Углублённый курс ACI: Колесо жизни в Сутре сердца (1999, Сан-Франциско), занятие 2

[Говорящий 1]
According to Buddhism, that's a big deal. Like, you can see your future lives after that. You can see the day of your own enlightenment after that.

You can meet certain parts of Buddhas, the enlightened beings themselves. You know, a lot of people in this room say they're Buddhists, or they're practicing Buddhism, but they've never seen a Buddha, and you're not even sure they exist, okay? But on that day, you do see them directly.

So this is a big deal if you see emptiness directly. That king, after seeing this painting and studying it for one evening, on the next morning, he went into meditation and saw emptiness directly. So it must be a great painting, okay?

Designed by Lord Buddha himself. Last time we went through all the parts of the painting. We took a quick guided tour through the parts of the painting.

I have cleverly left my copy at home, and so you get to have me draw it. I do the pig really well. Okay.

So, basically there's a wheel, and a rim like that, and then there's—don't start laughing yet, okay? It's like that. And then you have...

Okay. And then you have this monster. Hallelujah.

And I'm not even going to try Lord Buddha, okay? This is Lord Buddha here, okay? And then there's, importantly, there's a moon here, and then there's a little...

There's something with writing on it, if you can look at it, okay? I'll take you very quickly through the wheel again, and then we're going to concentrate on the meaning of the wheel, okay? Tonight we'll start the actual breaking down the code of the wheel.

In this wheel is coded all the knowledge you need to reach nirvana and to become an enlightened being yourself, okay? So within that wheel is all that information. You just have to know how to decode it, okay?

And literally this wheel has all of it in there, okay? The Buddha is up here, right? Originally he was the only one in the picture, but now he's pointing over to this thing.

I'm not going to try the rest, okay? He's pointing to the moon here. The moon here represents nirvana, okay?

And buddhahood. And as we'll see tonight, and we'll be talking about it more and more, really the moon represents the end of your mortality, okay? If you could understand this wheel properly, if you put it into practice yourself in your life, you wouldn't have to die, you wouldn't have to get old.

That's the point of the Buddha standing outside of the wheel, because this ugly guy here is death, and he's holding the wheel. Everybody inside the wheel has to die. Anybody who gets out of the wheel doesn't have to die.

You can go from inside the wheel where you are now, to outside of the wheel. That's the whole point of this class, okay? So Lord Buddha is pointing to the moon over here and saying, you can get there.

On this like... it looks like a gravestone or something, but actually... it's something written, and...

it's called... it's a very famous verses in Buddhism. It goes, SANGS RGYAS BSTAN LA SBYUG PA BYA DANG PO'I KHYIM LA LANG CHEN BZHIN CI DAG DE NI SBYONG PA BYA It means...

SANGS RGYAS BSTAN LA SBYUG PA BYA means, learn to... learn the things that you should do, and learn the things that you shouldn't do anymore. SANGS RGYAS BSTAN LA SBYUG PA BYA SANGS RGYAS BSTAN LA SBYUG PA BYA Try to enter the teaching of enlightened beings.

DANG PO'I KHYIM LA LANG CHEN BZHIN means, think of what an elephant does when he gets pissed off, and crushes a small shack made of reeds, okay? I mean, how hard is it for an elephant to crush a shack made of reeds, okay? At the edge of a river.

CI DAG DE NI SBYONG PA BYA CI DAG DE NI SBYONG PA BYA means, you can learn to destroy your own death in that same way, okay? So, I'm not making this up. When the Buddha designed this wheel, he told them, write those verses, write those lines on the painting, you know?

And we were at this big art collector today, and he was sort of disappointed. We said, you gotta have one with that writing on it, that's the original. And he pulled out all his paintings, and he said, uh-oh, I don't have one, you know, gotta get one.

Okay, but... there's some verses that are supposed to be there. The whole point of the teaching of the Wheel of Life is how to escape death, you know, how to get out of dying.

So, those verses should always be there. And that's how the verses goes. There's another line, I mean another verse, and we'll talk about it later.

So, that's what's going on outside of the wheel. Lord Buddha got away, got out. He's pointing to the moon, which is nirvana and enlightenment.

And then there are these verses of like, you know, what do you call it? They're like meant to cheer you... it's a pep talk, you know?

You study this well, you don't have to die, okay? And that's what those verses say. We'll talk more about it later.

Inside the very center of the wheel, there are three critters. I'm really bad at the pig, okay? Anyway, there's a pig, and then there's a snake, and then there's a rooster, which used to be a pigeon, okay?

And those represent three mental states that give you all your trouble. We'll talk about them later. We're gonna work in from the outside of the wheel, okay?

Here you have a bunch of, you know, spiritually minded people going up, up, up, up and reaching the stage of a bodhisattva. There's a very beautiful bodhisattva here. And then on the other side you have a bunch of not spiritually minded people, like, you know, American materialists, getting dragged down by their possessions, okay?

And they're going down. And this side is black, and this side is white. And that represents, you know, your eventual fate if you just take the New York Times for face value.

Okay, and then here are the different realms of beings. You know, we talked about it last time. We'll go into more detail about it.

Here there are some kind of very pleasant paradises that you can be born into. Here is the realm of human beings, which is where we are. Here is the realm of some kind of spirits that during their lifetime as a human being, they were very cheap, chintzy, attached to things, material things, and got born as some kind of tormented spirits, or ate too much, or drank too much, or ignored the needs of the rest of the 95% of the world that didn't have enough food and overate their food, or something like that.

And over here is the animal realm, which we can see. And down here is the hell realms. And we'll talk about all those things, you know.

You can see the people in this realm, which is the animals. You know, you can see dogs and cats and other animals walking around. When we talk about taking rebirth as an animal, it's important to remember that we don't believe that there is a factory some place.

