ACI 7 «Обеты бодхисаттвы», занятие 8

Course VII, Class Eight; Secondary Vows 1-34
9/11/95




Let me just ask you the following question: If you have natural taking of bodhichitta, which
is what? If you have the vows naturally which means what?

[Student: From a previous life.]

Yeah, from a previous life. Meaning you didn't take them in this life, and you break them as a
child not knowing anything, do you get all the effects of breaking the root vow? Which
means like in that life you can't perceive emptiness directly as a bodhisattva. So I asked
Rinpoche the [unclear] meaning the first place you reach the upper level. I asked Rinpoche a
couple of these questions. On that one he said: "You have the {bodchok} for the vow, but
since you haven't taken the vow on verbally, knowingly in this life, you its not like you
break it right then. And you don't have the vow in the way that you have the vow when you
retake it again knowing what your doing verbally in this same life. You do have the vow in
the sense of having it in the form of a {bodchok}. You don't have it in the form of having
agreed to take it on consciously in this life so that you could break it that way in this life."
That's how he explained that one. Second one he said: "About teaching emptiness the text said
you had the person you taught it to had to be Mahayana and had to get turned off and then
go to Hinayana. And he said it also includes if you teach emptiness to someone who doesn't
really want to listen to it or who would have a bad reaction to it in the sense of criticizing it
or putting it down or someone who's really not interested in learning it and you force it on
them and then they react badly cause then they get more of a block, mental block against it
and they collect bad deeds. And he said that's why if you print a book about emptiness its not
as bad because presumably anyone who picks up a book or buys a book is interested and
wants to know and he wouldn't have break a vow in the sense of forcing it on somebody
who wasn't really interested and who's going to react badly to it and then collect bad karma
and may not be able to understand it even more. So that was his answer about that one, and
that distinguishes it from publishing tantric materials because those are just plain secret.
Those are just you absolutely can't show them to anybody no matter what their intentions are.
Good or bad. You can't show them. If they haven't had initiation.

[ Student: So what is the situation with all the tantric manuals out there? Occasionally you see
a line saying: "Not to be read unless you have had the initiation." but that's very occasional
usually it is just there and if East meets West you want it you get it.]

I think you shouldn't buy them you shouldn't [unclear] unless you've had initiation. You
shouldn't publish them you shouldn't release them unless everyone who's ever going to buy
it had initiation.
[Student: Then why do they release them?]

I don't know. As far as I understand it you're not allowed to. ...No then you just If you
hadn't had initiation you are not allowed to read them. Period. [laughs]. [Unclear: I guess
you sure know what's good look at them.] Anyway, I think His Holiness gives general
explanations that don't get into details in order to assure that, I've heard this said, I don't
know if its what He said but it makes sense to me, to assure that people don't get the wrong
idea about tantra he lets some general information out, so that people don't think it's
something dirty or something very strange. That he wants... that's what I've heard and it
makes sense to me, that he speaks it to a general explanation. It seems to make sense to me,
but I don't know his motivation. [cut]

Say {Shayla}

[repeat]

{lelalu}

[repeat]

{shaylaso}

[repeat]

I'm sad to be nearing the end of the vows because I'm not sure. The first time you hear them
is when they impress you and when you feel like keeping them. The second time you hear
them you won't be so impressed. You probably won't even come to class. I mean, this is the
chance that you have to learn them fresh and to try to keep them. If you get used to them
you won't want to, they won't be so sexy anymore, you know, they'll just be one more thing
that you've already heard about. So you have to work really hard to keep them now, you
know, you have to work really hard to get in the habit now. One week after this course ends
you probably won't even be thinking about the bodhisattva vows. Seriously. So you have
to make a habit of it now. Try to make a habit of it now.

[Student: Just as someone who's been saying these for a couple of years now, at least for
myself I would disapprove of that because I think the first time you hear it you don't even
know exactly what you're saying every day you say it over and over again, and every day
you read each line and it becomes more of a part of you, it not going to...]

Okay, she says she gets deeper into them. [Several people talking at once]

[Student: No, I think...interruptions... no, no, I mean its like otherwise you are going to have
people saying well gee its my first week I've been saying it and I'm not doing very well.]

No I don't mean that. I mean you'll never take as much, it will never be as novel as it is now
so while it's novel hook into it, deeply. Start, make it a habit now. If you don't make it a
habit now there is no reason you would make it a habit a month from now. That's for sure.
That's the way humans are.

[Student: But doesn't that turn the whole bodhisattva ideal on its head? I mean isn't a
bodhisattva somebody who perfects these things?]

No I didn't say that, I said if you don't start now, if you start now it'll get sweeter each month
you go.

[Student: You make it sound like your feeling for it now is the highest your ever going to
have.]

[Student: No, I must have missed it.]

If you start now it will get sweeter and sweeter. If you don't start now you will never start,
how's that? You probably won't start. [other voices: you start at some level] I mean starting
in the sense of start tracking them every day. That's what it is to keep them. If you are not
tracking them every day you are not keeping them. Okay, anyway, {shaylalemo} this refers
to...

[silence -- writing on the board]

{Ge jonge} [Repeat]

{Sheshi} [Repeat]

{Ge jonge} [Repeat]

{Sheshi} [Repeat]

{Ge jonge} means the practice of virtue {Ge jong}. {Jong} means to practice. It also means to
purify. It's an interesting word. {Ge jong tsushi} Means, I call it the four points, the four
subjects of the practice of virtue. You'll see what they are. Here they are.

[Student: ..and tsushi means what? The practice of wisdom?]

Excuse me? You okay?

The four points of virtue I call it. The four points of the practice of virtue.

[Student: The first one? What's it?]

We didn't get to it yet. [laughter] Then I get to the first one, ah, let me see,

[Student: Michael what's that over there? A number?]
Seventeen?

[Student: No, down below.]

Oh, this is a one, number one. It's like this in English. [laughter]

{La shewa} [Repeat]
{Shela} [Repeat]

{La shewa} [Repeat]

We should put a negative in here. Sorry. {La shela} [repeat] {la mi shewa}. {Shela} [repeat] {la
mi shewa} [repeat].By the way you guys have to say hi on tape to all the correspondents out
there. One two three.

[Students: Hiiiii. Laughter.]

[unclear]

Anyway, its about eight or nine, anyway, {shela la mi shewa}, okay, that'll be weird, okay.
{She} means to get mad at somebody and yell at them. {Shewa} means when somebody yells
at you. {Shela la mi shewa} means not to yell back. {La} means back and {mi shewa} means
to yell. So not yelling back when somebody yells at you. Very, very difficult. [laughter] No
I mean if you're going to be a bodhisattva, this is the bottom line. If you want to know, I
mean, I do it all day long, I went to work today, my boss said something hard to me, and I, I
immediately start saying something hard back. Very hard. This is, you know if you say you
want to be a bodhisattva this is here it is. Here it is tomorrow and tonight maybe [laughs].
Maybe during the break. [laughs]

[Student: Are there any gimmicks?]

[laughter]

[Student: Is this all just about other sangha [unclear]?]

No, anything. Anybody.

[Student: Is it just returning nastiness with nastiness?]

Yeah. Basically you're going to see that that's it. It's returning nasty with nasty is well put by
Mrs. ____________. Okay. And that's the name of the ballad {Shela lendu} means {shela sok}
means to answer in answer to being yelled at you yell back, etc. in the bodhisattva vow they
only name the first one, but there's three other ones. So braking this bodhisattva vow you can
translate it as yelling back to someone who has yelled at you. And etc. meaning there's three
other ones.
[Student: Could you just gloss that top line again?]

Yeah, Shela to having being yelled at, lendu in answer, shela sok to yell back at etc. Yelling
back yelling in answer to someone who has yelled at you is braking this bodhisattva vow.
And there is four versions of it.

[Silence writing on board]

Say {tre pa la} [repeat]

la [repeat]

{mi trowa} [repeat]

How do you think they insert something in a wood block print when they forget to put it in?
In case you ever see it, there's supposed to be a {mi} okay there and that's how they carve it
into the when you get to the last line of the block it took him like a whole day, I guess. I'm
not, I'm not carving this block [laughter] and he puts a little dot [unclear]. {Tre pa la la mi
trowa} it means not to get angry back at someone who has gotten angry at you.

[Student: You mean just in your mind?]

{Jetsom Kappa} clarifies it a little bit, and he asks himself that question. And if I remember, he
says, he had a good explanation and I want to talk about it. Yeah it says someone who has
gotten angry at you and more specifically who has put you down. So instead of, I guess it's a
little different from being yelled at. Shewa is more like being, being yelled at by your boss,
and being put down is when someone gets mad at you and says something to, to insult you
or to put you down. So you're right that you know, normally when you learn this
bodhisattva vow you tend to think it's getting mad at someone who got mad at you, but
Jetsom Kappa seems to say that it's not only the getting mad but it also involves saying
something, they put you down because they're mad at you, they say oh you're stupid or
something like that and then you, you come back with the same thing. You, you follow the
four points of virtue if you don't respond [laughs] okay, in kind. You brake a bodhisattva
vow if you do respond in kind. Got it?

[Student: It's just a simple breaking, there's no like four parts.]

[Student: Any of the four...]

