ACI 12 «Руководство к образу жизни бодхисаттвы, часть III», занятие 6

971028-1
Course XII: Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, Part Three
Class Four??
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Course twelve class six -- Vivian Nesbitt - November 14, 1999

 [begins with the short Manila offering followed by refuge prayer and request
for teaching]

Kinda like that guy uh Kevin Costner in Water World, okay. Uh, Last time we
were talking about this pen an’ we have to go back that pen, okay? Uh, and we
did a little bit of an emptiness meditation on it . That meditation comes from
{Kedup Je} which is another major student of {Je Tsongkapa} and uh also from
some uh early Sakya traditions o’ of which our Vadrayogini tradition is, is a part
of that lineage. So uh first thing is to just look at the pen normally okay just look
at it as a pen. that’s called {ma takma chepa} means unexamined you’re not
trying to figure out its ultimate existence or anything you’re just looking at it as a
pen. So we’ll do like a few seconds of thinking of it as a pen.

[pause here as he holds the pen up for the class to look at]
[Some laughter - “okay” it sounds like maybe he dropped the pen]

Now uh pretend you are like a aborigine from the 12th century and uh you
walk in and you don’ know what a pen is and all you see is this guy holding up a
black and white stick okay? You’re just going to focus on the raw data. The
black and the white and the cylinder because that is all your eye really sees.
Your eye cannot see pen. Your eye only has the capacity to see colors and
shapes. So, now don’t think of it as a pen anymore. don’t think of this black and
white cylinder as a pen anymore okay, just see it as a black and white cylinder
okay turn off the pen mind.

[another pause while he holds up the b/w cylinder]

okay, and then we did it on and off you know, you can turn it on you can turn it
back off; you can turn it on you can turn it off and it made you aware of the fact
that seeing it as a pen or its being a pen is not from its own side. the “pen ness”
is coming from your side and you have this mental image of a pen that you
impose on it. An and w we drew it last time, there was uh raw data which is uh
black an, uh it’s, let’s make it

[Pause while he draws]

See, its just a black and white cylinder, okay, in fact, let me do it again.
[pause with a little snort sound as he draws again]

Its really just just that okay thetas the that’s the data your eye picks up black and
white cylinder and then your mind pictures a nice well a pen okay and if you get
really good at it this, you can see that this is like a little, y’know, Jung called them
archetype or something. y’know This is a really just a mental picture of a pen
and then your eye picks up the black and white ‘cylinder -ness’ and it transmits
black and white cylinder to the mind and then the mind jumps on it and says oh
that suggests a pen and it super imposes pen on that black and white cylinder.
okay And we were talking about I think it was in the Friday night class, if a dog
walked in here they wouldn’t impose that at all they would impose

[Pause while he holds pen up - class begins laughing he is probably chewing on
the pen]

they would impose black and white chewable object similar to my bone you
know. no
 an’ they would impose it like that y’see, they they would look at the same black
and white cylinder but they would only see something to be chewed upon. They
wouldn’t conceive of it as something to write with and if you think about it both
conceptions are valid, okay? I mean if you’re a dog and that’s all the bakchaks
you have in your mind, if that’s all the karmic seeds you have in your mind, why
not, it’s a black and white chewable thing. It is. It isn’t a pen for a dog but it is a
pen for a human whowho can use the pen in a certain way and who has the
karmic seeds to see it as a pen. so both are valid y’know you can’t say that one is
more correct than the other. If you’re a dog, what’s the use of a pen. If you’re
th’, a human you can chew on your nails, y don’ need a a pen to, I mean a c
cylinder t’ to chew on. They’re both valid you have to get used to that. And this
is called the raw data, we’ve been calling that raw data in Tibetan

[Pause while he writes]

Say {dak shi}
[class repeats]
dak shi
[class repeats]

{Dak shi} means the raw data the black and white cylinder. Okay? That’s all your
eye can see anyway - did you ever think your eye was seeing a pen. your eye
can’t see pen, your eye can only see colors and shapes. That’s in Abhidharma,
all Buddhist scripture that’s the limitation of your eye. Your eye can only see
colors and shapes. You can’t be identifying it as a pen with your eye alone.
Something else is doing that. Okay? {Dak shi} means the thing which gets called
a pen. The thing which is referred to as a pen okay the raw data, if you will.
And then there is this mental image of a pen. An in an in scripture it has a couple
of different names most simply

[Pause]

{Ming} which means name, it just means name okay. In Madhumika philosophy
when you say we label the black and white cylinder with the name pen we are
not referring to sound of the word pen we are referring to the concept Pen
which is the picture in your mind of a pen so don’t get confused when they say
imputed only, in name only, in word only only nominally, what they mean is
name in the sense of a concept that you impose on the {dak shi} okay its that
when you get good at it when I hold up the pen up and say turn on the vision of
a pen you’ll catch yourself, the mind is applying it, and then when I say turn it of
you’ll see it disappear, its like stripped away but its like there some kind of bright
uh it has a brightness about it - and its a mental construct and you’re imposing it
on the pen. And when you stop thinking of the pen as a pen you’re stripping it
away an’ then you impose it again then you strip it away. If you want to
meditate on emptiness that’s a very good exercise, okay? This is the collection of
the parts of the pen. Is the collection of the parts of the pen The Pen. Are they
the same thing. Do the parts equal the whole according to Madhumika. No,
okay. That’s tricky, okay. it’s okay to say my arm is not Michael Roach but
what about all my appendages and my torso and my name Michael Roach and
my mind? Are all those together Michael Roach? Madhumika says no. Okay
And that’s where most people get confused and if you read the commentary in
the reading that you’re not going to get tonight uh he’ll somebody will say
y’know Geltsab Je says oh look the pen is not, your body is not your arm you r
body is not your leg your body is not separate from your arms and legs and
your body is not your arms and legs and your mind altogether either and the
other guy says wwwwait a minute that last one I don’t get y’know the guy in the
commentary the opponent says I don’t get that last one. And he says think
about that black and that white and the an’ the collection, the whole of the
cylinder and the black and the white is not yet the pen until something else
happens. What? until you think of it as a pen. okay. why do you think of it as a
pen and a dog thinks of it as a chewable object - y your past karma is you forcing
you to see it that way. What’s the point of all this intellectual blah blah, y’know.
I happen to use it as a pen. okay Can we use it as a pen - fine know problem. Its
a bunch of colors and shapes that your karma is forcing you to see as a pen and
that works that writes. okay no problem there. So what’s that got to do with
my liberation. How can that make me happy why am I in this class listening to
this guy talking about a pen. Master Shantideva was doing very well before
when he was talking about anger and morality and generosity and now he’s got
side tracked on to some thing about the pen. y’know I can see how not getting
angry makes me happy. I can see how being generous makes me happy but
why knowing that the pen is my construct how's that supposed to make me
happy. The point is this pen will wear out and the hand holding it will wear out
and the guy who has the hand will die and their all gonna wear out for the same
reason. The karma wears out. The karma to see this as a pen wears out. The
karma to see this as a human arm wears out the karma to see myself alive and
to hear my mind think will wear out and that’ll be called dead. y’know that’ll b’
we’ll call that dead. In the same way that the pen doesn’t have to be a pen - I
don’t have to be dead. I don’t have to see myself that way. I can choose a
different set of karmas. I can collect different karmas. The Buddha promised
liberation from four things.
 {Kega nachi} say {Ke G a} [class repeats] {nachi} {Kega} [class repeats] {nachi}
[class repeats] He did not say I’ll make you more calm he did not say I’ll help
you get along with everybody he did not say I'll make a perfect society. he said I
will get you out of Birth {Ke} {ga} aging {Na} any kind of sickness and {chi} all
death y’know. Much more radical than y’know Buddhism as uh learning to be
friendly or learning to be calm or something like that. this is learning to be not
dead okay and learning to not get old y’know. and that’s much more profound.
that’s what he taught. it’s only possible because I’m empty. It’s only becau’
possible because my karma can force these parts to appear as a tantric deity in
this life time if I correc’ the if I collect the right kind of karma. If I can, okay. If I
learn them and then do them. I’l’ I know some people in this room who have
learned them and then told me they’re not doing them. Y’know so I’m like well.
And then they come and tell me all these terrible things happening to them and
I'm like you know did you do your book and they say oh, I’ll get to that later. Of
course you’re going to see weird things if you haven’t done your book, okay.
Your life’ll be like that uh an’ continue to be like that and then you see yourself
die. Right, um. Another word for that image is called {tan nye} which means
term. And another word for it is {Da} which is another word for a sound or a
term you can say term okay they both mean term. Very ancient words, they all
mean the same thing. So you’ve got this we can call it name but now you know
name means a concept, a mental picture, the name is put, is imposed on the raw
data by your mind forced to do so by your past karma. If you like the pen
its...its because of your past good karma if you hate the pen it’s because of \your
past bad karma, if you could care less about the pen, its what I call background
existence in your life, its because you had ignorance in your past. That’s
responsible for all the neutral crap, neutral stuff. Okay and the dog imposes this
on it okay. What is the imposer is called {dop je} So remember the {Dak shi } is
the basis of the of th’ name the thought which is the raw data. That’s raw data.
Being presented to your eye and {ming} and all these are different names for
these two things shining in you r mind, two pictures in your mind. And {dop
she} is that state of mind that imposes this on the on the raw data. It’s the its th’
imposer - its the one who bends the transparency and imposes it. okay It labels,
it names it thinks of the raw data as something and the {dop she} is the main
thing being run by your karma. Yeah?

