ACI 17 (обзорный курс), Занятие 11 — review для финала (прогон ГМР, Нью-Йорк) — стенограмма

Class 11, part 1
Transcribed by: Karen Becker

Okay, this is review for the final. This is where I go over the
questions and you write the numbers down and only study those
(laughs) okay (laughter). People ask me why do you bother doing
that, you know. I don't want you to...I'm not trying to trick
you into failing the exam or something, I'm trying to make sure
you know the most important stuff, so I don't mind if you know in
advance what's the most important stuff, okay? This will be a a
normal...just found out...a normal class. Like halfway through
we'll take a break and then there'll be groups to go over some of
the final exam questions with your group leaders, okay. And the
group leaders are gonna get it just before (laughter) (laughs)
everyone else does, okay. And then at the end we have some
planning to do, okay? All right. No, it looks like Lama Zopa
has agreed to teach here tomorrow, it'll be really fantastic but
I don't wanna give him a bad impression of our abilities to serve
a Lama properly, so, you know, I wanna talk about it at the end
of the class and make sure everyone has their assignments to make
sure we treat him right, okay? All right. Here we go. First
and most important question in my mind is, "explain the three
meanings of the word diamond in the title". Of course you know
title of the (B: Diamond Cutter Sutra). And the point, as you
know, is when you see emptiness directly, you see a higher
reality, okay, which you have never seen before, and our reality
pales in comparison to that reality. And then as you come down
out of that experience, which takes maybe twenty minutes, you
search in your mind for something in this reality to remind you
of what you saw, and diamond is the closest thing. All people
who see emptiness directly, when they come out of it, find the
diamond as the closest thing. Why? For three reasons: one)
That it is the closest to an ultimate. See, you have perceived
ultimate reality, and a diamond is the closest thing to something
which is the most of anything. Like, there's no such thing as
the longest thing in the world 'cause you can always add another
inch, there's no such thing as the shortest thing in the world
'cause you can always cut it in half. But, there is an ultimate
reality, a true ultimate, which is emptiness. Diamond is close
to that because diamond is the hardest thing in the natural
universe, okay? And so it's, as an idea close to ultimate, it's
close, but the day you see emptiness directly you will search for
an ultimate, and diamond will come in your mind. And if if for
the rest of your life you you never did anything else, you'd want
to be close to diamonds, okay. You'd you'd wanna be somewhere,
touching them, looking at them to remember what happened to you
for twenty minutes one day. Maybe fifteen years ago, or twenty
years ago, but still you'd wanna be near them, touch them, see
them, just...and it'd be worth it to go get a job and work there
for fifteen-twenty years just to be close to them, and for no
other reason, you know...even if they didn't pay you anything.
It would well worth it in your mind to remember what happened.
You see what I mean? And that's that's the main importance of
diamond. First one, okay? Second one) Diamond is totally clear.
 If you...there's a wall of diamond between me and you and if
there was nothing reflecting on it. You couldn't see it, you
see, nothing is as pure as diamond. Like glass, if you hold it
up this way, it looks clear, but if you hold it on the edge you
see green...you can't see through it. That's because it has one
like atom of iron for every two thousand atoms of carbon or glass
or silica or whatever, and and diamond's not like that.
Diamond...there could be a wall between me and the exit sign this
thick and I could still see the exit sign perfectly. Okay.
What's that got to do with emptiness? Every object around you
has it's own emptiness. Ultimate truth is not any farther away
than your eyebrow or your nose, or, you know, your hand, but you
can't see it. Okay. If you could see it for twenty minutes what
happens? We've talked about it many times, but basically, you
see the day of your own enlightenment, you know how many
lifetimes it's gonna take to get there, you meet the dharmakaya
of the Buddha directly, you have all these amazing experiences.
No one ever, after that, can tell you anything that's
interesting. Okay. (laughs) That's it. You know everything.
I mean you know everything that matters. You know the contents
of the entire Buddhist scriptures...two hundred thousand texts,
you know...you can look at them or not look at them, it doesn't
matter. You saw them. You saw it...in twenty minutes. Okay.
And you know what your future's gonna be, you know what family
you're gonna be born into, you know who's gonna do what for you,
you you know everything...seven lifetimes...finished. See your
future lives, okay. Read other people's minds for a while, okay.
 Things like that, but but there's no...by the way, that's the
whole point of this whole courses, building something out in
Arizona, is to give you all the causes you need to have that
happen for twenty minutes. Then it's called (kali jig me),
nothing to worry about. You can't...you're never afraid of
anything after that. It doesn't matter. No one can hurt
you...at all. Impossible. You know what I mean, it's just...you
saw it, you know. And you're finished, you know. You're you're
on your way out. And there's nothing that any person alive can
contribute to you after that. It doesn't matter. You've see
what you have to see and and that's the goal of all these
classes, you know. All these stupid homeworks, quizzes, you know
(laughs) hours and hours of translating, you know, year after
year of classes...poor Winston going crazy and Andrea not getting
any sleep, building a place out in Arizona...it has only one goal
and that's that you can have that twenty minutes happen to you.
Okay. Probably you need, at some point, to consider being out in
a place like Arizona, where you can be totally quiet for a month
or two months or three months, or whatever it takes to do it.
And you have to have it on your agenda, in you mind, that, I I
want to do that, okay. 'Cause you have to. That's the only
reason to have these classes. Rinpoche used to say, "one real
incentive for achieving Buddhahood is that you don't have to
recite those (dak kye)s anymore" (laughter), and (laughs), it's
almost the same for to see emptiness directly you don't need... I
mean you'll still love to study these things, but you don't have
to anymore, okay. And you can do it, and you have to try. You
have to try. You have to do it, okay. All right. Third reason
that emptiness is close to diamond or diamond is close to
emptiness is that when you...you can't scratch a diamond with
anything else in the world, but you can smash them with a hammer.
 And they split but they don't scratch, okay. Perfect cleavage
but can't be scratched. And everytime you smash it all the
emptinesses...I'm sorry, all the pieces of diamond are pure
diamond. So there's no distinction between the diamond, okay?
Like one atom of diamond and the biggest diamond in the world
which is the...what was it...the in

(students: Hope)

