ACI 17 (обзорный курс), Занятие 10 (прогон ГМР, Нью-Йорк) — стенограмма

Class 10, part 1
Transcribed by: Karen Becker

(prayer:    short mandala)

(prayer:    refuge)

(silence)

Okay, we'll start.   I wanna ask somebody to hand out...this
is a
little blurb we made about all the projects that we described
in
class, so it's like fifteen...fourteen-fifteen projects that
we're working on and we made it because we had a meeting with
Richard Gere's secretary and some other people, we were
trying...there's two versions of this. One doesn't have this
picture on the front (laughs) and has the real annual budgets
which are like a lot of money and this is the one for you
guys
(laughter) and it has a tiny little budget thing, you know,
like
you can sponsor a prisoner for a hundred dollars a year to
get
courses or stuff like that, so we're gonna hand that out to
you
guys now.    Take one or two if you can think of anybody to
give it
to.     It's more or less, you know...I went today...they
invited me
to go to Princeton, back to Princeton...it was really weird,
and
they're asking if one of my students could help be on the
board
of religious life there or something like that, and and it's
a
good way to show your projects to somebody easily, you know
what
I mean, so take one, take two, show it around.         There's
another
version that you can show to your rich friends, okay.        I
usually
ask my students...I'm not asking you for money, which I don't
do,
okay, but if you know some wealthy person then introduce us
somehow, (laughter) you see what I mean.      And people have
done
that, like in Arizona and the lady ended up giving fifty-
thousand
dollars to the to the project there and stuff like that. You
know, that's how we met the...almost all of our sponsors was
by
somebody said "I know the uncle of so and so", you know, and
so,
think about it. We support indirectly about two thousand
Tibetans refugees and through the different projects and
stuff
like that, so it's a good thing to help with. So think about
if
you know a friend of a friend who has any money.     Obviously
none
of us has any, okay (laughter) but, and I don't like to ask
my
students for money, but if you can think of some friend of a
friend who knows somebody, you know what I mean, and we're
not
shy to approach them.     We're not at all shy to ask them,
okay.
So, some of you...if you want to pass those out.       There's
some
big Lamas in town for His Holiness' teachings, we're trying
to
get some to come by, maybe on Thursday or Friday, so I
encourage
you to come on...Thur...we're trying but it they're very very
busy, so, but, you know, we're gonna give it a shot.     Okay.
So I
suggest you don't miss Thursday or Friday night.       I'm not
sure if
anyone's coming, but we have a few bites, so...not His
Holiness,
I can tell you that. (laughter)     But (laughs) but anyway,
we're
trying, okay. Tonight we do the second half of the (b:
Bodhisattvacharyavatara).   Then on...when is that...Thursday
we
have a review of the whole review and I like tonight's class.
I
notice that one of the main subjects is (nyon mong).

(silence)
Say (nyon mong) (repeat) (nyon mong) (repeat) (Nyon mong) has
been translated in many funny ways. Some people called it
"deluded emotions" or I don't know...illusions or delusions
or...it just means "a bad thought", okay.           If you're
translating
a book you might want to say "mental afflictions". I like
affliction. Affliction means "something that's bothering you
on
a steady basis".   And the Sanscrit word is "kleisha" and it
comes
from a root "klish" which means to afflict or to bother
somebody,
like a a horsefly both...you know, flying around your head
and
biting you and bother you, okay, so mental affliction's a
pretty
good translation. It happens in the mind and it bothers you,
okay. What's this got to do with the (b:
Bodhisattvacharavatara)? We're getting to a section where
Gyeltsab Je says in his commentary, "you should kick butt on
your
mental afflictions and you should get angry at your mental
afflictions".   So then it became a big debate in Tibet, is
this
literal or is this figurative, you know. Do they really mean
that you should...that there could be a feeling of anger that
was
beneficial? Or is he saying something else, okay. So...and
you
often hear people claim that the Buddha said that mental
afflictions could be used for something good, you know what I
mean, that you could maybe have a spell of anger over your
jealousy or something like that and that that would be a good
thing. So I'd like to discuss that tonight. And we'll be
drawing from Gyeltsab Je's commentary, okay.      So first we
gotta
figure out what is a (nyon mong), okay...what is a mental
affliction. By the way, their roll in general is to prevent
you
from getting to nirvana. Nirvana, you know, some people say
you
just disappear, some people say it's a restaurant (laughter),
what it really is is the permanent end of your (nyon mongs),
you
don't have any more (nyon mongs), okay...that's all.        It
could
happen tonight, it could happen tomorrow.    The day that you
have
no more bad thoughts, the day that you are incapable of
having a
bad thought, you've reached nirvana.    That's the definition
of
nirvana, okay. You have to see emptiness directly to achieve
that. It's impossible without that, okay. But that's a long
story...I won't go into that...tonight, all right. First I'd
like to give you the definition of a mental affliction, as it
appears in your homework.    Where is that?   The long one is
(rang
gyi nye gyi gyal sak kyi sem gyu mashiwar jepay sem jung)
but, I
made it short for you guys, okay.

(silence)

Say (sem gyu) (repeat) (mashiwar) (repeat) (jepay) (repeat)
(sem
jung) (repeat).     (Sem gyu) (repeat) (mashiwar) (repeat)
(jepay )
(repeat) (sem jung) (repeat). Okay. (Sem gyu) means "your
mind", okay.   This refers to your mind as a stream...stream
of
your mind.   (Mashiwar jepay) means "destroys your peace of
mind".
Destroys your peace of mind. (Sem jung) means "a mental
function", okay, part of your mind. In Buddhism we divide
between the main mind and the mental functions, okay.     Main
mind
is your raw awareness, the fact that you are conscious at
all.
It's sort of what you lose if Mike Tyson hits you real hard,
okay. I mean, we say then it moves to a lower level, but
(sem...sol sem), main mind is your general fact that you are
aware of anything at all.      And then mental functions are
defined
by functions, okay, like anger, jealousy, desire...things
like
that and they are they are defined by that okay.      So they
focus
on a particular...instead of just being aware of the object
in a
raw way, they focus on some detail of the object and so
they're
called a mental function, okay? Like jealousy is focusing on
someone else's good things, or something like that. Yeah.

