ACI 8 «Смерть и сферы существования», занятие 6

Class 6
Transcribed by: Karen Becker
Proofread by: Summer Moore

Say {drowa} [repeat] {se kyi} [repeat] {nepa yin} [repeat] {Drowa [repeat] {se
kyi} [repeat] {nepa yin} [repeat]. Okay, this is a a line from the third chapter of
the {b: Abhidharma}, okay we're back to {b: Abhidharma ... Abhidharmakosha}.
By? [students: Vasubandu}Okay, and today I wanted to talk a little bit about two
ideas in the third chapter. One is the idea of sustenance ... what keeps your body
going, and the other one is general description of of our planet, okay. We don't
have time to go through the whole third chapter which is really beautiful ... some
day you should, and I'm just going to be able to go through a short amount in a
in a couple of hours, so first we're going to go through the kinds of sustenance,
okay.

{Drowa} means ... do you guys know {drowa ... dro} ... {drowa} means "beings"
okay, literally "those who go". Okay.[student: Go?}Living beings, yeah, {dro}
means to go. [student: Oh.}Going ones. Creatures. {Drowa} {Se} means
"sustenance". {Se} means "sustenance". {Se kyi} means "by sustenance". By ... b,y.
{Nepa yin} means "they they stay or they live." In others words living beings
remain here they continue to live because of sustenance ... sustenance keeps
people alive, all right. I guess if you want to put it in plain English, which is
always kind of nice.

There are four famous kinds of {se}, four kinds of sustenance. Say {kam gyi se}
[repeat] {kam gyi se} [repeat]. Okay. What's {kam}? Do you know? {Kam}'s this
place out in east Tibet, right? I mean, {kam} means a district sometimes. {Kam}
also is the Tibetan word for {dhatu} like {dharma dhatu choeki kam}. In that case
{dhatu} means one of the eighteen divisions of existence. This {kam} is spelled
differently. But it's the same meaning. It means "portion" like a portion, okay. In
other words {kam gyi se} which means "portionable sustenance", it means
anything you ingest by taking in portions, so the kind of food that we eat, the
physical food is {kam gyi se} because we bite it into portions and then we
swallow, okay. That's {kam gyi se}. You need some {kam gyi se}, some water?
laughter. {unclear}. {Kam gyi se} means any kind of food that you ingest like like
we do in portions, generally, okay. There's a subtle kind and a rough kind. Or
you can say subtle and gross, how's that? For subtle they give first of all the
food that {bardowa's} eat, remember {bardowa's}? [student: No. Smells}Yeah.
Who said smells? That's right, okay. So {bardowas} they can live off smells.
Smells also have to be chopped into sniffs to be ingested, seriously, okay. Then
the food of desire realm pleasure beings and the food of, what was the other
one ... humans of the first eon, the first humans to come to this planet. These two
kinds of beings, these last two, they eat a thing called ... that's a, okay, say {dutsi}
[repeat]. {Dutsi} means "a nectar or ambrosia or something like that", okay,
sometimes it's translated as amritsar in Sanskrit, meaning the nectar of
immorality. This is not anything that good, okay. There are different {dutsis}.
Some of you heard of other kind {dutsi}. This is similar ... same name, different
stuff. Humans of the first eon ... and there's a there's a Garden of Eden story in
the third chapter of the {b:Abhidharma}, you know that the humans who first
come to this planet, first of all they ... the first ones here are ... their bodies are
made of light, there's no sun or moon, they just see their way around by shining
and it's a beautiful story, it's really an extraordinary story, I don't think we're
going to get to it, but basically when it when the day comes that they have to
eat, they just they the ground is made of some kind of clay or some kind of goo
and and when they when they're hungry they just take a fingerful and and lick it.
And and they can just scoop it off ... it's it's it's the dirt of the earth is edible. And
they just live off that, you know, they just pick it up and eat it, and that's all they
need to live on. And that's {dutsi}, that's that's what humans of the first eon ... I
mean I'm not going to go through it tonight and it's not part of the class, but
then there's this story of the fall, you know, they ah I forget how it is ... oh and
crops come up by themselves, and then somebody decides ... and in in the
morning everybody goes to get their crops, you know, and they collect their
crops. And then one day somebody says, I'm tired of getting up every morning
to collect my crops, I'll just take double and then I'll sleep in tomorrow, you
know. So he takes double and they ... somebody starts to store possessions, you
know, somebody starts to say I I can have twice as much, you know, and then
somebody else says, well I might as well store three days' worth, you know,
somebody else ... the minute it starts you can guess, trouble, then people build
the first house because they want to no one to see [laughter] what they're doing,
and and then like that, and then things get worse and worse and worse until
millions of years later there's a ... oh oh I don't know because of their desire
people start, their bodies start to harden, and get like flesh instead of light and
then and then in those days people lived for 80,000 years and people lifespans
start to degenerate and then we're supposed to be near the end. And near the
end people will blow themselves up with some weapon that destroys the whole
earth in fire or things like that. It's very interesting. And that's in all in the third
chapter, I don ... don't have time for it tonight, you can read it when you learn
Tibetan. [laughter] These are sometimes called subtle because sometimes called
subtle because they don't produce any poopoo or pee pee, okay. They they they
say that the the food sinks into the body like melted butter poured on sand and
it just it just it's digested by just what…it's absorbed by the body and there's no
excrement or or anything. It's just dissolved into ... just dissolves into the body. It
keeps the body alive. And then they say gross food is all the other kinds.
[laughs] Which is what we live on. So you could say, human beings, the other,
the other ... kind of food that we have, they and they in the scripture it says even
the kind of food that we eat. Boy, everybody's sick tonight. You need some {se}.
What was the other thing? They say that {kam gyi se} consists of a combination
of three physical objects. They say that {kam gyi se} is a combination of these
three. Tastes, smells and tangibles. And you eat something it it it smells, it tastes
and it touches you. {Kam gyi se} doesn't exist outside of the form, I'm ... outside
of the desire realm, why? Yeah, the whole point is to get to the other realms by
losing your desire for desire realm objects and food is one of the grossest ones.
So, the whole point of ... you can get to the form realm and the formless realm
even in meditation only if you don't have desires for these things, you know.
They don't they don't eat this kind of food. They don't have this kind of food
there. They they have no desire for physical food and in fact in the form realm
there is no smell or taste. There's no there's no they have no desire for food and
there's no reason for smells or tastes to be there.[student: What if you have a
need for it but no desire for it?}They don't even need it, and we'll get to that
[laughs] okay. They live off something else, all right. Okay that's just about food
number one.

