ACI 11 «Руководство к образу жизни бодхисаттвы, часть II», занятие 5

Class Five: Contemplations on the Perfection of Effort
July 24, 1997
transcribed by: Amber Moore

... not getting discouraged, that's the kind of effort we're on to tonight, okay, and
that was called, {giluk}, if you can remember. It's a kind of a rare word, and
{giluk}, me and kind of thinking to yourself that all this bodhisattva stuff sounds
very dificult and it just seems beyond me and you now, I don't think that i could
do it. I don't think that I'm the kind of person who could do all that stuff. "I don't
have the spiritual power that all those holy beings had in the past and I cdon't
think that I could ever do all those great deeds that They describe the other
people doing and so I, I think I'll just cruise for awhile." Okay and Master
Shantideva in the, in the verses that we're gonna read tonight, he gives you tips
about how to over come that problem. And I think the most important thing
we're gonna talk about tonight is called Buddha nature, and there are allot of, I
like to call them Dharma rumors about Buddha nature, like, "Every one has a
Buddha nature and you just have to uncover it." You know it's like, it's like
something hiding inside your intestines somewhere and if you could just
uncover it. "Everybody is a Buddha and you just don't know it and if you
uncovered it you would find a Buddha nature", and that's a Dharma rumor, it's
not correct. And we're gonna talk about the real Buddha nature and how that
Buddha nature helps you not to get discouraged in your practice, alright. But
we'll start with an idea that Master Shantideva talks about, of comparing the
bodhisattvas way of life to a king. Kings in ancient India were like presidents of
the United States and they had their armed forces. Like in the United States
Clinton has the navy, the army, the airforce and the marines. And these are the
four great armed forces in modern times. Back in India, five hundred BC. it was,
and we looked it up on the computer during lunch, me and Michael Scagnelli
right? And it was elephanteers, charioteers, what was the other one? Infantry
and calvary, horse riders, okay. These were the four great armed forces in the
old days. And Master Shantideva says, just like that, bodhisattvas, as they
prepare, you know as you start to get interested in living like a bodhisattva and
acting like a bodhisattva, you have to have four armies at your disposal and I'll
go through the four. Okay. And then after we cover that we'll go through
Buddha nature. we're gonna have a digression on Buddha nature, okay. So we'll
start at the top, say {giluk}, [repeat], {me}, [repeat]. {Giluk} means, that feeling of
being, what do you call it? Discouraged. Thinking, "I could never do it." Like low
Dharma self esteem. Like thinking, "No I could never act like those great people
acted in the past. You know, I could never do what they do, I could never do the
great deeds that bodhisattvas do. {Me}, means that you have to overcome that.
{Me} means, "not having that feeling". And approaching your Dharma practice
like that , the activities of a bodhisattva like that is what it is called, {goche
tsundru}, [repeat, {goche tsundru}, [repeat]. {Tsundru}, if it was in Mongolia or
Ladakh, what? {Tsungrus}, Okay, what does it mean, {tsungrus}? Effort, we're
on the effort chapter and that's the Tibetan for effort. {Gocha}, {gocha}, is a
beautiful word. {Gocha} is armor. Like what do you call it? Plate, mail? Chain
mail or armor plate. And {gocha} is very useful, it appears often in the
scriptures with the idea that if you have certain attitudes, if you have certain
ideas in your mind like compassion, then it protects you. It's as if you had on
some kind of spiritual armor or some psychic armor that other things can't
penetrate and it's very often for example if you're doing a long term retreat, that
you would put on {gocha}, and {gocha}, in that case is like compassion. And so
because n a long retreat you might get often special obstacles, very bad
obstacles, you, you put in your {gocha}, in the morning, which means that you
review your compassion and you think about compassion in the morning and
that's called {gocha}, and there are even in the higher teachings, in the secret
teachings, there are special practices for putting on {gocha}, {gocha}, presents the
good thought that you have in yourself from leaking out and it also prevents
outside influences like selfishness from coming from the outside, so that's the
concept of {gocha},        {Gocha } and {tsundru}, in this chapter of the [b:
Bodhisattvacharyavatara} means, not allowing yourself to get discouraged, now
its easy to say, and then we have to go over, how do you do it. Like if you've
been teaching the patience chapter from the [b: Bodhisattvacharyavatara] for a
couple of weeks, and you go to work for an hour and your boss screams at you
and you immediately lose your temper, that, that, could lead to {giluk}, you
could start saying, " You know I can't even put up with five minutes of my boss."
Here I am teaching it and giving people al these ideas from Master Shantideva
and then give me five minutes in the presence of you know, just a lousy boss,
you know. And you know like an hour later you feel like, {giluk}, like, "I'm not
making any progress", "I'm not capable of doing this". And we're gonna talk
about that, so you have to put on armor. And armor has that dual effect. It
prevents things from leaking out, whatever progress you've already made from
leaking out and it prevents obstacles from coming in. And the main {gocha},
throughout Buddhist scripture is to have compassion for other people, okay.
Say, {jorway}, [repeat], {tsundru}, [repeat].        {Jorway}, [repeat], {tsundru},
[repeat]. {Jorwa}, has allot of meanings in Tibetan, in Sanskrit the root is like
{yoga}, {yog}, {yug}. "To joint things together" The word {yog} comes from
{yoke}, like when you yoke two cows together or something like that on an
ancient Indian cart or something. {Jartsi}, another spelling means glue, Elmers
glue in Tibetan. So {jar} has all these meanings of gluing something or attaching
something or applying something. Like {Nelnjor}, the Tibetan word for "yogi"
has that in it. It sometimes means to be engaged in something or to be working
hard at something. So this kind of effort, I like to call "engaged effort", okay.
You know I have another translation, because there's another one where
engaged... we'll call it working effort, alright. {Jorwa }, in this meaning, also
when you divide in Tibetan between theory and practice, sometimes the practice
is called {jorwa}, so we'll call it "working effort", alright? And we'll save engaged
for another one. So working means, this is when you hear the word effort in
English, what came into your mind before you heard the definition of effort,
What' the definition of effort?

student: [unclear]

Yeah, {sung kang gela trowa o}, very famous. {Sung kang..}, say {sung kang},
[repeat], {gela}, [repeat], {trowa o}, [repeat]. {Sung kang}, [repeat], {gela},
[repeat], {trowa o}, [repeat]. In Buddhism, the word, effort, as a perfection of the
Bodhisattva, means just, "to have a good time doing good things". You enjoy
doing good things, you have a good time doing good things, when it comes time
to meditate, or it comes tome to do something for someone else, or it comes
time to do a retreat, or it comes time to memorize your Tibetan, you just enjoy
it, you just have a good time a tit. And that's the real meaning of the perfection
of effort. This {jorway tsundru}, is more what you thought of in your mind
when you thought of effort at first, which means, working hard. Okay, at what?
At the two collections. Okay, we spoke about the two collections the last class.
The fist three collections relate to the collecting enough good karma that you
create what? A Buddha's body, okay and then the last two perfection, mediation
and wisdom, relate to collecting enough good karma to have a Buddha's mind,
and then effort sits in the middle at number four and it applies to both. So the
second kind of effort is to work hard at, at collecting those two collections, So
that's really the kind of effort that you think of when you say effort. Like
working hard at being a bodhisattva. Working hard at that six perfections is
called {jorway tsundru} , it's armed force number two. He says that bodhisattvas
have to get all the four armed forces together. Say, {hlur}, [repeat], {langwa},
[repeat], {hlur langwa}, [repeat]. Okay, {hlur langwa}, generally means, it's and
unusually word and it means to jump into something like it's a word for putting
something into practice, like jumping right into an activity, like throwing
yourself into something is what {hlur langwa} means, in this context in the [b:
bodhisattvacharyavatara], it has a very specific meaning.             Whereas effort
number two is getting interested in the six perfections and actually working hard
at them. {{Hlur langwa}, means what was your mental state as you do them,
you know, what is you... there's this thing you know, "be here now", and you
know it's like that. You know, how much are you present and how much are
you aware as you are undertaking the perfection of patience fore example. Like
I had, had {jorway tsundru}, but I didn't have {hlur langwa} when my boss came
in and screamed at me, which is why I went to work. You know, I, I was aware
that I was trying to practice the perfections, I had my mind on practicing them
and I was trying to practice then but I lost may {hlur langwa}. {Hlur langwa}, has
two parts; say {trenba}, [repeat], {sheshin}, [repeat]. {Trenba}, [repeat], {sheshin},
[repeat]. Those of you who studied the course on meditation, who took the
whole course on meditation, {trenba}, and {sheshin}, are very important.
{Trenba} is like the ability to be present at any given moment, it's like
remembering, or recollecting, it's called recollection. Recollecting who you are,
who are you? "I'm a prospective bodhisattva, I'm an attempted bodhisattva."
You know, what are you trying to do? I'm trying to practice the six perfections.
Where? In my office. When? When my boss comes in and screams at me. And
that's like {drenpa}, drenpa}, is like all the time thinking, that's my career, that's
what I'm here for. You know they're giving me money to do this, but the real
reason why I'm here is to perfect the perfections, you know, I need other people
like my sweet boss, to bring out, to test me, you know, I need to be in contact
with these people and that's why I go to work, you know, and so I have to be
there and I need them. And remember that thing about... what's it called? It was
a strategic... what do they call that, there's a word in business, anyway.
Remember that thing where you're supposed to go to your enemy and say,
strategic alliance, and say, "look, you be the person to be patient about and I'll be
the one practicing patience, and you try to get me irritated, okay?." And you
propose a strategic alliance with your enemy, you know, with someone that you
don't like and you go to them and say, "Let's make a deal, okay, we'll make this
merger. My company is into mergers nowadays, We'll make a strategic alliance,
you know, you provide the irritation and I'll provide the patience. And together
we'll get to Buddha hood, you know, and from the very first moment, I agree
that fifty percent of the credit should be given to you because you're making me
patient, you're allowing me to be patient. So patience means that in the presence
of these people, as you walk into your office and as you open the door and
suddenly there's twenty people there, you're thinking, {drenpa, drenpa, drenpa,
drenpa}, you know, I am practicing patience, I am practicing patience, I am
practicing patience, that's why I am here. There's a very famous story in Tibet of
a guy that was meditating on the side of the road and somebody else was
walking down the side of the road and they saw this guy in deep meditation ad
they went up to him and they tapped him on the shoulder and they said, "what
are you doing?" And he says, "I'm meditating." You know, and he says, "What
are you meditating about and he says, "Sopa gom". {Sopa gom}, means, "I'm
meditating on patience." You know and so the guy says, "{Kyakpa so}". Which is
a bad word okay, {kyakpa so} means, excuse me, okay, it means, "eat shit", you
know, {laughs]. And so the guy jumps up and he goes, "You eat shit!", you know
and then he says, [laughs].        And then he says, "Oh, practicing patience,
right?" [laughter] It's a very famous Tibetan joke about the perfection of
patience. {Trenba}, mean, that guy didn't have {trenba}, {trenba}, means you
have to recollect what you are doing, you have to keep in mind what you are
doing, alright. Your main reason to be at work, your main reason to be around
other people is so that you can practice. And but you have to keep your
recollection of who you are and what you are doing. What is {sheshin}? How
does it differ from {drenba}? {Sheshin} is called "awareness". And {sheshin},
rings the bell when you start to lose it, okay. That's the function of {sheshin}.
{Sheshin}, is like in Tibetan they call it {sopa}, {sopa} means like a watchman or
like a front, what do you call it? Someone who stays on the very, very front
lines and watches the enemy movements is like the , is like what?

