Углублённый курс ACI 01 — Учения будущего Будды: «Уттаратантра» Майтреи (2003, Аризона), занятие 3

[Говорящий 1]
There's a little bit from the last class that I didn't get to because we got caught up in the six questions of the king. So, as Gisela said in class before, this is the book that makes arias, you know? I mean, this was written to, designed for us to become arias when we study it.

And we have proof of that because Master Asanga wasn't an aria when he got the book, and then he studied it along with Maitreya's other four books, and then he became an aria. A little bit of the history. When Arya Asanga got to Shishida, he reached a level on the path on Jorlam called Chugengi Tengenzin, which is, remember we went over the four levels yesterday, which, do you guys remember?

[Говорящий 2]
That's okay.

[Говорящий 1]
Right, so he reached, Chugengi Tengenzin is specifically on the point of mastery, on the third level of the second path. And it means you're really, you're damn close to seeing emptiness directly. You know, you're almost there.

You're at the third level. The fourth level is seeing dependent origination directly. It happens pretty fast, you know?

I mean, you go through that and, you know, half an hour later, you're in the direct perception of emptiness. So, you don't really get to the fourth level of Jorlam until you're almost ready. So, the third level is really, really close.

And in Chugengi Tengenzin, which I have a hard time saying, like a tongue twister, you gain certain abilities. And one of them, the most prominent of these is the ability to remember perfectly every single Dharma teaching you've ever had. And people, you can kind of see, there are certain people, maybe that you know, who have this ability on a lower level.

I mean, they're starting to get it. They seem to never have to study and they just suddenly spout off a quotation from something that they heard six months ago, or something like that. Or they, yeah, Petra has it.

Yeah. Or they remember books really, really clearly. And that's a sign of getting up on the path of Jorlam.

And I just thought this was really interesting because, you know, most of us are on that path. Most of us haven't reached the point where we've seen emptiness directly. And so, it's really nice to know where you are on the path.

And really nice to know that because Jorlam seems to be this really big, amorphous thing that you don't get out of anytime soon. And it's nice to have levels. It's nice to have stages within that, that you can mark your progress as you're meditating.

And that's the whole point of studying people like Arya Sangha's life. We know we're getting there. We know we can do it.

So, Arya Sangha wasn't an Arya when he came back from Tushita. He reached that stage later in his life when he began teaching, according to the ancient scriptures. So, that's something to think about for everyone.

Maybe there's a certain karma there to passing on the dharma that leads you to a greater understanding of it yourself. And by the end of his life, he reached the third Bodhisattva level. Now, in comparison, it's said that Arya Nagarjuna only reached the first Bodhisattva level.

And Lord Maitreya, during this point, was on the tenth Bodhisattva level. So, you can kind of structure your thoughts about them in that way. And this was in the reading, so I didn't feel guilty about not covering it yesterday because I gave you the reading.

But I thought that we should talk about it in class anyway, just in case you never get to that reading. It's a short period of time to go through this much information. And I know it's kind of hard to squeeze homeworks and readings.

So, yesterday we got sort of an outline about what the whole Uttara Tantra was about, you know, the seven diamond-like visions. And really, that's the entire book, you know, those seven diamond-like visions. And it's all centering, well, first of all, centering on the three jewels, you know, but in sort of a different aspect than you normally see them, right?

It's centering on refuge to the three jewels. And there are two reasons to take refuge, and I'm sure someone in this illustrious group would be able to tell me what they are. Right, that you're afraid of something, and you think that the person you're going to refuge to, or that the object you're going to refuge to, is going to be able to help you.

So, here's an interesting question. The odd part about the Uttara Tantra is that you're taking refuge in your own future Buddhahood. Now, why take refuge in your own future Buddhahood, you know?

How is that going to help you? And that's sort of the crux, I think, of this book in particular. That's the unique aspect of it.

And that's the reason why it's the basis for Tantric presentations. You know, it's sort of a bridge between Sutra and Tantra. It is a Sutra text, it's considered a Sutra text, but it's leading you into a deeper kind of refuge and a deeper understanding of emptiness.

Because only with that deeper understanding of emptiness could you ever understand why taking refuge in your own future enlightenment would be able to help you. So, this brings us back to what we were talking about before. Maitreya's five books were each designed for certain students.

And this particular book was designed for the highest type of student. This means the student that the book was designed for. And it means the one that needs to be disciplined.

The one that needs to be tamed. They actually use it for reining in horses and stuff. And they use it for us too.

And you can understand why if you've ever tried to practice Dharma. And fought with your mind at all. And Chedi Jawe is just an idiom, meaning designed for.

Yeah, it's nice. So, this is in general what disciples who study this book must be. Um, say Tekchen, Rikchen, Tekchen, Rikchen, and Wang Nuen.

What does Tekchen mean? Yeah, um, Tekchen means highest vehicle, you know, Mahayana path. And Rikchen, Rik means family here.

And Chen is highest, you know, or highest family. Which means the entering the family of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas when you take your vows, that whole aspect of family. It means you have to have a higher motivation than just serving yourself, than just getting to a lower nirvana.