Say {rek pa} [repeat] {rek pa} [repeat]. {Rek pa} means "contact". And in this case
it means the con the convening of three things, especially in the wheel of life
when they say link number six is is called {rek pa} also, but this is where the
object, meaning let's say some nice looking food, and the sense power, which is
your eye, the sense organ at the at which is located in the back of the eyeball and
then the consciousness, the awareness of the food, seeing the food, the
awareness of seeing the food. That that's contact. Those three bumping into each
other, those three happening at the same time is called {rek pa} or contact. What
it basically means is when you catch sight of some good looking food, you
know, and you're hungry, it can bring you some kind of joy and that joy can also
sustain you for a while, you know, like nobody dies three feet from a big meal,
nobody ever did, you know, I mean if there was big meal right there [laughter]
and you're you were starving, you're only two feet away, something keeps you
going the last two feet, you know. [laughter] Seriously. You know, no no horse
ever died a foot from water. It's just something keeps them going and it may not
be physical, it may not being not being maybe no physical food or water left in
them that could sustain them, but it's the mind, the mind is sustaining them, and
that's that's where hope for example can can sustain you. And they give a lot of
examples of that. They give examples in scripture of people who in famines
who ... they give an example of a father who had two sons and I think it was the
father or the sons, I don't remember, but somebody wraps up a bag full of dust
and tells everybody that this is a bag full of flour and as long as they believe that
it's flour they they stay alive. And then one day they open it up and see dust and
they die on the spot, you know. Or you see ... often times you see spouses die
within a short time of their, the other spouse, it's something to do with the loss
of hope, or something like that. And or when you ... somebody ... doctor comes
and tells you, well it's terminal and then suddenly the person dies ... it's short ...
this is where hope has kept the person alive, so that's a kind of {rek pa}. They say
in that sense visible objects can also keep you ... can also sustain you. They don't
sustain you themselves, but it's the it's the kind of the joy that you have by
looking at the thing. It's the joy reaches out of the {rek pa} that's keeping you
alive.

Say {sem pa} [repeat] {Sem pa} [repeat]. I think you know {sem pa} now. {Le le
jikten natsok kye de ni sempa dang de je}, oh Friday nights' doing that. {sem pa}
[laughs]. They got everything. {Sem} you know, means what? {Citta}.[student:
Mind}Mind. {Sem pa} is something totally different. {Sem pa} is meaning
"movement of the mind." A directing of the mind. When you guys studied
karma, if you remember, this is the essence of karma. This is mental karma.
Anytime you mind shifts, that's {sem pa}. How many {sem pa}'s are {finger snap}
[student: Sixty four [laughter]}Something like that. Sixty four can go on in a in a
finger snap, okay, that many {sem pas} can go on in a in a finger snap. It's
basically the mind moving, the mind being directed to a new object. On it's way
to a new object. I've seen, you know ... this is not explained clearly in the {b:
Abhidharma} literature, why this is a kind of proof. Somebody says it's because,
for example, this would always be linked with hope. As you hope your mind is
moving, and they say therefore it's a kind of sustenance. Because then they they
go through proving that hope can keep you alive. But about three minutes ago
in the computer I saw another one [laughs], I kind of like that one and I see it
alluded to other {b: Abhidharma} literature and that's that this particular {sem ...
sempa} is what's sustains a new a new rebirth. {Sem pa} is the food that sustains a
new rebirth. In other words, what the main thing that causes your next life is
what?[student: Karma}It's karma. And the and the essence of karma, the karma
behind all karmas is is {sem pa}, it's the movement of the mind. The movement
of the mind instigates you to do actions of body and speech which are the karma
that we are most familiar with, but the one behind it and the essence of all karma
is {sem pa}. That's the second line of the of the fourth chapter {de nyi sam pa
dang dey che}. {Sem pa} is the essence of karma. So this is food in the sense that
it sustains your next life. It's your next life is feeding off the the karmas that your
mind is collecting now. Yeah.[student: When your mind isn't working, I mean
isn't moving, is it the after death.}Alwa ... you mind never stops moving.
[student: So but it doesn't sustain you then?}It sustains the bardo and the next
life. Okay. It's the same karma. It's one projecting karma, which is why the the
bardo being looks like the being that you're going to be. They're both projected
by the same karma. Okay. That's number three.

And then the fourth one is ... [student: Michael, could a being take the second
version?] Excuse me?[student: Is there some sort of being that being that takes,
you know, the contact that they use ... ]We all, we all, all of us. Oh. These last
three kinds of food are contained in all three realms. All three realms have the
last three kinds of food. Only the desire realm has the first kind of food. In other
words, formless realm beings can have can have {rek pa} and {sem pa} and
{namshe}. For food. To keep them alive.

Say {namshe} [repeat]. {Namshe} means "consciousness itself, awareness itself".
Consciousness. It's the general state of awareness that we all have. It gets very
much, it it never stops, it can be put to a low level like by a Mike Tyson
punch,okay, but we we never say you become unconscious, The consciousness
is always going. It may be reduced to a low level by a good punch, but it's still
going, you're still alive. And the explanation ... the best explanation I've seen of
why {namshe}, general awareness, is a kind of food is that it also keeps you alive
and it's also partly what keeps you alive in your next life because by being here
now and giving {sem pa} a place to work it contributes to your next life, but
that's all I've seen. That's all I've seen. That somehow it contributes to to being as
being the basis of {sem pa}. {Sem pa} is a mental function. {Namshe} is the
general mind itself, and they're always different. The general awareness and all
the ... they sometimes they say fifty two mental functions or fifty one, those are
those are specific functions of your mind, but your general awareness is is where
they reside. They reside together. They stay together. They are linked together.

If you're gonna talk about food I think it's good to talk about ... there's there's
another kind of food mentioned in the first chapter of the {b:Abhidharma} ...
second chapter. And I I think it's important to mention that. It's not on your
homework or anything but you should still write it. So don't confuse these with
the four kinds of sustenance. These are something different. Say {gye pay gyu
shi} [repeat] {gye pay gyu shi} [repeat]. {Gye pa} means "to flourish", okay,
"flourish". Something like that. Flourish. Okay. {Gyu} means "to cause" and {shi}
means "four". And what it means is that there are four kinds of things that cause
your body to be healthy, or cause your body to ... what do you call that? ... I
don't know.[student: Thrive?}Nourish ... they nourish your body. Okay. They
nourish your your body. And in {b:Abhidharma} system in all Buddhism, when I
say nourish your body it means two things. It means nourishes the the physical
foundations for your senses, which means your your the faculty of your eye, the
faculty of your tongue, the cells that reside on your tongue that allow you to
taste, the cells that reside in the back of your eyeball, according to {B:
Abhidharma} that allow you to see, the cells that reside in the ear that allow you
to hear, the cells that reside around the front of the nose here that allow you to
smell, and these four things help those, they nourish those those sense powers ...
they're called sense powers ... and in particular they sustain the four elements
which are behind those sense powers. Those four elements, the four ... the sense
powers are composed of four different energies and in fact a lot of Tibetan
medicine is is how to affect those four energies. And that's {sa chu mei lung }
that's {sa} is earth, {chu} is wind, {mei} is fire, and {lung} is wind ... I'm sorry ... {sa}
is earth, {chu} is water, {mei} is fire, {lung} is wind. And and they don't believe
that there's little pieces of fire in your nose or something or something like that.
These are just names for common things in the world like wind, which refer to
specific types of energy which ressemble them. They're they're metaphorical
names, they are symbolic names. They don't believe that there's a little, you
know, electric fan in your body making wind, you know, but there's an energy
in your body whose function repre ...ah ressembles the function of the wind
outside, and and that's those are the four elements. They are behind, they are the
foundational energy behind your sense powers. They underlie your sense
powers. And these four kinds of ... these four things that I'm going to mention
now they nourish those elements, they keep those elements going well and
thereby keep your organs going well and therefore keep you alive [laughs],
okay ... they nourish you. But specifically by affecting those four elements,
meaning those four fundamental energies which are behind all physical matter,
and and I'll go through those now. First one is [student: What do you need for
the ele ... for the four elements to flourish?] I'll give you an example, like if the
element of heat were to be damaged or diminished in any significant way, then
the element of water would assert itself more strongly and the person in
question would catch a cold. [laughter] [laughs]

