Углублённый курс ACI 01 — Учения будущего Будды: «Уттаратантра» Майтреи (2003, Аризона), занятие 10

[Speaker 1]
So this is a class on the seventh Vajra topic the seventh diamond-like topic in the Uttara Tantra, which is what? the seventh one which was which is Nope, enlightened activities, right? Oh, is that what you said enlightened activities like what kind of activities as a Buddha do?

Once you once you become a Buddha, what what what do you do? And Some of you know that You know in the Buddhist text they say that that every Buddha will go through the same set of activities There have been there have been Many Buddhas who've come to the world in the past. The last one has been The guy called Gautama Buddha Shakyamuni and there'll be a future one.

It's called Maitreya. Who's you? and when you when you come and And please do come soon because you know, I'm suffering I need you to help me so come soon And when you come you'll do You'll do a set of standardized activities Those are called the the set of enlightened activities and this is a class on what those are And there are 12 of them people who've come late.

Just one one last thing before I erase this is that if you If you want to send your completed homeworks and quizzes that don't get completed before we all You know go to different places. You can send it to me and I'll I'll correct them for you and send them back This is class 10 So We'll go through the the 12 deeds quickly and then go through them more carefully at least some of them There are a lot of questions For the homework for this class. I think they're like 10 or 11 questions 11 12 11 12 questions and the first question is just to go through what the 12 deeds are This is a this is a nice class because it you know, it's it's about the biography of It's about your future autobiography Okay, it's about what you're going to do when you when you come as Maitreya when you realize your Buddha potential your Buddha nature potential and you develop it by Being compassionate to others and especially that one special person who's been assigned to you in this teaching or maybe there's some of us have several right who have had that who have had the assignment of bothering us and And making sure that we don't respond poorly so that we can become realize our Buddha potential quicker So these are the activities that you'll do The first one is to you'll come in the first one is you'll come into our world from your staging ground from the staging ground Some of you know what that staging ground is. What is it?

It's this heaven called Tushita Tushita heaven So when you become a Buddha you'll go to this heaven called Tushita Tushita This is another name for your your pure land your paradise your Buddha paradise, what's your Buddha paradise gonna look like for you What's it gonna look like for you? You can just go home and think about that. Mine's gonna have a beach on it I know it's gonna have really beautiful slow breaking right breaking waves Perfect easy Hawaiian style Perfect waves with and everybody in it is just gonna be having so much fun surfing Okay, see it's like it's gonna be your paradise So, you know, whatever it is that you think is is beautiful and enjoyable and most pleasurable and stuff That's what's gonna be there. What are you gonna look like? you know, it's like You can go and get your your Vogue magazines now and start looking page through you want to be Brad Pitt That's who you'll be Whatever it is, right?

Whatever it is that you think is beautiful. Whatever the beauty is means to you is how you'll look So that's what Tushita heaven means. And so that's the first act is that from this pure land, you know after enlightenment You will become pure You will your mind and body and your environment will become pure and that will be Tushita heaven and then you'll up there You'll go.

Okay Next Maitreya Here have my you know, Regent crown You know be the prince in waiting or the princess in waiting. I'm off. I got it.

I got to go I'm going to emanate You know here Okay, so that's the first act right you you take birth you come to our world from the heaven of bliss You come to our world from the heaven of bliss. The second one is you enter the holy womb of your mother I'm just gonna put it in the second person the whole thing. Okay, because that's it's a really important, you know Last night we were talking about it a little bit like well, you know, what are we gonna take home from these four days?

What are we you know, what what do we really take home from this and one of the things that really we I think we Should be taking home from this is that it is possible for us to become Buddhists in this lifetime Okay, we have the Buddha nature. We have the Developable Buddha nature and we have the inherent Buddha nature. We have the teachings we have everything everything's here So it's you that's going to be doing these things.

So you will enter the holy womb of your mother What Form did the Buddha take when the Buddha entered the holy womb of his mother? Do you remember in the story a White elephant with six tusks. Yeah, six.

I don't know. Do you know why six John? I don't either.

Okay, and yeah, and and It happened like his mother had a dream like She knew that it was happening and she saw this like white elephant or in the text actually that you'll get They said blue a bluish colored elephant so apparently there are different traditions on what the color of the elephant was which is kind of One would like to know why there are why an elephant and why six tusks and all these things? I don't know So and and what was his mother's name? Do you remember?

My yeah, what does my I mean the Sanskrit what? This actually comes from the root From a root that means to enjoy who should die. So Maya means what?

Huh It means illusion right Maya means illusion so interesting name for a mother When the skip ahead a little bit in the life story of the Buddha when when the Buddha got married and had a baby You know what? His name is his kid Yeah What does that mean? You know?

Better better like ball and chain ball and chain You know, I'm tied down by this kid It can that's right it can mean a it's a name for an eclipse of the lunar or solar eclipse I can't remember a lunar I think Lunar eclipse because it swallows up Swallows of the moon Rahula is the demon that swallows up the moon or something like that in a lunar eclipse But it means literally better FETT er better Now It just becomes a proper name for the demon that that eats up the moon in a lunar eclipse So anyway, you know when you're thinking about like groovy Sanskrit names to give to your child You know, you might follow the Buddha Sorry Okay, so entering the holy holy womb of his mother third taking birth from her womb Again in the story when you are born from your mother as Maitreya you won't hurt her Holy beings do not hurt their mothers.

It's one of the features of holy beings So some of you know that there are different kinds of ways to take birth Different beings take birth in different kinds of ways. Why didn't the Buddha do you say would you think? Why didn't the Buddha take miraculous birth?

What's called miraculous or spontaneous birth? Just like, you know popped in Why did he go through the the womb birth birth from a womb Andrea? Did you have a idea about this?

Yeah That's a good answer That's a nice answer to give my other the mom of the good karma of being the mother of a Buddha Which is awesome karma, right? Yeah Yeah Kind of kind of it Yeah, and and to So that so that he could like relate so that we could relate to him You know if somebody just like pops up miraculously and oh, you know, and he's like all light and you know God, you know Rays coming out and stuff like that. We're going.

Whoa, you know, that's a person who's not like me you know to me and You know one of the things about these acts of the Buddha that you will go through is that we can start going through these Acts now we can we can start doing versions of these acts now So one of the ways to think about the acts of the Buddha is well How how can I imitate them now? and one of the ways to think about that in terms of this is to like, you know to try and Take a form that relates to others properly, you know, so that you're not freaking everybody out like, you know, I'm a Buddhist, you know And you got like funny clothes on and you know, I'm a wacky Buddhist and I'm not like you see The the Buddha came in the form that he came in to emphasize his is the connection you know to make a connection with us and And and to and to show us that we can be Buddhist too because he's just like us So a lot of these things have to do that So, you know think about it like think about how to always write how to apply these teachings to your own life you know, how can how can you relate better to those people in your world and Show them, you know that you don't have to be like weird or wacky or speak another language or you know Have a certain skin color or you know, wear certain kinds of clothes to be You know to be in the Dharma and to be practicing the Dharma and to be trying to become My trail which you will become Yes Yeah, this is this is the emanation body that you will take because you're the first one was what What was the first act right? Right.

Well, you were in the enjoyment body in Tushita heaven, right? Now you've taken in Ramana Well, we're gonna talk about that there are different interpretations of what we'll talk about Was the Buddha already enlightened the whole time or was the Buddha just got like, you know Really good karma and then got born and then in this life, you know worked hard and reached enlightenment through his own efforts Yeah So we'll come to it. That's the third one right taking birth from the womb From the right side they say from the right side of her chest Okay, so the yeah, it didn't come up.