student: The sentry.

Yeah, is like the sentry, he's like the alarm ringer. He's, he's not supposed to
fight, he's just supposed to set the bell off, you know. So {sheshin} should be,
these two have to be in your mind simultaneously. {Sheshin} has to be in the
back of your mind. {Drenpa} is supposed to be remembering who you are and
why you're there at work. And then {sheshin}, is like ringing the bell if you start
to lose it. And it says, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you said you were gonna be
practicing patience and here you are getting mad at your boss. Do you, do you
know what you are doing at this moment and sheshin goes off. And you have
to develop these things, {sheshin}, and {drenpa} are two mental functions that
with practice you can reach a very high level. And in a high Bodhisattvas, they
are reacting within milliseconds. You know, as the anger, even as the anger
starts to rise then {sheshin} is ringing the alarm, and {drenpa} is bringing you
back to where you were. And that's the function of those two states of mind. It's
like the third armed force, I guess it's like the marines or something or shock
troops, or whatever you call it. What do you call it? SWAT team or something,
they've got to move in first and they have to be ready to do their thing on a
moments notice, what do the call that? There's a special group that goes in first,
Like within twenty minutes they can be in the air and fighting, you know. And
that's {sheshin }, and {drenpa}, that's {hlur lang}. {Hlur lang}, means to throw
yourself into it. But that's the real meaning of number three. Say, {daknyi},
[repeat], {wangja}, [repeat], [daknyi}, [repeat], {wangja}, [repeat]. Okay, Notice
the {ba} changes to {wa} after {da}, pronunciation wise. {Dak nyi}, means, "me",
myself. We had another "dak" before this, what was it? {Dak sherigyi kyi
kyebu}, he was {tsowo}'s brother and they lived in the realm of non existence.
{Dak}, yeah, like, "self existent being", who created the world and had time to
create himself before that and stuff like that. And who knows all things, but
who's mind never changes, even as he knows different things, okay. {Dak nyi
wangja}, {Daknyi} means, in this case, {Daknyi} means "this self", "yourself",
"myself". {Wang ja} mean, is short for {wang tu jawa}, it's a difficult word, I had a
good translation, what was that, self command, command of yourself, and I'll
explain it, okay, "command of yourself". Say {ley su},[repeat], {rungwa}, [repeat].
{Ley su}, {rungwa}. {Ley}, in this case means "work". It's also the Tibetan word
for karma and still in Hindi or Gujarati, they say,"{kamkaro}, you know, what
are you up to, what are you doing? Okay, {ley su runwa}, means, "fit for work".
"Fit for work", able to do work, ready to do work, and this refers to a special
condition of body and mind, okay where for example, for the body, if you
practice meditation enough, and long enough, you can make your body sit still
for two three four hours, that's called {ley su rungwa}. It means you're fit to do
the action of meditation and it means that you have self command over your
body, your body doesn't push you around, you, you tell your body what to do,
it's really telling your body what to do. Anf your body has to obey, and ..
because {ley su rungwa} comes from practice. Constant practice, but there
comes a point where you can sit down on your meditation pillow and you tell
your body, okay, you're gonna sit there still, you're not gonna blink and eye for
the next hour or two hours. It's called, {ley su rungwa}, of body. So it means
where you have command over your body, you control your body, you tell
your body, "We're gonna sit still for the nest two hours, and I don't want to see
you move, okay?" And when you get to that point it's called, {ley su rungwa}.
That's half of number four. The mental half, {ley su rungwa}, means, you tell
your mind, "And you're not gonna think about your boss for the whole hour
that we sit here" You know, "you're not gonna go to work once. You know,
you're gonna concentrate on, on what we're meditating on." "We're meditating
abut such and such a thing, my breath, right now, okay and you're not gonna
think about our, your boss. " Okay, and, and that's where you have self
command over your mind. That's called mental {ley su rungwa}, and you can tell
your mind, "I'm, I'm going to be in meditation for the next hour, you are not
going to think about another thing and then you have a lot of control over your
mind and that takes a lot of practice. {Ley su rungwa} takes practice. In the
secret teachings, { Ley su rungwa} refers to a special kind of retreat, is called a
{leyrung}, is where that word comes from. So that's {ley su rungwa}. That's the
forth armed force of a bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas have to have all four armies to
work with. What to fight? To fight who? The mental afflictions mainly. To fight
themselves really, [laughs]. Alright. So {ley su rungwa] takes practice mostly
just takes practice and you can get there and you reach that point before you can
see emptiness directly you have to reach this point, where you have {ley su
rungwa}. And I'll read you the root text and I'll just translate it on the fly okay?
{Gilug mey dang phuntsok dang hlu lar daknyi wang ja jang, dak dang shendun
nyampa dang, dak dang shendu jewar gym}. {Giluk me dang puntsok dang}
means use the first two powers, okay, which we already had, the first two
armed forces. {Hlur lang dang daknyi wangja dand}, use the second two
powers, { dak dang shen du nyampa dang}, in order to reach a point where you
can treat other people as you treat yourself. Where you can actually treat them
as, equally to yourself. Where your concern about them equals your concern
about yourself, {dak dang shen du jewar gyi}, and where you are actually able to
put others interests before your own, where you exchange your self interest
with other interest, where you can actually turn the tables, and what they want
becomes more important than what you want, and you are actually able to turn
those two tables around. Is Master Shantideva gonna talk about that? Yes. In
this chapter? No. It comes later. Very interestingly, it comes on the chapter in
meditation. Okay, why does he devote most of the chapter on meditation? To
the art of reversing your own interest in other people's interest is something
we'll get to in this course, but frankly, interestingly, he doesn't mention anything
specific about general meditation techniques in the chapter on meditation. It's
mostly devoted to these two subjects; How do you learn to think of others as
much as you think of yourself? How do you learn to put others interest above
your own interest? And what's that got to do with meditation? But we'll do that
later. And when he, when Gyaltsab Je gets to this verse he says, "We'll get to
that later." And I'm saying the same thing. Okay, next verse. I just love this
verse. We had to memorize it a long time ago and I'll read it to you. {Dakki
jangchub kala she, giluk pani micha te, ditar deshin shekpa nyi, denpa sumpa
den di sung, trangbu sharam bhung wa dang, deshin simpur kangyur pa, te
kyang sumbey top khyen na, jangchub top ka lamme top, dakta rik kyi mir kye
la, pen dang nubey ngo she pey, jangchup chupa ma tang na, dak kyi jangchub
jyi mi top}. {Dakki jangchub kala she}, how could anybody like me ever reach
Buddhahood? {Giluk pani mecha te}, Master Shantideva says, "Don't think like
that." Don't have {giluk} like that, don't be discouraged like that. don't ever
allow yourself that kind of thought. {Ditar deshin shepa nyi}, " the Buddha's,
those who have gone to thus, or something like that. Tatagatas. {Denpa sumpa
den di sung}, they cannot lie and so they spoke the following truth, okay. Now
he's gonna quote a sutra called {laksang shipay do}. {Laksang}, is the name of a
person and often times the lectures of the Buddha were named after the person
who asked the first question, you know, somebody will some up and start the
whole exchange by asking a question. Often times they're a tantric deity, often
times they are puppets under the mental control of the Buddha. Okay, as in the
Heart Sutra okay. But this , in Sanskrit, just if you want to know, is {Subahu},
and so it's the Sutra requested by the person named Subahu, {kyi shupa} means,
"requested by" and {do} means, "sutra",oaky? And so the lines that Master
Shantideva is about to say, and I'll translate them to you, they're not, what he
want's to say is that, I'm not making this up, this is from the Buddha", okay and I
like it. {Drengbu sharam buam dang}. {Drengbu} means "flies", {sharam},
means, "gnats", flies and gnats, okay. {Bhung wa}, means, {bees}. {Deshin
simpur kangyur pa}, {simpur} means, "worms", okay. {De kyang tsunpay top
kye na}, "if they put forward the thing called effort, even they, {Jangchup top ka
lamme top}, "they can achieve Buddhahood which is so difficult to achieve,".
Okay, so he's claiming that bugs and worms can achieve Buddhahood of they
try, and he's quoting the Buddha to prove it. So he says, what are you, here are
you... {Dakta rikkyi mirkye na},
"Here you are, you've been born as a human being, so what are you doing
getting discouraged? It's not right. If flies fleas, gnats, bugs, worm, roaches can
get enlightened if they put forth a little bit of effort, then who are you to get
discouraged, you know you're human uman, you can hear you can feel, you can
read things, you can go to Dharma class, you shouldn't get discouraged, you're
much better off then them and the Buddha, {denpa sumpay den day sung}, "
who cannot lie", cannot tell a lie. Like one of the things about a Buddha is that
they cannot tell a lie. If they wanted to tell a lie they could not tell a lie. And
because they said that, you have to believe it. {Pen dang nubey noche ney}, "A
human being can distinguish right from wrong", unlike a bug. So you got a
much better chance than them and the Buddha said, "They have a good chance".
He said they can definitely can achieve it. {Jangchub chupa matang na}, " if I
don't give up acting like a Bodhisattvas," {dakyi jangchub kyi mitop}, "how on