Okay. Say {ka se} [repeat] {ka se} [repeat]. {Ka se} means "food", okay. When
your connect the word {ka} which means mouth to the word {se} which means
"sustenance", that's food. That's what we, you know ... that's a McDonald's
hamburger. It's {ka se}. That's food.

That's the first of the four causes which which make your physical faculties and
their and the elements that underlie them flourish, or they sustain them, they
nourish them, okay. So food is food is one. Food is the first one. Say {lek ja}
[repeat] {lek ja} [repeat]. Generally {lek ja} means "doing good", okay, good
things, so you know, if you don't study any commentaries you think it's like
doing good deeds. But we've input like six or seven great {b: Abhidharma}
commentaries and you can search it in a few minutes and you can see if you can
read it that it that it examples are given ... I can think of three or four examples in
the scriptures for for this {lek ja}.

The first one is {kun ye}. Say {kun ye} [repeat] which is sometimes
mispronounced {kung ye} and that's a kind of massage, it's a kind of system of
massage that came from ancient India, a system of massaging the body. That's
one ... so {lek ja} you see doesn't mean good deeds ... in this case. It means it
means physical ways of treating the body which are pleasant to the ... you know,
they they sustain ... they help the body. The other is taking a nice bath, nice
warm bath, medicinal bath ... you know any kind of a nice bath, another one is
rubbing some ointments on your body, those are examples of {lek ja}. They they
actually help the elements in your body. And they sustain ... they help nourish
your body.

And the we had a masseuse, a famous masseuse come, and we tried to get
Rinpoche to agree to it one day [laughter] and he finally agreed, and and we
thought it'd help his bones, you know, and he he he said he felt ten years
younger for about two days after that, and that's {lek ja}.

[student: Michael, could you say that's just generally taking care of your body or
are these are these specific things only?}

They they they, I think you could say generally taking care of your body.
Anything that takes care of your body like that ... exercise I guess would be {lek
ja}, I would guess. In one scripture I've seen {lek ja} included in the subtle form of
{kam gyi se}. You know. Included with smells for a a a bardo being, nectar for
you know, humans of the first eon, and then they say massage and other kinds
of {lek ja} are included as subtle forms because they don't create what? [students:
Excrement}[laughs] Yeah, they don't create excrement. Okay. You know. I mean
they they sustain your body, but but they don't create create that kind, they're
sort of a kind of a pure food, a subtle food. [student: Where does the light come
from?}What's that?[student: Where does light come in?}There's a big debate in
the {b:Abhidharma} about light. You mean, this kind of light?[student: Like
sunlight}Yeah, there's a big debate about it and some people ... the
{b:Abhidiarma} goes to great lengths to prove that it's not physical, it's not the
vision of light, it's the it can be it's the either the happiness produced from seeing
beautiful light that acts as {rek pa} and therefore is a kind of food for human
beings, or or it could be the tangible feeling of the warmth on the body. That's it.
They have a big debate about it. They decide that it's not the color and the shape.
It's the, if anything, it's the it's the enjoyment, and they say that they they say
that certain parts of us, our body and mind, can live off feelings of joy as a kind
of nourishment. And that would be {sem pa} or {rek pa}. Those are kinds of ...
that's where joy actually sustains your body, makes you feel physically better, so
there's a there is a scriptural basis for that, that if you're happy your body will
actually be functioning better. I mean, it's something that's not very clear. I mean
somebody has to study these things more carefully, I don't think anyone's really
gone into it. It'd be nice if somebody did. And I don't think anyone's every gone
into the {b: Abhidharma} looking for these things, studying them. Say {nyi}
[repeat] {nyi} [repeat]. {Nyi} means "sleep" [laughs] and that also nourishes your
body. And it it it puts the physical ... it puts those physical elements into proper
order, keeps them running smoothly. You need a certain amount of {nyi}. Can't
overdo it but shouldn't under do it [laughs] all right. [laughter] [students:
{unclear} it's a pleasure}}I I I've misspelled something here, Sorry.

Say {ting ngen dzin} [repeat] {ting ngen dzin} [repeat]. Somebody said
meditation, yeah. Concentration. Concentration. Concentration is also a kind of
sustenance. It's good for your body. If you meditate regularly like say an hour a
day, I mean, first ... most importantly by far, you can see emptiness if you get
used to that, but even in a worldly sense it sustains..it could make you healthier.
Just not having your mind torn in many different places, is is a kind of healthy
thing for a human being. And the definition of {ting ngen dzin} is what, do you
know? {Sem che chik pa} [laughs]. That's the literal meaning {ting ngen}, {ting
ngen dzin} means "vivid", but what's the definition, {sem che chu pa}[student:
Focusing on one object}Yeah, one pointed mind, single-pointedness. And and I
always used to wonder what single-pointed mind was, you know, like if I had a,
I have kind of a a a peaked head, you know, does that means I have single
pointed mind [laughter], when I used to wonder in in the scriptures ... I finally
saw the scripture that really made me happy 'cause it says "single pointed mind
means focusing on one object". That's all it means. It's just sticking to ... it's one
pointedness. What do you call it in English? There's something else, there's
one ... single-mindedness. Where you you you're focused on one thing at a time.
And and personally, I don't know about you, but if I'm have a bad day at work
or I'm overwhelmed with too many things to do and my mind is on many
objects, it actually physically affects me. And maybe stress comes from that, I
don't know ... maybe physical stress comes from a lack of this kind of
nourishment. Maybe that's possible that you're ... you know, people who get
nervous or physically who start to have physical problems 'cause of stress,
maybe it's because they don't have enough of this nourishment, you know, so
those are all four. And you need, you need all four. Some some form of those. I
think I think of my boss, you know, he's he's his concentration powers are
extraordinary, and he doesn't have to eat much at all. I mean you see monks in
the monastery who who don't eat almost at all, but they have some kind of
extraordinary {ting ngen dzin} and they are healthy, I mean their bodies are
strong and and they're not, they're really healthy and strong. And they're not
eating practically anything. And that's from {ting ngen dzin}. So those are {gye
pay gyu shi} and ... I just thought it was interesting, for me it's very interesting ...
I never had time to explore it, somebody should explore it, but those are the four
kinds of of food and I think it's good to know those and take care of them. What
is the function of of food? It it keeps you alive and then the scriptures always say
"here in samsara". [laughs] [laughter] In other words it's there's not ... these are
not ultimate remedies, these are just to keep your your dirty fallible,
degenerating body going for a while, you know, but basically all of the things
I've listed up here, the four kinds of sustenance and the four kinds of ... the four
things that are good for the the elements of your body.

