ACI 10 «Руководство к образу жизни бодхисаттвы, часть I», занятие 11

Class Eleven: Review
April 8, 1997
Geshe Michael Roach

Transcriber: Su Foo
Proof: Llysse Velez

[cut] when I made the final I didn’t have some of the quizzes so [laughs]
[laughter] but it does come from all the homeworks, okay. Huh? Did it work
out that way by accident or anything?
[student:[unclear]] No, I didn’t work of that, ‘cos it didn’t work. Okay, the file
didn’t work.
Okay, anyway there will be some excitement on the final. And the purpose of
the final is not to trick you. I mean, the average grade on the final is something
like 99.5 or something. So don’t, don’t worry and don’t put it off, you’ll get like a
98, okay, if you don’t study. And just do it. I taught for ten years in New York,
more than ten years and didn’t do finals and no-one learned almost anything.
And when I started to do finals people really learn things. And you only learn
on the last day, I know that. [laughter][laughs] That’s why I always come in late
‘cos it doubles your learning time and it works. It really does work, I mean,
people in these classes, you learn … you really are learning the important
elements. When I went to do my geshe examines, it was seven days of debating,
fifteen people here came with me and it was just a good time. We just had a
good time because everything in the examine was on the … was in the courses.
And they said how come you’re so well prepared? I said, “I’ve just been
teaching the courses. I didn’t study.” And so really you are learning the essence,
of, of what they study in the monastery. And you’re really learning the essence
what a geshe studies. And it’s not purpose to try to trick you or something like
that. I just want you to know the important things and not forget them
especially ‘cos you have to pass it on to other people, okay. So we’ll go through
real quick. I used to call on people … maybe I will.               Okay, it’s very
embarrassing, okay, so have all your notes in front of you [laughs], okay. First
question is what’s the name of the book, okay, that you’re studying and the only
comment I have there is don’t forget to say Master Shantideva. You know, I’ve
caught myself a lot saying Tsongkapa, which is very improper and I was
reminded by my eminent students that it’s Je Tsongkapa and Master Shantideva,
okay. And that’s the only thing I think you should be careful not to, not to miss
that. His dates are about 700 AD, we don’t know for sure. You should know
who wrote the commentary and what’s the name of the commentary that we
studied. By the way, we, we really, really worked hard, I mean, I don’t think the
people working on the text didn’t get more than a couple hours of sleep the last
few days but we just could not finish so we’re going to mail you the last three
readings, okay. Anybody who, who came to first few classes and got on the list
is gonna get mailed the readings. If you didn’t have your name on that list you
might want to tell John Stillwell. And while I’m thinking about it I want to thank
everybody who, who worked on, on getting these things ready. I’ll name few
and I’ll forget somebody and don’t mind. I know John ran around last fall
looking for places to have the class and worked really hard to prepare
everything. And worked really hard to get us to be efficient which is very
difficult. And like to thank him for that. Sometimes I think he’s a emanation of a
Drompten(?) Je, who was the, the facilitator when Atisha was trying to get into
Tibet and Drompten(?) Je never took vows, never became a monk but ended up
building [unclear] Monastery and stuff like that. Get it? Okay. [laughs]
[laughter]
I know Mary [unclear] been doing all the correspondence courses and a lot of
work. And that’s been very nice. Judy Harmo(?) doing all the finances, to
finance this thing and that’s a lot of work. And it’s a lot of work to, to keep all
the … to juggle all the finances, to keep the books going and things like that.
