ACI 7 «Обеты бодхисаттвы», занятие 10

Class Ten: Keeping Your Vows
September 28, 1995
Transcribed by: Holly Steiner



[cut] Okay I... did I [unclear]

[student: [unclear] Final?]

[unclear] The final will be ten days after your review. You have ten days to study after the
review. Yeah?

[student: Yes, Michael, do you always give your classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays
[unclear] ]

Yeah it

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah it will always be

[student: [unclear]]

Tuesday and Saturday or Monday and Thursday Monday and Thursday for English and
Tuesday and Saturday for a

[student: [unclear]]

For a

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah you can you can plan on that

[cut]

[student: Ten days after]

[laughter]

[student: Ten days after]
[cut] You went through all the vowels, learning all the vowels and this is the last class so
what do you think it's about?

[student: [unclear]]

[laughs] How to keep them, okay.

[student: [laughs]]

So, tonight we're gonna talk about how to keep them. The first point in learning how to
keep them... by the way they're working on the roofs so you're gonna hear a lot of banging
tonight, don't worry about it.

[student: Do you want the door closed?]

It might be nice. If it doesn't doesn't get too hot in here.

[student: Turn the AC on.]

[student: It's on. It's on can't you see it's on]

If it gets too warm let me know I'll turn it up higher. There are basically five steps to
keeping the vows. Okay. Five different steps that you can take to try to keep your vows
well. [silence] [laughter]

[student: It's cold in here.]

[students: [unclear]]

Say {suma} [repeat], {suma} [repeat]. {kuta} [repeat], {kuta} [repeat]. {suma} [repeat], {suma}
[repeat]. {kuta} [repeat], {kuta} [repeat]. {Su} means "speech", but here it means "the speech of
the Buddha", something that the Buddha himself taught. {La} means "to", "t-o". {Gupa} means
"respect". {Sula gupa} means "to respect the speech". And what it means is this what it means
is this

[students: Buddha [unclear]]

Yeah, to respect the speech of the Buddha. What it means is this, if you are gonna keep the
vows very well, the very first step according to asanga and according to Je Tsong Kapa is that
you have to... you know right now your viewpoint of those vows we went over, you know
we went over them for weeks and you went over the sixty-four vows and now how do
you... when you when you think about those vows what do you what do you think of do
you think they were written by some guy in India a couple hundred years, ya like know
sixteen hundred years ago or are you thinking... when I say "who wrote the vows?", what
pops into your head? Do you see a Asanga sitting there and saying "well maybe we better
have a vow against this and maybe we better have a vow against that" or What what comes
into your mind?

[student: Buddha]

It's really the Buddha, okay, and the point is that... and you can read it in the text. The point
is that every one of these vows was spoken by the Buddha. He did not speak them in one
place at one time. He gave them at different places at different times and then it was
Asanga's job, who was being coached by?

[student: Trab.]

Trab. Who is?

[student: [unclear]]

Who is already a Buddha actually. That he was... [unclear]Trab was coaching Asanga on
how to write on how to write them up. But Asanga didn't write the vows. I mean, he, he
assembled them from the Buddha's own speech. So, so you have to look at the vows

[student: Both Asanga and [unclear] instructed by, coached by, by                        Trab?]

Well, Je Tsong Kapa according to tradition was coach by Mondushi.

[student: In this case? ]

Yeah even... well just generally.

[student: All the way through.]

Yeah. But so when you look at the vows you have to think of them as written by a person or
spoken by a person to help you personally because the Buddha can see your mind. Twenty-
five hundred years ago when the Buddha sat down on the grass in India and and started
teaching these vows he had you in mind each person here. He could see your mind and he
could see your own life. He could see your own thoughts and he spoke it knowing that you
would learn. So you have to look at it that way that's the way the vows are. He, he knew
that if you did these sixty-four things you could reach, in this life before you die, you could
reach some kind of paradise. Today at my work everyone was very religious, all the Indian
people were talking about Nirvana and the future life and the past life, because on Sunday
there was a large band of Indian diamond dealers and a guy in a Porsche ran into them going
a hundred miles an hour

[student: Wow.]

and killed all of them, except for one girl, and then she was at the funeral today you know
and, and her mother's still alive but she's like... and they're afraid to tell her that all her family
is dead. So, everyone at work was crying and they all went to the funeral today. And you
understand in one stroke like three of the most important business people in my industry
were wiped out. And all their sons and their kids and their wives and and so everybody was
thinking about religion today you know it was a... it was very strange. If you want to do
something in this life before you are, you know, before that happens, then you you have to
keep the vows. If you want to reach some kind of safe place before that happens, you have
to keep these vows. That's the way. There is no other way; you have to keep these vows.
That's the way you know and they they work they will work and things will happen and
you can reach a place safe beyond that, because of what?

[student: Karma.]

Because of Karma and then... but karma cannot operate if things weren't ...

[student: Empty.]

Empty. Because things are empty, karma can operate. What's the best way to force your
karma, is to keep these vows. And so if you want to do anything about your life you know
if you want to reach any kind of state in this life that's going to be some kind of protection or
even like paradise if you want to reach some kind of enlightened paradise before you die and
you don't know how long you have you know a guy in a Porsche might run into you you
have to keep these vows. You have to know them and you have to keep them. So that.. and
you have to believe what I say because it's not what you have to [unclear] as in what Asanga
says "look that I didn't make these up, I'm just, I'm just a messenger This is ... the Buddha
knows our minds and he said if you keep these sixty-four, this will happen to you. Yeah?

[student: What do you mean by reaching an enlightened paradise, because according to the
sutra you can't do that?]

Excuse me?

[student: What do you mean by reaching an enlightened paradise before you die?]

That's the whole idea.

[student: According... I mean according to Tantra you can do that but not according to
sutra.]

I don't know anything about Tantra but [unclear][laughter] three years two months and three
days.

[student: In one lifetime?]

Huh?

[student: In one life time?]
Sure?

[student: Where?[unclear]]

[sighs][laughter][laughs] I'll show you. [unclear] [laughter] I'll show you in secret, okay.

Anyway,

[student: Isn't that attitude engendered into the sutras they don't say they don't say forget
about it it's going to take you a million lifetimes even if you just practice sutras over and over
again [unclear] you should practice with the intention to [unclear].]

[student: [unclear]]

Anyway next lesson. But don't...

[student: [unclear]]

take your mind off that the point is keep living perfectly in this life and see what happens.
How's that?

[student: Is this...]

You check

[student: Is this...]

You check and see if you could do it.

[student: Is this [unclear] you see in a way you're implying that the karma, the kind of karma
you collect by keeping your vows falls into the category of karma that ripens in this lifetime.]

Absolutely.

[student: Okay.]

Yeah?

