ACI 6 «Сутра Алмазного Огранщика», занятие 8

CLASS EIGHT: EMPTINESS, PURIFICATION AND PARADISE

APRIL 17, 1995

TRANSCRIBED BY: FRAN DAYAN




This would not be spoken true. You go to some Bodhisattva and he's meditating
and you say, "What are you doing?" and he says, "I'm trying to produce my
paradise, my Buddha paradise."         And the Buddha says, "Well anyone any
Bodhisattva that says that is not speaking true", okay. Which means what?




[student: I working on producing my nominal paradise]




Yeah, all right, okay. If he said that I'm working on producing a paradise which
is self existent, meaning independent of my projections. when I get there, then
he's a liar. He's not speaking true. It's a pun there in the English and in the
Tibetan. Not speaking true means what?




[student: [unclear]]




That's one meaning. But what's the other meaning?




[student: assurances]
He's not teach ... speaking truly in the sense of true existence from the thing's
own side, okay. Even those words, "I'm I'm working to produce my paradise"
are are spoken, as we understand them, it's only because we are projecting on to
the words. That's a whole subject in Madhyamika. It's a very very deep subject.
Because a lot of the people who criticize Nagarjuna said, "Well words have
inherent meanings." You know, when you say paradise, it has an inherent
meaning. And Nagarjuna says, "No it's a bunch of random sounds and you are
projecting a meaning onto those random sounds. Even words don't have their
own meanings. So there's a double ... there's a there's a double entendre there,
okay. Now is the {dakpay shing-kam}. (writes on blackboard) Say {dakpay}
[repeat] {shing-kam} [repeat] {dakpay} [repeat] {shing-kam} [repeat] and the
short form is {dak-shing} Say {dak-shing} [repeat] {dakpay} means pure ... pure.
And {shing-kam} means realm, okay. Pure realm. And that's, I guess, that's
where the Japanese schools centers get their meaning. That where they get their
word from that from that expression. The shortening is {dakshing} which means
pure field. Field in the sense of a farmer's field. And that's the Buddhist name for
heaven or paradise.




[student: [unclear]]




This is an abbreviation of this ... {dak-shing}. And there are many other names
{Ganden} {Tushita} {Okmin} There are many many names of paradises. That's
the most general name. {sangey kyi shing} {sangey kyi sha} There's lots of
words. So what we're going to do tonight is first is discuss specifically how
Maitreya ... who's which Buddha? He's the next Buddha, okay. He's the future.
How he gets to his {dakpay shing-kam}. That's a big subject in the monastery.
(writes on blackboard) [tape skips] {tamay} [repeat] {jangsem} [repeat] {Sipa} is a
synonym for samsara. It's like {korwa}. Sometimes they call it existence. Like
the Wheel of Life is really called {sipa korwa} okay. {tamay} means final. and
{jangsem} means bodhisattva. So this a bodhisattva at his final moment of his ...
samsara ... of his non Buddha existence ... last moment of his samsaric life,
right ... the last moment of his non Buddhahood. You can say the moment
before he becomes enlightened, okay.            And number two {ganden di shu
ganden}... is that heaven called {ganden}. There are a lot of connotations of
{ganden}. It's {tushita} in Sanskrit. It means bliss. The heaven of bliss. {ganden}
means having bliss. {torsch} the root {torchen torsch} doesn't mean rear end. It
means bliss in Sanskrit, okay. And ganden ...that's why Tsongkapa chose it as
the name of his home monastery. He founded Ganden monastery. That was his
headquarters for a long time. And then the Gelupka sect spread from that and
sometimes the Gelupkas are called the Gandenpas. And then later he built ... his
two disciples built Sera and Drepung and they became the three great
monasteries of Lhasa. The combined enrollment before the Chinese attacked
was over thirty thousand monks. Now it's about fifty. {ganden la shok} {shok}
means ... he is staying in Ganden. So at the beginning of this process of
becoming enlightened, he is staying in Ganden. The commentaries here ...
{kendu drema garmey}, all the commentaries say look, we can describe the path
of seeing that's not so bad.        For us to describe what it's like to reach
enlightenment ... you know what are the final moments of enlightenment like ...
it's very difficult for a human being to imagine. Difficult for us to describe. But
he says, "I'll try." Okay and that's the process that's here. So at this point,
Maitreya ... we're talking about Maitreya, right? He's a Bodhisattva in the last
moment. He's located in Ganden, okay. Which ... you know I called Rinpoche to
ask him this question this afternoon, but I couldn't get a hold of him. If he's in
Ganden I don't see how he can be in a Buddha paradise. Unless he's visiting, I
guess. But that's a long story. I think it is a Buddha paradise and I think he is
visiting. But I don't think he can experience it as a full Buddha paradise. Maybe
something like that. Anyway. (writes on blackboard) Say {gere} [repeat]
{chumpa} [repeat] {cha} [repeat] {gere} means in Ganden ... in Ganden paradise.
{chumpa} you know, I think. {tulku} is the same thing ... almost. What's a
{chumpa}? An emanation, okay. {cha} means he leaves there. What it means is
that he leaves an image of himself there. He leaves a clone of himself there. It's
not him. It's it looks like Maitreya and that that clone continues to stay in
Ganden.




[student: At that moment when he becomes enlightened does he leave his clone
behind?]




The moment before, okay.