No, the Hope is a little one (laughter). It's a blue one. Some
used car dealer in New Jersey called me up and said, "I have the
four hundred and ten carat yellow Zales diamond, flawless, you
can you help me sell it? I'm like, "who who are you?" (laughter)
 And then and then he got this...I think he was in the mafia or
something, I just didn't get into it...but that is the largest
cut stone, okay...and, anyway, the the chemicals of that stone
and the smallest stone in the world are the same, okay.
Perfectly the same. What's that got to do with emptiness? Every
emptiness of every object in the world is totally equivalent.
There's no difference in all the emptiness in the world, okay?
Not the slightest difference between the emptiness of the last
hair on your eyebrow and the emptiness of the dharmakaya.
There's not a slight, slightest difference. They're totally
equal and when you see emptiness directly, you see it as well as
a Buddha sees it. You can't see it better than that. You either
see one hundred percent direct emptiness or you don't see it.
Okay. And nothing is more or less empty that anything else. All
things are one hundred percent empty of not of...I'm sorry, of
being self-existent. Okay. So all emptiness are equally empty
of something that was never there, and you have to get used to
that, okay? The did this thing come from a factory...and from
trees getting cut down, is that where this stuff came from? You
could say that's how it got here, but not why. Okay. Why is
what? You have the karma in your mind to perceive these white
rectangles as papers to be tested on in a week or two. Okay.
You have that karma. There is no final examination in my head.
Get, okay? You have the karma to see it as a final examination.
Okay. Just get used to that. A final examination in my head
which did was not brought into this room by your karma has the
same quality as a two-headed forty foot purple elephant raging
through this room at this moment. That they have the same... we
call "ontological" status. They have the same percentage of
existence, which is zero...okay? You brought this to this room,
you know, and if you ever look for a final exam that you didn't
bring into this room, you'll never find one. You see what I
mean? There is no such thing, okay. All the objects around you
have been created by you and you are forced to see them by your
past karma. "Oh, well great. I'd rather have chocolate chip ice
cream than final exam" (laughs)...okay, 'bout the same color,
okay...I mean it's got those little black spots on it...there you
go (laughter) okay (laughs). Not by will-power okay? The the
trick is you cannot do it by will-power. It's being forced on
you by your past karma. You want to have ice cream next year
this time, stop being bad, okay (laughter), keep your vows, and
then next year this'll be something more pleasant (laughs) okay.
All right. That's all. That's all there is to it. His Holiness
said it today, you can't...he said in Tibetan, "look, you can't
just be happy because you wanna be happy. You can't just sit
there and say, 'I feel like being happy now'. Oh, hey, what
happened? I'm not happy", you know, and he said, "you gotta set
the seeds up, you gotta set the causes up", and then six months,
a year, okay...'cause your mind forces you to see what you see.
Imputed means "your mind is forcing you to organize this
information in a certain way". And that's coming only from your
past behavior, and and what you see is what you get, you know
what I mean? What you get is what you see? Anyway. You've
created it, okay. Everything. So if you don't like it, change
it. I used to come home and complain about work. Rinpoche would
say, "if you don't like it, then change it", (laughs), you
know...he would never listen to me (laughter). Okay. Why is it
important to include the word "cutter" in Diamond Cutter? I hate
it when people call it the (b: Diamond Sutra). Okay. Cutter
means "diamond is close, diamond is important, diamond has
meaning, but it's nothing like ultimate reality". Okay. What's
the closest thing in the normal world to emptiness? Diamond.
How close is it? Nothing. Not at all. Okay. Nothing. Totally
different reality. Totality higher level of being and of
existence, and if you see it, the quality of that level of
existence, if you see it directly for twenty minutes, you see all
those other things, you see your future lives...the day of your
enlightenment is decided at that moment and you can see it and
you know what they'll call you and everything...finished. You
know, like the rest of you life is just like waiting, okay. All
right. So you have to say "cutter" meaning "diamond is close but
not very close". The closest thing but not close at all". How's
that. All right. I think the next question concerns (gak
ja)...you remember what (gak ja) is. Buddhism says that for you
to see emptiness you must understand what a self-existent thing
would look like. What's an intrinsically existing thing look
like? Okay. It just looks like a piece of paper that was made
of a fac...from a factory from trees, etc and that that's and
that this paper has come from that, okay. That's not true.
Okay. Why? You can cut down trees and build a factory and you
might not get paper. That proves that's not the cause. Get it?
Okay. But if you supplied paper to someone who needs paper, you
must get paper and that's the real cause for paper. You gotta
get used to it. I had this very sarcastic, famous journalist in
Ireland who was in my class in Ireland and he says, "who...what
the hell", you know, "you you implying that you could run a a car
without petrol, you could fill it up half way and and get to get
to Dublin on that", you know, and and I said, "yeah". And I
said, "but how do you get the first half there?" He says, "the
petrol". And I said, "why"? See...and he got it, he was like
(unclear). He was totally cool. He was a very interesting guy.
He got that...why does petrol work now and not a hundred years
ago. You see what I mean? What is it about petrol that makes it
run your car halfway to Dublin? You see what I mean. What is
it? What's in the petrol that makes it run and why didn't it
work a hundred years ago? "Oh, they couldn't figure it out."
Okay. I don't know. How come penicillin doesn't work anymore?
You gotta think like that, okay? Where is the power of things
really coming from? The difference between the Svatantrika that
His Holiness was describing today and Madyamika is that they
accept that something like paper may not have its own natural
existence, okay, but they don't get it with cause and effect. To
exist by definition, to exist by nature, to them means that self-
existent things must have self-existent results, meaning, "I
understand that the paper maybe isn't self-existent, that it's
come here through certain causes, but I don't get it why the sun,
the rising of the sun doesn't exist from its own side...come on.
Five billion people see it everyday. It can't be like this
collective perception. It is. Okay. (laughs). You gotta get
used to that, okay. They have trouble with cause and effect.
That's where they decide that no, this is not my projections,
this is not my perceptions, okay. They have trouble when they
get to that part, all right? So different schools have different
(gak ja)s. But of course you're gonna explain the Prasakgika
one, the highest one. Okay. When you get out of the direct
perception of emptiness, you have about...I don't know, fifteen
to twenty major realizations. Okay. For example. You see the
day of your own enlightenment. You see what they will call you
and what they won't call you. You see exactly how many lifetimes
it will take. You know in a general way, what kind of families
you'll be born into, what your circumstances will be financially,
what kind of Lamas you will have early in your lifetime take care
of you...you see those things directly. You see the dharmakaya
of the Buddha directly. Very often you have a direct experience
of bodhicitta, okay. And all of these...the first...one of the
first direct experiences. All of these things can be grouped
into four families of amazing things that have happened to you on
that day called the?

(students: Four Arya Truths).

Four Arya Truths, mistranslated in the old days as
Noble...nothing to do with noble. It is noble, but that's not
the point. Arya means "a person who has seen emptiness
directly". That's all. You could call them "the four truths for
people who have seen emptiness directly". How's that? Forget
the word "noble". Just junk it, okay? So is..the question will
be asked of you to put in a few of the realizations, you know.
Some schools say fifteen, some schools say sixteen but you got
them all anyway, okay. All right. To me that's probably the
most impartant part of the final exam...is seeing emptiness
directly and if one person in this class in the next ten years or
the last ten years, saw emptiness directly, it'd be worth all the
effort put into the classes. Okay. And that would be, that
would be more of a result than...you know, that'd be well worth a
hundred or a thousand times that effort, okay. And it's that
rare. So, you gotta work really hard, okay? There's this
question about this guy...you remember the guy (Tang So
Supamawa)...he got...he was a sitting out under a tree
innocently, the the King's wife showed up, asked him a few
questions, the King showed up with his hunters and assumed the
worst and staked him down on the ground and started cutting off
his limbs starting with his finger joints, and and the...and he
used wisdom, he used a perception of emptiness at that point.
And I I like that example because it addresses a misconception
about perception of emptiness. There's this thing like...and I
used to try it, when you go to the dentist and they're drilling
the hell out of your teeth, you know, just think about emptiness,
you know. And I'd go there and they go "rrrrrrrrrrrr" and you're
like "emptiness, emptiness," you know, and then they'd hit the
nerve and you're like (noise) (laughter) you know, you know, and
I was with Khen Rinpoche, you know and I remembered when they hit
his nerve and he goes, "rrrrrrrrrrr" (laughter) and he was
like...I was afraid he was gonna hit the guy, you know
(laughter), he got this (unclear), he was like this, you know
(laughter) and I'm like, "okay, it's okay Rinpoche" (laughter),
you know, and okay, you supposed to put your mind in some kind of
emptiness...forget it. Okay. There's nothing to do with
emptiness, okay. You know, the perception of pain at that moment
is caused by your past karma. It's being forced on you by your
past karma. You can't deny you past karma. You can't say, "Oh,
I'll think about emptiness and it won't hurt", you know. By the
way, is it possible that someone might have thought about
emptiness and it didn't hurt? Yes. Why? Their karma wore out
for it to hurt and now their karma is forcing them to see
emptiness. Or think about emptiness. That's okay. That's
possible. But the thinking about emptiness doesn't self-detain.
Impossible. So we had a guy, this guy's getting his fingers cut
off, he's thinking about emptiness to help out with this
situation...why?