earth could I fail to reach enlightenment?". So he says, "Don't get discouraged."
To really appreciate this verse I think you really have to go into the idea of
Buddha nature and I think that's why I want to throw it in here. This is a subject
in the perfection of wisdom. It's a very, very sweet subject. It comes from the
first chapter of Maitreyas [b: Abbhisamayalankara]. We spend twelve years on
that book in the monastery and it's a great subject, it's a really beautiful subject.
But it's what is Buddha nature? Okay , so I'm gonna go on a little digression to
the Prajnya Paramita literature and talk abut Buddha Nature. You hear people,
I've heard very responsible people say, Buddha nature means, "There's this
shining crystal thing inside of you, there's this thing inside of you already and the
only reason you can't be a Buddha is that you didn't uncover this Buddha yet."
And it sounds kind of sexy, you know, it sounds nice, it would be nice if that
were the case, you know, otherwise it takes millions and millions of years to
become a Buddha, but according to that theory, you could just kind of take a
good bath or something, you know and reveal this Buddha who is sitting there
inside you know and it sounds like that. And it's not the, it's not what Buddha
nature means and I think it's cool and it proves the truth of what those who
cannot lie have said about becoming a Buddha, that you should no be
discouraged. And by the time I finish this little digression on Buddha nature,
every time you feel discouraged, you can think about your Buddha nature, you
can think about what your Buddha nature really is, which is actually more
exciting and more believable then that little guy sitting inside of you. You really
do have a Buddha nature and the existence of that Buddha nature makes it
absolutely indubitable, indubitable, it's for sure, guaranteed that you will become
a Buddha, you do have a Buddha nature and I can demonstrate it to you tonight.
Then whenever you get depressed about your Dharma practice and you think,
I'm too stupid to learn all this stuff, or I can't even sit for ten minutes after
twenty years of trying. Or you get discouraged, "I get angry ", or "I get desire
right away when the object comes to me", "I don't seem to be making any
progress", you can think about your Buddha nature. And I can prove that you
have a Buddha nature tonight and then you can pull out your Buddha nature and
say, "Well, maybe things aren't so bad, I do have a Buddha nature, and that
proves that I have a guaranteed Buddha hood. There's a part about you, there's
something about you that guarantees that you must become enlightened. So
that's kind of nice and when you are felling down, Dharma down, you can pull it
out and you can look at it, okay? Say, {Sangye}, [repeat], {kyi}, [repeat], {rik},
[repeat]. In Sanskrit it's commonly called {sugatagarba}. {Sangye} means
Buddhahood, total enlightenment. When I say {Sangye} or Buddha I want you
to stop thinking about some guy sitting under a tree in the Little Buddha Movie,
you know. Stop, don't think like that you know, don't think like that. I mean,
when I say Buddha, you should think of two things, one is a mind that can see all
things in the universe at once. I mean that's to me, the exciting part, and is filled
with infinite love, infinite compassion, so think of a mind like that. You know,
could your mind become like that? Could your mind in it's current condition,
such as it is, [laughs], could it actually become omniscient, know all things in the
universe at once and then have this infinite compassion for all those things. You
know, total, pure love, filled with pure love and then physically able to appear in
whatever form is helpful to someone. forget this guy sitting under a tree, forget
this guy with a big bump on his head. It's not very interesting for me,
personally. But the idea that your mind could evolve into an all knowing thing
and an all loving thing and then simultaneously, you can emanate as whatever
people want. And it could be, you know a sponsor for some Dharma activity, it
could be the Dalai Lama, it could be your own Lama, it could be one of your
Dharma friends who helps you, supports you, it could be your dog that gives
you companionship, the scriptures even say that it could be an inanimate object
like a bridge. It could be the sound of the waves at the ocean side that comfort
you when you're feeling depressed. It could be the sound of the wind going
through the trees and then you get inspired to think of some Dharma thing.
And all of these are very common ways that a Buddha could emanate his or her
body. And when you think of Buddha, when you hear Buddha, think about
being able to do that spontaneously, they don't have any premeditation, that
called, what's it called? Like {ten gye} it's just totally spontaneous, they don't
have the capacity of premeditation, a Buddha does not think, I have to get down
to the planet earth and pretend to be the Atlantic ocean, so that Michael Roach
can be inspired by the sound of the waves, you know, it just comes
automatically, they just appear. And that's the quality of a Buddha, okay.
{Sangye kyi rig}, {rig}, means seed in this meaning, or the nature. {Rig},
normally means "family" or type, {garba} but in this case, it means seed or
Buddha seed, and that's what you call Buddha nature, okay, that's, that's Buddha
nature. That's the word that they translate as Buddha nature, okay you do have
something inside of you, which is {Sangye kyi rig}. What's the definition of
Buddha nature as it appears on your homework? Okay [laughs}, and somebody
should translate this, this is one of your projects, you know, one of the
translators here, maybe Andy, he wants to do something like this right? But his
whole section on what Buddha nature really is, which is pretty rare to find, it's
hard to find a little, bit, a clear presentation, it would be really nice. It's about ten
pages twenty pages or something, maybe a little longer. {Sangye su gyurung}.
{Sangye}, [repeat], {su}, [repeat], {gyurung}, [repeat]. Definition of Buddha
nature. The classical, scriptural definition of Buddha Nature. {Sangye}, means
what? That omniscient mind connected to that incredible body, alright? {Su},
means "into". {Su} means, "into". {Gyurung}, means, "anything that could turn",
into a Buddha. ""Anything which could turn into a Buddha", is the definition of
Buddha nature. Now how many things are there around this room that are
{sangye su gyurung}, how may things in this room could turn into a Buddha?
But I'm talking about things which are not Buddhas now which could turn into a
Buddha. Like a certain number of people in this room and I don't know how
many could be Buddhas already, very likely, that there's a certain number in this
room. I'm not talking about them, they already became Buddha's, they're not
{gyurung}, they're {kirtsar}, which means, they already became, but {gyurung} if
certain things happened, this object could turn into a Buddha. Like is the chair
{sangye su gyurung}. Is this machine {sangye su gyurung}? We have to find
how many things in this room are {sangye su gyurung}, okay, those are Buddha
natures. And the most important one, there's three classical Buddha natures, the
third one is rather obscure so I'm not going to go into it. So I'm going to talk
about the two main ones, these are the two main Buddha natures, okay. Say,
{rangshin}, [repeat], {nehrig}, [repeat]. {Rangshin}, [repeat], {nehrig}, [repeat].
When you're debating it's like, {rangshin nehrig}, [clap]. Say {Rangshin nehrig},
[repeat], {rangshin nehrig}, [repeat]. Okay, this is to me, the most important
one, this is the ultimate one, this is the really important one. {Rangshin, here
means, "innate". "inborn", a part of you already. This is probably the one that
they were talking about before the Dharma rumor started, okay. {Rangshin},
means "exists in you by nature", {rangshin ne}, means, "it exists in you by
nature", it's innate, it's part of you already. {Rik}, means "garba", the Buddha
nature. It's the Buddha nature that's in you already, okay, it's the Buddha nature
that is already in you or inborn, or innate within you, okay. As soon as you exist
as a person, or a bug, or an amoebae, or anything with a mind, anything which
is sentient, you already have {rangshin nehrig}. And that's probably, I guess the
one where the Dharma rumor started, okay, but it's not exactly what you would
guess. And I'm going to give the classical, {tsenshi}, {tsenshi}, means, {locus
clasicus}, you know, what's the ultimate example of {
rangshin nehrig}, you know what is the best example that you could ever give in
the universe for {rangshin nerig}, and I like it I think it's really cool. So this is the
ultimate example, this is so important, I'll start a new... . Say, {kyi gan}, [repeat],
{gyawoy}, [repeat], {gyukyi}, [repeat], {sems}, [repeat], {dentong}, [repeat]. The
ultimate example for the innate Buddha nature, okay. {Kyi}, means "dog". Okay,
{kyi} means "dog", okay, D, O, G, dog, okay? {Kyi gan}, means an "old dog", a
mutt, alright, {kyi gan}. {Gyawoy}, means, it Tibetan it means a beard, but this
means like "an old scroungy mutt". {Kyi gan gyowa} in Buddhist philosophy is a
very common example, when you want to shock somebody. You say {kyi gan
gyowa}. Very common is philosophy, very common is the debate ground
because we like that kind of stuff. {Kyi gan gyowa}, {gyu}, means, "mental
continuum". The stream of their mind over their lifetime, {kyi gan gyowa} their
persona, okay, their being in their being. What? {Gyi kyi sem}, {sem} means
what? "Mind", okay, the mind in their being, meaning their mind, okay? The
mind of an old scroungy mutt, okay, the mind of an old scroungy mutt. {Den
tong}, {den} means, "true existence", which means self existence. And tong pa
means what? {Shunya}? Okay, the "emptiness". So to translate that whole
phrase; "The emptiness, or the lack of self existence of the mind which exists in
the person, or in the being of an old scroungy mutt. To put it simply, the
emptiness of an old scroungy mutts mind. Is, is, the {tsenshi}, in scripture for the