[Student]: inaudible

Right right right its a very good question - what he’s asking if you noticed when
I told you not to think of the pen as a pen and to withdraw this picture from the
pen, your karma forced you to understand my
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in the raw data? [pause] If y’ if {matakma chepa} - {matakma chepa} means
where we started with the pen remember tonight? That’s where the pen is. If
you don’t ask it’s there, okay? {matakma chepa} means let’s not get into it
y’know, just use it to write on the transparency okay don don’ worry about it.
{matakma chepa} means not worrying about where it is. You can use it. You
can go stand in front of a {matakma chepa} yellow cab and get your {matakma
chepa} legs broken okay They work. It works.            What is it? It’s my karma
forcing me to see certain data a certain way. Where does it exist? Is it in my
mind or is it outside. Don’t ask the minute you ask you’ve lost it. okay You can
live in the world as long as its {matakma chepa}. When we started with the pen
tonight it was {matakma chepa}. Unexamined. When you start examining,
you’ve al’ you’re already into finding emptiness. okay so {matakma chepa} the
pen exists. You can use it. okay. You can use it. It functions. Nothing wrong
with it functioning. okay that’s a little delicate okay? Lotta blank stares on that
one. Okay. We’ll go on to, now I was thinking Dr. Sykes was going to ask the
$54,000 question but he didn’t. He got close. uh somebody’s supposed to ask
me what about the raw data. y’see, do these rules apply to the raw data as well
or is the raw data really out there y’know is there really a black and white
cylinder out there or does this stuff all apply to the black and white cylinder as
well. You supposed to wonder. okay. Why do you think in the years that I’ve
been using the example of my boss coming and screaming about the J.C. Penney
order I was talking about the emptiness of your feeling about the boss. I was
talking about his emptiness of being nice or not nice right and I was saying the
fact that one set of colors and shapes comes into the room and the person who
doesn’t like Michael Roach finds it quite amusing that Michael Roach is getting
yelled at by the boss and Michael Roach finds it quite painful to get yelled at t’ th’
boss by the boss, proves that the boss is neither self existently nice or self
existently mean. That proves it. That proves that the way we feel about the boss
is a projection coming form the minds of each person in the room. If he was self
existently nasty his wife would have divorced him already - except she owns half
the company and there’s this other stuff.
[class laughs]
If he was self existently nice I wouldn’t feel bad when he yelled at me. y’know I
would be like thank you, I understand I screwed up the order, you’re right you
know it’s good that you care about me you know, I but the fact is that two
different people sitting side by side looking at the same colors and shapes take
those different, completely different. okay? So whether the boss is good or bad
is a projection from our side but is the boss himself a projection. We never got in
to that I’ve been avoiding that. For years, but now the time has come - we have
to examine whether the raw data is really raw data. okay, we have to jus’
examine that and I didn’t want to because you have to be mature in your
thinking (a.), (b.) you have to have a lot of virtue which you have because {yula
dida tomjey du, tupay sherab dun dum sum} you’ve been through the whole
Bodhisattva Charavatara. You have all that virtue of hearing the whole text.
You have the ammunition not to freak out when we get to the boss’s emptiness.
[laughter from class]. And the question is this, this is the question that comes up
in your mind automatically, should come in your mind, it has come up often, I
think, I don’t know if Jim Halpren is here he used to ask that question okay he
gave up already, o’ yeah he used to ask this question alot. So yeah here you
finally get the answer.
say {koksok} [class repeats] {kyi} [class repeats] {dakshi} [class repeats] {yang}
[class repeats] {takgyur} [class repeats] {yinnam?} okay [he laughs] question
mark. {yinnam with upward exaggerated upward inflection} means question
mark. Each word after him]. {koksok} means person, we’re not talking about
pens any more we’re not even talking about my boss we’re talking about you.
Okay If your name is Tessie I’m talking about Tessie, if your name is Kim I’m
talking about Kim. If your name is Andy I'm talking Andy. okay Its yourself,
we’re on to the big emptiness, okay, the big emptiness of you. Why. That’s the
first one you’ll see directly. When you see emptiness directly for the first time,
its your emptiness it’s John’s emptiness. John sees Johns emptiness first directly.
okay, in fact that’s why it has such power to liberate you from your mental
afflictions. Okay. So {Kooks} means person {koksak kyi dak shi} is that raw data
of the person the raw data of the person. If you wanted to present the raw data
of the person in a very simple way, like if you wanted to divide the person into
their most basic parts there would be two very broad categories of stuff that
make Michael Roach. What are they. mind and Body. okay? Mind and Body. If
you gonna get fancy you could break it into five parts and call it the five heaps.
Its the same thing. y’can d’ you can basically boil the five heaps down to mind
and body and a little stuff called the idea of Michael Roach. okay, but lets scrap
the Idea of Michael Roach, that’s a little complicated. Michael Roach’s mind an’
Michael Roach’s body are the two big parts of what we call me. Are what I call
me; in the same way that the black and the white and the cylinder are the main
components of this pen. So the main parts of a person are their body and mind.
Those are the parts we have to look at. That’s the {dak shi} . {Dak shi} means the
collection of stuff that’s being thought of as Michael Roach. Okay? In the case of
the pen its the black and white color and the shape. In the case of Michael Roach
its the body his mind an an and those that stuff which all taken together we think
of as Michael Roach we put the label or we put the concept we impose the
concept of Michael Roach onon those parts okay so we call it the basis of th’ of
the projection which is {Dak shi}. {dak shi} means the basis of the projection.
Okay? {nyang} means even that, even that basis which is my body and my mind
taken as a whole okay {tak gyur} means is it, I’m sorry {tak gyur} means a
projection, okay just a picture, a mental picture imposed on a collection of parts.
‘kay {Tak gyur} means that, exists in that way as a projection. {yinnam} means:
Is it? okay [laughing] {yinnam} is the scriptural way of saying is it? Tibetan
doesn’t have punctuation marks like we do.. They use {nam} for the question
mark. By the way, if it ended in {duk} you say {duk kam} if it ended in {ngyan}
you’d say {hmmm beats me here sorry}
okay? um and that’s the big question the big question that should have occurred
in your mind by now is I understand that the way I feel about the boss is a
projection. I understand that one boss that one collection of parts, a oval
redness, a smaller oval darker red, a square whites in there, and a red wiggly
there y’know and sounds coming out y’know rather loud decibel sounds coming
out. I understand that if I feel good about it its because of my past good Karma
and if the guy sitting next to me feels bad about it that’s because his bad karma
and I understand that the boss is not good or bad from his own side but what
about his very existence. Is that also the same way, I mean each sound that I
hear coming out of him each redness all the shades of redness to his face as he
gets more and more angry right? A’ are they also the same way. if I were a
different kind of being would I even see those as boss. The answer of course is
No you wouldn’t. I I If different beings sitting in the room like an ant or a dog,
they don’t even see the boss the way you see the boss. They don’t think boss.
To them its just threatening humanoid or something okay y’know what I mean.
They don’t see boss anymore than they see pen. They would see chewable
object okay. So the very existence of the boss in your room is also a projection.
That’s true. The raw data is also a projection. okay. There is no base data, but
we’ll get there we’ll get to that. okay so the big question that should have come
up in your mind at some point when Michael Roach was up there talking about
his boss was, is the boss himself the same way. y’know if there were two
radically different beings in this room would they see two absolutely different
things and the answer is of course they would see two radically different things
that’s why uh uh a hungry ghost could be in the room and see a threatening
animal, y’know uh Master Shantideva could be in the room and see a beautiful
shining tantric angel entering the room because of his karma. Because he has
different karma. okay No contradiction at all. No contradiction at all. Anymore
than this could be a chewable thing or a pen at the same time. No problem Its
the glass of water if you’ve studied that. okay it’s the glass of water. This basic
distinction between the two kinds the emptiness, what two kinds of emptiness.
The emptiness of Michael Roach and then the emptiness of my arms my legs my
head everything else leads to two great parts in the ninth chapter of the
Bodhisattva Charavatari. Master Shantideva finds it necessary at this juncture to
start discussing the parts of the person because he has already proved that the
whole is not self existent okay. uh me as a whole could become a tantric deity in
this life because Michael Roach as a whole is not self existent and is only a
projection forced on me by my my mixed past karma. That’s why I’m having a
samsara right now that’s why I’m having ups and downs in my life, that’s why I
can have a close friend that becomes a not so close friend. My own karma is
fluctuating, this stinking stupid horrible fluctuation of karma that’s responsible
for for all the changes in your life for the fact that samsara ... whad you used to
say? never mind...[laughs] is so bad, is that fluctuation. So, because my karma
is mixed my experience of my body my experience of my own thoughts my
experience of the people around me will continue to fluctuate up and down.
People around me will continue to be friends then distant, maybe enemies, then
friends again because I’m forced to see them that way. okay so Master
Shantideva says, didn’t you wonder if the parts themselves are the same way,
y’know is the color itself the same way, is the shape itself the same way. i’ Are
the colors and shapes self existent or is it possible that some other being could
come in this room and not even see a cylinder. Is it possible that even the
cylinder-ness is not self existent and even the black and white-ness is not self
existent and that some person could come in this room and validly see a purple
and orange pen. okay uh Of’And th’ answer is Right, so we have to discuss not
only the emptiness of the person but we have to discuss the emptiness of the
parts of the person. Why? The day you see emptiness directly you will see the
emptiness of the whole person, okay, you will see the emptiness first of you as a
whole but intellectually you get there by understanding the emptiness of your
parts. okay, during th’ period before you see emptiness directly you start to
understand the emptiness of your arm or something like that. okay. The
emptiness of your thoughts, okay. yeah?