[student: In order to keep the sixty-four vows [unclear]]

If you keep your sixty-four vows it's just greasing the wheels very, very nicely [unclear]. So I
think if you... I mean they feed each other, you know, they are symbiotic and if you keep
them very very well I have to think that you would... it'd be hard... I mean you would be,
become very very right and if you don't keep them very well you won't become right. But
you must see it to reach that place in this life- that's true. Okay, so that's some of the... so the
point is before anything, before anything is done you have to look on these vows as a gift
from the Buddha himself to you directly, personally, you know he's talking to you, Edwin,
Miranda you know you, if you keep these sixty-four [laughter] you you will have all the
extraordinary experiences you can imagine and more things you never dreamed of, you
know. But... and if you if you don't keep them or if you keep them sort of half-heartedly,
you'll get a half-hearted re-sp, reaction and you you won't see many amazing things and then
when that happens in five years from now don't blame me, okay. Don't blame Asanga and
Maitreya check your vows, you know. And if life is getting blah blah in in ten years from
now you know check your vows. Yeah?

[student: Would you care to elaborate what you mean by amazing things?]

[laughter] They say temporal and and ultimate goals, you know. I mean in a temporal sense,
everything you ever dreamed, of things you can't even think of now. And in an ultimate
sense, of course, paradise. But, that's all. [laughter] What's that?

[student: [unclear]]

You're not going to hide behind that comment.

[student: [unclear]]

[student: I mean, but if we have done something you know that was particularly [unclear]]

No, you have do your confessions. You have to clean it, that's the whole idea of the
[unclear].

[student: Yeah. [unclear] So even if you're practicing a lot of [unclear]]

Yeah. Little headaches. Little headaches if you do it good [unclear]. Seriously.

[student: Unless you just read the Diamond Sutra, right?]

Yah, yah. It's in the Diamond Sutra.

[student: Yes, well that's different.]

Okay. If you get that... so that's that's the first step. I mean you... he's trying to tell you how
to succeed in your [unclear]. First is try to perceive those vows as a gift to you personally
from an enlightened one, okay. [silence] [cut] [unclear] {Sappa su} [repeat]. {Sappa} means
"intentions". {Su} means "three". So there's there's three intentions here. [silence] If you
think that these vows are something that karmically you have come across because this
enlightened being has been trying to make contact with you and finally made contact and
then gave you these vows into your mind stream, you would naturally want to keep them.
You would start to think, "Oh, I'd like to follow these. I'd like to keep these vows." You
would start to think that, that's one of the intentions. [silence]
[student: You mean you intend to follow the vows because of that?]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean if you realize that some enlightened being has reached across the
centuries in giving you these vows, hopefully the next thought in your mind would be, "Well
I better keep them." And then why? To reach Buddhahood. I mean there's lots of other
goals. Most people have... the Kadampas used to say, "think big" you know they they the
Kadampas used to say, "don't limit your goals" you know think big think I want to be a
Buddha in this life. I want to become a totally enlightened being in this life. I want to be a
person who can sit on Thirty-ninth Street and Ninth [laughter] and have you know help
limitless numbers of sentient beings there and you know don't limit your aspirations you
know think that in this lifetime you you you would be some type of extraordinary being and
that you'd be able to help other people in an ultimate way. Take... imagine that because you
can, you will. Think like that. Think big. You know don't think [laughs] you know don't be
like... I can imagine some people being like you know some people being like like you read
in a... I mean not to not to bring in another religion but like when you're reading about Jesus
walking along the seashore and saying, "You you you you know hey come on let's go you
know leave that boat and just go go and and strive for something higher and they just give...
they just drop what they're doing and go. Then I imagine that you could... imagine right
now that you could reach a point in this life where where you could help sentient beings that
sufficiently because you can reach it. Third thing, [silence]... I mean set your goals on that
that you could actually help limitless numbers of living beings. You know I had that
experience at work today a lot of the people went to the funeral they came back they were
crying and they were... and then they wanted to talk so who ya gonna talk to you know is it
gonna be the Quality Control Supervisor [laughs] or the... ya know what I mean. So they
were coming and they were asking religion questions because because that's renunciation.
We call it goosebump renunciation 'cause it goes away in about a day. [unclear] call it
[unclear] it means it last about as long as a goosebump. But it means for for a few hours
people are... people's minds is in the right place, a place where it should be all the time which
is "gee this this could happen to me. That could've been my daughter, eleven year old
daughter at the funeral". And their video taping it so they can show the mother when she
finds out that everyone's dead, you know they're afraid to tell her so the're video taping it,
you know and she's she's like... they're all thinking this could've been my kid at my funeral
you know and so they all have questions you know about karma today [laughs] that are
gonna go away tomorrow. So you could help those people you can help people like that.
You know, you could have something to offer them right now if you don't know the system
and then if you haven't practiced it or experienced it in what what do you have to offer. If
you reach this kind of enlightenment you could... anyone who came up you... anyone who
is ready you could give them exactly the right thing they need at the right time. So that
would be, that would be something extraordinary to be able to do that, okay. [silence] [cut]
{Doma} [repeat] {doma] [repeat]. {La} [repeat] {la} [repeat]. {Doma la} [repeat] {doma la}
[repeat]. {Doma la} means to {doma} means "your vows". {La} means "to take them". And
this is supposed to be the normal process. I mean first you hear the vows, and you start to
conceive of them as a gift from a holy being to you personally. Then you start to have these
three different thoughts, "hey if I kept them, I could reach paradise, and then all those people
who are around me suffering and helpless I could actually help them. I could actually teach
them, or I show them what what to do. So based on that I will take the vows and you
decide I I want to take the vows and you take them. You can't keep them you take them
[unclear], take them, okay. The next... naturally the next step after that [silence]

[student: I'm sorry, I missed [unclear] number four?}

Yeah.

[student: Three.]

Yeah, I'm sorry three. Three

[student: Three. And what is that exactly [unclear]?]

Take the vows. Take them.

[student: Oh. You take the vows.]

I mean there's probably, I mean... and by the way if there's a group of people who want to
take them, hopefully, [laughs] we'll try to get Rumachek to agree to give them, maybe in
November or something. Say {chotu} [repeat] {chotu} [repeat], {gupa} [repeat] {gupa} [repeat].
{Chotu gupa} [repeat] {chotu gupa} [repeat]. We had {gupa} already, Where was it? Do you
remember?

[student: Respect.]

It was respect. {Chotu} means "as the highest thing", {chotu} means "as the highest thing". So,
it means "to respect as the highest thing". I mean for a moment put your mind on the most
precious possession you have. I mean if I ask you... I mean mine is my laptop, right?
[laughs][laughter]. But if somebody asks you, you know, what's the most precious thing you
have, you know. What's the most precious thing you own? I mean anybody?

[student: Your life?]

I mean I... a lot of people would think their own life, right?

[student: [unclear]]

She's thinking bodhi, right? [laughter][laughs]. Her her

[student: Thank you. I know it's not supposed to [unclear]]

Her daughter, right? [laughs]

[student: [unclear]]

The point here is that it's your vows. Now you own the vows, okay. And it's very proper to
fell very possessive and you should be like my boss counting his millions, you know. I
mean this should be the thing that you go home and you enjoy the fact that you own it. And,
I mean not that you count your vows out and say, "Oh man, you know, I'm rich. I got all
these vows, you know". [laughter] "There's like a hundred and ninety-nine million
Americans that don't have all these vows; I've got vows," you know. [laughter] And... and
really.

