ACI 17 (обзорный курс), Занятие 7 (прогон ГМР, Нью-Йорк) — стенограмма

Class 7, part 1
Transcribed by: Karen Becker

Okay, we'll start. Tonight in our continued horse race to finish
the second five courses, which took like two years, right...we're
gonna cover the course about...it was called The Ethical Life and
actually it was a...it was one of the five great subjects that a
monk studies in the monastery. So typically we spend twelve years
on (b: Perfection of Wisdom - Prajnaparamita) and then we spend
four years on (b: Madyamika - Middle Way) and then two years on
(b: Abhidharma) and two years on (b: Vinaya). And then every
winter, three months on Logic. So these are the five subjects
that you study for the Geshe program. Vinaya is what we're gonna
be talking about tonight and the next class, okay. So it's one
of the five great subjects that Geshes study. For this Institute
we've added a sixth subject, called (Lam Rim) and (Lojong), which
Tibetan monks in the monasteries only get when great Lamas come
to teach there. So like, when His Holiness comes to Sera, he'll
teach Lojong or Lam Rim. There's no formal course in Lam Rim
because it...there wasn't a tradition of Lam Rim in India per se.
 Lam Rim's roots are found in those five great books, but as a
separate subject, it wasn't taught...except by visiting Lamas.
So but in this Institute, so we have six subjects and then
(tantra). So, we're gonna cover Vinaya tonight. When I met His
Holiness and showed him the correspondence courses and I said we
co covering the five great subject, he says, "well, how do you do
Vinaya?", you know. Because traditionally you don't teach Vinaya
to people who hav...don't have monks vows. So I I'm not allowed
to teach you the formal vows of a monk or nun in advance of
taking those vows, but what we did do in that course, which he
liked, was we take Je Tsongkapa's summary of the Vinaya
principles and that we're allowed to talk about and to teach. So
for this course, we took the summary of the principles of Vinaya.
 And this is mainly from a book by Je Tsongkapa called "The
Essence of the Ocean of Vinaya"...meaning, there are hundreds of
thousands of pages written about Vinaya...Je Tsongkapa summarizes
them in like four pages...which he was very good at. And his
presentation is extraordinary. His presentation is so beautiful
that every two weeks the monks and nuns who go to sojong...we
start sojong by reciting that presentation. So we recite it
every two weeks, okay? And it starts out like a guessing game,
okay. (Kang la den na de lak gyu, ta ba dron de du be tob, je
she de mi nying be nyingpo (unclear) cha ba dang). Okay. That's
first verse. (Kang la den na de lak gyu) means "guess what it
is"...this is many Tibetan verses start like that. Like, (kang
gyi lo do drub ne du sep) there's a...you start out, you
say...and the (b: Abhidharma) starts out like like that...(b:
Abhidharmakosha), it's like, "guess who it is who saves all
beings", you know, and "guess who it is who" (laughter), so this
book starts out like (kang la den na de lak gyu, tu ba dron de du
be tob), "guess what it is that if you keep it, takes you with
great ease to the City of Liberation?", you know. That's Je
Tsongkapa's opening lines, (unclear) identity. (Kang la den ne
de lak gyu, tu ba dron de du be tob). Then he says, (de she dim
be nyingpo chop) means "it is the essence of the Buddha's
teachings. (So so tar drup je pe dang). "It is what we call
Vinaya or the pratimoksha vows", okay. So we're gonna be talking
about Vinaya. I'm gonna write the word "vinaya" for you. Say
(dul wa) (repeat) (dul wa) (repeat). In Sanscrit the word is
"vinaya"; in Tibetan the word is (dul wa). (Dul wa) comes from a
root in Tibetan meaning "to tame" or "to break a horse". (Dul
wa) means "to get a wild horse and ride him until he stops
bucking and calm him down", okay. So the Tibetans chose this
word to translate the Sanscrit word "vinaya", okay? People have
translated Vinaya as "monks vows" or "monks way of life" or
something like that. I don't like that translation...because
(kim be dom ba dom ba sum, ruk den tom ba ta ma nga), almost half
the vows are for laypeople, okay. Half...almost half the
pratimoksha was designed for laypeople. So, out of the eight
groups of vows, three of them are meant for laypeople, five are
meant for people who have renounced the...a family way of life,
okay. So, I think you should call it something like "how to lead
an ethical life" or something like that. Okay. The Vinaya.
Literally, you might want to translate it as "Buddhist
discipline" or something. Discipline giving you the feeling of,
you know, the unruly student being bitten beaten into submission
(laughter) with the Dharma, okay (laughs). (Dul. Dulwa). Okay.
 (Dulwa) means "to tame a wild horse". Okay. What are you
taming? What are you seeking to tame? You know, are you just
trying to abuse your students or what? Not like that okay. You
are seeking to take the wild horse of your mental afflictions and
chill them out. Okay. And that's (dul wa). That's vinaya.
Sometimes they say you're also your attraction to your senses,
okay. Over-attraction to food, sex, music, things like that,
okay...in such a way that it distracts you from your mail goals.
Okay. Is it bad to listen to Flamenco for example? No. Okay.
Is it bad to listen to it in such a way that you get distracted
and don't and die before you finish your (tantr)ic studies or
something? That's...yeah, that's distractive, okay. So, (dul
wa) your mental afflictions and (dul wa) your the attraction to
your senses, okay? Like learn to put them down to a level where
it doesn't disturb you and, especially when you're in retreat,
put them down to a very low level. In...the word in the
scriptures is to to use the hook of controlling your food intake
and your other sense percept...other sensual things,
okay...meaning in ancient India when you wanted to tame an
elephant, you didn't use a a rope like they do with wild horses,
they used a a actual hook, this big meat hook, you know, like
here, and you just grab 'em and sit 'em down, you know and things
like that, okay. So, that's the idea is to take your mind and to
try to beat it into a a sweet state of mind (laughs) okay? Now
"beat" is a little extreme, okay. (Dul wa) is a set of
guidelines for people who want to control their mental
afflictions, okay, who want to who want to stop their mental
afflictions, and these are called the Pratimoksha Vows. I'm
gonna write the word for "pratimoksha"...say (so sor) (repeat)
(tar pa) (repeat) (so sor) (repeat) (tar pa) (repeat). In
Sanscrit the word is "pratimoksha", okay? What's the connection
between "vinaya" and "pratimoksha"? What's the distance dis
connection between Buddhist ethics and what I call "freedom
vows", okay, pratimoksha you can call "freedom vows"? Freedom
vows are the content of the Vinaya, okay? If you want to follow
the Vinaya way of life, then you have to study pratimoksha vows,
you have to study freedom vows. And you have to take the ones
that are appropriate for you...the ones that you're are ready to
take. Okay. So, the way you live an ethical life in Buddhism is
you take vows, and you keep them. Which is a whole different
thing. All right. Study, take and then keep, all right? I
don't like to call them vows. I gave a long teaching in Ireland,
you know, they have such an idea in their mind when you say the
word "vow", you see, they're thinking of like...these old Irish
nunneries or monasteries and grumpy, repressed
(laughter)...grumpy and repressed are the two words that come to
mind (laughter), you know, and and constantly having scandles
there because they're grumpy and repressed, you know. (laughter)
 And and and and I didn't even want to use the word "vow". It's
more like, there are eighty-four thousand mental afflictions,
there are eighty-four thousand wrong ways of expressing yourself
that hurt you, okay? Out of those, Lord Buddha took ten and said
"these are the most common. These are the ones that are your
biggest enemy". Okay. And that's the basis of pratimoksha.
What he's trying to say is, "if you concentrate on these ten,
you've kinda covered the eighty-four thousand. I'm doing you a
favor, like, you don't have to go through eighty...a list of
eighty-four thousand vows and try to avoid every one of them, you
know. I'm giving you a list of ten that if you get good at these
ten, then things will start to change. What's the point of
taking a vow? It's that Lord Buddha, this being who sees...you
gotta get used to the idea of an omniscient being. This guy sees
every thought you will ever have for the next million years.
This guy sees what will happen to you every second of the next
million years. This guy knows today, out of a billion
possibilities of things to say to you, what's the perfect thing
to say to you today, you know what I mean? That's the power of
an enlightened being. So, they're trying to save you time.
They're trying to give you a list...they say, "concentrate on
this list...everything'll work out fine...trust me", you know.
"I see nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand years from now
you're gonna need this, okay"? And they just know. So, what
you're really getting, in my mind, is a list of the most powerful
things you can do, you know? It's a very very convenient. It's
like somebody saving you fifty years of searching around for what
to do. I don't like to call them vows. It's somebody giving you
a a super list or something...super karma list? Something like
that. Ten things, you concentrate on these, everything will be
extraordinary. What's the point of taking these vows...what's
the point of studying vinaya? (Tar pey dron de du be tob). "You
go to the City of Liberation". You know, but they say that about
every Buddhist teaching. Come on. You know what I mean. I
mean, for me it's not...it when you read a lot of scripture you
get kinda bored after a while, 'cause it's everything is the door
to liberation. Everything is the most important teaching, you
know? And and after a while you're just like, "oh, yeah yeah",
you know. You're lucky it's not in English yet or you would just
be, you know, "yeah yeah. Oh, most important teaching ever.
Yeah yeah."
You know. So, I I don't think you can just stop there and say,
"oh, you'll get liberated if you practice pratimoksha". I think
you have to describe the process, okay. The point is this, your
mind...you come into this desire realm...we talked about it last
time. This is a broken realm. This realm doesn't work right.
It doesn't matter what you do in this realm in normal daily
activity, you will suffer, it'll go wrong, relationships will
break up, your body will slowly destroy itself from the inside if
 it doesn't get hit by a car or get cancer...you know what I
mean? This is what you have to look foward to...nothing works
right here, and and people in millions of people in New York City
are struggling to adjust it. If I just could get to Gold's Gym
another day a week, then I'd be happy, you know, it's...I like
the way you, you know, talk to me, but you got that wart on your
left ear, you know. If I could just find a girl that didn't have
one, you know, or, you're thinking adjustments, you know. If I
could just adjust this or this or this, it's hopeless. Forget
it. The desire realm doesn't work, okay? This realm doesn't
work. You got here by having mental afflictions in your mind and
having done bad deeds in the past. Okay. That's why you're here.
 It's like a jail sentence, okay. You're in a broken realm, and
it won't work. It doesn't matter what kind of adjustments you
make. You think all the people in the New York Times obituaries
this morning didn't try to make adjustments, you know...and they
died. It doesn't work, okay, and they lost everything. So
what's the point of pratimoksha then? It's to remove the cause
of th...it's to remove the reason why things don't work, okay?
You gotta get used to that. It's to remove the reason why things
don't work. You can remove the reason why things don't work and
then things will work right. Okay. You can't adjust them from
the from the outside, you gotta adjust them from the inside. It
doesn't matter if you go to a different gym, it doesn't matter if
you take different vitamins, it doesn't matter if you join a yoga
club or not, you know...those things don't...doesn't matter if
you get a better job or a different wife or a different
apartment, it doesn't matter. Those adjustments don't change
anything. And it doesn't change anything to go to ACI classes
and graduate from seventeen courses and turn in all your homework
and and blah blah blah if you don't do something inside. And the
whole point of pratimoksha is, these are things that you do
inside, okay. So pratimoksha vows are a way to adjust from the
inside...your behavior. So you have to learn them...the most
powerful karma you can do. You got a free list from Lord Buddha,
okay. And then you have to study them so that you understand
what the vow is. I mean, most American Buddhists have no idea
what their vows are and then a few of them have wrong ideas about
what their vows are, okay, so but you have to go and study what
your vows are, you have to understand them clearly. You have to
understand the (nye me)s...what's a (nye me)?

