ACI 18 (обзорный курс), Занятие 10 — стенограмма

Class Ten
Geshe Michael Roach
Transcribed by Angie Overy




Okay, we’ll start.
[announcement]
We are up to the ultimate philosophical question in Buddhism. And it’s been, I don’t know, eighteen
hundred questions later on your homework.
We’re going to cover tonight Je Tsongkapa’s most important work. A lot of people in the monastery
consider it much more important than his other great works. And this is called {tragne lekshe
nyinpo}.
This is where Je Tsongkapa takes on the question of what did the Buddha really mean about
emptiness, mainly about emptiness.
And this book is so important in the monastery that it’s two hundred and fifty pages. They give you a
special reward for memorising it. So you have to stand up in front of the whole fifteen hundred monks
and recite it from memory you know. It’s considered that important.
And then Rinpoche is one of the people who gives the awards out and for the last twenty years
everyone who has memorised it has gotten a special, like, gift from Rinpoche.
Maybe about five people memorise it every year or something, pretty amazing.
I thought tonight the most important thing to do would be to give you in a nutshell all the different
versions of emptiness, which Lord Buddha taught.
Those of you who were at the Mahamudra retreat got this already. It doesn’t hurt to get it again
seeing how you need three thousand hours of it.
I just want to say, you know, I go through the day, I meet amazing people, you know. People come
to me and people call me.
I have occasion to meet many spiritually minded people and great spiritual people from all traditions:
Hindu, Jewish, Moslem, Christian, Buddhist, different traditions of Buddhism. They all come sooner
or later and we talk and stuff like that.
And it strikes me often how beautiful their teachings are. I often go to their services. I often sit in
there and listen and everything strikes me how beautiful and this great unity there is in all the
teachings in the world.
And then, I ask myself why am I a Buddhist then, you know what I mean.
And I am very clear on it. It’s that despite the fact that compassion and good deeds and heaven and
all these beautiful things are taught in almost all the traditions and meditation or prayer, but the thing
about emptiness is, I think, not, it doesn’t really appear in other traditions.
That’s the, to me, tonight’s knowledge, the knowledge that I’m going to talk about tonight is the
unique and, I think, maybe most precious teaching of Buddhism. And maybe, the most precious
teaching of all the religions, is emptiness and how that relates to morality or what you do.
And I think what I really think about it if you understand what goes down here tonight clearly and if
you start to put it into practice then you can immediately start to see a reduction in your daily pain
level you know what I mean. Ending in your own enlightenment in a specific amount of time.
And that’s to me that someone could come along and explain that to me clearly in a way that I could
start doing it that evening, then how to actually achieve the goals of every spiritual path on this
planet, that’s to me the ultimate teaching of Buddhism.
And to me, the most precious thing I ever learned in Buddhism.
So, we’re going to go through five different ideas of emptiness. All of them were taught by Lord
Buddha himself, okay, or herself depending on which emanation he or she was in at the time, okay,
seriously.
And five of these six kinds of emptiness are wrong, okay, [laughs] or incomplete okay.
So this is Lord Buddha gradually taking you up the ladder, six rungs on the ladder, six steps up this
stairway to heaven, right. They even call the book that sometimes. You know, how to get up. But
you have to understand the elementary ones before you can get to the higher ones.
And by the end of this, this is going to be just a survey. I’m not going to keep you here to two
o’clock in the morning. We’re going to finish on time.
This is the major difference between all Buddhist schools of ancient India you know. This is what
distinguishes the schools. This is what distinguishes all the teachings of Lord Buddha. And this is
what Je Tsongkapa was trying to get at, you know. This is where he put his heart into this one book
where he explained how emptiness really works and how you can get it to work for you, okay.
So here’s the first one.
The lowest school of ancient India is called Vaibashika, okay, the Abhidharma schools. And here’s
how they explain emptiness.
We’re going to go through a list of six kinds of {gakjas}. Say {gakja}[repeat]; {gakja} means two-
headed forty foot purple what? [students] Elephant, rampaging through this room at this moment,
okay. How many of those are there here?
None. I mean, it sound silly, you know. Like, I say, how many two-headed forty foot rampaging
crazy elephants are smashing the chairs, squashing people’s heads, you know, trumpeting, you know,
looking for peanuts or something through this room at this moment?
And you say, nobody looked around, you know. Everybody just laughed and said, you know, so this
is obviously not here see what I mean.
Emptiness means the lack of something that your mind thinks is there which is not there, okay.
