ACI 15 «Что на самом деле имел в виду Будда», занятие 9

Class 9
Transcribed by: Karen Becker

(prayer: short mandala)

(prayer: refuge)

Okay, Ready? Yeah. Okay. You graduated...remember...from the
Mind Only School and now you get to move up to the?

(students: Madyamika prasangika...Middle Way)

Huh?

(students: Middle Way)

Huh? Middle Way School, okay. Which has two groups inside of
it, remember, the lower group being the Svatantrika, which has
nothing to do with (tantra)...it's just it's a similar word,
okay, meaning "those who are independent", and we talked about
the Independents...somebody said this we should call today's
class "Independents Day". Anyway, it's the Independent Group
inside the Mind Only School...sorry, Middle Way School and they
have special beliefs about emptiness which are somewhere between
the?

(students: Mind Only School)

Mind Only School and the?

(students: Prasangika)

Prasangika, the Consequence School. Okay? So, apparently to
understand their presentation of emptiness helps you go from Mind
Only to highest presentation of emptiness, okay. The
presentation, by the way, of the Prasangika or the Consequence
which is the higher of the two Madyamika Schools which we'll get
to in the next class, is the one that's used for (tantra) also,
okay, so that's the ultimate one. Okay. So whether you're gonna
get enlightened in seventy-five thousand, seventy-six thousand
and seventy-seven thousand countless eons or in the next ten
years or so, either way you'd have to use the Prasangika
presentation, okay? But we're gonna get a bridge between those
two...we're gonna go between those two, okay? Now
the...presenting the, by the way, there's a lot of stuff tonight,
so you gotta put on your thinking cap, we we're covering their
whole idea of emptiness in one night, okay? Their ideas about
emptiness are a little bit difficult to...to derive from
scripture, okay. Je Tsongkapa, in his early years, was very
confused by the Madyamika that he was presented with. He had the
books from India and he had the lineages from India and he wasn't
satisfied. He went through years of trying to work out
apparently contradictory explanations, or confusing or unclear
explanations or or like that, and it was mainly Je Tsongkapa who
actually helped make the distinction between the Svatantrika and
the Prasangika. So, although all schools accept that idea and
all schools talk about it, still it was a little bit hard to
derive what do they believe, you see, because they are
Madyamikans and it's a certain lineage that split off of
Madyamika at a certain point. Bhavaviveka and and other masters,
and you'll have that in your reading, but it it broke off at a
certain point and they started explaining emptiness in a certain
way and and it's difficult to derive it. I didn't think the
reading from (b: Lekshin Nyingpo) would be good for you. It's
very long and it's very, it's very obscure in a way. It's based
a lot on the (Tengyur). So what I did was I went to the monastic
textbooks, which are much more clear, so on this subject of the
Independent School, if you really want to understand it..if
you're a Westerner, I think you have to go beyond the
presentation in in the (b: Essence of Eloquence) and you have to
go to the presentations that happened fifty years later, hundred
years later or even two hundred years later, you see what I mean?
 And as the literature comes up to us from ancient India, if you
try to read a sutra for example, you'll be totally confused. If
you tried to sit down and derive the information you're getting
in these classes from a sutra, you'd be totally confused. If you
went through the (Tengyur), you'd be only slightly less confused,
which is the Indian commentaries. And then if you went to Lord
Atisha's period, which is a thousand years ago, that's very brief
and and also confusing. It's only with Je Tsongkapa and the
first Dalai Lama and the great thinkers of that time that it's
really starts to get clarified, but even his language is a little
hard, so really, to really understand it well, especially this
subject, we're gonna go to the monastic textbooks, and I've and
I've put together what I think is a very beautiful collection of
readings from the monastic textbooks on their school...on this
school's system, and I think you need all of them to understand
this school's system. And I... and after you get all that stuff
pieced together, it's very beautiful. It makes a lot of sense.
And if you don't get that presentation, I think it's hopeless,
okay. And you'll see tonight, I'll go through all of it, but
it's...if you didn't get it that way I think you'd be totally
lost, okay. If you do get it that way, it takes a little longer,
okay, but it's much more clear, okay. So here we go. Again,
Independent Group, the lower group of the Middle Way School, of
all the groups, of all the schools, the least defined, the least
clear, the one that you can't really get clear information about
in the scriptures, and even Je Tsongkapa was totally frustrated.
Of course he had a...he went to Manjushri (laughter) and and
there's a whole beautiful thing. In the beginning he couldn't
see Manjushri, but he could ask questions through his Lama named
Ou Mapa, so he would ask Ou Mapa questions, and he'd says,
"please convey to Manjushri that I don't understand this point
about the the (Rang gyu pa), the Svatantrika" and then he would
ask Manjushri and he'd give back the answer and then at some
point he started to be able to see Manjushri directly, and
there's a debate about...well...the the decision of the lineage
now is that he was Manjushri, okay, but that's another...that's
another thing. Okay. The lower half of the Madyamika School,
the Independents, say that emptiness, which they don't call
emptiness, can be divided into three degrees of emptiness, okay?
So there's an idea that there's three degrees of what they call
"selflessness", okay. So you have to be careful. If you're
gonna put...if you're gonna take off your Mind Only hat, where
you used to call emptiness what?

(students: (Yongdrup.) Totality)

(Yong drup) or totality, okay, now you gotta put on you lower
Madyamika hat and say, "we do believe in emptiness but that's
only the highest of three degrees of selflessness, okay, got it?
There's three degrees of selflessness and only the highest one is
called emptiness. Okay. Or I should say, only the highest one
is real emptiness. And under certain conditions the other lower
two might get called emptiness but it's not real emptiness, how's
that? Okay? So, three degrees of selflessness in the in the
Independent Group. They divide selflessness into three degrees.
Like, sort of, easy to perceive, lack of a self nature and then
medium hard lack of a self nature, and then more difficult lack
of a self nature and that one's real emptiness. But three
different people in this room, if they had three different
capacities spiritual intelligence, the...all of them would get
the first one, only two-thirds of them would get the second one
and only a third of them would get the the last one, okay. So
they say there's three degrees of emptiness...there's three (tong
lams), there's three path of seeings, there's three direct
perceptions of selflessness that these three guys go through, so
there's three tracks...there's five paths on this track, there's
five paths on this track and there's five paths on this track.
So there's three tracks and each each person goes through the
track that they can handle, okay. So level...track number one is
for like guys who are are into ma...Svatantrika, right?
Independent, but they're not so smart...they can only see first
level of emptiness, okay, and then guys on the second track can
see a little bit more about emptiness and guys on the third level
can see real emptiness, okay. And so they they have an idea like
that. It's called the "three degrees of selflessness". Why
don't they call it the three degrees of emptiness?

(students: (unclear)

'Cause they don't think that the first two are really pure...real
emptiness, although you can say, first level quote "emptiness",
okay, I mean, you'll you'll see the word emptiness applied to the
first level one, the easier one, but technically it's only the
third one which is true emptiness. Okay. And there's a part in
the text which I put in your reading which says (gyel wa yin be
chir), the three are actually contradictory, okay? If something
is first level selflessness, it cannot be the second level
selflessness, if something is second level selflessness it cannot
be true emptiness. So the first two...levels of selflessness
cannot be true emptiness. So they're different...they're totally
different, okay? Here's the first one. By the way, here's the
name that they give...very famous if you're studying (rang gyur
pa)...we do it for twelve years in the monastery...first twelve
years in the monastery is (rang gyur pa). It's called the (b:
Perfection of Wisdom), okay, and and this is it right here, okay.
By the way, I'd really like to thank all the people who helped
make all this stuff. I mean, we have like ten-fifteen people
helping, okay, it's mainly Ora...Rob Haggerty runs out a lot,
Eon runs out a lot...he changed his name to Eon, okay (laughter),
and Kristy helps and I mean there's a whole crew that works for
about three days day and night before you get these things, okay,
say (Dakme) (repeat) (tra rak) (repeat) (sum) (repeat) (dakme)
(repeat) (tra rak) (repeat) (sum) (repeat). Okay. (Dak me)
means "selflessness", right, no self nature. Okay. I'm calling
it selflessness 'cause I didn't want to use (ngowo nyi me) which
we've been using "no nature of it's own" or something like that,
okay? We're calling it "selflessness". You know the what it
means. Okay. It's the thing about the pen, okay. It's the
thing about the pen. If you think the pen is coming from its own
side or something like that you're having a trouble with self.
That's a self. A quote "self". I think people who translate it
should put quotation marks around it 'cause it doesn't exist,
right...so called "self", okay. So selflessness, (drak me),
(tra) means "subtle"; (rak) means "more gross", you know, you can
 call it (tra rak). I call it the three degrees, you see what I
mean, because in Tibetan when you make a word for degrees you add
the two extremes together. Cold-hot means?

(student: Temperature)

Temperature. Heavy-light means?

(student: Weight)

So (tra rak) means "degrees", you see what I mean, degrees of
subtlety, degrees of subtlety. (Sum) means "three". The three
degrees. The three degrees of the subtlety...or the three
degrees among selflessness, and this is a big...you know, the
other schools probably would accept some of the the general
divisions but don't talk specifically about the three degrees of
selflessness, okay. And and again the borderlines between the
different schools are not so clear, really. Once you get really
good at this you'll start to see that there's Independent's who
are leaning towards the Mind Only School, there's Independents
who are leaning towards the Sutrists, there's Sutrists who got
little mind of Mind Only School in them, and it's not like
totally clear. Okay. So (dak me)...what are the three degrees,
okay, which three degrees are we talking about. Here's the first
one. This is the lowest one. Say (gangsak) (repeat) (gi)
(repeat) (dak me) (repeat) (tramo) (repeat). (Gangsak gi)
(repeat) (dak me) (repeat) (tramo). (Gangsak) means "person",
okay, person. It also means "a smoking pipe". A pipe for
smoking, so be careful. Same pronounciation. In the monastery
if you go around talking about (gangsak) they might say, "well
what are you smoking now days", you know (laughter) okay.
(laughs). Course they don't smoke, but they chew a lot of
chewing tobacco. Anyway... (gangsak) means "person". (Gangsak
gi dakme) means "the selflessness of a person", meaning the lack
of a self nature to a person. Okay. (Dak me tramo...tramo)
means "subtle", okay, the subtle lack of a self nature of
persons, okay. When we talk about selflessness and we talk about
the selfless....by this is a this is the selflessness of Michael
Roach, okay. Or Tashi, or, sorry Chodron, you know, or something
like that. The selflessness of of a person...as opposed to what
we call the "selflessness of objects". But the selflessness of
objects by itself, and the selflessness of objects as a unit
opposing the selflessness of objects to the selflessness of
persons has a totally different meaning, okay? When you say
"selflessness of objects"...in the context of objects and people,
it's talking about the parts of a person. It's not talking
about...I mean you might think when they say, "well there's
there's Jay's selflessness and then there's the selflessness of
all those objects" and you'll think...you start thinking chairs,
and and stuff like that. It's not like that. It means his
selflessness and then the selflessness of his parts, okay, and
you have to keep that in mind when we talk when we talk about the
selflessness of people as opposed to the selflessness of things.
The things is a code word in Buddhist philosophy for "the parts
of that person", okay, and that's important. Okay. So this is
the subtle lack of a self nature to people, okay? To Jay. Okay.
Like that. And I'm gonna describe it later. I'm just gonna give
you the names of the three and then we'll go into what would it
be like if Jay Hahn had a self nature, and what would his subtle
one be different from his gross one, okay? Is that a good
question? I'll say it again. Is Jay Hahn's self nature...what's
the difference between his subtle self nature and his gross self
nature. Good question?