It must be in Idaho, where they make dog bodies or cat bodies, and then they catch human spirits after they die, and they stuff them in the back, and they sew it shut, or something like that. We don't believe that. That's not what Buddhists believe, okay?

What it takes to be born as a dog is to start seeing the world as a dog, okay? Like, to start seeing the world the way a dog sees the world. It's not to change your skin, okay?

Don't think of rebirth like that. Think of rebirth as a very radical change in the way you see the world, okay? This change is forced upon you by certain events that you don't have any control about, okay?

Like, you have to agree that at some point, your mind will stop seeing your body as moving, and it will start to see your body as stopped, and that's called death. I mean, there will be a time, probably, when... well, I hope not, but anyway...

Normally, there would be a time when you'd be sitting on a bed, and you'd be looking down at your body, and it would stop moving, and the people around you would start crying, and they'd say, oh, now he's passed away, you know, and you will come to that day, someday. And there's a radical shift in your mind at that time. According to Buddhism, your body doesn't change so much as your mind changes.

It's not that your body stopped breathing. It's that your mind has seen your body stop breathing, and there's a big difference, okay? The body, according to Buddhism, doesn't just stop breathing on its own.

It stops breathing because you perceive things that way, okay? There's a big difference between the body stopping breathing, and you seeing yourself stopping breathing, which is what Buddhism says stopping breathing is, okay? So, when you stop breathing, it's because you see yourself stop breathing, and that's what it is to stop breathing.

And to be a dog is not to put on a dog's skin. To be a dog is to start seeing the world as a dog. It's not such a big jump, once you admit the possibility of stopping to see yourself breathing, when you used to be breathing five minutes before.

That's a very radical change, you know? All the good luck or good karma in your whole life wears out in five minutes. I mean, you have to admit that that happens, you know?

First, you know, you go from healthy, young, owning a lot of stuff, knowing a lot of friends, enjoying lattes in some cafe in the East Village, and then five minutes later you get hit by a car, and suddenly everything has changed, and you don't own any of those things anymore, you see? And according to Buddhism, it's just a mental shift. Something has shifted in your mind, and you cannot perceive lattes and cafes and friends and even your body anymore, because something radically shifts.

And you have to admit that that happens. I mean, you can admit that someday your mind will watch yourself die, go from living and owning many things and knowing many people to dying and not knowing anybody and not having anything, you know? And then the shift to seeing things as an animal is not such a big deal, okay?

Buddhism says the mind cannot be destroyed. You could put an atomic bomb next to a person, you can set it off, their body will vaporize in a few seconds, but the mind is totally different than physical matter. It cannot be affected by physical matter.

You can shoot a bullet through your brain, you will start seeing things differently right after that, but you don't stop the mind. The mind itself is not made of the same thing that your body is made of. The mind is invisible.

The mind has the power to go home right now and see what's in the refrigerator that you might eat after class, okay? Like Ben and Jerry's, okay? But your mind has the power to go home and check that.

Your mind is not bound at all by your body. Although western scientists would like you to start thinking like that, it's not at all, okay? Your mind is unbound by your skin.

Your mind doesn't stop where your skin stops. It's not like the skin. It's a different thing.

You can't stop the mind. According to Buddhism, the mind is unstoppable. It cannot be destroyed.

And so it must start thinking something different. We'll get into that later. That's not the point tonight, okay?

The main point is this. Once you're inside of any one of these parts, whether you believe in the existence of hell or not, it doesn't matter. I mean, this life is bad enough.

The one that you can confirm is going on is bad enough. You know, you have basically two kinds of things happening to you. There's the bad things and the good things, okay?

And the bad things I don't have to try to talk you out of. They're bad, you know? Like, you get sick.

You meet people you don't like. Things happen to you all day long that you don't want to happen to you. And they just keep happening to you.

It doesn't matter how much you don't want them to happen. They keep happening to you. That's the bad things, and nobody has to argue about the bad things.

What about the good things? Well, tell me what's the good things in your life, okay? Oh, I'm pretty healthy.

I have some good friends. I have a wife or a husband that I like. I have children, you know.

I'm intelligent. I can think, you know. And if you count all of those things, you know, that Buddhism says they're all suffering, not because they're not fun.

They are fun. And not because they're not beautiful. They are beautiful.

Like, Buddhism doesn't claim that a beautiful relationship between two people is something ugly or suffering or something like that. It doesn't say that. It is beautiful.

You can't deny that it's beautiful. You'd be stupid to say that certain beautiful things in life are ugly. Ocean is beautiful, you know.

Sunsets are beautiful. Children are beautiful. Can't say they're not.

The point is, though, that all of them have to go away. They all have to die this terrible end. Everything has a lousy ending.

Children die. They get old and die, you know. Sunsets stop and then you get cold and it gets dark, you know.

Your body, no matter how healthy or pretty or handsome it is, will definitely get ugly. And you will look just like your grandparents, okay? You know.

If you think you're— Everyone thinks they're different, right? Everybody thinks they're gonna be different, you know. You're not gonna be different.

You're gonna look just like them. Whatever they look like, you're gonna look like that. You will look like that, if you live that long, okay?

And then, whatever money you happen to collect, no matter how lucky you are in this life, you have a good job or you win certain lottery or anything else, no matter what you manage to, through the whole efforts of a human life, no matter what you're able to assemble temporarily in your embrace, you know, you'll lose all of it. You have to lose it. Either it'll take care of itself and you'll lose it before you die or when you die you lose it.

But it doesn't matter, you're gonna lose it anyway. So, what's the point? Okay, so, every good thing you can name, husband, wife, okay, 75% divorce rate in this country.

Even if you don't get divorced, one of you has to die first. Okay, unless you die together in a car accident. But anyway, what's the point?