You have to want to bring every living being up along with you. You know, you have to have the greatest capacity. So that's the first um, general quality.

And the second quality, does anyone know what Wang means? Power, right. And Nuen means sharp.

And it, in this case, it refers to your intellectual capacity to understand, specifically emptiness. You have to have a high intellectual capacity to study this text. Well, these are two general qualities.

And then it, um, we're going to go into three more specific characteristics of a disciple with these qualities also has to have three more, uh, characteristics. So galupa, you know, these little outlines with the levels and A and B and I, and you know, it just keeps going.

[Говорящий 2]
I think it's just inspiring.

[Говорящий 1]
Cause when you take your bodhisattva vows, it's not necessary for you to have realized bodhicitta in your mind. And they use the same phrase here. You know, you've entered into the family of the Buddhas by your intention of even wanting to, to take those vows.

You know, even though we're nowhere near, or maybe I don't know, I'm nowhere near, um, having that quality for real, you know? So, um, lucky for us, it's not actual bodhicitta that they're talking about. I wonder how they could screen that at the door, you know?

It's like, okay, you can only have actual bodhicitta to come into this room. Yeah. I have to be right.

Okay. So in addition to having, um, a Mahayana ideal and high, high intellectual capacity, um, there are three characteristics that the ideal student should have for studying this book. In Tibetan, it's gupa, gupa, gupa.

And in Sanskrit, it's karya, karya. And, um, this means need. You have to have a very, um, strong reason.

Um, you have to have a burning desire to take away all the suffering that you see in this world. Um, and there are two ways that they, they say you can develop this need if you don't already have it. Um, the first is, uh, karuna.

Say karuna. Karuna. Now this is a, this is a retroflex N.

So, um, when you say it, you have to curl your tongue so that the bottom of your tongue is touching the roof of your mouth. Karuna. Yeah.

And, uh, in Tibetan. So what's karuna? Compassion.

You have to, um, you have to work on developing your compassion. And, uh, so this is a second way to develop that need. And we talked about it in class before.

Um, say ashaya. Ashaya. Vishudhi.

Vishudhi. Ashaya. Vishudhi.

Vishudhi. This S is the same kind of retroflex as the N. So, sha.

Yeah. Um, and in Tibetan it's hlaksam. Namdak.

And we talked about that in class. Do you remember what it is? Yeah.

Yeah. I'm going to do it myself. You know, forget waiting around for everyone else.

Um, it has to be done. So I'll just deal with it, you know? So will it work if you develop compassion and you develop, um, a sense of personal responsibility?

Do you think you'll, you'll reach a state where you absolutely need to stop pain in this world? Yeah. Thank you.

Um, the second characteristic that you, all of us ideal students should have. Second one is shakyate. Shakyate.

And in Tibetan, nupa. Nupa. And this means, um, capacity or ability.

Specifically, the way that you get ability or capacity is what? What do you think? How would you gain the ability to help, um, all living beings or, or end the suffering in this world?

Um, specifically for this book, it's the wisdom side. They emphasize the wisdom side. Um, so this is how you develop, um, your capacity.

Say shunyata. Shunyata. Shunyata.

Shunyanam. Shunyata. Shunyata.

Shunyanam. So this means understanding emptiness. There's a little dot under this H.

Uh, sorry. It's a long year. Yes.

Thank you. Shunyata. And, um, we discussed, uh, this in Yoga Sutra, um, shu or, um, shva.

It means, um, to swell, like, um, like a bubble swells. And, uh, it came into English, like, um, cave, shva, like it's kind of switched. And, um, so you see how the root even means something, something with nothing inside it, you know, it's, uh, but it's, it's really interesting.

All the Sanskrit words, um, every single thing that ever comes from Sanskrit all comes from a verbal root. So everything stems from something that did something, you know, from action. And then only afterwards do you get the nouns, you know?

Um, yeah, that's, uh, that's the root for shunyata.

[Говорящий 2]
Or shunya. Right.

[Говорящий 1]
All the roots, all the roots of Sanskrit. Um, and in Tibetan, that would be tongpanyi. Um, tongpanyi tokpa.

Or you can abbreviate it tongnyi or tokspa. Tongnyi tokpa. What happens if you leave the out of tokpa?

Do you know?

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah.

[Говорящий 1]
It means to think something is something which, and this one means to realize. So they're almost opposites. It means that one means, um, almost a, it's almost implying an invalid, I mean, an incorrect perception.

You think something is this way, but you know, there's a but implied there, you know? Um, so you have to be careful not to leave your suffix off the tokpa. So there's one more characteristic.

Say prapti.

[Говорящий 2]
Prapti.

[Говорящий 1]
Uh, toparja.

[Говорящий 2]
Toparja.

[Говорящий 1]
Toparja. This T is a second column. Ta.

So it has a little bit of a in it. Toparja, as opposed to tok, or to, you know, this, the first or the third column. So this means I must achieve.

So what's the difference between the first characteristic and the third characteristic?

[Говорящий 2]
One's recognition of the need, the other needs determination.

[Говорящий 1]
Good. It's almost like you, um, you reach a decision at this point. Right.

