ACI 3 «Прикладная медитация», занятие 10

Class Ten: Object of Meditation: Medium and Greater Capacity
Geshe Michael Roach
March 21, 1994
transcribed by: Ani Konchok Kyizom

[cut]
And then, just before that there was a section on... [laughter]

[student: His answer.]

[student: Well, there's subdivisions of how to take a Lama, I'm sure.]

Yeah, but after that? How to act after you take a Lama and how, how to purify
yourself. There were three divisions, what were those?

[student: Three divisions of how to purify yourself?]

Yeah, how to practice.

[student: Small capacity.]

Yeah, small capacity.

[student: Yeah, I knew that answer because of the notes, but I, I didn't get what
it meant.]

Yeah, I'm about to tell you, okay. [laughs] Basically it's this is this, a small
capacity person, which means lesser capacity person, is practicing in order to
avoid going to one of the three realms of suffering after he dies.

[student: Smaller scope.]

A person of small scope or capacity is trying to avoid going to the three realms
of suffering after he dies, so those are what?

[student: Three lower realms.]
[student: Hells.]

Yeah.

[student: Hungry Ghosts]

[student: Animals.]

Can you see them?

[student: One.]

Only one. you can only see animals. Do you believe that you could be born as a
animal? Probably not. Or you believe it or you have some kind of half, you
have some kind of inclination to believe it. But do you have any logical proof
which is so good that you could prove it to someone else?

[student: No.]

Unlikely, and we'll try to work on it next course, okay. But, but it takes allot of
study just to reach the stage of a lesser person or a lesser scope. It starts with
what? What were the two things in the lesser scope that we studied last week?

[student: Has a [unclear]]

Yeah, I mean as a preliminary, you saw how lucky we are to be alive. And then
there were two meditations we had, there was, one was on death. Can you
perceive that directly? Death. Yeah, I mean, you can perceive it directly in others
and you can perceive it correctly with logic in yourself. So, so you can see your
death, you cannot see your death with your eyes. You can see your death with
your reasoning, with your capacity to think. In a fool proof airtight way, you
can perceive your death, it's something that you can prove to yourself without
any great leaps of faith. It's logical, it's, you perceive it in others, we have no
evidence that anyone hasn't died, we're getting older, the people around you
have started to die. You know three or four friends, or ten or twenty friends
that have died. You have no reason to believe that you would be any different.
If you do a {chegom} about death, this is a fact. Your own death is a fact.
Definitely you will not resemble yourself after death. You will not be very
similar to what you are now. That you can perceive as, as well as you can see
with your eyes, someone else dying. So you can see that. How about this
second part. What was the second part? Death and..?

[students: Karma.]

In other words, once you know you're gonna die, and that's not a leap of faith,
that's a fact. Then there's a question of what will happen. And then you have to
study karma, and, and it's not enough to study karma by itself. Ultimately, to
understand karma, you have to understand emptiness. And you have to
understand the teachings of the Mind Only school, which we just, we, we won't
go into right now. You'll get a good dose of it next course. In order to
understand correctly, karma, you must understand emptiness and the teachings
of the Mind Only school, on how karma is transmitted in your mind. So those
are two things that are going to come. So, basically, a person of the small
capacity is, he's, he's aware of how fortunate he is now , he's aware that he's
going to die and he's considering what it would be like after he dies. And I told
you this famous, this is why that Hamlet is so famous, " To be or not to be." The
question is, should I kill myself or not? The to be or not to be means, should I
exist or not? Should I die, or should I kill myself? And he, he goes through... it's
beautiful, you should reread it sometime and he starts to do a {chegom} about it.
And he starts to say, "Yeah, that would be nice, really, this life is just suffering
and everything is pain, and, is it better for me to just stay here and suffer the
slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? You know, see my karma results go
up and down like a roller coaster or should I just put an end to it and thereby
dream. And then he says, "Dream, dream oh, wait a minute, what if something
goes on? And then he says... he starts to worry , he says, "What will happen after
I die? Maybe I will continue." So he decides in the end of that little section he
decides not to kill himself because he doesn't know, he's not sure. He says,
"Maybe the dream will go on, maybe I'll have to go through this after I die, so I'll
just may... I'll just wait." That's typical Hamlet, because he can't make up his
mind on anything. [laughter] So that's a death meditation, he did a proper death
meditation, and he came to the conclusion that maybe it wasn't good, because
maybe there's something that will throw him somewhere that he doesn't want to
be after he dies. And that's karma, in a way. So, those are the two natural
concerns of a person of lower capacity, of lesser capacity. Have we reached that
point?

[students: [unclear]]

I mean they're aware of how lucky they are, they're meditating on death, and
they're wondering about what's gonna happen after they die and they're trying
to take care of it. Are we, do we have that? Have we mastered the Lam Rim of
death meditation? No. So, I, I haven't, so I don't even qualify. My Buddhist
practice doesn't even qualify as the minimum Buddhist practice. Because I'm not
really doing it, thinking about my death. Motivated by my death and what's
going to happen after that. So I don't even qualify as a Lam Rim practitioner.
[laughs] I mean in the real sense. And there were ways of teaching Lam Rim
where the teacher and students would go to a cave untill they really has death
awareness, you know. And they wouldn't go onto the next step for a year, or
two years. There were ways of, there were traditions of doing it that way, but
that would take us too long. [laughs]

[student: Michael, what were you saying death? I mean we could intellectually
understand it, but you mean feel that we're gonna die.?]

I think to act every day, and every hour as if you truly believed that you had to
die, and that it could happen in the next hour, and that only Dharma would help
you. Do we act like that. Do we base our lives, do we behave, based on that?
Because those three are true. Those three are, at least the first two are
undeniable. It's undeniable that you must die, and it's undeniable that you have
no idea that you have no idea... [unclear].

[student: Yeah, but allot of people, I think people accept that, but this, this, you
see, I think feeling and the acting are upon every moment in the consciousness,
that's the difference, not understanding it, wouldn't you say so?]

No, you have to understand it to, to, to act on it. But when I say understand, I, I
don't understand it.

[student: Because, I know, I know I'm gonna die.]

Yeah, but you haven't internalized it, you're not behaving, every moment, as if
you were going to die today. When you do, you've reached the first persons
level, but we don't and I don't know if we ever will, unless you meditated on it.
And then your behavior would change, if you truly believed that. Pabonka says
you don't pack up big suitcases if you know you're leaving in five minutes.
[laughs] You know what I mean? If you know you're leaving a, a place never to
come back again, you don't paint the place and, you know, buy expensive
curtains, and then put in a big carpet in, and then leave five minutes later. You,
you don't waste the time or the money cause you know you're not coming back.
And he said the monks in Lhasa, and they come to Lhasa from the eastern Tibet
to study, and the intention is to just go back home, so you know, a week before
they're finished their Geshe and they've go their everything finished, they don't
start painting their rooms, you know. They're never coming back, and they
know it, so why waste much time on this? So that was the, that was the lesser
persons meditation. Now we go to the middle persons meditations which are, it
was up here before. You have middle person right?

[student: Yeah.]

So I don't, I'm not gonna write it. Medium capacity, okay, {kyebu dring},
medium capacity. Now we're gonna discuss some... some of the thoughts that
he has.

[student: But you didn't write it in Tibetan, you only wrote it in English.]

[student: You wrote it in Tibetan last time]

It was up here on the, oh, it was from the other class maybe.

[student: Michael? ]

Yes.

[student: Isn't this all under the [unclear] of renunciation? And why isn't there
something specifically aimed at developing renunciation? That's set forth at this
stage in the presentation?]

It's coming, right now.