[student: Who is [unclear] the clone or him?]
He is. I guess you can say it's three moments, okay. You must have been a
debater. He leaves the cl ... he's sitting in meditation, actually on emptiness, at at
in Ganden, he leaves an emanation in Ganden and he goes to ...( writes on
blackboard)     You don't have to write this. Say {okminla} [repeat] {tulku}
[repeat] {dordosay} [repeat] {okmin} is another paradise.                 It's called
{okmin},right. {ok} means below. {min} means not. So what does {okmin}
mean?




[student: supreme]




It's the highest. It's below none, okay. {Okmin} means a paradise whose name is
below none. {la tulku} means the Dharmakaya. Dharmakaya consists of what
two things? Do you remember? Yes, his essence body meaning the Budd... the
emptiness of the Buddha's mind mainly and then what? The Buddha's mind
itself. Those two things together are the Dharma ... kaya, the Dharma body.
{oondosay} {oondosay} means he actualizes, he makes manifest. They do not
say here grow or develop or generate. Why not?




[student: He spontaneously appears]




[student: Because emptiness doesn't grow]




Yeah. Emptiness is is permanent and unchanging. It can never grow. He
achieves it. He brings it about but you can't say he develops it or he generates it
or anything like that. That's a difficult question. Actually what you've got in the
Dharmakaya is something which is changing ... which is what? What part of the
Buddha is changing? His mind, okay. It's part of the Dharmakaya. And then his
emptiness is what? [laughs] This is too much for Monday nights. [laughter] By
the way we're into class eight, we're all exhausted, me especially, okay. So
keep ... hang in there, you know ... don't get ... don't buzz out, all right ... we'll
make it. You've got like another few classes and then you're free for longer than
you want, probably. [laughter] So just work hard. And it's tiring, I know. It's it's
hard to do a whole class like this. {okmin} means that ... {chulku mun dosayso} ...
his mind is a changing object. The Buddha's mind is constantly changing as it as
it perceives objects. But his emptiness is unchanging. Together they are the
Dharmakaya.       So we say in in Buddhist logic that that Dharmakaya is
unchanging. Therefore you cannot say he develops or he grows or he ... or
anything like that ... the Dharmakaya, okay. (writes on blackboard)




[student, Sherrill: Excuse me Michael. I'm a little confused. You said his ... the
Buddhas's mind is changing. However that's a portion of the Dharmakaya ... and
that makes the Dharmakaya considered unchanging]




Yeah, because it has an unchanging element. Anything which has an unchanging
element and a changing element is considered unchanging in Buddhist logic and
you have to prove it. It's it's it's an axiom of Buddhist logic. You have to prove
that sometimes, too. So then he re-enters the emanation [laughs] that he left ...
where?




[student: in Ganden]

[student, Tom Kiely: in meditation on emptiness at Ganden?]




It doesn't say specifically. It's very sketchy and I'm sketchy and the whole thing
is sketchy and {Kendup Tumbe Darjey} says look, "All I can do is try to piece it
together from the sutras you know. We don't have a clear ... to try to figure out
what happens at the last moments of ... just before your enlightenment is very
difficult.
[student, Sherrill: Because nobody tells, right?]




Well, I don't know. He did mention in sutras what happened. But but it's not
very clear exactly. I mean there's ... it hard to imagine, actually. And then when
you get to the eighth chapter of the [b: Abidharmaactara] [b: The Perfection of
Wisdom] and try to read the qualities of a Buddha, there're very difficult.
{samgay mi chelpa} which means beyond our ability to grasp it and some of the
qualities seem impossible. And that's just, you know, it's a non-Buddha trying to
imagine what a Buddha is like.




[student, Fran Perriello: You're using words [unclear] going to Buddhahood but
I heard a lot of people describing [unclear] distinguish]




I think they're confusing the word ... I use in fact the word "realized" to describe
an Arya. To describe a person who has seen emptiness directly. But {sang gawa}
which means to become a {sangay} which means "Buddha", you know, which
means to become enlightened is is only at that moment. There's nothing before
that. You could you could call seeing emptiness directly for the first time perhaps
an enlightening experience or a realization and I would call that person "realized"
to distinguish him from {soso kelwas} ... ordinary people, but not before that.
No where in in in the teachings of Indian Buddhism, you know.




[student, Fran Perriello: [unclear]]




I ... unless they mean it to mean a direct perception of of emptiness at the fir ...
you know, at the path of seeing.
[student, Fran Perriello: [unclear]]




We'll ... there are qualities of the Buddha. You have to study the eighth chapter
of the Maitreya's own work, the [b: Abhisamaankara] and and they tell you very
clearly his qualities. That what what you get when you get enlightened and
there's a big list. It's many pages long, you know. So in real terms you (writes
on blackboard)




[student, John Stilwell: Michael, what womb do you enter?]




Maya's. You saw it in Little Buddha. [laughs] No, he enters his mother's womb
which is the first of his twelve deeds, I think. And then he and then he acts out
the other twel ... eleven deeds. Why do they say act out? In Tibetan the word is
{sul temmo} which means actually to pretend.




[student: He's already a holy one?]




Yeah, he was, according to Mahayana he was enlightened before he came to this
planet. Before he came to this earth as Shakyamuni Buddha. He didn't sit under
the Bodhi tree in Bodgaya to become enlightened there, according to Mahayana.
He ... all Buddhas are enlightened in Okmin. And I asked Rinpoche ... do you
remember Okmin was one of the ... someone asked me a good question. I think
it was Stilwell or someone else who said, "Is everybody ... there were five
qualities of the enjoyment body and one of them that he's always got a
paradise ... an Okmin paradise ... that's one of his five certainties. And I asked
Rinpoche. I said, "Well, does that mean there's all these Okmin paradises running
around? I mean every Buddha has his own Okmin paradise?" And he said, "Yes.
That what it means. There all called Okmin.", okay. And you do have your
personal paradise. It's not like to have to share it with somebody else. And it's
not like you become one with the other Buddhas, okay. It's not like you meld
together or something like that.    You ... because Karma is experienced
individually, right?. Yeah?




