ACI 10 «Руководство к образу жизни бодхисаттвы, часть I», занятие 5

ACI Course 10, Class 5: Rejoicing; Asking Lamas to Teach and Stay
3/13/97
transcribed by Myra Velasquez



Gyoken, What's {gyoken} mean?

[student: Obstacle..]

What are we going to call it? Like obstacles, okay, those are like obstacles to
getting what?

[students: [unclear]]

Bodhicitta,okay, so we are just reaching the end of how to get rid of the things
that block you from getting bodhicitta, and then about a third of the way
through the class we'll get to collecting all the positive energy you need to get
bodhicitta. So we're still at the end of the bad..getting rid of the bad energy...that
you have to get rid ..

[Students : [unclear]] [laughter]

[ Student: Lewis.] [ Laughter.] [Student: No way!] [laughter]

Lewis, you don't have time to [unclear]

[laughter] {Nyembo kundu chyupay do} , { repeat} {Nyumbo kundu chyupay
do}, {repeat} {Nyembo} means antidote. We'll spell it when the replacement
book comes. You can do the sound right now. If you don't get it you can just do
the sound.
{Nyembo} { repeat}, {kundu}, {repeat}, {chyepey}. {repeat}, {do} {repeat}
{Nyembo} means antidote and the third force in the order in which the talk by
Master Shantideva. The thrid force is called antidote, the antidote force. It's
something you do to make up for what you did before, okay, {nyembo kundu
chyupay do}. And at this point you know Master Shantideva has already told
you the first actitivity that you can use as a {nyembo}. So..he actually gets into
the concept of a {nyembo}. In Buddhist philosophy, in technical philsophy like
the [unclear] Wisdom Text, {nyembo} is very specific. {Nyembo} means one
thought that cannot coexist with another thought. Like they say that this town is
too--too--what do they say?

[Students: [unclear]]

This town isn't big enough for the both of us. That's the idea of a {nyembo} , like
two thoughts cannot co-exist in the same brain at the same time. Your karma
just improved. The bad karma wore out. [laughter} Okay. Maybe.[laughs] I
don't know. Okay. Anyway, technically the idea of {nyembo} is taught in the
Perfection of Widsdom, the [b:Avisamakara], in the first chapter, it's very
beautiful, it's very long, and it's "thoughts that cannot coexist with other kinds of
thoughts". The ultimate {nyembo} is the perception of emptiness, understanding
emptiness, even intellectually not even just directly, but also intellectually, and it
acts as a {nyembo} for all kinds of mental afflictions.Like, once you understand
emptiness directly, once you have the understanding of emptiness in your mind
and your mind is focused on it, you cannot have a bad thought, it's impossible,
so the ultimate {nyembo} is understanding emptiness. And in fact there's this
debate in the monastery,you know, [claps ] { karla cheemehta ayu?} which
means, "Does samsara have an end"? You know, can you prove that samsara
has an end? There's this debate about (claps ) { korola namehta ahyeh?} means
"Did samsarahave a beginning?" What do you say? [claps]
[students: No...Yes...]
{Korola nugita ayeh} [claps] You say {meh} {repeat}, {Nah taa} [claps],

[students:{ Du}]

{Neh te!} [ claps ] Why not? Then you say, Why not?

[student: {gu yeu}...] [laughter] {Gu yeh leshe?}

You can say that, because the causes are endless. You cannot point to a time in
samsara, or in your suffering that didnt have some suffering before to help cause
it, some mentual affliction before to help cause it. Ultimatley you can prove that
samsara doesn't have a beginning. you know, {chimeta ayeh?} Does it have an
end?
[claps]

[student: {Du}]..

[claps]   {Yah pa..yeh te?} [claps]   Why?     {Nyembo domden yebeeche}           Say
{nyembo},
{repeat} , {domden} {repeat} {yebeeche}, {repeat}. And that is the answer that
they give you know , after hours and hours of debating it comes down to
[claps] : {Nyembo domden yebeeche} Say { nyembo}, {repeat}, {domden},
{repeat}, {yebeeche}, {repeat}. Which means "Because there is a powerful
antidote to samsara, there is an end to samsara". And that's the argument. That's
the whole argument, you know, your suffering wil have an end. Samsara or the
cycle of life, the cycle of suffering for you wil have an end . Why? {nyembo
domden yebeeche}. Because there's a powerful antitodte. And that's the
perception of emptiness, the understanding of emptiness. You cannot
understand an object's emptiness and also have a mental aflliction towards it at
the same moment. Impossible, totally impossible. It's very interesting, and I'm
not talking about direct perception, much less...Because
when you're in direct perception, you're sitting there in deep meditation and
you're not jealous of anybody or angry at anybody, you can't be, because you're
not having any thoughts at all, normal thoughts, so I'm not even talking about
that, I'm talking about intellectually or...if you're focusing on a person and
understanding their emptiness fairly well, it's impossible to have a mental
affliction. And that's why the fourth of the five paths is the science of using your
understanding of emptiness to wipe out your mental afflictions forever and
when you' finish that process you've reached your nirvana, okay. So that's the
idea of {nyembo} in scripture, in philosophical scriptures but when we get to
Master Shantideva and the bodhisattava Charivatara, it's a little bit different.
And he says if you're going to understand antidote you have to understand
what--? What do you guess?

[Students: [unclear]]

If you want to understand--

[ student: illness...]

[student: Afflictions.]

[Student: Illness.]]

Illness! Yeah, okay? Illness. like if you want to understand what antidote is, you
have to understand what sickness is. What is the sickness that is being cared by
this antidote?So then he gets into...When he discusses the third force he gets into
the concept of illness, spiritual illness and it's very interesting. He says the big
illness that we have...and this is on your homework, [laughter] is {Duk Sum}.
Say: {Duk}, {repeat}, {Sum}, {repeat}, {Duk Sum}, {repeat.} {Duk} is not {hmdu},
okay? It's not the {duk} in {dungel} , it's not that {hmduk} in "to exist", it's {duk,
duk} third column, no prefix, no [unclear]. {Duk...Duk} means poison, allright?
Duk means poison. D, U, K., okay? You can spell it any way you want on your
homework, they can't take it off this time, right? [laughter] {Duk Sum} S, U, M,
okay? That means three, so it's the three poisons. And this is the disease that we
have. The main disease is the three poisions and then they cause 84000 variations
of mental afflictions, okay, so... But basically it boils down to three poisons. Why
are they called poisions? I mean, obviously they hurt you, but the other idea is
that theyre insiduous, they're in your mind all the time, they're like poison
running in your blood, you know, they're like having some kind of leukemia or
something where there's a basic problem with your blood , you know. The point
is that they are ciruclating throughout your mind constantly, at every moment
they are circulating throughout your mind, okay, and ...and...it's like a blood
disease or something, it's like something wrong with your spiritual body..that's
insiduous, it's there all the time, you have it all the time. So the first implication
of poison is that obviously it hurts you but the second implication is that you
have some kind of spiritual blood disease that ..you...it's...it's always with you,
you always have it, there's something wrong with your mind that these three
are always poisionig your mind at any given time. I think the third implication
of poison is that if you could get rid of them you might feel really good. The
idea is that you've always had them. And we don't even know what it would be
like to not have them. And you get a little taste of it if you start to practice. So
he..he..describes those. I'm going to go into the idea of the {duk sum}. I like to
get into things..that..I call them "dharma rumors" okay? [laughter] I like to
attack dharma misinformation, okay? [laughter] They call them, people translate
these as "attachment, aversion and ignorance". I think it's a lousy translaton.
The last time I had attachment was when I was Vice President at work and they
were talking about gay [unclear]. And the last time I had aversion was when
children tried to give me eggplant, you know! [laughter] And--[unclear]But
they're much more subtle than that, you know. If I say "desire" or "attachment" ,
you think of some major attachment you have like to your car or your house or
your wife or whatever, I mean, but these three are supposedly floating through
your mind constantly, on a constant basis, so i think aversion is too strong. LIke I
can't say that i've had aversion for at least 20 minutes now, you know,
but ...but..if it's one of the 3 poisons it's been in my mind all the time, it's in your
mind...It's accruing in your mind every few mnutes or every minute or so, or
even more frequently, so I think you have to study the definitions of them. I'm
going to give you the definition just of the..of.. of "desire" to start with. By the
way, I prefer to call them liking things, disliking things and ignorance, okay. And
I think if you're going to be even more exact you can say disliking things
ignorantly, liking things ignorantly, and then ignorance itself, okay. Because not
every kind of desire or wishing something would happen or liking things is bad,
and I think that's a dharma rumor, you know, like you see this guy sitting,
meiditating somewhere in a nice robe and he's suppposed to not like anything,
not dislike anything and be..not be ignorant, you know, so... And you say, well,
do you like suffering, do you like..Are you supposed to not like nirvana? Are
you supposed to not like Buddhahood? Are you supposed to be...I mean, is the
spiritual goal..Is...Is..why you came to this class is to learn to not like anything?.
[laughter] Or learn to not dislike anything at all... You know, is that what the
three poisons are? Is that what liking something means when it's a poison? Is
that...Is that...Is it true that a buddhist, when they get really good at being a
buddhist is not supposed to like anything? Really! Is that,does it make sense?

[student: No.]