(student:   What's the difference between (sempa) and (nampa
chepa)?)

She asked the difference between (sem pa) and (nam pa che
pa).
(Sem pa) is one of the mental functions and it's a basically,
most basically it depends on what your school you're in, but
(sem
pa) is a mental function and not and it's distinguished from
(sem), so (sem, sempa and semchung) are different things.
(Sol
sem) or (sem) is "mind"...main mind. Then (sem pa) is "the
movement of the mind. The fact that the mind moves to a new
object," okay. And then (sem chung) is a mental function.
(Semba) is a (sem chung) and not a (sem).

(student:   (unclear))

Yeah. And (nam ba chepa) is (sem)...if you divide (sem) it's
six
kinds, so the raw awareness of your what you see, the raw
awareness of what you hear, like that, okay.      So the (nam
che)s
are not (sem jung)s.    But (sem ba) is a (sem jung) and the
(nam
che)s are (sem). Okay. And there's also (yi) and (lo) and
you
gotta deal with that. Okay. No, it's interesting in Tibetan
there are many words for mind.    You know, I studied Russian
for a
long time.      There's fifty words for dreary (laughter)
(laughs)
okay, okay, and in Tibetan it's fifty words for wisdom. You
know, light, happiness, virtue...it's funny.    Each language
has
it's own flavor.     (laughter)   Okay.   So.   Anyway.   The
definition
of a mental affliction is that when you have one you don't
feel
happy. It ruins you peace of mind. Okay. So that's
the...that's what they do. That's their function. Okay. I
wanna list for you the six major ones and I think it's
important
to know your enemy. Okay. By the way, I'm dedicating this
class
to the mental afflictions I had this morning and last
Saturday.
Okay. That's why we're doing this. Okay. Number one.

(silence)

Say (du chak) (repeat) (du chak) (repeat). (Du chak)
means...usually it's translated as "desire".     Now, this is
one of
the six principle mental afflictions.      It means that this
mental
affliction is circling around in your mind almost every
minute of
the day, okay. Desire to me means "uncontrollable urge for
chocolate ice cream, looking at Playboy magazines", something
like that.   Desire to me means...if somebody said "did you
have
desire today", it's almost like "yeah, maybe once or
something",
you know.     But this is supposed to be something that's
circling
around in your mind every few seconds, or every few minutes.
I
prefer...when you really study what it's defined as, you
know,
which is like (yung we (unclear)) something like that. It's
really more like, how shall we say, "not wanting to lose
something and being ignorant about it". So I like to call it
"ignorantly liking something", okay. Liking something
ignorantly.     Does the Buddha desire that you reach it
nirvana?
Yes.    Does the Buddha have wishes, desires, hopes?        Of
course.
So, desire's a tough word, you know.     Does the do does the
Buddha
have (du chak)? No way. Okay. So (du chak) being the first
of
the six main mental afflictions is more like wanting things
in an
ignorant way, liking things in an ignorant way.      And this
happens
every moment of your day.     You're doing it all day long.
What's
the test of whether a desire is a holy desire or an ignorant
desire? It boils down to what you would do to get the thing.
Okay (laughs). Very simply, okay. The test is that. If you
would undertake a non-virtue to get what you want, then you
are
motivated by ignorant desire.     Okay.    If you would hurt
someone
to get what you want, then then you're having (du chak),
okay. If
you want to achieve something like get people en enlightened,
okay, and you would re...and understanding karma you'd refuse
to
ever do anything wrong to achieve that goal, we would call
that
kind of desire what?

(student:   smart)

(laughs) Bodhicitta, okay? Seriously, okay. So be careful.
I
mean, you can't say all desires are...the Buddha of course
desires to save us, all bodhisattvas desire to see all beings
liberated, you know what I mean? This has to be defined as
something like "ignorantly liking things". What does it mean
to
be ignorantly liking things? You have ten dollars, somebody
else
needs ten dollars, you can give it to them easily, and you
don't
want to give it to them because you don't want to lose ten
dollars.   And not to give it to them is ignorance itself
because
the only way you got ten dollars was what?

(student:   Giving it to somebody)

To give it to somebody, so so to refuse to give ten dollars
to
somebody who needs it and you have it is is (du chak)...is
just
stupid. It's ignorant. It's blind. It's it's totally wrong
because it's the best way to lose money, okay.      Simply.
Okay.
It's just the stupidest thing that you can do if you want
money.
If you like having money, you must give it, okay.   You you
gotta
get used to that, okay.      No money in the world was ever
created
by anything but the act of giving...get used to that. There
is
not a single red penny in the universe that came into
existence
except that you gave something to somebody else.       Period.
There
is no other kind of money. All other kinds of money are non-
existent. There's no such thing as self-existent money. No
such
thing. So the idea of holding on to your money is the height
of
ignorance. It's the best way to lose money. It's the best
way
to be poor, okay?      And and conversely, giving away your
money,
properly, responsibly, thoughtfully, totally without any
attachment, totally without any hope for reward or something
like
that, is frankly the best way to improve the economy (laughs)
...your economy, okay.    Frankly the best way to to have as
much
as you ever want forever, okay? You gotta get used to that.
There...if you believe that there's a dollar that you could
keep
by not giving it away, that's a self-existent dollar. That's
the
same thing as a two-headed purple forty foot elephant
rampaging
through this room right now. Remember him? Okay. (Gak ja)
The
non-existent thing. And a dollar that you could keep and and
not
give away, and and then that would make you have the
dollar...that doesn't exist.     There's no such thing.    Get
used to
it, okay. So that's (du chak). You have (du chak) all day
long.
 All day long, okay.     Anytime you do anything that upsets
your
peace of mind tow..that relating to getting something, you're
having (du chak), okay? That's the test. The main test is
would
you ever do anything wrong to keep that dollar or get a
dollar,
because then you you have ignorance...that's a sign of
ignorance,
that's a a certain brand of ignorance on your head, you
know...you have ignorance, okay.     Gotta get used to that.
Second
one.