innate Buddha nature, the Buddha nature. Now what's that mean? And what's
that got to do with us? It means, even an old scroungy mutt has Buddhanature.
What does that do for then and what does that mean? And, and I'm gonna go
into this a bit. I'm gonna go into a bit of detail. And you will within five minutes,
understand what the real Buddha nature is of an old mutt. An we assume that if
an old mutt can have one, we can have one, right? And bugs and worms. And
then we're gonna prove master Shantidevas statement and the Buddhas
statement. And it's very important, and it's very important. What stops you
right now, from seeing your body as like an Angel's body, you know, right now,
if you are like me and I don't know, I don't know who you are, I know who I
am, and I'm not an Angel, okay. [laughter] But what stops me from seeing my
body as a being of light, right now. You know, why do I have a body of flesh
and bone and blood and cancer cells cooking up in there excetera, you know?
Why, why am I forced to see my arm as freckles and hair and you know
dandruff and you know moles, and blood veins and to know, wrinkled hand,
and to know it will die, you know. Why am I forced to see that? Why am I
seeing that instead of a Buddhas body, you know like pure light and shining
beautiful perfect light, with no bones or blood or guts or anything, just pure, a
pure body of light. What, what's stopping me from that? And to understand
that, you have to understand that this arm is not "self existent". What does self
existent mean? "Self existent" in this case would mean that this arm exists out
there away from me, you know, away from my mind. You know, if I didn't
think of it, that and would still be there the way it looks. And the way that his
arm looks does not depend on my mind, okay. The way that this mind works
does not depend on the way that I think of it. Or how I perceive it. That's a "self
existent" arm and that doesn't exist and it never did exist and it never will exist,
okay. What does a "self existent" arm look like? If you were in central park it
was a self existent dollar right? It, it exists out there, independent of how I think
of it. No matter what kind of mood I was in that arm would always look the
same. But if you think about it, there's no arm there. If you think carefully
about it, all I really see with my eyes is some flesh color and some black color
where the hairs are, some cylinder shape and some curly shapes. So really, and
you can believe it and it's logical, all that the eye can detect, I've got this bump
here, is some cylinder shape and certain colors, but the eye cannot see an arm,
okay, the eye can detect colors and the eye can detect shapes, but it cannot
decide that this is an arm, that's something that the mind must be doing. Okay, I
mean the eye is just recording color and shapes, it doesn't make decisions about
what this object is. The mind has to do that. It's that's the minds job. The eye is
just sending some information to the mind. "I see some flesh colored cylinder
with a bunch of curly black things and these red things over there, these little red
circles and these lines across the back of the flat flesh colored thing. And that's all
it can say to the mind and then the mind takes over, and the mind starts to
organize that stuff and say, this is an arm, you know. And so it happens so fast,
and so naturally and so smoothly, that you think your eye is seeing an arm. If
you think about it your eye cannot see an arm, you eye does not have a mind.
Your eye is recording color and shapes. It's sending information to the brain to
the mind and your mind is interpreting it and saying, "Okay, based on the data
you've given me, this must be an arm, I decide it's an arm." And really, this is the
trick, when you look at your arm you are really looking at a mental picture that
you have made. Because there is no arm out there, there's just colors and
shapes. There's just the orangish colors and the cylindrical shapes. And so if
you're seeing an arm it must be a mind organizing that data into a thing called
arm, arm, a thing called arm. The next question is, is that self existent? Could
the mind have made a different conclusion? Could the mind have see something
else? Could the mind have organized it in a different way? Of course, okay. If I
took an animal birth, If I took a, real roaches birth then, then my mind literally
would organize the same data into a, the, the leg of a roach. I would be looking
down at the leg of a roach. That's what an animal rebirth is. It's not moving to a
different location. It's not moving to a different birth. It's a mental shift. It's just
a shift in how the mind organizes the same colors and shapes, it's very
interesting, it's really interesting. It doesn't take more then a shift in the mind to
go to an animal realm, that's scary and that's possible. And that's plausible, that
the mind could shift in a way that suddenly, these colors and shapes are being
organized into a bugs arm, an insects leg. And, and I truly see it that way and I
believe it to be that way, ant that's what it is to take an animal rebirth. You don't
go somewhere, it's just s shift of your mind. It's a shift in the way that your mind
organizes data. You can call it a rebirth if you want but that's not what it is. It's a
shift in the way that the mind is organizing the same colors and shapes. That
gets scary because that sounds possible that your mind could do that. How long
would it take? Sixty-five mental operations per finger snap. It could take place
in any one of sixty five milliseconds. Every second that passes on the clock, your
mind could have shifted. There were sixty-five opportunities for your mind to
say, "dead, reborn.". To see the arm as dead and then to see the arm as
something else. Then thetas called dying and taking a rebirth, okay. But it's not
that, it's a shift in your perceptions, okay. Next question that comes up is
peoples mind is that, if that shift, if that's all that I'm doing, if my life consists of
my mind organizing certain colors and shapes into certain mental images and
me mistaking these mental images for objects that exist in the world, then could I
voluntarily and purposely and willingly decide to have rather better mental
images than I'm having now. Like could I remove this mole here, by not
wishing to see it.       Like could I decide that since it's all my own minds
organization of data, I will chose to organize it differently, and could I remove
that mole just by deciding it. The answer is no, try it. By the way this is what you
try all the time at work when you try to get out of some situation that you don't
like, you are doing it on a grander scale. You know, you are trying to decide
that this thing should change and it doesn't change because you decide that it
should chance, because you decide that it should happen. Okay, what makes
things change, really? It's karma. Is it like some cosmic energy? No. It's mental
impressions, it's mental impressions that are created by the moral content of
what you do. If you serve others, these impressions are very sweet and
powerful, if you hurt others these impressions are very ugly and dangerous. So
if you , if I wanted this arm to change into a body of light, I would have to first, I
would have to step back a few years, or days and months and put in some sweet
impressions in my mind. And they take time to grow, they take time to flourish
and then they take over. And then whether you want to or not, you will be
forced to see that arm as a deities arm, as an angels arm. And that 's how you
get to Heaven, It's very interesting, you really can do it. What I'm saying is that
the potential is ther
e because of the real nature of things. You know, because my arm is empty of
any way of existing on it's own, independent of my mind, or to put the other
way, because how my arm looks, depends on how my mind organizes it under
the influence of my past goodness or badness, okay, because of that fact, I can
become a Buddha, because of that fact. That makes it cool. Because of that fact,
one day, if I do the right things, if I help people, if I'm compassionate to other
people, I will actually be forced to see this arm as an Angel's arm as a Deity's
arm. And when I look down, you know, the rest will be that way too. The fact
that my arm is empty of being an arm from it's side and the fact that it's coming
from me makes it possible for me to become a Buddha, and that's Buddha nature
and that's cool and everybody has that. So don't be discouraged, you know,
that's Master Shantideva saying, "you have that nature". You now, that's the
ultimate reality of your body and your mind, is to be very fluid and plastic, it
depend on your perceptions. That, the emptiness of you is your Buddha nature.
So {rangshin nerig}, is the emptiness of an old dogs mind, okay? It's the fact that
the mind could be seeing anything, depending on the moral content of your
past, you know, have you been good to other people? Then despite yourself,
you'll be forced to see these, these things as an Angel and that's how you get to
Heaven and that's how you reach a Buddha Paradise, if you want to call it that.
Doesn't matter really, what you call it, but you will be forced to go there, and it
will be a shift in your mind. Because your mind is empty, you have a Buddha
nature. That, that is the potential for you to become a Buddha, your mind and
your body will and can and must become a Buddha, because it's empty, because
it doesn't have any nature of it's own and it wasn't a freckly wrinkly hairy thing
from it's side, it's coming from my side. So the emptiness of my arm, physically,
is my Buddha nature. And that's cool and that's logical and you can think about
it. Master Shantideva is saying, "Train yourself in what Buddha nature is and
every time you think, "Oh gee, I couldn't do it, I could never do it, I could never
couldn't do all those things that those great bodhisattvas do. Just focus on your
Buddha nature, you have it and so do flies, gnats, bees and worms, to quote that
Sutra. And you have it. And just take comfort.....

