ACI 16 (обзорный курс), Занятие 9 (прогон ГМР, Нью-Йорк 1999) — стенограмма

Class Nine

Geshe Michael Roach

Transcribed by Angie Overy




Okay. We’ll start then.
First order of business, I’d like to welcome Geshe Lobsang [unclear]. [applause]
[laughs]
It’s hard for me to talk about him. But anyway, I’ll try. He’s Khen Rinpoche’s
nephew. He entered Sera monastery in Lhasa when he was seven years old;
moved in with Khen Rinpoche when Rinpoche was twenty-four or something;
served him his whole life. When Sera was attacked, was bombarded, he took
Rinpoche to safety in the mountains. He came back to the monastery when it
was burning. Risked his life to get the food and money together and ran and got
Rinpoche out of Tibet. [cut]
And then lived twelve years in a refugee camp, fifteen hundred monks. About a
quarter of them died from TB. Came down and helped one of the hundred
monks to start Sera monastery, helped build it and save it.
Served on the board of directors to feed the monks for many years.
When I first came to the monastery, taught me to wear my robes, got me
ordained, set me up with my first debating teacher, fed me all the time, all the
way to the Geshe degree. Okay. Then taught me how to wear my hat [laughs]
and everything. [laughter]
So, taught me to speak Tibetan, okay. So, you owe him a lot. So, we want to
give him a {khata} and small offering, okay.
[cut]
[Geshe Lobsang: I’m sorry I’m not speaking good English. I need translator.]
{…}
I was seven years old when I entered the monastery and Khen Rinpoche took
me under his care. And I stayed there and studied for ten years. And then the
Chinese attacked. We talked what should we do and Rinpoche said got to run to
India. I had absolutely no other hope in the world but Rinpoche so I ran with
him and tried to help him. And we made it over the mountains into India.
Okay.
[Geshe Lobsang: {..}]
Then we ran and we had no time to get extra clothes. Our shoes wore out
halfway over the mountains. We walked the last part through the snow without
shoes and reached India.
[Geshe Lobsang: {…}]
The Tibetan refugee government after we reached India tried to help Rinpoche
by finding him a position as a school teacher in a Tibetan schools. And I had to
go to the refugee camp. So we were separated. But in my mind I always wanted
to be with him and in my mind I was with him all the time.
[Geshe Lobsang: {..}]
The Khen Rinpoche was asked to come to the United States and he came. And I
was happy that he had so many good students here.
[Geshe Lobsang: {..}]
And I’m very happy to be here, see so many people studying Dharma, happy
that I could come, happy to see all of you here and welcome your study and
your devotion to Buddhism. Yeah
[Geshe Lobsang: {…}]
When you undertake your studies now don’t just swallow it like a dog swallows
whatever food they can get. Examine what’s taught like gold, as if you were
buying some gold jewellery, very expensive jewellery. In the books they say,
cut it, check it, burn it, file it, make sure it’s the real thing.
[Geshe Lobsang: {..}]
Even if Dharma were just something that we were only going to use for one
lifetime until you die, you should examine it carefully. But that’s not the case.
Dharma will effect you for many lifetimes so it’s important to examine and try to
get a good Dharma, pure Dharma because it’s going to effect you for many
lifetimes.
[Geshe Lobsang: {..}]
Then the fact that you were able to study with a Hlarumpa Geshe, from Tibet,
who completed all his studies in Tibet, and then got to America. And the fact
that you’ve had the opportunity with Khen Rinpoche is a great good fortune for
all of you.
[Geshe Lobsang: {..}]
Then you’re lucky to have classes from me too. [laughs] [laughter] [applause]
[Geshe Lobsang; {..}]
Then even though you haven’t been able to stay in the monastery, still you’re
learning perfect Dharma. And everything you’re learning is so pure. And
especially important for you is to know how to take refuge and what it means to
take refuge.
[Geshe Lobsang: {..}]
My dearest hope of my heart is that you study karma, you study the results of
karma. And then you go further and higher and think about helping other
beings with compassion. This is my fondest hope.
[Geshe Lobsang: {..}]
[laughs] Then all I have to say is, work your butts off. [laughs] [laughter]
[applause]
We have a little presentation to make [ to students]
When I was first learning Buddhism books came out called ‘Abhidharma’, you
know. And I didn’t know what Abhidharma was. And I kept asking people,
you know, and nobody could really tell me what Abhidharma is. And
everybody has their own version of what Abhidharma is.
And I remember reading one book about Abhidharma that never mentioned
anything about Abhidharma. [laughter].
So I thought, we’re gonna be studying tonight and next week, next class, karma.
The ultimate book on it is the Abhidharmakosha. And especially the name of the
fifth course which is what we’re gonna be studying in the next two classes was,
‘How Karma Works’. To me, that’s, even more important, you see.
So you’re gonna be studying the original text about karma and then I think
what’s most important is, we’re gonna attempt to answer the question of how
does karma work. Because it’s one thing, you know, in a country like Thailand or
Shri Lanka that have your mommy come and say, don’t squash bugs you’ll be
born as a bug and it’ll come back to you, you know. And you hear that.
At some point in your life as a westerner you heard it. You heard people say oh,
there’s people in China who say if you squish bugs you’re gonna become a bug
later. And you say, yeah, yeah, that’s nice.
I even remember books in college that said Buddhists made up the theory of
karma to keep people in line and there’s no such thing. No, I remember reading
that, you know. And it seems like that. It just seems like all of these people in
Asia believe this thing and there’s no real good reason for it. And you can chose
to believe or not to believe but there’s no real proof for it either way, you know
what I mean. And it seemed like that. It seemed karma was like that.
So I think, when we got to the fifth course, in the monastery we study
Abhidharmakosha.         It’s the root text on Abhidharma and very, very, very,
beautiful presentation of karma.
Then when we get onto Madhyamika, Middle Way, and Mind-Only School we
find out how karma works, you see what I mean. And then, when we get to the
Lam Rim, we find out if you do this you’ll get this. And if you have a bad back
this is what you did a thousand years ago, you see what I mean.
And for me that was very interesting, you know what I mean, ‘cos you can fix it
by fixing the karma. So it was very interesting to see what I call the correlations.
Do this get that. You want to know why crime went down in New York in the
last two years? It’s because of you. You’re doing something. You see what I
mean.
You wanna know why you’re getting old? It’s you. Your karma’s changing.
You wanna know where that person in your life came from that showed up six
months ago that’s driving you crazy? [laughter] [laughs] They came from you.
Everybody laughs. Everybody has one. [laughter] [laughs] You know, they
came from you.
And, and to know exactly what you did even if you don’t remember, you see, if
you study what I call the correlations. And so we copped that from the Lam
Rim.        We copped how karma works from the Mind-Only School and
Madhyamika School. And then we copped the basic principles of karma from
the fourth chapter of the Abhidharmakosha. And that’s what this is going to be
about: how karma works, okay.