[student: Do all these Buddhas know each other?]




Yeh, they can read ... they are {kun ken} they're omniscient and the other
Buddhas' minds are one of their objects. It's one of their ... since you're
omniscient you know every existing object and those other Buddhas's minds and
their emptinesses and their physical bodies are all things ... so they perceive all of
them. Yeah.




[student, Robyn Brentano: Since his mother's ... is his mother in ... huh]




His mother is on planet Earth. What enters the womb is still the Nirmanakaya,
right? It's not the ... it's not the Dharmakaya, okay. So a bunch of things happen.
I think one easier way to put this is is there's another ... there's another place ...
let me see if I can find it. I'll tell you a bunch of things that happen at the same
time. This is another way they present this in the monastery, okay. A lot of
different things happen at the same time in the first moment of your
enlightenment, okay. First thing is you achieve Okmin ... paradise.




[student, Sherrill: meaning you automatically develop .. it becomes established
and you're in it]




Yeah. You'll read in the reading that the Buddha says ... he's talking about
paradise because he says, "Look you gotta get enlightenment
somewhere." [laughs] You gotta get the place ready. And by the way and
there's a very beautiful practice called {shinda jorwa} and I'll write up for you.
You can just write it in English sounds, okay. {shinda jorwa} {shinda jorwa}
{shinda} means what? {dakshing} same thing. Pure land, pure realm, paradise.
You guys object if I say heaven? No, it doesn't bother you then, okay. I I said
that in the translation. Somebody wrote ... {shinda} means heaven and then
{jorwa} means the practice. And {shinda jorwa} means specific practices you do
to achieve your own paradise. The physical place where you're going to stay. So
there's a whole list of things you have to do to ... there are specific practices you
do to achieve your own paradise and and one of them, which Rinpoche is always
reminding me, is to keep your room orderly. [laughs] [laughter] I'm stuck. I'm
not ... I ain't going to make it, I think. Apparently some kind of ... as you look at
your room and keeping it like Rinpoche's room so neat that the Dalai Lama
could walk in it and feel, you know ... I mean, you'd be ... it's as clean and neat as
you would have it if the Dalai Lama was visiting that morning. And somehow
that orderliness ... the karma of being orderly ... and also there's a specific karma
called {selway di kelwa gaway} which is in the [b: Abhidharma] and that's taking
care of physical dharma facilities like Mr [laughs]. But ...if you do with with the
right motivation ... I'm not doing it {kasaks} which is one of the ... what do you
call that? ... bad livelihood ... I'm ...wrong livelihood which is where for a monk
to say "It's really great virtue for you guys to clean Dharma centers, you
know" [laughs] We just happen to meet someone tonight ... not like that. But
just to take care of a place physically is one of the {shinda jorwa}s. There's a
whole {shinda jorwa}. It's really a beautiful subject. Okay. So what it says
here ... actually the whole line says ... because of your {shinda jorwa} you get
Okmin ... you get your own Okmin. So that was the first thing. I'm going to
give you a whole list of things that happen at the same time. You get your own
Okmin because you did your practices for getting your own paradise, okay.
Your directly perceive the totality of knowable things. And there's a reason I say
totality and we'll get to it later.




[student, John Stilwell: Do you mean Arya when you say noble?]




Know .. able. [laughs], okay. You directly perceive the totality of knowable
things. That's the second thing that happens to you. You reach what's called ... I
guess you could say the final limit. And I have to check something.
[student, John Stilwell: Michael, when you said that Okmin is the highest
paradise does that mean there are paradises that aren't as blissful or good or
whatever?]




No, that's just what the name means.




[student, John Stilwell: So they're all equivalent]




By the way most of these heavens have ... there are other places with that name
in the samsara. Like there is a Ganden which is a land of of form realm and stuff
like that ... Okmin. So there's two of them. There's a duality. There's a pure one
and an impure one, usually. And you reach the pure one you're not in the
impure one.




[student John Stilwell: So all these various paradises equally desirable to obtain,
basically?]




Yeah, they're all the same thing. They all have the same quality. It's called
{rowcheek}. It means {ecarasa} means they all have the same flavor. They all
have the same quality. Oh, okay. That's what I thought. The final limit ... what I
just said ... the final limit refers to stopping the third suffering. Which is what ...
what was the third suffering? Do you remember the third? What are the first
two sufferings? First suffering is suffering of suffering ... outright suffering ...
okay, outright suffering. Backache, headache mental, angry, okay. [laughs]
Those are the first ones. Then the suffering of change which is the fact that every
pleasant experience has a lousy one attached to it, okay. Everything good you
ever get has stapled on to the end of it something miserable. That's the nature of
our pleasures. And then third one is what? Third suffering ...        pervasive
suffering. Which which basically means the condition of ageing and dying.




[student, John Stilwell: Do they refer to all your aggregates being of the nature
or are they must suffer in every way.]




I I think you can say that and I've seen it explained that way but the basic is a
{gaschi gaway di shiwa nachur ....} which just basically means getting old and
die. [laughs] To reach the final limit which is ... how many things have we got
now? Three. You got Okmin, you know all the totality of knowable things, and
you've reached the final limit, okay. What's that?




