ACI 11 «Руководство к образу жизни бодхисаттвы, часть II», занятие 1

Class One, Contemplations on the Perfection of Patience, Part One
July 8, 1997



I'd like to talk a little bit first about the purpose of this class, first of all, welcome
back, and it's nice to see everybody again. And I thought, to just go over where
this class is in your life, what it's function should be in your life. Okay, I'd say
personally there are four activities that are very important for your life, for your
happiness, this is only one of them, this is what I would call study, you know in
Tibetan it's called, {Teupa}. And it's formal study, it's where you go to a class,
you actually sit and you go through a formal class of study. It's very important
to go to a qualified teacher, and it's very important to do it seriously.

Okay, and so these classes are kind of serious. If you've never been to one
before, it's a little bit demanding. It only goes for six or seven weeks and you
have to put out a little bit. If it becomes too much for you can go to the Friday
night class, which is what we call a "cookie" class. But this class is a little
demanding and you have to make time. And you know I'm always in this thing,
should I make it easier, and then I decide, no, I shouldn't. Okay, it should be
hard, and you have to give it time, it's not like other things in New York, it's not
like a movie. So, study, you have to do study seriously, and you have to do it
the old way. The book we are using is thirteen centuries old and we are not
going to change it, it's fine. Okay so.. [laughs]. If you miss two classes, you can't
come back, you are allowed to miss two, okay.

And we are going to be quite strict about it, alright. Even missing two is very
lousy, because you won't be able pass this thing on to your students. Part of the
function of learning this stuff is so that you can pass it onto other people. Every
time you miss a class there is something about whatever we are covering and
you won't be able to pass it on, and there will be one more hole in the teaching
as it's passed down. And rather than having holes in the teaching we want to
make it complete we want to have it even more complete than the way it was
given to us. If you miss more than two, don't come and you can come back in
the fall. Alright. Or you can come back on Friday.

But make it a little strict and be a little strict with yourself. Okay, it takes allot of
work to have a class like this and I will talk a little bit about the people who
helped to pull it off. And you from your side have to work hard and pull it off,
okay, so that's study. Second is daily practice, you must have a daily practice,
okay. Meaning some kind of meditation in the morning, some kind of prayers
that you do. Some daily discipline in your own life or else this stuff doesn't
work. You can go to a class, you can answer all the questions on the homework,
but if you don't have a daily practice where you are practicing an hour an hour
and a half a day, where you are specifically, meditating an hour a day, at least,
two hours is better, it's almost meaning less. I encourage every person to do a
daily practice. If you don't have any idea for a daily practice, we are going to
have a Monday night review about how to do a daily practice. But you can
check with John. Seven o'clock on Monday nights at the sixth street center.

But if you are not doing some daily practice, or, or some older students are
normally, you go through these cycles where you are doing one nice and then,
for a couple of months you don't do one. You need to have a daily practice, or
this stuff does not work. It just doesn't work. You gotta have a daily practice.
Third, you have to meditating, you must be able to meditate, you must be able
to get into a deep state of meditation. You have to study how to do that and
then if you have questions, you need to ask one of the older students, or make
an appointment, we can go over stuff. But you must have a daily meditation.
You must be in deep meditation about an hour a day, or this stuff does not
work, you have to be, you have to figure out how you're going to do that, and
you have to figure out how you have enough time to do that. You will find time
to die, everything else doesn't mean anything. Your job is worthless. My job
was sold last week, I read about it in the news paper. You know, [laughs] it
happens, you know I don't know what's going to happen.

Trust me you have to have time to meditate, you have to make time to meditate,
this stuff does not work unless you make some time to meditate, and that
includes retreats. I think ideally, I like to think that two retreats a year, of a
month each, okay, how can I do that with my job? You know, get another job.
[laughs] okay. You have to do retreats. Those of you who have had four or five
years now, you should be starting your retreats, and they will last until you die,
okay? And, and you must find the time, you must find a way, there I always
some clever way to trick your boss, I know, I did it for fifteen years. You can do
it, you just have to decide that you can do it. And you need that time, your
whole life will change if you take that time, Amazing things will happen if you
take that time. But you must find a way to make that time. Without meditation,
and without retreats, what we are going to do here doesn't work much, Okay?
Laboratory studies, otherwise known as work.
People ask me, "Why did you work in an office for fifteen, sixteen years?" And I
said, "There is no better place for a dharma person than a New York office."
Because all the jealousy, all the desire all the anger, you get real life practice, and
that's what you need, real life practice, and as a Dharma person, you need it.
Maybe you get it at home, if you have a big family, it's better, maybe you get it
with your cousins, I think almost certainly you get it with a boss, or with fellow
workers. You know if you have a fairly large office it's better. But you must
have some real life thing going on, it's no good to sit in a cave and read
Shantideva's patience chapter, [laughs], because there's no one to piss you off
except your self, which works, sometimes, [laughs].

But you, you gotta have that practice you gotta have some place where you can
work on it and work is wonderful. You know, an office is wonderful. And even
if you have allot of money, When I went to work I had a lot of money already,
but Rinpoche said, "Go to work, it will be good for you." And it is, it is good for
you, it's very beneficial and you can try it, you can give the money to a charity or
something. But very important that you have a real live situation to practice. I
think that every person in this room needs all four of those. You know, so I
like to teach, I like to go through the texts, I like what we are going to do
tonight. But by itself it won't do much. If you don't have a daily practice, it's not
going to work much. If you are not meditating, if you are not learning to get
into a deep state of meditation and if you are not starting to do retreats it, it
won't work much and you will not reach your goals.

And then finally, you need other people, you need nice irritating fellow workers,
bosses, spouses, kids, you know, people who can bring out the worst in you, so
you can practice. You know, you must have it, okay. [laughs] You know if you
can't find any place, come to the dharma center and there are always a few
special students waiting for you, you know. So you must have those four, you
must have those four, alright. We're gonna work on the study part today, so
we're gonna, I'm gonna go over this book and this is the second series of a three
course year, and we are studying the following book, it is by Master Shantideva.
Which in Tibetan is... (Shiwa hla) Shiwa means peace and {hla} means Angel or
God. And {Shiwa Hla} wrote this book and his dates are about seven hundred
AD.

The book you are going to study is {chunjuk} the short form is {chunjuk} And
it's very embarrassing if you meet a Tibetan and he asks you what you are
studying and you don't know what you are studying. Is {chunjuk, the short
form is {chunjuk}. In Sanskrit, by the way I'll put up the Tibetan, I like it if you
try to dothe Tibetan. I've never met anyone who couldn't do Tibetan if they
tried it. There is a beginners class, if you don't know the alphabet and you want
to try. But, all of the people in this room who know Tibetan stared in this room,
just like you, maybe four years ago five years ago, the person who teaches is
started about four years ago. So I really encourage you to do the Tibetan if you
can and it's allot of extra work, but you get the rewards from it. About less than
one hundredth of one percent of the holy scripture in Tibetan are Translated into
English, and those are lousy translations, in my modest opinion. So, it's just
never gonna open up to you in this life time unless you learn some Tibetan. I
don't even mind if you do it in this, in the sound first. But if you have any
aptitude for languages or if there is any chance that you could do it, try, don't be
lazy. I think that last class there was a little dip in the number of people
answering in Tibetan. So I want to give those people a hard time. So don't be
lazy, just go for it. Say, {chunjuk}, you gotta make noise, okay? Say {chunjuk},
[repeat]. {chunjuk}, [repeat].

Okay, {chu} means activities, meaning {chaya} in Sanskrit and {b:
Bodhisattvacharya} means what do boddhisattvas do? Meaning the kind of
activities that Boddhisattvas engage in. How do they spend their lives? What
kind of activities do they do ? {juk} is the Tibetan for {avatar}, in Yiddish {juk} is
Roach, but anyway, {avatara] means.... {avatara} means to get into something or
to start doing something. And the book that you are studying, what it is literally
called is, getting into the activities of Bodhisattvas. How to act like a Bodhisattva,
and it's a whole book about how to act like a Bodhisattva. It's probably the most
famous book about how to be like a Bodhisattva, and you'll see why, if you, if
you survive the whole ten classes, it's an extraordinary book about how to live,
for learning how to live in the world as a Bodhisattva.