[student: Okay, now as something as an aside to what you said about not being
able to prove the existence of hell realms and hungry ghosts and other realities?]

Well, you can, but not, not, not right now.

[student: Well, aside from that.]

We can scientifically.

[student: Well, the aside I was going to make was that there was this article in
the Times today that said physicists have proven that there is only between one
and ten percent of matter is visible, [unclear]]

Is locatable.

[student: Ninety to ninety-nine percent of what they can scientifically measure as
matter is beyond our perception.]

Yeah, like beyond your wave length, gato length.         {Thar} stands for {tharpa}
which means moksha, which means "freedom".

[student: This is what?]

This is the first {Lam Rim} for the person of medium capacity. He, he knows he's
gonna die. He already learned about karma.            Now he's worried about
something greater than that. So {thar} means freedom", {dun} means "want", {lo}
means "mind", and {kye} means to "develop".

[student: Michael?]

Yeah.

[student: I've heard like Hindu philosophy and it seems to be, the same thing
they call lokesha is a same thing nirvana. Is that true?]

The word lokesha, is a synonym in Buddhist Sanskrit for nirvana. But all Hindu
religions have the word, or most of them have the word mokesha, meaning
freedom. They all believe that there is a freedom from cyclic existence, you,
know, they accept the idea. They don't claim that this is the method to reach
that. They don't claim that this is the method to reach that, they don't agree that
this, that what we're studying is the method to reach that. they each have their
own unusual idea about how to reach that. Some of them said, "if you could
meditate your whole life, jump off a cliff onto a three pointed spear and one
went through here, and one went through here, and one went through here,
with the right attitude you would reach nirvana", okay. [laughs] And they get a
little bit better off then that. [laughter] So, {thardun lokye} first of all means to
get the very wish to achieve freedom from this kind of suffering.

[student: Could you repeat that?]

To develop the wish to be free from suffering. Or to achieve freedom I should
say. To develop the wish to achieve freedom.

[student: From all of cyclic existence.]

Yeah, we'll get to that.

[student: {Lo} means again?]

{Lo} means to, the idea or mind of a, to develop the state of mind you could say
in which you which to achieve freedom. To develop the wish to get out of here,
completely. And the text says here, "{Chepay mingong duknel gungyi go}.
{Chepay mingong} mean, "no matter how much you experience the pleasures of
this life, you can't be satisfied." And it's worse than than that, and he goes on, he
has a long commentary about it. I, I wish, I think we can translate this sometime.
This is Pabonkas commentary to Tsongkhapas text, and he says, "the nature of
any kind of happiness in this life is that it makes you more thirsty, and no one is
ever satisfied." The nature of most, every worldly thing that goes right, is that it,
it not only, it doesn't make you, it doesn't make you contented, it actually works
against your contentment. Every time you get something good, eventually it
makes you want more than that.

[student: Because you enjoy it, you want it again?]

Not only that you want it again, but you want more. And it's not just the nature
of heroine, or alcohol, it's the nature of promotions at work. It's the nature of
relationships that you have with other people, it's the nature of food, it's the
nature of everything. Every time you get one thing, then it, it makes you want
more.

[student: That's the description of pervasive suffering?]

It's part of it, it's part of it, yeah.

[student: Is that an argument against doing things that are especially pleasing
unless they relate specifically to dharma study?]

I think the Dalai Lama has a nice... and I think in, in general good practitioners
are sort of... they have good sense which is lacking in poor practitioners. You
know, people who don't practice very well, don't have good sense and people
who are practicing very well are also blessed with good sense. I don't think I've
seen anyone who can enjoy himself better than the Dalai Lama, you know. I
mean, or not many people, you know. He really enjoys things, but he has the
right att, he perceives them as suffering. He knows they're a suffering and that's
the basic... you know, should you deny yourself things that you want, because
they'll make you want more? I, it's not the point, I, you have to meditate, until
you perceive that this thing is not desirable. It's not to try to stop yourself from
enjoying something which you perceive as pleasant, it's to understand its nature
and no longer see it as pleasant. And you, you just wont want that thing
anymore. We were talking about, I met a Mongolian monk yesterday and he
said that the big problem in Mongolia right now is that none of the monks wants
to be celibate. They all would like to have a, a wife. And, and, and this was
apparently some corruption on Mongolia that has started a long time ago, and
now it's a problem. And, and then he said, "They just haven't seen, the thing is
that they haven't seen that, that's not a desirable thing." you see what I mean,
they just didn't see that yet or they're, they, that's why you become a monk, you
know what I mean? That's so that's just, you have to, it's not just that you're
trying to deny yourself something. It's that you see that see that it's not going to
bring you happiness, or contentment over, in the long run. It's just not, it's not
it's nature.

[student: So does that mean that we should become monks and nuns, is that
what you're saying?]

[students: So that's it that not a contradiction to say oh, you parents, like they're
so good to you because they give you life, what, what about that? Isn't that a
little bit of a contradiction there? You're saying, "This life is precious, but let's
become monks and nuns, and we won't have any kids anymore. ]

Oh, they got these test tubes now, you know. [laughter]

[student: Yeah, you still have to do some work on that, you know.]

[student: You don't have to go into the details.] [laughter]

[student: Everything, everything is unhappiness, except for becoming a monk or
a nun. Is that it?]

You debate it, You debate it, I mean, you find something. You tell me.

[student:   Isn't it that it's got nothing to do with the person, the wife or the
husband or the glass of wonderful juice or something. Isn't it just something in
the mind of that person, which makes them a samsaric person as opposed to a
liberated person?]

In the long run, yes. In the wider scope.

[student: That's all there is to it.]

Who is the wealthiest person in Tibet? The Dalai Lama. No, it is a mental...

[student: It's samsara, it's a state of mind really. It's not got anything to do with
those other [unclear]]

What is Samsara? You know the definition of samsara. It's not a state of mind,
it's being afflicted.

[student: The five contaminants.]

No, you gotta know what you're trying to get out of before you can get out of it.
Most people never learn, most people never learn what samsara is. [laughter]

[student: The five impure heaps. [unclear]]

[student: What is this, the definition then? [laughter]]

It's not a state of mind.

[student: Being forced to take on, over and over again, these five impure heaps,
which you've, always done.]

[student: You took the words right out of my mouth.]

Meaning, your mind and your body, your dirty mind and body, which were
created by karma. And, and it's okay to have your mind and body, but not one
that was forced on you, by, by your past deeds, by your past perceptions, if you
get deeply. Okay. {chepay miwong dungyel dunkyi go} it is the door of every
suffering. {Yigten miru], you can't trust them, [unclear] the good things of this
life. Okay, so the, the first thing is that you have to recognize... the things that
seem nice about this life, they are unstable, they cause you every pain you have
and they have a peculiar quality of making you dissatisfied.              and un...
discontented?

[student: Discontented.]

They're, it's they're nature.

[student: Can you tell me, how you can [unclear] the Dalai Lama how you can
enjoy something, and at the same time, recognize it as suffering?]

Yeah, it's difficult, it's difficult.

[student: It's difficult to understand for us, maybe, is the answer.]

[students: It's what the Buddhas did.]

And I think you're right, and I think it is. and, well part of the definition of that
kind of desire is a wish not to be separated from that object. So, so, that's actually
a definition of one of the three poisons; desire. It's the definitions of the second
of the three poisons, which is, hatred is, is the longing to be separated from
something you don't like. It's the definition of those basic bad thoughts, that's
their definition. So, I believe, that true enjoyment for the Dalai Lama would be,
to answer your question, he, he, by the way, not only does he enjoy it,
karmically, he can't avoid enjoying, enjoying it. He doesn't have a choice. It's
true that you have no choice when you're suffering, but the opposite is true too.
If you keep doing good deeds, I'm afraid... I'm sorry to tell you enjoyment will
be forced upon you. [laughter] It's true, it's logical.