So, the suffering of humanity is not only has a correction but the irony, the great irony and the great
sadness of our life is that what gives us pain and even what causes us to get old and die, what causes
death itself is a belief in something that was never there. Okay. So we have to identify what’s that
thing that was never there.
And there are six versions, okay. So, basically, the study of emptiness is the study of six different
things that never could have been there which because you believe in them this causes you all your
pain and ultimately causes death itself.
If you can figure it out you wouldn’t have to die.
We are the last remnants of millions of people that used to live in this particular realm. Many of
them have left already. We are like at the back of the class, you know. We got left behind like four
grades. And we didn’t figure it out yet.
We’re still trying to react to violence with violence.
We’re still trying to fix things in a way that does not work and cannot work. And just the idea is that
you just figure it out and then you know how to get out, okay.
So, here’s the first two-headed, forty- foot purple elephant rampaging through this room, okay.
And I’m going to abbreviate them. Winston, I think, has made a very beautiful list, comprehensive
list of these six and I don’t know if it’s passed out yet but if not you’ll get it, okay.
I’m going to abbreviate them so we can get through them.
By the way, these were taught very eloquently to us by Geshe Thupten Rinchen in Sera last year and
he’ll be finishing the sixth one this year. That’s what we’re doing at Sera monastery so try not to
miss it, okay.
[cut]
say {takpa}[repeat], this is really an abbreviation of {tak chik rawang chen kyi dak}. Say {tak chik}
[repeat] {rawang chen}[repeat] {kyi}[repeat] {dak}[repeat], okay.
{tak chik rawang chen kyi dak} means, in fact, in the lower schools they don’t even call it
emptiness. They call it ‘selflessness’, okay. There is no ‘self’ which is {takpa}.
{takpa} means, ‘unchanging’. Okay. Sometimes it’s been translated as ‘permanent’, but it means
unchanging. Something, which is not changing from moment to moment, okay, is what we don’t
believe in. Get it? Okay. It’s what emptiness is empty of, okay. And the fact that that doesn’t
exist and if you understand the fact that that doesn’t exist your life would be a lot happier, okay.
What does it refer to?
I mean, impermanence or changing quality on a macro level like if you understand that things don’t
have a quality of lasting then you get hurt a lot less, okay.
Is that nirvana? Is that enlightenment?
No.
Does it make you happier?
Yeah, better adjusted, yeah.
Is it one rung up the ladder to something higher?
Yeah.
So, if you are sensitive to the fact that things don’t last, nothing lasts, then, your life is a lot more
manageable. It’s still not happiness but at least it’s not so much suffering if you go into things
knowing that they don’t last, okay.
So, we talk about ‘gross impermanence,’ which is marked by a car getting in an accident, and then
it’s obvious that the thing is impermanent, okay. The death of a person close to you, or other kinds of
impermanence, that is what we call gross impermanence.
And then you become sensitive to another level of impermanence, which is moment- by-moment,
okay, which you have to learn.
So there are two levels within this. One where you overcome your tendency to think things are going
to last. You’re sensitive constantly that things are not going to last. Nothing, okay, lasts. Like, I’m
very attached to these classes you know. I spent the last seven years, we did thousands of pages of
translations. It’s just dawning on me that they’re going to end. I always knew they were going to
end.
And Lord Buddha was, one of the things that attracted me to Buddhism was that lord Buddha himself
got up and one of the first teachings he gives is, hey, guess what, I’m going to die, my teachings are
going to die, Buddhism will disappear from the world, you know.

And I thought, boy, any founder of a company or a family or a religion who could get up and say,
guess what, this thing’s going to collapse in so many years, it’s kind of very honest you know what I
mean.
This is stating that the fact of impermanence applies even to them and even to what they’re doing,
okay. So it doesn’t last.
And that’s the first kind of emptiness in a sense: is to realise that things don’t have a quality of
lasting. Not in a gross level, meaning they will die someday, you will have to lose them some day.
And not in a subtle level, meaning from moment-to-moment they get older, from moment-to-moment
they start to leave you, and they’re very, coming to you is the cause which brings their destruction.
You will lose anything for the simple reason that you got it. Okay.
That’s very profound. To me that’s one of the most amazing teachings of Buddhism. {…},means
without any outer factors, without the need for any outer factors your body will kill itself. Why?
Because it was born. Okay. And that’s all it takes.
You don’t have to have a car accident. It’ll kill itself quite nicely, without a car accident, see what I
mean.
And that’s because it started. Everything that started will die, okay. And that’s, to realise that then
you don’t have this subtle tendency to grasp the things as lasting, okay, which causes much of our
suffering. Okay.