[student:] inaudible

Could be. yeah. They could have the karma to see nothing at all. Now would
that be a {dak shi} that they impose nothingness on perhaps you see. We had a
debate about that at the monastery one night. It went for hours. Does non
existence exist mmm yes so, okay, that’s another story okay you can see that
upon the same raw data they are projecting nothing. yeah, you could say that,
okay. They just wouldn’t see it. but that also would be a projection. Emptiness
itsel’ sorry non existence itself has its own emptiness. That’s a - cook it okay, we
debated it one night. Uh, So here are the two great kinds of emptiness.
{kong sak gyi} [class repeats] {dak me} [class repeats]
{kong sak gyi} [class repeats] {dak me} [class repeats]
{kong sak} means the person, meaning you, Michael Roach or Leon or whoever
you are, okay. {Kyi} means of which means OF, {dak} means in this case a self
existent self nature and inherent self-nature okay. Self nature. {Me} means
doesn’t exist. The lack of any self nature to the person meaning the person has
no nature of their own. What do you mean when you say of their own? What
do I mean when I say of their own? independent of my projection forced on me
by my past karma; there is no such nature to any object in the universe. That’s
emptiness.       When you are talking about a person it’s the emptiness of the
person. What. the fact that when I look down and I ‘m aware of Michael Roach
it is only because I’m looking at the sum parts and conceiving of it as Michael
Roach forced to do so by my past karma. Forced to see a human who has to go
through this ups and downs of samsara. Because of my lousy past karma which
is like this - even the good karma from my past is what we call dirty good karma
why? it wears out. {Sak che} {sak che gyi le} Suppose I start focusing on my parts
okay. By the way its very important that you try to get it okay. We’ll never go
through the ninth chapter again the near future right. It’s too hard right? And
there are thousands of lousy explanations of emptiness running around in the
world and ah you’re getting it the real one.      So its really your very serious
responsibility to get it straight this time, so you can teach it other people.
Seriously. Okay. So get it straight.
Say {Chu gyi} [class repeats] {dak me} [class repeats] {Chu gyi} [class repeats]
{dak me} [class repeats]
{chu} means what? Dharma or thing. Thing. okay Thing. In this case thing.
{Chu gyi dak me} is the same, right, the fact that no thing has its own nature as
opposed to, the one that came before was what? [student in audible] self, Me,
person, person the one that came before for was person. The fact that no thing
has any self nature. Couple of questions for you. Em is Michael Roach a thing or
not. Well, an existing object I am. Right? Sometimes when you say thing as
opposed to person you mean pens, chairs, carpet okay. You gotta learn
something about this particular division. In Buddhist philosophy, when we talk
about the emptiness of things in the same breath as a division of emptiness as
opposed to the emptiness of a person, that word thing only refers to the parts of
the person. So thing here does not mean outside thing and it doesn't mean the
parts in general, it only means the parts of Michael Roach. okay You have to get
used to that. Many people have never understood that. okay Do all objects have
their own emptiness. Yes. Are we talking about the emptiness that all objects
have. No. What are we talking about. In Tibetan we say {konsak gyi dang too
fast chukyi dak me}
The emptiness of things which is the emptiness of things that we’re talking about
when we talk about the emptiness of the person and the things. When you say
person and things you’re talking about the the emptiness of the person and their
parts. So don’t get tripped up by the word things here. okay When you say I’m
going to teach you two kinds of emptiness, one is the emptiness of you and the
other is the emptiness of stuff. Or things. Don’t forget, things is always talking
about your parts, you could have called it {kong sok kyi chak shay} or
something, the emptiness of the parts of the person. Unfortunately this has
mixed up people for y’ centuries. Still the Tibetan monastic texts books say
don’t forget when we’re talking about the emptiness of the person and things
together, things means the parts of the person. And it should, because, what’s
the natural question that comes up in an intelligent person’s mind when they
hears about emptiness is: Yeah but is the existence of the boss himself also a
projection. Forget whether he’s good or bad. It should come up in your mind.
Forget talking about the pen, I want to know if there’s a cylinder there and Black
and white cylinder from it’s own side. Or is that also a projection okay.
Question: yeah
[student] inaudible

