ACI 7 «Обеты бодхисаттвы», занятие 6

Class Six– How the Vows are restored and lost
August 1995

Transcriber - Su Foo

[cut]
We finished the root vows; how many? [student: eighteen] And I think one thing you find
out when you study the Bodhisattva vows carefully is two things, you know. One is that
they’re a lot more specific than most westerners think, you know. Most westerners have …
anyone who has taken initiation in New York in the last twenty years had to take the
Bodhisattva vows. And they have to know them, sixty four of them, and have to be keeping
them. So first of all I think most people don’t even know them and those that know the
names of them don’t understand what the names mean. And they think they’re just some sort
of general thing or they’re … I don’t think they can tell you more than five or six of them.
Even if you know the names of them, they don’t … as you’ve learned, they don’t always
mean what their names are. So you have to study those. On top of that … so you’ve found
out that they’re very, very specific. It’s kind of hard to commit them. They’re very, very
specific. It’s not just talking good about yourself in general. It’s not just not giving
something to anybody. There has to be someone who came to you, they’re desperate, they
have a specific need, they’re coming to you specifically, they’re depending on you, you have
what they need, you are attached to what you have that they need and you, you don’t want
to give them what they need; it’s just because you’re attached it. You have it, you have
plenty of it and they’re begging you and it’s going to save their life or something and you just
don’t give it ‘cos you’re cheap. You know, that’s very specific. It’s not like somebody in
general just sitting there and asking anybody for money or something like that. It’s, it’s a
very evil thing. If someone is really totally depending on you, you have it, and because
you’re cheap you don’t give it. You have … you have plenty of it. You can cover whatever
they need and, and they’re dying for it and they’re asking you directly. They have some
kind of relationship with you, you … and you say no to their face, you know. I mean, all
the vows are kind of like that. As you study them more and more they’re more and more
detailed and they’re very evil. It’s like striking …a ctually striking another human being, I
mean, in anger, after they’ve said something back to you and you built it up and built it up
and built it up and then to a point where you actually strike them. So it has to be really …
these are very specific and very … you feel the evil strength of them. They’re not just general
things like that. They’re … so it’s very serious when you break them but it’s also … the
results are very serious. I mean, you can say two kinds of results. I think you know them.
First one? I don’t know if we went over it. You cannot achieve the first bodhisattva bumi in
this life. I mean, we’re gonna ... yeah? Okay. Bodhisattva bumi means a certain level of
realization that, that only bodhisattvas can have – true bodhisattvas. And you reach the first
bodhisattva level or bumi when two things happen together. You … you have real
bodhicitta in your heart, that’s very hard to get. On top of that you see emptiness directly.
When those two things happens - in other words the first moment of the path of seeing on the
bodhisattva track - you reach the first bodhisattva bumi. It’s really saying that you could
never get onto the main railway out of town in this life, you know, it’s just … it’s saying that
it’s not possible for you. That’s very, very serious. So that would be a very serious result.
You also could never get … if you collected some good deeds in your, in your … in this life
or in the past life, that would push you up to that level, that whole process freezes. It’s
called, the ones you have cannot increase anymore and the ones you don’t have you can’t
get. So that whole virtue that it takes to push you up to the first bodhisattva bumi, the whole
great collection of good deeds that it takes to push you into seeing emptiness directly as a
bodhisattva, that whole process gets frozen. If you collected any good deeds in the past, it
can’t work anymore. And if you got any more that you need to collect, you can’t. So not
only you can’t see the emptiness as a bodhisattva but the whole process of reaching that state
is frozen. It’s all … the monkey wrench is thrown into that process. [student: you have to
start from the beginning or…] you have to start … it doesn’t say that you lose that virtue, it’s
just says that you can’t increase it and that that damages the whole process. That’s a particular
kind of virtue that would make you see emptiness in this life, on the bodhisattva [unclear].
[student: you also cannot gain any [unclear] good virtue?] That’s the whole point. Yeah.
And so Je Tsongkapa says, don’t feel good that you can take your Bodhisattva vows again,
which is true and we’re going to talk about it. You can take your Bodhisattva vows over. If
you smash them, you can take them over again. Over and over again. They’re not like
monk’s vows. And they have their full efficacy there. But they can’t … but you can’t in this
… according to Je Tsongkapa you can’t in this life reach the first bodhisattva bumi if you
break one of the root vows.

So breaking the root vows is very serious but I have good news for you. [Laughter] On top
of them being very, very specific, nasty deeds, okay, you have to have four very lousy
attitudes as you do them. If you don’t have those four lousy attitudes, and even if you do that
action, you don’t break a root vow. It’s not considered … you don’t get that result of
breaking a root vow. Yeah? [student: so the idea that, that [unclear] that you do has [unclear]
after you’ve broken the root vows directed at something else rather than seeing emptiness
[unclear]] I think the main thing is it wouldn’t be significantly powerful for {Tibetan}.
[student: so your merits are lessened in some way? What you do is …] It’s not lessened. It
says {tawa…} the karma you collected so far doesn’t increase. The specific karma that will
help you reach that level. And then you can’t collect any new karma. So the whole process
is sort of frozen through this life. You can’t … you can’t get closer to the total amount of
virtue you need to see emptiness directly as a bodhisattva. [student: so my question is….] but
do you lose your [unclear], no. [student: no, my question is where is the virtue that you
accumulated?] Oh, [unclear] from the bad deed of breaking your vow [laughs] [student:
[unclear]] No, unless you give up {mun sem} unless you give up the wish to, to reach
Buddhahood for all sentient beings. You don’t have to give up being a bodhisattva to break
your bodhisattva vows. We’re going to get to that also. [student: no my … I’m sorry, my
question was, you said you can’t see emptiness [unclear] if you break your root vows; you
can only see emptiness directly ….] Uh as a, as a ... on a Hinayana track. Yeah, I mean, he
doesn’t say that you can’t. The only ... but there’s a lot of other … I mean, that’s Asanga
right, that’s Maitreya. There are other sutras that say you can’t met spiritual guides in the
future; you’ll create a tremendous block towards meeting spiritual teachers in the future.