There're some {nye nay's} we'll get there. There's some, there's some extenuating
circumstances.

[Student: So it's any of the four, not all four? Is that correct?]

Yeah, any of the four, any of the four. Oh, that's cool. I'm just going to do it in English
because I we won't finish.
[Student: Three?]

Yeah number three is say: {dek pa la} repeat.

{la mi dekpa} repeat.
{dek pa la} repeat.

{la mi dekpa} repeat.

{dek pa} means when someone physically hits you. {La mi dekpa} means what do you guess?

[Students: hitting back.]

Mi dekpa.

[Students: Not to hit back.]

Not to hit back. That's the virtuous part. Okay? [Laughter] You break the bodhisattva vow
when you hit back. And it's very natural, it's really natural, I mean these whole thing is, is
you know, turning the other cheek. It's all that. It's all not responding the way it was put to
you. And we always use this example in the study of emptiness. We've talked about it
many, many, many times. This is the crux of Buddhist behavior. Educated Buddhist behavior.
It's not, not hitting back because of anything else except I mean most crudely put it's only
going to hurt you if you hit him back okay? I mean it's, it's the stupidest thing you could do
as a Buddhist. If you understand emptiness, you would never hit anyone back.

[Student: How is this different from the third...]

{tsopa?} aaa I was afraid you'd ask me that. I believe the normal answer is this: {Tsopa} is
breaking the root vow in both

[Student: bodhisattva...]

[laughter]

Involves this simmering period which I think is what makes it breaking a root vow.
{Kundzin} is the necessary motivation for breaking the root vow of striking someone. And
that means you can see how the power of the karma is building up. It requires a long
gestation period of getting more and more angry, more and more angry then saying
something and then hitting the person. And here at {tripa} {dekpa} and {tripa} these are more
like {tripa} is the first moment of anger. somebody blows up at you and you blow up back.
And dekpa means that they strike you and you hit them right back. [laughs] Okay, {dekpa la
la mi dekpa}[unclear]

{tsong dru la} repeat.
{lar} repeat.

{tsang mi dru} repeat.

{tsong dru la} repeat.
{lar} repeat.

{tsang me dru} repeat.

It's over here okay? {tsang dru} is an interesting word in Tibetan. {Tsang} is an ants nest
under the ground and {dru} means to dig it up, it means to open a can of worms. In the sense
of attempting to expose someone else's faults. Like politicians, expose. Like trying to
advertise someone else's partly hidden faults. Okay? Like to dig into their past and find out
some dirt on them. What do you call it yellow journalism. [laughs] So what it means is to
try to draw attention to a person's faults that people haven't paid attention to yet. And that's
{tsang dru la}.
So if someone does it to you and you know they say they try to dig up some faults that
people around you weren't aware of and then you immediately go to work trying to do it
back to them then you've broken your bodhisattva vow.

[Student: When you do it back to them?]

Yeah, yeah, if you do it back to them you broke the bodhisattva vow. If you don't do it back
you've kept the practice of virtue. One of the four practices of virtue.

[Student: It doesn't matter if whatever you come up with is true or false?]

We've talked about it before, ahh, You're allowed as a bodhisattva to break the vow against
divisive speech in an extraordinary case and the example was where a religious teacher, a
fake religious teacher was leading people on a very harmful path and then you're allowed by
any means necessary truth or lie to to try to alienate them from him or her in extraordinary
cases where your a bodhisattva who for ... didn't we go through that? yeah... for many
kalpas...

[Student: There's also the aspect of stopping rumors that are false about you]

Yeah, you have to address rumors about yourself. You have to or even true accusations you
have to get up and answer them that's part of your duty as a bodhisattva and it's kind of
typical I know for me I either feel too offended like I don't want to even bother with the
person to respond seems to give it some respect you know. And then sometimes you're just
lazy and you say I don't care what they think I'll just do what I want to do, but you can't you
have to get up you're supposed to as a bodhisattva get up and address those questions in that
form.

[Student: If this last occurred just between two people in private if you are exposing
yourselves. unclear]

This is normally {tsang dru} is normally in front of other people. In it's normal sense in
Tibetan.

[Student: So it's not just putting someone....unclear]

It's exposing their faults, no this means in a public forum sort of way where you want to
publicize their dirt. You know, the dirt on them. That's {tsang dru}.

[Student: Not if you have a realization that someone has these faults that are terrible? If it
occurs to you thinking about this person and it happens that you make these realizations that
there are these flaws like someone that lies and all that stuff then ... Geshe Michael: If they're
lying and they're hurting other people... no I mean for one's self I mean there are these bad
thoughts that you have to watch out for is that one of them?]

That you think people are lying about you?

[Student: No that their character is not very well developed and they have the lying and
cheating and these kinds of things. Is that you know how does the...]

You're supposed to do what you have to do to correct them if you can correct them it's a
bodhisattva vow. You have to try to resist them if they are hurting other people with it and
under no circumstances are you allowed to feel anything but love for them.

[Student: Sounds very ...]

So that's that's kind of hard. All right.

[Cut]

[Student: What are exceptions to it?]

Excuse me? You tell me. Yes.

[Student: Not getting angry.]

Not getting angry okay. I like that for the perfection of not getting angry. I really prefer
that. He doesn't say anything about {nye nye's} okay? [laughs] On that last one. Maybe
they're all
masters.

{Tro pe na mi} repeat.

{yoar men dor} repeat.
These are the root text words from ... It's root text Senor...yeah twenty verses on
{Domenishiba} by Chandu Gomen Master Chandu Gomen. {Tre pa na} means I left out the
meaning {Tre pa na} means people who are angry at you. People who have gotten angry at
you. {Yoar men dor} means just ignore them. Jetsom Kappa describes it this way someone
who is angry at you either because you did something to them or they think you did
something to them which you didn't do to them. And then you don't go back to them and
try to clear up the situation either make an apology if it's necessary or if you didn't do
anything go back to them, get back to them and try to explain why it's not the way they
thought it was. Those are the two possibilities. It's your responsibility as a bodhisattva if
someone has gotten angry at them because they think they did something to the person that
you have to get back to the person and say look I did do that and I'm sorry and I hope you
won't be angry or you know, I didn't do what you thought I did and here's why I didn't do it
and you shouldn't be angry. Okay? But anyway, you can't just let them fry in their own
anger, you have to go back and try to cool them down. Either with an apology if that's
appropriate or by explaining yourself if you didn't do anything wrong and saying look you
know, I know you think I was trying to say something bad about you in front of the boss,
but I was just trying to improve the situation, or something like that. Yeah.

[Student: What is the cause of the other person's anger if someone misrepresented you?]

Misrepresented you to them?

[Student: Right.]

That's the second case. That's where they thought you did something to them, but you didn't
really. So that you really have to go back to the person and say you know, don't think bad
of me because I, I, it that person's misrepresentation.

[Student: But then you are speaking ill of the other person.]

But it's, it's necessary. It's true. I mean it's, it's to set things right as long as it wouldn't
alienate them your intention is not to alienate them, your intention is to clear it up.

[Student: What if someone is angry at you and you have no idea why?]

Do like the Japanese. You know, in Japan I learned there you have to apologize every five
minutes. [laughter] Because they'll never tell you what you did. [laughter]

[Student: Yeah but it doesn't seem like a typical behavior you would notice in a Buddhist
community it seems more like people laugh things off it just doesn't really...it seems more
western.]

No, as a bodhisattva you really have to try to clear the air and that's the whole idea of it.
Don't let it go on. Don't just ignore it. You're not allowed to just ignore it. And that's hard. I
know I don't like to do that. You know even when I know I'm wrong I'd rather just let it
roll over than to go and apologize. It's human nature. He says the motivation often is pride
and often jealousy. Sometimes hatred, and sometimes laziness.

[Student: Pride, laziness and what else?]

Jealousy. By the way, when I taught you vow number seven, do you remember, did you
look it up? Do you remember? It's the secondary vow number seven. It's using a piece of
dharma. And somewhere in there I think I said and I want to make sure I didn't say it, doubt
could be one of the motivations. Being unsure of yourself, something like that. {Near} is a
Tibetan word which I misunderstood and Jetsom Kappa he uses the word two minds. Two,
two, two pointed mind normally means doubting, doubting what you do. But I , but later in
the text at a point in the text, it says when I say two minds from now on, it means anger and
harmful intent. And it doesn't mean doubt. But I didn't notice that til yesterday, okay?
[laughs]

[Student: So one of the motivations could be doubt? Is that what you're saying?]

I taught you doubt in two cases that I can remember, one was with the seventh vow, it was
with the seventh vow I might have mentioned the word doubt, it's not doubt, it means it's
two...if I didn't mention it don't worry about it, okay.

Okay. I saw the parallel. Okay, he says exceptions: when you want to teach the person a
valuable lesson by not apologizing.

[Student: We're on eighteen now.]

Yeah, yeah. These are the {nye nye's}

[Student: Sorry what was the number two exception?]