[student: Samsaric enjoyment or...]



There's always this guilt trip about the negative part, but you can't avoid... if you
threw the food down and walked out there'd be more outside, there'd be more
waiting for him. So I think you can enjoy it and be able to not develop desire, by
being immediately willing to leave it, and that's a sign.

[student: There's no attachment. That's non-attachment.]

It's like, that's the definition of desire, being, desire, desire, is the craving, not to
be, not to lose the object which you are enjoying. You can't eliminate all the
enjoyable objects in the world because, if you're a good practitioner, they are,
they're loading themselves on you. More and more as you go through your life.
If your better, if your a very kind person earlier on in your life, you are forced to
meet good people later on in your life, and have nice things happen, basically.
So there's not this thing where a good Buddhist has to avoid enjoying things,
but, you, you also can't do anything immoral to, to keep it or you shouldn't, you
know, if somebody's wife says, " Hey" you know, "here I am." You can't, you
can't enjoy that, you know. It's actually a good karma that the, that the, the
potential enjoyment is there. It's also a very evil karma that that would involve
adultery and throw you to hell, you know. So, so you can't, I mean, you can't
enjoy everything that presents itself, but if it's not immoral, it won't hurt anyone,
it's, it's and you can't avoid it. It will come to you, somehow. That's Samsara,
that's part of Buddhist practice.

[student: What are the five, did you say there were five poisons?]

Three.

[student: Three poisons. What are they?]

One is desire in the sense of not wanting to be separated from a desirable object.
And the other is, what they translate as anger, which I don't... I think it's as
simple as like and dislike. Because supposedly, you're having these almost...

[student: Aversion?]

Yeah, but how many times did you have aversion today? You see, you had this
poison all day.

[student: Right, dislike.]
Yeah, I like like and dislike personally, because aversion, or dislike is defined as, I
think hatred is a real bad translation... defined as simply wanting to be separated
from an undesirable object. So it can be as minor as running through the rain.

[student: Being uncomfortable.]

You know, shifting in your chair, you know.

[student: So, so it is wanting to be separated from it. ]

Yeah, you know, when you have a person at work who, who bothers you, you
want, you... that's the {nyomon}, that's the klesha, that's the bad thought that
comes up in your mind. I'd like to get out of here.

[student: Can you think of going after something or getting away from
something?]

Yeah, yeah just like that. And then ignorance, that doesn't understand the
implication of those two. Ignorance.

[student; How's that?]

Ignorance, that's the third poison, which doesn't understand the implications of
desire. Meaning, wisdom would say, as we said many times, "The nasty guy at
work would present himself, you would see that he's empty, you would see that
he's not nasty by his own nature, cause his wife looks at the same person and
thinks he's great. He can't be nasty and great at the same time. Therefore those
two qualities can't be naturally attached to him And, and it's coming from
somewhere else. The appearance of being nasty is coming from somewhere
else. Then you study karma, you know that it's your perception, forced on you
by your past karma. Does that allow you to see him the way his wife sees him?
No. Would you like to see him as an angel? Yes. How can you do that? Be
good. Live a...

[student: But you also said once that the person does, in reality if the person's
nasty to you, the person's being nasty to you...]

He is nasty, I've never said he wasn't nasty. He is empty and he's nasty. He's not
real, and he's really nasty.

[student: So it's not a...]

So it's not a contradiction, and, and any other teaching on it is wrong. And if you
don't believe it, take the next person who teaches anything else about emptiness,
and ask him if you can stick a needle in his arm. You, know, you know what I
mean? It's just silly, of course it hurts.

[student: What was the second one? What was the second one, anger?]

Dislike, wanting to get away from suffering.
[student: Was that like suffering, you want to get away from suffering?]

Sure.

[student: So that's considered bad to want that we want to get away from
suffering.]

Well, it's like this, ignorant wanting to get away is bad, enlightened wanting to
get away is good. But how do you get away from a bad man at work? If a
person at work is, is harming you, how do you get away from him?

[student: You, you give in to him.]

[student: You walk away.]

Not like that. He is, if you understand emptiness, and it takes allot of practice,
and it takes logic you have to convince yourself of something that is not at all
natural to think. But he's bad, because your seeing him as bad, because you have
a problem, because your perceptions are forced on you by your past karma, he's
not bad, he's empty, he's blank. He's blank you're filling it in with crappy crayons
because you, you had perceptions of yourself harming someone in the past. So,
what is the.... what is the method, ultimately to, to remove this warp? [laughter]

[student: The warp of existence.]

Well, this guy, what's the ultimate method? To, to see to remove this unpleasant
person?

[student: You break that perceptual cycle.]

[student: Think that their wonderful.]

[student: You stop seeing him that way, you don't respond and you generate
more karma.]

Much, much minimum, but what would be the best thing? Love him like your
mother. [laughter] Love him like your wife. Have real, real, deep love for him.
And then, in the future he must, that blank screen must become desirable.

[student: Is it good enough to be compassionate of the person? To understand?]
Is compassion which is the fourth in the seven steps in developing bodhichitta,
the cause for bodhichitta? No, you have to go way up, past that, that's way
down, number four, you gotta get to number six and seven. We went through
that, we don't have time for that.

[students: Isn't compassion, a form of love though?]

Yeah, but it has to even go higher yeah,

[student: Does that include all sentient beings? ]

If you want to go to a paradise, or would you rather have twenty percent be
muggers and crack addicts.

[student: [unclear]]

You have a choice, if you're only nice to fifty percent of the people, I'd say you'll
go to a place where only fifty percent of the people are good.

[student: Let's say cancer or H.I.V. virus?          Are we supposed to be loving
towards your virus?]

We don't say it's a living being.

[student: Why not? Oh, a virus.]

I don't know if a virus, I don't know what a virus is in Buddhist cosmology. An
amoebae would be, yeah. An amoebae, and cancer...

[student: Bacteria.]

I did not say it's not a bad thing. I did not not say it doesn't hurt you, I will not
say it will even kill you. What I'm saying is that your attitude towards it
determines what it will be in the future. You can't change what it is now, easily.
It's possible, but it takes a great Buddhist practice which you will learn sometime.
But right now you, you can not change its nature, its apparent nature. You can
understand that the dental drill is empty, but I'd never said it won't hurt you. If
you practice properly, its nature will change, and it won't hurt you. But the will
to have it not hurt you, will not change it. And it never did, did it? So anyway,
we gotta go, we have to go. Time to {lokye}, okay, okay. So he says, he says, "
understand that everything in the world has these qualities, the good things in
the world, the normal good things, they are not stable. They cause you all your
suffering and they, they make you discontented, its their nature, it's their nature
that any good thing you ever get, you want more.

[student: [unclear]]

They, they make you discontented, they make you want more. So, that
supposed to get this in your mind, that's supposed to trigger this, where you say,
okay, I don't want those things anymore, I want something better.

[student: When they say they make you want more, you mean more quantity
of the same thing, not repeating the same experience.]

 I'd say, my own, my own tendency, I can remember when I was paid seven
dollars an hour, and I was quite happy to get the job, I was really happy to get
the job, and then eight wasn't enough, and then nine wasn't enough, then ten
wasn't enough, and then a hundred thousand a year wasn't enough. I mean
whatever wasn't enough, it's human nature and you give some Cambodian
refugee a job and they're so happy the first few weeks and then you know, after
a year, they're saying this is really lousy, I need more pay, you know. And it's
human nature, it's not that they're evil or bad, it's the nature of samsaric
pleasures, they want more, and better.