Now Gyatsobje, he adds a fourth characteristic because he's just like this. Um, and it's something that we already discussed, and he doesn't do it in Sanskrit because he was writing in Tibetan. So say wang, dul, min.

Uh, wang we had before. Yeah. And it means the same as it did before.

And, uh, dul is, uh, it's just the opposite of nun.

[Говорящий 2]
Yes.

[Говорящий 1]
Of the one, we had wang nun before, um, which meant sharp in intellectual capacity. This is, uh, this is the opposite. Yeah, it's dul.

Can you see? I'm sorry. Um, and min means not.

So Gyatsobje thinks it's very important to repeat, like even after we said, oh, you have to have sharp capacity. He comes along and repeats and no dul capacity, you know? I mean, it's, um, it makes you wonder who was trying to study this in his time, you know?

By the way, you know, um, I just thought that was really funny that he did that. Um, and this is, this is because the, the not having dul capacity is, is primarily because of what we talked about before, because people who, um, who don't have a sharp intellectual understanding of these things, um, they won't be able to grasp the idea of taking refuge in their own future Buddhahood. You know, they want to take refuge in something outside them that they can grasp onto self existently.

And that's okay for some kinds of refuge, but it wouldn't work here. So the whole point of, um, understanding emptiness really is to be able to change your reality and change yourself to be able to become the God of your world, you know? So then the text goes on to discuss Ratna.

What's Ratna? Jewel. How did the Tibetans translate that?

Do you know? Koin chok, right. What does koin chok mean literally?

Do you know? Um, chok means supreme, right? Koin literally means rare.

So they didn't translate it as, um, jewel. They translated as rare supreme. Of course it means jewel to them, but, but I mean, when they came along to this word, why did they do that?

You know, it's because of what's in this book. It's because of what's in the Uttara Tantra, because when the root text, the Sanskrit root text comes along and describes Ratna, they give six different reasons why Ratna is both rare and supreme. So the whole, um, evolution of this word in Tibetan comes from this text coming from India to Tibet and someone translating it for the first time, you know, putting down, writing down the Tibetan word for the first time, you know, sort of interesting.

They, yeah, they have another, they have another word for jewel, but they didn't choose, you know, and now this one is actually more prevalent in a lot of cases than, than their original one. The Tibetans didn't have a written language before they started inputting, importing those Sanskrit texts. The only reason they, they actually developed a written language was because they wanted to preserve the knowledge they were getting from India.

So, you know, that's, that's why, um, that's why you can understand the Sanskrit by studying the Tibetan. There's, um, the Sanskrit lineage has sort of been lost, you know, it's not like there are a lot of people teaching Tibetan Buddhism or Buddhism in general through the Sanskrit, you know, um, and it's very difficult to understand Sanskrit, um, from the, from the grasp that we have on it in this day and age. But you go back and you look at the Tibetan, because it had such a close tied connection with the original Sanskrit, because it actually evolved through the Sanskrit, we can go back, you know, we have such a perfect lineage coming from the Tibetan that we can actually take the Tibetan and then go back to understand the original root text in Sanskrit better, you know, so you have to learn both.

Well, I don't even know how much free time you have. No, no, this was, uh, yeah, that's, they didn't say anything about that. Maybe a different book.

I don't know. So here are the six reasons that the Uttaratantra lists that the three jewels are rare and supreme. The first four will be actually describing the rare part, and then the second two describe the supreme part.

You guys want to try without the, the transliteration. Do you guys know the Devanagari alphabet? You'll go up here before you go down there.

Good. I'll write it. Anyone want to do the Tibetan?

And this means, um, difficult to come across. How, how rare is it to find, um, Dharma? Do you know?

Yeah, it's as rare as a blind turtle who comes up once every hundred years and puts his head through the inner, an inner tube floating on an ocean randomly, you know. I mean, we're, um, we're extremely, extremely lucky to, to be in a place in our minds where we could even grasp this stuff, but we'd even want to listen, you know. I mean, not even counting all the other beings in the universe.

I went home after retreat, and I tried to talk to people about my three-year retreat, and nobody even wanted to hear what happened. I mean, I'm like, mom, I just went to a three-year retreat. She's like, what's for lunch?

I was just like, it was just so astounding. It was so disturbing. And we're, you know, we're lucky enough to be surrounded by Dharma people a lot, you know.

I mean, most of us live with like-minded people, but forget it. There are so many people out there that they don't even care. They don't even want to, they can't hear, you know.

They don't have the capacity right now to hear it. You know, you could speak till you were blue in the face, and nothing would penetrate. And, uh, yeah, that's something, that's something to think about, you know.

How do we keep ourselves in a mind state where, um, where we're receptive to this, you know? How do we, how do we make sure that we don't suddenly become like, what's for lunch, you know? You know?

Um, probably by thinking about this.

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah, yeah.

[Говорящий 1]
It's so easy when things are going well to, even Dharma people, you know, even for Dharma people, it's so easy for us to forget what we're really doing, you know. We have, we kind of have these posh lives, you know. Because we're in Dharma, we have nice karma ripening for us, so we don't have as much pain as the normal person on the street.