How to be a, a good Buddhist in your office and in New York city, It's an
extraordinary book for that and it's probably been reprinted and more
commentaries on it than any other book in Buddhist History, I would say. It's
very very, famous. We're going to study a commentary by [silence] .. Say
Gyaltsab Je, [repeat], Gyaltsab Je, [repeat]. Gyaltsab Je is the main disciple, He is
the right hand man of Je Tsongkhapa. Of the Dalai Lama's lineage, He was the
teacher of the first Dalai Lama, and this is his main disciple. This was his first
throne holder. And if you see a picture of Je Tsongkhapa he is always on his...
he's his right hand man, Gyaltsab Je.

And His dates, which you should know, which I don't know. [silence] And he
wrote a book called, by the way this is the boring part, but I think it's good
because I want you to be aware that I am not using anything from my own, I'm
not making up any of this. We only use in this class the original texts, The
original scriptures, so I want you to know where it is coming from. Say, {gyel se
jok-ngok}, [repeat], {gyel se jok-ngok}. {Gyel} means Buddha. It's another word
for Buddha. And {tse} means a son or a daughter. So {gyel se} means a son or a
daughter of the Buddha, children of the Buddha.

And this is another word for Bodhisattva. What's a Boddhisattva? Long story.
But basically a person who has decided to devote their life so they can become
enlightened so that they can help other people. {Jok-ngok}, {jok-ngok} is a very
unusual word in Tibetan that is the place... in Tibet there is no bridges, or there
used to be no bridges. And Tibet was full of rivers. So every five miles, if you're
taking a long trip, every five miles you are running into a river. And you have
to walk up and down the river to see where the {jok-ngok} is. So what is the
{jok-ngok}? The {jok-ngok} is like the most convenient place to enter the river to
get to the other side.

If you are on foot, you know, you will spend half a day, if you want to keep
your pack dry, and your yak can't swim, you know an you will walk up and
down the river bank and you will try to find the most shallow place and the
most convenient place to cross the river. And that was a great art in Tibet. It
was trying to find the {jok-ngok} and you would walk up and down and try to
test the water you know so Gyaltsab Je decided to name his book the {jok-ngok}
for the children of the Buddhas, meaning, you know, the best entry point. you
know, if you want to be a bodhisattva, this is the most convenient place to enter,
this is, if you want to be a bodhisattva, this is the most convenient place to enter,
okay, this is the best place to come to. Those are the books we will study. We
will have the root text is in poetry, and it will be, actually, we're going to try
something new. We have a very extinguished, distinguished poet, Hector is a
very good poet and he's actually           agreed to read the lines before each
explanation.