[student: So like are you saying a person should not want more money?]
[laughter]

[student: Michael doesn't want any more money.]

No, I didn't say that, I, what I mean to say is...

[student: That's not what you're saying.]

that recognize that more money or less money, or medium money, or no
money, or lots of money is the same state, it's suffering. It's all suffering.

[student: But you still can get more money though.]

It's if you can make good use of it to keep yourself healthy, to keep yourself in
dharma or to give away to other people, that's fine, that's great. But, is it in and
of itself, by itself it is a samsaric thing, your body, your mind, everything about
us now can only give us suffering. It's nature is to suffer. There's no, so you're
telling me, should I like fifty thousand dollars worth of total suffering or ten
thousand dollars worth of total suffering. It's the same thing, you know. You
know, but obviously, you need some money to practice. And you should not
grub off of other people and you should not, it's not a Buddhist practice to give
up all your money and then bother people. [laughter] It's a Buddhist practice to
take care of your livelihood, properly, honestly, without hurting anyone. And
responsibly, that's your, that's you job. Okay, under {loke} so that was that verse
that came then. Then what, what do you think would naturally happen after
that? Once you got the desire to get out...

[student: You gotta act.]

Yeah, you could find some way to get out. So this is the second part of the
meditation for... and I wanna make sure you get the proper name.

[student: We were just discussing the medium capacity person?]

Yeah and this is the second meditation for a medium capacity person. The first
meditation is where he says, "Okay I understand that I'm gonna die.              I
understand that whatever I do determines where I go. But, hey wherever I go,
it's a bummer. There's no... okay, so I get born in a better place next time. I'm
Donald Trump instead of Michael Roach. But it's not a desirable thing, so I'd
rather find some kind of pleasure, some kind of permanent. Therefore he, he
gets he moves up one step in his understanding and in his motivation. Where is
that?

[silence]

{Thar} means what? You had it before.

[students: Freedom. Freedom.]

Okay, freedom. {Lam} means what?

[students: Path.]

Path, good. {Tenap} you don't know, which means to "figure out what it is".
[student: The whole word?]

 {Ten} will be short for {tenla apa} which means to determine or to figure out
what it is. The root text says at this point, {Namda sempa deya trungpa yi}
which means, use that pure thought to push you on to ... what is that pure
thought?

[student: The wish to become enlightened.]

The wish to get outta here. What is it when you get outta here? I mean are you
gonna go to a different place? Is, is that what is samsara? If samsara is defined
as having these kind of body and mind, then getting out of samsara is does not
involve a location change it, involves a reality change. Your own nature
changes.

[student: Comprised of different aggregates.]

[student: Pure heaps.]

Yeah, the pure body and a pure mind. Totally bliss, and of body and mind,
permanent.

[student: Did they say what a pure set of heaps are?]

Sure, that's the idea. You know, what's the definition of nirvana, you tell me.

[student: That doesn't say what the heaps are. What we're saying, you know,
when we say this heap becomes like this and this heap becomes like this.]

What's the, but what's the definition of nirvana?

[student: Permanent cessation.]

[Ani la: You get rid of all your suffering, or something like that, it's something
left over.]

Oh boy.

[Ani la: There's nothing left over.]
We had the definition of nirvana already, oy yo.

[Ani la: Yeah, you've gotten rid of all your suffering or something like that.]

[students: The cessation. The cessation, the mental cessation.]

First of all...

[student: Of the mental analysis...]

[Ani la: Of the four truths, of the four truths.]

Cessation of?

[student: Their mental obscurations in their entirety, consisting of the individual
[unclear]]

Yeah, yeah, okay, what, what does all of that mean? It means it's brought on by
the perception of emptiness directly. Ultimately, it's triggered by the perception
of emptiness directly and it is the permanent removal of your {nyundrups].
Which mainly means, your bad thoughts, your six bad thoughts. Anger and
jealousy, desire hatred ignorance, like that. So it's the, it's the permanent
stopping of those things.

[student: Once you do the then what does your format become, what does your
consciousness become?]

You tell me, there's two kinds.

[student: Something left over. ]

Yeah [laughter] before you die, you still have a body caused by things. So you
still have a body which is impure. And then when you die the nature changes.
Now that's the school that you guys studied.

[student: My question is when they are totally enlightened.]

What do they look like? What are they like? They don't have {nyundrubs}.
[laughs] They don't have obstacles. They don't have, they don't have those six
thoughts ever again and the body is made of. The body's nature changes from
blood and bone and flesh to a kind of rainbow body or diamond body.

[student: A light body.]

It's visible. It's, it's totally pleasant, it has no impermanent. It's not impermanent
in the sense of ever growing old.

[student: Then you're saying it's an energetic form body, essentially.]

It's, it's, it's, visible, it has, it has, it has shape and color.

[student: [unclear] who.]

[student: Is it young or old?]

[student: Is it male or female?]

[student: Michael Jordan.]

Not, neither male nor female, unless you chose it to be one or the other, to look
like one or the other. Does it, is it young or old? Actually, by that time you have
the power to make it appear any way you want.

[student: So it's malleable, or is it like a one shot deal, it's gonna be like that.]

No.

[student: It could be anybody?]

You could appear as anybody.

[Ani la: You could appear as anybody.]

You have the power to, to emanate yourself. You could look like a bird or a dog
or...

[student: Why would they want to look like an animal?]

[student: We should be nice...]
[student: Why would you want to go in the animal realm?]

[student: Just appear.]

Appear as a bird, peep to the hunter whose about to shoot a deer, distract him.
[laughter]

[student: If that's true, if that's true and the Dalai Lama wanted to get off of meat
and he couldn't get off of meat because the doctors told him he couldn't, I don't
understand why.]

In the Mahayana, and again, I can't prove it to you, and I admit that I can't prove
it to you. I can tell you what the books say, that to make himself look more
accessible to our level, he, he pretends to have these problems. Now can you
accept that? No. Can I prove it to you? Slowly. You'll be able to digest it
eventually. Can I prove that you'll be able to digest it eventually? Eventually,
yes. [laughter]

[student: And for that matter, is he really eating meat or does he just appear to?]

[laughter] [student: Oh, no, come on let's get on with it.]

He's appearing to. Okay, let's move on.

[student: What are we using as the definition of {tarlam tonop...]? Like a one
liner so I can memorize it.]

[student: Using pure thought to get out of here?]

No, this is wanting to get out and this is how to get out, figuring out how to get
out.

[student: Figuring out what the path to freedom is?]

Yeah, establishing, literally it means to establish the the path. But, I don't care, as
long as you understand the mental process that's going on. What's going on
through your mind? And this is what your meditation should be for the next six
months. It's very simple, it's a simple train of thought and you're gonna burn it
into the computer screen. It's, it's actually it's some kind of satisfaction to start
with, then you decide, well I probably need a teacher to figure this whole thing
out. I will get a teacher to figure it out, all out. I'll make sure he's qualified, and if
he's qualified, I'll follow what he says. Then, then I, I would, I'm going to die, I'm
very lucky to be here it's not very long. I have all these conditions working for
me. I am going to die, what's going to happen after that? It depends on what I
do. But even if I do something good and then this, I get this same kind of life
again which is extremely, the odds are extremely low. I get a life like this, but
then again I 'm going to have to go through the same process of ups and downs.
Ups and downs might be okay, if you weren't getting old the whole time time,
but, but your energy level is dropping every month and eventually you end up
without any energy. And you, there's no one who can live very long, and
anyone who does must loose his hearing, must loose his sight, must loose his
teeth, must loose all his energy, must get ugly, and then get stupid and then die.
There's no other option, so why go through it again? If you have a chance now
to stop it, and reach some really handsome level, you know, permanently useful
level, much better. So then how can I do that? That's what we're gonna talk
about right now. So the text says at this point, by the way there's only, this is a
super compressed Lam Rim. Rinpoche took twelve years to teach it in New
Jersey, okay. Okay, the book says, {Namdak tsewa trenpa yi}," Use this desire to
get out in order to ..." {Drenpa sheshin}. What is {drenpa} and {sheshin}? Heard
them before? {Drenpa} is recollection, and {sheshin} is watchfulness. We had
them in the practice of shamata, of developing shamata. But what are they
aimed at in this case? {Tempay tsawa soso tarpa la}, the very, the very core of
Buddhist teachings, {soso tarpa}, the eight types of vows. The eight types of
vowed morality. Number eight is monks vows, number one is a one day vow,
number two and three is when a layman decides to take the five vows for his
life. What are the five vows? Not killing, I will not kill in my life again, stealing,
no sexual misconduct.