Uh, yeah, the parts, you can take many parts of the person but but we’re gonna
stick to mind and body ‘cause its even more basic than than the five parts if the
person called the five skandas or the five heaps okay. okay later catch me in the
break. Okay. uh, so we’re getting sort of an onion skin theory, I call it, or its a, I
think of a microscope like in in the diamond business you can focus on the the
top the cover of the diamond or you can move the the loop, y’know the cute
thing, if you move it slightly you can focus in the middle of the diamond and
you’re checking black spots. When you focus on the top you’re checking for
scratches on the diamond which can only be made by another diamond and then
you focus into the diamond and you’re changing your focus into the diamond.
And you’re looking around it’s like being in a hou’ in a room and looking for
black spots. And then somebody says Is it chipped on the bottom and then you
move your loop and you focus and the bottom of the diamond, y’see. You're
looking through the diamond in all the cases but you’re going down different
levels of magnification. Or it’s like an onion skin y’know you’re like going down
different levels of magnification. So, when you’re examining the parts of a
person you’re gonna be examining whether or not the body and the mind are
also projections, okay. I accept that the idea of Michael Roach is a projection, I
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*hat about my parts. y’know wouldn’t they even see something red up here.
Would they even hear some sounds coming out. Would they even image that I
had a mind or was thinking or was animate y’know alive, okay. Cause those a
the two parts to me. The question is: Are the parts of Michael Roach also self
exis’ - are also projections or not. Are they also projections or not. and we have
to look into that, okay. That’s the examination of {chuk gyi dak me} and {Kok
sak gyi dak me}. Now we’re on {chuk gyi dak me} we’re looking about the
emptiness of the parts. okay. We’ll go one more minute and then we’ll take a
break. [slightly under his breath] See if I got anything interesting here hmmm.
Say {suk} [class repeats] {ki} [class repeats] {sopay} [class repeats]{du} [class
repeats] {tradup}[class repeats] {Sup}, well lets not go that way. Let’s talk about
this first. MMM When you’re gonna decide whether or not Michael Roach’s
parts are self existent, you have to decide what parts you’re gonna look at.
okay, like with a pen we could choose three basic parts, I’ve only mentioned
three parts right, the black part the white part and the cylinder-ness the cylinder.
I’ve only mentioned three parts okay? If I wanted to get fancy, By the way the
next step down with the microscope would be lets examine the parts of the part
okay. Like you see there’s this part hanging off here and there’s this part here
and its a half cylinder. To decide if that was self existent I think we’ll have to look
into the self existence of the of this part, cus if this is not self existent the rest is
not. To get to the self existence of that, let’s look at the top half of it cus if that’s
not self existent neither is the bottom half of it and then neither is all the top and
then is the pen. But, let’s look into half of that, y’kno okay, let’s look into a
quarter of the clip naw eighth eighth. But you can’t really get to that unless you
look at a sixteenth y’know an an ultimately I could keep going y’know until
what? Seriously, no. The Atom. The atoms! We’d get down to the atoms of it,
y’know. If the atoms of it are real then its real. Right? cus the atoms are
smallest part of the pen y’know. If all of us believed deep in our hearts due to
the kindness of Mrs. Melvin in the first grade and your own experience and your
own hearts tells you, there must be a real small piece of that pen that you could
get down to and decide whether its self existent and then if it was the whole pen
would be self existent. And if it wasn’t then the whole pen wouldn’t be self
existent. But quit getting fancy, quit fooling around. Let’s get straight down to
the atom, because if the, if that part is not self existent then the whole pen is not
self existent, then the whole pen is not self existent. and if that part is self existent
then the whole pen is self existent. So let’s cut the crap. Get straight to the, whad
do they call it, the meat of the matter. y’know, get down to the atoms and
decide if the atoms are self existent or not. Are th’, because we all, all of us sitting
here believe that when you hit your head on a piece of cement or something it’s
because of those stupid atoms in there. Y’know there’s something in there that’s
hard. There’s some bits of something in there, y’know, Michael Roach can talk
all he wants but here’s something about a Pakistani taxi driver’s bumper that’s
hard. That really y exists and breaks my legs whether or not its empty or,
doesn’t matter, but there is something that exists there down at an elemental or
at an atomic, at an atomic level there is something hard there that breaks your
leg, okay. You believe that. You can talk about how you perceive it. y’know,
Do you perceive it as long or short. Do you like the bumper or not. You can
talk all night about that. But there’s in the bumper that breaks your leg. That
you believe that there’s an atom in there. There’s some kind of hard stuff at the
bottom of the bumper that’s that’s making it hard. You believe that. So let’s go
straight to the atom okay? {suk} Means physical matter, meaning the physical
body. {Suk } can either mean in Buddhist philosophy the object of the eye
consciousness in which case it should be translated as visual matter or
something. It’s sometimes translated as form which is a bad translation, which I
use, sometimes, okay. Uh, visual, physical matter. Colors and shapes basically,
okay. But in this context it refers to the skanda of {suk} meaning your body.
Your body. All your physical matter, okay. Sometimes the word is used for f’
visual matter only, and sometimes its used in a broader term meaning all the
parts of you, your body okay. {Suk}. {Suk gyi Sopa}. {Sopa} means the sum of
the parts. The sum of the parts okay. The sum of my arms and my legs and my
torso which if you think about it, is the sum of my ankle, my forefoot, my sole,
my upper foot and my toes. Which if you think about it is the sum of the joints
in my toes, which if you think about it is the sum of the left side and the right
side of the joints of my toes which if you think about it, and then you can keep
going like that, okay. We won’t go like that. In the end it’s {dum tarram}.
Say{dum} [class repeats] {tarok} [class repeats] {dum} means particle, {tarok}
means, we had it last class, ultimately small, ultimately fine. {Dum Tarok} means
atomic particles. Okay, atomic particles. When you’re talking about is Michael
Roach’s body self existent, does it have any objective reality from its own side.
Big question. Important question. Do I have any objective reality from my own
side. Maybe I don’t, but what about my arm, how about the bones in m arm,
how bout the hardness in the bones in my arm. At some point there must be
some kind of objective reality. We get down to this question. Are the atoms in
my arm objective reality or not. Okay? Do they have any existence from their
own side because of when I tell you look at the pen and I say raw data you
believe there’s black and white there from it’s own side. You do believe that.
you can discuss whether its a chewable object, but everyone in this room thinks
that there’ black and white stuff there. So, is there any physical reality to my
arm? okay? At the atomic level, so those atoms exist from their own side or not.
That’s that’s the emptiness of my arm. That’s the emptiness of my body. And
the answer is no. Okay. The answer is no. How could there be. Its the same
thing as the pen it’s the same thing as Michael Roach, it’s the same thing as my
boss being nice or bad. Come on. It’s just another level. It’s just another level.
okay. Don’t think that you’re interpreting raw data. There ain’t no raw data
because the raw data has it’s own raw data that you’re interpreting. And that
raw data has its own that you’re interpreting and I just made up raw data for
your convenience cuz I didn’t want to freak you all out. okay. There is no raw
data. Why? Because you can get down to the atomic level of a taxi cab’s bumper
the steel, the iron atom, and there’ll still be the left side of the atom and the right
side of the atom. And then there’ll be the upper side of the left side of the atom
and the upper part of the left side. The bottom part of the left side and it’s
endless. And at any given time your mind is organizing it into a whole. y’know
At any given time it’s only again a bunch of parts that you r mind is being forced
to think of as a whole by what? Your past karma. So if you happen to be a m’
an electron microscope molecular scientist y’know and if you happen to look
into that microscope and if you happen to see that these atoms, your being
forced by you r karma to see those atoms. They don’t have any more existence
than my boss being mean or nice has any existence from it’s own side. They
don’t have any more existence than that. What’s the point of all this. By the way
you can get lost doing this. Right? I mean if you sit down and meditate on this
and there’s like three wacky people here next class, don’ blame me, okay?
Y’know if you sit there and figure out that there is no raw data and you start
feeling lost, you would start feeling lost, that’s why we don’t teach this uh to
people who haven’t heard it about, to people who haven’t had some
preparation. Who haven’t had the first two parts of this year. Uh, What’s the
point. The point is that your karma can force you to different levels the same,
like it says like if you’re floating in the ocean or swimming in the ocean and your
karma can force you down to different depths, you can at atomic level you can
see, you can see things on an atomic level, you can see things at a molecular
level, you can see things at a at a freckle level, you can see things at a hair level,
you can see things at an arm level, you can see things as a human body level,
you can see things as a tantric deity level. There, all those levels are there. And
your mind according to your karma could be forced to live at one of those levels.
And in fact it is and that’s why there’s five realms of existence. And that’s why
there’s hell beings and that’s why there’s animals and that’s why there’s deities
because each one is being forced to see the world at a different level. And all
those levels are valid. And they all really exist. They all really exist. So the point
is not to get lost and worry about oh gees, maybe I’ll get, y’know fall over board
and go to some other level y’know like I could get stuck in atomi’ I could get
stuck in atoms for the rest of my life, y’know. Y’know I could get stuck with all
these electrons whizzing around my head for the rest of my life. I mean, what if
I sh’m’ my what if my focus shifted and I was suddenly thrown into seeing the
whole world as atoms which is possible. Uh, what keeps me here in this reality?
It’s your karma okay. How long will it keep you here? God knows, y’know
how how much karma did you collect before you got here? Will you die tonight
or not and where will you go on the next level. y’know. Where will your karma
shift. The shift called death is just a shift in your perceptions. Where will it bring
you next. Now you are starting to get the sense that that reality is like the
Moscow hotel I used to talk about. It’s this huge hotel in Moscow, they were
very proud. Like the communists wanted to make the biggest hotel in the
world. So it’s like five thousand rooms and they’re all like these horrible cement
square block rooms. You get lost in that hotel, it’s hopeless. I’ve been there
y’know. I mean you start to see reality as like that I mean there are thousands of
different realities that you could be experiencing like that, but for the kindness of
Mr. Karma. y’know uh. Mr. Karma is making you stay here for the time being.
Uh, you have to collect good karma to assure you’re reservation at the suite,
y’know the penthouse suite. Seriously, y’know [laughs & laughter]                 you
because life is because you could be thrown into any level by your karma you
must undertake those deeds that would force you to see your body as a tantric
angel in this life and you can so don’t get, rather than getting disturbed by these
thoughts you should be encouraged. y’know It should make you happy, you
should finally see that it’s possible in this life to enter a tantric angel’s body; no
problem. okay. But it should comfort you rather than disconcert you that there
is no raw data. It will be what ever you collect the karma for it to be. How do
you get that kind of karma, do the bodhisattva activities. Where can I find out
about those? take the course you just took for the whole year. Okay? That’s, he
getting at information in advance then he tells you why you’re going to need it.
Keep those bodhisattva vows, act like a bodhisattva. you will, you will , your
body will change. y’know You will see the body differently. But otherwise, by
the way, you should get a sense of the hopelessness, if you get cast a drift in all
of those possible levels of reality you’re in trouble. Y’know, you ‘rye here right
now you can hear these things you can do something about it ,if you lose it , if
you lose it and losing it means y’know like disrespecting your lama, uh failing to
understand these things, not coming to class, not keeping your book, not
tracking your vows, not watching your morality, not even knowing what is
morality. y’know Then you’re like then you’re setting yourself up to drift like
endlessly y’know. And it will be millions of years before you get that. I mean
Buddhist scripture says a uh, millions of years to get to a place like this to where
you hear these things because th’ other’ the other possibilities are endless,
they’re endless. The other rooms in the Moscow Hotel are endless. Why.
Because there’s no raw data. There is no raw data. There is no reality beyond
what you’ for’ beyond what you’re karma is forcing you to see. It’s both a it’s
call {ki nyen chempo} say {ki nyen} sorry yeah {ki nyen chempo} {kay nyen
chempo} {kay}means it’s a big potential for profit {nyen} means its a big potential
for loss. Whadda you call that in investing. There must be a word, Stilwell. Big
potential for loss and a big potential for [students begin to through out answers]
High risk bonds, look I dunna know, what? But but this stuff is high risk bonds.
If if reality is empty high risk bonds, it’s a high risk bond. y’know, if you keep
your vows if you learn about compassion, if you act kindly toward everyone, y’
you’ you can turn this body into a tantric angels body and if you do the opposite,
you can just cut yourself off and drift into a thousand other rooms in the
Moscow Hotel, y’know and eventually you might get back here. uh, so get the
feeling that that’s the way it is that’s true that’s true. okay we’ll stop then we’ll
after that we’ll talk about the emptiness of your mind. Yeah?

[Stilwell: Are you saying that there is no self existent thing out there?]