The way we are going to do these three chapters, which we're going to do
during this class, is that they are in the form of contemplations. Gyaltsab Je has
divided them up in the form that lends itself to contemplations. The way we'll do
it is that I will ask you to close your eyes and Hector will come out and take the
money out of your purses and.... no, I mean, Hector will come up and read the
verse and I want you to think about it when he reads it. You will think about the
verse and then we'll just have a moment of silence and that's just like a
contemplation. And then I'll explain the verse the way that Gyaltsab Je does, and
then I'll read the verse again and, and then you kind of lock it into your mind,
and that's the way we are going to do it. We are not covering the whole [b:
Bodhisattva charyavatara]. When I was taught it by Khen Rinpoche, it took ten
years. We don't have that kind of time. So what we are doing is, taking the
most, the major contemplations out and turning them into contemplations, so
there will be six different subjects to contemplate on in the next few day or you.
And they are very, very sweet and they're very profound and that's the way that
the course will go. So your main homework is to go home, pick the
contemplation that fits your own negativities and then work on that, that will
be the main homework actually, will to be to contemplate. In Tibetan and in
Buddhism, you learn things through {Tu, Sam, Gom}. Say {tu}, [repeat], {sam},
[repeat], {gom}, [repeat]. {Tu} means that you hear it in class. And to really get a
good Buddhist education requires thousands of hours in the classroom. {Sam}
means that you think about it, and that will be the contemplation part. {Gom}
means that you go into a deep state of meditation and you try to internalize
what you decided during your contemplations, and that's a process that you
have to go through. Okay, so that's the way we'll be doing it. So I think we'll
just start like that, are you ready? I think some times we'll try to have another
mic. over here, oh you have. [laughter] So Hector will read it, are you ready?
Hector: I'm ready. Is this the, by the way I'm not going to go through the, the
syllabus is self explanatory, We are going through the three most important
chapters, these are probably the three sweetest chapters on Buddhism ever
written, and it's an honor to teach it and it's an honor to hear it. It's very, very,
very sweet and it has a profound effect on your life. We're gonna do patience,
the perfection of patience, which is the are of not getting angry. And it's a very,
very necessary art for a Buddhist and we're gonna cover that chapter. Then we'll
cover the art of joy, how to find joy in being good. How to get yourself exited
about being a good bodhisattva, and the third on will be meditation. How to
meditate. It's one of the best presentations of meditation in all of Buddhism. So
those are the subjects of this course. We do three classes on patience, three
classes on joyful effort, and four classes on meditation. So we'll start out, this
will be the first class about patience, the perfection of patience, which is the third,
perfection of the six. Listen carefully, you're gonna get some kind of idea about
it when he reads it. And then I'll explain it and then I want him to read it again.
So close your eyes, be quiet and then we'll be quiet for a minute and then I'll start
explaining it. Okay, so just the first frame, the first six lines in the English, okay.
Hector: A single instance of anger destroys whatever good deeds you may have
amassed in thousands of eons spent in practices like giving and making offering
to Those who have gone to bliss. There is no kind of deed as evil as the act of
anger, there is no spiritual hardship like patience, practice then, concentrate on
patience in may different ways.            You can open your eyes again, the first
contemplation is called, "anger destroys good karma"              And these are the
opening lines of Shantidevas chapter. And he says something very radical. He
says that a single occurrence of anger in a human beings mind destroys a
thousand eons of good karma, okay, like all the good deeds that you have done
over a kalpa, an eon. I think we calculated a kalpa in the Abbhidharma class, do
you remember? What was it? Huh? Say it again? student: [unclear]. He says
ten to the sixtieth power. Ten with sixty zero's on it years, anyway, call it
millions and millions of years, if you believe in past lives, all the good in this life
anyway. According to Shantideva a single occurrence of sharp anger can
destroy that much good karma. What's the use of good karma? Well, anything
that you eat that you like, any friend you have that you like, anything about
your face or your body that you like, any intelligence that you have any
understanding that you have, it is all good karma. It is all produced by good
karma. If you wipe out the thing that's producing that, you can be sure that you
will be unhappy, ugly, have a lousy job, meet bad people on the subway and
you know, all these things will happen to you really, it's good karma that is
protecting all those things and it's a single instance of bad karma that destroys
those, okay, it has the power,         according to Shantideva. Now is Shantideva
exaggerating or what? Okay, because it doesn't seem possible that you could
wipe out that much good karma that fast. Or that we even have that much good
karma to wipe out that fast. Okay, Chandrakirti, in his classic Madhyumika, [b:
Madhyumika Avatara], he says the same thing, okay? He says exactly the same
thing, and other sutras say the same thing, okay, he's no exaggerating, okay, it's
not for effect, it's actually "real". He's actually describing what happens when
you get angry. Now, what is anger, how often do you have anger? How often
do you have that kind of anger? Okay, we have to discuss it, like I was in traffic
recently, and I was really getting angry. I even threw something at somebody, I
mean I was really getting angry, and then I was wondering when I was doing
this chapter, how often do I get angry, cause I like to think that my problem is
desire, not anger, okay. We all have one or the other or both, okay? And we all
have ignorance, but how often do you get angry? Anger in this chapter, as you'll
see refers also to that low level irritation that comes in yor mind. Okay, that low
level of irritation at people and at things, like at traffic jams or the heat, or
something that you stub your toe on. But is this something that destroys all the
good karma? No. Okay, this is a very special anger, the anger must be very
powerful and it must be focused on a bodhisattva. The anger that destroys a
thousands and millions of years of good karma has to be focused a bodhisattva.
Okay, so think of the last time you got angry at somebody and tell me, were
they a bodhisattva? Rinpoche likes to go like that. [shrugs] that means I don't
know. Okay, that's the tricky part, you really don't know who is a bodhisattva.
As you'll learn later in this chapter it's considered good etiquette for bodhisattvas
to stay underground, you know, it's considered very good bodhisattva etiquette
for bodhisattvas never to admit that they are bodhisattvas. Pabonka Rinpoche
used to say that probably the person sitting next to you is a bodhisattva or a
Buddha, so you don't know, so you have to be extremely careful because one
moment of anger focused at a bodhisattva has the power to destroy thousands
of years of good karma. How does it do it? I mean I studied that in the
monastery, I mean its a debate in the first chapter o the [b: Mahdyumika
avatara]. And it has to do with the intensity of which your mind grasps to
something as self existent. Okay, there's a, there's as, something very powerful
about the intensity with which your ignorance has to operate, in order to be that
angry at somebody. To be really angry at somebody, ignorance must be at it's
peak. And that ignorance plants itself in your mind. You have to be perceiving
the world in a very, very mistaken way, to get angry. And for the length of time
that you are angry, you are bathing in a very sublime form of ignorance. Okay,
because you cannot get angry if you are not ignorant, and conversely, when you
are getting very angry, your ignorance is getting very much planning itself in
your mind and ruining your mind, okay, so igorance is just a barometer, I mean
anger is a barometer for the intensity of your own ignorance. The more angry
you get, the more tendency you have towards anger the more you are grasping
to things as self existent and we'll talk about that more, okay. So that's the very
first line. Shantideva and Gyaltsab Je go into the destruction that anger does to
you that you can see and the destruction that it does that you cannot see, the
destruction that you are aware of and the destruction that you are not aware of.
Okay, up till now, up until these few minutes you probably weren't aware that
your destroying thousands and thousand of years of good karma just by getting
angry once. Okay, that's something that you wouldn't guess and Shantideva and
Gyaltsab Je call it {ma tongway nyimik} it's, it's a, something about anger that
you and I , it's not obvious to us, but if you continue the habit of anger over a life
time and you, it will start to affect... {tong gyer kyi le} means there is a karmic
affect, which occurs even in this live. Before you die, your world will start to get
even lousier. You know, people will seem worse, you know, food will seem less
tasty. Dharma teachings won't affect you much, your own face will start to
change. Your own physical body will start to change. Anger has all these affects
on you. In the Secret Teachings, we could go into it, it has a very profound effect
on your spiritual body, and it's ruining your spiritual body, it, it, it, it, those
thoughts, have a certain physical effect on your, on your spiritual body and start
ruining that, and start choking off certain, channels that have to be moving, and
so you just get less happy and your world starts to change and you don't know
why, okay, I mean you walk into a store with one of these people, and the guy
yells at them and serves you nicely, and you walk outside and someone almost
hits them with a car and someone else gives you some money. And their whole
life is like that and they never figure it out, this is called {ma tongway nyi mik}.
This is the karmic result that you are not aware of, if someone didn't explain it to
you, you wouldn't guess.          But it is slowly making your life deteriorate.
everything in your life is starting to deteriorate. Everybody seems worse, every
situation is worse. Everything seems less happy, and these are the affects of you
destroying your good karma. Okay, it's the anger that is destroying your good