And get the places painted. She’s been doing that, very nice. Margie who has
kindly been driving me back and forth to New Jersey so I can get here on time
and get home on time. Kunsok has been grading almost all the papers with a
little help from Jimpa. And really working hard on, on that. It’s a lot; it takes a
lot of time to do it nicely. Elizabeth and Ora spent hundreds of hours on the
readings. I don’t do the dirty work anymore of inserting the Tibetan and
breaking it up and cleaning it up and everything, they do that. Tarsie has been a
great help with the extension courses. Getting me in and out of obscure towns
[laughs]; sometimes I feel like an old rock band or something. Anyway, okay, I
think … did I miss anybody? No, okay. Well, needless to say Winston who ran
away to get an award tonight. And, and there’ve been a few … are they
anonymous, do they mind? John Brady has helped a lot financially. There’s a lot
of financial help coming in to pay for all the course materials. Okay, and that’s
why we can still do it for free. And I really would like to continue to do it for
free. And so I want to thank Winston, Winston gave a nice donation and Brady
and some other people. [student:[unclear]] Oh, I never see these guys ‘cos I
always come later but Hector’s been working hard; Scott and Louise, right, to
hand out the … and? Yeah, so like that. Anyway thank you for that. Chilton
has been helping too. I don’t know, he’s out packing, okay. You should know
the structure of the Bodhicharyavatara, okay. The, the structure of the various
chapters. What’s the first chapter? Kunsok la? Okay, we’ll skip that [laughs]
[laughter] Let’s do it generally. What’s the first chapter? Oh boy, huh? Benefits
of bodhi… bodhicitta. Like, supposedly I think you’ve been following, you’re
following the book and at some point you actually take the vow, you know, you
take the vow like you did. So first, the first thing Master Shantideva has to do is
to sell you on the idea of taking the vow and he’s trying to describe the great
benefit of, of bodhicitta. So that was the first chapter. Second chapter? I have the
answers. Purifying bad deeds which is half of the preparation for taking the
vows. You have to clean up your mental continuum before the vows can fit in.
And there were some little preliminaries before that. I think it was three. What
were those? Before you actually do the purification you have to do three other
things. Prostrate; make offering; what was the third one? Taking refuge. Okay,
and those three things are counted in with purification. Okay, purifying yourself
before you take the vow. Bowing down to holy beings which means they are
there; taking refuge in them; and understanding why they can protect you,
okay. It’s just not pictures that you’re bowing down to some picture. Picture
can’t help you. Even the thing which the picture represents can’t help you in the
normal way of thinking. You could be standing next to the Buddha and
someone could be attacking you and you would probably still die. Okay. And
that’s not the way they can protect you, okay. And then offering. We went
through the different kinds of offering before you do purification. Third
chapter? Third chapter is called acquiring the wish and it referred to actually
getting it in your heart and also taking the various vows, okay. There’s two
kinds of commitments, what? One is to the wish, one is a commitment to the
wish and then the second one is a commitment to act like a bodhisattva. We
went over the wish in detail. The commitment to act like a bodhisattva has like
sixty-four vows and we didn’t go into that much. We did a whole class on it,
right? So you guys are expert about that. And inside of there was another
subject, like you finish the purification but you still have to do what? You still
have to collect some positive energy, right? And we went through the various
steps for that. Like what are some? Rejoicing for example. Yeah [unclear]
dedication; asking lamas to teach; asking them to stay, like that, okay. Positive
energy, cause of positive energy. Fourth chapter was called what? Carefulness,
okay. Like watching your mind; making sure that you’re not breaking it during
the day. Fifth chapter?         {sheshin} which is awareness, okay. What’s the
difference between those two? {drenpa} and {sheshin}? What’s the difference
between recollection and awareness? [student:[unclear]] Uh, that’s partly it.
[student: [unclear]] That’s recollection. [student: [unclear]] What’s the difference
between recollection and awareness. [student: [unclear]] Yeah, awareness is the
alarm. Awareness is the alarm that goes off. So recollection is, is really just
keeping in mind your goal, like I … today I don’t want to get … in the back of
your mind you’re thinking, “I have to remember that I made a promise this
morning that I wasn’t going to get angry in traffic,” you know. I did it
yesterday. I promised and then I broke it. You know, that I wasn’t going to get
angry while I was driving through New York traffic. And then, and recollection
means every few minutes I remember, oh yeah, I’m not supposed to be getting
angry; I’m not supposed to be getting angry. Then what does {sheshin} do?