I mean, that's the only possible end of that relationship. There's only one way it can go, you know? Even if you can stay together and be close to each other, which is very rare, then one of you gets torn away from the other one, and that's the way it goes.

And that life is doomed, you know? There's no future. The bad things are bad and the good things are gonna turn bad.

Okay, so, is there, you know, is there anything you can do about it? I mean, if you're really honest, that's the thing. We fool ourselves constantly with hope, you know?

Maybe if I just ate a little less, maybe if I just worked out a little more, you know? Maybe if I just changed partners a third time, you know, things would be all right. You're just fooling yourself.

It doesn't change. Things don't change. Everything gets worse.

That's the nature of things. This wheel explains, you don't have to believe in the hell realms and stuff like that. You're in pretty much something about us the same, okay?

I mean, nothing to look forward to. It's true. So the question is, can you get out of it?

Can you change it? Can you actually change those things? And you can.

That's why it says up here, you know, I always tell people, the purpose of Buddhism isn't to, like, relax. Relax for what? You know, relax until I get in a nursing home?

Relax while all my wealth is torn away from me? Relax while my children die or my grandparents die or my wife dies? You know what I mean?

What's the point? Well, relax about what? You know?

It's not that. It's not that. And it's not really to be friendly to everybody.

I mean, it would be nice, but what's the use of being friendly on the Titanic while it's going down, you know? So, it's not... that's not the...

it's not the point, you know? The real point of Buddhism, and it's not an exaggeration, he says, chi dak de ni shon bar ja. That's the last line of this verse up there, and it says, you can escape death.

You know, you can change. You can move to a different level of existence. And that's the whole point.

According to Buddhism, your current life is a bubu. You know? That you live in this particular segment of reality.

And there are many, many levels of reality. You're experiencing a certain wavelength of the whole spectrum of reality. The slice that you're in right now is a mistake.

You got here by mistake. You have to try to figure out how to get out of this particular slice of reality, because this one doesn't work. It's a defective state of reality.

Meaning, anyone who enters this life that you are aware of now must eventually get hurt by it. And that's a mistake. To be in this particular level of many, many thousands of different levels of reality, the one we're in is a mistake.

And it's a bubu. And it doesn't work. And it can't work.

It doesn't matter what kinds of vitamins you take. And it doesn't matter what kind of cosmetics you use. It won't work.

Can't work. There's something wrong with the whole realm that we're in. And you can move to a different realm, and things will be rosy, and you don't have to worry about it.

This painting tells you how to move to a different level of reality. And you can. I didn't see anybody do that.

So it doesn't exist, right? Right? Mato leni me mayin.

Dharmakirti, 7th century. Just because you didn't see it, don't mean it doesn't exist, okay? Meaning, it's not logical to say that, okay?

And Buddhism says you have to be very close to getting out of this realm to see someone else get out of it. You see what I mean? For you to have the vision, or the karma, or the wisdom to see someone who got out, you'd have to be very close to getting out yourself.

Your whole world is created by your perceptions. And until your mind is pretty pure, you won't even be able to see all those beings who have gotten out, or who are getting out now. You think they're normal people around you.

And they look like they're normal people around you. And they look like they're aging the way you're aging. But a certain percentage of the people around you are totally different.

You're not pure enough to see it. And you won't be until you get pretty close to getting out yourself. So the fact that the New York Times hasn't reported about anybody who didn't die, you know, or who's totally happy, is not proof that it doesn't exist.

Because you have to be very close to it to see it. It's like a... Buddhism does believe in miracles.

We do believe that it's possible, for example, to walk on water. There's a certain meditation you can do to walk on water. It's called, seppor kye che kham It's a certain meditation you do to change the physical properties of the environment around you.

And you can walk on water. But you have to be a very pure spiritual person. And you have to be almost that pure to see someone else do it.

And if you doubted, in the middle of being on the water, you would sink. You see what I mean? I mean, it's that subtle.

That the karma of doubting changes the solidness of the water. And you would sink down and you'd start saying, Oh! Alright?

So... So the fact that you didn't see anybody get out of this wheel doesn't mean that nobody's gotten out. And it doesn't even mean that the person sitting next to you hasn't gotten out.

You may not be pure enough to see them for what they are right now. And this is very common in Buddhism. This happens all the time.

So how do you get out? I'm going to put some Tibetan words on the board. The first Dalai Lama said, Throw in some foreign languages and they'll think you know what you're talking about.

Okay? We're going to be talking about... If you notice, there's twelve little scenes going on.

Here. And they're like a clock. Okay?

There's like twelve scenes going on. And we're going to go through them in order. Alright?

These are called the twelve links of interdependence or the twelve links of dependent origination. I hate that word because it's so long. But it's a good word.

Okay? We'll call it dependence right now. Okay?

The twelve links. It starts here at one o'clock, it goes to two o'clock, three o'clock, rock around the clock. Like that.

And... And this is the key for getting out of the wheel. Okay?

What does it mean to get out of the wheel? Number twelve is death. Okay?

You can get out of it. You can reach up here. Okay?

To go from here up here is to get out of the wheel. You can get out of the wheel. The point of this class is that some percentage of the people here, what?

One person? Five people? Will get out of the wheel before they die.

Okay? The hope is that. What's the likelihood that any person here will be able to do it?

I tell people it's about the likelihood of you becoming a very good pianist.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
I mean, it takes about that much effort.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
How many people in this room, if they wanted to, could really master the piano in the next five years or so? You see what I mean? It takes about that much training and that much commitment and that much dedication for you to get out of the wheel.

It's very similar. If you... If you spend any less effort, you wouldn't get out and you can't get out.

Okay? It takes about that much dedication to become a good pianist. Okay?

Maybe almost concert-level pianist. You know, so if everybody in this room tried real hard from today, how many would make it? I don't know.