(student: (unclear)

Oh really? Is a rabbit's horn six inches or twelve inches?

(students: No)

Right, very...I mean, we're talking only theory, okay? (Tak pa
ta sungi rikpa). Say (tak pa) (repeat) (ta sungi) (repeat)
(rikpa) (repeat). (Takpa ta sungi rikpa) is a very special logic
terms that means you know, "theoretical case", you know, in the
event that his self nature existed, what would it be like.
Because really it can't exist, okay? When you're talking about
the difference between his subtle lack...his subtle self nature,
what it would be like, as opposed to his gross self nature, what
it would be like, you're really talking about the six inch rabbit
horn as opposed to the twelve inch rabbit horn. You gotta get
used to that. Okay. We're talking about things that never
existed, okay. He doesn't have a self nature, okay. You gotta
get used to that too...but we can still imagine what they're
talking about, right? I mean, one person has a wrong idea about
emptiness and another per...person has another wrong idea about
emptiness, do the objects which their mind is grasping to exist?

(students: No)

No. There's no such emptiness. But still you can describe the
difference between their two bad ideas. "Oh, this guys thinks
it's the the yellow light...the clear consciousness of the mind",
you know, and "this guy thinks it's everything except everything"
(laughter), you know what I mean...and so you can describe, even
though the their existence is equally zero, you can still
describe the difference between their two wrong ideas, okay? So
this is the lack of self nature, subtle lack of self nature, of a
person. What happened to the gross lack of self nature?
Shouldn't that be number one? That's so obvious that they don't
include it. But we're gonna go over it anyway because it might
not be obvious to all of us (laughs) okay? They don't even put
it in the category, okay. They say "come on, nobody would think
that, except, you know, those non-Buddhists, you know or
something like that". But we're still gonna...and there's a big
fight about whether one of the Abhidharma Schools called (ne ma
bu pas) believe in that thing or not, you know. There's a big
debate about whether any Buddhist school's dumb enough to believe
in a in a gross self nature of a person, okay, but we'll talk
about that. Say (chu kyi) (repeat) (dak me) (rak pa) (repeat).
(Chu kyi dakme) (repeat) (rakpa) (repeat). (Chu) means "of
things" which now you know if a code word for?

(students: Parts of a person)

The parts of a person. Okay. They say (ka sa ta chu nyi su che
way, ka sa, ka sa ta chu nyi su che way chu) it's it's how you do
it in the debate ground, you know. In the dichotomy between
person and parts I'm talking about that part. I'm...in the
dichotomy...Dharma in the dichotomy of Dharma and persons as
opposed to Dharma in general. When you start to debate you say,
"I'm not talking about Dharma in general. I'm not talking about
objects in general. I'm talking about objects in the dichotomy
between objects and people. And then you've...then everyone in
the debate knows you're onto a totally different...objects, not
objects in general. You're talking about objects when you're de
debating persons as opposed to objects, which means persons as
opposed to their?

(student: parts)

Parts, okay? (Chu kyi dak me)...the selflessness of of objects,
right, meaning "parts of the person", (rak pa) meaning "gross",
the easier one to perceive, okay. When I say "gross" I don't
mean "yikky", I I mean (laughs) easier to perceive, okay..the
more obvious one, okay. And we'll talk about what it is. It's
an eighteen inch rabbit horn. No (laughter)...three inch...'ca,
harder to see. Harder to perceive, okay. Sorry. It's lack is
harder to perceive, okay. Okay. Now you knew what was coming,
right? This is the most difficult to perceive. This is the
third of the three degrees of subtlety. This is the one that
only the smartest Independents can perceive, they say. Okay.
Say (chu kyi) (repeat) (dak me) (repeat) (tramo) (repeat). (Chu
kyi) (repeat) (dak me) (repeat) (tramo) (repeat). (Chu kyi dak
me) means "lack of self to objects", okay, Dharmas, meaning here,
"objects", which you know to be a code word for?

(students: Parts of a person)

Parts of a person, okay, but this is the (tramo) version, the
subtle version. Okay. The finer, the more subtle version, okay.
 Equivalent to...what's coming up there?

(students: (unclear) (laughter)) (laughs)

All right. In this school...equivalent to? (Tong ba nyi...tong
nyi)...Shunyata...emptiness, okay? Emptiness. That
wasn't...(laughs)...in this school, the subtle lack of self to
objects or the parts of the person, is real emptiness, okay. And
you know you can describe the other ones how, you can say, "oh,
the emptiness of or the voidness of a self-existent person" or
something like that, and you're still using the word "voidness"
but it doesn't mean the same thing. It doesn't mean the highest
form or real emptiness, in this school...although you can still
talk about them as the voidness or the abcense of something like
that, and you're still using the same word in Tibetan...(tong ba)
but it doesn't mean emptiness, okay. So be careful about that,
okay. They might describe level number two as, you know, the
lack of such and such thing and they'll use the word in Tibetan
for lack which is the same word as "voidness"...and don't get
tripped up. Don't think that this school thinks that those first
two are really emptiness, although they'll still use the word
(tong ba). They might even use the word (tong nyi) but they
don't believe that it means "emptiness" when they...it's just a
verb like "they lack", okay. Now we gotta go through what each
of those is, okay, and and this you will not get from any single
scripture, it has to be culled from all these...that's what drove
Je Tsongkapa crazy and we still have to do it. Your reading is
going to be this big mishmash pulled from all these different
texts which you kinda have to look into before you can get all
this stuff straight, but I did go and find the real authoritative
sources, so you have this version...this part comes from here,
this part from there, this part comes from there, and you get
it...altogether you get a good picture of what they believe.
Okay. So the first question we have to ask is, "well, what do
they mean when they say, 'gross lack of a self nature, to whom'?"
Persons or things? What's the easiest one?

(students: Persons)

Yeah. Persons. So easy that they didn't even include it in the
big three, okay? This lack of a self nature is so obvious,they
didn't even include it in the top three, okay? And here it is.
By the way, all of these expressions are extremely famous in the
monastery. I couldn't stop the seven year course and not give
them to you, although I'm gonna overload you tonight, okay, your
fingers'll be sore...I was thinking if I was gonna be merciful
I'd tell you which questions are going to be on the quiz and
which are not (laughter)...those Tibetan guys...here we go. This
is what it is to be a grossly existing self existence of the
person. Okay. Say (tak) (repeat) (chik) (repeat) (rang
wangchen)(repeat) (gyi) (repeat) (dak) (repeat). (Tak) (repeat)
(chik) (repeat) (rang wangchen) (repeat) (gyi dak) (repeat).
Okay. This one is...is so bad that they don't even put it in the
list, okay. This...to believe in this kind of self is is so
gross that they don't even put it in the list, okay? And I think
it's pretty close to what I used to think when I was a child when
they said, "soul; your soul", you know, it's like, some part of
you that doesn't die when you die and I always pictured it as
being under my chest somewhere and it looked like Casper the
Ghost a little bit, and it was a little clear, like you could see
through it and when I died it would go up to heaven or something
like that, you know what I mean? You must have had some similar
idea when you were growing up. And it's some kind of fuzzy,
eternal, undying, clear, Michael that, you know, when I do my
prayers...now I lay me down to sleep...you know...pray the Lord
my soul to keep, you know, that he was gonna take care of
th...you know, the body would get stuck here and they'd bury it
but the soul would fly away and and that's just about the idea.
Okay. (Tak) means, (tak pa) means "unchanging, eternal, never
dies", okay. Never changes. (Chik) means "one nice little
whole", you know, like like...I don't know about you, but
whenever they said soul, somehow it was always round...I don't
know why. It's like, you know, one whole thing...okay, one nice
whole thing, okay. And (rang wangchen) means "totally
independent, like nothing could affect it". It's not at the
mercy of causes and conditions, you know...if I was a good boy or
a bad boy, my soul would still be there. It might be damned or
it might go to heaven, but my soul is still there. It wasn't
caused by anything, it's it's eternal, doesn't never changes, I
have it, if I get angry it's still the same, if I'm ge...if I'm
nice it's still the same...it's parked in me, forever,
unchanging, okay? Not and not at the mercy of my life or
anything that happens in my life. It can go to a bad place or
good place, but it's this one little, whole little, spherical
clear bubble thing that is my essence and never goes away. Even
when I die. And God has to keep it. I'm praying that he'll
keep it...you see what I mean? And that's that's a "self", okay.
 I think when they mistranslate "atman" as "soul," this is what
they're thinking of, okay, but of course, you know that that
there's gonna be...that's just a very crude version of what
"self" means. The real one is when you think of a pe...the
cylinder as a pen, and you think that the "penness" is part of
it, that's the real meaning of it. But we'll get there. Okay.
So this is called the...what would you call this? This is the
self that doesn't exist when you're talking about the gross or
the obvious lack of a self to?...people or things?