(students: Exceptions)

(Nye me) means like "exceptions to the vow", you know. "Yeah the
vow is that but you're supposed to do this in these
circumstances", you know what I mean? Like most people don't
even know the basic vow. On top of that you have to know what
the exceptions are and you have to know how to prioritize you
vows. If a (tantr)ic vow bumps into a pratimoksha vow, what'm I
supposed to do? Okay. What am I supposed to do if the (tantr)ic
vow says "a" and the pratimoksha says "b" and I have to do them
both at the same time, what am I supposed to do. Things like
that. What to do when a priority crisis occurs. Okay. And and
you have to know, you basically, think about yourselves as
becoming master vow keepers, okay. Like, some people think of
themselves as a good tennis player or some people think of
themselves as a good piano player, or or a good stock broker or
something like that, but everybody in this room should have in
the back of their mind that in the next couple of years, I would
like to become a master vow keeper. Okay. Like you never heard
the word, right, you (laughs), 'cause I just made it up. But
(laughter) okay. No but, think of it as your occupation. They
say, "what do you do for a living?" "I keep my vows. I'm a vow
keeper". Yeah, okay, really. Somebody...there's a scripture we
were studying the other day...somebody walking down the street
and they say, "hey vowkeeper", you should turn around.
(laughter) Okay? You know. And you say, "oh yeah. That's me".
 And you think of yourself that way, okay. Like you know your
vows well, very well. You know how they work. You know why
they're important. You know the exceptions. You know the traps.
 You know the dangers of, you know, of certain vows. You know,
you know them frontwards and backwards and you keep them in your
book. okay? There's nothing like that. We had an meeting today,
which is why I'm late and I'm sorry, about the Arizona
place...it's going really well, Winston and Rob went out on
horses for three days to ride the whole place because we've never
seen eighty percent of it and we thought there might be a martian
landing site or a toxic waste dump (laughter) and we wanted to
check, you know (laughs) but I think they'll sign the contract in
a week or something and...but I said at the beginning of the
meeting, they said, "you wanna say anything?" 'Cause I'm...it's
a wonderful project 'cause I don don't do anything, and I said,
"yeah. I don't want anybody on this board who doesn't keep a
book." You know what I mean? 'Cause...once you keep a book,
your whole life changes, you know. Once you're a vow keeper,
your whole life changes. Then Buddhism becomes something that
helps you and works on you. And if you don't, then I don't even
wanna be close to you because because you'll screw up at some
point, you know what I mean. And not even...it's dangerous to be
close to a person who's not keeping their vows or doesn't know
their vows, you know. It's just...it's like being near a a drunk
guy with a knife. You know...like you just don't wanna be around
him to clos...you know, I'm...nice to know you and I love you
and, you know, come for dinner once in a while, but, you know,
they're waving this knife around, you see. And and you wanna be
around keeple people who are keeping their vows and you wanna
keep your vow...you gotta keep your book, okay? It's useless to
study these vows tonight if you're not keeping your book and
they'll have no effect on you, okay. There's nothing about
studying the vows that's particularly gonna be a huge good karma
immediately, but if you keep keeping them, and knowing them from
hour to hour, you go through a process whereby, and I'm not
exaggerating, your reality changes about once a year. Okay. You
move up in the evolutionary chain, of spiritual stuff. Like you
made it to human already, I'm not talking beyond that (laughs)
okay...like within the human realm there's different levels of
happiness and different levels of spiritual...totally different
perceptions of your reality and and if you keep these vows you
start moving up through this invisible food chain of spiritual
realizations, like keeping these vows, understanding them, you
will already start to see a different reality around you. And
it's incredible. And people who don't keep their vows...not only
is it impossible for them to see that reality. You can't talk to
them about it. Like you can sit there and say, "look...I swear
to God, keep this pratimoksha stuff for a year...you wouldn't
believe what's gonna happen to you" and they'll say, "what's for
dinner?" You know, and...see...they don't have (kal wa) we call
(kal wa) means "the good karma to even hear about it." They
don't get it. They don't only not get it, they don't even hear
it, you know. You say, "no no, I was talking about these vows,
look, pratimoksha...(so sor tar pa), freedom", you know, and
they're like, "but what's for dessert?", you know? And and what
I'm saying is that, you will go through different levels. If you
start keeping these vows, things around you start to change
'cause you are on your way to liberation, it doesn't happen in a
day, and every one of about ten different levels on the way
there, your whole reality around you changes. People change,
food change, sounds change, events change...extraordinary things
starts to happen to you. You will never know, you'll be one of
those people that got left behind in in the level (laughs) number
one, if you don't keep these vows, if you don't try it you'll
never know. And you'll never even get it when someone's
describing it in front of a group of people, you'll be
like..."god, it's hot in here. Wonder what time he's gonna shut
up", you know, and, you know what I mean. And these are
indivisible worlds that coexist in this room, some people are in
different levels of them and you'll never know if you don't keep
your vows. You just will never know...so keep them. I mean,
that's...that's what really happens, you know. Your reality
starts to go through amazing transformation about once a year,
and getting more and more extraordinary, you know, and, but
nothing happens if you don't know these vows and you don't keep
them. Okay. By the way, to get to Bodhisattva and (tantr)ic
vows, you must have these...some form of these vows, okay. At
least keeping the ten virtues. Better if you could take lifetime
laymens vows. Okay. And then, even nicer if you can take monks
vows, nuns vows. Do you have to have monks vows and nuns vows to
see emptiness directly? Not at all. Okay. Do you have to have
monks vows and nuns vows to practice (tantra)? No. Is it an
excellent place to be in to see emptiness and to practice
(tantra)? Yes. Okay. So I mean it's...it's a great thing, but
I don't see it necessarily in the United States that it's gonna
have to be like that. You can, if you take layman's vows and
keep them sweetly and understand them, and then on top of that
take Bodhisattva vows and (tantr)ic vows, you can very very
easily reach enlightenment in this lifetime...no problem. You
don't have to think...I'm not trying to sell you monks and nuns
vows. For those of you who are attracted to it, it's incredible,
and and you and it's a great place to be in to get enlightened,
but you don't hav, but you should take some kind of pratimoksha
commitment even it's not monks and nuns vows...like lifetime
layman's vows. Come on. No killing a human. No stealing a lot
of money. No stealing another person's wife. No lying about
seeing emptiness. And no drinking alcohol. Come on. Is this
har...I mean you can't do that for your whole life? And then
people tell me, "oh I I do that anyway", I mean "I don't do that
anyway" (laughter) okay (laughs). And and no, big difference.
Taking a vow and just being that way totally different things,
okay. If you are attracted to not doing these five things, it's
because your last lifetime worked his or her butt off big time
and that's why you have this attraction. If you don't
keep...take care of that attraction and if you don't get it
stronger and deeper by taking vows, then you'll lose it. You
see? That attraction to Buddhism or that attraction to an
ethical life already, you don't like to kill, you don't like to
lie, you don't like to steal, that didn't come from no where.
You worked on it for thousands of years, and that got you here.
Now you have to take care of that. That instinct is not an
instinct. It was hard work and that's why you got it and other
people don't have it maybe. Okay. And then you have to take care
of it and then you have to develop it by taking vows. Okay. The
karma of, for example, not killing humans because you don't like
to...or you didn't have a chance yet, okay, or taking a vow not
to kill a human, and and consciously watching it every day and
keeping it in a very subtle way, you know, like not even letting
a pencil be on the floor 'cause somebody might slip on it. The
karma of that is extraordinary. And then, you go through these
reality shifts every year or so, okay. Unbelievable things
start...all the stuff you ever read about in those Bible stories
in Sunday school are true. All those miracles and amazing things
happening to people, totally true. They happen to people who
keep their vows. Okay. What's that got to do with (so sor tar)?
 (So sor) means "individual"; (tar pa) means "freedom". And all
the books same the same thing. Why do they call them pra-ti-mok-
sha...prati by the way, means "individual", moksha means
"freedom" in Sanscrit. Tibetan is (so sor tar pa). Individual
freedom means "people who keep the vows get to freedom." People
who don't keep the vows...guess what? They don't get to freedom.
 It's an individual matter. So they call the vows...what?

(student: Pratimoksha)

Pratimoksha vows. Individual freedom vows. Okay. Those who
keep them go to freedom, those who don't don't, okay. I tell you
one trick about pratimoksha vows. You have to take them because
you...sick of this broken realm. You haf...it has to be in your
mind when you take them, okay. When you take them something
grows in your body. Some invisible, beautiful energy grows in
your body and stays there until the day you die, okay...when you
take a pratimoksha vow. But if you don't have the right
motivation they never form. You can sit through a ceremony, four
hour ceremony, and and hear everything and you can answer (lek
so) and and (tro lak), you know, at the right places which is
really hard to do, okay, and then you won't get the vows if you
don't...if if it doesn't occur in your mind...by the way, it only
has to occur for like thirty seconds...okay, I mean, it's
discussed in the scriptures, you don't have to have this
beautiful motivation from the beginning to the end, but you can
be thinking, "those robes are pretty cool, I'd like to have
those", that's okay for about five minutes. But somewhere during
the ceremony you have to think, "I'm fed up with this broken
realm and I want out of here", you know, "I want to move to a
higher level of of spiritual evolution", you know, "I I believe
what that guy said in that class and I'm waiting for it to
happen, and I understand I have to take vows for that to happen",
okay? That has to occur in your mind when you take a vow or it
doesn't form in your being. There's a thing called a...what's it
called? (Ke che wey gelong...gelong ke che wa) means a "a full
full ordained monk who agreed to take the vows and went through
the whole ceremony and goes through their whole life wearing
robes and does not have vows, okay, because during the ceremony
it didn't occur to them once that I'm taking this so I can get
out of this realm, okay, this realm of suffering, you know, this
realm that doesn't work, okay. So when you take your vows, even
if it's just the five lay layman's vows, you have to have this...
this has to you have to be thinking of it when you take the vows,
okay? This realm doesn't work. The only thing I have to look
forward to is getting old, wrinkly, deaf, blind, stupid, what do
you call it...when they lose their memory (laughs) (laughter)
(laughs)...senile. Okay. But that's all you have to look
forward to, you know. We were discussing today a a retirement
community out in Arizona, which is a big effort for a forty-five
year old and then somebody says, "yeah, but you're gonna have to
have a a care facility for the people who move out of the
retirement community" and I'm like, "oh come on, I didn't want to
have to think about that." (laughs) You know. Yeah. You move
up through those levels. You know. Apartment in Manhattan,
house in New Jersey, (laughs) nursing home (laughter) in Florida
and then a care facility in Florida, and then, you know, you know
the rest. Okay. So those...that has to be in your mind when you
take vows, all right. That's what we're gonna be studying.
Okay. That's vinaya. That's what we're doing, okay. People
think vinaya is some kind of old fashioned thing, people think
it's arcane, people think it has no relevance in the modern
world, people think it can never work in the United States...you
know, the monks and nuns vows and things like that...that's just
because they don't understand the vows. If you understood the
vows and you understood how they worked, then you'd just
automatically start wanting to keep them and to take them, okay.
That's all. And they're beautiful, okay. I'm gonna go through
what Je Tsongkapa promises to cover in his little book, okay?
There're six categories to study vinaya, okay? And he said, (nwo
dang ni rab nyi dang so sor mun sum ki wey den to way gyu ren tse
way nam ba du kyi du shen she) which means (nwo) means "first he
describes, "what is a pratimoksha vow", okay? "What is it?"
What do they do, okay. And then he answers it in his text. He
says, (chen ne shi den chep pa le do ba de a...chen ne shi den le
do ba) means "the day you decide, as a spiritual practice, in
order to get out of this broken realm, that you will never again
hurt another living creature, then you are fulfilling the essence
of vinaya". And the essence of pratimoksha. So the essence of
pratimoksha, (ngo wa) means "to decide, I will never hurt another
living being." That's the essence of this kind of vow. Now,
Bodhisattva vows are different, they are more like "I will work
my butt off to get enlightened so I can help other people".
(Tantr)is vows, "I will work my butt off in this life and finish
it and get to Buddhahood so I can help other people". But
pratimoksha vows, the es the essence or the emphasis is "in order
to advance myself spiritually, I swear I will not hurt another
living thing." Okay. Period. In any of the forms. (Shen ne
shi den do pa...shen ne) means "hurting other beings", which is
reflected in the ten non-virtues by how many? Seven, okay?
Three physical, four verbal. How do you hurt other people?
Kill, steal, sexual misconduct. How do you hurt people verbally?
Lying, slander, harsh talk, idle gossip...idle talk, okay. So,
does pratimoksha only cover those seven?