Abhidharmakosha, first I want to talk about the name of the book. Say {chu}
[repeat] {ngunpay}[repeat] {dzu}[repeat].
Okay. {chu} means, ‘dharma’, okay. {ngunpay} means, ‘abhi’, okay and {dzu}
means ‘teasure’, ‘treasure house’, okay. Like, a big treasure chest or something
like that, kosha. Kosha means that, alright.
‘Abhi’ literally means, ‘up to something’, to approach something, approaching
something; ‘abhi’ means approaching something. {chu} means, dharma, okay.
The word dharma means thing, existing thing, okay.            Dharma can mean
Buddhist religion but it also means any existing thing, okay. And dharma comes,
this is the word, dharma in Sanskrit, and then it comes from a root ‘dhr’, you see.
And ‘dhr’ means ‘to hold something’, ‘dhr’ means holding anything. So dharma
means ‘that which holds’. And it can be explained as ‘that which holds its own
nature’, which means any existing thing has its own nature, not by itself of
course.
But it’s also taught that Dharma is called Dharma because it holds you back from
falling into the lower realms, you see what I mean. If you do Dharma it’ll keep,
it’ll, I imagine a guy with suspenders and the guy’s holding him. He’s about to
fall in the lower realms and the function of Dharma is to ‘dhr’, which means to
hold you back, okay.
So that’s the literal meaning of the title.
More relevant here is that the highest dharma of all is what? Enlightenment.
Nirvana and enlightenment. And this takes you up to that, you see. And that’s
why it’s called abhi-dharma; takes you to the highest thing, you see.
Abhidharma, takes you to the highest thing, alright.            And that’s what
abhidharma means.
What is Abhidharma? What would take you to enlightenment? What’s the
most, I’ll give yo a clue, okay. What’s the most efficient, effective, powerful,
fantastic twenty minutes [laughter] that you could ever do to get you to the
highest dharma, you see, enlightenment? It’s {tong lam}; it’s seeing emptiness
directly.
You know, it’s almost the case that you can, any time somebody asks a question
in the debate ground, you say, oh, that relates to seeing emptiness directly, you
know. Because everything relates to seeing emptiness directly ‘cos once you do
you’re outta here, you see what I mean. That’s big difference, okay. So the real
{chu ngunpay} is {tong lam / gom lam / milob lam}. It means, path of seeing,
path of habituation and then what we call the path of no more learning. And
those are abhidharma, you see what I mean.                 Those are the ultimate
abhidharma. The wisdom of those three paths which understands emptiness
directly, okay, and you can do it on all three paths, is abhidharma, okay.
So in the text it says {..} abhidharma means, ‘immaculate wisdom’. Meaning the
wisdom which perceives emptiness directly. In this school they might call it
selflessness, okay. {jedang che},{jedang} means, along with what you need to see
emptiness directly, okay. In other words study, you need to understand
karma,you need to understand other things first: dependent origination. Okay.
So abhidharma means, the wisdom which perceives emptiness directly at the
three higher of the five paths - everything after seeing emptiness directly,
let’sput it that way, is abhidharma, is real abhidharma. And then anything that
helps you get there like studying, meditating, contemplating, going to class,
okay. That’s all abhidharma. That becomes abhidharma.
 By extension, all the books about that become abhidharma, okay. So all the
books about those subjects are called abhidharma. Okay.
So now you know what real abhidharma is.
{dzu} means kosha, means treasure house. It’s called, this is the main book on
abhidharma. This is used in all Tibetan monasteries to study abhidharma. There
are other books about abhidharma. There were books written by direct disciples
of the Buddha about abhidharma.             There are seven great books about
abhidharma. And they’re all included in the kosha. So that’s why it’s called the
kosha.
The kosha meaning the treasure house of wisdom, of abhidharma, includes all of
those books, all the contents of those books.
That’s why it’s called Abhidharmakosha.
And it’s studied in all Tibetan monasteries for this subject abhidharma. It was
written about 350 AD by {loppon nyin..}; {loppon} means ‘master’, and {nyin..}
means Vasubandhu.
[cut]
Who is the half brother of master, huh? Master Asanga, arya Asanga, okay.
You never call a Lama by their naked, we call {..} naked name , okay. You
always say, your holy, excellent, wonderful, glorious Geshe Lobsang {unclear} or
something like that, okay. You never say {..}, okay. [laughter]. Not good. So
master Vasubandhu, okay. Okay. Half brother of master Asanga. Between
them they wrote most of the curriculum used at all Tibetan monasteries. Not
bad, okay.
You’re gonna be studying a commentary, say {dzu tik}[repeat] {tar lam}[repeat]
{selje}[repeat]; {dzu} here means kosha, means treasure house, means the
Abhidharmakosha, okay. So it’s referring to the original book written by master
Vasubandhu written sixteen centuries ago, okay, {dzu}. {tik} means, tikka is
Sanskrit for commentary and the Tibetans sometimes use this as a lone word
and they corrupt it and misspell it. That’s a different spelling, okay. So {dzu tik}
means, commentary to the Abhidharmakosha. {tar} means, {tarpa} means what?
Freedom, moksha in Sanskrit, freedom. {lam} means the path to freedom and
{selje} means illumination. Like, the sun is sometimes called {selje}, okay.
‘Illumination or a Lamp upon the Path to Freedom’, okay, which is a
commentary to the Abhidharmakosha.                You’re gonna be studying this
commentary.
This is your main book for studying Abhidharmakosha. You try to study the
Abhidharmakosha, forget it. {…} ‘The five act towards the four’, {…} ‘Three
assert power; four are connected’, you know what I mean. It’s code. The whole
Abhidharmakosha is in code. It was written in code. It was meant to be
memorised and then, your teacher would explain it to you, okay.
So you need to have a commentary, okay. It’s impossible to study Abhidharma
without a good commentary.
You’re gonna be studying the commentary by Gyalwa Gendun Drup.
Before each of the Dalai Lama’s names in Tibetan, in written Tibetan, usually say
{gyalwa}.      {Gyalwa} means the ‘victorious one’ meaning a Buddha, an
enlightened being. Jnina in Sanskrit.
So {gyalwa} means the victorious one and it’s a, when you see {gyalwa} in front
of someone’s name you know they’re a Dalai Lama, okay. This happens to be
the first - His Holiness the first Dalai Lama, Gendun Drup. His teacher was Je
Tsongkapa, okay. He was one of Je Tsongkapa’s, like, later students, okay. He
was pretty young when Je Tsongkapa was pretty old, alright, but he did study
with Je Tsongkapa, alright.
He wrote a very famous commentary. For those of you who care there’s two
{tar lam seljes}. One is a very famous book on logic by Gyaltseb Je. And so, we
always say {dzu tik} in front of this one, to distinguish between them. This is the
{tar lam selje} that’s the commentary to Abhidharma because there’s a different
{tar lam selje}.
