ACI 9 «Этическая жизнь», занятие 9

ACI Course 9, Class 9: Description of the Lesser Scope
122a.txt
Transcribed by: Al Alotaa and Summer Moore
Proofread by: Summer Moore
Additional transcption and proofreading by: Angie Overy

Say {de ne} [repeat]. I’m not going to write the whole [B: Lam Rim] up here
okay, but this one verse is so important that I’d like to spend some quality time
on it. Alright. So say {de ne} [repeat] {di chiy} [repeat] {lektsok} [repeat]
{jinyepay} [repeat] {tendrel} [repeat] {lekpar} [repeat] {drikpay} [repeat] {tsawa
ni} [repeat] {lam tun} [repeat] {she nyen} [repeat].
Okay, {de ne} means, “and then”...meaning he’s finished with the preliminary
prosterations, he’s gone through the whole lineage, he’s aquainted you with
lineage and now he’s moving onto the actually body of the [B:Lam Rim]. There’s
a part of the [B:Lam Rim] that comes before all other parts of the [B:Lam Rim]
and its the first {Lam Rim}. Remember [B:Lam Rim] can mean the whole book
and it can mean each step. So the first {lam rim}, the first step is called {she nyen
densul}. Say {she nyen} [repeat] {densul} [repeat] {she nyen} [repeat] {densul}
[repeat]. {she nyen} is a very hard word to translate in sanskrit it’s {kalamitra?}
and {she} is usually a word that’s used for your realations, blood relations in
tibetan. And {nyen} means like, well they both mean like blood relations or
friend. So it’s kind of strange word. {she nyen} is sort of like blood relation
brother, friend, blood brother friend, you know, family or something like that.
It’s a very ususal word. But it refers to your lama. Okay, it refers to your
teacher {she nyen}. {den} is also a very difficult word to translate. It’s the verb
with what you do with medicine. Like they don’t say take medicine in Tibetan,
they say {den} medicine. And it means to use it or to rely on it or to take
yourself to it or take it to you. All of those things, so it’s very hard to translate
{den}. {Sul} means how to do it. So, this whole section, the very first {lam rim}is
how to take yourself to a lama, how to take a lama, how to use a lama, how to
rely on a lama, how to serve a lama, you know...they’re all expressed in one
word. And there’s no good word in English that I know of. It’s how to relate to
your lama okay. How to relate to your lama. And this is the all important first
part of the {lam rim}. If you never got any further it would probably be enough.
And even up to the highest teachings; in the highest teachings it is the essence of
the highest teachings, in the secret teachings. So you know, if you never got past
this verse and if you practiced it well, it would be more than enough. So, very
hard to explain it in a really...it’s hard to express it, but we’ll try. So {de ne}
means, “and then”, by the way if anyone’s transcribed Rinpoche’s tapes he’s
always saying {de ne} which means, “and then”. Which like in english it’s like
“well ah” it’s like going onto your next subject. So {de ne} means,” and then”.
This is Tsongkapa right, it’s five hundred years ago. {Di} means,” this”, and
meaning, “this life”. And {chiy} means later life. So {di chiy} means what? This
life and your later life. Meaning all of your lives. All your lives to come. How
many to come? It’s hard to tell, I mean...we talked about it in California. You
can tell at a certain point, what point? When you’ve seen emptiness directly you
can, actually at that point you see how many lives you have to go. Seven lives is
very typical at that point. It takes an infinite number of lives to reach that point.
You don’t even know that there exist future lives until you reach that point. So
it’s kind of a difficult thing to talk about because you don’t believe it until you’ve
reached that point. When you reach that point, you see how many you have to
go. Then you really believe in a future life, because you saw them. And then you
know Buddhism is correct, by the way. Which is actually...you don’t know until
you see them. Okay, kind of difficult. [laughs] {Di chiy} means, this life and
future lives. {Letsok} means, “all the good things”. Okay. {Letsok} means, all the
good things. {Letsok}. {Jinepay} means,” however many happen to you”.
{Jinepay} means whatever happened to you...how many ever happened to you.
So this first line says, and then for however many good things are going to
happen to you in this life or your future lives {tendrel}. What’s {tendrel} mean?
{Tendrel shuwa} it means, dependent origination but not in this verse. In one
time out of a thousand this word as a completely different meaning. And I’ve
heard great...I mean it was my great pleasure of being jealous of those who were
better than me to hear all these great translators screw it up when they were
translating for the Dalai Lama. {Tendrel} means...in this case it means to get off
to a good start or an auspicious realtionship. Like it’s very difficult to explain but
for example {tendrel} is the feeling of a tibetan new year {Losar} The first day of
the year is {tendrel}. You have to have a good day of the year, then the whole
year’s going to go well. So that’s why tibetans are so intense on {losar}, on the
new year. It’s very important that the new year go smoothly. Today’s new
year’s right? It has to go very very smoothly. That’s {tendrel} that’s a good
{tendrel}. And there’s a famous...I think it was Marpa. Who was Marpa’s
student? Milerepa came to Marpa? Marpa came to Tilopa?
[student: [unclear]]
Okay, anyway, one of those guys went to his teacher and as a beginning act of
the relationship offered him a pot. And it was empty and they say that just
because of that one...it’s considered very inascpicious in Asia that you offer
someone an empty vessel. Like when you borrow a plate from somebody or a
cooking pan, in Asia after you wash it and give it back you have to put a little
piece of candy or something. It’s considered very inaspicious to give something
back. So he offered Marpa an empty pot and then there was a big {tendrel tupa}
means the {tendrel} was messed up. And it didn’t work out right. It’s almost like
geomancy with spaces in Hong Kong you know? And it has to be just right.
Everything has to be just right. And he messed up his {tendrel}. And then one
of the lamas said “fill it up beer and give it back to him and said drink it.” He
didn’t have enough faith. He hesitated but then he decided...you know because
you’re not supposed to drink a single drop of alcohol but then he, then he
decided to take it and the {tendrel} was fixed or something like that. Anyway,
{tendrel}’s very important like that. So {tendrel} means, auspicious, I don’y
know what you call it, vibrations or something okay. The right, the right, I
don’t know. What do we call it? [students: unclear] Vibes; the right vibes, okay.
{Tendrel}. {Lekpar drikpay} means, to- {drikpay} means, to get it right ;{lekpar}
means exactly right. So,{Lekpar drikpay} means just right. {Digadupay?} means
what? In Tibetan, {diga} means what? It’s a Tibetan word for okay. And they
use it as often as we use okay. {dik} {dik} {diga} okay. {dik} means everything’s
alright, everythings just right. So, what it means is, the pivot point, you know,
the very most imporant moment of your whole life swings on whether or not
this life is going to go well and whether or not all your future lives are going to
go well. All of them turn on this one very very crucial pivot point of , and that’s
what {tsawa} means. {tsawaa} means generally, “root”, but here it means like,
there’s one...this verse is very difficult. There’s one pivotal moment and one
pivotal part of your whole life which if you get it right, if it goes just right, if all
the vibes go just right, everything in your future lives and this life will go
absolutely perfect. And if you mess that up, just the list bit, if you, if you have a
little bit of a problem there, then it’ll enlarge and something will go wrong. I
don’t know how to say it. It’s like atomic energy point where, you know, if
everything goes right you get a nice, you know, nuclear power plant and if the
slighest thing goes wrong it blows up the country, you know. It’s like fission or
something. I heard that fission, if they don’t get it quite right...it’s going to cause
every atom to split, meaning the air would turn into, oxygen would turn into
nuclear fire. And they’re very concerned about it. They’re doing it at Princeton,
they’re holding this thing up with a magnet because they’re afraid if it touches
the earth it will go down to the earth. And they’re, and they’re tring to keep it
up in the air with a magnet and trying to make sure it can’t get any oxygen to it
‘cos it’ll, it could ignite the atmosphere. And it’s like that. It’s like if you get it just
right, it’s a, it’s a source of limitless power and if you screw it up a bit, it’s source
of limitless destruction, okay. And what is the {lam tun she nyen}? {Lam}
means, path. {Tun} means, who shows you. And {she nyen} is that word for
your lama, your spiritual friend, spiritual guide. They call “spiritual friend”.