(silence)

Say (kong tro) (repeat) (kong tro) (repeat). Technically
speaking (kong tro) means "anger". In this context, it's the
opposite of (du chak). What would that be?

(students:   Disliking something ignorantly.)

Disliking something ignorantly, okay?    And you do that all
day
long. Okay. You do that every few seconds. Your mind is is
slightly irritated, slightly disliking something, slightly
not
wanting something to happen, and simultaneously not
understanding
why that thing is there. Okay. That's ignorantly disliking
other things, okay.     And this applies to everything that
happens
around you during the day that you don't like, okay...and
you're
having a mental affliction, okay. It could be not liking the
perspiration on your arm from the heat in the room, okay. It
could be not liking the dress that somebody has on. It could
be,
you know, being irritated that you have to go somewhere
tomorrow
and thinking about it tonight, okay. All of those things are
(kong tro).   Okay.   And they're...they only can survive as
long
as you misunderstand your world, okay. As long as you
misunderstand your world you can go on thinking those
thoughts.
The minute your understanding of this world gets strong
enough,
you won't think those thoughts anymore. They just won't come
to
you, okay.      You can dislike...does the Buddha dislike
anything?
(students:   Yes)

Of course. People in the hell realms, he's not happy, he'd
rather not...he dislikes that condition. That's brilliant.
Okay.   But does he dislike it in an ignorant way?    No.   He
knows
where it came from. He knows how to stop it, okay? And if
you
really really really believe that all the negative things in
your
world were coming from you, if every asshole you ever met and
you
knew it was you, that everything you disliked about anyone is
a
reflection of your own mind and only that, then how could you
go
around being irritated all the time, except at yourself
maybe,
okay. But that's the way it is, okay. There is no negative
quality in any other person you have ever met that did not
was
not created by you.    Get used to it, okay.    So, if you've
ever
seen Trijang Rinpoche's face in his older years, he's got
this
sad smile...I'll never forget it, it's this...like that, you
know, it's like how could you keep shooting yourself in the
toe,
you know. And it's not a hatred and it's not dislike, it's a
kind of sadness about the condition that we hurt ourselves
more
than anyone else could ever hurt us, okay. That's all. And
you
can be sad about it.     Like...the Buddha can ex experience
the...
Buddha's have the mental function of compassion or some kind
of
sweet-sadness about our condition. It doesn't upset their
mindstreams in an angry way.     They don't get anger.     Oh,
there's
a picture (laughs).   That's not quite the one I'm thinking,
but
he's got this a few pictures of him where he just looks like,
"will you stop hurting yourself" (laughs), you know, okay.
This
is Rinpoche's root Lama...the Dalai Lama's junior tutor,
okay?
Passed away in nineteen eighty-one. So, where does that
go...here...thank you...wait.    So that's all.    That's the
second
one. Any kind of dislike or unhappiness that you experience
right now is based on ignorance. Down deep in your heart you
believe that this person's irritating qualities is belongs to
them and it doesn't. It's coming direct from your own past
karma. And it's a it's only exists in your mind, okay. You
gotta get used to that.    And and it make...it changes your
whole
perception of your day the more you understand that.     Okay.
You
just go around everytime you meet someth...somebody who's
irritating...everytime somebody hurts you, you're like, what
did
I do...what exactly did I do...oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, and
then
you figure it out and you deal with it, but you don't get
upset.
Okay.   It's a different thing.   The more strong your wisdom
gets
the less upset you can get. Because you understand that you
created this thing. And you understand how to stop it, okay.
That's number two. (Kong tro).

(silence)

Say (nga gyel) (repeat) (nga gyel) (repeat).      (Nga) means
"me",
(gyel) means "king". Guess what (nga gyel) means?

(student:   Me king.)

Pride, okay.    Pride.    By the way, there are eighty-four
thousand
mental afflictions. These are the top six. So you must be
having it most of the time. Okay. If it if it makes it into
the
top six it must be part of your mind most of the time.
There's
different commentaries on (nga gyel). Sometimes they divide
it
into...how many kinds...nine, ten, seven wasn't it...anyway,
mainly into nine.     There's this beautiful nun out in New
Jersey
named Chunyila who translated the text on these, so maybe you
could get her to give you a copy someday. And did a nice job
on
it. Anyway. There're about nine different kinds of pride.
Basically it's looking at people who are betting better than
you
and thinking, well, let's say it's like His Holiness and you
say,
"he's definitely better than me, but not by much" (laughter)
(laughs) okay. Then there's a...below that there's a second
kind
of pride which is like, "he's better than me but just in that
one
thing". Okay. And then there's another kind that says,
"everybody thinks he's better than me, but he's not, he's the
same as me", okay.     And then...so basically these are all
focused
on someone who's truly better than you. Okay. And think and
having this real like delusion that you are better than them,
okay, or maybe almost as good. Okay. Then there's a kind of
pride which is focused on people at your own level, and says,
"I'm definitely better than them". Okay. And then there's a
third kind of pride that focuses on people who are maybe
slightly
less than you in some quality and you say, "I'm infinitely
better
than them in that quality". Okay. So basically pride is
focusing on three different levels and having three different
delusions about it, okay. (Nga gyel). There's a...there is
a
(tantr)ic concept about (nga gyel) which is a hundred percent
different and there's a beautiful commentary on it by Ngulchu
Dharmabhadra which if you ever get a chance you should read.
He
talks about all nine kinds of pride and then he talks about
divine pride and a beautiful commentary. Okay. So. If you
ever
have the chance. Okay. Number four. The basic function of
pride by the way is that you can't learn anything from
anybody
else.     If you really believe that you're better than
everybody
else, you can't learn anything from anybody else and if you
believe in some part of your mind that other people have
qualities that you don't have yet, then you can just suck up
life-
knowledge from everyone you're around, like you get better
every
time you meet somebody because you're always observing them
to
see what they have that you would like to have as far as
personal
qualities.   So you're always improving.  The more you can
fight
your (nga gyel), the more you can learn, okay.   Especially
Dharma
knowledge.   You can't learn much if you have (nga gyel).
Almost
impossible. Okay.