And then in the monastery you have to say which one you’re talking about,
okay.
We’re gonna talk about, a little bit about a thing called {…}, okay. Let me spell it
for you. Say {..}[repeat] {..}[repeat].
We used the ‘How does karma work’ class as an excuse to study some other
subjects also, okay. And here’s one of them.
In Buddhism, things being impermanent and your death coming so quickly upon
you and also unpredictably, you don’t want to waste your time, okay.
So in Buddhism we don’t waste time. You try to find a teaching which is
powerful, which can get you enlightened quickly and you go after it. You study
it and you devote yourself to it and you get there before you die. And you
outsmart the lord of death, okay. That’s the game, name of the game. Which
means that you have to be able to determine what’s a good book to study and
what’s a waste of time, okay.
So we try to distinguish between what’s a good book and what’s a waste of time.
Four tests for a good book. {gur} means, goal, in this case; {gurpa} sometimes
means necessity, here it means goal, okay. {sok} means etcetera; {sher} means
characteristics, {shi} means four. So these are the four characteristics of a good
Buddhist book, an authentic book, okay.
Like, if you went to Tibet and said, you know, I’ve been thinking about reading a
book. It’s on the best seller list, New York Times, you know, fiction, which is
unknown practically in Tibet, you know. There’s almost no thing called ‘fiction’
you see. And they’d say, well what’s it about?
And you’d say, oh it’s a story, you know.
Well, does it have {gur so sher shi}? You know, does it have those four qualities
of a book that won’t waste your life, you know.
And they say, no.
So you say, well why are you reading it? You gonna live forever or what? You
know, you’re gonna die. And why are you putting those seeds in your mind?
The mind is like a sponge, you know, anything you expose it to it sucks up
karmic seeds and mental seeds, you know. Whatever you see in that movie,
whatever you read in that book, whatever you read in that newspaper is gonna
be planted in your mind. It will affect you for decades, you know. Just a half
hour of reading the New York Times is putting thousands of seeds in your mind,
you know, ideas that will float back to you later, you know. Why are you
reading that? You see what I mean?
They’ll say if it doesn’t have those four qualities why are you endangering your
mind, you see what I mean, ‘cos you don’t have time.
And everything you read affects you. Your mind soaks it in. Karmically it
comes back, okay.
So here are the four qualities of an authentic Buddhist book. You should know it
and you should try not to spend your time on anything else.
People ask me did you read such-and-such a book? I say, no, you know. And
then they say, well what are you reading? I just read Scriptures since 1974, you
know. I didn’t see any point to reading anything else. I do have my bathroom
reading. [laughter] That’s another thing [laughter], okay. That’s why I can keep
up on English, you know [laughter] [unclear]
Anyway. First quality is {..}. {..} means subject matter. A book should have
some content, okay, serious content, {..}.
What’s the content of the Abhidharmakosha? {…}, this is the content. {..} means,
the Abhidharmakosha subject matter is to divide all objects in the universe into
pure and impure, okay. Every object in the universe is either pure or impure. If
you learn that, if you learn which is which, you’re outta here, you see what I
mean.
So that’s the subject matter of the Abhidharmakosha. Okay. What’s pure and
what’s impure.
Next, a good Buddhist book better have {gurpa}; {gurpa} means, goal, okay, the
goal.     The book should have a goal.            Okay.   What’s the goal of the
Abhidharmakosha for example? Okay. And you can put in small letters there,
short term goal, alright.
What’s the short-term goal of the Abhidharmakosha?
Is to give you wisdom, okay.
It’s to teach you wisdom. Buddhist wisdom means can you distinguish between
what’s pure and what’s impure. You know, can you distinguish between self-
existent and not self-existent? Can you distinguish between selfishness and
compassion? Okay. That’s wisdom, okay.
So the short-term goal of this book is to give you wisdom, okay, especially, the
wisdom that understands selflessness. In this school you wouldn’t say so much
emptiness, okay, you’d say selflessness. Alright. What school are we in by the
way? We’re in the Detailist School, the Vaibashika.
The Abhidharma is written from the first of the four great schools,from the
lowest of the four great schools, okay.
In the monastery they don’t spend a lot of time on the Abhidharma. Rinpoche
taught it to us for, like, ten years. But in the monastery it’s only about two years
and it’s at the end of the course, okay.
These are the beliefs of the lowest of the four schools, okay.
A lot of them, by the way, are not correct. Does that mean they aren’t useful or
maybe not spoken by the Buddha? They’re very useful ideas, some very useful
ideas for getting enlightened and reaching nirvana.
Were they spoken by Lord Buddha though if they’re wrong?
What was your last course? [laughs] [laughter] {tragne}
Yeah, they were spoken by Lord Buddha. Are they wrong?
Yes.
So why did Lord Buddha speak something wrong?
It brings people up from the lower level. Okay. I mean, it brings up baby
students.
By the way, the whole monastic system, monk’s vows, everything, is
Vaibashika. Okay. It’s all like that. It’s all to help people get up to the next level.
Okay. Purpose of Abhidharma.
Here’s quality number three of a good book. Say {..}[repeat]{..}[repeat]. Okay.
You see both spellings in Scripture and they’re both interesting to me. {nyi}
means, the very; {gur} means, goal, meaning ultimate goal, {nying} means,
essence, or the root means, essence. It’s probably a misspelling but we don’t
know. You see, you cut this off and what’s it look like? See what I mean. But
I’ve checked the computer, you know. I’ve gone back through the centuries,
you see both, okay. And they both mean ultimate goal. So you might say it’s
spelt either way, okay.
They both mean the ultimate goal, okay, which in this case is called, in
abhidharma system, the two kinds of nirvana, the two kinds of nirvana.
What’s first kind of nirvana?
You personally don’t have to come back and live in a world of ups and downs
any more. Okay. You personally don’t have to come back and live in a world
where you’re on a roller coaster you’re whole life. Okay.
What’s the second kind of nirvana?
We call {..nyangde}, the ultimate nirvana of a Buddha. It means enlightenment.
Okay. And that’s the ultimate goal of this book, okay.
Here’s the last of the four qualities.
Say {drelwa}[repeat]; {drelwa} means, connection.             Okay. {drelwa} means
connection.     It means this: suppose this book that you’re thinking about
studying, suppose this book that you’re thinking about exposing your precious
mental real estate to, suppose it has a subject matter, content. But is that content
connected to getting wisdom? You see what I mean? Does this lead to that?
Does this come from that? You see what I mean? Is there a connection between
one and two for this book?
Like, there maybe the goal of the book to give you wisdom, but it maybe a
stupid book and have a crummy content. In that case, there is a content, there is
a wisdom goal, but there’s no connection. You can’t get to one from the last.
You see what I mean.
There has to be a connection between them.