(students: People)

People, okay. People. All right. This is the one that didn't
make it in the list, right? This is the obvious self, or the
easy to understand one that doesn't exist, okay? About people.
It's not true about people that they have that little...clear
little bubble in them that never changes, and's not...it's
not...it doesn't depend on anything else, okay, like that, okay?
Doesn't exist. By the way, the way this came about...I was
reading it in scripture...it was very interesting. Buddha...Lord
Buddha said was talking about...what was it...who it is that
carries the weight of your five heaps, you see, he was talking
about carrying the weight of the five heaps, so if people said,
"well there must be somebody independent of the five heaps.
There must be a "self", there must be a Michael who's independent
of Michael's body and mind" because Lord Buddha said you gotta
carry these five heaps around (laughter), you see what I mean?
You gotta carry these five heaps around. So he must'a meant I
was something...that my essence was something different than the
five heaps, 'cause like I'm like down here and the five heaps are
up here and I'm carrying them around, you know, so I must be
independent of them. I am not my body, I am not my mind, I am
not the combination of my body and mind...I am some kind of
eternal being who's loaded down with these...and then he says,
"throw them off", you see what I mean, "get rid of the five
heaps", you see what I mean, so I must be something different.
They misinterpreted something the Buddha said. Okay. Now, what
would be the next thing we would talk about?

(students: Subtle one)

Yeah, the subtle version. Of a self-existent person, okay, which
doesn't exist, never existed, can't exist...you gotta, you're
just describing somebody's fantasy, okay. You're describing
somebody's wrong idea. A two headed purple thirty foot elephant
smashing every chair in this auditorium at this moment, okay.
Yeah.

(student: Would you define the last two words?)

I'm sorry, yeah. (Rang wangchen) means "independent". Totally
beyond all other conditions, you know, doesn't matter if it
happy, sad, big, tall, fat, skinny, old, young, your your soul is
there forever, you know, eternal. Okay. (Dak) means "that kind
of self". (Dak) means "that kind of self". Should we put
quotation marks around it? Yeah, it doesn't exist. So-called
"self". Okay. I mean, I think translations...to me they strike
me as wrong sometimes when I read them, 'cause they talk about
the self which is...and already it doesn't have quotation marks
around the word "self" and it should have...the "so called self"
which...you see what I mean? It...because it never existed, you
see. You have to think like that. We're talking about stuff
that never existed. We're just describing different versions of
different peoples wrong ideas about boggiemen (laughter) okay
(laughs) and they never existed. It's like, "what does a boggie
man mean to you"? "Oh, he's got these long fangs". "Oh, no no
no, they got broken teeth, you know, like Freddie", (laughter),
you know, (laughs), you know what I mean (laughs) you know what I
mean...and they don't exist any way. It's just different
people's fantasies about something that doesn't exist.

Unfortunately, if you have these fantasys, you you die, you know
what I mean...it's kills you to entertain these fantasys. Why?
Because you collect karma? Why? Because you get angry. Why?
Because you think that person is self-existently stupid. Okay.
And only then can you get angry, and only then can you collect
karma, and only then can you get old and die. So if you fix it
from the starting point, which is misunderstanding this person's
nature, you won't have those problems, and you won't have to die.
 Yeah?

(student: (unclear) feeling of (unclear))

Yeah, self is a really nasty translation, 'cause also self as you
know always refers to people. You don't talk about the self of
the chair or something like that...you see what I mean? It's a
very unsatisfactory word...but we're stuck with it, okay. And it
does mean "self" normally in Tibetan, you know...(dak) means
"me"...in colloquial Tibetan. Okay. Okay. Oh. Look at that.
(Nyentu). You better write that. Okay. (laughs).

(student: (wei gung sak gyi sak ya che mo)...are we on the first
one?)

No, we're still stuck on the first one okay. We're gonna
stick...we're gonna stick to...oh, I'm sorry. Just write it.
Then I'll tell you what it is. (laughter) Okay. Geshe Thubten
Rinchen used to tell us what page to write it on, he'd say "skip
two pages, go to the bottom, write it there" (laughter), we're
gonna come (laughs) back in six days and fill in those other
pages". (laughter) (laughs). No, he would say that, you know.
Say (nyentu) (repeat) (nyentu) (repeat). Okay. Now we're
starting the idea of the three tracks...three tracks. Okay.
What does track mean? Every good Buddhist has to go...your
Buddhist career will go through five stages, five stages of
spiritual realization. Those are arranged in three tracks. You
can go to track number one in five stages, track number two in
five stages or track number three in five stages. So how many
tracks...how many stages in all?

(students: Fifteen)

Fifteen. And they call them "fifteen paths" which which is a
code word for "spiritual states". What stage are you
on...meaning what path are you on? You can be, like for example,
you can be on path number two of track number one, you can say
"I'm on path number four of track number two". Or you could say,
"I skipped from path number four track number two up to first
path of track number three 'cause I was so smart I didn't have to
go to number five", you see what I mean?

And that's called (gan den yu shu), the study of the twenty
permutations...there's a flow chart, you know, you can graduate
from here to there without going there. Or some people go
through all fifteen, you know, okay, if you're really smart
spiritually you can just go to the top five and go through them
there. Okay. It's different...different kinds. So get en...get
used to the idea, three tracks, okay. Three different tracks.
In fact I'll give you the word for that. 'Cause it's on your
homework. You know, while we're on the subject...well, no, we'll
go later. (Tekpa sum) means "the three tracks", okay. (Tekpa)
means "yana", like Mahayana, Hinayana, but here it means
something else. It means one of the three tracks. Okay. (Sum)
means "three"...three tracks. And the first track meaning the
lowest track is called (nyentu). Say (nyentu) (repeat).
(Nyentu) (repeat). (Nyentu) track. Okay. (Nyentu) means
"listener", okay..."listener track". Shravaka, in Sanskrit.
Okay. Why do they...the (shru) means "to listen", okay, why do
they call it "listener track"? It's very interesting. The the
the literal description of the word which as Geshe Thubten
Rinchen pointed out doesn't always fit it technically, but, you
know, the general description of this word "listener" is that
they can listen to Mahayana teachings, they can even report to
other people what the Buddha said, regarding the Mahayana, but
they don't have the ability to practice it. So they're just
"listening", okay...like like this happens in (tantra), you know.
 People go to (tantric) initiations, they get sweet holy
teachings on (tantra) and then they go home and do (sutra). You
know, 'cause they just didn't get it. So there...they even tell
their friends about, "oh I'm studying this, and I learned that",
and then when they get home they do (sutra), you know what I
mean? 'Cause they just...it doesn't, it doesn't...they're not
ready for it. They're not mature enough for it, so it just...so
that's...(nyentu) means that. They can hear it, they can listen
to it, they can even tell you what the guy said, but but their
own practice, they can't do it, okay. Or they they're not
attracted to doing it. Yeah?

(student: Is that the same as (unclear)

Sorry?

(student: Solitary realizers?)

No we're going on to that next, okay, okay. He...this is
sometimes translated as "hearer", and the next level, the next
track involves a solitary somebody, okay? We're gonna do the
solitary guy next. Okay. Okay. So, if I ask you who practices
track number one, you say (nyentus). Listeners, okay. It's
called the "listener track". Okay. Are they Mahayana or
Hinayana guys?

(students: Hinayana)

(Tek men), okay (tek men). Say (tek) (repeat) (men) (repeat).
(Tek) means "yana". (Men) means "hina". "Hina" in even in Hindi
means "small", or or inferior, okay. So (tek men) means "lower
way", or "hinayana", okay? Again it doesn't refer to Buddhism
practiced in Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, like that...forget that.
 Okay. There are many people in those countries...millions of
totally compassionate bodhisattva people there, and there's
probably millions of us Mahayanas who haven't reached compassion
yet, okay? But, so it's not like that. Okay. We're...I'm not
talking about Buddhism as practiced in those countries or
something like that. We're talking about two different things
here. One is that these people don't have bodhichitta yet, okay.
 These are theoretical people, okay, whether they live in Tibet
or Burma, doesn't matter, okay. These are theo...anybody who
doesn't have it yet. Real bodhicitta but had gotten up to one of
the tracks...by the way, just to get up to one of the tracks is
an amazing feat, okay, if in this life you can start the first
path of the first track, you're doing really good. Okay. But
people who didn't get up to bodhicitta yet are are what we call
Hinayana. Also, in this school, they have a problem with
what...they didn't, they can't perceive what?

(student: Emptiness)

Real emptiness. See what I mean? All they can perceive is like
a watered down version. Which is not real emptiness, okay...and
that divides the the men from the boys, men being? Mahayana.
Boys being Hinayana, okay.

(student: But for them, they would experience emptiness, for
them, in their understanding)

She says, "would they experience their version of emptioness?"

(student: Right, right...in in their understanding, because
they)

Yeah, they would, if you ask them, "do you think that's
emptiness", they'd say, "yeah, it is". You know, okay. If they
saw that directly, would they be able to remove their mental
afflictions forever?
(students: No)

No. According to the?

(student: Higher)

Prasangika. Okay. That's a long story, all right.

(student: (unclear...intellectual, or no?)

That's a long story...of course they understand something
of...no. I think technically you'd have to say they they don't
even, even their intellectual understanding of emptiness is
already wrong, according to the Prasangika, you know what I mean?
 That's another st...subject. If someone comes up to you and
said, "I heard this from a very respected Buddhist Tibetan
American scholar, you know, like a few weeks ago..."emptiness
means that everything changes". You know what I mean. That
that's no understanding of emptiness. That doesn't qualify as
any of the understandings of emptiness. See that was way back in
sub...(laughs) you know, sub-level number one (laughs) okay, "and
you have to learn to deal with changes and then you'll be all
right", okay? No. Okay. (laughter) By the way, I just want
your notes for the seven year course to be complete, okay. I
don't expect you to memorize all this tonight...maybe we should
had a separate course on Independent School, but we don't have
time. Okay. So. Okay. Say (rang kya) (repeat) (tuppay)
(repeat) (dzeyu du) (repeat) (druppa) (repeat). (Rang kya)
(repeat) (tuppay) (repeat) (dzeyu du) (repeat) (druppa) (repeat).
This describes the subtle self of a person, okay? This describes
the more subtle version of the self-nature of a person. I think
we said it was the twelve inch rabbit horn. Oh no, six inch.
Okay. This describes the six inch rabbit horn. Okay. This is
the lowest one of the three levels of selflessness in in this
school. This is the mo...easiest one to see, okay? Is it about
people or things?

(students: People)

People. Okay. This is, okay, so this, this is what ignorance
sees in this school at its stupidest level. When it looks at
a...person, okay, it's looking at a person and it's thinking
something about that person which is totally wrong, okay. It has
this fantasy about a person. Yeah?