(silence)

Say (ma rikpa) (repeat) (ma rikpa) (repeat) (Ma rikpa) means
"ignorance; not understanding your world. Mis"...in fact, I
should say it differently.     "Misunderstanding your world".
Is
there a difference between "not understanding your world" and
"misunderstanding your world"?

(student:   Uh huh.)

Big difference, okay.       (b: Abhidharmakosha) says, "the
difference
between knowledge and ignorance is not the difference between
a
friend and someone you don't know yet. It's the difference
between a friend and an enemy". Okay. So, ignorance is the
active opposite of knowledge.      It's the the destructive
opposite
of knowledge.    It's a destructive misunderstanding of your
world,
okay. You can't have any of the other mental afflictions if
you
have ignorance, okay...sorry...without ignorance, okay.    You
must
have ignorance or you can't have a mental affliction.      You
must
misunderstand your world or you can't have afflic...a mental
affliction.    There's a couple of other implications here.
The
final mental affliction that you get rid of...guess what it
is.
Just before you reach nirvana...it's this one. In it's most
subtle form.   Tiny seeds for misunderstanding your world in
your
mind. And there's a huge debate between all the different
Buddhist schools but the one that wins is the one that says,
"yeah, that's the last mental affliction you lose and it is a
mental affliction". Misunderstanding your world is a mental
affliction, okay. There are some schools that say it's not.
They say it's responsible for all the mental afflictions, but
it's not in itself a mental affliction.       Okay.   But the
higher
school of Buddhism says it is, all right.         So that's a
ultimate
mental affliction.    With regard to this pen, what would it
be?
How'd I get this pen?

(student: You gave a pen to somebody).

I gave a pen to somebody, okay.   No no no.   I bought it.

(students:   (unclear))

(laughs) That's wrong view. Get used to it. It's very
difficult. Okay. Is it completely different from what your
society is telling you?    Yes.   Does what your society teld
you so
far has it worked?   No (laughs), so give it a shot, what'da
you
got to lose, you know?      The best that can happen if you
follow
what your society says right now is that you can get old and
die
and lose all the things you sweated for for fifty weeks a
year.
Okay. That's the promise that your society has...the shining
goal that your society has put forward for you.      Work for
fifty
weeks a year so you can have things that you'll lose as soon
as
you die, you know, and can't use except for two weeks a year,
okay. That's the...that is the promise of you society, okay.
And they say that this thing came from a plastic factory in a
petroleum...we have to fight the Arabs because they control
the
the oil that this comes from, we can't get it if we don't
protect
the oil.   That's wrong view.   Where's this pen come from?

(students:   Giving)

It comes from giving a pen, it's that simple.             Very
difficult,
okay.   It's very difficult to live by, right. The only way
this
pen ever got in this room was because each person who was
enjoying the use of this pen has done something to help
another
person with some writing something writing something, okay.
That's why this pen got here, that's all. You have to start
thinking like that, okay. Everything else is ignorance and
nothing else is true, okay.    So is it not true that if you
have
enough money and you go to the store, you can get a pen? No
it's
not true.    Why?  You might have a heart attack on the way.
They
might be out of pens. Okay. Oh, come on, what's that got to
do
with it?    It has everything to do with it.    We're talking
about
what really brings a pen which never fails...you see what I
mean?
  If you give away writing instruments you will always get a
pen,
you must get a pen, it's infallible, okay.          Karma and
emptiness
are infallible. That's where pens come from. It's not from
money and it's not from going to the store. Get used to it.
Are
you telling me that if I never went to the store and I needed
a
pen right now, somebody would show up with a pen?        Yeah.
That's
exactly what I'm saying and it's infallible. It never fails.
Okay.   Get used to it.    Go into the store and giving them
green
paper is not what makes pens. Get used to it, okay. And you
can't create more pens by killing people to prevect to to
to...how do you say... protect your oil supplies or
something,
okay.   You're just gonna create more suffering, all right.
You
gotta get used to that. It's very difficult, extremely
difficult. Until you can think like that you'll never stop
suffering, all right. Number five.

(silence)

Say (te tsom) (repeat) (te tsom) (repeat). (Te tsom) means
"doubt", okay. Now you gotta explain this one, okay. Is it
wrong to doubt Buddhism? No. You've had a quotation from
Maitreya himself who said what, do you remember?    If you're
not
sure about some teaching you just heard, like the one I just
gave
you about the pen...'cause I saw a couple of faces
like...(laughter), okay, Maitreya says, "put it on the shelf.
Just suspend judgement on it. Don't decide correct. Don't
decide wrong.     Don't believe everything even a Buddhist
teacher
tells you because you know from the course last December
that's
dangerous.    Even with the Buddha, okay.       Don't believe
everything
they tell you until it makes sense to you.     But also don't
reject
it until you've decided convincing evidence that this is
wrong,
okay? If it's something that you can't confirm yet, leave it
for
a while. Is that (te tsom)? Is that a mental affliction?

