ACI 10 «Руководство к образу жизни бодхисаттвы, часть I», занятие 7

ACI 10, Class 7



[prayer: refuge]
[prayer: refuge]
[prayer: refuge]

About twelve, thirteen hundred years ago; and, uh, this will be the ninth and the
tenth chapters of the book. We’ve covered the first eight chapters this year, so
far. Um. This book is not even taught in the monastery. It’s not part of the
geshe course, you know. Ah, it’s not considered one of the five great books
that’s in the monastery. And normally a monk at Sera or at one of the other
monasteries, great monasteries, would study this on the side. Like, ah, during
visits by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, or by, in the old days, by one of his two
teachers. Um, so why do we spend a whole year on it? You know, um, it’s
really perhaps the most important, one of the most important books of
Buddhism. And it has survived since the early times of Buddhism, and people
have, you know, millions of people have studied it. And it’s a very, very
important book. Ah, if you have to, perhaps, decide what’s the most important
chapter in the book, it’s the ninth chapter. Ah, so you’re about to, to study the
most important chapter, of one of the most important books ever written, by
man, or whoever. So [laughs], ah, it’s a great honor to hear it you know, it’s, it’s
very difficult to get to hear it. I think you remember this story that we told,
when Master Shantideva taught this, ah, particular chapter, ah, in the monastery.
He started to rise off the throne that, he was on, and only a few people heard the
end of the chapter. Only those people who could read his mind, ah, ever could
follow him as he floated into the air, ah, away from the monastery, ah, heard the
ninth chapter. And there was this big argument about whether there was a
tenth chapter or not. So you’re about to hear the, the ninth and tenth chapter
and I promise not to fly away, ah, [laughs]. Although it’s always a possibility
[laughs]. Ah, and ah, you have to get in your mind what’s going on in this
chapter. This chapter’s about emptiness, it’s about the meaning of emptiness.
Um, when you look back on your life, you know, when you get old. If your get
old, okay? And, ah, when you look back on your life and you think about what
happened in your life. Ah, if you can see emptiness directly in this life, which is
about twenty minutes or something, it takes about twenty minutes. The real
{tong lam}, direct experience of emptiness on the path of seeing; it takes about,
ah, twenty minutes of a human life. I think you can count back, and you can
count your first experience of real bodhicitta, which takes less than that, it takes
maybe five minutes. And then, ah, you could count…if you ever have any
tantric realizations, like if {kher rim} and {dzog rim} of the two levels of tantra,
ah, they would take a {kher rim} experience, would take, few minutes and a
{dzog rim} experience would take a little bit longer. But you could look back on
your life after sixty or seventy years, and say “those are the only times in my life
that were important, you know, that, that few minutes in my life was the only
important time in my life.” Ah, the rest was just moving from one of those
realizations to the other, you know, physically and in time. But, but, if a
Buddhist looks back on their life, at the end of their life, and if you can say “I’ve
seen those things for half an hour or something”, ah, that’s, that’s the only
meaningful thing that ever happened in your life, you know. That’s, that’s a
very profound statement, you know, that when you look back on a whole
human life, ah, from the time you were born, that those were the only really
important things that happened, those were the most important things that
happened. And you can easily see that, and you can easily, ah, compared to the
rest of your life make thousands, millions of times more important than all the
other days of your life are those few minutes, and, and the whole purpose of
being a buddhist is to try to get to those few minutes, is to try to make those few
minutes happen. If you can make them happen, you won’t suffer anymore. If
you can make the direct perception of emptiness happen, in this life, you see
your future lives, you know, ah, which life it will all end, you see your own
enlightenment, ah, you see the Buddha, and you see all of these things directly.
You, you know them. And no one can ever convince you anything else, you
know. You know that you saw them. And, and that’s, that’s the nature of that
experience. And from then on you will not have any major suffering. From the
moment you see emptiness directly, there won’t be any major bad things
happen to you in your entire existence, ever again. Ah, can’t happen after that.
You know, major problems, you’ll get minor problems. You have to die like six
more times. [coughs] But that’s all. And, and that’s nothing, okay? Ah, I mean,
those are, that’s the power of that experience. If you reach a {kher rim} or {dzog
rim}, if you have those, ah, experiences, then, then you have the direct
knowledge that in this life, very soon, you can become a complete Buddha, ah,
like som…enter some kind of paradise. So really, those are all that matters in
your life. The rest is just, ah, logistical support. You see what I mean? Eating,
sleeping, friends, family, job, your body, ah, your mind, everything else is just
conditions for those to happen. And they don’t mean anything more than that,
you know. If they can lead you to that experience, then they had some meaning.
And if they can’t, if you don’t get to one of those experiences, they probably
didn’t have much meaning. Which is my pitch for coming to this class, okay?
This class is for that, you know? The only reason for the ninth chapter is try to
get you to see emptiness directly, that’s what you’re here for. Ah, so, so, and it’s
very rare to hear the ninth chapter, and it’s, it’s very rare to hear it explained, ah,
at all. So, and the benefits are like that. So don’t, don’t, it’s ah, it’s not, you’re
not, ah, this is not like one of those, ah…they hand out those flyers around the
city, I forget they’re called. Adult learning thing, annex thing? Something like
that. You know like this is not like how to write a good scr…, movie script or,
ah, a new yoga class, or, or healthy living class, or, it’s, the point is not that. This,
don’t think of this as a class. I mean we call it a class, it’s not a class. If you get
what’s gonna happen in the next ten classes, ah, you, you become a totally
different kind of being on this planet and you will, because of that experience
you will not suffer in major way again, period. I mean, it’s really like some kind
of threshold in your life if you can hear the ninth chapter, if you understand
what it’s about, and if it leads you to see emptiness directly, then, then you don’t
need anything else in the world, actually. And you can die happily, you know.
And you will, okay [laughs]. So, don’t miss one of these classes, okay? Ah,
don’t, don’t, you know, there’s no, there’s no other reason for your life really,
you know. There’s nothing else in your life that matters. Ah, like, like
emptiness. There isn’t anything. Ah, ther…don’t, don’t kid yourself, okay? And
if you miss more than two, ah, don’t come. Okay? Ah, that’s a deal, I mean
there has to be a certain energy in this room, and it has to be that people are
committed to, to learning emptiness and to seeing emptiness. So, if you think
you’re gonna miss more that two classes then come on Friday night, and there’s
a little less energy, okay? But people in this room now, if you stay, ah, don’t
miss mo…, don’t miss classes, okay? And, and if you miss more than two, then
as a point of honor, just stop and don’t come. And, and come back on the
Friday, you’re welcome to come on Friday, okay? But, there has to be a certain
level of energy in this class, and, and, a certain level of commitment. Ah, if you,
if you miss more than that, that it means that you don’t understand what we’re
talking about at all, you know. It means you don’t get it. And, probably you
could come on Friday night and maybe in a few lifetimes you could get another
chance, okay [laughs]. Alright? I’m not kidding, okay? Ah, it’s a commitment,
and, and I’m not saying it for my benefit, you know. I, ah, I’m just saying that in
your life there are things that happen, there are events that come in your
lifetime, very special opportunities, compared to which you should cancel
everything else. Where other things just don’t matter anymore. Even if, even if
they seem very very important. Ah, if you really know what’s going on, if you
get that kind of event happening to you or that kind of opportunity, you should
cancel everything, and, and just do that, you know? ah, if it happens that
something like that comes close to you, you should grab the opportunity and
not even hesitate, and, and cancel the other things. Even if they’re virtuous,
even if they’re Dharma things, ah, if you have an opportunity to understand
these few things in your life, if you have opportunity to experience them in your
life, then you should just cancel the other things, okay? Alright? Ah… What
does seeing emptiness do for you? What can it do for you? Ah, I’ll read you the
definition…let me see. Fancy, huh? Okay, no more writing in my terrible
handwriting. [laughs] Now you have no excuse to make your handwriting
better. Okay, ah, copy that. All the Tibetan I put up on the projector is on your
homework, okay? So, if that adds any incentive. Um, we’ll get to that. By the
way, this class is gonna be a little tougher than the last one, okay? The ninth
chapter is hard, and, ah, I decided…I saw GI Jane the other day and ah [laughter]
I got inspired by that drill sergeant and ah [laughs] so I’m gonna kick a little butt
in this class, ah. So, you gotta work hard, okay, and don’t go home and think
you’re not gonna work hard, okay, you have to work hard. And, and you’ll
learn something, cause if you don’t work hard you won’t learn anything.
Alright? So I’m gonna make you work hard, or you’ll leave. They had this bell
in the movie that you could ring if you were going to give up, you know, but

[student: unclear]

[laughs], okay

[student: unclear]

[laughs].

