ACI 9 «Этическая жизнь», занятие 4

Class 4: A General Description of the Vows, Part I
8/12/96
Transcribed by: Roy Yoshimoto
Proofread by: Summer Moore



First of all I have one addition to make to last week's class, okay? After that I
read another commentary [laughs] which is by...we think it's by a Kagyupa from
the thirteenth century and it's the main commentary we use for vinaya called
{tsoteg}. It's about a thousand pages long. Anyway, he got into more about
what the vows were made of, and he made it more clear. So I thought you
might like to hear that, even though you already finished your homework and
everything. He starts out this way. He says the Sutrists--the {Dodepa}--believe
that the vows, when you take vows--pratimoksha vows--they exist as the
continued intention to give up those bad deeds...and he...I like that he gives an
example of the continued intention. And it's a monk thinking just as he's about
to do something, "I shouldn't do that because that would be breaking my vows."
So that's to them the...what the vows are made of. For the Sutrists, the second
group of the four, they say the vows are made up of...the vows consist
of...you're just about to do something wrong and you say, "I shouldn't do that
'cause I have vows." And that is the vows, okay? That's according to the Sutrists.
Alright? Then the Mind-Only School comes along and says, "What if someone's in
deep meditation? What if a monk is in deep meditation, or what if a monk is
deep asleep? Well, are you saying they loose their vows? Like when a monk
goes to bed and he goes...he goes into REM sleep and from midnight to four,
he's not a monk anymore? 'Cause he doesn't have vows anymore." And then
the Sutrists say, "Well, how can he break vows if he was in deep meditation,
anyway?" And then they give this example. There is a vow for fully-ordained
monks and I'm not supposed to tell you all the vows. I have to tell you this
one...that if you have been assigned to taking care of all of the monks' mattresses
during the rainy season, and they've been hung outside and they've told you,
you watch them, in case it starts raining, you bring them in. And then
everybody goes off somewhere. And then you go meditate in your room, and
you go into this deep meditation, if during that meditation, it starts raining, and
the mattresses get ruined, you're vows have been broken at that moment, okay?
So the Mind-Only School says you must be able to break a vow even while
you're in deep meditation. And if you don't have a vow...if the vow consists of
thinking I better not let those mattresses go to waste, and you can't have that
thought when you're in deep meditation, then that's not enough. The vow has
to be more than that. Okay? Confused enough? Alright. So in other words if
the vow is the conscious thought I shouldn't be doing this, then that guy can't
break his vow at that moment, but the Buddha says he does break his vow at
that moment. So then the Mind-Only School says, "We have to add the
{bakchak}." We have to add the mental seed for that vow. And that's where the
{sahben} comes in. That's where the seed comes in. The Mind-Only School says
you better add the seed. Because even when he's not thinking about his vows,
he can break his vows. Then along comes the Vaibashika School...the first
school...the Abhidharma School. And they say, "What if somebody is sitting
before the abbot, and they're about to take their vows, and they have this
intention to have vows and to give up bad deeds? They're thinking, "I shouldn't
do this. I shouldn't do anything bad." And they also have this seed for a vow at
that moment. And they're just about to get their vow. Well then they must
have vows the moment before they get their vows, which is impossible 'cause
you didn't get the vows yet. Because the abbot didn't go [fingersnap] like that.
So your definition's not enough. Even the intention and the seed is not enough.
It has to be the physical form of that guy at the moment that the abbot
[fingersnap] takes his...snaps [fingersnap] his fingers and he's got vows. It must
be the physical restraining from doing bad deeds. And the physical restraining
from saying things. Then people give the Vaibashika a hard time. And they say,
"Well, what about ten minutes later when he's gone out of the room and he
looks like a normal person again?" Does he have vows or not? Because he
doesn't...it's not...it doesn't look like he has vows. You can't tell an hour later
how he looks from someone who looks who doesn't have vows. They look the
same. Then the Abhidharma School has to get into this special kind of invisible
form that surrounds your body like an aura or it's all through your atoms of
your body, and then they say that's the vow. Then the Prasangika comes along
and you know what they say. They say it's like some kind of mental picture of
having the vows. So anyway that's how the argument goes. And I...it wasn't too
clear last time and I think now you get...especially about that mental seed. Why,
why the mental seed. So how do the vows exist in you? You know, if you have
vows where are they, you know? If you take a razorblade, can you cut open
and find the vows or something? Where are the vows? What's the difference
between a person who has vows and doesn't have vows? Do they weigh an
ounce more? You know, I mean, what are the vows made of? And it's a very
interesting question. Definitely you have vows, but where are they? And what
are they made of? So the highest school says something like, the physical
restraining of your body and speech as you imagine it, or as you're thinking of it,
okay? Okay? Now we'll get down to today's subject. Je Tsongkapa finished...he
was gonna give you {Ngowo dannyi rabide sosoy lundzin kyewe ten}. He was
gonna give you the divisions of the vows, and we finished them. We finished
the eight kinds of vows. He makes one more division. He says you can split the
vows into two groups. Okay? We're gonna cover that first. Two groups are
these.