karma and it's actually destroying your good karma. So if you don't like your
reality, stop getting angry. Okay. that's a problem that you cannot see, it has to
be explained to you and you have to explain it logically. Now we'll go onto, now
he says, "There is no evil in the world like anger." Nothing, nothing has the
power to destroy good karma like anger, and Shantideva says, "There is no act
that a person can do that is a evil as anger, and there is also no spiritual practice
that is as amazing as patience. You know when some one is giving you a hard
time, trying to get you, trying to ruin your reputation, doing something to you,
there is no austerity, there is no spiritual act as high as keeping your patience,
and not getting angry. Shantideva, says "I don't care about those people
meditating in caves for two years, who cares." You know, that doesn't make you
a warrior, that doesn't make you a tough guy. That doesn't make you a spiritual
superman, what makes you that is if you can sit in your office and your boss
comes to you and screams at you and you can keep your joy, then you are a
spiritual superman, I don't care about those guys that can go sit in a cave for ten
years, that's not a spiritual austerity, that's not a spiritual achievement, he says
that just to keep your patience in everyday life is much more a sign of high
realizations than anything else. He's not impressed by people who can go sit in
the snow for three hours, or something like that. That's not the thing, you want
to show me a great Buddhist, show me someone who can keep their cool under
fire and understand why they ae doing it, that's a great Buddhist. Okay, that's a
really great Buddhist practitioner, and you can do that everywhere, New York is
very, is very, is very good for that, okay. [laughs] Okay, and now we go onto
the problems that you can see and Shantideva and Gyaltsab Je, they take great
pains to bring up other scriptures and other quotations from the scriptures, from
the Buddha to say that they are not exaggerating, and that you really do destroy,
massive amounts of good karma by being angry for a short period, okay, and,
and it goes on to say that even if you were angry at an ordained person, so
maybe nobody will be angry at us anymore, so that they say that if you
prostrated on the ground and you covered all the atoms on the ground that you
were covering, and then you went down on the disc of gold which is I think two
hundred and forty thousand miles or something like that, if you counted all the
atoms, down to the bottom of the earth that you cover with your body when
you prostrate, and if you, if each one of those atoms was enough good karma to
make you king of the world, unanimous king of the world. everybody is
begging you to become the king of the world, okay, multiply that times one
thousand, that's the amount of good karma that you destroy if you speak badly
at an ordained person or get angry at them once, he quotes that, ,yes, [laughs].
It doesn't even have to be a good ordained person, I mean [b: Madhyumika
avatara] says, that your accusation can even be true, and you have to be very,
very careful with that, and then he says that obviously anger at anyone has
similar results. By the way, that's a hundred eons for every occurrence, okay. If
you are a bodhisattva and you get angry at another bodhisattva, then it a
thousand eons. There's all these permutations. That's the effect of anger that you
cannot see. And if you believe what I said, once you become aware that every
detail of your life is being created by good karma you want to be very, very
careful. You do not want to loose another thousnd years of effort for getting
angry at your boss. I mean, it should be coming into your mind now, how can I
avoid that? You know are there some kind of super trick that you can teach us
that I can avoid destroying my good karma? You know and if you overcome
anger, the opposite happens, your good karma keeps, the store of good karma,
keeps powerful, food starts tasting better, music starts tasting
better, your body starts feeling better, your boss is yelling less, you keep getting
raises and, and you start realizing things in your dharma class, okay. Now, what
does anger do to us that you can see? Okay, what can you see in your life that
anger does, okay, and Hector is going to read the... do the first one again
though, do it, he's gonna read the first one again, then close your eyes and you'll
think about it again, okay?          Hector: A single instance of anger destroys
whatever good deeds that you may have amassed in thousands of eons
spending practicing like giving offerings to those who have gone to bliss. There
is no kind of deed as evil as the act of anger. There is no spiritual hardship like
patience, practice them, concentrate on patience in many different ways.           So
that's one way to teach it, it's called {tokpa}. You just got one tokpa. You just
got one realization, from all that, the last fifteen minutes, it should have occurred
to you I , I didn't realize that a few minutes of anger could destroy that much
good karma. So it should be kind of scary, of you go the {tokpa} right now, a
{tokpa} means a realization, you know, like it just occurred to you that I didn't
ever really understand that anger was that... I knew that anger made me
uncomfortable, and all that, but I didn't have any idea that it was so destructive
of my good karma, so you have to, you have to think like that, That's a {tokpa},
that's one way of teaching a class, it's called a [nyam tri]. Okay, next one, close
your eyes. I think, just the first six lines, yeah. Hector: If you hold to the sharp
pain of thoughts of anger, your mind can know no peace, you find no
happiness, no pleasure. Sleep stays away and the mind remains unsettled.
Okay, in this verse, he's, he's starting to introduce the problems that you can see,
and you don't have to be an Einstein to figure this out. He gives five of them.
He says, first of all, "Your mind will know no peace, you're mind will not be in
peace, at peace. Gyaltsab Je explains that as meaning that you will never get to
the point, where you find peace beyond all suffering, which means Nirvana.
Okay, so this is just not, not feeling good this is ,"You will never figure out what
it is to be in Nirvana. If you are constantly being angry you will never reach
Nirvana. Second problem, you will find no happiness, and Gyalstab Je, in the
Indian commentary, say, here Shantideva speaks about how it will ruin your
mental state. You know, mentally you won't be happy, you can't be happy. I
mean the slightest bit of anger that you ever get, you know melts away our
happiness. You can't goof around anymore. You know, like you've been angry
at somebody and I don't know, it stays with me for like a couple of hours. It just
ruins my life for a couple of hours. If I get fairly angry at someone, I, I just can't
think a happy thought, for a couple of hours, I just can't do it, and it's probably
similar with you. No pleasure means, third problem. physically. It starts to hurt
your body, okay. Physically, you know, you start to shake a little bit, your heart
starts pounding. Your stomach feels bad and as long as you keep up the anger,
you will never find even a normal state of physical well being. Much less,
{shinjang}, {shinjang} is somekind of very, very high feeling of your body that
you get from meditation, but first of all anger stops you from feeling good,
normally, and absolutely prevents you from {shinjang}. As long as you have
any kind of anger which is one of the five obstacles to meditation, you know
thinking angry thoughts about someone, ruins your meditation, you will never
get to the point where you have this extraordinary, bliss, physical bliss that
meditation can bring you. You'll never get there So anger is blocking you from
feeling good, but is absolutely blocking you from deeper physical feeling of
very, deep meditation, you'll never get there, and then he says that you can't
sleep and you know that. You know there used to be a vice-president at work
that really irritated me, and I , I would spend nights that I couldn't sleep, and I
know what it feels like and it's bad, very bad. Then he says that the mind
remains unsettled and Gyaltsab Je's commentary says that {nyel da papa}, very
weird word, mean that you're off balance, you're always feeling a little off
balance. You know, you're always feeling a little bit off. You know, your mind
can't focus, you're mind can't stay steady on an object, you know you're mind
can't center itself, 'cause anger's always throwing you off balance, anger's always
pushing you around. Okay, and these are things that you can see in this life,
these are effects of anger that you can see, and they are very unpleasant. Okay,
say it again, close your eyes.       Hector: If you hold to the sharp thoughts of
anger your mind can find no peace, you find no happiness, no pleasure, sleep
stays away and the mind remains unsettled. Okay, next two verses, close your
eyes, here's the next one. Hector: Suppose there were a master who bestowed
upon all those with in his care what wealth and honor as they wished, they
they'd rise to kill him if they lived in fury, it leaves your friends and family tired
of being with you, they refuse to stay on even though you may entice them with
gifts. So Shantideva and Gyaltsab Je, they divide this section into two parts, one
is, anger ruins your own happiness, anger ruins your, your happiness and your
physical well being, [A]. [B], it ruins your relationships, okay, it destroys
relationships with friends and with family, whatever good relationships you
have. You know and I know, I've had friends for ten years and I've blown it in a
ten minute screaming session with them, you, know, I know, I mean ten minutes
of true anger, between two people can ruin years of friendship. And you never
forget what they said, because you think it's what they really thought for ten
years and usually it's not, but you never forget what they said, cause it's so bad,
you know, but this is the effects of anger, it ruins your relationships. Shantideva
gives the example of a man whose running a big estate, or like a little lord of a
little kingdom. And he's taking care of all his subjects very carefully, he's a good
man. He's taken care of them, he's feeding them, he's bringing them up, And I
think he's referring to family life also, you know. Like daddy is taking care of
the kids, feeding them, taking good care of them, nice to them, but daddy has a
problem, he gets angry. You know, he has these, he has these very intense
periods of anger and, and what will happen? In the example of the Lord of the
estate, if that person, even though he's kind and even though he's supporting
everybody, there could come a point where all those people working there and
