ACI 17 (обзорный курс), Занятие 02 (прогон ГМР, Нью-Йорк) — стенограмма

Class 2, part 1
Transcribed by: Karen Becker

(prayer: refuge)

We have a meeting ...we have dinner tomorrow at (unclear)

(student: okay)

You're welcome to come if you want to come.

(student: I'd love to)

Okay. Talk to Ora or Elly and his son happens to be here too,
which is very good, and then we have a meeting...I have a meeting
with Ke Shan who's another diamond dealer on Friday (unclear) the
New York diamond.

Noisy. Hello hello...hello, hello. Okay we start. We try to
start. Where's the Sergeant when you need him? Okay.

(student: (unclear))

Okay (laughter) whatever. (unclear) Okay we'll start. Tonight
is the single most important class of all the classes, no kidding
(laughter), okay. Tonight we're gonna discuss the direct
perception of emptiness, all right, and that came in the (b:
Diamond Cutter) course...it was class number six, so we're into
that tonight. And I'm just gonna go from a historical basis,
like if you wanted to see emptiness directly, how would it
happen. All right. First of all, you need to meet an
extraordinary teacher in this life...I mean you've had millions
of livetimes getting ready, okay...seriously, but in this life
you have to meet a teacher

(cut)

the right study and it might take something like a thousand hours
of study or something, okay, seriously...very serious
now...tonight's very serious for one, okay. Secondly you would
need to be helping people in general, okay? I mean, you'd have
to be serving old people, sick people, needy people, like that,
like a good part of your life and a good part of your activity
would have to be helping people who need help, okay...and I'm
talking about the conditions you need in this life to see
emptiness directly, okay. Most importantly, although I don't
bring the subject up here, would be serving your Lama. I don't
go over that in these courses, that's not a part of these
courses, because it would seem self-interested, you see, if I
said bring your bank books next week and (laughs) okay, so I'm
talking from a theoretical viewpoint, okay. You have to have a
Lama, you have to serve that Lama, and I'm talking build them a
house, go work for them and support what they're interested in,
you know, something like that...I mean, I'm not saying me, I'm
saying whoever your Lama would be, if you want to see emptiness
directly, you have to put in some big time energy, pretty much
devote your life to to that cause, to that purpose, you know.
When I went to see Khen Rinpoche the first time I gave him my
bankbook, you know, and he gave it back to me, he said "thank
you", you see, you have to do it, and he said, "I don't need it"
and he did need it, but he gave it back to me, you know, and it's
like that, that's the way it should go, okay. And and you need
that kind of committment to that Lama to see emptiness directly,
okay. You have to find your personal Lama and then...I'm your
teacher, okay. You have to find your Lama, okay. You have to
find a person that you have a connection to and then you have to
connect with them and you have to serve them. And the and the
karma of that is that you will see emptiness, okay. So, serving
others, serving your Lama, studying like crazy, okay, must be
meditating regularly, every day, one to two hours, heavy duty
meditation. There's a certain platform from which you see
emptiness, it's a certain deep kind of meditation...(sum den dum
bar nyen do mi cho me). A very specific...out of all the
thousands of meditative states, you have to be able to get into
that one or you will not see emptiness, okay? In that state...I
mean, to de de describe it generally, your sense objects are shut
down...you can't see anything, hear anything, smell anything,
taste anything, feel anything. If somebody came in the room and
snapped their fingers you wouldn't hear it. If somebody brought
pomme frites (laughter) or McDonald's french fries in the room,
you wouldn't smell them. Okay. It's...you know what I mean,
like that. I mean your concentration's perfect, okay. You need
to reach that state to see emptiness directly. It's it's
be...you have no hope to see emptiness directly if you are not
meditating at that level. You have no hope of reaching that
level if you don't do it everyday. If you do do it every day you
have some hope of reaching that level, okay? Those are all the
preliminaries, okay. Those are the main preliminaries. Now I'd
like to talk about the sequence of events that happens just
before you see emptiness directly. Okay. We're talking in the
few or two or three weeks before you see emptiness directly,
okay. You should have been studying a subject called...(chi
jedrak). Okay. It's j-e-d, okay. Say (chi) (repeat) (jedrak)
(repeat) (chi) (repeat) (jedrak) (repeat). Okay. (Chi) means
like "quality" and (jedrak) means "characteristic". And I have
to explain that a little bit. By the way, it's generally
translated as "generals" and "specifics" or "set" and "subset"
and it's a wrong translation. Okay. It's not the point, okay.
What's the point? The point is this. (laughs) This gets hard,
okay. It's a very very deep, you must learn it...it's not the
subject tonight, but you have to at least hear it, okay. Think
about the quality called "car". There's a there's a quality
"car". Say "car". (repeat) Okay (laughs), It's a quality, you
see? It's a quality. Now what things are characteristic of this
quality, what things exhibit this quality...Fords, Chevrolets,
Toyotas, Nissans, Honda, okay. Those are (chidraks...jedraks),
okay. They are the (jedrak) part. (Chi) means "car". I didn't
say what?

(students: a car)

