ACI 7 «Обеты бодхисаттвы», занятие 3

Class Three – How the Bodhisattva Vows are taken
August 1995

Transcriber - Su Foo
Proof: Michelle Hung



[cut] by way if you’re new and you haven’t had an interview and you don’t….you didn’t
arrange one or if I’ve cancelled on you which is about half the people in the class, right
[laughter] catch me during the break and we’ll reschedule it. If, if you’re new, you have to
have an interview. If you’re new to this class you have…you can’t miss any more class
because you missed two, and that’s all you can miss. How to take the Bodhisattva vows?
You can start out by divi…there are two divisions of bodhicitta. Say {mun sem}[repeat]
[unclear] you don’t have to learn any Tibetan, just make the noise is okay. {mun sem} [repeat]
{jum sem} [repeat] {mun sem}….these are the two great divisions of bodhicitta. What do they
mean? {mun sem} means what? {mun sem} is the wish in a form of a prayer. I translated it
that way. The wish for enlightenment in a form of a prayer, meaning an intention. That’s just
wishing you could do it, wanting to do it. It’s like wanting to go away for the weekend.
Alright. It’s during the week okay, up to Friday afternoon, you have {mun sem}. You’d like
to get out of city for the weekend. So what you guess {juk sem} is? [student: getting out of
the city] that’s the…. Yeah that’s getting out of the city, okay. That starts Friday afternoon
and goes on till Sunday afternoon, okay, and {juk sem} is you’re actually doing it. It’s the
state of mind in which you’re actually doing it. We already talked about that. Uh by the
way is {mun sem} so difficult to get? It’s a very high level of Buddhism. If you ever get to
that in this life it will be a great thing. You can have feelings of wanting to help other people
but to really get to this as a speaker said last…week you know, you have to look at every
single being on the subway and feel that they’re your only child. That kind of affection for
them, which is almost impossible. Suppose to be a little bit easier if you think about their
situation. The situation is…if you studied the karma course and you studied the Diamond
Cutter Sutra course you know what the situation is. Things are empty. They’re being forced
to have certain projections. Right now they’re having a perception of a human being’s life,
they have job maybe; they have wife maybe; they have kids maybe and all these perceptions
are being forced on them by their past karma. Their past karma is throwing up information
to them and they see the world and themselves in a certain way. It’s suffering. In itself it will
always have suffering. There’s something wrong with the process of projection. They will
always have suffering. It’s just built in to that process. They must suffer while they’re alive.
The worst part is when they die. When they die all the karmic stuff goes back to zero.
You’re not even a human anymore. You don’t have even a human parts any more. You
don’t have the privilege of seeing New York city anymore. All the karma that’s around you
now and keeping you…holding you up even in this miserable life, in one moment it cuts out
and then you’re back to zero, [unclear] all this is back to zero. He’s not even human right
now. He’s not even in a world like this. He’s in some terrible suffering hallucinations and if
he ever gets back to human level it will be a miracle. It will be extremely rare. So, so it
doesn’t matter how beautiful life was or how great he was or how much money he got or
how famous he was, it’s all [unclear] the clock is set back again to zero and he’s at zero again.
And he has got nothing of what he had before. He doesn’t even have… he can’t even see
[unclear] around him any more. He can’t see this world any more. He’s in some really
horrible kind of hallucinations right now. That…and we all, we all start back at zero. We’re
all in that same situation. The moment you die then you’re back at square one, you don’t
even have the karma to…forget studying dharma, you don’t have the karma to, to live
among humans anymore right then. You’re in a different realm and you’re different kind of
existence and it’s very chaotic and crazy and horrible. So it’s…we’re all in that situation and
it’s just race against time that we… before we cross that line we have to do something
because you have the…you have a body and you eyes and you have ears and you …you can
speak and you can read and you can think and you can try to improve things before you
cross that line. So that’s not hard to think of. I mean everyone is in the same situation. We’ll
all start back at zero when the moment comes. And it could come tonight we don’t know.
Could come any time for any of us. We had…we were counting who’s going to be the first
[unclear] to die. We already had one. [unclear] over there [laughs, laughter] I mean it was a
terrible death and there’ll be a number two; there will be number three you know, we’ll say
oh she was number three [unclear] it will come. Question of whom and when. That’s {mun
sem} {mun sem} is I wish I could do something about it; I wish I could help people. and {juk
sem} is actually doing it. [student: Michael, the first one is…you must have for all sentient
beings …] Yeah, {mun sem} there’s a thing called “sugar cane bodhicitta” which is sweet but
hollow and that…that comes before real bodhicitta where, where you kind of start to get
emotions of wishing you could help people but it’s not the real thing. The real thing is very
difficult to reach. Obviously the day when you feel about that…when you get on the
subway and feel that way about everybody. But you think about them as the Mickey
[unclear] thing it will be a lot easier for you. It’s hard…with your present perception of
people it’s hard to love them but see them in that kind of trouble and you start to get a
brotherly feeling for them then….you have to see them in that kind of trouble before you can
get that feeling. [student: Michael can I ask you a question? I have been really thinking
about this. There’s so much striving to reach nirvana and I was thinking about the after death
state. Wouldn’t it be more, you know, bodhisattva like to prepare into you know kind of
help these beings which is bigger torture than being in the body] In the bardo? [student:
yeah.] we can’t contact them. We cant….[student: not I’m not talking, you know, our state
of death instead of you know making it possible for us to zip to nirvana which everybody’s
hope is…be able to function on that level because it is possible for us to learn that and to help
those who are crossing and are totally going crazy] One of the…it’s one the things is to be
nice to them but generally it’s too late to help people at that point. Generally speaking it’s
too late for them to make any great progress at, at the moment of death. They can’t hear
properly; they can’t understand properly; they’re frightened you know, take somebody up
on a tall building, get them near the edge, [student: I know] hold onto them tight but go like
that and then say some dharma to them and see how much they ….it’s the same thing.
