ACI 9 «Этическая жизнь», занятие 3

Class 3: Introduction to Individual Freedom Vows
8/5/96
transcribed by: Roy Yoshimoto
Proofread by: Summer Moore




Tonight we start the actual commentary by Je Tsongkapa. So the first class is
sort of an overview of everything. The second class was a...an outline of the
entire [b: Vinaya Sutra], the whole thing, and now tonight we're gonna start Je
Tsongkapa's commentary. Je Tsongkapa not only covers the [b: Vinaya Sutra],
he's covering the whole vinaya scriptures, which is a huge task, and we're gonna
do it in like four or five classes...interesting. So the opening line is this:

[silence]

Say {om} [repeat] {de lek su} [repeat] {Gyur Chik} [repeat]. {Om} [repeat] {de lek
su} [repeat] { Gyur Chik } [repeat]. Okay {om} you've heard a lot, you know,
you've heard the...the sound a lot. It is made up of three components: {a}, {u},
{um}. And these are representing the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha,
okay? The body...this one syllable represents the whole body, speech, and mind
of the Buddha. In, in one sound: {om}, okay? Body, meaning one body in a
paradise...very cool, and another body with which automatically he emanates
without even thinking, in every planet, in every place where it might help
somebody. And as we said before it could be the person next to you on the
subway, you know? The minute that you are ready to receive something from
a...an enlightened being they appear next to you because of the power of their
past deeds. So that's the quality of the Buddha's body. Speech, meaning mainly
that those emanations can speak to you and explain to you dharma, 'cause that's
the only way to make...you know, ninety-nine percent of the time that's how a
Buddha can help you...is to say something to teach you Buddhism. And then
finally the mind of the Buddha, meaning omniscient...knows all things, knows
every object in the universe at one moment...and all history at one moment, and
all the future at the same moment, all the time. Those qualities of the Buddha...I
mean it's typical of Je Tsongkapa to start his book with that: {om} in one syllable,
okay? {De} means happiness and {lek} means goodness. And this is also a code
word. The {de}...the {de} here, the happiness, refers to the happiness of nirvana,
okay...which is what?...basically...we covered it in Friday night class. Yeah, just
not having bad thoughts anymore. And imagine it...I mean, never getting upset
again, never being irritated again, never being nervous again, never being
stressed again, never having anything knock your mind out of some total
peaceful state. And it's possible. You can do it. That comes while you're still in
this body, and this body is still, you know, no future. And your life basically is
still no future as far as job, place, friends, family, possessions...it's all gonna leave
you and it's all gonna degenerate, but...but your mind is totally happy. Your
mind is totally peaceful and you...you have that. Later on you get to {lek}; the
goodness means the goodness of Buddhahood, okay? I think I must have
missed something. Yeah, I'm sorry. {De}...I have to change that. {De}...{lek}
refers to nirvana and Buddhahood, and {de} refers to happiness in the sense of
the...of the higher births. So {de}--happiness in this case--does not include
nirvana. That comes in {lek}, okay? {De} means just keeping yourself out of the
lower births. What are the three lower births, the three bottom parts of the
wheel of life? I mean hell realms, hungry ghosts, and then animals. So just
keeping yourself out of that is happiness, okay? To be born in one of the two
higher realms, or three higher realms depending on how you count it is
happiness. And then {lek} here stands for nirvana, which is that mental state,
and then also Buddhahood, which is where you go beyond...based on that state
you expand it mainly by your compassion, by...by a desire to lead other people
to that place. And then because of that combination of compassion and
understanding, you...you enter those...that body, speech, and mind that I just
talked about. And then your life is...then everything else is okay. You know,
your body has changed, your place has changed, all your relationships are
changed, and you're in paradise. That's {de lek}. {De lek su gyur chik} means
"may there be." So in the opening lines he's saying may there be happiness and
goodness, and that's a code word, okay? What it means is, may all living being
achieve temporary happiness, which means may they stay out of the animal
realms, the hell realms, which he calls here happiness, and may they achieve
goodness, which means nirvana and Buddhahood. And all of that he's calling
upon Buddhas and bodhisattvas, and that's the word {om}. So {om} which seems
to be just a plain, old syllable {om} is actually a code word for him calling upon
the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas: may all sentient beings reach temporary
happiness and then ultimate happiness, okay? That's, that's the meaning of his
opening line...very typical. The opening lines of his book are {kala dena de lak du
tape dona drube dak deshe deme ning me cho soso ta rche drapa gang}. That's
the opening verse. And it's an explanation of {so tar gyi dompa}. Say {so tar gyi
dompa} [repeat]. {So tar gyi dompa} [repeat]. Okay, {so tar} is short for {sosor
tarpa}. In...in Sanskrit, which you should know, it's pratimoksha. [Prati] stands
for {so}. And {so} means "individual." {Soso}. In Tibetan if you say {soso} it
means individual. So {soso} means [prati] or individual, [moksha] or {tarpa}
means freedom, nirvana, okay? Freedom is a code word for nirvana. {gyi}
means of, and {dompa} means a vow, the vows, the pratimoksha vows. This is
the subject of vinaya, period. This is what vinaya teaches. Vinaya as you saw in
the outline is how to get the vows, and then how to keep the vows well, and
then if you mess up, how to fix them. I mean all the vinaya teaches are all
included in those three subjects, which all centers around the {so tar gyi dompa},
okay, the pratimoksha vows. Why are they called pratimoksha? I mean, I used
to wonder about it. And Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra in his commentary is very
clear. He says, they're called individual freedom vows [pratimoksha], individual
freedom vows, because people who keep them get to nirvana, and people who
don't keep them don't get to nirvana. So it's an individual matter of whether you
reach freedom. Therefore, they're called individual freedom vows, and it's nice
to know. I mean, otherwise, people are always talking about pratimoksha,
pratimoksha, and you don't know what they're talking about. So it's important
to know that pratimoksha means individual freedom vows in that sense. There's
another explanation that I won't go into, but I'll just mention it: [prati] can also
mean "first," and [moksha] "free." First freedom vows. Sometimes they're
explained as being first freedom vows. And what that means is that the moment
you take them, you're free from not having them. Okay? The day you take
them is the first time you're free from not having vows. And then in the debate
text someone comes up and says, "Well, what about day two, do you still call
them first freedom vows?" And the guy says, "Well, you know, the same thing."
So that's not as popular an explanation, but it an explanation that appears in the
ancient books, okay, for pratimoksha. Next thing...I thought I would give you
the technical definition of a pratimoksha vow. But first I'll give you the easy
definition. And this is from...straight from his root text...from Tsongkapa's root
text, and you should know it.