"A car". I didn't say "the car". I said "car". Okay. Car is a
concept. Car is a picture you have in your mind, okay. And you
have to get used to that. Car is just a concept. I didn't say
"a car", or "the car" or "the Honda" or "the Chevy" or anything
like that. Car. Okay. You have to get used to that, and you
have to think about it deeply, okay. Car. And then you have to
think, when you see a Honda or a Ford or a Chevy, what is it that
allows you to say "car". What is it in your mind that allows you
to recognize it as a car. This is what Buddhist logic is devoted
to...Dharmakirti, this is what Master Dharmakirti, this is
what...what is car? Okay. And how come you can perceive
something as a car. Why do you recognize something as a car,
okay. Car. What is car? Okay. And you have to think about
that, car, as opposed to a Chevy, a Ford, a car. Okay. Car.
Carness as a quality, okay. And you start having extraordinary
realizations about this subject, okay. So if you want to see
emptiness directly, here's all the things you gotta throw into
the stew...into the pot. Gotta be serving your Lama, gotta be
serving other people, okay. Gotta be studying your ass off.
Gotta be meditating a lot, okay. Should be living in a quiet
place where you can concentrate on these things. Okay. And
then, on top of all that, you must, you know...how do you
say...confront the idea, what is a quality, what is a
characteristic of that...what is something which is
characteristic of that quality, okay. I don't say "a
characteristic". I say something characteristic of that quality,
and and you must confront this problem. You have to spend hour
after hour after hour worrying about, "why did he get up there
and say 'car, car, car, car'. What's the big thing about car?"
Okay. Where is car? What's car look like. Where does car stay.
 Okay? And you must confront these questions. You must cogitate
these things. You must if you want to see emptiness directly.
Okay. And then what is the relationship between "car" and a
particular car. Okay. You must, you must think about it deeply,
okay. And if you don't...if you have not done the other things
that I mentioned, it'll seem like a ridiculous exercise to you,
you see what I mean. If you have done the other things I
mentioned, you'll get it. It's like a koan. Okay. It's like
some kind of thing, you know, if you've been serving a Lama, if
you've been serving the Dharma, if you've been helping poor
people, old people, sick people...big time...I'm not talking once
in a while. I'm talking most of you day, okay, then when when
someone teaches you (chi jedrak) a light goes off. Okay. By the
way, just before this you start having amazing realizations about
(tak pa mi tak pa)...say (tak pa) (repeat) (mi takpa) (repeat)
(takpa mi takpa) (repeat) which is changing things, unchanging
things, you know. What does it mean to be a changing thing?
What does it mean to be an unchanging thing? Okay. Badly
translated as "permanent" and "impermanent". Forget the
translation "permanent and impermanent". Okay. There's two
levels of impermanence, there's two levels of changing. One is
obvious. You take a coffee cup, you drop it, it breaks, that's
what we call obvious impermanence or obvious changing nature of
the cup, okay. There's a subtle nature of changing that's going
on all the time. There's a there'a a subtle flux in which things
exist, you know, and if you study this subject deep, deeply,
meditate hard, serve your Lama hard, serve other people hard,
meditate al...a lot, everyday, devote yourself to that, then
you'll start to have some extraordinary realizations
about...you'll perceive the subtle impermanence of things which
which is just short of perceiving emptiness...it's difficult,
okay? You perceive the...the subtle changing nature of things.
It's very difficult...it's a high spiritual state to get to.
Okay. So you start to go through that, then you realize things
about quality, car, okay, then comes the big moment.
Um...where'd it go. Say (chu chok) (repeat)...by the way, I'm
sorry it's so hot, ignore the heat, this is extremely important,
this will save your life, okay. Say (chu chok) (repeat) (chu
chok) (repeat). (Chu) means "thing" in this case. (Chok) means
"the highest", okay, the highest thing in the world. It's a
level you reach just before you see emptiness. So we have to say
highest thing in the world...for someone who hasn't see emptiness
yet (laughs), okay. Once you see emptiness directly, that's a
whole higher thing, okay. But in the mean time we'll call this
(chu chok). Okay. (Chu chok). (Chu chok) is the final few hours
of a thing called (jor lam). (Jor lam) is a a whole couple of
months...it could go on for a couple months, maybe a year or two,
in which you start to understand emptiness intellectually. Like
popcorn. I call it popcorn. You know, you've been serving this
Lama, you been really had great faith in this person, they've
been feeding you Dharma big time, you've been serving sick
people, old people, you've been reading heavy, you've been
meditating heavy, and then you start to get into (jor lam). (Jor
lam) means "path of preparation". Preparation for what? To see
emptiness directly, okay. It goes on for a couple months maybe?
And you're having all of these...I call it popcorn, you know, dup
dup dup...du dup dup dup, you know, in your mind, and you're like
"wow, wow, that's impermanence...wow, I get it...that's car, I
get it, that's how...yeah, yeah, I understand that, you know, and
you're having this thing going on and your concentration is
getting better and better as as the days go by, because of the
virtue of serving this Lama, keeping your morality, meditating
well, you you, suddenly you are able to see things you were not
able to see before. And it just starts going like that. And it
starts to accelerate as the day comes closer, okay? Like every
day something's happening, and you're starting to understand
things like boom boom boom, okay, then you get to (chu chok).
(Chu chok) is the final hour of the path of preparation, okay.
And I'll describe it to you. You're standing there, early in the
morning, making your Lama the cup of tea he likes to have every
morning, let's say it's like nine o'clock, eight-thirty, and
you're sitting there and you put a aluminum pot, you fill it up
with water, you put it on the stove, you turn on the stove and
you stand there watching the pot, you know, it's just another
day, you've had some pretty heavy study recently, and you're
watching the pot, and then suddenly, something happens to you,
okay. You you're looking at the pot and suddenly you realize
that you are watching the image of a pot in your mind, okay. For
the first time in your life you realize you're watching a image
in your mind. This is a (chi)...this is a quality. Okay. You
gotta get used to that. There's a thing called "car" and there's
a thing called "pot". I'm not saying "a" pot, "the" pot, I'm
saying "pot". And you realize all this time you've been watching
"pot" and not "a pot" or "the pot" or "the pot out there" or
anything like that. You've been watching a mental image of a
pot. All the time in your life, up to this moment, you've been
looking at things that you thought existed out there on the stove
and you realize that you are actually watching an image in your
mind. Okay. And it's like boom, okay...like, can it cook water?
 Of course. It is. It happens to be cooking water every
morning, okay. Is it out there on the stove? No. Where is it?
In your mind. It's an image in your mind, okay, and you're
sitting there and you realize that the only data you're really
getting from the outside is a gleam over here and a black
horizontal thing over here...that's the handle, right?...but you
realize that all you really ever get as information from the
outside...your eye is always going like this, you see. You never
see a whole pot... you can't see a whole pot. But you think
you're seeing a whole pot, you see what I mean? It's impossible
to see a whole pot. You can't watch the right side while you're
watching the left side. You can't see a pot unless you see the
right and left side. It's impossible what's going on here, okay.
 You're not seeing a pot. Your eye (fingers snaping: snap snap
snap snap) is like that, many milliseconds it's
like...flashes...silver color over there...little bit of black
stripe over there... (unclear) a bit of a convex thing over
there, which is a bubble, right? But really all the eye can see
is shapes and colors, shapes and colors. Got some line over
there, got a curve over here, got some silver over there, and
what happens, the mind says "pot". Okay. Let's be a pot.
Actually all you've got is like ten clues. You don't have a pot
yet. You can't see a pot...get used to it. Impossible. The
human eye can not see a pot. It can't see a pot unless you see
enough of the parts of the pot to think pot, and you can't see
those many parts at once. You never see the whole pot. Okay.
For all you know there could be a cardboard drawing, and the, and
there's only this two dimensional thing, but your mind is filling
it in quite perfectly. And you have this perfect pot in your
mind. It's actually only about a half an inch high, or a quarter
of an inch high. And it feels like it's back here, when it
happens, you know, you're like...there's this, you
know...sensation that you're really watching something back
around here, okay, and you're like "wow. I'm not watching a pot.
I'm watching my own picture of a pot in my own mind", okay. And
you're like stunned, okay. It's a it's a very very high state of
realization. You just saw what? Emptiness?

(students: No)

No, it's what we call dependent origination. For the first time
in your life, you saw what you've really been doing your whole
life with every single object you ever looked at, and for the
first time you just caught yourself, and it's like boom, you
know, it's like you just got very close to seeing emptiness. You
are now on the cusp on seeing emptiness. We can call you the
highest normal person in the world. Okay. And and and you could
be some schmuck, kid, standing there watching the pot on the
stove, but you just became one of the spiritual giants of the
universe...seriously, not kidding, okay. You just saw what's
really been going on for millions of years in your own mind and
you never ever realized it, okay...according to Buddhism. Okay.
It's suddenly you're like, "wow. I'm not looking at a pot at
all. I'm looking at a picture of a pot in my own mind and that's
what I've been calling pot all this time". Okay. A huge
realization. You're just standing there, you know. Water's
boiling away (laughs) okay. Then you come out of that...it takes
maybe, I don't know, five ten minutes, okay, and you you finish
the cup of tea, take it upstairs to your Lama, give him the tea,
and then go do your morning practice. So you go to the temple,
sit down near this pillar on the right side of the back, okay,
sit down there, and you're alone and you're doing your meditation
and you go into (sum den dum bar nyen do mi cho me), you go into
this special state of meditation which is very...it's samadhi,
perfect samadhi, okay. You go into this absolute deep
concentration...okay...and then you see emptiness directly.
Okay. And you have the experience of seeing emptiness directly,
okay. How long does it last? Maybe twenty minutes. What does
it feel like? Indescribable, okay. It's a higher reality, okay.
 This...everything you've ever seen in your life belongs to what
we call level one reality. We call it the reality that's lying
to you (kun dzok den pa), okay. Deceptive reality. It's not
what it seems, okay, but your mind takes it that way, okay.
Emptiness is a totally different, higher level of reality.
During the direct perception of emptiness you cannot perceive any
normal objects. Impossible. Cannot. Okay. So I'll ask you some
questions. Can you say to yourself as you're seeing emptiness
directly for the first time, "heh heh heh..now I did it", you
know? No. Why? I, Michael Roach, is not ultimate reality.
"Did" is not ultimate reality. "It" is not ultimate reality.
(laughter). The sound "I did it" is not ultimate reality.
(laughs) The thought "I did it" is not ultimate reality. These
are all normal reality. Okay. You can't have a perception of
normal reality during that time, okay. Impossible. Only a
direct communion with emptiness, okay, and and your mind is just
like in it, and it and it stays there, okay. You must be in deep
meditation. People who say you see emptiness directly chopping
wood or something like that...bullshit. Not true, okay. You
must be in deep meditation, okay. And then suddenly, you're in
this direct perception of...of emptiness, okay. And that's it.
You are watching...your mind takes on the aspect of
emptiness...your mind does not become emptiness 'cause it is a
changing thing... and emptiness never changes, but it's mirroring
emptiness due to the silence of the mind, it's able to mirror
emptiness and you are in direct communion with emptiness...your
mind has the aspect of emptiness or, in the way a mirror has the
aspect of a red, of a red suit that you put in front of it or
something like that, okay. And and that's all. Your mind is
totally calm and it's and it's reflecting emptiness. And you're
in the direct perception of emptiness. okay. Then you come down.
 Okay. There's a...by the way (sum den dum bar nyen do mi cho
me), that meditative level belongs to a different realm. We're
in the desire realm, that technically belongs to the form realm,
okay. So you have this feeling of descending out of the
meditation, okay. It's a it's a actual sensation of descending.
Have you been twelve feet off the ground or something? No.
Where was your body? Parked in the desire realm. Where was your
mind? It reached the form realm, so you do have a sensation of
coming down, okay, a brief sensation of coming down. But you're
not physically coming down at all, okay. Then you sit there...by
the way, that's called (lun sum), that whole process. Say (lun
sum) (repeat) (lum sum) (repeat). (Lun sum) means that twenty
minutes or thirty minutes that you're in the direct perception of
emptiness, okay. By the way, do you know how much time has gone
by?