Okay? But it takes about that kind of commitment. And...

And Buddhism says it's very unrealistic to think you could do with anything less. Okay? I'm sorry, you know, but that's the way it is.

Not... You know, assuming you are who you seem to be to me, and I'm not sure. Okay?

Because my mind's not that pure. The odds are not very good for most people. I mean, you'd have to be...

It would only be a small percentage of people who would be that serious about it that they could, like, learn concert piano in this lifetime or something like that. It takes about that much dedication to get out of the wheel. It takes that much daily, constant exercise and practice of your scales to get out.

Okay? But that's about the kind of commitment it takes. If you haven't done that or haven't tried that, then don't be surprised if nothing happens, because it won't.

Okay? It takes about that kind of commitment. Okay, so we're going to explain the twelve links.

These are called the twelve links of dependent origination. In these twelve are contained all the secrets of how to get out of the wheel. Okay?

And that's the whole point of this class. We'll spend the entire evening on the first link. Okay?

Because that's where you make it or break it. All right? That's where, if you throw the monkey wrench in the wheel, it stops.

You know, like the Charlie... What's his name? Chaplin.

Chaplin, like throwing these big monkey wrench and these big gears going like that, and then the whole thing grinds to a halt. You can do that by fooling around number one. It's link number one at one o'clock.

That's where you can break the wheel.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
Here's the Tibetan name for it. Say, dendel? Dendel.

Yenlat? Yenlat. Junyi?

Junyi. Just repeat the words, okay? It's...

It has a good effect on your mind if you just repeat them. Did you have a question? Did you have a question?

Yeah, sure, sure, sure. He asked if I could point to the syllables. We'll go real slow, okay?

Ready? But you have to make noise, okay? Or I won't do the bouncing ball thing.

It's a deal. Dendel. Dendel.

Yenlat. Yenlat. Junyi.

Junyi. One more time. Dendel.

Dendel. Yenlat. Yenlat.

Junyi. Junyi. Okay, that's good.

Very, very important. Dendel means... It's a very delicate word in Buddhism.

They call it dependent origination. I hate the word because it's so big. And I'll make it simple, okay?

The word origination means, why do things happen? Okay? Where do things originate from?

You could call it dependent happening or something like that, okay? Origination means, where do things come from? Dependent means, things depend on other things, and that's where they come from.

What's an example? Okay? I'll give you an example.

Hmm... I read a story, and I always remember it. It's a couple of years ago.

My lama is a big baseball fan, and he spends hours watching baseball. And then, I don't know, he gets these deep realizations from it. But...

He's like 80 years old. He's one of the highest lamas in the world, right? Former Abbot of Sarah.

Second largest monastery in the world, right? And he's like... He's like watching baseball, and then one night on the news, they say two pitchers from the New York Mets were...

This is a true story. They were in a motorboat in a lake. They got drunk on beer.

They were buzzing around the lake in the dark in this speedboat, and then they came right up under the dock. There was a dock. And the boat goes under the dock, and they're both sitting there, and it's like at a curve, you know, like they're playing around in a small lake.

And... And they lean over, and the one guy on the left side gets his head cut off like that, just decapitated, you know? And then the guy on the right side gets just grazed, you know?

And then he's out pitching like... Six months later, he's okay. And then...

The question is this... Why did one guy die, and the other guy didn't die, you know? And these are the questions that your parents told you to stop asking after a certain age, you know?

Like, you're allowed to ask those questions after a certain age. And then when you're old enough to understand things, or maybe not understand things, they say, OK, look, that doesn't have an answer, you know? But you say, well, why did the one guy die, you know?

And they say, oh, well, he hit his head. And you say, well, but some people hit their head and they don't die. Yeah, but he hit it real hard, you know?

And he hit it... The skull is only so strong, and the wood is so strong, and the motorboat was going at a certain speed, and physics demand that his head crushed in, and he died, you know? And then you say, well, why the other guy didn't die?

And they say, well, he was leaning, so it just grazed his head, and he didn't have to die. And then your mom is like, that's all you need to know about it. And then you're like, yeah, but you didn't answer my question, you know?

I want to know why the one guy died, and the other guy didn't die. And she says, well, the boat tilted, I told you that. One guy went under, and the other guy hit, you know?

And then you say, but why did one guy go under, and the other guy hit? And they say there's no answer for that, you know? They say, there's no...

you can't decide that. But in Buddhism, we would say that that is not acceptable. You can't say that some things have a reason, and some things don't have a reason.

Either everything's random, or everything has a reason. Okay? You can't, like, be wishy-washy on the fence.

Okay, Johnny, some things have a reason, and some things don't have a reason. By the way, we're all scientists here. You know, we believe in rational thought, you know?

Everything has a cause. Everything has a reason. So you say, is there a reason why one guy died?

And they say, yeah, he hit his head at a certain point. Yeah, but is there a reason why one died, and the other didn't die? No, there's no reason for that.

Okay? And you don't expect it after a certain age. They tell you, don't think about that, don't worry about that, there's no answer for that.

That's just random. That just happens, you know? But that doesn't make sense.

Either everything has a cause, or it doesn't have a cause. Either everything has a cause, or things really are just random. And if you light a match, then a tsunami, tidal wave, crosses Central Park Pond.

You see what I mean? If things are random, then everything should be random, right? You know, then when you open this pen, you know, fourteen roses spout out, or something like that.

You know, if things are gonna be random, everything has to be random, or everything has to have a cause. And that's what dependent origination means. So, forget this long word.

It just means, come on, everything has a cause. Everything depends on something else. Okay?

Everything comes from something else. What's it got to do with my life? Well, the point is that there's a reason why you die.

Okay? There are certain causes, there are certain conditions that make people die. There are certain causes that make every good thing in your life turn bad.