[silence]

{Sampe} [repeat] {gyujene} [repeat] {shenmu} [repeat] {shidang} [repeat] {chepa
le} [repeat] {dokpa} [repeat]. Okay. This is the definition of the freedom vows,
okay? I like to call them freedom vows...pratimoksha vows, okay? {Ngenjung}
means renunciation. And we'll talk more about that. {Sampe}...{sampe} means
motivation in this case, okay? {Gyu} here means the reason. {Gyujene} means
the reason why. {Shen} means others... {Shen} means others...other peo-...other
beings, okay? {Mu} means to hurt them...to hurt them: {Mu}. {Shidang chepa}
means along with its basis, along with its basis. {Shidang chepa} means along
with its basis. {Le} means from. And {dokpa} means turning away from or
refraining from, okay? So here we have from Je Tsongkapa...a very brief
definition of the pratimoksha vows, which is the subject of the whole vinaya. I
mean, if you know how to get them, how to keep them, and how to fix them,
you know the whole vinaya, okay? So I'll...I'll try to translate it roughly off the
top of my head, okay? Vows of individual freedom are restraining yourself,
or...what did I say before? Restraining or something. Oh, refraining is better,
okay? Refraining from. I had a real bad day at work, okay? Sorry. [laughs]
Refraining from, hurting others and also refraining from the basis of hurting
others, and doing so for the reason that your motivation is renunciation...out of
renunciation. Now that's lousy English and I'll...we'll go over it in plain English,
okay? That's the strict translation. The point is this: the reason to take these
vows, the reason to follow Buddhist code of ethics before everything is the
motivation. Why are you doing it? 'Cause you're fed up with suffering, and
you're fed up...I mean, my whole day was [laughs] something like that. I mean,
very typical samsaric day, you know, nothing stable at all, everything shifting.
One moment I'm a hero, next moment I'm an idiot...in the same day like twenty
times. And maybe the company is the most famous in New York, and maybe
it's going bankrupt next week. And you know people are my friends but they're
also trying to cheat me out of a million dollars and...and, I mean, all of these
things going on in the same day. This is typical samsara, and then all my
reactions to it, you know. I'm happy, then I'm sad, then I'm jealous, then I'm
mad, you know, and the whole mind just going through the stations of the
{kleshas}, you know...in one day you know. And, and it's very typical samsaric
day. I mean, you can't be happy in this place. You can, I mean, that's nirvana,
but I mean you cannot succeed in this world. It doesn't work. The world is
defective, you know. All your relationships will always end up that way. The
company you work for will end up that way. Your own body will end up that
way, you know? Your own happiness is always like a roller coaster. And, and
we keep struggling, you know? We think oh just one more day. Give me one
more day to fix it up, you know? Maybe I'm not exercising enough. Maybe I
need more sleep. Maybe I don't take the right vitamins, you know? Maybe I can
get rid of this guy at work. And then my life will finally straighten out. Well, it's
not gonna happen, you know? Just give it up, you know? I mean, it doesn't
mean shoot yourself, or run away, or something like that. But, but stop it, you
know. Stop the causes which is your...your mental afflictions. You know, work
on them. So the real motivation for taking these vows has to be: just tired of
all...it can never work. So why struggle? It won't work. If you think so, keep
trying, you know? It just won't work out. It's impossible actually. In our
present condition mentally we cannot be happy. The mind cannot be contented.
I mean, that's problem number one, maybe. No matter what you get, you won't
be happy. You'll always want something else. The next day you'll find some
reason to be unhappy again. It's just the nature of our minds. It cannot be
happy. Just get tired of it and find the place where you can be happy, you
know? Find what can really make you happy, and it's nothing external, and it's
no kind of relationship, and it's no kind of financial level, and it's...it's no kind of
security, and it's no kind of anything except nirvana. And that has to be the
reason to take the vows. That's what {nyenjung sampe gyu chene} means.
{Ngenjung sampe gyujene} means your motivation must be you're fed up with
this condition, you know. That has to be your motivation. In, in the monk's
vows, if you go and take them because you're hoping to get fed in this
monastery and get a free house...if you go and take them because you have
debts and you want to escape...in ancient India if you go and take them because
you're trying to get out of your military service or something like that...the vows
don't form. Those are called bad motivations for becoming a monk, and...and
even nowadays you know often times it seems like the refuges from Tibet are
coming and entering the monasteries 'cause it's free food, it's a free place to stay,
and usually they get converted after a while, but...but I mean the reason to take
the vows should be renunciation. It shouldn't be because someone else you
know is taking them. I shouldn't be because most people in the group seem to
be taking them. It shouldn't be any reason except you're just fed up with all this
life...this crazy life. You want something better, and these vows cause nirvana.
These vows are the cause that create in your mind contentment and peace and,
and that should be your reason for taking them and keeping them. And if it's
not that reason you will not be able to keep them. And they won't be fun either.
They'll be like this obligation, you know, and you won't enjoy them and you'll
break them and sooner or later you'll get tired of them...and you'll be one of
those Buddhists who can't remember what they were after a year you know...all
five...you know [laughs]. So think of it that way. These vows are your ticket to
get out of this lousy situation, you know? And take them for that reason. And
keep them for that reason. It's the only thing that can get you out, okay?
{Shemu shidang chepa le dokpa}. {Shemu}: hurting others. So because you want
to get out of suffering for yourself, because you're tired of all this crazy world
and you know, dead...what do you call?...dead end future for your body and
your mind, and all your relationships and all your possessions and all your
family, everything...dead-end. Because you're tired of that, you agree to refrain
from hurting others, okay? You agree to refrain from hurting others, okay?
That's mainly referring to the seven non-virtues that we talked about: three in
your body and four in your speech and all their friends, which are endless
possibilities...of hurting other people with what you do and what you say, okay?
So first is agreeing to give up that. {Shidang chepa}. {Shidang chepa} says along
with their foundation or their basis. Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra tries to figure out
what this word means, you know? What's the basis? And he comes up with two
things. The first one I think is the most viable. He says Je Tsongkapa is trying to
sneak in the last three non-virtues, which are the basis for the other seven, okay?
Craving, ill will, wrong view. They generate the other seven. So they are their
basis or foundation. So Je Tsongkapa is trying to say we all know that the
emphasis of the vinaya is what you do and what you say, but let's not forget that
what generates what you do and say is what you think. So let's add that in the
definition. It's agreeing to refrain from hurting others and agreeing to refrain
from the thought processes that make you hurt others, which is called basis here.
And that's his definition of a pratimoksha vow. That's Je Tsongkapa's short
definition of a pratimoksha vow.

