ACI 18 (обзорный курс), Занятие 06 — стенограмма

Class Six
Geshe Michael Roach
Transcribed by Angie Overy




[prayer: short mandala]
[prayer: refuge]
[cut]
[private conversation with student]
Okay, we’ll start.
We’re in the middle of {rik lam}, the least popular course. [laughs] {rik} means, reasoning or
logic, {lam} means, path. {rik lam} is the path of logic, path of reasoning.
And I repeat that Je Tsongkapa’s most important disciple, Gyaltseb Je, said that the kindest
thing that je Tsongkapa ever did for him was not to give him tantric initiations or {lam rim}
teachings or anything else. It was to teach him {rik lam}, okay.
And I wanted to review a typical {rik lam}, okay. Here’s a typical {rikpa}. You got to have a
{…} which is the subject. Tibetan logic, Buddhist logic comes in three parts. Each logical
statement has three parts. First one, you take an example, you point out something. Let’s
say, take me, take myself, okay, take an object, take anything that you want to prove
something about, okay.
I should study and practice more seriously because, by the way, that’s called {drup ja}, the
thing to be proven, because I’m going to die tonight.
That’s actually death meditation. This is the essence of death meditation. Death meditation
doesn’t mean in the {lam rim} you know, closing your eyes and seeing purple coloured lights
and stuff like that. It’s to do this reason to yourself over and over again, okay.
What I want to say is that the point of logic is to address places where we just have spiritual
obstacles. You see what I mean.
Like, you know these here are true. You know this is a true statement, okay.
Why?
Does your opponent know what ‘me’ is? These are all the logical checks for a good proof.
Yeah, they know what it means. Okay.
Do they understand what it is to study and practice more seriously?
Yeah.
Do they know they’re gonna die tonight?
Well somebody might go say, I’m not gonna die tonight.
You say, how can you say that? Prove it, you know. Okay. You can’t prove that. You
can’t prove that. You can’t say that, okay.
If you feel more comfortable you can say I might die tonight but, okay, I won’t insist, alright.
But those are like three, the opponent has to understand the essence of the three statements.
Meaning: me, practising more seriously and study and what it means to die tonight, that they
will die tonight, okay.
The essence of death meditation is to say, ‘I will die tonight’. Now, you might get the day
wrong, okay, you might get the wrong day but someday you’ll get it right. Okay. Really.
So it’s okay. Alright.
What are thethree tests?
{tsul sum yinpa; tak yangdak kyi tsennyi, …} What’s the definition of a good reason, correct
reason, correct logical proof?
Three relationships hold. Three relationships hold. {chok chu}, first one, {chok chu}. The
relationship between number one and number three.
Is it true that you’re going to die tonight?
Yeah, sooner or later, okay. I mean, when you get good at death meditation you’ll just say
yes, okay. When you get really good at death meditation, death meditation means you’re
laying in your bed in the morning, you open, I mean, sorry, your mind opens, right, you
wake up. And before you open you eyes say, I’m going to die tonight, now what am I
going to do? There’s a new movie coming out. I look forward to it. It’s called The End, I
think, Last Day. It’s called The Last Day, coming out this Friday. [laughter]
Anyway, so the guy’s just read a review. The guy, long story, but [laughter] he’s got six
hours. He knows he’s going to die in six hours. So, what is he going to do in six hours.
And the whole planet, everybody knows they’re gonna die in six hours. It’s, like, everybody
has these different reactions.
That’s perfect death meditation, okay.
So, before you get up, before you open your eyes you sit there and you just lay there and
you say I’m going to die tonight. Now what do I want to do in my life? Okay. That’s a real
death meditation. And it just works so beautifully.
Like, within about three months or six months of thinking like that your life is totally
transformed, okay and you’re totally happy, like, you’re on the right track. Okay.
So, anyway, the first requirement of a correct logical statement is that one plus three is true.
And that’s true, you are going to die tonight. Okay.
If you’re going to die now, we check number, logical check number two. If three, two; true
or false?
If you’re going to die tonight should you practice and study more seriously?
Yeah. So test number two checks out. Okay. True.
If not two, not three. Okay. [laughter]
Is it true you shouldn’t study and practice more seriously if you’re not going to die tonight?
I don’t know. Maybe you could say that. Okay. If you knew you had another day maybe
you could lighten up. [laughter] [laughs]
Maybe it’s if I don’t study and practice more seriously I will die tonight. [laughs] Anyway,
something like that. The point here is that the reason to learn logic, okay, is that there’s two
kinds of objects that you have trouble about. They’re called {kokyur} and {shintu kokyur},
hidden and very hidden objects.
Emptiness is called a hidden object, okay.
This is called {ngun gyur}, evident reality, obvious reality; colours and shapes and things you
can see and taste and touch, okay.
Then there’s a thing called {kokyur} which is, like, hidden reality like emptiness.
Then there’s {shintu kokyur} which means very hidden reality, which is like the subtle
workings of karma and its consequences, you know. Like, what is it that made the lines on
the ceiling or what made the scratches on the floor tiles, you know, each one. What’s the
karma for you to have to see that? You see what I mean. Only a Buddha can tell you that.