Okay? There's a cause for that. There's a reason why every relationship you get into gets bad after six months or a year or two years, okay?

There's a reason why everybody who collects a certain amount of money loses it eventually. There's a reason why these things happen. There's a reason why your body is getting older.

It's not random. Okay? Oh, I know why the body is getting older.

My cells are drying out, you know, the blood is getting like that, the bones are becoming more brittle. That's not the reason. Tell me the reason.

Tell me why it happens to people. I saw a National Geographic article on aging. It was beautiful.

There was a fold-out of the human body, and every single point in your body that ages. And there were 30, 40 bodies. 30, 40 points, you know.

This gets old this way. This falls apart this way. If you don't die that way, then this will die over here, and if that doesn't go bad, this will go bad.

And, you know, timeline for each one, you know. And then at the bottom of the chart, I swear to God, you can check it, it says, we don't know why it happens. They were very honest.

We don't know why people get old. It just starts happening, you know. It starts happening.

Different people, different speed, different parts, different thing, but we don't know why, okay? But there has to be a reason, okay? Buddhism says, everything depends on something else.

Everything comes from its causes. You can identify the cause of every single event in your life, including your death and your aging, and you can stop it. Okay, that's the claim of Buddhism, real Buddhism, okay?

Not like, be friendly, be happy Buddhism, you know? Life and death stanks here. You can get out of this wheel if you really study it well.

You can learn the secrets of changing it. And again, in the back of your mind, you're thinking, I never saw anybody do it. Yeah, right, you didn't see anybody do it, okay?

But that doesn't mean you can't, okay? That's what Buddhism says. That's the purpose of this class, okay?

So, you have to study Tendrel Chenla Yenlak Chunyi. The first link of the twelve is what we're going to cover tonight. According to Buddhism, this is where you make or break the links, okay?

If you understand the first link, which is at one o'clock on your picture, okay? What's at one o'clock? What's the little scene going on there?

Can you see it? What is it? It's a blind man, okay?

I mean, you can't see it too clearly. He's dressed up in a Tibetan robe. It's a guy, okay?

He's got a chuba on. And he's got a walking stick. And it should have a red point on it, okay?

But we didn't have color. And he's blind. The point is, he's blind, okay?

I'll give you the name for that particular link. It's all we're going to cover tonight. All right.

Say, dambo... marikpa. Dambo...

marikpa. We studied this for a year in the monastery. I mean, they drilled us.

You got to do it backwards and forwards. Dambo marikpa... And you got to do it backwards and forwards.

You got to be able to do it... And you got to be able to do the whole thing like that, over and over and over again. And you debated over...

over and over at night, in the debate ground, three, four hours a night, until everything is in your brain, okay? This is the most important piece of the whole puzzle. Say, Dhammo...

Marikpa. Dhammo Marikpa. Okay, you gotta get really good at it.

If you get good at it, you'll be able to just go in like that. Dhammo Marikpa, Nibbā Dhū Jīgī Laya, like that, okay? Dhammo Marikpa.

Dhammo means number one, link number one. Marikpa is translated usually as ignorance. Ignorance means you don't know what's going on.

Like about what? Like about why the one guy died in the boat, and why the other guy didn't die, okay? That's all.

I mean, why? Okay, it's questions that your parents told you not to ask after a while. It doesn't mean they don't have an answer, you know?

Why do two people sit in a car, they get in an accident, and one guy dies, and the guy sitting next to him doesn't die, walks away? Why? You know, what happened?

Why does that happen? Okay? We are ignorant about that.

We don't understand why it happens. There must be a reason. Everything has a reason, okay?

There must be a reason why. There must be a reason why some people get cancer, and some people don't. You know, just suddenly, two...

one cell in a person's body starts splitting crazy. One cell starts going crazy, you know? Why?

Why in one person, and not in another person? Oh, they are exposed to radiation. We are all exposed to radiation all day long, you know?

Why one person, not everybody else? You know, what happened? All it takes is one particle to strike one cell in a certain way, and you got cancer.

That's all. It can come from a wall on the ground, it can come from any... almost anything can produce this one particle that hits this one cell.

So, why does some people get it, and some people don't? Why does some people's cell gets hit, and the other don't get hit? You know, why?

Why is that? Okay? We don't understand why.

And that's called ignorance. If you knew why, you could get out of it, okay? According to Buddhism, all right?

Hmm... Ignorant about what, you can say dependent origination, okay? Meaning, why does everything come from?

We are ignorant about... where does everything come from, okay? We are ignorant about tendo.

Say tendo? Tendo. Tendo.

This thing right here. Okay? We are ignorant about...

about tendo. So, we are gonna talk about tendo, okay? Tendo or dependent origination.

When you hear that big Buddhist word, you know, dependent origination, just think what? Where everything comes from? Where does everything come from?

I mean, forget the big word, okay? Where does everything come from? If you knew, you wouldn't have to be in that wheel anymore, okay?

If you knew where, you wouldn't have to be in that wheel anymore. Where do all this stuff come from? Why am I getting older?

Why do I meet people I don't like? Why isn't my life going the way I want it to go? You know, why do things happen out of my control?

How... can I stop it or not? Where do things come from?

That's dependent origination, okay? Where does thing comes from? In Buddhism, there's three different schools of thought about it.

And I'm gonna talk about each of them, because... those of you who are studying in the other class, two of them are chong... chong dun, okay?

Two of them are interesting, but not true. Okay? Useful, but not true.

How's that? Does that make sense? Like, they're useful ways of thinking about where things come from, but they're not exactly right, okay?

And then there's a third one, which is very right and very useful, and gets you out of the wheel, okay? So, why should we waste too on the... waste time on the two, which are, you know, kind of cool, but not right?