So we tend to forget sometimes. We tend to become complacent about our goals, you know. We don't push ourselves to, um, to understand those questions that, um, should be gnawing at us all the time because we haven't reached the state of the third path yet, you know.

And we have to push ourselves to, to get to, you know, peak and mastery and, you know, we have to get there. But instead we, you know, we do the, the easier things, you know. For us it's, for us it's like, uh, the matter of prioritization, right?

You know, I, I study the easier texts because the hard text gives me a headache, you know. Or, you know, I don't push myself quite so hard in meditation. I do that same tonglen meditation I've been doing for a year instead of trying to take something that I don't understand out of the uttara tantra and meditate on that, you know, for six months.

So, I think that's one of the reasons that they, they list these qualities is so that we can get, ourselves, we can get an incentive to kind of boost up our practice. Because this book, it wasn't written for, um, my mom, you know. It was, it was written for, it was written for people like us, people who are already practicing, people who are already on the path and they don't really have a question about coming off of it.

They're just, um, so why did they put it in here? They put it in there to get, to get us going, you know, to give us a kickstart on something that we got real lazy on. Um, so here's the second.

So, say nirmala. Nirmala. Nirmala.

Nirmala. Nirmala. Dream May.

So, um, what does that mean? Everybody knows, yeah, stainless or immaculate. You can tell Dream May, she's like the Virgin Mary.

Oh, that's really funny. Then she's the other Mary. Either one.

Um, so this is immaculate. And, um, the, the three jewels are immaculate in the sense of, um, being free of specifically two imperfections. And, uh, the first one is not being able to protect you at all.

And, um, the second one is being able to protect you only sometimes, like, um, like when you go to the doctor, you know, and sometimes they give you something and you get better. And sometimes they give you something and it's still, it's the same, you know, I mean, that's, that's not an immaculate source of protection. And, you know, that's something that fails you.

Ultimately it will always fail you, you know. And these are the only things that don't. So they're immaculate.

What are we talking about before we get lost here on, um, on all these qualities? What, which three jewels are we talking about? Right, right.

So what is the, what is the Buddha jewel? She said Buddha jewel, Dharma jewel, Sangha jewel. What's a Buddha jewel?

I mean, what, what did we talk about? Yeah, yesterday. Yeah.

So we're taking refuge in our own future Buddhahood, which is immaculate, you know, and, uh, and our perception of emptiness or emptiness itself, you know, and emptiness. When you see emptiness for the first time, you see the emptiness of yourself and you experience during the time that you see emptiness, you experience the Dharmakaya of the Buddha. Sorry, this is slightly, I always forget my long A's and my short A's.

That's why I have to use the computer. Okay. Go for it.

[Говорящий 2]
Right.

[Говорящий 1]
Actually, if it's not a long A, it's pra, pra, pa, vat, vat. Right. Good.

Because, um, we normally speak with long A's. It's very hard for us at the beginning to, um, to get used to pronouncing that as, uh, it's like the, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like that upside down E thing that we have in the dictionary, uh, like that sound.

It's, it's actually that sound, that, uh, that short A. Um, Tibetan? Do you know?

It's got a, um, it's got a prenasal. And tu or, um, prabha, it means mystic power, like magic power, really. And, um, den or vat, um, means having or possessing or...

So how do the three jewels have mystic power?

[Говорящий 2]
If you realize them, you can create whatever you want.

[Говорящий 1]
That's good. That's true. They compare them, um, at this point, they compare them to a cinta mani, or a wish-giving jewel, um, which, uh, if you don't know, um, gives you whatever you want.

You know, it's like Aladdin's lamp. You just rub it and, and make a wish and it, it gives you whatever you want. And, um, you guys want the Sanskrit for cinta mani?

It's kind of fun. Mani is another word for jewel, right?

[Говорящий 2]
So we've got, um, yeah, yeah.

[Говорящий 1]
Probably norbu, you know, they would probably do ratna with a coin choke and mani for norbu. Um, I'm not sure though. I can look it up.

I'll tell you for sure tomorrow. I have a great, um, Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary that we just input. So, um, no, then you get the real correlations between the, what the Tibetans actually translated for that particular Sanskrit word, you know.

Um, so I could guess for you now, but I'll make sure for you tomorrow. Um, so the wish-giving jewel, there's, um, there's sort of a problem with it in that, um, you can't really even imagine the highest thing right now in order to wish for it. So, um, what this one is referring to is, um, is sort of more worldly, um, benefits, specifically, um, getting the six kinds of clairvoyance, um, the six kinds of clairvoyance, which people not even practicing the Buddhist path, but other people who just meditate very intensely can also get on other paths, like Hindu paths.

And, um, the six kinds of clairvoyance correspond to the six senses. So you would be able to see great distances. You would be able to, you know, hear like the toilet flushing in Diamond Mountain on buoy, you know, like you'd be able to, you know, very important things like that, you know.

So, um, no, it's really interesting. Why would we want that? You know, isn't that kind of a distraction?

You know, they always say, even especially in the yoga texts, they say it's really, um, dangerous to get these kind of magical powers because, um, you can lose your goal. I mean, we think we have it nice now. What if you started getting magical powers, forget practice, you know, you just go and play with them, right?