Say {dun} [repeat] {khong shig} [repeat] {nung sum du} [repeat] {topay} [repeat]
{chi ma} [repeat] {sherpa} [repeat] {chay pa} [repeat]. By the way, you can do
this, ah, in Tibetan track or you can do it in English track. Ah, if you do it in
Tibetan track, you have to memorize everything that goes up on the board,
okay? And you should, okay, you really should try. If you want to you can try
to memorize just the English letters, alright? Until you get familiar with the
Tibetan letters, alright? But you should really try, okay? If you’re on the border
and you don’t know quite what to do, just do it, okay? You have a lot better
chance of seeing emptiness in this life if you can learn Tibetan and, and read all
the other scriptures about it ,okay? Much better chance. It’s not just for fun and
I don’t care about…intellectually I don’t care, you know. If you, if, if ther… if
there was hundreds of Lamas in the United States who could explain these things
in English and if all the books were already translated, it wouldn’t matter. Ah,
but there’s only about ten good translations on this subject. There’s probably
ten thousand books that are, exist on this subject. You gotta learn Tibetan, don’t
be lazy, just do it. Especially the people who are administering this class, okay?
Ah, who say ”I don’t have to learn that because I’m making the announcements
or I’m doing the xeroxing, or I helped set up the altar”, ah, forget it. You know,
of all the people here, you should be the best, okay? You should work the
hardest. It means you’re gonna get a little less sleep for six weeks or something,
okay? It’s no big deal. You will regret it later if you don’t do it. These classes
will not last forever, you know. Ah, we are very lucky right now. We have a
place, we all have a human body that didn’t die yet, ah, you’re very lucky. These
will not go on, ah, forever. So you have to take the chance when you have it,
okay? Ah, {dun} means, ah, in this case it means “that thing, that object”.
Normally it means “meaning”. Ah, {khong shig} means “which”; “that object
which”, {khong shig}. {Num sum du topa}, {num sum du topa} means “if you
perceive it directly”. {Num sum du} means “directly”, {num sum du}. {Topa}
means “to realize it or perceive it”. Okay. {To pay}, “by that perception”. {Ti
ma} means “all impurities, everything impure”, meaning your mental afflictions:
jealousy, hatred, anger, desire, are called impurities. And also eventually the
obstacle in your mind that prevents you from being a Buddha. Okay? There’s
an obstacle in your mind that prevents you from being a Buddha. If you can
remove that impurity, you’ll be able to see all the objects in the universe at one
moment, in one moment. You’ll be able to see everything in the universe. And
you’ll be able to appear anywhere in the universe that you want to appear, okay.
And that’s, that {chi ma}, meaning, ah, “impurity” is also removed. {Chi ma}
means “impurity”. {Sherpa}, means…I translated it as “finished off”, like
“completely finished”, okay? “Completely finished”. {Sherpa chay pa} means “it
functions to do that, it does that, it does that thing”. So how should we translate
this in English? I’ll try to do it the way I did it…umm. That object which is such
that, that object which is such that, if you realize it directly. It allows you to finish
off every impurity, okay? It’s the object, which if you realize it directly, allows
you to finish off all your impurities, okay. That object is emptiness, okay?
Another word for emptiness is ultimate reality. Ultimate reality. You can only
perceive it directly in a deep deep state of meditation, with a lot of training,
okay? And the whole experience of perceiving it directly, it takes… in this
lifetime, for example it could take like twenty years to get ready, and then you
see it, you know. Seeing it takes about twenty minutes in deep meditation. But
if you can make contact with that reality, it’s a separate reality, it’s a different
reality, it’s a higher reality, okay? If you can make contact with that reality, it
will stop in you every impure thing. You won’t…eventually it will stop your
mortal body, you won’t have to die anymore. It will stop your bad thoughts
even before that. You will not ever be able to have jealousy anymore. You
won’t be able to get upset anymore. You won’t be able to have an un... , un..., a
bad day or an unhappy thought. Impossible. Totally impossible. But the only
way to do those things is to make contact with this higher reality, ultimate
reality, emptiness. It’s a higher reality. And, and to have any hope of reaching
those things, you must make contact with it. You must see it directly, okay? If
you see it directly, if you make contact with it before you die, these things will
start to happen. You know, your mental afflictions, your bad thoughts, your
bad emotions will start to disappear, one by one. Get less and less and less and
then finally finish. Eventually, the body itself will start to change, into a, into a
higher body, okay? Into like a body of light. And, and that cannot…that’s all
triggered by making contact with this thing. What does it mean to make contact
with it, you know, do you touch it or something like that? No. In meditation,
you make contact with it with your mind. With your mind, you make contact
with ultimate reality. Just doing that for twenty minutes, has the effect that for
the next seven lifetimes, you can st…you can remove all of your bad thoughts,
all of your suffering. And if you practice tantra, uh, in this lifetime, you can
remove all those things. Okay? In this lifetime, you can remove all those bad
parts of your mind and also your, your very body will start to change. Your
body will change into a different body. And your world will change, into a
higher world, okay? And that, that’s all made possible by making contact with
this object, okay? And that’s the definition, I mean that’s a description of
ultimate truth, ultimate reality. That thing which if you make contact with it,
every impure part of your being will be changed. Okay? So you must make
contact with that. It’s only twenty minutes, it’s really weird, you know? Twenty
minutes in the presence of this object is enough to put you on the path, ah, in the
stream, it’s called “stream enterer”. It’s enough to, to you to enter the stream,
and then you’re on your way out, it’s like a conveyor belt or something. You
don’t have a choice, actually. From that moment on you’re on your way out,
okay? And that’s the direct perception of emptiness. This is the quality of
ultimate reality, this is the quality of emptiness, okay? Um. How does it do it,
okay? How does it function that way? What happens after you see emptiness
directly, okay? That happens to be the first homework question. Say {jig ta}
[repeat], {jig ta} [repeat]. {Jig} means, ah, “destruction, destroyable”. {Ta}
means “view, viewpoint”. It’s a way of looking at your world, okay? It’s a way
of looking at your world. It’s called “the view of destruction”, “the view of
destruction”, okay? What is it focussing upon? If your name is Helen McKale,
it’s focussing on Helen McKale. “Me and mine,” okay? It’s focussing on me and
mine, okay? It’s focussing on Helen McKale and Helen McKale’s arm, Helen
McKale’s legs, Helen McKale’s mind, Helen McKale’s etc., okay? The five heaps
of Helen McKale, okay? So, it’s either focussing on you or your parts, “me or
mine”, okay. And what is it thinking about those parts? It’s thinking those parts
exist…and this is difficult, okay?…without my perceptions, don’t depend on my
perceptions. They are not my projections. I am not creating this “me and mine”.
They exist out there, on their own. They are not totally dependent on my own
mind. Okay? They have an existence of their own, even if my mind wasn’t
there. Okay? They, they exist out there on their own, whether or not I’m
thinking about them. They exist out there on their own, whether or not I’m
organizing them in a certain way, okay? No matter what I think about them,
they would exist in, in any case. That’s false. Okay. And {jig ta} , the “view of
destruction”, is looking at those things and thinking “oh, they exist out there, on
their own, independent of my mind”. Okay? Independent of my thoughts,
independent of my projections, they exist out there, on their own. That’s the
ultimate meaning of {jig ta}. Why is it called “view of destruction”, there’s two
interpretations in the scripture. One says, “what is it focussing on?” “Me and
mine”, which is very destructive [laughs], okay? You’re gonna die [laughs],
okay? “Me and mine” is gonna die, okay? However attached you are to your
arm and your hand, you know, how…whether you like them, whether they’re
wrinkly and hairy or, or, you know, whatever. You’re gonna lose them.
They’re gonna be destroyed. Okay?                That’s one meaning of “view of
destruction”.     What’s the other meaning?          The, the view itself is, what?
“Destroyable”, thank goodness, right? I mean, you can destroy this viewpoint,
you can destroy this way of looking at things, and then you’ll be liberated.
Okay. Why? This way of looking at things is the first link in the wheel of life.
When you see that picture of the wheel of life and there’s these two blind guys
walking along…ignorance. Ignorance which causes suffering. The ignorance
which causes every bad thing in your existence. From ah, a taxi cab that you
don’t like, up to your wife, or whatever. You know. From the smallest thing up
to the, ah, heaviest suffering your have, the suffering of cancer or AIDS or
something like that. Every version of suffering, mental or physical, is caused by
this way of looking at things. Okay? It’s all caused by thinking that about “you
or your, or yours”, “your, your parts”. Okay? Why? Umm. It has mainly to do
with feeling, okay? It has mainly to do with your feelings. The most important
part of your body that causes trouble, the most important part of your mind
that causes trouble, is your feelings. “I like this, this feels good. I don’t like this,
this doesn’t feel good”. And in order to get the things that your like, you hurt
somebody. In order to avoid the things that you don’t like, you hurt somebody.
Because you think that’s the way to get what you want. Which is not true, okay.
It’s not true, but it’s human nature. As long as you believe that this arm exists
out there on it’s own, independent of your mind, you will believe that if you hurt
someone, you can get what you want. That you can get what you want by
hurting someone. “I can get rid of the roaches in my apartment if I kill them”.
That’s {jig}…that’s like a classic wrong view, okay? The way to get rid of roaches
in my apartment is to kill them. You know, that’s like a classic wrong view.
Okay. Can you get rid of them by killing them? No. Will they appear to go
away for awhile? Yes. Is killing them what made them go away? No. Will they
come back again? Of course, you killed them. You know what I mean? Or
worse, okay. How does that all work, we’ll talk about it, okay? We’ll talk about
it. But when you do a bad deed, to take care of this arm, a seed is planted in
your mind. And then that seed grows into, a new roach, okay? [laughs] Alright.
The idea of a new roach [laughter] [laughs] Seriously, not kidding okay? You
don’t…you have these feelings about you want your apartment clean, you
know. So you kill these things, which is a bad deed. Because your think that’s
how you get rid of them. And then the bad deed of doing that, of killing, of
harming another being, is planted in your mind. And that causes you to see
them again, okay? If you didn’t think that way, if you stopped thinking that
way, then you can, you can stop your suffering. And you can stop your bad
thoughts, okay. Bad thoughts…stopping the bad thoughts is called {nyang day}.
Say {nyang day} [repeat], {nyang day} [repeat]. {nyang day} is an abbreviation
for the Tibetan word for “grief”, ah, “grief”. Like if your mother died, the
feeling that you would have is called {nyang}, okay? {Nyang}. Means “grief”.
{Day} means “to go beyond that, to overcome that”. So {nyang day} means “to
overcome your grief”. It’s the Tibetan word for, “nirvana”, okay? This is the
Tibetan word for “nirvana”, {nyang day}. Let’s run by again the connection
between {jig ta}, this worldview about this destoyable thing, and, and it, and
{nyang day}, “nirvana”. How do you go from seeing this arm as self-existent,
out there on its own…how do you get to nirvana from there, okay? What’s the
connection? And you have to understand that, okay? {Jig ta} is the idea that this
arm and the roaches in my apartment, exist outside of my thoughts, outside of
my projections. It is not put out there by my mind, they really exist. If I went to
Kansa tomorrow, those roaches would still be there, okay. If I died, those
roaches would still be there. If all the beings in the world died, they would still
be there. Okay? They exist outside of my projections, okay? That’s a wrong
view. They, they are in my apartment because somebody put food somewhere,
or they’re in my apartment because the guy’s next door’s using poison and
they’re all running over to my house, or they’re in my apartment because my
stupid friend used to leave sandwiches around the house, and stuff like that.
That’s not why they’re in your apartment. Okay? That helps them get there.
But the reason there’s a sandwich, and the reason your friend’s using poison, and
the reason they’ve decided to stay in your apartment, is because you hurt
something like that before. And now you have to suffer from them. Okay, it’s
very interesting. Okay, {jig ta} says those roaches came because of all those
things. Wisdom says, “yeah, they came because of those things but who made
the sandwich?” Why did the guy eat the sandwich in my apartment? You know.
and who made the roaches in the first place, how come there are roaches in New
York, you know? They don’t exist in like…I was in LA, I,gue…I guess the part of
LA I was in they don’t exist. Okay? Ah, why, you know, why they exist in one
big city and not in another big city. It’s warmer out there actually. Okay, I
mean, why? You know. Because they’re coming from your mind, they’re
production of your mind. How that works, we’ll talk about. Okay? But when
you stop thinking that these things are self-existent, you will stop killing the
roaches, because you’ll see that it’s a projection coming from your mind. And if
you want more roaches, the best way to get them is,