The scriptures are careful to point out that these are just sustaining an entity
which is by nature defective. And which you will lose, and which you will get
sick and which will kill you. So don't get hung up in them. You know, you meet
Buddhists who are ... they they're like ... they're more like nature freaks
[laughter] or or something like that, I mean they're not really looking for the
ultimate goals of Buddhism, they're looking to feel good, to feel better because
they meditate or to you know, something like that ... it's it's that's not a goal.

These are all {sak che, sak che} in {b: Abhidharma} means "polluted" or
"polluted". And and they are polluted and they will kill you. They they're all just
temporary ways to stay alive while you get out of here, you know [laughs]
okay. So don't don't get ... I mean it's I think it's important not to get hung up on
these things as a goal in themselves. They you have to use them wisely and like
snakes, you know, poisonous snakes. If you if you get too close to them and get
too wrapped up in what you're eating and all that thing, then it's it's very
damaging. It's very dangerous, you know. Eat eat well, live in a healthy way,
take care of yourself, but don't ... it's not a goal, your body's going to die
anyway, just keep it healthy while while you use it to reach nirvana and
Buddhahood, okay. Andy's not here, right? Andy's bringing your homework
[laughter].[student: I wonder who arranged that so nicely for us?}Who who paid
off Andy?

Say {jik ten} [repeat] {jik ten} [repeat], I think the Sanskrit is loca. This is actually
the name of the third chapter of the {b:Abhidharmakosha} and it means "the
world, the world". {Jik} means "perishable", destructable and {ten} means "the
foundation that we live on", so really the the very word for the world in Tibetan
and in Sanskrit is emphasizing the fact that it's going to die, it's perishable ... it's in
the word for the world, is that. I'm gonna talk a little bit about how the
{b:Abhidharma} describes the world starting, and then the early the early eons of
the of the world ... it's just kind of interesting and then we'll talk about if it has
any relevance to to Buddhism [laughs], okay. Say {lung gi} [repeat] {kyilnkor}
[repeat] {Lung gi} [repeat] {kyilnkor} [repeat]. According to Buddhists ...
according to the third chapter of the {b: Abhidharma} there are two great
presentations of how the world came to be. One is in the {Kalachakra} system of
{tantra} and one is in the {b: Abhidharma}. We're gonna do the {b:Abhidharma}
one, and according to the {b:Abhidharma} at the very beginning of of time ... no
beginning of time, but anyway, the beginning of this planet, space was just
empty. It was just empty space. And then they say there's this energy called
{lung ... lung} means what?