And if you get wisdom is it gonna lead you to your ultimate goal?
Yes. In the case of the Abhidharma it has it. It has that connection.
Ultimate goals comes from getting wisdom and wisdom leads to ultimate goal.
Okay. So there’s a connection between the two, okay. Like, it may be, there’s
this famous book in ancient India called the shastra or the {..}, the ‘Scripture on
Crow’s Teeth’, you know, which don’t exist, alright. And there’s no connection
between anything, okay. [laughs] It can say I’ll give you wisdom but even if it
does it’s not going to lead you to any ultimate goal or anything. You see what I
mean. There’s no connection, no connection between them.
So there has to be a connection between the first, the second, and the third. And
that is the fourth quality. The connection, having the connection, is the fourth
quality.
And people tell me, I like this book, you know. What do you think about this
book about nature spirits in the American Indians? What do you think about
this book about this new guy came out with these prophecies? It looks pretty
cool, you know. What do you think about this book this person is channelling so
and so, connected with the such and such? You know, look at this page because
this page is almost like something in Buddhism. This is exciting, you know.
And I say, don’t waste your time on it. You know what I mean. You have two
hundred thousand books on Buddhism in the world, you know. No need to go
look at something that has a few pages that are almost like something
meaningful. You see what I mean. It’s not an authentic book. It’s not a useful
book, okay. And you don’t have time to spend time on the books that have
interesting pieces in them that might relate to something important.
Why not go to a book that has hundred percent relates to something important,
you see what I mean? You don’t have time to fool around with these, and this
book will be off the best seller list in six months.
I went to Arizona recently. We got bored one day and we went to, what’s that
little town? Willcox, Arizona. We went to see a movie. And there was a sign up,
movie starts at eight o’clock, seven o’clock. And the there was this other sign
below it that said, if less than five people show up for the movie we reserve the
right to cancel it, you know. [laughter] [laughs] I’m not kidding. So next door
there’s this bookstore. We go to the bookstore to hang out and it’s all books
that were thrown out and collected in the bookstore. So they’re all over five
years old. These were the most important books five years ago and they’re so
silly. Every single book there looked so silly now, you know.
You go to the Godstow, to the library and there’s all these, these people were
high intellectuals. This lady was a president of a university and the silliest books.
You open them up now and they look so silly, you know. I mean, they’re just
passing thing, you know, a passing fad. There’s such and such prophecy book,
you know. And then you, just see if it’s gonna survive the five year test, okay,
before you read it. These books have survived the two and a half thousand year
test, okay. Really. Okay. And you go read these books a thousand years from
now they’ll still be extraordinary. You see what I mean. So check a book. Don’t
waste your time, okay. Unless it’s bathroom reading, I don’t care. That’s alright.
That’s where I read those books.
Hoe does the Abhidharmakosha get into karma? We’re supposed to be talking
about karma, okay.
Now we get onto karma. That’s in the fourth chapter.
The third chapter of the Abhidharmakosha talks about where did the world
come from. How many planets are there in the universe? Are there people
living on other planets? How many realms are there? What happens to you
after you die? You know, what’s the bardo like, and things like that.
Where did we come from? And where are we going?
And it’s a whole description of the world.
How’s the world gonna end? And there’s a beautiful description of a supernova
of the sun and the sun splitting into different, different stars called the sun,
supernoving and then other stars rising from that and vaporising the planet
eventually, okay, very interesting.        And this is the third chapter of the
Abhidharmakosha.
Then, in the fourth chapter, they teach karma, okay. Karma is called {le} and I
love the first few lines. I quote them often, okay.
Here’s the first line of the fourth chapter: {le le jikten natsok kye}, okay. You
want to know where all these planets come from all over the world? You think
some god made them from dirt clods on the sixth day or something? Forget it.
{le le jikten natsok kye},means, the worlds of the universe and the beings who
live on them were, every atom of them, was created by karma and only karma,
okay. {le le jikten natsok kye}
Then he says, what is karma? Say {de ni sempa}[repeat]. You want to know
what karma is? It’s {le le jikten natsok kye de ni sempa}; {de ni sempa} means,
karma is anytime your mind moves, okay, movement of the mind.
Anytime your mind shifts a microsecond, a micro-millimetre, anytime you have
the slightest passing piece of a thought, you have just created karma. That is
karma. Okay. I like to call it ‘karma concentrate’, like coke concentrate, like the
stuff you use in the fountains, when you go to the fountains, you know. What
do you call it? Fountain drinks, fountain soda, yeah. Like, it’s the stuff in the
bottle that’s this very concentrated black stuff and then they mix it with soda
water and then they give you coke.
Raw karma, raw karma, concentrated karma, is the act of thinking. Okay. The
movement of the mind, sixty-five in a finger snap, okay {..}. That’s how many
karmas you’re committing in the time it takes to snap my fingers, okay. You
have sixty-five pieces if a thought in the time it takes me to snap my fingers.
And that’s karma, that’s raw karma, {de ni sempa}.
And then the next line says, ran out of room here. How about we do it here.
Say {dang}[repeat] {de}[repeat] {je}[repeat], {dang de je}[repeat]; {dang} means,
and, okay. And what? So far he’s said, what’s karma? Anytime your mind
moves, okay. Oh, and by the way, there’s a little bit more about karma. {dang}
means and, {de je} means, whatever those movements of the mind cause you to
do with your speech or with your body, okay.
So now we got three kinds of karma. Karma is thinking, oh and by the way,
anything that that thinking motivates you to say or to do. So we got three kinds
of karma, okay.
Then they go onto a really cool kind of karmic, this is a cool idea from the
Abhidharmakosha, from the abhidharma schools, which nobody else accepts,
okay, no other school accepts. It’s a thing called ‘non-communicating form’,
sorry, okay, non-communicating form. And your class leaders can struggle
through it with you.
But the basic idea is this. In the Abhidharmakosha they say, when you do
something really good, or when you do something really bad, then a karmic
photograph is taken, okay. A karmic photograph is taken and some kind of
physical halo actually envelops your body and stays with you and that’s karma,
you know. That’s the result of karma.
So, like, when a person goes and gets ordained and gets down on their knee and
says, I do, you know, that the moment they say, ‘ou’, there forms this thing on
them called their vows, their monk’s vows or their nun’s vows. And they
believe it’s actually a physical envelope. Some of the texts say, it also permeates
your body like oil permeates a sesame seed or something like that. But at that
moment some kind of, you know, glowy, ephemeral, light thing envelops you.
And every time you do some heavy good deed or some really heavy bad deed
then this thing envelops you, okay.
So they divide karma into two types. They say, there’s this karma that other
people can’t see on you but is on you. So, like, if I dress up in pants and shirt and
I walk down Second Avenue and people look at me, do they see that envelope?
Do they see my monk’s vows? You see what I mean. We say, no. That’s what
we call non-communicating form. You can’t see it anymore, okay.