Of course, I’ he’ John says are you saying there is no self existent data out there
or there’s no data at all. Can you get run over by a car? So, there must be some
data out there. okay, Is it self existent no. So he’s probably saying self existent
data, okay

[Stilwell: how would you describe the data that is out there in a cognitive way]

We’re gonna to get that right after the’

[student: inaudible]

It doesn’t have any objective reality either, you gotta get used to that. If you
could get down to that level, y’know if there was a Walt Disney cartoon about
getting real small down to atomic level and you get into the steel, the iron atom,
and be down in that level you would also see that that is also a projection. What
I am trying to say is there is no such thing as atoms. Just get used to the idea.
There’s no such thing as atoms, okay there isn’t any such thing as atoms and you
gotta get used to that idea y’know you could get down to the subatomic level of
a taxi’s bumper and what made it hard is not atoms. okay. you gotta get used
to that. What’s making it hard if hardness hurts your leg is your bad karma.
There aren’t any atoms making it hard. Science is flatly wrong. [transcribers
note: he is speaking very clearly and slowly, punching every word deliberately].
Okay? you gotta get used to that. What’s making a bumper hard is your karma
to experience it as hard. The karma maybe expressed in something that if you
have the karma you could see as atoms uh but that’s not what makes the
bumper hard and that’s not what gives the bumper it’s solidity and it’s especially
not why the bumper broke your leg. okay. According to Buddhism you can
lump all of those together and say it’s karma. According to science you can get
up to steel is harder than bone. but you still can’t explain why it broke your leg
and not somebody else’s leg. okay an’ and the the Buddhist viewpoint is more
inclusive and correct. It’s also more useful meaning you can reach a place where
you don’t have to suffer anymore and where you don’t have to die anymore if
you see things with this world view. The other one is primitive and incomplete
and people will understand that eventually. You see what I mean there will
always co’ there will come a time on this planet when each person sees that that
is not’ a.) It’s not its not complete way of viewing the world and 2.) it doesn’t
work and 3.) it especially doesn’t work for people’s happiness. You can make
things that fly you can make things that go real fast on the ground but people
still get hurt and people still die and people still can’t get along with each other.
Science is incomplete. That way of viewing the world is incorrect. There are not
such things as atoms. There is no such thing as atoms. If there is anything that
makes a bumper hard it’s your past karma. It’s very interesting. It’s really
profound. and that way of viewing the world will drive you into a Buddha
paradise. Uh, Let me go a little bit farther and then we’ll take some questions. In
the in the Friday night class by the way we decided the next Friday night class
would just be a free for all. An’ People’ll gonna bring up all their questions cus
we been talking about viewpoints. you know five percent of your viewpoint is
still Judeo-Christian. It’s in your guts. Five percent of you still believe in this guy
with the white beard up there. If you went down in an airplane tonight there’s
some percentage of odds that you’d be praying to Jesus or something okay
[laughing] or God. You know really. And that’s not a bad thing, I mean. Jesus, is
a is probably a Buddha almost certainly a Buddha and that’s another thing but
I’m just saying there’s still a part of you that has this world view, that does
believe in a creato r who ’s running the sho w.
Especi*******************************************************************************
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***others not. Its not like that. The same reason that the bumper is hard the
same explanation for the hardness of the bumper, is explaining why you were
standing in front of it when it crossed the cross walk and broke your leg. And
that’s a good world view. And that’s the correct one and that the one that will
lead you to enlightenment, and will lead y’know I believe millions of American
people to enlightenment. We just have to replace the old idea. The’ ideas
evolved and that’s a that was an okay idea for the last few centuries and now we
have to evolve into a higher uh world view which is actually correct. okay and is
not incomplete and is not irrelevant to human beings happiness. It covers

[transcriber’s note: beginning side two of tape]

both you see what I mean. um, we have to cover, by the way I will do some
questions at the end, so I’ll maybe I’ll tell people they can go if they want and
y’know I’ll do all the other ones in maybe in shot alright. Cus we have a long
way to go tonight. Um Proving the emptiness of your mind you see when you
think of the bumper of a taxi

[transcriber’s note: end of side one]

your mind is ultimately thinking that there are atoms and your mind does
believe that the hardness of the bumper came from the hardness of the atoms
and not from something you did in your past. You believe that. In the same
way you believe something about your mind. okay and this is it. Don’t forget
we have to cover both of the parts of you, your body and your mind. Say
{Shepay} [class repeats] {gechikma}[class repeats] {gyin} [class repeats] {shepay}
[class repeats] {getchikama} [class repeats] {gyin} [class repeats]. Y’know when I
talk about or when you look around at the Quaker House and you see the walls
made of cement and you believe that there must be some little tiny particles that
are all packed together making those walls and making it hard, it’s not true.
There are no little bitty things packed together making it hard. What’s really
making it hard, your karma. What made the wall itself? Your Karma. That’s
like a static reality. We’re not talking from six o’clock to seven o’clock or
something like that, we’re talking in one moment you are not a collection of
atoms you are rather a perception forced on you by your past karma. That is
the reality of your body, okay. Now you may have the karma to see atoms in
there. In that sense there are atoms in there but that’s not what’s making your
arm hard and it’s not what’s giving your arm reality. The only thing that’s
making your arm hard is you r perceptions forced on you by your past karma
okay? Now is it true for your mind as well, okay. For mind is a little bit slippery
more slippery than the body. you have to think what is the equivalent of an
atom for the mind. y’know , what is the most basic building block of the mind?
And I propose the following which is what all Buddhist philosophers have
proposed through out history. The present moment. okay. Think about it. The
present moment. your present moment of consciousness. Your present
moment of awareness. The fact that in this instant you are aware of this room.
That is reality for you. Right? That’s like an atom. In the physical world it’s
atoms that make up stuff. Statically in moment, but in my in the history of my
mind what makes up an atom of my mind in a sense is the present moment of
consciousness. I am aware at this moment. I hear your words, I see you
standing there I can see when you move your arm. I have an awareness of this
present instant and that is the building block of the mind. The mind is a concept
applied to the collection not of atoms but of moments of consciousness through
my life. The collection of all those present moments through out my conscious
life, I call the stream of my mind, the stream of my life. That’s Michael Roach’s
mind since 1952 to 1997. That’s Michael Roach’s mind. What. [ three finger
snaps] the collection of present moments glued together and conceived of as
Michael Roach by my mind in the same way as all those little atoms are
conceived of as Michael Roach by my mind.              Okay. The mind also is a
projection. Get used to the idea. okay on what on the collection of present
moments since the day you were born. okay by whom my mind forced by my
karma to do so. okay And that’s why I have the experience of a mind. That’s
why I can hear myself think. okay. Get used used to it. What’s the raw data?
Moments of present consciousness. Present moments of consciousness. My
mind in the present moment. Take enough of those together, we can call them
Michael Roach from nine o’clock to ten o’clock. Sorry, Michael Roach’s mind
from now o’clock to ten o’clock. The collections of all those scenes of my life, of
all those awarenesses of my life, lump then together like we did the white the
black and the cylinder and impose on then the idea this is Michael Roach’s mind
during the last hour okay? It’s just another projection. Now let’s go and see if
the raw data is a projection also or not. okay? I lost you already but let’s go
further. [laughs with the class] I had time to think about and I had a great
blessing this weekend. I had a retreat an’ all of it came clear to me. Um, I had a
very intense retreat an’ it all came clear to me. So anyway, uh, each moment, of
what you call present consciousness has no more existence than those atoms.
Why? That’s also a projection. Why. because you can split it up into three
moments and say the beginning of the present moment of consciousness, and
then the duration of the present moment of consciousness and then the ending
of the present moment of consciousness because even though we can’t be aware
of it so well. We know that the present moment of consciousness must have had
a warm up, must have had a duration, and must have had a shut down. Even
though we can’t be very aware that what we call the present moment of
consciousness must of had a beginning, middle and an end itself. we can think of
it I mean, you know that’s its true. The beginning of the present moment of
consciousness cam a millisecond before the end of the present moment of
consciousness. What I’m trying to say is, the present moment of consciousness
even though it seems to be a single unitary thing we know it’s not. And it must
have three parts called the beginning the middle and the end and somebody is
thinking of it as one thing. Oh, who’s that? Mr. Karma! okay, [laughs] Mr.
Karma’s forcing me to experience my present moment of consciousness as one
thing and it’s lying to me and fooling me again. y’know, Looks like one moment
of consciousness. It cannot be! There must have been a beginning of that
moment of consciousness, a middle of that moment of consciousness an’ an end
of that moment of consciousness and I must be, my mind must projecting on to
that my present moment of consciousness y’see. As you can keep splitting the
body into its subparts and subparts and subparts, you can divide the present
moment of consciousness into its beginning, to the beginning of its beginning,
the beginning of the beginning of the beginning, and etc. infinitely. Can you
find a self existent building block [transcriber’s note: he is speaking each word
separately] of consciousness. No, there’s no such thing. [Back up to speed]
There’s no such thing as an atom and there’s no such thing as a present moment
of consciousness. There is no such thing. Why are you having this experience.
Your karma is forcing you to think this way. Okay, Very profound. Your mind
itself has no objective existence beyond your projections. You’re projecting it
also. okay. Why. because you can keep goin’ down through the onion skins and
in the middle of an onion what do you hit. Nothing okay, that’s another proof
of emptiness. okay, you can’t be seeing what you’re seeing. it’s impossible. it
has to be a projection. okay. It’s impossible. there isn’t such a thing as a present
moment of consciousness that’s impossible. No more possible than an atom.
they're both impossible. You’re both projecting on to it something that’s not
there. Okay? What do we call that exercise where you go through the parts,
y’know, am I my body, am I the parts of my body, am I the parts of the parts of
my body and you finally get down to there ain’t no atoms and there is no
present moment of consciousness no matter how hard it’s no matter how
strongly it seems to be there. An’ no how matter how strongly your heart
wants to say along with the rest of human kind, there are atoms y’know, there is
some objective reality. It’s not there. There is no such thing. Uh, why do we do
it why do we think that? Two things: say {matak} [class repeats] {machepa}[class
repeats] , Let’s stick to that right now, {matak} [class repeats] {machepa}[class
repeats]. When you’re, I mean how does raw data get to be raw data before you
blow it up? okay, I mean it did feel like raw data at the beginning of class right?
there was a black and white cylinder out there. okay. That’s find as long as you
don’t look to close. What is that expression in English y’know, is that it until y’ as
long as you don’t, [something from a student makes him chuckle] don’t look a
gift horse in the mouth no, y’know until you look too close it’s fine. y’know
there is a black and white thing. I mean when you are focusing, when I say think
of it as a pen, now think of it as a pen [pause] an’ when I say withdraw the
thought of it as a pen and see it as a black and white cylinder the exercise is you
are examining its pen-ness, but you ainot you ain’t opening that can of worms
called let’s look into it’s blackness. Let’s look into it’s very existence of anything
there. I’m not asking you to do that. Let’s do it again. Look at it as a black and
white cylinder. [Pause] Look at it as a pen. But in neither case did I say examine
whether there is any physical object there at all. Okay. I didn’t open that can of
worms. That’s called {matak machepa}. {matak machepa} means let it be. Let it
be. {Matak} means don’t examine it. {machepa} means don’t analyze it. {matak
machepa} means if you don’t examine it, if you don’t analyze it that good old
black and white cylinder was doing fine out there on its own before you started
asking about its atoms and everything. He was there for all of us okay before
you started opening up that can of worms by examining it he was jut there in a
fuzzy unexamined way. Your whole world is like that and that’s fine. No
problem, Madhumika says no problem, the whole world works.                  {matak
machepa} taxi cabs run over {matak machepa} legs and you’ve got to go to the
{matak machepa} hospital and you get a whopping {matak machepa} bill. okay
[laughter] an’ there’s no problem everything exists. You can use a pen it works.
{matak machepa}. When you start analyzing then you you find it’s emptiness.
But we’ll get into that. As a projection a reasonable projection by a reasonable
normal human mind who’s being run by normal old reasonable Mr. Karma, you
can use it reasonably to present a class to a group of people. No problem {matak
machepa}. okay? Without asking about it’s emptiness, blah blah blah just
unexamined it works. okay no problem there no problem there. by the way
Buddhas, when they get enlightened they still use {matak machepa} pens. okay
no problem. Gautama came to this planet, Gautama spoke words, Gautama
probably scratched something in the dirt for his monks, no problem. They used
them, you can use them. They are a projection of your karma, they don’t have
any ultimate reality. There is no atoms in this pen and you can use it. okay no
problem you gotta get used to that. okay. {tanyay tsema dup}{tanyay} do you
remember, means word or term. And that’s that state of mind where you’re just
there’s a part of your mind which is labeling it black and white cylinder and you
just leave it like that. {Tanyepa} {Tsema} means that correct kind of perception.
A better word would be valid perception. Valid perception. It’s okay to say
there’s a black and white cylinder out there. You don’t have to be a Plato or a
Socrates to use it. Its okay to say that. {tanyay tsema} means normal perception
which uses those mental images {dup} means establishes the existence of this
pen. There’s a part of you mind which sees black and white, interprets it as pen
under the influence of your past karma thinks of it as pen uses the product of
that process called a pen and everything is fine. no Problem. No problem.
That’s how we live. Even Buddhas in their buddha paradises are using objects in
that way. They are thinking of them a certain way what-as what- total bliss
ecstasy they can’t think of anything any other way. okay. every object is
creating the same feeling in them. they are forced, poor guys, [laughing] by
their past karma to see every single object as totally blissful. Like for them this
is like pure gold, shining, blissful object. When they touch that they get what
you get you do your best things. [laughing] okay. Alright. {tangye}