You didn't come out in an impure way It came out in a pure way and no and no pain For Fourth act fourth activity fourth deed enlightened activity, right is Mastering the world's worldly arts Those of you not something, you know that he was born right into a Into a princely family into a royal family right a family of great wealth and power and so forth and and he He was trained in the course of his youth in In the worldly arts of the time he mastered them And they're actually some of them are listed in the reading that you'll eventually get he learns to write He learns archery he learns swimming He learns paint how to tame elephants. Those are the ones that are listed the worldly arts So in our in our day you would learn like, you know how to read and write you would learn how to communicate you would learn how to do useful things to help you as as a the future Maitreya help others Okay, Gisela sometimes says that we should be all the time trying to learn stuff anything like like how to fix furnaces or how to how to repair cars or something because These skills could be useful to to sentient beings see and that's the kind of idea here. Yeah Okay. So this is a good question.

See you guys are getting ahead of yourselves Like so wouldn't he already know right if it's an enlightened Buddha like why would he have to like learn anything? see his omniscient as an enlightened Buddha, so there are different interpretations of what's going on here and One of them the one that that you would follow if you're following out your line of thought is he's pretending He's pretending to learn these kinds of why would he be why would he pretend to do that? Yeah to show us that this is what we need to do right So what when we're buddying Maitreya's this is the kind of thing that we need to do is to learn worldly arts so that we Can help help others help communicate to others?

Fifth one enjoys himself with the Queens Okay, he gets married and he has a harem and he rocks and rolls as they say Why would this be an enlightened activity of a Buddha? The Text says this He wanted to benefit living beings in infinite ways Using even worldly activities to do so Yeah, I will and you should probably write it down He wanted to benefit living beings in infinite ways Using even worldly activities to do so Of course not He Was relating to sentient beings in a certain kind of a way That's one way to think of it from another point of view. Okay from another point of view Let's go down.

Let's go down to a lower school point of view because we went up to the high school point of view right? away With Teresa's question. This is just pretend.

This is just make-believe Buddha's just going through show But what about from a lower school interpretation Buddha's not enlightened yet. Okay, Buddha's a still schmuck Okay, Buddha's not Buddha Buddha's Gautama Shakyamuni just Siddhartha regular guy So why would there anyone read Herman Hesse's book? Okay, really good book.

Okay, really interesting book And you can understand number. What is that six five? Very nicely through through that book Siddhartha yet He had to sort of plumb the depths of comma what's called comma desire in order to overcome it and that's also, you know, kind of interesting thing to think about for our own lives like, you know Maybe we need to Maybe we need to do at a certain point of our lives these kinds of things of you know getting married and having kids and making money and thinking going shopping and Going to the movies and so forth to get it out of our system As long as you're thinking, you know at some part in your in your head, you know, I'm exploring the depths of samsara, you know Maybe it could be a useful activity because maybe renunciation doesn't occur for many of us until we have explored the depths of samsara and what it has to offer so That's from a lower school point of view

[Speaker 2]
Yeah Yeah, good

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, right, you're some like weirdo don't be a weirdo Yeah, and this is important. I think is important teaching an important teaching for American Buddhists.

Don't be a weirdo Is the holy? Buddhist activity of not being a weirdo and just being like regular being a regular person in a regular You know and and then secretly, you know, you're a weirdo but But don't go in like explicitly being where you're just turning people off right you're not you're not you're not relating to your sentient beings in your world right Yeah, these are these are the standardized list of every Buddha it's gonna do this you will do these this is what get ready

[Speaker 2]
Oh

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, no, you'll you'll make certain as you your Maitreya You'll make certain adjustments that need to be adjusted if you decide to manifest as a female you'll make a certain kind of adjustment. Yeah

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, of course

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, I don't think so I mean unless you tend to unless you want to manifest in a culture that values elephant taming Right, maybe you want to if you value if you manifest in a culture that values cars, for example Maybe you'd like to learn how to fix cars So that like when when you go driving home and you see somebody broken down on the freeway you'll know how to help them Number six leaving the worldly life So after you know having you know mastered these worldly arts and gotten married and having kids and so forth number six is in the 29th year in the story of the Shakyamuni in the 29th year when he was 29 years old he He left He kissed his wife. Goodbye.

He kissed his sons. Goodbye. He said, you know That'll take care of you.

I'm out of here. Okay, so this is renunciation This is renunciation He was not Yeah, of course they were provided for he made sure they were provided for of course and you know And he came back and and helped him after enlightenment to they were among his first disciples. So Yeah in this 29th year the the Buddha's Actually in the story that you'll get in the the version of the story that you'll get in the reading the Buddha's come to him All the Buddha's all the enlightened beings come and say you got it.

You got to leave Don't get stuck here there's the next step is to leave and So then the Buddha goes outside the palace for the first time some of you know the story, right? It's a cool story a really good story You know the Buddha wasn't like us the Buddha hadn't had a whole lot of time to get inured To suffering and We are we have spent our whole lives inuring ourselves in that word in your it means like figuring out a way to avoid the fact that life sucks and We have done that very successfully and of course until samsara gifts us with the next disaster But we're pretty good at like ignoring the the regular course of disasters That are in our world the Buddha had no experience of this because the Buddha Upon his birth, right? There were there were there were prophecies made You remember what they were had two possible destinies Yeah, it could be a chakravartin. We talked about chakravartin yesterday, right a world emperor or an enlightened Buddha you know when you're born as Your Maitreya your mommy and daddy when they hear such a prophecy they might say better keep the kid at home You know better like, you know protect the kid from you know from the world so that He doesn't renounce so you don't leave us see so that he'd become like or she will become like a successful politician a business person get an MBA, you know So they protected him they they they cushioned him from the realities of life And so then when the gods came in this part here This is the sixth part right six leaving the world When the gods say you got to get out of here he leaves the palace for the first time and he sees like what what life is really like and he sees four sites and You know, these are three of these all four actually are ones that we see all the time and we just go.

Oh, yeah Because we're inured and but when the Buddha saw them it was like the first time he had realized this About the way things are what was the first sight sick person? You know, he sees a sick person. He goes.

What the hell is that? He's never seen anybody sick before You know and in some stories It's a charioteer who takes him out right and the charioteer some is an interesting role like the charioteer is somebody who leads somebody from? one place to another right So he's leading the Buddha from one place to another he's leading from ignorance to knowledge, right So he's what's this and the charioteer says, you know, it's a sick person and the Buddha goes How'd that happen?

You know, what why and the charioteer says like this happens to everyone Yo, Buddha future Buddha You know Everyone's body breaks down like this at some point or another in their lives and the Buddha just goes like he's amazed his jaw drops He's like, how can people just walk around? Like happy, you know oblivious When this is their destiny So that's the first one second one dead person corpse Right, is that right aging person old person, you know, and he's like what's wrong with that guy? You can't walk so good.

You know, he's all wrinkly Can't see anymore his teeth are all falling out, you know, all these things gone wrong What what happened to him, you know? What kind of unique thing happened to this guy because no, no not unique at all Happens to everyone and again, you know the same thing jaw drops like how can people just walk around? You know complacent when this is their destiny and third one's death right sees a corpse What you know and If we're like this too, I think if you've ever seen a dead person, right if you've ever been encountered, you know You go like, you know You want to like nudge them and like, you know, come on like get up, you know we just get it's like It's shocking to us that this occurs So and then the fourth one the fourth side is remember what? Yeah, he sees a Monk I saw do you see somebody who's trying for an alternative to sickness old age and death So he leaves Number eight he comes to what's called. No, sorry undertake spiritual hardships He goes through his ascetic period you will go through your ascetic period Where you will try You will try different methods One of which will be to it to get enlightened one of which will be radical asceticism.