An Arya can see emptiness directly. And then normal people can see this. So really there’s
three levels of reality going on all the time.
And I had a beautiful debate in Ganden Shartse one night. Wiped them out. And they were
trying to, you know it was very beautiful ‘cos we came at it without knowing what we were
doing. We all hadn’t reached that subject yet but we decided that all those three realities shift
for each person. You see what I mean.
Like, for a Buddha, everything is reality level number one, you see what I mean. And
emptiness is no shakes for them so to them it’s the same as colours and shapes. You see what
I mean. We had this huge debate about it.
Really, what those three realities are depend on where you’re at. And for one person this can
be very deep or it could be obvious. You see what I mean. So, what’s the point here?
There are certain things that at our level if you are who you seem to be that you can’t see and
you won’t be able to see. You see what I mean.
And you need to use reasoning to see them. And one of the things is that you’re going to die
tonight, you know. Like, to see, actually the {drup ja} here is this one, to believe that you
should really practice as if your hair was on fire they say. You know, that you should do
your Dharma practice with the same kind of intensity that you would try to put out a fire if
your head caught on fire.
The reason you can’t do it and the reason you have, you know, you come to me and say I’m
doing twenty-three minutes of meditation ‘cos I, you know, the reason you think like that is
that you can’t see the truth of that, see what I mean. You can’t see the truth that you should
do it because you’re going to die tonight.
You giggle when I say you’re going to die tonight. You know what I mean. And you just
don’t believe it.
You have a spiritual obstacle towards perceiving that directly. It’s true. It really is true and
then you have this block about it, you don’t feel comfortable about it. It sounds funny.
Come on, maybe, like, when I get as old as my grandfather [unclear]. Come on I got things
to do, you know. I got a cheque coming in on Monday. [laughs] I can’t die tonight. I
won’t die tonight. You know what I mean. And you believe it. You really believe it.
So logic is good for those things.
Prove things to yourself about your spiritual life that your normal mind doesn’t want to
admit, you know.
Learn the rules of logic. Learn the rules of how to prove things. And then, when you do
your daily meditation, prove it to yourself. And then do it over and over again and then you
can’t deny it anymore, you know what I mean. You can’t try to hide from it.
Things that you don’t want to admit that prevent you from reaching your goals, okay.
That’s what we’re doing. That’s what we’re trying to do with logic, okay.
Second thing with logic is to really establish how many things there are that you don’t know,
okay, and that you think you know. Alright.
So, in the first case, it was more like trying to open your third eye to see things like the fact
that you’re going to die tonight, okay.
And the second value of logic is to prove to yourself how much you don’t know, okay,and
how much you shouldn’t assume that you know.
And the great example in logic scriptures is how much you don’t know about what other
people are thinking or doing. Okay. It’s called {minowa ma …}. We’ll talk about it.
The whole subject tonight is gonna concentrate on negatives. Proving something negative,
okay.
And there’s two ways to prove something negative. We divide all negative things into those
that you could see if they were here and those that you could not see if they were here.
And there’s proofs for each one.
I’ll say it again. There’s proofs for proving that something’s not here which you could have
seen if it was here. And, there’s proofs for proving that something’s not here which you
couldn’t have seen anyway if it was here. Okay.
I’ll give you an example, okay. [laughs]
{…},what’s that thing, {..},okay. This is very famous.
We have to learn, like, hundreds of these things. Okay. {..} means, for number one, let’s take
the pacific ocean out in the middle where there’s no lights, there’s no fires at all. It’s pure
expanse of water in the middle of the night. It’s a new moon. It’s totally dark. And you’re
in an aeroplane and you’re looking down and there’s not a spot of light. There’s no fire.
There cannot be a fire. There’s no ships. There’s no islands. There’s just water. And it’s
black, pure black. {…} Okay. {..}
There’s no smoke there, {..} ‘cos there’s no fire. Okay.
Okay. And you have to say no smoke from present fire, okay, ‘cos there could’ve been
smoke from fire that just got put out. We’re not talking about that, okay.
So anyway, that’s a classical proof.
If smoke had been there and if it was daytime could you have seen it?
Yeah. Okay. That’s what we call {…}; means you’re proving something negative.
What are you proving?
That there’s no smoke there. Okay.
If there had been smoke there could you have seen it? I mean, assuming it was daytime.
Yes. Okay. Smoke is normally visible to human beings, okay, under normal circumstances.
So, that’s called a {…}, the proof that something’s not there which you could have seen if it
were there, okay, how’s that.
The other kind of negative proof, proof for a negative is called {minowa ma mikpe tak}. Say,
{minowa}[repeat] {ma mikpe tak} [repeat], which means a proof for the absence of something
that you couldn’t have seen anyway, okay, under normal circumstances.
Let me see. {…}, something like that, okay.
Which means, take anybody in this room who cannot see the pretas floating around in this
room, the hungry spirits, okay.
Take anybody in this room who’s incapable of seeing the spirits wandering around in this
room, okay. They don’t have a pramana or a direct perception in this case where they can
see them because they’re not at the level where they can see them, okay.