Exceptions, I'm going to give you a whole bunch of exceptions. One is where you are a
very, very powerful bodhisattva and you want to teach the person a lesson. Don't kid
yourself. You're not a powerful bodhisattva. Don't kid yourself. It almost seems like the
people who are the farthest away from it think they can do it the most, right? [laughter] Then
he gives an example of this is an example of in ancient India and perhaps in the future of
America I don't know, but it became necessary I can, I can think of we did this debate in
Central Park one day and you know if you were listening to people get up and give very bad
wrong explanations of emptiness and then you have a chance to get up and battle that bad
idea, that harmful idea, you know somebody says everything is empty so you don't have to
keep your morality, and as a bodhisattva, if the time is right you have to get up and fight like
a tiger against that bad idea. They're gonna get mad. [laughs] Let them, okay? [laughs] No
problem, all right? [laughter] That's a {nye nye}. No it's a very, very no problem. Really.
No problem. If you know what you're talking about and you have scriptural references and
good logic, and you know what they're talking about is rubbish, then fight it. Because it
hurts people. But make sure you know, and make sure you're doing it with the right reason
and make sure you're going to win the debate before you open your mouth, okay. But it's
there's a time for that, you know, there's a time for that. There is a time and the Buddha did
it. Great religious teachers have always done it. There is a time for blowing away really
stupid ideas that hurt people and that's a classic one. All right. Someone who is very evil and
would no matter what you do to try to pacify them they're never gonna calm down anyway,
someone who would get more angry if you came back to them and brought it up again,
[laughs] someone who no matter how much you try to explain they're still gonna be angry,
someone who would be embarrassed, I'm sorry,

[Student: It's way too fast.]

Okay. Someone who would be embarrassed if you apologized or really would prefer if you
didn't apologize. Okay we'll go back.

[Student: Go back to number...]

A religious debate that you can blow them away and they'll get angry and that's fine. Very
evil person, like so evil you're gonna apologize to Hitler for bombing the [laughs] no I
shouldn't say that. Some very evil person that very, very, whose doing very evil things and
if you went to apologize to them other people would see it and think that whatever that
person was doing was right. Someone who would get more angry if you brought it up
again. Someone who it wouldn't help anyway,

[Student: How would you know?]

You have to, to the best of your judgment. Jetsom Kappa has said that several times. Even if
you misjudge you don't break your vow. As long as to your best judgment this is the case.
He has said that on past occasions. Someone who really wouldn't feel comfortable or doesn't
want an apology [laughs] someone who would be embarrassed by an apology, okay.

[Student: Michael? What if somebody was very angry with you because you upheld one of
your vows and they didn't understand it and they didn't like what you were doing? Then to
apologize for something like that is that an exception?]

I'll tell you what my answer to that. People have often mistranslated the word{shedzal},
there's a word in hear called {shedzal} you can translate it as apology, but it also means to go
and explain yourself. In other words, you apologize for something that you really do wrong
but you're supposed to do this whether you're wrong or not. So you can't translate it as
apology, it's going to explain yourself. You see what I mean? You apologize when you're
wrong, you explain yourself when the guy thinks you're wrong and you're not wrong.

[Student: So clear the air.]

You clear the air you have to if you did something wrong you have to apologize, if they
think you did something wrong and you didn't do something wrong explain what's going
on: Look I'm trying to keep a vow and I'm sorry if it offends you and ...if you think it would
be of help. Okay. {Paru sheke chakatom}.
{Paru} Repeat.

{Sheke} Repeat.

{chakaton} Repeat.

This means not to accept an apology. Not to accept someone else's apology. We'll get there.
He says, Jetsom Kappa says if you want to know the difference between this one and the root
vow, there's no [unclear: crins} in here, there's no simmering of the enmity that leads up to
not accepting their apology, there's no simmering anger within you. In other words it's the
simmering anger and then finally never and not and then refusing to reconcile with them that
creates the root downfall but if you don't have that simmering anger then it's a secondary.
He gives as examples of other motivations than simmering anger he says you feel like you're
too important for this person to apologize to you. [laughs] Or you just don't feel like it, he
says. Those are two examples of the motivation here. In the other, in the root vow, you've
got this simmering anger hatred building, building, building and then they come and you say
they come to apologize and you just throw them away. Big difference. Here you're just too
lazy or you kind of feel like you're superior and you don't have to talk to this person. {Nye
nye}. What do you think might be the first {nye nye}?

[Student: Teach them a lesson.]

Teach them a lesson. You want to teach them a lesson. I've had this happen, you know, I'll
go to Rinpoche to apologize for something and he'll just blow me away and then I feel even
worse and then I go do [unclear]. You know what I mean? That's something sometimes it's a
tough case it's a skillful means to get you not to do anything. He says, also, if the apology
that the person is presenting to you is improper in any way and he gives two examples if it is
just the person is insincere, the person is not sincere, you don't have to accept that kind of
apology, in Tibetan it is called a mouth only apology. [laughter] I'm really sorry [using
affected voice] [laughter] And that's some kind of improper like disrespectful like, they're
flaunting you as they apologize to you. That's alright. Those kinds of apologies you don't
have to listen to. You don't have to sit there and listen to that kind of [unclear]

say {tripe} repeat.

{Senke} repeat.

[Tchense dru} repeat.

We already have {tripe senke tchense dru} now we're going to have { unclear: tripe senke
tchense dru}. {tripe sen} means thoughts of anger. Thoughts of anger. {tchense dru} means
just let them go on. Just let them flow. In Tibetan there's three phrases that are connected to
this word. One is called you don't have to know them, but {nyepa mi ta}means you don't
really consider it's something wrong to be angry. The second one is {Nyepa mi pen} means
you're not trying to counteract the anger, and then the third one is {tongdu len} means you
kind of enjoy the anger. [laughs] Those are three like sick thoughts that you can have that will
allow you to just let the anger flow on. Slow down? Okay, I'll ... not to consider it's
something bad. You don't think it's something bad. You think it's righteous. It's good to be
angry right now. This person deserves my anger right now. There is no case like that.
There is no such thing. Okay. They deserve your love which may express itself in a violent
bodhisattva helping response, okay, but not anger. Okay. {Nye po mi ten} means you don't
try to take any counter action. Not trying to fight it. And then{tondu len} means you even
kind of enjoy it. you see that's not the same thing as thinking it's not bad. Thinking it's not
bad is one thing, thinking it's cool is another thing. [laughs]

[Student: I don't really understand how this could go on for any period of time. Thinking
about how[unclear]]

Nah, You can do it. I've done it. I do it all the time. Today I did it. [laughter]

[Student: You break it and then you do the forces?]

Oh, but, here's the good news okay? You know the {nye nye} here it's the same as {[unclear]
dupe senge jetson} it's the same as following thoughts of desire. It's the same as letting
thoughts of desire go.

[students: unclear.]

No.

[student: You try but you fail.]

Yeah. If you put up the slightest wimpiest fight you don't break the vow. You break the
vow when you don't put up any fight at all. You break the vow when you just say oh, that's
nice, let it go on. But if you have the slightest regret or bad feeling about your own anger, or
shame about your own anger, or embarrassment about your own anger, or embarrassment
that you're a bodhisattva and you're letting this anger go on and even if the anger in the end
wins and overwhelms you the slight resistance that you put up is enough that you don't
break the vow. You break the vow if you don't put up any resistance. So, if you're
practicing your vows, if you're trying to keep morality, you'll, it's hard, and you have many,
many fights. And even on the days that you lose the fight you don't break the vow. As long
as you put up a big, a good fight. And every time you should put up a better fight. And this
thing about you know oh, express your anger and that's all bullshit. Okay? [laughter] You
gotta fight it. You have to put up a good fight. You have to struggle against it . Otherwise
you'll never [unclear] You can remove it. You can stop it. You have to believe that. You'll
come to a day when you'll just never get angry. And that's the whole idea. Now.

[Student: I really would like some clearness on this because I'm having the worst time at
work. [laughter] Every day you know it's such a struggle. And I want to know if this {nye
nye} of putting up resistance and I mean it feels horrible.]

That's good.
[Student: ... that...So, the one about responding in kind does this [nye nye} work for that one
too? Because it feels so horrible that I regretted not...]

He doesn't say that. He doesn't really say that.

Student: So [unclear]]
I think the other one is, most of the ones where he said: "put up a good fight" are internal.
You see you haven't displayed any bad deed. You know desire is, you're fighting desire in
your own heart. In your own eyes and your own mind. And with {shela lendu shela sok}
you're already yelling back, [laughs] you know? So, yeah. During the motivational period,
yeah. Before you open your mouth, yeah. Okay.

[Student: I have two questions. You're not being angry at your self...[unclear]]

Yeah same thing.

[Student: What about ...feelings..]

Oh by the way, anger at your self in the sense of regret about doing bad deeds is a virtue.
That's the only in the Abidharma system and I'm not saying general Buddhism, but in the
Abidharma system, that's the only negative thought which is a virtue.

[Student: What did you say for feelings, is not anger, was anger in another form? Like if
someone doesn't view you just [unclear]]

Yeah. I don't think it's anger. Anger is where you want to get back. I think hurt feelings
can lead quickly to anger. [laughter]

[Student: What about like house progressive behavior? Like someone says: no, I'm not
getting angry and they all kind of [unclear] do all this really good little karmic things....But
they're not even conscious of themselves... They're always worse[unclear].

If it's...[laughter]

Then it's anger. Then it's anger. I mean then it's... you mean they don't get angry but they
have other mental afflictions because they haven't allowed themselves to get angry.