One sutra says, {Tibetan}which means whatever virtue you’ve collected and is in your mind
stream at the time is, is crushed into powder, he says, you know, it’s totally destroyed. Like
they’re very serious; the results are listed very serious. Je Tsongkapa seems to tend towards
Asanga’s explanation rather than those very, very, I mean, he quotes the sutra but he doesn’t
seem to say, well, you’d lose all your virtues. He doesn’t say that. [student: you know,
what’s on the other side?] Excuse me? [student: let’s say you didn’t break the vow?] Oh, …
[student: no and you’re and you’re living a virtuous way. Now, you, you’re not concerned
with your own merit, that becomes more [unclear], more desire …] Oh it’s ... [student: you
just do it because it’s right and virtuous and selflessly, right, you’re no longer concerned
about …] You do it because it is good for yourself. [student: aren’t you doing it because it’s
correct [unclear] for other people and not only [unclear] good for yourself?] Remember
eating, eating the meat thing. Did I talk about eating the meat? [student: yeah] We talked
about that. You know, a group of families starving [student: oh yes] [student: heard that one,
yes] I mean, the point is … we’re going to talk about that. I mean, bodhisattvas don’t ignore
their own welfare, they build on it. Ignoring your own welfare is not the way to help other
people. In fact, reaching Buddhahood first yourself is the best way to help other people. One
more question then we gotta … or else we’ll be here late. [student: sorry, how because you
can’t become a bodhisattva unless you help others [unclear] right. [student: [unclear]] Not
necessarily. I mean, you become a bodhisattva, when you become a bodhisattva, what’s the
[unclear]? What’s the point at which you become [unclear] . [student: [unclear]] No, not
when you take the vows. [student: when you have spontaneous desire to benefit others in
your heart all day.] [unclear] When you have true bodhicitta. The moment that you achieve
true bodhicitta in your mind, you become a bodhisattva. It doesn’t have … and then you
start the bodhisattva activities perhaps but it’s not … okay.

So good news is that on top of the root vows being very specific and very nasty, I mean,
you’re not likely to do one. I don’t think the people in this room are likely except the ones
that you don’t know about like certain attitudes and stuff. Yeah? [student: tundruk [unclear]]
We’re getting there. That’s {tundruk}, there has to be those four attitudes present in your
mind for you to break a root vow. If you, if you do one of the eighteen things we just
mentioned but you don’t have these four in your heart at that time, you don’t break the vow
and you don’t get those results, except for two of them which we will talk about later. It was
on your … you know that. You’ve got sixteen of them if you don’t have four very nasty
attitudes in your mind, you don’t break the root vow and you can reach the first bodhisattva
bumi etc. Okay. So that’s the good news. So we want to know what those four are.

It comes down to it’s pretty hard to break a root vow if you’re any kind of normally ethical
person. But [laughter, laughs] I shouldn’t … oh, anyway. Say {nyin min meta} [repeat] I
went to fast, wait – lets start down here. Say {kun shi [repeat] {shi} [repeat] You’re much
better than the Mon… than on Monday nights, you know. Okay. [Unclear] We’re going to
take about {kun shi} [student: is this one of four attitudes?} This is the name of all four. All
four are {kun shi}. There’re four {kun shi} {kun shi} is a synonym for {nyomong} which
means mental affliction. It’s a synonym for that word. It comes from the Abhidharma,
studied in the fifth chapter of the Abdhidharma. It’s an interesting word. {Tri}, {tri} means
what a vine does to a pole. It’s like wrapped around it or entwines it. Like … like that, you
know. Wrap around, right? I was looking in the computer to see how it was used in the
ancient sutras, which is fun to do in the computer and it, it tells a story of a bodhisattva who,
who meets some merchants on the road at night in India on a dark night. If you’ve ever
been outside when there’s no electricity on a moonless night, it’s scary. And so to help them
he, he entwines his arm in cloth and pours butter, oil on it and lights it and leads them
[unclear] [laughs], you know. So that’s the sense of {tri}. {kun ne tri} means to completely
entwine. So {kun shi} means a completely entwining bad thought. I call it a chain; I call it a
bond, sometimes. I think I’ve used both of them, you know, it’s like … I don’t know …
completely entwining bad thought, okay, to use a 1960’s translation; and there’re four of
them, okay. In the Abhidharma there are eight or ten depending on which school you’re in.
I’ll tell you the ones in the Abdhidharma. You don’t need to write that down but I thought
you’d get a sense of where these four came from. The ones in the Abhidharma are – lack of a
sense of shame, in other words not being embarrassed to do a bad deed out of self respect.
{tral me}which means not avoiding a bad deed because you’re afraid of its affects on others.
{truk dok} which means jealousy. {dan nang} which means … I could never think of a good
word for that. I mean in colloquial it’s being cheap. What’s a nice literary word, I don’t
know, parsimony, I don’t know. [students] It means not wanting to give up what you have
because you’re stingy [laughs] okay. [student: not sharing?] [student: miserliness] It’s mis…
we don’t have a real good word; they all have … [student: cheap] Cheap, okay. {gur pa} is a
hard word, it means wild. Like a {Tibetan} is a, is a human. It’s a {gur pa}… it’s a man {gur}
which is a gorilla. If you put together in Tibetan a word for man and a word for wild, that’s
the word for gorilla, okay. [laughs] Wild man. So {gur pa} means wild in the sense that the
mind is distracted to desirable objects. We talked about it during meditation class. Then {gur
pa} which is a special kind of regret, it’s where you do something good and then you start to
have second thoughts about it later. Having second thoughts. {muk pa}which means during
meditation a kind of darkness of the mind – dullness. {ni} which means drowsiness during
meditation. {towa} which means outright anger as opposed to the simmering anger that we
talked about already and then {cha pa} which means the human tendency to conceal your
faults, okay. Those are the ten {kun shi}s in the Abhidharma. So you get a sense of where
this word came from. The four {kun shi}s are different from the eight or the ten {kun shi} but
at least you get a sense of where the word came from. So there are four {kun shi}…{shi}
means what? Four. So there’s four {kun shi}. The first one is – say {nyan nik} [repeat] {mita}
[repeat] . If you’re doing {tundruk} you’re doing this six times a day. You’re reviewing your
sixty-four bodhisattva vows, six times a day, okay. {Tibetan} that’s about how much review
we usually do. {nyan ni} means something wrong and {mita} means not to consider. So
{nyan nik mita} means you don’t think what you did is something wrong. You say, ah, that’s
okay. I mean, I wasn’t in the mood to give the guy the thing, so that’s okay. So in other
words you have to have no feeling at all that it was something, that maybe it was something
wrong and by the way I think Amy [unclear] had a very good question in the other class and
Je Tsongkapa spends a long time on that very question. How long does this thought have to
come in your mind for it not to be a root downfall? And when? And Je Tsongkapa says,
from the time of planning that bad deed. You know, the time of starting to think about doing
it on. If it ever you look upon it as something wrong you don’t collect the {Tibetan}. You
don’t create the … you don’t … it’s not breaking a root vow. If during that whole length of
time, from the moment of planning it, all the way on even after you finished, even after you
finish the bad deed if you have any kind of feeling, oh maybe that was something wrong to
do, you don’t collect the root … you don’t break the root. So you see it has to be really evil.
