot of them, and we recovered them,
in fact, there's still some pages missing and we had to write, you know, a note
that says, one page gone, can't find in Tibet for thirty years.

[student, John Stilwell: What do you mean they were, were recovered?]

There were just no copies available, they were burned by the Chinese.

[student, John Stilwell: How did you...where'd you find them?]

We found like one piece of it over there, one piece of it over there, one
piece...collected pieces from all over and we reconst...we got it all back together
but in here there's a separate subject on...it, it is a separate subject called, {sam an
top su}, which means there's fifteen combinations of paths, if you reach
boddhisattva can you, can you go down? If you perceive emptiness can you
reverse? If you reach nirvana are you automatically a boddhisattva? Like that.
It's a whole subject, it takes a long time to study. Basically speaking, I'll give you
the guts of it right, right now. You're a boddhisattva, yeah?

[student: I'm sorry. Is that commentaries on the perfection of wisdom sutra?]

Yeah, yeah, commentary on commentary on commentary t' commentary t'
commentary.

[student: Plus the, the text from the original.]

No. They never redid it. They memorize a few lines of it sometimes, but, but,
these are more clear because the originals are like...code word, you can't
understand it unless you studied it for years...okay. Where were we? So you
get, you get, you become a boddhisattva by getting boddhichitta, when you get
boddhichitta you are a boddhisattva. How does that relate to seeing emptiness?
You can be a boddhisattva long before you ever see emptiness directly...and
even long before you even understand it intellectually, you can become a
boddhisattva.

[student: But isn't that the first {boomi}, to see emptiness directly?]

We'll get there. [laughs] Now, I'll cover that, don't worry.

[student: Right now, okay.]

If you like I'll cover it now...I wasn't going to, okay. So, so achieving the wish to
help all other beings can occur long before you understand emptiness even
intellectually. Much less directly. Now what if you...excuse me.

[student: You also said without being aware that you've achieved [unclear]]

No, not that [unclear] definitely not. Even before you directly perceive
emptiness, long before you directly perceive emptiness you can achieve
boddhichitta.

[student, Vilma Staiano: And even intellectually.]

And even before you intellectually understand emptiness, you do achieve
boddhichitta. Now what happens if you have boddhichitta in your mind...once
you get it in your mind it's like water and a sponge, okay, it's all over your
mind...and then you perceive emptiness directly?             This is like dynamite,
nitroglycerine and dynamite, you know? Then you, you've reached the first,
what we call {boomi}, or the first level...there's ten levels of boddhisattva levels,
okay? So you can be a boddhisattva long before you reach the first boddhisattva
level. The first boddhisattva level, and perceiving emptiness directly, with
boddhichitta in your heart, is, is to achieve the first {boomi}. But you...I wasn't
going to get into that, you don't have to worry about it.

[students: [unclear] ]

[unclear] third try.

[student: Can you repeat that? The first boddhisat...]

I didn't want to really get into that but, what we call, boomi, or the first
boddhisattva level, occurs when a person who already has boddhichitta in his
mind, who's already got boddhichitta, perceives emptiness directly...that
moment, of perceiving emptiness directly and reaching the first boddhisattva
{boomi}, are simultaneous.

[student:   Is {boomi} the...is that translated as level or is that something
different?]

Yeah, they call it earth, level...in the tib...literally, it means "earth".

[student: Ground.]

Ground, in some places it's called ground. It means "level". Sometimes they
mistr...they mangle it as ground, I mean it's one of those...it means literally
ground, it means level.

[student:    So the first boddhisattva level and the first {boomi} are the same
thing.]

Yeah, {boomi} is, means "boddhisattva level". {Boomi} is the sanskrit word for
boddhisattva.

[student: So wait a minute, but you're saying you can't, you can't reach the first
boddhisattva ground until you also perceived...]

Emptiness directly. With boddhichitta in your heart. You have to have
boddhichitta in your heart, and then see emptiness directly, at that, that is the
first {boomi}. Simultaneous, but you don't need to know these things.

[student, John Stilwell: Do you make a distinction between having it in your
mind and having it in your heart?]

No, I mean the same thing.

[student: Well isn't there a distinction made between...seems to me it's actually in
this book...between actually having the wish, strongly and, acting?]

Yeah, once you already have boddhichitta, there's two levels inside. We'll get
there. Okay, so that's boddhichitta, alright? The wish to achieve Buddhahood.
Sometimes they call it {sem kye} which means...which means {changchub du
semkye}, to generate or to develop the wish to achieve Buddhahood, alright? So
{sem kye} is a, is an idiom, {sem kye} is a synonym for {chang sem}. We're
gonna call it {chang sem} in this class, but you, you will probably hear it more
often referred to as {sem kye}.

[student: What was the word you put in between {changchub}]

{Changchub du}, {du} means "to".

[student: I know, but, what, how is it translated?]

{Du}, {du} looks like this...to get the desir...to, to, to develop the wish to, which is
{du}, become a buddha, to get to Buddhahood.

[student: Well I never know if it's gonna be t or d, it depends on the system.]

It a, there is no english equivalent, it is between a t and a d and that's why people
fight about it and it's a silly fight because there is no english letter, okay. As you
will learn one day, when I trick you into studying tibetan. [laughs] {Changchub
gyi sem} is the long form of this. Not {sempa}. {Sempa} can mean something
[unclear]

[silence]

And it makes sense right? Because {chang chub}...{chang sem} is a kind of a
renunciation, right? It's just renunciation focused at other people, you can have it
a long time before you understand the true nature of reality. Is it hot?

[students: Yes, yeah.]

I, I don't know what's happening with the air conditioning. It's usually pretty
good. Is it on the right thing? Is it cool, is it coming out? If you want to crack the
door, it's alright.

[students: No, no,no,no,no.]

Probably just as hot outside. Just continue in India. They make you wear your
full robe. The first year no one told me you didn't have to wear a wool robe,
you know? [laughs] {Chang chub}[repeat], say {chang chub} [repeat], {sempa}
[repeat], {chang chub}[repeat], {sempa}[repeat]. {Chang chub} means "boddhi",
right? "Buddhahood". {Sem} means "mind", right? And I love the word {pa}. {Pa}
means "warrior".
[students: Warrior?]

[student: They say that on the other [unclear] thing [unclear].]

[student: Couldn't it be a people also? A people?]

No, warrior. In mongolian it's [unclear]

[student: Is that why it's complex?]

Huh?

[student: That why it's complex?]

No, no, no, no. That's a different [unclear].

[student, Nitia: So I've just develop boddhichitta Michael, but [unclear] again,
how do you develop boddhichitta?]

That's what we're gonna to do this class and next. Actually next class.

[student: 'Cause somehow I, they, you explain it already, partly...to develop
renunciation in other [unclear] ]

It really is renunciation and it's, and it's...you know, no one really got it clearly
and I guess I didn't explain it clearly, but it's, it's just renunciation focused on
other people. All other people. Okay, {chang chub sempa} means, you know,
"boddhi-mind warrior", which is boddhisattva. This is the tibetan word for
boddhisattva.      Okay person who has...what?              Person who has what?
Boddhichitta. Anyone who has the real true wish to achieve enlightenment to, in
order to help all other beings, is automatically a boddhisattva, a warrior
[unclear].

[student: Is that the same {pa} that they put on the end of like {gelukpa}?]

No, no, not at all, that's a simple p, p, {pa} It only occurs like at the end of
Vajrasattva, that's the -sattva in boddhisattva.

[student: In what?]
Vajrasattva.

[student: There's a {pa} in there?]

Yeah, there's a warrior there too. He's a warrior of the diamond.

[student, Paul: Dorje Sempa, in Tibet, Dorje Sempa. So the {va} is the warrior
part of the sanskrit. ]

Yeah, no, the -sattva. Sattva means "warrior".

[student: Oh {sempa} together means warrior?]

No, {pa}...but sometimes {sempa} also, yeah.