Spritual friend sounds a little wimpy to me. This is like blood brother or
something. The word in Tibetan is more like, you know, it’s family, it’s blood
family. It’s some kind of a relationship that you have with that lama which is
beyond blood, it’s deeper than blood, you know. And I don’t know how to
express that either. So pretty much this verse, is untranslatable, okay. We can
just forget it...no. But the point is that the whole crux of whether this life and
your future lives go well, infintely well or whether they are a total disaster, all
swings on your relationship with your lama. And it’s that much at stake you
know. There’s that much at stake in the equation. Either everythings going to
be perfect or, or, or it’s going to be something...you’re going to be stuck in
samsara for a long time. So it’s a very very crucial point. {tsawa} means very
crucial. And that’s, that’s your relationship with your lama and that’s the first
step of the {lam rim}, okay. And it get’s even more intense as you get up higher
in the school and in the teachings. When you get to the secret teachings, it’s, it’s
the whole show, is just how you relate to your lama. Since it’s so important I’m
going to spend a little time on it. And I think the most important thing at the
beginning is to list the qualities that that person should have. In other words,
you have to, you can’t really practice Buddhism, you can’t ever really get any
deep results from Buddhism and you’ll never get what you dream of, unless you
find this person. I mean you have to dedicate your life to finding this person.
You have to find your {she nyen}, you know. You have to find your lama. You
will have other people in your life who teach you things, you know, who teach
you scripture or who teach you meditations, or who give you initiations or even
things like that but there will be in your life a {she nyen}. You will find a {she
nyen}. And it’s your most important job is to find the {she nyen}. And I’m going
to list the qualities, the classical qualities of a {she nyen}, just so you know what
to look for but, but your heart will tell you also. I mean you...it’s almost like
when you find them, you know it. I’ll list the qualities but you’ll know and
don’t...I don’t know what to say, we’ll talk more about it, but when you find
them...you’ll know it’s right and once you know then you have to throw
yourself into it and just close your eyes and give yourself to that relationship.
That’s why you have to be very careful about who it is. So you have to, you
have to know what to look for. But in a sense when you find them, you’ll know
anyway and then you have to really give yourself to them, your whole life, you
know. People say, you know, “should I give a hundred dollars to this and that?”
and it’s just...Rinpoche and I were talking about people, you know, who charge
for classes and stuff like that. I mean it’s not a question. I mean money is not
enough for these classes, you know. What you give to your {she nyen} is your
life, you know. If the {she nyen} says jump out a window, you jump, you know.
If the {she nyen} needs ten thousand dollars, you give. I mean from the first
moment when you meet your {she nyen} there’s no sense of you owning
anything. You give everything. So it’s kinda crazy to say, okay, you have to
pay thiry-three dollars for class, you know. I mean, you give your whole life to
your {she nyen} and that’s how you get your life back, you know. They don’t
need anything. They don’t need anything. They don’t need your money. They
don’t need, they’ve achieved their goals. If they’re a real {she nyen} they, they
don’t need...they only thing they want out of your is one thing which is what?
They want you to be happy, you know. They want you to get out of samsara
and they want you to reach enlightenment. That’s the only payment they want.
I mean you do the rest for your benefit but they, they actually, what are you
going to give to a person who sees their future, who knows their own
enlightenement, you know, who knows, who lives among angels all day? What,
what can you give them, you know? What are you going to offer them? What
do they need from you, you know?            You can’t. There’s nothing to give. All
they want from you is that you stop being in samsara, you know. So the idea,
you know, how much should we charge for class is kinda funny. It’s priceless.
Totally priceless. And when you meet this {she nyen} you give everything.
Everything doesn’t mean your bank account. Everything means your whole life
and your whole practice, your whole attention for what he needs, and your, the,
your Buddhist practice. You offer that and that’s what they really want. So we’ll
try to, we’ll put up ten qualities of a good {She nyen}. Yeah?
[student: Is there any discussion of what to do when your {she nyen} dies?]
We’ll talk about that, okay.
[student:...on {tsawa}....unclear]
Yeah, {tsawa} means, “root”. But here it means like, it’s the switch, you know.
Like, if your switch goes right, the, you get an endless source of energy, which is
what fission promises. It, And if you screw it, oh, fusion sorry. And if you mess
it up, it’ll blow up the atmosphere and everybody will die. I mean it’s this kind
of a crucial point. The rest of the {lam rim}, you know, we can cover in a class
and a half. We will. But the {she nyen} part is totally curcial. The whole thing
turns on this {she nyen}. The whole world for you, your whole future, revolves
around this one tiny point which is your relationship with your lama. Finding
that {she nyen} and then and then giving yourself...devoting...I don’t know how
to say it, you know, reaching some kind of a communion with that {she nyen}.
Yeah?
[student: unclear]
In Russian it’s, {seya?} at the end of a verb and it makes it reflexive and it’s used
with washing yourself and drinking [unclear]. And in Tibetan they, they use the
word for recieving which is {chun?}.
[student: unclear]
No. No. It’s not used with this verb. Alright, this list comes from the [B:
Sutralamkara, Mahayana Sutralamkara].           Which was written by who? By
whom, sorry? Dictated, good. Who said that? [laughs] Dictated by Maitreya to
Asanga,okay,       350 A.D.     Spoken by Maitreya, okay, who is what?             A
bodhisattva? [laughs] There’s a big debate about it. Anyway, future Buddha is
I guess, good enough. I’m going to give you ten qualitites that are listed there
that you should look for in a {she nyen} okay. And you have to look. That’s
what I’m trying to say, you know. I mean, that’s your main activity in life at this
point, is to find this holy being, you know. You’ve gotta go find this {she nyen}.
If you don’t find the {she nyen} you’re a dead duck, you know. You have to go
find the {she nyen}. That’s the point of this class, okay. But we’ll, we’ll start
through the qualities to look for but it’s not like there’s going to be a big debate
when you find them, okay. Say {dulwa}[repeat]. {dulwa} [repeat]. This is the
past tense of a noun or a verb that you know very well, which is {dulwa}, which
means what? {Ten} which is the Tibetan word for? [students: unclear] Vinaya.
Vinaya, okay? {Dulwa}. This the past tense so this means vinaya-sised. Okay?
{Dulwa}, someone whose been vinaya-sised. Which means what? I mean, they
have got the result of keeping up an ethical way of life. You can say, in English,
“controlled”. Controlled. And it s a code-word for someone who is leading a
very good ethical life. They are keeping their three sets of vows. Okay? First
thing to look for. First thing to check. What are the three sets of vows?
[students: unclear] Yeah. First is Pratimoksha which was the subject of our, first
half of our class. Okay? At the most basic those ten non-virtues. They are, they
are avoiding the ten non-virtues very well. Then if the got a little bit higher they
took laymans vows. If they got a little bit higher they took novice vows. If they
got a little bit higher, intermediate nun vows, a little bit higher they took full
ordination vows. But whatever they have, whether its vows, or whether they
are laymen who hasn t taken any vows and who are just keeping the ten,
keeping out of the ten non-virtues, they must be doing a very pure job about it.
Okay? First kind of vows, Bodhisattva vows. And then, you know, those are
the sixty-four vows and they must be keeping them very, very pure. And that s
a different, that smells and looks a lot different then the Pratimoksha vows,
okay? It s a different angle. And you have to get used to that. I mean, if you’re
looking for a Pratimoksha morality person that’s one thing. Then, Bodhisattva is
like, you know, throwing flowers and champagne for people, you know.
[laughs] And then you get up to secret. And that’s secret. [laughs] [laughter]
But once you learn those vows, I mean, they, if you know what I’m talking
about, they must be avoiding to the ultimate extent the great enemy of the
secret teachings. The single thought which is the enemy of all the secret
teachings. If you took an initiation you know what I m talking about, hopefully.
They must be a master of overcoming that, that enemy. And you can smell that
once you know what it is, you know You can see it, you can smell it and there’s
three different sets. They’re all like very fine, they call it the scent of mortality, in
Tibetan. The perfume of morality. They are keeping their Pratimoksha vows
and you can sense it. They are keeping their Bodhisattva vows and you can feel
it. And they re keeping their secret vows and, and you, and you get this, you get
this incredible joy and electricity from them ‘cos they’re, they re keeping them.