[student: [unclear]]

Excuse me? The other one's a little complicated. You want it? I'll mention the,
the main parts of it okay? Let's see. And I'll...I'm just...you...this is not on
any...your homework or any...just for your information. This is the more
technical definition. {Rangyi mitung chok cheltsu ungyen}. It is the direct
antidote for the opposite which is immorality, okay? [laughs] That's the first
thing: it’s direct antidote for its opposite which is immorality. Or anything of the
nature, and that has many implications when you're debating, you know? It
probably means that, like if you're in deep meditation you can't hurt anybody
else. I mean to stay in deep meditation normally you cannot have a thought of
malice. The minute you have a thought of not liking somebody it'll pop you out
of meditation. So let's say you're in deep meditation, you won't be hurting other
people. But that doesn't act as an direct antidote for immorality. It's just that you
can't be immoral while you're in deep meditation, okay? So he's trying to
eliminate that. Technicality. {Duse du}. {Duse du} means in the desire realm.
Thereby he's eliminating certain kinds of...we say there are natural vows that
you get by being in deep meditation. If your mind actually goes into the form
realm, that we talked about in the last course, you can't hurt anybody else. If
you start to talk, or if you start to move, it'll pop you out of deep meditation. So
as long as you're in deep meditation you can't talk and you can't move.
Therefore, you will not break the first seven vows, you know? So he's trying to
eliminate that. He says has to be in the desire realm, okay? Which eliminates
what we call the vow of deep meditation. There's a natural vow or a natural
restraint that comes on you when you're in deep meditation. You can't lie to
anybody 'cause you can't say anything. If you say something it pops you out of
meditation, okay? Like that. Next he says, {chu deng nyenjung samsen}. He
says, "Should be motivated by thoughts of renunciation of this tradition,"
meaning of Buddhism, you know? There's many different kinds of renunciation.
There's a renunciation called {nyenjung pusu}. {Nyenjung pusu} means you
just...your mother just died, you just lost your girlfriend, your boss just fired
you, and then for like three days you're...you've got this kind of renunciation.
You're fed up with the world for about three days. It's not logical. It's emotional,
you know? And then someone invites you out to a movie, you see a new girl,
and your mind is out of renunciation. That's called goose-...it's called goosebump
renunciation. [laughter] It...it lasts for as long as a goosebump, you know? That
would not be {chu-}...that's why that part has to be the definition. It has to be
real renunciation. There's other kinds of renunciation that everyone gets in life,
on occasion, when something really bad happens. And it wears off quickly. It's
called goosebump. We're talking about renunciation which is based on
understanding. You understand...okay I'm not sick yet, I really don't have any
major diseases yet that I'm aware of, you know? But I know the future of this
body. You know, I'm using my reasoning to plan ahead and get away from it
before it starts to get really bad...worse than it is. {Seme sen ponwasuchen}.
{Ponwasuchen} means physical actions. Physically giving up certain things.
Physically avoiding certain things. Remember vinaya is concentrating on what
you say and what you do, okay? {Shipu tonwe rikshu mepa}. {Shipu tonwa}
means and something that you loose when you die, okay? Something that you
loose when you die, which eliminates the bodhisattva vows and the secret vows,
the tantric vows. The pratimoksha vows you loose when you die, and we'll talk
about it, okay? That's the technical definition. It has to have all those parts in it.
And if you're in the debate ground, you better know that one, okay? {Nyenjung
sam}. This is Je Tsongkapa's very beautiful summary. And, and the essence
of...of a pratimoksha vow, okay?