Sometimes in the museums you see Depictions of the Buddha who's like all just skin and bones, right? Totally, he's learned how to live on like one rice grain a day or something like that. He's mastered asceticism and You know So there's a couple of different ways that we can take that One is one is from one sort of lower school point of view is that's the wrong way to go That's the wrong way to go.

That won't get you in light that will make you just weak and And unable to meditate very well because you're so worried about Because you're so hungry so middle way right middle way between the luxury that he lived in the palace and The radical asceticism that he experienced in his in his first stage of Renunciation that's one way to interpret it There's another way to to start to start doing the enlightened activities of you future Maitreya to persevere To be willing to put up with hardships for the Dharma to be willing to come for four days Twelve hours a day and just like hang in and not get discouraged and not get tired and not say tell with this I want to go home and you know to work hard at it and to not give up So that's another way to understand it Eight after this period of you know, trying trying these kinds of Wrong ways he goes to what's called the seat of the diamond one of your Sanskrit words Diamond is Vajra and the seat is you know Asana Okay, so they got Vajra and you got Asana so if you were going to say seat of the diamond in Sanskrit How would you say it? Vajrasana very good. See So that would become a long a that would become a long a there Vajrasana Okay seat of the diamond Vajrasana Asana means seat Where's the seat of the diamond?

Bodhgaya, okay, Bodhgaya and you will go to Vajrasana when when you're When you come as Maitreya there all the Buddhists go to Vajrasana now whether Vajrasana will be in Bodhgaya I mean, you know, it's interesting kind of question. Do you have to go to like is Bodhgaya is that place in India Bodhgaya? Exists from its own side, you know See, you know like so maybe you'll project a different kind of Vajrasana You see it may not be there, you know, because there over there is just a projection anyway You know, huh?

It could be Could be Tucson. Okay, so who knows? So come to the seat of the diamond the heart of enlightenment and sit down sit yourself down under a Bodhi tree Bodhi means what?

Those of you many got this wrong in their homework. So don't forget what Bodhi means Doesn't mean Buddha. It means enlightenment Bodhi enlightenment That's what's that Tibetan for that chunk chunk chunk.

No Chung-choo Chung-choo Enlightenment not not Buddha enlightenment So you'll go to the enlightenment tree the Bodhi tree and you'll sit down and you'll say I'm not leaving here until I'm enlightened In the reading that you'll get someday you'll say something like Here on this seat. My body may rot and dry my bones and skin and flesh may drop away But until I reach enlightenment, I refuse to move from this seat And you'll just sit there and you'll go into meditation until you get enlightened Yeah, oh that's interesting, okay That's interesting So So that's why it's that tree probably nine Nine, what happens? Do you remember the story as you as you sit there?

What will happen to you as you sit there with this resolution? Okay, Mara comes remember who Mara is right Mars the the great tempter Mara comes from the root Mert this is a Mert which brings the word Marita This is that one that vocalic are Marita, which also brings the word Amrita rhythm is death Amitra deathless and Amrita is also a name for ambrosia in Tibetan I believe it's called Dutzi Dutzi same word Amrita ambrosia So deathless so Mara sin comes from that same word Mara is Sort of death personified and is in the in the story of what will happen to you Mara will come with a bunch of tempters with a bunch of demon tempters and And and they and you'll overcome them.

So that's the ninth one is that you'll defeat the demons Uh Demons always look they're red and they have long tails Right. These are self-existent demons that exist Right who are demons? What do you mean by demons?

Yeah, they're your mental affliction They don't exist out there on their own out there, you know self-existently in any kind of shape, you know They're they're what happens to you when when that person that's been assigned to you over the last three days comes in bugs you and you go I'm gonna forget everything. I've been learning for the past four days and get pissed off now That would be the demon inside you there are obstacles Then your tenth thing that you'll do is Is that you'll attain total enlightenment you'll defeat the demons and you'll attain total enlightenment Those of you know This is the kind of total enlightenment that would be different from lesser nirvana Our goal is not just to end our own personal suffering but to achieve The end of our personal suffering so that we can really help other beings Uh Then this occurs This occurs this will occur at the age of about 35 for you at the age of 29 for you You'll you'll leave the world You'll renounce and at the age of so you'll have six years that you'll sort of goof around out there in the forest, you know learning asceticism showing perseverance to others And then at the age of 35 you'll get enlightened so not then what are you gonna do with the rest of your time see You got a whole lifetime then ahead of you. You're gonna live till about 80 or so Nice long life and then you got a lot so you have a lot of time. So what are you gonna do in the story?

You'll you'll also be tempted to say like, you know, nobody nobody can really get this This is too hard for people for ordinary people for and I you know I spent so much time working at this and so forth and I don't really think other people are really gonna get it and So you'll spend a certain number of like maybe about 49 days or so like just You know chilling and you know visiting all the kind of places in the universe in the text It says that they go you'll go and you'll you'll just you go on like a tour, you know You'll go like on a cruise you go on a cosmic cruise and you'll just check out everything, you know Cuz you're you're omniscient now, right?

So you'll just go, you know, what's out there, you know, let's see everything And then after about 49 days Somebody named Shaka That's right Shaka Which is actually a name for Indra those of you know Indra who's a Hindu God usually He's gonna come and he say but Maitreya Future Buddha you you know start teaching. Please please teach No, this is in between so the next one is 11 is you're gonna start turning the wheel of Dharma, yes, you'll start teaching And you'll teach for 46 years They say also just you know back up for a second The gods will beg you to teach Mainly it says in the text. Okay, they're reading that you'll get someday Mainly so other disciples would follow their lead The gods Beg will beg you to teach mainly so that other disciples will follow their lead What does this mean?

Will beg people will beg their teachers to teach So don't forget Always ask your teachers to teach always always always always request at least mentally and better physically Verbally, please teach please teach creates the causes for your own future teachings and it's like built into this And then finally 12 So you're so then you do start teaching you'll turn the that's 11 then 12 is You'll attain final nirvana Final nirvana, which is called party party nirvana final nirvana At the age of 80 So, I guess that means you'll die, right Okay, good you look yeah, you'll appear to have died you'll appear to die if you get enlightened What is one of the you know?

the four sites include Sick three of the four sites include sickness old age and death and The Buddha is said to have overcome sickness old age. You will overcome sickness old age and death. So you're not gonna die It's all over that dying stuff.

That's for the that's that's old school That's that's done now So partner bonnet is that you you will withdraw your emanation. Sometimes they say it that way It's kind of a nice way of putting it you withdraw your emanation Do you remember why in some of the some of the versions of the story of the of Gautama Buddha why the Buddha Pretended to die with Jewish Nobody asked him to stay. No people forgot to say people didn't people started taking him for granted He was started taking you forget.

Oh, yeah, you know the Buddha. He'll always be around, you know Oh, we'll always get these teachings. We'll always have fishy Michael in our lives.

We'll always you know have access to Incredibly difficult Sanskrit texts like the Uttara Tantra in our own language Well, no always I just think you know, I think I can just expel bank on that, you know It's my right to have that. Okay, don't think that way Don't don't think that way the emanation might withdraw Okay, so that's the that's that's all question one and we have 12 questions to get through okay, so yeah Yeah Well, this is the same question How do we understand what's going on here? Here's here's here's one way to understand it You have created the karma good karma over lifetimes Up before this last lifetime and you have because of your good karma got born into Sheetah heaven and And have gotten the teachings from the Buddha of Tushita heaven that bring you Almost to Buddhahood and then you're almost to Buddhahood and you get it a birth as a human being which is the only birth They say that you can reach enlightenment In as a human birth and then you go through the rest of this stuff and you get enlightened So that's one way to look at it That's a lower school way of looking at it Then the higher highway higher school way of looking at it.