They’re in more fear than that. they’re in more fear than that at the moment. The odds of
them hearing anything or logically thinking anything or changing their attitude the last
minute is very, very, infinitely small. And that’s why powa is…the practice of powa is, is not
that; not for that; not meant that you don’t practice during your whole life and then suddenly
at the last minute you, you, you’re able to do something miraculous. It’s not like…that’s not
what it is. And that’s conception is spreading among Americans and I have to worry…powa
means like some kind of consciousness transferal at the last minute. That’s not…A) is not
what it’s for and B) it wouldn’t work anyway. I mean it wouldn’t work in a normal person
who, who tried it in the last minute like that. It’s too late. You have to change now, while
you’re healthy and while you can hear and understand. [student: what’s [unclear]] Long
story. [laugher] It’s a….{juk sem} so, so taking the vow, taking the vow would naturally
follow this pattern and, and as early as Nagarjuna who is, who lived when? 200AD okay.
Seventeen hundred years ago, roughly, we don’t know, I mean we really don’t know very
much but people say, probably about 200AD. In his early text on how to take the vows, all
he has is the ritual for getting this wish in your heart. He doesn’t mention the vows. All his
has is the ritual for, for saying, okay I pledge to try to get this wish in my mind. I pledge to
try to commit myself to this wish. And, and someone goes and takes an actual vow, that okay
for the rest of my life I’ll try to reach that state where I really see everybody like…as my own
child. So the question is where do you get the vows. Then Je Tsongkapa talks about and he,
and he shows that Nagarjuna’s ritual actually includes taking the vow. There’re later writers
who say, oh lets have a separate ritual for these two…we’ll have a ritual where you go in
front of a lama and you say, I’m going to try to develop this wish and I’m going to try to do
what I can to help other beings. And then they say….what’s {dompa}? [student: vow]
{dompa}means vow. Then they say there should be another ritual for taking the vows. So
they say…by the this is a wrong idea okay, there’re been a few writers…lets have one ritual
for pledging to the wish; I’ll try to get this attitude; I’ll try to develop this attitude. And I’ll
do what I have to do to help other beings. And then they come back later, six weeks later
and take the vows. And Je Tsongkapa…he showed that that’s not correct. That’s not the way
it is. How is it really? That’s your first homework question. In general when you take a
vow in that same ceremony you, you swear to try to develop that attitude. So it’s only one
ceremony. People who were there this weekend, this last weekend, I mean he didn’t say,
okay go and have your tea and come back later and then we’ll do the second part of the
vow, right? He did the whole thing in one…in one shot. And generally that’s the way it’s
done. You, you swear to keep the wish {jungchub …} and then, and then you take the vows
in the same ceremony. But Je Tsongkapa says, Nagarjuna had a great idea; Shantideva had a
great idea, it would be even better if people took a separate vow to try to develop the
attitude. You just go in front of a lama and say, “I swear to try to develop this attitude”.
[student: sorry Michael…] [student: you can or you cannot?] Nagarjuna and Shantideva
both, both…Tsongkapa agrees with them ultimately but if you could take a separate
ceremony where you just go to you lama and say, “I’m going to swear to try to develop this
attitude” and don’t talk anything about the vows. Then you go home, you spend six months
or a year try to develop the attitude itself. Then you come back again and say, “Now I’m
ready to take the vows. I’m ready to do something about it.” That would be a separate
ceremony. Je Tsongkapa said that would be the best way to do it. That’s the best way
to….first you take…go have a ceremony where you swear that you’d try to develop the
attitude and then you come back later…that once it’s matured a little bit and you say, “Okay
now I’m ready to take the vows.” [student: it’s kind of [unclear] taking the vow and
[unclear]] Yeah. So really it divides like this. And really these two things are the….they go
together. I mean obviously keeping the vows and doing it, going for the weekend is the
same thing. And that’s….Je Tsongkapa really…he tears it apart because there were a lot of
strange ideas in his day in Tibet, Buddhism had gotten pretty strong in Tibet but it was all
mixed up and he tried to…he was trying to straighten things out and he did. And he…he
learned all the ancient scripts and he could quote like boom…boom….boom. and he said,
we should have the best way to take the first…have a ceremony to swear that you’re going to
get that attitude and then have a ceremony where you take the vows. Because taking the
vows is doing it. [student: [unclear]] well normally there’re people who do it that way.
Yeah? [student: so what was wrong? You started to say people have a wrong idea…]
[student: yeah you said that’s a wrong idea] Oh, some people divided it this way. They put
these two together – the wish and doing something and then you go and take the vow.
That’s wrong because these two are the same thing. Doing it and keeping your vows are the
same thing. [student: okay] Bodhisattva activity is keeping the vow. [student: and when Je
Tsongkapa says the best way is that you can have two separate ceremonies for one and two]
yeah [student: that when he says the best way he means it’s optional that you actually can do
it that way or?] It’s optional. It’s better. It’s more…he says, {tenpo}. {tenpo} means it’s
going to stick in your mind better. It’s gotta be a more stable process. First you go and
really work on a wish for long time then you say, okay now I got it and you come back and
take your vows. So that’s the best way. [student: so what you’re saying is that if there has to
be a best way [unclear] other people do it the other way?] The best way is to take…is to have
a ceremony that I want [unclear] and separate ceremony to take the vows later on. [student:
yeah] because in between there you have this mind…strong. It’s wrong to say that these
two should go together in one ceremony and then later you should take the vows. [student: I
don’t understand how you could even have [unclear]] They did…they…somebody taught it.
{Tibetan} [student: so why is that in a situation [unclear]] [laughs] Some people do it. Some
people do it that way. It is done that way. [student: the other way?] No. It is done…this
way. But generally every time I’ve seen it or I’ve taken it [unclear]. [student: how is it done
now?] You just had it. [students] Generally now people…especially in a tantric initiation,
they generally do [unclear] throw the whole thing on you, with a lot of other things, which
by the way brings me to a subject…if you were there last weekend and you’re new and
you’re overwhelmed don’t worry about it just do it. Rinpoche you know, he said… he
pulled upstairs, he says tell them just do it. You know don’t, don’t’ worry. They’ll get there.