And that’s a proof, alright.
What it means is to a normal person pretas are invisible anyway. You can’t see them.

So that’s what we call a {minowa ma mike tak}, a proof to prove the absence of something
that they couldn’t have seen anyway under normal circumstances at their level, okay.
Two kinds of proof of a negative, okay; two ways to prove a negative.
What’s the definition of a negative and what does negative mean?
It means, an object, which you have to perceive by excluding something else, okay.
An object which in your mind, you perceive by excluding something, okay, by exclusion,
okay. What’s the point of talking about all this?
Two big lessons, alright, two big lessons.
The first one we already spoke about. Lord Buddha said one of the most important
applications of logic is to prove to yourself that you don’t know what the person sitting next
to you is really thinking about and you can’t judge other people.
{…}, you know, if you’re not an enlightened being like me or someone like me then don’t go
around judging people next to you because you can’t read their minds,okay.
And you don’t know how many people sitting around you are already enlightened.
Oh, come on, that person can’t be enlightened.
Why?
They act so weird, you know. [laughter] And they look funny and they don’t talk so good
and [unclear] they don’t have any money and stuff like that.
How could they be enlightened you know?
Come on, if somebody is out to help you and if they’ve got enlightened a million years ago
say, that’s not much time for them and they looking a million years into the future to see how
they could best serve you. And they decided that they should sit next to you and pick their
nose or something so you could learn patience [laughter] or something like that.
Who are you to say? I mean there are millions of enlightened beings in the universe.
They can emanate countless numbers of bodies around the planet, you know, so who are you
to, one very important application of logic is that you don’t know. It’s to prove to yourself
that you don’t know. You see what I mean.
To just sit there in meditation and say, take Michael Roach, he shouldn’t judge others, because
he can’t read their minds right now. Okay. That’s all.
And then you look it over.
Oh, does test number one work out? Is it true that Michael Roach can’t read people’s minds
right now?
Yes.
If it’s true that Michael Roach can’t read other people’s minds should he judge them?
Yes.
What’s the other one? He could judge them if he could read their mind?
Yes.
So, is it a good proof?
Yes.
Are you going to stop judging people now?
No. [laughs] [laughter]
And no, I’m not kidding. You don’t see your own mind going through this process, you
know.
You say, let’s do a proof. Okay. Michael Roach, shouldn’t judge other people.
Why?
Can’t see their minds right now.
Okay, let’s do a check, okay. Yeah, let’s do a check.
Michael Roach can’t read other people’s minds.
Right.
If he can’t read other people’s minds he shouldn’t judge them.
Right.
You could judge them then if you could read their minds.
Right.
So, stop judging them, right.
No, you know. [laughter] And then just keep going through that.
And that’s one of the most important functions of logic, especially {ma mikpe tak}, proof of
the absence of something. Okay.
It’s one of the, Lord Buddha said, this is one of the most important applications of Buddhist
logic. So, again, we’re into that field of proving how much you don’t know to yourself, so
you stop. And how many mental afflictions are posited on believing you know why other
people are doing things or judging them or judging what they do?
Does that mean if you see some guy go up to a lady and hit her on the head and steal her
purse you should say, I don’t know, maybe she’s a karate master and he’s her student
[laughter] and, you know, something like that.
Not like that, okay. Based on what you know, if you see violence being done to another
person, you have to try to stop it, okay.
Are you objecting to the person’s state of mind? To their apparent state of mind you can say,
yes. To what they seem to be doing and seem to be thinking I object and I have to move. I
have to do something.
Can you judge the person one hundred percent?
No. Okay. Maybe the timer to the atom bomb under the World Trade Centre is in that purse
and he’s an FBI agent and, you know, I don’t know.
But, based on what I know, I have to help this woman. I can’t be sure what he’s thinking
and I admit that. But, based on what I know, I have to act.
And that’s okay. But you have to give yourself the space to say, I don’t judge the person, I
judge his action as I see it. You see what I mean.
I don’t judge the person. Maybe they’re some enlightened being. Maybe they’re doing
something special. I don’t know. God bless them if they are. But, in the meantime, I have to
stop them, you see. From what I can see the action is wrong, okay. And that’s okay. You
have to act like that, okay.
You’ll find, use this method in morning meditation. When you’re sitting there meditating,
you know, even just the one I just did, you can use for the rest of your life every morning
and half your problems will melt away, you know.
Assuming all the time that you know what other people are thinking, you know what they
want, you can judge them from, you know, ten seconds of seeing something, you know
what I mean.
You’ll be much, much happier, totally happier. I’ll be happier. I’ll do it. Okay.
Something like that.
Second application of that reason is in proving emptiness, okay. To prove emptiness.
Emptiness is one of the most important negatives there is.
To really understand emptiness you have to understand what it is to be a negative. What it is
to be a negative. There are two kinds of negatives, okay.
Negative, in general, is called a {gakpa}, okay. {gakpa}means, negatives.
By the way, this is just one of the logic subjects. There are hundreds. They’re beautiful. They
are fantastic. I chose on because, you know, the readings are three, four hundred pages long.