[student: Why is {sempa} together though, is that the mind of the warrior?
Mind of a warrior courageous or something? ]

[unclear] It is. I've never seen it really explained like that. I mean satt-va is...
[unclear] satt means "truth"...I dunno...okay.

[silence]

[student, Paul: So what does that fit into the understanding of the word?             I
mean, it seems like you mentioned it but haven't connected it to anything.]

I think...

[student: Some sort of lion heart or something?]

Yeah. I, I think most basically...we'll get into it, it's right here. Okay?

[silence]

[student: Michael, what page is that on? ]

It's not clearly, I mean, you won't be able to pick it out of the text. I can tell you
it's on page forty-two. But, but it's spread out throughout those two pages so I'm
just gonna sort of collate it for you. It's line four if you're interested, line three.
I'm gonna start giving you a long list, of which on your quiz, I can tell you in
advance you're only responsible for...

[student, Nitia: Six!]

Of, of just what boddhichitta can do for you, [unclear] boddhichitta. This, this
part of the book is supposed to get you excited about getting boddhichitta.
Before they tell you how to do it, how to get it...in all buddhism you're
su...before you do a practice you're supposed to understand what it's gonna do
for you. You're not supposed to start it until you're really hot on it, okay? And
they're supposed to give you a long list of benefits before you...it's supposed to
get you excited about wanting to get it and then they say, "Oh, by the way, you
can also get it and here's the way" and you're, by that time you're [unclear].
[laughter] Okay, so say {gewa}[repeat], {nam kyen gi}[repeat], {gu}[repeat],
{gewa}[repeat], {nam kyen gi}[repeat], {gu}[repeat].          {Gewa} means what?
{Gewa}? You had {gewa}, {aie ya}, [unclear] {gewa di, gewa gu}, {gewa} means
"a virtue", "good deed", okay? "Good deed", I don't like the word virtue so much.
Virtue refers to characteristics of a brain [unclear]. {Gewa} means "a good deed".
{Gewa}. {Nam kyen}. {Nam kyen} means ahhh, "omniscience". It's short for
{namatamgekimba} which means "to know everything, Mr. Know-it-
all...knowing all things" you can see everything in the world in one moment.
You can keep your mind on, on it all without getting confused. Okay? {Nam
kyen gi}, of, {gi} means "of", o-f, of. {Gyu} means "cause", cause. So Stilwell, what
do you guess? What's that mean?

[student, John Stilwell: The cause of omniscience good deeds.]

And in tibetan often times you have to supply the verb, if it's a verb 'is'.

[student: [unclear] ]

No, what's the noun?

[students: The cause...boddhichitta is the cause...good deed is.]

Good deeds.

[students: [unclear] ]

If...if, what? I mean you [unclear]
[student, Paul: If you have boddhichitta.]

Yeah, if you have boddha...and only if you have...this is the first benefit of
boddhichitta, okay? The first benefit of, of wanting to help everybody, the first
good thing about it, of wanting to become Buddha so you can help
everybody...the first good thing is that it becomes a cause for...what, what good
things you do, they bring you, they make you a buddha. Because usually if you
do good things without this, without this desire in your mind, if you just do
something good for somebody, you just get what?

[student, Fran Dayan: Good consequences.]

Is it still samsara? If you do something good for somebody?

[students: Yes.]

[student, Paul: Not necessarily.]

No, but does it lead...if you do something good for somebody, but you don't
understand what you're doing, and you don't have these three principle paths,
then a, is it a cause for samsara?

[student: Yes.]

Yeah, yeah.

[students: [unclear] ]

Now, and, by the way, I just want to say one more thing about that. I mean,
like, like right now you can have ice cream, right? Or you can have good
friends...or you can hear good music, or things like that. Those are all result of...
{gewa}, of good deeds. Is it samsara?

[students: Yeah.]

Yeah! It's, it's gonna change, it has to go away, the end of it is death. The end of
it is teeth rotting out, ears going, eyes can't see anything, stinky, no friends, lose
money, [laughter] it's always the end, I mean, going to...go to a nursing home,
that's where you'll be. That's the best thing that can happen.
[student: But what about having the fortune of meeting the dharma?]

Now that's, that's a different thing.

[student: Does that mean, something else?]

We've said...that's a different thing.

[students: [unclear] ]

[student:    What if you do something good without knowing, without
boddhichitta but you happen to do it for boddhisattva, like if somebody...]

For a boddhisattva? He's a boddhisattva?      You don't know it and you do
something good for him?

[student: Yeah.]

Yeah, tremendously virtuous deed, tremendous virtue. Incredible virtue, I mean
to exponant, like a million times better than doing it to a non-boddhisattva.

[students: Why?]

He's just a very, very holy object. If you aid him, in doing good means, you
know, you feed him he can go teach people this holy thing, which among all the
words in the world being spoken today, which among all the words in the whole
universe being spoken today are the only words that can really help you. So
really, tremendous virtue.

[student: Even if you didn't know.]

And the opposite is very true too. And they say, "Be god-damned careful!", you
know, anybody you meet on a bus, he might be a boddhisattva, he could very
well be a boddhisattva, do not get angry at him, do not say something bad to
him, you, you don't know. And the opposite is also true, if you say something
bad to a boddhisattva, incredible bad karma. So they use it as a reason not to
say anything bad to anybody 'cause you don't know, I don't know who you are,
you could...
[student, John Stilwell: I thought the [unclear] was always essential in this, in the
[unclear] ]

Not, not with powerful objects. That's why...I have a lousy motivation but I...I, I
help my teacher or I work on the things, and, and that's...you know, I mean just
the power of those objects is...gets me some benefit, you know? Now I
have...we all have lousy motivation, we all have a selfish motivation, at the basis
of it usually, you know.

[student:    But sometimes people commit non-virtuous deeds and their
motivations really aren't...non-virtuous.]

No, right, and we talked about it, and we'll get into it, fourth chapter [b:
Abhidharmakosha]

[student, Paul: [unclear] now Michael in between, in between somebody who
is...]

Obviously less than a full karma, but still a karma.

[student, Paul: In between someone who is, is doing a virtuous deed a, that is a
samsaric result, and someone who is doing a virtuous deed with boddhichitta
and so forth, which is, is a, a, the result of buddhahood is someone who is doing
a deed with renunciation but without boddhichitta which produces nirvana,
right?]

Yeah. By the way, you can

[student: So that would be a virtuous deed that is not samsaric and not
producing buddhahood right?]

Right. Directly.

[student: So, so it's in between.]

Yeah, yeah, you have that possibility. And he mentions it here, actually, okay?
Now he starts listing...by the way, these benefits come from a book called [b:
Boddhicharyavatara], and he, he's, he's pulling it out of [b:
Boddhicharyavatara]...
[student, Fran Dayan: And Shantideva's...?]

Yeah, Shantideva's

[student: How do you spell, could you write that down on the board?]

Yeah. You...it's been translated as what, a, [b: Boddhisattva's Way of Life], it's a
good translation, I like it. There's two ways to spell it, I'll give you the short one.
You don't need it, okay? [laughs] Learning to act like a boddhisattva, okay?
How to act like a boddhisattva. [b: A Boddhisattva's Way of Life], it's a good
translation. Here's a short sanskrit name, this is along the way...but you don't
need it, don't worry about that, I'm not gonna test you on it, it's just for your
own interest. He's using that book, and he's using {Chandrakirti}'s basic book on
emptiness. {Oomala qympa, matima [unclear]}

[student: {Chandrakirti}'s what?]

Root text on emptiness. Called {Madhyamika avatara}. He's using those two
and he's using a third one.

[student, Nitia: Michael, is it easy to find these book? But I never found really
[unclear] ]

Yeah, yeah, I think...

[student, Nitia: Where, where can I, where can I find ]

[unclear] That's fifty, that's fifty

[student, Paul: Guru devotion? Guru devotion?]

[student, Nitia: On guru devotion, yeah.]

[student, Paul: I think I have a copy [unclear] ]

Yeah? Can you bring it in?