‘Communicating form’ means, when that guy gets down on his knee and when
he takes his two hands and puts them to his chest and says, I do, then it
communicates something to you about his or her motivation, you know.
Oh, this person must be having renunciation. Why? They said, I do, in an
ordination ceremony, okay. The only reason to become a monk or nun is
because you’re so disgusted with life that you’re forced into it, okay. Seriously.
And the vows don’t form unless you have that.
So you’re thinking, you’re watching this person and they’re down, they’re got
their knee down there, they’re got their, and they’re, like, I do. And when you
hear the ‘do’ you say, I can guess something about this person’s motivation.
They must have pretty good renunciation, okay.               That’s what we call
‘communicating form’.
In the abhidharma there’s two kinds of karma, you know. One, you can deduce
the person’s state of mind from it. One of them, then becomes invisible, like, five
minutes later this karma or these vows have become something invisible that
they have on them but you can’t see it unless you’re some kind of extraordinary
being, okay.
Now, the higher schools say that’s not true and there’s no such halo around you
but you gotta study it anyway ‘cos it’s a useful idea isn’t it. It’s one of those
things that Lord Buddha taught that’s not technically true and it’s very useful to
think that you’re walking around with some kind of glow around you called
your vows.
Yeah. [student] Yeah, it sounds a lot like auras, it does. Exactly. Lord Buddha
said auras exist and they don’t, okay. [laughter] Alright.
We’re gonna talk about good karma, bad karma, neutral karma; you can do that
in your break out sessions, okay. But I’ll give you just one clue, okay.
Is karma bad karma because Lord Buddha said so? No.
Is karma bad karma because you feel bad when you do it? No.
Is karma bad karma because god said it’s a bad thing? You see what I mean.
No.
Is bad karma bad karma just because anybody said it was a bad thing? No.
Okay.
Is karma bad karma because it hurts other people? [students: no] It’s very
interesting. If it does hurt other people it probably is bad karma, okay. Except
when the teacher hits their student, that’s okay. [laughs] [laughter] Just kidding.
So when is a bad karma a bad karma? In Buddhism what’s the whole lynchpin
of ethics in Buddhism? It hurts you. Get it straight, okay.
If an action ripens into an unpleasant experience for you, bluntly, it’s a bad
karma. Okay. And you want to avoid it. Alright. So that’s the test. It’s a big
jump for people who grew up in a western society ‘cos your whole idea of ethics
is something else: god said so, mom said so, the law says so, my teachers said so,
you know. That’s why we do it in my society.
And in Buddhism the most primary thing about good karma is that it’s gonna
bring you happiness and nirvana and enlightenment.
And the most basic thing about bad karma is it’s gonna screw you up, alright.
Now there are books that say {..}, okay. And that’s, of course, it’s bad karma to
hurt other people. So I’m not saying it’s not bad karma. And I’m not saying you
shouldn’t think about other people when you think about bad karma.
But if you want to know how the abhidharmakosha defines bad karma it’s,
‘those actions which if you do them, then by a law as strong as the laws of
gravity, you will suffer.’ Okay. You gotta get that in mind. You gotta keep that
in mind.
And trying to out fox karma is as likely as out foxing gravity, okay. It doesn’t
work. You know, please don’t fall down, please don’t fall down. I pray don’t fall
down. It falls down. Okay. And karma’s the same. Doesn’t matter what you
want, doesn’t matter what you think, it doesn’t matter what book you read last
week from the New York Times. There are certain actions that if you do them
you will suffer. Period. It’s the law of nature. And those are the rules of karma.
You have to study karma and learn what kinds of actions are gonna make you
put yourself in trouble. That’s all. Okay.
That’s the laws of karma.
Yeah. [student] Yeah. [student] She said, are those absolute rules that apply to
everyone? Yeah, the list applies to everyone. If a Buddha were to do the ten
non-virtues they would suffer. How’s that. Okay. Alright.
Then you’re gonna have the ten main bad deeds, okay.
People ask me when does karma come back to you.
Yeah. [student] Can’t. I said, if they could, {..}. If they could, okay.
[student] he said, what if a Buddha broke one of the ten non-virtues [unclear].
We wouldn’t say he broke the ten non-virtues. We’d say, they have removed
the wealthy person’s property, [laughter] to assist a poor person [laughs]. You
see.
And Je Tsongkapa says, it’s not only not breaking a vow, it is creating a
tremendous good deed, okay. But those are very tricky, very slippery, very
touchy. Years of study before you talk about them. So we won’t. Okay.
Oh, that’s a good question. Feel bad in the present is what I’m talking about.
Like, a lot of us feel bad when we have to go and do our two hours {dakye}.
That doesn’t mean it’s a bad karma, okay. [laughs] Alright. Like that.
Okay. People ask me how long does it take karma to ripen. You see what I
mean. And this I think is important to know, okay.
So there are three kinds of ripening of karma. Karma can come back to you in
one of three periods.
First kind is called karma that you see in this life. It’s called {.. gyur gi le}, karma
that you see in this life. It means, you do something especially powerful in this
life and you will see the results before you die, okay.
Then there is karma which gives you result in the very next life, okay. Like, it’s
particularly like, you could say a karma that was going to determine your next
life, okay. That would be what we call a next life karma.
And then, number three karma, is anything later than that. Okay. Second life,
on. Okay. Those are the three kinds of karma.
I like this teaching because it’s very interesting; this teaching is accepted by all
schools. And I saw some really cool things that made me very happy. This is
Ngulchu Dharmabadra, great Lama of our lineage about two hundred years
ago. And he says, by the way, number one is the basis for tantra. Okay.
Number one is the basis for tantra. Meaning, we have hope, you know. We
have hope only because if you do extremely powerful karma in the earlier part
of your life then later you can become enlightened in this lifetime, okay, as a
result of that karma.
And that’s exactly the principle behind tantric practice, okay.
You’re trying to go for the big time and create certain kinds of karma, which are
so powerful, that before you die you become Tara or you become Manjushri.
Okay.
This is from the abhidharmakosha, the most humble of the four schools. Here it
is. The key to tantra, you see, is that, if you undertake certain practices with total
devotion, total understanding, total training, total commitment, then those
results will mature in this lifetime. And that’s the principle of, the principle of
karma is the foundation of tantric practice, okay.
Yeah. [student] He asked, what is it about a certain deed that determines if it’s
gonna be ripening in this life or the next life or the next one?
I call it the ‘queuing question’ and I always think of New York airport. Khen
Rinpoche used to drive past New York airport sometimes. He’d say, It’s
amazing, you westerners have figured out how to get metal to fly in the sky.
Like, amazing.
I can’t believe you can’t get enlightened. You know what I mean. [laughs]
[laughter]
And I remember, so I remember looking over there and there’s these planes
lined up in queue and then, every once in awhile, the control tower will say,
okay you can cut in front. You see what I mean. And this plane can go before
the four planes that have been waiting.