It...It doesn't. I mean....for several reasons. I mean, first of all, obviously you're
supposed to like other people. You know, bodhcicitta is liking other poeple.
You're supposed to like nirvana. You're supposed to like Buddhahood. You're
supposed to like getting tantric enlightenment in this life you know. I mean, it's
not that you're not supposed to like anything. Now, what about ice cream okay?
[laughter] Or pizza? You know, can you like ice cream or pizza, you know? We
have to talk about it, okay? Is that wrong for a buddhist to like certain kinds of
food. Yeah?
[student: But isn't there liking with an attachment to it that [unclear]? If karma
was [unclear] thought and samsara is based on its continuance by having those
induced thoughts, those inferenced points of [unclear] then theres got to be
something askew there and it's okay to like such and such...] Oh, I'm not
saying--I'm just asking. But--but when you say attachment as opposed to liking,
okay, like..like... I know what you're saying. Some people would say it's okay to
like pizza, it's not okay to be attached to pizza, okay. No, seriously. And
attachment to me means would I want it over and over again. Or would I get
upset if I... if the pizza shops in New York all closed you know, and ..and...
people say that a buddhist should, can like pizza...Like obviously the Dalai Lama
has a good time.When he eats...You know if you've ever eaten with the Dalai
Lama.. Or I saw him at...I saw him listening to Richie Havens one day and he was
like [claps] [laughs] you know,[laughs]...He seemed to be liking it, you know,
[laughs]--but what you're saying is that to want to like it again and again is what
a buddhist is not supposed to do. And I say it's not true. You know,I say, i mean
a buddhist, the reason you collect good karma is to have pizza all the time, you
know..

[ student: Yeah...[laughs]]

Seriously. Seriously.I mean if attachment means wanting it to happen again and
again, I don't...We have to talk about it...We'll talk about it. But... But to me,
attachment means wanting it to happen again and again and being upset when it
doesn't happen, and I ...I say the same thing, I think that if a person takes that to
its logical extreme then we would be just sitting here and whether or not we got
pizza, we would still feel the same, and is that what we're trying to reach, you
know? Are we trying to reach a world where pizza runs out but you still feel
okay? [laughter] Seriously, seriously. Because the difference between wanting
pizza and being attached to pizza is that. Wanting means it's okay to want to
have a nice meal tonight. Attachment means I want it to happen over and over
again and I get upset when it deoesn't happen. And the logical extreme to both
of them is that we would learn to sit here and not really care much whether or
not we have pizza.You know like, if pizza came we would be happy, and if pizza
didn't come we'd just...kinda cruise, you know, and uh...Is that what...Is that..Is
that the goal of the buddhist practice? That's the question, you know, is that the
goal of Buddhism, is that what we want? Do you want to reach a state where
you could sit in your home and just be equa-ni-mi-nous no matter what
happened? You know, is that the goal of Buddhism? I'm ...I'm .. asking, because
I think it's a dharma rumor. I think people say...People say that frequently. You
know , they say I feel...I feel guilty. Americans love to feel gulty, you know.
[laughter] Like they're always looking for something to feel guilty about.You
know? [laughter] LIke I feel guilty because I like pizza or I'm attached to pizza
or....I get upset when I don't get pizza, you know, or Arizona Iced Tea or
something like that...you know. Is that what we want? Is that where you want
to be? That....We're going to talk about it.

[student; unclear.: liking it or not---]

Uhhh... And not be attached to it....

[student: and not be attached to it-- and not [unclear]]

No, I understand your...I understand your argument, but I'm just saying,
according to that, then, uhm--non-attachment is what we wanna get and not, not
like it, right? You can still like it but don't get attached to it. And attachment
means you get upset or--or you expect it to happen again, something like that.
To me that's what attachment means.

[student; yeah.]

We'll talk about it. Ventano?

[Student: can you [unclear] someone and at the same time [unclear]?]

Ah, good question! there's a huge debate in the opening chapters of the

[b: Marimikavatarachandakirti] and he defines three kinds of love. And the
highest kind which is the opening line of {Gyestenkapa's} mantra is what?

[student: [unclear]]

{Mik may tsewa tsen[unclear] say} Okay. { Mik may tsewa}...means uh--
Literally the words means "Love that doesn't see anything". {Mik} means "I" and
the verb means to see something. So that--the opening lines of {Gysetenkapa's}
mantra is {Mik may tsewa [unclear] say} which means, "You have a love like
Avoloketeshvara and it doesn't see anything", it's like...so what does that mean?
And then, Chandakirti explains, that that is the kind of love, it's the highest of
three kinds of love, and when it looks upon a sentient being, it sees that sentient
being's emptiness and understands its emptiness as it loves them in an ultimate
way, compassionate way, so yeah--[claps] we're talking mental afflictions can't
co-exist with perception of emptiness. But love, compassion, must --must co-exist
with perception of emptiness, so it's not like...Again, it's not like when you focus
on a person's emptiness you can't feel any emotion at all for them, that's
not..that's not the case. It's that if you understood their emptiness, you couldn't
have a mental afliction towards them. So we're going to go into the defitnition
of...Do you have a question? No---uh, poisons?

[student: [unclear]]

There's three kinds and that's the highest kind, that's the highest kind. Okay. In
the first chapter of that book, in the opening lines actually. Okay. Nice.Your
karma continues to improve...[laughter] And your old..You must have purified
the other one! Uhm..I'm going to spell the third power that we didn't..The third
force.... Okay, that {duksum} is the three poisons, okay? To--resolve this
question--By the way, if you want a nice picture of {duk sum} where do you go?
[Students: Wheel of life.]

Wheel of life. Okay? There's two versions of the wheel of life. There's the new
one and the old one. And the new one, in the later one, where..how are
the..First of all, what are the,well, What are the three representations of three
poisons in the wheel of life, in the center?

[Students: [unclear]]

Ignorance is pig, desire is a rooster, liking pigs is a rooster, liking pigs
ignorantly..G et used to it, okay?

[student: I'll try.]

Liking pigs ignorantly is a rooster, and disliking pigs ignorantly is the snake.
Okay? But in the old picture and you guys studied it in the [b:Vaniya]--and it's
prescribed in the
[b:Vaniya], the Buddha taught how to draw it in the [b:Vaniya], it's one of the
three places where he taught how to teach it and I know it...What did he say?

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah. You see, in the new pictures, they..they...The tail of one is conencted to the
mouth of the other and like that. And it goes in a circle and that has its own
significance which is good. They tend to perpetuate each other. But in the
original, in the [b:Vaniya], out of the mouth of the pig is coming the snake's tail
and the

[students: pigeon]

pigeon's--In the [b:Vaniya] it's a pigeon, because pigeons I guess are very
desirous creatures or something, I don't know.. So {duk sum}. and that's
supposed to be--According to {Karm[unclear] Rinpoche} that's a better way to
show it. Because ignorance is at the root of both of them, of the other two. Why
did we get into this? We're discussing spiritual illness. Why did we get into that?
We're discussing the third force, because we're talking about antidotes. You
know the six antidotes but those are to fix that spiritual illness of the three
poisons. So you have to know what your condition is , okay. I'm going to give
you..This is a little difficult, but I think you'll like it. This is the technical defintion,
like I have not used these definitions much..When you get into buddhism more
deeply, it'll be alot of fun and we'll use all the monastic textbooks and ..and this is
the technical defintion from the monastic textbook for liking things ignorantly,
okay, one of the three poisons, and I think if you get that defintion you can
extrapolate it to the other two, allright? Just memorize this one. It's worth it. It's
like a mantra or something. This is the answer to all those questions we were
asking. BecauseThis is the definition.. This is the technical defintion of what they
call "desire.", allright?[laughter] Say {sachay}, {repeat}, sorry, is there a boo boo
up here?

[student:[unclear]]

Yeah, {unclear}--defintion of --allright, {durchak} here... This is the tibetan word
for what they call desire or attachment or whatever, okay.. This is the--this
whole long page is the defintion for {durchak}, {dur chak} okay?

[student: wow.. ]

Allright... You guys have flat karma tonight! Allright, anyone wants to come up
and look at the transperency during the break, that's okay too...
Okay. Let's go through it.. Say {Sakchay}, {repeat}, {sakchay}, {repeat}. {Sakchay}
means impure. Impure. And there's a huge debate in the [b:Abidharma kocha]
because the opening lines of the [b:Abidharmakorcha] are {tsenin sakchay saba
may, lama tope [unclear]sakchay kanchay, bera lass [unclear]} and {sakchay}
means impure, and it means anything having to do with the mental afflictions,
okay, produced by mental afflictions, instigating mental afflictions, or made of
mental afflictons. There's a huge debate about it. In the higher schools, {sakchay}
takes on different meaning. Anyway, you can think of it as impure. {Sakchay gi
nyopo} {Nyopo} here means "thing". An impure thing. {Sakchay gi nyopo}
means "impure thing". {La yidoo ong. yidoo ong} I'm sorry..{yi ong}..{Yi ong}
stands for {yi do ong wa} which means "attractive". "Attractive"," pretty". "Nice"..
Okay?       {Yi do ong wa}          means "comes to the mind" and it means
"attractive".Okay? {Nang wa} means "looks that way" with the implication of--
what? It's not, okay?"Appears to be". Okay? When you say, "He appears to be a
friend--" you're implying not really your friend...okay? So {Nang Nay}, {Nang
nay} means "appears to be". So the elements we have so far if you translate it
into plain english means," Something which is actually impure is appearing to
you as attractive". We have to decide whether this fits the pizza or not, okay?
[laughter] Allright? Something which is in actuality impure is appearing to you
as attractive. That's the first element of what we call liking things ignorantly or
what you've always heard as desire in buddhism, okay. Or attachment in
buddhism, okay. {Rang toki} means "under its own power", okay? You can say
"independently". In the study of buddhist psychology, {rang toki} has a very
special expression that means "This mental function does not rely on other
mental functions for it to function". In other words, there are certain mental
functions that can only appear in your mind if other mental functions are
assisting it. {Rang toki} means this mental function is pretty strong. This mental
function can go on its own, okay?