[student: And that's breaking one if you're gonna look at it like that.]

[laughter][laughs]What ?

[student: [unclear] all these people don't have it and I do. [unclear]]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[student: [unclear]]

You know what I mean is be a little bit... it's precious. Those are the the... I mean this
number four means when you... I mean right now you think it's sorta interesting, mildly
beneficial, you know, something you probably would like to keep if you have time in the
morning, but if you don't, well, you could do it the next day. And, I mean, but the point
here is to, to start to think of the vows in your own mind stream as the most precious
possession that you own. You own them. And, and they are the most precious thing you
have because that's the closest you can get to pure paradise, that that's your gateway, that's
your door, that's your key; that's the only way you're gonna get there, you know. Now you
have it. Now you learned all those vows, you know. If you took them then, you possess
them then you out of all the millions of people in the world you're among that tiny
percentage that actually has the instructions on how to reach this holy place, this paradise,
you know. And you own that. That's part of you now. You possess that. So you gotta be
very... I mean you should look on that as your most precious thing you own is your vows.
You know Ribichi's very fond of saying when you go to a Tantric initiation and the lama
gives you vows, it's not a punishment. You know, it's not like the lama is saying, "let's see
how can I complicate your life, you know". [laughter] "How can I make you miserable. I
give you all these vows and you can't keep, you know." It's not like that it's a great gift.
And, and he says... he calls them your help mate. You know, they are like your dear friend,
and they're trying to help you. They're trying to get you somewhere. So you have to look
on them as something very, very precious that you own. And think about them all the time,
think about them... I mean how often does my boss think about his hundred and fifty million
dollars on diamonds, you know. I mean I imagine he thinks about them constantly, and
enjoys the thought of them. And, and you can enjoy the same wy, your vows. You have
those... you have something much more precious. You have something infinitely more
precious. So enjoy it, and, and think about it. You got 'em. And you got this method now
to get, to get to some kind of incredible place. And very few people ever get there, you see.
That's {chopu gupa}. Yeah?

[student: Somebody asked when you said what's the most precious thing somebody else said
lama, your lama. Now how what [unclear]]

[laughs] Lama's more important then your vows. [laughter]

[student: There you go.]

[student: That's... ]

Yeah. But...

[student: You know why, can you make a some connection, some relationship, or say
something more about that.]

They say, specifically, and I can tell this it's in the Tantric textbook. I can tell you 'cause it's
not a secret,

[student: Oh, okay.]

because that's your only laison with the Buddha, that's your only window to the enlightened
realm, you know, is is the speech of that person. That person may or may not be a Buddha,
but, but for all intensive purposes that is the Buddha, because they communicate the Buddha's
words to this person who learns them. So that's the proof in the Tantric textbooks, that your
lama is a Buddha. So, that's all. Okay. Number five. [silence] [cut] Say {mingella} [repeat],
{mingella} [repeat]. {Mingella} [repeat], {mingella} [repeat]. If you're wondering about the na,
it's a pretty nasal na, yeah, if anybody cares. Okay, {mingella} means "not to break your
vows". It means "now you keep them", keep them, okay. Keep your vows. What's the
connection between thinking the most precious thing you own and then wanting to keep
them. I mean not wanting to break them. Let's that say you're my boss, right. He's having a
bad year this year. [laughter]. He's laid out all these payments, like the Surage Diamond
Company, which he works for now, [laughter] you know. I mean he's [unclear] I think for
the first time he's having some kind of perception that he might lose the diamonds, you know
what I mean, that that they're not not self-existent. [unclear] [laughter] And, so so he will
undertake any activity he can in order not to lose them because he does perceive them as
supposedly, we don't know don't know his mind right now, he does perceive them as the
most precious thing that he owns. So naturally human nature is to want to protect him from
losing them. So what's the connection between four and five?

[students: [unclear]]

It's the same thing, I mean if you break them you

[students: Lose them.]

lose them. If you break a

[students: [unclear]]
root vow with a [unclear] [laughs]. Okay, okay, all right. Except in the case of [unclear cross
talking] [laughter]

[student: But the relationship with [unclear] is the same thing?]

It's the same thing as my boss, you know. You see at as the most precious thing you own, so
you do what you have to do to keep them, which is you don't break them.

[student: It looks like bright side of possessiveness.]

I think it's... yeah, yeah. One of my lamas used to say you could use all those bad thoughts if
you just make them into positive energy, you know. [laughs] He said be jealous of your
fellow students because it'll drive you. And then it'll drive you to get over your jealousy of
your fellow students. Okay, so those are the five... you could see how that process goes, and
if you think about it you'll see how it goes. Sooner or later if you want to keep your vows,
those five ideas are gonna have to come into your mind. Those... all those five attitudes are
gonna have to be there for you to keep your vows locked. And, they will they will help you
keep your vows. I missing this next on your homework here. Mmmm-hmmm. [laughter]
This question here says, "Can a person" [laughs]
[laughter] Oh, I know what I want to say. Je Tsong Kapa here he gets into how to confess
when you break, when you break you vows, and when you break your secondary
especially, because there's no use confessing then. I mean if you're gonna restore the vows,
you're only talking about the secondary vows because if you break the root vows you lost
them already, no used to... by the way it's very good to confess them, but if you broke them
with all those things, you did... you don't actually have them anymore you're gonna have to
take them over. But when he talks specifically about confessing to secondary vows, he's
talking about, he's talking... a question comes up and somebody says, "some Tibetans of the
past were saying, if you make a vow out of... like forget, you just forget yourself, you're not
doing it on purpose, right. You just forget that you have that vow and you kind of slip and
you break it. That kind of vow, some Tibetans in the past said if you just in your mind vow
not to do it again, you purify that and your restore your vow. And on the other hand, this is
why when we talk about the secondary [unclear], remember we said those are caused by bad
thoughts and those that are not caused by bad thoughts. The ones are not caused by bad
thoughts were like out of laziness or forgetfulness. You forgot that you had the vow... like
let's say you forget to do an offering to one of the three [unclear] during the day or something
like that. You know you forget. You forget to to honor them in body, speech, and mind for
for twenty-four hours. You just forget. They said well that's that's so light that you can just
purify it and restore your vow completely by mentally deciding not to do it again. And then
those ones that your caused by bad thoughts like when you get angry or you want hurt
someone, those you have to repair by going to another human being and confessing to them.
And then Je Tsong Kapa says... what do you guess?