{Student: They're dishonest in a way, they're saying: oh, I'm not angry. It almost would be
more desirable if they would just scream and then it would be over with. Instead...]

Oh, they want to pretend they're not angry?

[Student: ...pretend that they're not angry, and you know...]

I'd say that's a kind of anger. That's a kind of anger with a kind of ignorance. But ah, that's a
kind of anger with a kind of ignorance. This is just you fight the anger and that's a Buddhist
approach. You don't, expressing it is not, to express it is to reinforce it, and to fight it is to
unreinforce it. And that's just the Buddhist, that's what Buddhism teaches. Ultimately you
must perceive emptiness to remove anger. Ultimately it's the only way to stop anger, but in
the meantime you are required by your vows to struggle against it. I guess when it gets
uncomfortable enough to struggle, you will use emptiness and then you will get rid of it.
One more question and then we got to get...

[Student: What about if someone is expressing their anger toward someone else to you, and
you're the recipient of this anger, that they're expressing toward someone else, and you're in a
position how do you handle that? I mean, do you ...]

We'll get to a vow about correcting people. That you're required to attempt to correct people
when everything's right to correct. Now many {nye nye's} okay? [laughs]

[Student: Are you correcting them, or are you correcting their action toward the other
person?]

Well, first of all correct their general anger. You know. First of all try to talk them out of
their anger, if you can't talk them out of it distract them from it. At least.

[Student: Well then how...]

Oh, they're having an ice-cream outside, you know. [laughter]

This is a really exciting vow. You're close to the end, keep going. There's probably a vow
about falling asleep before you learn the lesson. [laughs]

say: {nyenkur} Repeat.

{durcher} Repeat.

{khunamdur} Repeat.

Okay. {Nyenkur} we have alright. {Nyempa} means gain, material gain. {kur} means kurte
means other people's respect. Other people's admiration. {Durcher} means because you want
it, because you're attached to it. {khunamdur} means to collect students. To bring together a
group of students, and try to get more and more because you are attached to {Nyenenkur}.
Specifically with this kind of class, you know. I think one of the tests is if you get jealous
when you hear about other teachers collecting students, you know that's when you feel that
then you'll know cause, I get that I'll tell you [laughs]. It's a good test, okay. But if you are
really joyful that other people are having good dharma groups, and growing and prospering,
then I think you probably don't have this, okay. Examples, scriptural examples of this is ah,
you know, they prepare a nice seat for you, they get up when you walk in, they do things
like that, he says they do your work for you and they don't let you do the work, and things
like that. You don't have this problem. [laughter] Okay.
[cut]

This is the great benefit of having everybody know your vows. [laughter] He says if you
don't have that motivation but they end up doing it, you don't break your vow. I mean if you
have, if you collect a group of students, but your motivation is not to get these things, and
you end up getting those things, you don't break your vow, obviously. Most of these things
are common sense.

[Student: He turned so red. laughs]

I'm going to get back at you on this one. {Shela la mi shewa sok}

say {laylo} repeat.

{la so} repeat.

{sel mi chay} repeat.

Yeah, {laylo} is a word that really we all remember very easily. {Laylo} means laying low,
laziness, in Tibetan. {la so} means etcetera. {Sel mi chay} means not trying to dispell it, not
trying to stop it. And he gives a lot of examples, but basically it's to you know it when
you've had a bad day like this, it's just getting into laying around, you know. Just doing
nothing. It does not mean that after a hard work week, you refresh yourself on Saturday. It
doesn't mean that. It means where you know how you've gotten into it in a sick way where
you've had you know lots of time to yourself and you just end up getting up latter and latter
and you like to start, you start to get addicted to just lying around and doing nothing and
wasting your lifetime. It does not mean not refreshing yourself when you're exhausted, that's
a different thing, that's a good thing. And that you should do that, but this means where it
gets pathological and you...

[Student: ...become a slug.]

You become a slug, yeah [laughter]. Slug you. He says you know, not to give yourself up
to that kind of... you know people like that, and you've probably had periods in your life
when you, you've just slugged out, okay. {Nye nye's} are if you're sick, it's okay to lay
around. If you're very, very tired from you know, travel or work, or something like that,
and you're recharging yourself that's fine. I didn't understand...okay. We'll do, effort right?

[Student: Effort.]

say {chakpay} repeat.

{chemay} repeat.

{tomla} repeat.
{den} repeat.

{chakpay} repeat.

{chemay} repeat.

{tomla} repeat.

{den} repeat.

{Chakpay} means out of attachment or desire. Out of desire. Out of feelings of desire.
{Chemay tom}, {Chemay tom} means frivolous talk. Frivolous [cut] Yeah, we're gonna get
some examples. Are you ready? Jetsom Kappa gives the following examples, yeah, excuse
me?

[Student: unclear]

{Chemay tom}, {Chemay} means frivolous, and {tom} means talk. {Chemay tom} means
frivolous talk, wasted talk, gab. [unclear: taw toma ton] It's in your reading. It's in your
reading. Under number twenty three, okay? The subjects that Jetsom Kappa outlines are: sex
politics and crime.

[Student: Crime?]

Oh gee, I guess. Or he gives those three examples.

[Student: Examples of what?]

Frivolous talk.

[Student: These are the subjects.]

[Student: That proves he knew that one day 1995 would be over.]

I think it's been all too [unclear] nondistant.

[Student: But not television where millions of people are watching.]

Yeah, do that laylo la syok} yeah. [laughs]

[Student: I thought those were the {nye nye's}?]

[laughter]

Just don't waste your time like that. You have to be very careful with it. I would include
here you know, on my own experience, but it's not in the scripture but I would include it
most of what we read, I mean most of , most publications, you know newspapers and
magazines. Jetsom Kappa has a {nye nye} here where he says if it's a point of information,
find out the information briefly, succinctly, correctly, and leave it, you know. But if it's one
of these lurid headlines in the New York Post you know, and you're attracted to it like a fire,
like a moth to a candle, you know, and you waste your whole afternoon reading about
somebody's sex problems, or something, than to me it's useless talk, and I'd say find out the
information that you need to function in your life and leave the rest alone. You don't have
time for it, you know.

{Student: Like right now, like paying attention to O. J. Simpson would be a waste of time.
But like if you studied and read a lot about Bosnia that would be where it's trying to ...
patch ...and suffering and... ]

And not if you intended to just sit and talk to people about "Oh how gory that picture was,
or did you see the kid got shot last night? It was really something," then it's falling into
useless talk and you're just trying to say more and more lurid things cause you don't have
anything else to talk about very much, you know. But what I mean is... well, go ahead and
I'll lecture later.

[Student: What about all the pleasantries we exchange every day as part of doing your
job?.... but necessary...]

One of the {nye nye's} if your doing it completely, mindfully. You know, your mind is
totally sharp your ready to break it off as soon as you can, your doing it because it is
absolutely totally necessary in your cultural situation. No problem. It's not a {nyepa}. It
would be a {nyepa} to blow away people, and be so weird that they didn't like you and they
didn't like what you stood for. Yeah.

{Student: What about like dharma babble, you know?]

It's some of the worst. [laughter]

[Student: "dharma babble"?]

No, you see it very often where people are just comparing to see if they know more than the
other person, and they say Oh I heard about this miracle, and they say Oh well I heard one
more, you know, and I heard about this Guru, ... no, this Guru is even weirder. And then go
on and on and on. Very, it happens very often. Really, really often. Those are the two {nye
nye's}. One is, one is if you're maintaining you know, they're blabbing, but your focusing,
you're participating as far as you have to, and you're looking for a chance to lead it into
something meaningful. And that's not a {nye}, you don't break your vow. And then he says
to ask a brief factual question and get a brief factual answer. To get the information. You
know. Watch CNN instead of read the Post, okay. Some like that. [laughs]

[Student: Read the summary in the Wall Street Journal instead of read the Post is what you're
saying, right?]

Read the time event of the year. You don't miss anything I'll tell ya. I've been in India for a
year at a time and come back, and there wasn't, I didn't read a newspaper for a year, and I
didn't miss anything. I mean, be very ... I'm not joking I'm serious the time that your mind is
functioning properly until the time you die, at which time you lose even the ability to think.
You not only lose your face and your arms and your body and your wife and your money
and your house and your job and your citizenship and your identity, your whole identity,
but you lose the ability, normally when you die you will lose the ability to think at all. For a
long time. So don't waste that precious brain on that wasted useless junk, you know. Use
that precious brain time for getting out of death. Because when it comes you're back to zero,
you know. You're back to protozoa level. [laughs] Seriously, you're very likely back to that
or worse. You know. To have a human mind, functioning clearly is a once in a million
chance and if Buddhism is correct your mind level will revert to something very low, after
you die, for many, many, many years. Most likely. So don't waste that precious mind time.
You don't have time. It takes a long time to cheat death. You know. You have a chance, you
can do it, but time is very brief. The chance is very, very little.

[Student: I know some people who read the Star.]

Don't [unclear] on people who read the Star. [laughter]

[Student: They do it to relax.]