(student: I I keep I keep getting confused whether...at first we
were talking about what (dak) is, "selflessness")

Right.

(student: And now we're talking about types of self, about
selflessness)

Right. Right. Right. Right. You perceive the lack of these
three...you see what I mean? Okay. The three emptinesses or the
three selflessnesses are the three absenses of these three non-
existent things, get it? You gotta get used to that. Now I'm
we're describing the non-existent things that aren't there, okay.
 And the first one is the non-existent obvious form of a self
nature. Of a person. Yeah?

(student: These are the (gak ja)s?)

Yeah, these are the (gak jas), you can say that..that's a very
nice way to say it. These are the three (gak jas) according to
the? Independents. Would the Prasangikas call the lower two
(gak jas)? No. Okay. Not ultimate (gak jas), okay. They'd say
those are temporal (gak jas). Those are nice to get rid of but
not very...not the ultimate one. They say (gak ja tor tu ma
yin), not the ultimate form of the (gak ja), okay? Okay. Say
(rang kya) (repeat) (tuppay) (repeat) (dzeyu du) (repeat)
(druppa) (repeat). (Rang kya) (repeat) (tuppay) (repeat) (dzeyu
du) (repeat) (druppa) (repeat). (Rang kya tuppay) is an idiom in
Tibetan, okay...it all goes together. (Rang kya tuppa...rang kya
tuppa). (Rang kya tuppa) means "self standing". Stands on its
own, okay. In in modern Tibetan they say (rang go tum bor).
(Rang kya tuppa) means, you know, "I I moved out of my house, I'm
renting my own apartment in the East Village, I'm (rang kya
tuppa) (laughter), you know what I mean? You know, I don't need
my parents anymore. I'm st...I'm standing on my own now. Okay.
And that's (rang kya tuppa). (Dzeyu) means (dze yu) means
"substantial...substantial". The word "substantial" in Buddhist
philosophy is extremely important. I went on a long computer
search for it today, there's at least five different meanings to
it, and then I discovered that this Lama named Changkya Ruppe
Dorje wrote a whole page on it. So I just cut it out and
translated it for you. And he does...he actually goes through
the five in order, and nobody, I've never seen that anywhere, so
it's very beautiful. He just gives you, "here's the five
different meanings that "substantial" has in Buddhism"...you know
what I mean? And I really love it because Geshe Thubten Rinchen
went through a very detailed description of the highest meaning,
and then he said "there's this other ones", you know what I mean,
so when you see "substantial"..if you're gonna be a long-term
Buddhist scholar, Tibetan scholar, you better know there's five
different flavors of "substantial". And we're actually gonna do
'em tonight 'cause I was so taken up by it that I decided I'll
throw it in, so leave a page there (laughter), okay...leave a
blank page there, we'll come back to the word "substantial".
Okay. Why bother? Is it just some philosophical BS?

(student: No)

No. Your mind goes through five different ideas that are wrong
before it gets to the right one. These are...this is not just
some philosophical fighting between different schools. Each one
of these was taught by Lord Buddha because you or one of your
students is gonna be thinking that exact thing. And you better
know them. And by the time you get...somebody told me it feels
really good to be out of the Mind Only School, you know, 'cause
they don't think right, but isn't your understanding of emptiness
much clearer now...you see what I mean? And it'll get more clear
and you learn what each...because, somewhere down there is what
you thought emptiness was...you see what I mean?...or one of your
students is gonna think that, you know. Some down...somewhere
down there in those four and a half schools of wrong ideas about
emptiness is exactly where you are or one of your students, and
now, now you know that you should go up to the fifth, right?
Upper half of the fourth, okay. Okay. Here we go. So this is
what it is. (Dzeyu du druppa). In this case, I'll tell you in
advance, okay, (dzeyu du druppa) here means "there's the five
heaps out there and you are behind it like a driver", okay? Your
self, you know, Jay Hahn is is somehow driving this whole
thing...this mind and this body are being driven around, directed
by this self-standing Jay Hahn, you know what I mean? Okay. I
am not one of those parts of the car, I am the driver. Okay? I
exist independent of my body and my mind. I'm behind it
all...directing the scene. Okay. I have my thoughts, therefore
I am not my thoughts. And I am lifting my hand...therefore I am
not my hand, I'm somewhere behind it all, looking at it all, and
directing the whole show, okay. Which makes it very frustrating
when you get cancer or something, you see what I mean? Wait a
minute...I I didn't direct that, you know, and then you start to
realize that you're not in control and there is no self like
that, okay. You gotta get used to that. Okay. There is no
person behind the scenes like the Wizard of Oz who's running the
show, okay? You are your body and mind or your something, okay,
but you're not like a self-existent, self-standing substantial
driver who's directing the show, okay. Yeah.

(student: Is it roughly equivalent to like "ego"?)

You could say like an ego. She says, "is it like an ego?". You
can say that, like like that, yeah you could say that. Okay.
Anyway, it's a me who's behind the scenes running my body and my
mind. And who has control over them. Yeah, right. Tell me
you're gonna have this shirt tomorrow, you know, tell me you're
gonna own this shirt tomorrow. Tell me for sure that you're
gonna own your shirt tomorrow, forget your body, you know what I
mean (laughs), you can't say it, you can't say for sure, it's, I
mean it's crazy. You can't say that someone else won't be
wearing your shirt tomorrow because you died. You know what I
mean. You don't know. You can't say. You don't even run that,
so how can you run your body. Yeah?

(student: Does that mean (tek men))

Sorry?

(student: That me, right, (unclear))
I like that you did that. Thank you. That me is...

(student: Me is unique and personal?)

Unique and personal? Yeah, all of these say that that "me" would
be unique and personal. Yeah. No no Buddhist school says that
you're somehow connected to everybody else, or you share a
mindstream, or something...no Buddhist school says that. Okay.
Not even enlightened beings are connected. They're all separate
mind streams. Yeah?

(student: (unclear) but they're unique (unclear), like in
Western, especially the substance and (unclear), right?)

Un huh.

(student: (unclear))

Oh no, not like that. That's not...we would call it very nature
and features, or something like that...yeah, not like that. Not
that way. Okay. Okay. So. Lower track. Talking lower track.
Question for you. Who's the people on the lower track? What are
they called?

(student: Listeners)

Listeners, okay? Listeners. Now you know why. Shravaka. Okay.
And are they Hinayana or Mahayana?

(students: Hinayana)

Hinayana, okay. By the way, don't forget we're in the Middle Way
School but we're describing lower schools, okay, how they see
emptiness. And and what do they perceive when they see self-
lessness. Let's say on the path of seeing, on their path of
seeing, lower track, path number three, realization number
three...directly perception of selflessness...what do they see?
Directly. It's not true that there's a driver running my body
and my mind. They see it directly. Okay. What do they do on
the first and second path? Well...what do they do on the second
path? They are starting to get intellectual understandings that?
 What? There's no self running the body and the mind. Okay?
That's all. Okay. What are they doing on their fourth path?
They're using their direct perception of the fact that there's no
driver of the body and the mind back on when they saw
selflessness directly, to get rid of their mental afflictions.
What happens on track nu...track one, path number five? They
achieve nirvana, lower nirvana. They think it's
enlightenment...they thought, until they got there, okay. All
right. That's all. Okay. That's all. That's what's going on.
On the lower...on the lower track. It's all relating to their
version of emptiness on that track which is, it's not true about
Michael Roach, that there's this guy, running his mind and his
body...who's not part of his mind and his body. Okay. There's
no self standing guy behind him running it, okay. And you and
you tend to think that. You tend to think there is, okay.
Especially when you hear your thoughts. Then you think there
must be a "me" separate from my thoughts...you see what I mean?
The one who's listening to your thoughts. I mean...in this
school, by the way, they say that the self which does exist, is
the consciousness of your thoughts. Michael Roach is the
consciousness of his thoughts. Very interesting. (Dak...yugu
dak), the (dak), the self that does exist, right, is the one
who's listening to Michael Roach's thoughts in this school...in
in the middle...lower half of the Middle Way School. Yeah?

(student: You said that the lower tracks, that they achieve what
they think is nirvana? )
Well, they thought until they got there. It is nirvana. They
thought it was going to be enlightenment. Big difference. Okay.
 Big difference. Nirvana is permanent removal of your mental
afflictions...it could happen tonight, you'd look the same
tomorrow morning. Okay. Enlightenment is when you body changes
and your mind changes into an enlightened being's body and
mind...omniscience itself. Big difference. Okay. Yeah.

(student: So do they permanently remove their mental
afflictions?)
Sorry?

(student: So they permanently remove their mental afflictions?)

Do they permanently...she says, "do they permanently remove their
mental afflictions?". According to what school please?

(student: According to themselves.)

Yeah, they'd say that. The higher school, by the way, would say
that they do see emptiness directly, real emptiness...there's no
such thing as three...as three degrees of selflessness, you know,
you either see it or you don't see it, and it's either a hundred
percent emptiness or it's not a hundred percent emptiness and
they do see it, and they do achieve nirvana. Okay. That's what
the highest school says, all right?

(student: Would say that of the first one?)

Yeah. But they say they don't perceive the kind of emptiness
they thought they saw (laughs), okay, all right? They say'd
hun...they say it is a tenent of the Prasangika School that
Hinayana people, without compassion, without learning bodhicitta
at all, can see emptiness directly and remove their mental
afflictions. Okay. That's a...that' s a tenent of the
Prasangika School. Okay. That's the position of the Prasangika
School. There's a huge debate about it. Okay. All right. By
the way, this school says, "we don't like that", because then it
makes them Mahayana. If you say that these lower school guys can
see real emptiness, then what's the difference between them and
Mahayana? Okay. Yeah, they don't like it...they don't say this
(unclear), all right? But they, they like, "oh if they see
emptiness directly, they see third degree, they gotta be
Mahayana". You can't say that. Then there wouldn't be three
tracks, okay. They'd say that. That's how they say it. Okay.
Okay. Somebody asked about solitary whatchamacallits. Here they
are. Say (rang gyel) (repeat) (rang gyel) (repeat). (Rang)
means...here it means, "self-made", like a self-made business man
or something like that, okay? (Gyel) means (gyel wa) means
"ge...victor", means "Buddha, a Buddha". Self-made Buddhas.
Pratyeka Buddhas, okay? Sometimes they call them "Solitary
Realizers" or something like that. It means, "self-made Buddha",
okay. I don't know where they got this id...there is a a kind
called the "solitary", called the "rhino-like", rhinocerous-like,
and they like to be alone or something like that. (laughter).
But that's a whole different thing, okay. (laughter) (laughs)
(Rang gyel) means "self-made Buddha", okay. Question for
you...guys. Self-made, by the way, means "without a teacher",
okay. Probably you just bought a book from Snow Lion or
something (laughter), okay? (laughs). Is it possible?