[silence]

Experience of the day...the day that you get it, by the way, you know it. You
know it incontravertingly, it's an experience, and you have it and you have
certain...almost physical sensations happen to you. Yeah. And...you know,
cert...almost like a feeling of light coming out of your body and, and going out to
other people and that your life is dedicated now to other people and that you
will spend all your time to do that, and, it's actual a very...and you're sure of it,
you know you've got it and, it's some kind of almost physical sensation. Okay.
{Hla mi}[repeat], {chakchar}[repeat], {nurepa}[repeat], {hla mi}[repeat],
{chakchar}[repeat], {nurepa}[repeat]. Okay, this is another benefit, okay? {Hla},
{hla}, do you know {hlasa}? What's {hlasa} mean? {Hlasa} means "land of the
gods", Hlas Angeles. [laughter] Really. That's the capital of Tibet, the {hla} part
means "gods".

[student: Wait a minute, Los Angeles is dakinis, isn't it?]

Same thing. {Hlasa}, the capital of Tibet, means "land of the gods". The name for
the capital of Tibet, but that's...this is only half of that, this one means "gods".

[student: Plural.]

Yeah. Gods means...do we accept the hindu gods? You know, do we accept that
there's this guy Ishvra, Vishnu or...we do.

[student: We do?]

I mean buddhism accepts that those beings exist, they accept that there's beings
that you cannot see, and they agree that you cannot see them. And that they
have incredible power...but their power is temporary condition, they will die,
they do suffer...not, it's not worth it to try reach that, but they are much more
powerful than we are, they do, they do exist.

[student, John Stilwell: How or what? ]

I don't know exactly. [laughs] [laughter]

[student, Paul: And they are samsaric right? They are very high samsaric ]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They have huge kingdoms, up on planes that we can't see,
they have millions of servants serving them, they, they are...they have incredible
palaces, they have huge pleasure gardens, they have thousands of gold [unclear]
[student, John Stilwell: [unclear] interact with us on this, on this level [unclear]? ]

They say that they have some interaction with us. There, there are kinds of
beings that you can't see, that can cause you problems.

[student: And benefits?]

And, and buddhism says you can't see them. And buddhism says you should
doubt that.

[student: Should doubt?]

Should doubt. If you're a logical person, you should doubt them, you cannot see
them, it can only be established with some kind of logic.

[student, Fran Dayan: Is this why [unclear] one of the higher realms? ]

[student: Are these the [unclear] ]

Yeah, yeah. They, they're actually in all three realms. They're at the top of our
realm also, we can't see them.

[student: Are these the gods that this refers to?]

Yeah. I mean...I'll describe it this way, incredibly powerful and happy beings that
you and I can't see...and buddhism admits that you can't see them...so you know,
I say, Buddha said, consider it, you don't have to accept it...in fact if you did
accept it easily you'd be...wouldn't be a buddhist.

[student, Nitia: [unclear] not god, there's a creator in the universe [unclear] ]

No, no and that's why the word god...I translate it as pleasure being. I translate
it as pleasure being. There are beings who are in a state of incredible pleasure,
because they did very good deeds in their past life. Especially because they did
very good meditation in their past life, but on the wrong objects.

[student, Paul: So, so Michael, is that the greek gods?]

[student, Nitia: Universe was out of the [unclear] when did it start? Never?
Endless?]
Maybe the third chapter in the [b: Abhidharmakosha]. How did our universe
start?

[student, Nitia: Yeah, our universe.]

There's a...oh man, we'll go over it.

[students: [unclear] ]

We do say that universes start, how they start, how the earth is formed, how the
first beings are born on this earth, all that is in the [b: Abhidharmakosha] and
we'll study it. Fourth year. In fact, there's a garden of eden accepted, it's
accepted in buddhism. And, and it's described in the [b: Abhidharmakosha].

[student: I, we were reading, I was reading kind of about this in a, in a book on
the Buddha but I was telling [unclear] it talks about the [unclear] as being the
first kind of a being [unclear] beginning of a universe they might come and...]

We don't accept that.

[student: [unclear] ]

Do we accept like Ishvar? Yes. Do the hindus believe that Ishvar made the
world? Yes. But we debate them on that. We say he can't, he cannot make the
world. Who made Ishvara?

[students: [unclear] ]

[student, Nitia: Who created karma, as a law? Let's say if the karma is a law,
right? So who create this law?]

Your karma created this law. [laugher]

[students: [unclear] ]

[student, Vilma Staiano: Isn't, isn't a being, a pleasure being sort of a bad
consequence because once you get into that, that state then it's very difficult to
achieve Buddhahood because you don't have that suffering?]
It's like a kid who's born rich, you know, I, I, I mean our boss' kid, I hate to pick
on my boss 'cause he's really a good person, and he is a good person, but, but he
has a kid who was born a millionaire, or multimillionaire, okay? And they often
get in worse trouble...he's had a psychiatrist before age ten, alright? Often times
they have more trouble in life because they are not hardened by the hard things
in life. Y'know, you almost prefer that a kid be...he should have a little bit of a
hard life and then he'll grow up stronger...and it's like that, yeah, we believe that
also, we believe that it's a disadvantage to be born as one of those beings.

[student, Vilma Staiano: But isn't, isn't being born that way supposedly from
good deeds?]

Yeah, it is pleasant, isn't it?

[student, Vilma Staiano:          [unclear] really, it's not really, it doesn't end up being
[unclear] ]

It's pleasant but not ultimately beneficial, there's a distinction. Virtue is defined
as an action of body, speech or mind which creates you some pleasant result in
the future. Not, one which might be good for you, that doesn't [unclear].
[laughs] Okay, yeah.

[student, Paul: Two points briefly. It's not, I mean, there's, there's in our culture
we can think of the greek gods, that's somewhere in that direction, right? It's not
exactly the same [unclear] we all think about them lounging around all day and
fantastic robes and what-not, number one.             And number two...I heard it
explained also that the Ishvars and the Indras and the powerful gods like that are
also, it's, it's more like an office, that there is always an Ishvrar, okay, in fact,
we've all been that before, it's like being the president, you know, and that, and
that there's always some being passing through that but it is still samsara, so it's
not permanent but there is at any given time always a king of the universe or a
queen of the universe.]

Not always, but yeah, it does happen over and over again. Yeah. Okay. {Mi}
means what? {Mi} means "not", but what, but some of the time it's a noun
meaning what? Person, human. {Mi} also means "man, human". {Hara mi}...
{char}, {char} means "hand", hand. You know {chaktsel lo}?

[student: To bow down.]
Yeah, {chaktsel} means "to seek something from the hand of your lama". {Tsel}
means "to look for something". So, the word in tibetan for bowing down, means
I'm looking for something from the person's hand that I'm bowing down
to...please give me nirvana, please give me Buddhahood, you know? The word
means that. So, {num mus}, right? {Num mus day}...so {chak cha} means, {chak
cha uppa} means "you are..."...

[silence]

[student: [unclear]]

I'll get there. "You are worthy of the prostrations of, of all other high beings in
the world." {Chak char}...{wupa} means "worthy", {char} means "to be bowed
down to", okay. That doesn't seem like a big shakes to you, right? I mean you
don't care if somebody you can't see is bowing down to you...but, but what it
means is by...you are, you are automatically a big shot, okay, you, you are, if
you get that state of mind, it would be quite proper for anyone who ever met
you to get down on their hands and knees and kiss your feet.

[student: Including these gods and the [unclear] ]

Yeah, even the highest beings in the suffering world.

[student, Nitia: A dangerous point Michael, when they say, on that yellow book
here, that one of the more difficult things to overcome is fame, right? [unclear] ]

Oh, yeah.

[students: [unclear] ]

But he wouldn't have this if he didn't have renunciation, right?           I mean
renunciation doesn't care about fame.

[student: But it's someone who wouldn't be swayed by it is someone who's also
worthy of it, and that...]

That's the way it usually works, yeah.

[student: And these are beings that we should doubt anyway.]
Yeah, the {hla}s, no, not the {mi}s, the {mi}s are humans. {Mi} means "human". It
means gods and men. What it means is that you, you are, are automatically, the
king of the world, people will recognize it or not, but you are the holiest people
in the world, you become a different kind of person...you're, you're worth a lot
more now, okay? You're, you're a hot property.