No by the way, if it is to relax, that is a different thing. You know, if it's that you study so
much dharma that you've reached your point, that you know you're gonna freak out or
you're gonna get nervous or your gonna get anxiety, or you're gonna get exhausted, it's great
to go read something nice and clean, you know, relax. Relaxing is in all the Buddhist
scriptures it says "In a true sense that you're exhausted, and you've done your best and then
it's time to rest, you must relax, you know, go see a good movie, you know read some
comics, that's fine, but where not talking about that, we're talking where you're healthy,
you're not tired, you're with your friends at lunch and you're just blowing wasting time,
wasting precious brain time. Yeah?

[Student: What would be wrong reading the New York Times or Time magazine ... it would
seem that would increase your sense of connectedness and compassion to see the injustices
and atrocities around the world?]

No, if it does. If that's the effect on you, good. If it is something you're going to forget in a
week, two weeks, and its not having that effect on you, then don't, don't waste your time.
And the definition of a Buddhist book is one which will show you an unerring means to
achieve nirvana or enlightenment in this life. In other words, Buddhist literature, which
normally a monk's reading is restricted to, I mean, before you open it think, is this going to
teach me directly a method to escape suffering and death myself. It can accent, enhance your
feelings of compassion to read about the horrors of Bosnia, and in that case it is good. But if
you have a chance to spend an hour and you're not exhausted, and you have the capacity,
pick up some kind of book that is going to teach you how to reach nirvana. Which is
teaching that as it's direct subject.

[Student: [unclear] Suppose you have to read...]

That has a function. We're talking about useless.

[cut]

Okay, take a break. Hey come back soon because I don't want to keep you too long.

[student: Are we going to get to thirty?]

Tonight we will get to thirty two I think. Yeah.

[cut]

{dzinge dzinge} Repeat.

{dzinge tsok} Repeat.

{dzinge dzinge} You know I think. Yeah. [unclear] Which means one pointed [unclear]
costick. It means ...The words mean vivid [unclear] holding.

[Student: Vivid holding? Wasn't it something green?]

No the {nyinye} ...green is one example of a vividness. But there could be many others.
{dzinge dzinge dzinge tsok}, dzinge tsok means not to seek the meaning of concentration
single pointed concentration. Not I should say, the nice way in English to put it, failing to
seek the meaning of single pointed concentration. And what it means is someone else is
teaching about how to achieve meditative concentration. And you fail to go, out of bad
motivation, meaning you're too proud to go because it's like maybe it's one of your fellow
students or somebody who's actually good at teaching it, or you're just to lazy to go, and it
seems that you want to learn how to do it.

[Student: What if you have another class?]

[laughs] Here's the {nyenye's} okay?

[Student: I'm serious.]

The {nye nye's} are if you're sick and you can't go. Okay. Another {nyenye} is if you doubt
that they are teaching it correctly. You have some suspicion that they're not. If you really
doubt that [SNEEZE] Who is that? Bless you. [laughter] I'm sorry.

[Student: I have hay fever.]
Okay. It's a bad year for hay fever. You doubt that they know what they're talking about,
and you don't have to go. All right? And, or if you're already a master of it. [laughter] You
don't have to go. [laughter]

[Student: That's the third one?]
Yeah. Those are the three.

[Student: What were the first two?]

You're sick, you can't go. You can't physically make it. Or, you doubt that they are teaching
it correctly. What it means is that it's, as we've said many times, to see emptiness directly you
must reach the first equivalent of the first form realm. Even out of this realm you have to be
able to keep your mind in that level. And if you don't meditate for like an hour a day, you
will never reach it. Absolutely sure you'll never reach it. So whenever you get a chance to
learn how to do it properly you must take it. And you break your bodhisattva vow if you
don't take it.

[Student: SNEEZE.]

[Student: Bless you.]

[Student: Michael, what about when different schools teach it different ways, I mean and
you're told to follow a school and not to get confused?]

Then you don't have to go.

[Student: But it's not in one of the exceptions.]

You doubt the ... [laughter]. The teacher said you would get confused if you go to the
different one.

[Student: Yeah, but it's not one of the exceptions.]

[Student: Yeah.]

Yeah.

[Student: Michael, when you perceive emptiness, it means you go above all the realms?]

Directly.

[Student: So that means you...]

When you perceive it directly,
[Student: ...you move above all the realms?]

...the platform on which your mind is standing is not in this realm, in other words, your
mind is not...

[Student: ...so you have no body?]

No, your body is sitting there. But your mind is on a different level. Your mind is actually
not in this realm.

[Student: So you go above all the realms?]

No, its actually inside the second realm, of the three, worldly realms.

Say: {Samten} Repeat.

{jepa} Repeat.

{pomije} Repeat.

{Samten} means again, meditative concentration. The ability to meditate deeply. {jepa} means
obstacles. {pomije} means failing to remove them. So what it means is you're failing to get
rid of the obstacles to good meditation. Jedson Kapa says something very beautiful. He goes
through the obstacles as presented by Negodjema, okay, we're going to give the five
obstacles presented by Negodjema. Then he goes to one more presented by Bodibadra who
was a teacher of [unclear]. Take that back. No he doesn't do that. Just the ones from
Negodjema, and then he says by the way you shouldn't have these obstacles even when you
are walking around during the day. [laughs] What I mean is, he's not talking about breaking
your vows, but he's talking about the obstacles that I'm about to mention, they disturb your
concentration, whether you are concentrating on your work, or concentrating on the
subway, or concentrating at all, so Jedson Kapa says don't restrict it to the realm of learning
to meditate. Try to sharpen your mind throughout your whole activities, and keep clear of
these five obstacles, obstructions, that from clear thinking, all throughout the day, try to keep
your mind clear. So the first one is, it's called {gogye}. Say {gurpa} Repeat.

{gyepa} Repeat.

{gurpa} Repeat.

{gyepa} Repeat.

These are always mistranslated. Everybody mistranslates them, they don't read the
commentaries, the words themselves don't mean what they say, so people always, {Gurpa}
means to be wild, like a {miga} is a gorrilla, a wild human, okay? We had it during
meditation class, you know what it is. Remember? {Gurpa}? We had {Gurpa} and {Shiwa}.
{Gurpa} is the tendency of the mind when you're trying to meditate to flip around to attractive
objects, to flip around to things that you like. You know. It goes to, what are you going to
have for lunch, it goes to what are you going to do after work, it goes to a movie that you
like, it goes to a girl that you like, it goes to some other thing that you like, it tends to, the
minute you try to meditate the mind tends to be restlessly attracted. It's just moving around
to various objects in your life that are pleasing to you.
[Student: Is it wandering same as wandering?]

It's wandering in a very specific sense to desirable objects. {Gyepa} generally means regret.
But in this case it means something completely different. It means missing things in the sense
of thinking about things that you had, thinking about people that you knew, and if you try to
meditate, if you go into a long retreat, I don't know why, but you, I find myself, and I know
other people have, find yourself thinking about people that you used to know, or things that
you used to be, or you know, decisions you made, or you know,

[Student: It's memory.]

It's like memory, but it's like wish, it's just like desire wandering, but in the past. [laughs]
Okay? Something like that.

[Student: But that's what memory is, right?]

You can call it desire wandering. Well, memory could be remembering your bodhisattva
vows, or something, you know, I mean that's not a {gyepa}.

[Student: Nostalgia?]

You could say that. Thinking about days and times gone by as you get older it becomes
more important [laughter]. And missing things. You know, if you're in meditation you're
thinking about your friends, or your job...

[Student: Vacation.]

Say {nyuse} Repeat.

{nyuse} Repeat.

{Nyuse} means any kind of bad thought about a person, or some, you know like, irritation,
or hatred, or and if you've ever tried to do long retreats, I just heard a monk last week, I
asked him, he told me he did a three year retreat. I said that's amazing, you know, I've never
done one, anything like that so tell me what it's like. And the main thing he remembered
about his whole three year retreat, was that there was one guy there that he didn't like. And
the guy didn't like him either, and the guy used to write him notes about how "Don't look at
me like that" [laughter] This is this guys remembering ... his memory of his three year retreat.
It was the first thing he mentioned and the main thing he thought about was how it ruined
his retreat to have any kind of bad thought about someone. When you go into a long retreat,
and you try to meditate deeply it enhances all your thoughts for better or worse. If you've
got good thoughts they get divine, and if you got bad thoughts they get very strong, very
exaggerated, very unreasonable, irrational, they blow up and it ruins your meditation. If
you've got the slightest thought about someone you don't like, during your meditation, it
ruins it period. Can't concentrate. Forget it. It will ruin the whole time. Very dangerous.
Okay? Next one he says is [unclear]
[Student: It's dangerous, you said?]

Dangerous in the sense of wasting that precious, hard to get few weeks in meditation, or few
days off. If and when we get Connecticut, I'd like to people doing retreats like every month,
you know, you go up for a week, you have keys and you go up and do your meditation.
You go on a retreat like once a month. Three days. And then you do your, those of you who
have to do your {nawdrama} retreats you do them at the one month retreats.

Anyway, say: {Mugni} Repeat.

{Mugni} Repeat.

{Mugpa} is the Tibetan word for fog. And here it means foggy mindedness, you know, it
means a kind of, how to describe it, where the mind is just dull.

[Student: Clouded over?]