(students: Because he's (unclear))

He's just dealing with the future. Okay. The present is already
painful. It's too late to deal with the present, okay? Karma
has ripened, his fingers are getting cut off, it hurts like hell,
but he refuses to perpetuate the violence. He says, you know,
"keep cutting. It's okay". It's like, he knows where it's
coming from. He hurt someone in the past but he's just decided
he's not going to perpetuate...and he says in the (b: Diamond
Cutter Sutra)...this is Lord Buddha in his past life or
something, and he says, "if I had gotten angry...sorry, if I had
perceived the King as self-existent, I could have gotten angry,
but I didn't", you know, "so I didn't get angry and that's why
I'm a Buddha now instead of another schmuck getting his fingers
cut off, okay? And he and he says that okay. I...all you can
deal with is the future. Future is, this event is empty. Why?
I brought my fingers here, he brought his knife here, okay, by my
karma, and I brought him here with his knife with my karma, and
the event is happening by my karma...the three spheres, the three
(unclear) are here because of my action and I'm being forced to
see that. And okay, it hurts really bad and it did hurt, but I
refuse to get angry and I refuse to see him as self-existent.
You can't get angry unless you see him as?

(students: Self-existent)

Self-existent. It's impossible. Anger and an understanding...an
active understanding okay...it only last for a few seconds...then
you get angry again...an active understanding of that this guy is
empty and I could have seen him as massaging my fingers but now I
see him as cutting my fingers because of my karma, okay. So he's
empty. What I see is my karma and I'm sorry for that but at
least I refuse to react again the old way. Break the circle of
violence. Is it natural? No. Is it hard to do? Completely.
Is it...does it stop samsara? Ab...that's the whole point.
Yeah. So then he was able to do the true perfection of patience
as opposed to plain old patience. Patience is sitting there and
saying, "mom told me in Hlasa in first grade that I shouldn't
hurt people", you know...okay, you know. And then, perfection of
patience is, "you're empty. I have to see you schmuck because of
my bad deeds in the past and I refuse to get angry at you", you
know, "you're such a schmuck I refuse to get angry at you", you
know...'cause I don't wanna meet you again (laughs), and that's
all. And that goes moment to moment at work and with your family
(laughs) okay, people like that. Yeah.

(student: (unclear))

Sorry?
(student: (unclear))

Doesn't work. That's a that's wrong explanation, okay. That's
a...I mean the minute you...it's possible to think, like
Mahamudra says "watch the emptiness of your mind", so I guess if
you got angry you could watch the emptiness of that. Watching
the emptiness of your anger would be the exercise of looking at
your anger, understanding that every single second of its
existence is destroying thousands of good karmas you did in the
past for years, you see, and then you blink out of it...you see
what I mean? You'd say, oh my god...this is this is, you know,
too burning up too much good karma too fast...you know what I
mean? To see the emptiness of it would be to perceive its
function in in destroying thousands of karma every minute and
you'd just...the minute you thought of that you'd pop out of the
anger...it wouldn't be worth it to be angry, okay? Yeah.

(student: (Could people not be punished (unclear))

Why punish people who do bad things, okay? I mean, I don't
wanna...you to lose final exam questions, but it's a good
question. Okay. You see...somebody comes in and and looks like
they're gonna shoot a gun at you...or let's somebody has killed
somebody else with a...somebody has threatened somebody else and
you have a choice of putting them in prison or leaving them on
the street to hurt people, so what do you do? If you if you put
them in prison, do you protect the people they would have hurt?
Not necessarily, okay. If they have the karma to be hurt,
they'll be hurt by a truck instead of this mugger that you put in
jail, okay. So does that mean we shouldn't put muggers in jail?
No. Okay. Why? Because it's the right thing to to put someone
in jail who might hurt somebody. It's the right thing for whom?
For you. Okay. It'll make you a Buddha, okay. Will it stop the
people from getting hurt? No. Get used to it. Get used to
that. That's how things work. Okay. Get used to that. You
have to do the right thing. You have to protect people's lives
and property, with with all you can. But the result of your
actions are basically gonna protect your life and your property.
It may or may not help those other people, okay, but you must do
it. You gotta get used to that. A lot of people get half way
and then they make the grand mistake. Je Tsongkapa calls it "the
grand mistake", you know. "Oh, you mean if someone's getting
mugged and I try to help them, whether I can help them or not
only depends on their karma?" Right. "Well, then why the hell
should I help them?" Is that's called the great mistake, you see
what I mean? You must help them. "Oh, so so so the guy will
stop mugging them?" No. (laughs) Okay. So you can achieve
Buddhahood and then really help them. Okay. Get used to that.
What's the proof that going to their aid doesn't help them?

(student: It doesn't always work.)

It doesn't always work. You gotta get used to that. Karma
always works. Good karma always works. The karma of helping
them always works, meaning you protect your own life and your
own...you know what I mean, and then you teach other people how
to do it and then no one get's mugged anymore. Okay. that's how
the world changes into a paradise. Get used to it. It's hard.
But never make the great mistake of thinking "oh it's their karma
so I don't have to do anything". Okay. It's their karma so you
do have to do something. How's that? Nagarjuna would have said
that. Arya Nagarjuna says, "yeah, their karma, that's why you
have to do something". Get it. All right (laughs). Okay.

(student: Isn't it really our karma if we see something and
(unclear)

That's true too (laughs) okay. Yeah. It is your karma...what
you see is your karma. I mean, if you have the pleasure of
watching yourself protect someone, that's your karma, to be
successful...that's your karma, yeah. But it's their karma to
see themselves being protected. How's that? I had this very
very very sceptical lady in Ireland. And she asked this
question, this was the first day, this was one of her first
questions. A strong devout Catholic, you know, and at the end of
the...and she she asked all this line of questioning about karma,
exactly the same line of questioning. At the end she asked the
organizer if she could make a testament. Three days later, you
know, she gets up and she says, "in eighteen years, I I know why
I moved to this city. It was to meet you and hear this", you
know, and and "next to my son, this is the most important thing
that ever happened to me". It was really weird. It was really
cool. 'Cause she got it...about the karma. She got she got that
part perfect, and she was like, wow, you know, about the mugger.
We talked about the mugger, okay? Why do things change and why
do some things in our world cause other things? For example, why
does medicine always work or why are some investment strategies
always successful? That's a trick question, right? (laughter)
If you've ever invested...right, right John? Okay. (laughter)
(laughs) Meaning, okay, should you take risks or should you be
conservative? Doesn't matter, okay. That's why it...there's
this Wall Street Journal joke. On the front page is a guy who
took a risk and lost all his money and he's a fool. A year later
he's on the front page for being risky and he's a genius. On the
third page there's a story about a guy who's conservative who's a
fool. And there's on the fifth page there's a guy who was a
conservative and he was a genius. You see what I mean. Whatever
they do, if they fail, they're stupid. If they get money,
they're a genius. But they did the same thing. You know what I
mean. And it doesn't matter whether you take risks or you're
conservative. They're just people. It's confirmed, you know.
Throw a dart at a dart board, go to an investment adviser and
it's the exactly the same rate of return. (laughter), you know.