And this is the question of karmic queuing, you know. How do the karma
queue up?
And what could put your tantric karma in front and out fox all those other
karmas? You see, that’s what you want. You want tantric karma plane, you
want the control tower to say you get to go first, you know. All these thousands
and millions of karmas are waiting to take off, you go to the front of the queue
and take off. And then, to hell with the rest, they’ll never ripen. You see what I
mean. They will never ripen. They’ll die in the womb, you see. That’s the whole
theory of tantric practice.
What is it that gets a plane up to the front of the queue? What is it about this
karma that’s gonna put it in front of all the other karmas you’ve done for the last
five thousand years or so?
We’ll talk about it, okay.
Yeah. [student] She said, if a person were to perform sort of a mediocre karma
or, you know, not a very strong karma but if that person happens to be a high
being already, okay. Like, they blow their nose or something but they’re
already an arya and a bodhisattva, then does that become powerful karma? You
can say that.
Actually, I’ll tell you what it is now, in case I die in the next five minutes, okay.
Let me see if it’s in here. It’s not in here but I’ll tell you. It’s on your, it was on
your homework. Maybe I didn’t put it on your homework. No it’s not here. So
I’ll just tell you.
It’s called {..} or like that. And these are the factors that effect. One, you could
say your motivation, okay. So if your motivation is extraordinary then that
karma will move up in queue. That karma will be sent up to the front of the line.
[cut]
[end side A]
[side B]
So, for example, tantra has to be done with a really extraordinary motivation,
okay.
One can be the type of person involved. Like, is this a powerful being towards
whom you’re doing this karma or not? So, like, they say if you only have one
hamburger and you have a choice between giving it to a homeless person or a
dog, give it to the human. Not because dogs are bad or they’re not real people
or anything like that but the human has a better chance in this lifetime to get
enlightened. So better to give it to someone who’s got a better chance. You see
what I mean.
So that would be the example of that.
One would be particularly powerful karmic object would someone who has been
of great help to you. And this is the principle for treating your parents well.
Okay. Whether you like them, whether they were good to you, whether they
dissed you after a certain time, doesn’t matter. They gave you the equipment
that you can reach tantric enlightenment with. And in so doing have paid one of
the greatest kindnesses that anyone can give you.
They gave you a body complete with seventy-two thousand channels and minor
channels and all the charkas that you need to get tantrically enlightened.
Thankyou. You see what I mean? And very powerful; you have to be kind to
them.
You have to act properly towards them, because they have done you such
benefit, you see what I mean.
So those are some of the factors involved in trying to get a karma to move up.
And there’s some other factors, so you’ll read it in your reading.
Yeah. [student]      [laughs] John said, two questions.       One is, what would
distinguish a non- tantric bodhisattva motivation from, for example, a tantric
bodhisattva motivation. Is there any difference, you see. I mean, bodhisattva
motivation is already really heavy. So what’s the difference between a non-
tantric bodhisattva motivation and a tantric bodhisattva motivation.
The non- tantric bodhisattva motivation differs from the tantric bodhisattva’s
motivation, in that, the tantric bodhisattva motivation is obsessed with getting
enlightened immediately and willing to take the risk involved with that. You see
what I mean. It’s some kind of courage. It’s some kind of commitment. And it’s
some kind of very clear decision in that person’s mind that whatever the cost,
whatever the potential cost, whatever people think of me, I will get enlightened
immediately.
I will do whatever, the most powerful things that scriptures teach and that lamas
teach. I will to the best of my ability immediately get as far as I can. I will not
waste a moment to get enlightened. And I will do those things that the heaviest
things I can do to get enlightened quickly. I won’t be satisfied with a month
from now or a year from now or three years from now or something like that.
I will do, I will undertake to study and practice properly to the best of my ability
and within my capacity the highest teachings possible. Okay. That’s all.
Because I want it to happen now. Okay. That’s the main distinction. Okay.
Second question, what was the second question?           Huh? Oh, timing, yeah.
Karma can ripen even within a minute, forget it. Yeah. Karma can ripen within
a minute.
There are karmas, especially related to tantra, that can ripen immediately. Very,
very fast, okay.
Yeah [student] Jennifer said, you know, unless you’re enlightened you don’t
really know if a good thing that happens to you is coming from something you
just did or something you did a thousand years ago, alright, or a million years
ago.
As you get better with your practice you’ll be able to distinguish, okay. Because
of the content, like, your good deeds have a certain extraordinary and new
content.      And then you have certain extraordinary and new experiences
happening to you regularly that weren’t happening for the last forty or fifty
years.
And that’s an indication that, you see what I mean, that’s an indication that the
extraordinary actions you’re undertaking now are having some extraordinary
immediate results. And that’s about all I can say on that.
Yeah. [student] She said, if you hang out with your lama does the karma speed
up? Yes, definitely.
There’s a lot that happens between a student and a teacher by osmosis if they’re
close that can never happen in a class, okay. Alright.
I’m gonna let you in your break out sessions go through the, there’s this real
cool thing about the four kinds of ripenings of karma, you know.
Karma ripens in four different ways. And it’s very, very, very, important to
know this, okay.
Karma determines where you’re gonna go in your next life and future lives,
okay. First thing.
Secondly, karma decides what’s gonna happen to you if you happen to get born
as a human in the future, okay, which could be a long time from now. Alright.
But if you do happen to get born as a future, well let’s just take killing for
example. And I’ll go very quickly through it.
If you kill and it’s bad enough you will go to a lower realm in your next rebirth.
Period. Okay. That’s the first effect or consequence of karma.
Second one, if you kill and then suppose you work up to a human later at some
time, you will always be unhealthy. You will always have backaches. People will
threaten you all the time. You’ll live in a dangerous city. Okay. These are what
we call personal consequences. So you see the first one is going to a lower
realm. The next one is even if you go to a human realm it’s a dangerous place to
live and you’re always feeling sick, unhealthy. Okay.
Yeah. [student] We can say that no one who is in this desire realm plane right
now had a karma at the end of their last life from killing someone in a very bad
way. Let’s say that way. Yeah, that’s true. You know, what His Holiness says, I
kinda giggle sometimes. He says, basically everyone’s a good person, right. It’s
actually true. Anyone who’s got up to the desire realm to a human rebirth you
are one in many billions of creatures. You are already that.
Pabongka Rinpoche says, whenever you’re feeling low self –esteem, reflect on
the fact if you haven’t done anything else right in your life, you’re still one in
many trillions of beings. You would not be in this realm, especially having heard
Dharma, if you weren’t one in trillions and trillions and trillions of beings.
You are the one who worked up to this place. Yeah.
Does it mean you don’t have karma in your pocket to die tomorrow in a
horrible way because you killed somebody? No. Okay.