[laughter] it took fifteen years for the people there to learn it the way that they did. I
remember the first time he ever taught it, he taught it for seven days in a row. In the first
night we all set around in a cabin out in the woods and tried to figure out what the hell he
said. And, and dawn came up… we were still arguing about what did he say and, and I
remember dawn came up and, and we got….we all went to bed you know. So don’t worry
about it. Just do, do what you can now and, and you will…the whole thing will ripen on
you especially after you do your tantric retreat. There will be a…something very fantastic
but there’s a hard learning curve. Okay. [student: is tantra secret [unclear]] I don’t know
anything about that. [laughter] Bodhisattva vows are the only vows of the three that you’re
allowed to study before you take them. You should study them.
Say {jorwa}[repeat] {ngushi} [repeat] you guys are wimpy. {jorwa}[repeat] {ngushi}[repeat]
{juk pa} [repeat] Let me change this. [student:[unclear]] You can. You actually can. Both…
[unclear] mostly did the monk’s vows, ordained vows. {jorwa} means the preliminary.
[student: Michael [unclear]] There’re two hundred and fifty three vows, you can’t study
them, no you can’t. {ngushi} means…I don’t know how to translate that. You help me.
{ngushi} means the main event, okay, it means like you know, like this event we’re going to
have fruit juice, I hope [laughter, laughs] and [unclear] music and that’s a {jorwa} and people
are going to come in and mingle and then there’ll be the {ngushi} which is the auction. You
know we try to [unclear] everybody up. And then the {juk chok} which is the wrap up will
be, you know… we’ll get up and thank everybody and people will go get their coats and
you know try to find their cheque books and [laughs] you know…that’s a {juk chok}. So {juk
chok} means the wrap up or the conclusion I guess. What do you want to call {ngushi} I
don’t know. [student: just vow….the actual vow] Well it’s also a word that applies to like,
when you’re reaching certain meditative levels…. [student: ] {ngushi} means the main…the
actual event. How about actual event. [student: primary activity] It’s where they actually
give you the vow. It’s where they say, they repeat something and you repeat something and
then you have the vow. There’s a lot to do before that. There’s a lot of warm up before that.
I’m going to go through the warm up [unclear] all right. There’s five parts to the warm up.
As in many Buddhist thing the warm up is more important than the main event. It’s like
when you go to meditate if you do your warm up properly, your meditation will go
fantastic. If you just flop down and try to meditate you won’t get anywhere and for years
you wonder why you didn’t get anywhere. So the warm up is really important. The main
event lasts about thirty seconds, okay. The warm up is big, long story. {solwa dabpa} you
know the verbs {so} and {dab}okay. This is another [unclear] {solwa dabpa} means to request.
It’s where you ask the lama to give the vows. Yeah? [student: is this part one of number
one?] Yeah, first part of the preliminary. It’s the first of five parts to the preliminary.
[student: so it’s to be like 1A] Yeah, 1A out of E. A, B, C, D, E. Je Tsongkapa at this point
takes the opportunity to describe a lot of other subjects which I’ll do also. First he says, what
about the person taking the vows? What should they be like? What are the requirements for
the person who is taking the vow? First thing is they can be ordained or not ordained. This
vow anyone can take. You, you have to be a human I guess. But, but anyone can take this
vow. Human…I mean ordained or not ordained. You don’t have to be ordained to take
these vows. By the way you don’t even have to be human to have this vow, why? [student:
[unclear]] Yeah, it doesn’t… you don’t lose it when you die. So there’s beings in other
realms who have what they call automatic Bodhisattva vows, they were not really automatic
but they just took them in a human life and then they die and went a, [unclear] life and they
have that vow. The other requirement of the person is that they should have at least {mun
sme} in some form, not in its real pure form. What’s {mun sem} [student: wish for…] where
they really have that attitude. [student: motivation] Yeah they really have that motivation.
They, they want to do something for all living beings even if it’s wimpy, okay. Even if it’s
half hearted, they got to have some kind of intention as they take the Bodhisattva vows
[student: they will have to be more than wimpy motivation to understand [unclear]] What I
mean is, it’s not at all requirement that there be true {mun sem} because that’s very rare.
Extremely rare. So they just generally have to have a fuzzy motivation that they’d like to
help all sentient beings. Yeah? [student: what’s the…what’s the [unclear]] {solwa dakpa}
means…this is the first of the five preliminary and it means to make a request to the lama. But
while we’re on that subject we’re describing who’s making the request and who is hearing
the request. Person making the request can be ordained or not; they must have this
motivation even if it’s not pure bodhicitta which is very rare. They have to intend to keep
the vow. They have to intend to keep the three morality. They have to want to keep the
three morality. You can be in that…it’s very much like a monk’s vow. If you’re monk and
you go through a ceremony but in the back of you mind you don’t intend to keep your
vow…if you have any other motivation and there’s a list of them you know, you want free
food, you don’t want to work any more [laughs, laughter] you like to hang out in the
monastery, you know, if someone forced you, there’s a whole list, the vows don’t even form.
You never get the vow. You can wear your robes your whole life. You can become abbot
of a monastery….whatever but actually the vows don’t actually form in your mind stream.
So you have to intend to keep the vows. If you don’t intend to keep the vows, if you’re just
there because somebody else went; or you’re just there because someone forced you to go,
there’s peer pressure or something like that, the vows don’t even form. It’s very interesting.
Yeah. [student: are there different vows when you’re a Mahayana Buddhist ?] Say again.