They had kids...three year olds throwing darts at a dartboard and
then went to Goldman-Saks and hired three guys and and they got
the same returns, you know (laughs) (laughter) okay. So,
that's...it it only depends on whether you've been generous or
not. Totally. Okay. Nothing else matters. Nothing else
matters, okay? People tell me, "are you telling me that if I had
the karma, like...I wouldn't even have to go to work? Like
people would just deliver checks to my door?" I said, "yeah,
that's the whole idea" (laughs), okay. That's the whole idea.
Okay. You might wanna collect the karma before you try it.
(laughter) Okay. All right. Let's see here. I like this one.
What does Je Tsongkapa...we've we're on to (b: Vinaya) I think,
okay. We just finished (b: Diamond Cutter Sutra). What's Je
Tsongkapa's reaction to the idea that people who practice
(tantra) don't have to respect their other vows? He he he's
thinking of the Hlasa valley where it's very hard to grow
anything...people ask me, "why are the Tibetans meat eaters?".
Hey, you couldn't grow anything else in Tibet, okay. I mean,
barley for a few weeks, you know, or something, but suppose you
just planted your only barley field for the year and it and it
grew like two feet high and then his hail storm...like a Tibetan
hail storm with golf balls...thousands of golf balls falling on
the field and it just wipes it out in ten minutes...your whole
work for the year is just wiped out, you know. And this used to
happen in Tibet, regularly. The name for "hail" is (se ra)
(laughter) and it was so frequent that on this one mountain that
they called the monastery Sera. Okay. And we go to the (Dre
pung) guys, which means "rice piles" and say, "do you want us to
do our Sera thing on you in the debates tonight", you know, like
wipe out the rice? And they'd say, "yeah, but you know, the hail
always melts after it sits in the fields for a while" (laughter)
you know (laughs) okay. Anyway, he says that idea that that
(tantr)ic followers don't have to honor their other vows is as
ridiculous and as as crazy and as destructive as that hail storm,
okay. Your (tantr)ic vows are built...it's like the third story
of a building. Your pratimoksha vows are the first story, your
bodhisattva vows are the second story and your (tantr)ic vows are
the third story, period. Okay? You cannot...and and frankly, to
tell you, you know, secret, half the (tantr)ic vows are
pratimoksha (laughs) vows, okay. No, I mean, they're the same
vows, just taken with a different angle, okay, so it's it's just
a stupid thing to say. It's a crazy thing to say, okay. There's
a very beautiful...oh, I put in this question about...you know,
there's a bodhisattva vow that you have to break your one of your
seven pratimoksha vows...body or speech, right...not mind, in
extraordinary circumstances. Meaning, some guy's running away
from a mugger, he he comes into your house, he says, "hide me in
the closet", you put him in the closet, somebody bangs on the
door and they got this hand behind them and they're like "did you
see a little guy running around?" and you say "no". You have to
say no. Your bodhisattva vows say say no, okay. Then Je
Tsongkapa's commentary says, if you have been a bodhisattva on
the bodhisattva path for millions of years and reached a high
level of realization, you have to keep this vow. Then you have
to keep this vow to the letter. If you're not up to that level,
take it easy on this vow, okay. All right? And he also said,
"ordained people can never break vow number three for one of
these purposes and still be ordained". They have to...in an
extraordinary circumstance where you have to make sex with this
lady or she'll kill fifty-thousand people (laughter), she has
her...finger on the atomic bomb button or something, then you
have to properly disrobe (laughs) (laughter) okay...first. Okay.
 That's a rule. All right. In case it happens to you.
(laughter) But otherwise, I mean, I think that vow is very
dangerous and you have to be aware of the limitations on that
vow, okay. I just don't want you running around and using that
vow whenever you feel like it, okay? (laughs) That's one of the
vows that people would use when they weren't supposed to, right?
Okay. Next question is, Mai Maitreya actually made a comment at
one point on what you should do if you hear a Buddhist teaching
that you cannot accept at this moment, okay? So you hear some
Buddhist teaching and you say, "look, I can't accept that right
now". Then, Maitreya said, "look. I hon...I respect that, and
you know, that other guy...what's his name? Shakyamuni, he also
said, you know, 'question me, and fight with me and debate me but
don't believe everything I say until you've figured it out
yourself', okay". But Maitreya warns us, he says, "learn how to
shelve it for the time being. Don't don't reject it". Okay?
The point is, when you reach a Buddhist teaching that you can't
handle right now, okay, then don't reject it. Don't say this is
crap. I had a student come up to me about some very high
teaching and say "oh that's all crap", you know. Don't say crap,
okay. Say "I don't get it right now. Maybe I'm crazy, Maybe
you're crazy. I'll leave it for now." And Maitreya says, "put
it in a box with your...I had a I have a student in North
Carolina...great student who keeps a list of questions they're
not sure about yet and then they cross them out, you know, when
they get...two years later they hear a good explanation from
Geshe So-and-So and they cross it out. And that's what you're
supposed to do, okay. Don't go to one extreme and accept
everything that a Buddhist teacher says. Nobody wanted that to
happen. It would make a bunch of crazy people. That's how Nazi
Germany happened, okay? On the other hand, don't say it's crap,
you know. Don't decide...just leave it...suspend judgment for
now. And put it in a box called "to be answered later", okay.
That's what Maitreya says, in in the (b: Uttara Tantra), okay.
There's a question about the four white deeds and the four black
deeds which are extra commitments to your bodhisattva vows. Now
why did I pile them on you when you got sixty-four vows to worry
about already? I like number three. To me it's like really
incredible, okay. And you have to figure out what it is. Okay.
It's basically...(dak pay nga wa)...which means, "to go to go
around believing that"...was it "Truman's World or, what's that
other guy..."Matrix"...it's amazing that two of them came out in
in a year or two, you know...they're not supposed to tell you
that much. They're supposed to keep it secret (laughs) you know.
 I don't know who approved two of those movies in one year.
Okay. I mean, they told me that we weren't allowed to talk about
it more than once a year. But any way, the fact that everybody
in this audience is already enlightened and I'm the only one
who's not, and you're humoring me, so I can become this big
teacher and I'm forced to study this stuff again (laughter)
okay...ha ha ha, okay, I know you wouldn't do that. Next. You
gotta list four typical ways...causes that might make a person
break their bodhisattva vows. But I'm most interested in number
one which was?

(students: You never learned them.)

You never learned them. Okay (laughs). Just...the case with
most westerners that I've met. It's not that they're not nice
people and it's not that they don't care about their vows.
Nobody ever taught them their vows. Okay. That's the easiest
way to break your vows. Do you get...does does the law of karma
cut slack on you if you didn't know?
(students: No)

No. (laughs) Okay. Sorry. It's like gravity, you know. "Oh,
I didn't know a pen would fall down if I let it go." 'Cause
you'd just like...no, it doesn't work that way (laughter), okay?
(laughs) It's it's a law, like gravity, okay?

(student: (unclear))