[student: can you translate that?]
yeah, by the way someone asked me to put the English up here and uh it kinda
ruins the fun of it. I like you to struggle and try to translate it. what I did think
was uh, what I, a compromise I worked out if if its okay with John, Iii maybe
we’ll give out the answer key two homeworks later or something like that,
y’know what I mean. So you see the classical answer and the classical translation
of all these things like before your final. But since people are behind in their
[ahem!] quizzes often sp staff, I hesitate to do it immediately. Oh, so translate it.
All the objects in your world [pause] can be established as existing through that
reasonable perception that thinks of them in certain ways without analyzing
their ultimate nature. Don’t ask me to repeat it okay. By the way that last one
{matak machepa} describes how the black and white cylinder is before we
started class, for you. Y’know. you were happy up to that moment cuz we had
some plain old raw data that Michael Roach was leaving alone. okay. That was
almost self existent right, I mean there was something out there and it was sort
of comforting, okay maybe I think of it as something to chew, maybe I think of
it as something to write with but at least there’s something out there. B’ th’ way
I’m not saying there’s nothing out there, there is something out there as long as
you not examine it you don’t look in to it. y’know with that plain old state of
mind that pictures it of as a pen, that pictures of it, pictures it as black and white
cylinder. you can live in a world like that and you do. And you will continue to
when you leave this room. and it’s not the point that you somehow space out
and go walk in front of taxis, okay. That’s not the point it’s not the point at all.
you have to live in a world like this, the point is to make it a paradise. you know
it’s not to get in to the point that really there’s no raw data. You get lost in that,
there’s no benefit to that, it’s stupid it’s crazy it’s a perfect way to waste your
life, okay, n’, that’s stupid. The, presenting emptiness like that an’ saying you
should go meditate on that and live by that is obviously wrong. buddha’s don’t
do that. They live in paradises where they are conceiving of things as things, but
but incredibly blissful things. That’s the point of understanding the emptiness of
them. You don’t space out in the place between atoms somewhere. Okay. No
benefit to that, obviously no benefit to that. but people have done it. Many
people have done it. Many people have taught that as some kind of goal it’s no
kind of goal you can see that you sense it you can smell it, okay. uh, The point is
if you don’t examine it there’s a pen there and you can use it. And when you get
to be a Buddha you’ll still be using unexamined pens, okay. They’ll jut feel
different and they won’t [student: leak!] Leak or [laughter] they won’t run out of
ink, okay, they won’t run out of ink. They won’t run out of ink. okay they
won't leak and they won’t run out of ink. They really won’t run out of ink okay.
What makes it run out of ink. It doesn’t run out of ink, there’s no such thing as
running out of ink. Your karma to think of it of having ink runs out. And that
applies to all the relationships you ever had in your life. An’ if an’ if they were
unhappy in the end and if they changed from happy to unhappy, from love to
even hate, think about it. It’s the same thing that makes the pen seem to run out
of ink. We wanna live in a world where you don’t have to have that happen
anymore.       That’s what got me into Buddhism class was those kinds of
relationships okay. An’ an it should you, too. y’know I mean that’s happiness,
that’s what you want. This world view unlike the world view of science, unlike
the world vie of economic theory, unlike the world view of democracy, unlike
the world view of capitalism or communism or socialism, unlike the world view
of science uh, creates a perfect world. So it’s more cool. Alright.
say {Tanngye} [class repeats] {takpay} [class repeats] {taktun} [class repeats]
{tsaway}[class repeats] {tsena} [class repeats] {mangye} [class
repe*********************************************************************************
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**************************************************************************************
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* and you gotta now look into its parts and your gonna be gone for al long time
before you come back. okay?[laughing] And you’ll hit bottom, I mean you’ hit
zero. That is a method for meditating on emptiness. That is a method of
establishing the truth of emptiness. Sooner or later you will hit, you’ll get tired
actually. You’ll never hit the bottom okay. You’ll decide that’s far enough.
okay, okay? What ‘s that process called what is that method of establishing the
truth of emptiness okay. This is it. {drangye} means term and you being a
Madhumika scholar, understand that the word term in Madhumika means that
mental picture that even amoebas have. okay. When you some book about
emptiness and they say [he takes a funny voice here] “The imputation of the
term,” don’t forget bugs are doing it too. Sorry Mr. Hopkins, but anyway. uh,
don’t forget even bugs are doing it, y’see. It’s a mental picture. It’s how very
fuzzy for a worm or whatever. This is {dang tzin teng gye} this is the one that all
animals, all beings have from the moment of their birth right. you are creating
pictures and and they’re called terms, okay? {Tang nye} {Takpay} {takpa} means
to imply a’ to imply, to impose that picture remember when I turned over the
turned over the transparency, that’s {takpa} to imply or to impose the image
over the raw data. What raw data oh oh that’s also an image and its implied
over its own raw data I’ no’ I mean over it’s own image which is, you see It goes
endlessly. Alright. {dakdun} {dakdun} means - The thing that got applied the
image to. The thing that the image is applied to you can call it raw data but in
this case it implies raw data which is really raw data in the sense of that’s the end
of the raw data. It doesn’t have its own parts. is there such a thing? No. There
is no such thing. When you look for something some collection of parts that was
thought of in a certain way which is not itself thought of in a certain way. Where
it has parts that are not going through the same stuff, you’re gonna find what?
When you look for the atom, what are you gonna come up with. When you
look for the one moment of present time, present consciousness, what are you
gonna come up with. Forget It! There isn’t any thing like that {Tang nye Takpay
dakdun tsawa} means to go looking for it. {tsawa} means to go looking for it,
{tsawa} go looking for it. {tsena} means at that moment at that time. {Ma ngye}
you ain’t gonna find nuttin’! I’ll translate it okay? When you go looking for the
thing [pause] that you thought of in a certain way [pause] you’ll never find
anything except something new that you’re thinking of in a certain way. And
the implication is by the way, if you go looking for the final raw data, the atom,
the present moment of my mind, there ain’t no such thing. you’re gonna you’re
gonna draw a blank and that blank is emptiness. okay. I like that expression
actually. You will draw a blank and that blank is the meaning of emptiness.
okay there is no raw data there are no atoms, there is no present moment of
consciousness, any world view which says there are has to be mistaken and must
ultimately fail its purpose of bringing happiness to a human being. And all other
views except the view of karma and emptiness fail and cannot bring happiness to
a human being okay. They cannot achieve the goals of a of a view okay a little
more okay. okay uhhhh, lets see if we’ve covered everything...now we can start
the second half of the class....[laughter] yeah hang on one sec. say what say
again, say again, oh uh he asked me Jay asked me to translate this thing here:
{gyu} means the stream of your consciousness, the stream of your mind okay.
We don’t talk about your mind in terms of the whole of the parts, we talk about
your mind in terms of the stream of the parts. Just get used to that. With a static
object like your body we talk about the whole of the parts, with a moving object
like time or your mind we talk about the stream of the parts meaning the
collection of parts over time.        {Kechik} means {kechikma} means instance,
{shepa} means of awareness. okay, Your mind is a big collection of instance of
awareness which is called a stream in the same way that your body is a big
collection of little atoms and if you go looking for the present moment of
consciousness and you go looking for an atom, you’re gonna draw a blank.
okay. Okay last thing, hehehe, I was giggling in the car doing this lesson ‘cus I
knew what torture it would be for you guys. uh huhn, I’ll give’ , the last one is
really cool, by the way the last thing tonight just so you can hold out till then is
the proof of the end of samsara okay is the proof of the end of suffering. And it
comes in the Bodhisattva Charavitara, tonight okay, but to get there you have to
finish this [laughter] which is still more suffering okay. [pause while he writes]
By the way I’m sorry to go on so long I hate classes when I’m in them as a
student that go on too long but there’s no way we can cover the ninth chapter
unless we do this, and I could either, y’know you could either go home and
never hear half of the ninth chapter which is what happened to alot of the monks
listening to Master Shantideva right, [laughter] uh Maybe this is why, maybe he
was trying to go thro’, he did it in one afternoon right. Or you can stay a little
longer so that’s the way its gonna be. okay say {chula} [class repeats} {mikpay}