[Silence]

By the way, before we go any further, I'd like to introduce and welcome Pako...I
dunno how to say your last name. But he is Lama Yeshe's father. So very
honored to have him here tonight. Like to welcome you...[laughs], okay. He
did a big job. [laughs] Say {kyimpay} [repeat] {chok kyi} [repeat] {dompa}
[repeat]. {kyimpay} [repeat] {chok kyi} [repeat] {dompa} [repeat]. {Kyim} means
a house. So {kyimpa} is a householder. Okay? Someone who has not yet left
the family life...{kyimpa}, householder...{kyimpe}. {Chok} is a tough word.
{Chok} means this side or that side. {Chok} means one side or the other. In
Sanskrit it's [baksha]. And we'll talk about the word {chok}. It's important. You
can say "type" here. Okay? "Type." Or "kind." Okay? {Dompa} means, what?
Vows. Okay? So all the eight kinds of pratimoksha vows can be divided into
vows that relate to householders. And then {rabjung chok kyi dompa}. Say
{rabjung} [repeat] {chok kyi} [repeat] {dompa} [repeat]. {Rabjung}...{rab} is short
for {rabtujungwa}. {Rabtujungwa} means really came out. And it means
someone who has left the family life. Someone who has decided to leave the
family life. {Rabjung}. {Chok} means that side or that type. {Dompa} means
vow. So vows which relate to those who have already left the home life. And
here you have to know there's a kind of...status that's halfway between being
ordained and not being ordained. And it's called {rabjung}. Okay? {Rabjung} is
not a...one of the pratimoksha vows. It's sort of a halfway house between not
having vows and taking ordination. And it's where you undergo a ceremony
where you agree to leave the home life. Okay? And you can start wearing red
robes. And that's what the children in the monasteries are. They've taken a
{rabjung} commitment. We don't call it a vow. It's called {rabjung kyi tsultrim}.
And it means they've agreed to go to a monastery and look, you know,
start...start getting ordained, or something like that. But it's not a...it's not
considered a pratimoksha vow. Okay, so these are...you could say vows that
relate to the ordained life, and vows, or having left the home life? And then
vows that relate to those who are still living the home life.               Okay?
Householders, okay? Normally you take a {rabjung} commitment before you
take your first ordination. Okay? There's a trick here. The reason they say
{chok}, the reason they don't say vows of those who have left the home life, or
vows of those who have not left the home life...rather they say vows that relate
to them, okay? There's a reason. And they give the example of someone who
has already taken their {rabjung} commitment. They've agreed to leave the
home life. But they haven't taken their first ordination yet. Which would be a
novice ordination. So where do they fall? Let's say they took lifetime laymen's
vows, but they didn't take their first novice ordination yet. Where do they do?
How many of the eight vows are here, and how many are here? Let's start with
that. Okay? First vow's what?

[student: One-day vows.]

So that's gotta be...yeah. This is a one-day vow. And two?

[student: Layperson's lifetime vows [unclear].]

Yeah, lifetime, yeah okay, layman...{ge nyen palma} Yeah...and lifetime
laywoman. So those are considered of this type. Okay? And then the other five
are considered this type. Okay? In the root text it says {kimpay dompa dampo
sun rabje dompa tama gna}. The first three are...relate to people who have not
yet left the home life and the latter five relate to those who have left the home
life. And the example we were talking about was somebody who has this vow,
but already took this commitment. Where is he? He agreed to leave the home
life but he hasn’t taken hi nov...he hasn’t taken vow number four yet or five. He
hasn't taken a novice vow yet. That's why they have to say relate to. Okay?
Because technically he's still here. But he's already a {rabjung}. Okay? Got it?
That's why they have to say {chok}. And it's a big deal in the vinaya. Alright? So
those are the basic divisions. You're either in this one or this one. If you have
one of the first three vows...sets of vows, you're over here. If you have one of
the latter five sets of vows, you're over here. Okay? Now we're gonna start to
talk about the first vow. He promised {ngowo dang ni rabye dang sosoyy
ngundzin kyeway ten}. {Ngowo} we finished. What's the vow made of?
{Rabye} we finished. What's the divisions and the groupings? And the third one
is {sosoy ngundzin}. {Sosoy ngundzin} means, well, what are the vows? Okay?
What are the individual vows? Now we're gonna start with the one-day vow.
The one-day vow has eight separate commitments. And they are divided into
the four primary commitments and the four secondary commitments. I'll give
you the Tibetan.
[silence]

Say {mi tsang chu} [repeat]. {Mi tsang chu} [repeat]. {Mi} means...I think you
know. Not. Okay? {Ma mi min me} are the four negatives. {Tsang} means pure
or clean. In Sanskrit it's [brahma]. But it means clean, okay. And {chu} means
activity. Unclean activity means sexual activity. Okay? It's a word for sexual
activity. So {mi tsang chu} means for the length of one day you agree not to
engage in sexual activity. The most serious would be adultery. Right?

[silence]

Say {ma jin len} [repeat]. {Ma jin len} [repeat]. {Ma} means "me"...same, okay?
{Jin} means given. {Ren} means to take. To take what has not been given to
you, okay? Stealing. Okay? {Ma jin len}. Classically, they try to set a limit, you
know? Like, if you stole a pen from work, did you commit {ma jin len}? I was
always wondering about, 'cause I do it all the time. [laughs] And, the...the limit
is a quarter of a [karshapana]. And, that comes from [Magada] in ancient India.
And, like it's some kind of monetary unit. Alright? And, even the Tibetans like
in Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra's time were debating how much is a quarter of a
[karshapana]?        In fact, there's a whole little text in his collected works
that...where he discusses the value of a quarter [karshapana] in terms that we
can't figure out now anyway. So, [laughs] I, I asked Rinpoche, I said, "How much
is a quarter [karshapana]?" He said, "I don't know." But he said I guess it's
somewhere between a quarter and a dollar. Okay? I've heard ten cents, I've
heard fifty cents, I've heard a dollar. Something that someone would feel you
stole. I think, I think that's the bottom line, you know? Something that someone
would feel that you stole. You stole it, you know? Like I think a pen would
probably be okay. And something that's worth a dollar, you know, like three
pens, or something. It's like when would your boss start to object? You know,
depending on your boss, right? Anyway, something of...of...of some kind of
value. Okay? {Ma jin len}. Of course, it's not good to steal anything. Yeah, that's
like going like this...and they, they do that...in scriptures. Fun to carve, I think.
Say {sok chu} [repeat]. {Sok chu} [repeat]. {Sok} means life. {Chu} means to cut.
So this is killing. Killing. Most serious one is to kill {miam mir chakpa} [repeat].
{Miam mir chakpa} [repeat]. {Mi} means "a human being." {Am} means
"or." {Mir chakpa} means a "fetus." In other words, to...to have an abortion, to
cause an abortion. Okay? So {miam mir chakpa}. That's the classic...I mean
when they ask the Dalai Lama, "Is abortion okay?" This is...this is...all Buddhist
scriptures say the same thing. They don't say killing a human. They say killing a
human or a fetus. They always say that. So it's very cut and dried. It's very
simple. Okay? Can't do it. It starts at the moment of conception. There's no
debate about nine weeks or three weeks or...okay? It's when the egg meets the
sperm. That's a...the consciousness enters at that moment so...that's it. Can't do
it after that, okay? It's good to know, 'cause it's very dangerous. 'Cause say in
our country it's considered okay right now. Okay? Number four...