[student: are there different vows for Mahayana Buddhist] for a monk? [student: yeah] No,
our vows are Hinayana. The monk’s vows are Hin…are one of the eighteen schools of
Hinayana. So our whole monk’s system. And there was a big debate about it and they
voted for it in Tibet and that’s the way it is. We follow basically the same vows as the monks
in Thailand or Sri Lanka. So those are the requirements of the person taking the vows. We’ll
talk about …yeah? [student: [unclear] three vows?] Three moralities. [student:
distinguishing Thailand monks from Tibetan monks is that the case that all Tibetan monks
have Bodhisattva vows?] Not at all. We’re not required to take Bodhisattva vows. [student:
all right. So then that would be a Hinayana monk in the midst of Tibetan monastery?] Ah
yes. If, if that’s all he ever studied. We study… I mean just…it’s off this subject and I don’t
want to use up the time but, but frankly in a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery we study the
Hinayana course better than the Hinayana. We spend ten years on Abhidharma and, and
they…Tibetans study it very, very well, very thorough and they have a great respect for it,
breaking a vow not [unclear] Abhidharma and the Logic Schools, some part of the Logic
Schools that we study for fifteen years every winter are, are Hinayana. And we love it and
it’s great and it’s fantastic, it’s very useful. So no problem okay. But not to be practiced only,
the basis on which to practice Mahayana. So that’s {solwa dakpa}. Now what should the
person who gives you the vows, what should he be like or she? She doesn’t have to be
ordained, right. The person does not have to be ordained. Better if they are but not
necessary. They should be someone who could give you the higher two, the other vows if
you chose to take them like your secret vows, that will be good. That would be best but not
necessary. [student: [unclear]] It would be good if they could give you other kinds of vows
also, like tantric vows but not necessary. [student: mean later or…] Yeah, later, later. Ah so
that would be good. And by the way, a lot of people in history have taken their Bodhisattva
vows first and then by keeping them gained such an appreciation for morality that then later
they became monk. That’s very common in history, I mean. That’s the connection… if
you’re keeping your Bodhisattva vows well and you really understand what’s going on, then
you start to get the results of keeping that morality. Then you actually…there have been, you
know, in history great political figures who have decided to…after awhile to take the monks
vows. And that’s, that’s a pretty common track although you wouldn’t think of it like that.
Yeah? [student: [unclear]] Uh you weren’t in the first class. [laughs] No it’s just the built on
each other. They, they [unclear] like this. They, they’re very much….they’re very, very
much tied together. To keep your what we call pratimoksa morality, just for minimum your
ten…avoiding the ten non virtues and then at maximum becoming a fully ordained monk.
That’s….it’s fantastic to have that and Bodhisattva vows together. That’s the best combination
you can have. You can do it…you know, try to do that. At least some kind of life time
vows if you can. [student:] Oh yeah, oh yeah. It’s beautiful and both of them help you fulfill
your tantric vows. In fact you can’t succeed in your higher vows without taking some kind
of lower vows, some kind of commitments to those morality, which you, you can read in the
reading.
Okay. So that’s {solwa dakpa} What else? The person who is giving you the vows can be a
man or a woman; can be layman or ordained. They should have the wish also {mun sem} but
they don’t have it in a, in a hundred percent form but they should at least have some
motivation to help all living beings. If they have taken the vows and then lost that
motivation you cannot take your vows from them; you should not take your vows from
them. [student: you really mean that they should or they have to have it in some form not
perfected but they must have it] Yeah they must have it. If you’re aware that they don’t have
it you shouldn’t take your vows from that person. [student: well you couldn’t take the vows]
Well, it’s just you shouldn’t, okay. [laughs] [student: so you could get the vows from
somebody who doesn’t have it, really?] No. [student: I don’t understand….] Yeah he has to
have his vows, his or her vows. [student: do you recommend [unclear]] [student:] I wrote it
the first thing today. So they must have, they must have the intention. They must be keeping
their vows well. They must be keeping their vows well. They must be living that, that life.
Yeah? [student: lets just say that someone keeps the vow, you think they have the vow…]
yeah, yeah that’s in… [student: [unclear] motivation that you believe they have the vow, it’s
their karmic result not your karmic result] It comes in the monk’s morality also you know.
Like we’re suppose to take the vows, our vows from a certain…person who gives us monk’s
vows has to has certain characteristics. They are actually quite difficult for any one person to
have them and the thing is…the bottom line is if you truly believe that they have the vows
and you’ll see that in some of the Bodhisattva vows, it’s all right. That’s, that’s…you can’t
ever tell for sure if they have….you know. [student: right] [student: so the results is coming
from you?] You have to truly believe that they have, they have, and they have to appear to
have them. So that’s the…they must have that. They must not have screwed in their six
perfections, okay. They must not have degenerated in their practice of the six perfection and
then Je Tsongkapa gives a long list of what that means. He goes through each perfection and
I’ll, I’ll read it to you what he says. He says, failing in the first perfection would be what we
call failing in {Tibetan}. Say {de chung} [repeat] {chok she} [repeat] this word appears first in
Vasubandhu’s Abdhidharmakosha, it’s very important in the practice of developing
meditaion. [student: how do you spell that?] {de chung} means doesn’t want much. Okay.
It means not…not, what do you say, not attach to things, not running around the world
trying to get more things. That’s {de chung}. {de} means desire. {chung} means [unclear]. So
{de chung} means doesn’t want much. {chok she} means satisfy with whatever they get. And
the scripture says, lousy food, lousy drink; lousy place to sleep; lousy place to stay; lousy
clothes. Whatever they get they’re happy. They say, okay that’s enough for me, I don’t need
more than that. They don’t go out and tear down the world to get more things and to have
the finest of everything. Whatever comes to them to say, okay, that’s enough for me. And,
and Je Tsongkapa says, if the person has failed in this practice they’re attached to objects and
things and they fail in the first perfection and you shouldn’t take your vows from a person
like that. Failing in the, in the practice of morality, he gives two example. One would be a
monk who had broken one of his main four vows. So it’s… they’re call a {pamba}. {pamba}
means one of the most serious vows for a monk. So if the person has broken one of those
four and he was ordained, you shouldn’t take vows from a person like that. [student:
BAMBA?] PAMPA. {pampa} secondly if they’re a person who doesn’t have respect of
morality or vows in general. If they have lost their…their respect for morality. They talk
bad about it; they say, ah doesn’t matter you don’t need that one; that one is not so important;
that one is kind of hard to keep [laughs] [unclear] you see that they’re developing a bad
attitude of his vows and you shouldn’t take it from him. Because they have failed in the
second perfection. Third perfection he say, a person who gets upset easily, who gets angry
easily. And especially who, who keeps the anger in [unclear]. They would have failed in the
perfection of ….? [student: patience] Patience. It’s really a perfection of not getting angry.