[student:[unclear]]

I was afraid you'd ask me that....uuuuhhmmmm.. I'll look it up and tell you,
okay? I've never heard of a really good explanation...But anyway, {rang toki}, I
think ah--feeling. I think feeling has to be connected, otherwise--to occur.
Allright. {Rang Toki}....{Mi drowa}. {Mi drowa} means "doesn't want to lose it."
"Doesn't want to lose it," {Drowa} comes from --can I borrow your--can I rip a
page?

[student: Sure]

There's a verb--there's an ancient verb in Tibetan called {Shrowa}. Listen.
[sound--sound of page being ripped?] [laughter] That's {brow}. And then it
came into later language as --{duh, drow}, okay? {Drow.} This is {mi Drow}, "to
be separated from something", okay, so in common english, in plain english, it
means "to lose something", okay? Those of you who are studying Tibetan don't
--this is really bad, because "{dow} means what? {Dow} means "to be connected
to something". Dependent origination is--? {Ding Dow} Take off the prefix letter
and then it's {dow} meaning totally opposite, completely opposite, " to be
separated from something". So be careful, if you're translating, you might get
the opposite, okay? Different spelling. {Mi dowa Duh duh Do pay} means
"wants", "wants to". So {Mi dowa dubuh} means "wants to not lose the thing",
doesn't want to lose the thing in --in normal english, okay? So what do we have
so far? "Something which is atualy impure is appearing to be attractive and on its
own steam, this thing does not want to LOSE it".

[student: You don't want to lose--?]

We didn't get to the thing yet. We didn't get to who doesn't wants to lose...

[student: Okay]   That's the {Sanjem Semba}, okay. {Sanjem} means a "mental
function", {sanjem} means a "mental function". Depending on what school of
buddhism you're in, that could be fifty something or sixty something, but
anyway, it's the discrete different mental function--like jealousy is one of the
mental functions. There's, in one school, {Kundoga?} which means "five mental
functions which accompany all states of mind". In another school,
{Abdidharma}--they call it {sengi sanmanchu} and there's ten mental functions
which accompany all states of mind, but for example, feeling, the capacity for
feeling is always running in your mind, you never lose it, you always have it ,
you may be feeling neutral, but you're not not feeling and--and-- that's a mental
function. There are...There are...Different schools have different numbers of
mental functions; they're discussed in           the second chapter of the
[b:Abhidharmaorche]. So {samchay} means "mental function". {Semba} means" a
thought in the mind". And we know...{Semba} is what? What's a synonym
for{semba}?

[Student: karma?]

Karma! [laughs] Karma! Anytime the mind moves this much, that's--that's
karma. {Le le jteste natso keh dehle samba danday chay} The opening lines of
the fourth chapter of the [b:Abidharmakoche]: {Le le jetse natso keh}: "The
universe comes from karma". {Dehle samba danday chay} And karma is
{semba}. Any time your mind moves, that's karma. Sixty four karmas in a finger
snap, okay! That's...So the full definition of desire! If we get the definition, then
maybe we can argue whether or not wanting pizza or being attached to pizza is
bad for a buddhist, you know, so here's a definition: It's a mental function
wherein you think on your own accord meaning..You don't have to worry about
that too much.. that's something which is actually impure...and which appears to
you as attractive...Okay,I'm --I'm--just doing it ad hoc, okay...that you don't want
to lose that thing... okay?

[student: is that "thing" or "thought"?]

Well, we'll do it again...

[student: thought!]

It doesnt, it doesn't really matter.. But anyway...

[student: doesn't matter. Okay..]
It's a mental function, or a thought, that doesn't want to lose---I'm just--

[students: [unclear],[laughter]]

I'm just doing it [students: [unclear]] off the top of my head..."It doesn't want to
lose something which is actually impure but which appears to that thought as
attractive". I mean, it doesn't matter how you phrase it, you get the main points.
It is a thought. It doesn't want to lose something. And that something is
something which is actually dirty but seems to be nice. And those are the three
elements, okay? Those are the basic three elements. Now! Go back to pizza!

[laughter] [laughs] Is pizza a {saychemnyopo]?

[students;[unclear]]

I always define {saychemnyopo} as "honey on a razor blade". Is pizza honey on a
razor blade?

[student: It's an illusion...]

You can eat it, you can get fat, you can get--

[student: but whether it's good or bad, it's both, isn't it?]

Uuh! I don't know!

[student: yeah..]

Yeah.? [student: [unclear]]

That's a pretty good answer! [laughter] Uh..is pizza a dirty object?           Is it an
impure object?

[student: no! student: sometimes! [unclear]]

Is carrot juice an impure object? [laughter] [laughs] Is there pizza in the buddha
field? [laughs] [laughter] [claps]

[student:{unclear} in the buddha field]       That's true, so is there no pizza in the
buddha field? [claps]
[student: [Duh, there's no pizza in the buddha field]

Oooh, yeah...[laughs] There's no bliss in the Buddha field! [laughs] [laughter]
Uhm..Basically, {saychemgyenopo} for us means "something that can make you
miserable, something which always changes to bad"--That's a {saychemnyopo}. I
mean everything good thing in our experience, if you are who you seem to be,
turns to bad.Because the karma which created it wears out. Always. Always
wears out. That's a {saychemnyopo}. So if pizza could wear out. You know, if
you could eat a pizza qand then eight slices disappear, and then there's no pizza,
then its a {sachegyenyopo}. Meaning, if the karma, to experience that good
thing, could wear out, and you could lose that thing, and..and that..if the
pleasant taste of pizza could turn to hunger, then pizza is a {sachegyenyopo},
then pizza is an impure object. And the {Abidharma} says
{Lama do beh doche sachay}." Every single obect in the world which changes is
impure except for the Lam". Except for the spiritual path. Anything else that
changes is
suffering.

[student: huh!]

Anything else that changes is a {sachegyenyopo}. We're talking samsara, okay?

[student: So when you offer your peach, it's part of the path, right?]

Yeah. Offering things is part of the path. Pizza as an offering thing...but then it's
the mind, the mental offering you know. Offering pizza is part of the path.
Eating pizza is--is--{sachemgyenyopo}... [student: [unclear] Yeah, you can eat it
and offer it, okay.
But basically we're tlaking about desire should be focused at a thing which is
going to hurt you anyway. Okay? Desire should be focused at a thing which is
going to get--turn bad anyway. And that's why we say ignorant. It has to be
ignorant. You want something that can never be. You wanta get something nice
out of this object, it can not happen. Because it will wear out. That--and that's
very important.

[cut]

..created by mental affliction like our bodies. If they're created by mental
affliction, they're called impure. If they are mental afflictions, they are impure.
First one is, could be physical, mental or neither. Second one is mental and if they
trigger mental afflictions, they're called impure. Then there's this huge debate
like if bad person looks at the Dalai Lama, is the Dalai lama impure? That's not a
question...anyway, we won't get into it. If you get angry at the Dalai Lama, is
the Dalai Lama impure? You
know, that's a big debate in the [b:Abidharma]..Don't worry about it. Uh...But
the process is like this, and this you have to understand about desire. Desire has
to work like this. It has to misapprehend at something. It has to be mistaken
about something. It has to look at that object and not understand it.

[student: But at that moment you're experiencing it, you're not-- you don't know
what you're experiencing...]

Yeah, normally. Normally. What does it mean to misunderstand an object? Let's
take--pizza, okay, dear to my heart! What is the diference between liking it
ignorantly and liking it intelligently? I think that...that's the big question. You
know, you have all the parts here now, you know, what's the difference? Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

He said "knowing that it changes." Okay? "Knowing that it changes" would
imply that the ultimate misperception of pizza is to think that it was permanent.
Is that the ultimate misperception of pizza? To think that it as permanent?

[students: [unclear]]

It is, by the way, a spiritual obstacle. It's what we call a lower level spiritual
obstacle. Thinking that pizza is going to last forever and not to understand it's
impermanent is what we call a lower level spiritual obstacle. But what is the
ultimate misperception of pizza? It's to think that it's self-existent., okay? And
then we can go to the three schools of different presentations of what does it
mean for pizza to be self-existent but we'll skip to the highest school because we
ain't got much time, okay? [laughs] Highest school says when you perceive pizza
as anything other than your--

[student: projecti--]

own projection forced on you by your

[students: karma]
past karma, then you are misperceiving the pizza. Okay? I'll say it again.

[student: Yes!]

Highest school says if you look at pizza and fail to understand...I should say it
differently... If you look at pizza and you think that it came from anywhere else
but from a projection from your own mind which is forced on you by your own
past karma then you are being ignorant about the pizza. And then you can have
what about the pizza?

[students:[ unclear] Desire...]