You have to really be sure that it’s okay to have done that. So what it tells us is at least try to
doubt your own … [laughs] I mean, I’m not sure, that’s great. Okay. [laughs] Keep that,
keep that in your heart, you know, okay, maybe that was something wrong. Don’t decide,
oh it’s okay. {nyan nik mita}[unclear]
Say {cher du ma lok} [repeat] that’s number two. {cher} means to do again, here. {gu} means
to want and {ma lok} means not to stop. What it means is you wouldn’t mind doing it again.
It’s, it’s normally stated positively. Asanga states it positively. To still be willing to do it
again. You, you wouldn’t mind doing it again. You, you more or less intend to do it again.
{ma lok} means not to stop the desire to do it again. {Dang} means ‘and’ and don’t worry
that’s just between each one [unclear] [student: so you’re saying, you have to stop desire to
do it again] This is very interesting, you see. From the point of view ... if, if at any point …
I’m sorry – this one has to happen up to the point of finishing. Sorry. All right. If it happens
during the commission of the deed or before the deed, the two negative ones … if the two
negative ones happen to be present at any point from thinking to do it up to the point that
you finish doing it, you don’t collect … you don’t a break root vow. In another words, if, if
during the whole planning of the deed up to the day you finish the deed, you have any
thought that maybe it’s something wrong … it’s not talking about stopping, you can go
ahead and do it but if you have any kind of inkling that it’s something wrong you don’t
break the root vow. This one is obviously going on and, and also during the event which
means if at any point of time you lose the desire to do it again then you don’t collect the
breaking of a root vow, that’s interesting. There comes a point where you say, I wouldn’t do
that again, I, I … it sorts of depends on thinking it was wrong, you don’t break the root vow.
[student: how long after?] It says, {yen che} [student: huh?] It says, from then on. [student:
even if you’d be uncertain [unclear]] Yeah, it’s called the … yeah, even if you switched back.
[student: can’t break it [unclear] you die?] It looks like that. It says, {yen che}. [student:
[unclear]] Yeah, I guess. Couldn’t remember it later, I don’t know. [student: one moment of
regret at any point] Yeah, I mean pretty much. If you, if you … ‘cos regret depends on
thinking it was wrong. You’re recognizing that it was wrong. Like some kind of intention
not to do it again. [student: this is after you have already done the deed] Yeah, or it could
before you do it, you know, [unclear] [student: [unclear]] Yeah, they give the example of, of
a person who is overcome by desire, who is going to break the vow against sexual
misconduct, knows it’s wrong but just overwhelmed by desire; but all during the event they
don’t like it, they’re unhappy; they know it’s wrong, then they don’t break the … they don’t
break the root vow. As long as you fight it. [student: [unclear] better to enjoy it and like
have a moment of regret afterwards] [laughter, laughs] What if you , what if you die
[unclear]. Many of the secondary vows you’ll see it’s very interesting. Many of the
secondary vows, if you’re struggling against it you don’t break it even as you do it. You
know, many of the secondary vows. That’s a very beautiful thing. You know, if you’re
struggling against it even if it overwhelms you and you do it, if you put up a good fight you
don’t break the vow. [student: but after completion of the act, like the one about stealing
food from the Three Jewels] That’s … yeah. [student: I’ve got it, you know, I stole the
thanka and then everything’s fine and then the next thing it’s, oh, I shouldn’t have done that.]
Apparently it’s not breaking the root vow. [student: but if you steal it don’t you have to
return it?] We’ll get there. Okay, number three – I mean, I better check that … I’ll read that
again. [unclear] it’s very confusing. He says the two negative ones have to happen from
here up to there which is from the point of time that you think about doing it up to the point
of time that you finish doing it. The two negative ones are not considering it bad and this
one. And then he says, but the two positive ones, which means if you ever think it was … if
the thought that it was okay to do it again is ever … if you ever go against that thought then
you haven’t broken the root vow and he says, and that can happen any time later. So, little
… that is quite difficult. Yeah? [student: [unclear]] Yeah, big difference. Well, let me think
about it. Not, not considering it wrong and, and not … just knowing about it? [student: like
[unclear]] Yeah that’s, that’s the first one. [student: [unclear]] That’s … just the first one.
[student: [unclear] That’s it, yeah.

Okay, say {gang gu} {gang gu} means, it’s made of two words but basically it means
satisfaction with the deed. You, you enjoy it. You’re having some sort of enjoyment. Again
this is the case where the person is, is doing something wrong but they’re overwhelmed by
their bad emotion and they know all the time it’s wrong. And I mean … that’s what I do
most of the time and you … and you’re fighting it and you feel bad about it even as you’re
trying to enjoy it, you know. I mean, you feel very bad inside. And then as long as you
have that bad feeling and you’re not giving yourself up to enjoying it, you don’t break the
root vow because you don’t have {gang gu} {gang gu} means to enjoy it. [student: does that
connect to some feeling of guilt?] Yeah, I think if you have a feeling of … what we call in
English guilt, which has no Tibetan word for it, really. There’s no Buddhist word for that. It
means feeling bad about something bad you did, that’s great. Now, if it means that, you
know, it destroys your life and you can’t function after that and you [unclear] that’s not the
thing. You’re supposed to do a good purification and then go on. Well or many good
[unclear] [laughs, laughter] I mean, for the rest of your life and then go on.

Okay number four is … [student: Michael, number three … while you’re doing it or any time
afterwards?] He says any time afterwards. But I’m going to check that and make sure.
That’s pretty … I’ll get into big trouble … [laughter] I, I believe that … I’m almost ninety
percent sure that’s the right thing ‘cos he goes into a long thing, it’s very difficult to
understand.
Say {ngo ta} [repeat] {che may} [repeat] Okay. {ngo tsa} means … we had it before, {ngo}
means face; {tsa} means hot. {ngo tsa} means … [student: shame] Yeah, shame. {ngo tsa
[unclear]} which means you have to stick this word over here but they didn’t because there
wasn’t enough room in the verse, means, not to have the following emotions. {ngo tsa}
means avoiding a bad deed out of your own self respect. Not depending on other people. If
nobody else ever knew about it you would still avoid it because you wouldn’t feel right
doing it. The Tibetan says {dak kyi chang myen ba}. {dak kyi myen ba ……denpa} which
means you realize this is not you, so you avoid it. I mean, you’re about to do something and
you say, that’s … that’s not what I want to be. That’s not me. And you avoid it even if no-
one else will ever know. That’s {ngo tsa}. {ngo tsa mepa} means you don’t have that
emotion. [student: what do you call that?] Lack of shame or something, I don’t know.