[student, John Stilwell: [unclear] stop trying to mug you.]

No.

[student: So, you're worthy of all men and gods? Bowing down to you?]

To you.

[student: [unclear] give me a translation of {char}.]

{Char} means "to be", and {chak} means "bow down to".

[student, Paul: {Chak} literally means hand but it's short...]

It's short for {chak sow} or {chowa}. [laughs] Alright?

[student: [unclear] {uppa}?]

{Uppa} means "you are worthy".

[student, John Stilwell: So would you say the whole sentence?]

Yeah. You are...you are a person who deserves to be bowed down to by every
other being in the world, in the universe.

[student, Paul: You are worthy of the prostrations of gods and men.]

[silence]

[student: Also the Buddha is often referred to as the teacher of gods and men,
right Michael?]

[silence]
Please say {nyen rang}[repeat], {sil ki}[repeat], {nimba}[repeat], {nyen rang}
[repeat], {sil ki}[repeat], {nimba}[repeat]. {Nyen} means "listener"...it's a kind of
buddhist, okay? A very high kind of buddhist, he has already reached nirvana in
some cases. He's already reached nirvana. He's understood emptiness directly,
he has true renunciation, he can even have reached nirvana already [cut] they
can hear someone describe boddhichitta, and they can even pass it on to other
people what they heard, but they can't practice it, they have some problems with
it, okay? They're called listeners because they can learn about boddhichitta, from
somebody, and they can go even ex...they can say, I heard today a lecture about
boddhichitta, wait 'til you hear about this, but they can't practice it, they're not
practicing.

[student, John Stilwell: Is that true of all things? They encounter?]

No, it's just specifically the, the classical etymology of why they're called listeners.
They're hinyana. {Rang} means {rang sang gye}, "self made buddhas", self made
buddhas. Are they real buddhas? No. Are they called buddhas? Yes.

[student, Vilma Staiano: This is {rang}?]

Yeah, {rang}. {Rang} stands for a word called {rang sang gye}, which means "self
made buddha".

[student: Okay, so these are the solitary buddhas.]

Yeah, they call them solitary...[unclear] lousy [unclear] [laughs]

[student: All of you guys say that, every translator thinks everyone elses terms
are lousy. ]

Well, what would you think? Would you rather be a...which is more clear to
you, solitary, a realizer or...in fact, it's even wrong, it's incorrect, it doesn't mean
that. {Rang sang gye} or self made buddha.

[student, Paul: Why do they, why are they even called buddhas, I mean you're
talking about people who achieved nirvana not, not Buddhahood?]

Right.

[student, Paul: So why is the...how did the term Buddhahood even get in there?
Is that just a bad translation that stuck?]

[student: Even the hinyana tradition wouldn't call them buddhist.]

There is a Buddhahood which is not [unclear]. There's two hinyana buddhas.

[student, Paul: But I thought Buddhahood depended on boddhichitta?]

We're assuming full...total Buddhahood, total enlightenment. I don't want to get
into it.

[student: Just because you achieve nirvana doesn't mean you're a buddha.]

No it does not, absolutely does not.

[student: I thought in the hinyana tradition you didn't achieve buddhahood at
all, at any level, you achieve nirvana.]

Not mahayana Buddhahood. [laughter] Course they have buddhas in their
books...of course they can achieve Buddhahood, lower [unclear]. Long story, I
don't want to get into it. You should see me later.

[student: They understand renunciation but they don't understand correct view.]

[students: No, not, they understand correct view but not, not...]

But they don't have boddhichitta.

[students: [unclear] ]

Big, big,big debate. The Dalai Lama debates it in [unclear]

[student: No you said, you told me one time, there's a, there's a, a, a, a hinyana
emptiness and a mahayana.]

That's only according to the lower Madhyamika school. Okay, next!

[student: {Selmay} buddha, what do you mean that? By that, {selmay} buddha?]

[cut]
[student, Fran Dayan: That is what is a self made buddha is [unclear]]

Oh. Self made means he doesn't have any teacher in this life...he practices by
himself, and he becomes a...he reaches a, a kind of nirvana, but we call self made
because he does not have a direct teacher in this life. Now, does that mean he
doesn't have a teacher? No. He had thousands, maybe millions of teachers
before, in his past lives...they taught him, taught him, taught him, taught him,
taught him, taught him, then he was born in this life, he had no teacher but
suddenly he understands everything.

[student: And he, he doesn't have boddhichitta.]

No. That's why they're called self made buddhas. And then they say, well why
they self made and you debate it in the monasteries...of course not, he had a
million teachers in his past.

[student: Where is the Buddha? I mean in Tibet...]

It's in {rang sag gye}, this is only one syllable that stands for four things.

[student: Okay, so the word {sang gye} is in there, so in tibetan it actually refers
to the Buddha. But what does it do in sanskrit?]

Mmmmm, {pratyeka}, simply means the single one, the lonely one.                No,
{pratyekabuddha}, I'm sorry. {Pratyekabuddha}, the one who is by himself and
then becomes a buddha, but it's not [unclear]...that's why you have to say, {rang
tab be sag gye} which means total...that's why you get that phrase, totally
enlightened, because there is an un-totally enlightened also. Okay. So, now,
{sokki numba} is a, is one word. It has no...you, you can't explain the parts, you
have to explain the whole thing.

[silence-end side one of tape]

{Sokki numba}...{sokki numba} means "to outshine", "outshine". An example, my
lama always says, when Queen Elizabeth goes to one of these royal weddings,
and first out comes this little prince and then comes the duke, you know, and
then the, the crown prince, who's pretty hot stuff, then comes Queen Elizabeth
and she's got some...quality that when she comes out, all the eyes go to her, even
though she's not very pretty now, you know, everyone, she's got some kind of
a...

[student, Nitia: Charisma.]

Some kind of a...

[students: Presence.]

Presence that outshines all the other people, so that's what, that's what {seukki
numba} means.

[student: She's got a crown on her head.]

She is the queen. She is the only one who is the queen, in that group, so well
your eye goes to her. I mean she outshines...when the...there can be a moon in
the, in that sky, at low, down near the horizon, and then the sun comes up, {silki
numba num num}. The sun, you know, bursts out its light and the moon
disappears. That's {seukki numba}...{seukki numba} is a hard word. So if you
what, Mister Kelly.

[student, Kelly: You have sign, listeners and self made buddhas.]

Yeah, I mean these guys are, are, are heavies, you know? They have achieved
nirvana, they have perceived emptiness directly, they have true renunciat [cut]

[student, Fran Dayan: ...that is what is a self made buddha isn't it?]

Self made means he doesn't have any teacher in this life, he practices by himself,
and he becomes a...he reaches a, a kind of a nirvana, but we call self made
because he does not have a direct teacher in this life. Now, does that mean he
doesn't have a teacher? No. He had thousands, maybe millions of teachers
before, in his past lives. They taught him, taught him, taught him, taught him,
taught him, taught him, then he was born in this life, he had no teacher, but
suddenly he understands everything.

[student: And he, he doesn't have boddhichitta?]

[repeated section, see page 21 through this page for this material. I am resuming
from two lines before the cut]
Yeah, I mean these guys are, are are heavies, you know? They have achieved
nirvana, they have perceived emptiness directly, they have true renunciation,
they got rid of all their bad thoughts, okay? But you're, but you are...you
outshine them like Queen Elizabeth outshines all those others. And you, you
don't even understand emptiness yet.

[student, John Stilwell: It seems a little out of balance there.]

No, but it's true. It's true. They can't become a buddha, you can.

[student: You can perceive emptiness without boddhichitta.]

Absolutely, absolutely. In fact, that's what these two have done.

[student: [unclear] ]

Not at all, no, not at all. There's one school of buddhism that says they don't
perceive pure emptiness, they perceive a virtual emptiness.

[student: Is that like, like [unclear]?]