We don’t have a word in English I don’t think that fits this perfectly. Don’t take your vows
from this person. By the way in all the scriptures when you get to the end of this descriptions
they say, but if you can’t find anybody else, [laughs, laughter]…it’s nineteen ninety five you
know, where are going to find this pure person, so they say you know, if all you have
available is, is a pretty okay person then do it. And they say, at least he’s keeping or she’s
keeping morality, concentration and wisdom, you know, in some kind of serious form.
Because if you go out… we have a description of real lama, several times and if you went out
and try to find a person like that, you know, you might spend a long time…but, but not to
say that you should settle for less. You should try to find a person like that. [student: can you
take person from another religion, and tell them this is what I want you to say to me and take
your vow?] I don’t think so because they have to have taken refuge. They would have to
have taken refuge. [student: so that’s, that’s more?] yeah. [student: you can find a very holy
person that doesn’t…never heard of Buddha] but they wouldn’t…one of the requirements of
the teacher, which I didn’t get to yet – they have to know the ritual very well; they have to
know all the vows very well; they have to be able to explain them to you; they have to
understand your responses during the ritual; they have to know the ritual very well; they
have to know the whole literature on bodhisattva activity very well. [student: [unclear]]
What’s that? [student: they have to have the vow as well?] We, we talked about that. They
have to be keeping their vows well. [student: but how would somebody from another
religion…bodhisattva [unclear]] yeah, can’t [unclear]. [student: of course you can keep the
vows. I mean they must be logic in the vows.] No I mean they’re not…they haven’t studied
those vows; taken those vows; keeping those specific vows. They can be like a bodhisattva
or they could a bodhisattva in disguise…[student: could you put [unclear] he would have
broken if he failed in perfection number two] Uh killing a human being. Uh what’s the fifth
perfection. Fourth. [student: fourth – joyous effort] Yeah you know Rinpoche was reading a
book the other say and he got the word “zest” and [unclear] you know “zest” is a pretty good
word for it, because it’s joy and it’s effort together. And really that’s the fourth perfection.
That’s the meaning of the fourth perfection. So talking about zest, what would be the
opposite of it? [student: lethargic?] Lethargic yeah [laughs] okay. It’s a person who…
they’ve lost their zest for dharma and, and you’ve met people like that, you know. First they
have lots of zest for dharma and then they just get lazy. They’re not much interested
anymore. They don’t have any great drive to, to do good things anymore. They’re not…
they don’t have much interest in the whole thing anymore. That’s, that’s a person who is
degenerated in his, in his fourth perfections. Number five? Number five is concentration
and that’s…the example is that a person who is easily distracted from his meditation, like uh
he gets down, starts to meditate then say, oh you know I forgot… there’s a real good video I
wanted to watch [laughs, laughter] I mean the mind…the minute the person sits down the
mind starts you know…oh this is what I gotta each for lunch; I got to get this; I gotta go to
the store today and they’re degenerated in the, in that perfection. The sixth one is wisdom
and they say the opposite of that is a person who has become spiritually stupid. In other
words, and this happens…it’s the direct result of two kinds of problems. One is breaking
your morality a lot. If you break your morality a lot you start to lose your ability to
concentrate on dharma; you begin to lose your ability to understand it the finer points like
Madhyamika, things like that. You…you begin to lose to ability to memorize things and
especially with putting Mahayana. If you put down the bodhisattva concept. If you say, oh
this bodhisattva stuff is all stupid. You start to develop this idea, your, your IQ actually starts
to drop, especially with regards to spiritual things. So that will be…that kind of person
would start to degenerate in their wisdom. Wisdom in its most basic meaning is the ability to
analyze things. And, and that would start to degenerate. It, it usually degenerate in other
parts of your life; and, and it does start to degenerate. Your dharma… ability to analyze
dharma starts to degenerate. You shouldn’t take your vows from person like that. Kiley you
have a…? No, okay. That finishes the teacher, okay.
Now he says…by the way we’re not out of number one yet. We’re not out of the request
yet. [unclear] but anyway he says, what should the person requesting do? I mean what
should he be doing at that time. As you see in your reading, you have to make the place
really beautiful. The place should be really, really nice; well cleaned; there should be nice
paintings around or there should be a main image of Shakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha, the
teacher, then there should other images behind that image. Should be images there. The
teacher should be up on the throne; the lama from whom…or the person from whom you’re
going to take the vows. By the way, as you read in the readings you don’t even…these are
one kind of vow that you can take without…you can take it from an image of Buddha,
yourself. If, if, if there’s no one within a thousand miles that you can get to and the scriptures
says that, you know, it says, if there’s no one within any kind of reasonable travelling
distance, you know, all the lamas are in Tibet and you’re in America and, and you can’t get
to one, you just literally can’t to one. It’s allowed to take these vows by yourself before an
image. But, but very much discouraged. It doesn’t mean that if Rinpoche is down in Howell,
New Jersey and you’re lazy that you can just take it from your, your altar but there is, there is
a ritual that you can do, it’s in the scripture and you can study it. [student: you can take the
pratimoksha vows [unclear]] No. No. No. That’s why the nun’s vows broke; there weren’t
enough nuns to make [unclear]. [student: [unclear] what about [unclear] vow?] It takes a
certain a number of nuns to ordain a new nun. So, so those nuns were made to disrobe
which happened in Tibet at certain in history when there weren’t enough nuns to make new
nuns – full nuns. [student: what happens to the requirements you know, breaking vow,
intent to break it and all of that [unclear] in turn being able to fix it, to be able make new
nuns] Oh yeah you don’t have it in its complete form. You don’t have. You don’t have that
benefit. You can kind of think that the Buddha is there and you don’t have the direct benefit
of a human being. [student: [unclear]] Well the main wisdom is the dividing right and
wrong. That’s the main wisdom [unclear]; knowing what’s right thing to do and what’s
wrong thing to do. That’s the most…that’s the main function. Okay. He says, first you
should go that lama, man or woman, touch their feet in respect; show respect to them. Then