(student: No)
Can't. Why?

(students: (unclear))

The perception of time is a is a relative perception, okay. It's
a it belongs to lower reality. Cannot perceive time itself. You
don't know how long you've been there, okay. Glance up at the
clock...oh twenty minutes (laughs) Okay. All right. You come
out...feeling of coming down, and then for the next like ten
hours, extraordinary events happen to you, extraordinary
realizations. More than you've had in your whole life or in
thousands of lifetimes. In the next ten hours more great
spiritual levels will be blasted over than in the thousands of
lifetimes before, okay? It's like, in one day, you move a
million miles spiritually, okay, and you are blasting one by one
over these over these realizations that you never dreamed of,
okay, and they're all happening in that one day, okay. I'll give
you a list of them okay? And this is in no particular order,
okay. All of these realizations can be grouped in...well, I'll
tell you later, okay (laughter), okay. Number one. You see your
future enlightenment, okay. You know you will be a Buddha, you
know how long it will take. Precisely, meaning, very typically,
seven more lifetimes. Okay. Very typically. We call it (lan du
ma oa), okay, very typically it's gonna take seven more lifetimes
and you see it directly. You know that, you see the day of your
enlightenment directly, okay, so you've already confirmed
something interesting. You've already confirmed directly the
existence of future lives. Not by logic, which is how we teach
it here, but by direct perception, okay. And you see your own
enlightenment which means you've just confirmed the existence of?
(laughs) Buddhas. Okay. All right. That's the first and
probably the most important realization. Secondly, you realize
that you have met the body of the Buddha, meaning, the emptiness
you saw was the dharmakaya of the Buddha. You...so in one few
seconds of thinking, you realize that you have confirmed the
existence of enlightened beings and you've see the dharmakaya
directly...you've met an enlightened being directly. You've seen
the dharmakaya directly, period. Okay. I should mention a side
perception, a (tse ma), a pramana...you realize that you're not
crazy, and that's very important. I don't say that as a joke.
You realize that what's happening to you on that day is for real,
you see. It's a whole separate realization...you see what I
mean? It's a whole separate thing that's happening to you. You
say, "my god, I'm not only seeing these things, I'm right". You
confirm you own wild spiritual realization, okay. That's another
one. You can read other peoples minds for the rest of the day,
okay. That's not such a big deal according to Buddhism, you can
see that before that if you have good concentration. But
everybody always sees it at that point. You can read other
peoples minds the rest of the day, okay. Not necessarily
afterwards, okay, but during that day. Okay. Here's a very
important one. Your mind starts searching, scrambling to find
something in the normal world that can remind you forever after
of what you saw, okay...like your mind is...I don't want to
forget this, I don't want to forget this, I don't want to forget
this...now wha wha wha what can remind me, what can remind me of
what I saw? Your mind is like scrambling for something to remind
you. And everybody always comes to the same idea. Diamond.
Diamond. Okay. The diamond. Vajra. Okay. And always comes to
that, because that is the one object in the universe which is an
absolute...close to an absolute, okay. It's the hardest thing in
the universe. Every person who ever sees emptiness directly
realizes that a diamond is the most important object in the in
the regular world that can remind you of of what you saw. And
you'd be more than willing to spend the rest of your life working
in some crummy diamond company just to be close to them. Because
it would make sense to spend the rest of your life...even if they
didn't pay you...just to be close to them so you could remember,
you see what I mean, and and and it wouldn't be a problem to work
for twenty years or something in a company without any need for
money or any desire to have any money, just to be close to them.
You know, you you get this knowledge that you must stay close to
them and you must be around them to remind you of what you saw,
okay. And and to spend twelve hours a day at this stupid place
would be worth it if you only remembered once a week what you
saw, you see what I mean...to get up every morning at six, come
home at eight, but to be there, and to touch them and to be
around them would be worth it, just to remember the twenty
minutes...you should never forget the twenty minutes, okay. So
that's another important realization. Here's some minor ones.
You realize the importance of images of the Buddha. Okay. Your
whole relationship to carved images, painted images, thangkas,
photographs, drawings changes. Why? It's now not an imaginary
thing, this is someone you have met. This ain't a drawing
anymore this is a photograph, okay. This is not some pretty
thing that Buddhist people draw that they made up or something
like that...this is a veronika, a true image of this thing that
you saw, you know, and your whole relationship to Buddhist art
and images changes, you know, like you would never think of
making calendars out of this thing and throwing them in the
garbage and stuff like that. It's out of the question. This is
now something totally important, you know. Every thangka that
was ever painted can be traced back to a person that met that
being, and you know it, you see what I mean...now you know it.
And you treat 'um that way, you see what I mean, however bad it's
been rendered by the most recent artist, okay? You know that it
comes from a lineage back to someone who met Tara and and you and
you've got that direct understanding of that and you're like
blown away, you know, like, oh man now when you see a thangka or
a painting, it's like "oh hi, I know you" (laughs) (laughter)
okay...you know what I mean? Much different...by the way, you
have this refuge vow that you're supposed to take care of
thangkas and stuff like that and consider them like the
Buddha...now it's like automatic. Another realization...you get
down on your face and you make prostrations. Okay. If you've
ever seen the Ten Commandments with Charleston Heston, when he
meets the burning bush...what does he do? He throws himself on
the ground, okay, and the minute you come out...within a few
minutes, you throw yourself on the ground. Okay. You do a
natural prostration. First time in your life you've ever done a
real prostration. This is where prostration comes from. You
throw yourself at the feet of the dharmakaya. Okay. It's the
only place to be when the dharmakaya walks in the room, is to get
your face into the carpet, okay, and and you realize it, and you
do. You get down there and you put your face in the carpet, you
know what I mean, and, you know, that's your first prostration
really. The others are just practice, all right, and and you're
like trembling, like okay, I know who you are now (laughs), down
in the carpet, okay. Like that. You have a realization that
every single book of Buddhist scripture that was ever written is
totally true. Every sentence in every Buddhist scripture is
absolutely true. Okay. Like, like up to then, you're like "I
like this one, I like this one, this is kinda cool, this is kinda
interesting, this not too interesting, I don't believe this one,
you know...two hundred thousand Tibetan scriptures, forty-five
hundred Indian scriptures, every single word is absolutely
correct, okay?