Then you can have mental affliction about the pizza! Then you can have desire.
Then you can have stupid desire. Okay? Then you can have stupid desire about
pizza. I'll say it again. You can only have stupid desire about pizza if you see
pizza as being self-existent. Or you can say it a in another way, if you don't
understand the emptiness the pizza. What is the emptiness of the pizza? The
emptiness of the pizza is that it is anything except something which is NOT!
Double negative okay? [laughter]            Emptiness is always expressed in that
way,and I'll get to that in a minute...If you think that it's anything except..I
should..i shouldn't say that... It is not anything except your projection forced on
you by your past karma. And if you see it any other way, you are seeing the
pizza as self-existent and then you can have a mental affliction about the pizza.

[student: You --you don't [unclear] pizza anymore? ]

[laughter] Yeah, yeah..and i'll tell you why. You have to get the punch line. You
must get the punch line. If you understand its emptiness you understand its
dependent origination. Its emptiness is that it was never anything except your
projection forced on you by your past karma. Its dependent origination is it is a
projection forced on you by your past karma. And once you understand its
emptiness then you understand its dependent origination. Once you understand
its dependent origination, you can't have desire for it. Very interesting. [student:
unclear]]Because stupid desire implies that you woulc hurt someone to get it.
Okay? that's the..that's the...It's like four steps. And this is in the [b:Majinika]
scriptures. You know, acting ignorantly, collecting bad karma, you got to do..All
these things have to be there...You have to misunderstand the object. You have
to think, this pizza exists externally and it's not my own projection. And then
you have to want it. And then you have to be wiling to do something to get
it..that is immoral, or unethical. And then you can collect bad karma. And you
can't collect that karma without thinking it self-existent. Okay?Because if you
understood it, you would never collect bad karma. Because where did the pizza
come from? What is the pizza? What is the dependent origination of pizza?
[student: [unclear]] It's your projection.

[student: uh huh]

Forced on you by your

[students: past karma]]

Past karma. Okay? That's--If you want to get pizza, how do you get pizza? Get
pizza! [laughs] I'm waiting.. [unclear] I'm       just ...That's bad--I've taken a
vow..That's uh-[laughs] one of the five wrong livelivehoods [laughter] But
anyway, if you understand that pizza comes from giving food to people who
need food, you would never do anything wrong to get pizza. If you understand
the dependent origination of pizza, you will never hurt anyone to get pizza.
And then you will never collect bad karma about pizza. And desire..wrong
desire or stupid desire is desire that would hurt someone else to get pizza and
that kind of stupid desire must be based in ignorance. Must have ignorance as its
basis. And that's why in the middle of the wheel of life---[student:[unclear] --the
pigeon's rear end comes out of the pig's mouth, okay, because you must have
ignorance to collect bad karma. You must have ignorance to have desire. You
cannot have desire, stupid desire, if you understand the dependent origination of
that object. If you know it's coming from good karma, you're not about to hurt
someone to get it. It would be a contradiction of terms. I'll say it again. If you
know..If you know that pizza comes from good karma...assuming you like
pizza, okay? If pizza makes you sick, it's coming from bad karma okay?
[laughter] Seriously. But if you know it's coming from good karma, it's a
contradiction of terms to hurt someone to get it. To do antyhing wrong to get it.
And then that would be ignorance.

[student: So then most of the pizza in New York is from bad karma.[laughter]]

No..

[student: But you get indigestion from it , but you may not, but I do...]

[laughs] Yeah, yeah...
[student: So if you don't get indigestion and I do, then what does that--]

By the way, that's another proof of its--that's another proof of its emptiness; it is
not self-existently, good or bad. If it was, everyone wold like it or everyone
would hate it. It's empty. Okay?

[student: Hm! ]

[student: So stupid desire is wanting something based upon its self
existence..what would be non-stupid desire?]

Oh, that's a good question! [laughter]He wants to know if there's anything such
thing as non-stupid desire? Okay! Theoretically, of course, any other desire that's
not motivated by ignorance. So what about some kind of very..what his
Holiness calls self-interested--what's he call --?

[student: enlightenment--]

self-interested-- enlightened self-interest..

[student: wanting to be pure--]

Enlightened self interest, which is uh--Okay, I would like to live in a realm where
every object there gives me the same reaction that pizza happens to give me
personally, okay, and, and you undertake those virtuous deeds that are
necessary to ..to do that. So virtue or good deeds can be two kinds. What? It
can be stupid good deeds! [student: [laughs]] Seriously. You can do good deeds
not understanding emptiness, and not understanding dependent origination.
They..They have a problem. There's a problem with those good deeds. What's
wrong with their result? It wears out. Okay? The difference between stupid
good deeds and intelligent good deeds is that stupid good deeds wear out. Our
bodies are a result of stupid good deeds. Your salary is a result of stupid good
deeds, assuming you like money, okay? Everything nice thing in your life right
now, is a result of a stupid good deed. And it wil wear out, okay? And then you
have to learn how to do an intelligent good deed. And that's called doing virtue
with wisdom and that's the difference between perfections and non-perfections.
For those of you who know the six perfections, the difference between an
enlightened good deed and an ignorant good deed is whether or not they're
perfections. Perfection means, "do you have the perfection of wisdom while
you're doing it." That's all. Janna's been very patient. I hope you forgot the
question! [laughs] [laughter] yeah? [student: [unclear]] Yeah....Yeah..If you want
to get technical, it's a projection based on some sense data. There is a round red
thing appearing to you, okay? Technically, there is some sense data. yeah...

[student: [unclear]

It's very subtle, and i'll tell you the difference. And you're both right. Okay?
That's nice! [laughter] Uh. Nagarjuna says, {machemadapa} You know, if you
just...If you don't go too deep, {machemadapa}... Nagarjuna says,
{ machemadana} If you don't go too deep--{nashimdo ee!} [claps] I'm just a
farmer! It's like [unclear], got up at [unclear] , I'm a farmer! Now Nagarjuna
says, I'm a farmer! Meaning, if you don't go too deep, there is some sense data
being presented to you. There is a round red thing that smells a certain way.
There's a round red thing that smells a certain way. Projection means your mind
due to the influence of your past karma[unclear] , organizes that data into a
thing called "pizza." And that's what imputation means. {meen ga tatsta}
Imputation means your mind organizes it and calls it "pizza." And thinks of it as
pizza. But if a--and we talked about this too in Phialdelphia...but if a roach came
in and stepped on the side of this big round red thing,

[student; right]

...he would see it as one of the hell realms, one of those metal red burning
plates[laughter] over which he has to run, you know, and uh [laughs] assuming
that it's very hot, okay? ..For ..an ant or a roach, it's a , it's a life threatening red
round thing and to you, it's a mouth watering red round thing, and your karma
is forcing you to see it as pizza. And his karma is forcing him to see it as
incredible suffering. And that's true. And that's the emptiness of the red round
thing. And in that sense, You're right. [laughter] But now, we change levels.

[cut]

....Sense data exists independently? Or is that also a projection? Now is Niti
right? [student: [unclear] Yeah, but when you go down to the red round thing,
is your mind...Are there projections forcing you to see red and round or is red
and round really empirically objectively exist there? And is every sentient being
in the unverise who looked at that would see red and round? Whether or not
you interpret it as a pizza or not, you know? Whether or not they see it as a hell
realm floor or a nice pizza? But what about the red and round? Would every
sentient being in the universe who encounters this thing, see redness and
roundness? Because if they would, then then you're right, and if they wouldn't,
then, then Nija's right..

[student: They wouldn't...]

[student: unclear]

Oh..That's wrong. ..There is something there if you don't go too deep...That's
what Nagarjuna would say. [student: unclear] But if you keep going down
levels you're going to hit your nose on the floor. [laughter] So you can't solve
this today, okay?...I'm just telling you that. And in fact, you're not supposed to
go much deeper into it in a public talk, okay? But ..But I'll just say that.
{ Matamachaypa} Unexamined, there is a red round thing there, and that sense
data exists there empirically. { Tamaydapesoresemma} If you look for the thing
which is REALLY there, below all the levels somehwere, {man nye}, you won't
find anything. Okay? Okay , we better stop it there.

[student: So, you know the stupid desires, so you go out, and you're just--
you're not thinking about you're going to hurt someone to have a piece of pizza,
you're just walkin' by the pizza shop,[laughter] oh, here's a pizza, that'll be nice,
i'll have a piece of pizza! is that stupid desire or not stupid desire?]

Is it based on ignorance about the pizza? There's a backg-- There's a thing called
background ignorance okay? [laughter] No, seriously. They say if no..If one of
the other two poisons is not actively present,manifest, {woonsum,} ,
{woondeechupa} ,in your mind, there's always this background ignorance. And
in fact, that background ignorance is responsible for all the parts of your world
which are neutral. It's very interesting. The bad deeds are responsible for all the
yelling bosses. The good deeds are resonsible for all the nice pizzas. But what
about all that , you know, that background static called New York City, you
know, that you don't feel one way or other about it? They say, thats a ...that's a
karmic result of ign..background ignorance, which is always going around in
your mind. And it's..it's kind of this low level misunderstanding of the whole
world as you go thorugh it. It's not like an..active.. It's not like you're going to kill
somebody but it's just like this kind of active not understanding your world.
That creates the neutral things of your future. One more and then we'll take a
break.