So it's really, it's really dangerous. You know, you wouldn't have that, impetus of renunciation anymore because you'd be living the high life, you know. It even says, I think we, we talked about it in the yoga sutra, Geshe-la's teaching in the last quiet retreat teaching, you know, it goes through all the different kinds of clairvoyance, you know, like, um, you know, like the Pratibha, which means, uh, uh, the, it's another word for power.

Um, and it says, um, you can, you can ruin your practice unless, um, you're doing it for, you know, unless you use it to help others. And the specific, um, the specific type of clairvoyance that you can use to help others in this case is the ability to read your students' minds, because then you know where they are, you know what they're thinking, and you know what level they are, and you can tell them exactly what they need to know, and you can help them much, much better that way. Um, and then of course, eventually, um, when you reach full enlightenment, you can, um, you can of course use this power to emanate to people directly.

You know, I mean, if you take it to its full extreme, um, you would have the ultimate magic power, right?

[Говорящий 2]
So immaculate and possessing magical power are in the rare categories, which is not many people have them in this world.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, and there's, there's one more rare one, which is this one. We had this one yesterday.

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Говорящий 1]
So it's You guys know the Tibetan too well to test you on it. And this means, um, ornament of the world. Alamkara or K'ien we had yesterday in, in what?

Right.

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah, Abhisamaya Alamkara.

[Говорящий 1]
So this is, um, this is just a represent, like, um, in Tibet, when they, they put a, like a, a, a jewel on the very, very top of their banner, like the highest points, uh, you know, and they raise it up, um, to the very top. And this is just symbolizing the highest thing that you could ever wish for, the highest thing you could ever attain. And these are all, um, rare, primarily in the sense of, um, you know, being the absolutely the only refuges that, um, that won't let you down, you know, that, um, so now we're going to, on to the supreme part of this.

You want to try? I get your hint, that's a ra.

[Говорящий 2]
Ra.

[Говорящий 1]
In, in the middle of the ga. Right. Agaratha or Chokni.

Say Agaratha. Chokni.

[Говорящий 2]
Chokni.

[Говорящий 1]
And this means infinitely supreme. It just, um, well, you know, you have Koin Chok, and then Chokni, you know, Chok, Chokni. So they don't, um, yeah, the essence of supreme, the, the supreme itself.

And, um, in the sense they mean compared to, um, to fake jewels, which we discussed before. Um, it's the difference between a cubic zirconium and a diamond, you know. I'm gonna, gonna cruise through the last two.

[Говорящий 2]
Nirvikara.

[Говорящий 1]
Nirvikara. Say Nirvikara. Nirvikara.

[Говорящий 2]
Nirvikara.

[Говорящий 1]
Or Gurnme.

[Говорящий 2]
Gurnme.

[Говорящий 1]
Gurnme. Gurnme. You know, this da, when it's, um, when there's a da, you sort of cut off the vowel, so it's a little bit shorter, like me.

And then when there's a sa at the end, you lengthen it a little bit, so it's me, you know. And then when it's just me by itself, it's just normal. So a little bit more subtle pronunciation.

Uh, oops. So this means, um, unwavering, unmoving. What's another word, uh, in Sanskrit for unmoving?

It's the name of one of the five Buddhas. Do you know? Akshobhya.

Right. So, so this one, um, there's two meanings of this. One, it means, um, it doesn't, uh, the, the three jewels don't depend on any kind of outside conditions.

Um, like how you treat them. Uh, they're still going to be there for you. They're unwavering.

You know, you can always go to them and they'll always be there. And, uh, Gyaltsabje says they are unwavering in another sense, uh, in the sense that they are unchanging, uh, in terms of emptiness itself, right? Going, going for refuge in, I know, emptiness.

Um, are they all unchanging? Are they all emptiness itself? What are we talking about here?

We're talking about, um, what's the Buddha jewel?

[Говорящий 2]
Right.

[Говорящий 1]
So there's, um, there's an increasing level of subtlety that Gyaltsabje is pushing us to when he says they're all unchanging, you know, because what we discussed yesterday was the future Buddha that we would become, right? But that's not an unchanging thing. Gyaltsabje goes further and actually the Uttara Tantra goes further in the three jewels and, um, describes, um, like the emptiness of, of the mind of the person that you will become, you know, or, um, the emptiness that you see at the point when you see emptiness directly.

What about Sangha jewel? The emptiness in the mind of an Arya as they are perceiving emptiness directly or the, um, the cessations. Are cessations a negative thing?

What do you, what three things do you give up when, uh, you see emptiness directly? In self-existence, right? Intellect and doubt.

The third one is the belief that you can hurt yourself and that would be a spiritual path. It's, um, it's not as important as the first two, unless you're, you live in India, you know, you get those people like standing on one leg for 20 years and stuff. Right, right.

Exactly. That's actually, um, a lot of the references are that, you know, there are certain, um, ancient Indian schools that believed that if you threw yourself down on a trident and landed with the trident in a certain point on your body, you know, piercing your, you know, the three points that you would attain nirvana automatically, you know, and, um, getting rid of that view is one of those three things that you see, uh, when you see emptiness directly. So are those, uh, negative things? The lack of doubt in the mind of a person who sees emptiness directly.

