ACI 8 «Смерть и сферы существования», занятие 1

Course 8 Class 1
Note: two versions of class 1 here

We're gonna be reading mostly from the [b: Abhidharma]. [b: Abhidharma] is
the oldest literature that we will study in this course. It is the very first of the
four Buddhist books, the Vibachaka school. And that's a very great work called
the [b: Abhidharmakosha]. Khen Rinpoche taught it for ten years in New
Jersey. He went through the whole thing very carefully and he translated it
from the commentary by the first Dalai Lama. The first of any kind of Lama is
always the greatest, well I shouldn't say that... is always a great Lama, because
that's the one that starts the lineage.

The first Dalai Lama was an incredible teacher, an incredible Lama, he was a
student of Tsongkapa. And one of his most famous works is this commentary
on the [b: Abhidharmakosha]. [b: Abhidharmakosha] is basically a very old
book that's a collection of very older books that explain all of Buddhism in a
nutshell. And it's very difficult, the book is very difficult, it goes, the first chapter
covers the parts of a person and a person's mind, the second chapter goes on and
discusses all the energies within yourself, the third chapter discusses the universe
and, and time and space and where are the galaxies and how did the world start
and where do genes come from and things like that. The fourth chapter is the
best presentation on karma from anywhere.

The fifth chapter is the best presentation on mental afflictions, all your bad
thoughts.    And then it goes on to chapters that help you to understand
meditation and how to liberate yourself, that's the [b: Abhidharmakosha]. In
the monastery we study it for normally two years. We're going to be covering
the third chapter. That's, the [b: Kosha] was written about sixteen hundred years
ago. You have the dates here and it was written by Vasubandhu. So we'll start
the class. Tonight we'll cover two of the three realms. According to Buddhism
there are three realms in this world, the desire realm, the form realm, and the
formless realm. And we'll be covering two of those tonight.

It's sort of a short class because of all of this introductory stuff. The second class
will be about the formless realm, the five different kinds of rebirths, how do you
take rebirths and how, how it's possible to know what rebirth you're going to
take, does anyone take rebirth purposely, can anyone direct their rebirth? Class
number three, we're going to cover what it's like to be two of the kinds of
rebirths, you know there's a thing called a "craving spirit" sometimes it's called
{nibok} or {preta} or "hungry ghost". You cannot see them. It's supposedly one
way you can take births. So we're gonna discuss that kind of being,how do they
live, and then animals, we're gonna talk about the world of animals from a
Buddhist perspective. Class number four we're gonna cover the, oh by the way
class number three will come from some of the oldest readings known it's a
book called the[b: Tenrim Chenmo], it was written 800 years ago. It was lost. It
was one of the most important books ever written in Tibet.          And, and, His
Holiness found one copy in Siberia about fifteen years ago, and then we found a
copy, a better, a clearer copy in, in India about seven, six years ago so it's very
great, it's a thousand pages long.

It was the basis for the greatest book ever written in Tibetan which is the [b:
Lam Rim Chenmo] and we're gonna study from that so, no one has ever studied
from that, and in the West, except for a brief class out in California, but last
summer, but I think it's a great opportunity to, to, to study that book. The
fourth class is about the lives of human beings and then there's a certain kind of
beings called "pleasure beings" sometimes they're called "deities" sometimes
they're called "gods" sometimes they're called "{devas}". And we'll discuss what
their world is like. That whole description will come from a book by the first
Panchen Lama and he lived in seventeen, I'm sorry, 1570s to 1600s. A very great
scholar, nowadays there's a big argument about the newest Panchen Lama, I
think the twelfth or something, and he was a great scholar. We're also going to
study a commentary which has never been taught in the west by
Mochugamabadra who lived about two hundred years ago.

And he's a great master of a tantric lineage so that'll be a very beautiful
commentary. Class five is all about the intermediate state, which is popularly, it's
called in Tibetan the {bardo}. Okay, a lot of teachings about the {bardo} are from
tantra and cannot be discussed in public or should not be discussed in public and
the [b: Abhidharma] is the, is the classic source for all the teachings on the
{bardo}. The [b: Abhidharma] explains the {bardo} thoroughly, tells you how
they got there, what are they like, what's it going to be like, what do they look
like, and, and then, the [b: Abhidharma] interestingly tries to prove that they
exist. It tries to prove that the {bardo} exists and I thought you might like to
hear those arguments, okay? Um it tells you how a {bardo} finds a rebirth.
Okay, which is interesting. Okay, next page, the [b: Abhidharma] gets into the
kinds of food or the kinds of energy that, that, that are like food.
Food is only one of the four ways of sustaining your body, the kind of food that
we know and there're other kinds of ways of sustaining your body which are
covered in the [b: Abhidharma], I think they're very interesting.

And then a general description of this world. What does this world look like
according to the [b: Abhidharma] and where did it come from and how is it
destroyed? Class seven is going to cover the, the hells, the Buddhist concept of
the hells. What are the hells like? What are those beings like? How do you get
there? How do you get out? Class number eight is a description of time and
space itself. The [b: Abhidharma] describes time down to microseconds and up
to trillions of light years. It's very beautiful, it's very interesting. And then the
same with space. And then they go through the concept of an eon, or a {kalpa},
and you know you always hear {kalp}a but you never know what it is.