[student: --[unclear] permanent thing that you talked about, Buddha, are they all
fear objections?]

Everything. There's nothing that's not. In fact, the day that you look down and
see a golden shining body of a Buddha, it will be a projection. But by that time,
you'll be so smart that you'll be perpetuating it all the time. Knowingly.
Consciously. No problem. Okay? What's wrong with that? Yeah, it seems kinda
artificial, but it's for real. It's just..It's more...purposeful. It's on purpose and you
know what's going on...

[cut]

So anyway, let's demonstrate...Is there such a thing as wise desire? That's John's
question. We gotta get back to it. Is there a sort of thing as wise desire? Of
course.
You know, we're always talking about the boss and not reacting negatively to
the boss
but what about nice things? How are you supposed to react to nice things?
Okay, the way to use emptiness to destroy anger at your boss is that as he
screams at you, you think he's empty. Does that help remove your boss
screaming? No. Does that make you feel better right then? No. You know, and
people call tell you, "Oh your boss is just a bunch of atoms" you know, "He's just
a bunch of ions and electrons," you know,
no problem, but it never worked for me. [laughter] You know, I've had people
explain emptiness to me and say "Oh it just means that everything can be
reduced to electrons and protons and so why are you getting mad at a pile of
electrons and protons?" You know, but that's not the point. I'm being forced to
perceive it as a screaming boss, it hurts me, it hurts me. So that, how to react
with wisdom then is to see that if you react with he's empty, other people in the
room don't mind him, if you wanted to enjoy him, you should've collected good
karma in the past, okay...? That's...And so, what would be the stupidest thing to
do at a yelling boss?

[students: Yell back.]

Yell back. That's exactly...The only way to get a yelling boss in your future life.
[laughter] If you want a yelling boss in your future life, get pissed off at your
boss when he yells at you. Because that's the only...According to Buddhism,
that's the only way to get a yelling boss, okay. It's the only method to get a
yelling boss. [unclear], John's saying, what's the intelligent reaction to pleasure?
We don't cover that very often. We don't talk about it very often. You know,
what are you supposed to do when something nice happens? How do you
suppose to react to that? And that's the whole question here.You're supposed to
not have this kind of stupid desire. You're supposed to have intelligent desire.
What would intelligent desire say to nice pizza?

[student: thank you]

Yeah, that'll be an idea! And understand its emptiness. Enjoy it, and understand
its emptiness. What is its emptiness? It's being forced on me by my past karma.
I'm enjoying it because I was good in my past life. I mean, eating a pizza should
be an experiene in revelling in your virtue. It would be an experience of rejoicing
in virtue. And if you're on the bodhisattva track, what?

[student: unclear] [laughter]

I'm eating this to get some calories into my body so i can serve people for the
next few hours. You have to think that. If you don't think that, you break the
bodhisattva vow. It's not one of the 64 vows, it's one of the overall vows
which ...which one of the overall commitments of the bodhisattva track is that
you are not allowed to experience clothing, or a bulding or a subway or a taxi or
a drink of water or a toilet or a..or your cheerios in the morning without
thinking "i'm doing this for other beings". So that's experiencing it intelligently.
You know, you're aware that this is the result of my past good karma..and I
would like it to continue...and you just consciously, purposely, set up the causes
in the future to perpetuate it. So it's not wrong to like nice things. I mean,
[unclear] describes buddha fields as--as places where there's little poopy things
and neutral things and then nice things and the beings there have gained some
incredible ability to put up with all of it [laughter] , you know, and be--neutral.
But they don't describe buddha fields like that. It's like these incredibly beautiful,
wonderful, blissful things going on there. I mean, that's the..I mean, if buddhism
meant the other thing, if buddhism meant oh you have to learn to put up with
nice things and bad things and neutral things and feel the same all the time..If
that was the goal of buddhism, then a buddha field would be what? It would be
a big pot pourri of uh--lousy things and neutral things and nice things and
Buddhas would be these incredible being who could take it all with some kind of
incredible neutrality. You know, I don't care, hit me again, you know.. [laughter]
It's --it's not the truth. It's not the way it is. It's not the way they describe buddha
fields, you know, read any sutra, they're not like that. The goal
is to reach a place of bliss which you know how to make it happen and you can
keep it like that and you can teach other people to get there. And that's it. And
that's not stupid desire. Yeah?

[student: unclear]

There are three [unclear] meanings to the word {dungyong}. {Dungyong} means
"equanimity" and.. there's {solo dungyong} {duche dungyong}..There's different
meaning of {dungyong}. But basically, it means...I t doesn't mean that we want to
reach a state..It doesn't mean that a buddha field is a place where bad things are
happening but you've learned to be totally neutral; it doesn't mean that. In..in
the teachings on neutrality or something like that, it means you are
understanding the emptiness of your friends, and understanding the emptiness
of your enemies and you're learning to feel equally [unclear]. And that's all. The
reaction is equal. Is the incoming data equal?

[student: No.]

No! I mean, friends look nice and enemies look stupid you know , but ...but the
outgoing karma is equal..equal to all of them. That's equanimity. That's {duche
dungyong}. Allright, we'll stop there for about ten minutes?

[cut]

In other words, no, what's the difference between saying All things are your
projections forced on you by your past karma which is the statement of
dependent origination?

[student:[unclear]]

...and saying, Nothing is not a projection? Which is emptiness. What--what's the
difference betwen those two? You have to study Karm[unclear] again! No!
[laughs] One is an absence of something. The other is a presence of something.
What is the fact that...if you stripped away from the world everything that was
not self-existent, there wouldn't be anything left and you'd just reach emptiness.
The other is-- is saying what things are is --is your projection forced on you by
your past deeds. Now, the word projection is very very delicate. It's not my
intention to talk about emptiness in this class and don't misunderstand it. Don't
think that you can go and stand out in front of a car and the projection won't
squash you.[laughter] It will. [laughter] You know. [laughs] And especially don't
think that this idea about projections means that things are illusory or they're not
real or they don't mean anything and you can do whatever you want , go to
bed , don't have any difference..Don't ever think that. Totally wrong.

[student:[unclear] plays a part in suffering?]

Yeah, yeah . It is. Yeah. We'll get into it sometime. Anyway, I gave you some
clues about the meaning of the three poisions and {nyembo} "antidote", means
that by undertstanding these things more thoroughly than you do at this
moment, you'll be able to overcome your mental afflctions which is your disease
and the supreme physician is the Buddha, okay, and the treatment is mainly
seeing emptiness but also all the Buddha's teachings, okay? But the main
treatment, you cannot apply what I talked about tonight to stop your three
poisons exactly, or properly, until you see emptiness directly. And that's another
story. But..that's..the disease is, the three poisons. And I just wanted you to get a
flavor between what...what buddhist desire, desire, the word desire in buddhism
really means, and what I think you might have thought. You know, you see
some guy up in a mountain and he looks like he could care less about pizza or
something like that, and is that what you want, you know, is that what you want
to become, is that the goal of Buddhist practice? And that's just something that I
throw out to think about. Study the definition given in the {Prajna Paramita} and
maybe you'll learn, maybe you'llunderstand more. It all hinges on understanding
that object's emptiness or not. If you...You could go through life practicing the
perfections, and a perfection is a perfection when you do it without ignorance,
okay?

[student:unclear]

Uuuh, is it really important? Cause they all want to go home!

[student: I don't know!] [laughter] [student: It's important to me!]

Okay.

[student: Is it useful to think about whether liking and disliking has its own
emptiness?]

Sure! Absolutely! If they didn't have their own emptienss, you couldn't get rid of
them .
Allright so...I'm going to go pretty much straight through the homework cuz we
dont have much time. Name three more reasons why we should make great
efforts in the practice of purifying ourselves...Okay, at the end of the four
forces... But I'm not going to go much into the fourth force..which is what?

[students: Restraining--]

Restraining yourself, because that's pretty obvious. Not doing it is pretty
obvious. Okay? He doesn't go into that much either; It's like a single verse, or
two verses....But what he does go into at the end,             he gives a bit of a
summary...Like what's the use of doing the four forces? Why should we do the
four forces? And he gives three reasons. And I think they're really cool. So i'm
going to write them in Tibetan and then we'll explain it. Say { lendrehkee},
{repeat}, {namyeyla} .{repeat}, {myekepa}, { repeat}. Okay. {Lendreh} means ...
{leh} means "karma" and {dreh} means "its consequences". I like to call it actions
and their consequences. Actions and their consequences. The rules of karma.
The laws of Karma. {Namyeh} means "all the different divisions of karma". "All
the different details about karma" is {namyeh} . {Lamyekepa} means "we are not
very versed in this". We don't understand it very well, okay. And That's the first
reason why we have to do the four forces. We just don't understand what's right
and wrong very well. You know, you pretty much have to be enlightened to
understand perfectly the conseqeuences of every single tiny thought you could
ever have. And to understand why every dot is here in this ceiling ...you know,
what karma has created every single little dot , you almost...You pretty much
have to be enlightened. It's considered one level of difficulty above emptiness
itself. Understanding the laws of karma perfectly is considered { shintokokyo}...
Which means one level of difficulty higher than seeing emptiness itself. Okay?
It's very difficult. Only an elightened being can really see all the connections. So
that's the first reason why it's important to do the four forces. Purification is
important because of the fact that karma is so difficult to understand.

[student: can you---[unclear]]

Purification....