[silence]

Say {dzun ma} [repeat]. {Dzun ma} [repeat]. {Dzun} means false. {Ma} means to
speak. And it means to lie. The biggest lie you can do--the classic lie--is to lie
about your spiritual life. For example, the classic lie about your spiritual life is to
say you've seen emptiness directly, when you haven't. Okay? If you have, you
know it. Okay? So if you're not sure, you didn't. Okay? If you're not totally
sure, you didn't. So it's...that's the...that's the worst kind of lie. It's total...total lie.
These are called the basic four, the root four. The first half of the one-day vow.
You have to keep these four. Avoid these four, right? Yeah.Yeah. Sometimes
they're called root--the four root vows. Sometimes they're called the four
primary vows. {Mel che te}. Well, we'll do it in Tibetan.

[silence]

Say {Mel che te} [repeat]. {Mel che te} [repeat]. {Mel} is a difficult word. We
don't have one word in English, but it means a seat and also a bed. I mean,
'cause in Asia normally you're sitting on your bed. You use...it's a multi-purpose
thing. So {mel} can mean your seat or your bed. {Che} means big. {Te} means
high. And in this case, big means big value, like very expensive. {Te} means
exceeding one {tru}. This is a {tru}. It's made up of twenty-four...twenty-four
{sor}s, that's like {gyanchak}...{dom}. And you know it goes like that. So
anyway, it's using expensive furniture, something like that. Luxurious furniture.
In other words, you're supposed to--for that one day--try to live simply. I can
imagine that in our society, it would be like using your Mercedes rather than
your Volkswagon...for that day, you know, it just means avoiding luxury for
that day. For that one day...I don't have this problem. It doesn't say that
technically. It's just a luxurious seat or bed. But I think the spirit of the thing is,
you know, avoid luxury for one day. Try to live simply. The, the one day vow
is trying to emulate an arhat for one day. You know it's trying to live like a
person who is incapable of having a bad thought for one day. That's the whole
point of a one-day vow. And then if you keep doing that often enough you
might...it might plant a seed in your mind and maybe one day you actually start
living that way, you know? [Unclear]...{chang tung}.

[silence]

Say {chang tung} [repeat]. {Chang tung} [repeat]. {Chang} is a Tibetan beer.
Okay? Alcohol. Alright? I once drank some by accident, before I became a
monk. And...anyway I won't talk about that. {Tung} means to drink. Okay?
{Changtung} means to drink alcohol. And the scriptures always say here...
{druwam chume chang}. {Druwam chume chang} means it doesn't matter
whether it's a naturally brewed alcohol, or whether it's some chemical concoction
like a drug that you've...that you've put together from chemicals, artificially, and
not brewed. So it covers all kinds of intoxicants, okay? This one covers drugs
and alcohol. Yeah. Yeah, it's always explained as {druwam}...this is the short
version. {Druwam chume chang tunwa}. That's the full vow. There's a big debate
about it. For a monk it's quite strict. But I think in general, the modern lama's
advice would be, you know...like if you have to take some novocain or
something, I mean, it's alright. The point is whether or not it lowers your
inhibitions. That's the point.

[cut]

Say {Gar sok treng sok} [repeat]. {Gar sok treng sok} [repeat]. {Gar} means
dancing, okay. {Gar} means dancing. {Sok} means etcetera. {Treng} means like in
India there was a custom of wearing these flower leis, these garlands of flowers
around your neck, like if you see women in still Karnataka State, they're still
wearing...every morning they put a fresh flower in their hair. {Treng}. {Sok}
means etcetera. I'm gonna tell you what the etceteras refers to, okay? It's very
specific. {Gar} is dancing or singing or playing music. Whenever you get into this
point you get all these objections from Western people. I'll, I'll summarize them.
'Cause I also share them. What about religious music, you know? Then there's
this debate about whether certain rock songs are religious. Or is it only Bach
who's religious, you know? And then they say what about, you know, holy
dancing, you know, like lama dancing and stuff like that, you know? What
about that stuff? And what's the difference? And if I feel like it's religious, isn't it
alright? The point is this. Two...two, and I...two things I...I've known about
it...one is...this mostly refers to something like a disco or something. I mean it
refers mostly to activity which would make you...would lower your general
inhibitions and you would do something else. You know like, you start acting
crazy and a little wild, and then you do something else. I mean the point is that.
The point is that...one point is that it's this kind of dancing or singing or playing
of music that would...that you would do at a party, and that would eventually
lead you to get a little wild and do something else that you shouldn't be doing.
But the second point is deeper and that's that, at most levels, these three activities
in almost any form would disturb your meditation. You know, and if, if you're
musically inclined you know that, you know? I used to not...you know, eight
years I didn't have any music in the house and I used to go to the laundromat
just so I could hear a few snips of songs, you know, and...'cause they have these
songs going all the time. And I would try to come back and try to meditate, and
the song would be going, you know...the whole day. So it does really disturb
your meditation, if you're trying to reach shamata, which you must reach to see
emptiness directly, this acts...this does disturb your mind. This does disturb your
concentration. If you're a person like me, you know, I don't know. So I'd say at
a certain level you'll see that these things might be disturbing to your meditation.
And then they would actually block you from seeing emptiness. So that's very
serious. In that case you might want to lay off them for a while and see how it
works. On a much, much higher level, you know, which is getting into the secret
teachings, there might be something appropriate here--I can't talk about it--and
no one should ever perform it in public obviously. Okay? That's another point.
Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