We're going to discuss all the kinds of {kalpas}, and what is a {kalpa}, how long
does it last? Like that, okay?     How the world is destroyed, how the world
comes into being, and how often do Buddhas come in the world and why and
when and how many {kalpas} between and things like that. Class nine and ten
are taken from a different book. This is the [b: Lam Rim Chenmo} of Je
Tsongkapa. He is the main Lama of our lineage. He lived about five hundred
years ago. And he described in great detail how to meditate on death. The
reason for studying the realms is mainly to discuss the problem of suffering and,
and where you're going to go after you die and Je Tsongkapa has a beautiful
death meditation in his [b: Lam Rim Chenmo}.

We're going to go through the death meditation very, in great detail, and try to
get the details of, of how a person should meditate on death. Class number
eleven as usual will be a review of everything we've done. You're required in
this course, I didn't mention that, to do homework [laughter]. It's interesting, it's
not like difficult homework, but I try to make it just very relevant to what, to
what you need to know for your life and what you need to know to know
Buddhism well. And, and it's interesting because I had my final exams in
November, a lot of you came.

I had to debate a lot of monks for many, like, four or five days and, and that's
the final exam after like eighteen years or something. And people ask me was it
difficult and I say no because they didn't ask me almost anything that wasn't in
these courses. So this really is a good survey of Buddhism. I mean if you were a
monk in a Tibetan monastery and you studied for twenty years, these are the
things you'd be expected to know at the end and... so I don't want to waste your
time. The homework is something that, that just concentrates on the things that
you need to know for your practice and the things that are considered important
for all Tibetan monks for example to study, to know by the time they get done
with their studies. It really is a baby geshe course, okay? And then the final
exam will be the next class after that. The final exam comes only from the
quizzes. The quizzes are something that you get when you come to class.
They're like four or five questions. They are all come from the homework that
you just finished the night before.

And they are not difficult, but they're important. And I don't think I've ever had
students fail, you know, in the sense of not being able to figure out the quiz, you
know, people fail 'cause they get tired or they get other interests or something.
But it's not difficult in that sense. It's something that I want you to, to bring to
class with you and keep in your mind for your own benefit, for your own life.
So I won't ask you any stupid questions, or useless questions. It's just things that
you have to know. Part of the idea of this class is that you could pass on
Buddhism to other people, you know, my teacher has passed Buddhism on to a
small number of people and, and it has to, it has to multiply in the sense of, you
know, each one of you has now some responsibility to pass this on to other
people.

If we keep doing that then, then it will be spread to anyone who wants to know
it very quickly. And so you have a big responsibility to study well. There's not
any, a chance like this is very rare. First of all, to be healthy enough to come to
class, not too old, not too young, not too senile, not too stupid [laughs]. You
know, healthy, interested, and then someone willing to teach, it's very rare. And
so take advantage of it, don't waste your time. It's a very rare time in a person's
life when you have the interest and that can change, you can lose that. When
you have the interest, when you have the good health to meditate for example,
when you're smart enough to figure out what the person's saying, it's a very
small window of opportunity, it will pass quickly. This is the first class we ever
held in this place.

There will definitely be a last class. And we'll all be scattered again. And it will
come and so you have to take advantage of, you know, all the things coming
together briefly. Take advantage of it because then it's gonna melt again. And
we'll all be separated again. So try to use the time, it's very precious time. All
right, I write things on the board in Tibetan, ask you to repeat in Tibetan. This is
not the Tibetan class, you didn't walk into the wrong class, okay [laughs]. It just
puts a seed in your mind for the future and it helps you, in the future you'll be
able to read the texts better and things like that. So I'll write something on the
board, I'll put the pronunciation in Tibetan and then I'll ask you to repeat. And
don't be shy, a language class is supposed to be a little bit loud and make noise.
And don't be, don't be embarrassed. We'll take a break in about, what time is it
now?

[Student: Seven fifty two]

Okay, I'll just start briefly and we'll take a break in about ten minutes and then
we'll come back and, yeah?

[Student: Do you have a list of the nights that the classes will be meeting?]

It won't be ready 'til next class.

[Student: Next Monday we don't have class.]

[Student: It's the fifteenth.]

[Student: Next Monday we don't, it's the night of...]

Alright so, we'll start. I'm sorry the board is here. We're building some kind of
cute thing, or you can guess who's building some kind of cute thing. And, it'll be
here in about a week, so I'm sorry you'll have to put up with it for now, okay,

[Student: Write big.]

Excuse me?

[Student: Write big!] [laughter]

Okay, I'll try not to shine too much. [laughter] First I'll tell you the book we're
going to study and who wrote it, okay? [cut] Is that okay, can people see that?

[Student: Yes]

Alright. [silence] Ani-la, you want to sit here? Say: {chur} [repeat] {lenpa}
[repeat] {der} [repeat]. {Chur} [repeat] {lenpa} [repeat] {der} [repeat]. Okay.
{Chur} means dharma. The definition of dharma is "{lenbe wa zenba la chur}", it
means "any object which has its own nature." And that's the meaning of dharma,
so it means any existing thing. Dharma means any existing thing. Sometimes it
means Buddha's teachings. But more generally it means any existing thing,
okay? {Lenpa} means high. And {der} means like a big treasure, I don't know
what you call it but in India the kings have this special house...

[Student: Treasury.]