[student: Alcohol.]

No lying.

[students: Lying? Stealing?]

Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, alcohol.

[student: Lying and what?]

Alcohol, intoxicants, drugs or alcohol.
[student: All drugs?]

[student: Does that include doctored drugs?]

Ah, no, it doesn't include alcohol included in a cough syrup or something like
that. No.

[student: Well how do they... caffeine?]

[laughs] That doesn't say caffeine or tea in the [unclear].

[student: Does it say specifically, specific things other than alcohol?]

[student: Does it say cocaine?]

The text, the text in the Abhidharma, [laughter], the text of the Abhidharma says,
"Any, any substance which is refined from a natural juice, like wine, whiskey,
alcohol basically, or which is out together through chemicals." So, they mention
that, this is like three fifty AD. They say, "or...

[student: Put together through, like artificially.]

or which is a chemical, like LSD or heroine, or... yeah, which is artificially
concocted, which, which has the function of lowering your inhibition level.

[student: Which is the first one? Fermented, anything fermented?]

Alcohol or drugs, and I mean, they say that. And then the Buddha in the [b: [b:
Abhidharmakosha] lifts up a piece of grass, and says to his followers, "He, he,
whosoever drinks the amount of alcohol that you could put on the tip of this
grass, don't call yourself a Buddhist, and I am not your teacher."

[student: Why Michael? Why no alcohol?]

Because it lowers, it has, it, it's affect is to subtly lower your ability to keep your
morality.

[student: So, then, then the alcohol, and this is the question I had the other day
for you, Europeans use allot of wine in their food, and there's not really an effect
of alcohol when you eat the food, so does that mean no alcohol?]

If, if it didn't have the effect to lower, the function of an intoxicant which is
prohibited is something which lowers your ability to protect your morality.

[student: I think there's a difference, you have to make a distinction between
abusing things that are not necessarily designed for the specific purpose of
becoming intoxicated, as for example wine or beer or what... things like that, and
something like cocaine or heroine, which is designed specifically...]

Buddha said...

[student: One is a beverage and one is a {unclear]]

[student: It's about intention, isn't it?]

I will never [unclear] is what the Abhidharma says, is what the Buddha says.
[laughter] Period.

[student: So you don't have to really feel like high? You know what I mean.]

One teaspoon of wine according to the scriptures lowers your, it increases the
odds of your breaking your morality, eventually, so don't do it.



[student: What about, what about if your addicted to chocolate?]

[student: [unclear] one less glass of wine. I mean if it can ruin your mind.]

If, if it can lower, obviously, in an extreme case, an addiction to anything might
lower your ability to, to not do an action in which you might hurt someone to
get it, even chocolate. And that's, yeah that's true. But that's [unclear] [laughter]
You know is it, is it prohibited, you know, is it like prohibited cause the Buddha
is mean, or the Buddha is too strict, or the Buddha is just like an old nun in the
Catholic girls school or... [laughter]. It's not like that, if it has the function of
possibly causing you to do something, which would have, according to the laws
of karma, infinite, painful effects on you, so do it with pleasure, keep it with
pleasure, you know, be happy about it.

[student: Is the idea that just taking a small amount plants the seed to do it again
in the future, and more in the future [unclear]?]

Partly, partly that and partly, it lowers the inhibition to take more, you see.

[student: But Michael, It's, it's like if you're supposed to be watching your mind
every second of the day. And we talk about the black seeds and the white seeds
I mean, every second, how can you monitor what your taking if you're taking
it? ]

If you lower your ability...

[student: If you're lowering your concentration...]

... to monitor by one percent, you've, you've just caused yourself a bad karma.
So don't think of it as, just get, just forget it, it's useless poop. I almost said a bad
word. [laughter] It's of no benefit to you. it costs money, it's useless, it has no
benefit for you. If there's a chance in a thousand that it could make you less
watchful, why bother? I mean, what's the big deal? Like what's so great about
it?

[student: Well what if your more relaxed, and then you're more relaxed?]

[laughter] [students: What if you're overly agitated and a glass of wine makes
you calm down?]

Work out, out or something. You said, you said, count you breath, I think it
was. [laughter]

[student: What about tsok?]

[student: You can't speak and count your breath at the same time.]

Then go some place where you don't have to talk. [laughs] You know, I've
always found that when I start to loose it, you know if I say I'd like to go to
another room and recollect, and re... what do you call it?

[student: Think about death.]

[laughter] Recollect myself.
[student: Get my frame of mind.]

People don't like it. But if you say, I have to go to the bathroom, nobody stops
you. You know, I can be in the worst meeting with my boss, he's about to say
something important, and I say, "Look, I've really gotta go to the
bathroom." [laughter] And I've never had anyone say, "No, don't go, sit down,
you know." So go to the bathroom and sit down and med... collect yourself,
collect yourself.

[student: So what are the, what could we say are the eight vows, the eight types
of vows?]

I didn't get though them.

[students: [All talking], number eight, number twenty eight?]

What I'm trying to tell you is, is that the recollection and the watchfulness that
he's mentioning here are not focused on the object of meditation. These are the
same mental fountains, but they are focused on your morality. They, they are
with you through out the day monitoring, I like that word that you chose. They
are monitoring your behavior through out the day. Is it, should you feel guilty?
Are you a bad person? You know, should you, you know, blah, blah, blah, go
home. Should you give up all your friends and tell them you don't want to stay
with them anymore? It's not the thing. Most of the immorality that we do are,
are things that are quite acceptable in society. Talking bad about people at work.
Subtly trying to split people up. You know, looking at another guys wife. This
is, these are... [cut]

I've done it, but basically I'll say this, if I remember correctly. Wrong object,
okay, your mother, your sister, a nun, et cetera, and another persons spouse.
Wrong place, in a, in a, in a room where there's an altar, in a , near a temple.
Around your Lama, within earshot of other people, et cetera. Wrong organ,
anal, oral, masturbation, et cetera. Wrong, what was the last one?

[student: Time.]

Time, yeah, lady is, is having her period, she's a pregnant, anytime when it
would hurt her, physically. To do it in open daylight.

[student: What happens if she... You cannot have it if you have your period or if ,
if it hurts?]

It's okay.

[student: What about daylight?]

Well, specifically if it would hurt, hurt the person. And that would be considered
in a way shameless in a way, or you know, it would be considered sort of , and
that's some Lamas say that, the book says that. And we went through, is there
anything , I don't know? Homosexuality is considered sexual misconduct.

[students: That's not what the Dalai Lama said in the, I read an article. He's
explicit, I just read it today.]

Scriptures are explicit as well. [laughs]

[student: But he said it. You know this is Avaloketishvara, he said it, he said it.]

Excuse me if I call you explicit.