[students: unclear]

kill them. Okay. Seriously. If you, if you don’t see that you don’t get it yet,
okay. By the way, what would happen about everything, like, for example,
what’s the best way to get money?

[students: unclear]

Give it away. Okay, that plants seeds in your mind that in the future, you see
more money, okay? It works, it’s infallible, it’s called [unclear]. Later, okay? I’ll
catch you before the break, okay? How to get money, give it away. How to get
rid of your roaches? Protect them. Okay? Rinpoche, our teacher…we had
roaches, okay? Every night he would wake up at one a.m., he would go and put
them in a cup carefully, and take them outside. For a year, you know. We have
never had a roach in the house again. Seriously, you know. We had it very bad,
you know. It’s by protecting them that you, you get rid of them, it’s very
interesting.      Okay? It’s by loving your enemy that you can destroy him.
Alright, if you don’t like an enemy, then just be nice to him. And he’ll go away
or he’ll become your friend. Okay, [laughs] it’s very nice, it’s very nice. But by
hurting them, you create more of them. Okay, so if you get it, that’s the
emptiness. If you get that those things are coming from your mind; once you
get it, you’ll be able to get over your {jig ta}, your view of destruction. And then
you stop doing bad deeds, and when you stop doing bad deeds, your world
cleans up, your reality cleans up. Your body changes, you become healthier,
happier, you meet…fewer bad things happen to you and eventually you enter a,
a Buddha paradise, so that’s the connection. If you can destroy this stupid mind,
that’s says “all these things exist outside of my mind.” Okay. If you can destroy
that, and go to the other side that says “these things are coming from my own
deeds, what I did in the past, you know; this arm is being created by my good
deeds or my bad deeds”. Ah, then you can really make some progress. And
then you can get rid of your bad thoughts and you reach nirvana. And then you
can eventually reach Buddhahood itself, enter a Buddha paradise; the arm will
change. If you’re very very holy with your life, then the arm itself will start to
change. And, and you won’t be like this anymore. You won’t be stupid in the
head, and you won’t be dead in the body, okay? Seriously. And that’s the whole
idea of Buddhism. Buddhism is not to make you feel calm, while you’re dying,
okay? Ah, Buddhism is not to, you know, go around a happy face when a car
hits you. You know, it’s not that, It really isn’t that. It’s to stop all those things,
okay? Permanently, forever. You won’t be in a world like that anymore. And
that’s, that’s why we’re here, okay? So that’s the connection between seeing
things as self-existent, seeing things as existing on their own side, or…and
getting to nirvana. And getting to Buddhahood. That’s the connection, that’s
your first homework question, okay? How do you get rid of this destruction
view, view of destruction? See emptiness, understand the emptiness of this
thing. Okay, what happens when you get rid of that? You can clean up you
mind and then eventually clean up your body. And you won’t suffer anymore,
okay? And clean up, by the way you clean up all of New York, etc., okay? The
whole geographical environment you live in will change, okay? And that’s the
point. Hmm. [laughter] That is GI Jane’s stuff, let’s see here. Okay. The
opening lines of the ninth chapter…by the way, this chapter gets hard, okay?
And just hang in there. In Tibet, in the monasteries, there’s a custom…ah…we
go to class, you know, three or four hours a day, and then we go debate. And
the debate is like {la yin ba tal} {da}! [unclear] {da} {chig} [unclear] {yin ba tal}
{da}! You know, and it goes like that, you know? And if you don’t know
Tibetan, it’s like, [laughter] you know, and, [laughs] and even if you know
Tibetan…I meant there was this Tibetan guy who called, ah, the police and said
“those monks are fighting, you know, ah, out at Sera, you have to come quick,
you know”. And, er it’s just a shooting questions at you like that. And in the, in
the classes, it’s about the same. Ah, but there’s a custom in Tibet that you just sit
there. And even if you have no idea what’s going on, you sit there and you ask
for a blessing, you know, the words have a blessing. Someone is talking about
that object, which if you perceive it directly, you stop all suffering, for yourself
and other people. Someone’s talking about that, so just sit there. You know,
and people sit in those classes. You know, you can sit…in the winter debates,
there’s lots of people sitting there. You know, [laughter] and, and they have no
idea what’s going on, but after about a year or two, you, you get it, you know,
and then you start…you understand everything, you know. So what I’m saying
is, don’t get discouraged, this chapter is profound. It’s a deep chapter, hang in
there, okay? I don’t care if you get forty-eights on your homeworks, you don’t
get thrown out of this class for failing your homeworks, really. Ah, so stay…
stick in there, you’ll learn a lot of things. If…if it wasn’t profound, ah, it wouldn’t
be so interesting, okay? Ah, if it wasn’t a little difficult, it wouldn’t be so
powerful. It’s very powerful and it’s a little difficult, so hang in there. Okay?
Get the blessing, okay? Alright. By the way, the first thing that I mentioned,
about nirvana…there were some people in Tibet, in the time, well, actually in the
time of, of Shantideva, Master Shantideva, also, who said “you don’t have to see
emptiness to get to nirvana, you need it to get to Buddhahood, but you don’t
need it to get to nirvana”. What’s the difference between Buddhahood and
nirvana? When you get to Buddhahood, your mind can see every existing
object. Your body changes completely into a body of light. And you can appear
in any planet in the world simultaneously, in…next to anyone you want to, on
any bus, on any planet. You can appear there, you know…so you never know
who’s next to you on the subway, okay? I mean, a Buddha…part of the point of
getting to be a Buddha is that you can appear, sitting next to…I mean everyone
who ever sat next to you on a bus in your life, could have been a Buddha
emanation, you don’t know. But when you become a Buddha, you get this
ability to do these things, okay? That’s a lot different from nirvana. Nirvana is,
is the point at which you are able to stop all your negative emotions. You don’t
have any more negative emotions. That’s nirvana. Okay? But both of them
require one step before that, what’s that? You must make direct contact with
ultimate reality. You must make direct contact with ultimate reality, okay. So
there were people in Gyelsup Je’s time, the book we’re studying was written by
Gyelsup Je, student of Je Tsongkapa. And, and they said “oh, you need, you
need to see emptiness directly to become a Buddha, but you don’t need to see it
directly to reach nirvana”. And he said, “come on, you need that power; you
cannot remove your anger forever, or your jealousy forever unless you see
emptiness directly, it’s impossible. “By the way, this is coming from a guy who
just gave you about eight chapters of why these little tricks you can use to try to
help remove your anger, then when you get to the ninth chapter, he says “by
the way, they don’t work.” [laughs] You know, like you can reduce your anger,
you can reduce your jealousy, ah, but until the time you, you make direct contact
with ultimate reality, there’s no hope. You cannot remove anger and your other
negative emotions. Okay, that’s nirvana, okay? That’s why we went through,
how to remove the view of destruction, because when you do, you can reach
nirvana. Okay, you can reach nirvana. You need it, you need to remove that to
reach nirvana, and you must see emptiness directly to, to do that, to remove the,
the view of destruction, that’s the connection, okay? The next lines in the fir…in
the ninth chapter say {yeng la den la tam jay dur tu pay sherab den du sub}
which means “all of these things that came before, were said by the Buddha to
be for the sake of wisdom.” I’ll repeat that, okay? The opening lines of the ninth
chapter say “all of this stuff that came before, was spoken by the Buddhas for
the…to be for the sake of wisdom.” Okay, what came before, I mean basically,
wisdom is number six of what?