That’s … those are words that are hard in English. I don’t know what [unclear]. {tral me} is
the same action which is what? {denpa}. Avoiding a bad deed. They’re both avoiding bad
deeds but {tral me} means avoiding it for purposes relating to other people. In other words,
and the text says, either you’re afraid of what other people would think or you, you don’t
want to … or, or because you respect the opinion of other people. Like you’d be afraid if
your enemies found out that you had a certain weakness or something or that you have done
something bad. But as far as your lama, you’d be … you wouldn’t … I mean, doing a bad
deed that your lama has been teaching you for years not to do and then doing it in front of
him or her would be like spitting on him or her. You know, it would be very disrespectful
to do that bad deed in front of them. So {tral me} means avoiding a bad deed because you’d
be embarrassed if someone else found out about it. You’d … you didn’t want to hurt another
person because they would find out about it. Both of them are avoiding a bad deed; one is
for your own reason and one is for your … more or less your, your image towards other
people. [student: [unclear]] It, it … yeah, this is the opposite. You don’t have the emotion of
avoiding a bad deed for purposes of caring what other people would think. It’s important to
care what other people would think. It saves us from a lot of bad deeds. A lot of the bad
deeds that you do, you don’t do in front of other people. So while you’re in front of those
other people for that period of time you don’t do those bad deeds, you know. Then you go
home and do it in the privacy of your home, you know. There’s certain classes of bad deeds
and you know that they are, they’re … people do in the privacy of their home that they
would be totally embarrassed that other people found out about and they would never do it
in front of group of people, you know, and that’s {tral me} and that’s a good thing. So this
means not to have that. So number four means not having those. And this is really nice. It
says, if during the commission of the deed all the way from planning the deed, the first
thought to do the deed, all the way up to the completion of the deed that you have the
slightest bit of either one, it’s no … you don’t break a root vow. If you get the slightest
feeling that … I really shouldn’t be doing this, this is not me. Or, boy, this would be terrible
if somebody else found out I was doing this. If you have either thought occurs to you during
that length of time, you do not break a root vow, it’s interesting, even if you do the deed.
That’s why the ... I guess that’s why the, the results are so powerful. I guess that’s why you
can’t see emptiness in this life. I mean, you have to be really deluded to have all four
complete which they must be, and on top of that you must do that action [laughs] in that
particular way, to break a root vow. I don’t think most Americans ever realize that but they
never realize the results anyway, so they’re just blissfully … [laughs, laughter] ignorant.
[student: Michael, do you mean all four of them are ...] All four must be complete. All four
complete means during the whole planning up to the last moment of doing it you don’t for
one second think, this is not something I should be doing or I’m embarrassed if someone
found out I was doing this or … the other thing for me that they would think I would do this
and you can’t ever think this is something bad and whenever you think about it … it doesn’t
have to be constant, okay - Je Tsongkapa makes a big point about it - whenever you think
about it you’d like to do it again. And whenever you think about it you, you think about it
with satisfaction. So if any one of those four happens, two positive and two negative, you
didn’t break the root vow except for …? [student: two] Two, those two, yeah, I mean, you
get wrong view you broke it period, you don’t have to have any of these. I mean, you have
it automatically, don’t you? Don’t think it’s wrong. And then the other one is to give up …
obviously to give up bodhicitta, to say, I don’t give a damn about other people anymore. I
give up, people are crazy. I can hardly fix myself, how can I fix a billion other people.
Okay. [student: [unclear]] more conceptual, you know, [unclear]] I think the main thing
about {lok sa} is that it would lead you to do every kind of bad deed if you didn’t understand
the law of karma. [student: [unclear] foundation?] You’d be willing to do anything. If you
really didn’t believe that whatever evil you do comes back to you equally or more, you’d be
… you’d be really immoral, [laughs] okay. And then obviously to give up wanting to help
all living beings is, is … he goes into a long thing on it and he says, it’s like, it’s like the
mayor of New York throwing … announcing a party for every citizen of New York city and
there’s going to cake and champagne in City Hall and just come down and pick it up. And
then when the day comes he doesn’t do anything. And he gets up and says, I decided not to
do it [laughter]. He says that, he says it’s just like that. You’re inviting every sentient being
to the ultimate happiness and then when they all show up you say, ah forget it, I don’t want
to do it anymore. Yeah? [student: [unclear] It’s quite interesting that it’s so difficult really to
break the vows [unclear] and it doesn’t seem to be to be as difficult to break a vow of thel
other [unclear]. Why does that [unclear] or is it just a [unclear]] I think Atisha said that he
was more likely to break these vows. I think Atisha says something like, I never broke my
monk’s vows, I, I, broke some of my Bodhisattva vows. I don’t know if he’s talking about
root vows, I doubt it. And then he said, he’s probably talking about something close, you
know what I mean? [student: [unclear]] By the way when you do a, a … one of these
eighteen actions without these four it’s a sec… it’s breaking a secondary vow automatically.
And then he said, I broke by tantric vows like thousands. He said that. [laughter] [student:
[unclear] much easier to break] I don’t know. [student: but even so [unclear] they’re very
clear and it seems like they’re very black and white, [unclear] there’re not all these conditions
[unclear]] Oh, there are … {shi…} there’s four conditions, [unclear] has three and you know,
it’s not too easy, okay. So those are the four. They have to be complete for you to break
your root vow. Yeah? [student: You said if you do one of these eighteen deeds without these
four being present, secondary …] No, sixteen of them. [student: sixteen, sorry [unclear]]
Yeah, it becomes a secondary [unclear] [student: does that mean you have to have all the
other qualifiers present for each of the vow for it be a secondary vow?] No. [student:
secondary downfall] No, these relate to the root vow. [student: I’m saying the sixteen root
vows, you know, they’re very specific [unclear]] Yeah, yeah everything … [student: all those
other conditions still have to be met and then it becomes a secondary downfall?] and on top
of that you have to have these four. Oh yeah, right. [student: Michael [unclear] bodhichitta,
you’re not talking about giving up bodhichitta [unclear]] No, even for second. [student:
even for a second [unclear] really upset and you lose your bodhisattva …] there’s a famous
story of Aryadeva, he was on the road to the monastery back in ancient India and this demon
has formed himself into a human being, looking like a human being and saw Aryadeva on
the road and said, if you’re a bodhisattva you should give me your eyeball. This happened to
Nagarjuna too and that’s how he died. So, so he reaches in with his fingers and pulls his eye
out and respectfully hands it to [unclear] and the demon goes like this and smashes it, you
know, and then in that second Aryadeva said, people are impossible, I cannot save all
sentient beings [unclear]. Sentient beings are unsaveable, you know, I give up, this is, this is
too much. If this is the way people are, I give up. You know, and they say at that moment
he broke the vow, broke his vow. Of course, I guess if you run or … I don’t know …
anyway [laughter] {Tibetan} means for sixteen of them all four has to be complete. All four
has to be there. Obviously if you do something close to these four it’s very easy, you know
what I mean. I’m not saying, I’m just saying that you don’t break your root vow. But
obviously it’s a very evil thing if you do them all complete except one little thought or
something. [student: what [unclear]] Excuse me? [student: what [unclear] complete] {sang
ge} means … {sang} means complete. {ge} means must be. {shedrup} means sixteen. [student:
was Aryadeva supposed to have been enlightened when he did that?] I don’t know.