Why did the Buddha teach many, many different ideas, some of which are not even correct? Why would the Buddha do that? It's for people of different levels, okay?

Like, we're talking about it in the other class, the Tuesday and Thursday night class. The Buddha had three great parts of his career, his teaching career on this planet. In the first part he said, everything exists pretty much the way you see it.

In the second part of his life, in his teaching career, he says, nothing exists the way you see it. Everything's an illusion. You're crazy all the time.

Then in the third part, somebody asked him, did you really mean that? He said, Oh, no, no, no. I meant it sometimes and I didn't mean it other times, okay?

According to the highest school of Buddhism, he was speaking the truth in which one of the three? The second, when he said, you don't understand anything right. You're constantly misunderstanding your world, you know?

And then he taught emptiness and all that. We're not gonna get into that tonight, okay? That's not the point.

But we're gonna get into the three ideas of what dependent origination means, because they're all useful, even though only one of them is absolutely correct, okay? And I think it's important to cover all three because you often hear Buddhist lectures where they cover one of the other two, which are interesting and wrong, okay? And so at least you'll be forewarned, you know?

You'll know which one is useful and which ones are not useful, okay? So it's important to know that. Okay, here's the three meanings of dependent origination.

The first two aren't exactly right, okay? But they're useful, okay? Say gyu la ten.

Gyu la ten. Gyu means causes, okay? Gyu means causes.

La means on. Ten means depend. Things depend.

Things depend on their causes, okay? Things depend on their causes. And you often hear this when people are talking about dependent origination.

And then there's... They water it down more and more each year, you know? Until finally it becomes...

We're all... What's that telephone thing? We're all connected.

And that's the true meaning of Buddhism, you know? Like, every time I cough, it affects you. You know what I mean?

Or, you know, everything I do ultimately affects you. And that's the true meaning of Buddhism. And if you understand that, everything's okay.

And it comes down... It gets watered down to some sort of friendly Buddhism, you know? Like, hey look, we're all connected, so you better treat me right and I'll treat you right and we'll all be happy.

Okay, happy... What? You know, oh, while we die, get old, lose everything that's good in our lives.

You know, but we're all connected, you know? And, you know, it's a nice thought. And, you know, it's a friendly idea.

And it has nothing to do with getting out of your death, okay? I mean, it's not the real meaning of dependent origination. People are explaining dependent origination in systems theory.

You know, every time you don't get your car inspected for emissions, there's a tree dies in the Amazon. And that's the meaning of dependent origination. You know, it's true, in a way, but it's not the point, okay?

That's not the point. Should we be compassionate? Yes.

Must we be friendly? Yes. What's the real reason?

It's not that, okay? It's not that... Of course we're dependent on each other.

That's not the ultimate message of Buddhism. And knowing that somehow you depend on Clinton and he depends on you or something like that is not going to get you enlightened, okay? And it's not going to save you from death and losing everything you have, okay?

It's interesting. It's true. It's a nice thought.

It's not the point of Buddhism, okay? That's not what dependent origination means. There are schools of Buddhism that say dependent origination means that all things depend on their causes.

And that's the meaning of dependent origination. Okay? What schools say that?

If you know about the four Buddhist schools of ancient India, I'm not talking about Tibet, okay? The ancient, ancient schools of India. There are four great schools of thought.

And the first three are called the Abhidharma schools, or called detailer schools. The second school is called the logic schools, sutra schools. And the third school is called the mind-only school.

All three of those schools say that the meaning of dependent origination, the meaning of this twelve links here, and that wheel, the secret to life and death is all contained in the idea everything depends on something else for their causes. Everything depends on their causes. How am I supposed to relate that to my life?

What information does that give me to get out of the wheel of life? Okay? Not very specific, okay?

I mean, it's interesting that everything comes from causes, but could you be a little more specific? It doesn't seem to me that if I understood that... By the way, it's supposed to be very difficult to understand dependent origination.

Almost as difficult to understand what? Emptiness itself, okay? We said that on the morning you see emptiness, you will see all your future lives.

You will see enlightened beings. You will see the day of your own enlightenment. Roy will know what his name will be on the day of his enlightenment.

Really, really, you see those things on that day. In twenty minutes of experience you see all these things. You know, it's triggered by a twenty minute experience of emptiness.

And then after that you see all these things, okay? So, that's hard to do. Supposedly, it's almost as hard to see dependent origination.

So, is it a big deal if I say, hey look, this pen comes from its causes. Get it? Is everything okay now?

Can you go home and not take medicine again and, you know, live forever or something like that, you know? Will your body change into a tantric angel's body? You know, because you understood that the pen comes from a factory.

You know? I mean, duh! You know?

Okay? Alright? It's not the point, okay?

And the higher schools say, come on, that's interesting. It's true, it has some relevance. We have to figure out where we came from.

But it's not gonna... that in itself is not gonna save you, okay? It also...

the big complaint of the higher schools is that, you know what, it doesn't even cover everything in your life.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
There's lots of things in your life that don't come from causes.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
Like what? Like emptiness? Like empty space?

Like truth itself? These don't... we say these don't come from causes.

They don't suddenly start growing or sprouting and then suddenly die one day like that. These are universal things. They are just true all the time.

They don't get bigger or smaller. They don't have causes. There's lots of stuff in the world that doesn't have causes.

We don't like your explanation of the twelve links. That's not what it means. Why are we talking about these different ideas about dependent origination?

Because not understanding them is what kills you. Ignorance is what kills you. Okay?

You gotta get used to that. Not understanding the points I'm talking about right now is what will kill you if you don't learn them. Okay?

So, you have to know them. You have to understand them. So, that...

that explanation we say nice, no cigar. Okay? That's not the ultimate answer to the problems of life.