[student: He said it's fine, it's not considered sexual misconduct if you haven't
taken your monastic vows, that's what he says right out.]

It is, it is, it is considered sexual misconduct.

[student: Well, why would he say that?] [laughter]

[student: Same thing with the meat.]

Where did he say it?

[student: No, mean, he said it, unless they misquoted him. It's in a quotation,
like I got, I have it.]

[student: Yeah.]

I know , I know that this came up, now, if he were pressed to, to substantiate
that, or did he say it to reach a certain audience or for other reasons.

[student: One can always use those.]
Yeah, and this is, any teacher does that. The Buddha himself taught four schools
of Buddhism. Three of them are flatly wrong, so why did he teach them? We
will study this subject and we'll also study how to determine when he's doing it
and when he's not doing it. There are rules for when he should do it. And we'll
study that, and it a whole subject called {trengye}.       It's called the art of
interpretation and we...

[student: But this is the, that has to do when you interpret a statement
symbolically or ...]

Yeah, when the Buddha says, "Kill your father and your mother", I mean
obviously that's metaphoric. Now when another, another circumstance is when
is he saying what is really the case, ultimately, and when is he saying something
to... which is not true, but which is meant to bring along someone who needs to
be brought along a little farther. The Abbhidharma is not true, the Mind Only
school is not true, the Sautantrika school all the Buddhist logic and perceptual
schools are not true. The lower Mahdyumika school is not true, and that's a fact.

[student: Which is the school that's true?]

I have no idea what's the school. [laughs] Now, are all parts of them wrong?
No. Are central tenets of them wrong? Yes. So why did he teach them? Cause
those people couldn't relate to him, he couldn't bring them along further if he
didn't say certain things, which, technically speaking are not true. Now, is the
Dalai Lama doing that here? We would have to sit down and thrash is out. You
know, we'd have to apply those rules of interpretation to it.

[student: But if we, if you translate that into a level of personal action and you
started out in talking about morality in terms of not wanting to create the
situation where you ascetically clamp down on yourself, but rather attempt to
root out the cause underlying the desire whether it's, ultimately it's ignorance
rather than the desire itself. Then, it almost seems to me that the whole point is
that your not trying to establish an outward situation of rules that you must
follow but rather set a, you know, certain overall directions you should be
aiming in, so that the reason the Dalai Lama would say that is that he knows that
to make, to be a hard ass, sorry, [laughter] at that point is to alienate this entire,
reassure, so...]

Yeah, yeah.
[student: So he's going oh, no, no, come along come in and then somewhere
along the line, perhaps you come to another conclusion.]

Somewhere along the line he might make them heterosexual, somewhere along
the line further he might make them celibate. You see. [laughter]

[student: Say that again? What?]

[student: No one [unclear]]

I'm saying that somewhere along the line he'll make homosexual heterosexual,
perhaps, this is the, and then somewhere along the line, it's celibacy, it really is.
And, and it's just a matter of time. But, do you force it?

[student: That seems a rather monastic perspective.]

I'm not saying monastic.

[student: It is. Yeah. It is, Michael.]

[student: What's wrong with a monastic perspective?] [laughter]

Not true. No, not true, you could have all the sexual activity going on that you
want, if no being had the karma to have to take another samsaric birth, you
wouldn't be, you wouldn't get birth. It's not your doing, it's his karma.

[student: Do you think, could you finish this lesson? And maybe have another
class about this another time?]

[laughs] Yeah, alright, one last question.

[student: Well I was just going to say, with the view of emptiness, nothing is
inherently good or bad, right?]

No true.

[student: Pardon me?]

Not true. Not, not in morality.
[student; Not in morality? So, no matter who is was, anyone who did one of
these things that you're talking about, the effect would be the same?]

I didn't say that. No, I didn't say that.

[student: Or is it that, to the vast majority of people who would be hearing this
message, you're better off for the time being, in the state that you're in right now
t avoid certain actions?]

People that are not, not yet reached nirvana, if they want to establish the path to
reach nirvana, must keep, {sheshin} and {drenpa} on, on one of the eight types of
vows. If you don't have one of the eight types of vows, you can, you can just
consider the ten non-virtues. Avoid the ten non-virtues.

[student: Did you, did you just infer that you can't attain nirvana without one of
the eight types of vows?]

No. But he's defined that the method of, of the path as watching your morality,
and he happens to mention the eight types of vows. Is it impossible to attain
nirvana without taking formal vows and keeping them? I'm not sure. I know
that when you take a vow to keep something and you keep it, its nature
completely changes. So, hey, those five are not so hard, you can keep them.

[student: Those five vows, are those the layman's vows?]

[student: Killing, no lying, stealing]

[laughter] Killing, lying, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and use of alcohol.

[student: And you said that, two and three's the layman vows and they all
incorporate the five?]

Yeah, yeah, two and three. Two is for ladies, and three is for men. Five vows
for your life. And then they go on, and you get into the realm of ordained
people and there's female novice, male novice, female advanced novice, female
nun, and a full monk and those are the eight.

[student: And if you don't keep your sexual morality, can you advance to higher
states? [laughter].]
[student: Can you what?]

[student: If you don't, you know, follow that, but your not, sexually if you
misconduct yourself, [laughs].]

I think, no, eventually you have to. To reach nirvana you eventually have to
keep your morality, perfectly.

[student: Yeah, but I mean, can you at least...]

Can you make progress in other places? Sure, sure, absolutely. I, you know,
you're supposed to work on the one which bothers you the most, but, obviously
if you make advances in reducing your anger. By the way, I mean, any will also
help you reduce your desire. I mean any advances that you make towards
digging away at any of your problems, helps you to overcome your other
problems. So work on, they say work on your worst one first, but even if you
can't, work on any of them and it will help you work on your first one. Okay,
we gotta move on. Can, do you wanna turn on the water.

[student: Excuse me.]

Yeah.

[student: Can you, I'm just not clear on what the eight are. The first on was the
monks vow, then the next five?]

You know, it's not on your homework or anything, but if you want to know,
there's three lay.. three kinds of layman's vows. The first one is male or female
one day vow.

[students: [unclear] ... one two three four five six seven eight. You just said
number one, or something different?]

[students: One day vow, one day vows.]

That's right. Set, set of vows number one consists of the male or female one day
vow. Set of vows number two, is the female lifetime, layman's vow, which
consists of five rules.
[student: Is the content different as between the one day vow and the lifetime
vow. I mean, from each category?]

Not, not, no. The third vow, and why do they include them in one vow and they
split the rest in to one day? Because it's only one day, it's not a big deal. Okay,
set of vows number three, lifetime, man, layman, five rules. Set of vows... so
number two was for ladies, number three was for men. Number two and
number three are to keep the same vows.

[student: Can I switch the two?]

Want me to say it again?

[student: No, could it be men's two and ladies three?]

Under certain circumstances, but not in the, this is the way it's taught and I...

[students: {unclear]]

When we get to the higher teaching and the ladies come first, I'll complain too,
alright.
Number four, ladies novice vows, ordained, okay. Number five, mans novice
vows, ordained person. Number six, advanced ladies novice vows. Number
seven, nuns vows, full nun. Number ten, full nun, number eight, full nun, sorry.

[student: Fully ordained?]

[student: There's a asymmetry in there.]

Yeah, there's no advanced males novice vow. But don't ask me why, it's not our
subject today. Okay, anyway.

[student: What was number one again?]

One day vow for a man or a woman. [laughter]

[student: I thought nuns were never fully ordained.]

Yeah, the vow that exists in the world today, is for women, the one that Pelma
has is number four.
[student: Isn't there something that Tibetan Buddhist nuns can only get in
Theravadan and tradition?]