Yeah. So you can also include cessations in, uh, the if you're talking, everyone is echoing each other in this room. I hear Chukula saying the same thing I'm saying like two minutes later.

No, it's great. You guys all know that you're not missing anything. We're all saying the same thing.

Well, pretty much, I guess. So this is the description of the two kinds of refuge that are covered in the Uttara Tantra, which we talked about before is the reason this book is so unique. The normal refuge is called Giri Khyabdra.

Say Giri Khyabdra.

[Говорящий 2]
Giri Khyabdra.

[Говорящий 1]
And that's taking refuge in an already enlightened being. And it's called, um, causal refuge, taking refuge in the cause that will bring you to Buddhahood. Then there's Drebui Khyabdra.

Say Drebui Khyabdra.

[Говорящий 2]
Drebui Khyabdra.

[Говорящий 1]
Oh, yes. Sorry. There.

And that's a, that's result refuge. You're taking refuge in the Buddha that you will become in the enlightened being you'll become. And in the Uttara Tantra, they make a reference to a sutra by Lord Buddha.

Where he's speaking to the householders. And he says, he says, refuge is when you see a holy being and you say, I want to be like you. And that covers both because you're taking refuge in that person as a holy being.

And at the same time, you're saying you're taking refuge in eventually becoming like exactly like that being. And I like that because a lot of people don't. They say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And they don't really know what they're thinking during that. Or maybe they're, maybe the thoughts that they think they should be thinking are pretty alien. You know, I go for refuge to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And they don't, they don't conjure up an image really clearly of what that means for them. But this is something that we've all, we can all relate to. This is something that we've all done, you know, since we were tiny, you know, every little kid has, has looked up at, at their, you know, their favorite blah, blah, blah star and said, I want to be like that, you know.

And that's something we really know how to do. We can really grasp, you know, we look at the lamas and we say, wow, you're so cool. I really want to be like you.

How do I get there? You know, so I thought that was a really amazing part, you know, amazing thing to include in this book. You know, how to really feel, you know, inside what refuge is, you know, it's not, you don't have to do some special prayer, you know.

You just have to have that, that desire in your mind, you know. Wow, you're so cool, you know, I want to be just like you, you know, so. So now we're supposed to get into the specifics of the seven diamond-like visions.

So in the last few minutes, we're going to cover the, the Buddha jewel. What's that one? Sangye Kwonchok, or Buddha Ratna, right.

Rat, Ratna. Uh, uh, you know, if you ever wanted to learn the Devanagari script, there was, there was this job that Geshe-la had to type in a book in Sanskrit, but he wanted people to type it in. It was in Devanagari script, and he wanted them to type it in the transliteration, you know.

I swear to God, it took people, like, within about three hours, they were already starting to pronounce the Devanagari script, because they had to find a key for each word, you know. And, uh, if anyone ever wanted a job, we have plenty of, we have plenty of Devanagari scripts. I'm sure we do.

We always have more texts. Yeah, and it, I mean, it really was an amazing sight. Two people did it in one day, you know, with varying capacities, varying degrees of language study.

No, no, no. They only did, believe me, they only did two verses. I mean, it's really time-consuming at first, because you have to find, I mean, you have to sit there and look at the key and, like, find each letter, but that doesn't matter.

The point is that you'll ingrain the script in your mind and, and then eventually you'll just be able to type it like a normal text. And we're going to talk about the Buddha jewel, okay? Me, the Buddha.

I'm not going to do me, the Buddha.

[Говорящий 2]
I'm, like, going to impress you.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, me, the Buddha. We're going to, um, discuss, uh, the qualities of the Buddha jewel. Which, uh, is the first, like, diamond-like vision, which means me, the Buddha.

It's the, it's our future that we're talking about. So, just so you don't forget, I'll just write it at the top. Um, when you divide the Buddha into two bodies, uh, which ones are they?

Right, or, yeah, like, you can call it the Dharma body and the form body, right? Or, Dharmakaya and Rupakaya. Um, um, say Dharmakaya.

Dharmakaya. Rupakaya. Rupakaya.

Dharmakaya. Dharma is a really interesting word. It comes from a root, dur, meaning to hold.

And, uh, the words truth and tree come from that, because they both hold fast. So, uh, Kendall's description of this body as the truth body is, is a good one, right? So, I'm gonna erase Sanskrit just because we need the room.

But we'll leave these, because we're gonna make a little chart. Uh, under the, the Dharma body, um, they divide it into two. What, what's the Dharma body normally divided into?

Jnana, Dharmakaya. Jnana. Easy for you.

Right, right. Um, so what's, what's the, the Jnana Dharmakaya is, is, is the wisdom. And this one is, um, is unchanging one.

It's the, um, so you can divide this one into the changing aspect and the unchanging aspect, you know. And another word that they give for this is purity. And they divided that into two also.

Natural purity and achieved purity. There you go. Yeah, right.

So, um, this purity, um, in the Buddha is, uh, what your Buddha nature develops into. Good question. How can it be achieved, right?