(student: No)

Je Tsongkapa says, "No, (shi dang che pa ne. Shi dang che pa)
means "oh, and by the way, you also have to give up the three
things that motivate those seven", (laughs) okay, which is the
last three of the ten, which is...they call "craving, ill-will
wrong view" okay, but I like, for me, craving boils down to being
unhappy when other people get something they like, you know. I
don't like it when someone else gets something they like. How
many times have you thought that today? Maybe once or twice.
No, Lord Buddha would say, "I chose it out of eighty-four
thousand mental afflictions. You must be having it every five
minutes or so". Some slight version of a little bit unhappy that
someone else looks good in their dress today, or someone else's
Tibetan is better than yours, or, you know, someone else gets to
talk to them and you don't or some some version of that has
crossed your mind several times in the last five minutes. That's
number eight. Unhappy that other people are getting something
nice...which is so un-bodhisattva, okay. Number nine. The
opposite, which is what? "Be happy when they screw up." "Oh
she's wearing that really ugly dress today, heh", you know.
(laughs) Okay. Or some version of that, you know what I mean?
There's this sick state of mind that we all have, or we wouldn't
be in this realm, okay...gotta get used to that. If you are in
this realm and you're not a (tantr)is deity or some kind of
emanation or like that or someone in disguise basically,
then...then you do have these thoughts constantly, you know,
like little pleasures taken out of people's problems, okay, and
it's just part of our brain that got us to this realm. Okay.
And then wrong views which are...I mean, the biggest one is what
causes this world, you know. How do you get around in this
world? What's the way get what you want in this world? Okay.
Only good karma. Nothing else matters and nothing else works.
It doesn't matter how smart you are. It doesn't matter if you do
the right thing at the right time in the right place. Tha that
has nothing to do with anything. It's have you helped other
beings in the last half hour. 'Cause that's the only way to get
anything. That's the only reason anything ever happens that's
good in this world, okay. And not to understand that is the
motivation for the first seven, okay? So they say, (she ne shi
den che pa le), so someone comes up to you and says, "what's
pratimoksha vows?", you say, "avoiding any kind of harm to other
living beings and avoiding the kind of thinking that makes you do
that harm". You see what I mean? By saying "avoiding harm to
other living beings", you're saying the first seven; by saying
"avoiding the kind of mindset that makes you want to hurt other
people", the last three, okay. Get used to it. All right. (She
ne shi den chu pa...)so that's the (ngo wo. Ngo wo den nye rab
bye...rab bye) means "category number two", okay. If you're
gonna study vinaya, category number two. This is easy. Hey
look. There's just eight ki different kinds of pratimoksha vows.
 What are they? Well, there's a one-day vow, okay. What's a
what's a one-day vow mean? You know, people took a Mahayana one-
day vow. That's totally different from this vow. Okay. This is
a pra...this is a Hinayana one-day vow. This is like a different
vow...we don't take them nowadays, I mean they don't have this
custom nowadays. Sometimes we take a one-day vow...that's a
totally different thing...that's a Mahayana one-day vow, okay?
And people aren't doing this much ba basically it's for the
length of one day to avoid eight really bad things, killing,
stealing, sexual misconduct, you know, special things for the
length of a day, okay. One day pratimoksha vows which is not
even...I'm not aware that anyone takes them any more in the
Tibetan tradition. We take the Mahayana version, okay.
(unclear) (Gye yang pama dang...gye yang pama) means...what shall
we say..."person who agrees to keep a lifetime vow...layman's
vow," okay? So you've got a one-day vow and then you've got a
layman's vow, lifetime layman's vow. How many parts? Five.
Okay. (Na chi na ga pel je chu yo chu ba dang sang jur
da)...hey, wait a minute...the text says you can take one or two
or three. Eh...technically speaking, maybe it happened in the
past, okay. But the commentators say, "no, you gotta take them
all," okay...you really should take them all. Somebody says,
"oh, but the Lama said I didn't have to take the alcohol one".
Nyulchu Dharmabhadra says, "forget that" (laughter.) You don't
even...it's not even a question for people with lifetime layman's
vows...why? No Buddhist can drink alcohol. What're you talking
about? "We're talking about the Lama said you didn't have to
take that one". You can't drink alcohol anyway, okay. Lord
Buddha said, (unclear) Rinpoche asked me to say it on Mongolian
TV...I think he was setting me up...(laughter) (laughs)...Lord
Buddha said, "whosoever drinks the amount of alcohol or serves to
another that you could put on the tip of a blade of grass, don't
call yourself a Buddhist, okay? I I don't know you." Okay.
Quote. And unfortunately, the commentaries say "also it applies
to chemical drugs and (laughs) other stuff," okay. (laughs)
Does it apply to coffee and tea? No. Okay. Can you take Nyquil
Cough Syrup? Yes, if you're not doing it to get drunk (laugher)
okay. All right. No, just to clarify. Okay. But anyway, so
five vows. They split that in to male and female. So how many
we got so far?

(student: Three)

Three. Okay. Those are the layman's vows. Those are vows that
laypeople can take. Okay. Now we get into the...we get into the
ordained vows, okay? (Ge tsul pama) means four and five are what
you could call "novice monk and novice nun", okay. They keep
thirty six...if you split them out it's thirty six different
vows, okay, (lang de sul druk), for the rest of their life, okay?
And then you have a very...you have a special category for women
called an "intermediate nun's vow"...intermediate nun's vow. (Ge
lop ma), okay. And and you have (ge long ma) and (ge long pa)
meaning "a fully ordained monk; a fully ordained nun", okay. How
many we got?

(student: (unclear))

Eight, eight total, okay. Three for lay people. Five
for...cause we're splitting out male and female, okay. So, I'll
go backwards. Fully ordained monk, fully ordained nun,
intermediate nun, novice monk, novice nun, and then on the lay
people's vows, lifetime man layman's vows, lifetime woman's
layman's vow and then the one-day pratimoksha vow, and that's the
eight different kinds, okay. You're getting the short version of
Je Tsongkapa's...did you have a question?