It's a lower level [unclear], but the higher schools say they perceive it, they see it.

[student: Could you tell the whole meaning of this?]

Yeah. If you get that boddhichitta, if you really want to help all people, you, you
are shining more than those arhats. Arhat, people who see emptiness directly.
Big, big buddhists...but you are better, because you, you want to help all people.
It's more important than all this other things...you shine, you shine stronger than
them. They already understand emptiness, they already meditate perfect, they
already stopped all their bad thoughts, they already reached nirvana, but you
are better than them...because you want to help all people.

[student: So this is the meaning.]

Yeah. You're shining stronger than them.

[student, Nitia: Sometimes, Michael it that seems if you have the right attitude
you don't need to go into, through the old intricacies...intricacies? Or the good
deeds [unclear] because if you have a right attitude, like the Dalai Lama says,
right? And that's documented where [unclear] he said, forget about good deeds,
the important thing is, is to develop loving kindness and for the other people
that's the most important thing.]

Well what if you get both?

[student, Nitia: Oh.]

[laughs] That's always my answer to [unclear] but you see, what if you
understand the part, the car perfectly and it's also running well? You know, I
mean, isn't that the best? It's an atomic bomb.

[student, Paul: Besides which, wouldn't, if you develop boddhichitta, it would
just force you to become a buddha so that you could act on it, right? I mean you
just can't want to help everybody and then just sit there and look out the
window feeling like that then it would motivate you to do the best you could do
and the best you could is to achieve enlightenment and omniscience, so it would
come from it, huh?]

No, I mean he's saying, you know, we, we're gonna spend five years studying
the tiny details of it, isn't it just better to go meditate and to get boddhichitta?

[student, Paul: Yeah but if you did then you would stop meditating, go out and
spend five years to learn the details of everything to become enlightened so that
you could do boddhichitta.]

Yeah, yeah, I mean that's one answer, but...it is true, I can tell you one thing
truly, we will spend, and in the monastery we spend, ah, we spend a total of
fourteen or fifteen years on the madhyamika school, on all the, on all the
arguments that were ever held between madhyamika schools...the day that you
perceive emptiness, in, in, five minutes, you, you grasp entirely that fifteen years
of study. I mean there's nothing in those fifteen years which you didn't just
understand perfectly. And at that point you don't really need those books, it's
true.

[student, Nitia: It seems also true then there are monks that are, that can work
with the mind very well and other monks they work through their heart, they
don't go into reading scriptures or books they just feel it, that's enough and then
they are gardening maybe, different types.]
There are mechanics who can fix the car by instinct, and there's mechanics who
understand every piece of the car, which would you rather take your car to?
[laughs]

[student, Paul: I think the question is, can, can you experience emptiness, for
instance, without spending the fifteen years [cut]]

[cut] we answered that, okay? It has to be one or two or three hours...if you
never, in your life, or on a regular basis meditate for one or two hours, then,
then by definition you cannot reach these stages. You never will.

[student, Paul: So it could just be waiting to happen and it never does until
you're born somewhere and you sit down for the first time for one hour and
bang! And everyone says look at this guy, they didn't learn it from anybody.]

But it's a, yeah but normally, to be able to sit like that you have to be doing it
almost every day. It's like weight lifting, it's like exercising.

[student, John Stilwell: Michael, I had a lama that said, you know, to really get it,
to really make progress, it's like twenty-five percent listening and twenty-five
percent debate, fifty percent meditation and if you don't have that basic
combination you can't really progress.]

That sounds good. [laughs] That sounds good. We will debate...we are debating,
right? Okay.

[student: No.]

Nitia wants to argue about...you want to debate about that [unclear]. What time
is it?

[students: Ten, ten o'clock.]

[student: These two benefits [unclear] seem really very important, I mean, it
doesn't seem very important to have people bow down to you, or outshine
people.]

I don't think it's so much that they bow down to you, it's that you're worthy of it,
you know. You are...it's not that, okay I'm king of the world okay, but what it's
saying is that you become the most special person in the world, you are a special
person, you know. Yeah, it's not...I like the other benefits more myself, but we'll
get there. But, but, but, I mean, it's, it's rather, if I tell you this, if you have this
kind of love in your heart, you are further advanced than an arhat. You are
further advanced than a person who has seen emptiness directly, who has true
renunciation and who has reached nirvana, you are more advanced if you have
this love in your heart. That's a big deal!

[student: Listen, even somebody who aspires to boddhichitta, is, is greater in
some sense then, then]

Well yeah, one who, who even just has the wish, the strong wish, yeah...that
seems, that's a pretty big deal, no? Have some tea, we will finish...there's not
much to go. We have a few to go.

[student, Fran Dayan: It seems like ego [unclear] ]

It's not for them, I mean, not by that point.

[student, Paul: That's the point, if you're worthy of it, then if you could be
swayed by it then you're really not worthy of it.]

Because what is it, because what is it, what is it, Johnson? What is [unclear] it's
renunciation aimed at everybody else...so if you don't have renunciation, it starts
out aimed at yourself, and then you don't...if you alrea...if you're having a
problem about being a boddhisattva then you didn't lose it because you have
renunciation.

[student, Paul: There's, there's ironies involved, it's like when you don't want
anything any more you get everything you have...when, when you don't care
about people bowing to you any more then you really are worthy of it.]

[cut]

[unclear] {tsay chen}[repeat], {kyi}[repeat], {chu}[repeat], {gewa}[repeat], {chun
tsay}[repeat], {tayk chen}[repeat], {kyi}[repeat], {chu}. {Gewa} you know.

[student: Good deeds.]

Right, good deeds. {Chung tsay}...{chung tsay} means "the tiniest, just a tiny,
tiny tiny"...a tiny tiny good deed. And he says here, giving a little scrap of bread
to a bird, giving just some little crumb of bread to a bird...just to give a little food
to a bird. {Tayk chen}, {tayk chen} means, do you know?

[student: [unclear] ]

{Tayk chen} means "mahayana", mahayana, mahayana. {Chu} you know. {Chu},
"dharma". So people always talk about mahayana dharma, mahayana dharma,
right?

[student: Mahayanists talk about it, but the hinyanas.]

[silence]

So the smallest action that you do, the smallest good deed that you do, even
giving a piece of food to a bird becomes mahayana dharma. If, what?

[students: You have boddhichitta]

You have boddhichitta. There's a big debate in the monastery, ah, about what
does it mean to have boddhichitta.       What does it mean that you have
boddhichitta?      Like let's suppose you reach boddhichitta, you get real
boddhichitta in your mind, ah, and suppose you start thinking about something
else, you know, you get mad at work or something...you still have boddhichitta,
or do you lose it?

[student, Paul: Well I guess there might be two kinds, no?]

'Cause you're not you know. Excuse me?

[student: What is your question?]

Let's say that you get boddhichitta, one day you sit down and you meditate and
you have this true experience of wanting to help all beings, giving up your life,
now dedicating your whole life, like a light you're just shining, you're only
function is to shine on other people...you don't want anything, okay? And let's
say you do that. Then let's say two hours later you get angry at somebody. Do
you lo...did you lose the boddhichitta while you were getting angry?

[student, John Stilwell: Is it possible to hold two thoughts simultaneously?]
No, not directly to hold the two thoughts, impossible.

[students: [unclear] ]

No, of course it's [unclear].    You didn't achieve nirvana, they didn't achieve
cessation.

[student, Nitia: They say that the moment of anger burns fields of merit, years
of merit.]

Yeah, so by the way, you, you, you get boddhichitta long before you get
nirvana, before you eliminate your bad thoughts, you can have boddhichitta.
That's on your quiz, I mean homework. Long before you get rid of all your bad
thoughts, your six big bad thoughts for example, anger, jealousy, desire,
ignorance, things like that, you can have boddhichitta. So let's say that you have
boddhichitta and then you get angry later, do you lose the boddhichitta? Are
you...by the way, if you do lose the boddhichitta, you're not a ...?

[students: Boddhisattva.]