you should offer them a mandala. The tradition mandalas were very beautiful it’s [unclear]
….they didn’t use rice, you had to go pick rose petals and you have big piles of petals and
you will be doing this mandala with this huge pile of rose, rose petals. [student: mandala
offering is [unclear]] Right mandala offering. Then he says you have to make a request, three
times, to show that you really want it. Because if you don’t want it, it won’t grow. If you
don’t really want it, it won’t grow on you. You have ask three times. Then it says you have
to… you have to kneel down. And there’s two ways of kneeling in Buddhism that are
accepted, either way. Okay, one is what Rinpoche calls, chicken. When he says sit like a
chicken he means, he means like this. We have to do that in sojong like forty five minutes
[laughs] it’s very uncomfortable. That’s like that. It’s just crouching really. And then you
can take your Bodhisattva vows like this also, that’s also in the scriptures. So he says …
[student: [unclear] on one knee, right?] Genuflecting. [student: one knee or two knees?] On
one knee. On your right knee. [student: Michael your hands are…[unclear]] the book says
like this. The books say like this. But normally in, in the lineage when we take a vow, it’s
like this. And when you do your {tundruk} and you take your vows in there or you’re
reasserting your vows you’re suppose to hold your hands like that. [student: [unclear]] It’s
just making a [unclear]. Oh…that’s the student’s side. Then from the lama side, it says, he
should talk to the person about the benefits of the Bodhisattva vows. He should, he should
try to explain to the person what’s the use of taking the Bodhisattva vows. And there’s a
scripture that says, if you took all the Buddhas of all the planets of the universe and you gave
them all offerings or you took the Bodhisattva vows and never kept it very well, you get
more virtue from taking the Bodhisattva vows and not keeping it very well. It’s very
beautiful. [student: would you say that again] If you gave all the Dalai Lamas in all the
universes and make them offering, it’s not as powerful as taking the Bodhisattva vows and
not keeping them very well. I mean a lousy bodhisattva is better than this ability to offer on
all the planets of the universe, to all the Buddhas [unclear]. Excuse me? [student: why?] Uh,
we’ll get there. [student: the Buddhas have everything to begin with so what do they need?]
It’s, it’s…comes in another book and we’ll discuss it sometime. [student: ] No, it’s a long…
there’s a long story about it. The teacher should explain to the student which vows are more
serious and which are less serious, mean which, breaking which one of them is more serious
and which one of them is not serious. And then the teacher should try to …by the way if
you take your Bodhisattva vows and then you….lets say you break the vow, the second vow
which is to give someone something they really need and you’re the one who can give it;
and you have it and you can give it and you’re in position to give it and they’re totally
depending on you. And if you don’t give it and you break that vow, you get a very horrible
rebirth [laughs] I mean the teacher has to explain to the student which vows are more
important and, and which ones are more serious. Maybe some case it’s better not to take the
vow, I don’t know. Then he should make student [unclear]. [student:] Just…there’s a thing
call {Tibetan} which means sooner or later you gonna have to take these vows. I mean you
don’t have any choice actually. You know I mean you can say, I don’t want to take them
now or I…you know they sound nice but I’m not really a Buddhist and I’m not really
interested in them. But even for your own liberation really, ultimately for your own Buddha
you must take the vows for you to get the virtue to create the kind of paradise that we
describe in the last course, you must take these vows. [student: [unclear]] millions of [unclear]
[student: how does the first happen, I mean there’s nobody there?] There was no first
Buddhist. [student: so I mean to give the vows and [unclear] the ritual and the whole thing I
mean it must have [unclear]] There was not. You should have taken the last course about
endless mental continuum. [student: [unclear]] No it means… explain to them the benefits
that they’re going to get out [unclear] they must take it. Sooner or later you have to take. If
you want to really reach paradise in this life, you must take it. [student: why take vows
[unclear]] We talked about the first life. [laughs] Four benefits. Taking a vow in front of a
lama means there’s a benefit that if you’re ever close to breaking a vow you think of him or
her and it helps you stop because you will be embarrass if that person found out about it and
there’re, and there’re three [unclear] You can…I’ll give you the reading. [student: that’s like
main one….] We’re going to nine thirty, is that okay? [student: no] [laughs] We’ll a break
and then we’ll come back. Try to come like in ten minutes, about eight thirty. If you have
any burning questions come to me right now and I’ll….
1B is collect {tsok}. What is {tsok}? {tsok} means a collection of anything. Collecting a
collection. Collecting a collection means you invoke all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. You
say, come and watch me take the Bodhisattva vows. It’s very heavy because they actually
have the power to come. You can’t see them. This is preliminary number two. [student:
invoke whom?] Collect {tsok}. What? [student: bodhisattva [unclear]] You’re asking all the
Buddhas and bodhisattvas in the universe to come and watch you take the vow. Big
audience, okay. Very serious vows, they say it’s much more serious than you taking the
monk’s vows. You got more, more people there. You also at that moment are suppose to…..
I mean they do come, you can’t see them; you don’t have the karma to see them. They are
there but you’re suppose to try to recall how fantastic they are, you know, what great
qualities they have. Real bodhisattvas standing around you. Real Buddha standing around
you they’re going to watch you take the vows. That’s the second one. We’re in preliminary
number three. Right? [student: yeah] okay [laughs] and that’s the…you actually, that’s
where you actually get down on your knee and you make the…and you say, please grant me
them quickly. There’s a point in the ceremony where you say, come on please lets [unclear]
[laughs] You say, I really want them now and I want, please give them to me quickly.
[student:[unclear]] Request to grant quickly. That’s the third one. Feel joy. You reflect on
the, on the….there’s a certain level of karma you can collect by keeping your morality. By
not killing people; not stealing things and things like that but the level of karma that you can
collect with the Bodhisattva vows is indescribable and you’re suppose to take some kind of
joy in it. If you understand emptiness well and if you understand the collection of karma
well which people who took the last two courses should and understand the life….how your
life stream, your mind stream goes on through life then, then you know that if everything is a
projection you’re gonna need some powerful, powerful projection to reach a state of paradise.