[student, Sherrill: [unclear] sometime before now]




Good point. And the Gelupas monastic text books here add the line, "which if
you have done it earlier would have constituted the extreme of peace". Okay
and that's part of the definition. In other words, it would have been reaching a
lower nirvana, okay. So it's interesting. It's actually just the plain old nirvana but
it's defined as the one that if you had bought it about earlier you would have
fallen into the extreme of peace. And there's a big debate in the monastery
which Kiely just thought of, which is why would anyone want to delay their
Buddhahood or their nirvana or anything or no?




[student Tom Kiely: No, I was just thinking ]




It's a pretty big debate in the monastery and all that.
[student Tom Kiely: What you just described then was full Mahayana not a
someone who was Hinayana achieved nirvana and then went on to become a
Buddha. This would be someone who is someone who is Mahayana all the way]




You could say that. That's a good point. We call {mennan...} which means
someone who has never been on the lower track or who has not achieved
nirvana on the lower track. Okay, fourth thing that happens is {chookla limba
chepa} which means you bring forth your Dharmakaya. At ... what number are
we on?




[reply: four]




Alright, we're on five now, right? Number five is you become enlightened
towards all Dharma which I take to mean and must mean the true nature of all
Dharma. We said that the Buddha knows the totality and the nature of all things.
Totality means he ... which we already had, right? ... means he sees all existing
objects but enlight ... being enlightened towards all objects means he also
simultaneously directly sees their emptiness ... of all objects. And only a Buddha
can do that. Only a Buddha can simultaneously perceive deceptive reality and
ultimate reality at the same time. You know those Aryas have this thing where
they have to come down out of it and then everything was illusory because they
knew they were wrong and they couldn't help themselves and only when you
reach Buddhahood can you focus on on both realities at once. And then, you
know, trying to describe the mind that can do that is is very difficult [laughs]. It's
projecting and it's not projecting. It's difficult, you see. Yeah, you had a
question?




[student: I lost it]
Good. [laughs] [laughter] The physical body ... this is what now number ... six. I
thought I would have to do these in my Geshe exams. What's that? You had a
question?




[student, Sherrill: He ... from his side he is seeing projected deceptive reality
and .. ]




No He is seeing direct ...no, deceptive reality came already.        It was back in
number three ... number two. But by the way that means




[student Sherrill: ... in number five he can see them both]




No, I didn't mean that. Number five says he sees their emptinesses. Number
five says




[student: Do you mean the totality of all things ... who ... his?]




No, all objects in the universe. And emphasizing the relative objects. You want
to put it that way. How's that. We call it {jinnay chu} and {depawa chu} Number
two is he sees the total quantity of all existing things. Number five is he sees the
quality of all existing things. How's that?




[student Sherrill: I still don't understand.     Is he seeing even a quantity of
something out there]
He sees everything you can count. How's about if we put it that way?




[student Sherrill: But they only exist deceptively]




That's true.




[student Sherrill: So whose projections are ...?]




His own. He sees himself as a Buddha seeing actually what we are projecting,
okay. That's a difficult point. [laughs] Alright. Because he doesn't have to project
that anymore. He he pityingly sees what we are projecting. That's a good point,
okay. That's a difficult point. What number are we on ... six? The body of the
Bodhisattva at the last moment before his enlightenment flips over into the
enjoyment body. We had that idea in when we studied {tsema}, right? That
goes ding ding ding ding which is the final moment and then flops over into the
enjoyment body.




[student John Stilwell: So in essence his physical body dies]




It becomes a rainbow body and the nature of his physical body is is very very
interesting. It's it's like a rainbow. It's it's not made of atoms but it's visible,
okay. And that's a big debate, too. You can study that some day.




[student: I'm sorry. Can you rephrase the [unclear]]
Basically his samsaric body transforms into a paradisical body which is visible but
not made up of matter. How's that? And then other texts say he's like empty
like a like a golden pitcher. There's nothing inside. There's no guts. No heart, no
lungs. Just a pure rainbow body, okay.




[student John Stilwell: Is it the idea that anybody who has attained a rainbow
body is enlightened?]




Ahhhh, that would be mixing two different subjects. Remember that famous
debate we had about ... were you here?




[student John Stilwell: I thought that what you were talking about. It's not the
same? No. Okay]




Similar but not exactly the same. And last thing ... number seven ...




[student Robyn Brentano: Michael. I seem to recall you saying it didn't actually
transform. Is that..]




I would say transform. What does he say. He says. It says here it takes on the
condition of ... if you want a better verb. It does say transform




[student Robyn Brentano: It's like the substance of a samsaric body]
Yeah ... transforms. Duty or karma ... you perceives it as transforming.




[student Robyn Brentano: But the substance itself is...?]




Yeah. It does. It provides the {nirlenkey du} It provides the what we call the ...
what? ... the immediate cause ... the material cause. Okay, last thing. This is a
little tricky, okay. He achieves the cause from what will at the next moment
become the ability to emanate countless Nirmanakayas. i.e., you can't say that in
the first moment of his enlightenment he attains countless emanation bodies that
are on all these planets because that's a result of the {loan ku} of the enjoyment
body. The enjoyment body has to send them out. He's gotta have the ... he only
achieves the cause for all the Nirmanakayas.




[student John Stilwell: Is the enjoyment body the cause?]