Treasury?       Okay, not like the American Treasury, there's nothing there.
[Laughter) But full of gold and jewels and... treasure house. In, in Sanskrit,
which you don't, well you do have to know it, it's called [b: Abhidharmakosha].
Abhidharma means "higher knowledge" from the word {hyadharma} and
{kosha} means "that treasure house". Okay so [b: Abhidharmakosha] is the
original word, the Sanskrit word which in Tibetan was translated as {chur lenpa
der}. So if someone says "what are you studying?" you say "{lenpa}," you say
"{chur lenpa dur}," you can say [b: Abhidharma] it's easy enough, okay?
[laughter] I often tell this embarrassing story when I met the Dalai Lama's tutor
in a train station in India and he asked me what I was studying, I didn't know the
word for it. So you shouldn't be like that okay? [b: Abhidharma], alright?
You're studying the Abhidharma. The [b: Abhidharmakosha] is the, is the most
often used book to study Abhidharma. There are many books of Abhidharma
and the [b: Abhidharmakosha] is the most famous one. It was written by?

[Student: Vasubandhu]

I don't think this is gonna work...

[Student: your eraser doesn't work?]

What's that?

[Student: The eraser doesn't work?]

I don't think it's that kind of board. [laughs] [unclear] It was written by
Vasubandhu. We're not allowed to call, in Buddhism, a Lama by just his name,
like Lobsang Tharchin, you're supposed to put something in front of it, honorific,
so you can say master for {acharya}.    So I hope nobody in this class puts on
their homework "Vasubandhu." That's like saying "Hey, Clinton." You know.

[Student: [unclear]] [laughter]
Yea, right. Anyway, put master or put {acharya}, something like that. It's
honorific. Okay, you should do that. In Tibetan it's {nying nyen}. [silence] Say
{nying nyen} [repeat] {nying nyen} [repeat]. Nobody'll ever remember that.
You can say Vasubandhu.

[Student: What is the honorific title you'd like to be referred by, referred to by?]

[laughs] Dr. Sykes said "Big Roach" would be good. [laughter] Everybody got
that?

[Student: How about Roach-la?]

[laughs] Master Vasubandhu lived about 350 AD. I mean, early Indian history,
nobody knows anything. It's a guess. His half-brother was who?

[Student: Asanga.]

Asanga, okay, Master Asanga. Between them these two half-brothers wrote
about half of the monastic curriculum, okay? Half of the books we always study
in Buddhism were written by one of these two people. It was a great, two great
brothers and the story of how they were born and everything is very beautiful
and I won't go into it 'cause we don't have time. [silence] [cut] Okay? So don't,
but I think it's important to know who wrote the book. [silence] [cut] {gelwa}
[repeat] {ganden} [repeat] {drup} [repeat] By the way if you're new don't worry
you don't have to know how to spell in Tibetan on the homework but you will
have to spell this, okay, in the English letters, okay. Say {gyalwa} [repeat]
{ganden} [repeat] {drup} [repeat]. {Gyalwa} is the Tibetan word for a Dalai
Lama, it means "the Victorious One" and Tibetans don't call the Dalai Lama "Dalai
Lama", they call him {Gyalwa}, or {Kundun} or {Gyalwa Rinpoche}, something
like that so {gyalwa} means Dalai Lama. {Genden Drup} is the name of the first
Dalai Lama. That was the name of the first Dalai Lama. His dates, which you
should know, are 1391 to 1474. And he was a student of?

[Students: Tsongkapa.]

Je Tsongkapa. Je Tsongkapa. He was a student of Je Tsongkapa. He's not, he's
actually not one of the two more famous students but he was a student. He was
pretty, he was about thirty-five, thirty, forty years younger than Je Tsongkapa
so he didn't study with him as extensively as the other two great students of Je
Tsongkapa. [silence] [cut]
[Student: [sneezes]]

[Students: Bless you]

Say {tarlam} [repeat] {selje} [repeat]. {Tarlam} [repeat] {selje} [repeat]. This is
the book that the first Dalai Lama wrote to explain what?                  The [b:
Abhidharmakosha], okay? The [b: Abhidharmakosha]. And in English {tar}
is{tarpay}, I think you know what that means, {tarpay}?            In Sanskrit it's
{moksha}. Freedom. {Lam} you know from {lam rim} I think. Path. {Selje}
means "that which makes clear" and it's a word for a lamp, okay, the illuminator,
illumination. What's the biggest {selje} in the world?

[Students: the sun.]

The sun. Okay, so that's a {selje}, I mean a source of light, okay? It lights up the
path. You read Tibetan backwards normally so that the book that the first Dalai
Lama wrote to explain the [b: Abhidharmakosha] is [b: Illumination of the Path
to Freedom]. Okay? [b: Illumination of the Path to Freedom]. Sheds light on
the path to freedom, shows you the way like a lantern, shows you the path, like
a good flashlight. Okay? There are actually two famous {tarlam seljes} because
Gyeltsup Je another student of Je Tsongkapa wrote a {tarlam selje} to explain
Buddhist logic. So if you're gonna get fancy you would say "{gyupchik tarlam
selje}" and that would, you'd say the {tarlam selje} if you want to show off, okay,
we're studying the {tarlam selje} which explains the [b: Abhidharma], because
there are two famous {tarlam seljes}. Those are the books we're going to study.
Those are the main texts we're going to be reading from and we'll start the first
of the two realms after we take a break. You're welcome to go downstairs.
There's a little lounge there, and there's some hot water there and you can make
some tea or something, and we'll come back in about ten minutes. [cut]
[unclear] ... three realms. These are the three realms that you might have heard
of. The first one is called {du kam}. Say {du kam} [repeat]. {Du kam} [repeat].
{Du} means desire. Okay? {Du} means desire. {Kam} means realm. Okay?
{Kam} means realm. It happens to be the same word for Kam out in East Tibet
because that's one area. {Kam} can also mean one specified area or piece of
anything. {Kam}. So {du kam} means the, the desire realm. That's the realm we
live in, we'll talk more about it okay? I don't know if you can see there. [silence]
We'll have a better board next week, sorry.