[students: [unclear]]

Asanga never made that distinction. Asanga says there's no such distinction. Asanga said
whether you break it out of forgetfulness or slipping or whether you break it out of this
horrible outburst of anger, it's the same thing, you broke it. And you, and you have to go
confess it in front of a person. A person a person if it's available, if the person is available. A
person is best, if there's any kind of person available. Somebody asked me what kind of
person is okay, and he finally gets in to it at this point in his text. He quotes Asanga, and it
and as I read it it says, "You can confess to either an [unclear] practitioner or a [unclear]
practitioner, which seems to say the person does not have to have [unclear] vows for you to
confess to the person. But he does say... he does make a... express the opinion that if if you're
ordained, if you're a monk or not and you're gonna confess to somebody, it's it's properable
to confess to another ordained person, if there's one available. So he... that's that's all he says
on that. And he says if he the person to whom you confess they have to understand what
you are talking about, you know. Like our neighbor has a child who's autistic. Now that's a
human being, but if you confess to her, she doesn't know what you are talking about. She'll
say "okay ", you know. [laughs] [laughter] I used to kinda do that when I had something
really bad I would go to a Tibetan Monk who really didn't understand what I was talking
about. [laughs] [laughter] I mean the person that you confess to has to totally understand the
the gravity and the whole situation and you know, you have to express it in a way that they
really grasp what you did. I mean it... when it comes time I warn you you will waffle, you
know, you'll try to make it look better than it was. And you have to you have to catch
yourself and and get it all out, you know. Don't like change the subject before it's all out,
you know. I I I'm just telling you from experience, you know. Because when I go to
Rupacane and I have something bad to confess, you know, I usually chicken out about half
way through and try to get him distracted, you know. [laughs] So

[student: So, you're breaking another vow?]

Yeah, yeah. [laughter] You'll find that you'll break vows like within five minutes after you
confess them. But you you have to... the confession game is a... it's very a very pure. It
makes you very pure and you have to get into that game. You have to learn how to do it;
start, you know start, find somebody close to you who who who can grasp what you're
talking about and tell them frankly the things that you do. And you'll find that you, you're
practice'll get much better and you'll start to have those experiences that I won't talk about,
okay? [laughter] Anyway, and they don't happen if you don't do it, okay. Get good at it.
You know take it as a as a... it's it's hard the first few times and then if you have a good
partner or two, you start to improve and they start to improve and it becomes a pleasure to sit
and and list your a... you know we did one the other night it took like two hours [laughs]
and two huge lists and we finally got tired we didn't run out of bad things. [laughs]
[laughter]

[student: Are you supposed to write them down?]

I think it helps. It's good to... you have to track them, right? It's like production in your
factory, you know.

[student: Do you do what Catholics do to make a general confession?]
We had a general confession. I handed it out once. I don't know, somebody might have a
copy. [unclear] There is a general confession. Because, because

[student: I've gotten my vows a year ago and I haven't done any confession.]

Here's a very general one that you can do.

[student: You're doing one now.] [laughter]

[student: Michael, it seems like a very dangerous thing to me to confess to somebody
because you, I mean it's as if you have a tremendous trust, you have to know the person
really really well like for years and years and years to know that: a. they're not gonna go
and tell everybody; b. they're not gonna think you're weird; c. they're not gonna listen... it
just seems like it's a

Well they have to know what's going on. They have to be a... I mean preferably discreet.
But what if everyone in the world knew that you did that, I mean, so. You... maybe you're
just the most intelligent person in the world, to tell the world who you really are. You know
what if everyone knew all your bad deeds, I mean... this was this thing at work I had
where... I had this... I was supposed to supply diamonds to the factory manager and I had
this really terrible factory manager for a while and he used to he used he used to blame me
for every minor problem in supplying the diamonds. So one day I... it occurred to me that if
I just supplied them perfectly I wouldn't get any complaints. So if you don't like your, your
dirty laundry getting out, just clean it and then you don't have to worry about it.

[student: Did it work?] [laughter]

Yeah. No, I mean, I mean I think a Buddhist... obviously you have to be discreet and
obviously you don't want to... you don't want to be one of these people who goes and
confesses to everybody and doesn't really mean it anyway and just wants everyone to know
the terrible things they've done. That's not the point. The point is to do it with someone with
whom... I I would say my experience with someone you highly respect, like I do it with
Ripate. So I you know you don't want to tell it to someone unless you really have the
intention to stop, and it should be embarrassing and Je Tsong Kapa says it works because
you're embarrassed.

[student: Embarrassed [unclear] is very successful.]

That's what debating's about in monks today, you know. You get in front of five hundred
monks and say something stupid. But it works. And, and he says the reason a person is
better than imagining all the Buddhas and confessing to them is that you'll be embarrassed,
and you'll be ashamed. And, and that's good. So... But yeah to, to, to confess everything in
front of the most indiscreet person who's gonna embellish it and then spread it around and
you know that kind of person, don't do it, don't... that's not safe. Don't do it.

[student: Well isn't that also breaking a vow. You're not supposed to be exposing things
about yourself that can be used against you to make you look like a bad [unclear, crosstalk],
what was that?]

Yeah like... my experience is that that the people whom you really want to confess to because
they are someone that you consider kinda holy, are not the type to, to spread it around
anyway, you know. Yeah?

[student: What type of detail is required [unclear]?]

You can read it. It's at the end of your reading. Geshe [unclear] gives a confession. He, he,
he writes one there. It's pretty long. I would say, you know, take the middle part of it and
use that. But it says I so and so have committed and then you you fill in the blank, [laughs]
you know. And he, he actually has a formula there, so I put it there, you know. And, but I
mean once you get used to doing you'll you'll work it out. You'll know what to say. And
the main thing is that it's sincere and that you really don't intend to do it again, for a certain
time limit at least.

[student: Somewhere it is stated that the person you are confessing to is supposed to not
reveal it, like in, for example, Catholic priests cannot do it in [unclear].]

Yeah, I don't recall that it's mentioned as... I don't recall that, I haven't seen that mentioned
anywhere, that they can't reveal it or that they can't tell anybody or you know. But I know
by lineage, by tradition, they don't. The tradition of the lineage is that we don't. We don't
reveal it. So that sort of more the tradition of our lineage, especially like if monks are
confessing things to each other they don't tell other people, just by tradition. One more
question, then we have to go on.

[student: I haven't got any idea, but when you become a particular bodhisattva, you no
longer have a private life, so you're not really trying to keep your life secret. I mean maybe
you don't reveal things that are going to to go [unclear] either to yourself or to somebody
else, but you're not really trying to keep [unclear] in secret.

I don't know. I think, well that what I started out by saying, I think if you... what if
everybody in the world knew all your worst faults. I mean probably you'd just want to
work harder to clean them up so maybe you should just appear to be what you are. Maybe
that's the most easy thing to do, you know. [laughs] Maybe that's the most efficient way to
live, is to show people what you really are and then if you don't like it, then improve it.
Okay. We'll do one more point. There's, there's five factors that make a deed more or less
serious. There's a section in the text and he says are is it are there certain kinds of ways of
breaking your vows that are more serious or less serious, you know. And then he gets in to
five different factors. So we'll go through those five factors. [unclear chatting] So the first
one is by, is by instigator, okay. I mean what made you do it. The devil made me do it, you
know.

[student: What are these?]
These are... I'm gonna give you five different factors that make it more or less serious when
you break, when you break your vows. And you'll get the, you'll get the idea after I do a
few of them, okay. But the first one is what was the instigator. You break a vow with the
following instigators it's the lightest, less serious, okay. Not knowing karma.

[student: Karma you said.

Karma. Bad comma and good comma

[student: This is the least, right.]

Least serious. What does not knowing mean? Mishaba, what does it mean? Not knowing
what?