I had to choose one, okay.
But I think it’s maybe the most important one next to {chi jedrak}, but we did that last week.
{gakpas} are negatives, okay. Two kinds of negatives exist. [cut]
Say {mayin gak}[repeat] okay and {megak}[repeat]. I’ll give you a classic example of each.
But in general, you can think of the first one as saying that something is not something.
Okay.
The first one is a negative in the sense of saying something is not something. Like, this is not
permanent or this is not lasting, okay. That’s like a qualitative description of something,
okay. The classic example of a {mayin gak}in Tibetan monasteries, a funny one, is that, you
know, Joe Schmoe is a monk, he’s really fat and he doesn’t eat during the daytime, okay.
[laughs]
Okay, Joe Schmoe’s a monk, he’s really fat and he doesn’t eat during the daytime. Which is
to say what? He eats at night. He sneaks into the monastery kitchen at night and grabs
cookies and stuff like that, after the noon meal has finished remember, okay. So, that’s
double problem there. He’s got a cholesterol problem and a vow problem. [laughs] But the
statement, it’s either a positive or a negative, which suggests, by exclusion, another fact. You
see what I mean.
Did you like dinner?
I really liked the desert. Okay. [laughs] Desert, you see what I mean. In English you hear it
in the tone of your voice, you see. That’s a {mayin gak}.
It means, in fact, that was a positive, you see what I mean, it wasn’t a negative but it suggests
another fact. You see what I mean.
And that’s a classical {mayin gak}}. Also, {mayin gak} can be simple, like not changing or
something like that. It is not changing or it is not unchanging, see what I mean.
What’s the difference between a {mayin gak} and a {megak}?
{megak} is the absence of something. It does not have X, you see what I mean, or X is not
here, as opposed to it’s not that. You see, it’s not that it’s not that. It’s that that doesn’t have
that, you see, or that is not present here.
This is not a blue pen. That’s a {mayin gak}.
The pen is gone. That’s a {megak}. Okay. And you got to get used to the difference, okay.
One is a negation of a things characteristics or qualities. The other is a negation of its very
presence or its existence. You see what I mean?
So, number two is always absences. And you got to get used to that. Okay.
What’s the biggest absence of all time?
Emptiness. Emptiness. Okay. You got to get used to that.
That’s why I brought it up. That’s why we discuss negatives so much in the monastery. One
is that they’re adamant on us learning not to judge other people, okay. I really don’t know
what the person is thinking. Okay. Like, could be something else. I don’t know. I have to
leave him that, I have to suspend judgement of other people and work on whose Dharma
practice?
Oftentimes we do other people’s Dharma practice with more energy than our own, you
know. Like, you should be more nice. You should, you know what I mean, and then we
don’t even spend that much time on our own Dharma practice, okay.
Then the second kind, {megak}, just the absence of something; something’s not there. Okay.
My pocket’s empty, okay. That’s a {megak}. There’s nothing here.
Proof of an absence. Why?
‘Cos I can hit the bottom and there’s nothing there, okay, [laughs] something like that. That’s
a proof for a {megak}, okay.
When you talk about emptiness you get all these strange ideas, okay.
By the way, Buddha said every where, emptiness is a {megak}, okay. Emptiness is the
absence of something. Emptiness is the fact that something is not there, okay.
In fact, what’s the thing that’s not there? We call it, what?
{gakja}.
Now you can appreciate the word {gakja} a little more. That thing, {ja} means ‘that thing’
which we {gak}}, okay. That thing which we deny. That thing which we negate. That thing
which we say is not here. Okay.
What is that?
A self-existing thing.
What?
Think of its, I always say, what do you call it? There’s this fancy word: its ontological status.
Okay. Its’ how much does it exist, is zero, okay.
It’s a two-headed, forty foot purple elephant rampaging through this auditorium at this
moment crushing seats, smashing people, Roy’s flying out the window, you know what I
mean. It has as much existence as that, okay.
It always did, it always will, it does now. A self-existent object, okay, that thing which
emptiness is empty of, okay, the absence of which we call emptiness. Okay.
And the irony is that holding onto that object is what causes you every single pain and even
the fact that you’re going to die, okay. Even the fact that your body is mortal; even the fact
that it doesn’t change tomorrow into a body of liquid crystal, [unclear] living crystal, yeah, is
all due to grasping something that doesn’t exist anyway.
So, it’s like a double irony, okay. Your life’s problems are caused by grasping to something
and guess what, it doesn’t even exist hah, hah, [laughs] you know. Okay.
It’s like some cruel joke, you know.
Like, if it was ice cream or, you know, something you can’t control yourself over that would
be okay. We’re talking that because you believe in something with your whole heart that
never existed, will never exist and cannot exist now, all your sufferings come from that.
That’s just, like, blows you away, you know.
I mean, it’s so powerful that you think, well just show me what’s not there and I’ll stop it,
you know, and then I can be like Miss America daily. You know what I mean. Just tell me
what I have to do.
It’s the pen thing, okay. That’s all. It’s just the pen thing, okay.
Stop reacting to your world and trying to change things self-existently. It doesn’t work.