[student: because that’s not taking care of himself, is it? To pull your eye out and that?
[unclear]] Yeah, generally speaking you’re not supposed to do things like that until you
have a very, very, very, very, very high level. [student: did his teacher tell him that if
someone came to give them whatever they need [unclear] he’ll have this regret …] By the
way, later he used to get up in front of the monks and say, I see more with my one eye than
you see with your two eyes. Anyway …{me ger lok ta} {me ger} means not necessary,
meaning you don’t need all four there. {me ger} means not necessary. {lok ta} means wrong
views, two classic kinds; what are they? [student: not believing in karma ...] Not believing
in karma; not believing in past and future lives. {lok ta dang} And ...{sam dor} {sam} means
‘chita’ means what? [student: mind] Bodhicitta. Standing for bodhicitta. {sem} means
bodhicitta. {dor} is a very nasty word in Tibetan. {dor} means like to throw away like
rubbish. [dor} means to discard something. {sem dor} is number eighteen, right, what’s that?
[students: giving up helping …} Giving up that wish to help all sentient beings. {sem dor}…
{ni che} means these two … so he says, you can count it like this. Sixteen where you don’t …
sixteen where you must have all four bad attitudes there; two where you don’t need all four
bad attitudes there. These are the eighteen root vows, he says. These are the eighteen.
{Tibetan} means root downfall. {Tibetan} means eighteen. And {sung} means you’d better
keep them, okay [laughs] {sung} means you better keep them. This is … from, directly from
{tundruk}. If you know what {tundruk} is, you’re supposed to be doing it every day.
[student: I don’t know]. I mean a note, a practical note for people doing {tundruk}. You and
I know you can’t review sixty-four of these and in my case two hundred and fifty-three or
something else and then on top of that, twenty-two or something else plus the other, other
nineteen and ah … in six times a day, even if you go to bathroom for a long time, which is a
good way by the way. [laughter] I’m serious. Like if you’re in a meeting and it’s nine
o’clock and you’re supposed to be reviewing and, and you’re boss is sitting there and you
say, ‘I gotta go to the bathroom’. I’m not kidding. I’m not kidding, it’s a great way to
review your vows. It’s a quiet place. Nobody is following you; there’s no phone and there’s
a good excuse to go six times a day. Rotate them, rotate. You know, do three, do fifty-four.
We had a deal with [unclear]. Uh, okay, just people going to hell while you … [laughter,
laughs] I don’t want to put any pressure on you or anything. [students] [laughter] Okay,
those are the … I’ll say one more thing and then we’ll take a break. If you break a root vow,
if you break a root vow, meaning in sixteen cases you have all four bad thoughts and you do
that specific thing, and in two cases if you just do that specific thing, you, you destroy your
vows. Your vows are gone. You must take them over again. The only way to restore them
is to take them over again. That destroys the vows. [student: all of them?] Yeah. Breaking a
root vow destroys your vows. You’ll have to take them all over again. The only way to
restore them is to take them over again. Yeah? [student: did you say there’s something is
your mind stream, can you describe that? Somehow you say there’s something there that
forms and is destroyed. What is that?] There’s a huge debate about it. {Tibetan} Some
schools think it’s a physical halo [unclear] … we talked about it. {Tibetan} There’re two
different schools of thought. And then some people say it’s a {bak chak} in your mind. Some
people say it’s a, it’s a potentiality going on to your mind stream. Probably we would say
that I think. We would say that. Yeah? [student: could you please repeat that question, I
don’t understand …] He wanted to know … what, how does a vow form in your mind
stream. I mean, we said that certain conditions have to be there for the vow to even form
and in some cases,a person could be walking around wearing robes their whole life, could be
the abbot of a big monastery and the vows never form within them in the first place ‘cos they
didn’t have certain conditions there when they took the vows. Nobody knows. So he’s just
saying how do they form? So more or less a seed in your mind stream. It’s neither form nor
mind. It’s a potential, it’s an energy in your mind. [student: [unclear]] No. [laughs] because
you have to vow to break it. [student: Michael, which word is [unclear]] {Tibetan}. Okay, so
if you break a root vow with those conditions you lose the vow; you have to take them over
again. If you … and that’s called a … it’s call a big impurity, alright. Big impurity in
Bodhisattva vow code words, code language, means all four were there and if all four are
there, or you break one of the other two, it’s a big impurity. It’s called a big impurity and
that big impurity wipes up the vow. You can take it again as you’ll see in the reading, so
long as you don’t lose {mun sem}. Remember it? So long as you don’t lose that basic
inkling to reach enlightenment for other people, you can take it again. It’s that, that desire no
matter feeble it is in your mind, prevents breaking a root vow from destroying your ability to
take the vows again. If you didn’t have that block there, you know, that dyke of at least
some wish to help sentient beings, if that wasn’t there, breaking the root vow would actually
destroy your capacity to take it again. You wouldn’t be able to take it again. So it’s very
important – just keep that little tiny thought, okay … well, I still want to help people; I broke
… I screwed up, I still want to help people, then the vow can form again. Yeah? [student:
[unclear] secondary vow [unclear] because if you don’t have these four things but you still
take one of the other [unclear] what's the next because [unclear] ] No, there’s nothing else
that’s why … [student: [unclear]] You’ll see something at the end of the reading, at the end of
the course, there’s eighteen root vows; forty-six secondary vows and then there’s some minor
offences. There’re some other kinds of offences. And, and that kind of lumps in a lot of
different activity. [student: [unclear]] Yeah, there are those types, yeah. [student: so that may
be included in the ...] In, in the way at the bottom there. Yeah? [student:[unclear]] What …
well, I think what she’s asking is if you don’t commit the eighteen and you don’t commit the
forty-six is there any other way you can break any Bodhisattva vows? And the answer is, yes
there are some other … there’re some other advices or observances that, very general ones;
don’t do this kind of deed, don’t do these kind of deeds. And those are like … we’ll get into
that, in fact we’ll getting to it right now. [student: even though they’re [unclear]] Yeah,
yeah, yeah. [student: but if you had something ...] Those are not formal vows. They’re like,
they’re like minor offences. They’re at the very bottom of that. [student: breaking anything
besides the eighteen, I still don’t … [unclear]] Right, you don’t mess it up. Yeah. That’s
why the root … that’s what distinguishes the root vows from the others in a way. Okay,
let’s say, what happens if you break … what happens if you break the root vows, how can
you restore your vows if you break a root vow but you don’t do it … by the why, somebody
ask if you lose all the vows when you break one – I gotta check with Rinpoche, okay - I’m
not quite sure. I believe you do. I know you have to take them over. I don’t believe you
can take over one vow, okay. I, I don’t think so. [student: [unclear]]. I mean, I think …
you just lost … no, you cannot have the vow and have bodhicitta. Before you take the vow
you have bodhicitta. Okay. What happens if you have some of those four bad thoughts and
you break a vow, how can you restore it? How can you fix it? And he says, as long as … if
you, if you have {myen me mitta} which means, if you don’t think it’s wrong and then you
have any of one or two of the other three, it’s called a medium impurity. Okay. So you
gotta have not thinking it’s wrong which is really nasty, worse than the four, on top of that
you have one or two of the other ones. What if you have three of the other ones? It will be
a big impurity. It will be a big impurity. We’re talking a medium impurity. So medium
impurity means you have … you must have the bad thought of not thinking it’s wrong and
then on top of that you have one of the other … one or two of the other three. In that case,
the way you fix your vow is you go and confess it in front of three or more people. You
have to go and confess in front of three or more people. [student: at once] Excuse me?