Uhhh. It says it's connected to the enjoyment body. How's that. [laughs] I
believe the cause is the Dharmakaya. I believe what what generates them is the
Dharmakaya ... the mind ... his mind. But the cause is tied up with enjoyment
body. The cause is somehow tied to the enjoyment body and then the next
moment it starts sending out emanations ... including one to earth into Maya's
womb. And apparently this a pattern for all Buddhas. I mean they ... it seems
like on particular planets ... I don't know if the names are the same ... of the
mother and all that ... but the basic deeds they do and the basic life they pretend
to go through for our benefit are all very similar.




[student, John Kiely: Is this countless millions of emanations going out to appear
as the same way as the Buddha did here or is there just one unique time and
place where that particular eleven deeds are acted out, for instance?]
There's a very ... tremendous debate about it in the [b: Abhidharmakosha] but
the {wrong loop} you know, what the five final position is that there could be
countless planets on which any single Buddha is emanating as as, you know, a
Shakyamuni Buddha going through a whole life and stuff like that. And they
could take quite different forms as well. But the {cholki tulku} the highest
physical image of a Buddha that appears on a planet is always has those one
hundred and twelve marks ... signs and marks.




[student Tom Kiely: So finally then is this particular acting out, like we saw here
on earth, special for unique to when someone first achieves their Buddhahood or
can they have achieved their]




Oh no they could have




[student Tom Kiely: thousands of countless lives ago and they still make it look
like it just happened]




Yes Yes




[student, Tom Kiely: so that's one sorta of one supreme emanation form ...
Nirmanakaya form]




you could say that




[student, Tom Kiely: among many other forms that came through ]
You could say that this one came out the second instance after his enlightenment,
you could say that. By the way this is describing Maitreya not Shakyamuni.
Yeah




[student: What's the purpose of his being born as a foreign [unclear]]




It's to ... they ... this is beautiful. It's they say it's to ... first of all its it's the same as
the purpose for pretending to die which is make us believe that everything is
suffering. He goes through {kayga naschi} he goes through the four sufferings.
Being born, getting old, age ...getting sick and dying and he does it for our
benefit. To show us a pattern. And then he goes through this whole thing of
pretending to follow a wrong spiritual path for a while and then pretending to
discover the right one and then pretending to sit under the Bodhi tree all

night and then pretending to become enlightened and then pretending ... you
know, going through this whole pattern. The real activity that he does which is
really not like a movie is teaching. That's his main activity. That's the main
activity of a Buddha is the teaching. He goes through all that other stuff in order
to get a group of people there to teach. Yeah.




[student Fran Perriello:          Were the teachings of Maitreya and Shaykamuni
identical?]




Yeah. Except in this sense that, I mean,... there are Buddhas ... there are worlds
where they're not ripe for Mahayana and they're worlds ... there're many many
worlds where they're not ripe for Tantra and people are just not fit for Tantra.
So it's supposed to be extremely rare ... they say this is like ... there's a flower ...
there's a kind of flower in India that blooms once every thousand years or
something. And we're in this particular era, you know. We've reached this ... we
are comparable to that flower blooming because we have ... we live in a world
where Tantra is taught.
[student Sherrill: Do we know when Maitreya is coming?]




I don't




[student Sherrill: I mean it has to obviously be when Buddha ]




There is a ... I think there is a prediction. I don't have it. I could look it up for
you. I'm sure there're different dates mentioned. Let's do one more short thing
and then we'll take a break. The homework has a question. It says, " Why
doesn't the truth of suffering exist in a Buddha paradise." And then there is this
debate in the Buddhist scriptures where the people say, "Well, Okmin is just
another place. How come it's not the truth of suffering." Every single location in
our world is the truth of suffering in the sense of being the reality of suffering.
Every single location on this planet is equally total suffering. So what ... so why
isn't Okmin suffering? It's just another place, right?




[student, Tom Kiely: I thought the suffering in samsara is a state of mind. It's not
a physical place.]




There's {nur churdick ... nur da churdick korwa} {nurgey korwa} means the
physical place where samsara occurs and {churdick korwa} the inhabitants of that
place. Yeah it can be divided into two. {norgey denba} the truth of suffering
divides into two ... the place and the beings.




[student, Robyn Brentano: So the answer to that question is that there's ]
Yeah, someone comes up to me in a debate ... you know the Buddha's text are
designed as debates ... and someone comes up and says, "Well Okmin is a place.
So it must be covered with suffering. Suffering must imbue it the way it imbues
every single locality on the planet of earth." Why not?




[student, Tom Kiely: Because Buddha would have had to have suffering when he
came here]




[student, Robyn Brentano: Because it's an emanation of the mind of the Buddha]




That's true. But the main thing comes in the cause. The causes are different ...
totally different.




[student: non virtuous karma, isn't it?]




What's a cause of a suffering place? There are two classic causes. Two things that
make our world, if you are like me, pooopy, you know. There's only two things
that you got to get rid of. There's one of them that came from the past and is
screwing up our present world and one of them we are create ... we have now
and is screwing up our future world. If you could get rid of those two, you'd be
in paradise, forever. And in fact you must get rid of those two. So what are
they? One is karma. That's what's happened in the past that is making your
world lousy now. And what now do you have that is going to make your future
world lousy? Your mental afflictions. Okay, the root of them being ignorance, or
believing that things are not your projections, basically. If you got your ... it's a
very simple task, when you know when you think about it. If you could find a
way to get rid of your old karma and if you could find a way to get rid of your
mental afflictions, which are the only thing that can create new karma then you'd
be in paradise. You'd be in paradise, tonight. And you can do it. And that s the
whole purpose to have a class, actually. [laughs]
[student, Ariel: You mean the only thing that can create new bad karma}




Well, there's dirty good karma and there's clean good karma. There's pure good
karma and there's unclean ... good karma created with ignorance is ... we call
dirty good karma. But that's a long story.