You're chilling in Tushita heaven as a Buddha already You're there and you're in you're in your sambhogakaya You're in your enjoyment body in Tushita heaven, which is gonna have really good waves in it And then you're gonna say I'm gonna take a little break from surfing Think I'll go down and Emanate on earth, you know, of course they do this spontaneously. They don't even don't even think about it You don't even like it's not a plan. They just boom and they go through this That's another way of looking at different way second question So this relates to your question It's an interesting question interestingly phrased question what moves From where but not from where and for what reason?

when the Buddha when when you undertake these twelve deeds What moves from where but not from where and for what reason When the Buddha when you as the Buddha undertake these twelve deeds, so here's the answer and then we'll go through it a little bit due to Your I just say your instead of Buddha from now on okay due to your great compassion you Look upon the suffering of the entire universe directly.

Oh As you look upon the suffering of the entire universe directly Your emanation body is sent from the enjoyment body to perform twelve deeds but without you actually moving From the Dharma body Dark Dharmakaya, we'll go through these bodies in a second. So just get that all down. That's your answer You never move from your wisdom body your wisdom body is unchanging and all like that You said nirmanakaya changing thing or an unchanging it's a changing thing, right?

It's a changing thing. It's a sambhogakaya a created thing or an uncreated thing It's a created thing So you would say you would also think that it's then then therefore a changing thing which then would mean Under usual circumstances that it's a it's an impermanent thing and wouldn't last But this is an example and there are some like this of a created thing that you guess you have to say changing but permanent Moment to moment though the wave breaks You know, it's the movies on the movie good.

The frames are still are still going. So is it changing thing? But yeah, but it never stops.

It's like the endless summer, you know, it's just one It's a it's a continuous loop or something Yeah So let's go through these different bodies. Everyone get that answer. Okay?

You know, you'll know something more about what these you already know the the bodies But now you'll know something more linguistically about what they mean The first one is a nirmanakaya Say nirmanakaya So nirmanakaya good, that's where that it's accented there because of the long syllable there nirmanakaya Like that. So that this is a big guide on how to pronounce Sanskrit. You always Accent the the long syllable if there is one It's not there's no rule on that They can occur anywhere This comes from a root.

This is near you guys remember this prefix right from nirvana and other words that we've had here What does it mean kind of? Huh Yeah, so can mean to stop or without it means a lot of different things, you know Let's see what let's see how this will work That's the prefix this this part of the word comes from a root ma ma ma Which I wouldn't be surprised Was related to the English word measure Because that's kind of what it means to measure out To measure out or to you know, when you measure out something it's also you're in the process of building it So this is the verb that that they that can also mean to build or fabricate to form So The near here is like out to form out It means to form our to build outwards So nirvana means to transform Transform so sometimes you see the nirvana kaya as the transformation body or the sometimes they even say magical body Because you know you you're you're appearing you're you're building a body out there for you you're appearing Kaya Kaya means can mean a lot of different things to kaya can mean a trunk of a tree You know it as body. So but it can be in a trunk of a tree or the body of a lute Like the main part of a lute lute it can mean the principal thing it means is that an assemblage an assemblage something that has been collected a collection So It's also the word for like house Because house is a collection of rooms Right it's a collection of parts and body guess what?

Right same it's a collection of parts is your body So kaya Some boga That's the emanation body that's the emanation but nirvana So there's a prefix that has all kinds of meanings to it, and I think you're I think you're I mean trans Are our English prefix trans? t-r-a-n-s Because transformation is really literally what this word means near mana transformation Some boga kaya You know some boga kaya is usually Translated the enjoyment body. This is the the body that appears that you This is the body that you are projecting in your paradise So you know like Geshe-la and Christy are looking through Vogue magazine to see what kind of body they want to project in their paradise That's a some boga kaya some boga means Enjoyment it comes from a root boozh b-h-u-j boozh With a some prefix some prefix means what who remembers Like like the English c-o-n cone bring together to bring together So you're bringing together in your enjoyment So this is the word actually This is the word that some boga can mean something like to eat together The Enjoyment that you have from eating together. It's also the word for sexual intercourse It's one of the many Sanskrit words for sexual intercourse. There's a joke in graduate school I was heard that like every word has like 15 meanings one of them will be sexual intercourse It means to enjoy together the boga part is the enjoyment part and the some part is like together part So you could say, you know Enjoy enjoy together with all the other people that you're chilling with in your some boga You know kaya body in heaven or you can also think complete some can also mean Can emphasize the completion of the thing that it's attached to so it's complete enjoyment It's not like it's not like the enjoyment we have here Which is partial and fading and you know always like problematic in some way or another This is like pure complete full-on whole hundred percent enjoyment all enjoyment all the time some boga Dharmakaya means Dharmakaya Dharmakaya that you know, this actually has a technical meaning. It doesn't just mean that it means the Dharmakaya means the emptiness body, right? The wisdom they say wisdom body But one and they they break down the Dharmak body into two parts right the what's called the Yana Yana Dharmakaya Yana Dharma Kaya The Dharmakaya that refers to Yana we had this word yesterday or the day before Wisdom this is the body the Dharma part of the Dharma body that refers to the omniscience of a Buddha, right?

and then what's called the Svabhava. Svabhava means self Svabhava is a prefix that means self. Svabhava means like being the self being so essence The essence Svabhava is the word in Buddhist philosophy for essence That so they say essence body what's the essence body of a Buddha this is the we're still on question two, unfortunately This is the part that That you that you will not move from the Dharma body this is the part of the Dharma body that you will not move from that will not change as you're going through all these like You know manifestations Ramifications, you know, you're over here being like, you know Tom Cruise in Buddha Paradise and you're down here being you know The next Maitreya and all like that and then you're just then there's part of you as as a Buddha.

That's just there always Unchanging eternal and that's the emptiness the emptiness of a Buddha's body Is the emptiness of a Buddha's body the same as the emptiness of of us? That's an interesting question sort of yes and no you have to say something like that in a sense Yes, because all emptiness is have the same taste, right? So they are all the same but technically no because the the thing that you are empty of is The you know empty emptiness and dependent origination are like two sides of the same coin You are dependently originating yourself as a sambhogakaya Buddha and as a nirmanakaya Buddha and you are empty of having self-existence as a nirmanakaya Buddha and a sambhogakaya Buddha Until we become nirmanakaya Buddha's in sambhogakaya Buddha's. We can't have the emptiness of those things So the emptiness the emptiness of that body depends you could say exists in dependence on Being a nirmana having a nirmanakaya body and a sambhogakaya body Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's why it's on the dharmakaya side of things That's the whole dharmakaya Okay, three Why does Lord Buddha come to our particular realm? Why will you come to our realm?

Why will you why will you Lord Buddha future Lord Buddha? Come to our particular realm. Why did why did you come?

Why did why did the last one come here? Yeah, good question good answer, but wrong wrong sort of way of thinking about it The emphasis on the question is our realm this realm and and here's the answer and then we'll go through it a little bit because our world Which is technically the southern continent of Jambud Jambud Vipa and that's one of your Sanskrit vocab words It's two words here Jambud Vipa This is a long I Vipa Okay, Jambud Vipa Technically the southern continent of Jambud Vipa and more more particularly the central land of India is a realm of deeds They don't give the Sanskrit for this. I'm guessing it Karma Datu Karma Datu. Datu can mean realm realm or place like the desire realm is called Kama Datu Desire realm Kama Datu So the realm of deeds with probably Karma Datu where humans have a good intellect and are capable of renunciation Jambud means a rose apple tree John, you know what a rose apple tree is Okay, so is it good what does the rose apple look like Oh, oh, yeah What color is it Anyway, they call this they called this continent Jambud Vipa means Island island or or continent because all continents are islands basically, right? Except for Eurasia.