[silence]

Repeat it just for fun, okay? {Ngowo dang ni} [repeat] {rabye dang} [repeat]
{sosoy ngundzin} [repeat] {kyeway ten} [repeat] {tongway gyu dang} [repeat]
{pen ye ten namba dungyi je sheshe}...okay. First part is {gnowo}. By the way,
these are...this is the mini outline of Je Tsongkapa's mini text, okay? And it's nice.
This is what we're gonna go through, in his text. He's explained to you generally
what a pratimoksha vow is, and now he's gonna tell you, look, these are the
categories that I'm gonna use for my explanation. Here's what you're gonna get
in my little, tiny summary of the vinaya. First thing is gonna be {ngowo}.
{Ngowo} means the definition or the basic nature. You can say basic nature.
What are the vows made of? Are they something physical? Are they something
mental? Are they something else? Where is a vow? When you take a vow,
where does it stay? What's it made of? I mean that's an interesting question,
and, and it's hotly debated in Buddhism, okay? What is a vow made of? When
you get a vow, where is it? What's it made of? That's {ngowo}. What is it's
nature? What is it made of? {Rabye dang}...this word here...these {dang}s just
mean "and," "and," "and," okay? {Ni} is when you don't have enough beats in
your line, you just throw in a {ni}, okay? In Sanskrit it's something else. So
{rabye} means categories...different groups of vows. How many groups of
vows are there? Okay? We're gonna get to that eventually. It's eight. But we'll
get to that. We'll talk about it. The next subject I'm gonna cover says Je
Tsongkapa is {sosoy ngundzin}{sosoy ngundzin} means...literally it means
identifying what the vows are...individually. There's that {sor} again, that we had
in pratimoksha...{sosoy takpa}. {Soso lundzin} means okay...here's what each set
of vows is, you know? There's eight sets of vows and I'm gonna identify each
vow. Here's the vows that you take if you're a one-day vow. Here's the vows
that you take if you do a lifetime layman's vow. Here's the vows that you take if
you become a monk or a nun. The next subject is {kyeway ten}. {Kyewa} means
to be born or to arrive. {Ten} means the basis. So {kyeway ten} means what
kind of person...in what kind of person can the vows grow? Okay? You have to
grow these vows...through a proper ordination ceremony. They have to grow
inside you, but they grow in some kinds of beings and they don't grow in other
kinds of people, okay? So in this section he explains what kind of basis or what
kind of person can grow the vows, in them. Because there’s people that can
never grow the vows, okay? For example, you have to be twenty years old to
take a full monk's ordination. If you're nineteen, you're not a {kyewe ten}. The
vows won't grow in you, okay? If you try to take them, they won't...they won't
grow. You have to be twenty years old. You have to be old enough to make
that decision. So that's one example of a...I mean, if you're like twelve or
thirteen, you're not a {kyeway ten} for full monk's ordination. It won't grow. It
won't grow in you, okay? Number five...is {tongway gyu}. {Tongway gyu}
means, how do you loose the vows, okay? How do you loose pratimoksha
vows? We already mentioned one way, which was, what? Die. [laughs] If you
die they disappear automatically, okay? And we'll get other causes later. We'll
explain it more. And lastly, the last category is {pen yun}. {Pen yun} means the
benefits of keeping them properly, okay? What are you gonna get out of it, if
you keep these vows properly? And those are the divisions. Those are the
categories through which Je Tsongkapa is gonna lead us, okay? He's promising
you these six categories. Incidentally, he's promising to finish the book. And
that's a big part of a Buddhist book. Usually at the opening of a Buddhist book,
that lama or that author will say, I promise to write this book. Maybe it won't
help anybody. Maybe it's just for me. Maybe it's just to make my own
understanding more clear. But I promise I will not stop until I finish this book,
you know? And that's just a...because normally when you start translating a
book into English, or when you start studying a book, or when you start writing
a book, it attracts a lot of negative energy, you know? There's like all these
energies that would rather not see people get out of samsara. They're quite
happy to see you reading the New York Times or watching 20/20 or, you know,
eating in a restaurant with your friends, and they would greatly prefer that you
not think about these things until you're dying...when it's too late. So the minute
you start to study these things you...you will get some negative energies
coming. And, and...and like having a class like this, with a lot of serious people
and studying a very pure tradition, is really dangerous. [laughs] It attracts a lot
of bad energy, you know. You guys have a good chance to pull this off, you
know. You have a good chance of reaching nirvana in this life. That's very
disturbing to certain kinds of ener-...energies, and they're attracted and
they...they're attracted to these things. So...so when a Buddhist writes a book, it's
like a very serious pledge. It's like taking a big risk. And saying I...I won't stop
until I finish. And, and as you get more sophisticated, as you study more,
you...you also have to think at the beginning of the study, you know, I'm...I'm
gonna finish this, you know. And, and they take...they swear at the beginning,
this is implicitly by giving this outline Je Tsongkapa is saying, I'm gonna...these
are the categories which I'm gonna explain, which means...I'm gonna finish. And
it's a big deal that he swears he's gonna finish, okay? There are books in the [b:
Tengyur] that stop in the middle of a sentence because the person died, you
know. There are books in the [b: Tengyur]...in the ancient canon that stop in the
middle...and they carved it that way, and they stopped, you know, 'cause it was
never finished. And, and we know that the person died. So, I mean, if you're
still breathing you gotta finish. [laughs]

[student: [unclear]]

It means that's not the whole line. There's more to that line. {Pen yun teng
namma dukyi jesheshe} means, I'm gonna give my explanation in these six parts,
okay? I'm not writing the whole text out 'cause you won't get home tonight, if I
do.