It it dawns on you, okay, you see it, you see what I mean. And
actually you've just seen the contents of all of this, I mean you
don't really need to read them any more, okay. You don't need
them anymore. You've just realized the contents of the entire
Buddhist scriptures. Okay. I mean, you've realized directly the
contents of the Buddhist scripture. You don't much need them any
more, but you become obcessed with saving, them, okay. They must
survive in the world, you know. This is the only written thing
in the world which is absolutely true and which gets people to
ultimate happness. And you're like boom, you know, like from
that moment on, if you had to spend the rest of your life making
sure that not a single page was lost in the world, you'd happily
do it, okay. Must be saved. You know, must be preserved. Must
be propagated. Must be translated. It becomes an obcession with
you, okay, because you you saw that it works, you see what I
mean, and you confirmed it. Now frankly, the next realization is
a little hard, okay? You realizing that Buddhism is the one true
path, okay. Now, I'm a Buddhist monk, it sounds a little self-
interested (laughs) okay. It's not. Okay. And I and I say it
in front of an audience like you. I don't go out and say it in
Christian churches that I speak at. Okay. But on that day, in
that twenty minutes you confirm that this path is one hundred
percent absolutely accurate, true, it works and it can get people
into an enlightened paradise. And you've confirmed it. So
you're like blown away, like wow...this stuff has to survive.
This stuff has to be spread. This stuff has to be translated.
These books have to be preserved, okay...and you're and you
adamant about it, okay. One very important realization. First
direct experience of bodhicitta, okay...first direct experience
of bodhicitta. What's it feel like? You know, bodhicitta you
can talk about...I want to save all sentient beings, I love all
sentient beings, I would like to take care of all sentient
beings, I promise to try to become a Buddha to help all sentient
beings...you can talk like that, you can do (sang gye cho dang
sang gye chog nam la) and you know, you're saying that. That's
a...an expression of the wish that you could develop bodhicitta.
Okay. But on that day you have the direct, experiential
realization of bodhicitta, okay? What's it feel like? Some kind
of a corny thing, okay, corny...clear light coming out of your
chest like a big...like this big, okay, this big shaft coming out
of your chest, and then...not a direct person, perception of each
being in the universe, but a direct perception of the idea of
every being in the universe, and this clear light going out to
all of them, and a direct knowledge that you will spend the rest
of your life, every single moment of your life will be dedicated
to helping other people, especially to realize what you've just
seen, you see. The rest of your life, and you see it at that
moment. You will not spend a single hour, except in the service
of other people, to try to get them to see what you just saw, and
you see it directly, okay...and that that's the experience you
have. You you realize this thing directly. Okay. And that's
the first direct experience of bodhicitta. Later. You see
directly the your death, okay...do you see the day of your death
and you're sitting on your death bed?...blah blah blah...no. You
realize directly your own impermanence in terms of death, you
realize that you will, you know, that there's this force that's
trying to make you horizontal...and it will (laughs), okay, I
mean you have this sort of semi-awareness of this fact, but on
that day you're boom, you're sure, okay? Sure of it, okay.
There's something else. Oh maybe I'll think of it. Anyway,
those are the main ones. Oh. You have this sort of
depressing...two depressing realizations. (laughs) okay. A)
You have never in your life had a correct perception until you
saw emptiness directly...not one. Okay. How many perceptions
you have every finger snap?

(students: Sixty five)

Sixty five discreet perceptions during a finger snap. On that
day, when you come out of the direct perception of emptiness, you
realize that you have never had a correct perception in your
life, okay, until the direct perception of emptiness, okay. Sort
of depressing. Okay. Question. When you come out of the direct
perception of emptiness, are you having a correct perception when
you have all these thoughts?

(students: No)

No. Okay. Things don't change that way, okay. In other words
when you come out of the direct perception of emptiness, a) you
realize you've never had a correct perception, b) you realize
you're not having them any more right now either (laughter),
since you came down out of the direct perception of emptiness.
But what's the big difference?

(students. You know)

You know you're crazy (laughs)(laughter) okay? I don't mean
crazy...I'm being, you know. Metaphoric. But but you...it's a
big difference between before and after seeing emptiness
directly. Now you realize that even though you're now seeing
things again as self-existent, as coming from their own side, as
having their own nature, you don't believe your own eyes. I
always say it's like Jason Tid...is it Jason?...tied to the
mast...who went after the golden fleece?

(students: (unclear))

I think it's him.

(students: Ulysses)

Ulysses? I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, they're passing
the land of the Sirens...who's that? Ulysses. Okay. Let's say
Ulysses. They're passing the land of the Sirens. Sirens are
these foxy ladies that stand at the edge of a dangerous shore and
sing these beautiful songs and the sailors always turn left into
the land and they crash and they get eaten by the Sirens, or
something like that (laughter) so, Ulysses has heard about these
Sirens. So he asks his men, "tie me to the mast tight. I'm the
Captain, but after you tie me to the mast, don't listen to me
anymore. Whatever I say. And put wax in your ears. And row
like hell, and never, don't turn into the Sirens, but I want to
hear what it sounds like", you know? So he...they tie him up,
they put wax in their ears, they go past the Land of the Sirens,
and he's like going crazy. He's like "let me go, you know.
Untie me, we gotta go see these ladies" (laughs), you know, and
your mind is just like that. You realize it at that time, you
see? And and you you can't even remember what you saw enough to
not do it anymore? (laughter). Okay what I mean? You see what
I mean? Like you know what you're seeing is wrong, but you can't
stop yourself. By the way, the day you stop yourself completely
is just about Nirvana, okay, the last mental affliction is the
one that makes you see things as self-existent, okay. So
actually, on the day you've finished that, you've reached
Nirvana. All right. So that's a long way off. How long?

(students: Seven lifetimes)

Call it seven lifetimes. You see, between...between the moment
you come down and seven lifetimes hence when you reach nirvana
and enlightenment in this case, you will still see things as self-
existent. We call that "illusion" (gyu ma ta bu), that whole
seven lifetimes, the way things look to you, is illusion.
Because you know they don't exist the way they seem to exist.
But you can't do anything about it. You can't change the way you
look at them, but you work on it. Don't interrupt me about this
on this to...tonight okay? Maybe at the end we'll answer some
questions, but we gotta go through this on a certain...intensity,
okay? (laughs). So you...so you know that you're not seeing
things correctly, and you know they don't exist the way you think
they exist, and that's the meaning of "illusion" in Buddhism. It
doesn't have any other meaning, okay. Get used to it. I see
this crap in books about "dualism"...doesn't mean anything. It's
ridiculous, okay. Forget it. What does "dualism" mean? It
means, what it really means is "the way things really are and the
way things look to be are different" and that's dual...you see
what I mean? Does the mind become emptiness in the direct
perception of shunyata?

(students: No)

No. Come on. The mind is a changing mental stuff, you know,
emptiness is a hundred percent unchanging, negative thing...the
mind is a positive thing...that's all just like fairy tales made
up by people who have not understand emptiness, haven't see
emptiness and they are really hurting people by putting out crap
about emptiness when they don't understand it and they haven't
see it, okay. So you have to be...about this subject, you gotta
be a tough ass and call a spade a spade...that stuff is crap.
Okay. It's not true. Okay. The only dualism going on...while
you're in the direct perception of emptiness, are you aware of
yourself?

(students: No)

Can't be. So you can't be aware of the distinction between the
subject and the object. Does that mean there's no subject?

(student: No)