living there would actually murder him. Okay, in a family situation, he says,
next verse, he says, "they don't come and murder you, they murder you in a
different way, they get sick and tired of you, they leave, they either get sick of
you, They either get sick of you physically or they get sick of you mentally,
they disassociate from you, and you find yourself isolated. You know, because
you can't control your anger, even if you're bringing home the bread, even if
you are trying to win them with, with , with, you kow every time your anger
gets over you take them out for ice cream or something, "it doesn't work.", he
says. They get tired, your friends get tired, you start to loose your friends, you
start to lose your family. And eventually they just leave you, they either leave
you mentally, or they leave you in reality. But sooner or later, they get tired and
they go away, and that's an effect of anger that you can see in this life, okay. So
we'll read the example one more time, and then the other verse on more time.
Okay, ready? Hector: Suppose there were a master who bestowed upon all
those in his care both wealth and honor as they wished, still they'd rise to kill him
if he lived in fury. It leaves your friends and family tired of being with you, they
refuse to stay on even those you may entice them with gifts. Okay and then he
has a summary which you can, go ahead. Hector: To put it simply there is no
one with anger who can be happy, anger, our enemy brings us these and other
pains as well. So that's his, that's how he presents, so obviously, this chapter
begins, he want's you to know what's wrong with anger, the problems of anger.
And he says, first of all there are problems that you never guessed. And that's
every moment that you are angry, you are destroying massive amounts of good
karma in your mind stream. As a result, your mind will become more and more
unhappy. And you won't even guess why. You know, things won't taste as
good. Friends won't be as good, friends won't look as good, books won't seem
as nice, music won't sound as sweet. It's very interesting , when you start to
destroy your good karma, your whole, experience of reality starts to deteriorate,
and ultimately it's called death. Okay, and if you can do the opposite then the
opposite happens, the world starts to transform, things taste sweeter, friends are
closer, disciples are very obedient and friendly. food tasted better. Music is like
unbelievable and then ultimately your own body changes. {Tong gyer kyi ley},
within this life time, with the
proper practices, your own body would change into a body of light. And that's
the opposite, but it will never happen if you keep going back twenty steps for
every step you go forward. Every time you get angry, you destroy massive
amounts of good karma, and those other things can't happen, because you're
destroying karma so effectively, that it can't happen. Okay, and those are the
benefits, those are the problems with anger that you can't see. The problems
with anger that you can see, even if you don't believe in Buddha Paradise, you
don't believe in karma, anger still sucks. [laughs] Anger still causes you to have a
terrible life, it destroys your relationships, it destroys your own happiness and it
destroys your physical health. So first he wants to lay out all the problems with
anger, and he's finished with that, and we'll take a break and come back in like
ten minutes okay, and then we'll see if there's anything to do about it, okay?
[cut] Let's read it while they're writing, everybody should just say the Tibetan
sounds. We used to have this class in a hotel room with one bed, and I always
thought the guy next door were wondering what we were doing you know,
anyway. Say, { jangchub}, [repeat], {sempa}, [repeat] {la} [repeat], {mikpay},
[repeat], {kong tro} [repeat], {chik ki}, [repeat], {getsa}, [repeat], {tsawa ne},
[repeat], {jon}, [repeat]. {Jangchub sempa}, means what?           student: [unclear]
Bodhisattva. {La mikpay}, means focused on a bodhisattva. {kong tro}, means
"anger". I'll write, I'll write that, {jangchub sempa}, focused on a bodhisattva, and
this is direct quotation. [cut] {Getsa}, {getsa}, is usually translated as root of
virtue, but it refers to the store of good karma that you have in your mind. And
there are certain things that can destroy the entire storehouse, of good karma,
anger at a Bodhisattva is one of them. {Getsa, tsawa ne jon}, {tsawa ne jon},
means, "destroys the entire store house of good karma that you have in your
mind, from the root", okay, just destroys it. And that's the scriptural quotation,
I'd like you to memorize it, those of you in the Tibetan class. You gotta work
hard a little bit, I mean, in the real Geshe course, it's hundreds of thousands of
pages to memorize, you can do a few lines, and it's good for you. Okay? It's one
of those things that hurts at the beginning and feels good later, like exercise.
Yeah? student: Can you say it again in English? "A single occurrence of anger
focused at a bodhisattva, destroys the entire collection of good karma in your
mind, from the root." That's a direct quotation, okay? And again, you think that
angry people get unhappier as they get older, because they're angry, but actually
it's because they are burning off good karma. And their world really is getting
lousier, it's a true perception that they are having. Everyone really is out to get
them, the kids really are getting worse. The wife really is getting uglier, the job
really is getting more unpleasant, the food really is tasting worse, their body
really is getting more of a heart attack. But it's not the anger, it's the destruction
of their good karma. So all that's left is their lousy karma, and their reality starts
to deteriorate, it really happens and you can be standing next to them and you
are experiencing a different reality, because you're not having anger. And you
can't understand why they're irritated all the time and everything to you really is
fine, and everything to them is bad, and that's the reality of karma. That's how
karma works. Okay, next we get into a verse, this is the third contemplation,
we're gonna go through six, the next three will probably be faster. The third
contemplation is, what causes anger?           What triggers anger? And Master
Shantideva gets into the question of what triggers anger in a person? If anger is
so destructive in a person, we better know what triggers it then we can avoid
that, okay, so Hector, the whole page, okay? Close your eyes. Hector: Anger
feeds on the food of feeling upsets, then strengthened, turns to smash me. And
so then, I will smash the sustenance that feeds this enemy of mine. My foe
knows no other kind of work at all then to cause me pain. No matter what
happens, I will never allow my joy to be disturbed. Feeling upset cannot
accomplish my hopes and only makes me loose the goodness that I have. If
there is something I can do about it, why should you feel upset? If there is
nothing you can do about it, what use is being upset? There is nothing in the
world which does not come easily if you don't make then a habit of bearing the
small pains and thus endure the greater. [silence] So Master Shantideva is trying
to identify, "What is it that triggers anger?" Because if you can avoid that then
you'll never get angry, and he identifies, getting upset. It's that bad feeling that
starts when something you want to happen doesn't happen.                    Or when
something you don't want to happen starts to happen. And it's that off balance
state of mind, you're beginning to get upset. That something's not going your
way. And that's what triggers anger, that's the prelude to anger, anger is always
preceded by feeling off balance or upset, some kind of unhappiness about the
way things are going, this is not actual anger yet, you could call it being off
balance or being upset. You could call it being upset. You start to be upset at
something and then that triggers anger. Okay, so he, he identifies it like that, he
identifies getting upset as the food that anger feeds on. And he says, "Let's deny
anger it's food, and it will die." If you feed anger, if you ever feel off balance or
start to feel of balance or start to feel upset, it gives anger something to eat and
it's like dog food, and anger comes and, "[rrrrrrrr], this is great", you know.
And, and, and it feeds anger, and the more upset you get and the more off
balance you get, the more anger gets strengthened. And the word in Tibetan is
very rare you know, it's called {depa}, and it means to get big muscles, you
know, like anger loves to feed off of you getting upset and as soon as you start
to get upset, as soon as your mind to get off balance a little bit, anger is there
feeding, you know, like some wild animal. It's like getting energy out of this.
And then it gets stronger and stronger, and then you won't be able to beat it, so
Shantideva, Master Shantideva says, "Let's starve it." You know, don't give him
anything to eat and then he'll die. So what? So stop getting upset. Alright? And
then you know, that's easy to say, like you don't want to be angry because of the
traffic? "Like, just don't mind the traffic." You know, thanks you know, thanks
allot, like I needed that you know. It doesn't work, you know it doesn't work. so
then Master Shantideva, in the latter part of the verse, he starts to give reasons
why getting upset is stupid. And getting upset is useless. First of all He says, "It
can't get you anything, getting upset never accomplishes anything, getting upset
at something never, never helps you get the spiritual goals and the other things
that you want. It doesn't get you more money, it doesn't get you more health.
It doesn't get you that girlfriend you wanted. Getting upset is useless as far as
getting you what you want. Getting upset doesn't work, getting upset doesn't
work. And he says that you have to think about that and you have to
contemplate on it. Getting upset never works, it never helps anything, he says,
just don't do it, just stop it, okay, and then anger won't have a place to start,
anger won't have any food to get stronger from. And then he has what I think is
one of the sweetest verses in all of Buddhism. His Holiness is always quoting it,
and I'm going to ask you to memorize it, okay. It's very short. If you're doing
English track, you have to memorize the English. Where are we? [cut]            {Chu
su}, [repeat], {yuna nyi}, [repeat], {de la}, [repeat], { migar}, [repeat], {chishik},
[repeat], {Yu},[repeat], okay. {Gelte} means, "if". {Gelte} means, "if". {Chu su
yupa, chu su yupa} means, "if it's something you can do something about".
{Chu} means to repair, or to do something about something. You know, if a
problem comes up, if there if somebody at work that you don't like, if there's