[student: at once?] Yeah, they have to be a group of three or more people and you have to
collect them together and say that this is … they have obviously have to understand what
you’re talking about. Some people get their dog and [laughs] two kids [laughter] you know
what I mean? There’s this whole list of what … how they have to be, you know, but that’s
another story. If you break any of the other three except the first one, okay, in other words,
you understand the thing is wrong and you look upon it as wrong but, but you have one of
the other three attitudes, or two of them or all three of them it’s called a small impurity. And
then it’s enough to confess in front of one other person. [student: so you’re saying it purifies
it, it restores it?] It restores it, it restores it to its former glory. [student: but it wasn’t broken
[unclear]] It was damaged. They call it damaged in the Vinaya. Damaged. Was it broke …
lost? [student: [unclear]] But it was damaged, badly damaged. [student: so does that limit
your ability to accomplish something?] Obviously it hurts it but there’s no, there’s no like he
doesn’t go into a thing like that. But he does go into a long explanation of why if you’re
monk and you break your root vows or get back your root vows, you can never in that life
restore them to the same glory that they were in the beginning. They’ll never be as clean and
as pure as they were the first time you took them. But he says, Bodhisattva vows you can,
you will have the Bodhisattva vows just as holy as you ever had them if you take them over
again. But then in the next sentence he says, but don’t take any comfort from that because by
breaking them once you, you’re not going to be able to achieve the first bodhisattva bumi in
this life. So, so don’t you know, by losing them, right. So don’t, don’t, don’t go thinking
you can lose them every day and just take them again the next day. [student: but that’s losing
completely, a total breaking [unclear]] Yeah, right, right. Losing, I should say, losing.
[student: [unclear] it seems to me that after confession [unclear]] Yeah, unless you broke …
[student: [unclear]] unless you broke it with a big impurity. [student: okay. You don’t have
to [unclear]] No. [student: [unclear] big impurity] Big impurity, for the four, yeah. So that’s
nice. It’s good to know. All right, we’ll take a break.

[talking]

And now just to clarify Art’s class. Art Engle’s a great scholar, a great teacher out in New
Jersey. He’s trying to … it’s only for people who took the initiation a couple of weeks ago, it
             st        th            th
will be the 1 , the 15 and the 29 of September, three Fridays; it’s, it’s for you guys. In
other words, it’s not, it’s not a continuation of his old classes. It’s a, it’s a class just for people
who want to how to do the {dakgye}. He’s going to cover the whole {dakgye} in that period
which is a big feat. So that’s all. That’s the [unclear] of that. To remove bad karma. If you
have them you can actually affect the bad karma in your karmic pocket. You can actually
make it ripen sooner and ripen much faster. So instead of going to the lower realms you can
actually like get a headache or something. It’s very important to know that trick, that karmic
trick So I’m going to go through them. The first force is called Basis force. It refers mainly
to those two very, very basic Buddhist thoughts. The first is taking refuge. You recommit
yourself to the idea of Buddhahood, okay. You recommit yourself to the idea of perceiving
emptiness directly; recommit yourself to people who have seen emptiness directly. Those are
the Three Jewels. That’s the real Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. You commit yourself to that;
that’s refuge. You put your trust in that. Mentally you think that’s what I’m after. You, you
reassert that you are a Buddhist. This is what makes a Buddhist. You, you want to achieve
enlightenment; you want to see emptiness directly; you want to be one of those people that
sees emptiness directly; that’s basically the Three Jewels. That’s the true meaning of the
Three Jewels. You reassert it. You think it over again and then you reassert your bodhisattva
ideal. I’m a Buddhist and I want to be a bodhisattva. That’s the basis for it. That’s the first
thing you have to do to clean away a bad deed. How often did Atisha clean away his bad
deeds? [student: every five seconds] [laughter, laughs] If you ever see a picture of him, he’s
got this little stupa in his hand, I mean, he walked around with a stupa in his hand, it’s a little
like Buddha image thing and he’ll be riding on his horse going to South Tibet and a bad
thought would occur to him and he’d stop all his students, twenty students, gotta stop
everybody; I got to get off the horse [laughter], get off the horse, he’d put the stupa down,
he’d prostrate and then he would do the four forces. I mean, that’s … he didn’t want to get
thrown off the horse and break his neck with that bad thought on his, on his conscience, on
his karmic pocket. He wanted to confess it immediately to get rid of it. And that’s cool. You
gotta do that. You never know when you’re going to die. I mean, it’s … sometimes it comes
very suddenly and then you, you still have … that’s the idea of {tundruk} that’s one of the
basic reasons for {tundruk}, why, you know, all of the bodhisattva texts, even without
entering the secret teachings, you’re supposed to do these things six times a day. Three times
during the day time and three times at night. You’re supposed to sleep for four hour, between
… I don’t know, what, nine and three, anyway. Yeah? [student: just a quick aside, we don’t
do it six times, we only do it once, the actual vow would be once in the morning and once in
the evening [unclear] do that.] That’s the … [student: we’re doing three times, [unclear]] At
the end of that I can, [unclear] can. [student: all right] That’s a … well, anyway. Okay.