What does awareness do? When you start to get angry it goes, you know,
“Hey, you said you weren’t going to get angry, and now you got angry.” So
{sheshin} is … awareness is the alarm. And recollection is just trying to
remember what you were supposed to be thinking about. I don’t know if
recollection and awareness are the best words. Sometimes I think they should
be reversed and sometimes I think we should use other words, I don’t know.
Recollection, what we’re using for recollection is keeping your mind on a
virtuous goal that you had. And then awareness means becoming aware when
you start to slip. It’s the … it’s the alarm that goes off when you start to slip,
okay. And that’s the difference between those two. Maybe we’ll find a good
translation some day. Sixth chapter? [student: [unclear]] Sixth chapter is the
perfection of patience, okay. I prefer to call it what?       [student: not getting
angry] Not getting angry, okay. Patience for me … by the way, it does also
mean to be patient in a traffic jam or, or patient when you stub your toe or
patient with your boss and it also means being patient in the sense of if you have
to do something very difficult, to be a Buddhist, you know, like you have to
spend hours memorizing or, or your knees have to hurt, it’s like endurance also;
it’s like being able to put up with unpleasant circumstances in your spiritual path,
you know, in your spiritual search that you’re willing to put with all the
inconvenient things that come to you, okay. That’s another kind of fourth
perfection. Okay, what happened to the first two perfections? Sorry, yeah …
I’m sorry, that was the third. Yeah, third was patience. What happened to
giving and ethical way of life? [student: [unclear]] Huh? Say again. I don’t
remember myself, somebody better answer. Giving is in the last chapter, with
dedication; and what about ethical way of life? [student: [unclear]] Yeah, I think
it was in the chapter on carefulness, that was what we covered last time, okay.
And that’s how he covers the first two perfections. There’re not, there are no
separate chapters for that, okay.
Chapter seven? What they call, yeah, I prefer to call it joyous effort. Rinpoche
again mentioned yes… Sunday if you were there, Master Shantideva’s definition
and he mentioned that it came in a form of a question and an answer in a single
line. {sung kang gela trowa o}, you know, it was interesting the way he
presented it ‘cos he said, you know, if you think about it, it’s a question and an
answer in a single line. Master Shantideva in the … the first line of that chapter
says, {sung kang gela trowa o} if somebody says, “What is joyful … what is
{sumpa}?” And then he says, {gela trowa o} it’s being happy about doing good
things. It’s taking joy in being good. And he asks the question and he answers it
in a single line. Next one? Chapter eight? {samten} Okay, concentration, you
can call it meditation. Meditation is okay, {samten} and by the way, if you’re on
Tibetan track these are in Tibetan, okay. Number nine, wisdom. Okay. Mainly
understanding emptiness but also understanding the laws of karma; also
understanding dependant origination, okay. Number ten? The chapter on
dedication. That chapter is so famous that it’s often taken out and recited in
monasteries as a separate, as a prayer. It’s so beautiful that it’s taken out and
writ… and separately recited in the monasteries and memorized by people
because it’s so lovely. And when you get to it you’ll be happy. It’s like basically
just fantasizing on helping every sentient being in the universe with everything
they need, you know. May, may no mother in child … in labour today
experience any pain at all, you know; may every, every being in the hells have a
nice mist of cool rain dropping on them today and stuff like. It’s really beautiful;
it’s really nice. So that’s the general structure and it’s still built around the six
perfections with giving coming at the end and ethical way of life coming, hidden
in mindfulness and recollection, awareness and recollection. And then with all of
the things about attitude or getting or learning the attitude of bodhicitta coming
at the very beginning. All the warm up to getting that attitude. So that’s the
basic structure. How to warm up to get bodhicitta, in the sense of getting rid of
your negativities and achieving all the positive things. And then next, how to
take a commitment to bodhicitta. How to start thinking like a bodhisattva and
then how to go through the six perfections. And that’s the structure of the
Bodhisattvacharyavatara, okay. Did you have a question? [student:[unclear]] I
think it’s … I mean, I’m just saying what’s special about is as a work of beauty. I
mean, it’s just … sometimes like if you read Abdhidharmakosha, I mean, frankly
there’s only beautiful line in the whole thing in, in terms of beauty, you know,
what you call beauty. I mean, if you’re a philosopher the whole thing is
extraordinarily beautiful but it’s very dry. As opposed to that which, by the
way, I’m not putting down Abdhidharmakosha, I spent ten years on it and I
memorized most of it and it’s fantastic and it’s incredible, okay, but, but the tenth
chapter is something extraordinary, it’s just … it’s I think a real expression of
love in poem, in poetry and it’s just extraordinary to read something like that.