Yeah, you could say clouded, dull. You get this, for example, when you think you're
meditating pretty well, and you're really just kind of if you've ever meditated for long time,
you know what it is. It's just this kind of dull mindedness, you're not focused, but you're
sitting very nice and you're just like duhh. [laughter] It's easy to, it's very easy to mistake it
for some kind of..., you think you're concentrating cause you're not moving and your body
is all nice, but your mind is just dull, it's just flat, and that's {mugpa}. {Ni} is more precise, it's
drowsiness, and if any of you try to meditate regularly you know, and after a meal, well, or if
you're tired from work, and if you're too tired from work all the time, and {ni} is always
coming through in your meditation, I 'd say you got to think about the work, you know,
because you don't have time. You don't have life time. Better to make a little less money,
and find one that doesn't exhaust you, cause if it exhausts you, then what's the meaning of
living? You know. You won't reach your goals in this life you'll die. And then the purpose
of getting the money is also lost. You might have to reconsider that if you're too tired or you
don't have the opportunity to not be drowsy, continually for years and years, it's not going to
stop, you're going to die first, or you're going to get too old to meditate. So reevaluate it
think about if there's a something you have to do to get the time, if you can't meditate clearly,
about an hour a day, you can not see emptiness directly, if you can not see emptiness
directly, your life is wasted basically, so you might have to reevaluate that.

[Student: Michael, when we are talking about these, are we talking about the actual physical
states or are we talking about the states that the mind has given this? I mean this is the mind's
state.]

No, it's actual, plain old drowsiness. And if you honestly evaluate you meditative
performance when you get home from work, you'll often find that you're just in no shape,
and you never will be in any shape, you can't do it, you're too tired. You know, and then
you got to think about what your life is about.

[Student: People could get up at earlier and be refreshed...]

No there are times, I'm not saying you have to meditate when you get home, but I'm saying
evaluate your life, if you don't have a time during the day that you're fresh that you can
meditate for an hour, then you have to readjust something, I say. Cause what's the use? Then
what are you going to do? Okay?

{De pa la dimba}. Say {De pa la} Repeat.

{Dimba} Repeat.

{De pa la} Repeat.

{Dimba} Repeat.

{De pa la dimba} means attraction for the objects of the senses. It's a great enemy of
mediation.

[Student: Isn't that much the same as ...]

I was at Vajrapani and they were cooking these fantastic oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
[laughs] that smell was getting into my room, [laughter] any kind of sounds, any kind of
music, or sounds they'll destroy your meditation. Any kind of attachment to smells, things
like that. Excuse me?

[Student: That means you shouldn't have any tapes? Like meditation tapes? Chanting tapes?]

Jedsom Kappa is very clear about that and he says meditation is a function of the mental
consciousness which means it's all done in side.

[Student: So you shouldn't have ...]

You can prepare yourself for the tape. You can prepare yourself by looking at an object. But
when it comes time to meditate it's all internal. It's all in the mind. And Jedson Kappa is very
vehement about that, he attacks some schools in his day that said oh you should sit and stare
at a picture of something. He said no meditation is an internal thing. You can prepare by
looking at a picture, then put the picture away, and meditation means, mental consciousness,
it's awareness of your mind, it's awareness of something mental, it's not physical, it's not an
object, it's not focusing on a physical object, ever.

[Student: But when you use mantras though isn't that supposed to help you?]
Helps you, but you're not meditating, when you do that, in the true sense, well I actually
can't talk about it [laughter] there is a whole thing about that.

[Student: But when you use mantras doesn't that like make vibrations?]

I can't talk about mantras. [laughter] Mantras are secret Buddhist things.
[Student: What should we be thinking about while we are meditating?]

Oh, boy. [laughs] No there's an all class thing. Basically you can do an analytical meditation
on your bodhisattva vows. How close have I come to breaking these, and by doing that,
you get used to doing that.

[Student: That will get you to emptiness?]

[laughter]

It's an indirect cause, it's not the direct cause. The direct cause, is to study the logical
[unclear].
But the indirect cause would be gathering the virtue. You cannot see emptiness if you don't
have the virtue, even if you have all the reasoning capacity. There's two things, it's very
interesting, you can have a very, very sharp mind, but if you're not doing it for the right
reasons, and if you don't have some kind of real powerful virtue it mainly comes from
serving a lama, or serving, you know, or like cooking for a lama for a long time, or just
something, or it's something that you wouldn't expect. It's collecting some kind of very
powerful virtue. And then in conjunction with that studying it all very logically. You need
both of those things.

[Student: Those are the two main causes for seeing emptiness?]

I'd say those two would be enough. Studying very well, meditating daily, and then
collecting, you must collect some tremendous virtue. Which comes from serving other
people, mainly.

[Student: What would be the main cause of being able to have a good meditation?]

Thinking about the benefits of meditation, are supposed to start you off, which in our case
could be negative.

[Student: I was thinking about Karma cuts...]

If you don't see emptiness in this life, very likely that your brain will go back to a protozoan
state, and I'm not joking. Your brain after the moment of death is very likely to go to a very
crude state where you're not able to think clearly anymore, and for a very, very long time.
So in a negative way you don't have much choice, you better learn how to meditate.

[Student: Does that apply not only to [unclear] but to the future incarnations? The protozoan
state?]

[laughter]

To be a clear thinking human, the odds against it are infinite. Are very close to infinite. You
know, the odds that after you die you'll have a clear thinking human mind, the odds against
that are almost infinite according to Buddhism. So it's you got to do it now. you have to do it
now you just can't count on anything after that.

[Student: Can you count on your friends?]

What I'm saying is that you can't count on having any ability to think clearly after the
moment of your death. Your brain, your mind will very likely according to Buddhism,
almost surely be very, very crude and not able to think clearly for many, many, many years
after that.

[Student: In other words, you won't recognize them.]

No, you'll be somewhere else, dead [laughs] You'll never, you'll never recognize them.
Doubt it. Unlikely. Unlikely that you'll be a human.

[Student: You mean the state of human is....]

[Student: Even a confused human?]

Yeah, even a confused human is ...Okay, last one is...

[Student: It is against my religion that idea.]

Say: {tetso} Repeat.

{tetso} means very, very, {tetso} means doubt. And what it often means in meditation, it
means, first of all, it doesn't mean to it doesn't refer to critical doubt, okay, the Buddha said
you must be critical. He said over and over again, if you believe anything I say, without
analyzing it you're going to believe the next guy who comes along and says do the opposite.
So I don't want students like that, he said it over and over again. Be critical, check what I
say, analyze it, test it see if it fits your own experience, see if I'm internally logically, see if it's
externally logical, see if what I taught before and what I taught after makes sense, in that case
you have to have doubt. But this kind of doubt refers to this destructive doubt where you're
too lazy to decide something, you go on with this sort of a flip flop thing, you know, are you
going to learn meditation or not. You know. I mean make up your mind. It means make
up your mind. You know, are you going to follow the bodhisattva vows or not? Because
most of the time when you don't it's just that you didn't decide, because you're too lazy to
decide, [laughs]. Are you going to stop this bad habit that you have, or not? I mean make
up your mind. Are you going to figure out whether karma is true or not? Or are you just
going to go on with this kind of a fuzzy {tetso} where maybe it is and maybe it's not, but I
don't have time to think about it right now. That's {Tetso} it ruins your meditation. It does
not refer to being critical. You have to be critical.

[Student: So it's indecisive?]

Yeah, it refers to being indecisive in the sense of too lazy to come to a conclusion about
important things. Yeah?

[Student: If the downfall is not stopping the obstacles for a period of time [unclear]]
Let's see what he says, that's a good point. He was very clear at the other one, but I don't
think he I would doubt that he would say doing an extended meditation session or
something. Not struggling against these things.

[Student: So if you just sit there being dull for five minutes you have broken the vow?]

If you don't fight it. {ni po mi je} you could say as attempting to you could say attempting...

[Student: What happens when it just happens and you go oops, you know?]

It's{nyo me che mey yon mi yepa} Not a {nye me} It's an offense, which was not caused by a
bad thought, but caused by a laziness or forgetfulness, those are still {nyepas}, still breaking,
but again if you're trying to fight it it's okay. It you're sleepy you don't break your vow, if
you're sleepy and you don't {bowa}, if you don't try to stop it you break your vow.
Sometimes it means, and he goes through a long thing, of what to do in each case. I mean,
just very briefly, if you have a problem of gross desires, do the meditation on rotting. There's
a whole meditation where you let your body rot, you let the world rot, it's in the abidharma,
we might do it some day. It's very powerful. If you have a problem of hating people, try to
meditate on loving kindness.

[Student: Michael, is that something like giving it to a lack of self confidence?]

No not like that. It's not making up your mind about important Buddhist things. Because
you're lazy and you don't care enough. Stuff like that. Okay. Sleepiness, drowsiness,
fogginess, he says uplift your thoughts with some virtue, you know, think about the Dalai
Lama, think about something good, get your mind up a little bit. If you have to get up, go
outside, wash your face, come back, go sleep if you have to sleep. If you have a problem
with your mind wandering to the past, to desirable objects, catch it and bring it back to the
object.

[Student: Bring it back to the object?]