[students: Wind}

Wind, okay, it's the energy called wind. They don't believe that there was some
big fan, you know, blowing emptiness, all right, [laughs] [laughter] but there
was this energy called wind. And and it started to cycle in very gently, like
wafting, and then they say it picks up speed and it picks up velocity until it starts
to congeal into a mass, and and after a while the element of wind is moving at
such velocity that it becomes as hard as a diamond, they say, and so that's the
basis of the of the world, supposed to be this big disc {kyilnkor} means "disc". Do
you know the sanskrit word?[student: Chakra?}Close. And this is the one of the
only places where you see the man ... word mandala used in it's real meaning
which is "disc". It's a disc. It's a huge disc. So mandala ... when you offer a
mandala {om vajra bhumi ah hung, wang chen ser gyi sa zhi} you are offering
these these fundamental discs, okay. And the sanskrit word in the
{b:Abhidharma} at this point is "mandala". That part is[student: Was the empty
space where the earth was to be viewed or was empty space everywhere?}Not
every ... well no, never, never was because there have been planets forever.
[student: So this empty space refers to the place for the earth}Yeah. The {b:
Abhidharma} says at this point you couldn't describe all the planets in the
universe even the inhabited ones, and and it goes through the number of
inhabited ones, and it says, you know, how many galaxies there are and what
universes they're in and where the beings are but but on this point it says, let's
just talk about the one that's con ... and it's interesting, they've define this planet
by being the one that is related to the paradise where Shakyamuni Buddha is
living right now, [laughs] it's interesting ... they define this planet ... you know,
they don't say third planet from the sun or something, they say the planet which
is connected to that paradise, you know, which I'm not even sure is ... we have to
talk about that some day but, anyway, everything at the beginning is empty,
and then there's and then there's this big disc of wind[student: Empty in the
traditional Buddhist empty or void of} Not emptiness at all, no way, I mean not
not philosophical emptiness, but physically empty, okay, yeah, then on top of
that form {unclear}[student: Then at one point it becomes a diamond?}Yeah,
after that's already hard, okay, it's still is just a vortex of wind, but it's it's circling
at such velocity that you couldn't you couldn't break it with a diamond, you
couldn't ... a diamond ... if you smashed a diamond onto it nothing would
happen. It's not exactly true, but anyway. [student: Then why did you give us
this name? I'm sorry I didn't get it, disc mandala {lung gi}}This is the translation
of {kyilnkor}. {Kyilnkor} is Tibetan and the Sanskrit word here is mandala. And
mandala ... so we offer a mandala, what're you offering?[student: a disc}I mean
you're starting with that disc. That's why you off ... start with a plate. And by the
way, the ... I'll give you the dimensions of the of the disc of wind, all right. It's
measured in in {yojinas}, okay? {Yojina} if you work it out ... you can work it
out different ways, but there's so many {dongs} to a {yojina}, there are so many
{trus} to a {dong} and there's so many {tsors} to a {tru} and there's [laughter] so
many ... it goes on and on, but I I I'm saying if you say that a {tsor} is an inch,
okay, like a knuckle, then there's so many {tsors} to a {tru} and there's four {trus}
to a a a ... and then a {dong shi dong}, and then there's so many {dongs} to a {bak
te} and like that, you can go on and on, and it goes down to mic ...
submicroscopic particles, it goes down like thirty two levels into submic ...
subatomic particles, then it goes up to light years. But just talking in our realm,
okay, a {bak te} or {yojina} if you figured out, I I I'd guess it's about four and a
half miles. According to that the this disc is about seven million miles wide in
diameter. No sorry, seven million miles thick.[student: How many miles high?
Thick?} Thick. This is seven million miles.[students: {unclear} disc like that?}It's
not because the the width is [laughter][student: Wow. [laughter]}That many ...
miles. So so sorry, I mean if I really drew it on here you couldn't see the
thickness, I mean I'd have to use New York City and then maybe you could see
the thickness, I don't know. But this is the ... yeah?[student: Is is this just the basis
of our planet}Yeah[student: or the cosmos?}No, our planet.[student: Our planet}
Well, it gets into a little bit troublesome, we'll see [laughs]. It gets to be a bit of a
question, you can call it all "our world", how's that? Okay, and and you'll see
why. And then on top of hat, let me get the ... I'll get you the measurements of
the gold, okay, on top of this is a ... I haven't done this in twenty years, you
know, I've..hard to ... I once figured it all out, when I had time for these things.
This is a this is a a disc of water and gold. The inner part the inner part is gold
and that's the gold disc and then there's a disc of water on top of that. So the gold
disc the gold disc is contained in the water disc and that's about five million miles
thick, okay.[student: Wai wai wait. On top of the wind?}So yeah. Here's this
wind disc and then there's this huge rains ... this huge sort of a rainstorm, okay,
anyway, water collects on top of the disc of wind, some kind of primeval water
[student: And is that {ser ki}?}{Ser kyi kyilnkor} is is a disc of gold that forms
here. In the in the disc of water.[student: Within?}Yeah, they seem to be
connected. They seem to be}[student: Within or connected or}Seems to be part
of the disc of water, like part, like like maybe the lower third I think it is,
[student: The lower third?}Something like that, okay.[student: It sank to the
bottom.}[student: It sank to the bottom}Okay, here we go. A great wind stirs up
the water and the disc of water is only 3.6 wide after that and then the disc of
gold is 1.4 million miles wide, okay, so here's the disc of wind and then after
some cosmic event this disc of gold forms and then on top of that is a disc of
water. Okay. Make sense? So this whole thing is five million miles wide and after
this cosmic event, the the lower third of the water or 1.4 million miles has has
turned to gold and above that it's water, 3.6 million miles worth and below the
whole thing is seven million miles of wind. Okay.[student: Is it real gold?
{unclear} [laughter] Pure gold. [laughter] Maybe we could find it. This is only 5.4
million miles wide, so I guess if you really put it on top of the wind disc it would
look like that, you know, I mean, the wind disc is like a a a galaxy holding up ...
some people say it's the it's that that spinning vortex, it's the it's the it's like a
cyclone and it's keeping the water in and then other people say it's just the karma
of the beings who live on that planet that's keeping the water there, but basically,
you have to imagine that when you're offering a mandala, {om vajra bhumi ah
hung, om vajra bhumi ah hung} means "the diamond the diamond floor" I guess
referring to the wind {om vajra bhumi ah hung, wang chen ser gyi sa shi} and
then you you start building it up, and when you offer mandala that's ... this is
what you're offering, you you are actually offering the world, and you have to
understand that when you offer a mandala. Each part of the mandala has a
symbolic meaning and we could have a whole class on that, but basically whe ...
when you're doing that mandala offering, you're offering the {b:Abhidharma}
presentation of the world. It's like ... I guess we would walk in with a globe and
offer that or something, you know, so you've got you've got the the disc of
wind, the disc of gold and the disc of water. Then he goes into the the mountains
of the world and in the center is a[student: Wait, wait a second, Michael, where
are we?}We didn't get there yet. [laughs] The {students name}'s always ahead of
me. Okay. Then there a mountain called, and I I haven't done this for twenty
years so I don't remember everything, but anyway, this is called..this is Mt.
Meru[student: Sitting on top of the water?}It's on top of the ... it's coming out of
the water. Okay. It's coming out of the water. Is is Mt. Meru. This is the great
central mountain of the world.[student: How many levels {unclear}.I think it's
four, I don't remember, but it's shaped like that, I remember I worked that out,
you can read it in the reading ... and by the way the reading is all that the
{b:Abhidharma} says, so on top of that are ... around that are are six mountain
ranges ... I don't have room for them. [laughter] But anyway, six six mountain
ranges. [student: Is is Mt Meru supposed to have four stories or}I think it's four
but I I can't swear to it ... I figured it out one time, you can you can figure it out
yourself, it's possible or you can read one of the early commentaries, the the a ...
his autocommentary, Vasubandu's auto autocommentary has a lot of it. I've seen
actually some pictures of mandalas which are correct, and they have, you you
know, Mt. Meru, the ... it does have steps, it does have terraces and on the