That's what I was...I can't talk about that. Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

[Laughs] Now you're getting into a personal case, you know? I, I think it would
disturb your meditation and I also think it wouldn't make you act crazy and hurt
somebody or something like that. You know? So I'd say on level "a" it's not
gonna make you wild like disco music and then make you hurt somebody or do
something immoral. On the other hand it will disturb your meditation. If your
meditation gets serious, it'll start to disturb your meditation. If you reach a
certain state of shamata, or close to shamata, you'll find this quite disturbing.
That's...that's just my personal reflections on it. I mean I, you know...it's
obviously...they're meant to be activities that would disturb you spiritually. You
know, and that's the point. With a lot of people it calms them down. So, you
know...I think it's at different levels. If you're on an everyday level, it might
actually calm you down a little bit. If it's something you're gonna go do at a club
at two a.m. and go wild, it might actually hurt you. If you are in meditation, or
planning to be in meditation, or you're trying to go on retreat, or you're trying
to gain shamata, I think you must strictly avoid these things. If you are into the
secret teachings deeply and you're some kind of huge yogi and you've done it
for millions of years, which you know to be the requirement, right? Perhaps it
could take on a higher meaning. So I, you know, that's...that's up to each
person's level I think.

[student: Historically then, when this might have been written that might have
been a group activity or party just by definition.]

...could've been, but you have to be careful about that. I mean people...I'd say be
careful about the historical thing where they say, "Oh that was India two
thousand years ago; it's not like that now." It is like that now. Whatever reason
the Buddha said not to do it in those days...the historical thing doesn't work very
well, usually, I'm just warning you, you know. People say, "Oh that was back in
India, you know? That...they couldn't get angry back in India, but we realize that
it's helpful to get it out, you know. [Laughs][laughter] It's not like that. Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah. What was the story of meditation? Oh, yeah, no, he's not supposed to go
into meditation, 'cause he...he promises the other monks not to go into
meditation. He's actually lied. He's, he's taken the res-...he has agreed to take
the responsibility and he's just drawn to his meditation seat...which never
happens to us, [laughs][laughter] and he break...he's already committed himself
to take that responsibility, in that case. Then you get into a thing in vinaya called
{dom}. And we're not going to go much into that. But it's called spiritual
priorities, you know? Like when you have two good activities, but one of them
is lesser than the other, you have to make prioritizations. And, yeah, if he
didn't...if he had not agreed, if he'd said I...I'd rather meditate, I can't take
responsibility for the mattresses, then it's okay. But if he agreed to do it, and
then he goes and meditate, he breaks a vow. {Treng sok}...I'll give you all of
those. Those are the examples that Ngulchu Dharma Bhadragives. Those are
pretty common. Nagarjuna also discusses this in his [Suhrllekha], okay? If you're
really interested in the one-day vow you can check the [Letter to the...]...[Letter
to a Friend].

[Jay: Now with the first part with regards to, that include reading non-dharma
too?]

No. Just specifically these things, 'cause they make you a little bit wild. Insofar
as they might make you loose your inhibitions, okay? That's the point of those.
Say {Chi dro} [repeat] {kase} [repeat]. {Chi dro} means the latter part of the day,
meaning afternoon. {Kase} means food. It means eating after noon. So on the
day that you take a one-day vow, you have to keep the commitment that
traditionally monks kept in the old days, which was not eating anything after
twelve o'clock. And there's this whole ritual and there's whole books written
about how you measure noon. You know, you take a stick that's a certain size
and you stick it in the ground and you check the shadow and...it's too late to eat,
you know? [Laughs] Okay? In your part of the world; it's all this complicated
thing. Anyway, the bottom line is arhats don't eat much, they eat once a day.
They take...they take...might take...they go out and beg for their food once. And
they eat once. And then it's over with. No more washing. No more thinking
about food. No more going to the grocery store. It's a great relief off your mind.
Then your mind is free for the rest of the day to think about holy things. And it's
very liberating. And it also makes you very light, and it allows you to think
clearly for the whole latter part of the day. You can drink anything except milk,
and that's considered a food...and yogurt. You know, you can drink watery
milk...there's this thing, you know? Generally, fruit juice is okay. And things like
that. But milk is considered a food. And yogurt would be like...like a milkshake
or something would be considered a food...like that. And that's...those are
the...the four secondary parts of a one-day vow, okay? In the Tibetan monastic
tradition, when you become a monk, you can...you can declare that you're going
to keep it or not. It's called {gongche}. {Gongche} means "cut off the evening."
And when you take your vows, normally, I mean just talking local Tibetan
tradition, you keep it for a while, and then you start eating in the afternoon. But
there are some monks who keep it their whole life. So you're really supposed to
keep it your whole life. But that's just the way the tradition has developed.
Particularly, it's considered that you should use common sense, you know? If
you're working hard, like if you're out working in the fields for the monastery,
and...and you, you should be eating something--if it would hurt your body not
to eat in the evening--you're not supposed to be a fanatic, you're supposed to use
common sense, you know? If you're working in a busy office and you couldn't
get out before twelve o'clock, even if you've taken this vow, you can...you know,
you're supposed to eat something and keep yourself strong. Common sense is
something very important in vinaya. And it's part of vinaya. You know, there's
this thing called {miksel} which means "exceptions." And the vinaya is full of
exceptions...depending on common sense...about your hair, about your clothing,
about a lot of the details...there are written into the vinaya situations where...if
it...if it's...if it's...helps many people, if it's something good, if your lama tells you
to do it, you should do it. Yeah, and in the Hinayana vinaya there are {miksel}s.
There are special cases where if your lama says, "You gotta go to work, I want
you to wear a suit," you have to wear a suit. And the vinaya says for ten hours if
he says for ten hours, for twenty-four hours if he says for twenty-four
hours...and for your whole life if he says your whole life. So, you know..you
have to study vinaya deeply. It's a, it's a long story. If you've taken higher
vows, it's even more important to be sensible, take care of yourself. Do what's
compassionate. You cannot break the...you cannot stretch the rules which are
meant to...like the rule...the rule of celibacy: there's no exceptions to that, never.
There's no case where it would be more compassionate to break it. [laughs]
[laughter] No, Je Tsongkapa covers that, he covers that. No, he covers that.
Well, the example he gives is, what if a lady says she'll commit suicide if you...or
something like that. Which...and then he says you have to give back your vows
first and then do it. But you can't...as a monk you cannot...never break that.
And other...other things like that, okay? His Holiness would say I'll tell you
when it happens. [laughs] Okay.