[cut] ... of that Sutra, okay, and you have it and just take comfort in it and take
refuge in it. There's two kinds of refuge by the way, one is where you take
refuge, refuge is what makes a Buddhist, right? It's what makes you a Buddhist.
There's what's called causal refuge and result refuge. One is taking refuge going
for protection in all the Buddhas who already exist, but the other one is very
interesting, it's taking refuge in you as a future Buddha, you know you can take
refuge in your own future Buddhahood, and if you understand Buddhanature
then it becomes plausible, I don't think you have to buy it one hundred percent,
But I'll give you the logical progression, this is very much what we do in the
debate ground in the monastery and you stop me if I say anything wrong. And
then if nobody stops me you have to buy the conclusion. You have to buy the
conclusion, okay? Can the eye, the eyeball, see an arm?

student: No.

No, it can only detect colors and shapes. So what must be creating the
"armness"? My mind, my mind is organizing those data into a thing called "arm".
Quiet. Okay, [laughs], okay, sorry, you're such a philosopher. [laughter] What?

student: [unclear]

Very, very profound question, he said, "Where does the data itself come from?"
And I'll answer it very briefly and then we gotta prove the rest, okay. When you
shift your level, this is Michael Scagnielli's favorite question, okay. When you
shift your level of focus and you stop focusing on "Where did the arm come
from?", and now you're focusing on "Where did the colors and shapes comes
from?", that organization, of the thing into a patch of color is based on perceiving
the left side of the color and the right side of the color and organizing that into a
patch of color. And the mind is doing that, because the eye cannot see a "patch
of color", if you think about it. The mind can either see the left side of the color
or the right side of the color, And I mean, be the time your mind has gone to the
right side you've lost the left side and by the time you're mind has mind has
gone to the left side, you're mind has lost the right side. You cannot be seeing a
patch of color, it's impossible, again, your mind synthesizing. And you can go
infinitely down, and that's one of the ways to establish emptiness, okay?
Anyway, So I'm, looking at the are, it's a mental thing. Is it a matter of choice?
You know, could I have organized it differently, by choice? By will? You know,
can you sit in the dentists chair and decide to organize the pain differently? Try
it, you know I always say, find me this Buddhist, know and I'll put him out infant
of one of those crazy Pakistani taxi drivers, you know, and break his legs and his
arms and come back to report to me if you could organize the pain differently
by will power. And it's not true, you cannot, you cannot. It's not by will power,
something else is driving it, okay. Something is forcing your mind to organize
the arm in a certain way. Okay, and it doesn't have to be that way because your
arm can change, when you move your arm it's changing, something's changing,
the arm's not changing, the perception is changing. What drives the changing
perception? You past deed. That's the theory, okay? That's the proof of your
Buddha nature and you have to think about it. If that's true, if what I said was
true and there are no major objections, I mean, your mind might slow down or
say, I'm a little tired tonight, could you slow that down or something but, in
theory, at least, nothing I said was very objectionable and, and in fact it proves
your Buddha nature. The capacity or the potential for Enlightenment exists in
each persons mind. It is the emptiness of your mind. And interestingly,
{rangshin nerig}, which is only one of the two kinds of Buddha nature, it does
not change, you take that all the way to Buddhahood, in fact it's the only part of
you that remains exactly the same when you become a Buddha. The emptiness
of Brookes mind at this moment is exactly the same content as the emptiness of
Brooke the Buddhas mind, later. It doesn't change and that's why it's called,
innate, inborn, unchanging, natural Buddha nature. It's the one Buddha nature,
it's the one thing about you, and it's the only thing about you that will still be the
same when you become a Buddha. Okay, it's the fact that your mind could've
been anything, really, depending on your perceptions and that's the emptiness of
our mind. And that's why an old mutt can become a Buddha, and so can you.
Because his mind is empty, his mind is emptiness, oh boy. We'll take a few short
questions and then I wanna have break, okay. Make sure it's relevant and make
sure it's clear. You know, she said, "I can see why flesh colour, cylindar might
change to something else, similar, but how does flesh color change to black
color? And how does nice cylindrical change to bony, but more bony roaches
arm?" The sense of itself changes. You stop seeing the left side as flesh color,
you stop seeing the right side as flesh color. You go down one more level, I
admit that you have to shift levels to catch that. Yeah, okay, make sure it's clear
and loud. Bodhichitta is defined as {Sembkye pani shendun chir yang dak
dzogpay jangchub de}, okay, Maitreya said. bodhichitta is the desire to become
enlightened so you can help other people, this is a totally different thing. Okay,
this is Buddha nature.        Unfortunately, this is translated as Buddha mind
sometimes, and it sounds like Buddha mind, bodhichitta. But really, mind in this
case means a desire and bodhi, the bodhi in bodhichitta means, "your own future
Buddhahood", and chitta in this case means the desire to reach that Buddhahood
to help other people. So people were translating it as Bodhimind and it's a little
dangerous. {Sembkye pani shendun chir yangdak dzogpay jangchub de}. The
definition of bodhichitta is the desire to reach enlightenment so that you can be
of service to all sentient beings.          And that's, "desire" is "{chitta}" and
"enlightenment" is "{bodhi}". And that Maitreya said, [claps]. Okay, [laughter].

student: [unclear]

Yeah, he said, "Does the emptiness of your mind depend on somebody else's
perception? No. No. Is existence, in Buddhism, the proof for a things existence
is to perceive it with a perception that's not faulty. S o you could say that your
own awareness of your mind confirms the existence of our mind, or something
like that. But it doesn't necessarily depend on another persons perception of
your mind, yeah. One more question and then we'll stop for a break, yeah.

student: [unclear]

He said, "Certain theories of perception in the West say that a mind can only
perceive an object in a certain fixed number of ways and how do you prove that
the mind can see objects in an infinite number of ways?" In, in Buddhism, you
can establish the truth of a thing by logic or by scriptural reference. You know,
you can either quote an enlightened being, or you can do it by logic. Difficult
things, you know, easy things you can say, "Just look." you know, that's called
{munsum tsema}. But you can establish the truth of a deep thing, of a profound
thing either b using reasoning or using the words of a reputable being, an, an
authority. And then you have to establish whether this being is an authority or
not and there's a whole process for that. You know, "Can the Buddha lie?", if not
then you can believe what he says. So in Buddhism, we would establish it both
ways. I think we wouldn't be satisfied to depend on one or the other. If you are
speaking to a Western audience, and you pull our Buddhist scripture and you
say, "Because the Buddha said so.", it seems, sort of like sophistry, you know.
Like proving what you're gonna prove by using the gut that our gonna prove,
you know. So I'm not gonna go that way. But there is a way, logically, to prove
that the Buddha cannot lie.         There is a logical way to establish the, the
believability of a, of an enlightened being, and it's cool. And you can accept it
and I don't have time to do it tonight. But the logical way, I think, and, and when
you speak about logic you can just refer to your personal experience, I mean
you're aware especially in your medical practice, of how many ways a single
audience can perceive the same object. In an almost infinite number of ways. If
you take a, fifty, sixty people or whatever and you ask them, "How did you a
certain talk or a certain sentence or a certain event. Like I was in Thailand when
Tiannamen square happened, and I was traveling in a five, six country tour in
Asia. And I read the newspapers in six different countries and it was amazing to
see the six versions of what happened there. And they ranged from, "Nothing
happened", to "Hundreds of thousands of people got killed." you know. And I
didn't know what the truth was, but it was very interesting. But what I mean to
say is that even in your won experience you know that there is no objective
reality to a thing if you restrict yourself to the ways in which the people in this
room have perceived it. It's, they can be totally different, it's , the base reality is
the same, they all agree that they saw a pen, but how did they see the pen? As
being useful, not useful, beneficial, non beneficial, nice, ugly, better than the blue
pen, not better than the blue pen, you know, wish he would shut up and put it
down so I could go get some cookies, you know, [laughter], something like that.
I mean every one is perceiving the pen in a much different way. That's just a
short logical one and then there is many different ones. So we'll take a break
okay. Come back in ten minutes or so. [cut] The first one was the innate or
material Buddha nature and again there are three and I'm not going to go
through number three. Say, {gyengur kirig}, [repeat]. {Gyengyur kirig},
[repeat]. Those of you who care, the {n}, is coming from what? The prenasal on
the third column letter, which follows the sound. And then you can pronounce it
correctly, okay, {gyengyur kirig}. {Gyepa} means, how did I translate it? The
Buddha nature which requires development. The Buddhanature which requires
development. Scagnelli made that up at lunch too, okay. {Gye}, means,
"developement". {Gyengyur}, means, "It is going to". {Rik} means, "Buddha
nature". So, as opposed to the {rangshin neyrik}, as opposed to the innate
Buddha nature which didn't need any development because it was what?