(students:   No)

No.    Does it like destroy your peace of mind?     No.   It's
like,
okay, Michael Roach said it, could be okay, he's says some
good
things but I'm not convinced yet, so I'll just shelve it
until I
have more information.     That's perfect Buddhist behavior.
Okay.
But to say, "oh, that's definitely stupid" is is a mistake.
Maitreya said, "just leave it for a while and come back to it
later". Have a shelf called...I have a very fine student in
North Carolina, he's a physician, he keeps a book of his
doubts
about Buddhism. He's a brilliant Buddhist scholar. He knows
these courses backwards and forwards but he has a book that
he
keeps of issues that he still has about...he's a devout
Buddhist,
you know, he would give his life for his Lama, but he's got
this,
he's still got a little book that he keeps of stuff he's not
sure
about yet and he, you know, he takes it every time he meets a
new
Lama, he says, "hey, what what do you think about number
fifty-
six here" (laughter), you know and (laughs) okay, and I think
that's great.     That's the way we're supposed to be in
Buddhism.
If you weren't that way, then Buddhism would start to become
corrupted because everybody would just believe everything
that
everybody said, okay, and then there'd be a problem.       You
must
examine, you must question...must, okay. And so what's (te
tsom)? (Te tsom) is "lazy doubt", okay. (Te tsom) is "lazy
doubt". Come on. Think for five minutes about it. Decide.
Don't sit on the fence, okay.     Is your Lama Vajradhara or
not?
You know, make up your mind, you know, you just haven't
thought
about it, you know. What are the odds of of running into a
person with Khen Rinpoche's qualities, okay.     What are the
odds?
Oh about one in in five hundred million.     I'm not kidding.
Oh.
So is he a special guy or not? Make up your mind, you know
what I
mean? No, I mean think about it for ten minutes and decide.
You
know, and then don't waver, you know. Don't be wimpy. Don't
be
half-hearted, you know.

Make up your mind. Lord Buddha, in many scriptures said Khen
Rinpoche is a enlightened being. Period. Now decide, okay.
You
can put the evidence...we call it a (che gom), it's called an
al
analytical meditation, put the question up in the center
stage,
is he or is he not, you know.     And then use all the proof
you've
seen.   He watches baseball a lot.     Yeah, but he's always
doing
that rosary thing while he's watching baseball and he turns
it
off right in the middle of a important hit, (laughter), you
know.
 Maybe he's doing something else...nah. He's just watching
baseball.   Yeah, but he's been teaching four thousand hours
in
the last twenty-six...I don't know, you know, (unclear) yeah,
he
didn't charge anything for anybody either. And then you you
you
like go through this analysis, you know, you debate your own
wimpy mind and finally just decide, okay, and then stick with
it,
okay? So (te tsom) is where you're just too lazy to make up
your
mind. Okay. That's that's the bad kind of doubt. That's
number...that's main mental affliction number five, okay.
Last
one.

(silence)

Say (tawa) (repeat) (tawa) (repeat).            (Tawa) means
"worldview".
Okay. In this case it means "the wrong worldview". We were
thinking what to call all of our projects, you know, we have
fourteen fifteen different major things going on, so what do
we
call it. And we came up with worldview. That's why there's
worldview on the front of that thing. Worldview means "where
do
you really think this pen came from"?      That's all.    Very
simple.
Okay.    If you had a choice of five things to do to get
yourself a
pen, what would you do? I'll give you choices, okay. Borrow
some money to go buy a pen, you know, steal the one I have
here
when I'm not here, when I'm over there, you know...look in
your
neighbor's purse while they're up there getting refreshments,
you
know, look around on the floor see if there's some one on
that
somebody dropped or give one to somebody else.    You see, if
you
picked number five you have correct worldview.    That's what
this
whole organization and all those projects are for, one thing,
to
get people to think like that.    Because that's true.   Okay.
And
the other four are false, Okay. They're not. So ultimately
they...number six worldview...this in this case is wrong
worldview.    The wrong way of thinking about your world.
Okay.
And that's...it actually helps produce all the other ones.
Now
there are five different flavors of this.    I'm not gonna go
in
into it tonight, okay.    But they are basically wrong ideas
about
about your world, okay. How's that differ from...(marikpa)?
We
already had ignorance, right.       So what's the difference
between a
wrong worldview and ignorance?           Wrong worldview is
technically,
in this presentation of the main mental afflictions, are
products
of your ignorance, okay? They they come from ignorance.
Ignorance has a very specific meaning in this context of
misunderstanding yourself, okay.         So (marikpa) here,
ignorance,
means misunderstanding what you are and then number six is,
several different versions of wrongviews that come out of
misunderstanding your world. For example, not believing in
future lives. Okay. Should you believe in future lives? Do
you
believe in future lives? (laughs) Kedrup Je says what? All
the
Tibetans believe in future lives. Nobody I've ever met could
explain to be why there should be a (laughs) future life.
Okay.
They believe it 'cause their parents told them that, okay,
and
that's just a...people don't understand why there should be a
future life. One of the most serious wrong views is not to
believe that there...something will go on after you die.
Otherwise you can't practice Dharma very well, okay.      It's
one of
the hardest things to believe in, so Maitreya says, "you
know,
put up all the evidence for it in your mind and decide that
probably there is a future life, leave ten percent say maybe
there's not a future life, but at least leave it like that".
Don't say "there's no future life", okay. That's all. That
would be a wrong view.     That would be a number six, okay?
Got
it?   Okay.   Now the question comes from Gyeltsab Je.    When
Master
Shantideva in the (b: Bodhisattvacharyavatara) says "get mad
at
your own mental afflictions", you know, "get mad at your own
jealousy". Get mad at your own desire. Come on. Have some
(unclear). Have some...I can only think of bad words...have
some, you know, guts, okay, and and get up there and punch
them
up. You say, "I'm tired of you", you know, "I'm fed up with
you.
 You've been ruining my life for life after life after life
you've been giving me suffering,", you know, "I'm mad". Holy
anger, you know. And then when you think of the path and you
think of your Lama, "I love you, I'll fight for you, I'll do
anything for you", you know...have this desire, you see. So
it
seems like Gyeltsab Je or Master Shantideva is recommending
mental affliction.      And then there's this big debate
about...did
he mean it or not, okay? And some Tibetan authors, who are
critized by Je Tsongkapa and Gyeltsab Je, said, "yeah, he
meant
it.    You should get angry and you should get...you should
have
this overwhelming loyalty to your Lama where you'd even hurt
somebody else to protect your Lama," okay.      You should do
that.
And then after you get...as you get closer to enlightenment
you
can drop them, okay. After they've performed their function.
'Cause somewhere in Master Shantideva's writings it sounds
like
that, okay.   Then Gyeltsab Je says, "come on.     Don't be a
fool."
Okay. Why? About the anger thing, he says, "yeah, you're
supposed to have maybe what you could call a righteous anger
but
it's not a mental affliction"       There's no kind of anger
quality
about it. It is not in any way upsetting your peace of mind.
It
is peace of mind, you see what I mean?         It's like this
clarity.
It's a big difference, okay.    It's a clarity which is tired
of
being pushed around. And it and it focuses on the mental
afflictions in a very clear way and it's not upset,it's very
clear.   It's like a parent who's pretending to be upset at
their
child. And just saying "you can't do that", okay "you can't
do
that".   And they're not angry.    And their mind is not (sem
gyu
mashiwar jepay sem-jung ma yin)...they're not upset at all.
Their mind is totally calm, totally settled, and they're
looking
at their mental afflictions and they're saying, "I'm gonna
kick
your ass", okay? And and they're totally happy, totally
peaceful, okay. There is no mental affliction. Get used to
that
idea. No such thing. Yeah.