Yeah, you became a un-boddhisattva. [laughter] Alright? Alright? Is that
possible? What happens?         The answer is, in buddhist scripture, the mind
is...soaked with boddhichitta. There's, there's no good word for it in english, it's
called {simba}. {Simba} means "[unclear]". Yeah, it's permeated by boddhichitta.
And you, you may get angry, you may even think about some girl or something
or whatever, but, but you have boddhichitta at that moment, you still have it. It
becomes a very important question when you perceive emptiness
directly...because at the moment you perceive emptiness directly, you cannot
perceive a normal object...you can't perceive all sentient beings to be worried
about them, it's impossible. So even at that moment, you have boddhichitta, in
your mind you do have boddhichitta, okay? There, there's a famous text, when
a boddhichitta...when a boddhisattva is sleeping, when a boddhisattva is angry
or got his mind distracted on something else, when he's going to the
bathroom...he's still working for all sentient beings. He's, he's, it's incredible the
power of this attitude is that even when it's not present in your mind you have it
in your mind and everything you do, every little thing you do is, is a
boddhisattva's activity, it's mahayana dharma.

[student, John Stilwell: Even if it's not your primary conscious focus?]
Right, right. Any activity you do, and they say going to the bathroom, you
know, cooking your dinner, it becomes mahayana dharma.

[student, John Stilwell: And that's once you have attained?]

Real boddhichitta.

[student, Nitia: But there seems Michael, that you need stabilizations or they
[unclear] about this [unclear] being becoming stable, because otherwise you can
become completely crazy for me not to love everybody and the next five
minute [unclear] ]

That's then it wouldn't have been real true [unclear] It would not have been real
boddhichitta. Okay?

[student: Michael, wait a minute, you're, you're saying you can actually commit
non- virtue.]

Absolutely. Sure. Yeah, boddhisattvas commit non-virtue.

[student, Paul: Because it can come...but boddhichitta can come before the
correct view, right? Once you have the correct view you don't do non-virtue any
more.]

Huh? [laughter] Sure you can. Why is there {go lam}? {Go lam} is to purify
yourself, after {tong lam}, after the path of seeing, after you've perceived
emptiness directly you absolutely can commit bad deeds, sure.

[student, Paul: But anything, anything you do with correct view couldn't be a
bad deed.]

If you have correct a view, if your, you know, mind is on the emptiness of an
object, you cannot, you cannot have a bad thought about it, it's impossible.

[student: Michael, at what point are you beyond the possibility, is that when
you're an arhat? [unclear] an arhat [unclear] still capability of, of? ]

Yeah, an arhat cannot have a bad thought anymore. That's what makes him as
arhat, that's the fifth path, not the third path.
[student, John Stilwell: So would you say that sentence before you erase it?]

[students: Yeah...yeah...what's the english?]

{Gewa}[repeat], {tung tse}[repeat], {pay ching}[repeat], {chu}[repeat], the least,
the very tiniest good deed that you do...very tiniest good deed is mahayana
dharma.

[student: Where's [unclear] ]

There is no 'is', in tibetan you don't need an 'is' all the time. {Aye mike, not ger
eau}. {Aye mote}. That's why tibetans learn english bad, {aye mote}. They don't
need an 'm'.

[student: Oh, that's interesting.]

[student, Paul: So, so then your non-virtuous actions, while being done with the,
the permeation of boddhichitta would not produce the same kind of negative
result, the same depth of negative result that a similar non-virtuous action
would...that was caused by someone who was [unclear], right?]

Yeah.

[silence]

He adds two more things to that same sentence, okay? And you can, you can
call them, more benefits, okay? I'm gonna put a dot, this is tibetan, way of
saying...

[silence]

[student, Fran Dayan: So is this number four a or number five?]

Aaah, I would call it number five.

[student: [unclear] number five.]

We just had number four. Now we're doing number five. I'm going to give you
more then six, you only have to number six, pick the easy ones. Pick the ones
you like.
[student, Paul: This one is four still? The next one is five? The last one is four?]

This is...we're gonna call this number five.

[student, Paul: Means 'and' da-da-da-da-da?]

Yeah. Probably the same part here, {gewa chun tse}, I already gave it to you.
The last, the first four syllables of the last one. In tibetan they do this and it
means, I'm not going to write the whole thing over again, you know what I'm
talking about.

[students: [unclear] ]

[student, John Stilwell: The last, the last statement that you made, is, are the
actions themselves permeated with boddhi...you know, somebody gets...]

No, the mind. {Sem gyi simba}

[student, John Stilwell:    So the [unclear]...so the mind's permeated with
boddhichitta, then what are the act...the actions, the actions are less...]

I'm motivated by my permeated [unclear]

[student, John Stilwell: So they're less detrimental or something [unclear] ]

Yeah. Okay? So the...what is {gewa chun tse}? What was the blank part here?

[student: The tiniest virtue.]

Yeah, the very tiniest good deed that you do, is, a {gyu}, what does {gyu} mean?

[student: Cause.]

Cause...{gyi}?

[student: Of.]

{Sangye}?
[student: Buddhahood.]

Buddhahood. This is the other word for Buddhahood. So just you give a
small...piece of bread to a bird, it can make you a buddha. If you have this

[student: [unclear] ]

{Chang tsen}, {chang tsen}. Second path. Second path, first path was

[student: Boddhichitta.]

Renunciation. No, first path was renunciation. The second path is [unclear] if you
have it, and little things, little tiny good things you do, can make you a buddha
later.

[student, Paul: Are these, is that indirectly or I mean it seems like we spent a
great deal of time earlier in this class saying that unless it had correct view, it
couldn't be the cause of anything but sam...something samsaric.]

Right.

[student, Paul: Now you're making a second case here?]

Well by that time, [unclear]

[student, Paul: No! You said even you haven't experienced emptiness yet, even
you, even you don't have an intellectual understanding of it yet, you've got
boddhichitta and then your good deeds are now a cause for something other
than a samsaric result! Whereas earlier in the class you gave the impression that
unless it was correct view, it would produce a samsaric result.]

[students: No...no.]

[student, Paul: Yeah, that's what he was saying, merit, you know?]

Ultimately, even a boddhisattva's actions, if done with ignorance, won't bring
him

[student: Can you say that again?]
That's, that's, that's not...they don't say that in the texts here, they are
concentrating on the benefits, you know, I, it's, we can debate it, and we will, but
the point here is that, the smallest good thing you do can make you a buddha,
okay?        So say, {gyel}[repeat], {se}[repeat], {gyi}[repeat], {chupa}[repeat].
[laughter] [unclear] I forget which class I'm in. {Gyel}...I'll rewrite it now. Say
{gyelse}[repeat], {gyi}[repeat], {chupa}[repeat], {gyelse gyi}[repeat], {chupa}
[repeat]. {Gyelse} is another word for boddhisattva, okay? {Gyelse} is another
word for boddhisattva, I'm going to explain it shortly. {Gyi} means "of".
{Chupa} means "the activity"...the activity.

[student: Any activity?]

The activity of a boddhisattva. Y'know, if you want to act like a boddhisattva,
this big boddhisattva, all you have to do is give a little piece of bread to a bird.
It's {gyelse gyi chupa}. It is a world shaking activity. It is a universe moving
activity...if you have that attitude. That's it, that's pretty powerful. [laughs] They
say that the universe shakes when a person gets, gets this in his mind, when
somebody on planet earth gets boddhichitta, finally gets it, then they say, like,
you know, Pluto shifts a little bit, you know. Seriously.

[student: [unclear]?]

No, that the whole world will move, 'cause...we say the world jumps because it's
happy. The whole planet, you know, the whole Earth...will move a little bit.

[student: Shaking.]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[student: They don't call that an earthquake?]

[laughs] No, they call that {sai-om}, yeah, earthquake. It's, it's often quoted in the
sutras and it has happened, yeah. {Gyelse gyi chupa}, okay? The activity of...a
boddhisattva. Just giving any small thing you do, any small thing good thing
you do.

[student, John Stilwell: Is that a separate item? Or is that [unclear]?]