Okay.
Don’t go and argue with this person about why they’re so bad to you and they’re mean to
you and they’re so, they bother you and they irritate you.
Come on. You made them. Wake up and stop doing it, you know. Stop doing it.
A rule of thumb when someone bothers you, check your old reaction and do the opposite,
okay.
You’re re-creating them every time you respond to them. Period. Okay.
So, just any problem you have. Think of your worst problem and figure out the real reason
why it’s happening to you. It’s emptiness. Okay.
Nothing in the world has any nature of its own. Period. No object, no person, no ice cream,
no house, no sky, no New York City, has a single quality or feature or any kind of adjective
about it from its own side. Period.
Nothing has any quality of its own. Nothing has any nature of its own. It’s all coming from
your head.
It’s all coming from your karma making it that way.
Because it doesn’t have any nature of its own, everything is possible. You just have to figure
out how to give it a different nature from your head. Which is, to keep your vows six times a
day, okay. That’s all.
And that’s the biggest {megak} of all time, okay. So, {megak}’s the absence of a self-existent
thing.
You can no longer blame a single other person or object for anything unpleasant in your life.
Just forget it. And then you’re out of here. You know what I mean. Just forget it.
Is it still right to go and stop a mugger?
Yes.
Who created them?
The person getting mugged, okay. But that’s a different question altogether.
Why do you stop them?
‘Cos it’s the right thing to do.
Will you stop them?
Don’t know. Okay. That’s just a whole different question, okay.
Will they stop because you’re trying to stop them?
Maybe yes, maybe no. That means you didn’t stop them, okay.
Is it the right thing to try to stop them?
Of course, you have to try. Okay.
Why?
Oh, because it’s going to make you a Buddha and then you can explain this stuff to people.
How’s that? Okay. That’s all.
You got to get used to thinking like that, okay. You got to get used to thinking like that.
To continue to try to manipulate a world as if it were self-existent will only continue to bring
you suffering. Period.
Your whole old way of reacting to every problem you ever had is wrong. Okay. It just
won’t work. And how old do you have to get before you’re going to admit it? You know
what I mean? Just face up to it, you know.
Some one bothers you, stop bothering other people and they’ll go away. Okay.
In the meantime you can discuss, you can say, you know, hey, you know what, that really
bothers me. And they can say I don’t give a, you know.
And you can say, okay, well I just wanted to tell you, you know. [laughter] [laughs]
And calmly, happily, you know what I mean, no new bad karma, you know what I mean.
But is it going to stop them or not?
That’s totally dependent on other factors, okay.
But the main thing to get rid of these irritants in your life is to stop treating them like a two-
headed forty-foot purple elephant that you’re trying to lasso your whole life. And you have a
heart attack trying to chase this elephant, you know, and then just as you’re getting old, they
say, guess what, it wasn’t there in the first place, you know. [laughter] It’s an irony.
Whatever wrinkles, or grey hair, or lack of vitality you have in your body at this moment is
caused by, chasing these elephants; they don’t exist. You’re just viewing it the wrong way.
Just stop it. Yeah, just stop it. [laughs] [laughter]
I wish I could just stop it too. Okay.
What else have we got here? It helps a little bit, okay. Somebody told me today I think
yoga’s better than emptiness.
I said, why?
They said, every time I get mad I can’t remember emptiness but if I just think ‘yoga’ I fell
pretty good. I don’t get mad. [laughs] [laughter]
I think okay for intermediate step. Okay.
I think that’s nearly enough. Let me see.
Those are the main applications of that logic, okay. Just to repeat two things: one, to see
spiritual truths that you can’t see now. See them first with the eyes of logic, okay. My Lama,
Khen Rinpoche used to joke a lot. When he first came to the United States somebody read
him a Lobsang Rampa book about, he was learning English, you know. He read Thomas
Jefferson. I tried to get him to read ‘The Hobbit’. He wouldn’t.
And then somebody read him Losbang Rampa. And they held the guy and they drilled a
third eye in his skull, you know, and then he got a third eye.
And Rinpoche thought it was so funny, you know. [laughter] He said, oh, third eye, you
know. Yeah, third eye is logic, you know. Third eye is just, you can see all these things with
your third eye of reasoning that you can’t normally see.
For example, the truth that you don’t know, what the people around you are thinking. You
really don’t know.
So, work on it every day. Go home, work on it, you know, prove it to yourself over and
over. That’s called {che gom}, okay. {che gom} is analytical meditation.
Go home. Say Michael Roach {chuchin}, okay. {… gyur tare}, okay.
Take Michael Roach, he shouldn’t judge other people because he can’t read their minds.
Right? Right. Check it out.
And then you do the three logic checks.
Is it true Michael Roach can’t read other people’s minds?
Yeah.
If you can read other people’s minds should you stop trying to judge them?
Right.
If you could read their minds could you judge them?
Maybe.
So, you shouldn’t, right?