[silence]

Say {tekchen} [repeat] {so jong} [repeat]. {Tekchen so jong} [repeat] and {nyene}
[repeat]. Okay, {nyene} is the one-day vow, which is the first of the eight
pratimoksha vows, which is what we've been talking about so far. That's a
pratimoksha vow. That's part of the vinaya. There's another one-day vow called
{tekchen sojong}. And I don't want you to get confused between the two, so I'm
mentioning it. It's not mentioned in the vinaya. Okay? {Tekchen sojong} is a
custom...{tekchen} means Mahayana, Mahayana, which already takes it out of
the realm of vinaya, okay? {So} means to repair. {Jong} means to purify. And
so it's like a one-day vow of purification. This is a practice which is current
among the Mahayana schools and we...we do it on big holidays, for example.
We get up before dawn. We take the eight precepts...same eight precepts...and
then until the next morning...the trick, the trick is...the {tse}, the point at which
you loose the vow, is the following morning at dawn. So you have to finish it
before daylight normally. And then when you can see the lines on your hand,
on your palm, from the natural light in the sky...well, then the vow is over. So
I've some friends who were sitting with these cookies [laughter]...and watching
their hand, you know [laughter][laughs]. There's actually a story like that. So
this is a Mahayana vow. What's the difference if the parts of the vow are the
same, what's the difference? There's two big differences that I'm aware of. The
motivation is, is different. What's the motivation for taking any pratimoksha
vow?
[student: To get away from suffering [unclear].]

Just, just to get away from samsara and reach nirvana, which is a mental state.
Okay? It's not reaching Buddhahood. It's not reaching enlightenment. It's, it is
that golden porthole where you put your mind and you can never again be
unhappy, period.      Impossible...cannot have a mental affliction, impossible.
Definition of nirvana: {nyurnjup malupa pambe sosoyr tango}, "because you saw
emptiness directly and practiced a lot, then you can never be shaken out of that
state of happiness." Nothing can shake you out of that state of happiness. Your
whole world is still screwy. Your body is still doomed. Your relationships are
doomed. Your career is doomed. Everything's screwy. But, but your mind is
totally unshakable, and happy. That's the motivation for taking {nyene}. And
any other pratimoksha vow. But the motivation for taking {tekchen sojong} is "I
want to become a bodhisattva; I want to reach total enlightenment; I want to get
through that golden hole and move on to total enlightenment where my whole
world is paradise; and I want to drag everyone else...I want to be an example for
everyone else. I want to be able to bring along everyone else with me...through
that place, to, to total happiness. That's the motivation. So motivation is
different. Also there's this detail where if a person with a higher pratimoksha
vow, takes a lower pratimoksha vow it ruins his higher vow. Okay? Like if a full
monk takes a novice vow again, it ruins the full-monk's vow. Can't do it. It
pushes out...it's like contradictory.        You can't go back to a lower
ordination...without giving up the higher ordination. So a monk, for example,
cannot take this vow...cannot take this one-day vow, in the Hinayana, as a
pratimoksha vow. But a monk must certainly, often as possible, take a
Mahayana one-day vow. So that's another difference, okay? You can't take a
lower vow in the pratimoksha system, but monks are...happily take this vow.
Which is trying to emulate the high bodhisattvas for the length of one day,
okay? Yeah?

[student: Can laymen take the one-day vow?]

Sure. Oh Yeah.

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah, this is a bodhisattva vow.

[student: [unclear]]
Oh sure, Yeah, yeah. Can a...can a lifetime laymen's...I don't know, I gotta check
that out. Maybe not. I'll check it out. I'm not sure actually. Do you guys know?
I don't know. I would guess, maybe not. But I'll check it out...check it out. I'm
not sure. I'll ask Rinpoche. I've a feeling maybe not, 'cause you've already
committed to it...most of it. But I'll check it out. You know there is a...well, I
won't get into that. There is a kind of vow where you do agree to take it
everyday, for the rest of your life. And I think that's a higher vow, but then that
get's complicated. And I don't think that's a real higher vow. It's a nominal
higher vow. Okay. Anyway...next we're gonna do the lifetime layperson's
vows. Okay? I think this is the highlight of the course for a lot of people here,
okay? I mean a few people came up to me already and said, "Can I take lifetime
laymen's vows." And I said it would be wonderful but wait, wait a while, let me
see if I can catch more people, okay? [laughs] It's very easy actually. There's five
vows and there's one additional part, okay? So we'll go through them mostly in
English. But this is...to...{sepa} means to kill, {mi} means a human being, {am}
means or, {mir chakpa} means a human fetus. Okay? So killing a human or a
human fetus. That's the first thing you vow not to do. And this is a {jisi sorwa
pardo} which means for the length of your life, until you die. The moment you
die you loose these vows. These are pratimoksha vows. Right. I mean,
technically speaking, the lifetime laymen's vows are pretty easy to keep. Okay?
They are big time bad deeds. Technically speaking. They are really...they're...it's
pretty hard to do, do them, okay? Except for abortion. I mean, that's pretty
common. I think this one might be, I mean as I think about it, this would be the
most difficult one. This one might be very difficult, actually. I mean...there was a
point in the translation of the Buddhist scriptures into Tibetan when the king said
I want all measurements expressed in Magada units. Magada is like one part of
central India, you know? So all the weights, all the lengths, all the times, all the
monetary was expressed you know in units that were current, you know, down
in India at that time.          So, karshapana.      And as we said, a quarter
karshapana...think of it like twentyfive cents to a dollar. That's...I mean that's
from Rinpoche, and Rinpoche is one of probably the last three or four greatest
scholars of vinaya in the world. So if he doesn't know, I don't know if we're
gonna find anybody that knows. He started to convert it to Tibetan currency
and then he said, "But that's all over now,” and you know like Ngulchu Dharma
Bhadra converts it to Tibetan currency of his day; but that was two hundred
years ago and we don't really know." So...stealing anything of value. I think
that's hard. There's a long discussion in the vinaya why cheating on your taxes is
stealing, for example. I mean, all kinds of cheating and things like that are
stealing more than a quarter karshapana, so that's tricky, you have to be careful
about it. Okay? They discussed it specifically.
[student: If you take that same pen from the office without realizing [unclear]]