something in your life that you're not happy about, if something is upsetting
you, {gelte chu su yu na ni}, if there's something you can do about it then {de la},
{de la}, means "about that thing". {Migar} mean, "to be unhappy, or upset." {Chi
shi gyu} means, "what's the point?". What's the point? Which means that if you
have a problem that you can do something about, then why get upset, just go fix
it, okay just go and fix it, okay? If something id fixa... what is that this? "Lord,
grant me the grace to..." What is it? To know the things I can do something
about? Or to know the things I can't do nothing about and have the wisdom to
tell the difference? Well, this is the same thing, okay. So Shantideva is saying,
look, if you can do something about it, then just shut up and go do it and stop
getting upset. Okay, don't get upset, why? Upset is the food for anger. Upset...
Anger needs upset, being upset to feed on, if you never get upset, you'll never
get angry. So he's identifying for you the cause of anger. It's
feeling upset, feeling unhappy about something. So, on the one hand, if you can
do something about it, stop being upset, just go do it, fix it, okay? You know
what the next part is going to say? [cut] If you're doing Tibetan track you're
going to have to write the verse Okay? And you might notice that most of it's is
the same on the second two lines as on the first two lines. Say, {gelte}, [repeat],
{chu su}, [repeat], {me na nyi}, [repeat], {de la}, [repeat], {miga}, [repeat], {je chi
pen}, [repeat]. Okay, {gelte}, means if again, if. {Chu sue me na nyi} means that
if you can't do any thing about it, if there is nothing you can do to fix it, you
know. If you've talked to the boss and he won't fire that other person. Okay,
which I've tried on occasion, okay. {De la miga}, to be upset about it or to be
unhappy, {je chipen}, what's the use? What's the use of being unhappy, what's
the use of being upset? In Tibetan logic it's {kyabba} and there's only {mu nyi
metong mepa}, means you can only go one way or another. Meaning that the
thing is unfixable, or it's fixable. If the thing is fixable stop being upset and fix it.
If the thing is not fixable and you can't do anything about it right now, then shut
up and stop being upset, because if you allow yourself to be upset, anger finds
food, and then anger does his thing and then you destroy good karma and then
you got more things to b angry about because your reality changes. Because
your good karma can't assert itself anymore because there ain't any. And then
everything seems to be getting worse. I don't know what's happening to this
city, more crime, more dirt, subway is worse, more crime. It's you, crime will
drop if you're good. Okay, yeah. student: [unclear] Not really. Well, he said,
"Does that mean, in actuality, is there nothing that you can't fix." No, I mean
there is occasions at work where the guy is the bosses pet and he hates your
guts, and there ain't nothing you can do about it, you know, smile, grin and bear
it, you know. Because what is the use on being upset? You can't fix it, he's the
bosses pet what can you do? You could like, have a truck run him over or
something, but your a Buddhist you know, so you can't do that. [laughter] This
is very famous, and it's logical, it's very logical. Those two statements are logical.
The first one was, "feeling upset doesn't help anything,", you know feeling upset,
getting mad, getting off balance. Getting unhappy about anything, traffic jam,
your life, your body, anything. It doesn't help anything, just stop it, because if
you stop it you won't get angry. And then on the other hand, if something is
fixable, just shut up and go fix it. If something is not fixable, just shut up and
stop whining about it because there is nothing you can do, stop kvetching, stop
being unhappy. Stop being upset and then you won't get angry. So it's totally
airtight, logically, just it's just up to us we don't want to do it. Next one, next
contemplation. Do you want to read that? Read just that much one more time,
okay? Sorry? student: [unclear] No, that's Shantideva, that's the most famous,
one of the most famous verses on the [b.Bodhisattvacharyavatara] and His
Holiness uses it constantly. student: [unclear] Back to... "anger feeds" and up to,
"what use is being upset", okay? Close your eyes, by the way contemp... you're
gonna have to do this at home. You're gonna pick one contemplation and just
gonna have to go over it this way. Okay, ready? Hector: Anger feeds on the
food of feeling upset, then strengthened, turns to smash me, and so then, I will
smash the sustenance that feeds this enemy of mine. My foe knows no other
kind of work at all except to cause me pain. No matter what happens, I will not
allow my joy to be disturbed. Feeling upset cannot allow me to accomplish my
hopes and only, only makes me loose the goodness that I have. If there is
something that you can do about it, why should you feel upset? If there is
nothing that you can do about it, what use is being upset? By the way, one
thing here from my own practice, you know, there's times when I feel really
good, you know, like my spiritual life is really rolling, you know, everything is
fine, I'm feeling like really energized, and then a person who's close to me and is
spending a couple of hours with me, gets a mental affliction, and it obvious. Like
it's jealousy, and anger, or desire or something, but I can actually feel some kind
of, it's actually like, [hhmm], you know? And I'm sure it happens with my friends
when I get mental afflictions. But you actually feel this physical "wind" coming
from them, of their mental affliction and they're sitting next to you and they're
having a mental affliction. And they're having a great day, and then suddenly
there's a person next to you that's having a mental affliction and I don't know
about you, but I kinda resonate to other people, so if the person next to me is
having a bad day, and is start to get irritated or upset, it starts to ruin my
happiness. The eight verses says something like that. That's a reason not to have
a mental affliction, is that it not only ruins your day, but it spreads to other
people. Like I'm having a perfectly good spiritual day, and my friend is having a
mental affliction, or vice-versa, I mean, it happens both ways. I was driving a car
the other day, and I was getting angry, and the person in the car started to get
upset, you know, because I was angry. What I'm saying is that it affects other
people. It infects other people. And this practice means, keep your joy. The
antidote... there's a homework question, the antidote for getting upset is joy,
your own sense of joy. And it's difficult and it becomes very much of a kind of
internal struggle. But, keep your own joy, even if everybody on the subway
around you is getting mad. You know, even if everybody on the street is too
hot. You know, even it everybody at work is stressed out because the company
is merging or something. You must maintain your own joy. You have to shield
your joy frm the influence of other peoples afflictions. And it's a whole practice,
it's a whole spiritual skill that you have to learn, that you have to keep your
joyfulness, and your happiness and you have to refuse to get sucked onto other
peoples mental afflictions. And that's very difficult, but it becomes a skill that
you have to learn, You know, you must maintain your joy, because if you don't
maintain your joy, you'll get upset about how stinky everything is. If you get
upset then somebody has a chance to come and feed on you, which is anger.
Okay, and if you develop a full anger then you start to destroy good karma and
then the world really does start to change, in your eyes, and it gets lousy. So if
you don't want that to happen, don't get anger, if you don't want that to happen
don't give it any food, if you don't want that to happen, don't get upset. If you
don't want that to happen, be unhappy. You know, keep your joy, keep your
sense of joy within yourself and learn to do that despite what's going on around
you. That's a trick, that's a spiritual skill that you have to learn. And even if
everybody else is going crazy, you know, stupid, jealousy, angry, attacking you,
you know, forget it. Maintain your joy, inside. Okay, you have to. Yeah?
student: [unclear] I think you have to... he says that Shantideva gives you three
choices, you know, first, "understand that getting upset is totally useless, is has
no function in providing you with what you are seeking, [A]. [B], if you can fix
it, then go out and fix it, if you can't fix it, then shut up, keep your joy. You
know, and that's it, that's airtight, there's no other choice. Yeah student:
[unclear] That's a whole, that's a whole different... we had a debate about that in
the last class and he said what? He said, " Can you take joy in being angry at
your mental afflictions?" And there was a debate, can you remember? Gyaltsab
Je, what did he say? He said, "You must get angry at your mental afflictions and
that's not anger. It's a righteous something. [laughter] No he said you should
and you should have an enemy, and that's your mental afflictions. And then
there was this whole debate whether that is a real mental affliction or not and
there is two commentaries, I mean there is Sanskrit commentaries that say, "you
should maintain this mental affliction for a short time. And there's other
commentaries that say, "That's wrong, and you are not maintaining a mental
affliction, it's a kind of joy, it's a kind of understanding." And Gyaltsab Je sides
with the second. Gyaltsab Je sides with the latter. Okay, we're actually gonna
make it, maybe. Okay, Hector, page thirteen the page there, the whole verse
there. Okay, close your eyes. Hector: Which line? Contemplation four, yeah.
Hector: There is nothing in the world which does not come easily if you make a
habit of it,. Make then a habit of bearing the small pains, and thus endure the
greater. [silence]       Okay, this is going to be a theme throughout the three
chapters that we're studying. And it always starts out with a question. You
know, somebody comes up to Gyaltsab Je or Shantideva and says, you know,
"Sounds great, I'm not capable of it, you don't know the kind of enemies that I
have", you know, "You don't know the kind of
situations that I have.", "You don't know the kind of boss that I have." "you
know, you don't know the kind of situations that I have to put up with, like
maybe normal people, okay, but you have no idea what I have to put up with. I
don't have mentally, the strength, I have tried in my life, you know, I'm not
stupid. I have tried for twenty years, thirty years to fight with my anger, but
these things, these objects are so bad that they make me angry, and I can't stop