And then, you know, there’s this long silence while your mind is, like, deciding. [laughter]
[laughs] Okay. I’m not kidding. It’s a very uncomfortable silence. When you finally corner
a guy in the debate ground, in front of a thousand other monks, you know, there’s this long,
just before the boos break out, [laughter] you know, just before the Bronx cheer breaks out,
there’s this very uncomfortable silence ‘cos he just got it, you know what I mean.
You’ve been setting him up to trap him, like, twenty statements later, and suddenly he’s there
and there’s this very uncomfortable few seconds of silence, you know. And your own mind
will give it to you. Your own mind will say, ah, you know.
And then, you got to strike right there during that silence you have to strike, you know.
You say, it is true isn’t it? {yinpa tel, du}, you know, and then, you know, you own mind has
to and then you’re going to get up from meditation and you’ll judge the first person you see
on the street. [laughter]
And then you have to, no, but you have to keep doing it in your mind everyday, over and
over again using it to prove to prove that, okay.
Then you have to try to prove emptiness to your mind, okay. Then you have to try to prove
it logically. Go over the pen thing over and over and over again, okay.
You know, why it’s wrong to react to other people the way you used to. Why it’s wrong to
get upset at them or try to talk them out of it or try to struggle with them or have friction
with them or, you know, this thing, conflict with them because that’s not what’s going, that’s
not what it came from.
That’s not what made them come into your life this afternoon, you know.
They came into your life through totally other forces. And all the stuff you’re trying to do to
stop them has nothing to do with them and it won’t work at all, you know. And to get your
mind into a place where you can accept that is very hard. And you have to use reasoning,
you know.
I think, in the heat of the moment, it’s almost impossible. But I’d say at least a few hours
later, just before you go to bed, when you’re doing your book, you know, say, that really
was stupid, you know. I created that person, you know. I’m not going to talk him out of
being irritating by just standing there, you know, fighting with them.
I should try to be a nicer person and then I’ll get rid of them, okay.
And that’s all.
So, those are the two great uses of logic, especially for things you cannot see and you cannot
see those things.
 So, you either establish them, like emptiness, or give up on them in the case of judging other
people, okay, ‘cos you don’t know.
Logic is for proving the things that you can’t see and it’s for proving to yourself that you
don’t know certain things. And, both of them get you out of trouble, okay.
Next class will be going onto Lojong, okay.
And take a break now and we’ll go into groups.
[break discussion]
[announcements]
Okay, we’ll start. This is like five, ten minutes where we going to talk about the future of
Buddhism in America, right.
And something came up to me today, I was searching for a subject to talk about and someone
came to me during the day today and said, I spoke to the mother of one of your students and
she had the following concerns, you know what I mean, about her child, you know. And
I’m, like, [laughter] and, you know, and I, you know, I have to draw this, I have to walk the
line between, you know, really trying to convince you that you’re going to die tonight and
then trying to get you to act normally around other people. [laughter]
And there’s this [laughter] no, there’s this very natural, I don’t know what you call it. There’s
this tension between those two things. You know what I mean. I’d like to talk about some
guidelines and then I’d like to throw it out to discussion ‘cos I have a problem with it. You
know what I mean. I don’t quite know what to do with it sometimes. I have very close
friends, sponsors, things like that, they come to me and they say, you’re just acting crazy, you
know.
And I say, I don’t know, I think the world is crazy. And then, I don’t quite know what to
do, you know what I mean.
And I see it like this, you know. There’s a thing in the Lam Rim. You guys have studied it in
the ‘Three Principle Paths’. It’s called ‘The Three Diamonds’ or something like that. But one
is, what is it, {….} or something like that. Which means get to the point where people kick
you out of society. Get to the point where, no, they kick you out of society and you reach
the dogs. The only people who can put up with you are the dogs, stray dogs, {..}.

 Get kicked out of the ranks of men, reach the ranks of dogs, and get to the ranks of gods that
way, or something like that, you know what I mean.
So, you know, the Milarepa in you wants to say, unless people don’t think I’m weird I’m not
doing the right thing, you see what I mean. And you want to just blow everybody off and
you want to be a good Buddhist and you think, well then that’s just by nature what I’m going
to be doing is going to be strange and other people are not going to like that. And, you
know, I have students come to me and I say, did you call your mother?
And they say, no I didn’t call my mother.
And I say, well you should call your mother.
And they say, well, my mom’s crazy. They think I should get a job, you know, a career, and
buy a washing machine and a car and you know what I mean.
I think the conclusion is, Khen Rinpoche was very wise on this point. He was very, very
wise on this point.
I came to him at age twenty, you know. I could have gone to graduate school. I’m coming
out of with a good degree from a good college and I’m, like, I want to stay with you. And
he’s, like, actually it was the Dalai Lama first. And I said, I’m gonna quit school. I got three
months to go. I’m gonna quit school and live with you in Dharmasala. I’m not gonna leave.
He says, go back to school, you know, go finish your degree, you know.
And, okay, so I did, you know.
But then I went to Khen Rinpoche and it was [unclear] in my mind, you know. I didn’t tell
my parents where I was. I didn’t give them my phone number.
My brother died. They called the police in Howell. They searched for me. They found me,
you know, to tell me and that was okay. That was the right thing to do at the time. You see
what I mean? It upset a lot of people but I studied like hell and I’m here. You see what I
mean.