[silence]
[cut] {Lu ngak le} [repeat] {sukchen yin} [repeat] {she du} [repeat] {pa} [repeat].
Sorry, okay? [laughs] They...means moreover that thing...what's he been
talking about, generally? Subject of vinaya? Those vows, okay? Those
pratimaksh...pratimoksha vows...okay? Moreover, those pratimoksha vows
are...by the way, here he's giving the {ngowo}. He's trying to explain what are
the vows made of? I mean, what did you think? I...it's curious. Anybody have
an...I mean...anybody wanna venture? What's a vow made of?                 Yeah, I
mean...spirit? Anybody else?

[student: Subtle energy.]

Like a subtle energy, okay? Any...? I mean, interesting. When I say vow, when
I say a vow forms in your mind stream...when you get a vow, I mean,
what...what pops into your mind? There was some mental image, you know?
What did you think of?

{student: [unclear]]

Effort? Okay. Does that mean when you're asleep you loose your vows?
[laughs] I mean it's interesting. What are they made of? You know?
Supposedly they stick in you. What are they made of? Huh?

[student: Thoughts.]

But what if you're not thinking about it? That...there's a big debate about it.
What if your mind...they say, what if your mind is distracted, you know? Do
you loose your vows? Do you only have your vows when you're being aware
of your vows? Is it some kind of subliminal thought that stays in your mind,
you know, all the time?

[student: It's subtle consciousness.]

Is it subtle consciousness, you know? Is it like a sub-consciousness that's always
thinking thinking about the vows or something? You know, where does the
vow stay? And, and here he begins explaining that. What are they made of,
okay? We all, all Buddhist schools agree that you can take vows and that you
have vows, so there must be something, okay? {Lu ngak le}. {Lu...lu ngak le}
means karma of body and speech, okay? {Lu} means body, {ngak} means
speech, {le} means karma: karma of body and speech. What is karma made of?
There's basically four choices in Buddhism. It's either something unchanging like
empty space. Or mental, or physical, or something which is neither mental nor
physical but still changing. There's only four choices. Actions.

[student: [unclear] actions?]

But what do actions...what are actions made of?

[student: Mental thoughts.]

{Pah tsa}! Is lying a...lying's a mental thought? I mean, there's the thought that
comes just before lying. But what is the lying itself. Is it sound? Or is it the
activity, you know? It's a very important question. Okay? Anyway, karma of
your body and speech. And then they say, {sukchen yin}. {Sukchen yin} means
something physical. Something physical. By the way, this is the...what we call
the Vaibashika School. The Abhidharma School. Who's talking now, okay? You
have to say...this is on your homework. So, I'll call them Detailists, which in
Sanskrit is Vaibashika. I don't...I don't care if you learn the Sanskrit or not.
Detailists are the Vaibashika School, okay? It's the first school, the lowest school
of Buddhism. There were four great schools in ancient India. The four
great...this is not the four schools of Tibet, okay? It's not Sakya, Kagyu,
Nyingma, Gelukpa. That's a different thing. I'm talking about the four ancient
schools of...of Buddhism. And this is the lowest school. This is school number
one. I sometimes call them the Abhidharma School, because that's what they
teach. I mean in the monastery the main book we study for Vaibashika system
is the Abhidharma-kosha, okay? The Detailists. All of the vinaya that we study
in the Tibetan tradition is Detailists, okay? These vows that I have are hinayana,
okay? The vows that we take in the Tibetan tradition are hinayana. The
vow...the whole study of vinaya is a hinayana subject, okay? I dare say...would
it be sectarian to say, the hinayana is, is well studied in Tibet? We spend ten
years on the Abhidharma. I mean, we really do it right. And I don't believe all
those commentaries survive even in the countries where they only practice
hinayana. I mean we...we study it really in detail. Detailists means they like a
book...there's a book called the de-...detailed presentation and they like that
book and that's why they were called Detailists, okay? And the name in Sanskrit:
Vaibashika. This school, which is the school of all vinaya for us believes that the
vows...pratimoksha behavior...consists of the shapes and colors moving around.
Or they believe it's physical. They believe the vows are something physical. In
another place they say...they permeate your body and they give two examples:
like oil permeates a sesame seed. Like, you can't split open a sesame seed and
find the oil. But when you squeeze a sesame seed all this oil comes out. So
where does it stay? They say it permeates your body. The vow permeates your
body like oil permeates a sesame seed. Then in another place they say it
permeates your body like fire in a forest fire. Like I was recently, intimately
associated with a forest fire. And the fire spreads all over the forest. You know,
I mean you could see tons of red flames all over, all throughout all the trees. It's
spreading all throughout the forest and the vows are like that. The vows are like
interspersed throughout your body. According to the Vaibashikas, they are
physical matter. They're like an aura that you cannot see that permeates your
body. This school believes in a kind of physical matter which is untouchable and
invisible. They believe that at the first moment you take your vows, and you're
bowing before that {khenpo}, and he or she is giving you your vows, at that
moment you understand what the person is thinking right? What is he thinking?
He or she. It's like renunciation, hopefully. I mean at the moment the vows
are...the guy's gonna go [fingersnap] you got the vows. There's this thing in the
ceremony where they go [fingersnap], and at that moment, hopefully you're
thinking about renunciation. "Oh, I got vows, now I can get out of samsara," you
know, and at that moment, while you're all...you know, tears are pouring down
your face and you're all bent over, the person whose watching you can say, "Oh,
this person is taking vows." This person just got vows. This is Vaibashika
system. That's called communicating...that's called physical matter which
communicates. And it means communicates the intent of the person whose
doing it. Okay? If you see some person weeping, bend over in front of a great
lama whose granting vows on them, you can assume that they have some kind
of renunciation. But what about three days later. They're walking down the
street. They still have the vows, but you can't tell anything by looking at them.
And that's another kind of physical matter called...physical matter which does
not communicate the intent of its...of the owner of that physical matter. In other
words, it's invisible and it's untouchable. So from the first moment of your
vows, the moment you walk out of that room, if you don't have on some kind of
special clothing or something, nobody can...can see that you have them and no
one can tell why you took them.              You know, they don't...they don't
automatically see that when they look at you. You know, if you put ten people
in this room and I say, "Pick out the ones that have vows," you couldn't do it.
The Vaibashika School says, that the vows, after the first moment, consists of
some kind of invisible, ineffable, physical matter that permeates your body,
okay? Even as you restrain yourself from bad karma, physically and men-...and
verbally, okay? So, it’s for them, for them it's all physical. The vows are some
kind of invisible aura that's on you, that you have. And the day you die, it
disappears. Yeah?
[student: Is there an argument with different schools?]