It does have to do with it. Now he caught me. I was waiting for
somebody. (laughter) But then there's this story that Khen
Rinpoche wouldn't teach us the (tantr)ic vows relating to (b: The
Fifty Verses) because he thought that at once we knew them and
broke them it'd be worse than if we didn't know them and broke
them. I think you're right. Okay. I like the six kinds of
suffering according to the first Panchen Lama. You know, there
are presentations that go through the hell realms, and there are
presentations that go through, you know, the suffering of pretas.
 We can't see hell realms. We can't see pretas. The the the
first Panchen Lama wrote this beautiful description of the six
sufferings of life that you can confirm right now. That you've
had since you were...that you knew about since you were a
teenager, you know. Which is probably the reason why you're
here, okay. There were certain lousy stuff going on that you
knew already, when you were thirteen or fourteen...you figured it
out despite what your parents and your church told you, you
figured it out...and that's why you're here probably. Stuff
like, first one. (Nge me) means "nothing's fixed. Nothing's
certain". Somebody that you think is gonna be your friend turns
out to be your worst enemy in three months. Or somebody you
think is your enemy turns out to be your best friend in six
months. I don't know why it always takes longer..(laughter) but
(laughs) okay. So you can't trust anything, okay. Can't trust
other people's relationship to you. Okay. You can't. Why? Are
people evil? No. Your karma's crappy, okay. And the one you
see as beautiful today you'll see as terrible in six months, and
that's not your fault and not their fault. It's it's karma.
Okay. And that's one of the sufferings, okay. (Ngowo mi shepa)
number two. No matter how much money you get, no how much Dharma
teachings you get...if you were with His Holiness every day,
you'd start teaching...you'd start treating him like a regular
person in about three weeks, okay. If you ever get close to His
Holiness and you're around his attendants, it's weird, you know,
except for the ones who are practicing Dharma very well...you get
used to everything and then you want more, you know. And the
same applies with everything. Khen Rinpoche is the single,
highest, most qualified Lama in the United States by about a
million miles...I'm not being biased, okay. I'm just saying, he
graduated from (Tantr)ic college and started running it in
nineteen fifty-seven when I was five, you know. He is the
only...out of ten thousand monks, he graduated first, (an gyi dam
po hlarampa), okay, but you're used to him. You're like "oh yeah
yeah...he's having initiation...I'm busy this weekend" (laughter)
you know, just 'cause (nwo wo mi shepa), second suffering of the
human mind can't be satisfied. Everything special becomes
normal, okay. Your mind takes every holy, sacred, special thing
and makes it boring and normal within a couple of weeks. Okay.
That's it, you know. So anyway. I won't tell you the rest.
It's too depressing. (laughter) (laughs), all right. There is
number six. (Drok me, drok me) means "no frien...no one can come
with you". Okay. You can pretend that you have a wife or a
husband or a girlfriend or a close friend or comrade or blah blah
blah family, but in the end, look, you die...you come into this
life alone, naked, and you leave the same way. And you're that
way during the whole life. You have short, dangerous laisons
with people and then you lose them. You know what I mean? You
come together for a while, and then karma splits you up again,
and that's it, you know. You're on your own, okay. Defeat
yourself as you like but you're on your own, okay, and that's one
of the sufferings. Does it have to be that way? No. Can there
be certain friends, can there be true satisfaction, can there be
friends that you can live with forever? Yes. Okay. Somebody
asked me in Aus...Bendigo, Australia, they said, "yeah, but can
me and my girlfriend get to enlightenment together?" and I said,
"yeah. You'll be Mr. and Mrs. Chakrasamvara". And they said,
"you're kidding me, right?" And I said, "no. Not at all."
Okay. Just pull it off. Okay. No problem. These things don't
have to happen. (Tantr)ic deities don't have these problems, and
you will be, it's just a question of how long it's gonna
take...if you're not already. Okay. What time ya got? Okay.
Five more minutes on suffering. There's a question about death
meditation...we we next time we had a class on the he...on the
different realms of existence, all the different kinds of realms
and also we concentrated on the bardo, what happens to you after
you die and before you're reborn, how does it feel, what happens,
how can you prepare for it. I think the most important thing
that came out of that class was your realization which has
had...I've run into a few of you...that you are in a different
re...you are in a specific realm called the desire realm, okay.
Like, until you see you emptiness directly, you don't really
believe it. After you see emptiness directly, you have a...one
of the realizations is that you are in a place called the desire
realm and it's broken, okay. This realm doesn't work, okay. And
that destroys the idea of adjustment, you know. "Oh, if I just
ate a little better, if I just gave up Loo Schoolboy chocolate
chip cookies", you know, "if I just could get to the gym one more
day a week, if I could just do yoga for fifteen minutes more, if
I could just find the perfect Mr.or Mrs. B, A, whatever", you
know what I mean? The the belief that life could be bearable
with some kind of adjustment that you haven't made yet is a lie.
This realm is broken, can't be fixed this way. No external
object can make you happy. Period. Can't, okay. It's not the
size of your apartment, or your position at work, or or how
whether you exercise or not...irrelevant. This realm is broken.
You're doomed. You stay in this realm, nothing can go right.
Okay. Period. So, now how do you get to another realm, is it
like a subway or...what do they call those things?

(students: (unclear))

Challenger...rocket ship, you know what I mean. No, when I say
like this realm is broken, you start looking around, you know.
You know, and and it's not like that. You practice, your purify
your world by keeping your vows, and then in this same physical
location you enter your Buddha paradise, okay? And it doesn't
look at all like this. So I mean, you move between...from a
broken realm to a perfect realm in the same place, okay. It's
not just this thing of you have to die or you have to go
somewhere else or...it's not like that, okay. Is this a perfect
realm already and I don't understand it? Yeah, right, and cancer
is just sprinkled around for fun, you know (laughter). It's
(laughs)...no, it's not like that, okay. It's not like that.
That's a lie also. That's misinformation. It's not that you're
a Buddha already and this Buddha realm already and you just
didn't see it or something like that. Forget that. Very
specifically, you have to take vows, you have to learn them, you
have to keep them from hour to hour and you have to change your
world by doing that, and it's a job and then it will change, and
your body will change too. Your body will get lighter, stronger,
happier, every year that goes by, better and better and then
finally just changing to a different kind of body, and your mind
is keeping up the same speed. And then you're out. Then you're
in a different realm. Okay. In the same place. But but as it
stands now, this realm is unfixable. Any information you have
outside of this class for fixing your life is false. It's a lie.
 Get used to it, okay. Outside of keeping vows, outside of
changing your behavior towards other people, and knowingly
thinking about emptiness and how karma plays itself out in the
world due to what you did in the past, except for that everything
else is a lie. Nothing works, okay? That's that investment
strategy stupidity thing. The all those adjustments don't work.
The whole information supplied to you by every newspaper and
magazine in this country is wrong. Get used to it, okay. It's
just wrong. It doesn't work, okay. Sorry. Okay. Maybe wired,
but I....(laughter). I think it's important to know the lifetime
laymans vows, because I believe that Buddhism will probably
spread in this country mostly through laypeople. There will be
great monks and nuns, there will be great teachers who are monks
and nuns...I think, I think America, from the way I see the
potential, it's gonna be passed down trough lay people, and the
layman's vows are gonna be very important and I think you should
know them correctly, be able to describe them correctly, and I
think you should start thinking about giving them to people,
okay? Which you can once you've had them, okay. And and you
have to put that in your thing about think about it, okay. That
that you should turn on other people as soon as possible,
especially to the book thing. Yeah.

(student: (unclear))