(student: Yeah. I thought there was an eight vow (unclear) like
the what they call the (unclear))

Okay. There are two other levels called...there's a level called
the (rab chung. Rab chung) means "person who has left the
homelife", okay. This is not considered one of the pratimoksha
commitments. It's called a...I'm sorry, it's not a vow, it's a
commitment. So when you say, "how many vows are there?", you say
"eight". Well, what about that commitment to leave the homelife?
 You say, "that's called, technically, a commitment, and it's not
considered one of the eight vows", okay? So there's eight vows
and and a commitment...and an extra thing, called a "commitment".
It's a commitment. Okay. That's where basically you make a
decision to leave the homelife, to leave the family life but you
haven't yet decided whether to take...you have not taken formally
vows yet. So you can be a (rab jung) and not yet be a novice,
okay. And that's those kids running around the monastery with
robes on. 'Cause you have to be at an age where you can
understand what's going on before you take, for example,
full...fully ord...full ordination can not be taken before the
age of twenty. (Ni shi ma len je she dun), okay. So you have to
be...I like that system, okay? It means that, you may see kids
running around Tibetan monasteries. They're what we call (rab
jung). They don't have formal vows yet, okay. And then when you
reach the age of twenty, you're eligible to make the decision to
become a full monk or nun, and I like that system. Don't forget
that when this thing started, that'd you'd be about halfway
through your life. You see what I mean... by that point. So
really I think nowadays...I took vows at at almost thirty and I
had like, you know, fifteen years of adult life to try everything
and I think it's a...it might be better because a lot of times
when you take a kid at seven years old and keep him in the
monastery until twenty and then make him a (gel), you know, a
fully ordained monk, he hasn't had a chance to see all those
things. He still thinks they'd be a fun to try, and you know...I
don't know about...I think it might be good to take them later,
you know. First I kept them for eight years before I took them
and I I think that's a...maybe a good rule of thumb or something
like that. I think it's...I think it may be a good idea to do it
that way, but we'll talk about that later, okay. Anyway that's
the difference. And there's another commitment one I don't
remember what it is...anyone remember? (Rabjung) and something
else. Oh. No I don't remember.

(student: (unclear))

No, I don't think so. Anyway. There is a there is a version of
the lifetime layman's vow where you can take a celibacy vow on
top of the five, but that's not, that's a (tong tsi gin nyen),
but I there's
 another one I don't remember, anyway. (Rab bye da so so
wun dzen gye wey da...so so wun dzen) means "where they go through
the eight different sets of vows and describe roughly what they are".
Okay. So that's where you go through and you identify what the vows are.
So now we have three categories in the study of vinaya. What is vinaya?
You know. What is pratimoksha? You know. Not hurting other beings and
not thinking in a way that would cause you to hurt them. Then you have the
divisions, which are eight. And then you have the identification of what's
included in each of the eight...roughly. Okay. (Ngo wo dang ni...ngo wo
dang ni kye wey ten. So so wen kye wey ten...kye wey ten) means...this is
category number four in the study of vinaya, okay. And by the way it
doesn't matter if you study vinaya for a hundred years or for half an hour,
you still would go through these same categories, just in more detai
The really great commentaries are thousand pages long and they're beautiful.
They really really beautiful, okay. (Kye wey ten) means "who can
take vows and who can not), okay. Who can take vows and who can
not." And this basically, in the commentary, he's describing,
you know, you obviously have to be of a certain age if you take
fully ordained monks vows and things like that, but more
basically Je Tsongkapa discusses basic personality traits
that...or basic things about your...your being that have to be
there for you to take a vow, okay? (Ling shing kye pa...ling
shing kye pa (unclear)) he's talking about sexual energy, okay?
We say that to take up pratimoksha vow and to keep it, you must
have a human body (a), (b) that human body must be of a nature
that has a a a certain kind of sexual energy, you have to be have
a male energy or a female energy. There are other beings who are
born as humans who are like neuters or like have lost their
sexual identity, physically through...you know, like getting shot
in a war or something like that. But but they don't have...they
say that the essence of manhood or womanhood...there's an energy
in your mind and your body described in the second chapter of the
(b: Abhidharmakosha) for example that gives you a sense of
resolve, okay. It allows you to make firm decision, okay, and
people who lose that through physical accidents or who maybe
never had it when they were born are wishy-washy, okay? They
can't keep a commitment, they don't have a a firm state of mind
or a re resolved state of mind to where they can ma...take a vow
and keep the vows, okay? And that's the basic thing. Now
there's a psychological side to who can take the vows which is on
other continents or in other realms, people don't have enough
suffering to think that they should get out of this place, okay?
The desire realm is perfect because it's got this perfect mix of
ecstacy...I mean, you surf a good wave, see a certain kind of
moon or a sunset, see a certain kind of flower, meet a certain
kind of child...see the beauty of this realm and then see the
horror of this realm, you know, see somebody burned in a car
accident. I talked to a policeman today and he's describing, you
know, the first time somebody died in his arms while he was...you
 know, goes...our realm goes from that to that. And so you can
get inspired by the beauty and then you can look at the ugliness
and say, "I want to remove that". And and that's the kind of
people who can take vows, okay? You have to have this this kind
of thing. You have to have ability to be resolved. You have to
have ability to keep a vow. Take it and keep it and kick butt,
you know. I'm keeping this vow. I don't care what anybody says,
okay. Like that. It's some kind of energy. It's connected to
your sexual identity also...okay? (So so ngo kye wey ten...tong
wey gyu den pe ne...tong wey gyu) means "how do you lose these
vows, okay? What makes you lose a pratimoksha vow, okay? (Dom
ba tong wey gyu wa ni, la pu chu da shi tu dang che ni tsu dang
nel sen jur. Dom ba tong wey gyu wa ni...) there are two ways to
lose vows. We call them the normal ways and the special ways.
(laughs). Okay. All right. We're talking pratimoksha vows,
right? (Tantr)ic vows, bodhisattva vows, you know how to lose
them...I mean you have to really mess up...big time. Because
otherwise you keep them even after you die, okay. But
pratimoksha vows you lose on the moment you die, okay? (Shri shi
shri shi tsaway bardu) in the (b: Vinaya)...until the day I die.
Okay. Like that. So there's normal ways to lose your vows and
special ways to lose your vows. What are the normal ways to lose
your vows? (unclear) lev a pu...lev a pu) means "you give them
back, formally, in a ceremony, you know. You go to the Abbot and
you say, "I I wanna give them back formally", and you give them
back , okay. (Lev a pu da shi te...shi te) means "you die",
okay. And then there's some other ones about if you change sexes
more than three times or something like that, okay. I'm not
going to go into them all right (laughter) but apparently even in
ancient India there were cases where people just spontaneously
became a man who had been a woman and then you become a fully
ordained monk if you'd been a fully ordained nun, but then if you
switch back again, you still become a mo...a...the opposite
again, but if you keep doing that after a certain amount of time,
I guess the energy of the vow can't hold (laughs) it anymore or
something (laughter)...I don't know. (Tsen ni chu dang len tsen
gyur...tsen ni chu) means "if you have both sexual organs,
or...(len tsen gyur) means "if they change more that a certain
amount of times, then you lose the vows. Those are the normal
ways (laughs) to lose vows, okay (laughs) (laughter) okay? Now
we get to the abnormal ways, (laughter) (laughs) No, now
there're the special ways to lose vows, okay? Special ways.
Special meaning "specific to certain vows". Okay. Like how do
you lose a one-day vow?

(students: (unclear))

When when you can see the lines on your hands from the natural
light of the sky, the next morning, you have lost the vows, okay.
 And I told you this story of friends who took a fasting vow for
one day. They're sitting there the next morning with a box of
cookies, holding their hand out the window (laughter), you know,
waiting for the light, you know (laughs)...and then you can eat
the cookies, you see. Okay. And then there's special...(nyi she
ma len) means...there's special weird cases...you don't have to
know abaout them, okay. Like, if you thought you were twenty but
you weren't twenty and you fin...as long as you thought you were
twenty...even if you're still nineteen, you still have the vow.
But if your mother says, "hey I lied to you, you know. You were
born two years early...before I met your father", or something.
And then, then you lose the vow the moment you know. Okay. And
there's stuff like that, okay. But you don't have to know.
Okay. (Tong wey gyur den (unclear))...category number eight
is...am I on number eight?