I don't know if you have to...there's a {shi sanba jorwa tartu} whenever you do a
bad deed, there's what the thing is, what your motivation was, did you
undertake to do it, and did you complete it? And normally all four have to be
there for a big karma to be created. I'm not sure, but I don't think if you, for
example, kill a person in a car accident that...I don't believe you would break this
vow. Okay? If you're not conscious of it I don't believe you would break it. I
believe you have to have a motivation. You have to have premeditation,
normally, even if it's only a moment of anger, you know, twenty seconds of,
milliseconds of anger, and then you kill somebody or something, but you gotta
have some kind of forethought about it, normally. Okay, number three.

[silence]

Dharma Bhadra mentions two versions of this lying about your spiritual life.
One is a direct total lie, and very typically, "I've seen emptiness directly," or
something like that. That's the classic one. But, then he goes into a discussion. I
don't know if it was him or Chone Drakpa Shedrup, but it was...then they go
into a discussion of why certain other kinds of lies that imply you have spiritual
realizations are also come under this category. And he mentions people who
come up to you and say they can see your future life, or they can see what you
were in the past, or, or things like that. Or even to imply it. Or to claim that they
have some miraculous powers or something like that. Because that implies that
you've seen emptiness directly and stuff like that. You see? If I say I can see my
future lives...since that's something that happens right after you see emptiness
directly, then that's implying that you've seen emptiness directly when you
haven't. And that's another kind of lie, you know? Yeah?

[student: So you're saying that, he is they’re saying that it's impossible for
people to any kind of psychic powers unless they've seen emptiness directly.]

no...not saying that. You can possibly see some things before you see emptiness
directly. You always see them when you see emptiness directly. But it is
possible, like for non-Buddhists, who is very good at meditating to see a future
life. And that's...that's possible. But most times it implies that you've reached
some high level, and even if you've seen emptiness directly, it's part of the
experience that you'd never tell anyone directly. You'd never get up there and
just say I...July seventy-five I saw emptiness directly...something like that. You
can't do that. They wouldn't do it. So if someone gets up and says it, you have
to be careful. Okay? I'm not saying that that person's definitely lying, but it
probably would have to be some extraordinary circumstance.

[student: Don’t you do that sometimes with your bodhisattva vows to show that
you’re an authority or something?]

Extremely rare, because it's not a good way to prove yourself because it cannot
be confirmed by the other party. And that's one of the big reasons why you
don't have to talk about it. They can't confirm it anyway. You know, you can
claim to have seen anything, but they can't confirm that. It's better to use logic
or something that they are grounded in. Use some reason that pertains to what
they already accept. And what they can already access. But don't make some
claim that they could never confirm anyway, 'cause someone else could come
along and make some weirder claim, you know. And if they're gonna believe
yours, they're gonna believe theirs, and they're gonna get all messed up. So, like
that. Not committing adultery with another person's spouse. Technically the
text says, with someone who is not your wife, but as I've always had it taught to
me it, it specifically refers to another person's spouse...as opposed to general
sexual misconduct. It's not sexual misconduct in Buddhism between consenting
adults of the opposite sex. That's not sexual misconduct and it's not adultery, like
that...if one of them is not married to someone else. But there's a lot of other
kinds of sexual misconduct which we'll cover

[cut]

That's...I believe, no I'm sorry. I believe it is adultery. I believe that would be
adultery. Yeah.

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah, Yeah. I believe...you taught me, I believe that is...that would be included
here in adultery.

[silence]