(student: Yes)

Totally impossible, okay. No such thing. Never...the text
specifically says, "never was, isn't now, and never will be, true
that you can get anywhere without a totally qualified teacher".
Impossible. Try to learn piano without a teacher, you know. Try
to learn to do anything that takes a lot of skill without a
teacher, much less seeing emptiness, they say, totally
impossible. Completely impossible. (Rang gyels) the text says,
all the scriptures say, have not in this life had a teacher, and
and then the text always says what right after that? But they
had millions in the past (laughs) okay, literally millions, in
millions of lifetimes they have been guided by totally qualified
enlightened spiritual teachers, okay, and then in the very last
life, you know, something can happen and without formally taking
a guru in this life, they they achieve Buddhahood? That's also a
misnomer, okay. They're not "self-made" and they're not?

(student: Buddhas)

Buddhas (laughs) okay? Buddha means "lower nirvana", okay. It's
a code word here...there's many code words in Buddhist
philosophy. When you say "self-made Buddha", Pratyeka Buddha, it
means "a person who has achieved a lower nirvana without a
teacher in this life...after having had millions of teachers in
their past lives, okay". That's the whole sentence that they
don't tell you. Okay. And all the scriptures say that. And
there's no scripture that doesn't say that, okay. This is track
number two. Are they Hinayana or Mahayana?
(students: Hinayana)

Hinayana. Okay. (Tek men). You already have that. You can
just put quotation marks.

(student: What about the historical Buddha?)

What about the historical Buddha...meaning what?

(student: Did he have a teacher?)

In this lifetime? I guess not historically. I don't know. You
could say he was a self-made real Buddha or something...oh, by
the way, according to Mahayana he was enlightened long before he
came to this planet, okay. Got out of that one. Okay.
(laughter). (Tek men) means...in the debate ground you quickly
change the subject. (Tek men) means "Hinayana", okay This is
another Hinayana track. The first two tracks are Hinayana, the
third track is Mahayana. Okay. What kind of emptiness do they
see...quote "emptiness"? They see that it's not true that
there's a? The subtle version of the self of a...I'm sorry, the
gross version of the self of

(student: Person)

Things. Okay. We're up to things. We finished the two versions
of selfs. We had a gross version that didn't qualify, and then
we had a subtle version which is what, with the lack of which is
what the first track people saw. Okay. And now we're up to the
obvious form of the lack of a self-nature to people or things?

(students: Things)

Things. Things is harder than people, okay...in this school. In
this school, okay. And here's how we describe it. Ooooh.
(laughter) I could have a coffee probably...say (suk dang)
(repeat) (suk ndzin gyi) (repeat) (tsema) (repeat)...you guys
didn't finish writing right?
(students: No)

Okay. Later. (Gu ga ma re). (laughter) (laughs) That's
probably hinting, okay. (laughter). Say (suk dang) (repeat) (suk
ndzin gyi) (repeat) (tsema) (repeat) (dze shen gyi) (repeat)
(tongpa) (repeat). This is an old friend of yours...you just
don't recognize him, okay. He probably has a different haircut
or something. (Suk) means "physical matter", okay? Like chairs,
walls, okay. (Dang) means "and". (Suk ndzin gyi tsema)
means...(tsema) means "valid perception", okay, "valid
perception, pramana", okay? Yes. Okay. Somebody got it. Valid
perception. By the way, what's an invalid perception?

(student: (unclear))

No, (tsemin), yeah, (tsemor...tsemin ma yinba). But what would
be an example, I mean, very...it happens to me a lot, I don't
know why on Fifth Street in Howell, when I'm driving the car, in
the fall, there's always some leaves going across the road, and
for a split second I think it's an animal like a cat or a mouse
and a I...or a squirrel...there's lots of squirrels there, and
I'm like, you know, but that split second of of misperception is
a (tse min), and they're rare during your day, you don't have a
lot of them. Okay. You have a lot of wrong perceptions...every
second, but they're valid (laughter), okay. Big difference.
We'll talk about it some other day, but anyway, a real non-tsema
is is pretty rare. Like to have a totally wrong idea, if
somebody is trying to help you and and you and you perceive them
as trying to hurt you or something, you know, they're preparing
for your secret party and you think they're sneaking around the
house, trying to steal your money or something...you see what I
mean (laughter), that's a (tse min). That's a complete (tse
min). You see what I mean? That would be a non-pramana. But
most of your perceptions are are pramana. Ninety-nine percent of
what happens to you during the day is pramana, okay. (Suk dang
suk ndzin gyi tsema...suk ndzin) means "that co...that valid
perception which is holding onto that object, which is perceiving
that object"...me, my eye consciousness and that pen, my eye
consciousness which is perceiving the pen and the pen which is
being perceived by my eye consciousness...is it starting to sound
familiar? Are we gonna...what'da you think we're gonna say about
it? Hum. Okay. My my visual consciousness, my awareness of
that pen, and the pen in itself...(dze shen gyi tongpa) means
"they are void, or they are devoid"...there's a (tongpa), right,
be careful...it's not emptiness here...it just means void..."they
are devoid, or they don't have (dze shen). Different substance.
Now those of you who were in the last class Tuesday night, does
that mean that the...that this pen is my mind? Or that it's made
of my mind?

(students: No)

No. "Different substance" is a code word here for?

(student: Same karma)

Yeah. Come from...they come from a same cause, okay. "They are
devoid of a different substance" means they come from the same
karmic cause. The karma that brought me here tonight to see this
pen, and the karma that brought the pen here to be seen by me,
was same, you know. And it's the same with everything around
you. Okay. And it's pretty obvious, if you think about it, you
know. Whatever karma has created this school building, has also
brought you here, okay? That's all. The one that you're
experiencing and the one who's experiencing it, okay? And the
fact that they don't come from a different karma seed is a kind
of emptiness. Okay. That's a kind of lack of a self nature,
there pro...oh sorry, the fact that they don't come from separate
karmic seeds, is is a kind of emptiness, okay. It's second level
emptiness in this school...like it's pretty hard to see...it's
harder to see than that thing about Michael Roach driving his
body and mind. That one's pretty obvious, okay? There's
probably mo...if you took a hundred Americans and sat them down
and explain that there there's no real substan

(cut)

beings behind their body and mind who's not their body and mind,
who's running them, then who would understand the stuff about the
the one karmic seed. That's all. This one's harder to
understand. This kind of emptiness or selflessness is harder to
understand. Second level. Okay. This is the lack of a self
nature to things, which is a little bit easier to see, 'cause
we're gonna get to the harder one later, okay? This is second
level selflessness.

(student: Could you please repeat that?)

Yeah. The fact that the physical ma...matter and the
consciousness which is perceiving that physical matter are devoid
of any separate substance, which is a code word for, are devoid
of coming from separate karmic seeds, okay?

(student: Separate karmic seeds?)

Separate karmic seeds, okay. Yeah?

(student: Is it okay to restate that in a positive way?)

No. If you expressed it in a positive way, these are very good
questions...catch this question...it's beautiful...heh heh,
Subuti...or anyway, he said, "can you just state it positively?".
 I ask you, is it a kind of emptiness to say, "hey look, you and
everything you're seeing come from the same karma"? Is that
emptiness?

(student: (unclear))

Huh?

(student: It can't be emptiness 'cause)

No, in this school. Right now. Independent hat. Can I say
emptiness that way?

(student: No)

No. Emptiness is always a negative. What am I stating when I
say, "hey you know what? You and this pen that you're looking at
come from the same karma"? I'm stating your dependent
origination. Okay. Get used to it, okay. When you say it
positively, you are describing the dependent origination of you
and this pen. When you flip it around and make it a double
negative...it's not true that you were ever anything else, now
you're describing the emptiness. Okay. Very cool. Double
negativize the dependent origination you got the emptiness.
Strip out the double negatives from the emptiness and you got the
dependent origination. Okay? I gotta ask you one question
before you totally fog out. (laughter) (laughs). It's gonna be
a long night, okay...I warn you. I see some of you nodding
already. If you was Mind Only, would you stick this in "second
degree emptiness", this one?

(student: You don't know...)

Come on...don't be timid. In the debate ground you gotta say...

(student: It isn't, if this is the highest)

Yeah, Mind Only School...forget it...this is emptiness...what're
you guys talking about. Okay. This is the highest emptiness.
Okay. Of course it's the highest emptiness. You perceive that
you're outta here, okay. In their school. Okay. In...when you
get graduated to the next school, this one flunks down to number
two. It only gets to be second degree emptiness...selflessness,
sorry. Yeah.

(student: Do they talk about a (kun shi)?)

Does the does this school talk about (kun shi)...no. Not not
most of them, okay. It's not official tenent of the Independent
School that there's a (kun shi). There's probably Mind Only
Leaning Independent schoolers who might talk about a (kun shi),
okay? You look like you need a break. We'll we'll go on to the
third track later. That has been the second track. And that's
the kind of emptiness they see...okay, in this school. Yeah?

(student: So far you've described two tracks)

Yeah.
(student: And three self natures that are lacking)

Yeah. And the first self nature that's lacked didn't make it
into one of the tracks.

(student: But then is it one of the ones believed by first
track?)

You could s...no, they'd say not, they'd say "people lose that
before they get to the first track".

(student: So only the second, third and fourth one you're gonna
tell us about)

Yeah.

(student: One, two, three ...are those main tracks)

Yeah. Yeah. Out of four kinds of self nature we've talked
about...the first one is so dumb that it doesn't even make it
into being denied by any of the tracks. Okay. And that's that
one where you had a soul. Didn't even make it in...Buddhists
don't even bother to to to deny it 'cause it's so obvious. Okay.
All right. Take a break. By the way, I'm gonna put on the
overhead the Tibetan that you lost when the bulb went out last
Tuesday

(student: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

So if you've got nothing to do (laughter) you can write out those
(laughs). Okay.