[student: That you're breaking the vows.]

You don't know your vows, okay. [laughs] [laughter] I mean that's the least serious. If you
break... if you took bodhisattva vows from some lama who came to your town one night,
you have no idea what they are, you were there at the initiation, you got your bodhisattva
vows, and then you break it the next day because you don't even know what they are,
okay... I mean, Je Tsong Kapa gives two examples: either you never heard them, you know
the lama never explained all sixty-four; or there was some short explanation and you didn't
really get it, you know, like you hears the name but you never understood what it meant.
Then you're in this category. If you break the vow that way, do you break it?

[student: Yes.]

You break. But it's a little bit better, okay. It's a less, a little less serious karmically, okay. It's
better than if you knew very clearly what the vows were, which is unfortunately the
condition you're in though. [laughter] [laughs]

[student: What if you learned it and you forgot.]

Try to forget it, yeah. [laughs] [laughter]

[student: Does the make you the instigator now?] [laughter]

Careless means you forgot, you know you were busy. And you were distracted. You didn't
get a full night sleep. You know. It wasn't so bad as a [pause] [laughter]

[student: Klasha.]

What's a Klasha. A bad thought, okay. Jealousy, anger, pride, desire, ignorance.

[student: Are these in order from less to worse?]
Yeah. These are from least serious to most serious. All serious, but less serious or more
serious. Secondly, 'b' is where, I mean it's defined in the text as you know you're just
overcome by a by a bad thought, you know. You're jealous of somebody at work. You're
jealous of a fellow translator. And you... it takes over your mind for, you know, five minutes
and you break your vow. That's medium serious. It's called medium serious.

[student: How could you break a vow if you didn't have a klasha attack?]

If you just forget to make offering, that's

[student: Okay.]

Okay. All right 'c' is the worst one. [pause] Disrespect for, what do you think?

[students: The vows.]

The vows, yeah. Watch out for that. I mean that's like "yeah I know I'm supposed to make
an offering and everything, but you know, but maybe it's kind of a stupid vow anyway. I
feel like doing it every other day, you know. I know that I'm not supposed to yell back at
somebody who yells at me. I know that's part of my bodhisattva vows. You know, but they
were really mean. It was just like a normal yelling. It was really bad. [laughter] [laughs]
Probably I got the worst one in the company today, you know. [laughs] I mean everyone
believes that, all right. Everyone believes that the yelling they got was much worse than
anyone else got. And so they were okay to yell back. And that's {mai gupa}. {Mai gupa}
means you just don't treat the vows very seriously. You that they're not very important. You
think it's mildly interesting and, and virtuous but not something egimatic about.

[student: Does disrespect mean not owning them in high regard?]

There's nine different kinds of disrespect and they're in your reading. [laughs] Okay?
[laughter] But you can imagine basically what it is is you just don't think it's very important,
and we have to be very careful about that. You have something very precious; learn them,
keep them, think about them all the... it's like getting a new girlfriend. Like, it's like meeting
Mr. Right, you know. I mean if you went home after meeting Mr. Right, you would... it
would be on your mind all night long. [laughter] I I don't think your bodhisattva vows are
mind all night long. [laughter] But it, it's the same thing, you got something very very
special, and you should be like, you know, fascinated and fixated on it, you know. "Boy I
got bodhisattva vows." [cut] ...obsessed with it, you have bodhisattva vows. If you're not,
you gotta be careful.

[student: Does that happen, Michael, they you do become that way, like your in... like they
become your lover?]

[laughs] Yeah, [unclear]. Okay, we'll do one more. Let me see. Nah, we won't do one more,
sorry. Take a break. [cut] ... three poisons that's the second thing that can make it serious
or not serious. What are the three poisons?
[student: Ignorance, [unclear] attachment.]

[student: Anger.]

There's all these words for it, you know. People say desire or greed. People say hatred or...
and then people say ignorance. And it's the three animals in the middle of the wheel of life
that [unclear]. It's the pig, the snake, and the what? Rooster. But it's... when I think of desire
I think of, you know, an overwhelming emotion from looking at Playboy Magazine or, or I
think of hatred I think of going into a fury and hitting someone, you know. I think of greed,
I think of sitting with piles of money and rubbing your hands in them and stuff like that. I
don't think they're very good translations. The definitions of of the first one is is not is
ignorantly not wanting to be parted from a certain object. What it means is liking. I prefer
the word liking, which means ignorantly liking something.

[student: Attachment.]

Not even as strong as attachment. This poison is in your mind all day long. This poison
happens several times every few minutes, you know. What are you gonna call it? It's the
ignorant desire not to lose something and it happens all day long. It happens every moment.
It's where even those little feelings that you have that you like something. And I say ignorant
because this is the state of mind that that wants to keep something by protecting him. You
see. It's the natural human liking of an object, because what it assumes is that you think you
have to somehow protect the thing and defend the thing. Because really what is the way to
protect the thing to keep the thing.

[student: Is to give it away.]

Is to give it. So it's any kind of instinct that every human has towards the things they like
that that to keep this thing I must protect it from others, you know, you know. And it's
ignorant. It's it's basically at it's root very stupid. It doesn't understand how things work.
The way you keep things is to be generous with them and the way you lose things is to fight
off other people and try to protect it. So we act exactly the backwards. Human Nature is
backwards. That's liking. The three poisons are in your mind all the time. They're active
constantly. So I don't like the word desire. I mean I get desire maybe once a day, okay. But
this poison is is there all the time. That's why it's called poison. It's it's poisoning your mind
all the time.

[student: What is the Tibetan word for poison?]

It is {duchok} which normally does mean, you know attachment or desire, but but if you go
to the definition of this poison, you don't come up with that in English. It's not as strong as
sitting there and rubbing your hands to your credit cards, you know. It's a [laughs]

[student: It is a form of attachment.]
You and I know it is. But if I say how many times today did you have desire, you would say
a few times.

[student: No, but if you said how many times a day did I feel attachment, I would have to
say all the time.]

Maybe, maybe you could say that. But for me attachment is even stronger. You feel
attachment toward your husband, say. But do you feel attachment towards a cool breeze in
this room, which is what we would like to have.

[student: [unclear]]

[laughter] What I mean, what I'm trying to say is it's a constant coloring of your mind. It's a
poisoning of your mind all day long. It's I I I think it's very dangerous to turn inside of
anger, I'm sorry desire of something. That's all. Okay, second one is what they translate as
hatred or greed. But again it's defined as wanting to be separated from an undesirable object
in an ignorant way.

[student: [unclear]]

Wanting to be separated from an undesirable object in an ignorant way. What does that
mean? It means all day long if you're a normal human being, things happen that you don't
like and you undertake steps to remove those things, you know. It... if your boss is yelling
at you. I had it today, like all day, you know. [laughs] "Errr, Where are these diamonds,
know, fake diamonds [unclear]." And you know it's an undesirable object. Someone's
screaming at you. But what do you do? What's the way to get out? How do you get rid of
that object? You know, how do you, you know

[student: Don't yell.]