No, it also needs that first part, that first half. I'm treating it as a separate item,
and you can...okay?
[student, Vilma Staiano: How is this different from before? [unclear] ]

Technically it's the same in the end, okay?

[silence]

What's that?

[student: How is it different from the tiniest virtue is a cause for Buddhahood?]

Well, is it different to be the cause of a Buddhahood, of Buddhahood? And be
boddhisattva activity? And be the activity...and be mahayana dharma? See,
there's slightly different face, right? Well, he's doing mahayana dharma, or he's
acting like a boddhisattva, or he's doing something that's gonna make him a
buddha, yeah, ultimately they're all the same. But there's a different taste, isn't
there, different flavor.

[silence]

[students: [unclear] ]

[unclear] Seven. You only need six for next week. Please say {sangye}[repeat],
{nam ki}[repeat], {sesu}[repeat], {gom}[repeat], {sangye}[repeat], {nam ki}
[repeat], {sesu}[repeat], {gom}[repeat]. {Sangye} you know.

[student: Buddha.]

Buddha, {sangye} means "buddha". {Nam}? Makes it plural, buddhas, the
buddhas, many, many buddhas...the buddhas. {Ki} means "by them", b-y. By
them.

[student: Also means of, right sometimes?]

Yeah, it's a different spelling in tibetan, the same sound in english. {Se} means
"son" or "daughter". {Sesu} means "as their son or daughter"...as, and {gom}
means "consider". So Nitia, what does it mean?

[student, Nitia: That whoever develop boddhichitta will be considered the son of
Buddha?]
Yeah, buddhas, all the buddhas in the universe, okay, you get boddhichitta
tonight, at home. Then all the buddhas in the universe say, oh, we got a new
daughter, okay? She's my daughter. He's my son. They, they treat you, they,
they treat you, they look upon you, they protect you, they watch out for you,
you now have a different kind of relationship it's possible with them, because of
the boddhichitta. It was not possible before. Yeah?

[student, Paul: Rinpoche put it very wonderfully one time, he said that just like
when a king and a queen has a child, that's the prince or the princess, that
every...the, the whole, place is happy, this is gonna be a continuance, a
furtherance and of the lineage and that person is, is treated very carefully and
very specially, and, like that, and the same way he says when somebody
achieves boddhichitta, all the buddhas look upon that person as a continuance of
the race of the buddhas and therefore should be protected and taken care of.]

Now we have another...now we have a prince who can carry on the royal link or
defend its

[student, Nitia: I don't know, [unclear] visualize a buddha [unclear] obscuration
that's we are, I'm under or they are, I mean it seems that they]

That you can't do it you mean?

[student, Nitia: Yeah I mean that ]

Cannot do it?

[student, Nitia: Where are these buddhas after all? They are in a, in a, in a plane
that is difficult to reach for beginners or]

When you perceive emptiness directly...when you perceive emptiness directly,
you perceive buddhas directly. That's the first time you see a buddha directly.
That the emptiness that you see, is directly related to his dharmakaya. The next
moment as you come out of that, out of that experience, you see buddhas. And,
and, and from then on, there's only one bad thought, well of one of the bad
thoughts, one of the two I believe, that you lose the day that you perceive
emptiness directly, is that you can no longer ever, ever doubt buddhism. You
know, you see a buddha directly. You know, then people can say anything to
you, you know, there's no buddhas, there's no karma, there's...yeah, yeah, yeah,
I, I saw and I know I wasn't crazy. I know what I saw, I was not drinking, I
wasn't...you know that you are right, there's two feelings going on at that
moment, you know that you're not crazy and you know you saw a buddha.

[student, Paul: You know it's true, you know it's all true.]

Well you know you're not making some mistake, you know it's authentic
experience, a, b, you see a buddha. So who can tell you anything after that? You
see your future lives, you see how many lives it'll be until Michael becomes a
buddha. So who can tell you anything after that? Who cares? You know,
people can talk to you 'til the ...you won't doubt buddhism.

[student, Nitia: [unclear] try to get there, I mean.]

Yeah, minimum it would be seven lives, I saw it, I saw it, tell me anything I don't
care, I don't need to know anything, what do you want to tell me? I don't doubt
it anymore.

[student, Paul: Michael? Is that necessarily ]

Leave it, leave it leave it, leave it...leave that one. Not that one, stay out of there.

Okay. No, it's [unclear] it's very important.

[silence]

You can yawn, I've just figured out that we only have like two homeworks left.

[students: You gotta make up some new ones? [unclear] ]

No, I mean if you think about we're only going to have ten homeworks, right?
Oh, this is number seven, we got three more to go after that, that's...then you're
done with the homework, right?

[student, Fran Dayan: I think so.]

[student, Paul: But then what about the rest of the classes?]

The...you don't have a homework due on the last date because it's a final. And
there was no, there was no twelfth homework because you don't have a class on
the twelfth time and you already have number [unclear]

[students: [unclear-verbal melee]]

Yeah, there won't be a class Monday night.

[student: This coming Monday?]

Right, it's monks confession and I've got a lot to confess. [laughter] Okay. You
need this. We got two more to go then you're out of here, okay? Stick it out.

[student, Paul: Including this one?]

[students: [unclear] [laughter] ]

No, I mean it's, it's hard, it's been...I mean for me it's exhausting and, and it's, and
I know it's hard for you, it's been a lot of hours but you're, you're like over half
way through and you're really doing good and you're learning a lot, I mean now
you're learning accurate buddhism and you know people can tell you later blah-
blah-blah and you say well the book actually says [laughs]. Okay, please say
{changchub}[repeat], {sempa}[repeat}, {namkyi}[repeat], {kundu}[repeat], {gom}
[repeat], {changchub}[repeat], {sempa}[repeat], {namkyi}[repeat], {kundu}
[repeat], {gom}[repeat]. Okay what's a {changchub sempa}?

[students: [unclear] ]

Boddhisattva. This whole part here means boddhisattva, right? Boddhisattva.

[silence]

{Nam}? We had it just now. Yeah, the boddhisattvas in the universe, all of them.
{Kyi}, by them. What does a {gom} means? Same as we had before.

[students: Consider ]

Consider you as, {du}...{kun} means "brother or sister". It's a, it's a word that's
used for both brother and sister. Every single boddhisattva in the universe says
oh, now I have a new brother. I have a new sister.

[student: So the buddhas regard you as their children and the boddhisattvas
regard you as their siblings.]

You are in a new family actually, you are a different kind of person.
Different...class of person, different level of person.

[silence]

[student: Michael, what's that one?]

[unclear]

[student: And then the {du}?]

As a. Sorry. I'm at the end of the [unclear]

[students: Nine...we're on nine...we're on nine now.]

Got one more to go.

[student: Where does you come in there, y-o-u?]

Understood. Tibetan is very...it's a very brief language. It's a beautiful language
for, for buddhism. And it's a, it's a farmers language, it's a herders language...it's,
it's incredible that the deepest thoughts of humanity were best expressed in
farmers language [laughter] or or nomads language, really.

[student, Paul: Best expressed, better than in sanskrit huh?]

Much better.

[student, Paul:    No kidding.      I thought sanskrit was the language of the
buddhas.]

Someone else's buddha perhaps, okay, {tek chen}[repeat], {la}[repeat], {shuk}
[repeat], {tek chen}[repeat], {la}[repeat], {shuk}[repeat], okay. {Tek chen} means
"mahayana", mahayana, okay? Big capacity, {tek}, {tek} means, well this is the
maha and this is the yana. {Chen} is the maha and {tek} is the yana. Mahayana
means "big capacity"...they say big vehicle but vehicle is not really the right
word, it's vehicular capacity. It really is...it's a little too long so it's in great
vehicle. It's not that it's a vehicle so much, is it refers to how big a load you can,
you can take on your shoulders. Can you take all, all sentient beings on your
shoulders, yes, you must have big capacity.

[student: Well that's a vehicle, it's usually is translated.]