(break)

We got up to the third, right? We got up to the third track.
Here you go. By the way, I had a correction from Dr. Chilton who
was in Sera Mey when we got that teaching on Mind Only School. I
said that anything which was...which existed by definition...what
was it...oh, couldn't be (kundzob denpa), couldn't be deceptive
reality, and in his notes, which I think are correct, in the Mind
Only School...even in the Mind Only School, what was it, the pen
is an example of deceptive reality but it doesn't exist
deceptively. How's that? Geshe Thubten Rinchen made a
distinction like that. Okay. It doesn't exist deceptively; it
exists ultimately. But it's not an example of deceptive reality,
and then and then we gotta cook that.

(student: It is an example of deceptive reality)

Huh?

(students: It is, it is an example)

It is, it is a deceptive ex...an example...sorry, it is an
example of deceptive reality, but it exists ultimately. Sorry.
Okay. I'm kinda sleepy too. It exists ultimately, but it is an
example of deceptive reality. How's that? Pen. Okay. Probably
because it's not (yong drup). It's not emp...it's not what you'd
see in the path of seeing or something like that. Okay. Say
(jang sem) (repeat) (jang sem)(repeat). (Jang sem) means
"bodhisattva", it's a short version for bodhisattva. (Jang)
stands for (jang chu), (sem ba) means (sattva), okay, and you can
either call the...sometimes they call the third track (tek chen),
Mahayana, sometimes they call it Bodhisattva track. Same thing.
okay? Same thing. What do you see when you get there? What
version of emptiness...you see, what version of
selflessness...shunyata, (tong ba nyi)

(student: Real emptiness)

Which is...it's the same as the (tong nyi) I put up before, same
thing, (tong ba nyi) and (tong nyi), same thing...shunyata. And
now supposedly we're gonna get a description of what that
is...right? What does that mean, okay? By the way, it's the
subtle version of the lack of self to the parts of a person, or
or what we call objects, okay. Remember. This is third degree
selflessness. Highest form of selflessness. The subtle lack of
a self-nature to things. Okay. And that's how they describe it.
 Say (chu tamche) (repeat) (denpe) (repeat) (tongpa) (repeat).
(Chu tamche) (repeat) (denpa) (repeat) (tongpa) (repeat). (Chu
tamche) means "everything in the universe". Okay. Everything in
the universe. Every existing thing. (Chu) means "dharma", means
"existing thing". (Denpa) means "true existence; true existence;
real". Okay. Real. (Denpa tongpa) means "void; doesn't have
that". Stated in normal English...no existing object in the
universe has any real existence. Okay. No existing thing in the
universe has any real existence. I'm gonna shut this off and and
actually I think I'm gonna cut the class 'cause there's too much
after this. We'll add it to the next class, okay, but I want you
to get one thing straight...in this school, okay, it's very
important, okay? What does it mean in the Independent School for
something to exist "truly"? You see what I mean...what is the
(gak ja) in this school, okay? We've had three different
flavors, right...we said, "maybe it's a a self of a person where
you are driving this person and this mind around". That's the
lowest one, right? That's not real emptiness. Or maybe it's the
lack of...what was the second one...oh (laughter), the lack of
the being a separate karmic seed to you and the things around
you. The fact that there is no...the the fact that there...it's
not true that you've come from a separate karma...you and the
things around you. But then they went and said "that's not real
emptiness in this school". What's real emptiness? Oh, the fact
that nothing is real. But what do they mean when they say that,
you see, if you don't go that extra step, you don't understand
this school. Okay. I mean you can go around saying that all
day, "nothing's real", "oh thanks, what'da you mean? Okay.
Does that mean I can go stand out in front of a cab, you know, to
to to see if it breaks my legs, okay what I mean? All right?
What does it mean in this school...very beautiful, okay. I'll
give you the Tibetan and then I'll and then I won't give you the
rest of the Tibetan for tonight, 'cause I won't overload you,
okay. And this one's a little long (laughter), okay, but but
it's very cool because it is the emptiness that bridges between
the Mind Only School and the Prasangika School. If you
understand this kind of emptiness, you understood all the wrong
ideas about emptiness, you see, 'cause you got the Abhidharma
version of the wrong idea of emptiness, then you got the Sutrist
version of the wrong idea about emptiness, now you got the Mind
Only versions wrong sch...idea about emptiness. Then you're
gonna get the lower schools wrong version of emptiness and if you
don't have the right emptiness by then, you know, maybe you
should go to another class or something. (laughter) Okay. And
many great Lamas have taught it this way. Like who? Like the
First Panchen Lama. Beautiful book where he spends the whole
book telling you what emptiness is not. And then, you know, last
page it says, "guess what", you know. Here's what it is. Okay.
All right. Kinda long, but you'll appreciate, okay...later
(laughter).

(student: Give us some time)

I'll give you some time. I'll wait 'til Rob Haggerty stops
writing. Maybe we'll do a little bit of the rest.

(cut)

In the monastery this is a mantra (lo nu me la nangway wang gi
shakpa ma yinpar yul rang gi tunmong ma yinpay duluk kyi ngu ne
druppa), you know. When you get to this part in the course, you
know, it's just like a mantra. Now Haggerty's writing really
fast. (laughter) (laughs) Say (lo) (repeat) (nu me la) (repeat)
(nangway) (repeat) (wang gi) (repeat) (shak) (repeat)...now in
the monastery they say (shak tsam), it's okay, (shak pa) (repeat)
(ma yinpar) (repeat) (yul) (repeat) (rang gi) (repeat) (tunmong)
(repeat) (ma yinpay) (repeat) (duluk) (repeat) (kyi ngu) (repeat)
(ne) (repeat) (druppa) (repeat). Okay. This one sentence tells
you what they think...how they think things really do exist, and
how they think things don't exist, okay? The first being
dependent origination, the second being emptiness, okay. How
things really do exist and how things really don't exist, okay.
So first I'm gonna tell you what it really is, the way things
really do exist, according to their school, and then the
con...the negative of that is gonna be the way they don't exist,
okay? Got it. These are the flip sides of the same
coin...dependent origination and emptiness. Get used to it.
Okay. So, how in this school do things really exist? (Lo nu
me)...(lo) means "state of mind". (Nu me) means "unaffected; un-
screwed up". Okay. By what? Oh, drugs...alcohol, okay.
Ex...extreme illness or mental afflictions, like terrible
jealousy where you think things are going on when they're not
going on, okay. (Ny me) means "no problem with that state of
mind". It's not messed up by some kind of temporary problems.
We're not talking about ultimately screwed up. It is ultimately
screwed up. We're talking about what they call "short-term
problems", you know, that you're on drugs, or for some reason
you're having misperceptions. Strong mental afflictions,
something like that...not feeling well. Things look different,
okay. (Ny me) means "normal state of mind; unaffected". I
translate it as "unaffected", okay? (Nangway wang gi) means "it
is a...it is appearing to a normal state of mind", okay. "It is
appearing to a normal state of mind". (Nangway) means
"appearing". That object, back to the pen...stupid pen is
leaking...okay, it's it's appearing in a certain way, okay, to a
normal state of mind. On...you know, I'm not on drugs or
anything like that, I'm not particularly angry right now, maybe
half an hour ago, okay, and it's appearing to me. (Wang gi)
means "by virtue of that". (Shakpa), we can say it exists.
(Shakpa) means "can be established as existing". (Shakpa) means
"can be established as existing". How do you know this pen is
here? Because I can establish it as existing by virtue of it's
having appeared to an unaffected state of mind. If a pen appears
to an unaffected state of mind, then that pen exists, by virtue
of that, and we can therefore establish it as existing. That's
all. How do we describe the existence of things in the
Independent School system? If my mind is not screwed up and if I
see it, if it appears to me, then it exists. Okay. When they
get more subtle in this school they say two things have to be
there, and in your reading I did the whole thing, okay...the
whole chunk. They say two things have to be there...that this
sentence means two things. It has to be appearing as a pen from
it's side, and I have to be seeing it as a pen. Two
requirements. Sound like Prasangika?

(students: No)

No way. Okay. We're not talking projections here, we're talking
it is doing it's part and I'm doing my part. It is, "thank you
pen", it is appearing as a pen to me. It's doing it's part,
okay, and me for my part, I'm seeing it that way, okay. Okay.
It's appearing...there has to be an appearance from its side, and
there has to be a unaffected state of mind looking at it, and
then somewhere in the middle we have a pen, due to a cooperated
effort between us...both of us...he's appearing to me, I'm
looking at him. Okay. If those two are present, an unscrewed-up
mind looking at it, and a pen appearing as a pen, then there can
be a pen...then there really is a pen there. You can say there's
a pen there, okay? Yeah. Question?

(student: You said the two things right...the state of mind
wasn't screwed-up, right?)

No I'm saying, the definition is that the state of mind should
not be screwed-up.

(student: Well, that's what I'm saying (unclear), is not screwed-
up, right?)

No I didn't say screwed up as far as the appearance. The
appearance is whatever the appearance is.

(student: (unclear))

And by the way, there's a...I'll give you a beautiful example,
in... for this school, that's in your reading, okay, and and
it'll take a little time, and I'll cut the class short, I won't
give you the rest of this stuff, we'll do it, we'll do it next
class, okay. And then we'll push the next class into the
eleventh, or something like that, okay, which will force you not
to miss the review. (laughter). Okay. (laughs) Okay. You were
hoping to have the night off. They say, you know, in India
there's these guys...they can do magic, if you ever seen them
they're unbelievable. They have a little stick like that...in
Tibetan it's called a (dyu), okay, a (dyu). It means "a little
stick". (Men dyu) nowadays means "bullet", for example, but this
stick is about exactly like this. And they throw it on the
ground, they sprinkle some kind of dust on the audience, and they
do some mantras. These are worldly mantras...they're not
(tantra), okay. But these are magic words. So they go
abracadabra, they and they throw the stick on the ground and they
spray some kind of cocaine...I don't know, (laughter) it's they
throw...they throw something on the audience, you know, this is
called (nag dze, nag dze), (nag) means "mantra...worldly mantra",
magic words and (dze) means "some kind of magic powder" or
something. And then suddenly, everybody sees it as a horse.
They're all like, "whoa, a horse", you know...actually there's
just a stick there, okay. By the way, this example is not to
describe some kind of wrong perceptions, okay, it's just to
describe how in this in this school they believe you perceive
everything, okay? And here's how it works. Let's say that later
on some more people come, and they're like "wow, a big crowd". I
was in a crowd like that in India, you know, I was like looking
over and there's this guy doing magic, and it was really
cool...unbelievable, I mean, it wasn't quite...it was very
close...and it was (whish), you could...like you like "wow,
where'd that come from"? So, let's say you come later, and
you're looking over everybody's shoulder, what will you see?