We don’t have so often in our prayers anything that long and so beautiful
describing all the different, you know, wonderful things that he’s praying could
happen to different people. And just to me it’s very attractive. It’s very
beautiful. Things you wouldn’t thing off. He’s like … may anyone crying in
their room alone tonight feel an arm around them, and stuff like that, you know,
I mean, it’s just something special, you know, okay. You really should know the
definition of bodhicitta from an authoritative source like Maitreya, okay. And
you know, two elements mainly. And I think it’s easy … the first one everyone
gets right, you know, for the sake of all living beings which for you practically
means what? In practice it’s all …unfortunately all the people right around you,
okay. All living beings is unfortunately your work mates, your family, your
neighbor, the people on the street downstairs that you’re not … that you don’t
like too much. The roaches in your own apartment that you have to decide what
to do about. You know, it’d be much easier if they were out on outer planets
and galaxies like when you say, all sentient beings, it sounds like that but
unfortunately they’re the ones right around you. Those are sentient beings for
you. That’s the first thing, I think, to keep in mind. It’s extremely hard to be a
bodhisattva with the people right around you. It’s much easier with all sentient
beings, you know. [laughs] [laughter] And you will never be good at all sentient
beings if, if you can’t do it with the people right around you. And that’s, that’s all
sentient beings for you. Second point, you know, I will achieve enlightenment
for them. And I think if people really had bodhicitta then they would be
working very hard to perfect themselves, you know, that has a whole lot of
implications. For example, you wouldn’t be watching other people’s practice.
You know, we start this thing like this and every time we have a bad thought
there’s this little gang of people in the class and were going around like … start
to have … start to say something and go like that, you know, and it’s become a
custom. And then somebody offered to do it for another person the other day,
[laughs] [laughter] and it seems so funny. It seems so silly, you know. It’s like,
you want me to hit your head for you, you sound like you’re just about to say
something wrong, you know, and, but that’s what you do every time you judge
somebody. You know, you’re saying, I don’t want to slap my own head, would
you like me to slap your head for you, you know? And it sounds funny; you
know, it sounds silly. I think that’s the first thing, I mean, you’re pledging to
achieve enlightenment, I mean, you, you … ninety-nine percent of your focus
should be on your own life, your own thoughts, your own behavior, your own
speech, to achieve enlightenment. Secondly you should be going after the heavy
duty virtues, you know. I mean, there’s like three categories, people who, who
say they’re going to have bodhicitta and don’t do anything. People say they’re
going to have bodhicitta and do nice things; and then, and then I think you got
to be in the category of people who say they’re going to have bodhicitta and go
for the heavy duty virtues. And you know what they are and you have to go
after them. I think, especially if you have Bodhisattva vows, that’s your big deal,
you know, that’s your big career now, is to keep your Bodhisattva vows. If you
have secret practice, you have to be going aggressively after the goals of that
practice, you know. Not just doing it, reciting something for half hour in the
morning or something like that. You’re supposed to be doing it at least six times
a day and you’re supposed to be struggling to the highest of your ability to
reach the two levels, the two stages. And you have to know them very, very
thoroughly and then you have to devote your life to getting to them. And I
think if you ask most people what are the two stages, they can’t even give a
good answer to that. I mean, it would take a lifetime to study the two of them if
you are serious about bodhicitta, you know, if you know Maitreya’s definition
you got to be going after those things, aggressively, you know. Trying to reach
those two stages. That’s, that is the ball game for us if you want to do it before
you die. What I’m trying to say is the fastest way if you’re serious about this
definition is to learn that path and to aggressively go after it and don’t, don’t be
wishy-washy about it, you know, okay. Learn both stages, go after them.