terraces live different kinds of beings and the tops of the terraces are wider than
the base of the terraces, like that. And then there's a there's one mountain range
going around here, around the whole outside. These seven mountains ranges
are made of gold supposedly, and the one around the edge is made of iron. I
think it's one plus seven plus one, so nine nine nine galactic mountain ranges.
[student: You said that there is six ranges and now you say seven ranges}Did I
say six?[students: Yeah}You're right. Six. Eight eight great mountain ranges
altogether. [student: Six and one is seven. How?}[student: Plus the mountain.}
[student: Does that include Mt. Meru?}One, six and one. Count Mt. Meru as one,
six mountain ranges concentrically circling it, and then one great range out at the
edge. Now what's between here and the edge, we'll get into later, okay.[student:
So Meru is supposedly made of what?}So Meru is made of the following
elements, okay [laughs]. And there's a debate about it, but anyway, the eastern
side is supposed to be silver ... where is the east? According to most {unclear}
you should do it this way. Eastern side's silver, southern side is lapis, which is
what color?[students: Blue}West side is ruby and north side is gold.[student: Are
these the real thing?}We gotta talk about it, okay?[student: Or just color} I mean
it's good to know ... well I'll tell you what. Anyway, we'll get into that before the
end of tonight.[student:          What are these directions {unclear} very similar
{unclear} ... south, east, north and west.}Eh ... that's a good question, anyway,
we'll get into it. I think the directions are ... if you asked me, I mean, my own
guts would be they're defined by ... well it's a long story, but anyway. The sun
moves around [laughter] the sun moves around ... I didn't I didn't want to get
into astrology or anything, the sun moves around Mt. Meru like this, okay,
chased by the moon[students: {unclear}}And it's a long story, and the sun the
sun comes over earth and then goes over the other continents ... but I'm not ... I'll
get into it, okay. Don't get ahead of me. All right. [laughter] The the color of the
sky in each of the four directions from Mt. Meru is determined by the color of
the side of Mt. Meru.[student: Say it again}The su ... the color of the very sky
around Mt. Meru is determined by the element on that quarter of Mt. Meru. So if
the sky was blue, where would you be living?[students: South. Lapis. We live on
the south side}The south side. Okay. [student: Lapis blue ... is that the blue?}
Then ... this one this mountain is, let's see, three hundred and sixty thousand
miles down into the water, three hundred and sixty thousand miles above the
water, seven hundred and twenty thousand miles high, and then each of these
mountain ranges decreases by half, out to the edge.[student: And you said those
mountains were gold and the outer one was iron?}Yeah.[student: How much do
they decrease?}[student: Half.}Okay. Between each mountain range is an ocean.
[student: [laughter] I can't draw that.}Yeah, I know. No kidding. It's a long story.
[laughter] [laughs] I mean we'll go we'll go through this one. I think I've got a
mountain left out but I'll check it while during the break, I think there's nine
[laughter]. I think we have seven here but I gotta check it ... I'll check this text,
okay. Let's see what else. These are called the inner oceans, and then out here is
the outer ocean between this between this mountain range out here and the and
the beginning of the inner ranges. So this is a this mount ... this ocean is huge and
it measures, they say, one point five million miles.[student: That's between the
outer mountains and the last of the inner range of mountains}Ah…let me check
that, I I believe it's between this iron mountain and the last golden mountain.
Now there are four great continents in that ocean. Okay. And tradition would
say that you should start counting from the south, which would be here, in my
excellent drawing, in the outer ocean, in that big outer ocean, there are four
continents. Maybe I better blow this up. [laughs] You you know you got Mt
Meru or something like that and then you got all these mountain ranges and
then you have ... coming out here it's two thousand {yojina} on each side
{unclear}, I'm not sure it's facing that way, but anyway it's shape is supposed to
be like that, almost a triangle, two thousand {unclear} what size is that.. nine
thousand miles to a to a side. This is the southern continent and it's called {Dzam
bu ... dzam bu ling}. [student: South? {unclear}Yeah if you count ... I'm counting
that as south, which is tradition, I mean you count you you normally count these
towards the south. So to the south is {dzam bu ling}. Why is it called {dzam bu
ling}? {Ling} means "island". In Sanskrit it's {drigpa}. {Pa} means "water" and
{drig} means "divide". And and that's a pun in Sanskrit, {drigpa} means the thing
that divides water, which is an island. Or a continent. {Dzam bu} is the sound that
a tree a a fruit falling from the dzam bu tree makes when it hits the water.
[laughter] [laughs] {Dzam bu}.[laughs] So if you ever wondered where the
name of your planet came from ... we live on {dzam bu ling}. This is where we
live. Okay.[student: But Michael, this is a triangle, I know it's a sphere but}It's well
they say three sides are two thousand yojina which is about nine thousand miles
and the fourth side is three and a half, two thousand, two thousand, two
thousand, two thousand and then the tip is only three and a half[student: Yeah
but I mean how do you explain the shape with the shape the earth is}Say again.
[student: It’s a triangle.} No it's not. It's shaped like a wagon. What's a wagon
shape?[students: {unclear}}Not in India. You got one bullock and then two sticks
come up and they come to a point right over the bull, you know, so, shaped
like ... it is four sided but the fourth side is this big and the other three sides are
this big. Okay. Okay. Got it? [laughs] All right. You okay?[student: Yeah but,
where is the world?} [laughter]Now you tell me.[student: {unclear} got a lot of
pictures now, you know}This whole thing is the world. We're gonna talk about
it, we're gonna talk about it. And we, supposedly we live here.[student: That's
what I'm trying to say. I'm supposed to picture that in}Give Nina {unclear}, okay.
[laughter] Okay. Okay. [laughter] Now we go east there's supposed to be like a
half a yojina, and I don't know the orientation, but roughly like that. This is called
"Great Body" {Lu pag po} and then there's a continent in the back there, {unclear}
yeah, there's one in the back of called {unclear}, yeah that's west ... if you really
drew them it would be like pin heads on on the pacific ocean, I mean, small.
Compared to the circumference, I mean, of the ocean. So when you do your
mandala offering, what do you say? {Om vajra bhumi ah hung}, here's the
diamond the diamond floor {om vahra rekhe ah hung}, here's the great fence of
iron {Chi chag ri kor gyu gi kor we u su, ri gyal po ri rab}, in the middle is the is
is Mt. Meru {shar lu pag po} in the east is {lu pag po} {lho dzam bu ling, nub ba
lang cho, jang dra mi nyen lu dang lu pag, nga yab dang nga yab zhen, yo dang
dang lam chog dro, dra mi nyen dang dra mi nyen gyi da} okay, each continent
has two subcontinents arranged like that and when you're doing your mandala
offering you're supposed to be putting the rice there like that, so you go {lho
dzam bu ling, nub ba lang cho, jang dra mi nyen, lu dang lu pag, nga yab dang
nga yab zhen, yo dang dang lam chog dro, dra mi nyen dang dra mi nyen gyi
da} okay, and we have to learn it someday, but basically that's what you're doing
when you do all that mishmash with the[student: And why are you doing
mandala offering?}It, I mean, in one in one sense you have to imagine when you
do it, the whole planet. I mean you can visualize planet earth, okay, 'cause that's
what you're used to, and the whole planet. Like I tend to think of all the all the
jewelry shops in Hong Kong, you know, and [laughter] [laughs] no it means,
you know, all the wheat in Kansas, all the flowers in, you know, I mean you're
just[student:      But why do you have to visualize the earth}You're you're
visualizing the entire planet and offering it to your Lama. You know. You're
asking for a Dharma class, you couldn't pay for this class. I had people accuse me
of charging for class, you know, and me and Rinpoche were joking about it the
other night, you know, what could I charge you for a class? You know, what is
nirvana worth, how do you put a price on that, you know. It's priceless. It's
absolutely totally priceless. I mean for one class you're supposed to offer the
whole planet, you know, for for two hours for this kind of a class you're
supposed to offer the planet, you know, so what good is like ten or twenty
dollars, you know, I mean it's it's it's more valuable than all the money in
America to be in this class for two hours, you know, you can't pay for it. And it's
it's crazy to to charge anybody, you know. People are asking me, you should
charge, we're losing money, you know, and it just feels funny, it feels ridiculous
'cause what do you what do you pay for the removal of your mental afflictions,