student: [unclear]
Emptiness itself. Emptiness can't get bigger, smaller, older, wider, deeper,
shallower. Its content never changes, it is unchanging. It is the general lack of
self existence about the object that you are talking about, and it never get more
or less non self existent. I'll give an example; there is no two headed purple
elephant in this room. The, the lack of a two headed purple elephant in this
room never gets more or less of a lack. I mean, you either have a two headed
purple elephant in this room or you don't have a two headed purple elephant in
this room and the lack, or the absence of a two headed purple elephant in this
room is never more or less of that. It either is or it is not. You either bring one
in here or there ain't ine in here. I use an elephant because it's big enough to
confirm, easily, you don't have to look under the pews to check. Why do I use a
two headed purple elephant? Because it is a perfect example in this case because
a self existent thing could never exist, never did exist, never will exist, it not even
close to existing and you are constantly grasping to it, you know, You have
never, since the day that you were born, perceived an object without being
influenced by believing that it is self existent. You have never had a correct
perception n your whale life, okay? Your mind is constantly grasping to a mode
of things that is as silly and as crazy, but much more harmful than believing that
this room is full of two headed purple elephants, okay. And you gotta think
about that. Okay, the thing that Madhyumika is denying, the object that we are
saying does not exist is crazy, and never could have existed anyway. It's as silly
as a two headed purple elephant. The fact that your mind doesn't have that kind
of two headed purple elephant is it's Buddha nature. It's general, the general
absence of a self existent thing about your mind, that never could have been
there anyway, is it's emptiness. And that you can take to the bank, meaning,
that will not change. the day that you become a Buddha, it will still be just as
empty, just as absent, just as non existent as it is today and that's why that nature
doesn't change. That Buddha nature doesn't change, it doesn't get more or less
empty or anything like that. This Buddha nature does change. And this refers to
the Buddha nature within you that will create the parts of your enlightened
being which are changeable, which are changing, okay. Meaning, your mind
and your physical body, okay. Because how much of a Buddha did we take care
of already? The ultimate development of the {rangshin nerig}, the innate Buddha
nature the innate Buddha nature, only accounts for one piece of a finished
Buddha. And what is that? The emptiness of his mind, or her mind, okay. That
ain't much, I mean we still gotta have a mind and a body, I mean something's
gotta be responsible for that. What is the Buddha nature within you that will
create your Buddha body and your Buddha mind? Because all we took care of so
far was the emptiness that your mind is gonna have the day that you become a
Buddha, okay, and this is certain mental elements and other elements within you
now that will become a Buddha. Do you have them now? Maybe you do,
maybe you don't, I'll give you some examples from scripture. {Gyengyur kerig},
okay, Buddha nature that have yet to be developed or which must be developed
as opposed to emptiness which don't need no developing because it's always
gonna be that way and always was that way. The scripture gives examples of
persons and minds, personas and mind and I'll give and example. okay. Minds, a
bodhisattvas perception of emptiness is {gyengur kerig}, is part of his Buddha
nature. Okay, a bodhisattvas perception of emptiness is Buddha nature. It is the
emptiness of his mind? No. Is it his mind? Yes. It's part of his mind. And that
mind as it evolves is part of a Buddha's mind. It's enlightened enough to call it
Buddha nature, okay, that's the first example in scripture, okay. Another
example of {gyengyur kirig} is the compassion in the heart of a bodhisattva,
already pretty advanced state of mind. It's advanced enough to say that this is
going to turn into a Buddhas mind, okay, this is something that is going to turn
into a
Buddhas mind, considered advanced enough. Scripture gives two examples of
people. Personas that could be considered Buddha nature, {gyengyur kirig},
which is to be developed. The first one is baby bodhisattvas, baby bodhisattvas.
I mean people, who have just reached bodhisattvas hood, which is very, very,
advanced, okay. But baby bodhisattvas, that person, is a Buddha nature. It's a
kind if Buddha nature because that person will transform into a Buddha nature.
Then he gives one more example, which is a person who has just taken
bodhisattva vows. Okay, that's cool, so lot's of people in this room, it was one of
the coolest things we ever did here I think. If you're that, then you have that,
you are that Buddha nature also. Which is going to create the parts of a Buddha
which is physical or mental or changing, I'd say. Okay, let me see if I've covered
everything in the homework. I covered the emptiness of the mutts mind. He
gives one more example, which is the seed, the very subtle seed within a mutts
mind that could turn into a Buddhas mind or help it become a Buddhas mind.
So I'm gonna put that because it's in the Tibetan, I mean, it's on your Tibetan
homework, okay. Say, {kyi gan}, [repeat], {gyowa}, [repeat], {gyukyi}, [repeat ],
{sakme}, [repeat], {semkyi}, [repeat], {sabon}, [repeat]. {Kyi gan}, [repeat],
{gyowa}, [repeat}, {gyukyi}, [repeat], [sakme}, [repeat], {semkyi}, [repeat],
{sabon}, [repeat]. {Kyi gan gyowa} means what? Old scroungy dog. [laughs]
Sorry all you old scroungy dogs. {Gyu}, means, "In their being". {Sakme} means,
{sakme} means, immaculate, immaculate. Totally pure is {sakme}. {Sem} is,
"state of mind", and {sabon} means, "seed". So an example of {gyen gyur kerig},
the classical example in scripture for {gyen gyur kirig}, is the seed in an old
scroungy muts mind for reaching the totally pure state of mind of a Buddha,
okay. Can you guys... [cut]       I'll just read it for you in Tibetan and then I'll
translate it for you. {on de gang la la sopa, dang geu dakki jig she na, chi dang
yangwa ma che bar, mong pe daknyi jigpar tse, kalpa chewa trangme du,
nandam dumar chepey dang, u dang tse dang shen gyur kyi, jangchub toppar
mingyur ro.} {On de gang la la sopa dang gue dakki jig she na} means, suppose
you come up to me, meaning Master Shantideva and you say, okay, I get all this
stuff that you're talking about, about Buddha nature and I understand that the
next time I get depressed about my practice, which will probably be tonight,
okay, [laughs]. I have a new claim to make, okay, spiritual claim, [laughs]. For
the first time in my life I actually fell so asleep in meditation that I fell over and
hit my head on the ground, you know, [laughter], and I achieved it this week
okay. [laughs] [laughter] Honestly. He says, okay I understand that when that
happens, cause I made a big noise and I was afraid all the other monks heard it, I
don't know if they did. But you know, when you finally, you can sit there and
say okay, I sit my head on the ground meditating, but I do have Buddha nature,
[laughter]. I, I know that my mind, you know, I can look at the bump on my
head, right and understand that it's a perception, you know, [laughs], you know,
and I do have Buddha nature so I can feel better. And so somebody, there's
almost like a scene in the [b: Bodhisattvacharyavatara], there's almost like a
debate, people keep coming back to Master Shantideva and he says, "Yeah,
but..." {Gang la la sopa} means, "I supposedly, if I'm gonna be a real heavy duty
bodhisattva, I'm supposedly gonna have to stand there with a knife and cut it off
and respectfully hand it to someone who's hungry for meat or something. I'm
supposed to reach this level where I could reach into my eye socket and rip out
my own eyeball, and with great respect and, and love and honor, respectfully
had it to someone who needs an eyeball or feels like having an eyeball, I mean
supposedly I'm supposed to reach that point. {Dangeu daknyi jig}, "That scares
me", [laughs], that makes me nervous. You know, like I don't think I could do
that, I'd be scared of thinking I could do those things, you know, I, I, I, would get
nervous of thinking to do those things. {Chi dang yangwa ma che bar} , Master
Shantideva says, " You have not, you have failed to analyze this question very
clearly, you're not thinking about what's very serious and what not very serious,
you are losing your priorities, okay." When you say that you'd be afraid to do
something like that, "You can't imagine the day when you could do that", then
you have a prioritization problem. {Mong pey daknyi jigpar tse}, "You are the
Mahatma, of ignorance."         Okay, [laughter], [laughs], something like that, I
shouldn't say that, it's more like, " You are afraid out of ignorance and nothing
more." {Jigpar tse}, {Kalpa chewa trangme du}, {Kalpa chewa}, means, "for tens
of millions of kalpas", and a kalpa is, you know, zillions of years. So for millions
of years, {Trangme du}, you have been born, you know, if this theory of the
mind, I'll say it once and I don't expect you to believe it right away, but, if rebirth
is nothing more than a shift in the mind and if the mind itself is a substance
which is completely different than then physical body and can never be
destroyed, which is plausible, and I don't say that you have to buy it right now,
then you have been all things to all people infinite number of times already. You
know, I've been Miss America, you know countless times, [laughter]. Countless
times you now, not just once, Red head blonde brunette, I've been everything,
countless times, countless times, you know, over and over and over again,
because time is infinite and my mind is indestructible. So every variation is
possible. So given infinite time, every variation is possible, I've been everything
countless times. And so actually, I've had my arms ripped off, from you know,
I've had my body sliced open, I've had my head smashed to pieces, countless
times, in other realms, in other worlds which we cannot see, you know, I have
been there countless times. I have endured every kind of suffering, you know,
people have smashed me, people have ripped my face off, people have torn m
arms off, I have gone through this, if if you accept what I said earlier today,
tonight, it becomes very plausible that you have gone through that. I don't say
that you have to buy it now, but if you keep following that line of reasoning and
if you can't find any flaw with it, any serious flaw with it, then you have gone
through this countless times, for what? You know Master Shantideva says, "For
what?". "You wasted all those loves and even in this life you gonna have
yourself cut open by this high paid surgeon, or you're gonna get in a car accident
or you're gonna get some terrible sicknesses you're gonna have horrible things
happen in your life, for what? You know, you wasted your life, all you're doing
is grubbing around for money to feed this body that's gonna die anyway. So
what have you done in , say what have you done with our life? What have you
achieved with your life? And not only this life, but if you believe in past lives,
you just basically wasted all those lives. In other words, you're gonna go
through all that same suffering pointlessly, so why not go through it with a
point, if somebody wants your arm, give it to them, cause your gonna go
through this anyway. You're doomed anyway to go through this, you might as
well if you get the opportunity to make something meaningful out if it, go for it.
You know, he says, " You don't have to be afraid." If you have the chance to give
away your job, give away all our money, give away what ever makes you
happiest, what ever possession you feel most attached to, the person that you
love the most, you're gonna lose all this stuff anyway so he says, "Go for it. You
give it away." You know, so then at least you did something meaningful because
the day that it's taken away from you by events it's not your choice anymore
and you don't get any good karma out of that. To have lots of money and then
have events rip it away from you, which they will. Much better to do something
meaningful with it while you can, even down to your body, you know, even
down to the meat on your body. You know life ids going to steal it from you
anyway, The, the people in the hospital are gonna rip it up and cut it up and
sew it back up and fail and you're gonna die anyway, you might as well do
something meaningful with it now, even if it means something painful, small
pain, go for it. It's gonna get hurt anyway. That's his argument. Next one,
{Dakki jangchub druppa yi, dukngel dinyi tsuya de, tsugno kona ngusel chir, lu
ma toppay shin, mem pa kunkyang su che kyi, mi dewa yinne mache, dewey
dukngel ma potak, shom chir midey chung so ja}. {Dakki jangchub druppa yi}
means, he's on the same subject although, "In order to achieve Buddhahood,".
{Dukngel dinyi tsuya de}, "the suffering that you have to undertake," If you get
to be a heavy duty bodhisattva is {tsuya}, {tsuya} means "finite", I mean there's s
certain point where you can say, "That's enoug
h good karma, now you can see yourself as a Buddha, You know, I mean, there's
a certain point, there's a certain number, that you can say, " If you reach that
many good deeds that many good thoughts, that much compassion, you will,
your body will start to transform and the people around you will start to
transform. You know there's a certain number that you van put on it, {tsuya},
means, "There' s a limit."        You know, there's a limit, he says, "That's
cool." [laughter], compared to all the infinite suffering you've been up to, up to
now. Those sufferings were limitless. Those sufferings don't have a number.
You know there's a, I don't like to be at work, I had to be at work the path two
weeks, tomorrow's gonna be a since, why? I know, at five o'clock I don't have to
go back for a month. You know, so {tsuyu}, you know the knowledge that
there's a limit, the knowledge that there's an end, can, can, do allot for you effort.
He says, "Don't worry about doing hard things, case there's a point that you'll get
to where it will start to change." Then he says, that you can take for example in
the common everyday world, if you haven't... I met people, I know people who
swore they would never have an operation. You know, they said, "I will never
let my body be cut open." You know, "I will never let myself be.." You know
what do they call it? Like insulted by these nurses and doctors, I forget what you
call it but, ... what?