And you can feel it. You know? Yeah?
 [student: How do you know [unclear]]
Yeah.
[student: How do you know if they’re keeping their [unclear]]
Right. I think in general most people guess what the major vows are. You, I
cannot go into the finer points in detail. And that, I ca, I can t answer that. I
mean, you can’t. Somebody, you know, many people ask me at this point, how
do you really know if someone’s keeping their vows and, etcetera, etcetera. I
mean, you just, to the, you have to satisfy one person, which is yourself. [laughs]
I mean, you have to, to the best of your ability, and to the best of your
knowledge, you have to check if they are leading an ethical way of life or not.
And if they are not, stay away from them. They can t help you. They will never
make you happy. Just stay away, you know. Don’t, don t get into it. They can
have a lot of other good qualities, but if they don t have this first one, it’ll never,
ultimately, work out, you know. So watch out for that. Yeah?

[student: [unclear] have to be a [unclear]]
Not at all. Lama could be male, female, could be ten years old, could be a
hundred years old, could be ordained, could be not be ordained, could be
Buddhist, could be, I mean, a real Tantric master could pretty much look like
anything. And you don’t know. So keep your eyes out. [laughs] Okay?
Alright. But they have to have these ten qualities, okay. It s a very tricky subject
as you well know. So if you know, {dulwa} refers to their practise of the first of
the three trainings, which is ethical way of life, morality. But don’t think of
morality just in terms of Billy Graham, you know. It’s much broader. It’s
Bodhisattva morality which has a whole different flavor. And then secret
morality which has an, another incredible flavor, okay.
Say, {shiwa} [repeat] {shiwa} [repeat]; “shanti”, what’s it mean? Peace, okay.
{shiwa} means, peace. {shiwa} means, die – obviously related, okay. [laughs]
{shiwa} means, peace, okay. {shi wa} means, peace. This refers to the second of
the three trainings which is the ability to concentrate deeply, okay. They must
be a master of concentration and meditation. By the way, the thing about
knowing the monk’s vows or not, I think you could go to another monk that
you trust. And I think that’s what, for example, Atisha did, you know, when he
checked out Dipamkara, Serlingpa in Indonesia. You know, it took twelve
months to get there and then checked him out. He was like a private eye. He
was like a big detective and he, he went out and got the poop on this guy, you
know, and you shouls do that. You shouldn’t be satisfied, you know. I see
people, I was in a centre, which I won’t name, recently and there was a flyer
being circulated: tantric initiation, no preparation necessary [laughter] and from
so-and-so who’s, who’s a great master, teacher of this such-and-such illustrious
person, knew so-and-so. And, and they had a picture. And that was it. And, and
you’re supposed to go and take this ultimate commitment from this person on
the basis of this, you know, fluorescent flyer, you know. And it’s not enough.
You need to go check that person out, you know.                 That, that particular
relationship requires years of, of intimacy with that person’s characteristics
before you get into that. Say {nyer shiwa} [repeat] {nyer shiwa} [repeat]. The
{nyer} is like an emphasiser, in Sanskrit, ‘upa’ and it just means, “really peaceful”,
okay, [laughs] okay, ultra-peaceful, max, mega-peaceful. In Wendy’s they say,
“biggie peaceful”, [laughter]. And it means, it refers to this person must have
mastered the third training which is what?
[student: unclear]
Training of wisdom, okay. This does not, at this point, refer to the direct
perception of emptiness, okay. It’s refering, you can have the training of wisdom
before you enter the first path. Which means, you can, you can be practising the
training of wisdom before you even enter the first Buddhist path. So, the
training of wisdom is, can be a much more basic, general understanding of
something than, what comes later, when you perceive emptiness directly. So
this is much more broad and much more general, okay. It’s like a, a general
understanding of wisdom.
Yeah?
[student: unclear]
Yeah. Okay. [laughs] People yawn when I teach [laughs] and then I always
calling on them, you know? [laughs] Okay. Say {Yunten} [repeat], {Hlakpa}
[repeat]. {Yunten} [repeat], {Hlakpa} [repeat]. {yunten} refers to spiritual
qualities like compassion, or ability to perceive emptiness, and things like that.
Okay? {Hlakpa} means excessive. And it means that the, the person whose
your {she nyen} should have spiritual qualities which very far exceed the ones
that you have. They have to be way ahead of you. They have to have qualities
that, that you would like to gain. They, they have to have already been over
that territory that you want to pass over.
Say, {tsunche} [repeat] {tsunche} [repeat]; {tsun} means, “effort”, {che} means,
“has”, “possesses”. So the {she nyen} that you’re looking for should have,
possess effort, okay.
  Here, effort means they are obviously dedicating their life to reaching the two
goals. Which is what? It’s, it’s the ultimate benefit for themselves and the
ultimate benefit for others. This is called, the two goals, okay. They must be
dedicating their whole life to these two goals: reaching an ultimate
enlightenment whereby they can help both themselves and others to the
ultimate point, okay. They must be living for that, obviously living for that.
That’s what effort means here. Rinpoche always says, it doesn’t mean that
neighbour of ours who spends all night under his car fooling around with
carburettor. That’s not effort. Effort means they’re obviously working, they’re
obviously devoting their life to that goal, okay.
Say, {lung gi} [repeat] {chuk} [repeat] {lung gi} [repeat] {chuk} [repeat]; {lung}
means, scripture; {chuk} means, it probably comes from the ancient word for
‘cow’ but it means ‘rich’. In the old days, when you had a lot of cows, you, you
had bucks, you know [laughs] okay. I remember this aristocrat that I, who
taught me to speak Tibetan, and he said, you know, in Tibet I had nine hundred
and forty-three sheep [laughs], you know. [laughter] And I’m, like, okay.
[laughs] [laughter] So {lung gi chuk} means, you know, cow-rich in scripture,
very rich in scripture, wealthy in scripture, scriptural knowledge. And this
means that the {she nyen} must have a mastery of the three collections of
scripture, which are? Vinaya. The three baskets. Vinaya, Abhidharma, Sutra.
Okay. Meaning, the scriptures which relate to living an ethical life, learning to
concentrate, and learning wisdom, okay. They must have a broad knowledge of
those three baskets.
Say, {de-nyi} [repeat] {rabtok} [repeat] {de-nyi} [repeat] {rabtok} [repeat]; {de-
nyi} means, “suchness”, meaning emptiness; {rabtok} means they must have a , a
great realisation of emptiness- infinitely preferable if they have seen emtiness
directly. How do you know? [laughs]
[students: unclear] Yeah, generally you’re not allowed [laughter], generally,
there’s a part of the experience of seeing emptiness directly is that you’ll never
state, in outright terms, that you have seen emptiness directly. It’s part of the
experience and, and, and, and the scriptures address this question: how do you
know that a perosn knows emptiness if you’re so far away from knowing
anything about it yourself? How can you judge whether they’ve seen it? I think,
as the person describes emptiness, you have to see, there’s these tests of a
person’s learning, you know. Do they contradict themselves internally? Do they
contradict other sources of scripture and Buddhist knowledge that you’re aware
of? Do they contradict your direct knowledge and your direct experience, you
know? Are they internally consistent? Are they consistent with Buddhist
teaching, totally consistent? And are they, and is what they teach, totally
cocsistent with everything you have already experienced? And that’s about all
you can do, you know. It’s this consistencey question. Also, there’s a test of are
they, are they devoting themselves to knowledge which is meaningful? In other
words, are they in the right ball park, you know? Are they playing the right
game, you know? Do they spend their time struggling with spiritual things or
are they out doing something else, you know? That’s, that’s a general test, you
know, Especially, do they understand suffering? Can they describe suffering
well? And are they working todestroy the actual suffering of, of, of living beings
which is their whole existence, you know? Do they appreciate that and do they
address that and do they, do they spend their life addressing that, you know?