Yeah, it's being researched by a committee right now. Whether or not, whether
or not the in our tradition we're going to accept it...

[student: Revive it. It would be reviving it though no?]

No. it would just be picking up on a continuum that we weren't aware of until
now.

[student: Oh, I thought it had [unclear]]

If it can be established that it was never broken in the last eleven hundred years.

[student: Good luck.]

[laughs] Okay, now, why did he mention morality...why did he, there's three
trainings, right? What are they?

[student: Concentration.]

[student: Morality, concentration and wisdom.]

 Reaching nirvana is the practice of removing your bad thoughts, permanently.
Why did he only mention morality? Doesn't it take all three things to remove
your bad thoughts, permanently?

[student: Morality is the foundation.]

Yeah, morality is like, what he means when he mentions morality only, is that it's
to imply the other two. You must have concentration, meditative concentration
and you must have wisdom. But he mentions morality, why? What's the dis...
what's the relationship between morality and concentration?

[student: you can't concentrate without morality.]

 You can't concentrate with something on your conscience and you never will be
able to, okay.
[student: Is that just the guilt thing, or?]

It's the nature of a bad deed. [laughs] okay. It interrupts the psychic being. He
will, he will not be able to achieve very high shamanta, as long as he has some
bad deed that he has not purified.

[student: So you've gottta do massive purification.]

That's the whole idea of the preparation for meditation. That's the whole point
of, of med... of doing those preliminaries before you meditate.

[student: If you've got like ten thousand years of bad deeds and we're gonna do,
you know, like five minutes of confession before each meditation session, what
are we talking here?]

You know, they, you do as pure as you can, the purer you make yourself the
better the meditation will go.

[student: So with that ration, would it be better to do, you know months and
years of purification before you do a serious retreat.]

It, it might be useful. [laughter] They say, do as much as you can, but it's not
practical. If you do a good {shakpa} a good purification, on your main
problems, you'll be able to have a good meditation. Okay, and how does that
lead you to concentration? You can't perceive emptiness directly if you're not in
a state of shamanta, deep meditation. So he mentions morality, knowing that his
intelligent listeners will say, " Oh yes, but I must have concentration and wisdom
also." How does it apply to the guy at work?

[student: You keep your morality with the guy at work.]

You asked me what to do about, what was it? Something unpleasant, the, the
question came from Mark, and it was a good question, you know, how does the
Dalai Lama enjoy himself? What's the nature of the guy at work? You see, you
see, the whole, the whole {tarlam} is contained in the situation with the guy at
work. That's it, that's the whole answer right there. He hurts you, you know,
what do you do back? What I'm saying is the reaction cannot be related to his
action. The content of the reaction must be totally divorced from his action, if he
had spoken to you nicely, if he had said to you the worst insult you've ever had,
if he hit you, or if he had caressed you, your reaction must be the same. Your
reaction must be the same.

[student: So with that logic,]

Does it mean you don't punch the guy in the face? Absolutely not. With great
motherly love, you would punch him in the face, [laughter], seriously.

[student: If you can.]

[student: So my point, my point was that in term of skillful response, skillful
response.]

I would say the intelligent response, and what the Dalai Lama calls the, what did
you call it?

[student: The enlightened self interest]

The enlightened self interested response, there's only one.

[student: Would be to always take harm.]

Well, that would be a side effect of loving him in response.

[student: So then that... assuming you not going to respond and hurt him in a
compassionate way.]

Well you could have hurt him in a...

[student: Assuming you're not going to do that. Then the only other response
then is to take harm that is given to you. And never give harm back, unless
it's...]

Unless you're stupid, unless you don't understand emptiness. If you don't
understand emptiness, hurt him back. Any other, that reaction is stupid. It' will
cause a perception
which will be planted in your mindstream which must result in you perceiving a
blank object in the future as unpleasant. And you don't want that.

[student: Yeah but... Let's say a Chinese soldier that cut's off the mala beads.]
And it's very difficult. it's very, very difficult, you can know all this stuff, you can
teach it to people for years and then the guy at work yells at you, and it's all
gone [laughs].

[student: Because you figure he deserves to get the response that you give him.]

But I, by the way, even in a worldly way, the opposite response is, is very
constructive and it works very well. You usually get what you want, actually.
That's not Buddhism, to do that. Have some, have something to eat.

[student: What about the Chinese soldier that cuts off the hands of monks?
How, how is the monk supposed to react to it a Chinese soldier?]

What's the ultimate reaction? It's not the soldier that's hurting him, it's not the
soldier that's...

[student: Yeah but he's praying on his mala beads, that's why he got his hands
cut off.]

Should he be angry at the knife or should he be angry at the soldier?

[student: Neither. No, he shouldn't be angry at either, he should prevent that
soldier from cutting off his hands.]

Oh, if it's out of compassion for the soldier for sure. He should do whatever he
can to prevent the soldier from hurting him. But if the time comes that he can't
anymore, which happens in scripture. If you meet such a guy, you say, sure cut
my hands off, but I will not hate you for it.

[student: What if there's a person for example who is, for example, stealing, who
has stolen and then, okay so you don't hate them or anything and you love
them, and you, you just [unclear]]

If your child stole something you'd still love your... [cut]

{Kyebu chinbo}, okay we're on to the meditations for the persons of the great
scope.

[student: Can you summarize the medium scope, it seems really brief?]
Yeah, medium scope, we just had two steps, you know find out what's...

[student: You want it and you get it.]

That's life.

[student: And how do you go about getting it?]

Get it, he said focus on your morality, with watchfulness, and with recollection.
What he meant was, focus on your morality to develop a higher state of
concentration which allows you to see emptiness directly, which will stop your
bad thoughts forever. And that's nirvana, {tarpa} thats {moksha}, okay. By the
way, given the example of the person at work, it a quite simple, that's the
answer, that's the practical application of that, of that principle. He does
something to harm you, and you stop reacting, forever. So there's nothing to
throw this into being, or to throw the perception of this into being, which is the
same as throwing it into being. And by the way, it's only because of that
distinction, that it's possible. What you're actually stopping forever is the future
perception of seeing yourself have such a thought in your mind. And that's the
emptiness, that's the whole... if you want to achieve nirvana that's the whole
thing.

[student: So you would have a body at that point?]

With, with knowledge, react to the person at work with knowledge. Where is
your dharma going to take place? Where is, where are the causes for your
nirvana going to be planted? You know, where is the battlefield on which you
will fight this battle? It's, it's your office. Where did you think it was gonna be?
[laughter] It's in your life, you know, and those are the places where you're
gonna have to do it. It's the perfect place, a fertile field.

[student: Plenty of manure.]

Try to get into a busy office with lots of greedy people around and [laughter],
great, okay. And if you don't have those people, your not gonna get much
chance, sit in a monastery. It's much better to go and be around all these desire
objects, and all these anger objects.

[student: It's hard. It's harder.]
 No, but it's sooner or later you're gonna have to.

[student: But if it's harder that means it's better.]

Well, if you've got the strength not to fail. If you don't have the strength not to
fail, get thee to a nunnery. [laughter]

[student: Shakespeare theme for awhile.]

[student: Back to Hamlet.]

Oh, we ran out, go home now. Two parts to, two parts to...

[student: Two parts to what?]

These are gonna be the two parts to the big persons practice, if I can find it.

[silence]

What does {changsem} mean?

[student: Renunciation?]

Nah, {chang} is bodhi, and {sem} is chitta.

[student: Buddhamind.]

Buddhamind which is not Buddhamind, it's the desire to become a Buddha. It
has nothing to so with the Buddhas state of mind, right? Bodhichitta doesn't ever
have anything to do with the Buddhas own state though. It's the wish to become
a Buddha.