(student: No)

Six. Sorry. Category number six which is the last one...it's a
it's a seni senility thing? Okay. (laughter) It is "senility",
right? Is the benefits...the benefits of keeping them, and I
already went through it with you, okay. If you're gonna bore
people, say "hey you can get to nirvana", you know. I prefer to
take'em through the process. Come on. Every six months, every
year, if you keep them assiduously, if you really keep a book
from hour to hour, you will definitely see changes in your
reality. I'm talking your whole reality. Food tastes better.
Music sounds better. You feel lighter, stronger, healthier.
Amazing...you know, you start to meet amazing people. You get to
the point where all the people around you are these amazing,
creative, beautiful people and you you...it's not like you bought
them or you put an ad in the New York Times or or something like
that. Your karma has dro...driven them to you, and and your
whole life becomes like a dream. And it gets better and better
and sweeter and sweeter the older you get...as opposed to the
normal way a life goes, you see what I mean. So, if you keep
them, it just gets better every day...things just get better
every day. And once you see that process start to happen you
will want to keep them, you see. So this idea of "grumpy and
repressed"...you don't have to worry about that. That's not what
Buddhist vows are about. You start keeping them for six months
to a year...carefully...watching your book...it's the
b...happiest way to be, you know. You don't...you're just
getting everything you ever dreamed of. And you know it, and you
know where it's coming from and you're like turned on and you're
like, "oh, give me some more vows", you know, (laughs) okay.
It's like that. When they become a (te), when they become an
obligation, when it feels repressive or grumpy or something like
that, then you're not keeping vows, you don't know what vows
are...something got messed up there, okay? So it should be, you
keep 'em, you realize the effect they have on your mind and then
you watch the effect on your reality. And then you're like,
"give me more", you know, "hey, where are those Bodhisattva vows?
 Where're those (tantr)ic vows", you know, "I want more of the
stuff", you know. And it works. Okay. So, that's my
advertisement for pratimoksha vows. At least take lifetime
layman's vows. Big difference between keeping them and just
keeping them naturally 'cause you're that kind of person, okay.
And then, as you can, move up to the other vows. We will have a
ceremony...I don't know when it is...it's in the schedule, but we
will have a bodhisattva vow ceremony, first half...soon, I think
in early August. Then we'll have the second half which is
bodhisattva vow ceremony it...towards the end of the fall and
somewhere in there we'll squish a lifetime layman's vow ceremony,
okay. Ora will say there's no time, but we'll find the time.
And then take 'em if you can, okay. Very powerful, they they
change you a lot. Question?

(student: Do you have to have refuge)

Yeah, you have to have refuge vows before you take pratimoksha
vows, and it's a very beautiful twelve commitments...not hard, I
like to do it as a separate class, so I won't give a person
refuge vows and I refuse to give a person lifetime layman's vows
unless I've bored them for about two hours with the details,
'cause I want you to know what you're taking. You should never a
take a vow without knowing what it is because?

(student: You will break it)

You won't be able to keep it (laughs) if you don't know what it
is, okay? (laughs). It's crazy. People go out and giving
people vows...I think it's very irresponsible actually. Okay.
You gotta know what they are or you're gonna break them, okay?
So, anyway, we'll be having opportunities to take all those vows,
and and, you know, you're required to study them before. I I
make you...I'll I'll make you come to a class where you learn
them beforehand. If you wanna take pratimoksha...sorry,
bodhisattva vows, in the fall, you must start that course now,
okay. You must finish that course on the bodhisattva vows.
There's a lot of vows there...sixty-four vows plus a lot of other
stuff that they never told you about, and that's a whole course,
and you can do it at homestudy, but I'd guess it'd take you a
month or a month and a half at least, so you should start now
'cause I refuse to give them to people who haven't finished that
course...and I won't, okay. You can take the wish in August,
early August without taking that course, which is a commitment to
think like a bodhisattva, but if you want to take the commitment
to act like a bodhisattva, which will happen in November or
something I think, you have to finish that course. You should
start during the break...that's I think around August 15th we'll
we'll be off so you can start taking them, okay. All right.
We'll take a break there. I'm sorry. David Sykes do you have
a...Venerable, sorry.

(student Ven David Sykes: My feeble mind needs some
clarification.)

Okay.

(student, Ven David Sykes: (unclear) are clearly (unclear) that
all phenomen lack inherent existence, you know, that they're all
empty...the only thing that "is" is the fact that they lack
inherent existence.)

Okay.

(student, Ven David Sykes: The presentation of pratimoksha vows
says that yeah no there is this there is this, you know, a cause
will then bring about an effect, there is seems to be a (unclear)
coming from these causes, that's what a vow...a person who's
taking the vows)

Yeah.

(student, Ven. David Sykes: Now in that presentation they then
go back over the other side of the lack of inherency of things
and say now there are these special cases)

Who said that?
(student, Ven. David Sykes: the special cases with the vows)

Who said that?

(student, Ven David Sykes: you know, especially the (nye me)s, in which, you know)

Oh yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah.

(student ven David Sykes: in which you don't collect that much ....now clearly}

No, not only you don't collect .... Okay.

(student, Ven. David Sykes: come up, doesn't see to come up, it
should be either one way or the other. But the reason why I'm
arguing this is because then if we're vow-keepers, there must be
(nye me)s to vow keeping, then maybe then maybe there's a (nye
me) to a person, who say, doesn't keep a book, they're still
keeping a vow (laughs) (laughter) So there's this point
(unclear)

It's impossible...(laughs)...yeah, yeah, yeah.

(student, Ven. David Sykes: You're making it sound like you
cannot reach...I mean, are you saying...)

Okay, David's basically saying this. "If these are not self-
existent, that means that things don't have any nature of their
own, so, for example, a person who's not keeping a book could get
the benefits of keeping a vow if reality were different...you see
what I mean? And since reality is not fixed, well reality could
be screwed up in such a way that people who don't keep their
books might get the benefits of keeping their vows. Okay. And
that's not a crazy argument, okay. There have been those
arguments. Meaning...I think it boils down to this. What makes
a good karma a good karma? Is it just because Lord Buddha said
so? Or couldn't you ever have a case where doing a good karma
would lead to a bad result? Or is that self-existent that a good
karma leads to a good result...you see what I mean? Is that is
that in the nature of things. And I say "yes". And he said,
"but you just said there's no nature of things". You see what I
mean? So how can you say that this always leads to this result
or something like that, okay. Is that your question?

(student, Ven. David Sykes: But yeah but then the (nye me) thing
would not work. Clearly you're gonna be accruing the same kind
of karma even if you're crazy and on drugs if you weren't crazy
on drugs because it's still holding to this "year, karma does
seem to have some type of self-existent nature...clearly one
cause will create one effect.")

Okay, that's two different questions then.

(student, Ven David Sykes: Okay. Sorry.)

Two different questions. Is karma self-existent...cause and
effect self-existent, you know. Is is killing always a bad thing
and always leads to a bad result? And then the second question,
if a vow is self-existently bad then how could there be any
exceptions to it, under certain situations. You see what I mean.
 Like for example...if you go crazy, if a monk goes crazy and
breaks a vow, they do not break their vow...you see what I mean?
If you are legally...is that all right...is that what you what?

(student, Ven. David Sykes: No (laughter) If every karma lack an
inherent existence, then that means that I am currently living my
own reality. Now my reality really ultimately is the alcohol and
the guns that I just did to earn non-virtue clearly are not that
which is creating the non-virtue. You understand what I'm
saying?)

Naw. (laughter) (laughs)

(student, Ven David Sykes: Like the medicine it's not what's
getting you better. Clearly, that, I can't use a karmic copout
that I'm in a in a wacky state of mind. Ultimately, it's my
karma.

Oh okay, let me try again. (laughter) I have to state the
question for the microphone, by the way. I hope I get it right.
(laughter) If you take a risk on an investment and you get rich,
did the risk cause the richness?