For you to project the paradise onto an empty world it’s going to take very, very immensely
powerful karma. This is the one that does it. This is the one that can get you there. It’s very
interesting. If you want to reach that place, you must take Bodhisattva vows and you must
keep them. And if you’re having a sort of a lousy life and nothing is going very cool and
nothing exciting happening ‘cos you didn’t keep the vow. If you keep the vow things will
start popping and your Buddhism will change. And your life will change and your world
will change. And things will start happ…very exciting things will start happening to you if
you, if you keep the vow. If you don’t them you’ll be just like this [laughs] and you’ll just go
on like that. It’s really true that things are empty. It’s really true that your karma fills in the
picture. And it’s really true that this is the most intense way to collect the karma to fill it in,
in a very fantastic way. So you must keep…you must take them and you must keep them.
You fill some kind of joy that you have even the opportunity to collect that kind of energy,
especially if you understand emptiness you’ll appreciate it. I’m not allowed to tell you much
about monk’s vows and how we take the vows but I can tell you that there’s a same part in
the ceremony for making a monk, full monk, one of the monk’s is called {Tibetan} has to take
the monk out of the ceremony to a separate location and he has to ask him certain questions
like are you…you know that…are you twenty years old? Do you want to become a monk?
Do you have this and this and this problems with your life that you couldn’t become a
monk? Do you really intend to keep the vow? There’s a whole, long list of questions that
you have to ask that person. In other words you’re asking the person if there’s any thing that
might obstruct them from taking the vow. In the case of Bodhisattva vows there’re two main
concerns. First of all you’re asking the person do you have {mun sem}? You really want to
be a….do you have the wish to help other living beings? Or at least is there somewhere in
the back of your mind while you’re taking the ceremony. [laughs, laughter] Beside in the
discomfort in your knee. [laugh, laughter] You have that. And then secondly do you really
want this vows or were you forced or are you coming here because everyone else in the
group is coming or…you know, or do you really want them? Do you really intend to keep
them? He adds more later. He says, are you coming here because other people got
Bodhisattva vows and you want to make sure that you get Bodhisattva vows. Uh, were you
forced? Do you basically understand the vow? Do you understand what you’re getting
into? Uh do you believe that you’ll be able to keep these vows? {jung se}. Anybody knows
{jung se}? {jung se} means little bit. [laughs] it’s very interesting that Tsongkapa uses the
word. It means, okay, we all know we can’t keep them perfectly maybe but, but you really
feel in the bottom of your heart that you will be able to some extent to keep these vows. You
think you’ll be able keep them pretty well. That’s one of question that the person is suppose
to ask. The person is suppose to answer, ‘not too bad’ [laughs] Suppose to be…yeah that’s
the meaning. [student: last person asked, [unclear] all of them are activities of the person?]
Okay, how about being…that’s a good point. You have to have…the lama is going to ask
you. You, are you doing this to help all living beings and do you really want these vows?
Those are the two main questions. Then he, he’ll by the way he’ll say, do you understand
what the vows are? Did anybody….are you trying compete with anybody else? Are you
here out of jealousy, you know? Are you here for some bad motivation or do you really
want this stuff. That’s suppose to be the [unclear]. That takes us…that finishes the
preliminary. Now we go to the {ngushi}. The lama says three times, will you, will you take
the Bodhisattva vows from me and the person says, yes three times and that’s the end.
[laughs, laughter] That’s the main event. [unclear] thirty seconds, probably less. He repeats
three times, do you want to take the Bodhisattva vows from me. The person says, I, I accept
those vows, three times and then that’s it. It’s in the {tundruk…} it’s also in the {dakgey}.
{Tibetan} it’s actually Nagarjuna’s own words; that’s the words in [unclear]. Okay the [juk
chok} which is what? [student: conclusion] Do you have a question? [student: [unclear]]
Whether they have the qualifications? [student: right [unclear]] Yeah they say that you
should observe the person for twelve years. [laughter] [student: how could you ever take the
[unclear]] You’re not going to take them from me, you take them from Rinpoche. But, but
really seriously, it’s a heavy karmic relationships establish with someone and traditionally
you’re suppose to watch the person for a long, long time. When Atisha at the risk of his life,
you know, took a sailing boat in tenth century to get to Indonesia to, to learn this subject.
When he got there he didn’t jump off the boat and go to [unclear], he waited and he…he
waited for, I don’t know, for months or…he questioned everybody – is he a good lama and
have you heard any story; is he doing everything good; is he…how are his students? Are
they pretty good? You know he didn’t go…he risked his life, spent months getting there in
this creaky ship and then didn’t, didn’t introduce himself right away, first he checked him out
and that’s a requirement. Okay.
{jukchok} [student: but Michael [unclear]] Well he the greatest Lama in the world [laughs]
Be honored to take it from him, it will be a great honor. I don’t even know if you’re able to.
You have to….yeah? [student:[unclear]] Should, should ask. There was a famous exchange
where one of the Mongolian [unclear] I forget who it was. He said to a lama, I’ve been
checking you out for twelve years and now I’ve decided that you’re okay. And the lama
said, now I have to watch you for twelve years. [laughter, laughs] and he never got his
vows. Yeah? [student:[unclear]] You…if you gonna to do it the right way, you should
really be like a private detective and you should just check that person as early as you can.