We're gonna get to it right now.     Now it's very interesting. There's another
school called...

[silence]

[cut]

...Buddhism, the one that Nagarjuna belongs to, the one that Tsongkapa belongs
to, the one that His Holiness the Dalai Lama belongs to, the one that Khen
Rinpoche belongs to...is the Implication Section of the Middle Way School.
Middle Way School is School Number Four. School Number Four. And the
Implication Section is the upper half of that school.

[silence]

Why are they called Implication? Why are they called Middle Way? They're half
way between the wrong view that nothing exists and the wrong view that
everything exists without your projections. Okay? They're called Middle Way
School. Or in Sanskrit? Madhyamika. And I'll spell it.

[silence]

By the way...[madhya] came into Latin and then reached English and it's in the
word "medium," okay? [Med] means medium. So Madhyamika is the name of
the Middle Way School. Why are they called Middle Way? They are...they are
right in middle between the two bad views, one bad view that says, "Nothing
exists at all." "Emptiness means nothing exists at all." That's a stupid wrong view.
And then there's this other wrong view that everything's the way it looks. And
they're half way between, okay? They don't believe that everything's the way it
looks like to us, but they also don't believe that nothing exists. They're half way
between. That's Madhyamika. I didn't mean to get into this, but anyway
Implication means, they believe that if you go up to person and say, "Oh, what
did you think? It was anything more than your own projections?" That's
enough to imply to them that things are empty. You know, based on a sarcastic
statement, which is called a {telngyur} or a [prasangika], you know, "Oh, what
did you think? That everything was not your projections?" Just based on saying
that, someone can eventually recognize emptiness itself. That's a long story,
okay? Without telling them directly what it is, but just by giving them a sarcastic
statement, "Oh, I guess nothing can change then, if it's not your projection." I
mean, just based on that, at a certain level you can realize emptiness, okay.
That's called Implication. You don't have to worry about that, okay. In Sanskrit
that's [prasangika].
Why did I get into all this? The highest school of Buddhism, and the upper half
of the highest school of Buddhism, believes that the pratimoksha vows are
physical matter also.      Nagarjuna, His Holiness, every Gelukpa wise man,
believes that the vows are something physical.            So this viewpoint that's
expressed in, in Tsongkapa's two lines here is shared by the lowest school and by
the highest half of the highest school. Now they don't quite believe it the way
the Vaibashikas do. They don't say it's something...kind of aura that's hanging
through your body and stuff like that. They say, it's the conceptualization of not
lying and not stealing and things like that. It's the conceptual part. They believe
in a kind of physical matter which is conceptual. And they give as an example
when you close your eyes and, and imagine "red" or you close your eyes and
think about your refrigerator at home, okay? That is a kind of matter. Or I
should say it's something physical in the sense of having colors and shapes.
Maybe I avoid the word matter which is a little tricky. They don't believe it's
matter, but they do believe it's physical.           And they believe that your
visualizations, for example, are a kind of form...colors and shapes...and they exist
as an object of your mind. And that is where the vows are. That's what the
vows are. They are the conceptualization of not saying anything bad and not
doing anything bad, okay? That's the highest school. Yeah?

[student: Does that mean thoughts are physical also?]

No. I mean visualized colors and shapes belong to the category...and almost all
schools of Buddhism accept this...of what we call mental form, you know,
visualized form, you know. Form which is pictured in the mind, you know.
Otherwise, where do you put the colors and shapes of your dreams, you know.
Are they, are they colors and shapes...are they visual objects? Yes. But they are
imagined. And they are an object of the mental consciousness. So these are all
included in a thing called the [dharma ayatana]: the object of your mind. The
colors and shapes which your mind can conceive of, okay? And the vows are
that, okay? The act, the act of refraining from lying is a conceptual picture is a
conceptual picture, that you have. When Dharma Badra gets to this part, he
says, this is really tough. And I don't understand it very well. And this is the
Prasangika viewpoint. And I hope somebody later can grasp it more fully than I
do. [laughs] If he says that, I mean, you know, that's like Einstein saying I don't
quite understand this, but maybe somebody else will, later. I mean, he's
admitting that it's a very difficult thing to, to understand. There's a point in, in
one of his scriptures where he says this is pretty tough stuff. Okay? Yeah?