[students: unclear]

The six perfections. Okay? Six ways in which bodhisattvas act.          Okay, six
activities of all bodhisattvas. What are they, quickly?

[student: giving [unclear]]

Giving.

[student: ethical way of life]

Yeah, giving. Like generosity. Ah, ethical way of life, you know, following a
good way of life.

[student: patience]

Patience, which means not getting angry.

[student: joyful effort]

Joyful effort which means, you like to do good things. Okay, like you, you,
you’re happy when you get a chance to do good things, okay? Fifth one?

[student: concentration]

Meditation, call it meditation, okay? Those are the five perfections that come
before…

[student: wisdom]

Wisdom. And those six are the activities of a bodhisattva, that’s what this book
is about, that’s how you get to be a Buddha. Okay, we’ll say them again: giving,
ethical way of life, not getting angry, being happy to do good things, and then
meditation. You need those five. So many Tibetan, ah…there was a debate,
even since India, what do these opening lines mean, when it says “everything
that came before is for the sake of wisdom”. And then, ah, some people said,
“oh, it’s referring to chapter eight”. What was the subject of chapter eight?
Meditation. Deep meditation, okay? Why is that a good answer?

[student: [unclear ] meditation, [unclear] perceive emptiness directly unless you
have shamata].

Yeah, you cannot see emptiness directly, you cannot make that direct contact
with ultimate reality, which if you can do it for twenty minutes, in this life,
everything’s over. You know, you’re a stream enterer, everything is set. You
know, you can’t screw up after that, you know. Life is, is perfect after that. You
know, you know everything about your future. You see it directly, it, if you can
just do that for twenty minutes. You must though, to see emptiness directly, to
make direct contact with that object, you must be able to get into a deep state of
meditation. You must be able to get into this state of meditation, okay? That’s
why it makes sense to say, the ninth chapter, the opening lines, are talking about
the fact that you must have chapter eight to get to chapter nine, Okay. Which
means, by the way, if you don’t meditate, about an hour or two a day, you will
never make contact with ultimate reality. And you will just die, like all the other
people in the world are dying, okay? Hopeless, helpless, dying. If Buddhism is
wrong, you just die, okay? If Buddhism is right, you die and then you go to
much worse things, okay? And very, very long time, okay? Ah, so that’s the
choice you have, you know either make contact with ultimate reality, or just die
a normal death. How do you make contact? You must be in deep meditation.
You must…how do you get in deep meditation? You must practice about an
hour or two a day. People come up to me, to… you know, “is it okay if I don’t
meditate today?” You know [laughs], well, yeah if you want to die like that, I
don’t care, you know, it’s, fine, you know [laughs]. Do I have to do my, ah,
confession book today, you know, do I…can I just skip the rest of the day?
Yeah, you know, if you don’t wanna…if you just want to die like that, I don’t…
you know, that’s your privilege, right? That’s your right. Everybody has the
right to suffer. Everybody has the right to die. You know, that’s your
inalienable right, right? Ah, I can’t tell you you can…you know, not to suffer. If
you want to suffer, suffer, you know. Don’t meditate tonight. You know. Or
wait til it’s too late so you have a lousy meditation, you know. Ah, you know
[laughs], that’s your right. But, but it’s a stupid question, right? Anyway. The
other, the other, ah, commentators have said, “no, no, no; we’re talking about
the other five perfections”. The opening lines of the ninth chapter mean you
must have the other five perfections, before you get to wisdom. Okay? The
Buddha taught, ah, the Buddha stated that the other five were for the sake of
reaching wisdom, okay? So those are two ways of interpreting it. Is way
number two…is way number one correct? Does it make sense? Yeah, it does.
And Gyelsup Je says “not too bad, you could do it that way”. Which is a {my
ying gak}, what’s that {my ying gak}? He says, “but the second way is better”.
Okay, when you say “not too bad”, it means “well, the second way is better”.
Which means, the opening lines of the ninth chapter mean, the whole schpele
that Master Shantideva gave up to this point was for the sake of getting you to
wisdom. Okay, why did I talk about all these perfections for this year? Because,
I’m trying to get you to the perfection of wisdom, okay? Now you get into a
debate and we’ll do that debate and then we’ll take a break. Um. Now people
have said, “therefore, Master Shantideva thinks that you have to practice the
other five perfections to see emptiness directly.” Okay? To perceive emptiness
or to understand emptiness, you must see the other five perfections, ah, you
must have the other five perfections come before. Ok…They say…Master
Shantideva is saying, “you can’t get to number six unless you do the other five”,
unless you are generous , unless you live a good life, unless you don’t get angry,
unless you are happy about doing good things, and unless you have deep
meditation, you can’t get to number six. You can’t have any understanding of
emptiness. Is that correct? Whoa, okay, some people say “yes”, some people
say “no”. Uhnn. Here’s the answer. [laughter] Je Tsongkapa used to have, ah,
memorizing contests with his friends.

[student: unclear].