(students: No)

Buddhism says, "no way". And, by the way, that's why people who
are conservative also get rich sometimes. Let me get there.
(laughter) So, so if things are not what they appear to be and
that's why the world suffers, okay...it looks like if you lie you
can get a green card. Okay. People come to me all the time, you
know, and I say, "no, the lie doesn't cause the green card. You
gotta understand that. If you lie and get a green card it's
because you've helped someone find a home in the past. If you
lie and don't get a green card, it's because you didn't help
someone get a home in the past." But either way the lie is gonna
give you trouble later. You gotta get that. Lies don't create
green cards. No such thing, okay? Why? 'Cause it doesn't
always work...duh. Okay. Hang on. I'm getting there

(student, Ven David Sykes: (unclear) don't cause (unclear)

Yeah, ha. (laughter) So I think what he's saying is then "how
could alcohol or drugs self-existently cause something bad...you
know, okay, how is it that that you would take alcohol and...how
could alcohol be inherently (unclear) and always lead to bad
results or something like that...because it's not the
alcohol...like if you drink alcohol and you get drunk, did the
alcohol make you drunk?
(students: No. Yes. Laugh)

He says your karma made you drunk. Are there anybody...is there
anybody who can drink alcohol and not get drunk?

(students: yes)

Or people can hold their liquor, okay. There is some karma
there, you know, like whether you go crazy or or get drunk or not
doesn't seem to depend on the alcohol, it depends on something
that happened before the alcohol, but...

(student, Ven. David Sykes: Is there anybody that)

But.

(student, Ven. David Sykes: (unclear) keeping a book.

But. But. No.

(student, Ven. David Sykes: No?)

No they're not. Because that is the cause of them...the
bo...keeping their vows is the cause, you see what I mean?

(student, Ven. David Sykes: Clearly (unclear)

It is the, it is the correct world-view cause of getting
liberated. That's all.

(student, Ven David Sykes: You are living your vows.)

Huh?

(student, Ven. David Sykes: You are living your vows.)

You can't live your vows without checking them. Impossible.

(student, Ven. David Sykes: Mentally...checking
them...memorizing them.

That's all. If you...memorizing is gonna keep them? (laughter)

(student, Ven. David Sykes: Review them)
Devadhatta knew...memorized more scripture than any monk in
ancient India. What happened to him? Where is he now? He's in
the hell realm...lowest hell realm. Okay. I mean, it it it no,
it's like reciting (tun druk) without thinking about it. Twice a
day.

(cut)