Yeah. [student] This is the third karmic result, okay. [laughter] Is that you’re
attracted to doing that thing more.
Even if you’re born as a human, the third one is that you’re attracted to that kind
of behaviour, okay.
Fourth one, what is the fourth one? Oh, environmental results, okay. Your city
is a dangerous place to live. There’s lots of wars, where you live, you know.
You’re in a country, which is constantly under attack or something like that.
People mug people a lot where you live, something like that. It’s a violent place
to live and a dangerous place to live. Okay. The food’s not good, the water’s not
good, crops don’t happen, you know, things don’t work right, okay.
It’s amazing, you know, frankly, you go to India, there’s so much poverty, so
much suffering and by the way, and so much happiness. I mean, the people, a
lot of the people are very much more mentally healthy than in New York City.
I’d say the mental health in India is markedly better than New York. Seriously.
But physically it’s a very impoverished place. Then you go to Bangkok. It’s on
the same parallel. It gets the same basic weather, you know. It’s the same dirt.
But, you know, it’s just like booming place, everybody’s got Mercedes. You
know, and what is it that creates that difference, you see? And that’s karma,
okay
[student] She said, does that mean that anyone who’s starving or lives in a war
torn country has any bad karma? The answer is, if starving or living in a war
torn country is hurting you personally, it’s a result of your bad karma.
If you live in a war torn country and you’re making great profits off the
suffering of other people it’s a good karma. You see what I mean. It’s very
interesting. Or if you enjoy being hungry, some people fast, you see. Seriously.
I mean, if being hungry somehow makes you feel uplifted then that’s a good
karma, that’s the result of a good karma.
The only question is does it make you feel good or bad? Does it make you feel
happy or sad?
Then I can tell you if it’s a good karma or a bad karma.
He wants me to stop. I’m not going to. Alright.
Last question. I don’t think you can understand how karma works if you don’t
go to the Mind Only School. And when I heard the Mind Only School’s
presentation on karma I rejoiced. I celebrated. I interrupted my teacher for the
first time, maybe the last time.
I said, he’s presenting how karma works according to the Mind Only and I said, I
blurted out, which is totally illegal in the monastery, especially with this teacher,
Geshe Thubten Rinchen, is to say, wait a minute, that sounds great. Why are we
attacking that idea?
He says, this idea we accept, you know. This idea of the Mind Only School we
accept. And I said, wow, you know what I mean. It was, like, you know.
Anyway, the basic thing is this. [laughter]
Okay. By the way, and it’s not that things are mind only, okay. That’s not
what’s so cool about it.
It’s this. And I’m very, very frustrated that it’s not presented more often. Okay.
It’s frustrating to me that in Buddhist lectures or Buddhist teachings they don’t
draw the connection more often, okay. I think it’s a very sad thing, okay. And
that’s the pen thing, okay.
This is a cylinder. It’s a blue and white cylinder. Okay. It’s empty. It’s blank. It
doesn’t have any identity of its own. If you were an Eskimo from the twelfth
century and you came I here, you’d say, wow, white and blue stick, very
smooth, you know. And for you that’s what it would be, you see. That’s what it
would be for you.
And then if you’re a, you know, a human in the twentieth century and you’d
been to these classes, you come in and you say, oh, a pen, a blue pen. Wow, a
blue pen, okay, you see the cylinder as a blue pen. He sees it as a smooth stick.
If you’re a dog, you come in here, I’m waving this thing around, and you’d say,
oh something to chew on. Looks very chewable, you know, just the right size. I
like stuff like that. Let me seem if I can chew on it, you see.
Now, who’s right? Who’s having a pramana? You learned pramana last week.
Who’s having a {tsema}?
All three are having a {tsema}, a valid perception. Okay, I got out of it, right? I
didn’t say ‘correct’. See? Get the point? It’s valid for their circumstances. Okay.
Given their background and what they are and who they are, everyone’s right,
okay.
Now, one of the proofs of the emptiness of this pen is nothing can be those three
at once, you see. It can’t be something to chew on and something to write with
and a smooth stick. I mean, [unclear[, you know, but you can’t, literally, be all
three at the same time, okay.
That’s a proof that those qualities or that nature is not emanating from this
cylinder. You’re putting that on it. You have to think about it carefully. You’re
projecting onto it some kind of identity.
It does not have any identity. That’s the meaning of emptiness.
Ultimately, this is Mrs Ribush’s question in Melbourne, it doesn’t even have its
own ‘cylinderness’. But that’s another story, okay. Let’s not get confused. And
don’t space out on me, okay. Get it, okay. It doesn’t have its own identity.
These three beings from these three backgrounds are putting their own identity
on it, projecting their own identity on it.

And what frustrates me, that’s so rarely brought up in Buddhist talks, is where is
that coming from? Where is that projection coming from?
Karma. And that’s why Lord Buddha spent half the time of his eighty years on
this planet teaching you what was good to do, what was bad to do, good karma,
bad karma; and half his time talking about emptiness. There’s a connection.
Okay. This is empty and your karma is forcing you, compelling you to see it in a
certain way.
You can’t choose to see this as a chocolate bar. You can’t choose to see this as a
rod of pure diamond shining with gold in the way a Buddha sees it, okay.
Is it possible to see it that way? Yes.
Can you do it by just wanting to do it? No. Your karma is forcing you to see it
in a certain way. Okay.
And it frustrates me that the connection is not drawn more frequently, okay.
This is empty. It’s like a movie screen and your karma is forcing you to project
something onto it and see something.
And how you relate to that fake movie on the screen decides whether you get
enlightened or not, you see.
If you get angry because it’s not what you wanted it to be then you’ll keep
suffering.
And if you finally wake up and say, oh, oh, I see it as a pen because of my
karma. Well in the future I’ll just try to collect better karma. I don’t like pens like
that. The guy keeps going on all night, you know. Alright.
So that’s the deal. That’s how karma works in a nutshell.
Take a break and then we’ll break out into our classes, okay.
Okay, we’ll start.
[announcements]
Okay, very short , you know. We’ve been covering the theory of ACI. What
are the principles, what does the course study. Last time I forgot what we talked
about. Anyway. What was it last time? How do you administer it? How do
you keep it from getting corrupted in a hundred years or two hundred years?
And that was keep your book; very simple, okay.
I think tonight I’d like to talk about management as far as financial management
of the place, okay. And about our lineage. What we believe about that.
I mainly chose this because it’s a short subject and I have to go to a movie.
[laughs]
It’s very important. [laughs][laughter]
But it’s like this, very simply, okay. It’s a tradition of our lineage that all
teachings must always be free. Period. Okay. Teachings should be free.
In the monastery, as Geshe {} knows, when you take on a student you take on
their expenses. Geshe {} himself has probably had two or three hundred
students in the time I’ve known him. He’s paid all their expenses, okay. And
that’s the system in the Gelugpa tradition, you know.