Well, you know, that's the only exception I think right all the other Eurasia are two different content are two different Africa is not quite an island, right? Africa's an island No, oh, that's right. Yes almost an island anyway So they they call it Jambud Vipa because it's an island where there are lots of rose apple trees Sorry Yeah, where humans have good intellect and are capable of renunciation Just quickly.

This is off the this is off the Off-road a little bit. This comes from the reading that you'll get eventually But when when you look down from Tushita heaven and try and decide where you should emanate You'll have five ways in which you look on the world To decide you'll look upon you'll look for the right place and you'll find a place like this You'll look for the right class of people to be born in The Buddha the last one Chakya Muni was born in the royal class because this was the most influential class at the time The Buddha before that was born as a Brahman because that was the most influential class at the time When you're born, I don't know what it'll be, you know, like Kennedy's or the Schwarzenegger's So the right class of people you'll look for the the right clan the right family clan You'll look for the right mother and you'll look for the right time and The right time occurs when there are what what are called the five degenerations?

The five degenerations start you want to know what they are Time of conflict when there's lots of war And other kinds of conflict when lifespans are dropping when they start to drop when worldviews are wrong When mental afflictions are strong and last longer than they used to when mental afflictions become stronger and last longer and when beings when beings become degenerate in the sense of Their minds and sense powers are harder to reign in Or

[Speaker 2]
Yeah

[Speaker 1]
Central particularly the central land. Okay, so India is the central land of the continent of Jambu Vipa For question for right. I'm gonna move us along here.

Okay, so Just just write stuff down quick and hang in there and then we'll be done on time and then you can have a break before Gisela starts teaching For According to some ways of counting the twelve deeds the Buddha undertakes another deed before the traditional first Which is then combined with the second? So this is another way of like figuring out the pie of what the deeds you'll do So according to some ways of counting the twelve deeds the Buddha undertakes another deed before the traditional first Which is coming to our world from the heaven of bliss Which then combines with the second which is to enter the Holy Womb of your mother Name this new first deed So according to some, you know versions of what it is that you'll be doing You'll take birth as a divine youth called later Shweta Shweta K2 Shweta K2 means white white white color and K2 means like Chief or leader can also mean comet or following falling star all of these come from The primary meaning of this word is bright appearance.

So a chief or a leader has a bright appearance and so forth. So Gisela and Christy have translated this high white top Your name will be what high white top Okay, and you'll be born as a divine youth with that name in the heaven of bliss That is in Tushita or gondon paradise there you will teach the Dharma and When you perceive directly that it would be of great benefit for all living beings You'll hand your crown over to the keep to the keeping of the coming Buddha Maitreya and you'll head for our realm So I read it again You'll take birth. I hope you're writing this down in the second person You'll take birth as the divine you name Shweta K2 in the heaven of bliss that is in Tushita or gondon paradise There you will teach Dharma and when you perceive directly that it would be a benefit for all living beings You will hand your crown over to the keeping of the coming Buddha Maitreya and you will head for our realm five Okay

[Speaker 2]
Okay

[Speaker 1]
Because that's what you do in your that's that's one of the things that you'll do in your Dharma paradise You'll have you just be like enjoying yourself like a hundred percent all the time and one of the it's very interesting One of the things that you do in a Dharma paradise is to teach Dharma to 10th level bodhisattvas But you're teaching them that in a sambhogakaya, you know in a body of complete pleasure Which means that teaching Dharma will be complete pleasure for you It'll be like better than surfing It's part of the it's part of the bliss that you will have is Teaching Dharma and those of us who have the opportunity to teach Dharma getting some sense of this already Getting a little taste of it There are Dharma plus several Dharma teachers here and you know You know how wonderful when you see somebody and I was watching in the crowd yesterday, you know, everyone here is advanced But there are some people here who have not heard the pen thing before It's amazing. Like, you know, we've heard it so many times. It's like, okay And thing over yet, you know, and there's some people in there were just gone and you could see you know That light bulb and when you see that light bulb go on people's eyes when you're teaching the Dharma.

It's just like it's bliss So that in your Dharma paradise, you'll just be blissed out teaching and you'll have like unbelievably good students, you know Who have all I've been up there who've gotten the karma to be in your paradise, right? They'll all do their homeworks and quizzes Uh Five right Give and explain the two well-known names that the look that you will receive upon your birth so you You'll be called Siddhartha. Siddha?

Artha? Say Siddha Artha Now say Siddhartha See how that goes So you can know right That'll become a long eight because a short a and out and a short a have come together Okay, Siddha Siddha Some of you know this word, right? like Like if you had a teacher who had had achieved all kinds of tantric realizations You might want to call that teacher Maha Siddha Maha Siddha great Maha means great Siddha somebody who's accomplished something Accomplished that means Siddha means accomplished great accomplishment the thing that a Maha Siddha accomplishes It's called the Siddhi which are sometimes called powers They have amazing powers. They can read minds.

They can fly they can do all kinds of things Which are you know? Tricks and in in all forms of Buddhism, they they teach it like that. Don't get hung up in the Siddhas Anybody can learn to do is not a big thing, you know So, you know when when you start having them if you're not already, I don't know Don't don't think oh, yeah, you know, I'm done now I Can read minds big deal, you know do something useful for the rest of us Don't just sit around reading minds get in fully enlightened.

Don't get hung up at that stage so Siddha means Accomplished Arta means goal goal or or purpose and let's see how they Translate it. Yeah wishes or goals. So Siddhartha means someone who has fulfilled Wishes or goals So the prince is called Siddhartha, which means fulfilled wishes or goals by his family because on The day that he is born on the day you are born Sorry the people in your land are freed from all kinds of illness and trouble Yeah goal and end or you know, like something an end you're trying to reach an end goal purpose Yeah in your realm are freed from all kinds of illness and trouble and things that they had been wishing for come true Yeah, apparently like Yeah, if when you're when you're born in Tucson like everyone in Tucson will have a really good day Something like that.

Apparently it's kind of what it means Say shakya shakya Muni Muni Say it together shakya Muni Shakya Muni here where the accent falls Shakya Muni Right first syllable because it's long Shakya means belonging to the shakas shaka Those people who belong to the shakas become shakyas shakya is his clan name shakya the clan He's named shakya Muni by divine beings who come to pay him honor because all the rest of the shakya people Okay, so shakya Muni means somebody who's who's quiet who's taken about a silence Muni is a silent sage So why is he called shakya Muni? Why why will you be called shakya Muni?

And and we can start like trying to live up to our future name Because the rest of the shakya people spend their time with meaningless talk and activities While this particular shakya proves to be wisely quiet So while everyone else is out like blah blah blabbing, oh, what did Schwarzenegger do and blah blah blah blah blah we we will just be Quiet and not engage in that kind of meaningless divisive useless talk six Compare how those of the lower way the greater way and the secret way Describe the level the Buddha was on as he went through the twelve deeds So this is getting now at the questions that you guys were asking earlier So who was this who will what level will you be on? When you go when you go through these twelve deeds I'll read you the answer in a second.

Okay, so this is not the This is not from the answer key, but this is from the reading and It's interesting to know and since you not mean may never get the reading who knows might want to write it down According to the lesser vehicle Interpretation Himayana, right lesser vehicle interpret. That means the lower schools by Bhajika detail is school and sutra school From the time from the birth in your previous birth from the time of your birth in your previous birth To your birth as The next Buddha From the time of your birth in the previous birth to the time of your birth as the next Buddha You will be on the path of accumulation path of accumulation from the time of your birth as the future Buddha to the time that you go to Vajrasana The seat of the diamond and sit at the seat of the diamond and Not get up again until you reach enlightenment from the time of your birth To the time you go to but Vajrasana is the path of preparation path of preparation When you sit down in Vajrasana, you start to go through the various levels of meditation And one of those levels of meditation is that last one in the path of preparation? Which is called something like I forget what it's called, right?