And, ah, I think he did like, I don’t remember exactly, I think it was a hundred
pages one night. And, ah, so you can do a few lines, right? By the way, this is
the longest one, you just happened to hit it early, okay? So don’t get scared,
alright? You can’t really leave til the break anyway, if you’re, if you’re polite, so.
[laughter] Again, you don’t have to do it in Tibetan, you can do it in English,
alright? What I used to do in debating was, ah, I’d just pick out the main points,
I’d forget all the “to” and “and” and “it” and “thus”, you know. You can reduce
it to about four words that you really have to remember, okay. And if you find
this class is too demanding for you, come on Friday night, okay? But I don’t
want to water the class down, okay? I want to make it a little GI Jane. Alright.
And you can do it. Okay. Okay, ready? Not quite. Okay, say {lo pen} [repeat].
{Lo pen} means, ah, it’s what I’ve been calling “master”. It’s a-char-ri-a in
Sanskrit. It means “master”. Master scholar, master saint, master meditatior,
okay? {Lo pen}. Master. {Sheetz tso} means Shan-ta-rak-she-ta, I’ll spell it for
you. Shan-ta-rak-shi-ta. Very famous Indian master of buddhism, okay. He
talked about whether or not the five perfections have to come before you can
understand emptiness. Okay? So we’re quoting him, we’re…this is his position.
Shan-ta…Master Shan-ta-rak-she-ta…{Tar}, {tar} means “he said, according to
him”. {Tong ne} means what? Emptiness. Ultimate reality, same thing. Okay?
{Tong ba ne}, {tong ne}. Ultimate reality. {Tur sam } are the first two thirds of
the process called {tur sam gom}. So I’d like to repeat it, okay? {Tur} [repeat]
{sam} [repeat] {gom} [repeat] {sum} [ repeat]. {Tur} [repeat] {sam} [repeat]
{gom} [repeat] {sum} [repeat]. {Tur} means “going to class and hearing about
emptiness”. {Tur} means “to hear, to learn”. Learning. Okay. Even if, after the
tenth class of this course, you intellectually understand everything I talk about,
which is unlikely, okay? [laughs] It’s not enough. {Tur} has to happen over and
over and over again. Throughout your life. Every few months, you should be
trying to get into a class about emptiness. Okay? You should go again and again
and again and again. Our heads are made of wood and it takes a certain amount
to sink in, okay? [laughs] And this is recognized in buddhist teaching theory,
you know, it takes a certain number of hours for it to reach the subconscious,
you know. For it to really reach the inner core of your being. You have to hear
it, frankly, several thousand hours of it, okay? The {tur} is very difficult, it takes
a lot of time. You have to sit there and sit there and sit there and you have to
hear it explained correctly and accurately, many many hours. And then it will
sink into your mind, that’s called {tur}. Say {sam} [repeat]. {Sam} means
contemplating it, it’s going home and thinking about it intellectually. You’re on
the bus, or you’re about to kill a roach in your house, like the roaches are getting
really bad and you remember this guy, he says “wait what was he talking about,
and why did he say that, and, and is it true or not, and what did... you know.
You start wondering about it, thinking about it, that’s {sam}. {Sam} means
contemplation. Thinking about what you {tur}, what you heard. Okay? {Gom},
which is coming up later, it’s not here, okay? {Gom} means ”meditation”. Like
you actually go into a state of meditation and you try to see emptiness either
directly or indirectly, okay? Can you perceive emptiness before the day that you
make direct contact with it? Yeah. You did while I was talking about it just now.
During the last hour, you’ve had certain intellectual understandings of
emptiness. You perceive emptiness intellectually, very fuzzy, very dark, very
incorrectly, but you perceived it. Okay? [laughs] I mean, you had, when I said
the word “emptiness” and I talk about “is my arm out there”, you, ah, you
understood something. You have some kinda mental image about emptiness,
okay? And when you go home tonight and think about it, ah, or the next time
you kill a roach or something, ah, you’ll have another perception of emptiness,
you’ll start to understand it more. Those are perceptions of emptiness. Is it the
direct contact that takes you to nirvana and Buddhahood directly, fast? No.
Because that’s said {mun sum}. That said directly, that has to be direct, that has
to be direct contact in deep meditation. But here we’re not talking about that.
{Key} means “by the process of learning and contemplation”. {Tip pol la beb pa}
is a fancy word for “establish or to gain a clear understanding” of something,
okay? You’re able to gain a clear understanding, about emptiness. {Gin sulk},
{gin sulk} means “giving and the other four”, perfections. Right? Those first
five. So, {gin sulk} means “giving and the other four”. The first five perfections.
{Nga} means what? Five. {Nga} means “five”. Okay. {Loon du dol} means
“they come before”. They come before. {Me gur}, {me gur} means “they don’t
have to”. Okay, this is Master Shan-ta-rak-shi-ta’s position and it’s also accepted
by all the great Lamas since then. And all the great Lamas before that. [sneeze]
Excuse me. Ah, they don’t… you don’t have to do generosity, you don’t have to
be, bodhisattva moral. You don’t have to be perfectly avoiding anger, you don’t
have to be perfectly joyful about good deeds and you don’t have to be perfectly
meditating as a bodhisattva activity, to get an intellectual understanding about
emptiness. I mean, anyone could come in this room and if they had half a brain,
they could understand something about emptine… [cut] ah, so you don’t have
to, they don’t have to go before for you to have a general understanding about
emptiness. Okay? That’s the first reason why those five do not have to go
before you understand emptiness, generally speaking. Okay, I’m going to give
you two more reasons. On your homework there’s, three. Okay, you have to
give three reasons. The first reason why you don’t need those other five
perfections to see emptiness, is that, just to hear about it, and to think about it,
you don’t have to be a great generous person or anything like that. Do you
have to collect good deeds? Do you have to collect good karma? Forget it. I
mean for you to be in this room tonight, and to hear the word “emptiness” from
someone’s mouth, even if they were totally crazy… if there was some crazy man
who came in here and yelled “emptiness, emptiness, emptiness”… for you to
hear that word emptiness, puts you about, above about a million other people in
the United States tonight. You have more good karma… each person in this
room has more good karma than about a million other people tonight. To hear
the word “emptiness” come from someone’s mouth, you have more good
karma already than about a million other people in America tonight, period.
Okay? Of course you need good karma to, to understand emptiness. But you
don’t have to have those extraordinary bodhisattva activities, that’s the point.
Okay? You just need a few million years of good deeds, okay [laughs]. Which
you all have. Okay? And which can wear out. You know, about the time it
takes the air to go between the holes, here. It’s a miracle that the air continues to
go through these two little holes. If you think about it, like for forty years or
thirty years, the air has managed to go through these holes a couple of times
every minute, it’s amazing, okay. It, it doesn’t take anything to stop it, okay?
The karma could wear out at any minute, okay? Somebody could choke on a
cookie during the break, [laughter] which will be in about two minutes, okay?
Ahh, hope you don’t, we don’t have insurance for that. Okay. We’ll do one
more and we’ll do the third one after the fatal cookies. [laughter] Ahh. Okay. I,
I promise this is the longest part of the homework. Okay. You’re probably
thinking to yourself, “if he keeps up this way, I’m probably gonna have to spend
four or five hours studying this”. That’s right. Okay [laughs]. Alright. I’m
trying to get you more {tur}. Alright. I’m trying to force you to… I’m trying to
for… rest away from you your New York Times time and stuff like that. So,
give up something for the six weeks, okay? New York Times is a good choice.
Okay. Stuff like that. Couple of movies. I, I studied Sanskrit , ah, I was an
auditor, there were sixty people in the class, and three of us were auditing, and,
ah, the professor got up and said, ah, “I’ve been in this university my whole life,
since I was seventeen, and now I’m sixty-four and a half, and now I’m going to
teach it the way I always wanted to teach it, cause they can’t kick me out now”.
[laughs] [laugher] And he made us memorize many verses and, and at the end
there were three people left, and it was the three auditors. [laughter] Uh, say
{tong ne la} [repeat] {ye gyur wai} [repeat] {nyong wa} [repeat] {khyer wa}
[repeat] {la ah} [repeat] {lung du} [repeat] {dro} [repeat] {me gur} [repeat].
Okay. {Tong ne} means, “emptiness”, we had it before. Okay, {tong ne} means
emptiness. {Tong ne la} means “about emptiness”, {la} means “about”. {Ye gyur
wai nyong wa} is a very difficult word, okay? {Ye gyur wai nyong wa}. {Ye}
means “mind”. {Gyur} means “it changes you mind”. And {nyong wa} means
“an experience”. Okay? It means a deep, ah, understanding and experience of
emptiness, a deep spiritual understanding and experience of emptiness. But not
direct, okay?     It’s where a deep understanding and a deep conviction in
emptiness, but not yet a direct perception of emptiness. Not yet that direct
contact. Like it’s just that you have a very very deep understanding of it. So
deep that you’re certain about it and you know it’s true, something like that. But
you haven’t yet made direct contact with it, like your mind’s been transformed
by your understanding of it, and you have a deep conviction of it, about it, you
understand it very deeply, but you haven’t yet made direct contact with it, okay?
{Ye gyur wai nyong wa}. {Khyer wa la}. {Khyer wa} means “to develop that”.
{La ah} means “for that also” and then the rest is the same as the last one, the
rest is the same. {Lung du dro me gur} means “those five do not have to come
before”.     Okay?     For you to have a profound conviction, ah, profound
understanding, spiritual understanding of emptiness, they do not have to come
before, okay? You do not have to engage in those bodhisattva activities before.
Okay? We’ll do number three, it’s real short. [laughter] {Kha chu shor man
dwa}. {Kha chu shor}, what’s {kha chu shor}?
[student: [unclear]].

Yeah, anybody salivating? No. Okay. Okay say {nyer rang} [repeat] {kyi}
[repeat] {tong ne} [repeat] {to pa} [repeat] {gom chu} [repeat] {kyi} [repeat]
{hlak tong} [repeat] {yang} [repeat] {kai} [repeat]. Okay, {nyer rang} means
“two kinds of lower level buddhist practioners”, that have not reached
bodhisattva track yet. They’re not interested in the bodhisattva track yet. Okay,
hinayana. They are, {nyen} means, they can, {nyen} means “listen”. These are
people who can listen to all this stuff about saving all sentient beings, and they
can even report it to others, but they can’t do it themselves. So they’re called
{nyen}. {Nyen} means, “they can listen”, listeners. They’re not interested is
saving all people yet. But they want to be a good Buddhist, okay? And they can
reach nirvana, and they can see emptiness, okay?              But they can’t reach
Buddhahood yet. And that’s called {nyen}. Shar-va-ka in Sanskrit. {Rang}
means “self made Buddhas”. They’re not self made and they’re not Buddhas.
But they’re called self made Buddhas. These are also people on a lower track,
who want to reach nirvana, but they’re not interested in saving all sentient
beings yet. Okay. Why are they called self-made Buddhas, they don’t have a
teacher, in this life. They’re running off their good karma of their past live of
meeting millions of teachers before. In this life, without a direct teacher, they can
achieve their goals. What is their goal? Just nirvana, they’re not interested in
helping all sentient beings, okay? Necessarily, okay? Ah, {tong ne to pa} means
“they do perceive emptiness”. How? {Gom chu}, {gom chu} means “through
that third step in the learning process”. What was that first step?

[student: [unclear]]

Hearing a lot in class, many many hours. What is the second step?

[student: [unclear]]

Thinking about it when you get home. Okay, what was third step? Meditating
on it, now we got to the third step.              These people have a meditational
understanding of emptiness, okay?                They are perceiving emptiness in
meditation. Okay. They have a thing called {hlak tong}. {Hlak tong} means
“one of the highest developments of wisdom”. Where you’re… we had the
definition, ah, in the last class. But it’s a very great understanding and perception
of emptiness, it means “special vision”. Special vision, special insight. Okay?
{Hlak tong}. {Hlak tong}. {Yang kai} means “even they can develop that”,
okay? What’s the point? What’s the point of this third one? Even people who
have no interest in saving all other beings, they don’t care about bodhisattva
stuff, they can see emptiness, okay? They can see emptiness. Now what are
these three statements trying to prove, what where they again? Let’s go
through the three, then I really will let you have a, a cookie. [laughter]
Somebody came up and said , what? “You can’t, you can’t see emptiness unless
you do those other five perfections”. You can’t, okay? Unless you are great at
giving, morality, etc., bodhisattva way. You can’t see emptiness. And Master
Shantideva says “wrong on three counts”. Wrong on three counts. First of all,
any fool that walked in this room, and had ears, could hear what I’m say… [cut]
And that’s following the idea of Shan-ti-rak-shi-ta. What’s the second one, cause
I don’t remember.

[student: [unclear]]

Huh?

[student: [unclear]]

Say again?