And the natural thing is to do something bad or to make an excuse or to tell him to come
back later or anything you can do to get rid of the person. But that's not where they came
from. And that's not how you're gonna stop meeting people who are "er er er where's the
thing", you know. It's not the way. It's not where they came from and that's not how you're
gonna reach a place, a job where everyone's like "hey, you know, that's great work you're
doing". What I mean is that's not where it comes from. If you don't like something, the
ignorant human instinct is to fight against it or to struggle or to dislike it, and that's exactly
how you're gonna get it to

[student: Come back.]

Come back. So, so this is the second poison. And it is a poison, 'cause it's making you do
exactly the opposite thing. You should say, "I'm glad to see you. I'm glad you're yelling at
me. What would you like? Here I'll try to get it for you." You know. And you just be very
pleasant and positive and... and actually even if there were no such thing as Buddhism, it's the
most efficient way to work anyway. It happens to work the best anyway. You know what
was the third thing? The root of the first two. In the very ancient pictures of the wheel of
life, in the best pictures, it's a, it's a pig [cut] with the rooster and the snake coming out of it's
mouth. It's not a circle, because the source of those other two is not understanding the way
things are and that's ignorance. That's the third poison. The third poison makes the first two
poisons happen. You just don't understand it. If you don't like something, be good. And if
you want to keep something, share it, you know. So anyway why do they say three
poisons, what has this got to do with how serious the deed is? If you, if you do a deed with
light three poisons, it's not so serious. If you do it with medium strength three poisons, it's
medium serious. And you do, if you do it with heavy three poisons, it's heavy karma.

[student: What does that mean?]

And you don't have to have all three. What it means is... I mean when you're on the bus and
you kinda like to have a seat but somebody sits down in it before you, and you just kind of
like mildly irritated, but you go sit in another seat; that's life, okay. But then if you're at work
and you have a huge shouting match with somebody, and you think that's gonna stop them
from shouting at you, that's, I would say that's a heavy duty. See what I mean. It doesn't
refer to which one of the three is heavier, and you don't have to have all three. Either one or
any one or any combination. All right. Okay.

[student: What does it mean [unclear]]

Karma is lighter. The bad deed is lighter. The breaking of the bodhisattva vows is lighter.
[silence] Okay, object. In the text they give the example of killing. By the way the text at this
section, Je Tsong Kapa goes directly to Ganaia. He cops it all from the Ganaia, you know.
It's actually all coming from the books about monks' morality and he goes to the part about
the object and he says, "A lighter object may take the act of killing. The lighter object would
be an animal, to kill an animal." So relatively speaking very serious but among all the kinds
of killing, lighter. Why? Having destroyed a potential for enlightenment in this life,
normally, normally speaking an animal doesn't have enough intellect that in this life, they
would understand all the things we've been talking about in this class and become
enlightened in this life. It's very unlikely. It's almost impossible. So I mean you're not
destroying a potential basis for nirvana and enlightenment in this life. They just can't
understand all these things anyway. Yeah?

[student: Do they make a distinction within the broad category of animal / insect versus
what one animal to another which is heavier, lighter, better or worse to kill?

I've seen a thing in the... there's a debate like that, but I don't remember how it works, but
there's a debate about there's some feeling that larger animals might feel more pain. And then
there's a debate about, well, if you're eating for meat maybe it's better to kill a larger animal
instead of twelve shrimp, you know or you know, there there are debates like that. I don't
quite remember [unclear]

[student: Swatting insects versus whatever, killing a cow? You know.]
There... I I... all I've heard about is in quantity of food. You know if you need ten pounds of
meat one pig or five chickens, so better to kill one, you know what I mean, it's not you
know, something like that. But I haven't

[student: Light is in terms of karma.]

Karma, yeah and breaking the vows.

[student: And animal versus a person?]

Yeah. [silence]

[student: So applying that same reason of anyone who's the highest student or practitioner
spiritually would be a heavier...]

Much heavier.

[student: Is that c-h-a-k-e-a?]

Yeah, c-h-a- [pause] What's that?

[student: What is this an "a" , "b", sub?]

[student: Is there gonna be a subcategory here where were talking about what the object's up
to?]

We got a light object already. I'm giving you a medium object, okay. That's the second,
that's the third way

[student: No. What I'm thinking is the story about Buddha in one of his lifetimes, I guess it
was, killing... having to make a decision to kill the captain of a ship to save hundreds of
people or something.]

It wasn't to save the people. It was to prevent the captain from going to the lowest life. You
know what I mean.

[student: Oh, okay.]

It's interesting.

[student: But then...]

It's to protect the captain.

[student: But the object is human, but... do you see what I'm saying.]
Yeah, sure.

[student: So you put... is there a separate category where you talk about the activity that the
object is engaged in? [laughs]]

No, we're talking same deed, same motivation, different object. If given a priority, deed is
the same, motivation is the same, it's lighter if you kill an animal, okay. That's all. Okay,
second object. I want you to learn this word, say {myome} [repeat], {myome} [repeat];
{myachokpa} [repeat], {myachokpa} [repeat]. {Myome} [repeat], {myome} [repeat];
{myachokpa} [repeat], {myachokpa} [repeat]. This is the object of a very serious type of
killing. {My} means "a human being". {O} means "or". {Myachokpa} means "a human fetus".
Okay, "a human embryo, a human fetus". In other words according to Buddhism, they're
they're equivalent, same thing. You kill this or you kill this, it's the same thing. Which
clarifies the question of?

[students: Abortion.]

Okay, I mean, I was I was involved in one when I was young and I didn't know better and
it's a long story, but... just so you know. It's the same thing, human being and a fetus are the
same thing according to Buddhism. The fetus starts at conception, the moment of conception.
It's Myachokpa. And this is quoted directly from the text. So, so remember it and don't
break it. You know don't get involved in that. We have a big place in Connecticut, we
can... it can stay there. [laughs] [overflowing laughter] Seriously, okay. A deal is a deal,
okay? All right.

[student: You're taking the sheep example to extreme there.] [laughter]

All right so you [unclear crosstalking] and encourage other people to. All right.
{Bunataparent} means we're talking about middle, middle strength, okay, medium strength.
{Nataparent} means you're not talking about {atame} which is what? Those five...

[student: [unclear]]

You're not into one of those incredibly powerful karmas where you killed your mother or
you killed your father. So that's called medium strength, medium object. It's a human or a
human embryo, which is very serious, but at least it's not your father or your mother. Now
what would be heavy duty?

[students: [unclear]]

Killing your father or your mother, [laughs] okay. And that's that's object. That's from the
point of view of object.



[student: What about killing a lama?]
Even worse. But we're just trying to keep it consistent. If you want to know all the objects,
you have to read the Abhidharma, fourth chapter. [silence] Accumulation means... Je Tsong
Kapa explains it like this: lesser accumulation would be to commit one, from one to five of
the breaking a vow and not, and not purifying it, not confessing it. That would be

[student: What defines [unclear]]

Either one or two or three or four or five.