[student: oh! the purification!]

Yeah...What..The first reason why the purification is so important is that people
like you and me, we just cannot grasp all the laws of karma...They're just too
subtle. What result karmically will I get because my tongue touchd the corner of
the straw, you know, and I had this fleeting impression in my mind? What will
be the karmic result of that impression? of that imprint on my mind? You have
to be pretty much enlightened to understand. It's beyond most human beings. In
fact, in the scriptures, it says you cannot perceive that directly in our condition.
You have to depend on the words of enlgithened beings to understand karma at
all. Allright. Say {Chyusay} {shyachun}, {doleh}, {chushindu} {nyehchepa}. This
is very simple. It means, "Okay, we may understand a little about karma, but we
are not capable in our current condition of doing the right thing about it". And
that's the second reason why you need...

[student: the four --]

The four forces, okay? [unclear] Okay, even I have studied a little bit. we
understand a little bit about karma but , but we can't control ourselves., okay...If
you wanna know the words, { chyungsay} means "a bit" , {shyakyan} "you may
understand but."..{doleh} means "to do what you should do and not do what you
shouldn't do". To do what you should do and not do what you shouldn't do. {Do}
means "to give up the things that you should give up". {Le} means "to take up
the things that you should take up". It's called "giving and taking". "Giving up
and taking up". {Do} means "giving out".
{Le} means "taking out".

[student: We can understand a little but we're incapable of applying it.]

Yeah. Which is different from the first one which was that we really don't grasp
all the laws of karmas; we can't. That leads to the second [unclear] where we are
people like with ninety percent of the vision gone and we're trying to do the
right thing without really being able to. The implication of number 2 is that
we're constantly collecting bad karma. Every minute, every second, we're
collecting bad karma. We have to know the four forces. We have to know how
to short circuit bad karma because people like you and me can't keep ourselves
from doing bad karma. I mean, if we could stop doing bad karma you wouldn't
need the four forces in one sense. You'd get rid of the old bad karmas and then
you could throw out all the four forces [unclear]. You don't need them anymore.
But our condition is that a) we don't understand karma very well and b) even
the little bit we understand, we can't control ourselves. And we...You keep
collecting bad karma constantly. I have lots of people say, they come to class ,
they say, I heard you give out...I could change my reality if I could purify myself.
And I went home and I did all this stuff for three or four days, and [laughter]
nothing happened. You know? You know, nothing happened! Or you get older
students who say, I do {bajisatva} every day of the week, or couple of weeks,
and...and I tried, I really tried pretty hard, I even did it every day and nothing
much happened.
[cut]

Nothing really happened. And that's because your mind is collecting new bad
karma at an incredible rate, at a fantastic rate..and.. and, you know, it's like
putting a finger in a , in a dam, you know, and the ...the whole dam is crumbling
[laughter] you know, you know...It's like, the collection of bad karma is done on
a moment to moment basis and the purification is done, you know, half assed,
every third day or something [laughter] and uh, it doesn't.. they don't equal each
other and then your life doesn't change and you say "oooh" ..You get tired of
buddhism and you stop coming to class and you, you do something else..You
do yoga for awhile or something, you know, and that's that's uh, no offense to
yoga! [laughs] [laughter] But [laughter] I mean it's not gonna...You have to give
it an honest shot and you have to be aware also that it's, it's not gonna much
change until you can really ....The mind is collecting bad karma at an incredible
rate. And, and the purification has to be just as serious. And just as well applied.
And....and ninety percent of people will not apply it that way and they won't get
much results and the world won't change much and then they won't have much
faith in buddhism. I fyou really work hard at it, you can notice changes in your
life, in your world within a decent amount of time. It'll start to happen. And if
it's not happening, it's probably because the rate of collecting new bad deeds is so
powerful..[laughs]. [laughter]. Seriously. No joke. Yes?

[student: If the [unclear] changing, and if you do purification and bad things
happen--]
Yeah...

[student: How do you distinguish between what is happening? Does it have to
do with how you then think about whatever those bad things that are
happening--?]

Right, I see what you mean. She says...But you just...But you said in the last class
if you do purification well, all these bad things are going to happen to you. So
you're like covering your rear end both ways![laughs] [laughter]. If your road
gets better, that's cuz you did purification. If your road gets worse, that's cuz
you did purification! You know--uh...[laughs] [laughter] The second part stops.
It starts to slow down. I mean, there's some...few... disastsers, and you wear
out the old bad karma, and assuming you've been collected in a new and good
way, it starts to drop. So there's a peak, you know, there's a peak of...of where
you're wearing out... Your purification is triggering all bad karma...and then
because they are dying out, and because you're applying the fourth force so
well, the bad things start to slow down and then they stop. It's like that. So there
is a, there is a...What do they call that? what do they call it in--

[student: unclear]

There's a peak. There's a peak thing and then you wear out the old bad karma
and then it's...Then it starts to noticeably wear out and your life noticeably starts
to change

[student: [unclear] Uh, yeah.... Okay. Yes, Tammi...

[student: can you--can you translate the rest?]

Translate up there? {Chyushintu}. {Chyushintu} means "in a proper way".
{Nyejepa} means "you can't do", or "you don't do". Meaning, "even though you
understand a little bit aobut the laws of karma, you're unable to do the right
thing with regard to what you should do and what you shouldn't do". Okay?
That's the second reason why we need the four forces. We are just incapable of
not collecting alot of bad karma from moment to moment. Okay? [student:
[unclear]] You don't have to conscious of it to be collecting it. It's worse if
you're conscious of it. Okay? [laughs] I mean...consciously
conscious of it. You have to be aware of it at some subconscious level...
[unclear] ..But you don't have to....Like if you're not thinking about squashing
bugs when you're wash across...walk across a lawn and you're collecting...You're
still collecting the karma of killing them. But it's much less than if you were
going--HEH HEH HEH HEH [laughter] [laughs] {Nyoway} , {repeat}, {getong},
{repeat}. Third reason to do the four forces. Which is the whole reason we
brought it up in the first place. Why did we...What's the..What's the reason for
the first three four classes?

[student: to get bodhichitta.]

To try to get bodhichitta. To try to get bodhicitta. So the last reason that you
should do the four fources frequently is that--{ changzen] means "bodhicitta", the
wish for enlightenement. {Kerway} means "to devote it--to be able to devote it"
-- {gek} means "obstacle". {Do} means "to remove it". So the third reason to ...
and the most important reason and the reason why it came up in Master
Shantideva's text is that it's supposed to clear away the obstacles to reaching the
state of mind where you can love other people as much as you love yourself.
Which is the great Holy Grail of our class. You know, if two or three people in
this class are ...are able to do everything right, you will reach this blissful state of
caring about other people as much as you care about yourself. And that's..That's
just this great goal of our class. If one person in this class can do that then that's
worth it. You know, and...And to imagine what that feels like..It's ...it's one of
the...It's almost you can't imagine it, okay. But you have to do the four forces to
get to remove the obstacles to that. Must, must do them. Okay? Okay. We're
running a bit late due to all this cake, okay. [ laughter] Not me, right? We
finished the subject of how to remove obstacles in general to getting bodhicitta.
Now you need to collect some positive energy. It's like you sweep the room and
now you try to get some positive energy in the room. All the classes up to now
have been sweeping the room. Cleaning out the negativities in your mind that
wil block you from reaching that kind of compssion. And..But now you have to
collect some positive energy. What we call
{tingken} allright? {tingken}. "Conducive...conditions". Conditions that help
bodhicitta grow. It's like you've uh, dug up the field and rodo-tilled it. And now
okay, what are we going to do, you know, what kind of fertilizer, what kind of
water, what kind of sunlight? What are the nice things we need to get bodhicitta
after you've cleaned out all the poo poo,okay? And here, there are five of them.
And I'll go through them real fast. And I'm going to make them a little bit...I'm
going to put them in their short, short forms. {Yidow} , {repeat}. The long form
is {Gerala jiseenowa}, okay? But it means "to be happy about the good things
that you and other people are doing". Period. Just to be happy about them. To
take some kind of joy in them. And that's the first one. To take joy in the good
things that you and other people are doing. Shantideva describes three levels of
good things and its on your homework, okay? First thing is anything good that
you or other poeple are doing to get yourself to a higher realm. LIke for
example, to stay a human. [laughs] Okay? All the good things that you or other
people are doing that would keep you in a higher realm. You could be...You
should be happy about it. That's called first level of rejoicing. First level of
rejoicing. That's mostly doing good deeds. Avoiding the ten bad deeds, like that,
okay. Second level of rejoicing about all the things you're doing and other
people are doing that would get you to nirvana alone, okay. Nirvana alone. Only
nirvana. That means anything you or other people do which is going to remove
permanently your mental affliction. Okay? The, the greatest deed there, the
most effective one would be seeing emptiness directly. Like if you've heard if
someone had seen emptiness directly or if you had seen emptiness directly,
rejoice! Be happy! By the way, two kinds of rejoicing right? You can be happy
about what you do, you can be happy about what other people did. The
scriptures all say, and it's very weird, they're all the same, it says you can get
exactly ten percent of other people's good karma by just being happy about
what they did. You know, it's very unu.. weird, that all the scriptures would say,
you know, not eleven percent, and not nine percent, they all say ten percent.
[laughter] LIke if you're happy about the Dalai Lama's teaching in the world,
you get ten percent of his good karma. It's not like he loses ten percent okay,
[laughter] [laughs] .It's just [unclear] [laughs], [laughter]. By the way, and i'll
make an editorial comment here because it's dear to my heart. What's the
opposite of rejoicing?