Bring it back to the object of the meditation. If you have a problem with {Tetso}, stop being
half assed about it and make up your mind. I mean there's certain Buddhist principles that
you're just avoiding because you're lazy, go analyze them. Okay.

[Student: Did you say [unclear] for the first time?]
Yeah, bring the mind back.

[Student: Did you skip one?]

Which one did I skip?

[Student: number two?]

Loving kindness. We're going to shift to English, English mode, okay?

[Student: Michael, what are the ramifications of breaking the secondary vows?]

Well, its ... First of all you have to confess it in front of all of the [unclear].

[Student: No, but what does it do to your...]

What does it do to your... he didn't say anything like that it froze your spiritual progress.

[Student: It's just like oh you messed up try again, kind of thing?]

I think it delays your reaching Buddhahood or nirvana, it causes a serious roadblock, but it
doesn't root vows freeze it, your progress, this will impede your progress. Seriously, that's
why they are root, these are the secondary vows against collecting goodness. The morality
of collecting goodness, which is mainly to get yourself to enlightenment. It blocks you from
reaching enlightenment.

[silence]

Jedsom Kappa explains this one as happening after you reach the ability to meditate deeply.
This happens after you reach the ability to meditate deeply. And I had this ... many, many,
people brought this up, when I was in California, they brought it up constantly. People were
talking about the good feeling they got when they meditated. I think that whole western
misconception about meditation being for the purpose of calming the mind and making you
more happy, and making you a more balanced person, that that is the goal of meditation, to
somehow calm your mind or quiet your mind, or make your mind stop, or make your mind
stop saying anything, or all that thing, trying to reach some state in meditation where you just
feel good, is...and mistake that for the goal of meditation is a big trap. Because you still have
the third suffering, right? What is that? I mean what's the second one? {[unclear: sujecidow]
dewa} Suffering and change, which is, is defined as samsaric feelings, samsaric pleasant
feelings. Any pleasant feeling in our present existence is suffering. Cause it's always attached
to a bad ending. And again there's this example of the great master that I was supposed to
meet, I was twenty years old and they said you get to meet the great master. He meditated
out in the snow in Korea for years. He could meditate in the snow for three days straight.
You know, he was very blissed out. All he felt was this great bliss. You know. I said: "Boy,
I would love to meet this guy." And then I went to the airport....I remember buying flowers,
walking down, waiting for the guy, and off the plane comes this decrepit old man, you
know. [laughs] He's obviously in great pain. You know, and I'm looking at him, thinking
this is the great master who sat meditating in the snow, you know, and he's in great pain and
he's in great suffering, and he's hardly able to get down that thing, and he died later, he died
in that year. And I remember thinking, you know, so what's the point that he meditated in
the snow or that he had all this blissful meditation. It's not the point, it's still a kind of
suffering. It will change into the suffering of old age and death. That kind of pleasant
feeling, in and of itself as a goal of its own is the same as, you know, being a glutton or
something, I mean, it's the same thing, in and of itself it's not a spiritual attainment. It will
change into suffering . It's not the point. Don't get attached to that. Use the meditation to
realize something that will stop your suffering, but don't get attached to the, to the physical
sensations that you get while meditating, because they will inevitably change to suffering.
They're not a goal. They are another suffering of samsara. One more seemingly pleasant
thing that turns into suffering. You can have them, and you don't have to try to stop them,
but they're not a goal, don't get distracted. Okay. The secondary vow, we've had a couple
similar vows, the secondary vow, is where you say Bodhisattvas shouldn't listen to hinayana
teachings, Bodhisattvas shouldn't learn those teachings, Bodhisattvas shouldn't try to follow
those teachings. That's breaking the vow. If you say that.

[Student: [unclear]]

Like the monks morality is hinayana and you should learn it and you should follow it, and
you should respect it.

[Student: Why is that different than the primary vow of rejecting...?]

He says it's not equal to the total rejection of the whole system of hinayana, it's just saying
bodhisattvas shouldn't follow it. He says that's the distinction. You're supposed to respect
hinayana, you're supposed to learn hinayana, we spent the first ten years of our monastic
study in hinayana abidharma. Ten years of it. You're supposed to learn it well, know it well,
practice what's there that's to be practiced, but don't throw yourself into it at the expense of
your mahayana study. Don't throw yourself into the study of the hinayana teachings at the
expense of, you know, don't give up mahayana and throw yourself into the teachings of you
know hinayana...

[Student: You're limiting it to hinayana buddhism as opposed to...]

In this case we're coming to that one. There's another one in here not twenty-nine. I'm going
to do twenty-nine. This is not just being sectarian. I repeat it's not just being sectarian. What
it means is for comparative purposed, for purposes of understanding what other people
believe and what other paths teach, it's okay to study them, you know as sort of a critical
view, to see what is this thing called whatever, if a lot of people are following something
right now and you want to understand why they're attracted to it what they're [cut] ...level
understanding. If all the stuff that we've said is true, if it's possible to actually stop your
suffering, if it's possible to reach a state of enlightenment and bliss, by studying emptiness, by
keeping your bodhisattva vows, if all that's possible by following this particular path, then it's
risky to spend time to make a lot of effort in comparative shopping, you know, or in
curiosity, you know, I wonder what the Zulu's think about spirit worship, you know, it's
okay if you ever meet a Zulu you'll be able to convert them maybe, but it's a risky business
considering that you only have a few years of clear thinking, considering you have to feed
yourself and work in the meantime, you know, the minute part of your life when you're a
mature, thinking, leisurely time adult, you know, don't risk the time. If you're very well
grounded, already if you're a master of all these beautiful teachings, if your mind is never
gonna be swayed to something less beneficial, then okay do it, but be careful, you only have
a certain amount of time. Find out what's real and then devote yourself to it. And once you
found out what's real, don't do this very risky thing of wasting your time with other things,
you just don't have the time. If you had, if you weren't going to die it'd be okay. It's a
question about...yeah?

[Student: What about a comparison of since very few people in this country grew up with
monks, what about making a comparison of [unclear]?]

You would break this vow if you went to Bible...I went to a bible class we wanted to know
what the Old Testament was about, and we went and we studied it and we got out [laughs].
You know. Because we wanted to know what people believe. And even if they know what
they believe, but if you decided to go to Bible classes all day, and make for relating to other
people, you broke the vow because you're doing a very dangerous thing you're constantly
It's one thing to check it to learn it to know what it is, and it's another thing to start to get
attracted to it and sunk into it and then you don't know what you're doing yourself, you
know, that's the distinction. One more and then we got to...

[Student: I think we're talking about the point of reference of being distracted.]

Right. Not just getting distracted, getting fatally drawn into something which cannot give
you the result that this can give you. Frankly.

[Student: Or getting distracted at least ...but a lot of people try to integrate mahayana
teachings and Zen teachings, which are two different...]

[Student: No Zen is a sect of mahayana.]

Yeah.

[laughs] I'll leave that one alone. I don't think it really refers to that mainly, I mean it's
referring to systems which are not going to lead you to nirvana and Buddhahood before you
die. And getting wrapped up in them to the detriment of your spiritual progress, and you
just, if you're very strong, very wise, person you can play with that, if you're not, find what
fits you and do it well. Dalai Lama is always saying that. And devote yourself to it, and learn
it and get the results, get the benefits of it. Don't get distracted. Number thirty. It means if
you are a very extraordinary Buddhist person. You're already very, very, very well versed in
Buddhism. You know Buddhism very well. You're practicing very well and, and you go to
study something else just to understand how to help other people who think that, but then
you start getting sucked into it. And then you broke the vow, okay? That's when you broke
the vow. You can't and again it's a lets say the path of seeing really exists lets say that you
can see emptiness directly, the day you see emptiness directly you see your past lives, you see
your future lives, you see the day of your own enlightenment, you see the Buddha directly.
And you, by the way, you also see that you're not crazy, you see that it's a correct
perception. You know how many lifetimes it's going to be seven lifetimes you will be a
Buddha. They won't call you Michael anymore, okay? See those things directly, truly, path
of seeing direct perception of emptiness. So what do you need after that? I mean, what I'm
saying is, if there is such an event, if there is such a perception, then that is the true path. And
you shouldn't be embarrassed to say it. You know it's very un-American almost to say and
very you know, setting yourself up for a lot of criticism normally if you say we have the true
path. Ours is the true path. We don't go saying that to people. You're not supposed to go
say that to people. But I say it's possible. Okay, I say it's possible. If there is an event called
the path of seeing. If there is the event of seeing emptiness directly, and if there is this
perception of your future lives, your past lives, the day that you're going to become
enlightened, direct perception of Buddhas, then you would reject naturally and unabashedly,
you wouldn't be at all embarrassed to reject every other faulty or incomplete path in the
world. And I say it's possible. I say that's a possible thing. It could be true. If it is true, then
all these vows make sense. and I don't say I can prove it to you. But I just..., entertain it as a
possibility. Let's leave it like that, okay? By the way, Maytreya at this point in the text, says
the following: "If you find that any particular Buddhist teaching doesn't suit you, leave it,
don't make a decision. Don't decide this is not good, or this is not true, or this is not useful,
just leave it in a category called I'll check these things out later. Do not make the great
mistake of rejecting it. Just, and then Jedson Kappa says it, Negardjena says it and then
Maytreya who's who?...