(students: A stick)

A stick, okay, 'cause you didn't get the za...stuff on you, okay.
What does the magician see?

(student: A stick)

Let's say he sprayed it all over the place. And he heard the
mantra.

(students: He sees a horse)

Yeah, he sees a horse, okay. Now, does he believe in it?

(students: No)

No, okay. What about the people in the audience? Do they
believe in it?

(students: yes)

All of them? No, the one who were there first, okay. And then
the guy who comes later, does he see a horse?

(students: No)

Does he believe it?

(students: No)

No. So there's three permutations, right? The the people in the
audience who got sprayed see, they see a horse and they believe
there's a horse there. The magician sees the horse 'cause he got
the, he smell...he snuffed it too, but he doesn't believe it's
there...he knows it's not there...he knows it's just the magic
stuff. And then the people who come later say "I don't know what
you're talking about. There's just a stick there on the ground
and we don't believe in any horse". Okay? Now, let me see if I
can remember...(laughs) this represents a person who hasn't
seen...in this school...a person who hasn't seen emptiness yet,
sees things as truly existing, and and believes that they are
that way, okay? So a person that hasn't seen emptiness directly
yet...and this describes just about any school
actually...although they mean a different thing when they say
"truly existing", okay...they...a person who hasn't seen
emptiness yet is seeing things wrong, and belives them, okay. A
person who has seen emptiness already, immediately after,
remember, that was one of the experiences of the Four N...Arya
Truths, immediately after they come out of meditation, they know
they're seeing things wrong but they don't believe it any more.
And they know they can't stop it. They're like schizophrenic for
a long time. They know they...they're seeing things wrong but
they can't stop it. They're like the?

(students: Magician)

Magician. Okay. And then people who come up later, meaning (dak
sa ma ne pe jang chu sempa), a bodhisattva on the eighth
bodhisattva bhumi or higher where they have defeated the tendency
of even seeing things that way, you see what I mean...things
don't appear to them that way any more, due to working on their
own mind and their own understanding of emptiness. Things don't
even appear that way any...to them any more. They're like the?
The people who come later. They're what're you what're you
talking about? No horse, and we don't believe in it, okay? So
three levels...three levels, okay, of (denpa druppa) seeing
things as self existent. Here (lo nu me la nangway wang gi
shakpa ma yinpar)...they see, to ha to have a perception of a
pen, and for a pen to exist, two things are required. What? It
has to be appearing as a pen, and your mind has to take it as a
pen, and that mind can't be screwed up by drugs or whatever. If
there's those two conditions are present, if a normal state of
mind sees this appearance as existing, it exists, okay? And
that's and that exists...(ma yinpar) means "but if that were not
the case", okay, (ma yinpar) means "and if that were not the
case...let's suppose it's not the case", (yul...yul) means "that
object". (Yul) means "that object", (rang gi tunmong ma yinpay
duluk)...you had that before...(rang gi tunmong ma yinpay
duluk)...the whole thing means "from its own side, with it's own
unique identity"...sound familiar? Has it been so long ago?
(laughter), okay. That object, from its own side, through its
own unique identity, okay, (luk kyi druppa, druppa)...if it
existed that way, okay...now what's this whole sentence mean.
Here you go. Ready? If there could be a thing, okay...if there
could be a thing, that could exist from its own side, through its
own unique identity...I'll state that again...if there could be a
thing that could exist from its own side, through its own unique
identity, without being simply established as existing...without
being simply established as existing, by virtue of appearing,
it's appearing...let's say "it's appearing"...without...what'd I
say? (laughter)...without just being established as existing by
virtue of its appearing to an unaffected state of mind. Now
somebody read me the whole thing...loud. Here, I got Elly's.
Can I borrow that? "If there could be a thing that could
exist...by the way, whenever you're talking about (gak jas), I'd
better hear "could, if, would, maybe"...we're talking about
something that doesn't exist, right? So you'd better throw in a
lot of "could be, and if and were", you know, okay? Meaning, I
know it doesn't exist, I'm just describing something that they
think exists. Okay. "If there could be a thing that could exist
from its own side, with its own unique identity, without being
simply established as existing by virtue of its appearing to an
unaffected st...

(student: State of mind)

State of mind. (laughs)...got cut off. (laughs) State of
mind...then that would be something that truly existed". Okay?
They're describing the (gak ja), the ultimate (gak ja), in this
school. They're describing the ultimate thing that emptiness is
empty of. If you could see that this thing didn't exist, you'd
be home free, you'd be an arya, okay. That's emptiness. If you
could see there's no such thing as a pen that comes only from its
own side, in this school, you gotta have a cooperative effort.
You have to think of it as a pen, it has to appear as a pen. This
is a beautiful bridge between two schools. Who?

(student: Mind Only and)

Mind Only and?

(students: Prasangika)

(Tantra) Prasangika, Nagarjuna, Dalai Lama, Khen
Rinpoche...(laughs) you know what I mean, you know, the truth,
okay? Beautiful bridge between the Mind Only who said that that
thing, (shen wangs) did exist from their own side through their
own unique identity, because they exist by definition, and then
this school that says, "that's crazy...you gotta have the mind
seeing it that way, and it appearing that way, and then when they
meet together you have an object". And then over here, is a
Prasangika saying, "you guys didn't go far enough. There's
nothing coming from that. There's just a cylinder, okay?
There's nothing saying "pen" from its side. There's a cylinder
that suggests, you know, the part suggests pen, but then you're
laying pen on it...okay, and that's all that existence is, okay?
Got it. So it's...you're halfway between the Mind Only School
and the Consequence School, the Prasangika School. These guys
have the truth. They say "it's just your karmic projection on a
cylinder...that poor innocent cylinder, you're making it into a
pen. There's nothing from its side that is a pen, and you're
laying this trip on that poor innocent chewable thing, okay. All
right? And then over here you have the the the the Mind Only
Schools guys saying, "that's a pen from its own side
it has its own unique penness...which is what you think when you
get mad at somebody. Okay. And then somewhere in the middle is
the Pras...sorry...Independent Schools...and if you get this
straight, how beautiful you'll think about emptiness. Your your
idea of emptiness is very very clear. You know. Ninety percent
of the explanations of emptiness going around today don't even
qualify in Buddhism. They don't even make it to first level,
first degree emptiness. "Oh, everything's changing. Get used to
it. You'll be all right". Nothing to do with emptiness, okay.
And then somewhere in the middle is what? Independent School.
It has penness from its own side, but not a unique penness, okay.
 They reject the "unique" penness, okay. "Unique" meaning
"without any help from my mind thinking of it that way,", okay?
Don't forget the word "unique" is dropped out here somewhere,
okay. Do things exist from their own side in the M...Independent
School system? Careful. Careful. In the Independent School
system in general. Do things have any existence from their own
side? Yeah. That's the half the half the story, they have to be
appearing, okay? And then you make up the other half, and then
you you see them that way, okay? Okay. Do they exist from their
own side, uniquely, with their own unique identity?

(students: No)

No, because that implies without me having to think of it that
way. Without my unaffected state of mind seeing it that way,
okay. All right? Got it? So it's very cool. Lord Buddha has
set up this gradual refinement of emptiness until you get to the
best one. And if you understand that, then you can help your
students. When you have students you can say, somebody come to
you and say, "Oh, I think emptiness is that", you say, "oh yeah,
you got up to, you know, Sutrists...not bad". Let's go up to
Mind Only, okay. And then you lead them up to Mind Only and then
you say, you know, you keep going. Okay. Yeah.

(student: So your own presentation of emptiness, right, so far
as you use that word "cylinder" instead you (unclear)
Has been what?

(student: Has been (unclear))

Ha ha ha. My own presentation of emptiness

(student: was a (unclear)

Yeah, he says, "then then your presentation has always been
Independent because you have admitted that there is a cylinder
out there". Okay. No. They would say...that's a good point.
They would say, "no, there's a pen out there". Different, okay.
I say there's a basis of imputation, meaning the cylinder, which
I think of as a pen, from my side, and it is suggesting pen, but
it is not yelling pen, how's that? (laughter)

(student: But it's yelling cylinder)

Huh? Big difference, okay. Big difference between it suggesting
or its yelling "cylinder" from its own side and its yelling "pen"
from its own side. Jay, are we talking about the emptiness of the pen or the
emptiness of the cylinder?

(student, Jay: Of the pen)

Okay. (Ma ta ma che par. Ma ta ma che par). Unexamined
cylinder. "Leave the cylinder alone," says Nagarjuna, whatever
the farmer say I say, (laughter), okay, they say...you know...he
said that, he says, "come on, there's a cylinder out there...oh
you want to talk about the cylinder? There's no cylinder there.
That's a projection onto the parts of the cylinder". Okay? (Ma
ta ma che par). Leave the cylinder alone. You know, the thing
you're ascribing to, the thing you're putting the projection on,
leave the poor thing alone, okay...all right...for the time
being, okay. When you're discussing the emptiness of the?

(student: Pen)

Pen. When you start to discuss the emptiness of the cylinder,
then start talking about the parts. 'Cause there is no cylinder,
okay? All right? You gotta get used to that. And that's what
prevents you from getting lost in emptiness. If you teach
emptiness wrong to somebody and they start feeling disoriented,
you've you've taught it wrong, and that's breaking a bodhisattva
vow. You have to be very careful about it. Okay? Okay. You
don't look that tired...how about one minor point? (laughter)
Okay. Yeah.

(student: The Independent School, are they suggesting that
there's a...I don't get it...were they suggesting that the pen is
coming from (unclear))

I'll I'll state it again. Would the Independent School say
there's any pen coming from its side?

(students: Yes)

Yes. Is that enough to establish a pen?

(students: No)

No, you gotta have an unaffected state of mind that's seeing
it...not a drunk state of mind that's seeing it, okay? That's a
different story, okay. But would they say that that pen has its
own unique way of being that comes from its own side?

(students: No)

No. Unique meaning "that could stand alone without me having an
unaffected mind to see it". Okay. Got it? Okay. Listen to the
tape, okay. (laughs) (laughter). I'm getting revenge for the
years I spent in class not knowing what the hell was going on,
okay (laughter).