[Student: I can't read [unclear].]
I'm sorry. You can cheat off of her [unclear]. Now say {suk kham} [repeat] {suk
kham} [repeat]. {Suk} means... {suk} is a hard word to translate.                 People
translate it as "form." Here it means physical matter, physical stuff, {suk}. {Suk
kham} means the realm of form, the form realm, okay? I don't know what you
think of when I say "form." I know, I don't... I'm not quite satisfied with the
word, because form in English means "I saw his form through the window" you
know, like the outline of something. Or a form that you fill out or something.
But it really... in Buddhism it refers in this case to, to physical matter, to objects of
the senses, okay? And then the third realm, realm number three[silence] [cut]
Say {suk me kham} [repeat], {suk me kham} [repeat] Again {suk} means form,
{me} means what?

[Students: not, none.]

Not or none. So it's formless. {Suk me} means formless. {Kham} means realm,
okay? The beings in the formless realm don't have any physical body. They're
just mental. They're just mental beings. You can't see them, and we'll talk about
it next class, but actually there's no place for that realm. It's wherever they're
thinking is the place, okay? So therefore that realm has no physical matter, the
beings there are mental beings and they don't have physical bodies, okay? The
{suk kham} is called the {suk kham} because physical matter there reaches its
highest expression. All the beings in the {suk kham} basically are what we call
[unclear] or {devas}. They are beings who are living in some kind of temporary
paradises. I think maybe it's very similar to what you think of in Christianity
when they say heaven. But, but what you think of in Christianity when they say
heaven, like some place where, like, what's that island they used to go to on the
Love Boat or something? [laughter]

[Student: Paradise Island.]

Paradise Island. Yeah, you think something like that. And it's kind of like that,
their realm is like that. They live for millions of years, it's a very pleasant place,
they they just enjoy themselves. All of those beings are in the {suk kham} are,
are {devas}. They are, I, I call them pleasure beings so as not to confuse them
with tantric deities which are enlightened beings and they are different. They're
not living in the {suk kham}. {Suk kham} is a bad place to be because while you
are there you burn up tremendous amounts of good karma and you don't make
any new good karma and so there's a, if you do a flow chart like Tom Kiley can
do a flow chart, but anyone who reaches the {suk kham} basically always falls
down to the hells after that. Because it takes a tremendous amount of good
energy to keep you there, you're burning it up, you know, thousands and
thousands of deeds every day, and and then you must fall after that because
you're not doing any new good deeds. So it' s very, so it's most common for
people to go from the {suk kham} down to the lower realms. So {suk kham} is
sort of a place like that. It's not in this physical world, it's above this physical
world. It's above the highest mountain in this world. According to [b:
Abhidharma] and we'll get into that. It has, seventeen different levels, okay? It
goes like this. [silence] Sorry, it still works, yea. There are four, there are four,
different levels in the form realm. You can read about it in the reading, okay.
But as you know there are four {samtens}. {Samten} is a meditation level, okay?
There are four meditation levels. Four deep meditation levels that you can
reach. When you meditate. If you meditate in this life you can reach four
different levels of meditation called {samtens}. Okay? If you meditate on the
first {samten}, if you get good at that, it's very hard to get there, okay, it takes
very, very few people in this room maybe will ever reach the first {samten} It's
very hard to get there, it requires being beyond your senses completely. In
meditation you're not hearing anything, tasting anything, smelling anything,
you're beyond the objects of the senses, you've, you've reached such a deep state
of meditation that you're totally beyond the objects of the senses. That's called
the first {samten} and if you, if you can reach that and you just stay there all the
time, and you collect a lot of the karma of being there that kind of meditation
will cause you to be born in the first section of the form realm. You'll be born as
a very beautiful like pleasure being, you'll be born it'll be a very pleasant place,
you will live millions of years there, you'll just enjoy yourself, and then the last
day of life there, they get some premonition of what's going to happen to them
and they say that the suffering of that last day is worse than all the millions of
years before because they see where they're going and everyone starts to avoid
them. For the first time they start to stink or for the first time they start to look
old and, and then all the other pleasure beings start to avoid them and they
know what's going on, they're about to die and they see where they're gonna
go. So, so if you get hung up in that blissful meditation in this life with no other
purpose, just you, it's like taking heroin or something, you, you get into staying
in that kind of meditation and not using it for something higher, just staying
there and enjoying it. And being there in, in Buddhism it's considered a big trap,
it's considered a big mistake. If you, if you get good at that meditation, and
spend a lot of time in that meditation you avoid a lot of bad deeds, why?