There's a small ceremony and I'll teach it to you some time if
you want, okay. I think it should be ninety-five percent
explaining the vows, three percent taking them and then two
percent be happy at the end, and (laughter) no, and that's it,
you know. I'm afraid most of the time it's ninety-five percent
giving them, no explanation and five percent of confusion at the
end. (laughter), okay. Okay. You're gonna have to know some of
the basic correlations. Correlations means "expected results
from certain behavior", okay. Like why why do people have
backaches and if someone...if you have a student in the future
who says comes to you and says "I have backaches, what should I
do?", then what're you gonna tell them? What's the karma that
causes backaches. What's the karma that causes depression,
anxiety, fears, you know...if you really want to be a good
Buddhist teacher in America I think you have to study the books
on karma and see what are the specific actions that people did in
the past to create, for example, depression. And then you can
really help people, you know. You don't even have to charge them
anything. Like you just turn them onto the karmic way to fix
emotional problems and physical problems and they work, okay. So
I think you should know some of the, what we call "the
correlations". Should know the ten qualities of a qualified
Lama, okay. I think should be the first thing you teach
somebody. We had it in course number one, it came up again later
 in the course...at the end of the vinaya course, okay? But I
think it's really really good to turn especially new people on,
to the definition of a qualified Lama. Ten qualities that a
qualified Lama should have, okay. Last question that I will ask
you about...yes, that's a hard one...okay. I didn't give you all
the questions, all right, but you can try to suck 'em out of your
class leaders, all right. What really protects you when you take
refuge, how do you take refuge and when I give refuge vows, which
you can also do and you should start doing, okay...when I give
refuge vows I try to get people not to think like they're
switching icons...like like you used to bow down to this guy on
this cross but now you have to bow down to this guy with crossed
legs, okay (laughter), you know what I mean? And instead of that
picture it's this picture. And now you're a better person, you
know what I mean? And that's just a...that's not all...like I
have loyalty thing when I got to Dharmsala I was already a strong
Christian and I was like "I'm not bowing to Geshe Dhargye..no
way, that's...ten commandment number one" (laughter), you know.
You know what I mean? And I had all these weird doubts about
everything going on there like it was demon worship or something
you know, and I wasn't gonna bow down because I remember that
vow, you know, that ten commandments, you know. By the way
"graven image" means when you take refuge, you're not taking
refuge in a picture, okay. Picture of Lord Buddha can't do
anything for you period. Lord Buddha can't do anything for you,
get used to that, okay. I mean the story of Lord Buddha sitting
in his home, their place was attacked by outsiders, and people
holding onto his robes are (unclear), you know, begging him for
refuge, okay. If he couldn't help them, then you can forget it
that he's gonna magically show up when you're having a bad day
and help you (laughter), (laughs) okay. It doesn't work. So
what's the use of (Namo Buddhaya, Namo Dharmaya, Namo Sanghaya)
(laughter), you know what I mean? So what's the use of that?
How does that protect you? Okay. And then you have to
understand refuge. You have to understand...forget the word
refuge. It's "protection", okay? What is protection? Your
knowledge of emptiness and karma, period. All three of the
Three Jewels as opposed to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, okay...big
difference. There's Buddha, there's Dharma, there's Sangha.
Then there's Buddha Jewel, Dharma Jewel, Sangha Jewel. These are
not at all the same, okay. What is the Buddha Jewel? What's the
Buddha? The Buddha is this guy walking around two and a half
thousand years ago in Bodh Gaya. Okay. What's the Buddha Jewel?
 The Dharmakaya, the emptiness of the Buddha, okay? The
blankness about the Buddha that allows those three other bodies
to exist which is really handy, okay. So what's the Sanga Jewel?
 People who have seen emptiness directly, okay. What's the
Dharma Jewel? Seeing emptiness directly. Do we have a theme
here (laughter) okay...really. That's all they can protect you,
okay. Protection...when you're at work and the guy's attacking
you or you're with one of your fellow students or anything else,
and they're starting to say something bad to you, take refuge.
What's refuge? Your mind goes through the following process,
okay. This this person is empty, you know. Probably somebody
enjoys what they're saying right now. I don't. Okay. But how I
feel about it only depends on my karma, you know. They could be
praising me at this moment if I'd had better karma, okay, and
probably there's people who feel a certain way about me that if
they heard what this person is saying at this moment they'd be
very happy, okay. I'm not. Okay. So, the reason I have to see
them as a bad is my own karma. I understand that. The reason I
have to hear these words coming out of their mouths right now is
my own karma. I understand that. So above all I refuse to
speak. You know. Above all I refuse to answer, okay. Because I
don't want to meet them again. This is the way...I always say
you can eliminate people at work. You don't have to use the Post
Office method, which is a gun (laughs) okay? And Master
Shantideva said it clearly. He said, "practice the perfection of
patience. Underst"...which means you do it with understanding
their emptiness. And then kiss them goodbye. He says, "go to
them one by one and say," you know, "shake their hands, it's been
good knowing you, (laughter), you're gonna get transferred within
three months", you know (laughter) and and they're like, "how do
you know that?" You say, "'cause I'm being patient with you".
(laughter) You know. You know what I mean? And it works. I
swear to God. I had eight hundred people in my company. I had a
hundred and fifty people in my department and we all had a
fantastic time, you know. The lousy ones got weeded out one by
one by Mr. Karma, by refusing to get angry, refusing to respond
to people...what people said, okay. And then you just eliminate
them by doing that, okay. What's the...what do you call
that...extrapolate it into the future, I mean, first you get rid
of the biggest asshole at work, and then you work on the medium
ones and then even the people who irritate you a little bit and
then they're all gone. Well, what what happens after that?

(cut)

No, they start transforming completely, I mean, slowly, one by
one, they start to shade into (tantr)ic deities, okay. Does it
happen all in one day? No. Do they turn into a (tantr)ic deity
on Sunday and they're always like that after that? No. They
shade in and out as towards the...as you get towards the end, you
know, you swear they're a (tantr)ic deity on Monday, and bbby
Tuesday they look like a totally normal person. And then Friday
they're like shading back again, 'cause it's Friday (laughs) you
know, and then...you know what I mean? And it starts shading
back and forth and getting a little...and then and then finally
you start to see them that way most of the time, and you your
karma's forcing you to see it and you understand why, and it's
it's it's okay, and then there's this thing where they won't
admit it, 'cause you don't have enough karma to have them to
admit it, so it goes on for another few months, you know, and
they're like "no no, I'm not, I'm just a normal person", you
know. And you say, "no no. I see like this sometimes". They
say, "no no, I don't know what you're talking about", you know.
(laughter) And then sooner or later their karma gets so sweet
that they just say, "okya, you caught me", you know (laughter)
(laughs), you know...see there he is (laughter) Okay, but that's
the whole...Rome wasn't built in a day...and you keep you vows,
learn your vows, keep them every two hours, and then this stuff
starts happening to you. Definitely. And that's why you're
here. Okay? And oh it's so nice, okay. So do that. Take a
break. And then we'll do our groups for a while. And then we
have to talk about plans for tomorrow. Okay.

(break)

Okay. We will start. I've waited twenty years to get Lama Zopa
trapped and we did it, it looks like, so I wanna make sure it
goes off right. So. Number one. Amber is doing the stage and
general decorating, am I right? Where is she? I have to have
blood vows, (laughter), right? Okay. So the...stage...including
that seat in Leon's house.

(student, Amber: Yeah)

Okay.

(student, Amber: (unclear))

And you can take, please take the carpets out of my room. I got
some new ones that are going into three year retreat. I want him
to walk on them. From from the steps to the throne, but not on
the steps 'cause he'll fall down, okay. Very inauspicious.

(student, Amber: (unclear))
Huh?

(student, Amber: (unclear))

I don't mind if you load'em up. Yes. That's fine. It'll feel
like (laughter) the Heaven of the Thirty Three. Okay. So who's
bringing the carpet?

(student: Michael Wick's (unclear) the carpet)

Wick. He's not here, right.

(students: Yeah)

Oh, (laughs) okay. Michael Wick's gonna make sure we get the
place early and go home late, right? It's very embarrassing when
you're locked out and Lama Zopa shows up. Okay. Margie okay on
the car? Okay. Margie's gonna bring her big black Lincoln which
is working this week, okay. What time, Petra? 'Cause she's
coming from work?

(student, Petra: Yes, I (unclear))

Okay, so I don't have to worry about it. Sound's good.

(student, Petra. I'll bring (unclear))

Yeah, you bring in...you come in Margie's car like you and Roger
and Lama Zopa and then we'll pay the taxi fare for the other
people. Do you have any money? You need money? And then I'll
reimburse you, okay. Fran Diane is gonna...where's Fran Diane?.
Six hundred dollar check from MSTC, six hundred dollar check for
Lama Zopa, okay? Charge it to whatever account's not broke.
(laughter) (laughs) As if there was one. (laughter) Okay. So,
we got that. Fran D. Fran's got the moola. Somebody have a
swastika throne cover seat? Great. Okay. You got that.
(laughter) I mean (unclear) okay, all right. Everybody bring
everybody bring as many people as they like, okay. I'd like the
place full, okay. So bring as many people as you like. It'll be
too hot and it'll be sweaty...by the way, anybody can do a fan
for him, on him, the cool thing...who's gonna do that? Who?
Okay. Fran. Not not to make him, you know, not to blow him
away, but (laughter (laughs). We got flowers. That's that's
Elly, right? So you have a hundred dollar budget for that and
Fran will reinburse you...ha ha. Okay. And and you're working
on that too, right (unclear) (laughter) Okay. You guys got any
other great ideas of something nice?

(student: (unclear))

When he comes in? Oh by the way. When they come in there should
be a gauntlet of people all the way to the door, like you should
spread out of you have to, but the custom is that he walks
through the two rows, and you can either hold incense or hold
some flowers, okay. So who's gonna arrange this gauntlet? You
already have a job. Geraldo's pretty good at that...okay. How
about Geraldo and Christina? Okay. Gauntlet crew. Yeah. We
need a (rrrrrrr). I think it'd be more fun if he came in alone.

(students: (unclear)

Tea lights?

(student: Christmas lights. He loves Christmas lights)

Christmas lights. Who's got Christmas lights? Who wants to do
the Christmas lights? Rob you wanna do lights in general? If
you can't get Christmas lights, get...okay, buy some or do some
tealights, doesn't matter. Okay. If you need money talk to Fran-
Diane. Ha ha. Okay. Rob, Rob's got the light. Somebody's
gotta do this altar properly and not like a smorgasbord
(laughter), okay. Nah. I mean, not too crowded, okay and all
nice, spread out where he can see it, okay, you got that? You
got that.