That’s a, one of the classic tests. And that’s about all. I, I would say, personally,
about the subject of emptiness, that id a person is incapable of describing the
relationship between emptiness and karma or emptiness and leading an ethical
life, then they probably don’t know very much about emptiness at all. And, and,
and of course, the corollary of that is, if they somehow think that emptiness
means that nothing matters or that emptiness means that you can ignore ethics
then, then I would stay away from them like poison, you know, ‘cos that is an
ultimate sign of ignorance about emptiness. The more a person has, is intimate
with emptiness, the more they should be talking about ethics and, and
compassion because one must go along with the other and if they don’t grasp
that then they don’t know anything about emptiness and I would avoid that
person. If they’re not talking about compassion and living a good life in the
same lecture where they’re talking about emptiness I’d say it’s suspicious. Okay.
Say {make den} [repeat], {make den} [repeat]; {ma} means, “to profess” or “to
teach”. It’s the ‘bashika’ in Vabashika}, for example. {ke} means, a master, okay,
“master”; and {den} means, “possesses”. So, possesses the mastery of teaching.
A master teacher. The person is a master teacher. The commentary that I am
using, which I believe is Dharmbadhra, but I always get confused about these
things. [laughs] Commentary number S-6237. We have like hundreds of, we
have thousands of commentaries now on the computer, [unclear] it’s hard to
figure out which one is which, you know. Anyway, {make den} means, two, two
points: one is that the person has an ability to grasp the capacity of the student.
In other words, they are sensitive to the capacity of the student. The ones who
can handle it they feed them more. And the ones who can’t they’re aware of it
and they feed them less. Like that. They regulate the heaviness of the teaching
to the person. Okay. The second quality that is mentioned in the commentary is
they go at the right speed for the particular student. They, if the student needs
to be taken along slowly they don t exceed the proper speed limit with that
student, which would ruin a student. Okay.
 [student: So that would imply a one-to-one relationship, wouldn t it?]
I, pretty much if, if, yeah, pretty much really need it. And, you know, by the end
of this I’m gonna say what Tsongkapa says, which is, you know, these people
are extremely rare. We’ll talk about that.
Say, [tseway] [repeat], [daknyi] [repeat] [tseway] [repeat], [daknyi] [repeat];
{tsewa} means, “love”, love.         And {daknyi} is a difficult word. ‘atma’ in
Mahatma and it means, you know, it’s the other part of the ‘maha’. [student:
soul.]
It means soul, but in Tibetan it means, ‘the embodiment of love’; the very image
of love. This refers to the person’s motivation for teaching you. Okay? It refers
to why, why do they want to be a teacher? Okay. And there’s four possibilities.
Alright? [laughs] First one is they want to get some material gain out of you;
they’re hoping that you will give them money or property or, or, or anything
else that they want, okay. That’s the first possible motivation. Obviously a bad
one. Second possibility is they have an attachment to being respected or looked
up to by other people and that’s why they’re teaching. They want other people
to say. oh, wow, okay. [laughs] Third possibility, they hope to get famous,
which is sort of connected to number two, right? They, they hope that many
people hear about how great they are and stuff like that. Motivation number
four is the only reason they are teaching is because they care about you. They
really care about you. And, and they are really concerned about you. They’re
really concerned that you succeed spiritually. And, and, that, they re, they’re
whole reason for teaching is, is that you don’t waste your life and that you reach
the highest goals of Buddhism as smoothly and efficiently as possible in this life,
okay. And that’s, that s the (tseway daknyi}. So (tseway daknyi} refers to
number four, motivation number four. The reason they’re teaching you is only
that they are concerned that you stop suffering.
Say, {kyowa} [repeat], {pang} [repeat], {kyowa Pang} [repeat]; {kyowa} means,
distaste for something.        Sounds related to the word {kupa} which means,
‘vomit’. [laughs] [laughter] Sorry. Ah, {pang} means, gave it up, okay, “gave
up distaste”, which means, they never get tired of teaching you. And they don t
care how much they have to repeat something. And they don’t, I mean they
don’t get discouraged. Tha’ s what {kyowa pang} means. They, they, they keep
teaching no matter what happens, and no matter how you react, and no matter
what goes on, and they, they don’t get discouraged. They don’t get discouraged
with you personally, and they don’t get discouraged with situations, or things
like that. They, they are teaching for a specific reason, which is that they love
you, and, and they’re like a mother. You know, somebody who really loves
someone can really ignore a lot. [laughs] Rinpoche’s always quoting this channel
nine broadcast, news broadcast where the, the kid has just shot four people on
the subway and, and they interview the mother, cause he’s in jail and they can t,
you know, and they say, what about your kid Johnny, you know? And she
says, he couldn’t of done it, you know, he’s perfect. He’s wonderful. He’s so
sweet, you know. And then you see Johnny on TV and, you know, he’s like,
you know [laughter] [laughs], he’s got [unclear] But it’s this love blinds the, the
person, I mean the mother, mother never, a real, you know, classic mother
never, never gives up on their, on their child. And just, the, the love just blinds
them to everything. I mean, you know, your mother wouldn’t resign being
your mother because you were bad, or something like that. You kn, it’s... I
mean, a real classic mother would not tender her resignation as your mother
because you, you didn t get it fast enough, or, or you were bad to her, or
something like that. I mean Lama really, really loves you and all they want is
your happiness. And they will put up with any kind of bad things that you do.
And, and they do, okay. And that’s, those are the ten qualities of a Lama.
Somebody asked about what if their {she nyen} had passed into nirvana? That’s
what you said, right? [laughter] The, the karma to keep, we talked about it
many times but I’ll repeat it. You know, sixty-four karmas [snaps fingers] and
they, and they, and they pass on but who, what happened? Did they pass on
independently? Did they pass on self-existently? I’m setting you up, okay.
What s the answer? [student: no] No. I mean, if they die, quote “die”, you
know, you know they got some disease, some germ came into then and
attacked their liver and they died, you know. That would be self-existent. What
really happens is that your karma wears out. And, and they dependently-
originatingly pass out of you life because you don’t have the karma anymore to
maintain that vision. And, and you, you don t have the goodness anymore to be
around them. Which brings me to the, someone once asked me, well how do I
re -, what’s that? How do I regenerate this karma, you know? How can I be
around my {she nyen} and have some kind of confidence that I’m not wearing
out this karma?      Is there any way to achieve fusion? Less energy in, more
energy out. And that is, you know, a very worthy goal, and a, and that is
probably one of the most important questions of Buddhism. And it’s to really
appreciate that {she nyen} for what they are. According to every Buddhist
scripture that {she nyen}, who’s in your life as a normal person is, for you,
infinitely more valuable then all the Buddhas in the universe,you know.
Whatever they are, good or bad, bla, bla, bla, they are your one and only
connection to all the Buddhas of the universe. They, even just logically, are
representing million of enlightened beings for you, because they’re that only
window to, to that realm is that person. So, so you have to recognize who they
are. You know, treat your Lama as a normal guy, for a day, and you ll use up
tremendous amount of karma and it won t be replaced. Appreciate who they
are, you know, just reflect on how blessed you are that this being is, is alive in
your life and, and reflect on how they, for you, they, they are meeting an
enlightened being, then you will regenerate the karma. That regenerates the
karma, that, that emotion that you feel towards them. And it’s logical, it’s, it’s
based on logic. There’s all these logic texts that prove your Lama is a Tantric
deity, you know. I don’t get into it. I’m not, I’m not gonna get into it.
 But they’re based on, that you, just to know them is almost enough to keep
them. How’s that? [laughs] Just to know who they really is almost enough to
keep them. Yeah?
 [student: Is there any indication on how many students it will not, would have
because he’s, he will be fully dedicated to the student so, it could, I cannot take
care of one hundreds]
[laughs] It’s, it gets into the question of the Lama passing away. If they are a real
Lama, I mean, a, qualification number eleven, I guess. It’s absolutely no problem
for a being like this to appear in another body for you, you know. It’s absolutely
no problem for them to be in New Jersey, and to be in New York, and to be out
on the West Coast at the same moment. Absolutely no problem. You just have
to find them, okay. Don’t, I mean, it’s almost an act of ah, sacrilege, if you don’t
believe they can, they can do that, you know. Of course they can do that, you
know. They are not a normal being, you know. Of course they can be three
different people at once. No problem, you know. Don’t, don’t, doubt it. If you
doubt it you will screw up that
 {tendrel}. And you will blow up the atmosphere. [laughs] Don’t doubt it at all.