[student: Of the steps [unclear]]

No, total. Accumulation. If you break either one or two or three or four, or a total of five
different secondary offenses, that would be for example, less serious. By the way this is all
referring to the {naya}. It's probably referring to two hundred and fifty-three vows, you
know something like that. What he's trying to say a certain small number would be
considered less serious. Medium serious he says is a big number that you could still count.
By the way I believe that most Americans who have ever gotten bodhisattva vows are in the
third category, which is what?

[student: All broken vows.]

No, they've broken many many times and they couldn't tell you. They couldn't even count
them. I mean, if they sat there all day and try to figure out since they got the vows at
initiation in nineteen seventy-nine from so and so lama that came to [unclear] that night.
They they couldn't even guess how many they had broken. And that's the most serious, you
know.

[student: But the odds are good that they didn't have a clear understanding of what they were
and they might have been offered in Tibetan and it wasn't spoken and it wasn't translated
[unclear]]

That's a terrible thing. That's a terrible thing to... it's unkind to give someone the vows under
those circumstances, I mean I think. But anyway. [unclear] opinion. I just broke a vow, I
think. [laughs] Anyway, I take it back. [laughter] Very serious if you broke... if you
shattered so many you can't even count them. Okay, that's accumulation. Number five.

[student: [unclear] initiation.]

[student: Of course.] [laughter]

[unclear crosstalking] Missing one. [laughter] I missed... He doesn't state this one in the text,
but he does later on, so. I want you to [unclear], okay. That was three, that was four, five.
Sorry.

[student: Uh-oh.]
He never... he does not list it in the text, but later on he mentions it.

[student: So what becomes two and one.]

[student: Oh, instigator becomes two?]

Yeah, okay.

[student: Oh, this is number one.]

Yeah I'm giving you a number one, a new number one. [crosstalking about renumbering] It's
not my fault, he doesn't mention all of them here.

[student: [unclear]]

Instigator's number two. Three poisons is number three. Object is number four.
Accumulation is number five. Number one is nature. He does not explain it. I assume it
means....

[student: [unclear]]

Nature. Meaning this... I mean just automatically certain of the vows are more important
than the other ones. Which is what? Just their nature.

[student: What?]

Certain one of those sixty-four vows are more serious than other ones of those sixty-four
vows. Which ones?

[students: Root vows.]

I believe that's what he's referring to. He does... he never states it directly, but but before...
all through the text he's saying the nature of the root vows is that they're more serious than
the secondary vows. These five factors make it more or less serious when you break your
vows and that's just comes from all the teaching of abhidharma, all the teaching of Manaya.
And it's common sense, right? It's much more serious to kill your parents than to kill
someone who's not your parents and it's much more serious to kill a human being or a
human fetus than it is to kill an animal. Things like that. It's much more serious to break a
vow out of a huge attack of anger than out of... you never knew the vow, okay. Okay. See
merely the essence of this class tonight, which is the last, you know, new class, we'll have
one review, is the following. Okay there is four things that can make you break your vows.
You better know these four. And we already mentioned them, but we'll do them formerly.
It's called the four causes of breaking your vows. If you want to be a great bodhisattva vow
keeper, you better know these four. And the first one is? And we talked about it already. I
mean we talked about all four, but JE TSONG KAPA repeats them and he lists them. He
says, you have to know, I mean the most... the first reason why anyone would break a
bodhisattva vow, that they never learned them. They don't even know what they are, or
they heard them, you know, don't teach emptiness, but they never learned what it really
meant. Things like that. What's the antidote for this?

[students: Learn them.]

He doesn't say learn them. He's says become them faster. [pause] I mean he's talking like,
"Oh, number fourteen, no I didn't do it today, but I did thirteen yesterday and number twelve
I was thinking about the day before and a... sixteen, nineteen, twenty-five, forty-three, I was
really close yesterday." They call [unclear]. When you do {tundru}, that's supposed to be
what you're doing. {Tundru} is called a [unclear]. It means like, "Hey, I didn't do one I did
five, I did number seven, didn't do thirteen, fourteen I was a little weak today, twenty-five I...
you know. And I'll tell you by personal experience, you can't do that. You can't reach that.
Concentrate on two or three a day. [laughter] Rotate them once a day or rotate them every
three days, and where's [unclear], where's [unclear]? Okay. [laughs] [laughter]. [unclear
chatter] But its gotta [unclear] So do what you can handle for a day, you know, concen... go
through, take one or two each day, concentrate on it. My personal experience, that that's the
only way you can really do it, otherwise you'll go crazy. Okay, number two. [silence]
That's like you just forget to do something that you're supposed to do or you just get
distracted, you know, you know all... lazy, careless, forgetful, okay. It's not intentional. It's
not mean. It's not bad. But it... but you will break the vow. What's the antidote for that?

[student:

Huh?

[student:

Yeah we call it

[student: But if you're only doing three each time then it's sort of easy to forget...]

That's true. I mean the ones that require you to do something every day, you better you
better have done it... you have those checked off on Brady's card, okay, until it becomes
second nature. By the way the practice of Tindru, actually doing Tindru, fulfills most of these
vows. That the, one of these points. Okay, remembering your mindfulness, keeping your
mindfulness. This is like what's gonna happen tomorrow because you have your last
bodhisattva vow class. And the what's gonna happen three months from now, you know
when they're not fresh in your mind anymore and you didn't exactly work very hard at them
and, and a few of them slipped your mind. I mean right after you get them the first time,
which is most of you heard this detailed explanation for the first time, you'll be very careful
and then you'll get sloppy the second time you here them and the third time. It's very
dangerous. It's called dharma overload, you know, and in fact it's called {cheptuk}, and
you... it's not as effective the second and third time that you hear it. This is your big chance.
Most people either make it or break it on the first time that they hear it. So, you have to try
to stay mindful from tonight. It's... there's no reason why it should happen later, if not
tomorrow. [unclear] it's not logical. It won't be fresh. [pause] It's not a joke, you know. I
worked very hard on how to translate it. It's exactly what it means. And there's a long
description about the bad thought growing in your mind, taking over your mind, fulfilling
the majority of your mind and then you do the thing. It just sounds like an attack to me, you
know. The antidote is is to identify the worst one and then work on it, okay. The antidote
for number three, which is having these attacks every once in a while... you know, you
know what they are, some people it's food, some people it's anger, some people it's jealousy,
whatever. You know your own worst one, probably only you really know for sure. And
then work on... he says attack that one frst, go for that one first and that will... you'll be able
to stop clencher ties that way.

[student: Did you food for the first one?]

Excuse Me?

[student: Did you say food?]

Yeah. [laughs] I mean excessive. I mean like where it becomes a, a bad deed. It's it's
actually if you are obsessive about food in that way, which bodhisattva vow does it break?
It's interesting. It's like looking at girls in the Port Authority. [laughter] [crosstalking]
There's the one about leaving your meditative state of mind. There's the one about not
speaking your... there's the one about... there there were five obstacles to keeping a
meditative state of mind. And one was attraction to the object of the senses. It's just... not
only in conjunction with your meditation, but he said... remember he said in you whole day.
You know if you want to keep some kind of a yogi state of mind you have to avoid being
obsessive with the objects of the senses. You have... that will ruin your ability to meditate
well and it will also ruin your stability of your consciousness for for the whole day. I mean
you give yourself up to one of the five objects of the senses, you you you damage your
ability to concentrate and meditate.