By the way, I take usually some problem I’m having and when I do this meditation I go through these
six factors. I go through these six kinds of emptiness about that problem. Okay.
So, you know, one of the good things about a problem is they don’t last, okay [laughs] you know what
I mean.
I think Abraham Lincoln, in the middle of the civil war, was standing around his war table and said,
you know, the only good thing I can think of about the way the war’s going , this is right after he lost
[unclear] or something like that, or I don’t remember, anyway horrible defeat for the army. The
confederates are outside of Washington and he’s like, well the best thing it will all be over sooner or
later, you know.
Okay. {takpa}.
Second one is {dze yu}. [cut]
What’s the full one there Winston?
{ ..} Okay, say {rang kya tuppa}[repeat] {dzeye kyi druppa}[repeat] {dak}[repeat]
I’m going to make it easy, {dzeyu}, okay. [laughs]
{rang kya tuppa} means, ‘self-standing’; {dzeyu} means, ‘substantial’; {dak} means, ‘person’ or self
or self-nature to things in general, okay, {dzeyu}.
There’s about six different meanings of {dzeyu} in scripture. They all have very, very gross
difference in meaning.
This {dzeyu}, ‘substantial’ has a very special meaning. It means there’s an owner or a controller of
your destiny, okay.
The idea that you can control your self, you can control what’s happening to you in the present okay.
They talk about it in scripture in terms of like, I watched this building go up recently, and there’s this
one little guy sitting in the crane and he’s got a radio hooked up to somebody on the roof, and this
little guy in the crane is moving this huge pieces of concrete up twenty stories and then over and then
down. And guys are standing there and holding it twenty floors up. He can’t see them. And they’re
just standing there moving it. You know, if he let something go the wrong way they’d all be
squashed but there’s such good communication and everything. And he’s down there very gently, in a
very sophisticated way he’s controlling how these tons of stuff come down on the roof. It was like
really cool to watch. They did a cornice like twenty stories up over everybody’s head coming out of
the subway you know. I was just like you know. And he couldn’t see it. It was on the other corner
of the building.
And that would be {dzeyu}. See, the idea that there’s a driver in your head, there’s a ‘you’, there’s a
owner, there’s a controller sitting in your head and, you know, moving the levers. Move your left
hand Michael. Oh, thank you. Move your right arm. Good job you know what I mean. Put them
down. Okay. You know, and there’s some guy who can and you believe that.
In fact, the illusion is very strong because if I decide to point out with my left arm it looks like I can
but I can’t okay. You got to get used to the idea you don’t have control okay in the present time. It’s
important to say in the present time. You don’t have control. Why?
There’ll come a time when you reach out for the last time and you will not have the control to reach
out one more time, okay.
I always say appreciate the songs on the radio in the car because there will be a last song you see
what I mean. You don’t even have control over playing a song you see what I mean. You can’t say
that you can play a song on that radio tomorrow okay. You don’t have control over the radio.
The idea that you can reach out, turn on the knob and there’ll be a song there for you, good or bad,
Neil Young or anything else okay, you don’t have control over that.
You just don’t have control over that.
There’ll come a day when you cannot reach out and turn on the knob, okay. You physically won’t be
able to do it.
So, how can you claim to control these things you see what I mean? Will you own that blouse or
shirt tomorrow? Will you be wearing this blouse or shirt again after tonight?
You can’t say.
I’m cleaning out my room in New Jersey, you know, closing it up, setting the books out there,
throwing out the rest. And it dawned, you know, many things I’m touching that were very precious to
me, I’m thinking that’s the last time I’m going to see this. This is the last time I’m going to see this
you know what I mean.
You don’t know if this is not the last time you’re going to wear that shirt or blouse. You can’t tell me
that you’ll have power over this piece of cloth in the morning.
Also your arm, also your face, also your mind, you can’t tell me that. You don’t really control it is
what I’m saying. You don’t own it. That’s a lie. That’s a illusion. Okay. Is that emptiness?
No.
Is it going to lead you directly to nirvana and enlightenment?
No.
Does it help you in your practice a lot if you realise that you don’t really control the things around
you, even your body?
Yeah, that helps a lot. Okay. That really is a big step towards getting enough virtue to get
enlightened, okay.
That’s power, { tsok ..}, you know, it’s power of virtue to understand those things about your world,
that you don’t really control it, okay.
By the way, you do control it of course in the sense that you can do good deeds now and collect later,
okay.
But, in the present, you can’t tell me that you will have this blouse or shirt on your back tomorrow.