[class repeats] {ningjay} [class repeats] {chula} [class repeats} {mikpay} [class
repeats] {ningjay} [class repeats]. We have talked tonight of two kinds of
emptiness the emptiness of Michael Roach and for you it’s you and the
emptiness of the parts o Michael Roach so until you intellectually understand the
what I said when I said there ain’t no atoms, there is no atom, forget it. Get used
to it. You’re the first people gonna have correct view in this country. Seriously.
Forget it. That’s not why things work and its not what things are made of.
Things are made of your projections, there are no atoms. y’know If a bumper is
hard its your projection. If a hard bumper hits your leg and breaks its your
projection. They’re coming from the same thing. It’s better than science,. It
explains why you were standing in front of the cab. okay seriously. and then
there's the emptiness of my parts, my mind and my body. We did that the
question being why did Master Shantideva get to this problem y’know how did
he get here. well the first answer which is on your homework, is that its the
natural question that comes up in your mind. y’know When I say whether your
boss seems nice or mean is just a projection if you are an intelligent person you
should start asking is he a projection too? And the answer is yes. but is the
redness of his face a projection too. Yes Is the left side of the redness of his face a
projection to’, Yes. Goes down the atomic level. Is the atom which causes his
face to absorb more green and blue from the spectrum and there by be red , Is
That one existent No okay I mean we’ve done with that. But the reason, the
bridge that Master Shantideva uses to get from the emptiness of the person to
the emptiness of the persons parts is compassion. You wouldn’t expect it. okay
the bridge where he goes from one section to the next section is compassion.
Why? You gotta remember this it’s on your homework. that’s how I keep
people awake at 9:30 uh the opponent right, these these bad mind only guys and
everything or whoever it was they come up and say look Master Shantideva,
there must be atoms cus if there’s no atoms there’s no person and if there’s no
person how can you get to Buddhahood? And Master Shantideva says what
are you talking about. And he says if there’s no suffering people around how
can you ever have compassion? Who you gonna have compassion for if there’s
nobody there. y’know According to you Mr. Madhumika there’s nobody there
so how’s anyone ever gonna get compassion, and if nobody can get compassion
how can anyone get enlightened. This whole stuff is meaningless stupid, y’know
if what you’re trying to prove is true we can’t have compassion cus there’s no
people. So what are you going to have compassion towards? okay And Master
Shantideva says Come On, it’s because they’re empty that they’re people, it’s
because they’re empty that they suffer. And it’s because they’re empty that we
can have compassion for them and especially its because they’re empty that we
can lead them to nirvana and to Buddhahood. Cuz if they were self existent we
couldn’t change them -okay- if they existed from their own side and if they
didn’t exist from their projections upon themselves they could never reach
enlightenment. They could only get to an angel’s body cus their body’s empty.
Because its a projection. They can only have an omniscient mind because their
mind is empty because it’s a projection. okay Not only do you not disprove me,
you prove me. okay. They could never get to enlightenment if they weren’t
empty.       It’s not like because they’re empty they could never get to
enlightenment. It’s because they are empty that they can get to enlightenment.
if this arm was self existent if thus had atoms that had a certain kind of nature
from their own side, and not as my projection as forced on me by my karma,
Michael Roach would be stuck in this arm until the day he died. And there
would be no reason to sit in a buddhism class. you could go to one of those
other classes where you learn to be calm while your arm is dying. okay alright,
seriously, okay there’s no reason to be in a real buddhism class. If that arm is
self existent then I’m gonna die for sure. And I shouldn’t be here then I
shouldn’t be here. There's no reason to be here okay. But its because it’s not self
existent that I can do something for somebody, I can have compassion for
somebody, I can teach them about this stuff they can get to have a tantric deity’s
arm y’know that’s [snaps fingers once] because it’s empty they ca’ I should have
compassion for them. It’s be useless to have compassion for them if they
weren’t empty because I couldn’t do anything for them anyway. okay That’s
how he goes from the emptiness of the person to the emptiness of the person’s
parts. It’s on the question of why have compassion if there’s no people. He says
stupid head there’s people b’cause they’re empty. okay I don’t meant to say
there’s no people because they’re empty, I say there are people because they’re
empty. you didn’t get what I mean when I said empty. okay alright cook that.
[laughs] Now, you can imagine three people coming up to normal blo’ Joe blow
suffering being okay and they have three different understandings of emptiness.
Guy number one guy number two and guy number three. okay Guy number
one comes up to this person and doesn’t understand their emptiness yet.
They’re feeling compassion for this suffering person but they don’t understand
their emptiness yet okay. But let’s say, that they have come to some sort of
sophisticated Buddhist understanding that this person is [snapping fingers] that
this person is changing by the instant.       At least they don’t believe in a
“permanent soul” at least they don’t believe in some guy that’s running the
show at least they got over that. y’know they don’t believe there’s a Michael
Roach outside of my body and mind that’s somehow controlling them. Could
you please not die tonight. y’know like that there is no such guy. but yu’ there
is a level of feeling where you believe in that. And people throughout history
have believed in some kind of soul or some kind of person who controls the
body and mind. Oh let’s not have those thoughts today let’s not get AIDS today.
y’know like you could control your body. Let’s not lose this shirt tonight. okay
Let’s not get sick tonight. y’know The mistake, they think they have control they
think there’s somebody running the show there’s not. At least that person who
understood that person’s impermanence that they’re changing by the instant
would at least understand that. People who have that kind of compassion are
called {chula mikpay ningjay} say {chula} [class repeats} {mikpay} [class repeats}
{ningjay} [class repeats] {ningjay} means compassion.             {ningjay} means
compassion. {Mikpa} means to focus on that. Focusing on the person that way.
it’s a compassion that focuses on the person and sees what? {chu} [he speaks this
is a low guttural sound] What’s {chu}? Dharma. {Chu} means things. okay
things. But you learned tonight that it has another special meaning; parts of a
person. okay So remember when you’re talking about this kind of compassion,
we’re talking about a sort of sophisticated buddhist who when they look at
someone suffer they are watching their parts. They’re watching the parts of that
person. in what sense. We’ll get there okay. They are watching the parts of the
person in the sense that they understand that the person is changing from
moment to moment. okay. What’s that got to do with their parts? Well if you
could understand that they were changing from moment to moment you’d
probably get to the point where you didn’t believe that there was some eternal
unchanging them. At least you would get there. okay How does the logic go
from there? [let see mmm to himself]...oh it says and then you would stop
seeing them as some whole soul, eternal thing running them. okay if you saw
then changing from moment to moment you’d understand that there’s no
Michael Roach who’s running the show. And eventually that’d get you to see
that the real Michael Roach is an idea on his parts which are called dharma, {chu}
things, and that’s why this viewpoint is called the compassion that looks at the
person and sees things meaning their parts. This compassion eventually will
understand that the person is an idea of their parts. That’s one way of having
compassion. That’s one way of having compassion. You could see this kind of
compassion getting into teaching somebody karma, because this kind of
compassion knows that how that person sees themselves depends on what kind
of karmas they’re having. Like this is a pretty good compassion, this is a great
compassion. This kind of compassion would come up to somebody and say hey
could please collect some good karma so that you could see your parts a little
better than you are now? [laughs] okay? alright? It’s a pretty good compassion.
This is a much better compassion than oh gee, you don’t have anything to eat,
can I help you. Why don’t they have anything to eat? They don’t have the
karma to see raw data as food. Or to see it as their food, okay, they, maybe
have the karma to see it in Starbuck’s window but they don’t have the money to
buy it. y’see what I mean? They don’t have the karma to see it as their food. if
you want to feed the hungry of this planet teach them correct view. y’see that
where food comes from. That’s what creates food. It’s really cool. So this kind
of compassion is very cool.        Eventually it will reach the point where it
understands that how this person sees their life will depend on how moral their
or how compassionate they are. That’s a very cool kind of of compassion.
What’s the next kind of compassion. By the way there's three and then you can
probly’ [using Indian cab driver accent]. okay, Say {mikmay} [class repeats] {ki}