(student:   Almost like indignation (unclear))

Yeah, you could say that. Yeah. Indignation. Dignified
indignation.    Okay.    But just...it's a clarity. It's a
clarity
and it's a it's a power.     Like we had it in the (lojong)
right,
(chim chim chim), you know. I'm gonna ---you. You know, and
and
but it's a kind of happy power, happy clarity.    And there's
no
kind of upset mind, any kind of mental affliction sign there,
okay, so he says, forget that idea.     When Lamas talk about
using
anger to destroy mental afflictions they're not talking about
a
mental affliction. They're talking about a kind of power, a
kind
of clarity, okay. Then he says, what about this idea of
protecting your Lama, you know.    Like, what about this idea
of
somebody tries to hurt Khen Rinpoche or somebody like that,
what're you supposed to do...somebody attacks His Holiness
the
Dalai Lama..What're you supposed to do about it? If you love
them, if you're loyal to them, what should you do? You know,
and
Gyaltsab Je says, come on.    Wake up.   Didn't you ever hear
about
correct view? Okay. Either His Holiness is a Buddha or not,
okay. If he is Chenresig Avelokiteshvara the Compassionate
Holder of the White Lotus he don't need you to protect him,
okay
(laughter). He's an enlightened being. If someone tries to
attack him he can't be hurt anyway.     Could you see someone
kill
His Holiness? Yes. That's your problem. That's your karma.
Okay?    Can His Holiness be hurt by somebody else?        No.
Totally
impossible, no such thing, okay.      So if your Lama's a a
Buddha,
they don't need you to take up arms and fight off their
enemies,
okay, 'cause they don't have and they don't need you, okay.
If
they're not an enlightened being, well then, they're just
experiencing the result of their karma, okay? And you should
help them in a happy good way, you know, like help His
Holiness
run away from Tibet without hurting anybody, you see what I
mean.
  But but you can never use that kind of loyalty as an excuse
for
hurting somebody, okay. You get...that's that's just another
mental affliction of the kind that caused this problem in the
first place.    What're you gonna do?   Set up the causes for
the
problem to happen again by protecting your Lama?    You know,
you
gonna hurt someone to save your Lama, you know, that's the
best
way to cause trouble more, it's the best way to bring more
trouble, okay? So you just say...that's Gyeltsab Je's
explanation of those two ideas.    They don't need your help
like
that.   That's just causing more problems, okay?   All right.
They
start to talk about...there's a question here that says, "why
is
it important that the continued existence of a mental
affliction
depends on a misperception?"    Why is that?    See you can't
have a
mental affliction unless you don't understand your world,
okay?
If you misunderstand your world you can have a mental
affliction,
so the clue is that you can get rid of them forever, okay.
Who
what the definition of nirvana? Phuntsok is good at that.