It's not gonna get me out of the wheel. Could you refine it a bit? Okay?

And they do. Okay? The next school up refined it a bit.

How many schools left? There's only one left and we just wiped out three. Okay?

So, now actually the middle way school called Madhyamika school middle way school we're gonna split it into two parts. Okay? The lower part and the upper part.

Now, here's what the lower part says is the meaning of the twelve links around the outside of the wheel. Okay? What's the meaning of dependent origination?

Say chache... chache... la...

la... ten... ten...

chache la ten. Chache la ten. Your Tibetan's getting good.

This is a little more sophisticated, okay? Chache means parts. La means what, do you remember?

On. Ten means? Depend.

Depend. What? Things.

By the way, Tibetan is backwards, okay? Or maybe English, I don't know, but they're the opposite of each other. Things depend on their parts.

That's the meaning of dependent origination.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
I was in Dharamsala studying Buddhism, 1975, I was twenty years old, you know, and I was really excited and I met this Harvard, you know, genius and he was writing his doctoral thesis and I said, what's the meaning of dependent origination? He says, everything depends on its parts, you know? And I said, great, you know?

And he shows me his doctoral thesis and it says, thinking about dependent origination can cure you of desire for girls, you know? So I'm like, wow, show me that, you know? And he pulls it out and he says, okay, here it is, you just think of them as their parts, you know?

So I'm like, okay, like, you just think of them as a big bunch of atoms or something. So the next time you meet a girl and you have improper desire for her, then just think of her as a big pile of parts and everything will be fine, you know? And so, you know, I'm like the spiritually inclined person and I want to try it, you know?

So this cute girl comes into the Tibetan library and I'm studying there and I look at her and I'm trying to imagine her as a bunch of atoms, you know? And it doesn't work, okay? You know?

I mean, okay, she depends on her parts, it doesn't change anything, you know? She still looks cute to me, you know? It didn't matter, I didn't get it, you know?

And it didn't seem to change anything, you know? I mean, okay, I admit, they're made of their parts. A car is made of its parts, you know?

You can still kill yourself and give yourself a heart attack to get a nice one. You see what I mean? Okay, everybody knows it has wheels and, you know, engine parts and everything else and then there's certain percentage of Americans who will literally kill themselves to get one by going to work every day and then having certain kinds of stress and stuff like that.

So what's the point? I don't get the point about thinking of it as parts, okay? It's an interesting explanation.

It covers, by the way, something that the other explanation didn't cover. What's that? All that stuff that doesn't have causes, okay?

Like emptiness or like truths, okay? Or like empty space or things like that, location, things like that, things that don't have causes. This one is better.

I mean, this is a more complete explanation why. It covers things that are not things that don't have causes but which still exist, you see? So it's a cool explanation why.

It covers everything that exists. Everything that exists in the universe has parts, okay? Everything that exists in the universe has parts.

Prove it. Oh, well, my body has left, right, up and down, okay? What about space itself?

Yeah, it still has location, okay? There's still a left side and on the left side you reach Mars if you go that way, you hit Venus, you know? It still has direction, okay?

What about your mind? Of course, the millisecond ago, a millisecond into the future, there are parts of the mind. The mind stream is composed of successive moments, okay?

It has parts. So this is kind of cool. It's a way of thinking about everything in the universe as having parts.

What's it got to do with my life? Is it going to save my life? Am I somehow not going to die if I go around looking at everything as having parts?

You know, and you hear this explanation about dependent origination. Somebody gets up and gives a profound lecture for an hour about think of everything as having parts. Think of everything as depending on everything else.

Think of everything as having causes. Good night, see you later, please leave a donation at the door, you know? And then you're like, you know, after an hour, after it wears off, you're like, well, what's it got to do with me, you know?

What's it got to do with my dying, you know? Is this supposed to be helping me? I'm supposed to go around and see everything as parts, you know?

I don't get it, you know? And I really didn't get it. It used to drive me crazy, you know?

And the lamas would be in the monastery and drilling us, you know, things have parts, yeah, things have parts, okay? So, don't suffer anymore, yeah, okay. And then, you know, and then you go home and you're like, wait a minute, you know, I don't get it, you know, what's the connection, okay?

Then you have to go to the highest school, okay? It's called Prasangika or Consequence School of Madhyamika. How many people like this school?

Oh, Lord Buddha, all the Dalai Lamas, Nagarjuna, Tsongkhapa, you know, it is the school of all the enlightened beings, okay? This is the ultimate interpretation, okay? If you understand this one, supposedly you'll understand emptiness quickly, okay?

And this is the real meaning of dependent origination. This is the real meaning of the twelve links, okay? It deserves a new piece of plastic.

Let me see. Dopa la ten Dopa la ten This is the real meaning of dependent origination. By the way, on the day you see emptiness, I swear you will see all those other things.

You will see your own enlightened self into the future. You will see into the future and see yourself becoming a Buddha, okay? Every person in this room has the experience and the equipment to do that.

You have certain characteristics of your mind that qualify you to do that and you will do it sometime, okay? So, but you will see it on that day. You see your own future enlightenment.

You see certain parts of enlightened beings, okay? And you know how many lifetimes it's going to take. These are all like things that you can't confirm before that.

You can say I believe in future lifetimes. Yeah, prove it. I believe in Buddha.

Yeah, prove it, you know. I'm going to get enlightened. Yeah, prove it.

You know, but on that day you see all of those things directly, okay? Because you saw emptiness just before that directly in meditation, okay? Just before that, like a few minutes before that or maybe an hour before that, you see the real meaning of dependent origination directly, okay?

You see topa la ten. Say topa topa la la ten. Okay, so I can explain it tonight and you will understand what I say, but it's not the direct experience of it.