[student: [unclear]]

Oh,. Yeah, you can even have a very deep understanding, I mean, not just be a
shmuck of the street. You know, you could be a very dedicated Dharma
student, have a deep deep understanding of emptiness. Eh… So much that
you’re convinced of it’s truth in your mind is changed completely. But even then
you don’t need to have the five perfections of a bodhisattva, for that. You can
do it without it, okay? Although you need other virtue. And thirdly, you could
be completely on another track, you could be on a hinayana track. You don’t
care about saving all sentient beings, but you can see emptiness directly. They
see emptiness directly, and they don’t practice all the perfections, okay? What’s
that mean? It means the opening lines of the ninth chapte… by the way, we’re
two lines out of a hundred pages, we’ve finished, okay? We’re making great
progress. [laughter] Ah, when they say “the Buddha said, all those other things
were for the sake of wisdom”, was he talking about the five perfections? Not if
you take wisdom to just be the direct perception of emptiness. You don’t need
the other five perfections, to see emptiness directly, okay? You don’t need to be
a bodhisattva to see emptiness directly, you can do it without it. So what’s he
mean? We’ll do that after the break, okay [laughs] [laughter] Okay, so take a
break, like ten minutes. We’re gonna run til nine thirty so just get used to it,
okay? [laughter] [cut] After you finish writing this we’ll do something else.
[laughs] [laughter] No, I still have to give you the punch line from the last one,
right? So why does the opening, why do the opening lines say that “all that
came before was spoken to be for wisdom”. And Master Shantideva, and
Gyeltsup Je say, “look, we’re talking about the wisdom of a Buddha, we’re
talking about omniscience, we’re talking about the ability to close your eyes and
see ever existing object in the universe in one moment, that ever was, is or will
be”. That’s pretty cool, okay. To close your eyes and be able to see every
thought that every being ever had, is having now or will have, to see everything
that ever existed or will exist, or that exists now, in one moment. To be able to
do that is the Buddha’s state of mind, that’s an enlightened state of mind. Now if
you want to get that, you have to have the other five perfections. Okay? And
that’s the point, okay? You can get rid of your mental afflictions, you can get rid
of your jealousy, desire, etc., without those five perfections. But you cannot
reach that state of mind, which is called “the ending of the obstacle to
omniscience”, okay? You have in your mind now some kind of block, mental
block. Your mind is capable of perceiving every object in the universe, but it has
some kind of block right now. When you practice those five perfections, and get
to wisdom, you can remove that block. It’s very cool, it’s very interesting. You
know, every mind sitting in this place has the ability to see every thing in the
universe, but something’s blocking you. Okay, there’s a, there’s a mental block
that you have. To remove that block, you must practice those five and then
practice the perfection of wisdom, and that’s what Master Shantideva, meant
when he said, “the other five have to… all of the other five are aimed at getting
number six. You see, the other five are aimed at getting number six in the form
of omniscience. By the way, is a Buddha omnipotent? No way. Prove it. I’m
suffering. Okay? It doesn’t take anything more than that. Oh, but he could be a
sadist, right? [laughter] Right? [laughs] I mean, I’m suffering, he could stop it,
but he doesn’t stop it. You know, which is ridiculous, Buddhas also have all
compassion. So if the Buddha were omnipotent, I wouldn’t be suffering. If I am
suffering, it means the Buddha can’t do everything. Does that mean the Buddha
doesn’t know everything? Not at all. The Buddha does know everything, the
Buddha can’t do everything. Okay, because your suffering was created by your
bad deeds. And it’s a projection coming from your mind, not from his mind, or
her mind. So it’s up to you to stop it. And he can’t, or she can’t. She can help
you, he can help you, but, but, can’t, they can’t do it for you. Okay? Or they
would have already and we wouldn’t be here in New York City, in nineteen
ninety-seven, with all the unpleasant things here, you know, okay? It just
wouldn’t exist, alright? Alright, ah, having introduced the concept of emptiness,
now Master Shantideva will start to teach you how to see it directly, which is the
whole point of this class. To see it directly, you have to first get in your mind,
and this is your meditation assignment for this week. It’s on your homework,
okay? You have to be able to see in your mind roughly, what is ultimate reality
and what is not ultimate reality. You have to see in your mind, you have to be
able to close your eyes and say “okay, ultimate reality probably looks like that”.
Have you seen it directly yet? Maybe not. Do you even understand it very
clearly? Maybe not. But roughly, I think ultimate reality must be like that. And
then the opposite must be like something else, you know. So mentally this
week, your assignment, you know, is to try to in your mind divide between,
“oh, this is probably ultimate reality, and this is the other reality”. Okay, the
lower reality. Okay? The lower reality is called, {kun tsok}. Say {kun tsok}
[repeat], {kun tsok} [repeat]. By the way these are the two lines that come next,
and these are where Master Shantideva explains the two realities. Okay? He
starts to talk about the two realities. One of them is called {kun tsok}. You have
been in {kun tsok} reality your whole life. Okay? Unless you are a very high
being, unless you have seen emptiness directly, and I don’t know who in this
room has seen emptiness directly, okay? I can’t tell by looking at your face, if
you’ve seen emptiness directly. You have to be careful, okay? But if you’re not
one of those people, okay…

[student: [unclear]]

No, I… what I said when I said that was that, from their description of the
experience, you can tell it, if you’ve already seen it yourself, you can tell with
certainty if they’ve seen it or not. If they talk for two minutes, and, ah, and
they’re not describing certain things, it’s definite that they didn’t see it directly,
okay? If you’ve seen it directly, you, you could interview them and, and if they
would tell you, cause these tantric deities are very sl…greasy, you know. And,
sometimes they don’t admit to anything, right? [unclear] Ah, [laughter]
[laughs] so anyway. You don’t know who’s, who’s seen it. But suppose you
haven’t, then your whole life has been spent in {kun tsok} reality. {Kun tsok}
means “deceptive, false”, okay? Deceptive reality, okay? False reality. So
there’s ultimate reality and there’s false reality. Ultimate reality is called {dun
dam}. See {dun dam} here? Okay, say {dun dam} [repeat] {dem ba} [repeat],
{dun dam} [repeat], {dem ba} [repeat]. The word for ultimate reality in Tibetan is
ultimate truth. {Dem ba} means, “ truth”. {Dun da dem ba} means “ultimate
truth”. The word in Tibetan for ultimate reality is ultimate truth. Okay. The
word for what I call {kun tsok} or deceptive, is deceptive truth. Okay, deceptive
truth. This pen is deceptive truth, this arm is deceptive truth, this room is
deceptive truth. You body is deceptive truth and your mind is deceptive truth.
And if you’re not… if you haven’t seen emptiness directly, you have spent you
whole life in…in a world of lies. In a world of illusion, you’ve never seen
anything correctly. You living in… it’s deceptive reality, okay? A deceptive
truth. Why do they call it truth? Why do they call it truth, why don’t they just
call it deceptive reality? You gotta get used to that, alright? They talk about the
two truths, it means the two,

[student: Realities.]

realities. So why do they call them truths? You know… by the way, two
truths… when I say, “two truths” you have to think, “oh, he’s talking about the
two realities”. One of them I’ve been in my whole life. The other one, if I could
make direct contact with it for twenty minutes, I would be outta here. You
know, I’d be in a different place, altogether, you know. So wha… what’s he
talking about”? What… when he talks about two truths, you have to think, “oh,
he’s talking about those two realities”. Which one? “Oh, the deceptive one I’ve
been in my whole life, and the, ah, ultimate one, if I could touch it directly, if I
could make direct contact with it, then it would change me forever; and I would
be outta… I would see all my future lives, I would see my future enlightenment,
I would meet the Buddha, etc”. Okay, sixteen wonderful things happen to you,
called the: four noble truths. Okay, that’s what four noble truths mean. Okay,
anyway. But in buddhist philosophy, they’re called the two truths, okay? Why
is deceptive real… if I say “deceptive reality”, which is all around you,
everything about you and everything in this room is deceptive reality. Why do
they call it truth? Why do they give it such a fancy name if it’s a lie? It’s like
saying, you know, “true lies”. You know, why, why give it credit and call it
deceptive? Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

Say again?

[student: [unclear]]

Ah, Scott said “because it functioned at work”. What were you gonna say?