Anyway (laughter), see you later. (laughter) (laughs) Okay.
Okay. Not much to say, just since we're on the subject of
vinaya, I've given a lot of thought to Vinaya and what will
happen in the United States about vinaya. I think, since we're
talking every night about the future of Buddhism in America,
then, you know, I think a lot about what will happen with vinaya,
what will happen with monks and nuns in the United States, and
it's still, I think, not clear. You know, Buddhism's been here
about twenty five years...in the United States. I think a
lot...there've been maybe I would guess a hundred Americans or
two hundred...maybe a little more, maybe three hundred have
attempted to take monks or nuns vows. I'd say off the top of my
head that most have given them back, okay...more than half
maybe...something like that. I can't think of more than ten
successful monks, for example, in...who have kept it for more
than ten years which is normally considered...you're considered
stable after ten years, you see what I mean? So, I think it's a
question of (laughter) (laughs) what's going on and and will
vinaya make it in the United States, okay, and I I think it will.
 I think several things have to happen. I don't think it will
make it if it goes the way it's been going because you can see
it's not making it, you see what I mean? So what's making the
difference and what would make the difference? I think first of
all a a lot of the Americans who've been ordained haven't gotten
an explanation of their vows, so they don't really know what
their vows are. I've met monks and nuns who've had no clue what
their vows were. Monks have two hundred fifty-three vows, even a
novice nun has thirty-six different commitments...vows, and they
just never got an explanation of it...proper training. Those few
who maybe saw a list of their vows didn't get commentary from
qualified Lamas...you know, they didn't know what their vows
really were, they got a list of them from some book but they
didn't even see what the...they never got what is required, which
is an oral transmission of the lineage, so where they really
understand their vows. Secondly there's no place for monks and
nuns to live in the United States...to speak of. I kept my vows
primarily 'cause I was living with Khen Rinpoche for twenty years
or something, in the same house. Everytime I got sent on a
business trip it was shaky, you know (laughs) and then I got home
(laughs) you know, like I'd be up with the TV fighting with it
all night in these hotel rooms, you know, and and, you know, you
need the support of what we call a (nye lama), you have to have a
monastic mentor who babysits you for ten years you're not allowed
to do anything but brush your teeth and go to the bathroom
without asking them. That's the rule. So we don't have any of
these things. We don't have a place for people to stay. We have
no financial support. We have no (ney Lamas). We have no
correct...we have no commentary, no explanation of what they're
doing. They don't even know their vows and and that's what's
been happening in the West. And normally then end up staying
with lay people or with their families or or alone in some
apartment some place...which is not good. It's it's very
difficult to keep your vows then. So, so what do we do, you
know? I think one thing is defining what it is to be a monk or a
nun. If I ask you what what are the rules for monks and nuns,
you know, you'll say three things. They have to be celibate.
This is this is a primary thing in people's minds. They say,
"oh, they can't have a girlfriend". And then, second one. They
have to cut their hair. (laughter). The third one, they have to
wear those funny clothes, you know what I mean? And that's about
it. You see. And that's...when you say "monk or nun", if you
think about it honestly, seventy-five percent of your impre...you
know, what you know, is those three things, you know what I mean.
 And is that what vinaya is. Is that what being a monk or a nun
is all about. And I think there's been this crisis where people
equate that with what a monk or a nun is and that's the whole
perception of what it means to keep vinaya or to live in a
monastery, and that's not at all what the vinaya is. You got a
taste tonight of what the vinaya is and what it is to be a monk
or a nun. I mean, when you study the two hundred and fifty-three
vows of a monk, and you try to keep them, I'd say ninety, well, a
certain big percent of them, maybe fifty percent, have to do with
not owning, okay? I mean, if you wanna know what it is to be a
monk or a nun, in, really in the old days in ancient India when
you were walking around with Lord Buddha and he said, "you
gotta...if you're gonna hang out with us, you gotta keep these
certain basic rules", okay. Like he's walking around India with
this group of close disciples, hanging out, studying, you know,
eating together, living together and he said, "look, we need
basic rules for this 'cause 'cause so and so went to so and so's
house and broke the the dishes and this other guy sat down on the
chair too hard and broke it and this other guy went to so and
so's house and he slobbered all over the place and and this guy
got caught peepeeing in the river and ruined the water...these
are rules from the vinaya, you know what I mean? They
were...what was happening in ancient India was you had a very
attractive or powerful religious teacher teaching a pure path to
reach enlightenment. People smelled it. People can smell it.
So people started to gather around this person. And then they
started to move around together and it became inconvenient, you
know. Five's okay, ten's okay, fifteen starts to get to be a
hassle. Two and a half thousand people are listening to the (b:
Diamond Cutter), or something, you know what I mean? And, you
know, they've gotta, at some point you gotta say, "look, you
can't spill things on Michael Wick's carpet, okay" (laughter),
no, and and we've had the problem at at Leons house we had this
problem. It got to be too large, too many people coming, and
then basically harming the sponsor, or or inconveniencing the
people there and that's where vinaya was invented. So now Lord
Buddha says, "okay, up to this time"... there's a thing called
(lang je) in the vinaya. (Lang je) means "the incident",
(laughter). Every vow from the vinaya has a (lang je). (Lang
je) means...somebody sp...I counted the other night. Michael,
close your ears. Nine people spilled stuff on his carpet.
Glasses, you know, full glasses, okay (laughs)...I stepped in one
that didn't get cleaned...anyway, and and then you make a rule.
Okay, you can't keep glasses on the floor anymore, just can't do
that. That would be a vinaya rule. You see what I mean. So,
it's a rule about how do you behave in a group of people trying
to devote themselves to study and and practice fulltime...or
pretty much fulltime. Then there's a basic set of rules that you
can live together in harmony and function as a as a group of
people moving around. And that's really what the whole point is.
 Then there was a commitment not to own things, you know. I'm
not allowed, as a monk, to touch money. I'm not allowed to touch
a stove. I'm not allowed to prepare food for myself. I'm not
allowed to keep food for more than half a day, you know. And the
whole principle is then not to own things and not to own other
people. And the great beauty of that life and the great freedom
you have from not owning anything...I'm only allowed to own two
sets of robes. Period. And a bowl...one bowl. And and that's a
beautiful way to live. I mean, basically, if you really study
the vinaya deeply and you have twenty people hanging out with you
all day, you start to understand why the vinaya was invented.
You know, it's to handle the interaction of people who have
committed themselves to this way of life, and the root of that
way of life is simplicity, and not owning other people and not