[Student: You're not doing anything.]
You just can't do that when you're in meditation, okay? You can't lie, steal, kill,
commit sexual misconduct, you can't do it while you're in meditation. So
automatically you collect a lot of, you avoid collecting a lot of bad deeds. It leads
you to a, this kind of a birth, but it's not desirable because you don't get anything
done. This whole three realms are suffering. And the reason that they come in
the [b: Abhidharma] here is because they are explaining the truth of suffering.
Every thing in these three realms is suffering: every being and every object in
those three realms is suffering. So, they don't even distinguish between the
people and the place where they're staying. This room is suffering, I'm suffering,
the blackboard is a kind of suffering, and, and all of us are suffering. And, and all
three realms are like that, all three of these realms are like that. So, the form
realm, yeah?

[Student: when you say three realms are you talking about desire, form, and
formless?]

Yeah.

[Student: What, what? Is that what this is, desire, form, and formless?]

These are called four levels of the form realm

[Student: Yeah, and I don't understand the three, three, eight?]

I'm gonna talk about it, okay? It has a total of seventeen sub, sub-realms, like
that, you see?

[Student: Yeah...]

And which one you go to depends on how deep your meditation was. If you
got into second level meditation, second {samten}, in this life and then died, if
you stayed in that {samten}, if you stayed in that level of meditation for a long
time and then died you could be born into the second one here, the second part
of the form realms. The form realm has seventeen different sections. Different
things are going on in each section, you can read about it. But the way you get
there is by being in deep meditation in this life which is called causal form realm
and then you go to the resulting form realm. Why do I have these numbers
here? These are three sub-sections of meditation. You know deep, very deep,
and extremely deep. Deep, very deep, and extremely deep. Deep, very deep,
and extremely deep. Different kinds of meditation. So where you end up in the
form realm depends on what kind of meditation you did before you died. As a
practice your whole life. You dedicated yourself to staying in this blissful state
without doing anything else. Without understanding emptiness or anything.
Just letting your mind, emptying your mind, thinking about nothing. It was the
viewpoint that, that was called {chi ong me} and it was very popular in some
parts of Asia. And it was considered a big mistake because it doesn't lead to
nirvana. You cannot get out of the three realms by doing this. All you do is get
into different levels of the form realm. Okay? And, and you can read more
about it in the, in the reading. So there are seventeen levels of the form realm.
Where you end up there, how you end up there depends on how deep your
meditation was and what kind of meditation you were doing in this life. Those
are physical places that you can be born in. And the beings there, for example in
the first part of the form realm there's a being called Brahma and you can be
born as one of his students and they just sit all day reading[b: the Vedas] in front
of Brahma. They study [b: the Vedas], they read [b: the Vedas], they live very
blissful lives. Brahma is there as the main figure and they are reciting [b: the
Vedas], the ancient holy books of that Indian religion, Hindu, Hinduism. And,
and you can be born there. You don't commit any bad deeds there. It's a very
smooth life, blissful life and then finally you die and go to a lower realm, okay?
So that's the form realm. And, and the main, what characterizes the form realm
is that the form there is much more beautiful and also people who live in the
form realm have a tendency which comes from their past life where they don't,
they are not overly attracted to the objects of the senses: they are beyond
desire. Desire as we know it, they don't have. They don't care about, they don't
care about the kinds of desire that we care about. We'll talk more about the
kinds of desire we like. Okay. Can you see this realm? No. Can you go there?
Yes. Can you get your mind into the kind of meditation that would cause you to
be there? Yes. Is it always a bad thing to meditate like that? No, because if you
use it for the right thing you can perceive emptiness with that. If you actually in
this life learn to put your mind into form realm meditation, on that platform and
only on that platform you can see deep spiritual things. So the idea is to get
there and then do something, with it. And you can learn that in this life, you can
do that in this life. Then you can see the form realm and you can, you can use
that mediation to see deep spiritual things like emptiness. In fact you have to.
You can't see it in a desire realm frame of mind. Okay? Now what's a desire
realm frame of mind? [silence] There are six kinds of beings in the desire realm,
okay? In the form realm there are only what? Only these pleasure beings, okay,
no animals, no humans, only these higher life forms, okay? Very blissed-out
people who eventually die and go to hell. But in the, in the desire realm we have
a bigger selection of beings, okay? Sometimes five, sometimes they say six. I'll
give you the, the basic kinds, okay? The first kind is, is hell beings. And, and
here I'll say one thing that I want to say, I mean it's the only, it's the most
important thing to say in this class tonight. And we don't have much time so I'm
not going to go in much more detail than that. But the thing to know is, why
teach a class like this? I mean I don't, I haven't heard of a class like this being
taught in America yet. I haven't heard where somebody got up and took the
third chapter of the [b: Abhidharma] which goes through all these different
realms that you can't see, you can't prove. They sound, some of them sound
ridiculous. Some of them sound like what you learned in Christianity that you
didn't like in the objectives. You know, so why would somebody get up and try
to teach these thoughts. You know, what's the point? The point is if you've been
in these classes for the last year or two you studied, studied the [b: Diamond
Cutter Sutra] for example, you studied emptiness. And you studied the role of
projection of in, in, in the perception of reality. In other words according to the
higher schools of Buddhism your own projections have a lot to do with your
reality. In other words this room is empty in the sense that it doesn't have any
nature of its own. We all experience it in a different way. There isn't any way
that it really is. It's just how we are experiencing it. And there is nothing there,
that "oh, you're seeing it good, I'm seeing it bad." There's just the one that you
see good and the one that you see bad. There isn't something that's neither good
nor bad that you're seeing. There's nothing there. You are seeing something
good, I might be seeing something bad. There' s nothing there which is good or
bad by itself. Yeah?