What...you disappear for twenty minutes? Does that mean there's
no object? Emptiness isn't there? Does that mean you become the
object? What, you become a negative, permanent thing?
Unchanging thi...come on. You know. It's just written by people
who don't understand it, okay, and haven't experienced it, okay.
So forget all that stuff. Dualism crap and what was the other
one? Illusion. So illusion only means that. It doesn't mean
this pen doesn't exist. Come up here let me poke your eye out
with it, okay. Anyone who thinks that that's what illusion
means...you see what I mean? It's not like that. Illusion means
"the way it looks after that and the way it really is is
different, and you understand that". But you can't stop seeing
it that way, and that's illusion, forget everything else. Okay?
Okay? That's my tough guy. All right. That's about all I can
think of right now, okay. You can take all those realizations
and group them into four parts. Some of them relate to
suffering. Oh sorry, one more. Okay. Put one more down. You
realize on the day you come out of the direct perception of
emptiness that you have never done an unselfish thing in your
life, okay, period, okay. Even while you sat in the temple and
recited prayers, in the back of your mind, every person who has
not reached the direct perception of emptiness is thinking, "do
they realize I memorized this prayer; is anyone listening, you
know; I I know it better than he does (laughter), you know, and
you're praying for some guy who just died of terrible death of
AIDS or something, and you're just worried about whether or not
people notice that you know the ritual, and don't say you don't
have it. Every being who has not seen emptiness directly is
swimming in these thoughts all day long, okay. Incapable of a
non-self-interested act. Capable of struggling with you self-
interest, you know what I mean? Capable of working against it on
principle, you see what I mean? Okay, I really want this cookie.
 It's the last honey flavored peanut butter cookie in Godstow
(laughter), I'm a Buddhist monk...I just taught (tong
len)...okay, take it (laughs) you know (laughter)...but in your
heart you're like fighting, you know what I mean? And we're all
like that, and I and I'm not criticizing, I'm just saying until
the day you see emptiness directly you are like that, and on the
day you have your first direct perception of bodhicitta and
emptiness, you realize you've been doing that your whole life,
okay, and and it's a horrible trap that you've been in your whole
life, okay? And you can't get out of it until you see emptiness
directly. I'll say right now, you can not remove a mental
affliction from your mind until the day you see emptiness
directly. Period. Okay. Hopeless. Impossible...to remove
anger, jealousy, desire, competitiveness, pride, without seeing
emptiness directly...it's impossible. Okay. The all the other
methods are what we call bandaids, okay. Yeah you can...you can
hold your pride down..you know, get down there, no, you know
(laughter) (laughs) okay, for a few minutes, you see what I
mean...desires, dislikes of other people, things like that...you
can wrestle with them but you cannot destroy them until the the
day you see emptiness directly. Impossible. Okay. So what'da
you got now? Some of these realizations relate to suffering,
like what? Like I saw my death. Like I realized I haven't had a
pure thought in my whole life, you know...things like that. Some
things relate to the the source of suffering..I have never had a
direct perception...correct perception in my whole life, sixty-
five times sixty times sixty times twenty four times seven times
fifty two times forty-seven (laughter) okay, or six, I don't
remember, but that many incorrect perceptions I've had, okay.
Like wheth..you could lu...lump these into the source of
suffering. I have not been able to do an unselfish act in my
whole life, okay. Like these are...suffering. Into suffering
you can put that thing about reading other peoples minds. You
think it's fun? (laughter), you know. No. Okay. I think it's a
god-send that we're protected from it, okay (laughter)...no, it's
bad enough to be in your own mind. Probably there's some kind of
automatic mechanism that you're not allowed to read other peoples
minds until you can take it, okay, so so those go into suffering
and where suffering comes from. Then we can say you can see the
end. You see what I mean...you saw your own enlightenment. One
hundred percent absolute, guaranteed, certain enlightened in
seven lifetimes. Do you know what this guy feels like? Do you
know what it's like to know? You see what I mean. Then then
who's gonna tell you anything? You know what I mean. Who's
gonna sell you a vacuum cleaner, or (laughter) you know, who
who's gonna sell you on some other idea or or anything else.
What do you need from anybody after that moment? You see what I
mean. Yo you're not capable after that of of needing almost
anything, okay, you you saw your own enlightenment, so who's
gonna...what interest do you have in any worldly thing after
that, you know. Like zero. Nothing. Okay. Who can talk you out
of it? Forget it. You know. I had a pramana. I had a (tse
ma). That's the meaning of pramana. That's your first real
pramana. I had direct correct perception of emptiness, I saw my
own enlightenment...what do I need? You know...(ka le jig me),
Nagarjuna said, "fearless; totally fearless". Don't need
anything in this life anymore, and and know you're going out,
know you're on the way out. It's like you've stepped onto a
conveyer belt and you are gonna be free in seven lifetimes and
you know it, and you're absolutely guaranteed, okay. It's called
(gyun chupa). Say (gyun) (repeat) (chupa) (repeat). Stream
enterer. I think nowadays it should be called "conveyor belt
started" (laughter), seriously...it's exactly that idea. You is
on a track that will lead in seven lifetimes to enlightenment,
you've seen your enlightenment directly, you know what they will
not call you...a add that to the list of realizations. Okay.
You know what they will not call you. They will not call you
Michael the Buddha, or something like that, okay. There's
something extremely important in knowing what they will not call
you. You can figure it out later, okay, but within seven
lifetimes, you see it, you know it, you're a stream enterer, you
don't have any worries...any normal worries, you don't have any
kind of problems with other people...serious problems, you're not
have any interest in doing bad deeds, nothing, okay, nothing.
Like that. Out. Okay. Guarantee. Can it come faster? Yes.
How?

(student: (Tantra)

If the person practices (tantra) they can speed up the process.
What's the relation between (tantra) and this perception? It's
the...it's the...the battery that drives (tantra), okay. The
perception of emptiness. Is it necessary to perceive emptiness
directly to have (tantric) experiences? No. Okay. All right.
Do you have to be a monk to perceive emptiness directly? Not at
all. Okay. Does it help. Yes. (laughs) (laughter), okay. But
not necessary, okay...so don't ever think that. Do you have to
be a monk to have tantric experiences? No, okay. Does it help?
Yes. Okay. But not, but not necessary, not not...it's not like
that, okay. Totally qualified, man, woman, anyone who does what
I described at the beginning of the class, you can see emptiness
directly, you can have all of these things happen to you. So so
far we got like suffering, the cause of suffering and how it's
gonna stop, okay, and then you see how to do it. Okay. That's
when you have all these ideas about Buddhism, you know. Buddhism
is absolutely true, the books are absolutely true, the books must
survive in this world, I must make that sure none of these books
are lost, okay...somebody somewhere will figure them out. Okay.
How many people running around the planet at any given time have
seen emptiness directly? Take infinity and divide it by seven.
Sorry...divide seven by infinity and that gives you the number of
people on this planet who have reached that stage at any given
time in history, okay. 'Cause that's the odds of seeing
emptiness directly, okay.

(cut)

taken take seven and divide it by infinity which is how many past
lives you've had and and those are roughly the odds of meeting
someone who's seen emptiness directly. And I'm not kidding,
okay. So then what do you do? Oh, so those four things...saw
the end of it...sorry, saw suffering, saw what's bringing about
your suffering, saw the end of suffering, saw the method to get
to that end, which includes bodhicitta, okay. What do we call
those four things?

(students: Four Arya Truths).

How 'bout we call them the Four Truths of a person who's seen
emptiness directly. (laughter) Okay. What's the sanscrit word
for a person who's seen emptiness directly?

(student: Arya)

Arya. What's a really stupid translation of arya?

(students: Noble)

Noble. (laughs) (laughter) Okay. Get it? Okay. (laughs) I
don't know how this Four Noble Truth thing started, but we gotta
stamp it out...it's our responsibility, okay. Nothing to do with
noble, you're an arya. What's an arya? In Tibetan, (Pak pa).
Say (pak pa) (repeat). A person who has seen emptiness directly.
 And then you is a totally totally totally different person.
There's only two people...there's only two kinds of beings in the
universe...those who've seen emptiness and those who haven't.
Period. That's the only distinction that matters in the
universe. Forget man woman old fat young skinny...doesn't
matter. The only meaningful distinction in the world is, have
you see emptiness directly or not. There's a very tiny group of
people over there, and there's billions upon billions of
suffering people over there, and they're totally different. Arya
means a zillion miles higher. The word "arya" means a zillion
miles higher, okay. Totally different level of being. Okay.
And never again will they come down to the...to what we call
"children" (she ba, so so ke wa), normal person, okay (ter tong),
those who see things as self-existent...you see what I mean?
Those at totally different level, completely different level.
Now you're on a totally totally different level. Guess what.
How many jewels are there (unclear)? (laughter) (laughs) How
many jewels? (laughter) Three jewels (laughs) okay. Buddha,
Dharma, Sangha...Buddha refuge, Dharma refuge, Sangha refuge.
You just became two of them, okay. Which two?

(students: Dharma and Sangha)

Sangha, okay, you became one of the few people in the universe
who has seen emptiness directly and you just became Dharma, the
Dharma refuge is in your mind, the direct perception of emptiness
is the Dharma. Okay. Is the ultimate Dharma refuge,
okay...which means you just, in twenty minutes, became the thing
that every Buddhist in the world is praying to. How's that?
Okay. You just became two of the three refuges. Why do they
call you refuge now? You can protect people. Okay. You can
protect people. People come to you...if they understand what you
say, if they try to do what you said, you've protected them in an
ultimate way, okay? If they pull it off in this lifetime, then
within seven lifetimes they will become a being who is incapable
of suffering. Forever, okay. That's protection. Better
than...what do you call it?...Irish Spring...whatever (laughter)
(laughs) okay. Okay. This is...this is protection. You become
two of the Three Jewels, okay, two of the three refuges you
become. Have you become the third one yet?