(student: (unclear))

Actually it's not so bad. I'd say just fill it. Maybe do it
like a horseshoe.

(student: He likes a lot of water bowls)

He likes a lot of water bowls.

(student: Big glassfulls)

Big glassfulls. Okay. Shamis has got the, you got the sound?
Okay. Shamis is gonna do an extra boom bang job on the sound,
probably have Neil Young when he comes in (laughter). Everybody
at the end should have a kata, or as many as we can. I have a
bunch in my room. Who wants to....
(student: I can bring them over (unclear))

You already have a job. Who wants to do...okay, they're in the
like third or fourth drawer. If you just take them all, I don't
care, okay? So Kopec. And then hand them out to people. They
you you offer them at the end, okay, with a nice envelope...how's
gonna bring envelopes? Not those cheap little white ones. Some
really fancy ones from Kate's Papereria. Who's doing that?
Sure? Bring like a hundred and...just no, just little ones that
people can make offering, okay. And then bring something, okay.
Bring bring a dollar, bring five dollars, it doesn't matter, but
it's just bring something, okay. And then we think it's bad luck
to put an empty envelope...I mean a blank...no, I mean like write
something on the front like "please live forever", or something
like that, okay. Anybody got any other suggestions that I didn't
think of? Yeah.

(student: (unclear))

Oh yeah, I'd like to...can you take care of that? Okay. We're
gonna do the the eight great arhats from ancient India and Lord
Buddha across the top, okay, but, by the way, you must ask Leon
properly, 'cause I...he's very sensitive, so I don't wanna, you
know...okay. All right. Okay. He doesn't mind at all. 'Cause
those were a gift from Sera, but it'd be really nice to have
them, and then try to keep that order, if you can, especially
Lord Buddha in the middle. That's the main thing. Okay. Yeah.

(student: (unclear))

Sorry?

(student: (unclear))

It's illegal for to have anything from (unclear) a Lama like
that, so, heh heh.

(student: (unclear))

I don't think when he's here. Okay. We can talk about that, but
generally it's not allowed to...to give something to a lesser
Lama when his...huh?

(student: (unclear)

I don't mind. That's great. Yeah. That's fine. Okay. Any
other...by the way, when he gets seated and he's ready to go,
then watch and we all have to do nice prostrations, okay. And at
the end we have to do all the proper prayers. Are you up for
that Puntsok? Are you gonna be here? So, mandala, all that
stuff, okay? Okay, so Puntsok has got the...don't make it so low
we can't follow (laughter), (laughs).

(student: (unclear))

Say again?

(student: We could also do his longlife prayer.)

Yeah, why not? Do you have it? Do you have a longlife prayer
for...do you wanna reproduce it?

(students: It's a little tricky to sing...do you know the tune?
I used to know the tune. (laughter))

Could we just recite it? Say again?

(students: (unclear) Oh yes, this is (unclear). There's a
Tibetan...there's a really nice)

How 'bout we just recite the English? Yeah, here's one here.
But...okay. Can you...who's gonna reproduce it? Can you
reproduce it? You already got a job.

(students: (unclear))

Okay. Work it out with Debbie Bye. She'll help you. Spread the
virtue. Don't be a (snort snort) virtue hog. Longlife prayer.
And then Puntsok you gotta be ready with that, okay? All right.
Anything else. Anybody else have any ideas? John?

(student, John: (unclear))

All the prayers that we might say. Can you guys do that? I
mean, just the mandala and the Sang gye chu dang tso kyi chok nam
la, and the Gewa diyi at the end, okay.

(student: (unclear))

Sorry?

(student: (unclear))
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Who's working on that? You guys wanna be
involved with that? Help make the mandala offering? At the
beginning? Okay. So we need like four people. That's two.
Okay. Who's the other two? Christina. Anybody else.

(student: Marie)

Where's Marie. (unclear) Okay. Ha ha, we got it already. Okay
these three and Christina. So, the first person who offers the
mandala on a plate, you guys work it out between you, okay. Next
person offers body which is a image of the Buddha. Next offering
is speech which is the scripture and then mind, which is the
stupa...try to find a little stupa. And you always turn it
towards yourself first and touch it and then you turn it around
and offer it and then you offer the kata and then usually they
put it over your neck and then you...you get it back and you put
it back on the tray. So somebody, who's a we need a fifth person
to stand there with a tray. Who wants to be the tray? Yeah?
How about Kelly? Okay. Yeah. Stand there with a tray. Okay.
We need another person to collect it from the thing. Okay, I
think Elly. Oh, Jay, Okay. So you got the finished tray, you
got the beginning tray, and you four guys are doing the offerings
of things. And you can fight over who's gonna spill the mandala.

(student: (unclear))

Yeah, (laughs) glue it back, okay. Yeah. By the way, the way
they really do it in the monastery, tell you the truth, they turn
a mandala plate over, they get four short votive candles and they
glue 'em and then they have a larger candle in the middle and
that's all. They don't do the rings and all that. Okay. And it
should have a silk thing tied to it that goes, you flap over your

(student: Yeah, and you bring (unclear))

So just a long beautiful piece of cloth on a mandala plate with
four candles stuck to it, like a birthday cake, those...you know,
like that high and that thick and then one in the middle, five.
Mt. Meru and the four continents. Okay. Got it. You
take...those candles are about that high and about that thick.
And then you take a manda...a regular mandala plate and you turn
it upside down so that the opening's at the bottom and then you
just stick them on there...like you can drip the wax and
you...that's the four continents, then you have one in the
middle. And then you have some kind of silk cloth coming off of
it that's about this long and the person offers it throws the
cloth over their left shoulder and then offers it, okay, like
that. And then he'll take it and he'll give it to the person
who's got the closing tray, I should say, okay. I'm sure we'll
do it very confusedly. (laughter). Sorry?

(student: (unclear))

Oh okay, good. All right. Okay. (laughs) Sorry?

(student: (unclear))

Yeah, add the long mandala offering to the papers that people
get, okay. We need to do the long mandala offering. Anybody
think of anything else? Sorry?

(student: What time are we going to do it?)

Oh, I think Lama Zopa's schedule is...all the high high Lamas
are...they run on their own time, (laughs) so...you know, that's
their right, so I'd be here at I'd be here at seven, and you know
be ready to stay late, and I don't want people leaving. If
you're gonna chicken out and...if you're gonna wimp out then
don't come, okay (laughter). Just tell you family you're gonna
be late, okay. He likes to...when he gets into it it could be a
long time, okay. All right. Yeah. But it's very disrespectful
to leave, okay. So, just decide however long it takes. It's
a...by the way, why am I doing this? I can't think of a Lama who
has contributed more to the happiness of westerners directly than
Lama Zopa, period. By about a degree of a thousand, you know
what I mean. So, you know, this is a huge chance. So, you know,
who else has put their whole life into building hundreds and
hundreds of, you know...over a hundred centers and serving people
all over the world. You you won't find anyone who's done that
for westerners, you know what I mean. And this is a big chance
of your life. Yeah.

(student: What (unclear) what language does he speak?)

He'll be speak...I never heard him speak, but I hear he speaks
English, so..and very deliberately, okay (laughter), yeah.

(student: (unclear))

Oh, great idea. Who can...what does he like to drink when he
teaches?
(student: (milk milk tea and (unclear))

Okay, and what kind of tea...caffeine tea?

(student: Black tea))

Caffeine tea? Who can do that? Jay? Okay, so it has to be a...
in a thermos, hot. Does he add the milk later or put it in?
Okay. Big. In case he goes on for a long time. And then a
beautiful cup and they like the kind of cup with a cover on it,
yeah. Okay. When we prepared the Ling Rinpoche, the senior
tutor, we put these fake grapes on the...next to the cup

(students: oh oh)

And then he was looking at them (laughs) and then he (laughter)
finally he...(laughter) (laughs). So bring some real grapes or
something (laughter). All right Jay? Are we up for that?
Something like little fruits or something, you know, in case he
(unclear). Okay. All right. I heard he likes flowers so bring
flowers. Bring some little offering, okay. It doesn't have to
be a big deal, but something. Don't come omp empty handed, very
bad, and we'll give katas to probably I have fifty or twenty, I
don't know. But we'll see.