[Student:   [unclear] the thing is that nothing has an inherent existence on its
own?]

Yeah, you mean nature of its own.

[Student: Um, is it about the definition of dharma which is the word [unclear]]

Yeah, yeah, everything has its own nature.

[Student: everything has its own nature, any existing thing, but according to
emptiness nothing really exists on its own so how could it exist?]

It's a very good question. Redefine dharma as having its own nature which you
perceive. How's that? As you perceive. It's a good question. So maybe I'm
experiencing you, maybe I've done very good things in my past, and because of
that I really do see you all as a group of angels. Okay? It's possible. And maybe
somebody's who's done good things and bad things sees all these people in this
room, they like some of the people, they don't like some of the other people.
And then maybe somebody who's been really bad in the last few years sees
everybody in this room as a drag, you know, they they see some, everybody in
the room strikes them as a little bit negative. That's the nature of this, that's the
emptiness of the people in this room. Depending on my own past deeds I will
experience the people in this room a certain way, okay? And what is the
implication of that? What it means is, that means it's possible for there to be a
thing called paradise or nirvana, okay? You could if you collected enough good
energy, and we'll study that, how to do that, you could experience an object as
total paradise. And then if you just kinda go on the way you were doing now
which is half good and half bad the world will continue to seem like New York
City, okay? [laughs] And if you happen to collect some very very negative
things, if you hurt people in a very bad way then it's not out of the question to
say that you could see something very terrible like you get in a car accident and
your body covered with fire or, or something like that. It's, you know it's
possible. It happens to people. People do get in car accidents, covered with
gasoline and burning and they're aware of that as they're burning. You know it's
possible. So they have some kind of energy to see this happening to them.
After the threshold called death those perceptions become even more
exaggerated. In other words if you had a perception to see yourself get burned
on the finger, in after death the nature of the... that energy is that it it multiplies
after death. So it's possible that something in this realm that would only be
burning your finger with a cigarette, the moment after this breathing stops you
could see it as your body covered with fire. It's not out of the question, it's
totally possible if you understand emptiness. You have to study emptiness. But
what I'm trying to say is, that I don't, once you understand emptiness and you're
an educated Buddhist you don't have to go around apologizing for the third
chapter of the [b: Abhidharma], okay [laughs]? You don't have to go around
apologizing for the fact that the Buddha described the hells. It's it's totally
possible. I don't say that you can see it right now. But for example on the day
that you first perceive emptiness you will see the other realms and you will
know to a certainty that you are in a realm called the desire realm and that this
realm is all suffering and that it's a very bad place to be. For the first time you
will see there really are three realms and that you really are in a thing called the
desire realm and that there really is nothing nice in this realm. You will see that
someday. And and I don't know, I don't believe that before that that you could
truly understand that. There is a thing called the desire realm and you are there.
And if you had been a different person in the past you wouldn't have to be here.
[laughter] If you're here it means something about you. And I'm talking about
me too. And these are all things you'll understand on the day you see emptiness.
You see the three realms. They really do exist. I can prove it to you with logic if
we take some time that because things are empty it's possible that there's a thing
called a hot hell. But on that day you'll see it, and you'll know there's a desire
realm and you'll know that there are these other beings. So, so it's important.
The point is to not go to them okay? [laughs]. And if, and if you just think it's an
old Christian superstition, or, or something like that it's a big mistake. Or as
some Buddhist teachers have tried to say "oh these are just psychological states
that you through in this life." It's not. There are places like that. And you have
to learn about them. So emptiness proves that the realms I'm about to describe
inside the desire realm are possible. Okay? And you have to consider it and act
on it. Okay, we better go fast or we won't finish. {Hell Beings} [silence] Craving
spirits, sometimes called {pretas}, sometimes called hungry ghosts. I don't like
the word hungry ghost, it just sounds like Caspar to me, you know? [laughter]
People don't take it seriously. These are spirits who because they have been,
mainly because they have been so ungenerous and selfish in their life that they
are born into some state where they can never be satisfied. They are constantly
craving things. And and you cannot see them. We cannot see the hell beings
[cut] they exist with certainty because you can't see them. It's in the logic books
that you debate about the existence of craving spirits. They can be in this room.
We cannot see them. They really are like spirits haunted out, they do exist here,
you can't see them, and Buddhism says don't lie and say you can, 'cause you
can't. Unless you're some extraordinary person. You cannot confirm this right
now, okay? Put it on that category of things you're gonna confirm later.
Animals you can see, okay, animals you can see. The, Buddhism says that the
majority of animals, the great mass of animals, live in the oceans and that the
ones on dry land are by, by population statistics are very few, like dogs and cats
and, compared to the animals living in the ocean, almost nothing. Massive
animals live in the ocean and they live a life of total paranoia and fear because
your whole world, your whole gestalt as an animal is worrying about the one
that's a little bigger than you, who's behind you and gonna eat you. And you
know humans think animals are silly for being so afraid but but it's wise to be
afraid if you're an animal 'cause there's always someone a little bigger than you
who's looking to eat you. You are food for someone. And and they are there
waiting for you and you have to spend your life in fear. You have to spend your
life watching all the time and that's the life of an animal. Number four, number
four humans and according to Buddhism, humans living on four great continents
in a huge ocean and we'll talk about that, okay, we're supposedly on the
southern continent, okay? And number five: pleasure beings, okay, pleasure
beings. Usually they're called gods or deities, or {devas}, or, and then demigods.
Demigods are like pleasure beings who didn't have the karma to be quite as
beautiful and strong and intelligent as a whole pleasure being so they spend their
whole existence being what?