Yeah, yeah. {Tek chen la, shuk}, {tek chen la} means "into", {la} means "into".
{Shuk} means "entered", past tense. Entered. This is like, incredible, you know.
It's the lore once a week, if you have boddhichitta.

[student: If you have boddhichitta, you entered into the great [unclear] ]

Into the mahayana. Then you are a mahayana person. Before that...technically
you're not. You can say I'm a tibetan buddhist, I'm a mahayana buddhist but
you're not...I mean you're not a really, technically you're not a real mahayana.
When, when you get {je tse tsemkay}, when you get...boddhichitta, then you are
mahayana, you are mahayana person, and that's what makes you mahayana
person.

[student: When we say take refuge in the buddha, the dharma and the sangha
does the sangha mean boddhisattvas or does it mean pratyeka buddhas or ]

This is going to be the subject, this is the exact subject that I want to do first in the
second course. What is refuge? What are the objects of refuge, and it's
extremely interesting and we'll start debating a little bit and that's incredible
[unclear] The real sangha is people who have seen emptiness directly...not
people who are wearing robes...not people who have taken monks vows.

[student: And not boddhisattvas.]

No. Anyone who has seen emptiness directly is sangha.

[student, Vilma Staiano: And, and what is a buddhist?]

Anyone who takes refuge...truly, is a buddhist. So there's a joke, I mean it's not a
joke just a statement, but you can be an abbot of a buddhist monastery after
studying for fifty years and not be a buddhist.

[student: 'Cause you're not truly taking refuge?]

Yeah. Okay, {tekshen la shuk}, so what's the ninth benefit and maybe a really
important one, you become mahayana person, you are then a mahayana
buddhist.

[student, John Stilwell: In, in terms of, in terms of this thing you have to go
through each of the paths, you know, lower, not, hinyana, etcetera, is that, that's
like saying first you have to have renunciation, the lower path, right?]

Well there's a trick and it's a beautiful question because there's three tracks,
there's five paths on each track, a total of fifteen, y'know, how do you...what's
the flow chart, you know, can you jump from, from a track three to b track four,
can you go up to c track one without going on b track, can you start at c track
one? This is the whole subject, there's a whole book written about it. Basically,
the advice of lamas is look, start at high track boddhisattva mind...don't...you
don't even have to go to the lower ones.

[student, John Stilwell: You don't have to cultivate the lower scope, and then the
middle scope and then the higher scope? I was told you have to [unclear] ]

Oh, the three scopes you do. But not the three tracks, those are different.

[student, John Stilwell: When you say tracks, what do you mean?]

Long story, okay? No I mean, I, if you can stay here all night, I, I'll teach you.
[laughter]

[student: That's about it?]

Yeah!

[student: Maybe I'm not used to it.]

Maybe we'll get [unclear]. Maybe it's the question, this is the answer to your
question, okay?

[student: (Long loud sigh and yawn)]

Oh, who's doing that? [laughter]

[student: Sorry Michael]
That's sadistic. [laughter]

[student: Uh-oh, you've started something.]

[students: [unclear] ]

[silence]

Last benefit.

[student: I'll never yawn again.]

[student: You're fully awakened.]

Okay please repeat, {tse chik}[repeat], {la}[repeat], {tsang}[repeat], {gya}[repeat],
{tse chik}[repeat], {la}[repeat], {tsang}[repeat], {gya}[repeat]. What does...{tse}
mean? Do you know what {tsering} means?

[student: Immortal or?]

Long life. The tibetan name {Tsering} means "long life", {tse} means "life", life.

[silence]

{Chik} means?

[student: One?]

One. {Chikme, tsungshi, dakki, dunki}, tibetan one two three four five six, {chik}
is number one. {La} means "in". {Tang gya} is the verb for {sangye}.

[students: [unclear] ]

Bigger.

[students: Bigger than buddha? [unclear] ]

Yeah, to become a buddha...become enlightened...become a buddha. What's it
mean?
[students: To become a buddha in one life.]

If you have boddhichitta, you can become a buddha in this life, which means
what Liana? What's, what just popped into your mind? It's true, what just
popped into your mind is true.

[students: He's reading my [unclear] Uh-oh. [laughter]]

I'm taking a chance. [laughter] What can make you a buddha in [unclear]?

[student: In one life?]

[student: What can make you a buddha in one life?]

Yeah, that's the only...

[student: Nothing.]

[student: Vajrayana.]

Yeah, the tantric, the tantric practice, okay? This refers to tantric practice, okay?
If you have boddhichitta, tantric practice will work...and, and you can become a
buddha in this life, you can reach paradise in this one life before you die.

[student, John Stilwell: So it's, it's implied that you have to practice tantra and
having boddhichitta is not enough.]

But it's a prerequisite. It, it makes you eligible, okay? It makes you eligible to
achieve buddhahood in one life. And it makes sense. If, if tantric buddhahood is
the experience of the world and all the beings in it as, as, as the reality of them
being angels to you, would it make...karmically, wouldn't it make sense that you
would have to first have to have a love for all of them? What else could create
it? Some kind of great goodness done towards every being in the universe is
necessary, karmically, for you to get that payback. What comes around...what
goes around comes around? It will require you to love every single being that
you meet, for you later to see the mahas, the tantric [unclear]. And, and, and
without that it's impossible, karmically speaking, it would never make sense. So
as long as you're irritated at one person at work...you know. That's rough.

[student, Nitia: [unclear] very fast and very dangerous too, right?]
Long story, I, we're not going to get into that, okay? But let me say one thing, I
mean now, people were telling me that renunciation meditation was a little
depressing...and it was. Concentrate now, when you meditate this week, okay,
try to start to get some joy about this subject...what it means is, what if you truly
wanted every person around you to be happy, and try to imagine it, you
know...that's a fun meditation, that's a quite an inspiring and uplifting
meditation, you know? Try to imagine what it would be like, if you truly
wanted, everyone around you to be happy, 'cause right now you don't. You get
jealous of someone around you get some success, especially if it impinges on
your success, you know? Try to imagine what it would be like if you really,
truly...took the joy of a mother, in her son's accomplishments, if everyone
around you got exactly the nice thing that they want.

[student, John Stilwell: You, you know what a gift, a gift, in doing that, is like I
only have the frame of reference as this suffering human, so when I look around
me and helping all these people, it's work, it's hard, it hurts, it's pain.]

I don't think so. You know, I mean, get into it, I mean, just imagine...the book
says, and Shanti...quotes Shantideva, he says, even if you all...even if the, the
most broad scope you can do is wish that your neighbor could get rid of his
migraine headaches, it's, it's a great virtue, you did a g...it's a great step on
developing boddhichitta, good job, you know, just that, just, it's a fun
meditation, if you imagine that...if you meditate and you imagine you went
outside and you had the power that every person you see on the street you
could give him his, his dearest wish and that's nice, that's a really nice way.

[student, John Stilwell: So you've got to let go of the fact that everything is
suffering and you are coming...you are suffering yourself while you're helping
other people.]

Well ultimately [unclear] your dearest wish is that, your dearest wish is that. I
mean when you go out here tonight and you see these guys on the...on your
gauntlet before you hit the [unclear][laughter] No just imagine suppose I had the
power to, to remove all this guy's...they don't like being like that, you know,
they'd like to be healthy and have a nice place to stay and, eat nice food and have
good friends and, just wish that you could give it to them.

[student, Vilma Staiano:    The selfish part of that is that they'd no longer be
threatening to you.]
By the way they are threatening. You know?

[student, Vilma Staiano: If, if they, if they could not have that suffering.]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay go.

[students: Homework.]

Aa aa eh eh oo oo ou ou. Crazy people. [laughter] Okay then, then ah, well we'll
do that first.

[prayer: dedication]

Homework, you're right.

[student, Paul: Michael, could we add another [unclear] memorize?]

Yeah, it's there.

[student, Paul: Already? Where?]

Third verse.

[student, Fran Dayan: Oh, I like that one.]

Paul's asking if we could have a grace for food. Yeah, we could do that, we'll do
that at some point. A grace to say before you eat something.

[end of tape]
930805-1.aaa

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