[student: [unclear]]

Ah, because it feel so real… and he said?
[student: [unclear]]

Because it’s not non-existent. That’s, ah, three interesting ideas, okay? One
person said, “it’s true because it works” and that’s true. The first one… that’s not
why it’s called “truth”, but it’s not… it’s an interesting idea, okay? It does work,
the pen works, your shirt works, you mind works, you legs work, they’re gonna
take out the door when I finally let you go. Okay? I mean, everything works,
it’s… something deceptive about it, but it works, okay? So, that’s not bad. Ah,
to say, “it’s truth because it exists”, that’s not too bad, either. I mean, it does
exist, right? You can’t say, “it doesn’t exist”. You go stand in front of a deceptive
truth car, and [laughter] see if it breaks your deceptive truth legs, and gives you
deceptive truth pain in the hospital. And you get a deceptive truth bill, you
know. [laughter] [laughs] You know what it mean? [laughs] It works, it really
does work. It may be something funny about it but it does work, alright? Ah,
actually Kay’s answer’s the correct one, okay? Ah, it’s called truth… by the way,
where did I find this? Ah, we, we had some, ah, special books input… we’re
doing this computer project; we’re putting in hundreds of thousands of pages of
text. We just got a shipment yesterday, so I was checking it, did this say
anything about the two truths, and it’s Trijang Rinpoche’s collected works, which
is Rinpoche’s root Lama and the teacher of the current Dalai Lama, and, ah, there
it is. Beautiful. You know, two truths, here’s why they’re called “truth”, you
know? And, ah, deceptive truth is call… so now it’s in your homework already.
Ah, so you can credit all those people working in the basement at Phistry in the
dark… in the basement. In the dungeon. Yeah. Ah, but anyway, ah, it says
deceptive truth is called truth, um, because you think it’s true. It seems to be
true, to a mind which is wrong. It seems to be true to a mind which is wrong.
And that’s why it’s called… that’s why deceptive reality is called “deceptive
truth”. It’s a fancy way of saying, “it’s a lie”. Okay? [laughs] It’s true to a mind
that doesn’t understand things correctly.          You know?       Pink, two-headed
elephants are truth to a very drunk person. It’s like saying that. Okay? That
mind, your state of mind now, its wrong, all the time. What you see doesn’t
exist the way you think it does. You know, you think those roaches exist from
their side, so you kill them because you want to get rid of them. But you don’t
understand that why they’re there has nothing to do with killing them or not
killing them. And if you kill them, it’s the best way to get more. You just can’t
see that, you look at a roach, you don’t think that. It wasn’t like the first
caveman that was, you know , “oh, ah,ah”, and he’d look at something to kill
and he’d say, “oh, wait, it’s empty, it’s a projection of my own mind, you know,
don’t kill it”. You know, we started killing, cause it looked like it made food.
Does it make food to kill? No. Why? Because, it doesn’t work all the time. It’s
very interesting. I mean, if you really found the way to make food, it should
work every time. Okay, every time you go out to kill something, you should kill
something, and every time you kill something, you should be able to eat it.
Okay, if killing mad food, then killing would always make food, because killing is
the cause of food. But it doesn’t work every time, so it’s not the cause… wake
up. You know, c’mon, man, you know, can’t you see that if lying was the cause
of getting money, then everybody who lied would get money. But it only
works part of the time, so that’s not why you get money. Something else is
going on. Okay, if you kill all the roaches, sometimes they go away, and
sometimes they don’t go away, so it’s obviously not the way to get rid of them.
Wake up. You know, wake up. This is causing all the suffering in the world is
that, it’s very interesting. It’s very terrible. You… and it’s obvious that it doesn’t
work. You… you know, if you have half a brain, you can see it doesn’t work,
you know. Invest with risk or invest conservatively, which is better? Neither
one, obviously, you know. Obviously. [laughs] It’s, it’s… generosity always
works. Okay, now, how you’re going to confirm that is another matter, okay?
We’ll get to that, we’ll talk about that. Anyway, so, it seems to be real in a
certain way and it’s not like that. But you mind is always in the background of a
human mind, until you see emptiness directly, you believe in that thing about
the roaches. You know, you believe it. And that’s a wrong idea. And that’s why
that reality is called a lie. Is it a lie from it’s own side? No. If you put a Buddha
in the room and showed him the same roach, would he see deceptive thing,
would it fool him? No. Okay, deceptive reality means, “deceive the minds of
stupid people”. You see what I mean, like a Buddha could walk in the room and
see the roaches and say, “oh, don’t you … you want to get rid of them? Ah,
take care of them”. You know. Ah, he is, he’s not deceived by the, by the
appearance. So deceptive reality, it’s named, “truth”, because it seems to be true
to people who haven’t understood things yet. And that’s where it gets its name
from. Does it mean when the Buddha sees this pen, that he doesn’t understand
that it doesn’t come from a pen factory, it comes from you good karma. If you
like all this stuff I’m writing. If you don’t like me writing so much, this pen came
from your bad karma. And it’s possible that one pen could come from one
person’s good karma and one person’s bad karma. No problem. Because of
two people in this room, one can feel like, “I wish that pen would run out of ink
now”, and the other one [laughs] could think, “I hope, I hope he writes more”,
you know. Okay? Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]
I’m sorry, say again?

[student: [unclear]]

Ah, actually he, if he saw a roach, he would still get incredible bliss. He or she
would have an incredible feeling of bliss from this. I mean, that’s a quality of
being a Buddha, they might see a roach… ah, actually not. They would see the
roach as a tenth level bodhisattva. [laughter] Seriously. Okay? That’s tra…
that’s true. Okay. So, what’s the homework today? Ummm, that… name the
two truths. Deceptive truth and ultimate truth. {Kun tsok dem ba} and {dun
dam dem ba}. Okay, are they actually two different kinds of truth? By the way,
why is ultimate truth called “truth”? For a different reason, right? Deceptive
truth is called “truth”… this is Trijang Rinpoche, okay? This is ACIP, dah, dah,
shipment… yesterday. Ah, why is it called the… one of our sponsors is here
tonight, so I’m just trying to advertise. [laughter] Ah, why is it called deceptive
truth? [laughs] Because it seemed to be true to a mind which is mistaken. Okay,
why is ultimate truth called “truth”? Because it’s ultimate reality, it is the
ultimate truth. It is the higher reality, and if you make contact with it for twenty
minutes, everything is over. Okay? So one is called truth for one reason,
because it seems to be true to a stupid man, all of us. And the other is called
truth because it really is ultimate reality. Okay, are they actually two different
kinds of truth? Ah, is, is deceptive truth and ultimate truth, are these the two
great divisions of truth itself? I ask you. No. One is a lie, okay? One is false,
okay? So, don’t write that on the homework. Are they different, two kinds of
truth? No. If not, why are they called, “truths”? Well, one of them is called
“truth” because, to a mistaken mind, to ignorance, to, to {jik ta}, to the view of
destruction, it seems to be true. Although it's not, it seems to be that if you kill
those roaches, you can get rid of them. Okay, it seems to be that way, so it’s
called “truth”. Why is it called “truth”, why is ultimate truth called “truth”?
Because it really is true. It is, it is, ultimate reality, okay? What object is divided
into the two truths? If I say this thing has two divisions, deceptive reality and
ultimate reality, what is this thing? All existence, okay? [laughs] Everything that
exists is either on one side or the other, okay? Everything that exists in the
universe is either one reality or the other reality, it’s either the lower reality or
the higher reality, okay? That’s all. Are we dividing truth into two kinds of
truth? No, we are dividing existence itself, we are dividing reality itself into two
kinds of reality. Higher reality and a lower reality. What’s the higher reality?
Ultimate reality. What’s the lower reality? Deceptive so-called lying truth.
Okay? Like that, alright? And those are the two realities. One more point and
we’ll, we’ll go… I’ll come to you. And then we’re done, actually. I mean, you
have been in the lying reality for your whole life. According to the highest
school of buddhism, Madyamika Prasangika, you have never had a correct
perception in your entire life. Okay, you have in the back of your mind, believed
that thing about the roaches, about every single object you’ve ever looked at.
And you look at sixty-five objects per finger snap. According to buddhism, you
have sixty-five separate perceptions every finger snap, sixty-five times one
second, times sixty seconds, times sixty minutes, times twenty-four hours, times
seven days, times fifty-two weeks, times how ever many years you’ve been
alive; that many wrong perceptions you have had. Okay, everyone was
mistaken, and on the day you make contact with ultimate reality, you will
understand that. You’ll say, “my god, that was a lot of boo-boos”, you know.
[laughs] [laughter] Seriously, I mean it’s one of the four noble truths. You, you
see it. That was what was wrong, that’s what I was doing. Okay? By the way
the ironic thing is when you come out of emptiness directly, you go back to
seeing things wrong. Seriously, until you reach nirvana. But you know what’s
going on. You know you’re doing it. And that’s a big difference, okay? Unti…
that’s what the fourth path is all about. Until you get to nirvana, you’re trying to
get rid of that tendency. At least you know you’re crazy. There’s a difference
between being crazy and knowing you’re crazy, right? Alright, big difference.
It… if after you see emptiness directly, you know you’re making a mistake.
Okay, but you still do it, you can’t help yourself. Okay. And then, you’re trying
to get over that. Okay, did you have a… I’ll answer a few questions and then
we’ll try to stop within about six, seven minutes, okay?

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah. Everything belongs to one or the other.