Yeah, it's called that Which is like the highest thing right the highest highest existing thing. It's also called something else like fire or Tapas, or I don't know anyway So that'll occur and then and Then after that while you're at Vajrasana You will go through all the other stages Including the path of seeing right you'll go through the path of seeing you'll finish the path of preparation You'll go through the path of seeing you'll go through the path of habituation and you'll reach the last path Which is the path of what? No more learning all all in one sitting so that's according to the Hinayana schools So and that's from your reading So this question is compare how those of the lower way the greater way and the secret way described the level the Buddha was on As he went through the twelve deeds according to the regular quote regular position held by those of the lower way and some of the higher way The Buddha was a bodhisattva the Buddha was a bodhisattva and more specifically Either a bodhisattva on the path of accumulation or else a tenth level bodhisattva According to different, you know interpretations.

He was a bodhisattva Yeah, it means he he has bodhicitta and and He's either on the path of accumulation, which means he does not have had direct perception of emptiness yet or He's a tenth level bodhisattva, which means he's just about a Buddha during the first nine deeds Okay, right up to the defeating of the demons Remember he's in he's in Vajrasana He's in that and he's meditating and he defeats the demons right up until then from from one to nine he's either a bodhisattva of on the path of accumulation or a tenth level bodhisattva and then Up To up to the Yeah, nine deeds through the nine deeds. Yeah through the defeating of the demons and Then of course, what's the next one right attaining total enlightenment. So what are you going to be?

He's gonna be a Buddha right and a Buddha during the last three deeds Okay Got it. So from a lower school point of view, which includes I guess some Some Mahayana schools also seems to indicate that some These are the this is this is who you will be up until level 10 up until d10 for the first nine deeds you'll be a bodhisattva either on the path of accumulation or tenth level and Then after and then deeds after 10 10th deed 10 11 and 12, you'll be a Buddha according to the special position Which is that of most texts of the greater way the Buddha had long since become enlightened Okay long since become enlightened and Only pretends to go through the twelve deeds for the benefits of disciples And I think one thing to really you know to study in this class is to just to think like well And there's a whole question of this so it won't be too hard You'll give get instructions, but to think like how are those twelve? What are these twelve deeds teaching me? What are they teaching me?

What are they helping me to learn so that all you know? As I'm as I'm trying to become the next Maitreya Because that's according to the greater way. That's why he did them is to teach us something about something So to teach his disciples he goes through the twelve deeds for the benefits of disciples according to the secret way Lord Buddha appears in his enlightened enjoyment body as So the Buddha you will take on the sambhogakaya right the enlightened enjoyment body of Vajra Vajra means what?

Diamond Dara means what? Holder yeah somebody who holds the diamond budget Dara is the Buddha in the form of Vajra Dara in the form of the tantric form the tantric form of the Buddha Teaching the secret teachings, that's the form that the Buddha takes to teach the secret teachings The form you will take so you will appear in your enlightened enjoyment body as Vajra Dara and various other forms located in this heaven Akon, Nishtha Akon Nishtha do that like retroflex s and t Akon Nishtha Akon Nishtha Here is a primitive not Konishta means lowest Youngest it really means youngest or lowest The word for youngest is the word for lowest As some of you in your families know So, uh not lowest so highest the highest heaven so you will appear as Vajra Dara and various other forms Located in Akon Nishtha the heaven below no other below none as Well as in special realms around our world to give secret teachings according to the secret way you will appear in your enlightened enjoyment body as Vajra Dara and various other forms located in the Akon Nishtha heaven the heaven below no other as Well as in special realms around our world to give the secret teachings So that's the tantric understanding of your acts It's a very I think it you know, we have to stick to the to the interpretation to one or another of the interpretations and not mix them and And I think that from the tantric interpretation You will be teaching tantra to countless beings from the lower Maybe even Mahayana, but lower Mahayana understanding it might be different I Think I think it goes like that and I don't really know and we should sometime maybe ask it's interesting though You know if that's the case, then how come so many of us are getting?

[Speaker 2]
hundreds Yeah, oh I see Right, okay.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, right. Yeah Well, I'm not either Yeah, well, okay So seven, right There are two positions as to the deed the deed the Buddha was performing when he attained Automatic ordination as a full monk some of you know that this is actually in the in the old days This this was one way to get ordained is sort of like automatically The Buddha got it in one way and we'll talk about that in a second But apparently in the early days of the Buddha one of the ways that he ordained people was just say you're ordained Boom boom boom like, you know, no big ceremony. No nothing, you know, just like boom.

You're that's it. Boom So and then there's the then there's that's that's a kind of automatic ordination and there's the like, you know You go through the stages you go through the ritual and you do this and you do that So there are two positions as to the deed the Buddha was performing when he attained So when did the Buddha become a full monk, I guess you could say and how did this automatic ordination thing work?

The Detail is that's by Bhaska's say this happened when Lord Buddha left the worldly life Which is which of the twelve deeds? Which number? six So they say it happened at six and he got automatically ordained I'll say a few things about what that means in a second what the automatic part of it is But that's what the by Bhaska is.

That's the stage. That's the the deed that you will be doing When when you get automatic ordination according to the by Bhaska's some masters say that rather It occurred when you will reach the wisdom of no more learning The wisdom of no more learning Which is another way of talking about what? Full enlightenment which occurred at which number of which deed number?

number ten Here's how automatic enlightenment worked Automatic ordination. Sorry. Yeah, wouldn't that be nice automatic?

I want another American layman Chakra chakra, I think is Indra again leads will lead you to a stupa and You will cut your own hair off. You'll shave your own hair off and Chakra this God Will give you your robes that's automatic ordination you'll some deity some high pleasure realm deity not a pleasure on Desire realm deity so not a in Buddha or anything like that But a very high desire realm deity will appear to you and say come on. Let's go to this sacred spot and And you'll you know bring or they'll be clippers there.

Maybe probably They'll be stored there somewhere and you'll cut your hair off as a sign of your own ordination and that deity will then say Here's some robes for you to wear Automatic ordination, that's what it means Eight Why according to the detail is schools? So now we're you know We're talking about we're we're kind of like all over the place in this class a little bit right from school to school jumping from school To school so keep it straight right keep keep the different schools interpretations of these deeds Straight in your own mind so now we're talking again about the detail of school the vibhashikas lower school in Ayana Why according to the detail of school was Lord Buddha forced to endure six years of spiritual hardship as the seventh deed? Okay seventh deed right is right after he leaves the world he goes You will go and you'll you'll do all these austerities right you'll learn all these austerities And you'll starve yourself, and you'll do all these like yoga, and you'll sweat. You'll have all kinds of toughest You know this is a word that Gishla was using in some of the quiet retreat teachings I believe right in in relation to Not in relation to yoga even before that yoga teachings I think toughest is hardship means hardship putting be the ability to put up with hardship For the Dharma especially for spiritual goals it comes from a word top From a verb verbal root top which means to heat up Heat so it's very very similar to the Tibetan idea of tumult It's a static heat spiritual heat inner heat That you get from doing certain kinds of practices especially us austerities, so what's up with this? Why did the Buddha? Why do why will you?