student: [unclear]

"My dignity will never be so besmushed to let then you know, do their shtick on
me, " You know, "I refuse, when the day comes I refuse." You know and then
almost always they are the one that you ear about that's in the hospital and they
got twenty four tubes up them and the doctors have done all these weird
treatments to them. And you go in and you say, "Weren't you the person who
said you'd never do that you know?" And they say, "Yeah, but I was really
hurting bad, you know and I was dying you know, and I had to do it." And you
go, "Yeah, yeah." And he's saying that, he's saying that there's a point in
everyones body where you get some kind of pain or trouble, so, so seriously
that you submit yourself to the indignity and the sufferings caused by a doctor.
You know, there comes a point in every persons body, if you live long enough,
that's you'll happily say cut me open, you know, and you'll happily undergo that
pain, because you know the option. You know that the only other choice is to
die or something like that, so He uses that example, Master Shantideva says,
"You do put up with a physician cutting you open, creating, purposely, suffering
for you because you know that it will cure a much larger suffering." So what's
the point, you know, don't be so wimpy, you know, if you have to undergo
certain sufferings to get to Buddhahood, which is the big cure, you know,
enlightenment is the ultimate cure. Then what are you whining about? You
know, just do it. Okay, if it takes like staying up late at night, you're not getting
enough sleep, you know, things are not going the way that you want, you have
to not have as much career as other people have, you don't have the possessions
that other people have because your spending time, wasting time meditating,
right. He says, put up with it you know, bear a little pain for the big result. The
Shakyapandita, in his lekshe he says, this is the first thing that Rinpoche made
me memorize, {kepa lopey duna dup dewa duna kye mey si, dela chunla chapa
yi, dewa chepo top miong}. {Kepa lopey duna dup}, "If you want to be a good
Buddhist scholar, you have to suffer," {Kepa lopey duna dup} {Dewa duna kye
misi} "If you want to feel good, you'll never be a great master." {Dewa duna kye
misi} {Dela chunla chapa yi} "People who get attached to minor pleasures don't
achieve great, infinite pleasures." You know, that's Sakya Pandita, same thing.
Okay, and then he compares, he compares the bodhisattvas way of life to, to
medical treatments that hurt at the beginning, and everybody in this room will,
you know end up doing that if you live long enough, At least going to a dentist
or something. I have friends who swore they'd never go to a dentist, right?
Right. [laughter] Okay, {sul che pelba...} this is the next verse, okay. {sulche
pelba dundawa, memba chokyi men dze te, choga shintu janpo yi, nechen
padme solwan dze] This is very cool, I think at this point, wait I want to make
sure that I'm covering the homework, let me see.. just so I don't get twenty -five
phone calls at work. Okay, okay, the next verse, Master Shantideva, he doesn't
want people to get scared and I think it's very cool how he shifts over tone now.
He says, {sul che pelba dundawa} I've just been describing to you. What I've just
been describing to you is the medical treatement in the everyday world.
{Mendza chokyi mandze te} This is not how the ultimate physician works. The
ultimate physician is the Buddha, right. {Choga shintu jamba yi}, he uses very
very gentle means to cure your infinatel terrible disease. Okay, in other words,
we were talking about it up here. People were coming up to me and saying, "It
seems a little bit selfish that you keep talking about Paradise, you know you
keep talking in terms of, "If you do this good deed, if you do this good deed,
because things are empty, because New York City is empty, it could become a
Paradise for you." " And it's the emptiness of New York City which allows the
potential for a Buddha Paradise, it's the emptiness, and I keep talking about it in
terms of your own Paradise and your own body and your own Angels body and
where's the bodhichitta and where is the compassion here? And you gotta catch
this, the best thing that you can do for other people is to achieve ultimate
pleasure yourself and that's hard for Judeo-Christian guilt ridden minds, like the
best thing that you can do for other people is to achieve ecstasy yourself. That is
the best way to serve other people. You know, you can go and live in Calcutta
and serve lepers and things like that, and that is important and it is noble, but
according to Buddhism, the highest service that you can provide for others is to
reach Ultimate Bliss yourself, because then your in a position to teach others and
before that your not and there is an ultim... an infinite difference between
someone teaching who has been there and someone teaching it who hasn't been
there and everyone smells the difference, you know the difference, you sense
the difference, okay. If Buddha came in here and Buddha described how he got
to Ultimate Bliss, it would be allot more convincing, I mean you could smell that
he's talking about something he really saw, and that is the ultimate way to serve
others. So unfortunately, the kindness thing that you can do for other people is
to arrange your own ultimate bliss, okay? And get used to the idea. And don't
be embarrassed by it. Will there be many nasty, hard late nights, serving other
people, yeah, sure, but the best thing that you can do for others is to reach a
state of total enlightenment and bliss yourself, and there is no contradiction there
and you don' t have to feel guilty about it. Okay, now the addendum to that is
that the method itself, the path, the Buddhist path is itself the most pleasant way
you can live. So unfortunately, the best thing that you can do for others is to live
an ecstatic way of living and get to total ecstasy and that's your job and you don't
have to feel guilty about it, or un... it's improper somehow. I mean the highest
methods of Buddhist Practice happen to be the most pleasant things that you can
do, physically and mentally, that's just the way it is. And, and what he's meaning
when he says here, "the supreme physician acts in gentle ways." is that as you
progress further and further along the Buddhist Path and as you practice
becomes more and more sophisticated it actually becomes more an more
pleasant also.      So when you, what he's saying is, "When I'm describing
bodhisattvas who reach into their eye socket and rip out their eyeballs you can
bet that for them it's like an orgasm or something. You know, you can bet that
for them it's like the most pleasant experience that they could ever have. So
don't, don't what he's trying to say, "Don't get into you mind this thing that it's
gonna be some terrible horrible thing you know and you're gonna be grimacing
and you know you're gonna be over... you know fight with yourself and you
know reach in and do it, you know. It's gonna be like, "Oh man, take it. " you
know and it's gonna feel really blissful to do it and that's the nature of the
Buddhist Path because you're collecting constantly more and more good karma.
What does that do on a world which is empty? Does it transform in one day?
No, Rome wasn't built in a day. Buddha Paradise takes time. But what happens
is it gradually changes and you see the gradual changes and you are aware of the
gradual changes, physically and mentally and environmentally.                   Your
environment, your habitat starts to turn into a Buddha field your body starts to
turn into an enlightened beings body and your mind is getting more and more
bliss. So the way is blissful, the result is blissful and the best thing that you can
do for other people is to go along this blissful way to ultimate bliss. You know,
so he's saying, you know, don't think of it as some appendectomy, really you
know, he's saying, "that's not the way that this doctor works." This doctors
treatment happens to be bliss, the goal is bliss and it's the best thing that you can
do for other people and there is no problem with that. And I think that's very
uncomfortable for westerners. You know you think that you get to get nailed
up to do anything meaningful, you know, it's not like that. [laughter] You know
and by the way if you were at that point and they did nail you up it would just
feel blissful, it would feel really good, you know, and that's important, it's
important to understand that. I don't think that even according to Christian
theory that Jesus at that moment was suffering as a human. I mean did he lose
his divinity at that moment or something? I don't, I don't think you could argue
that he wasn't a divine being at that moment, an a divine being shouldn't feel
suffering. Okay, last point, and we're almost on time this time, which is sort of
embarrassing. Let's
see, maybe we can find some Tibetan to put up here, [laughter]. Here we go,