Maybe it takes time to find them, you know. Maybe it takes a lot of virtue to
find them. And it will take a lot of virtue. But much of the virtue comes from
believing that. And if you doubt it you will burn off a lot of virtue. So don’t
doubt it. And it really is true. They are extremely capable of being a young lady
in New York, an old man in New Jersey, and somebody else on the West Coast.
No problem. What, why not? You know? What, what-a you think? What did
you think, you know? You want to find a Lama hopefully who’s enlightened
and, well you think that’s a problem for them? Or, or you don’t know what a
Buddha is? You don’t know the function of a Buddha? Was, you know, the
Buddha, like, stuck in a body with a bump on his head, and ears, and can only
walk around in Bodhygaya, you know? [laughs] I mean, are they restricted to
that, you know? What, it wouldn’t be much of an enlightenment if that’s all it
was, you know. So don’t doubt it. I mean seriously don’t doubt it. Find them.
When the virtue is enough, when your goodness is enough, you will find them.
And much of the goodness, especially in the secret teachings, coming, comes
from simply believing, or understanding, how that’s true. It’s all empty, you
know. Every being you meet is empty. What you see is what, up to? [students:
unclear] Your projections. They are determined by? [student: Karma.]
Your good or bad deeds. They have no reality on their own. Don’t, don’t diss
Nagarjuna, you know. You tell, you know, you, you can’t say, logically
understanding emptiness, that any particular being could not be your Lama, you
know. You’re not being logical. You’re saying they’re not empty. Yeah?
[student:[unclear]]
I’d say, I’d say it’s a sign of very, very good practice.
[student: What s the question, sorry?]
[laughs] He, if things start happening to you that are very special, and more and
more objects in your life seem special, he said is that being close to nirvana? I
said, well being close to nirvana means that specifically that object called your
own mind starts to get special. You know, because nirvana is the absence of
mental afflictions. So if find your mind getting sweeter and sweeter and more
and more moments of, of mind without mental afflictions, then, yeah. You’re
projecting a mind without mental afflictions because of your past good deeds.
That’s getting closer to nirvana. If you, if your practice is going very, very
sweet, and, you know, special things are happening to you, otherwise- which
they are supposed to- I would say the opposite. I’d say if they’re not then you’re
screwing up your practice. Something’s wrong with your practice. And I like to
say that in most cases it’s your praktimosha, you know. It’s, it’s as basic as that.
It’s not your tantric initiation short- fall, or your emptiness deficit, or your
[laughter] [laughs], you know, it’s normally that you engage in idle talk too
much, which is a great destroyer of virtue, you know, or something like that.
Idle thought, or idle magazine reading, or something like that. I m not saying
evil, I m just saying they don t, they, they, they’re obstacles from the reaml of
bliss, you know. So, you know, Sakya Pandita said don’t get attached to little
pleasures like the Sunday Times, you know, go for the Big Time. [laughs] You
know, if, if you have to get at the Sunday Times to get the Big Time, then, then
what’s the comparison,you know? Go for it. {Dewa ….. .}, Sakya Pandita. One
more question then we ll take a break.
 [Fran Dayan: unclear]
It s a bad, self-existent question. [laughter] Why, why did I say that? [student:
unclear]
She said, would the Lama stay in your life if you knew you really wanted him to
stay, or her to stay? Yeah?
[Fran Dayan: unclear. If a Lama didn’t know that, that he was passed on, or if
you neglected to tell him that they loved him, when he passed on. So that’s the
basic points I’m making.]
You guys tell me. Is that why the Lama passed on? It is in a way because, but
not in a way. In one way it is, in one way it’s not. If you have the devotion to
ask, that devotion would keep the Lama there. The karma would, would, the
karma of asking would keep the Lama. It’s considered, I forget who it was,
[unclear] you know, made the ultimate mistake, did not ask the Buddha to stay.
There was, one of his disciples, it’s, it’ s listed in the, yeah?, [unclear]. It’s listed in,
like, the five great mistakes of all time. And ah, [laughs] [laughter] and it was
like, he hesitated. But, by the way, one thing about {she nyens}, don’t hesitate.
Just don’t hesitate. Just go for it, you know. When it, when you find this just do
not hesitate. The time is very, very short. There’s no time. And if you’re on the
verge of a {she nyen} just go for it. I mean that’s one of the most precious things
I can teach you, is that, you know, when you’re on the verge of, of establishing
this link with this being, you know a lot-a people are, like, they hold back a little
bit or they, they just hesitate and the hesitation kills them, yo know. When
you’re close to that connection just close your eyes and jump, you know, ‘cos,
‘cos that’s the most valuable thing you can get, you know. Cool.
[student: and what does ‘go for it’ mean?]
It means give your whole devotion to that being and, and establish the
connection and, and hang onto that connection, you know, and don’t,…
Generally, we are very logical: my classes and, and my way of teaching and my
training is called {tsennyipa} which means, logician, you know. But when you
get to {she nyen} it’s total devotion, you know, and let them know and, you
know, let them know and beg them for that relationship. And keep it very
precious and cherish it in your heart, okay. You know it’s, like, just do it, you
know, just open up and embrace the {she nyen} and give your whole life to that
{she nyen}. And you will never never ever ever regret it. There’s no more
smart thing to do. It shows you are an Einstein of spiritual things. You know.
[laughs] And, and nothing but good things will come. And, I’m saying, when
you hesitate or you hold back a little bit or, you know, you’re not quite., you
know ....that’s okay, but go find the {she nyen}, you know, but don’t hesitate in
that search. Devote your life to finding the {she nyen} and do it as quickly as you
can. When you get close, then totally devote yourself to that {she nyen}.
 [student; And so why did it take Atisha so long?]
He checked out the {she nyen} because you have to make sure they have these
qualities. And it’s hard to know because you don’t have them yet yourself and
you’re going to the {she nyen} to get them so you don’t really recognize them
yet. And that’s the catch twenty-two. But here you have some general advice.
More specifically, in our present condition, we can not recognize a {she nyen} for
what they are, and, and we can’t relate to the {she nyen} in a, in a pure way after
we … I mean, if we think someone’s a {she nyen}, we don’t even know how to
embrace them in the right way. We hesitate, we do the wrong things, we, we
don t, we know, we say please be my teacher and the next day we do the
opposite of what they told us to do. And I can tell you. I’m an expert in it.
[laughs] You know? I mean, we are, we’re like children. And it’s, it’s hard to
recognize a {she nyen}, and then it’s hard to have the right relationship with that
{she nyen}. But this is a guideline. But be aware that your own mental afflictions
will, will get in the way sometimes. I mean your own, it’s, it’s a very famous
thing that within, within a certain amount of time of knowing anyone, you start
to see faults in them. And they’re largely your own faults. It’s just a very
famous thing about psychological projection in Buddhism that, they say if they
put you in a room with ten people within two weeks you’ll like three of them,
you’ll hate three of them, and four of them you won’t care about them. And,
and it doesn’t matter which ten people you go in the room with. Because it’s not
the people, you know So there’s this, it’s a very difficult. I mean, what I’m
saying is, there are such {she nyens}, they are sitting there waiting, and it’s, it’s
on the homework, okay, and I ll, it’s, why does the {she}, if the {she nyen} has
these qualities why, why is the {she nyen}, and if the {she nyen} is aware of
having those qualities, why? Where’s it coming from?
 [student: If the {she nyen} is aware?]
The {she nyen} has these ten qualities. And they’re aware of the, having those
ten qualities. Where s that coming from?
[student: From your perception of...]
Whose perception?
[student: Your own perception.]
Yeah, from the {she nyen’s} own perception. You know, they look down and
see a person who is keeping all three trainings, who’s doing all those ten things
right. They can look down and see that on an otherwise empty screen, okay.
They are forced by their past good deeds to see a, a being who is keeping
perfectly all ten of those things. What about the student?
[student: It depends on their karma]
No, I mean, if the student focuses on the same being, what does the student see?