You should really dig into their qualifications. Bad enough to say, you get a piece of paper,
you get all these pieces of paper in the United States – he’s the head of the so and so sect and
reincarnation of you know so and so and stayed in the caves for twenty years you know, all
the papers say that. You have to go and check it out. We often get these papers and they
turn out to be…[laughs] I mean in one case it turned out to be some guy we knew from the
neighboring village in India, you know, we knew that guy, he’s just a Joe Shmore in India
you know, [laughter] you should see the paper [unclear] [laughter] He calls us but we didn’t,
we didn’t believe who he was. {jukchok} that’s the conclusion….it doesn’t mean to say he
wasn’t the great…I don’t know. This is going to have four parts. It sounds like superfluous –
the Buddha is the all knowing one. He knows everything anyway. But this is where you say
to the, to the Buddha, you face the Buddha image that’s there and you say, I just want to
make sure that I’m swearing to keep these vows. Face the Buddha image and you say, I, I
just to make sure that you which only represents the real Buddha, right, that you understand
that I’m swearing to keep these vows. Very heavy. And then you have to make three
prostrations in each direction. I mean the people who were in Arizona, you’d remember
Dalai Lama did that before he gave the vows. How many directions in Buddhism? [student:
ten] Usually ten – four cardinal; four ordinal up and down. Yeah, so you, you prostrate in
the four directions and then for the up and down you prostrate again to the east and again to
the west, okay, in case you wondered. All right. [student: here you only prostrate in four
directions?] No, you should…really it’s six. Those four and then three more to the east and
three more to the west. [student: prostration is part of 3A?] Yeah, still part of 3A. This is
again…there’s a very rare word in Tibetan it’s called {san….}and it’s where you try to put
somebody up. You try to pump them up by describing how, what a great thing they just
did. And the classic reference to quote is…there’s many, is that when the Buddhas and
bodhisattvas are all sitting in their paradise on their particular dharma throne and suddenly all
the dharma throne start flopping up and down and shaking like there’s a earthquake. And
they all use their ESP to communicate and they say, what the hell is going on? What’s
happening? And somebody…and then they checked with their wisdom and they see that,
that [unclear] took her Bodhisattva vows and that’s actually….suppose to be true that when
someone takes the Bodhisattva vows on earth that the…actually it even shakes the thrones of
the Buddhas. It’s such a mighty event in history that someone is fortunate enough to take the
vow that these Buddhas thrones start to shake and they start to….what’s going on and they
check with their knowledge and they see someone has taken their Bodhisattva vows. And
then they say immediately after that then enter into a relationship with that person which is
unique. And they look upon that person as their daughter or their son. They, they take on a
relationship of parents to a child. Then they are much more actively trying to…to lead you
along and to protect you and make sure you’re going to make it. [student: how this is spelt?]
Excuse me? [student: how do you spell it] Which one? [student: ] Uh {Tibetan} This is a
difficult word to spell. Oh in English. Or that’s easy. Okay. Third one…we’re almost done,
we are actually on time. We did this yesterday if you remember in the ceremony at the end
sometimes it’s a mandala offering. It’s called {tang nak} and it means out of thanksgiving for
what has gone on…actually this is not only done by the students to the Lama but it’s done by
the Lama and students together to the Buddhas and the bodhisattva who are…who are
watching. You’re thanking them for that…that because of them you’ve been able to this
ceremony for the person to take their vows [cut]

[cut] this is concluding part number four, last, last [unclear] concluding and the conclusion.
He says don’t advertise. In Tibet it means don’t run out in the market and announce.
[student: but if somebody ask [unclear]] Je Tsongkapa….it’s not a secret vow. The point is
it’s not that it’s a secret vow. You can tell people about it. You can describe it to other
people but the point here is that if the other people does not have great faith in this whole
bodhisattva ideal, if they think it would be stupid for a person to live for others, to give other
people all the advantage and to take the loss themselves, you know if they think that’s a
stupid idea or, or that’s just….you know watching out for number one is the right thing and
being the last one on the bus is the most stupid thing you can do and, and giving up all the
profit in a situation to other person and taking all the loss onto yourself voluntarily as a
spiritual practice there’re…particularly if there’s a person who thinks that will be a stupid
thing to do, you’re not allowed to tell them about these whole vows and what they stand for
and what you did and because that would…the reason why they think it’s stupid is that they
already have some kind of karmic obstacle. They already have some kind of tumor in their
spiritual brain and, and they really can’t understand what the hell you’re doing by, by letting
other people go first and you go last. And…so then to try to impress on them why it’s a
great thing it is and then they would normally react even more negatively that, that tumor
would become more serious. It actually thicken in their spiritual heart. It, it get worse. So
you’re not allowed to…you’ll actually be hurting them because then they’re blocked; their
obstacle will become more firm, so you’re not…you’re suppose to lay off. It doesn’t mean
that you can’t tell all your dharma friends that you’ve got your Bodhisattva vows, that’s a
great thing. That’s a wonderful thing. It means don’t, don’t go to someone who has no faith
in the process and in the ideal and, and tell them what a great thing you did ‘cos they’ll just
get more negative. [student: why, why it’s that [unclear]] They would, they would make
fun of you; they would ridicule the idea; they’d would say that’s a stupid thing to do and by
doing so they collect a bad karma and that karma will make their old bad karma worse.
More thick. That’s about it. Okay Mr Kiley …world is empty, if you study the Diamond
Cutter you’d know that uh, what you experience is your projections forced on you by your
karma and the Bodhisattva vows are that extremely…are that ultimate karma that can, that
will lead you to heaven. If you want to go paradise that’s the only way, you have to take
those vows. And you have to keep them. If you don’t keep them or you keep them in half
hearted way or if you don’t even know them in the first place to keep them which is
normally the case, you just won’t get any result and you’ll be one of those dharma
practitioners…you meet them from time to time. They’ve been practicing for twenty years
and nothing is happening. And they say….and they start to lose faith and they start to have
their mid life dharma crisis I’ve seen it. And they’re wondering what’s going on. You know
why is nothing happening and I’ve been trying so long and so hard and nothing is really
happening and, and it’s ‘cos they haven’t….they didn’t learn the vows and they didn’t make
a real honest daily effort to keep them. Because if you do things start happening. That’s the
whole point. Okay. Yeah? [student: homework?]
We’ll do Mandala first. I’ll hand the homework. [student: [unclear]] People who took the
weekend thing, Michael Wick has some materials in English, the {dakgya} Tom Kiley has
offered people if have trouble on specific points of it and stuff like that. And you can talk to
Cheryl about it or Tom okay [cut]
Course VII: The Bodhisattva Vows