[students: [unclear ] student: Jealousy...]

It's jealousy, okay, jealousy. How do the scriptures define jealousy? It's a kind
of hatred, or disappointment, or , or being upset that someone else got
something nice, you know. If you think about it, it's defined. You know, I
loooked it up in the computer today. It's defined as getting upset or angry that
someone else has gotten something nice. You know nice from a piece of cake up
to nirvana and Buddhahood, you know, that whole range of things. And there's
this long story in the scriptures about,what, How disgraceful this is for a
Bodhisattva, you know, how disgraceful that the emotion of jealousy is for a
person who claims to be working their whole life for what ?

[student: others..]

To get everybody happiness...To every sentient being, you know? And then to
feel the emotion of jealousy and it happens in Dharmasala, you know, and you
have to be-very...We have to be careful about it. I have it. When I hear there's
some western guy teaching somewhere and lots of people like it, you know, I'm
like, aaacch" you know [laughs] [laughter]. You know? Or someone's done a
good book, you know...I get it, I really do get it, and I admit it openly. And it
stinks. It's really bad. And in a dharma center, it can ruin it. It can ruin the
dharma center. It can ruin thewhole dharma, it can ruin all the sweetness here,
you know, students start saying "That student gets more that than I get, or that
student, that , that that, that.." And ..and I travel to dharma centers almost
constantly and everyone has this problem, so I just hope that we could, you
know, recognize it for what it is. It's a disgrace for bodhisattvas or potential
bodhisattvas to .. to have it. We have to fight it. It's like our [unclear] enemy.
You have to think about it, you have to admit it, you have to recgnize it, and
you have to fight it. With..with rejoicing. They say, you know, what as the
problem with somebody else getting something nice? Be happy, you know, it's
what you're here for, you know!You get angry because you didn't get it, is
kinda weird, you know, and I have it ... So I'm a--I'm telling you from a ...I'm a
specialist! This is one of my main mental sickness. Okay.

[student: what's the third one?]

Oh! The third! To be happy, to take joy in other people doing anything to get
them enlightened, to make them a full Buddha, okay? Meaning they got to a
Buddha paradise, they gained the ability to emanate themselves as any beautiful
thing in the universe..

[student; [unclear]] Okay. Number 2.....

[student: More definition on the third one..?]

[students: [unclear]]

Say {koolwa} , {repeat}, {koolwa}, {repeat}. The full form is {tugeh kowa korwa
koolwa} and that's like[laughs] sea shores sea shells yieee--[laughter] . Asking
holy beings to teach the dharma. Literally, it's "asking holy being to turn the
wheel of the dharma".

[student: [So does {koolwa} mean [unclear]]

Excuse me?

[student: what does koolwa mean?]

{Koolwa} by itself means "to urge somebody to do something". To urge
somebody to do something. Buddhist teachers aren't supposed to teach unless
they're specifically asked. On the first two askings, they're supposed to say, "I
don't know anything about it." [laughter] [laughs] And then on the third one, if
they think the person is really sincere, they're allowed to teach. When you do a
mandala before class, that's representing asking three times for teaching. So the
first thing to say about this is that buddhist teachers arenormally not going to
teach you unless you ask. You know, and there's this famous mistake of one of
the disciples of Buddha who neglected to ask him to stay and teach and that's
said to be one of the causes of why he disappeared from the world., you know,
and you must ask. It's sort of a contradiction of terms because sometimes you
don't even know what to ask for. I mean, we used to go to Khen Rinpoche and
say "Could you please teach a class but we're so stupid we don't even know what
to ask you to teach so could you please also teach whatever would be the best
for us"...[laughter] and..that was the way it worked. But you really do...you have
to ask. And, and there are many things I mean you have to ask, and you have to
ask in the right way to get exactly the teachings.. I mean, to get special teachings,
it has to be done in the right way. When you..The higher you get the more
important it becomes to ask in the proper way and with the right motivation and
with the right ...behavior. And, and that's just...You..you can't get bodhicitta,
according to this text if you don't learn to do this step properly, to ask for, to
request dharma in the...in the right, sweet way. You know..and ...and I think
another thing is to keep your ears open in the sense that Dharma Teacher
doesn't have to be a guy in a red robe getting out there , you know; it can be
someone at work who sits next to you. If you are open to it, you know. If your
mind is open and your heart is open. So I know when I do this in the morning I
always think of the people at work, even the people I don't like, maybe
especially the people I don't like, whom I have something to teach me. And you,
you hgave to keep your ears open and your eyes open. There's all these
enlightened beings all over the place, you know,like spies...hiding all over your
office you know, and you odn't know who's who. And keep your ears open.
And ..and listen. And..and they might teach something. But in..But more
formally, you have to learn to request properly and in a right way, and if you
don't, you just might miss alot of great teaching. Yeah?

[student: So what's the proper way?]

[laughter]

[student: what's the proper way? ] [laughter] [laughs]

I think the thing that makes a teacher happiest, and the most likely to teach
further subjects is {dru pay chupa}. Say {dru pay},{repeat}, {chupa}, {repeat}.
Thats the offering of doing what they taught you already.

[student: huh!]

Yeah. The offering of carrying out what they taught you already. BUt if they
see you being unhappy, then that's the ultimate sign that you didn't do a {drupay
chupa}. You know, if you're an unhappy person, or if you make other people
around you unhappy, you're not doing {dru pay chupa}. Then the teacher gets
discouraged and says Well, I- I don't think I should go on, or I don't think I
should...There's no use teaching further things or more deeper things if...if
they...you know, if they're unhappy! You should be getting happier. If you're
practicing buddhism, you should be getting happier. It's a test. That's the litmus
test. You know, If your life is not improving, if you're not becoming a better
person and a hap...and mainly, if your own inside is not getting happier and
happier

[cut]

{Sondeh}, {repeat}, By the way, we're going to go to 9:30, I'm sorry, thats the
way it is...So don't...you know, just take your mind leaving class, okay?
[laughter] Because I don't have a reading and I can't...you know...we have to go
over everything... Okay!
{Sondeh} ..means...The full form is {Nyangyen nemen dowa suwehdapa} which
means "you're requesting them not to go to nirvana". You're requesting your
teachers not to go to nirvana. I always thought that this was a contradiction in
terms. I always thought this was weird, you know...And..and.. this is one of
those dharma rumors okay, this is another dharma rumor. Is there any use to go
into [ unclear] and saying,       could you please keep your mental afflictions a
little bit longer and [laughter] and not enter nirvana? I mean, would that be
something you'd want to ask your teachers? You know? So, obviously, it
doesn't mean what it sounds like. This nirvana means, high nirvana, which
means passing away., okay. Asking them not to pass away.

[student: [unclear]]. We don't go back. [laughs]

[student: we don't go back?]

We pass on. [laughs]

[student: Okay]

Can they die if they're really enlightened beings? They cannot die. So what's the
use of going to...and a Lama is supposed to be an enlightened being for you,
okay. So can they die?

[student: no...]

They can't die anyway. So what's the use of going to a person who can't die and
asking them not to remove their mental afflictions? [laughter] You know...
[laughs]
[student: It creates--it creates --]

It's like...it's like offering. It's like offering. Like a buddha doesn't need your
flowers and your water you know, they don't need it, the point is for you, okay.
How does a teacher die? By the way, how do you have a teacher?

[student: karma..]

It's a projection forced on you by your bad karma! [laughter] [laughs] Okay?
Right? Because it's empty. Because it's dependent originating...So...A spiritual
teacher is appearing in your mind, to your mind, only because you collected the
good karma to make it happen. The reason I bring it up is that to maintain the
image and the sound, you know, the video clip and the audio clip of a ...of a
teacher standing in front of you teaching buddhism burns up karma at a higher
rate than almost any other activity in the universe, okay? To maintain a living
being in front of you speaking dharma for one minute requires thousands of
good deeds. You just burned up the power of thousands
of good deeds by that happening. What I'm trying to say is to keep a dharma
teacher in your life is extremely difficult. They're very slippery. [laughter] You
know..karmically very slippery. You know, extremely difficult to keep a
dharma...an authentic dharma teacher in your life...is extremely rare. And the
karma every minute they're standing in front of you speaking dharma is
extremely expensive karmically, you know...So that's why they --they can pass
away so easily. And that's why so many great teachers...Look at the great lamas
who brought Tibetan buddhism to the west, theyre almost all gone now. And
they weren't that old, you know. Lama Yeshe, I don't know, was he fifty? No?