[student: But that black and white, right?]




Basically. So those are the two things that cause ... they cause our ... every locality
on planet earth, even the Bahamas, even Barbados, [ laughs] [laughter] even a
beach on Barbados ... is created by those two things. So you must suffer there.
When you go there you have to suffer. It must it must be lousy. What are the
two causes of a paradise? One is called {monlam} and one is called {gewa}. What
is {monlam}? {monlam} is prayer. Like the monlam festival in Lhasa. It's called
prayer. Prayer means ... as as Buddhas, before they become Buddhas collect
virtue, they they they start to ... what do you call it? ... they start to do an action
plan, you know. I'll become Shakyamuni Buddha. I'd like to be on planet earth.
I'd like to teach Tantra. You know, that's what I'm going to shoot for. It's sorta a
statement of intention. It's ... what do you call that ... a mission statement. Yeah,
corporate mission statement, okay. It's a mission statement. It really is. It's a
{monlam}. If the virtue is done with that {monlam} and then virtue, good deeds,
okay. So so the texts say if a place is created by {monlam} and {gewa}, by those
virtuous intentions and those virtues it won't be the truth of suffering and if it's
created by karma and kleshas, you you must suffer there and that's the
difference between Okmin and the place we are in New York City as we now
experience it. Where will Okmin be? I mean this really irritates me when they
write books about where is Shambala, you know. Take a left turn for so eighty
miles [laughs] [laughter] you gotta get in the spaceship there and you have to
get over that mountain, there. Where will Okmin be? I mean, truly, truly. It will
just be where we happen to be when you finish those two causes, you know.
Because the object will just change for you.
[student John Stilwell: What does that say about space and time?]




I mean it will be New York City actually if you don't move out here before your
enlightenment.




[student, Tom Kiely: So the purpose for Okmin really isn't for the Buddha to
interact with Mahayana Aryas, right?]




And by the way I don't mean to imply that it is now, okay. I mean, I mean I'm
not trying to say that New York City is a paradise now and you have the
problem and we can't recognize it. That's not ... you will make New York City
into paradise by being virtuous because it's ... empty ... and only because it's
empty.

[student, Tom Kiely: So Okmin is a place for the Buddha to interact and teach
Mahayana Aryas at that time for the Buddha it will be pure but at that same time
by the very nature of Mahayana Aryas or bodhisattvas who are not yet Buddhas
will still have some perception of ]




They will be getting old as they sit in Okmin and listen to the Buddha. That true.




[student. Tom Kiely: And vice versa when the Buddha comes here for us we're
getting old and for that Buddha they appear]




[student: Who's getting old?]
[laughs] Getting very old. Okay, lets take a break, right.




Mental afflictions. What's the second best thing? [laughter]




[student: {jakpa}, good deeds]




No. No. Mental afflictions.




[student, Laura Segal: meditate on emptiness]




See emptiness. That's all that's [laughter] Why didn't the guy get angry when ...
Miss Ani-la miss what's her name, please sit down. What's the second ... why
didn't he get angry? the guy that was getting his fingers cut off? A lot of people
say it's because he saw emptiness. Come on.




[student, Sherrill: He had no concept of his own self existence]\

[student, Vilma: And because you can't have a mental affliction and emptiness at
the same time]




You can't ... you can't ... yeah they are ...they are ... yeah, it would just be ... it
would be crazy to understand that this guy's cutting off my fingers because I had
a bad thought in the past and then allow yourself a bad thought ... it would be
some kind of insanity and we do it all the time. We live like that and then
wisdom has to get the better ... the upper hand and finally it's gotta click in
during those intermittent moments at work when someone is yelling at you.
[laughs] It has to turn on at the right time. So there's there's a knowledge but
then there has to be a {sheshin} which is awareness. You have to be able to turn
it on at the right time. A lot of us understand what I just said but when ... the
minute somebody yells at work you get into this defensive mode and
everything just melts away. It happens to me all ... everyday ... several times ...
and you just forget everything and you get angry again. So that's how you get
rid of the mental afflictions. But how do you get rid of your past bad karma?
It's the four forces, okay. You have to do a Buddhist purification. Buddhist
purification is very very beautiful. It works. You can remove the power of your
old karma, okay. It's really really nice. It's very very powerful and that's why
we call it forces. It's really powerful. If you really do try it it will be very
satisfying for you, okay. (writes on blackboard) Basic force they explains is
what gets you back on your feet. You fell down. You did a bad deed and what's
the floor, you know. What do you push against to get back