Okay. There’s a question about why the karma of bodhicitta would lead to a
Buddha paradise, and you have to think about that. There’s certain details about
bodhicitta that make it a very … the most powerful way to get to a Buddha
paradise. Rinpoche mentioned it on Sunday if you were there. It was like one
second of true love or true loving kindness is worth thousands of years of
certain kind of offerings, you know, and he talked about it. And it’s not an
exaggeration. But why? You know. And I think especially, you know, what’s
the difference between the bodhicitta and the kind of love which is described in
the Abdhidharmakosha for example, which is a Hinayana text. You know.
There are four kinds of love described in the Abdhidharmakosha and they do
not as effectively and efficiently create a Buddha paradise, why? It’s the …
what’s that? [student: motivation [[unclear]] They said personal responsibility
and motivation. But that’s not all, something else. They are not {tsem me}.
They’re not even call {tsem me shi} they’re not even called the four
immeasurables. They’re called {tsang be ne shi} you know, the four states of
brahma. The four states of the pure one, why? It means, four same things but
it’s … it doesn’t get the name immeasurable. Because it’s not for all living beings.
It’s not focused on all living beings, okay. There’s a limit to the focus. If you
want your Buddha paradise to be ten percent pure and ninety percent defective
then just have bodhicitta for ten percent of the people and not ninety … and not
a hundred percent of living beings. And that’s the difference, it’s scope. In the
back of your mind has to be … yeah, for me all sentient beings is the people
right around me but ultimately I’m working for all living beings. And in the back
of your mind is all the people in Pluto and Neptune and Saturn and everything
else, okay.
It talks about the highest objects of making the practice of offering, like what are
the highest objects towards whom you can give offerings? It’s the Three Jewels.
And later on in the final it says, “What’s the big deal about the Three Jewels?”
Why, why are those … they so powerful? And how do you make an offering to
the Three Jewels? How do you make an offering to the state of mind which sees
emptiness directly? How do you offer a Lou’s schoolboy’s cookie to the state of
mind that perceives emptiness directly, okay. You have to think about it. And
what does it mean when you set out a cookie to the state of mind which realizes
emptiness directly? That’s what you’re doing when you offer to the Three
Jewels. They can’t eat it anyway. I mean, I guess an arya could eat it. Okay.
That’s about it. Only one of the Three Jewels can eat anything. I guess they get
everything, okay, [laughter] [laughs] all right? Okay, you have to think about
that. You have to know what the Three Jewels are. It talks about the three
general types of offering, okay. Anybody got any of them? Offering of things
that nobody owns and then? [student:[unclear]] Offering your own body and
then offering things that you imagine. I was wondering the other day of things
that you imagine and things that aren’t owned are exclusive or not? This is the
kind of thing we debate in the monastery. Are they? Can … when you offer
things that aren’t owned could they also be things that are emanated? I guess,
yeah? [student: [unclear]] Yeah, you could emanate things that are not owned,
yeah? Yeah, yeah, okay, he’s got it. But not everything that’s emanated is not
owned, okay. [laughs] [student:[unclear]] I don’t know, you can debate that. By
the way, the thing about offering your body is oftentimes interpreted as, as your
own practice, you know, offering your practice {dupe chupa} you know,
offering the success of your own practice. It’s called {tran du puwa} offering
yourself as a slave of the dharma, as a slave of other people. You know, I will …
my whole day I will spend serving other people, you know. Whatever they
want, you know, I, I’m at your service, you know, and I don’t have any life of
my own. I’m just doing what other people need, you know, something like that.