[student: So Buddhas never have bodhichitta, is that that you're saying?]

[students; No. No. [laughter]]

[student: They do don't they?]

{Getsul}, {ge} means...
[student: They just never have bodhichitta state of mind.]

{Getsul} means how to develop it.

[student: Was the other one renunciation? Number two]

[student: What?]

[student: High and medium capacity.]

It's, it's throughout. It's really throughout. It starts with not wanting to go to the
lower realms, right? But true renunciation, you know. Okay, {changsem getsul}
how to develop the wish to become a Buddha so that you can help all other
living beings.

[students: The wish...]

To become a Buddha so that you can help all other living beings.

[student: How to become a Buddha. How to wish, to develop the wish to be...]

How to develop the wish to become a Buddha so that you can help all other
living beings. I'll give it to you in thirty seconds or less.

[student: Don't you have to develop, don't you have to develop the urge, like in
middle scope first? You know, in middle scope...]

These are all...

[student: In the middle scope you develop he urge and then act, here you don't
have to develop the urge and then act.]

This is the urge, then you're gonna have the act. {Changsem} is only the urge.

[student: Oh, I thought you said act.]

No.

[student: It's the wish.]
This is the wish, so what it is, mainly this. It's quite coldly logical, if it's true that
your present consciousness, moment of consciousness, must be produced by the
moment of consciousness in the moment before, okay? If your consciousness
here had to be the cause of your consciousness here, which is true, mind has to
come from mind. Mind has to come from mind of the moment before. The fact
that you were aware, has to come from the fact that you were aware a minute
ago, if that's true, if it's true, don't say it's true, if it's true then you had a past life.

[student: That's right cause it also has to be the fact that you were aware ten
minutes ago [unclear]]

The awareness you had at the moment of conception had to be preceded by a
principal cause consisting of a state of consciousness. We'll, we'll talk about it
later, I mean but, that's the proof of former lives, that's the only proof of former
lives. If that's true, then you've had countless former lives and I can jump. If
that's true then I have been everything to you before and you have been
everything to me before. I've been your mother trillions of times I've been your
worst enemy trillions of times, I've murdered you trillions of times, I've
murdered you trillions of times, you've murdered me trillions of times. Okay,
and we concentrate on the trillions of times that you have taken care of me like
my mother did in this life. So then it's my duty to pay you back, and that's
basically bodhichitta, you know. What have you done for me lately? [laughter]
You know, is a person less kind to you because they were equally kind to you
two years ago then they were last year? I mean, you see what I mean,. Does it
really matter that time has gone by? Does kindness know the bounds of time?
You know, are you less obligated to pay a person back who gave you a
thousand dollars last year then one who gave you a thousand dollars this year, if
you were dying without that thousand dollars? You know, it's, it's not at all.
You are equally obligated to each person. It's simple, I just gave you all the push
you need. Every person has been equally kind to you. There's a matter of now
or a year ago or a thousand years ago and it's your duty to help them.

[student:      But isn't there something you're forgetting about beginning?
[unclear]]

We'll discuss it in the next course, I, promise, really.

[student: I just need you to repeat one sentence. The awareness that you had at
the moment of conception had to be proceeded by and the word principle was
used.]

Had to be proceeded by a moment of awareness which was acting as its principal
cause, okay. In other words, rock don't turn into mud.

[student: Mind produces mind]

Mind produces mind. Principle cause, not talking secondary causes, alright. And
we'll prove it in the next course, okay. Where was that next one?

[silence]

{Choepa} means the activities, and meaning the activities of a bodhisattva.
Bodhisattva activity.

[student: What does {unclear} mean?]

Oh, I'm sorry, how to train in the bodhisattva activities, ow to learn how to act
like a bodhisattva.

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah, how to learn how to act like a bodhisattva. How to learn acting like a
bodhisattva.

[student: Will you do English?]

Bodhisattvas activities have... no, this is Tibetan. Bodhisattva activities, there are
two, two types, basically two types. {Do} means "non-secret", open, okay. Open
bodhisattva activity.

[student: Meaning it is what it appears to be?]

No, it's not tantra, {ngak} means tantra. {Ngak} means tantra and tantra means
secret. Secret, secret bodhisattva activities.

[student: So tantra, what is that? Sanskrit for secret?]

It literally means a thread.
[student: Tantra means thread?]

Yeah it was a... it comes from a thread that Brahmans used to wear on their... but
there's a long story about it. So there's open bodhisattva activities and secret
bodhisattva activities. We can't talk about this one. [laughs]

[student: But we can see it though]

Okay this goes in here.

[student: So it literally refers to tantra though.]

The literal, literal, literal is mantra, okay? {Ngak} means mantra.

[student: As distinct from say things, say doing things in such a way that your
actual purpose in doing them must be hidden from the view of most people.]

I am not going to explain what secret means.

[laughter] [student: No, no.]

I'll tell you one thing, it's not what most people think. [laughter]

[student: No, no, no I'm talking..]

[student: It's even worse.]

I'll tell you one thing, these activities are such a nature that they are secret by
their nature.

[student: No, I'm not talking about that category, I'm talking about the previous
category, or a different category.]

This one, no?

[student: When you say open activities, do you mean right there in the open,
everybody can interpret it as being bodhisattva activity? That why I said...]

That's not what I mean by open, no.
[student: Okay, that's what I was asking.]

I mean you don't need permission to practice them and you... it's a long story,
okay. [laughs]

[student: What were you going to say about {ngak}?]

What I'm saying is that {ngak} is secret by nature. If you don't have the
goodness to practice it, you can open all the books and someone can tell you
everything that's in the books and you can hear everything that anyone ever
done in {ngak} and nothing will happen, you won't see anything. If you don't
have the proper permission, authorization and the proper practices, and the
proper Lam Rim in your heart, you can be around all the {ngak} you want, you
won't see anything, nothing will happen. It doesn't matter, it's secret by it's it's
nature, it's not that anyone has to hide it from you, you'll never see {ngak},
nothing will happen, you know. You can desecrate all those tantric books you
want by opening them and reading them, and nothing will happen to you.

[student: So really, the meaning of tantra, and secrecy is that if you don't have
the goodness and training..]

It's secret by its nature. It'll be hidden from you.

[student: It's an elite awareness then...]

Yeah, you need Lam Rim, you need those other things, what are they?
Understanding how to take a teacher, how to follow him, understanding how
lucky you are and why you should practice dharma, understanding that you will
die. Understanding about the laws of karma that will throw you where they're
gonna throw you, being fed up with this life, understanding how nothing can
make you happy. Taking the steps that are necessary to get out of this life,
which are the three trainings; morality, concentration and wisdom, seeing that
everyone's been your mother, wanting to help them, and then undertaking the
activities that are necessary to help them. If you don't have those as experiential
attitudes and realizations in your heart, you will, it will always be secret towards
you, by its nature, you will never see it. So really they don't, tantric, tantra
doesn't need the protection of locks and keys, really, it's protected by, by its
goodness...

[student: That's funny.]
... by it's nature, you will never see it.

[student: And how do you develop all those realizations in your heart?            By
meditation?]

Ahh, next weeks class. At least know that, at least run that, burn it through your
brain hundreds and hundreds of times. And then, and then that's the purpose of
having a class, is to...

[student: Is to get the information.]

Get the information, but I can't practice it. You must go home and practice it.

[student: That's what I was asking, is it purely meditation?]

Not at all, I told you about the office, right? [laughs]

[student: Right, sorry.]

Okay, okay, {do} two categories to that and we're done. [laughter]

[silence]

[cut]
940323-1
ACI Course 3: Applied Meditation