Um, I'll get to that in a second. Purity is what your... The purity is, uh, is what your Buddha nature develops into when you become a Buddha.

Because if you guys heard Michael Brannan's definition of Buddha nature earlier, um, it's mixed up with, um, something impure. So Buddhas don't have Buddha nature. Buddha nature has to develop into something else by the time you reach Buddhahood, because, um, it's pure, right?

It's purity. Well, it's, it's a one definition of it. We're going to get to a class in Buddha nature, but one definition of it is like an undefiled seed in the mind of a person who is still mixed up in impurities.

Um, so it's pure. And the, that's where that whole idea of you having to uncover it comes from. You know, there, there are two kinds of Buddha nature, which, um, end up corresponding to this natural purity and this achieved purity.

One is this. The other one is... We have just gotten more space here.

Um, say, Rangshen Neirik, Gangyur Girik. So, um, Rangshen Neirik is the Buddha nature that is inherent within you from since all time. Since time with no beginning.

[Говорящий 2]
Um, right.

[Говорящий 1]
Well, that's what the natural, that's what, that's what it becomes when you reach Buddhahood. It isn't natural purity because you can't have Buddha nature in the mind, in when you become a Buddha. It has to change into something else.

It's kind of like, you can't do karma after you become a Buddha. You do the two collections. I mean, I think, I think of it in the same terms.

And then Gangyur Girik is developable Buddha nature. And we're going to talk about Buddha nature in, um, a following class, but I wanted to, I think it's important to correspond them to what we're talking about here. Right.

I know I'm changing. We still haven't gotten to that yet, right? It's actually a little bit, um, ambiguous, you know, at this point, um, because this is supposed to be unchanging, but how can you have an achievable thing or an achieved thing if, uh, this side is unchanging, right?

Yeah. Um, so these three are said to accomplish your own goals. And, uh, and this one is said to accomplish the goals of others.

And usually we divide, um, Dharma body and form body into that because, um, other people can't see normally, uh, this body, you have to emanate somebody that they can see. So why is that?

[Говорящий 2]
Oh, we're going to get to that.

[Говорящий 1]
So form body and Dharma body are, are normal divisions, but then these start to become a little bit different than what, what is usually talked about. For example, in the wisdom category, um, or no, I'm sorry, the chief purity category, they put, um, oh, let me do it this way. Okay.

You've got all these numbers. I'm going to correspond things to these numbers cause I have to have more space, but you guys just keep moving down your page here. One is a natural purity.

This is another letter for ah, there's two ways to write ah, and this is an older version of how to write ah. So I thought I would throw it in.

[Говорящий 2]
So keep us on our toes.

[Говорящий 1]
Well, you should know both.

[Говорящий 2]
So that's ah, ah, and that's a, is there ah or is that a sa?

[Говорящий 1]
Sa.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay, ah, sam, ah, sam, what if, yeah, ah, sam, skrt, skrt, skrt, skrt, skrt, skrt, skrt, skrt, skrt, skrt, ah.

[Говорящий 1]
This, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Ah, sam, skrt, ah.

Yes.

[Говорящий 2]
And we're talking about natural purity.

[Говорящий 1]
Ah, sam, skrt, ah means unproduced. Cause sam, skrt, ah literally means, um, like a collection of things that were, you know, produced together, you know, like a produced language, right? And this R, which so many people who pronounce Sanskrit things, which is why Sanskrit got pronounced that way in the first place, this is a vowel that actually is I-R, not R-I.

So actually Sanskrit should be Sanskrit, like skirt. But because us Westerners pronounced it so poorly, it got stuck Sanskrit. And that's what happens to a lot of words, like in the yoga tradition when people say Krishna, it's actually Kirshna.

Yeah, I-R. So that's just a side note. So natural purity is unproduced because it has always been there.

It's that seed in the mind that becomes the natural purity. And this is, this is something that we'll discuss further. I think he's gonna do the next class on, not this next class, but the class after that, on what it means to have a seed in the mind that is unproduced and unchanging.

You know, can it be a positive seed in the mind if it's unchanging? You know, and how does it go from Buddha nature to natural purity without changing? These are all the fun questions that this text brings up in the mind.

And I, personally, I just like to throw them out so you can think about them for a couple days, because we had, we had months to think about them, you know. So I'm sort of throwing out things that are gonna come in classes later, so that you can have the opportunity, like we did, to sit and mull it over for a while before we get the scoop, you know. You know, because it's really nice, because this is really unusual according to all the other Buddhist texts I've studied, you know.

This is sort of a rare presentation. Let's go to number two. And Buddha nature, you know, it's not that popular in Galupa texts or Galupa schools, you know.

So to find a Galupa commentary on it, like Gyaltsabje, obviously, Master Galupa, is, I mean, it's a great opportunity, and it's a great opportunity to do what His Holiness is always suggesting, and try and find the commonalities between the different, you know, existing, like, schools of Buddhism nowadays. Your turn.

[Говорящий 2]
Anabhoga.

[Говорящий 1]
Anabhoga.

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah.