[laughter] It’s not what you think. That’s the Basis force. Why is it Basis? When you fall
down you need some hard ground to get back up from. That’s your basic Buddhist principle.
So you just reassert them; you go back to them; you get back up. They help you get back
up. Destruction force means this. I like to put it that way. It means not some, not some
(indistinct) idea of guilt, okay. It’s a very cold understanding that of how karma is collected.
When you do a bad deed you see yourself do a bad deed. Seeing yourself do a bad deed
plants a bad deed in your mind stream. So the basic requirement for karma to be collected is
that you’re there and you are there, by definition, okay. [laughs] You’re aware of yourself
doing a bad deed, that plants the karma. That stays in your mind stream and you have a
similar perception of someone harming you which … as that karma flowers in your mind.
And, and we talked about the replication of that energy within your mind stream in, in the
last … class before last. It goes on. It can replicate for thousands of years. Then the energy
comes back and you perceive yourself suffering. It all has to do a lot with emptiness. It’s all
wrapped up with emptiness. The basic point here is that the minute you do a bad deed and
you know about karma and you know about emptiness, you will know that you have put
something in your mind stream, it’s very hard to get out after that. As you do a bad deed, I
mean, when you get really educated in Buddhism, you are a monk, you check out a girl in
the Port Authority. Then you catch yourself and you’ve already … it’s too late. It’s already
too late. The karma has been created by perceiving and by being there on the perception
current. It’s already planted in my mind stream. It’s very hard to get it out after that. You
can’t … there’s no way to go back and pull it out. And, and the more educated you get as a
Buddhist, the more, the more schizophrenic it becomes, you know. The moment after doing
something you’re like … oh my God, am I crazy enough? You can’t take it back. You can’t
take it back. And you know exactly the results. You know where it’s going to stay; you
know how it’s going to stay; you know how it’s going to ripen and you, you can’t stop it
really. And it’s like, it’s like accidentally swallowing a razor blade or something. It’s the
same idea. What are you going … put your hand down your throat and pull it back? You
know, it’s too late. So that’s, that regret is very, very important. Educated regret. And if
you learn more about emptiness and karma you’ll get, you’ll get very sensitive to doing bad
deeds. How stupid it is to do a bad deed. [student: how [unclear]] Oh, in one sense it’s the
most destructive thing to the bad karma. I mean, if you have true … if you are a really
educated Buddhist and you truly understand what you just screwed up about, you probably
won’t do it again. I mean, it comes … it’s one of the most powerful things for destroying the
power of the bad deed. [student: what do you do about [unclear]]. It’s called the {Tibetan}
and we talked about it. It’s general confession. We can give a copy if somebody has a copy.
And you do it over and over again. That’s about all you can do – just a blanket confession
because you don’t know what you did. [student: can I just saying something about what she
asked?] Yes. [student: a lama told me one time, he said that what you’re doing now your
mind stream is connected; what you did a thousand life times ago led you to this action right
now. So the confession of this action right now sort of traces all the way back to the deeds a
thousand life times in the past because it’s in your continuum. The seed, you know, which
led to this action right now ripening led you to this action [unclear]] You can read the
general … it’s beautiful. And one class … one question we had from last class which we
went to India and asked, Kylie and me, Wendy or Kylie. We went and asked the Lama
there, if you did one general confession is that enough to wipe out all the old bad deeds and
he says, it’s like a process of wearing away the bottom of a shoe, you have to keep doing it
over and over and over and over again. You wear and wear a little bit each time you do it.
[student: now along this whole thing on the second one, like not realising by this regret as
soon as you start having any sort of mental [unclear], right? ] Yeah, that’s very powerful.
[student: just like, you know, if you put [unclear] the razor, you wouldn’t [unclear] at the
beginning of the thought you start [unclear]] Well, as it reached your mouth. Okay,
restraining force, very simple. You stop doing it. You take a personal pledge not to do it
again. And it’s the oral tradition, okay, passed down from teacher to student. I remember
Geshe Daggey saying, you, you take a personal pledge to yourself not to do it again but you
have to set a reasonable time limit, okay. Most of us will do the bad deed again within a
short time. Like if you yelled at somebody at work it’s not good for force number three to go
home and say, I’m never going to do that again. Why? [student: [unclear]] You’re going to
collect another bad deed on top which is lying. [laughs, laugher] So the oral tradition says,
make it a reasonable limited time and that’s very powerful; it really does work. And you’ll
get good at it. You gotta to do it over and over again. So you say, okay, from nine o’clock
to ten-thirty tomorrow at work I will not say anything bad to that person. I’ve had thoughts
occur again before I finished doing the four forces, you know. I’ve had thoughts that I said,
well, I’d better make it thirty seconds or two minutes. I was really upset at that time. And
you, you’ll get good at it. You’d get good at … get good at these, you know, you can really
get good at them and your life will change. And if you just go home and set the notebook on
the shelf, you know, then it won’t change. Nothing will change. And you’ll meet middle
age dharma students who are having their middle age dharma crises [laughter] and you, you
do and I don’t want you to be one of them. You know, you’re fresh, understand that while
you’re fresh you must put these into practice. You must take advantage of these great thing
and then you won’t be like that. Your middle age will be much more thrilling than your
younger years were. I mean, things will be incredible and you’ll be happy and things will
be happening, you know. And, and you won’t be just kind of wondering why nothing’s
going on and why you’re just getting older [laughs]. So that’s restraining force. Antidote
force means you do something to make up for what you did. And, and I always give this …
there’s a cool example where I live in New Jersey there was a man who was in Vietnam. He
doesn’t know if he killed anybody but he was in all these fire fights where he was spraying
wildly machine gun at the … at the jungle and hoping he’d hit somebody. And he doesn’t
know if he hurt anybody. But he, he went to my Lama and he said, what can I do to make
up? What should be my antidote force? My lama said, I know your father is keeping two
sheep with the intention of killing them for it, for food, which is what the Mongolians
normally do. And he said, you take, you pay for those two sheep and you keep them until
they die a natural death [cut]

Side B
[cut] and they live a long time, it’s like fifteen years, you know, and he kept them for fifteen
years and he took care of them and they died of natural death. That’s an antidote for it. The
most powerful one … there’s a couple of advantages here, I can speak from experience, okay.