Go through this stage where you do this kind of toughest So according to the Vibhashikas They say it was a karmic result This is interesting They say it's a karmic result of you having spoken badly of the previous Buddha So it's a kind of a karmic payback. It's a bad thing You're having you have to go through because you're on the wrong track see also Right according to this idea. You're you spend six years wasting your time basically Try on a wrong track before you like wise up and figure out that this is not going to get you enlightened Okay, so why how come that happened to?

How come that will happen to you so they say well? It is because of some bad past karma that you had of talking bad about the last Buddha And that Buddha's name is You know who our previous Buddha Could be our teacher The higher schools, okay, so now here's the alternative Explanation the higher schools say that the state that statements in the original sutras to this effect must be taken figuratively So the higher schools say no no not quite that's a metaphorical Statement not literal why according to the higher schools. Do you think?

Did the Buddha undergo this this stage? He's already enlightened so let's say he's let's say from the higher school point of view. He's already enlightened Why would he go through this stage of like pretending to like go you know?

To like be confused about how to get enlightened and to try all these like wrong techniques and to to do this Yeah, partly to show us that they're wrong of course right and to show us Right that this is not that's not the way to go, but also to to emphasize this idea of perseverance Like you know this is the kind of stuff that you have to put you have to be willing to put up with You have to be willing to to have this kind of determination and perseverance If you're gonna, you know reach the goal nine name the four demons that are defeated as the ninth deed as the ninth deed name the four demons that are defeated as the ninth deed right the ninth deed is the defeating of demons and Describe a position of Jason copper on when they are actually stopped okay, so these are the You know these are these demons that come as part of the army of Mara And you know they do all kinds of stuff to the Buddha they try and shake the resolution they will try and shake your resolution as you're sitting down and Have vowed not to get up from meditation until you reach enlightenment going through all the stages And they do all kinds of things you know you've heard the stories they come and they shoot arrows at the Buddha, right? They will shoot arrows at you, and what will those arrows look like to you as they're coming towards you yeah flowers It's like okay. That's the emptiness of an arrow The emptiness of an arrow is that you know if you collect the right kind of karma people can shoot what they see is arrows And they'll just peer like bouquets to you, okay?

Then you know Dancing beautiful maidens, and what's a what's the male equivalent of a maiden? bread pit beefcakes the beef the dancing beefcakes and and maidens will come trying to you know test you right lust and And you will see them as bags of rotten guts That's what it says in the text. You'll just you'll look at them, and you won't see you know Brad Pitt Or you know whoever you just see like You'll you'll see like you know what they look like really underneath this thin veneer What we really look like filled with you know You'll do that like instant meditation that sometimes they give you to do of like what's all what's inside there You know puss and blood and you snot and So the first is the demon of the mental afflictions the demon of the mental afflictions So that I guess is the one that has that red tail and has a pitchfork and you know Those demons demons of mental afflictions that I mean I think in the story actually You know see if you think this is just my own speculation, okay? That that is the name of the demons that come and shoot the arrows Because they're angry right their anger they represent anger hatred Right so that's the that's the demon of mental affliction which according to a Presentation by Jason Kappa is defeated at the eighth bodhisattva level Okay, so the demon of mental afflictions is defeated at the eighth bodhisattva level you're in you're at you're at Vajrasana you're in deep meditation. You're going through all the levels now right boom boom boom boom boom and And at the eighth one you defeat them Next is the demon of death according to the same presentation the need to die through karma and mental afflictions is absent from the first bodhisattva level But since one still takes rebirth up until Buddhahood, then it can be said that this demon is Not defeated until then Okay, so I'll read that again Next is the demon of death according to the same presentation the presentation by Jason Kappa The need to die through karma and mental afflictions is absent from the first bodhisattva level But since one still takes rebirth up until Buddhahood Then it can be said that this demon Is not defeated until then Then the third demon the demon of what's called impure heaps Not defeated until full Buddhahood and the demon of Impure heaps is not defeated until full Buddhahood to then the demon of what's called divine youth The demon of divine youth is a destructive spirit who obstructs the final defeat of the other three demons The demon the fourth demon is the demon called the devine demon of divine youth Is a destructive spirit who obstructs who obstructs the final defeat of the other three demons?

So when's that demon defeated? Yeah, also only at enlightenment what? You know If one of them depends on the other than the other when the other is defeated then that one's defeated too This is the third one, right?

The third one helps Helps prevent the defeat of the the fourth one helps prevent the defeat of the demons three and two So if demons three and two aren't defeated until enlightenment and the fourth was not defeated until enlightenment That's all it says I Would suggest that the impure heaps demon is those temptresses on tempers? The Brad Pitt's the beefcakes and you know that the dancing girls that come and then you see them They you see them as impure heaps you see their bodies as impure heaps, that's why they're called impurities. I I'm guessing Ten right are the twelve deeds of Shakyamuni Buddha are all the twelve deeds of Shakyamuni Buddha performed by Shakyamuni Buddha even one of those like trick questions What do you think?

No, okay under any school A pretty good answer I Guess I shouldn't have said that so quickly under any school point of view. Let's say from the lower school point of view Okay from the lower schools point of view, which is that you know, this bodhisattva Was born, you know in his final birth in your final birth and and all like that happens And then stuff like that happens are all twelve of the deeds of of that last All twelve of the deeds of that last birth of the bodhisattva soon-to-be Buddha Are they all the acts of Shakyamuni Buddha? Are they all acts of the same person the same?

the same Are they all the acts of the same birth you say? Yeah, right you have to like what about the first two I think right Technically speaking the first two deeds of Coming to our world from the heaven of bliss. That's one right and To entering his holy mother's womb our deeds done by the person who was to become Shakyamuni Buddha It's a little technical question.

It's the it's a form of rebirth still you're still in the former You're still you as you were in your last birth before this last one in the previous birth before this last one Okay, this is the last I think the last question almost last question Yeah technically speaking The first two deeds of coming to the world coming to our world from the heaven of bliss. That's deed one and entering your holy mother's womb To deed to our deeds done by the person who was to become you as Shakyamuni Buddha Okay, this is a really important question, so we're almost done. There's only one question after this so Concentrate on this one.

This is a really good one Speculate a bit on how each of the twelve deeds may represent a message from Lord Buddha to us on How to conduct each stage of our own life over the course of our life So how did these twelve deeds? Part of the what is the what was the last Buddha trying to teach us? Future buddhas with these twelve deeds on how to like get closer to being the next my trip so Here listen Deciding to come to our world.

Okay. That's number one, right? Deciding to come to our world can represent the decision to get involved in helping others in an ultimate way Once we have seen their suffering That's why that's why the last one came Because the last one saw a suffering and said, you know, I feel so sorry for them I have great compassion for them want to help them I mean another way to think about this question is how can we start like now take the result into the path, right? How can we start now?

To do the acts of the Buddha in our world in our lives to do the enlightened activities So start by getting involved in helping others in an ultimate way once we've seen their suffering this means like cultivating bodhicitta really Cultivating that that urgency to get enlightened quick so that we can truly help others in the ultimate way Entering the womb and taking a human birth deed to right Represent the decision to take on a form that other people can relate to in order to teach them Okay, and this is what I was talking about before like the the holy Buddha practice of not being weird You know to the best of our ability You know, it's gonna be a trick for a lot of us You know what I mean, right Yeah, I mean there is an egocentric miss I think to you know to like first Purposefully unconventional activity of just like being in people's faces about how different we are, you know, oh look And it's not really compassionate in a way Mastering the worldly arts, that's three right mastering the worldly arts could represent our worldly careers Okay, let's stop there it's not that's not the end of this sentence, okay I bet you you can figure out what the end of the sentence is Anyway, that's not wait before we go there. So what what could we be doing?

so this is this is like how could we think about our worldly careers differently as as enlightened as as as Pre-enlightened activities you see. Yeah. Oh Didn't I do that one Entering the womb and taking birth so two and three are together Sorry.