[Students: Jealous.]

Jealous, okay? Yeah?

[Student: but the ones in the formless realm are pleasure beings?]

Yeah.

[Student: Same thing?]

Yeah. There are six, good question, okay? There are six different kinds of
pleasure beings in the desire realm. And then there are seventeen different
kinds of pleasure beings in the form realm. So, so pleasure beings exist in our
realm and they also exist in the form realm But animals and the other four here
they don't exist in the form realm, they only exist in the desire realm where we
are, okay? So there's kinds of pleasure beings who, who exist in this realm. We
cannot see them but they do exist in this realm. And then there are higher kinds
of pleasure beings who live in the form realm. So the only kind of being that is
shared by those two realms is the, is the pleasure being okay? With one other
exception, can you guess?

[Student: Humans when they go to a higher realm, level of meditation?]

Well, that that too.     {bardo} beings.  {bardo} beings are outside of this
breakdown. They don't, they're not counted anywhere here. And, and where
you're going determines what kind of {bardo} being you are. So if you're gonna,
if you die and you're headed for the form realm we call you a form realm
{bardo} being. But you're not in the form realm yet, you're not in the desire
realm anymore, you're, I shouldn't say that. Anyway, you're headed for the
form realm but you're not counted as one of these five beings. A {bardo} being
is out of the loop. Yeah?

[Student: Isn't it true that a human being in a state of deep meditation would
also be in the form realm?]

His mind would be in, his or her mind would be in the form realm. The body
would be in the desire realm.

[Student: Is there a separation?]

You still count them as desire realm. There's a big debate about that. [b:
Abhihdharma] loves to debate these things. It's a little bit, well anyway, those
are the five types. I want to see if, oh, normally it's taught as what?

[Student: The sixth you're saying is that {bardo} being?]

Yeah, but they don't count it as number six. They say, they just say there is a
thing called {bardo}, it's not included in the five, but it's there, okay? Now,
sometimes they divide it into them into twenty, it's on your homework, okay?
[laughs] This how I keep people interested at the end. How'd they get, there's
ten and ten? Ten bad births and ten good ones. The way they get ten is that
they break the hell beings out into eight different kinds of hot hell beings, okay?
So there're eight different hot hells and we will study them, okay? There are
eight different kinds of hells where the basic suffering is just burning. Eight
different types of hot hells. There's also eight different what?

[Student: Cold hells.]

Cold hells. They are attached to the hot hells so they don't count them
separately There're also things called partial hells which can exist even on this, in
this realm. Like in the middle of the Gobi desert if you have a plane crash in the
middle of the Gobi desert or something. There are there are very wimpy hells,
none of them really count. So they only count them as eight. So you get eight
hells, craving spirits, and animals, you get ten bad kinds of births. Humans you
can divide into four, which is what?

[Student: Male and female?]

Four different realms. I’m sorry. It's the four different continents. We happen
to be on the Southern continent. We'll talk more about the continents, okay?
You don't have to worry about falling off the edge of the earth tonight.
[laughter] And we'll get into that, alright? Four different kinds of human. And
then there are six different kinds of pleasure beings in this realm. Okay? And I'm
not going to go through it. But basically those six kinds of pleasure beings, it's
different kinds of pleasure. Some of them have the ability mentally to create
objects which they can enjoy the use of. They can, they can think up an object
and then enjoy it. [laughter] And then there's the higher level where you can
enjoy the things that other people have thought up. Those are different levels of
the desire realm. There are kinds of pleasure beings who struggle with lesser
pleasure beings. They fight, they have wars. And there are kinds of pleasure
beings who are beyond that. So there are six different kinds of [cut] That way
you get ten and ten. And so the classic [b: Abhidharma] presentation is twenty
different ways of being born: eight hot hells, one craving spirit, one animals,
that's ten. Four kinds of humans in different continents. Why don't they count
the minor continents? When you do a mandala offering you do four continents,
then you do two, you do two minor continents are attached to each major
continent. They say "aahh... those don't really count, they're just attached to the
major continents." So that's four. And then pleasure beings, six different kinds.
You can read it in the reading, okay? But that adds up to twenty, basically
twenty different places you can stay in the desire realm. The homework says
"Why is it called the desire realm?" Okay. Do you remember, I think I told you
before. The first Dalai Lama defined it. The basic motivations in this realm are
food and sex, okay? We desire food, and we don't even desire the higher kind of
food. There are kinds of food that don't look like the food we eat. There, there's
like meditation kind of food. But people in our realm our lives are focused
around food, digestible food, which is the worst kind, the heaviest kind, and then
sex. Those are the two main interests of people in our realm. So that's why it's
called the desire realm. The characteristic of this realm is that we can have bad
thoughts which are bad deeds. We can have, we can have bad thoughts which
are, which are also bad deeds. In form realm they don't have those necessarily
but in this realm our bad thoughts are bad deeds. That's the characteristic of this
realm. We we can have desire, a kind of desire which people in the form realm
don't have, okay? When your mind is in the form realm in this life, which is
called causal form realm, okay, you can't have desire because if you did you
could never get your mind up to that. If you're still thinking about a hotdog or
something to eat or sex or something like that you can't even put your mind in
that realm, you can't do it. That's from the point of view of the cause. From the
point of view of the result, meaning being born in that place in your next life,
you naturally don't have those kinds of desire because you practiced so hard in
your past life. So the characteristic of the desire realm is that we do have that
kind of desire and and when we focus on an object our desire tends to get
greater. They don't have that power in the form realm. So that's the quality of
the desire realm. Last question on the homework I didn't do and then we'll stop.
The highest realm of those seventeen in the form realm is called {okmin}, did
you ever hear of {okmin}? {Okmin} is, {okmin} means below nothing. {Ok}
means below and {min} means nothing. And it means it's the highest realm of its
kind. It happens to be the highest realm in the form realm, okay? And often
times it says in the scriptures that when you or I become a Buddha we will do
that in a paradise called {okmin}. When you or I reach final Buddhahood and we
gain the body of an angel made of light it will be in a place called {okmin}. Okay?
Excuse me?