Yeah? [student:[unclear]] I think it’s that I’m running out of gas, okay, [laughs]
better? Okay. [student:[unclear]] That’s the … that’s the subject of prioritization
which we talked about. You know, you don’t waste your time. You figure out
the most efficient use of your time and, and that’s not just the New York thing,
that’s a Master Shantideva thing, you know. He says, don’t, don’t waste your
time on small … it says, one of the categories in the last class was, don’t, don’t
harm your body for a purpose which is not major, you know, and like that. But
you have to decide, you don’t just give away all your resources to the first bum
you meet, you know. You, you take those resources and you study them; you
take what you need to live in an honest way and then the rest of those resources
you figure out what’s the most powerful thing you could put them toward. Like
that. And you still keep some left over for the bums, okay. All right, seriously.
Obviously you need to know the Four Forces. I always say there’s only three
things that we got to be interested in. It’s how to clean out your old bad deeds;
how to keep from doing any new bad deeds; and then how to collect ultimate
good karma. I mean, really our spiritual career boils down to those three things.
Can you erase the energy of your past bad deeds? Can you stop yourself from
collecting new bad deeds? And how … what is the most powerful kind of good
karma that you can do? You can erase your old bad deeds by using the Four
Forces. You can prevent yourself from committing new bad deeds if you
understand emptiness, okay. And you can collect ultimate good deeds if you do
bodhisattva activities and if you study bodhicitta which Rinpoche went over on
Sunday, very eloquently, okay. All right. Question, there’s a question … I’m
going to tell you a question, okay, it says name six different kinds of practices
that can be effective in the practice of the second of the forces. It should be the
third, okay. It should say the third, I don’t know. We’ll fix it on the plane. All
right. It means antidote. Name six good antidotes. And I’m … you know,those
and I’m not going to go over them. Obviously the most powerful antidote is
studying emptiness or reading about emptiness, okay. Because if you know … if
you understand emptiness perfectly you will never again, what? [student:
[unclear]] Collect bad karma. You’d be crazy to collect bad karma, okay. Which
disproves the idea that if everything is empty you can do whatever you want,
right? Okay. [laughs] What’s that?
[student:[unclear]] Say again. [student: she says, Master Shantideva [unclear]]
Oh yeah, yeah. I think we’re using the commentary order technically, okay. I’ll
give you the order that I have on the answer key.               [laughs] [laughter]
Destruction. Foundation. Antidote and restraint, okay. Is that right? No. I
have four minutes left is what she’s trying to say, okay. We’re only half way
through. Why does he compare … how many people saw ‘English Patient’,
right? Guy cutting his … getting his thumbs cut … it was so well acted the way
the guy pleaded and whined and … it’s really the most powerful moment of the
movie. What has that have to do with death? Okay, why is, why does Master
Shantideva talk about the punishment of having a small part of your body cut
off with relation to death? And it’s that whatever emotion William Defoe had
about his two thumbs, multiply it times a thousand and that’s how every person
in this room will feel at the moment of death. And don’t think differently. Don’t
kid yourself. Don’t think that after forty, fifty years of wasting your life you’re
going to be able to pull off a powa at the last minute, okay. Impossible. Totally
impossible. You’ll be scared. Worst than when … go see the movie again, it’s a
homework assignment, okay. [laughter] [laughs] And you’ll be much more
scared than that and you will not be able to think about, you know, anything
else. You might as well get it done now. Okay. You have to know the chronic
disease that we have;        liking things in what way?       [student: ignorantly]
Ignorantly, okay, and disliking things ignorantly. Is it wrong to like the path?