up on your feet. What helps you get back up on your feet. What helps you to
recover ... is taking refuge and and generating bodhichitta. There's one prayer
for that, right? ... {sangye chudang tsokyi choknam la} Refuge means ... what
does going for refuge mean? I think one of the main meanings would be to, you
know in the morning you think today something bad will happen to me.
Something difficult will come and I will not get sucked into the ... reacting the old
way. I will see the emptiness of it. I'll see that it's my own projection and I will
definitely not create the new projection. That and to me that's the essence of
taking refuge. I believe that's the essence of taking refuge. That's the only thing
that can protect you. That's the only refuge. That is protection. That thought is
protection. Buddha can't do anything. Buddha ... the Dalai Lama can stand next
to you and you can get your fingers cut off and he can't help you. There's
nothing he can do. There's nothing more a Buddha can do when his whole
family was slaughtered. He just could stand there and there's nothing. It's only
this thought that can protect you.           This understanding can protect you.
Knowledge can protect you. And then bodhichitta is that ... the main idea here is
that you say you're working for the good of all sentient beings and you say
you're going to give up your own desires and devote yourself making sure that
other people's wishes are fulfilled. And then you get jealous the minute they
give someone a position at work, right? [laughs] And then Pabongka says,
"Come ... what a joke, you know. You can't even stand someone getting this
lousy little samsaric position at work, you know. What would happen if they
became a Buddha?" You'd probably really get mad, right? [laughs] [laughter]
And I do it all the time. I catch myself all the time. I get jealous of other Dharma
teachers. It's very funny, okay, Second one is ... this is what actually destroys
the force of the bad deed. And that's regret. Let's say intelligent regret.
SIDE TWO




And then how it gives you a a result and that's what we call karma and if you
explain it clearly to somebody through the perceptual process it very acceptable,
very reasonable, very logical and then you have to think, you know, "Today I
got angry" and despite myself and despite my present ... despite the fact that it's
against my present wishes, I have indelibly planted a ... almost indelibly ...
planted a thing in my mind stream. I did it. It's there. It's going to ripen. I've
got no choice now, you know. It's just some kind of knowledge that you
understand the process, you understood that you perceived that deed, and that
is now planted in your mental stream. Period. It's it's now stained on your
mental stream and it must come back. It will come back. And just understand
that process. You know, the minute you see yourself doing a bad deed that's it.
It's too late. You can't take it back then. It's planted. It stained your mind stream
and it will give it's result and it will be similar to the cause, which all results are,
and it will be bad. Because you can't get a good result from a bad cause. That's
impossible, too. It's just physics. So it's just ... intelligent regret means "Oh, man I
screwed up!" You know, I planted it. It is planted. I can't go back to the mind
stream of three p.m. today and take it out. It's too late. You have to stop it
before you plant it.




[student, Ani Pelma: what if you stop it half way?]




Then you get half the results. [laughs] No, if you catch yourself half way through
a bad deed or bad thought, the first part of the bad thought, you get a bad result
from it and then you get a really big virtue for stopping yourself and that's the
essence of all morality. You know, I remember Art saying was "that if you really
think about it, it's ... there has to be this process of temptation or almost folly to
really define a virtue of avoiding a bad deed" You have to come close to a bad
deed before you can say "I really did the virtue of avoiding it."
[student Ani Pelma: Say if you did something bad and you realize you did
something bad and you try to fix it ]




That's what these four forces are. (writes on blackboard) This really, I mean ...
this is really the one that does the most ... well I shouldn't say that ... cause that's
the fourth one. I mean, a lot of people say, "Oh you're a Buddhist ... in fact
Hinayana would say, "Oh you your four forces are like the morning after pill",
you know. "You want to have it both ways, you know. You want to do
something bad the night before and have everything okay the next day if you
do your four forces", you know. I've heard people say that. I've heard that ...
them say "that the Mahayana has psychologically invented this thing to make
your bad people better and it doesn't really work and wouldn't it be silly to say
that you could go around and do any bad deed you want and then just do your
four forces, you know and not worry about it." Which would have ... would
seem to be like that if the third one weren't this. The third one means you don't
do it.




[student Tom Kiely: It's like the intent to restrain yourself from doing it in the
future]




We'll talk about it. No. No. It's not doing it again! You can only have the night
after pill one time. [laughs] You can only use it once. [laughs] [laughter] Then it
ain't worth much, right. I mean, we'll talk about this but but mainly if you're
doing a good purification ... if you're really doing Buddhist purification well ...
you're pretty much trying to obtain a state where you just never do that thing
again. Now, many books say, "You would be a liar if you said you'd never do it
again if it's a habitual bad deed that you have." And we all have our own. And
they're different for each person depending of whether you're desire or anger
side. We all have our particular flavors ... favorite flavors. And I have mine and
you have yours. You know what it is and I know what mine is. And and you
have to work on that one. You work on your worst one first. And you you try
to avoid it and I've broken mine before I've finished my confession ceremony.
You know, mentally. And caught myself doing that. So the scriptures all say,
"Don't make yourself ... don't don't add lying to the list of crimes, you know." Set
yourself a a goal ... a time limit, okay. Say I will ... set yourself a reasonable goal
that you can actually watch yourself for that time period. It can be ten minutes.
It can be twenty-four hours. It could be two weeks. But set yourself a a ... what
do you call it ... a do-able, an achievable time limit, you know. I I for the next
twenty four hours swear I will not do this thing. Stop yourself. That's how you
build up to being able to stop it completely. And you, if you really try to purify a
bad deed ... a bad habit that you have, you'll have tremendous battles. They'll be
they'll be tremendous battles. Your life will be a whole series of wars and you'll
take many casualties, you know. The books say that. They describe it like that,
you know. Before you finally win, there'll be many bad days and you have to
expect that. But you must fight the battle. It's a very glorious ... it's a very ... it is
the ultimate battle. And you must do it. You must try. You can't just say, "oh, I
can't do it or you know I'll do that tomorrow." Or it's very proper and it's one of
the most ... I don't know ... meaningful human activities to fight against your bad
habits. You must do it. And sooner or later you'll win. But you'll have many
bad days. And you'll fail many times but in the end you win. The [b:
bodhisatvaartarya] says, you know, nobody who goes into a big battle and slays
Goliath doesn't come out with any scratches, you know. You have bad days.
You will have bad days. You will screw up. But you've got to go back again and
do it again and sooner or later you win. So you have to start. That's that's
restraining yourself, okay. That's the essence of confession, I mean really.
Purification. Because what happens finally? You just don't do it anymore, okay.
And that's ,you know... you have one personal bad habit mainly (tape skips)
Number four. We call it ... what's a nice word for makeup ... something to make
up for it? They're all antidotes.        I'll just say makeup activity, okay. I don't
know. You you figure out ... something to make up for it, okay. I don't know.
You figure out a nice ... It is a [unclear] {laughs][laughter] No it's something that
you choose, some symbolic activity or actually ... it can be symbolic or actual,
okay. And I'll explain why. I mean, we have a friend out in New Jersey who
was in Viet Nam ... a student of Rinpoche's ... he sprayed the jungle with machine
gun fire in a fire fight. He doesn't know if he hit anybody. So he came to
Rinpoche and says, "I might have killed somebody. I don't know." So Rinpoche
said, "You know, I happen to know that you have two sheep in your back yard
that your father is keeping to eat and I want you to buy them from your father
and keep them alive until they die a natural death." It turns out that sheep live a
lot longer than you would guess. [laughs] [laughter] I think they've lasted about
eighteen years and he took care of them and then they died a natural death.
And that ... he ... that was a symbolic activity. But there is also an actual activity.
The highest activity to to make up for what you did is to study the [b: Perfection
of Wisdom] It's to study how to perceive emptiness under the influence of
Bodhichitta.