(student: (unclear))

(laughs). I want to talk about one minor subject.

(students: Both? The bottom one?)
You gotta write both of 'em. Okay? (laughs) You're getting
really tired, like, "which one do I have to write"? (laughter)
That's a diamond dealer question.

(student: (unclear))

Huh?

(student: (unclear) the page. Yeah)

I know, I don't know if you're up for that. Yeah, "substantial",
right? Let's do it next class...I promise to do it at the
beginning of next class. It's important and I don't want you to
do it when you're half asleep. Okay. We're gonna talk about the
five different flavors of "substantial" next class. Okay. And
then we'll push some of the Prasangika into the review and force
you to come to that. (Tap su). Thank you. Okay. Say (kyebu
sum) (repeat) (kyebu sum) (repeat). (Tekpa sum) (repeat) (tekpa
sum) (repeat). I used to get really confused about this,
okay...and and so I'm like giving you something that I used to
get confused about because we're on the subject of the three
tracks, or the three yanas, right? And then I used to hear about
another three yanas, a different three yanas, and I used to get
really confused about it, and Khen Rinpoche, you know, very
kindly, over years and years, kept straightening it out for us,
you know. "Come on, that's not like that, it's not like that".
okay? Okay. (Kyebu sum) means "three kinds of people"...(kyeby)
means "people", (sum) means "three". This is a word from the (b:
Lam Rim) teachings. Okay. This is a word from the (b: Lam Rim
teachings). It's what you've heard translated as "people of
three different scopes". Okay. It doesn't mean fat people,
medium people and skinny people (laughter), okay. Some people
translate (laughs) it like that...big person, little
person...Pelma, Axle, okay (laughter), doesn't mean that (laughs)
all right. (Kyebu sum) means "people of three differing scopes".
 And you know what they are, okay. First scope person wants to
get their rear end out of the lower three realms. They don't
want to come back in a hell realm, animal realm or hungry ghost
realm, okay. Their goal in life is to is to collecte enough good
karma to stay at least in a human realm or better, okay. And and
and you know, ninety percent of us never get to there, okay.
This is lower scope, okay. For themselves. Okay. For
themselves. Medium scope is, okay, they understood that even to
come back as a human with mental afflictions would be a drag, so
their goal is to stay out of all the three realms of samsara.
They'd like to get out of the Wheel of Life, okay, they don't
care if they become a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings,
tha not, they're not worried about that. I just don't want to
come back, even to New York City, with this set of mental
afflictions, okay? (laughs) All right. It's too much
suffering. All right?

(student: Is that out of the wheel or in the upper two realms?)

It's out of the Wheel, you see...the lower, the first scope guy
got out of the three lower realms and he's in the three higher
realms. The second scope guy got out of the Wheel. He's not
gonna come back even as a human. Okay. He's out of it. Okay.
Third scope guy..."what fun would it be to be in my own paradise,
and poor friends of mine back in Manhattan are stuck like that,
I'm gonna do it for them, okay, I'm gonna get enlightened so I
can gain a trillion emanated bodies and I can shoot Dalai Lama's
all around the universe, you know." Need a Dalai Lama out on
Jupiter? I got one. I got two (laughs), okay. Got a trillion,
okay. You know, they want to be able to do that. They want to
be able to show other people how to do it. They don't want to
leave their friends behind. Okay. What'da you have to do first
to do that?

(student: Get there yourself)

Get there yourself. Okay. The (rang sa she...rang sa se) means
"eat the meat first". You know. Do it yourself first. And then
show other people how to do it. And that's their goal in
life...that's Mahayana motivation. Okay. I wanna get my rear
end into total bliss as soon as possible, so I can teach other
people how to do it. Okay? That's called (kyebu sum). That's
called the "three people?"...or something like that. Okay. You
can translate it as the three scopes or something like that.
That's a (b: Lam Rim) concept, okay. Now we go to (tekpa sum).
There's two (tekpa sum)s. And you gotta get used to that, okay.
One (tekpa sum) means "three tracks" and we finished that
already. How do the tracks differ? Well, in the in the
Sau...Svatantrica system, they each see a different degree of
emptiness. Okay. For example, okay, they each depend on
different teachings, you know. First track people seem to like
the Four Arya Truths. Second track people seem to like the
Twelve Links. Third track people like (b: Perfection of Wisdom),
you know, or something like that. Okay. And they reach
different goals, okay? Those tracks...we've had the three
tracks...what are they? In English. (snore) (laughter) (laughs)
Listener?

(students: Self-made Buddhas)

Self-made Buddhas, who are not self-made and not Buddhas.

(student: And bodhisattvas)

And bodhisattvas, okay, those are the three tracks. Now there's
another (tekpa sum), okay. There's another (tekpa sum)...which
is, say (hinayana) (repeat), (mahayana) (repeat) (vajrayana)
(repeat). Okay. (Hinayana) (repeat) (mahayana) (repeat)
(vajrayana) (repeat), and you see that written, you hear it
talked about, and that itself is a misnomer, okay. It's an
incorrect division. And you got...that's why I brought it up. I
just thought I'd clear up a Dharma rumor while I was here
tonight, okay? And I'll give you the Tibetan? Yeah, you want
it, right? (laughter) Where'd that go? I think somebody steals
some of these things during the break. There's a story in Tibet
of a of a cow that was covering up the butcher's knife by kicking
dirt over it (laughter)...I think people are throwing away some
of these things during the break. Okay. Now here we go. (Tek
men)...you've already had it twice tonight. Hinayana. Okay.
Not putting down people from other traditions in Burma, Thailand,
etc. Doesn't mean that, okay.

(student: Someone who doesn't have bodhicitta)

Yeah. Basically a path which doesn't involve the development of
bodhicitta. Okay. Philosophically, a viewpoint that doesn't
understand emptiness in the Mahayana way, in either the Mind Only
or the Middle Way, okay. Philosophically, okay? That's that's
the first of the three yanas, okay, in Tibetan. Hinayana.
Here's Mahayana. By the way, (tek...tek) means, those of you who
know Tibetan, (tekpa) is a very ve...rare verb that means "the
capacity of a of an object to hold up another object". It's used
in the definition of a pillar. This is...this pillar is
(tekpa)ing the roof. Which means "to support or to hold up the
roof". So (tekpa) literally means "vehicular capacity", okay?
Seriously. The word "yana" really...it doesn't mean "vehicle",
they got it confused, okay, as with so many things...it's not
"vehicle"...it's "vehicular capacity". How much load can you
carry? You know, can you take responsibility for taking care of
everybody else as well as yourself. Can you feed n not just
yourself but a couple other thousand people, you know, can you
take care of other people also? Okay. What's you capacity as a
person? How many other people can you take care of? Okay.
That's that's (tekpa...tek). Okay? (Tek chen) means "big
capacity - ultimate, infinite capacity", okay. Here's Vajrayana,
it's (dorje tekpa). (Dorje) means "diamond". (Tekpa) means
"yana, vehicle...vehicular capacity, okay. (Dor) means "stone".
(Je) means "king". King of Stones, okay. In Sanskrit?
(Vadzra). And that is the correct pronounciation, and please
don't rewrite the sadanas to put "vajra", okay, it's (Vadzra),
okay, and that's correct. Okay. (Dorje tekpa). Vadzrayana.
Okay. Now. The reason I brought this up is, there's really only
two yanas. You's either hinayana or mahayana. There's no such
thing as hinayana, mahayana and vajrayana, okay? That's a Dharma
rumor, okay. Mahayana can be divided into secret mahayana and
not secret mahayana, okay, so this idea, you know, when people
present it as hinayana, mahayana and vajrayana, is is incorrect.
It's really either hinayana or mahayana and mahayana breaks down
into secret mahayana and open mahayana. Now do they have their
own names? Yes they do. I knew you would ask (laughter), so I
wrote it down for you. And that's the last thing tonight, I
swear. And that's literal (laughs)...which kind of literal
(laughs). I'm talking about emptiness literal. (laughs) By the
way, thank you for doing your homework. It's really good. Okay.
 I'm glad there's a big pile of homework. Okay. Say (par chin
gyi) (repeat) (tekpa) (repeat) (chenpo) (repeat) (par chin gyi)
(repeat) (tekpa) (repeat) (chenpo) (repeat). (Tekpa chenpo)
means ("tek chen) means "mahayana, okay? (Tekpa chenpo) means
"mahayana". The mahayana of the (par chin)s. (Par chin)s means
"perfections, the six perfections", okay. The mahayana of the
six perfections. This is the code name given to the open
teachings of mahayana. Okay. This is the code name given to the
open teachings of mahayana. Why do I say code name? 'Cause I
want you to know it's not literal. It's figurative. Okay. Why?
 Why do I say it's figurative? Yeah, you think they don't use
the six perfections in the vaj...in (tantra)? Okay. It's a code
name means, okay, it's we just call them "the mahayana of the six
perfections." Okay. This is the name, the code name for the
open teachings of mahayana. But obviously, it's impossible to
practice (tantra) without the six perfections. Totally
impossible, out of the question, okay? But it's just a code
word. It's a...we agree upon this word to mean "the open
teachings of of mahayana". Okay. So you already see why it's a
misnomer to say hinayana, mahayana and vajrayana. Okay. (Sang
ngak) means "secret words", okay, "secret words" meaning
"mantra". Okay. Mantra. (Kyi tekpa chenpo) means "mahayana of
the secret words. Mahayana of the secret words". Okay. Meaning
(tantric) teachings. Mahayana in the form of secret teachings,
okay? So now when they...when you hear that division...somebody
come along and say, "hinayana, mahayana and vajrayana", you're
gonna say "uh huh. It's really hinayana and mahayana, and
mahayana splits into open ones and secret ones", okay? That's
all. Okay. And by the way, there's another three yanas that
means the three tracks. And that's all I want you to know
because I think it's confusing. You get confused. You hear that
people say that and you get confused. That's a Dharma rumor.
Yeah.

(student: Why do they say "vajrayana"? (unclear) I know you
made the distinction but why do (unclear)

You mean, why is...oh by the way

(student: Why do you use it? Why do they say it?)
Why do they say "vajrayana"...vajrayana and greater way of the
secret word are synonyms. Okay. Vajrayana and greater way of
the secret word are synonyms. Okay. Same thing. Why is the
diamond way calls the diamond way? That's secret, okay.

(prayer: short mandala)

(prayer: dedication)
What the Buddha Really Meant