No. Is it wrong to dislike your mental affliction? No. What, no. [laughs] All
right. Five activities that help you collect positive energy. You know that. Four
ways to be happy when you gain the two forms of the wish. And that comes
from that verse … if you’re sure check your {trunduk} okay. {[unclear]} etc,
okay. Name, oop … how, how does bodhicitta really help remove suffering,
okay, and in what ways does it remove suffering? I think it’s important for all of
us to know the definition of mental affliction. Because that’s the enemy, you
know, that’s who you’re supposed to be fighting. You’re not suppose to be
fighting with your friends or your boss, or anything else. I mean, the only thing
you’re supposed to be fighting with is your mental afflictions. And if you don’t
know what a mental affliction is then, then you have to find out. By the way if
… how do you do a reality check to see if you have any mental afflictions? See if
your mind is peaceful or not, okay [laughs]. If it’s not noticeably peaceful you
have mental afflictions going on, okay, very interesting. You know, want to
check if you’re reached nirvana yet or not, see if you’re happy. It’s very simple.
You know, if you’re not feeling extraordinarily contented or peaceful or happy,
you have a mental affliction going on and you probably don’t even notice it, you
know, and that’s a test. That’s a good test. If you’re not feeling noticeably pretty
mellow, happy, then you probably have mental afflictions going on and wake up
and fight them, you know. They probably just getting … they’re just running
around doing whatever they … they’re running the show in your mind and
you’re not even aware that they are there. But if you’re not pretty contented in
any given moment then, then they are running around in your mind and you
just … you didn’t even identify it yet. You’re not even aware of them yet. So
you gotta to punch them out. Okay. I think this question is … you have to know
the six primary mental afflictions, okay. I’m not going to bother you about the
twenty minor ones, okay. And you do not have to write the eighty-four
thousand variations, okay. [laughter] [laughs] Okay. I think it’s very important
to be able to explain, especially if you’re going to teach Buddhism to other
people some day, why the continued existence of mental afflictions is only
possible because of a misperception. See what I mean? In other words, if you
didn’t misunderstand reality you couldn’t have mental afflictions. Okay. I think
it’s important to be able to explain clearly to someone why the connection
between not understanding reality and having a mental affliction. Those of you
who were in Massachusetts, we went through it from a text by Maitreya in
detail. We went through it in Indiana too, but nobody was there, except me.
And that’s the … you should be able to explain to somebody that. You know,
it’s really the connection between your suffering and your ignorance, okay. Be
able to explain the six perfections and why each one leads into the next one.
People often ask what, why is that in that order? It doesn’t seem to have any
clear order. Maybe the last two. Those of you who were at the Friday night
class, you know, Friday night if you weren’t there, all we did was just, that we
had open discussion and we said, “When can you say that you have perfected
the act of giving?” you know. Like … and specifically if I try to give something
to somebody and I fail, you know, like I try to make someone happy and I try to
give them a birthday gift that would make them really happy. Or I try to give
them some gift that, that is something I have that could be helpful for them and I
give them to them. And instead there’re some terrible reaction, you know, they
get angry at me or they, or they ignore me or they say, “I don’t like that” or “I
wanted something else” or something like that. Did I fail in the perfection of
giving? And why not? Okay, you have to think clearly what the perfection of
giving means. Does, does it mean you will never meet another angry person if
you perfect patience? Does it mean that you’ll never be in another traffic jam?
Does it mean that you’ll never get sick again and you have to be … you have to
practice the perfection of patience towards your own body, you know. And
that’s … you know, Is there a distinction between external success of your
practice and the internal success of your practice? And I think … I know that I
tend to feel that I’ve been a failure in my practice of giving if not everyone
around me is happy, you know. If there’s one student who is unhappy I tend to
feel like, “Oh, you know, I haven’t done a good job teaching, you know, there’s
one person who is really unhappy still. And who, who really is not responding
nicely. They’re not … they don’t seem to be getting happy about it, you know.
They even dislike what I’m teaching” or something like that. And then I feel like
I haven’t perfected the act of giving dharma, you know; and is that true? Should
I have that feeling, you know? Or even on the other hand if I, if I teach
something with a bad motivation, like with pride and everyone likes it, is that
the perfection of giving? You know, conversely, you know, so I think you have
to look into that, you have to think about that, okay.