(student: No)

Have you met the third one yet?

(student: Yes)

Yeah. The real Buddha refuge is the emptiness of the Buddha
which last week we wer learned is (nyo wa ni ku), dharmakaya, you
become...I'm sorry...you perceive directly the emptiness of the
Buddha, okay. So you've covered all three refuges. You are two
of them, you've met the third one directly, okay, in one swoop.
They're either this kind of person, or this kind of person. So
now you know what Four Noble Truths means. It's a bad
translation of about sixteen different ideas that come to a
person who's just seen emptiness directly. Okay. Never forget
that. Because that thing is taught very...it's butchered...from
ti...week to week around the world by people teaching the Four
Noble Truths, okay. All it means is those realizations that a
person has just after they see emptiness directly, okay? Couple
more things. Well, I'll tell you a story , so anyway (laughter)
that's called (je tok), you'd better know the word, I guess. Say
(je tok) (repeat) (je tok) (repeat). (Je tok) means "the
aftermath. The aftermath". After what?

(students: Direct perception of emptiness)

Direct perception of emptioness. Those next ten hours or so are
called (je tok). They are still part of the path of seeing,
which is the term that's used to describe the direct perception
of emptiness and the things that happen right after it. Okay.
So you are on the path of seeing for say twenty four hours, for
the whole day, okay, you're on the path of seeing. It's
called...the first part is called what? (Yun som) or (nam shat)
and then (je tok). (Je tok) means "the the aftermath. And
during the aftermath you see the four?

(students: Arya)

Arya truths directly, in those...all those things I told you can
be divided into the Four Arya Truths, okay? Now, next what
happens. Get up, leave the temple, maybe bump into your teacher
or something like that...you gotta go get a diamond, okay. Take
your car, you don't tell anybody, you drive to the nearest town,
go find a used car dealer, park there, get out, go up to the guy,
"you wanna buy a car"? You need money for a diamond, right? Ya
gotta red Firebird, expensive car in those days, and you say,
"I'll sell you this for whatever you give me...I need money". So
read the guys mind. He says, "huh, this guy's a real fool."
(laughter) And he says, "what do you do for a living?" You say,
"I'm a dishwasher at a church". You know, and he says...then
he's like...ha ha...real fool and then he says, "well, I'll give
you a hundred dollars for the car". And you can hear him saying,
you know, "I'm cheating the guy, let's see if he goes for it".
and then you say "Fine...that'll be fine. I take a hundred
dollars". And he gives you a hundred dollars, you say, "Can I
have a ride to town", 'cause it's outta town, you know, car
dealers are always a little farther out. He says, "okay, I'll
take you to town, you know, he's like, tells his assistant, "you
know, at least we better give the guy a ride fast, then he won't
change his mind". He says, "okay, take this guy to town, drop
him off where he wants to go". Okay, go to town, go to a
jewelery store, buy a diamond, okay, get the bus back to the
church or the temple (laughs), okay, put the diamond in the...go
take the diamond, put it on the altar where someone may never
notice it, okay, 'cause you see, now you've understood what
offering means. First time. A truly selfless offering. You're
not buying...what do they call those things?...school
boys...school boys, right? (laughter) What's the company? Loo,
Loo School Boys. You're not buying Loo School Boys, which
happens to be your favorite cookie to offer (laughter) with the
full knowledge that they'll be cleaning the altar the next
morning (laughter) okay, all right. For the first time you make
a true offering, you know, you could burn a hundred dollar bill,
whatever, throw the diamond in the ocean, take the diamond, put
it on the altar where somebody may never find it, it's okay.
It's a true offering okay...of of the closest thing to emptiness,
okay. And then the day is finished, I mean, the rest of the day
will be all of these amazing things. You'll realize you can
perform miracles if you worked on it, okay, like you could change
the actual substance of objects, you know, your teacher says
could you make that brick into gold, you're like, "why he asking
me that?" you know, and then you realize you could if you kept up
this meditation, okay. You could perform miracles, things like
that. Okay. Technical question...oh by the way, by the next
morning you've reached what we call (gom lam), path of
habituation. Path of Habituation. You will be on that path for
how many lifetimes?

(students: Seven)

Seven. It'll take you seven lifetimes to get used to what?

(students: What you saw.)

What you saw. And especially to what you realized. During those
seven lifetimes you will use that information to overcome one by
one your?

(students: Mental afflictions)

Mental afflictions. Okay. First the obvious ones, the gross
form, and then the less gross forms, and then finally the very
subtle forms, ending in the final mental affliction, which is the
perception of things as self-existent. And then the seeds for
that. And then things won't even appear that way to you any
more. Then you've reached enlightenment if you have bodhicitta,
okay. And it and it's over. And that that's the whole process,
okay. That's the Path of Seeing, that's the direct perception of
of emptiness, all right, and that's all you have to say about it.
 Oh...I...when you see emptiness directly do you remove any
mental afflictions?

(student: Yes you do)

You actually technically remove three but two of them are more
important. What are they?

(student: Doubt)

Doubt. About Buddhism, okay. Incapable of doubt again. Anyone
in the world could come up attack you, say back things about you,
say you didn't see emptiness, say blah blah blah blah blah, okay,
you know. You cannot have a doubt after that. You cannot doubt
a single page of Buddhist scripture again. The way you approach
scripture from now on is like...you bow before you look at it,
because you know this is the Truth, capital T. You know, and you
don't doubt it a single sentence anymore. It's like swimming in
this big sea of pure truth for the rest of you life, okay?
Cannot have a doubt anymore, impossible, okay, and it doesn't
matter what happens to you personally, could never doubt again,
right? Direct perception of your enlightenment. Okay. The
second mental affliction.
(student: (unclear))

Intellectual belief in what you're seeing around. If somebody
came up to you and said, "are you seeing things correctly?",
you'd say "no". (laughs) Okay. "You sure"..."un huh". (laughs)
okay. All right. So you remove the mental affliction that we
call "the intellectual belief that things are self-existent",
okay. And and you can't have it anymore. (Den dzob kun tak)
Impossible. Okay. No matter how many years go by, no matter
what happens to you for the rest of your life, you will never
again believe that what you're seeing is correct. Okay. Period.
 And those two you remove forever. Okay. I I'd like to leave it like that. It's an extremely holy
subject, okay. It's the most important thing
you can hear out of this mouth. Okay. Practically. And just
cook it, okay...don't...ask me questions next class, if you want,
 okay, but leave it like that. To hear these words you are one
in a million. To hear these words stated on this planet, in
these days, you are one in a million. You know, if you ever get
depressed or have a low self-esteem attack, reflect on that,
okay. You are definitely you are very very holy person, sacred
being, okay, to hear these things in th in your lifetime spoken
for an hour is extraordinary, okay. So enjoy it. And have a
nice cold drink, okay and then we'll break up into groups, okay
and then we'll have a short talk afterwards. Did you have a
question? Oh, small detail. By coincidence I'm sure (laughter)
to today is His Holiness' birthday so I'd like to have Elly lead
us in Happy Birthday...and did you get the thing? (laughter)
There's a huge cake in the back, okay. Which Ora, I think paid
for, and god knows where we got the money, but, okay, come on.
(laughter). We're gonna do it the American way. Forget these
long boring prayers (laughter) Okay. No, with your heart okay.
There's one man walking on this planet, he ain't out after your
money (laughs) okay, spent his whole life teaching other people,
selflessly, you know, made himself sick, made himself old,
selflessly teaching other people. Holy things, every hour of his
life, okay, for nothing, you know, he's not getting anything out
of it except tired, okay. So, be thankful that we have such a
being walking on the planet. We are extraordinarily blessed that
we have such a being in our world, okay, and you have a very good
karma to see this being, so sing Happy Birthday the American way,
but in your heart say, you know, please keep alive and keep
healthy for a thousand years, okay. 'Cause I need you. We still
need you in this world, okay? Here we go. (clears his throat)
(laughter)

(prayer: Happy Birthday)

(laughs) applause (laughter). That's great...okay, have a drink,
okay. Have something to drink.