You know, I, I dunno where I heard it but it's one of these dharma rumors
where I heard you can take this one or not take this one. You could take these
four and not commit yourself to number five. You know, I-I-I-I thought I heard
that somewhere, and I, I know there are different kinds of {ge nyen}s: there's {ge
nyen} where you take only one, there's a {ge nyen} where you only take two,
but, but then technically you have to take all of them and Dharma Bhadra makes
of point of saying, you can't drink alcohol, period. If you take these vows, you
can't. You can't take any kind of intoxicants. And then I've often quoted, you
know where the Buddha himself says...it's in the [Abhidharmakosha] quoted
from sutra: he takes a blade of grass, he holds it up, and he says anyone who
drinks the amount of alcohol you could hold on the tip of this blade of grass, or
serves it to another person, don't call yourself a Buddhist. Don't say you're
following me. So, quite clear. I can show it to you anytime. Okay? [laughs] And
it's just not worth it. I mean it makes you stupid. It wastes money. It hurts your
body. There's just no point to it. And you won't miss it much, if you give it up,
so..the last...there's an additional part, okay? On your homework it says
something like, "additional part." You also commit yourself to this when you
commit yourself to a lifetime laymen's vows. Oh, sorry, additional part.
{Kyamdrul labjang dang gyalwa machepa}. Which means, "never breaking the
advices on going for refuge." They are what they call unique advices and there
are common advices. I'm not gonna cover the whole thing in this class, but
basically the essence of the advices on going for refuge is never to give up,
speci-, most especially, the Dharma Refuge. Okay? The Dharma Jewel. And in
this case it refers to hurting other people. So, so the essence on all the advices on
refuge...in other words, if you claim to be a Buddhist, then one thing you must
absolutely give up is hurting other people. It doesn't mean if you ever hurt
someone you've broken your {ge nyen} vows: no. This means more like
philosophically. When you say, that's all BS. I don't believe it any more, you
know? I don't think there's any point to trying not to hurt other people. I mean
this is a very serious thing. And that, that would be breaking the advices on
going for refuge. That's the essence of it. Yeah? Yeah. [laughs] In the
Abhidharma, joining the army is called a {dompa mayinpa}. It's taking an anti-
vow. And you get that same invisible aura...once you swear that you will bear
arms against another being. You get that same aura. And until such time as you
resign from that organization, you, you are...you have what's called an anti-vow
in your mind stream...that same thing. Or if you swear I'll be a butcher for the...a
period of, you know, the next year or so. If you say I promise to be a...I promise
to study butchering, and animals, and...the...it grows in your mind stream like
the other vows, like a pratimoksha vow. That's a...that's a [Abhidharma]...in the
[Abhidharma]. Yeah? No. Not like that. You can eat meat, and it's not
considered necessary in Buddhist philosophy to give up the eating of meat,
technically. It's strongly encouraged. But the point that lamas would say is that
when you go to the store to buy meat you don't say, "I'm going to the store to
kill a cow." You say, "I'm going to the store to buy meat." Okay? Now you have
to kill a cow to buy meat. But you're not doing the killing. You can't kill a cow.
The cow can't be killed specifically for you. You can't go to a farm, and they say,
"We're having dinner tonight, and since you're a special guest we're gonna kill a
cow for you." In that case, you've broken the vow against killing, 'cause...by the
way anytime that you instigate someone else to do any of these things, it's equal
to committing it. So, now, if no one ever paid for meat, they would stop killing
animals, and there's big debates about it. Okay? And there are sutras which say
don't eat any meat, and like that. But there's also...there's big debates about it.
Basically speaking, the viewpoint currently is that...the viewpoint throughout
Buddhism has been...I think it started when monks had to beg for their food, and
you weren't allowed to reject anything, you know. So you weren't allowed to
say, "I like that, I don't like that." So whatever they put in your bowl, you were
supposed to eat. And that would often include meat, or could include meat. So it
wasn't...there's never been in...in the vinaya or any place else, technically,
something that says you can't eat meat. You cannot kill an animal. Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

And what?

[student: [unclear]]

These are...well, there are other traditions where there are other kinds of vows
or other sets of vows. Like in Thailand you can take monk's vows for three
months; you're even encouraged to do that in Thailand. We follow what's called
the Savastivadin group of Hinayana vows...Theravada vows. It's one of eighteen
groups of...there are other...other sets of monks vows were recognized in
ancient India. This is the one that was accepted in Tibet, and followed in Tibet by
all monks in Tibet. They're not much different; the sets of vows are very little
different. There is, as far as we know--and we have most of the root text on
vinaya--there is no other pratimoksha vows than these eight. The [Abhidharma]
teaches eight. All the Abhidharma scriptures teach eight. There's, there's no
other set beyond the eight that I...that we're...that's in any kind of current copy
of the ancient scriptures that mentions any other ones. Not that I...not that I'm
aware of. There are in Burma and Thailand, they keep a slightly different
number of vows, but basically it's all the same. Okay? Take a break, and we'll
come back in five or ten minutes, when you hear the bell, dong.

[cut]
...he can arrange it with Rinpoche. And it's very wonderful. It's very nice to have
them. It changes your spiritual capacity. It changes your...what do you call
it...your sensitivity to dharma. It actually changes your ability. It changes how
you...receptivity...to dharma. It changes a lot. So if there's any way...if you have
any idea to take it, take it. And then once you know them clearly, they're not
that difficult, right? I mean, it's not like...you know, small lies or stuff like that,
you know. Yeah?

[student: I’m just a little[unclear] from the Vinaya that you read from the Vinaya,
you mentioned Burma and Thailand they’re not so specific...like they don’t say
lying number three or just stealing or...]

I think they just didn't...you know, I...when I was taking the vows, they didn't
explain them to me very carefully. I didn't know they were this specific either.

[student: [unclear] easier this way.]

Yeah, they do. And this is what they really are. This is what comes from the
vinaya. And, and in, you should know, in Tibet there are...I mean, there's like
sixteen volumes of the original vinaya text...sixteen thousand pages, and the
commentaries run into the thousands, tens of thousands, probably. And they're
very clear. They're very cut and dried. They all pretty much agree on all these
points. These points are, you know...it's very, very nice, very clear, very...they,
they've saved many scriptures in Tibet. Many scriptures reached Tibet and
because of the inaccessibility until the airplane was invented, they were kept
very, very pure, and so the...even the Theravada traditions in Tibet are
extremely pure and more detailed than in countries...I've been to Srilanka...I've
been to the monasteries there...I've lived in Thailand, you know, I...we're very
fortunate in Tibet. We have a very, very...we're extremely fortunate. In St.
Petersburg we have a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand scriptures, in
Tibetan, and they're just extraordinary. And it really is a very, very...I'm not just
bragging but...in...I went to Thailand, I said show me your canon; it was forty-
five volumes left, you know, thin volumes left. We have about two hundred
thousand. I mean, we really do have the original scriptures in pretty good
shape. And we have unbelievable commentaries from the early Indians all the
way up to the nineteenth, twentieth century. They're wonderful. So we're really
lucky. We really are fortunate. Okay. We're gonna talk just a touch about {ge
tsul}. This is a novice, novice monk. It's a {rabjung chok kyi dompa}. Okay? It's
a ordain-...it's really what you can consider an ordination. Okay? And there's
different ways of dividing their vows. I'm gonna talk about the most basic way
and I'm not going to go into details on their vows 'cause we're reaching the point
at which I can't tell you everything. You have to take it before I can [laughs] tell
you everything. But we're gonna do it very broadly speaking. Say, {tsawa shi}
[repeat], {tsawa shi} [repeat]. {Tsawa} means root. {Shi} means four. The root
four. So you've already had those. Okay? To agree to give up those for the
length of your life is the root four. On top of that...