(student: (unclear))

Oh, somebody can iron them. They're kind of grungy. Who wants
to do that? Okay, then you'll coordinate with...who's the kata
person? Gail. They...it takes about a minute or two each and I
don't have an iron there. I've never used one. Sorry?

(student: (unclear))

Oh, that's be a great idea. Who wants to take pictures? Can we
do the video, is Kevin up to the video...okay. And yeah, okay.
Maybe two people take pictures would be nice. Okay. All right.
That'd be nice to have. Okay. Oh, yeah yeah. You need to bring
a lot more tape than with me. He goes late. I heard that. I've
never been, okay. Okay. To close up. I wanted to thank all the
people who helped with the class. When we first started this
school, Ani Pelma and me in the basement in Hell's Kitchen with
six chairs and two dogs, it was lonely. We couldn't get any help
 for anything. And like Margie would come and help and a few
other people, but it was really hard and then when we got to
Sixth Street more and more people started helping. I think now
we have about forty to fifty almost full-time people working for
free on fifteen different major projects around the world, and
it's unbelievable. Like I I don't know of any other place where
that many people are putting in that much quality time, you know,
and it would be very hard for me to even...I can't go through all
the names anymore. I used to at the end of a class...I used to
go through all the names. It's hopeless. Okay. It's just almost
everybody is doing some kind of amazing thing, and it's just
amazing. Like, a lot of projects now go on, Three Jewels, stuff
like that, I don't even know about it. You know, and hundreds of
people get benefitted and it's just fantastic, it's just
fantastic. I you can't even imagine all the stuff that's going
on. Almost everybody in this room is doing something...major
thing, so, I just thank you for that, first thing. I wanted to
thank all the people who led the...who who taught the second part
of the class. That'd be Ani Pelma...you can save your applause
for the end. Ani Elly, Winston, Roy, Fran Diane, Margie,
Vilma...you still haven't missed a class? Very few. Never
missed a class...oh, don't say, okay (laughter). Mark Miniverni,
Elizabeth, Ani Chodrin, Brooks, Michael Wicks and Nancy Kiernan.
Like amazing. And (applause) yeah. (laughs) And it it's my
hope, I mean, John and I talked about, we'll there'll be a
schedule and those people and a few other people will be giving
keeping the courses going aft...in two thousand and beyond,
okay...spread out throughout the city, like underground cells
(laughter), that's my dream, okay. And we will also be having a
meeting at Godstow with all those people probably late October, I
think, and talking about how to plan that so...maybe tomorrow
I'll announce the date. Is that okay? It'll be a weekend at
Godstow and we'll just plan how we take over the city. All right
(laughs) okay. I wanted to thank John Stilwell especially for
(applause). You gotta come down John, sorry. Yo, you. You
Stilwell. Okay. We we heard that John was too cheap...I mean,
couldn't get a copy of this book (laughter) (laughs) and we
wanted to offer it. This is Rinpoche's newest book on seeing
bodhicitta. Okay. So. John'll be running this place during the
three year retreat, so this is just to sweeten his day before he
starts to work. (applause) (laughs) I'd like to also thank John
for teaching the classes. They were very...people were very
happy.

(student, John: (unclear))

Huh?
(student, John: (unclear))

No (laughter) I was relaxing. This is the way it's supposed to
work. Okay. I think the last, I mean, there's too many people
to thank and I can't thank everybody, but there's one person
especially who sweated out this course besides the students, and
where would we be without the Sarge? (applause) (laughs) We got
two gifts for the Sarge. This is one...I wish I could get you to
do it again so I don't have to worry about it. Ready. (One
little nun). Is gonna get a big thing. Ready. Where's your
thing? (unclear)

(student, nun: I just I just wanted to thank him personally and
I think to all of you a lot of time we show up and it's like a
paradise here and there's maybe seven people behind the scenes,
working on the altar, cleaning the floor, he's many times at the
Three Jewels trying to get brochures for new people to come and
there's about twelve things that really go on before you come and
you sit down and work and the place is all pretty, and he's
working really hard, so we would really like to thank you and all
 of the requests that you get from some students going through
the boxes and needing (laughs) homeworks and quizzes all at the
same time...we really appreciate it and we would like to
(unclear) (applause). We have we have a a mandala offering from
Geshe Michael and the store has given you a cushion and some
little goodies. (unclear) (applause))

Okay, that's all. So you...do a , do some retreat, if you can
during September, okay. If not, those of you who haven't taken
bodhisattva vows you gotta knock off that course...this is the
right time to do it, class number seven, if you wanna take
them...probably be later in the year, like November or maybe
February but you have to knock that off now. Other people should
do their respective things okay, but don't waste the time, okay.
At least go over the courses. It drives me crazy when people
show up at Sixth Street and say "I don't know what to do", you
know. After seventeen courses, you know, five thousand pages to
read, you know, and knock off some of the courses you haven't
finished, you know. I have that (tantr)ic teaching carrot is out
there and you have to knock off the eighteen courses, okay. So
that's all on your head. That's all up to you. I can't do
anything else. Okay. You have to finish...you have those
courses...the Moore's can give you whatever you need, you just
knock 'em off, okay. Then you can help other people with it,
okay. So thank you for making me do this because it's good for
me and we'll do a mandala offering, yeah, okay. (applause)
(prayer: long mandala)

(prayer: short mandala)

(silence) (laughter)

One sec. Okay. One sec...I forgot some things. I forgot a few
people and I can't stand to not mention them. Margie who shows
up every single night (applause) even when I don't show up. I
don't think...and then Amber who did the altar (applause) okay.
These are just the people I know about. I don't know if you know
that the readings take probably forty hours a week of work and
that's being done with no pay by Ora, okay (applause), Kristy
helps with that (applause). People think they hang around me all
the time and get to have...talk with me all the time. They have
to make an appointment about three months ahead...seriously, to
talk to me and they work like eighteen hours a day, they get over
stressed, they start crying half the time, and they really really
work hard for you guys. So you should thank them sometime.
Okay. (applause) And I...that's a...I just wanted to do those
people. Michael Wick...(applause) okay (laughs). Rinpoche named
his car (chu be ta) which means "public horse" and he never
refuses anyone, I mean, it's every single day he's doing
something for somebody and he's let us use his house and we've
ruined it but he still lets us use it. Kevin who did the video
(applause). Somebody came to me today at the teachings, it
happens every time...almost every day, they like crying, they get
down on their knees, they grab me, they say, "I got the video for
such and such that you did two years ago and you don't know me
and it saved my life" and that's Kevin's idea and Kevin's been
filming them all. Okay. (applause). Shamis who does the
video...I'm sorry, the audio so well (applause) and his
assistant, Edward something something something the fourteenth,
who's others name is Ted, okay (laughs) (applause). Rob and Ian
who do countless running around the city especially to pick up
the readings and stuff like that, okay (applause). I think I got
everybody for this class...I don't know. I probably forgot ten
people. I'm very sorry. But anyway, you get the point. Okay.
If you're gotta catch a a bus or a train, just go, okay. Don't
worry. This takes a while. So, if you're tired and you gotta
get home, don't be shy, okay.

(student: I just wanted to mention. For the people who are
going to be grading final exams, now that I've dug through the
boxes that I have, it turns out that I do have the answer key
(unclear), so if you're gonna be grading finals, come meet me in
the back and I'll give you a copy (unclear). And one last thing,
on your way out you'll notice a table set up with t-shirts for
sale. The money the proceeds for those shirts are going directly
to (unclear).




Course 17: Great Ideas of Buddhism #2—Mar-Apr 1999, NYC
RAW TRANSCRIPT



PAGE 300