So, I have a problem myself with this thing.
I’ll give you my suggestions and then you tell me what you think and we’ll just open it up
for a few minutes, okay.
I think the following. To a certain extent, if you get very serious about your practice, I don’t
think you can avoid some kind of problem with other people.
People will always think there’s something strange about you or something like that. Certain
people will drop out of your life immediately. You know what I mean, the people you used
to party with, stuff like that and they’ll drop out of your life. That I don’t have a problem
with, you know. That’s okay. I won’t hear from them anymore, you know. They won’t
call me up on Thursday night to see if I have a bag of weed and, you know. Those people I
think you can just say, you know, see you next life or something. That’s okay.
Your family is not going to drop you, or probably doesn’t want to drop you, and you don’t
want to drop them necessarily, so what do you do?
You know, on the one hand the Buddha said, “kill your father, kill your mother”, meaning
be willing to leave your family behind if that’s what it takes to do your practice.
On the other hand, you have wise men like Khen Rinpoche who my stepmother’s in love
with. She comes once a year, spends a day or two with us, you know, and he’s very kind to
her. She sends him Christmas cookies and he sends her cupcakes for New Year’s and they
have this symbiotic relationship. And they like each other, you know what I mean. He was
very careful to cultivate this relationship with her so that I could practice nicely, see what I
mean.
So I think on one hand you have to really, what I’m saying is that, there’s some kind of
middle path there between ignoring them completely and moving back home and getting an
eighty hour job. You know what I mean. There’s some kind of compromise there, where I
think, the first extreme to avoid is unnecessarily alienating the people who love you. You
know what I mean.
And I think you can do your practice very well without hurting them. You see what I mean.
So, I think if you really try hard, if you’re really a bodhisattva and you’re really exchanging
yourself and your parents and yourself and your friends or whoever it is or your job, people
at your job. I think there’s a middle way.
I think my experience is that if you’re really practicing well you’re more considerate of other
people. Like, the better your practice is, the more carefully you walk up steps so you don’t
wake anybody up, you see what I mean. The more careful you are to wipe the toilet seat.
The more careful you are to not to bother or impinge or inconvenience other people.
I think it’s a sign of your practice that you’re not inconveniencing other people even in a
little way, like, standing in the middle of a walkway when someone’s trying to get by. You
just automatically go to the side ‘cos you’re always thinking about other people.
That’s a, I think that’s just a, if your practice is good, I think that your natural relations with
those people will be that you’re very concerned about how they feel. And you’re thinking
about how they feel. And you want them to be comfortable. And you’re doing the very best
you can to make them comfortable within the absolute border of your practice. You know
what I mean?
Like, I have my practice. I don’t want to die like everyone’s been dying around us. I don’t
want to get old and not be able to do the things I have to do. And here’s my line. You
know what I mean.
So, on the one hand, you’re very strong. And that comes from good practice too where you
have no doubts. You’re willing to lose those things. You’re willing to lose your family.
You’re willing to lose your friends. You’re willing to lose your reputation in the eyes of
other people.
If you know this is the right thing to do, and you know that this is the practice that you have
to do, then you do it fearlessly, see what I mean.
But, coupled with that is this intense consideration and sensitivity to how other people feel
and how they’re taking you and whether or not alienating them is necessary, you see what I
mean. And I think if your practice is going well you can have your cake and eat it too. I
think the fearlessness to do what you know what you have to do and the inflexibility on that
point, you know. Like, I used to go to my boss to ask for three or four weeks off for retreats,
you know. And I went to him and I said, you can cut my pay twenty thousand dollars. You
can lower my position from vice-president to supervisor of three people, you know. You can
take away my benefits. But I’m going for four weeks. And I believe in it and if you want to
fire me do it now. You know what I mean.
And you’re just fearless, you know what I mean, you have to go in with your mind ready to
get fired. You know what I mean.
There’s this thing about negotiation in the diamond business. They say draw your line, make
up your mind and go in and be ready to lose the deal, you see what I mean. Be ready to be
told, yeah, go home right now, see ya, see what I mean.
So, fearlessness on one hand but I don’t think that on the other hand, with the same
fearlessness and with the same knowledge and with the same beauty and successful practice,
you are ten times more sensitive to how your parents feel or your brothers and sisters, you
know what I mean. They go together.
Fearlessness, fearless practice, dedication, loyalty to your practice, willingness to die for your
practice, willingness to lose everything you have, even your name, even your reputation,
even how people see you. Willingness to lose that if it’s necessary.
But on the other hand, extremely sensitive to how other people feel and happy to be sensitive
and doing all these beautiful things to other people [unclear] obvious to them that you’re not
crazy. You see what I mean.
What I think happens is that people who are not very good at their practice, they get fearless
okay and then they go and piss off everybody else, you see, and I add the word
‘unnecessarily’. You see, unnecessarily.
They think to be a real yogi you have to alienate everybody. And that’s not true. I don’t
believe that’s true.