(break)

We just talked about the direct perception of emptiness, you
smell that it's very important, after the group discussions the
purpose here is that we talk about the future of Buddhism in
America, and I think tonight, very very briefly, it's incumbent
upon us as Dharma people, really to provide atmosphere and the
means by which people can see emptiness directly, see? Twenty
minutes experience based on the courses you've already had, you
can see your own enlightenment, you see what I mean. You can see
your own future lives, everything changes, everything's
over...it's like your whole life is over. It's like everything
is finished, everything is gone, it's clear that you won't be
suffering...much longer, and it's this incredible feeling. So
now, the question becomes for people like us, a) how do we make
sure that we see it before we die, and then secondly, how do we
provide the circumstances for other people to do that? You see
what I mean, and so imagine what you need, you see. You need a
place where people can meditate quietly, for extended periods of
time, okay, they need that. They're gonna need some kind of
housing to be there, okay. They're gonna need something to live
on, okay, that won't tie up too much of their time or they can't
have time to see emptiness, okay...it takes some effort, okay. I
mean the whole thing about seeing it probably takes four or five,
six hours a day of work, you see what I mean, so they need some
kind of em...part time employment or some kinda living, you see
what I mean. Next they need good teachers. You know, they need
to have a professional Dharma teachers, hopefully who've seen
emptiness or are close to seeing emptiness, they need authentic
lineage, they need authentic scriptures, they need things in
their own language, okay, that they can read to help them reach
it...you're not gonna get thousands of people who can read
Tibetan and see emptiness directly. It's not gonna happen. You
need quickly to provide those materials in English, okay. And
then you need opportunities to serve other people and take care
of that aspect. You need opportunities to serve the Dharma, etc,
okay. So these are all, all the things we talked about seeing
emptiness directly, now we gotta talk about the practicality of
setting out those conditions for other people. 'Cause guess what
would be the karma for you to have those conditions (laughter)
(laughs) okay. It it's our duty to help other people do it, you
see what I mean. It's not enough to have classes like this,
you're only fulfilling one of the requirements. You need a place
to stay. You need a place to meditate. You need pretty constant
exposure to a good teacher. You need to get deeply into the
subject. You need all of these causes. You need all of these
conditions. So that's the idea...that's where this Institute is
going next. Okay. That's where this this organization is going
next, and that's to provide now the other requirements that you
need, the other conditions you need. So it's not just study
anymore, so that's why we're trying to now pump up the thing in
Connecticut, Godstow...John and Amber have been spending a
lot...Nancy Kieran, a lot of effort to get it going nicely, to
get the place...they took out like a thousand square...thousand
cubic yards of garbage like in the last two weeks and and stuff
like that, and and we're trying to get...supposedly within a
year, if we're good, we get the place deeded to us, okay. We're
still on probation, okay. So the idea is to start setting up
that place to be a place within an hour and a half of New York
City that people could go and have all the other conditions they
need to see emptiness directly. So, you know, you don't have to
call this place Asian Classics Institute anymore. You could say
it..."Seeing Emptiness Directness...Directly Institute"
(laughter), seriously. That's what we exist for. You gotta keep
that in mind, okay. It's not enough to have an organization,
it's not enough to have a non- profit thing, it's not enough to
have classes in New York City, you have to have the whole
program, for someone to see emptiness directly. So now we have
to move on. And and the and the thing in Arizona is also the
idea is that we move on to help create the conditions where
people...we could take care of people. So we spent...we were out
there for two weeks, we had meetings all day long and the idea
was, how do you get the physical conditions ready, like a fly-
trap (laughter) (laughs) for people to land and see emptiness
directly, you see what I mean. And and so we spent a lot of time
on that. You gotta have a big enough piece of land for it to be
quiet, you gotta have housing for people, you gotta have some
kind of livelihood for people that don't have any money, you
hafta make it as cheap as possible to live there, yo...the goal
there is a hundred dollars to a hundred fifty dollars a
we...month...expenses to live there, or free if we can pull it
off, okay. But the idea is to try to make it free for people or
at worse maybe a hundred dollars a month or a hundred and fifty
dollars a month, but but you would get a totally quiet place to
meditate, you'd have meditation instruction, you'd have the right
kind of food you need, you'd have opportunities to serve poor
people...like we're gonna be doing service in Mexico which is
forty miles away. We already helping to set up like computer
centers...Tibetan input centers in Mexico...for children who are
deaf and and handicapped, that don't have legs like teenage boys
and stuff like that. So, that's already started. But the idea
is that you would have a place to do social service, you'd have a
place to learn to meditate, you could stay there for a year or
two years to concentrate on trying to seeing emptiness. You'd
have the cor...the right scriptures, you'd have the right
instructors there, you'd have all the conditions that a person
needs...they just come and everything else is taken care of for
them, and that's our duty, you see what I mean? The people in
this room, especially the people who are working on this, that's
what we're here to do, is to provide all the necessary
circumstances for a person to see emptiness directly. Okay. it
is the most important thing you can do in your life. You have to
try. And and it has to become part of our life's purpose to set
up the necessary circumstances for anyone in the United States,
or you know, now our organization has gotten a little bigger,
(laughs) okay, or anyone in the world basically can come. They
just show up...hopefully they write us ahead of time, and
everything's taken care of. You know...plese come and try to see
emptiness. Okay. We'll take care of the place, we'll take care
of your food, we'll take care of your other needs, you got the
instructions, you're gonna have the meditation, everything's...
the cushion's there, sit down, okay and here's the social service
you need to do and you can help build the buildings, whatever,
all the karmic causes you need to see emptiness directly, so get
that...that's my hope tonight...get that in your heart. The
Tibetans says (sem la jak chu). Say (sem la) (repeat) (jak chu)
(repeat). It means "please park it in the depths of your heart".
 It means put this thought in your mind and let it start growing.
 As a group we have a responsibility to our clients, all three
hundred million of them (laughter) to set up the
circumstances...I'm not talking about proseletizing or being
missionaries or anything like that, I'm saying a nice quiet place
in Arizona and a nice quiet branch in Connecticut, where people
can just write and say "I'd like...I want to try to see emptiness
directly". So you say "okay, come, and everything you need is
here and we'll take care of you and we'll try to make sure that
you've got the best shot you can before you die". 'Cause it
takes time. And it's best done while you're rather young. Not
to say old people can't see it, okay. But you need the energy.
You can't wait, okay. While you have energy you have to try to
do it, okay. So I'm just saying, put it in at your heart and we
have started the process of creating two physical facilities, one
on the east coast, one on the west coast, basically, where people
can try to come and see emptiness directly. 'Cause that's the
only reason to have these classes, that's the only reason for me
to teach for all these years, translate all those things, it all
has one goal, you know, you have to try to see emptiness
directly. And you and you and you...it's your duty and your
responsibility and your pleasure to try to make sure that you
help contribute to creating the conditions for other people to do
that as well. Totally quiet place, people can sit in meditation,
get the right instructions they need, the right teacher,
everything, and they can see emptiness directly. Okay, so put
that in your mind as a goal. Next week, we don't have class
Thursday, by the way, 'cause it's a holiday, Buddhist holiday,
we'll meet again next Tuesday. What I'd like to ask is that the
various leaders of the various projects that we have and the
projects that will be going on throughout the three year retreat,
are gonna get up and give a a two minute summary of what they do,
and the reason I've asked them to do that is that they'll be
having long meetings after that and people can just show up and
say, "hey I'd like to help you out", okay? And I just want to
put in your mind the various projects we have going on, and then
think about it. Think about what you might be able to
contribute. Okay. All of these are designed to help people see
emptiness, okay. It's just a question of which ever one sounds
sexy to you. All right. And I'm not forcing you and I'm not
pushing you and everything here is free, you know, you know, we
work, we'll do it anyway, but it's really fun to think that
you're part of the process of creating the conditions for people
to see emptiness. It's like some kind of special feeling you get
out of it, okay? So here are the various projects that are going
on. If I mention your name, you have to have a two-minute
propro...speech ready next week. The more interesting it is, the
more people will sign up for your project. (laughter) Where's
John Brady? He's back there. Very interesting project. He'll
be running the Operations Director of ACIP. ACIP is a project to
 input all the scriptures in the world, so they don't get lost.
Okay. There are two hundred thousand incredibly precious Tibetan
books. They are being lost as we speak. They were burned by the
Chinese, only a few got out. There's a few copies in Russia, a
few copies in the old library...they don't even know about it,
stuff like that. And we have to try to save them and get them on
CDRoms, get them on the internet. They're free. Okay. We have
twenty-three hundred finished, we have a hundred and ninety-
seven thousand seven hundred to go. Okay. I figure it'll take a
hundred and fifty years, okay...so we gotta start, we gotta keep
going, we can't stop. We have about three hundred Tibetans
working on it right now. Refugees. Mongolia...I just got the
numbers today from the television station...they went out to the
countryside and did a survey how many people watched the show,
eighty percent of Mongolians watched the (b: Diamond Cutter
Sutra). (applause) It was five hundred and fifty thousand
people watched each night. Okay. Half a million people each
night. So we gotta go back and do some more. Okay. You wanta
work on that. I I'll do help do that presentation...I'm hoping
to stick it on Thomas Wilson, okay, but I know know yet. I have
a feeling Janice Braden might help out but I'm not like, putting
any pressure on you (laughter). Okay. (laughs). Godstow Retreat
Center, John and Nancy are working on that, and you know
basically to have within an hour and a half of New York a place
where you can go and try to see emptiness directly. Okay. Those
of you who have been there it's a hundred acres of beautiful
forested property, with a nice home there, and we've gotta build
a retreat center. You know. We've gotta get those lime sticks
out and (laughs) start building some cabins there. Okay. ACI
New York...these classes will go on in small gorilla units in
peoples home over the next three years...you have to finish the
eighteen courses or you don't get the dessert which is (tantra).
And we have to schedule that, we have to arrange that, we have to
get that going...John Stilwell will be directing that. We still
need help with the classes that are still gonna happen in New
York for this year, okay. Extension courses...we're gonna have
courses in Ireland, Mongolia, Kathmandu, Bodh Gaya, Goa, Sera
Monastery, Santa Cruz, northern California, San Francisco, San
Jose. There'll be six-week...two three-week courses in Arizona
for the next three years, twice a year. I expect that...we
already have like...I I expect a few hundred people to go to all
the courses in in Asia. We expect about two thousand people a
night in Mongolia. We need help with all those things, okay.
Those are extension courses. Three Jewels Outreach Center and
Free Library...we'd like it to continue. It serves a very
beautiful group of people in a very unique way...in a way that
you can't get elsewhere in New York, (applause) and and we're
gonna have to have a whole separate crew of people to help run
both the commercial side and the outreach side. We're talking to
Brooks about doing the commercial side, and so if you're
interested in that, it serves a lot of people right now. Okay.
And I'd I'd I'd like to see it keep going...while I steal Ani
Pelma for a retreat. We have a huge program to try to put out
all the materials in English, okay. We went through the Tibetan
stage, we went through the Tibetan-English hybrid stage, and now
we'd like to go across to the English stage, and we'd like to see
a a lot of these lectures have been typed in...there's about a
thousand people around the world who have offered to help type
these talks in the computer. We don't have the staff to feed
them tapes and stuff like that, okay. So we need people to do
that. We have a thousand people in the correspondence courses.
We don't have anyone to help grade the papers. We have hun a hun
hundreds of prisoners taking the correspondence courses. We
can't handle their the demand. Okay. We don't...we need help
producing the courses, we don't charge people who can't pay for
them. So everyone calls us (laughs), you know, and we need help.
Okay. We don't have any paid staff at this place. We are
serving several thousand people, okay, and the staff that we have
is is like having breakdowns every day? Okay. So we need we
really need help. Okay. And it's a pleasure, you see what I
mean? To serve thousands of people like that. Arizona...we'll
be building a university out there. A Buddhist University. It
will have Philosophy that you've studied here, it will have Ti
Tibet traditional medicine, like a a real course...five to ten
years to become a real Tibetan doctor. Sacred dance, sacred art,
sacred architecture, college of how to help other people, how to
do a non-profit organization, how to do a grant-raising, you
know, fund-raising stuff, how to do the legal stuff, how to how
to do plumbing, electricity, car repair, how to help alcoholics,
how to help drug users, how to help prisoners, college of Social
Service, okay, and then...and what else I forgot? Anyway. Oh.
Like colleges like that. Oh, a (Tantric) College, how's that?
And a college of translation. All right. But we have this dream
there...there'll be a retirement community there,
okay...seriously...we have a specialist who's gonna build one,
and that would be like...I don't know, fit maybe like a thousand
people, with each have their own adobe home, and they get free
Dharma classes as they're getting old...I'm thinking all of us
hippies who are reaching our fifties and sixties
(laughter)...it's not a joke, you know, they gonna need a place
to go. There'll be a huge demand for it. A spiritually oriented
retirement community in a nice place where your bones don't hurt
and where someone can teach you to die right. Very missing
thing. And those people will appreciate it. And already we have
people signing up...ex-hippies in their sixties (laughter).
Okay. So that's Diamond Mountain. It will also serve several
thousand people in retreat there, and we need help developing it,
okay...in Arizona. Last project that will be spoken
about...oh...so that will be Winston. The English program will
be Ora, the Three Jewels will be Pelma, okay. The extension
courses will be I-don't-know-who yet...maybe you. We'll see.
And the rest is covered I spoke about. Last thing we're doing,
we have a project to teach business people about Buddhism,
Buddhist ethics and use it to run their corporations more kindly
and more profitably. I did it for sixteen years in the diamond
business. We started with fifty thousand dollars, loans...that
company now does a hundred and twenty-five million dollars in
sales a year and we did it all on Buddhist, Bodhisattva
principles. And Forbes magazine came and said, "how did you do
that" and we did an article about it, and Doubleday called me and
said we'd do a book it, and now we decide to make like a whole
institute dedicated to teaching business people how to use
Buddhist principles without calling it Buddhism in their business
lives, 'cause we figure if you can make the corporations run in a
Buddhist way, then something very interesting might happen in
this country, you see what I mean? If the if the if the
corporations are running along Bodhisattva vows they would make
much more money and and they'd be interested I think...you see
what I mean...I we started to give talks like that...two hundred
people came after a radio interview in Australia...sold out 8:00
AM in the morning, two hundred crafty, rough, Australian
businessmen (laughs) came to learn how to get more rich using
Bodhisattva principles and they loved it, okay. And then we went
to the other side of Australia and spoke at the Bar...Emmond-
Barton Institute...this is a big business institute...no? What's
it called?