(student, Phuntsok:   (unclear))

(Nyin drup malupa pangpay so so tango) okay.      (Nyin drup)
means
"mental affliction obstacle", (malupa) means "every single
last
one", (pangpay) means "you get rid of them", but then there's
this weird thing that says, (so so tango)...through
individual
analysis.    What do you do...Freudian analysis on it or
something.
What do you...what does it mean,"individual analysis"?      It
means
"through your understanding of the Four Arya Truths after you
see
emptiness directly", period.      You have to see emptiness
directly
to get rid of you mental afflictions. Otherwise, impossible.
Okay.    You can bandaid them, you can't stop them, okay.
Ninety
percent of a lot of scriptures is about how to deal with your
mental afflictions with bandaids, okay.     Someone hits you,
think
of them as your teacher.      That lasts a day or something
(laughs)
(laughter) okay? All right. Okay. It cannot destroy that
thing
completely, you can't get rid of anger completely by thinking
like that. It helps a lot. If you're a monk and you're
attracted to some lady, think of your as as your sister.
Okay.
It works for a while, all right. But it doesn't get rid of
that
tendency to think to look at that way.     And the only thing
that
can get rid of it is to see emptiness directly.          Okay.
That's
the only thing. Because only that can destroy your inherent
belief that pens come from stores and pay money, okay.
That's
all.   And you'll continue to do what you have to do to get
money
as long as you believe that. Okay. And you'll continue to
do
the wrong thing.    Until you see emptiness directly.    Okay.
Have
to. I think that's a good place to leave it. I got two more
advertisements for you.    Oh, so...maybe Thursday, possibly
Friday
we might have some big Lama here, so...not sure at all.
Maybe
I'd I'd give it about a twenty-five percent chance, but, I
think
it'd be worth it. Check it out. You might wanna bring some
flowers.   If nothing else we'll give them to Lord Buddha,
okay?
Second thing, oh. His Holiness will be teaching in Bodh Gaya
and
we're going and I've...there's a committee who's asking
people to
donate I think it's ten dollars each and they're gonna try to
put
a million butter lamps there or something like that so that
we
can start the next thousand years the right way, and that His
Holiness will be happy and stuff like that, so if you'd like
to
help with that...who is that...I think...oh yeah...she raised
the
(unclear) (laughs) okay...talk to that gentleman there. And
it's
a , I think it's a neat project.   So they're gonna try to
collect
 enough to offer a lot of butter lamps there.    Okay.  Is
there
anything else I'm supposed to announce?   No. No. We'll do
more
later. Okay. Please take a break and then we'll start with
your
ne...regular classes, okay.

(break)

Okay, we'll start again. Very brief, okay. This is where I
tried to talk about the future of Dharma in America, okay and
other western countries, I have to say, 'cause all my
Australian
students hear the tape and they say, "how 'bout us", you
know?
Oh, one thing I want to announce before I forgot.     You know
the
Sixth Street Temple and all that beautiful place is donated
by...without rent, by Leon South. It's probably worth about
twenty thousand dollars a month if he rented it and he
doesn't.
He saves it for us to do our rituals and our and our prayers
and
things like that. And he never gets thanked and no one ever
sees
him. He just gets to vacuum and stuff like that (laughs)
(laughter) okay.    One thing happened recently...one day he
his
laptop stolen from his room which is in the back of the
temple,
and we tried to replace that and then recently his Dharma
books
were stolen. His English books. So I'd like to encourage you
guys, and I'll bring one, everybody bring one or two books.
All
right if you have an extra one, or one that you don't mind to
put
there, 'cause whatever you put there is gonna be used by
somebody
anyway, and bring it on Thursday and we'll just surprise him,
okay.   So bring...try to bring like one really great Dharma
book
that you have and we won't tell him anything, we'll just put
it
there. I always have this fantasy about bodhisattva thieves
who
break into your house and put money in your wallet and and
(laughter) (laughs), so we can do something like that, okay.
So
don't forget, okay, 'cause I feel really bad, 'cause, you
know,
we don't thank him enough and he's been doing this for years
and
years.   When someone does it so gracefully that you forget
about
them after a while, and so I wanna make sure we recognize
him,
okay?   Okay.  Last thing.   I was at Princeton today.    This
guy
calls me...he's the Dean of Religious Life and he says,
"we've
been checking you out and and would you, like basically, come
to
Princeton University every once in while and be on our Board
and
help us serve the students spiritually and stuff like this",
and
and then I said, "I'd...I think it's a very valuable thing,
because I went to school here and there is a sort of a
problem
there which is that everyone's so intellectually deep into
things
that they don't have any spiritual resources", you know what
I
mean. They don't have classes like this, or they don't have
any
chance to meditate, or they don't have a Lama to help them or
something like that.     They just have this committees and
stuff.
So, so I said "I'd love to but I'm not gonna be
here" (laughs)
you know, and so he said, "well, do you have any students who
could come"?, you know, and then I thought in my mind, I
said,
you know, that's why we did the seven year course...was this
is
the end...this is six and a half...two thirds years later,
and
I'm looking him in the face and I'm like "who could I send",
you
know, (laughter) and and then I'm thinking, "yeah, I can
send. I
have like ten or fifteen people I can send".    You know, and
then
I I think it it dawned on me at that moment that, yeah, we do
have ten or fifteen qualified people that have come out of
these
courses, you know, as a result of these courses, which you
don't
think about 'cause you go to them every day, but no one
in...very
few people in the west have been through such a training, may
maybe none. There's one small group in Hamburg, I think, and
that's it.    So you've had a unique opportunity, and the
people
especially who've been here for over four five years, you've
you've had most of the Geshe course and if you ever get to
Sera
Mey and speak Tibetan you'll find out that you could debate.
I
mean, there's not anything in my Geshe exams, the seven days
of
examinations in front of fifteen hundred monks that wasn't in
this course. And it was like, piece of cake, you know. And
you
have that knowledge now.    So all I wanted to say is that,
don't
think that you're not qualified. Because you're a westerner