[student: but couldn’t you say that everything is [unclear] ultimate or deceptive
[unclear]]

Yeah, yeah. Ah, Robin said a true point and in fact it’s the next debate in the, in
Master Shantideva’s text. Every object in the world possesses both kinds of
reality. Okay? Every object in the world possesses both kinds of reality. For
example, this pen has a quality of appearing to be out there, independent of your
mind and that’s it’s deceptive truth reality. But it also has a reality of not being
that way, in reality, and that’s it’s ultimate reality. In other words, every object
in the universe has it’s own emptiness. And you have to get used to that. Okay,
every object in the world has the fact that it, that it is not not your projections.
You gotta get used to that. Okay, we’ll go through that later. I didn’t want to
get into it just yet. But, every object has both realities, okay? There’s a famous
saying in Madyamika that if you took away one reality, the other one would
have to leave. Okay, it’s a big debate, you know. But if, you took away this
reality, there wouldn’t be any ultimate reality, cause ultimate reality is a quality
of each object in this room. Okay? How many emptinesses are there around
you? How many ultimate realities? We’re trying to make twenty minutes
contact with this “guy”, called ultimate reality. How many available “guys” are
there around here? I mean, every hair of Dr. Syke’s stubble [laughter] has it’s
own emptiness, you see? Every object in this room, every, every scratch on the,
on the wood, has it’s own emptiness,. You are surrounded by ultimate realities.
Up to the gills, you know? You haven’t ever seen one of them. Directly. If you
could ever see one of them for twenty minutes, you’d be out of here, you know.
But it’s like a big wall of pure diamond, you can’t see it, okay? It’s like a big wall
of perfect crystal and you can’t see it. It’s around you all the time. You live in it,
you swim in it, and you can’t see it. Okay? It’s pretty weird. [laughs] Okay.
Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

It… I love that question. They, they always put like some tantric deities in the
class, and they ask the questions I forgot to cover. Um, some people call
deceptive truth, ah, “relative truth”. That’s just a lousy translation, and I’m not
ashamed to say it. It’s a crummy translation and the word has nothing to do
with relative, {tsok} means “fake”. {Kun tsok} means, “fake”, lie, false. Okay,
the relative… I don’t know where they got it. You know, if anything’s relative,
emptiness is relative. Okay. Cause it’s dependently originating. That’s another
question. Okay, lousy translation. I don’t know where they got it. You know.
Maybe it’s the opposite of ultimate in some people’s minds, or something. Yeah?
Yeah? Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

It’s because you have what?

[student: [unclear]]

Right, ah, Fran said, “suppose you come out of the direct experience of ultimate
reality” and I just said, “you’re still seeing things wrong, but at least you know
you’re seeing things wrong”. Um, it’s the understanding that builds over the
next seven lifetimes, about what you saw, that allows you to eliminate you
mental afflictions. Are you able to stop bad karma immediately? Not at all. It is
not a {ton ba}, say {ton ba} [repeat], {tong ba} [repeat]. {Ton ba} means,
“something you eliminate immediately when you see emptiness directly”, and
you will never have it again. And there’s only two or three of them. One is,

[student: doubt]

doubt. You will never doubt Buddhism again. You know, frankly, Buddhism is
the only true religion, sorry, [laughter] you know. Ah, and you will see it
directly. You will meet a Buddha, you will see your future lives, you will see
emptiness, you will see that you’re gonna be enlightened. All those books that
are being typed in by those poor monks are absolutely, every letter is true. You
know, and on that day you confirm it. And you never doubt anything about it
again. You will never wonder about it again. You will never have the least
question in you mind again. You will see it all with you own eyes. And, and you
know that you’re seeing it. That’s another thing. So, there’s no doubt. By the
way, I’m not putting down other faiths, they’re fantastic. They bring great
happiness to the world, they’re wonderful. You know, I’m not… that was a
joke, okay? Ah, it’s true actually, it really is true, but, but what I am saying is
that, I’m not, [laughter] no I’m not making a joke. The, the, the other things,
morality and the, and the faith, and the… those things are fantastic. They have
kept the world together from blowing up for, for many years. Um, but, but
what I’m saying is that day you will confirm every single thing that I am talking
about, directly, yourself. And you cannot doubt it again. What’s another one?
What’s another thing you eliminate, on that day? You can never believe that
things are the way they look again. Okay, they may look that way again, but
you don’t believe yourself, anymore. You know emptiness is correct. You
know this is an illusion, you know. You can never believe in it, that way, again.
You can never really believe that the roaches exist from their side and not from
your mind. And you can never really again kill them as happily as you used to.
Will you still kill them? Yes. Because you haven’t overcome you mental
afflictions yet. But at least you know you’re wrong. You know. But you still
have this em… emp… emphasis from you, from your past. But you will still
bad… do bad deed. Bad deeds are not stopped at seeing emptiness. They slow
down immensely. And then you have to use emptiness to get rid of them. The
last thing you, you stop forever is believing that, like cutting yourself or doing
some kind of suffering thing could be a spiritual practice. After that, you know
you have to take good care of yourself. You know that your body is very
important. This is a lousy, crummy, mortal body, and you need it. So, [laughter]
and so, after that, you take good care of it. You know, you don’t believe that it’s
a spiritual practice to starve it or to beat it or to get it cold or something like that.
Ah, it’s called {tsu tum tu shi chung tse ta wa}. You get rid of that forever, okay?
But you don’t get rid of bad deeds forever, at that point. Okay, you can still
because of your… the emphasis of your past, you can still collect bad karma.
Does it go off, does it create new lifetimes? No. Will it ever flower? No. Very
cool, okay? That’s another story. Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

She says, ah, “if you say when you become a Buddha you see all the things of the
three times, every object in the universe, but if everything is your projection,
how can you see every object in the universe”? Well, guess what. Every object
in the world… in the universe is your projection, and you see it. And by the
way, you’ll be sitting there and saying, “oh, I’m seeing this roach as a tenth level
bodhisattva, and that’s because I was so good so many years ago, back in New
York City, when after that class, I didn’t hurt them anymore. That’s cool. It’s,
it’s all a projection of my mind. And I really like it”. You know, deceptive reality
works, you can get run over by a deceptive reality taxi cab, but you can also sit
there and enjoy your deceptive reality Buddha paradise. You know, and you
know you made it, and you can just sit there and be proud of it. You know,
that’s okay, no contradiction.

[student: [unclear]]

That’s a very difficult question, you know, she says , “can you see the suffering
of other beings because you can’t see anything bad, right”? You can see that
they are projecting suffering, got it? You see what I mean? I can look at a
person and say, “tantric deity, nice to meet you”. They can be experiencing
themselves as a miserable person. You see what I mean? No contradiction at all
because they are empty. If they were not empty, that couldn’t happen. Because
they are empty, everything is possible. Okay, that proves why you can reach a
Buddha paradise, by the way. And that’s cool, and that’s proves why one person
in a room can be knocking on the door of a Buddha paradise, and everybody
else is saying, “this guy’s crazy, this guy acts weird, you know, I don’t know
what’s wrong with this guy”. You know what I mean? Very possible,
completely possible. You know, in fact it would probably look like that, right?
Ah, so anyway, like that. Anyone? Okay, we’ll stop… ah, pretty auspicious
place to stop, you got something better?

[student: [unclear]]
[laughs] No, we have like two minutes, go ahead.

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah, I’m sorry, that’s ah… that’s another tantric deity there. Um, {Kun tsok
dang ni durn dam tai den nyi dun nam ne chai dur}. Um, {kun tsok} means that
“deceptive truth”, which you now know means, you know, reality as a, as a
plain ole, screwed up mind sees it. Okay, {kun tsok}, {dang} means “and”. {Ni}
is a filler to make meter [laughs], okay? {Durn dam} means “ultimate reality,
ultimate truth”. {Tai} is a colon. So what he’s saying is, “deceptive truth and
ultimate truth”… {Di ni}, “these, these”… {Dem ba nyi}, {dem ba} means,
“truth”, meaning reality, right? One is called truth because, to ah, a screwed up
state of mind, it looks true. One is called truth because to, to an enlightened state
of mind or to an arya state of mind, it’s true, okay? {Nyi} means, “those two”.
{Nyi so dur} means, “we accept two truths, we believe there are two truths, we
assert that there are two truths”, okay? {Dur} means, “I agree, I want or that’s
my position”, okay? Uh, let me make sure I covered all the homework. There’s,
ah, I asked you for some root text, which you’ll find in your reading, and that’s
it, you’re free, on, a time almost. Again, I, I ask you this, this is a very profound
chapter, it’s gonna get heavier ,okay? Hang in there. It’s an extremely good
opportunity. It, it’s basically, in my mind, I mean you can believe me or not, you
basically have the, the choice of dying, a regular old lousy death, and everything
that you don’t come to this class for, you lose anyway, or, or come to this class
and see if this stuff works. You know, see if it works. I say it works, and I said
that if you, if you, learn it, you’ll see that it works, and you can try it and it’ll
work, and these things will really start to happen to you, okay? You can do it.
Ah, you gotta put in some effort. If it was that easy, you probably would have
already done it, okay? Ah, and if it was that obvious, somebody would have
taught to you already. Ah, but it didn’t happen yet, and you’re still suffering,
and, ah, you gotta put in some effort. So don’t be wimpy, okay? Don’t say,
don’t let the lazy mind take over and say, “oh, three, four hours of studying
these weird scribbles, you know, ah, I ,I’m busy, today”. Forget it, you know,
the busy thing you’re doing is just death, you know? You’ll just die, it won’t
mean anything. It will be in that huge pile called, “worthless days of your life”.
And then there’ll be this tiny little precious box of the twenty or thirty minutes of
your life that really meant something, and, and you have to get to that peak
experience. You can do it, but you have to put some effort into it, okay? And I,
I’m not going to make it easier. Cause, cause I want to give you what you need
to know. Ah, I could make it really general and, and mushy, and, ah, nobody
would perceive ultimate reality, you know. So, we’re gonna go for that, alright?
So, buckle down and, ah, don’t get wimpy, okay? Alright, ah, Pundzo’s gonna
do a prayer.

[prayer: mandala]

[prayer: dedication]
970327-1.aaa
ACI Course X