[class repeats] {ningjay} [class repeats], {mikmay} [class repeats] {ki} [class
repeats] {ningjay} [class repeats]. I translated it as, by the way the first one is
called “the compassion which focuses on things” an’ youse knows what things
means, now, right. The second kind of compassion is the kind that focuses on
nothing. The compassion which focuses on Nothing. this compassion looks at a
suffering being and says they are nothing at all what they seem to be. That’s the
nothing, y’see. They are nothing self existent. They are nothing that exists from
their own side. They are nothing that has any nature of their own. They are
nothing that has any atoms. They are nothing which has any present moment of
mind. They are nothing which resides or which is controlled by the rules of
science or economic theory or capitalism or socialism or any other kinda Ism .
That’s not how they work. They are nothing like that. And that’s the meaning
of nothing here. Nothing is concentrating on their emptiness. They are not all of
those other things that Mrs. Melvin and everybody else taught me. You don’t
have to think those thoughts. okay By the way don’t blame Mrs. Melvin. Who
made her? Mr. Karma. Who sent him to make her...[laughing] You. okay. you
had the bad luck frankly to live in a world for thirty or forty years and have
people inundate you with view points that don’t work. okay. You have a choice
now. y’know see which ones bring happiness to a sentient being. Y’know try it.
Try morality and emptiness and see if it works. And confirm it. If you, by the
way, you get two reactions to that.        Some people really go out and try it
earnestly by keeping their books on a in a sincere way and they get results you
don’t have to convince them anymore. Y’know their life changes noticeably and
they start to get on a role. It’s an upward spiral. Then you see these other
people who say it doesn’t work an’ you say do you keep your book and they
say no. They either say no or not very well which means no also. and ah an uh
an’ they’re miserable and dharmas not working for them and they say I don’t
really believe in this view point. And Master Shantideva says what, last class.
Somebody says I’ve been trying this generosity thing, I didn’t get rich. is’
Bullshit, y’know he says don’ give me that - you didn’t really try it did you. Well
you know I did give away y’know like a five dollars and I mean you know and
he’s like y’know no no we’re talking about the practice of generosity as
presented in the Bodhisattva Charavitara, did you try that over and extended
period with your whole heart and your whole resources and there like well no,
so he’s like well what did you expect. So, what I'm saying is you can confirm this
world view. it’s confirmable. Uh, And that kind of compassion sees that other
world views don’t work and rejects other world views. Its saying the person is
nothing which is created by any other force than karma and emptiness. okay.
And that is the coolest kind of compassion. That’s the one that gets you to a
Buddha paradise. It’s so cool that if you had to write a praise of the greatest
buddhist scholar that Tibet ever produced you might start it out saying {Mikme
tserway terchen Chenrezig} okay that’s {mikme} {mikpa mepay tserwa} means
love {ninjay} They wrote a mantra in honor of Je Tsongkapa. That’s the first line
of it. {Mikmay} you have that kind of compassion you’re so great. okay Third
kind of compassion and then we’re and unless you don’t want the key to get out
of samsara. Say{semjen} [class repeats] {tsam la} [class repeats] {mikpay} [class
repeats] {nyingjay}[class repeats], {semjen} [class repeats] {tsam la} [class repeats]
{mikpay} [class repeats] {nyingjay}. {semjen} means living being, living being.
{tsam} means just, plain old Joe, {semjen tsam} plain old living being. {mikpay
nyingjay} the compassion which is focusing on a plain people. It’s not thinking
oh is this being changing by the instant.           Its not thinking is this being
unchanging. its not thinking is this person a projection or not. It just sorry that
there’s poor people, its just sorry that people have to suffer. It’s looking after
them as well. Its giving them a place to sleep, giving them something to eat.
okay. this is the lowest kind of compassion. okay Why? It doesn’t address the
root of the problem. okay. the reason they are poor is that they haven’t
practiced bodhisattva activities. they haven’t been generous. Do you have to be
Donald Trump to be generous, that’s not the point. th’ where it says in the
Bible, y’know the lady who gave the penny go the most good karma, that’s true.
the point is that you give what you have. All that you have. just to try to give
people things doesn’t solve the problem. What’s the problem. What is the
problem. And then you can go home if you guess the problem. Ahhh! The
problem is that the normal mind thinks that the best way to get money is to save
and conserve and protect the money that you have. right I mean it’s ignorant
activity as far as money making. It would seem to a normal human being that
the best way to collect a large amount of money would be to carefully protect it
from other people and the last thing you’d want to do would be to share it.
okay the best way according to all human values up to the present time, they’re
gonna change now, right, is that the way to get a lot of money would be to
protect the money you have and to try as hard as you can to remove other
people’s money. [laughter] you see what I mean? no I mean that you believe
that. [laughing] you know people believe that. it’s just ignorance why? Because
having a lot of money is a projection. How do you get that projection, You give
away your money. Okay as much as you can with as much love as you can.
that’s the way you get rich. I don’t believe it it didn’t work for me. Master
Shantideva says Bullshit. You didn’t really try. you know he says com’ on you
didn’t really try it. Try it. Try it over an extended period of time to give away all
your wealth. Money will come to you. The big problem then will be accounting
for it y’know like like trying to get all the receipts there y’know all the all the
money that you had y’know you can’t keep track of it. Seriously. um so the real
root of suffering is the misperception for example that money comes from
hoarding it, and getting it from others and keeping it for you. its’ a
misperception. The root of samsara the root of all suffering is the belief in
atoms. It’s not what makes the taxi’s bumper hard, it’s not what makes your
boss mean or nice. And it’s not what got you money or didn’t get you money
and it’s not what made you die or not die and is and not atoms and it’s not
viruses. It’s your karma okay it’s your morality, its your compassion - okay
that’s that’s where it really comes from. now, Last question. Somebody comes
up to master Shantideva and during this section and says com on is it really
possible for a human being to stop this tendency of seeing things this way.
y’know I believe everything you said. It all sounds logical to me. I understand
that if I want to get rich I should give away all my money etc. But is it really
possible y’know in the end of human evolution will every being achieve
liberation form suffering or not. Is it possible for every living being to stop
suffering. And he says sure it is and they say prove it. And he says it’s true
because you can stop the misperception that we have. We can stop those
misperceptions. And they say prove it and he says they are st’ they are a lie -
they are standing on one leg. You know they have this thing about the truth
stands on two legs and a lie stands on one. And he says almost exactly the same
thing Shantideva says Master Shantideva says come on seeing the world that
way that you get rich by grabbing money from other people is a lie and that’s
like a guy standing on one leg and seeing that it really comes from generosity
and giving is the truth and if a two legged guy gets in a punch out with a one
legged guy , who do you thinks gonna win. And he an he says that, he says the
correct view being truth is is very very powerful. And the tendency to seeing
things as self existent which is the root of all suffering is very very crappy
compared to that. Very weak. Once you get the smell, as you have in this
room. Everybody in this room has got a little smell now of the truth one thing
you’ll never forget it, second thing now that the seed has been has been planted
that world view is going to wipe out the other world view - if you put them on
head to head, if they go head to head y’know super bowl thirty three, the all the
view points that Mrs. Melvin taught you are gonna lose. They can’t stand up to
this view point. y’know Sooner or later the truth will out y’know the truth will
overcome the misperception. Therefore suffering can be ended. Therefore
there is an end to samsara because the truth is more powerful than the
misperception. okay In the monastery when you finish your Geshe degree they
come up and they say, the last question, an’ you have to put your hat on y’know
its like this struggle to keep it on they let you take it off after a few minutes and
you hold it the whole in your hand and then they like give you a sign like time
for the last question y’know an’ then you put your hat on cuz its coming the last
question is coming okay. And they say, ready? {korlabtop me payache} [he
does a debate clap] which means does samsara have an end and you say, [Dr.
Sykes yells: {Du} [class repeats and laughs] and they say prove it [claps] and you
say yeah because the truth is more powerful than the misperception. And then
everybody goes {yells in Tibetan} [laughing YAYYYY] and then they all run
home and have tea. That is the last debate in a Geshe exam. That is the last
debate in a Geshe exam. [hands the mike over for concluding prayers]