You draw your line, you’re fearless, people can smell it, people can sense it, but on the other
hand, every chance you have to do a small kindness to your parents, you know, a small
good thing for your family, small kind things for people around you. You walk down the
street in your red suit fearless, you know.
And if you see one of the guys making fun of you needs something, you give it to him, you
see what I mean. That’s the balance.
And I think most of the tension that’s caused with families and stuff like that comes from not
really doing exchange of self and others.
You’re just a lousy bodhisattva. You got the dedication part right but you’re not really
thinking about how they feel. How’s it feel to bring somebody up for twenty, thirty years;
pay all their bills, take care of them with your whole heart and then, suddenly, they don’t
want to call you for six months, you know what I mean?
Come on. So give them a call. You know what I mean. That’s just selfish.
That’s not bodhisattva. That’s not some dedicated Buddhist practitioner. That’s just selfish.
You don’t want to. You see what I mean. It’s not going to kill you to go call them once a
week or something. That’s not going to ruin your practice or something like that. You just
don’t want to do it ‘cos you’re lazy. You know what I mean.
And then you’re hiding behind this oh, I’m a yogi, you know. I don’t have to call them.
I think it comes from there. So check it out. A balance between fearless and totally, the
better your practice gets, the more sensitive you are to other people and the more you’re
thinking how does my action effect them. Will they be comfortable? You know, a lot of
Buddhists make other people really uncomfortable unnecessarily. You know what I mean.
The necessary stuff okay, you know. I don’t call people until two o’clock. Period. So a lot
of people get upset about that. Okay, so don’t call me. I don’t mind. I’m not going to
answer anyway. [cut]
[end side A]
[side B]
[cut] you have to live like that, you have to draw the line. But then send them a Christmas
card, you know, be nice to them, go take them some cookies. There’s no, there’s nothing
wrong with both of those things. And I think if your practice is going well you are serious
and totally sensitive and kind at the same time. And they sense it, you know.

And my boss, toughest boss in the universe, he gave me the three weeks off and he only took
off ten thousand dollars. [laughter] You know what I mean. [laughs] [laughter]
No, but I mean, if they sense that you’re very sincere [unclear] and I think that seventy-five
percent of the pissing off of parents and friends and fellow workers is totally unnecessary. I
think you’re just being selfish or thoughtless and you can’t do that. You’re not being a good
yogi if you’re like that. You see what I mean.
Good yogis have to do both, okay.
So that’s my shpiel. I want to ask people what are your experiences about how have you
coped for the benefit of the rest of us with, like, people ostracising you or people saying
you’re weird now I don’t want to call you or, you know, parents thinking that you’re in a
cult.
You know, I always say what’s your blood type. You have to buy the blood to drink tonight
at the cult ceremony [laughter]. Which kind do you prefer, you know what I mean,
something like that.
I have continual, you know, I have these problems, you know. I still have these problems,
you know.
I have people, like, sponsor some project and then they call me up and say, you know, looks
like a cult nowadays.
And I’m, like, it is a cult, you know, sorry. [laughter] No, not like that. [laughter] [laughs]
Have your doubts between, you know, trying to follow your Buddhism with dedication and
with your heart and not appearing weird to outside world. And what do you do when you
have a little clash?
And now I’ll just open it up and then we’ll stop in ten minutes.
[student comments]
I think that’s an important point that a lot of not alienating your family can be accomplished
by attending three holidays a year or something which, I think, is worth it, you know. Be
there for thanksgiving dinner. Be there for Christmas.
Rinpoche’s always been very supportive of that. He never held classes on major western
religious holidays. And he would say, go home, be with your family, you know what I
mean. He’s encouraged us to and I think it’s just practical.
And, I think a lot of the tension can be relieved just by that, they know you’ll be around for
those family things.
[student]
Yeah. Michael.
[student]
Yeah.
[student] [laughs]
Yeah. I think the thing to be addressed maybe at the next time is how much do you want to
try to defend what you do or how much do you want to try to convince them? How much
is appropriate?
I think when you first get into the Dharma there’s a tendency to try to convince everybody
else, which soon wears off, you know what I mean.
You have to have a great kind of wisdom, especially at the beginning to appreciate that
they’re not seeing the world at all like you are.
That’s a logic thing where you’re not allowed to give a proof which is beyond their personal
experience. And even if it is within their personal experience but they’re not ready to deal
with it right now that you should just let it be for a while.
And then there’s more spoken, like, the kindness of your own character, than by convincing
them that kindness is good, you know what I mean.
I think sometimes we tend to do the second thing.
I think one more and then maybe we’ll start next week.
[student]
I like that. The main point she said is that you speak, you tend to speak more truthfully and
more calmly. If you’re really watching your vows carefully, truth disarms many negativities.
If you’re just totally truthful, which is hard, people sense it and people take it. It convinces
people. The tone of truth in your voice convinces people.
I think we’ll stop there. We’ll do it again next week ‘cos [student]
Yeah. I think using music and things like that can, it can disarm people too [student]
Make some good movies.
Are you ready?
[prayer: short mandala]
[prayer: dedication]
The Asian Classics Institute

Course XVIII: Great Ideas of Buddhism