it, I can't do it." Then Master Shantideva says, "Look, everything mental comes
from habit. The way you look at things comes from habit and only from habit.
Which conversely means that if you develop a habit of something, you can see it
any way you want, and that's very powerful. That's really powerful. If you, if
you make a habit of something, you can learn to see things anyway you want
meaning, if you start small, and he's very big on that, Master Shantideva is very
big on that. Start small, start with the small things that piss you off, you know.
Start with small things, like the way people look in the subway, or something
like that and start to work on your mind, start to get into the habit of working
on it, he says, "Don't go for your worst enemy first. You know, start with the
small things that irritate you and overcome it. Use logic on yourself, you know.
And start small, you know start with the small things that irritate you and start
to see how they could even be helpful or how they are not so bad, or how if you
didn't get irritated, your life will be much more pleasant. You know how much
time you save if you don't get pissed off? You know, people in New York are
always like they want to save time, tey are like "I only have three minutes, talk."
You know. my boss does that, and then he gives me one minute, you know, and
he doesn't listen anyway. But everybody wants to save time. You , you can save
about twenty percent of your lifetime if you learn not to get irritated at people
and you just stop it, you know, you just stop it, and you stop it with small things
and the way, Master Shantideva says, "They way you see anything, the way you
think about anything, the way you think about anything is totally plastic, it's
totally malleable, you can change it to anything you want. And later he's gonna
say more radical things like "you could change your conception of what you are,
to extend it to Helen McHail. You know, your habit of thinking as "you" as
stopping at your skin, is only, it's a habit. It's not a reality, you can change it if
you want, you can decide that she's as important as you. You can decide that she
is you. You know, why do you stop at your arm? Why do you stop at your
fingers? It's a habit, it's just a habit, and it can be changed by practice. Anything
is possible with practice. There is nothing you can't do if you practice. And he's
very big on that. All the way that you see the world, all the relationships that
you have, all the way that you define yourself and other people, and your
happiness and their happiness, they're all, those borders are not fixed, they're
just a habit, it's just a way of thinking, and you can change it. So he says, "You
can do it, you can perfect perfect patience." You could get to the point where
you could stand and someone could put a blow torch on you and you would be
patient. But you know, don't start there. You know, start with the small things
that make you unhappy, and practice, just practice. And practice makes perfect
and he's very adamant about it. Practice makes perfect and you can change. I'm
gonna write, I'm gonna have somebody else write the Tibetan, because I don't
have time. Can you write it on here? This one, here's the paper, thisone right
here, start here, okay? Got it? Big letters, okay, that will save some time. So
that's number four, so he says get used to bearing with small irritations and build
up to the big ones, and you can do it, because there is nothing about your life
which is not a perception, and your perceptions are totally dependent on your
own habits. You can change any of your perceptions. I was on a bus one time in
India, and I was locked in between a bunch of pigs and chickens and farmers in
the corner of this bus and there was a rain storm and a hole opened up above
my head, [laughter]. And it was going, [shhpt, shhpt,shhpt] and I couldn't move
an inch this way or an inch that way. And I was just sitting there, for like four
hours, you know, and I decided you know, you get used to it. [laughter] And
then after awhile, I thought, even David Rockafeller, if he was sitting here, and if
he couldn't move he would get used to it and even David Rockafeller would be
here sitting with the pigs and the chickens and getting wet. What I am saying, is
that you could get used to anything if you try. You know, you can bear the
greatest insults, you can bear the greatest injuries. People can do terrible things
to you, you know, people can hurt you in anyway imaginable, but if you
practice, you can get to a point where you are just unshakable. And there will
be a point in your spiritual career where you will be able to withstand any kind
of attack, and maintain your joy. You know, and he says, it's just a matter of
practice, okay. Read that one more time please. Hector: There is nothing in the
world which does not come easily if you do not make a habit of it, make then a
habit of bearing the small pains, and thus, endure the greater. [silence] When it
says that there is nothing in the world which does not come easily if you do not
make a habit of it, Gyaltsab Je says here that, "nothing in the world, refers to any
kind of mental habit." "Nothing in the world" Means, any kind of mental habit,
you can develop if you practice, you know, you can learn to see things anyway
you want if you practice, okay. Those things are not set in stone, those things
are a decision, those things are a mental state. And some people encounter the
same problems that you do and come out unscathed, they are quite happy. And
the same things that upset you wouldn't upset a stronger person. So change the
way that you look at things, they don't have to be the way you see them okay?
And he proves that with an example, are you ready? Hector: Some, when they
catch sight of their own blood rise to a higher ferocity. Some, when they see
another persons blood, faint and fall unconscious. All of this is derived from
either steadfastness or cowardliness in the mind. Learn then to disregard arms,
and never allow any pain to touch you, hurt may come, but the wise never let
suffering cloud their clarity of mind. [silence] So in this verse, Shantideva, he
likes warfare, he like to use the example of warfare, he says, "We are engaged in
warfare." And he says, "You see some people in a battle, you know, I think of
Braveheart, right? And somebody slashes their arm and they see blood pouring
out and they get more fierce. You know, they say, "Blood, [rrrr]." And then, you
know, you see football players like that, you know if they get a good cut on their
face they get excited, you know, they get high in it. Or you know, a good boxer,
if somebody gives him a good cut on the eye, he just gets pissed, you know.
And it just gets him exited and more interested you know. And then, some
people, you know, they go to the doctor, and they see someone getting an
injection and they see a little bit of blood going out, and they are like, [gesture],
and they fall unconscious, [laughter]. So he says two different, he's picking two
different kinds of people, one kind of person when they see their own blood,
they get excited, you know, and they get more inspired to slay the enemy, and
other people, you know, the see someone's nose bleeding or something and
they get [eeehhhh] you know, they get all freaked out. Then he asks a question,
Shantideva says, "Is there any difference in the two peoples bodies?" You know,
is the one guys body harder than the other guys body? You know is the other
guys body softer than the other guys body" You know, is there a difference in
the bodies? No. Okay? Well, is there a difference in the thing that hit them?
You know, in the knife or the needle or what ever is that? You know, is the
needle like softer to one guy and harder to the other guy? Or is the knife
sharper to one guy or duller to the other guy? And he says no, so where does
the difference lie? So what's the distinction between the guy that get stronger,
and the guy who falls unconscious? You know, where's the difference lie? It's
where they see it, it's in their mind, you know. And he says, "That's the only
difference. There's absolutely n difference in their body, and theirs no difference
between the thing that hit them, it's all mental. And he says, so patience is a state
of mind. You know, if you decide that you will put up with these things, you can
do it. You know, you can get to a point where the more things hurt you, the
more things go wrong, the more your life starts to get worse and worse, you get
stronger and stronger. You know, you get more and more inspired. On the
other hand you can be like the coward, you know, and the more things come,
the more you start to whine, and the more you start to get upset, and he says,
"We have to be like the warrior, we have to be like the other one, and he says
that, "It's
all a matter of mind." That proves that it's a matter of mind and not something
physical. There's no difference in the bodies of those two people, and there's no
difference in what happened to them, it's just mental. It's mental strength, and
he says, "Do it." Alright? You got that one ready Phuntsok, is it okay? That's
nicer, maybe you should do all of them. [laughter] This is for the Tibetan track
people, I'll give you a minute to write it alright? I'm gonna bust your chops a
little bit , you've gotta learn Tibetan more, alright? In the mean time let's say it,
okay? If you're writing it, keep writing. Say {sem}, [repeat], { kyi}, [repeat],
{dzintang}, [repeat], {tamche}, [repeat], {gomba}, [repeat], {tsawa chen}, [repeat],
{Yinbe}, [repeat], {gongna}, [repeat], {hlawar}, [repeat], {mikyurway}, [repeat],
{semkyi}, [repeat], {chu}, [repeat], {kang yang}, [repeat], {me}, [repeat]. This
should be {gyurpey}, okay Phuntsok? Maybe it's wrong. We get it anyway.
{Sem} means "the mind". {Dzintang} is a very difficult word in Tibetan
philosophy and it means "the way you see things", the way you see things. The
{dzintang} of ignorance and the {dzintang} of wisdom are opposite and that's
where the word comes in Tibetan philosophy. {Tamche} means, "All of them".
{gomba} means "habit", okay? Habit. When you put a head etter on it and a
prefix letter on it, it becomes the word for? {Gom}, meditation. So they are
related. The word for making a habit of something and the word for meditation
are related. {Tsawa chen means "the basis" or the root. {Yin}, "it is". What it
means it all the different ways that you see things, all the different ways in which
you perceive things, is all only a matter of your habits, of your mental habits and
you can learn to change them.           There is nothing about the way that you
perceive the world. which is not changeable, if you decide to. Because its all a
matter of habit. There is nothing fixed in the world you can see it in the world;.
When you do the Yamantaka Tantric Dakye, there's a beautiful section in there,