[student: Is there a difference between thinking or, and saying and doing a bad
act from some thinking of it and refraining from doing it?]

Yeah, it also comes in Dharma Badra's...one of his...he has a huge book of
questions and answers. And it was all carved out. These are the interviews that
took place during his whole life. And they were recorded and carved. And in
one of them, somebody says, "Is thinking about a bad act, a bad act?" You
know? Because it's not covered very much in the scriptures, you know? Is
planning out a bad out...or let's say hatred, you know? Is, is ill will bad karma?
'Cause I haven't done anything yet? And he says, yes it is bad karma. I mean, it
plants things in your mind. It plants future unpleasant projections in your mind,
which is the definition of bad karma. So he does go into that. Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

We didn't, but I can do it. It is {yin}, {she}, end quotation marks, in Tibetan you
only have end-quotation marks, you never know where the quotation begins.
And {dunpa} means, they believe, they say, okay? What he's gonna get to is that
there are two broad positions, you know, there's this whole one-and-a-half
schools, of the classic four schools saying they are, they are something physical.
They are colors and shapes. Or sounds, in the case of light. And then you have
the other whole two and-a-half schools saying, they're something else. So he's
only reporting what these guys say. He says, they believe, quote, that this
is...things that you do with your body, and things that you say with your mouth,
which are physical, and that's the vows. The vows are physical. Pratimoksha
morality is something physical, okay? That's the viewpoint of this Detailist
School, and then you have the Middle Way School saying, "Yeah, it's the
conceptualization of saying things or doing things." It's, it's the imagination of it,
you know. By the way, that doesn't mean the intention. It means the...as you do
it or as you say it, it's the conceptualization of yourself doing it, like that. Yeah?

[student: I don't understand the difference between the conceptualization of
saying something [unclear].]

Oh...no. I'm saying...I'm not talking about the premeditation when I say that,
you know? Where you say, I'm gonna lie.
[student: Right.]

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about...

[student: It's not considered physical when you say that.]

No. I'm talking about this conceptualization of yourself as not lying.

[student: Right.]

Because conceiving yourself as not lying is something...it's a sound in your mind.
Or it's a lack of sound in your mind, you know? It's saying something pure. It's
thinking of yourself as saying something good...and not lying. Avoiding killing
is imagining yourself not lifting up that ax, and killing...and doing harm to
someone. It's tough stuff, okay? I'm just reporting, okay? {Shekdah}. Okay,
take a break. Come back in five minutes. Then we'll do a little one and I think
we'll go home in time today, okay? [cut]

...believe we just end up, saying it. It's probably related to their unique
understanding of emptiness...[laughs] which is true.         I mean, ultimately
everything they believe which is different is normally ties back to their belief in
how things exist as projections of the mind. So you might contemplate that.
That might have some relevance here, you know. Usually that ends up being
the, the pivotal concept that makes you figure out what they're trying to say
about anything else. Because that idea is so unique, you know. And so true.
Okay.

[silence]

[cut]

{Gyunchakpa} [repeat]. {Gyunchakpa} [repeat]. {Sabun dang che} [repeat].
{Sabun dang che} [repeat]. {Yinno she} [repeat]. {Yinno she} [repeat]. Okay.
This is the other half, okay? This is the other half, which is two-and-a-half
schools, okay? So far we've had one-and-a-half schools, right? So, this is a
position held by School Number Two.

[silence]

If you...I'll put the Sanskrit, although you don't have to know it. And by School
Number Three.

[silence]

Mind-Only School or Chittamatra. They're also known as Yogachara, for...that's
another story, okay? And we got half left, which is what? The other half...the
lower half of the Madhyamika School, okay, which is the...Independent Section.

[silence]