[Student: a Buddha]

 ...a Buddha. okay. He says just let it go. Don't decide. You know, put it in a category
called to be decided later. Don't make the great mistake of rejecting it outright, okay? That's,
you see he mentions it her. He allows for teachings that don't fit you right now, don't seem
right to you right now. Just leave them. Just let it go.

[Student: Jedson Kappa quoted Maytreya there, or ?]

Yeah and he quotes Negardjena. This was on your homework, okay? We're going at little
bit over. I'm sorry, we'll be done by nine-thirty, it's almost that. We have to learn the vows
well. Don't be one of these poor Americans who got a dozen initiations and never learned
their Bodhisattva vows [laughs], okay? I don't want to produce a group of people like that.
I don't want to be one of those. Okay. One, A is to say, [cut] but I'll let it go for now. I
won't you know be afraid to get in a ship anymore that might fall off, but I, but there may be
something here and I'll leave it just keep your mind in that state. There may be something
there in that teaching that's important. Leave it for awhile and go on, but don't say this is this
particular part of Buddhahood is stupid, or something like that. Big mistake. Yeah?

[Student: But didn't Dalai Lama say though that if science could disprove certain tenets that
[unclear] then we should throw it out?]

Did it disprove certain tenets [unclear]?

[Student: There's the being born from moisture...being born from moisture...spontaneous
combustion.]

Okay.

[Student: Well there is so much to be known as well.]

What I say is, don't reject it, just leave it alone. Just say I don't know why Bosabondu a high
level Arya would put in a chapter about the world being flat, but I'll leave it right now. It
doesn't suit me right now, instead of rejecting outright I'll just leave it right now. Maybe
there's a reason why it's there. Yeah?

[Student: What is the difference between this and tetsun?]

That one's as an obstacle to your meditating. That was easy, okay. I'll never forget the day
that I heard a senior professor at Columbia who's not [unclear] [laughter] before his time...got
up and said Gyaltso Day who is Jedson Kappa's magnificent disciple didn't write very well
and especially his commentary on {dharmakirti's} logic is quite confused the writing is off
pretty bad, you know, and then we went to monastery, we had three months of debating, we
didn't get past twenty pages because it was so deep. You know, it was so deep and so full of
knowledge that we had days we didn't get past two sentences. You know, that's not, be
careful you never know. Maybe you just don't understand it. Maybe it's just too deep. So
you know, don't say oh, I like you know this writing is really beautiful, but this writing is
kind of lousy, about a Buddhist scripture.

[Student: Would this also include criticism about the craftsmanship [unclear]

They say that but it's not in this particular, they didn't mention it. But they say that that's very
bad.

[Student: Is that what he is translating also?]

Somebody asked me that in the other class. I guess I can answer that by saying what Jedson
Kappa says: "Often times when he is clarifying a passage he'll give two translations that the
Tibetans did from Sanskrit. And he'll say this one doesn't quite give the information that this
one does, but he never says this was lousy writing or something like that. He just says that
this one seems to convey the correct sense more clearly, you know, he puts it like that. I
think you could say that. That one is self explanatory. [cut] Scholars say to me, we were
studying the elementary logic textbooks and I had one great scholar say to me: "you can skip
this subject it's not very important. This won't benefit much." It was {Chicherakenamchuk} it
was the teaching on how do you formulate a general image in your mind what 's the process
you go through. If you study it well you'll see emptiness directly. you know. Don't ever...
if it's there learn it. You never know [laughs]. It could have an effect like that if you study it
well. It could have been the direct cause for seeing emptiness directly. Someone's telling you
this is sort of a dry subject probably you just skip that one. Be careful about that. In other
words, the more you study, the more you know, the more you will see what Jedson Kappa
says every single shred of Buddhist scripture has deep meaning, we just aren't capable of
knowing it yet. [Cut]

When you start to learn more it all becomes one great, Rinpoche always says ball of honey,
and no matter where you bite it from you get this incredible taste you just don't know
enough if you don't think that. You haven't learned enough. Yeah?

[Student: [unclear]

I would love to teach Buddhist logic, I'm just afraid everyone would quit. So...

[Student: That's great.]

So you guys. If you guys ever come back after this class, [laughs]

[Student: ...logic?]

[laughter]

What's that?

[Student: ]

Oh it is. Gyaltseje said the kindest thing Jedson Kappa ever did was the teaching of logic.
And all of the tantrics and Mahayana. This differs from number one in that you do it out of a
different motivation. What was the motivation of number one?

[Students: [unclear]

Desire. It was desire. Here the motivation is anger or pride. And he says or self cherishing,
he gives three he says you don't ....it's a nyenye, okay? If you're blowing away non-
Buddhists. And I say is as a ...Tibetans call is {Nonkye} {Nonkye} means you know,
something we say in our group between us all because we know what I'm talking about.
We're talking about a person who's expousing? Espousing a very harmful view. "Emptiness
means you can do whatever you want. If you know emptiness and you have your
Bodhisattva vows you can engage in any outrageous activity and be home free." If someone
says that you better...if you're a [unclear] student, you better jump up and attack the person
and start praising the view that we have and putting down the other person. Because it's just
harmful and it's dirty and it's disfunctional it doesn't work. okay. {Shendu la tuk} means you
want to teach the other person a valuable lesson, and then thirdly you can advertise yourself
if it's for the sincere purpose of other people gaining faith in your teachings or something like
that, and the teachings of the Buddha, and helping. You know what I mean? You want to
attract people.

[Student: The first one in this book?]

The first nyenye, was if you have to praise yourself and criticize others in the sense of
praising your system and criticixing a sick system.

[Student: [unclear]]

Yeah. Making the other people believe in that system. You can brag [unclear]

[Student: unclear]

Okay. I'll just do the next two. thirty three is: Not going to a Dharma talk out of laziness. Or
out of some kind of [unclear]. Not going to a dharma lecture or talk because you're lazy or
you just don't feel like it or you're too proud to go to it, it is being taught by someone who
you consider your peer or something like that. When you don't go. The nyenyes are when
you're sick and you're not able, you weren't aware of it, you have a suspicion the person
teaching it doesn't know what they're talking about. You are already a master of all those
subjects, or you are engaged in some deep retreat and you can't break it. And he has one
more if it might upset your regular Dharma teaching.

[Student: Teacher or teaching?]

Teacher.

[Student: Teacher?]

Teacher. Thirty-four. Real quick. That's the last one. I promise. I just we're going through
them as fast as we can. Number thirty four is to put down your Dharma teaching, or it says
to rely on the love. I'll tell you what it means. Putting down your Dharma teacher means in
the ultimate sense means not to see that person okay, this is just what the book says all right,
not to see the person as the Buddha himself. There's a proof of why the person represents all
the Buddhas in the sense of being your only window of opportunity to the Buddha, and that's
the main point. and to speak badly about that person , but and the second one, depending on
the letters means to be more interested in the presentation than the content. You get hung up
on whether the person is handsome or not, or pretty or not, or whether the person is very
poetic or not, whether the person is very charismatic or not, and you miss the point and then
you meet a teacher who is not very handsome, or doesn't speak very charismatically, but
who happens to be teaching pure correct Dharma and you don't listen to them because they
don't look like ... I remember Moltsun Gyatso who was this monk at our temple and then
Rinpoche. Rinpoche is short and he has a big nose, and he doesn't look like a classic dalai
lama, and then there's this very handsome tall stately monk from Pondu, who didn't learn
anything and couldn't teach anything to students, and I mean we used to both go to new
places they would come to the one who looked like the Dalai Lama [laughter] and Rinpoche
would be standing there, and that's what it means, you're looking at the person and you're
not looking at the content. And also with books. You know, with books... I always think of
the first translation of Bodhicharavara, it was done by someone and I hate to [unclear] It was
lovely, it was poetic, it was beautiful, and it was all wrong, you know. It was almost
transcendent. They were so nice and so warm, friendly, and so poetic, and you know, it was
very attractive, but it didn't have any content, it was all wrong, it was all messed up so you
got to be careful. You'll break your Bodhisattva vow if you do that. Homework? Yeah.
Next class is [unclear] tonight. No class Thursday. We'll still finish in September. Unless we
die. Rosh Hashanah is two weeks from tonight?

[Student: The twenty-fifth. Yeah. It's on a Sunday night. But this is the second night.]

We should cancel right? Monday night.

We won't have class on Monday night. We'll still finish in September. [laughter].

Why don't you tell me how much time you need to study for the final after the review. How
much time is two much and how much is two little.

[Student: One week is good.]

[Student: It depends on the exam.]

No, when we leave class Monday [unclear] How about two weeks?

[Student: [unclear]]

There is no class this Thursday. There is a class next Monday, and there is no class the
Monday after that because it's Rosh Hashanah. I would think that the best timing for an exam
is about ten days after a review, or what? Is that too long?

[Student: One week is good.]

[Student: Will we have our quizzes and ...]

You will have them all back [laughter]. It's my fault, okay. [unclear] has been very good.
He's been [unclear] I'll try. Yeah, yeah, we'll have them back. We'll even give back your
last [unclear]. Okay.

[prayer: Short mandala]
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ACI Course VII: The Bodhisattva Vows