and it says, look, everything is what you decide in a way so therefore, and then it
gets really cool, which I can't go into, but anyway, everything about your life is a
matter of how you decide to see it and what kind of mental habits you develop,
so you can change and you can learn to put up with anything. But you have to
decide and you have to start small, and then eventually, you could get to the
point where people could cut our arm open and you wouldn't mind, okay? You
have to start small though, and you can do it. It's a matter of habit. {Yinbe}.
{Gongna} means, "if you do make a habit of something". {hlawa mingyurway},
"which is not easy". {Sem gyi chu}, "any quality of the mind". {Kang yang me},
"there is none at all". Translated, means, there is no quality of the mind that is
difficult to attain if you make a habit of it, because habits are the very root of the
way in which we perceive the entire world. It's a matter of habit, it's a matter of
what you're used to, okay. Okay, we'll go straight to six, okay close your eyes,
last one, we're gone leave sort of on time. I'm sure you'll be patient. [laughter]
Hector: We are locked in combat with mental afflictions and in war, many
wounds are sustained. Ignore then, any pain that might come, smash the foes of
anger and such. Conquering this is the thing that makes the warrior, the rest are
killing only corpses. [silence] I like this part. What he's say is, "Look we are
declaring war on the big enemy, which is your own jealousy, your own desire,
your own pride and your other mental afflictions". We have declared war on
them, I think it happened last course right? Everybody signed a declaration of
war. Everybody here decided that they were going to make war on the real
enemy which is mental affliction. Shantideva says, look, frankly, you're gonna
take some hits, okay? Don't think it's gonna be all a piece of cake, okay, they will
cut you, they will fight back. You know, their is no war that ever existed, where
somebody didn't get hurt, you know. There's a joke in Tibetan, "A big war
broke out in Kham yesterday, and three people got injured, slightly." You
know, that was a Tibetan joke, okay, anyway, somebody will get cut, and you
will get cut. You know, if you fight with a worthy opponent, you're gonna take
some shots. The end of Rob Roy, do you remember? They are having this
sword fight for like twenty minutes and the good guy gets cut to pieces, you
know and then finally he just, he does one of these on the guys body, you
know;. But it looks like he's loosing you know, he's got cuts all over him, his
belly is coming out of him and then finally at the end he takes his great sword
and goes, you know, and he splits the guy in half you know, but in the mean
time he took allot of hits, and he got allot of cuts. Master Shantideva says, "Don't
think this is not like a normal war." This is like any other war, you're gonna take
some wounds, you re gonna get cut. You know, there's gonna be bad days, and
mental afflictions do not go away that easy, okay, And he says but if you can
fight with them, and if you beat them, you are better than those guys who go to
Kuwait and shoot people with guns. Why? He says, "They are killing corpses."
Then Gyaltsab Je Says, what does he mean when he says that they are killing
corpses? Look, they are going to die anyway, you don't have to shoot them.
You know, give em a year, give two years, give em five. You know, they're
gonna, something's, gonna kill them. That's the nature of your body, you don't
have to take credit for killing somebody, their body is going to kill itself. You
know, they, we don't consider them a great warrior, [laughs] So you shoot
somebody and he dies a few years earlier than he would have died any way.
The body is mortal, the body is... This body will kill itself. You could put this
body in some museum somewhere and feed it and take care of it and it would
still kill itself, you know. This body will kill itself, so killing people is not a great
achievement. They're like dead already, it's like killing corpses. But if you can
kill mental afflictions then that's something, they last for millions of years. They
fight back. They rise like zombies, Night of the Living Dead, you know. You
think you finished off desire and then suddenly one day it just goes voom, you
know. That's what takes a real hero, that's what takes a hero, if you can put
them down permanently. And you will take some hits, then you have achieved
something, that's a real achievement. We call you a GI Joe, you know, you are
the real warrior. You managed to do that. Okay we'll read that, let me make
sure I did all the homeworks for you. One more thing but read it once more
please. Hector: We are locked in combat with mental afflictions, and in war,
many wounds are sustained. Ignore then, any pains that may come. Smash the
pains of anger and such. Conquering these is the thing that makes you the
warrior. The rest are killing only corpses. Are you okay? We are gonna talk
about the three kinds of patience. You couldn't have a Gelugpa class with out
having the divisions of something, right? So, I threw that in at the end. There
are three kinds of patience, okay. The first kind is called, say, {duk-ngel},
[repeat], {dang du}, [repeat], {lenpey}, [supa]. {duk-ngel}, [repeat], {dangdu},
[repeat], {lenbey}, [repeat], {supa}, [repeat]. {Duk-ngel}, means suffering, pain,
okay. {Dangdu lenba}, means to accept in gladly to take it gladly, {supa}, means a
kind of patience. So the first kind of patience, something bad happens and you
say, "How can I change this into something positive?" Okay, "I'm glad this
happened, I'm glad I'm fired, now I can go get a real job. You know, I mean,
okay, [laughs], how can I change this thing around. Lama Sopa wrote a book
called transforming problems into happiness. I mean that's {duk-ngel dangdu
lenbey supa}. Means, I'm glad that my boss fired me. Wait till he sees the new
job that I got, you know, more benefits, more pay, less hours, better people to
work with and definitely a better boss, you know? And, and that's {dukngel
dang du lenbey supa} That means, I'm glad I got sick, now I have a chance to
show what a Bodhisattva I am. I am glad they got me to do all the dirty work at
the Dharma center, you know, I'll show them, You know, wait till they see what
a real bodhisattva can do. You know instead of getting upset and looking
negatively at things, you just suck up suffering. Say, "Come on, give me your
best shot." And you just feed on it and you say, I'm glad all these stupid things
are happening in my life you know, and now I got a chance to prove myself, and
you turn them into the path. You know you just turn them into the path. So say
{chula}, [repeat], {nye par}, [repeat], {semay}, [repeat], {supa}, [repeat]. This is a
very specific and the wording is not easy. {Chu}, means, dharma. {nyepar}, in
this case {nyepar means, "to concentrate". {Nyepar semay}, means in this case to
hear, in this cae means to concentrate on the dharma. It's the patience which
concentrates on the Dharma, the patience which concentrates on the Dharma.
What does this mean? This is a kind of patience where, you believe in the
Dharma you have faith in the Dharma, you have devotion in the Dharma, you
have some kind of dharma drive. Some kind of a Dharma power, energy, and
you are going to focus it on Dharma, your studies, you're gonna, you don't care
what happens, you know you go on a retreat, the bugs come, the snakes come,
the sun comes out, you run out of water. This is all like last week right? [laughs]
And you say, "I don't care, I'm a yogi, you know, I'm gonna meditate, you know.
And you just get like that guy who is bleeding, you know, you say, you know,
two more snakes can come in the room, you know, I don't care. I'm gonna
meditate, you know. I don't car if there is a thousand flies on my face you know.
And you just get stronger, you know, you say, and this is some kind of
devotion, or love or belief for the dharma. Intense drive to do Dharma you
know, and it puts up with anything you don't care. You know, my husband
doesn't like that I go to class, I don't have time to do anything, the kids want
dinner, homework is due in two hours, you know, I don't care, I'm gonna do it
perfect, I'm gonna ace that quiz. It's having some kind of guts. It's having gut's
about your Dharma study. Okay, last one. Say {nupa}, [repeat], {chepa la},
[repeat], {ji}, [repeat], {mi nyampay}, [repeat], {supa} [repeat]. {Nupa}, [repeat],
{chepa la} [repeat], {ji} [repeat], {mi nyampay}, [repeat], {supa}, [repeat]. {Nupa}
here means, {nupa chepa la} means, when someone does something bad to you,
when someone hurts you. They talk bad about you, they start rumors about
you, they cheat you, they lie to you. {Gi mi nyampay}, means that I could care
less, you know, {ji mi nyampay} is very cool. {Ji minyampay} means, "I could, let
them do what they want, {Ji mi nyampay}, means, let them do what they want.
Let them think anything. N matter what someone does to hurt you, or to block
your happiness, your like cool, I'll just find a way to go around them. You know
and you don't worry about it, you don't get upset, You just assist the situation, if
you can do something about it you can do it. If you can't, you just go around.
And you just go around. And I could care less what they do. And that's {Ji mi
nyampay sopa}, and I'll spell this one for you, {chu la}, and again number two is
the one that puts up with anything for the Dharma, because of your drive. You
have this Dharma drive and you don't care what happens, you have faith in it, it
turns you on and you are going for it and you don't care what happens, okay,
you just go for it. And this first one, again , the first one was, okay, I'm having a
bad time, things are happening to me, let's see how I can turn it into something
positive, You know, it's great, I'm so lucky to have a bunch of lousy friends
because they test me, they make me strong, I learn, I learn patience, you know,
it's perfect. I have the perfect situation. You know, those other people living out
in the forest, nice clean air, no traffic, they have no opportunity for Dharma, I
have everything here. I have obnoxious people on the street, muggers,
dangerous, subway, pollution, traffic jams, lousy office to work in and this is
perfect, and you just get excited about using it, and sucking it, you know. And
it's like yeah, I can use this, yeah I can use this for my practice. This guy is great,
let me invite him out to dinner, you know, and you just turn the whole world
into a bunch of opportunities, you know, like that. Okay, we'll stop there, we
covered everything. Okay. [prayers: short mandala] [prayers: dedication]
970710-1
Geshe Michael Roach
Course XI: Guide to the Bodhisattvas Way of LIfe; Part Two