You can’t tell me that tonight’s not the last night you’ll ever wear it, okay. We’re driving, nice quiet
drive home last night on the highway in New Jersey. I’m reading a manuscript and the driver slows
down suddenly and I look up and there’s a deer suspended in the air in front of the windshield, you
know. Just a deer in the light and I’m like. And I just have time to look and then it hits the
windshield and, you know, everything changes like that you know.
Like, I’m reading this pleasant little manuscript and I’m assuming that Doubleday’s going to pay the
second cheque to the monastery, you know, and then I just look up. There’s this deer. We hit it you
know. And the driver was very skilled and got us off the road and you know the deer died and we
were like covered with glass. Just that fast you know what I mean. You just have time to think
what the thing is and then, you know, how can you say you’re going to get to New York tonight you
see what I mean?
What right do you have to say you own your body for another hour or two you see what I mean?
You can’t say that.
So, realise that you don’t have that power brings you a little closer, okay.
It’s not emptiness itself. It’s not enlightenment itself, okay.
You are not the owner. You are not substantial in that way, okay.
Third one. What is this? Come on. {dze shen kyi druppa}, we’ll say {dze shen}.
Who was that? Okay. [cut]
Say {dze shen}[repeat]. Here’s another {dze} popped up, right. {dze} means, substance; {shen}
means, other. This means, {…} and this is a kind of emptiness in the Mind Only school, okay.
The Mind Only school gives emptiness as this. This is what they believe is emptiness.
Who taught the Mind Only school?
Lord Buddha, okay.
He even said, when he taught it, what, about the higher schools, about the Middle Way?
I was just kidding you guys, okay. [laughs] Alright. That’s not what I really believe, okay.
Was he telling the truth?
Well, he never lies but [laughs] he was not speaking what it was. How’s that?
They say in the monastery, there’s a huge debate, they say {…}.
Say {dzum}[repeat] {sangye kyi}[repeat] {ma sum}[repeat] {dzum}[repeat] {sangye kyi][repeat]
{sum}[repeat]. Did I say {..}? Sorry, we’ll do that one more time. Ready?
{sangye kyi}[repeat] {dzum}[repeat] {ma dzum}[repeat]{dzu}[repeat] {sangye kyi}[repeat] {sum}
[repeat]. The Buddha never lies, the Buddha never tells lies the Buddha talks lies. Talks about lying
but in Tibetan it comes out better. [laughter]
Anyway, {dze} means substance, {shen} means other; meaning, separate karmic seeds, okay. In this
case, substance means karmic seeds, separate karmic seeds, alright.
And, what it means is the subject and the object, in any event, do not come from separate karmic
seeds. They are created by one karmic seed, okay.
{dze shen} means different karmic seeds and that’s what we’re denying in this case. Emptiness
means, there’s no such thing as a subject and an object, which came from something different.
They always came from the same thing. What?
From one karmic seed. From a specific karmic seed.
What’s this got to do with us? What’s the application in our lives?
Mostly with the bad things that happen to you, right. People don’t pull out their hair and scream why
did it happen to me when they get an extra refund cheque from the IRS, right? [laughter] they just
take it and spend it. They don’t work about it. You don’t sit there and sit down and try to figure out
why it happened you know. But, when you get an extra bill from the IRS, you know, big one, you’re
like, why me you know.
And what I mean to say is the human mind is really only interested in causation when you get into
things that cause you a lot of problems you see. Then you really want to know why it happened,
okay.
And what number three says and the Mind Only school says, there’s no such thing as accidents.
Nothing is an accident. Okay.
You have been brought into this room by a certain karma. That same karma has created Geshe
Michael Roach’s voice for you, okay.
The karma that brought you here as a subject and the karma that brought me here as the object of that
subject, subject being you, object being me, is one event, one karmic seed, okay. And everything is
created like that.
You’re actually watching a karmic seed go off in your own {kunshi nampa shepa}, in your own
foundation consciousness accepted by the Mind Only school. You are observing a karmic seed going
off in a part of your own mind when you’re watching me you see what I mean.
You brought yourself here to see it and you brought myself here to be seen by one karmic event, okay.
And there’s no separate substance. There’s no {dze shen}, okay.
This just basically means that there’s no accidents. And this is very close to worldview number six.
A lot of people ask me, when we got to number three they say, well I don’t see much wrong with
that. It seems like if you understood that you’d be pretty far along to stopping your own suffering.
If you understood that every lousy thing in your life is there because you brought yourself there and
you brought it there by doing something in the past, that’s true. Okay.