If you make studying emptiness your antidote force since you do so many bad deeds you’ll
be studying emptiness constantly. [laugher] And you’ll get the result and the result will
come. If you’re doing a little bit of emptiness study every day the result will come.
Something wonderful will happen. Yeah? [student: you say study emptiness; do you mean
to just see the events and the deeds [unclear]?] No, I mean, go study explanations about it.
[student: is it enough to just think, okay, [unclear] do with the action and they’re all empty
and think about ….] that’s okay, but then go deeper, you know, read a lot of explanations of
it. Compare the explanations. See the weak points, see the bad translations, see the stupid
explanations, you know. Become a connoisseur of emptiness … the teachings, and then the
result will come. If you do it … if you connect it to your bad deeds, [laughs] you’ll have lots
of chances to study emptiness. Why should that be the most of the powerful of the four.
What ... why should studying emptiness be particularly effective? And that’s … almost say
that’s the last question [unclear]. [student: because you understand more because you
[unclear] following morality] Great. That’s all. I mean, if you really understood emptiness
you would, you would totally understand the need for morality. That is the great benefit of
knowing them. Emptiness means that nothing has any nature of its own. The nature that the
things seem to have comes from the ripening of your past karma. Once you understand that
you will never want to do anything bad. You won’t have to struggle to do the other ones. If
you understand emptiness the last thing you’d want to do is to do anything wrong. Okay,
last point, ‘cos it’s on your homework. Then we’ll do one more question. Go ahead
[student: if emptiness and experience seem directly as it’s there, doesn’t something arise
whereby [unclear] talking about, it’s so insignificant that it doesn’t arise?] You have to study
the five paths. [student: all right] you see emptiness directly at the third path and it is true
that it is that experience which enables you to remove your bad thoughts permanently. But
there’s this thing called {gom lam} – path of habituation, it takes years or lifetimes and that’s
why there are things called once-returners and non-returners and, you see, whether or not
you come back to this realm, all that depends on how fast you can destroy your bad thoughts
because you saw emptiness, but it can take many lives. [student: is there a book?] Uh,
there’re … yeah, there’re books about it but they’re not in English [laughter] [laughs].
[student: [unclear]] Some. [student: I’ll find out] Okay, last point and then we’ll stop. All
right, Asanga says there’s two ways to lose your Bodhisattva vows, I just thought you should
know. You can probably tell me actually. You know, when you study monk’s vows you
study the ways you in which you can lose your monk’s vows. {Tibetan} You can only lose
your monk’s vows by giving them back or dying. But Bodhisattva vows are different. How
do you lose your Bodhisattva vows? [student: giving back [unclear]] Yeah, the first way, as
John said, you know, understanding it, if you break them with all those four things present,
in the case of the sixteen, in other words if you break your root vows you lose the vows.
And the second way to lose them is, is very obvious, it’s number eighteen. What’s that?
[student: wrong view?] [student: no, giving up bodhicitta] Obviously, how could you have
the vows after you gave up bodhicitta? Those are the two ways to lose a vow according to
Asanga. Shantideva adds two more, Asanga … Je Tsongkapa says they’re included into
Asanga’s already but I thought I should mention one of them and that’s giving back the vows
formally. That’s like … that’s like going to your lama who gave you the vows and saying , I
can’t do it anymore, I’m giving them back to you. You can do that, there is such a thing.
For monks also. If a monk feels he can’t handle it anymore he’s supposed to go and give
them back. It’s a terrible deed, I mean, it’s a very, very … it’s not a, it’s not a non-virtue but
it’s a destruction of that ordained person’s ability to collect special virtue in the future.
[student: but better than breaking the vows [unclear] ] I don’t know. [laughs] Maybe. No,
you can’t break them knowing … I mean, purposely but I mean, it’s not good, it’s not
something to be taken lightly. You have sworn to keep them for your life. You swore before
all holy beings to keep them for your life. [student: but Michael some people keep only … I
know this is a different tradition but in the Kagyu tradition I know of monks that have taken
for one year, year and half, three years …] There’s no such rules in the Vinaya. The Vinaya
doesn’t state that. There is nowhere in the Vinaya that … that custom. {lapa …….} That’s the
only way you can lose your vows. They are lifetimes vows except for the one day vows. All
the other seven are lifetimes vows, that’s the Vinaya. [student:[unclear]] Yeah, I agree, I
agree. We’ll talk about it some day. Anyway, I agree, I agree. If a person really can’t keep
them, doesn’t intend to keep them, they should give them back but I don’t even like to
consider the possibility because that person swore to keep them for their whole life, then to
go and say, I’m not going to do it anymore, it’s crazy. Yeah. [student: so if you have
Bodhisattva vows in your next lif,e you’re not even aware of it, are you breaking them then?]
That’s a good question. That’s … I don’t know, I’ll check. It’s a good question. He pointed
out that when you die you don’t lose your Bodhisattva vows so what if you break in your …
as a two year old in your next life? [student: it will be very hard for two year old …] I’ll
ask Rinpoche, I don’t really know. So that’s the third way really. So if on your homework
it says, name three ways, the third will be giving them back formally. And, and Je
Tsongkapa says, why mention it because if you wanted to do that you’d assume that you
have lost ... [student: bodhicitta] …bodhicitta. So he says, why count it a separate one?
[student: what was the fourth one?] Yeah, I didn’t understand it very well, so I didn’t want
to get into it. [laughs] It’s like counting the … it’s like counting the four conditions as not …
you know, it’s something to do with the four conditions and I didn’t … and Je Tsongkapa
says, just lump it into two – breaking it with those four conditions. [student: what’s the
difference between one and two, they’re both breaking one of the eighteen vows?] Uh, that’s
true. It seems that one would be subsumed by the other, but maybe not specifically.
[student: did you find out whether or not teaching emptiness to the untrained covers
publication of books?] No, I didn’t, but from my knowledge of … oh no, tantric for sure. I
mean, from my personal communication of Lama’s [unclear] but, but I’ll check about that.
[student: because there are a lot of books on emptiness out there.] I know, yeah that’s true.
[laughs, laughter] One more question, people wanted me, oh,. you want to go? Done?
[student: I want to ask a question] Very quick, okay. [student: okay, thanks. [unclear]
destruction force, you said [unclear] you have a similar perception if someone’s harming you.
Did I miss something that’s [unclear]] Uh, similar means similar content and that refers to
one of the four qualities of karma which is that if you do something to hurt someone the
experience must be of suffering. If the nature of the deed is to cause suffering, the nature of
the result must be to receive suffering. And that explains partly why that’s true because it’s
tied up to your perception of causing them suffering. Let’s take Karma [laughs].

[cut]
Course 7 – The Bodhisattva Vows