Yeah, I didn't make that clear so Mastering the worldly arts could represent our worldly careers. So, you know, how could we make our worldly careers if we are in a career? How can we make them?

Pre-enlightened activities like to see them as as skills, you know as as opportunities as skills for our practice instead of like I'm in a career to get ahead or to you know Fulfill myself or you know to get better than others or to get a lot of money or whatever to see it differently to see them as means For helping others. Okay. Here's the rest of that sentence.

We were talking about renunciation last night, right? Mastering the worldly arts could represent our worldly careers, which we must sooner or later leave behind In case you were wondering, you know, we didn't kind of do the full-on thing last night, you know, it was a little bit like You know Not so skillful, but anyway means of just like sticking at one level and saying, you know Oh, you know, you don't have to quit your job and you don't have to do this You know, you know You can have renunciation and still lead it over there at a certain point You know, you just don't have time a certain point There's just a it's just like it comes down to like like, you know I don't have time to have a career and a family and this and that and get enlightened in this lifetime And that's the bottom line for the you know, the advanced students.

Okay The bottom line is that you know at a certain point you got a fish or cup bait Really? Geshe-la says this, you know rarely But you you know at a certain point, you know, I think in class course six diamond cutter sutra Maybe there's one or two classes in the ACI curriculum where he just pulls it out and says, okay look I'm taking the gloves off now. Here's the real dope You don't have time to mess around with a career and a family in a car and this and that Okay, you got it at some point.

You just gotta say that. Okay, I'm out. I'm done.

I got a different career now. I Renounce and that's you know renunciation starts with the mindset, but ultimately that's where it ends The spiritual hardships Right, is that right? Oh The same with sensual pleasures, yeah the same with sensual pleasures, especially sex in a mundane married life Okay Especially the same.

Is there any ambiguity about that? Yeah, the same it means the same as sooner or later we must leave them behind the same with sensual pleasures especially sex in a mundane married life Yeah, well The spiritual hardships, okay, that's number one. I've lost the numbers here, but you know what it is, right?

[Speaker 2]
Renunciation the spiritual hardships show us that enlightenment is one only with hard work and many pains Especially if we are not careful in the path we choose I Said well, okay.

[Speaker 1]
I'll spell it out. It means like okay once you've done that Then at a certain point you got to stop doing that and then you got to do number six and that's what we can learn If you are doing these things then you need to go to number six eventually I Mean you're at you're asking me to extrapolate because I'm just reading you the answer key, but that's how I would extrapolate it That's what is meant here You number four is you know, maybe necessary number five may be necessary you as my Trey I mean we need to do these things, but you also got it like say at a certain point number six comes next and And and and you can't just sort of skip number six.

See that's the thing This is the one that we like that. We would really like to just like leave out Couldn't I just like do all that other stuff except for number six And and it's not like that Because you don't have time you can't there's not it's a bottom line the bottom line is that that that enlightenment will take such energy and such commitment and This life is so short that you it's very it's impossible. Really ultimately impossible to try and serve two masters Yeah Yeah, I mean, you know as a yeah, you know as as a way of learning how to help people as part of the path Understanding is part of that.

Okay, we got to move right Six six is included. Okay, six is included in these two sentences. Listen to these two sentences Mastering the worldly arts number four Could represent our worldly careers which we must sooner or later leave behind six The same six with sensual pleasures five Especially special especially sex and mundane married life the spiritual hardships seven, right?

I got the numbers right now Show us that enlightenment is one only with hard work in many pains Especially if we are not careful in the path we choose eight Coming to sit at the Buddha tree Bodhi tree right is like that personal sense of responsibility for the enlightenment of all beings and The decision to work to the death if necessary to achieve enlightenment Remember that resolution that he made that you will make when you sit down at the Vajrasana. I'm not getting up here I don't care like my body can die everything can you know, my body can deteriorate. I'm not leaving I you have to have that kind of resolution So coming to sit at the Bodhi tree is like that personal sense of responsibility those of you know, this is lock some Lock some what?

Num num doc That thing right before Bodhi Chittor, right? It's my job This is my personal responsibility to get all beings enlightened and I need to do Everything whatever it takes to get enlightened That's what that Vajrasana Sitting down at the Bodhi tree thing can mean for us Defeating the demons is a statement upon who our real real enemies are Is is my enemy Saddam Hussein, you know, who's there? You're real is the enemy that the person that's been put in charge of bugging me at this teaching, you know Who are the demons?

Defeating the demons is a statement upon who our real enemies are our own mental afflictions That's one demon death itself any state of mind or body short of an enlightened angels Okay, these are all demons any state of mind or body short of an enlightened angels mind or body is a demon and any Thing that would hold us back from our task Reaching the state of enlightenment is a statement to us that it is possible To be of ultimate benefit to all living beings The state of enlightenment that's the 12th, no, which 10th deed 11th deed reaching the state of enlightenment to 11 feet. No 10th, right? 10th deed is a statement to us that it is possible to be of ultimate benefit to all living beings Teaching Others the path is the highest form of help we can give to others Okay, I'm gonna read that one again because there are people in here our Dharma teachers and there are future Dharma teachers and That is the highest that is the best thing that we could be doing Teaching others the path is the highest form of help we can give to others You know if you have to choose, okay, should I help somebody, you know Who's poor get more money or should I teach the Dharma?

You must teach the Dharma. That is a higher calling. I Mean in in these kind of like Sophie's Choice kinds of situations.

You only have a certain amount of time There's only a certain amount of time that we all have and this is the highest form That we could be doing the highest form of assistance So next time, you know a Dharma teacher is like, you know next time you're all like bugged about your students and you know It's a big pain in the ass and you got to go to the Xerox store again And you know, nobody's helping you and I like that.

Just remember remember that one And the fact that even Lord Buddha passed away from this world Is a reminder of how fragile we ourselves are, okay, that would be a lower school understanding of What this activity enlightened activity of the Buddha means for us? Hari nirvana passing from this world is a reminder of how fragile we ourselves are and also Okay kicker a Reminder that many of the things we see around us may not be at all what they seem to be Did the Buddha really die, you know did the Buddha sit on some deathbed going Yeah, or was that just an appearance and and was the reality different from what it appeared to be and Maybe there's lots of stuff like that going on in our world all the time 12 question 12 last last last question When Lord Buddha came out of his holy mother's womb He took seven steps in each of the six directions of space when you when you're born in your last lifetime You're gonna be a remarkable infant.

Okay, you're gonna come out you mom mom's not gonna have any pain and you're gonna come out and you're gonna start walking around and you're gonna take seven steps and each time you take a step lotuses are going to appear and and Lotuses appeared below his feet with each step and He made a high proclamation and you will make a high proclamation in each in each direction Give the famous line that you will speak as you step to the West

[Speaker 2]
I

[Speaker 1]
Very close. Yeah, very good. John's got it.

I am the highest being to walk on this planet and Just like for your information Among the other things that you will say is you'll say this is my this is my final birth I'm almost done Now I will rip out from their roots the experiences of birth aging sickness and death Yeah, that's the answer to the question period you don't have to you don't have to know the rest we have to know this But that's what you'll also do. You'll be ripping the roots out of birth aging sickness and death And guess I always likes to like emphasize the death part. Okay, Buddhism is teaching has always taught That the goal is just is to end death Is to end the experience of death.

We're done Class 10. Thank you so much. This is really fun.

And thanks for putting up with the Sanskrit and stuff It's great that I can do that.

[Speaker 2]
All right, so we'll dedicate a little bit See