There’s this famous event between me and Geshe Thupten Rinchen in Sera, was sitting in the class.
I have never interrupted him then or since you know in I don’t know twelve or fifteen years.
But he got to this one and he said this is the Mind Only school and I’m like, excuse me, [laughs]
sounds good to me. What’s wrong with it? He says, nothing, we believe it. This is the ultimate
truth you know. This is it.
And I said, why is it down in number three? Why can’t it be number six?
He says, oh, it’s jus a technicality. Okay. What?
They think it stays in one special part of your mind called something like ‘storehouse consciousness’
or storing place consciousness and we just say it stays in your main mind, okay. That’s all. It’s just a
technicality.
They say we believe the same thing and it’s very close to the ultimate worldview, number six okay.
It’s just a technicality.
It is very profound and it is very close to the emptiness, which will liberate you, if you say that you
and all your problems have been brought together by something you did in the past, by one thing you
did in the past.
You came to this room to get old, to get a few hours older, and your old age and your body came to
this room to be experienced through one karmic seed.
And that’s okay. That’s pretty close to number six okay.
So, that’s {dze shen}.
In common English, to put it simply, there are no such things as accidents, okay.
You can say that {takpa} means nothing lasts.
You can say that {dze yu} means you can’t own anything. And get used to it and stop trying. It
causes you a lot of your pain, okay.
Number three: there are no accidents. [cut]
Number four {kyu kyur yinpa ….}. How’s that? Something like that. Okay. [cut]
This is just an abbreviation, okay. [cut]
Say {tragne}[repeat] {rangtsen}[repeat] {mayin}[repeat], {…}, okay. {…} means, this is another
Mind Only school version of emptiness, okay. And what it means is, technically what it means is
that the fact that something is called what it is, is not automatic. The fact that, something is called
what it is, is not automatic.
The fact that the word ‘pen’ refers to this thing that I’m holding up is not automatic. Okay. Its not
necessarily, it’s not necessary that it had to be that way, okay.
If you throw in a little bit of worldview number six, you could say, it’s that way because I had the
karma for it to be that way or something like that. But it doesn’t mean it’s that way by itself.
‘A rose by any other name would smell the same’ is exactly what it means, okay. It’s not necessarily
true that it had to be called a ‘rose’. It would still function the same, okay.
Names are not applied to the objects to which they refer automatically. They are conventions.
They’re creations of your mind and of your karma. Okay.
This is mainly applied in judging other people, okay, and in judging what do you call it, in judging
what is good or in judging what is your favourite thing. Okay.
Like, is Neil Young truly the best rock ‘n roll musician that ever existed? Can you apply the ‘world’s
best rock ‘n roll music ever’ to Neil Young, automatically?
You see what I mean? Can that word ‘best rock ‘n roll musician in the world’ be applied to Neil
Young {rang kyi …} means, automatically. Yes or no?
Well, I think so. Okay. [laughter]
 No, and that’s where a lot of your trouble comes from, okay.
Would you get enlightened if you stopped thinking that way?
It’ll help.
Is it emptiness?
No.
Is it nirvana?
No.
Do you get enlightened directly by thinking that way?
No.
But, does it make you a lot less judgemental in your life?
Yes. Okay.
If you realise that the things you apply the words ‘best ice cream’ to is not automatically the best ice
cream, okay, maybe somebody else would apply ‘best ice cream’ to something else you see what I
mean. To appreciate that fact that words are not applied to their referents, automatically, saves you a
lot of pain.
Especially in judging other people and in deciding about differences in how you judge things. To put
it bluntly, nobody sees the world the way you do, so why are you fighting with everybody?
I mean, appreciate the fact that nobody sees the world you do, as you do, exactly. Nobody thinks
that exactly like you. They can’t because {…}, words and ideas don’t apply to their objects
automatically
Everyone else, the way every one else takes words and puts them on objects is something they’re
doing in their own reality in their own way. And it’s not going to match yours so stop fighting with
other people. That’s the main thing.
This is one of the big sources of conflict.
‘Best ice cream’ must be applied to Ben and Jerry’s ‘Cherry Garcia’, must be, okay. I can’t believe
you don’t want to buy that. Why do you want to buy that other crap, you know? Why do you want to
turn Neil Young off the radio and put on, what did Michael Week put on the other day? Bepop
music, you know, drive me crazy and he skipped over the Neil Young song. And I’m like don’t you
realise?
You see, if you realise that nobody’s seeing the world the same and nobody’s applying words in
exactly the same way, okay. Words are not self-existent.