[silence]

Say, {yen lak druk} [repeat], {yen lak druk} [repeat]. {Yenlak} means the
secondary vows, and in this case there are six. Before, we had how many?

[student: Four.]

Four. Before we had four and four. Now we have four and six. These six are
arrived at...Aura and me and Elle spent like two hours on this last night. They're
arrived at in the following way. Remember before we had dancing, etcetera,
and flower garlands, etcetera...we'll just split those into two. So, dancing,
etcetera, becomes one separate secondary vow, and flower garlands, etcetera,
becomes another vow. Then you get one extra, which makes five secondary
vows. Okay? You split one into two, you get five. Okay? We were confused
for about an hour. So you're getting it the easy way. On top of that you add
handling money. Okay? Like...keeping money, handling money. I believe that
traditionally you weren't supposed to have any period.

[student: [unclear]]

Yeah, I think you wou-...I, I don't know, to tell you the truth, and I don't know if
I could go into it, but generally, for example, you weren't even allowed to keep
food. You weren't allowed to keep more food than you could eat that day. So,
don't think you'd be allowed to keep money. Now, obviously nowadays people
do. So...so that makes six. And then you have a third group, which is called...

[silence]

I should add something here.

[silence]

Say {lang de} [repeat] {sum} [repeat]. {Lang de} [repeat] {sum} [repeat]. {Lang
de} is a difficult word to translate. {Lang} means to take. {De} means to
transgress. And what it means is to transgress certain precepts that you have
taken from a preceptor or {khempo}. So it means a transgression. {Langde}
means a transgression. And {sum} means three. Number three. Roughly
speaking, they consist of disrespecting the person who gave you your vows,
failing to give up the appearance of a layperson...in other words, wearing your
hair long or wearing lay clothes...and then, the third one is failing to take up the
appearance of a monk...in other words, shaving your head and...and wearing
robes. Those are the three. And there's all sorts of technicalities, and I'm not
gonna go into it, okay? There's all sorts of {miksel}s and things like that. This
makes a total of how many vows?

[student: Thirteen.]

Yeah. So normally we speak of the ten basic ones and the three transgressions
and the basic structure of the vow for a novice monk or nun--same thing--are
these thirteen. Now there's...the {lang de}s can be divided up and you come out
with thirty-something...and I'm not gonna go into that. But, basically, this is the
basic structure of a novice vow...to take those for your life. That's about all we're
gonna do tonight. Okay? Yeah.

[student: What’s the advantage of taking your vows [unclear]]

[Laughs] Generally they're considered secret, but in practice if you've taken a
{rabjung} commitment, you've already been in a monastery, you know pretty
much what they are, and in, and in, and in practical...in practice...my lama, for
example, sat me down and taught them to me before. And I think in practice
you end up doing that.          Once the person has committed themselves or
something like that...but I, I...I don't know, I haven't read yet the real exact
reason why. I know that when Je Tsongkapa covers the bodhisattva vows he
says, "These are the only vows of the three kinds of vows that you can learn
ahead of time, in detail." So it is true. Now, why, I don't know exactly. I know
that it's considered breaking, the vow...or it's considered a violation to let people
who don't have ordination to witness certain ceremonies of vinaya, or to be
present in certain ceremonies of vinaya, and that's very strict. So maybe it has to
do with that, or...I don't know. But I, I know that that's covered in the vinaya.
I...but I...I've never seen like in the vinaya...and I haven't studied it...I haven't
studied the huge texts, but I haven't seen a specific section where they say, "This
is why we don't teach people their vows ahead of time," or something; "this is
why you can't study in detail the monk's vows," or something like that. But I
haven't seen that yet. It's probably there somewhere. Okay? Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

I, I...the laymen's vows, you can study ahead of time. But the...especially the full
monk's and full nun's vows, you're not allowed to study. I...and as I say, I
haven't seen an explanation of exactly why...although in practice I think a good
lamas try to make sure their students understand the vows, and I know that
when you take the vows, they don't form unless you, in your mind are ready to
commit to all of them. And I don't know how you could do that if you didn't
know them all. Like if you had reservations about any of them, they don't form
properly. So, I'll have to defer that one til later. Yeah?

[student: [unclear]]

Can't...Yeah, can't say, don't know exactly.

[student: [unclear]]

[Laughs] Yeah, this is the problem of reading something somewhere. I'm not
sure about it. But, I dunno. I'll ask Rinpoche. We'll see. I, I'm not...I don't know
exactly why. All I...all I really am aware of is that, is that it's very strict that you
cannot witness vinaya ceremonies and things like that. Maybe it's connected to
that. I don't know. But why...it would seem to be beneficial...it would be
beneficial to the Sangha if they knew everyone knew exactly what their vows
were, you know? And I think in countries...like I was in Srilanka, and a typical
TV show in Srilanka is discussing how long a monk's hair can be. And so I know
in Srilanka they...it's pretty...everyone knows. So I...I'll ask Rinpoche. I'll see. I
don't really...I have not...I've studied a number of texts on vinaya, but I've never
seen a, a, a direct explanation of why that's the case. Alright, we'll do the...we'll
do about five minutes meditat-...it's very...this meditation is very hard, 'cause
you're thinking about going home. So try to...think about...just try to think
about just how lucky you are to have a class like this, and meditate on that, and
maybe try to consider whether you want these secret invisible wings or not.
Okay?
ACI Course 9 – The Ethical Life