Okay, I'll translate for this...this for you. {Pongway sampa}. {Pongway} means
to give up...to give up doing those bad deeds, mainly the seven, right? {Sampa}
means the intention...the intention to give up those bad deeds. {Gyunchakpa}
means the continued intention, the stream of that intention. We're gonna skip to
{dang che}. {Dang che} means along with...okay, so you got that continuation of
the intention, along with {sabun}. {Sabun} means mental seed...the mental seed
of that intention. {Yinno she}. {Yinno she} means some people say it's that.
[laughs] Okay? {Yinno she} means some people say...some people say that what
the pratimoksha vows are made of is the continued intention to give up those
bad deeds, and the propensity or mental habit that doing that...causes, okay?
Like, if you play baseball long enough, you get a {sabun}. You get certain
{sabun}. Sometimes we call them {bakchak}s, and it's...it's an energy in your
mind. And it's where, you know, a glove looks familiar to you, or feels good, or
a baseball bat...you pick it up and it just feels right, and these are things, these are
like habits planted in your mind that if you do something long enough, it
just...there's some kind of energy in your mind for it, some kind of propensity
towards it. And like after you die, if you've been a baseball player your whole
life, after you die then you reborn, and then the first time you see a baseball bat
it's like you're attracted to it. That's...that comes from the {bakchak}. You know,
that's why Mozart played piano at five, you know. You have {bakchak}s for
these things. So, if you, if you continue, to have this intention, then there's some
kind of seed or some of propensity or some kind of...in Tibetan it's called...it
stains your mind or it rubs off on your mind, or creates some kind of energy in
your mind, okay? This also...if you explain a vow as being the continued
intention to do something or not to do something, what happens when you're
asleep? Well, the {bakchak}'s there. Okay? Even you're not thinking about it,
the vow is still there because the seed is there...that habit that's formed...that
energy, which is the...which is the...familiarity with the thing, or something like
that, okay? So, in these three...two-and-a-half schools, a vow consists of the
intention to avoid those bad deeds and the propensity of that intention, which
resides in the mind stream, okay? The first of these two things--the
intention...the continued intention--is mental...made of mental stuff. We talked
about that, we talked about future lives. Mental stuff is a stiff...specific kinda
material. It's quite different from physical matter. Mental stuff and the {sabun},
the {bakchak}. There's huge debates about it. What's it made of? You know. Is it
like a tumor in your mind? Or...is it physical? Is it a thought itself? Or is it just a
condition, a kind of energy? And, and the, generally, it's accepted that it's the
third. It's the last choice. It's a...it's a kinda potential in your mind. It's a
condition in your mind. It is not mental...it's a condition which resides in the
mind. And that's what they think the vows are made of. So here are the two
great positions, you know. One side says it's something physical, and then the
other side says it's something mental along with some kind of energy that
resides in the mind. Okay? But the two schools that say it's physical differ greatly
in what kind of stuff they think that means. One of them says it's some kind of
outer form, and one of them says it's some kind of visualized or conceptualized
form. Okay? That's how vows stay in you, okay? If you ever want to know.
[laughs] That's what their made of. And it's...you know, it's something you have
to ask yourself. If you're a Buddhist, you have to...you have to think about these
things, you know? What separates a person who has vows from a person that
doesn't have vows? Oh, they have vows? What's that mean? Where are they?
What are they made of? You have to think about it. You have to decide, what
they're made of, okay? Last point tonight, and then we'll stop on time, I
think...yeah, weird...the eight different groups of vows. We'll do the eight
different groups of vows. And I'm just gonna do it in English so that we really
can finish on time. Well I'll tell you what. I'll give you the sound, okay? You
want the whole thing?

[student: Yes.]

[student: No.]

[laughter]

Did I spell that right? Aura? {Denpu}? {Nyen ne}. Say {nyen ne} [repeat] {nyen
ne} [repeat]. {Nyen ne} is the one-day vow, okay? The one-day vow. We'll talk
more about it. I mean, we'll go through each of the vows individually. But so
you know there's...it has eight components and we'll talk about it. But it's being
good for one day, to just see if you can do it. [laughs] It's good practice. It's
acting like an arhat for one day. Just to get used to the idea. And it, and it's...and
you loose it, when you...when the sun rises the next morning and you can see
the lines on your palm, you've lost the vow...it's over...it goes away, okay? It
lasts for twenty-four hours. It lasts till dawn of the next morning...or daylight,
okay? That's a {nyen ne} vow. It's not divided into male and female because it's
so short, okay? Second vow is...

[silence]

And we'll do it together with number three.

[silence]

Say {ge nyen pa} [repeat] {ge nyen ma} [repeat]. Okay. {Ge nyen} means
lifetime laymen's vows. And the {pa} means the male one, and the {ma} means
the female one. Okay? These are really, really nice to have. [laughs] Okay?
You'd be very lucky if you could get them.

[student: [unclear]]

Excuse me?

[student: [unclear]]

Oh, how many are there? We're gonna talk about it in detail. Say {ge tsul pa}
[repeat] {ge tsul ma} [repeat]. {Ge tsul} is a novice. {Ge tsul pa} is a novice monk
and {ge tsul ma} is a novice nun. Say {ge long ma} [repeat] {ge long ma} [repeat].
We translate this as an intermediate nun's vows. Okay? Intermediate nun. Nuns
go through three steps and monks only go through two. It's a, it's a special...like
a two-year special vow between novice and full nun, okay?

[silence]

Say {ge long ma} [repeat] {ge long pa} [repeat]. Okay, {ge long ma} means a
fully-ordained nun. And a {ge long pa}, which is normally called a {ge long}, is a
fully-ordained monk. The nuns have three hundred and sixty-four vows and the
monks have two hundred and fifty-three. 'Cause we're better...no, just kidding.
[laughs] And very difficult to...this, the ordination especially for {ge long ma} is
very, very difficult. It's very complicated and in fact in our tradition it has died
out. It...this ordination was, was lost due to not enough nuns to hold the
ceremony, at a certain point in history, in the history of Tibet due to some
political disturbances. There weren't enough...it takes a lot of nuns to make a full
nun, and it's broken in the Tibetan tradition. So all the nuns you see are {ge tsul
ma}'s in the Tibetan tradition...have novice vows. Anyway, those are the eight
classes of vows. Next class we'll group them, and then we'll start to explain them
individually, okay?

[student: Nuns were three hundred sixty-four?]

Yeah. {Tsungya duchu sashi na pongwah chepah ge long ma}...is the root text.
[laughs] In this tradition there are [cut]

...Abhidharmists, and at a certain point they...Tibetans decided to follow one of
the eighteen schools of ancient India. And in other countries you'll see slight
differences, you know? There'll be slight differences in the count...in other
countries, depending on which school originally introduced the vows in that
country.

[End of side two]
960812-1

117a.txt

Course IX: The Ethical Life