Meaning is not self-existent. It’s all coming from you and it’s all been applied in your special karmic,
what do you call it, set of circumstances, okay. Environment, and nobody else’s exactly the same.
And appreciate that fact and stop fighting with people. They just can’t see that Neil Young is the
best musician in the world because they don’t have the same karma that you have. Okay. That’s all.
Okay, that’s {rang kyi…}. That’s, serge wants to stop but I’m not going to what do you call it,
deprive you of number five and six. Okay.
Let’s say {…}, right. How are we going to say that in a short way?
{…} is number five. Now, how to make that short? {…} Okay. Is that spelled right Winston? Do
you have that sheet?
[cut]
Is there a vowel? Yeah, okay. Okay.
[cut]
This is a mantra in the debate ground. If you study Madhyamika, Middle Way, lower school,
Svatrantika, you have to be able to do this one, okay.
So, I’ll just put a {bakchak} in your mind. Ready?
Say {lo}[repeat] {…}[repeat]
Okay. That’s emptiness according to the lower half of the Middle Way school. You’re getting very
close, okay. And they say, what doesn’t exist is a pen that could exist solely from it’s own side
without my active participation. Okay.
Does that pen exist from its own side?
Oh, you could say, fifty percent exists from its own side and then fifty percent’s coming from me.
Unless there’s a {lo..} means, an unaffected state of consciousness. Meaning, I’m not on acid or
having extreme jealousy attack right now, maybe a minor one, or anything like that okay that would
totally blow my perceptions. Okay.
So, I don’t have those problems right now. I’m not having a crazy state of mind.
So I have a normal state of mind, that’s presenting itself to me in a pen-ish way. I interpret it as a
pen, fifty-fifty, okay. Let’s say it’s a pen. Okay.
They say, anything that could exist solely from its own side, through its own unique way of being
okay, that doesn’t exist. Okay.
That cannot be a pen only from its own side, okay. It can be pen-ish. And then I can take it as a
pen. And then there’s a pen. Okay. Assuming I’m not crazy at the moment, okay.
What it boils down to is this. No object has any identity from its own side independent of the way
you think of it. Okay.
No object has any identity from its own side independent of the way you think of it, okay.
It does have some identity but the identity doesn’t mean anything until I think of it in a certain way.
Okay. They’re getting very close to the truth, okay.
What’s the practical application of this?
It’s very, very important in the study of {lojong}. It’s very, very important in the study of turning
problems into opportunities.
It’s the half a glass of water, half empty or half full? That’s lower Madhyamika. Okay. Whether
you see it as half empty or half full depends not on the glass of water but on your state of mind.
For it to be half full two things have to be there. What?
It has to be a glass of water filled up to here and you have to be thinking of it as half full, okay.
For it to be half empty what has to happen?
Oh, the water has to be up to here and you have to be thinking of it as half empty and then it’s half
empty. Okay.
The great application of this version of emptiness, okay, which is very close to the sixth one, is you
can look at everything in your world, some great personal disaster right, as wow, freedom. I didn’t
have the strength to throw out all my stuff or get out of this relationship to go up to the next level and
it’s a godsend you know. Somebody came and stole everything, okay.
I mean, a Buddhist should say, okay we got a glass of water. The line is there. Half full. Okay.
Big opportunity for the future you see what I mean. And a very big deal in {lojong}, very big thing
in, you know, nothing is a problem. Forget it. Nothing. Okay. Nothing is a problem for a [unclear].
If you refuse to conceptualise it as a problem it’s not a problem. Okay.
Everything, the worst things that happen to you, you know. I had a lady in California two years ago,
three years ago, Pat Tr…. I can’t pronounce her last name, you know, yeah.
So she comes to me and she says, my daughter just died. She’s twenty years old, beautiful, fantastic,
incredible and just boom, you know.
And so we had this long talk and I said, stop thinking of her as a normal person you know. Think of
her as someone special. Some incredible being who has entered your life and is trying to teach you
something now, consciously trying to push you to another level with this event you know. And stop,
never again think of her as a normal person. Must stop thinking that way, you know, just stop
thinking like that.
You know, and then she says, well am I supposed to make something up?
I said, no you can’t, you don’t have to make it up. How do you know? How the hell do you know
either way you know what I mean?
There are schools of Buddhism, which say, that could very well be the truth. Probably likely is the
truth. There are schools of Buddhism that say that.
So, I’m not saying pretend. I’m saying admit that you don’t know either way and then see it in one
way see what I mean.