When you take on a student it’s your responsibility to take care of them and not
vice versa, see what I mean. So I think it should stay that way. I think it’s a
brilliant system and it’s beautiful. And we don’t charge for teachings, okay.
And I tell you frankly, you know, the first few years that you have your own
students, they’ll drive you crazy ‘cos you’ll be going broke all the time. And you
may have to go get a job to pay for the hall and to pay for the notebook and to
pay for the paper. And that’s fine and you should do it because it’s an honour to
be a teacher. And it’s an honour to be in our lineage.
And if you have to go to work and, I said this in California and everybody went
[laughs] [laughter].
Really, it should be like that, okay. It’s your honour. It’s an honour to have the
opportunity to pay for the student’s needs. And it’s a bodhisattva vow that
you’re required to do that.
Forget the requirement. It’s just the way that it should be. Okay.
So forget charging. You should be taking care of the needs of your students.
And if that means you have to go work in a restaurant or something you should
go do it.
And I know that’s not an easy thing to think about, okay. [laughs] But think like
that. That’s the way Dharma should work, okay, much less not charging, okay.
So that’s the way the financial part should work. And you know work up from
what you can afford. The first books that this organisation ever produced were
done on a [unclear] machine in the basement of Kehn Rinpoche’s house. We
bound them ourselves. We made the tools from thrown out lumber. We did all
the stamping with this hand made stamping thing. And that was MSTP, you
know, press started that way.
And it should be like that, okay. You should struggle. The finances should be
raised largely internally, you know.
You shouldn’t go wandering around looking for some big sponsor who’s going
to prop up your organisation when the people in the organisation aren’t
propping it up. You see what I mean. It should come from the people that
you’re working with. And you should never hassle the students for money,
okay. So never say you can’t come if you don’t give money. And you shouldn’t,
you know, every week tell them you need this or that. Once in awhile, okay if
it’s for something that everyone’s gonna use or something.
But, in general, shouldn’t be any financial thing connected with the Dharma. It
should just be clean from that.
And a lot of people have come to me in New York City and said the reason we
come to your classes is that you don’t ask for money, you see what I mean. And
it should be like that.
And that’s the way the money part should go. And it’s your honour to go to
work and support the Dharma even if it means that you pay for the books and
you pay for the materials and you pay for the place. Should be like that, okay.
That’s the first thing about money.
Second is, whatever money you do get, internally, organically, what comes
naturally, you know, because the students are learning more and more and
understand more, they’re more devoted to the purpose of the thing, then
naturally, there should grow some finances. And they should start supporting
the place but totally voluntarily and from their own hearts, okay.
Then your big responsibility is to take care of the money properly, you know.
And that means, in my mind, for example, if a monk gets a room, If I get a room
from Leon, I’m required to pay, that’s income. And the current American law is
that I have to report that as income. And when I go some place like Vajrapani
and they offer me money, I’m required to report that. And I should report that,
you see what I mean? Like, all the money of this organisation and every
Dharma organisation should be totally clean.
What’s required to be reported should be reported. All the money should go
through books, you know. All the money that comes into the organisation
should come in through a proper accounting system, you know, on a computer.
It should be properly recorded and properly paid out. And that’s the way
Dharma, down to the penny.
The karma of misusing Dharma money is extremely powerful.
I was once complaining to my lama at Sera Mey about that I had to keep books
and that every time I came to the monastery I had to sit through endless hours
of accounting. I learned all these Tibetan numbers so well.
And he said, you should be proud that they chose you to do it because the only
person in ancient India in Nalanda monastery that was trusted to do the books
was Nagarjuna.
Because the karma of missing a dollar is extraordinary, you know. The karma of
misusing one dollar of the money of the sangha community is so powerful that
only Nagarjuna was allowed to keep their books, you see what I mean. So you
should keep, ever thing should be totally spotless and in the spirit of the law
especially. Not just minimum what you have to do to get away with it.
It should be that, everything that goes through, is clearly recorded, every penny
is accounted for. And I think a computer is a good way to do that, okay.
And I believe that those books should be open to the public, okay. I believe that
any person in a Dharma organisation should be able to come to the directors or
whoever and say, I want to see the books. I want to see where the money came
from and I want to see how you spent the money. And except in the case where
the sponsors asked to be anonymous. So, you know, you can cover that page
up with something. But I think that Dharma organisations finances should be
public knowledge. And that anyone in the organisation should be able to come
and look at the books and say I don’t agree with that. And they should have
that right. And that’s the responsibility of a Dharma organisation.
That’s about all I can think of about money. Money is the root of all evil. A lot
of Dharma organisations have collapsed through the finances.
And I think one more thing that I would say is that a Dharma organisation
should never make so many obligations that raising money becomes the main
focus of that organisation, you see. I know some Dharma centres who have
rented some fancy place and they’ve put all this money into it and they’ve signed
off on this huge mortgage. And then all the activities of the centre is, you know,
selling bake sales and fairs and desperate attempts to make the rent. And then
finally they fail because the people aren’t studying, they’re raising money.
I think, much better than building big temples or blah, blah, blah, have your
Dharma classes in a small apartment that somebody has. Get somebody to rent
a space to you for cheap or get it for free. I can’t believe, I don’t believe that
most of the big expensive Dharma buildings that are built are necessary.
I don’t think they are. I think Dharma can be done as well in a living room as in
a big temple.
I think it should be a principle of this organisation that financial obligations are
not created that are going to distract people from what we’re doing, you know.
There shouldn’t be a burden of mortgage or debt passed on from one Dharma
generation to the next, you know.
I think you don’t need much space to have true Dharma teachings. Living
rooms seem to work quite well. That’s just my theory of Dharma finance, okay.
That’s about all I can think of.
I don’t think teachers should make money off of what they do and if they do
they should give it away or they should reinvest it in some other Dharma thing.
Like that. Okay.
And then it’s very, very beautiful when a teacher’s living simply. When the
teacher has one shirt or two shirts and one pants or two pants.
And they’re obviously not wasting money and they’re living simply and quietly.
And that’s, I think that helps the student’s faith a lot.
And I’m telling you because you will be teachers some day and I think that’s
important.
Does that mean you shouldn’t use large sums of money if get into them?
No. I mean, we had a million dollar grant a few years ago and we used it. And
we support thousands of Tibetan monks. And we support saving hundred and
fifty thousand pages of books. We use the money.
So it doesn’t mean you can’t have money.
You get it in the proper way and you use it in the proper way. And your
personal expenses should be very low. And you should never mix Dharma and
money. Never require a student to ever feel obligated to pay anything. That’s a
very bad karma, okay.
Alright, we’ll do a prayer, alright
[prayer: short mandala]
[prayer: dedication]
Goodnight. Thankyou
The Asian Classics Institute

Course XVI: Great Ideas of Buddhism