owning many things and the freedom you get from from not owning
things, you see what I mean?
And the basic and keeping your life down to simplicity. I mean
that's the root of the vinaya and all the vinaya rules...I mean
if you read the...if you study the monks vows, many of them are
either relating to how people who are moving around in a group of
thirty-forty people at, you know, can live together. You you
can't hang out the mats when it's raining. That's a vinaya
ru...you know...you can't do that. And and when you're assigned
to look at keep watch on the mats in case a rainstorm comes, you
can't go more than so many feet away from the mats. Now we don't
have mats. We don't have monsoons. But we do have Michael
Wick's carpet, you know what I mean? And then you have to...the
vinaya is a living creature. The vinaya needs to be applied.
The last page of the (b: Vinaya Sutra) says, "in future days,
future generations, apply these rules with intelligence and
creativity to your modern situation that you have there," you
know what I mean? You can't let the vinaya free, you know. You
can't go around worrying about the mats in the monsoons 'cause
that's not where we're at right now, but we have an equal
problem. What's that? Michael Wick's carpet. You know. Is it
in the vinaya? No. Okay. Should we watch it? Yes. You know
what I mean. And and and you have to look at the intent and the
that's the last page of the (b: Vinaya Sutra) are an admonition
from Lord Buddha: "Look, don't ever forget in future
generations, what's the intent of the vinaya, you know. The
vinaya is a system so that Dharma brothers and sisters can work
and live together and study together and practice together and
deal with their sponsors together in a harmonious way and in a...
 in a way that can get them all enlightened quickly, and and to
keep to basic standards so that they have a purity and and
happiness together that comes from them". And that's the meaning
of the vinaya. So I just think that it hasn't been done that way
yet, you know what I mean? The vinaya has not been practiced
this way in western countries. It's a bun...it's a small group
of guys and women tr...trying to kinda half keep some Tibetan
cultural thing that they heard about, not knowing their vows, not
knowing the principles behind the vows, you see what I mean?
Which are more important that the vows themselves. Why is there
a vow like that? What was Lord Buddha trying to do? And are we
supposed to stick to the vow or are we supposed to stick to the..
what the intent of this vow is? Is it okay to spill nine drinks
on Michael's carpets in one day? As long as you watch out for
the mats during the monsoon season (laughter), you see what I
mean? And and you have to think. What was the function of the
vows. What was the purpose that Lord Buddha had in mind when
Lord Buddha created the vinaya. And and I think in coming years
that will be the test of the vinaya in the west. And I also
think that don't equate vinaya with...simply with ordination. I
mean, we're saying three of the eight sets of vows are for lay
people and and that whole segment of the vows, I think, has
to...you have to pay attention to that. I believe that at least
in the next hundred years this will be the first country in
history where the majority of the great Lamas are lay people and
that's the way it's gonna be. And I believe that Buddhism will
be passed on primarily in this country through lay people and
that will be the first time in history that that's really
happened. I don't believe there will be an elite of monks and
nuns who keep all the knowledge, and only they study and only
they get to practice and only they get to meditate and you just
go to work and send me a check, okay. It's not gonna be like
that in America. I...and I like it. I think it's I think the
United States is gonna be a very interesting case in history of
Buddhism where it'll be passed down..I think, as far as I can see
in the in the near future, there will be great monks and nuns,
and there should be. And there should be proper monasteries and
nunneries and they must know what they're doing. And then on top
of that, laypeople have to consider themselves part of the vinaya
and they have to take their lifetime laymen's vows and keep them.
 The greatest Lamas of our lineage, some of them, you can think
of Dromten Je, you can think of Drapa Gyensen of the Vajrayogini
lineage, you can think of Art Engle (laughter) (laughs) okay, all
right. It's not the point. The point is that you take some kind
of level of laymen's vows and you keep them. And then you keep
them knowing what they do to you, which is they they cause your
reality to change, if you keep them well. And then I think we
have to work really hard on studying the vinaya and the meaning
of the vinaya, and that just hasn't been done, so I I think in
this Institute for the monks and nuns who are in this Institute,
especially out in Arizona, I think, we have to work really hard
on mastering the vinaya. And and then working really hard to
make sure it doesn't die by becoming irrelevant, you see what I
mean? We have to study the vinaya, study the principles...you're
gonna have ov...out there if it happens, the forty year plan is
nine thousand people on nine thousand acres and how you gonna
keep harmony, you know, what are the rules...how many drinks can
you spill on Michael's carpet before you do something, okay. And
there'll be rules like that. And it will take great intelligence
and great compassion and great foresight and great vision to get
it right and not just be lazy and say, "oh, you know, there
wasn't any rule about spilling...was it.. iced tea...what's that
company...anyway...Arizona Iced Tea on Michael's carpet. There's
no rule like that...we don't have to worry about it, you know.
That's obviously not the intent...it was...I think we're gonna
hafta study vinaya well, study it deeply, and then apply it to to
our sangha, you know...to our situation. And, one last example.
I mean, this...in the early days when Lord Buddha was walking
around with his forty-fifty people hanging around him all the
time, and they decided to ta...to wear robes. So what...how did
that happen? He said, "I don't want you owning anything". So
they said, "well, what're we supposed to wear? My my old jeans
are wearing out, you know". And he said, "you can take cloth out
of the garbage. You have to pick through other people's garbage
and find cloth and then you can sew it together and make robes".
And that was the rule. You could not use a piece of cloth that
you did not take out of a piece of...somebody's garbage, that
they had thrown out. So they got patches on their robes 'cause
nobody could find a perfect, you know, twelve foot piece
of...this thing is big, okay, and so what do they do now? They
go to the local village, they buy a twelve foot piece of cloth
and they cut it up (laughter) into patches and then they resew it
together so it'll have patches on it, you know. Now I'm not
making fun...it's a ho...when I saw Sera Monastery the first time
I cried. I didn't cry since my mother died. And I just cried,
you know. It's the holiest place in the world and the Tibetans
keeping the vinaya, the Tibetan monks, nuns, it is the happiest
life in the world. It's the most incredible thing in the world.
You can't imagine. This thing got a little confused and I think
we hafta work on stuff like...that's all. I'm saying, take that
holy, beautiful sacred thing and take it back to the real intent
of it and it'll be something that Westerners will want to do.
You know what I mean...and I just hope we can have the wisdom to
do that, you know, I think we have to have the wisdom to do that,
but it's a beautiful way of life and we have to study it and find
out how to revive it. I think it's one of those things we have
to revive, okay. Vinaya. All right. We'll do a prayer.

(prayer: short mandala)

(prayer: dedication)
Review Course 17