[student, Sherrill: To ammend?]




It's some kind of activity to make up for what you did. [laughs] Okay. If you
by the way, if you do these four correctly ... if you do them properly ... it is
stated in the sutras and I've seen it and I've read it recently in the last few days ...
it's there. It is stated by the Buddha himself that a karma that ... in fact it's stated
in the Heart ... in the Diamond Cutter ... you going to have in your reading, I
think ... if you do these properly, then a karma which would have taken you to
the lower births, would have taken you to hell ... you can experience in this life as
a headache or something like that. And that's the example given in the sut ... in
the scriptures. It means if you do a good purification what will be happening to
you? You can go around getting a lot of headaches. [laughs] [laughter] It's worth
it, right? [laughs] [laughter] By the way, so read ... do you got your reading?
Page six, last English on the page and then we'll stop. That's the last page. Ani-la
[Pelma] can you read it? Yes. page six. Ani-la here. The English on the bottom.
In the dark.




[student Ani-Pelma: "Oh Subhuti, any son or daughter of noble family who
takes up a sutra like this, or who holds it, or reads it, or comprehends it fully, will
suffer. They will suffer intensely"]




Okay. [laughs] Why? [laughter]




[student Laura Segal: It's hard to understand]
Why? Why if you study the [b: Diamond Cutter] you will suffer. Because it's a
purification. It's a heavy purification. It's a very intense purification. Because the
highest purification is to study emptiness, okay. Highest act of purification is to
study emptiness. By the way when you get into Tantra you study Vajrasattva
purification ... very very powerful ... very very holy ... very great. and I hope we
can do that some day. But in the meantime [laughs] ... what makes ... what
makes the understanding of emptiness so powerful? ... as a purification. What's
understanding emptiness got to do with not doing [unclear]. Yes, it's the direct
antidote. If you know emptiness you're not going to get angry at the guy who's
cutting your fingers off ... much less the guy at work who says a small bad word
to you, you know. That's the whole idea. And only if you understand emptiness
will you ever reach that state, okay.




[student: Why are you going to suffer after you [unclear] this sutra [unclear]]




It says here ... oh that just says intensely ... I don't know. [laughs] ... exactly as a
headache. I've seen Dharma students ... I know Robyn maybe saw in India ...
when we had very intense Dharma classes and that the Dalai Lamas's two
teachers were there ... the Dalai Lama was there ... all these high lamas were
there ... and people went there from the U.S. and they lived there and they gave
up their whole lives and stayed there and then some of them got terrible terrible
things happen to them. And it was just very obvious that something was going
on, you know. Because there would be horrible incidents. People would burn
up or people would get deadly diseases or people would fall off a cliff and it was
really intense. I I think we're shooting for the headaches. [laughs] [laughter] I
like one more part of this dream. Page 5. And then we will really stop. Segal,
are you ready, at the bottom in the dark




[student, Laura Segal: And I tell you further, oh Subhuti, any place where this
sutra is taught thereby becomes a place worthy of the offerings of the entire
world, with its gods, and men and demigods. It becomes a place which is
worthy of their prostrations and worthy of their circumambulations. That place
becomes something like a stupa.]
I like that. So this little thirty-ninth street hole is hereby holy ground. [laughter]
Seriously ... it is seriously. If you think about the whole United States and the [b:
Diamond Cutter Sutra] is probably just being taught at this very moment and it
really is holy ground. If you have any inkling of what ... of what the subject
matter is then then it became ... it's holy ground now. Because a group of people
attained something close to understanding emptiness. He means like a stupa in
the sense of holy ground.




[student: It is holy ground, not just like]




Not just like. That's a good point. It is becoming ... it is holy ground. Because ...
so I hope you take good care of it after we move to bigger quarters. [laughs]
[laughter] Right, Mrs. Holdsworth. [laughs] Okay. Mr. Kiely.




[prayer: short mandala]

[prayer: dedication]
950427-1.aaa

THE DIAMOND-CUTTER SUTRA