[Student: [unclear]]

Uh...

[Student: but isn't {okmin} a generic term?]

We're gonna talk about it. [laughs] There's a big debate about whether or not
my {okmin} is gonna be the same as your {okmin}, okay? Or whether there's
big, one big {okmin} and we all get our buddhahood at this same {okmin}.

[Student: Could you spell that in English please?]

Yeah, it's O-K-M-I-N. Okay? {Okmin}. Okay? But that's not the point I want to
make tonight. The point is the highest level of the form realm is called {okmin}.
Is that, is that samsara, is that suffering or not? Is that a place where beings
suffer or not?

[Students: Yeah. Yes.]

So why do people get enlightened there? Why is that the ultimate paradise
where all people gain their final enlightenment?

[Student: You can step over to?]

[Student: 'cause {okmin}'s a place where nothingness can be best understood?]

That's a good guess. Actually there's two {okmins} okay? [laughter]. And I'll
give you the clue okay. The homework is a trick question alright? There's two
{okmins} so you should know. I mean you'll get confused. There's a {okmin}
which you get from meditating very deep in this life and you reach the form
realm and it's some kind of beautiful paradise, temporary. And then there's the
{okmin} that you get to which is a Buddha's paradise. And it will be your
personal {okmin}. And you will, you will be enlightened there. You will gain a
body of a, of an angel there. And you will send a body down to plan... to
different planets to teach people and things like that. That's called the emanation
body . That body always starts out in where? {Vajra asana}. {Vajra asana}.
Which is the seat of the diamond. It's called the seat of the diamond. The place
where the emanation body always shows up is in India in a place called diamond,
the seat of the diamond, nowadays called Bodhgaya. Okay? So that's the, that's
where the, your emanation body will show up. But the body which you are
actually enjoying the use of and where you actually live will be in {okmin}. And
that will look like one of these, you know deities, like Tara. Something like that.
But much nicer. [laughter] Okay that's it, any questions involved? The last
question on the homework says "What is the highest school of Buddhism?" You
know, what ultimately causes each of the different realms or types of births?
And, and you know what it is. It's really your own projections, okay. It's really
your own projections. If you have been good enough in the earlier part of your
life you could be seeing this room in a much different way that you are now,
assuming that you're seeing it the way I'm seeing it. And I don't know, okay, but
it's very possible that if you had been very good in your life before you would
be experiencing this room in a very very interesting way. That no one else is
experiencing. And that's completely possible. According to the highest schools
of Buddhism this room is your own projection. The reality of this room comes
from your own projection. And the older students, you know where do the
projections come from. Can you change them at will? Can you decide that
tonight I would like to see everybody in this room as an angel? You can't. I
mean once you do a good deed or a bad deed you're locked in. And you're
gonna, you're gonna experience life that way whether you like it or not.
Whether you want to or not. It's true that this room is empty. But if you've
been bad there's no force in the universe which is gonna make this room
pleasant for you. You will be forced to see it in a, you'll be forced to project a
lousy room. Okay, and if you've been very good you'll be forced to project in a
very interesting way, a beautiful way. So that's, that's how, that's how the
highest teachings of, of Buddhism on emptiness relate to these weird realms, you
know like the hell realm and a, and a big mountain somewhere and there's four
continents somewhere and there's a big ocean somewhere. They, because things
are empty those realms can exist and you can be forced to go there. So you
better find out about them, okay? [laughs] Alright. Alright we'll stop there. I'm
gonna ask anyone who has been an older student here, anyone who has gone
through an entire course here, and finished a course here and gotten the
certificate here, I'd like you to stay. Cause we have, we have to talk about some
projects. And then I'd like the other people to leave, okay? So we'll do a short
prayer. Yeah?
[Student: I just wanted to say that if anybody is new here at class & plans on
coming back to this course and doing this course and they have not met with
Geshe-la would you please just give me your name and your phone number and
we'll arrange a meeting [unclear].]

Okay, so we're gonna do a short prayer. It's in your, it's in your notebook. First
we'll do the mandala. It's says {mandel} I think. It's in the very beginning, first
page. And then we'll do the {ngowa} which is about the, what page is it, fourth
page? So first we'll do the first page and then we'll do the fourth page. The
mandala is, is a thank you to the teachers of this lineage who brought you this
teaching.    And then the {ngowa} is dedicating it that you can keep this
understanding with you as you walk out the door and go through your next few
days. Okay? And we'll meet again on Monday at seven. Okay.

[Prayer: short mandala]

[Prayer: dedication]