okay. {chuying}, [repeat], {kangshik}, [repeat], {ngowo}, [repeat], {nyikoor},
[repeat], {gyurung}, [repeat]. {Chuying}, [repeat], {kangshik}, [repeat], {ngowo},
[repeat], {nyikoor}, [repeat], {gyurung}, [repeat]. By the way the, again the {ba}
after the {da}, with the {yatak}, changes to {wa} and then to {ya}. and it's a high
tone, okay, {ying}, {ying} is a cool word in Tibetan, {ying}, means a whole bunch
of things. Like ether or space or emptiness or realm, it means all those things
like that. {Chuying}, "Dharma {ying}", is a synonym for {Ying}, [laughs] And
it's an unusual synonym, you don't see it very often. But [ying}, {ying}, is just
like, "whoa". You know like {ying, ying chenpo yeu}, means I am very intrigued
by this you know, it has all these meanings. {Chuying}, {ying}, means like, just
Dharma "whst", [laughter], it's very hard to translate. It's the "whst" of the
Dharma, I don't know how to translate it, it's like 'isness", or something sexy like
that, okay. {Kangshik}, {kangshik}, is used in a definition where you have two
elements. If you are a good translator you will say, "The definition of natural
Buddha nature or innate Buddha nature is [A], blah, blah blah blah blah...... and
[B], blah, blah, blah, blah, blah....... . And it's that [A] in parentheses, and that [B]
in parentheses, okay, in Tibetan you say {kangshik}, you put {kangshik},between
them, okay. So the first part of the definition of the Buddha nature which is
innate. That's the important one that's the one that gives you the potential for
enlightenment. That's the one that you're supposed to think about when you
get? Discouraged, and thinking, "Poor little old me, you know I'm never gonna
get to enlightenment, cause I fell down and bumped my head trying to meditate
after twenty five years, you know. {Ngowo nyikoor}, {ngowo nyi}, means,
"{swabhavakaya}", it's the "essence body", of the Buddha, okay. It's that part of
the Buddha which is his or her emptiness. It's the emptiness of the other three
bodies of the Buddha. It's body number four. "Body", is a little bit deceptive, you
know you kind if think about a Buddha walking around with his four bodies, I
mean what's his pant's like? I don't know. [laughter]. It's a it's a misnomer. it
means the " for parts of a Buddha". he Buddha has the physical part which they
emanate in planets, like the sound of a wave in California. And then the physical
body that they have in their Buddha Paradise, which is these beautiful bodies
that you see in tankas. And then their omniscience. And then the emptiness of
the other three bodies, which is what we call their essence nature, their essence
body. So {ngowo nyiku} means "essence body". {Gyurung}, means, you had it
in the definition already, of Buddha nature, "that which could become", that
which could turn into the essence body of a Buddha. So the definition of the
innate Buddha nature, it is [A], emptiness itself, {chuying}, okay, [A], it's
emptiness, itself. [B], it's "something which is going to turn into the essence of a
Buddha", meaning the emptiness of a Buddha, okay, That's the definition and
everybody has that. And bugs have that. And that's why the Buddha wasn't
lying when he said, "listen. don't get discouraged, bugs can get enlightened, just
put forth a little effort, okay?". Last thing, what is it that allows a bug to get
enlightened? {Rangshin nerig, chuying}, is the potential. Okay, but potential has
to be actualized, right? I mean, it's no good to walk around with potential. We
did that for zillions of years, supposedly and we're still here, right? It's no good
to walk around with potential. There must be some doable program for turning
that potential into an enlightened being. There must be some doable method, or
else it's pointless. Who cares if my mind is empty, who cares if I could have seen
my mind as omniscience but I didn't have enough good karma t o do it if there's
no doable way to get there. And that's what this verse is about, it's one of my
favorite verses from Shantidevas works, so I'm gonna make you memorize it
even though I haven't. [laughs], okay. {Tsuma hlatso jinpa la ang drenbe
tokmar jorwar ndze tela komne chine nyi rim kyi ranggi sharyang tong}, okay.
{Tsuma}, means "vegetables", I like to call it carrots and potatoes, okay, {tsuma},
means, "vegetables", by the way this is revealed, the ultimate method for
achieving all this stuff, this is the real way to do it, okay. This is what the
Buddha... this is like the last part tonight, this is the most important, this is
Buddha telling you how to actualize your Buddha nature, how to turn that
potential into reality. You start with vegetables, I like to call it potatoes and
carrots, okay vegetables. {Hlasto}, means, "excetera", stuff like that; pencils, okay
I don't know. What else is easy to give away? Nickels. Okay, {hlatso}. {Jinpa},
means, "to give it away", to give it to someone else. {La ang}, means, "to that".
Just that. Giving away stuff like a carrot, a potato, a pencil a nickel, okay. What?
{Drepa}, {drenpa}, means, "The Guide", capital G, which means, Buddha., The
Guide, the Supreme Guide. {Tokmar}, means, "at the beginning", when you're
just starting out, okay. {Jor wan ndze} means, "He directed us to do that". Okay.
This is very very important, okay? The point is this and Master Shantideva will
repeat this over and over and over again. That the human mind is totally
malleable, the human mind is totally plastic. The human mind can be formed
into anything you want with practice, you know, with practice that's intelligent,
meaning, start small and build up, you can get your mind into any state at all. It
will be possible for you to give away your arm and your eyeball, but start
with...?

students: [unclear]

Carrots and potatoes, [laughs], try to give away a carrot today, try to give away
a potato today. And it's not a joke. It's really not a joke. Make it a practice
everyday to give away something. Start with something insignificant, you
know, don't be angry at a person who is only mildly, mildly, mildly irritating,
you know start with the easiest object of patience that you can find and begin
with something small. And it's like exercise if you've ever had one of those
exercise binges, you now, where you decide that you're tired of being flabby,
you know, and you go out and you see these guys, you know at six o'clock you
know, running like three miles. And you say, "They can do three, I'll do one."
you know, and you run for about, I've tried. it's about fifty yards, and you're just
exhausted, you know. [laughter] And you're totally falling apart. I mean, even
in exercise it's foolish to start too big. Or you're gonna do yoga and you try the
most difficult thing and you slip your disc and then you can't do anything you
know. [laughter] And it's very typical, you know, of a human to do that. So
start small and be smart about it and build up. Okay, and in fact He clearly states
in this section, "Do not", and that the Buddha said, "I prohibit you to give
something which you are not ready to give." Very important, the Buddha
himself said, "I prohibit you from trying to give something that you are not
capable of giving yet." You know, of trying to do some great bodhisattva deed
that you're not ready to do yet. That's gonna hurt you, or gonna depress you, or
stop you from practicing in the future. Trying to run a mile the first morning.
You know, the Buddha said, "I prohibit you from that kind of behavior, you
know I prohibit you from giving away something like that, until the day that
you can do it with pleasure, and easily, don't try." Start with small things and
build up because the human mind is totally capable of learning anything, if you
do it right. There will come a day when each person in this room would be
capable of giving up their life for the Dharma, but you have to start small and
build up slowly. You know each person in this room will reach that point
because you have Buddha nature, [laughs], you will reach that point, you will
evolve into that being, you know, every being in this room will evolve into a
higher being, but you have to start with potatoes, okay? {De la komne}, means,
"once you get used to that, "okay, "once you get used to that, {dela komne}. {Chi
ne ni}, means, "later on". {Chi ne ni} means, "later on". {Rim kyi} means, you
know, "step by step, step by step, step by step." Like {lam rim}, means, "steps to
Buddhahood". Step by step, your own, {sha}, what's {sha}? {Sha} means flesh,
okay? Your flesh, {yang tong} means, "you'll even be able to give away your
own body". There will come a day, when you will be able to sit at Cooper
Square diner and with one of those dull steak knives, and strip off some skin and
hand it to some one happily, gladly, you know, blissfully, you know and don't
do it until you're ready, okay? [laughs] Okay, so we'll do some concluding
prayers, okay yeah.
 [cut]
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Course XI: Guide to the Bodhisattvas Way of Life, Part Two