[Говорящий 1]
Say Anabhoga. And Hlungi Drupa. this means spontaneous and this is connected to the ability to send emanations without any conceptual thought or just yeah no conceptual thought.

No this is achieved through purity it corresponds to what we put number two right but I didn't exactly that's that's a big question you know that was my big question when I first heard this why is this in the side for yourself and not in the side that has to do with others right because it's not talking about the action of sending out bodies it's talking about the mind which is spontaneous the spontaneity itself of the mind because right right I know but we'll we'll get to the emissions part hopefully. I gotta rush it's like two o'clock so this is in contrast to you know every our every single movement our every single motion is is based on a self-existent desire it's like a desire for a self-existent object every single thing we we do or think or say it's it's driven by this this ignorant desire like either to get something we like or get away from something we don't like right and it's that desire itself that disappears here it's that it's that impetus itself that ignorant in seed the last seed to go away you know this is like the very very subtlest seed for self-existence that that goes when you reach buddhahood and I I just wanted to throw something else at you guys to think about we talked about the idea of cause and effect and what if you never did anything except for actual cause-effect relationships you know like giving away something produces wealth right so what if you never went and got a job like what if the only thing you did was giving you know like that kind of thing like what if you never got in a car and went to Tucson what if you stayed at Diamond Mountain and just sat in your room and meditated you know would you still get food you know yeah but I mean like like you know it's it's it's interesting you know getting on a more like a subtler and subtler cause-effect relationship we do tons and tons of things every single day that have nothing to do with what we profess to be actual cause-effect relationships you know like right right you do well you do have to live with the karma that you have I mean that's that's a given you know you can't get upset because you don't have the karma for 31 flavors ice cream you know for dessert you know I mean like you just don't have the karma for it so it's like even if you went to the store you probably wouldn't get it you know I mean but then there's like a subtler level of like I was sitting in retreat and I would get a headache and I would look at these little baby aspirins because that's the only thing that we really took was baby aspirins and it was like a placebo effect you know like I knew that the baby aspirin wasn't really causing me to get rid of my headache but it had to be another cause but I still took the baby aspirin you know and why do we do that you know like why why live and how many actions a day are we doing that's that baby aspirin thing it's most of them you know it's primarily the baby aspirin that we're living for right now and it's like how do we get to a greater degree of flunky juba you know like where we're living for or we have done so much in terms of the actual cause and effect we have planted so many seeds that way that we can just sit back you know and actually people will feed you you know you'll come to your yard and drop off boxes of gourmet food every single day you know and yeah no no it's yes I mean but I'm just talking in our day-to-day life you know like paying attention to how much is not lungi juba and how much we kind of self-existently try and act and that's the that's what they're talking about is not doing that that's what they're talking about is that getting rid of that seed getting rid of that seed that says I have to go across the street to a deli in order to you know get this certain you know it's and it's so far beyond what we normally live I'm not suggesting to you know sit in your house and wait for the food to come you know I'm not suggesting that we totally but I'm just suggesting that it's interesting to think about you know it's interesting to think about what they're not doing that we're always doing I gotta cover the next two in the next class because otherwise you won't get a break or I could do it really quick you guys vote okay I'll do it quick so um number three is is the wisdom and it's it's in Sanskrit it's a para pratyayodita and I'll write it for you later but it means cannot be perceived through another and there's two meanings for that one is you can't they're talking about the direct perception of emptiness right they're talking about wisdom that you perceive directly and so one meaning of can't be perceived through another is you can't understand it by reading somebody else's words about it or by another person speaking it to you another person can't tell you about it you have to do it you have to proceed perceive it directly yourself and that's what it always says about about emptiness right it's it's chidam a pa in in Tibetan there's a big there's a very very common phrase it says chidam a pa it's not inexpressible means inexpressible emptiness is inexpressible and that's what they mean is that you can't get an understanding a clear understanding of the direct perception of emptiness of course you can explain emptiness but the direct perception of emptiness no way you know because it's why is that I'll just tell you because words are our conceptual thought right and the direct perception of emptiness is a totally different thing and you can't get to that totally different thing through a conceptual medium but the other meaning of this so that leads to the other meaning of this which means it cannot be perceived through another meaning conceptual thought meaning your own conceptual thought the second meaning of cannot be perceived through another means it can't be perceived through conceptual thought through a metaphor or reference because every conceptual thought is basically metaphorical it's a representation of something rather than the thing itself okay number four number four is very is contrasted to number three number three is number four means understanding the total amount of everything and at number three is understanding the way things are and specifically it says that number four is understanding everything about the first three about the two forms of purity and about the wisdom so that's the omniscience that they're talking about in this reference which is a huge difference to the normal description of form body and and it makes you question why is why did they divide it into those two bodies why did they put that one on the right side why did they put lingi juba on the left side you know and that's something that we don't have time to mull over right now so you guys go think about it and well you gotta have a break you know okay so that's that's the last that's the last thing we'll cruise through and then we can review it tomorrow you know we didn't do any prayers before class but why don't we just quietly dedicate whatever we've been discussing in whatever knowledge sheets have come into our minds from discussing this holy book which will lead us to see emptiness directly