Last page. I have to run really fast after this, okay, so please excuse us. And by
the way, we don’t prostration at the end of the class ‘cos it means we have
unfinished business between us which is the rest of the Bodhicharyavatara, okay.
I think you should know at least six of the many occasions on which Master
Shantideva says, “freeze” okay, just freeze, just shut up, okay. I think it’s
important to know what makes an act of giving very powerful karmically. Six
different things that make an act of giving very powerful karma. And then
finally different ways of attracting people to the dharma through material
giving. Okay, there were three parts of that outline. And that involved a lot and
we talked about it Friday night, the idea of what you are capable of giving. I
mean, you have to be able to judge your own capacity to give and you’re not
allowed to go over that capacity, okay, until you’re ready. You should never be
satisfied but it’s like weightlifting. If you ever did weightlifting or jogging or
something like that or dancing, you know, if you try what Barishnakov did, you
know, the first day, you’ll break your legs. And it has to be your goal to do that
but, but at the beginning you have to start with these little exercises and learn
how to move one foot and then learn how to move two feet and, and then you
build up to that. So it doesn’t mean you don’t go to ballet and say, “One day I’d
like to do that” but it means you can’t do it at the beginning ‘cos what would
happen is you’ll break your leg and you’ll quit and that’s not the point. The
point is to judge your ability very carefully but to keep challenging yourself
every day to do a little bit better. To be a little bit stronger at it, okay. And very
steadily to build that up, okay. That’s about it I think. We’ll take … take a few
minutes. I’m sorry to, to go that quickly. Let’s meditate for just a few minutes.
Try to dedicate what we did, okay. We did ten or eleven good classes, am I
supposed to do a spiel? What spiel is that? Godstow spiel. It would be very
convenient tonight if people are interested to again talk to Michael, we need to
know while everyone’s still in one place, how many people to plan for up at
Godstow. We met with the sponsor there today. They’re very happy; they’re
committed to another year helping with the maintenance. And we met with the
town and it’s like pulling teeth out of a crow [laughs] but sooner or later we’ll get
there. And, and so Michael needs to know if, if anyone … he needs to know
specifically two things; people who want to book in to a retreat that’s already
scheduled because couple of them have filled up. And so if you’re interested you
have to talk to him about that. And then secondly, if you’re planning to
organize your own retreat with some of your friends, he needs to know about
those because we need the other dates for, for other activities. So we might
book those dates for other activities, if, if they’re free, okay. So he needs to
know those two things. Even if you think you might want to do something let
him know so we, we can reserve that, okay. All right. So take a few minutes
and dedicate the virtue of the class, you know. I remember the night we took
the vow and everything; think about it carefully. Dedicate the virtue, okay.
Think, think that out of this class we’ll try to produce a few bodhisattvas in this
eon, okay, and just enjoy it. We did a really sweet thing. We did a very good
thing. There’s not … there’s not many people in New York sitting and deciding
the best way they can serve every living being in New York, you know. There
are many good people in New York doing many good things but to sit here and,
and discuss, you know, the ultimate ways of saving people from death and old
age and illness is very special. I think maybe you’re the only people doing it at
this moment in Manhattan perhaps. So enjoy it. Enjoy it, you know, enjoy …
the ultimate goal is that; protecting other people from death and suffering, this
kind of existence. And it’s possible. We can, we can do it. We have the
information to do it. It’s just a matter of pulling it off. You, you know
everything about how to do it. And now you have to try to, try to practice it,
okay. So please don’t move for a few minutes and enjoy. Yeah, I can’t move
anyway [laughs] and just dedicate it, okay. [silence] I’d like to congratulate you
for coming and that you worked so hard. It’s really good. It’s really rare in the
world. And it’s good to have people like that. And I’m very proud and happy
to be with people like that. Okay.

[cut]