And then, I saw her like two, three years later, she’s incredible now. She’s incredible. She’s never
lost that {..}. {…}means, holding the line. Keeping the line of how you perceive an event or a
person as something sacred you see what I mean. And say, she’s been holding this line of her
daughter and now there’s these incredible things happening to her spiritual life, you know, by holding,
she refused to think of it as a bad thing or horrible event or something.
She started to think of it only in this pure way that something significant, I’m being pushed in a
significant direction by this being who purposely appeared and purposely left to get me to go there.
And all the worst things in your life you can think of that way okay. And stop thinking of them any
other way.
The fifth worldview, you know, to hold it is not enlightenment in itself but you can feel it’s pretty
damn close, okay. To be able to hold that is very {kye rim}y, okay, for those of you who know {kye
rim}. Okay. It’s very, very powerful, very beautiful.
Nothing has to be a problem.
Nothing exists solely from its own side, okay.
You always have fifty percent say in the matter how you name this thing, how you think of this thing.
And, to think of it in a holy way is a hell of a lot more functional and useful, okay.
You can turn it into a magical event.
Okay, last one. [cut]
Say {tokpay}[repeat] {tak tsam}[repeat]. This is the ultimate worldview, okay. Accepted by
Madhyamika Prasangika, highest school of Buddhism, ancient India. Accepted by Lord Buddha.
Accepted by Arya Nagarjuna. Accepted by Je Tsongkapa. Accepted by all the Dalai Lamas, khen
Rinpoche. Accepted by all the tantric schools, okay, necessary for tantra okay to have this
worldview.
What does it state?
Very simply, things aren’t {tokpay tak tsam}. {tokpay} means, by projections, okay. {tokpa}
means, through projections. {tak tsam} means, projected. Okay, simply a product of your projections
forced on you by your past karma. You have to say that okay. You can’t just say, oh, you’re just
having a projection, you know. You’re a shoe salesman so everyone in the world is wearing shoes
you know.
Shoe salesmen go on buses and all they see is shoes. I did sixteen years in the diamond business.
We did thirty thousand diamonds a day on heavy days. I got onto a bus, what could I see?
I’m like leaning over women’s hands you know [laughter] and they’re like, you know. [laughs] That’s
not, not the projection I’m talking about.
It’s not that the whole world is wearing diamonds today because you did diamonds all day okay.
It’s not a psychological projection. That’s not what I mean. And never think of it that way. It’s a,
you are perceiving things the way you do because your past karma is forcing you to see them that
way. Okay.
If you’re a dog you are forced to see this cylinder as something to chew on.
If you’re a human you are forced to see this cylinder as a pen. Okay.
In fact, we can even go further. What?
Yeah. If you to start to salivate and wag your tail when you see this, you’s a dog. Okay. You see
what I mean?
If you’re suddenly struck by the urge to chew on this make sure you didn’t die and get reborn since
last class okay. That’s what I mean.
Get this. The way you perceive it makes you who you are. It’s not that you perceive that way
because you are who you are. get it?
You’re not a dog because, I’m sorry, you don’t see it as something to chew on because you’re a dog.
You’re a dog because your mind has changed, your karma has shifted and you have this irresistible
urge to chew on this thing. To run up here and chew on it. That is a dog. That is what makes you a
dog you see what I mean.
Karma. The way you see things.
How your past acts force you to act in a certain, see things in a certain way.
In and of itself, this is just a white cylinder and a black cylinder stuck together into a white and black
cylinder.
It’s your mind that makes you see ‘pen’. It’s your mind that makes you see something to chew on.
Who’s right, dogs or people?
Both. Okay. Don’t be such a chauvinist, a human chauvinist when a dog grabs this and chews it up
and puts ink all over the carpet. Okay. Why?
Because in their world it is only something to chew on; very validly, they are perceiving it that way,
so they have to chew on it. It’s right that they chew on it you see what I mean. And it’s right that
you try to write with it but don’t go saying that the dog stole my pen. Okay. The dog stole a chewy
toy.
The dog took a chewy toy that you weren’t using properly, okay, ‘cos their karma forces them to see
it that way.
Okay. All things are that way.
I like number six. Okay. Why?
You finally got an explanation of emptiness that teaches you how not to die and how not to get old.
And if anybody [unclear] through all these classes for seven years and doesn’t use this information to
get enlightened and to overcome your own death in this lifetime and if you’re too lazy to use this to
turn into a tantric deity in this lifetime, well don’t write me any letters from the {bardo}, okay.
[laughter] [laughs] Alright. Really, okay.