[student:[unclear]]

Wasn't fifty. Geshe [unclear]. You know, all the great teachers...[unclear] their
students karma wore out. That very expensive credit card--[laughter] you
know, reached its max. And they disappeared. For adult students. So
extremely difficult to keep them there. And one of the best ways to keep them
there is to ask them to stay. Very openly. Say: "Please stay". And it's not like
they make a decision. It's that your karma of saying it that helps you keep them
there. And I think much more important than saying anything is really praying
very sincerely, quietly to yourself that they stay. And asking them to stay
mentally. They can read your mind, they know. If you sincerely want them to
stay, they stay. Okay? The karma of sincerely wanting them to stay makes,
forces them, to stay. By the way, they may not stay in the same form....That's not
a necessaliy...necessarily true. They may not be in the same format, okay? But if
your karma is steady, and if your good deeds are steady, they will be there in
some format and maybe in multiple format. And maybe they multiply in your
lifetime. It's possible. It , it will be probable, in fact. That, that would happen,
okay. Oh okay, number four. Very briefly, there's ,there's a distinction drawn in
the philosophical treatises between { nowa} and{munlam}. Say {munlam},
{repeat}. {Munlam} {repeat}. {Munlam} is like {munlam chewo} the great prayer
festival   in Pasa....{Munlam} means "to pray", to pray. {Nowa} means "to
dedicate". Praying means something like you know, "May --May I learn
perfection of wisdom and teach people emptiness." That's a {munlam} okay.
{Nowa}, {Nowa} means there must be something which you dedicate. It's like
putting money in a bank. It's like first you have to get the money and then you
put it in the bank. {Nowa} is putting it in the bank. Dedicating it. What you
dedicate is..is virtue, good deeds, your good karma. Good things you've done
today. The scriptures say that if you do {nowa} about your good deeds, put
them in a karmic bank consciously, they can help you become a buddha. They
don't wear out. If you don't bank them, they can be destroyed. Or they can wear
out. So there's some kind of banking process here. [laughter] Some kind of
preservation process, you know. Instead of wasting these good deeds on
another pizza or something, you say I want this good energy to go for my
enlightenment so I can help other beings. And you're banking it. Yeah?

[student:[unclear]]

You don't go in?] [laughs] There is a thing in the [ b:Abidharma] where arhats
can do that.

[student: Do what?]

You can study that, in the [b:Abdiharmakosha]. You know, an arhat can say, can
choose to..to convert lifetime into material goods. In the [ b: Abidharmakosha]
is described a process whereby a high arhat can say I hereby convert the last
year of my life into material possessions which I will offer to the sangha or
something like that. And there's a process described like that.

[student: [unclear]]

For having what?
[student:unclear]

Yeah, I know, that came up in my mind as I said it.... I don't think that's true. I
think you get...you know, I think somehow you're just perpetuating it... I think
that's the process of willing to perpetuate it. And that has to do with wisdom. I
mean, Buddhas are collecting karma, we don't call it karma anymore. We call it
collection of the two collections. But they're learning how to perpetuate it.
They're learning how to make it...
[unclear] fusion and fusion, you know the difference? I don't know..

[student: fusion and fission?]

Fusion is this thing where you put in five kilowats and you get ten out. You see,
you get out more energy than you put in. It's like the Holy Grail. [unclear] for
the last twenty years. The government just decided that it wasn't worth the
money. [laughter] But the idea is that you can take a teaspoon of water and it
would just burn forever. I mean, it would just put out more energy than you put
in. And that's the karmic process for enlightened beings or people who have the
protection of wisdom is that. You know, you're putting in small virtues ,you're
creating paradise [unclear] continue, that perpetuate themselves.. okay.

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah, I think you still would get some karmic result in this life like that.
Temporary karmic result..I don at think you like uh losing the capital while
you're building interest..or something like that.

[student: [unclear]]

Did you say dharma nature? Oh no, that's bank karma. [laughs] That's okay.
[laughs] Allright. Last one. Oh by the way, I'll go over like... On your homework,
it says four kinds of {nowa} okay,.... The first one is called general dedication.
That's like, { gewa biii, gewa burr, uuuh...[unclear]} ..The thing that we do at the
end of class. It's like made of good deed I've done in this class...By coming to this
class, make all people Buddhas. That's called a general dedication, okay. The
second kind that Shantideva mentions, Master Shantideva is dedicating it to sick
people, okay. Dedicating your virtue to helping the sick. The third is dedicating
your virtue to help those who are hungry or thirsty or need things like that.
And the last kind, the fourth kind of dedication is that everyone in the world
could get anything that they want. Okay. Somebody.. ...When I was in my first
dharma class in India, somebody asked the teacher, you know, should I....Should
I be happy that people are collecting karma which is just going to wear out? You
know, somebody collects karma to have a pizza, you know, should I be happy?
And the teacher said, Sure, why not? I mean, you're wishing them to get
everything they want, from short term things to--[cut] What virtue have you
done? Speficially in in this book. It's very interesting.

[student: [unclear]]

Supposedly there are already ten..

[student: karma?]

If you want to go home, you better answer... [laughter]

[student:[unclear]]

Yeah, [laughs] it's the virtue of doing all those things we already discussed!
Prostrating..

[students: oh! oh!]

You know..Doing offerings, taking refuge, doing your purification, Asking--
what was the other one? Asking teachers to stay,rejoicing, asking them to teach,
and ... dedicating. You could dedicate the virtue of dedicating, okay. But
specifically here you're dedicating the virtue of doing all the things you need to
do to get yourself warmed up to get bodhicitta. Okay. Okay, number five and
then we're finished. Okay, one quesiton about dedication. I mean, I used to
go...As I used....As I've said before, I was a Christian, I was a good christian, I
liked it, and I did it very seriously and I remember we used to go into church at
--at college and we met in a very beautifu chapel and we would sit and we would
all propose people who were sick that other people could pray for.. And it seems
to be very similar. You know, you're dedicating the good deed of
your...warming up the bodhicitta to heping sick people. Is it
possible..in..in..karmic terms. Can your prayers help sick people?

[student: In the sense they're your projection, and you're changing your
projection....]

Or--Master Shantideva, when you finally get to read it and I hope you will
eventually..says, what are you,how does it work? How does dedication work?
How can you help some of these people? How can you help sick people? Does
the dedication really help anybody who's hungry or sick? And he says: Not in a
way you would think. And if you read this,I ..I urge you to read the verses
carefully if you ever get them, okay. And it says, it's very weird, you know, He
says: " I will become the food". You know, "I will become the doctor", you know.
"I will become the treatment." It's very beautiful. "I will become the water for
them to drink". You know. It's very beautiful. It's...stunning. Especially the last
chapter...[unclear] It's extraordinary. But what he's basically saying is I will
become those things, you know, and then feed them, and then treat them. It's
ver cool. So what's he saying? Can you become a glass of water?

[students: [unclear]]

[laughter] Grrr..

[student:[unclear] enlightened beings again..]

He said: "If you're an enlightened being". The point is, look, if you're an
enlightened being, you'll get {tulku} , {nirmanakaya}. {Nirmanakaya} can do very
weird things. You know, {nirmanakaya} can emanate as the quaker house, the
quaker church, you know. {Nirmanakaya} can emanate as every being in this
room, except...me. [laughter] You know...{Nirmanakaya} can do all those things.
On the moment that you reach {nirmanakya} we described it, right, were was it?
No, it was in Philadelphia...You go through this process, of the first instant of
enligtenment.. It's very cool, like six things happen all at once. Six different
things occur all at once. But ....in the first instant of enlightenment, you gain all
the ability to emanate anything you want anywhere in the universe multiply, all
at the same time. You could be the supreme doctor, meaning the Buddha
teaching on a trillion planets at once... in the next moment after your
enlightenment. Unfortunately, the first moment, you can't do it. [luaghter] But
the next millisecond, you are on every planet where somebody needs you.
Period. Without
premeditation. It's called {hundu} That's what {hundu} means. You are there
[claps] in that next moment. You are everything that everybody needs in the
very next millisecond after your enligthenment. Automatically. Without any
thinking. You're just there. And you're [unclear] . And that's, that's what you're
dedicating. That's what you're trying to do. That's how you can help sick people,
okay. You're putting the virtue in the bank so you can reach that state and that's
how you can do it. You realy can. It's not like somehow all the cancer patients in
the U.S., all their--all their tumors shrink or something like that. It doesn't
happen. You know it doesn't happen. It's that you will become a being who can
emanate on countless planets and do it, okay? Question? No? Okay! [laughs]
Eh..[unclear] Karma..[unclear]

[students: planet...]

Oh,{domsem}.         Okay. {Domsem} means.. Generally, {domsom} means to
[unclear] the tibetan word for generosity. Or the..the..And in this case it means
the "willingness"...I like to call it "surrender", okay, I like to call it surrender. I like
the word surrender. Because what this means is that it's a new {longchyu getsa
jeh domsem} It means the "total willingness to give up anything you have for
other people". And it means your body, and anything you own, and all the
goodness you have. And it's just some kind of state of mind where okay,
anybody needs it, take it! Okay? By the way, it's not the perfection of giving. It's
suposed to be a warmup for the perfection of giving, okay?
[laughs] That's why it's here. Master Shantideva puts its here, okay, I guess the
perfedction of giving is going to be even more cool. But this is where...this is
some kind of preliminary where you have some kin dof sweet thought of
surrender. You know, like, okay, take me for what I'm worth, you know,
anything you want! Anything you want, take it! If it helps you, have it, you
know, and it's this kind of ....That's {domsem}....And that's the final preliminary
to what? To getting bodhicitta.You have to be able to do all five of these. You
have to practice all five of these. Even to get the wish to be enligthened, okay....
Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

{Loo Longchung getta} Your body..all your possessions and all your good
karma, okay? Yeah? Last question and then we'll stop...

[cut]



y percent of the vision going who are trying to do the right thing without being
able to.
970320-1.aaa

3/20/97
164a.txt
ACI 10, Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, Part One