It actually depends on the students own karma, you know. You could see seven
of them or six of them or four of them or none of them or maybe ten of them or
maybe ten of them not so strong or something like that. I mean, and if the {she
nyen} passes, seems to pass away, that’s whose karma? That’s your problem,
you know, if you think they saw themselves die. If they’re enlightened they
didn’t see anything like that, you know. That’s the emptiness of the student
relation, teacher relation. That’s a little deep. But the bottom line is this, I like to
think of it, have you seen those Flemish paintings where they lay on varnish,
you know. Like, here’s this angel in the Bruge museum, you know [laughs]
okay [laughter] maybe not just like that [laughter] [laughs] I’m spitting on those
Flemish masters. And they put on all of these layers of lacquer. You know,
layer after layer after layer and they lay paint in between the lacquer at different
levels and so it gives this, I mean after four hundred years or five hundred years
there’s still this incredible intensity to the colors and, and, and three
dimensionality to the colors. Extraordinary. But I would like to think of a {she
nyen} like that, you know, what level your eyes are picking up on. There are all
of those levels there. It’s not contradictory to say that one person can be a
rascsal and a half- rascal and a quarter- rascal and a not rascal at all and then a
holy being and an angel at different levels of the varnish. And what level your
eye catches on depends totally on your own projections. They are all of the
above, simulatenously. It’s not contradictory to say they are all of the above.
Which perception is correct?
 [student: All of them.]
All of them are {tsema}. All of them are pramana, okay. They are all based on,
they’re all valid in that you are really seeing what you’re able to see. And that’s
pramana; that’s {tsema}, that’s a valid perception. Okay. Which one would you
rather have? [laughs] We’d rather live around enlightened beings, okay? And if
you want to look at that level of the varnish, you know, if you want your eye to
stop at that level, you have to do one thing...[student: [unclear]]
 Good deeds, I mean, and ultimately good deeds. And what is the highest good
deed?
[student: [unclear]]
It’s {she nyen ten tsul}. I’m telling you that, okay. It’s very simple. I don’t say it
in front of a lot of people. The highest good deed you can do is to find that {she
nyen} and give yourself to that {she nyen}. And don’t hesitate, you know. Go
for it.
[student: ultimately. ]
Huh? [student: ultimately if your relationship with that {she nyen} is evil, that
{she nyen} [unclear]]
No, couldn,’t, wouldn’t [student: [unclear] Ultimately [unclear]]
No they wouldn’t, why would they want to leave you? I mean, why would they
do that? It would be a very cruel thing. [student: unclear] If, if you had a..., of
course [unclear] But I’m just saying there is no, what I’m trying to say is, and I
know we want to take a break [cut]
[end side A]
[side B]
Ah, there is nothing more precious that I can teach you. I mean, find a good,
find a real, find your {she nyen} and [cut] , you know, let them do their thing.
 [student:and it’s not an attachment?]
Oh no. [laughs] Not at all. This is a path. This is the path. This is the first {lam
rim}. This is the first and the most important {lam rim}. There’s nothing
sweeter. I mean, there’s nothing more wonderful. You just can’t imagine it.
And, you just have to find them, okay. Those are the clues for looking, okay.
But for each person it will be something special. And you’ll know. But what I’m
saying is where, when you know, don’t hesitate, just do it, you know. Give
yourself to them, you know.
 [student; [unclear]]
Yeah.
[student: ... and what happens if that s not the case does the {she nyen} tell you
to go somewhere else?]
[laughs] By the way, you’re talking, that’s a very serious question. And ah, it’s
called breaking {damtsik}, breaking the relationship. I mean, that’s why you
have to be so careful before you get married. But after you get married, you
know, it’s, it’s forever, you know. That’s, that’s not for one life, you know.
That’s a, you, you, you, it’s a very serious search. And you have to find one that
can, this is talking future lives also, you have to find one that will stay with you
for your future lives. You have to find one who has the power to stay with you
throughout all your lives. And they do. And they will. If you find a real one
they will never leave you, you know. [unclear]



The eighteen leisures and fortunes and then I’m supposed to do the [laughter],
three refuges and then I supposed to the four powers, you know. Okay, and it’s
nine o’clock. So, the eight leisures you will get in the PrincipleTeachings of
Buddhism book, note number forty-three, [laughter] seriously, okay. It’s on
your homework so [student: unclear]. Principle Teachings of Buddhism. I
believe it’s footnote number forty-three. You check it out. But I think that one
says the eight lacks of opportunity. The opposite of those are the eight spiritual
leisures. And the homework says, what are the eight spiritual leisures? And I’m
not going to go into them. Simply enough to say that to be a human in New
York City in the very year that Buddhism begins to knock on the door of
America or, you know, within that twenty year span or whatever, to have a
mind that’s half-intelligent, to have any spiritual yearnings at all to bump into
this, to one of the only places where they’re teaching it, you know, to have any
attraction to it at all, to, to bump into the lineage of it makes you, I’ve, I’ve
calculated it, it’s something like one in a million. It truly is one in a million,
maybe a little more; one in one point three million or something people in the
United States. You are very, very different and you have some extraordinary
virtue, each person in this room. The one thing I’ve realised teaching was that I,
I, I really believe that every person who gets as far as walking into this building
has some extraordinary seeds in them and if we take good care of them that
each one of those people could be a great teacher. I really believe that. From
my experience so far each person who has the karma to walk into this building
has some extraordinary role to play in the, in the preservation and in the
spreading of this holy knowledge, you know. I really believe that. I believe each
person in this room has some kind of destiny to do that and I just encourage you
to go for that also. You know, just go for it. There’s nothing else worth doing
actually, which you’ll find out now or later. You know, take my word for it or
live a few more years, you know. [laughter] You, it’s an extraordinary,
extraordinary opportunity and I believe that if you had the karma to get here
that , according to my own observation in the last few years, that each, it amazes
me. I mean, someone this morning handed me a piece of paper, I mean last,
yesterday, of a translation they were working on. You know, we went over it
for a couple of hours. This is somebody that I didn’t even think their Tibetan
was very good yet. And I was walking on my way to work and I open up this
paper and I had to stop and look at it. And this is extraordinary. You know, I
was just, like, like that. And, and then it dawned on me that, like, everybody can
do that, you know. I mean, like, everybody in the clas if they really, I don’t
mean you have to be a Tibetan translater. I’m saying, each person here if they
carefully water the seeds which you already have within your own mental
continuum from your past lives then that, then it really could be a place where
Buddhist teachers are trained and that each person here could go out and, and
benefit many, many people. And I, I just urge you to think in those terms.
Please don’t think of this, I mean, the homework is deceiving. It looks like high
school, you know. It makes it feel like high school. It’s not that. I mean, it’s a
very holy transmission and I believe that each person here will come to have
their own circle of devoted followers and that each person here would, um,
would be saving people’s spiritual lives, you know. And I, don’t, don’t think
anything less of these classes. Don’t, don’t think anything less that that is going
on. It’s a very historical moment and it’s also a very holy moment. And I don’t
see, I see that each person here could do that. That’s the leisures, okay. [laughs]
How do I get out of refuge? [laughter]
Refuge is very simple, you know. We recovered an ancient book by a kadampa
named {Drolungpa, Geshe Drolungpa} and it was missing. And His Holiness
found a copy in Siberia about ten years ago and it’s badly defaced. You can’t
read it very well. And then we found a copy in South India and then we recently
found another half a copy in Russia. And, and, and he, and he truly reveals in
that book the meaning of refuge very clearly. And, and it is that way in the
Prajnaparamita. And I’ve never seen a, such a good presentation, I mean, I’ve
never seen it presented so clearly in accord with the Perfection of Wisdom. And
it says, we’re talking about how you take refuge, okay. And I’m, there’ve got,
it’s very to me, very clear and simple. Refuge means two things. What are the
two requirements for refuge? Why do you go to your mommy? Why do you
go to … Yeah. You’re afraid of something and you think someone can help you.
These are the two requirements for refuge. Something bad is happening and
then you’re running to someone who you think can help you. Those are the two
things going on, okay. The bad thi8ng that’s happening is called your life.