(student: It's in Melbourne)

Melbourne, sorry. Oh. In Perth it was the Western Australian
University Business...School of Business, okay. So then you got
these crusty professors and about a hundred and fifty of their
students came and we gave a talk about death and business and
they called me up the next morning and said, "will you give the
commencement speech in 2004 when you get out of retreat...you see
what I mean...they loved it. So they really...the corporate
people are not stupid. They're they're spiritually minded...they
just didn't hear anything that was exciting or made sense yet,
and so, imagine what would happen if all the corporations started
to get run by...along Bodhisattva principles. Whether you call
it Buddhism or not, I don't care. Okay. Anyway. So that'll be
given by Ernie Speers who's over there, who will be directing
that effort, okay. So I'd like each of you people that I
mentioned to have a two-minute speech ready at the end of class,
after the group thing next time, and that'll be the talk. And
then you listen and hear if there's anything that strikes your
fancy, and the motivation should be I would like to help assure
that people have the circumstances to see emptiness directly in
this lifetime. Because all the cool stuff I mentioned really
happens and that's the goal of this whole institute, that's the
goal of every class we've ever had here. Is to get people to
that state. You have to provide them with a place to meditate, a
place to learn these things, good teachings, place to do public
service for other people, place to serve the Dharma, and that's
the idea. So if you heard something that sounds interesting to
you, think about it and it'll be discussed in more detail next
Tuesday. Okay. Thank you. That's a very holy class. And we'll
do a dedication. Dedicated to everybody to see emptiness
directly, all right. Okay. Puntsok-la. You ready?

(prayer: short mandala)

(prayer: dedication)
Course 17