[student: That means if somebody's overweight, they're a little bit overweight [laughter]
[unclear]]

[students: [unclear]]

[student: So where in does the enjoyment of your karmic fruits come?] [laughter]

We're not talking about that. We're not talking about that. And you know you know the
difference: when the Dali Lama laughs at a joke; when the Dali Lama eats dinner; when
Ripuche has something he enjoys to eat, you know. He's not... it's very interesting I have
never Ripuche compulsively eat anything never, in twenty years.

[student: [unclear] send things back]

[laughs] No, but I've never seen him compulsively eat the Americans do, you know like we
do, like I do. But it's interesting. Anyway
[students: [unclear crosstalking]] [laughter]

[student: When you're in a meditative state allowing your mind [unclear]]

No but then you remember what JE TSONG KAPA said at the end, keep this [unclear], don't
just apply it to your formal meditation, protect your mind throughout the day because
compulsive during the day will make your mind less aware, less concentrated, and then
you'll slip and you'll break another vow. Okay, anyway you break a vow every, I don't
know [laughter]... what was the last one? [unclear] man. [laughter] The antidote here is
very. very simple. It's to respect the Buddha and respect the vows that he gave. Now, I
think it's very important to say and the text are very clear about it, you normally start to
respect one, someone when you start to get benefits, you know, like if someone was your
teacher. Like I remember I had a teacher in eleventh grade, okay, and that teacher taught me
to write and I know who it was and I know what they did and they beat me up, yelled at me
and they and they made us write like twenty pages every single night for a year and checked
them all and so I respect that teacher because I know the benefit I got. And it's the same with
Buddhism. You know you you're not going to get respect for the Buddha or for the vows by
trying to be respectful. It doesn't work, you know. Try to act "oh yah, yah" [laughter] It
won't work, especially with Americans, you know. I mean it's it's empty. It doesn't mean
anything, just to just to look good, to look respectful is one thing. But if you realize you've
got something out of it, you know, I mean and this doesn't happen for a while because first
you have to try it, but if you're keeping the vow and then after a while you start to have
some extraordinary things happen, then what?

[student: You'll appreciate it.]

You'll really appreciate and respect them. And that, that's the idea here. You know, follow
them enough to see... if somebody really helped you in your life and you had your own
people and I don't know who it was for you, but everyone in this room had two or three
people in their life that they owe a big debt of gratitude, they taught you something
invaluable and you, when you meet that person that's respect. It's the way you feel towards
that person. And you know who it was and you know what respect feel like if you think
about that person, and just have that towards the vows. You won't get respect artificially. It
has to come from having gotten some benefit because you kept them. And then you start to
respect them and you start to respect the Buddha. So if you, if you want to get the the
antidote, it's it's respect from, from getting results. And obviously it'll never happen if you
don't try them [laughs], okay. And then you never will respect them. Okay, we're overrun,
so I'm not gonna do the last homework question. The last homework question is what are
the five temporal benefits of keeping you vows and what's the one ultimate benefit of keeping
your vows?

[student: I'll probably want to know the advantage.] [laughs]

I mean, the advantage I keep hinting to you all night or saying directly to you all night you
will reach a different plane of existence called enlightenment and you will reach a thing
called paradise and just try it. You know we can argue about how long it takes. Why don't
we do it the opposite way. Keep it for a while. See if anything [laughs] happens, okay. If
nothing happens, check back with me, you know. But there's this big thing in Buddhism that
people don't get any results so they blame the vows or they blame Buddhism. And then the
lama says, "well did you keep them?" and they say "well what do you mean?", you know.
[laughs]
"Was I supposed to keep them?" [laughs] The people who don't get any results are the people
who don't do anything and then they get mad about that kind of, that particular path without
even having practiced it. So that's that's where... the ultimate benefit is that and I can... I
might as well say just keep your vows and you check it out and things'll happen. Okay.
Temporal benefits, I mean one of the biggest one you can die happily, okay. If you've ever
had a near death experience, one of the things that comes up first in your mind is regret for
anything you did bad, and if you're keeping your vows you you just die very very smoothly,
you know, you've got nothing to hide, you got nothing hidden, you got nothing that you
didn't confess, and you just die very nicely. And you die looking forward to meeting
Buddhas and [unclear]. You've got nothing to worry about. You're clean. That's why
[unclear] get off his horse every few miles [laughs] and confess, you know, while stunza are
standing there waiting, you know, and the lama's getting off his horse and confessing 'cause
he doesn't want to die with these things on his conscience. So you can die you can die very
nicely. They say the Buddhas will take care of you. They they watch you with even more
care. They keep coming to you. And you you can look into the future life and see that
you're not going to have any problems, and you will in your future life, and this is an
experience which you will see directly at a certain point, you will not suffer any more. You
will have... you may have to come back a times, but those lives will be very smooth. You
will always be well off. You will always have enough to eat. You won't have any kind of
serious problems. You'll be able to have enough to share with other people, and it'll always
be like that, and you'll have a point in your practice where you can see that directly.

[student: So are you saying you you will see emptiness directly?]

That's that wasn't listed but I mean

[student: If you view your future lives that's...]

Right after you see emptiness directly you can see,

[student: Right.]

and you can see that you will not have, you will have like seven future lives. You will
become a Buddha after that. During those seven lives, you'll be comfortable. You'll have
enough to eat, sleep, be able to share things with other people. You'll be, you'll be in that top
one percent of all the humans on the earth who have enough and plenty and they share it
with others and and you'll reach that stage. If you keep the vows this is one of the benefits.
So that's it. That's the bodhisattva vows, but you have to keep them. I I can't do it... yeah?

[student: Do you just [unclear]]
It's in the reading. You check the reading. They're there.

[student: Oh.]

I did most of them. [laughs] I did the important thing. But keep them and and we have an
exten... a good opportunity. One is we're all new, you know, like people who have had
them three times before and who heard them all three times before, I've noticed that they're
the people who are most, least likely to change. It's when they're fresh in your mind that you
actually change. So do it now, do it now. And then use the other people in this class for
example or wherever, but... we're in a good situation. I know Carly, he helps keep me
straight at work. You know when I come in and say something stupid, he really [laughter]
helps me to remember my vows and that's a good thing. And what I'm saying is do it for the
other people in this class. It's actually part of your vows. It's actually part of your
responsibility is to now help each other. You know we're in a nice situation because we're
all trying to keep them, and then because we know we're all trying to keep them, so we can
help each other. You know and when you see one of your dharma friends slipping, you help
them and you say "ep you remember number forty-four", you know. And don't say it in a
bad way and don't do it in a nasty way, but do it in a helpful way, and then help each other.
We're in a very extraordinary situation where we have a whole group of people trying to
keep the vows and we all know we're trying to keep the vows. So we can, we can keep
each other straight. We can help keep each other straight. And you can help me... especially
I request, openly and seriously, okay. Okay.

[prayer: short mandala]

[prayer: dedication]
961009-1.aaa

ACI Course VII: The Bodhisattva Vows