[laughs] Seriously. Okay. If you don’t think so yet, I mean, you’re in for a rude
awakening. I mean, you’ve had a low-level of suffering so far and it will
accelerate and it will get deadly serious like for Laura Seigel. I mean, what was a
joke has become very deadly serious now. She is in danger of her life and she
was one of the best students in these classes. She was the straight-A student,
straight hundreds. Now, she’s fighting for her life and it has become no, it’s not
like a giggling thing anymore. It’s deadly serious,you know. She’s thinking of
Buddhism in terms of , of how can I do what I have to do before the cancer kills
me, you know. And she’s doing it and she’s … It’s a very serious thing. So
that’s refuge. Refuge means life is going to kill you. In the meantime, things are
going to go in their old depressing way. Ah, and on the other hand, there’s this
incredible bliss and incredible, ah, paradise sitting there under the veneer of
the,you know, twelve layers of lacquer, you know, and you just have to see it.
You just have to be able to experience it which all depends on?
[student: your karma]
Your own karma. Which is, you can either create karma with a inefficient
machine called Pratimoksha, not inefficient but very slow. Or you can use a little
bit faster machine called Bodhisattva behavior. Or you can use a jet engine called
secret teachings. But you, before it gets to the Laura Seigel stage you must
create enough virtue to change the reality you’re in. And if you don’t do it fast
enough it’ll, the old reality will just wrap you up and kill you. And it’ll be too
late. You will not be in a human life like this anymore, probably. You won’t
have this opportunity anymore. So that’s refuge. What is the one thing you
really have to pull off before you die? Is to see emptiness directly. Okay. And
everyone in this room has that capacity. And it’ s extremely difficult. The odds
are not very good you know. You have to really take it as a serious goal. And
you have to time it right before, before things [laughs] collapse, you know. It
takes a certain amount of health and, and wisdom, and etcetera. So, what is
refuge? The ultimate refuges are as follows: Buddha Refuge. You know if, if on
your homework, it says, what’s the essence of Buddha Refuge?                It’s the
Dharmakaya, okay. It’s the Dharmakaya.
What’s the Dharmakaya made of? What is the real Buddha Jewel? I mean
there’s a difference between Buddha and Buddha Jewel. Buddha Jewel is the
thing you go for refuge to. Three Jewels are the three objects of refuge. The
Three Jewels are the thing, three things that you’re running to. Okay. As
opposed to just general Buddha. The Buddha Jewel is much different from
general Buddha. Buddha Jewel is what? [student: unclear]
There’s the real Buddha Jewel and the apparent, you know, and the
representative, what do you call, symbolic Buddha Jewel. Symbolic Buddha
Jewel is here, you know, up here, over there... Those are symbolic Buddha Jewel.
The real Buddha Jewel is dharmakaya. Who’s, who, which is made of, mainly,
emptiness, okay. When do you meet that dharmakaya, directly?
 [student: [unclear]]

Path of Seeing. If, if it was as easy as dying we would have done it a long time
ago ‘cos we’ve died countless times. Okay. [laughs] You meet the dharmakaya
when you see emptiness directly because it is emptiness, mostly. So, so one
refuge is intimately tied up with seeing emptiness directly. It is the emptiness
that you see really. And then, that dharmakaya and the mind connected to it,
have the ability to emanate all these pictures and all these guys walking around.
That’s not the real Buddha. The real Buddha is that dharmakaya, okay.
What’s refuge object number two?
[students: unclear]
Dharma Jewel. Which is also symbolic or actual. What’s the symbolic Dharma
Jewel?
[students: unclear]
The books. Where’s they go? I don’t know. Oh, those books, okay. [laughs]
Those books, alright. They are not the Dharma Jewel. You could run and hide
under those books and death would still pull you out by your leg and kill you,
you know. Doesn’t help. The real Dharma Jewel is two things. [student:
unclear] Realisations. Realisations and? [student: unclear]
The cessation you get from them. What’s a cessation? I’ll give you two
examples. Cessations can be divided into cessations that you get from seeing
emptiness and cessations that don’t depend on seeing emptiness directly. We call
them { so so tango} and {so so tang mi ..}. The one that doesn’t depend on seeing
emptiness directly is, for example, during the Path of Preparation which is path
number two, you reach a point at which you are so good you will never again
take a birth in the lower realms. That’s a cessation. And you own that cessation
for ever. Yiou can never lose it. Which means, you can never be born in a lower
realm again. You have not seen emptiness directly yet. That’s a cessation that
doesn’t depend on seeing emptiness directly. Then there’s a thing called nirvana,
which is the cessation of your [ students: unclear] mental afflictions, permanent
end of your mental afflictions. That absolutely depends on? [students: unclear]
Seeing emptiness directly. That’s part of the definition of nirvana. They’re two
kinds of cessation. That’s the real Dharma Jewel: cessations and the paths of
those cessations. What’s the number one path of those cessations? The most
important path?
[student: unclear]
Oh, seeing emptiness directly. [laughs] Okay. The most important one. You
getting a picture here? I mean, a lot of emptiness is in here. Refuge object
number one is emptiness itself that you see for the first time directly when you
see emptiness directly. Real refuge number two is mostly seeing emptiness
directly at the path of Seeing. What’s, wha’ s refuge object number three?
[student: Sangha.]
Sangha Jewel, please. Which is different from the Sangha, okay. What’s the
symbolic Sangha Jewel? People wearing red clothes. They are not the Sangha
Jewel. You can take refuge in anybody who wears red cloths you’re gonna get
in trouble ‘cos most of them are just normal people probably. But they
represent what?
 [student; Seeing emptiness...]
Yeah. People who’ve seen emptiness directly, okay. Aryas. Okay, and that’s
the real refuge. I’m sorry, Sangha Refuge, Sangha Jewel. The day you see
emptiness directly how many refuge objects do you become?               [students:
unclear]
It’s cool. You become two of the three jewels. You know, when people around
the world light incense in the morning and, and go I go for refuge to the Three
Jewels, they are going for refuge to... you. {laughs] Okay. And the day you see
emptiness directly you are already two of those refuge objects. All people all
over the universe are taking refuge in you.
Yeah? The third one you have to get to a Dharmakaya.
[student: [unclear]]
That, you mean number three? I mean number one, Buddha Jewel?
[student: [unclear]]
Oh, you become, you, you gain the state of mind which sees emptiness directly.
So you have become the, the Dharma Jewel because you, you have the state of
mind which sees emptiness directly. You’ve experienced it and you become the
Sangha Jewel because you are one of those people who has seen emptiness
directly. So you automatically become two of the jewels. You don’t get to be
jewel number one, Buddha Jewel, until you reach enlightenment and get your
own, very own [students: unclear] Dharmakaya. [laughter] [laughs] Alright?
Ah, that’s refuge, okay. Why the hell should any one of those three things help
you? What is to go for refuge? Do you have to see emptiness directly to go for
refuge?
 [student: No. You have to aspire to see emptiness directly.]
You have to be running to them for protection. It’s, it’s called {ushin la etc.}:
definition of refuge. To put all your hopes in another object in order to save you
from something that you don’t want. That you don’t like. So you’re putting all
your hopes in reaching this state. That is the state of refuge, okay. But real
refuge would be some kind of knowledge, okay. Like, what happens when you
see emptiness directly is that you become aware that all of the things in your life
are projections. Forced on you by? [student: Your karma.]
If you saw emptiness and if you became totally convinced that every single
experience in your life and every object in your life was created from your own
past deeds, good or bad, you would automatically act good. And that’s the only
protection. There is no other protection. No person can protect you and I’ve
mentioned it many times: Buddha was sitting in his living room, his fellow
countrymen, running away from enemy soldiers, ran behind him for his
protection and they were cut down holding onto him, you know. Can’t protect
you like that. The only thing that can protect you is, is understanding emptiness
and acting on it, which is, being good. And, and which habit, eventually, forces
all your mental afflictions out of your mind which is, reaching [ students:
nirvana] nirvana. And if you keep that up long enough your world changes into
a Buddha paradise and then you got protection. So, protection means, refuge
means understanding emptiness and, because you understand emptiness,
leading an ethical life. And that’s all ‘cos nothing else could ever protect you. It’s
not, like, oh help me Buddha, you know. It doesn’t help. Can’t do anything for
you. Okay.
Got out of refuge. Now, we’ve got to finish the four questions. Sorry it’s a little
late. We tried to do a whole Lam Rim in three nights. We’ll do this in five
minutes. [laughter] It’ll be deva five minutes, okay. It’s said that one day in the
deva realms is equivalent to a million years on a human realm, [laughs]
something like that. We’ll do a deva five minutes. Okay.