you know what I mean [laughs] [laughter] What do we charge per hour, you
know [laughter] What's what's it worth to you to lose your jealousy, you know.
[laughter][student: You could scale the prices}Which you can only do by seeing
emptiness, you know. Which you can only do by seeing emptiness. Someone has
to teach you to do it. That's very precious, you know. You can't pay for that. And
no one can teach you otherwise, you know. So anyway, what you're doing at the
beginning of class is offering the universe, or you know, the known universe
okay, you're offering the whole world. Incidentally, if you study mandala
offering carefully, each each each object that you offer after that, the precious
minister, the precious wheel, the precious vase ... they all have meaning. they all
represent some spiritual quality and you have to study it someday, you know.
But basically when you do your mandala offering now you know wha ... you
know why you're sticking four gr ... piles of grain and then two on each four
and then like that, you know, this is what you're doing. After ... we'll take a
break but after that I'm going to talk about why the hell does this matter to us,
you know. I mean [laughs] what's the use of standing up here ... I do I don't
know any Buddhist teacher in America who goes through this whole thing, you
know, and I know the Dalai Lama takes great pains to avoid it usually because it
just sounds silly and we have a lot of people who don't understand and we
have ... we'll talk about it, okay., so take a break.Yeah, there are seven concentric
mountain ranges and then one eight ... if you count Meru as one and the
concentric ranges are seven and then the what we call the encircling range is
nine. I mean, that's nine total. Nine total mountain ranges. Mt. Meru one, seven
rings around that, then a huge ocean and then finally another mountain range,
okay.[student: What's beyond this mountain? ... this, the end of the universe,
this one, right? or there is no}What's that?[student: Beyond the iron mountain
range that's the end of the universe of this one universe}I think you would hit
the disc of wind, right?[student: Oh, okay, yeah}Yeah, something like that, okay.
I gotta clarify one thing. The seven oceans between here ... one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven ... those are called the Seas of Sport.[students: Huh? Sport?}Sport,
meaning "having a good time".[student: Oh sport as {unclear}}Yeah, I mean, in
the sense of a sporting, okay, having a good time. And the first of the seas of
sport here is called the inner sea, so really it's just the ... I guess it's the ocean
between Mt. Mero and the first ring that's called the inner sea and then the rest
of these are ... they're all seas of sport, but the the innermost one is called the
inner ocean. And this is called the the great outer ocean, the one between the last
mountain range and then the circling range on the edge. Let me see if I ... then I I
put in ... there's a part of a a reading about various characteristics of {dzam bu
ling} about ... of our world. Now where's where are we ... I mean this whole
thing would be considered like one world, this whole thing and then there's hells
going down ... we'll talk about that later ... but that whole ... con construct is
considered one planet and there are small galaxies made of a thousand of these,
there are larger galaxies made of a million of these and then there are major
galaxies made of a billion of these. And then there are many of those, in the in
the universe. What's the point? Now why go through all these things? And why
talk about such an obviously primitive perception of the world, okay. Yeah?
[student: Are these {cut} anybody representing {unclear}}There's lots of ways to
talk about them, I mean there's many many ways to talk about them but I mean
I have this pet peeve, you know, of apologizing for Vasubandu, you know.
Vasubandu, in his fifth and sixth chapters, for example, outlines what's going on
in the fifteen milliseconds after the path of seeing, I mean, after seeing emptiness
directly. This guy was not a fool, okay [laughs], I mean he saw extraordinary
things, he had extraordinary visions. I mean translating the {b: Abhidharma} is
like is like an aborigine studying an atom bomb, you know, I mean you have
that feeling when you're trying to translate, it's like it's like you trying to divide
between twenty different levels of something you had no ... you have not the
slightest imagination of what it's like. And then and then you're wondering
about this person who wrote it, you know, like he's he's describing things that
he's very familiar with, you know, spiritually, these levels and and things that
he's ... he, to him are quite natural, you know, he's got like, I don't know, thirty
seven kinds of concentration, you know, forty seven kinds of selflessness, and
and all these things, and all you can do is translate the words 'cause there's no
way you could ever imagine what he's talking about, so why has he got a
chapter about, you know, a world that you could fall off the edge of. And then I
think there's like three great explanations. And one, people say, oh Mt. Meru is
like Mt. Everest and to the south is is India, this big plain that's kind of triangular
and probably, I don't know, Russian is {dra mi nyen} and, you know, that's one
popular approach, you know. The other one is that, ah, he didn't believe in it, he
knew it wasn't that way but he was talking to readers who thought it was that
way so he had to present it that way. That's another approach. But there's a third
possibility which people don't talk about, and I think, you know, it has to do with
emptiness, and we talked about the guy at work that you don't like ... I mean
people who've been here for a while know that example, and there there's this
person at work, and I gave the example all the time ... sorry to bore you older
people, but, you know, my boss ... this happened Friday, or Thursday ... she
burst into the room, there's about fourteen people in the room [laughter], we're
we we're in this long room with diamonds on each side and people sitting there,
you know, and she bursts into the door and she says to me, you know, why the
hell isn't this order finished or something like that, you ... screaming at me that
these diamonds aren't ready, you know, this is why I work because it's so good
for my Buddhism and [laughter] she's screaming at me and she's got her face in
my face and she's asking me why I couldn't do this impossible thing anyway, and
and to me at that moment she looks very bad, you know. She looks very ugly
and very bad. But but in the same room there are people ... you know, everyone
turns you know, [laughs] to their right and they and they look at me, and they
and it and some people are upset because they like me and they don't like her
and they see her as being very bad. And then some people probably don't like
me very much and they're thinking, well finally ... this guy who doesn't show up
here very much and who's on the phone all the time with his students [laughter]
is finally getting what he deserves for not finishing this order [laughs] [laughter].
You know, and so they're actually having a pleasant experience, and then there's
all these neutral people who just immediately turn back to their work because
they they don't care either way. The point is that she ... what is the nature of her
being bad or good, you know. Bad and good are opposite qualities. They cannot
adhere to one object at one time. Impossible. I mean, just logically impossible. So
she cannot be what she appears to be, ri ... I mean that's obvious, she can not be
good and bad at the same time ... impossible. And it's they they ... being bad and
being good ca not be qualities of her. Because if they were she would blow up or
something because they're just opposite qualities, they cannot adhere to one
object at the same time. They are like all blue and all red. They cannot they can
not be qualities of one object at the same time ... impossible. So what's going on,
you know. Where's the bad and good coming from. If she ... she does not have
them as a quality of hers because if she did she'd be good and bad at the same
time which is impossible, you know, so what's going on?[student: It's your self
perception.}It's my projection.[student: Okay}Okay. It's ... perception is one
thing, you know, I'm in a bad mood and people look bad. That's one thing. But
but my brain is forcing me to see her a certain way ... that's a different thing. I
call it projection state, you know, but what is she really.[student: She's blank}
She's blank. I like the word blank. I prefer the word blank to emptiness, you
know ... she's blank. She's blank. She doesn't have those qualities. Is there a
woman in front of me with a red face?[students: Yes. Yeah}There is. Okay. But
I'm the one who's seeing her as anger, as seeing her as bad. Because the other
people see the red face and think what? Righteous. He finally got caught. This
guy who doesn't do any work all day [laughs] you know, finally he got caught,
you know, it's great. My, our boss is a great boss. She's finally understood what's
going on. So, you know [laughter] but the two the two perceptions of the boss'