(cut)

and because you don't have a pointed hat, you know, or the
right
eyes or I don't know what, but don't think that you're not
qualified now, you are, especially those of you who have been
through the whole course.   The people who are teaching, you
know,
on a normal level in Tibet, have not had as much training as
you've had, okay.    You've had proper training, you've had
sweet
lineage initiations and teachings from Khen Rinpoche, you
have
all of the blessings, you have all of the knowledge, you've
been
through everything, so now you gotta start thinking in terms
of
helping out with the teaching load, you know, and like
Phuntsok's
doing a lot, and and then each one of you should think...I I
can
imagine in a three years that there will be ten to fifteen
people, there'll be somebody in Brooklyn, there'll be
somebody in
Queens...there'll be...I would like to see it in people's
home
'cause I think that's the sweetest way to do it, and it can
be
small groups.    I think out in Santa Cruz like for example
they
have group of five or six people who meet together, they
watch
the video, they eat popcorn I think (laughter) and and you
know,
they they learn it, and then they discuss it and they...and I
that's how we have to do it now.        So I you gotta start
thinking
in the mode of being a teacher and and you don't have to
think
that, "oh, it's just...I'm sort of faking it or something
like
that".   You're not.   Okay.  You've had as much training as
almost
any of the monks in Sera get. They memorize the books which
takes them an extra couple (laughs) of years, but, you know,
the
normal...what we call (Ling se Geshe), that, which is what I
am,
you know, the middle Geshe that comes out of the monastery,
you've had as much training as they have and and now you have
to
start thinking in terms of...like Dvora has a nice group out
in
Freehome, and very beautiful group of people, like twenty
thirty
people are are are studying the courses, and it's going quite
well.    And I was very happy when I went there, it's like
amazing,
you know, and it's like having kids that you didn't know
about or
something. (laughter), you know (laughs), and it's like that
(laughs) you know, and it's beautiful. So you have to start
thinking like that, you know. In the back of your mind,
understand that you you are well-trained and you have had the
blessings of the lineage through Khen Rinpoche, and you you
can't
get more than that, what you have. Now you have to start
thinking in terms of, "okay. This guy at Princeton says that
there's a couple hundred kids interested in Buddhism and they
need somebody to help", and you should be...now now comes the
time that, you know, all the classes you missed are gonna
haunt
you, okay (laughs), like okay? No, that's why I kept saying
"you
can't miss classes", you know. Because they're gonna ask you
that question and you'll say, "that was in the course, but, I
had
a date that night and..." (laughs), you know, okay.     'Cause
now
you're the lineage holder, so I want to encourage you
to...you
have to start now thinking in terms of of teaching other
people
and and helping with that process and I need people to go to
Princeton. I need to be able to send people and say, and in
my
heart know, this person's totally qualified, this person will
be,
not just a good technically a good teacher but this person is
also doing their meditations every day, they're good at doing
their book, they're they've they've developed internally also
so
I have no hesitation to send this person out to to teach at
this
place and I know they'll do a nice job and you have to get to
where...you have to understand that that responsibility is
about
to come down on your head and that you have to start thinking
like this and you have to start thinking in these terms,
okay.
And it's not some kind of pride or or some kind of egotism,
it's
not like that. You now have a serious responsibility, you
know...somebody invested seven years in you and now you gotta
go
pay it off, you know. You have to go do something with it or
else the lineage ends here which is dumb. That's not why we
had
this place, okay? (laughs) So, I want to encourage you to
think
like that. It's not some kind of egotism, it doesn't have to
be,
okay, it's really just providing a place. I don't mean being
a
missionary...we're not allowed to do that. We're not allowed
to
go door-to-door, you know, "have you heard about (laughs)
Buddha"
(laughter) (laughs) you know, we're not allowed to do that.
I
call it "creating access", okay.       Big difference between
being a
missionary and creating access. You know. So there's access
to
this knowledge if you want it, you know. Here's the address,
we
don't charge anything, it's a small group, but the knowledge
is
very pure...the guy at Princeton freaked out when he saw the
classes. He's like, "this is unbelievable", you know. He's
been
running all this Judeo-Christian Muslim Hindu things at
Princeton
for ten years and he's like "I can't believe you guys are
doing
this stuff".   He was really excited.     So, the the idea is
that
you have to be ready now to help other people and that should
be
in the back of your mind, okay?     It's like...we're at that
age,
you know.    You're not gonna...there's not that many years
left in
a normal person, okay and you now you have to turn around and
help other people and I have to be able to count on you. I
have
to be able to say, "yeah, I can send you this person and this
person and this person". Okay. So now you gotta
think...mentally you have to now switch in terms of that you
have
to switch your mind around and say, "yeah, I I could do
that",
you know.    Have some kind of confidence and and think in
terms of
how could you present it to x number of college students if
you
if you had to, you know and how would you do it, you know,
like
how many times a week, what are they gonna study first, you
know,
when am I gonna do it, how am I gonna do it, what'm I gonna
teach
first, what're we gonna do second, you know, are we gonna do
video, audio, are we gonna do classes, are we gonna do
debate,
are we gonna meditate, you know, and think about...I want to
put
in your mind at this instant the seed that, you know, in six
months you're gonna have to start thinking this way, of of
passing it on to other people and and being clever about oh,
what's the best way to to help the most people. Okay. You
have
to start thinking like that.     Okay.     That's all.   Don't
don't be
shy about thinking of yourself as a teacher. That's how it's
always been throughout the history of Buddhism. The student
got
to a certain place in the nest and then the teacher kicked
him
out.    You think I wanted to come to New York (laughs) you
know,
(laughter) okay, really.     Okay.    Last thing in my mind.
Fifteen
years I commuted here I didn't spend a single day here, you
know,
and there there's a comes a time when they say, "you gotta go
now", and get ready for that. Okay. Have it in mind. It's
the
whole...it's the way it evolves. It's the way it's supposed
to
evolve. And there's no reason why it shouldn't...it has to
happen here.    Okay.  That's part of the master plan, okay?
All
right. We'll do a prayer.

(prayer:   short mandala)

(prayer:   dedication)
Review Course 17