One of the questions that came up during the vinaya part was, can you wipe out
your old karma? People who were in California, they studied the Diamond
Cutter Sutra and in the Diamond Cutter Sutra the Buddha says, there is a way to
short-circuit your old bad karma. You can wipe out your old bad karma. It’s of
great interest, you know. Refuge means, do what you have to do, go ahead
[student: unclear, did you turn it off?] [unclear]
Cool. Okay, very quickly, we’re going to go over the four powers. Je
Tsongkapa specifically says in this text, what is this text? [students: unclear]
Yeah, it’s his own record of his own spiritual experiences which is
unprecedented. He doesn’t say it about this stuff anywhere else. And, he says in
there, “you must do as I did”. In other words, you must keep using these four
powers over and over and over. Every day you have to keep using them, doing
them, doing them, doing them. Okay.
Refuge can take away your future bad karma but what about your old bad
karma? [laughs] Okay. You need something to clean out that. If you take good
refuge, you understand emptiness, and therefore, understand that all your
experiences are coming from projections forced on you by your past karma, you
want want to do anything bad, but you still have todeal with all the old stuff.
You know, the collection, the accumulations of garbage from past lives, okay.
These are the way to clean it out. Very, very, very important. I’m sorry we
don’t have much more time to do it.
Say,{ten gi top} [repeat] {ten gi top} [repeat]; {ten} means, “basis”. This is the
‘basis force’ and they say that it means that you fell down and, you know, you’re
like that, and, and you push against the floor, you know. You’re pushing, you
need something to push against to get, you need something to get back, push
against to get back up. And that means, go back to the basics of Buddhism,
which are two. Which is what? [students: unclear]
Take refuge and, and bodhichitta, okay.            Take refuge and, and review
bodhichitta,okay. Take refuge as we just described it, in emptiness. And then,
bodhichitta, think about other people. I, you know, I don’t, I used to have
trouble,a lot of trouble getting compassion or feelings of compassion, you know.
Like, I could think about Laura Siegel but it wears off after a day or two. But if I
really think of five billion creature crawling around the face of this planet, driven
relentlessly by the inability to be satisfied with anything, and that the whole
human commerce is based on this, it’s pretty comapssion, arising, you know,
generating, you know. That’s sad. That’s really sad, you know. A whole city of
eight milion people burning out their lives for something that cannot make them
happy, you know, and driven to the next day, you know, the next pay cheque.
You know, driven to the next possession by this problem in theirown mind. It’s
very, very, ah, you know, it’s very sad. It’s a very sad thing. I think, I don’t
think you need to think of more than that: Panchen Lama’s human suffering,
number one, you know, that people can not be satisfied And this dissatisfaction
will drive them in the millions, on the subways, to go to these little places where
they spend fifty weeks a year to get money so they can get back on the subway
and come back and spend fifty more weeks, you know. And it’s so, it’s so sad. I
think it’s enough. It can make you sad, you know. So, that’s bodhichitta. Two
things: refuge and bodhichitta.
Say, {nambar sun jinpay tob}, not that fast. Say, {nambar} [repeat] {sun jinpay}
[repeat] {top} [repeat] {nambar} [repeat] {sun jinpay} [repeat] {top}[repeat];
{nambar sun jinpay} means, totally waste something, to destroy it completely. I
like to call it the ‘destruction power’. {top} means, power, destruction power. I
think [unclear] [laughter] sculpture [laughs] is { nambar sun jinpay top}. The
destruction power, and this is, the intelligent regret of an educated Buddhist,
okay. The intelligent regret of an educated Buddhist who knows that in the very
moment that you think a bad thought, or that you say a bad thing, or that you
let your eyes go to the wrong thing, in that very moment, you have planted
something in your mind that is extremely difficult to get out and it will only
make you suffer. And you know it, you know. You become very schizophrenic,
you know. Like, the minute you get mad at your boss you’re, like, you know,
hitting yourself. [laughs] [laughter] It’s really weird. It’s really weird. The more
you learn about Buddhism the more scary it is, you know, as far as what’s
planted in your mind. As soon as you think something, you know, as soon as
you have the least bit of .. I saw this guy, homeless guy, this morning. He’s like,
up in my face. I just walked out, you know. I just got up. My [unclear] wasn’t
ready to meet this guy. He’s, like, in my face, he says give me some money, like
[laughter] [unclear] [laughs] And I’m, like, I hated him for that moment. I was,
like, I hated him. And then I said, oh, my god, what did I just plant in my brain,
you know. I mean, what did I just plant in my mindstream? You know, the
more you know about Buddhism, that’s a tremendous future suffering for me,
you know. So, {nambar sun jinpay tob} means just to realise that. To regret it at
that moment is very, very good and it wipes out a lot of the energy of the, of the
bad deed.
[student; So you have this bad thought you acknowledge it and protect yourself
and then you have the same bad thought [unclear] very seriously , unclear]
Yeah, I know, we ll talk, it’s coming next, actually. And this is the last thing
tonight so take, take hope.
[cut] [repeat], {le larn} [repeat], {dokpay tob} [repeat]. {neypa le} [repeat],{larn
dokpay} [repeat], {tob} [repeat]; {nyepa} means, bad deed.            {Nyepa le larn
dokpa} means, to restrain yourself in the future, okay.          To restrain yourself
from the bad deed in the future. It is driven by number two. Number two says,
you know, that moment of anger at this poor guy is, is frankly gonna cause me
much suffering in the future. I, it’s very hard to get that seed out of my mind
now. Thirty seconds later you can realize, if you’re really well educated
Buddhists, that you’ve just planted a very, very strong seed in your mind and it’s
gonna be very hard to clean it out. And if, and if you don’t clean it out it’s
gonna make you suffer. I mean, you ll be depressed for weeks or something.
People say, why am I depressed? Well that’s the cause, you know. You won’t be
happy for weeks. Something will make you unhappy for weeks. You’ll have
this feeling of unhappiness or depression. It’s from an instant of anger at this, at
this poor guy, you know. {Nyepa le larn dokpay tob} means, you, you decide
not to do it again. The great Lamas of our lineage have said set a time limit,
because if you don’t you will collect the additional bad deed of? [students:
unclear] Lying. [laughs]
If I said tonight in front of all you dear people who come here and make me
teach so I can learn things myself and if I got up and said, I promise, you know,
[unclear] tomorrow, I’m never going to get mad at that gy again. If he shows up
tomorrow I’m definitely going to be compassionate, you know. It would be, I
would lie because, you know, two days later I would forget myself and, and I’d
get angry again. And then I’ve collected a new bad deed. So they say set
yourself a time limit. I like to tell people that I can honsetly say that in a
meditation session before finishing the fourth power I have broken it again, you
know. So, some of them, maybe you want to put a ten minute limit on it.
[laughter] Okay. I mean, ideally, I think that except for mental ones that you
feel strongly about like getting irritated with your boss or something, you can
probably keep it half a day or day if you concentrate. Pick one. Restrict yourself
to one and say, for twenty-four hours I won’t do it again. It has a lot of power,
you know. You think that just avoiding it for twenty-four hours and then doing
it again for three hundred and sixty-five days is not very powerful, but it is very
powerful. It has, it has a profound effect on you to decide not to do it and then
not do it. This is the main force. This is, this is the one that drives everything.
This is the one that purifies your karma. This is the one that stops your karma,
okay. People accuse me when they hear about this, especially non- Buddhists,
they say, oh yeah, you Buddhists like it’s the morning-after pill, you know, very
convenient. You know, you can do a bad deed the night before and then the
next morning you can just do your four powers and then everything’s okay and
then the next night you go do it again. But then I say, no, you don’t understand
power number three. If it’s your intention to do it again, and if you’re happy
about doing it again, you didn’t, you’re not purifying the karma.
If you, if you don’t feel really bad, and if you don’t really strongly intend to try
to stop yourself in the future, even if it’s only for one day, this does not work
and you will not purify the karma, okay. So, it really hangs on that, hinges on
that. Okay. [cut]
[end side B]
960826-1

ACI Course IX: The Ethical Life