This is all you need to know. This is the final statement in this class, in the official class, you know.
All you need to know.
You will perceive this thing, every person here will perceive it slightly differently due to your set of
karmas in your mind. You have a choice every minute of the day how you want to see your world in
a year or two years or five years, you know.
You tired of being Joe Schmoe? You want to Manjushri or Tara?
Then, you know, get your act together. Keep your book. Keep your vows. Keep them sweetly
understanding emptiness, okay.
If you keep your vows, if you keep your book, every two hours you check what you’re doing, just
check in a very honest, sincere way, then you’ll start seeing things differently, okay, because they
don’t have nay nature of their own. Okay.
They are just blank screens all around you all day long.
You tired of being in a place where people die? You tired of getting old? You know, you tired of
just ups and downs your whole life?
When are you going to wake up, you know? Is it six more times you got to lose your boy friend or
girl friend, you know? You got to get breast cancer or not? Is it going to take that you see what I
mean?
Decide and do something you see what I mean.
Keep your vows. Okay.
And then you just sit back and this thing turns into, you know, Manjushri’s arm. And he’s holding
this thing, big sword, this could be Manjushri’s sword. Okay.
Unfortunately, you don’t have the karma to see it that way. Okay.
Does that mean it’s not?
No.
Does Manjushri see it as a sword?
Yes. Okay.
Does the dog see it as a chew toy?
Yes. Okay. Very validly, okay.
Does that make it somehow not real?
You don’t think it’s real, come up here and let me draw a Hitler moustache on your face you know
what I mean.
It is real because you have the karma to see it that way. Okay. You have all the information you
need with worldview number six to become a tantric deity in this life.
It is the ultimate in meaning of emptiness.
You got everything you need so you just have to keep your vows. Okay. Keep the book.
If you don’t keep the book sincerely, if you don’t meditate, don’t do your retreats, then it won’t help
anything. Okay.
The purpose of studying all these years is just to do that. And it’s immediate, okay. I mean, we say
it takes time for karma to ripen but especially in a tantric sense it can ripen in days, in hours, in
weeks, and, you know, right away you can start doing this.
Stop trying to adjust the world through the normal means. They don’t work. Okay.
Start using karma. Start being karma smart guy. Professional vow- keeper. Vow- keeping master.
Everyone wants to be a kung fu master or yoga master or business stock exchange master. You got to
be a vow- keeping master. I keep my vows perfectly. And immediately your world will start to
change. Immediately things, you own body, your own health will start to change. Over a period of
time, immense, amazing, unbelievable, unimaginable changes in your being, you know, your body
and your mind. Okay.
All headed towards an enlightened being, who’s living in a body of living crystal okay. And that,
you just have to do it, okay.
It’s very, very doable. Many, many beings have done it. You have all the education. You have all
the classes. You have all the great lamas, Khen Rinpoche, everything, Lama Zopa. Just have to do
it. Okay. Okay.
Worldview number six. Okay.
We’ll stop there. And we’ll have a review class, which you shouldn’t miss on next Tuesday.
[announcement]
See you after the break.
[announcement]
[Winston: Geshe Michael has very beautifully and very kindly given us seven years of teaching and
I’d like to thank him [applause] [cut]
[end side A]
[side B]
[student]
I think we’ll stop there. [acknowledgements] [applause]
In my mind that place will work if one thing is there you see. I see, by the way, New York as the
intellectual centre, especially in this area of New York you get very talented people. You attract
very talented people, intelligent people, spiritual people who are looking for the perfect thing, you
know. And I think New York will always be that.
[godstow retreat centre / Arizona ]
So, in my mind you’ve got all three levels. You’ve got the secret weapons down in Howell, New
Jersey of Khen Rinpoche and Art Engel and stuff like that. You’ve got everything you need.
You’ve got a place to study, great lamas, place to do retreats and I encourage you, one final thing
about those places. Put your heart in them not only thinking about your own goals but put your heart
into helping them serve other people you see what I mean.
These places, New York ACI, Godstow, Howell and Diamond Mountain, can only be successful if
your main motivation is to make sure that other people have a place to study and that other people
have a place to do their retreats and other people have a place to go do their long term things you see
what I mean.
[ instructions to students regarding this altruistic motivation]
[announcement re next class]
Thankyou. Phuntsok la.
[prayer: short mandala]
[prayer: dedication]
Okay, thank you.

~~~
May all Geshe la’s aspirations be fulfilled!
The Asian Classics Institute
Course XVIII: Great Ideas of Buddhism