being righteous and good and the boss' being ugly and mean and unfair ... those
are opposite qualities. So they they cannot be qualities of one object at the same
time. It's impossible. She's blank and I'm perceiving it one way ... I'm projecting
onto her one way and other people are projecting onto her another way. Does
that mean that tomorrow, when I go to work, and she's gonna come in and ask
me about the D-seven pricing table that I didn't finish, okay [laughter] and
[laughs] she's gonna yell at me, and ... does that mean that I can choose to project
on her, oh, I'll just choose to project her as a nice boss today, I mean, when she
yells at me, I'll decide that it's pleasant.[student: no}Can you do that?[student:
No}Cannot. Can you ... does that mean you cannot choose your projection on
her?[students: un huh}You can't. You don't. So what's ... where's it coming from
if it's not will power?[students: Karma}Yeah, it, we studied karma ... it takes a
long time to learn it but basically in my mindstream there are certain seeds, they
are ripening and they are forcing me to see her as bad, okay. Is she bad?
[students: No}She is bad, okay [laughs] [laughter] Is it valid, is it valid ... what we
call karma, is it valid.[student: Her ears must be burning.}Yes, it's valid. All the
conditions are there and I'm seeing that person, and she can fire me. And I won't
have enough money to support this place [laughs], 'cause this can happen, you
know, it would happen. That's functional, it functions ... it's an illusion but it
functions, you know. It is my projection and I am creating it in a sense from my
past karma, but it works and it can kill you, it can fire you, it can it can make
your ears burn, you know, I mean it's functional. Wha ... it's not what we
thought it was but it still works and that's what Nagarjuna keeps saying over
and over again, Tsongkapa keeps saying over and over again, yeah yeah, it's
artificial ... it's your projection, but it works, and in fact, if it weren't your
projection it couldn't work. If she was bad out there on her own, from her side, if
she was good out there from her own on her side, then everyone would
perceive her the same way, but they don't, which means ... which proves it's
coming from somewhere else. If she was bad from her side she could never
change. What's changing when she gets better is what?[students: Her karma is?
Your projection.}My projections. [student: There's no, you ..}She's not changing.
[student: You can choose at any situation how}Not at all. I mean, if you decide
that you would like to be more calm in those situations and try to think of your
enemy as your friend as the Dalai Lama's always saying ... that helps, I mean
that's a psychological projection. I'm talking about a reality projection. There's a
big difference. Okay. There's a big difference between recognizing this being as
an enemy and trying to think of them as a friend because they're teaching you
something and just them never being your enemy because you don't have a
projection to think of them as your enemy. There's a big difference between
those two. One is like a psychological decision to, okay, I'll try to remember how
this pain in the ass is somehow helping me, you know, and the other one is that
you never meet the pain in the butt. They just don't exist because you don't have
the karma to see them. You know. So what does that tell you about the planet?
And that's very important. I mean, I think Vasubandu put that in there for a
reason. [student: He's dealing with our projections of {unclear}}Where's the
planet come from?[student: Well, we don't have to}Why is the planet round to a
satellite picture?[student: Collective conscious ... collective karma?}It's a collective
karma. We all have the karma to see a picture ... I had Indians in in Bamnigar,
India swearing to ... they have a they have a they have a mu, a Jain museum
dedicated to proving that the world is not round. [laughter] You know. And
[laughs] it's pretty interesting [laughs].[student: {unclear} convince you}But but
the point is this, I mean when a when you see a look at a satellite picture, and
you see the world as something spherical, that's no more valid than this. I mean,
the ... Vasubandu's trying to tell us something. He's not just some crazy guy who
finishes this incredible chapter on the psychology of the human mind and then is
moving into a chapter on the the subtleties of karma and in between there he
sticks this stupid thing about water falling off the side of the earth and things like
that [laughter], you know, it's not like that, I mean, don't think that. It'd be a bad
deed, I think. He's trying to tell us something about our perceptions, you know.
And and there's nothing to say that a hun ... and I will I will I will what do you
call that… dare to guess that in a hundred years from now people will call us
stupid. They say, oh they looked at those satellite pictures and thought the world
was round, you know, a spherical, but we know different, you know, it's really a
projection based on your mind and if you had ... boy if they didn't know how to
keep their morality and their bodhisattva vows and their tantric vows because if
they had they'd see the world like we see it. Which is really the way it is, you
know. I mean, they'll call us primitive, you know. The enlightened beings of the
future will say, oh those poor people back in nineteen ninety five, all they could
see of the world was this round thing with oceans on it and mountains and stuff,
you know, they they had no idea it was a paradise. That it was a Buddha realm,
you know. Po poor them. They couldn't keep their tantric vows or bodhisattva
vows, you know. So they got stuck seeing these satellite pictures, you know.
[laughter] They'll sa ... I mean they're..they're are there will be beings like that,
and they'll say that about us. And it applies even to objects in your own world
now, you know, if you do your practices well, if you take your bodhisattva vows
and particularly if you take a {tantric} initiation and you keep it and you do like
eight or nine strict {tantric} retreats in the right way, your your perception of
things won't be at all what it is now. If it is they you're ... something's wrong, you
know. I mean, there's gotta be a difference between us not having done those
things and someone like five years after they've done those things. That their
perceptions of the world are are totally different. Of the same planet that you're
looking at. And they're not seeing that primitive thing called "satellite picture".
You know, they're not seeing a a big flat piece of gold [laughs] with water
hanging off the top, you know. They're seeing something totally different. So I
think Vasubandu is pulling our legs or something. He's trying to say come on,
you know, don't you get get the point? You know. This is a projection. The the
the way you think the planet is is also a primitive projection and if you were
more advanced, not in the sense of computers and circuitry, but if you were
more advanced spiritually, in the sense of having done your tantric retreats and
kept your vows and done your tantric practices, you wouldn't be seeing the
world like this at all, 'cause the world's not like that. So that's the point, that's
that's actually why we're having a class about the world. All right. [laughter]
Now the person who has your homework papers is in Brooklyn [laughter]
[laughs] which is somewhere east of Manhattan. [laughter] [student: In whose
perception?} [laughter]So I'm gonna write the questions for you, I'm sorry. They
went on a mission yesterday and didn't come back. This is homework six, okay.
By the way I wouldn't mind if you ... I I'm actually think the four causes of, what
do you call it, flourishing are more interesting, but I'll leave it up to you, if you ...
probably half the people will put one and half the people will put the other, and
that's okay. But you know there's too sets of four. So, if you want an A+ put both
of them. Here you could say, you know, what is their function overall and then
what is their functions ... I don't want to answer it for you, but what is their
function towards the the source of of your body. [student: Would you accept a
schematic drawing for four and five?}Yeah, I think so. Here're your old
homeworks.[student: What's the meditation?}[student: Will you hand those
back?}Oh the meditation is, got cut off, hum. [laughter] [student: Something
about your perception of the world}I'd say that, yeah, meditate on your
perception of the world. I I I would say what's the most important is ... and I
think it was what got cut off, is that whether or not your perception is the only
one possible, you know, like a logical meditation on that and and I think, you
know, that that that involves what we just talked about. And it's maybe the most
important thing in the class. Why why is your perception ... is your perception
the only one possible, why or why not? Okay we'll do a prayer and then you
guys can stick around for {unclear} [laughs]. Okay you gotta offer this planet
now okay [laughs].{prayer: mandala}{prayer: dedication}
       Geshe Michael RoachPRIVATE
       Course VIII: Death and the Realms of Existence