At some point in your future, in your life, if you keep thinking about it a lot and if you keep doing good for other people and if you keep being compassionate, these are all things that are necessary and if you have a really good teacher who understands these things or has had those experiences then it will happen to you. Those things can happen to you but you have to hear it first and you have to get used to it. So it's just a seed being planted in your mind.

It's not like you're gonna go home and understand it directly and then tomorrow morning, you know, see emptiness directly or something like that. It's about as difficult as learning to play the piano very well and it takes about that much effort and if you don't put in that much effort it will never happen to you. Then what?

You'll die. You'll get old and die. You'll never...

I think more frustrating than not reaching enlightenment is believing that it wasn't possible in dying like that. You see what I mean? It's one thing not to get there because you didn't try so hard.

It's a different thing and I think a more sad thing to say I don't even think it was possible. You see what I mean? And both will be the case if you don't try it really hard.

So anyway I'm going to tell you what it means. I'm going to explain it but to really have it happen to you directly is a different thing and it will happen to you directly if you try. If you just train properly and it's just like learning the piano.

Learn from a decent teacher how to do it properly practice the scales they give you and then you must become a pretty good pianist after a while if you put in your effort from your side. So anyway here's the meaning of dependent origination. By the way after crossing that great what do you call it mountain okay you get to have cookies and juice and stuff like that.

Okay so here's Dopa Lakden Dopa means your projections La means on Den means depend and then the word things is understand and this is the highest meaning of dependent origination okay everything depends on your projections okay we'll talk about it very briefly before we take a break and then we'll talk about it more when you get back okay if you understand this point well you will go a long way towards breaking the wheel at the only place it can be broken which is link number one which is ignorance once you turn ignorance into wisdom you know once you turn not understanding where this world is coming from into understanding everything about where it comes from you have broken the wheel eventually you'll get out

[Говорящий 2]
okay

[Говорящий 1]
the one o'clock is the weak point that's where we go after the wheel okay that's where we try to throw the monkey wrench into the wheel okay so I'll go into the meaning of projections

[Говорящий 2]
okay

[Говорящий 1]
this is a famous example all my old school all my old students are tired of it but it's a principle in Buddhism that you keep repeating something until somebody gets enlightened all right so assuming you're not enlightened yet which I don't know but it seems to work all over the world we did this thing in Mongolia Australia India Russia okay anyway here it is what's the dependent origination of this pen ah you should say what school do you want okay especially the people who are in the other class we are studying in the other classes all the different schools of Buddhism and how you know one is true and how you know one's not true how do you make that judgment how do you know when the Buddha was putting us on and how do you know when he wasn't putting us on okay for our own benefit right but still how do you know okay so put yourself in the lowest school I ask you what's the dependent origination of this pen what makes this pen dependently arising or dependently originating it comes from its causes okay it came from a factory ah somebody dug up some coal they melted it into plastic they took the metal out of some ore and they made it into a pen and all the effort of all those people and all the thinking behind designing the pen and everything else all those causes have come together and we have a pen

[Говорящий 2]
okay

[Говорящий 1]
that's the lowest interpretation and that's the one you hear 99% of the time and it doesn't help you get in line I mean directly okay and it I mean it can be frustrating if you're a normal thinking American and some guy is up there saying over and over again oh everything depends on its causes okay good day good night good luck you know okay doesn't help me okay ah suppose you're in the lower half of the of the middle way school Mademika school what do they say oh it's dependently originating because it depends on its parts a car depends on its parts and you hear lectures like that too you know they get up and say now just think about it you're all your parts you know and you're not your hand and you're not your arm and you're not your leg and you're not your tummy and in a way you're not everything together or are you see you later good luck you know I mean you're supposed to be somehow you know it's like a some deep thing you know they go into this thing about you're not your hand are you and I said yeah I never thought I was my hand anyway and and you're not your ear and I said yeah I'm not you know and then there was this girl in a daughter of one of my fellow students when I was fifteen years ago twenty years ago I'm like in the class and the lama has just finished this deep explanation of the parts of things you know and I'm going to freak this little girl out you know and I come out and I say are you your hand and she says no you're not your hand and I say are you your arm you know and she says no you're not your arm and I say are you all your parts together and she says of course you are and I'm like you know and like I was trying to get her you know she's sitting over there by the way she's now thirty something anyway um I'll never forget it no so so like what's what's the point you know of course you're all your parts together I mean you hear these Majjhimika lectures you know the deep truth of Buddhism you know you're not your hand I never thought I was my hand you're not everything together either what do you mean I'm not everything together of course I'm everything together you know I am myself all my parts together cars all the parts of the car are put together you know what's the point okay I mean and then they try to trick you and say no none of the above and you're like I don't get it you know what's it got to do with me

[Говорящий 2]
okay

[Говорящий 1]
and that's a you hear that explanation I mean try to get the Lama to tell you what it means you know like what's it got to do with my life am I supposed to go around thinking I'm a bunch of parts so what you know or that I'm not a bunch of parts but I am a bunch of parts you know anyway that's not the point okay highest school of Buddhism okay what do they say about this pen this pen is dependently arising because it depends on your projections okay we got to talk about that one I'll talk about it for one minute I swear you can have your refreshments okay does it mean I'm just making up this pen with my mind okay I mean is that what projection means you see is it mean that I can just that I'm just making up this pen anyone who thinks that you come up during the break and I'll poke it in your belly button you know and no one ever comes I always offer you know and I'll give you a good poke with it in your belly button or something you know tell me this pen is your projection it's an illusion it's not real you know let me draw a Hitler mustache on your face during the break you know tell me it's not real you know what I mean tell me it doesn't work you see what I mean it's like crazy you know it's like what do you mean when you say that okay so that's not what projection means okay can I like project into it that it's a gold bar you know or that it's a a hundred dollar bill or something you know can I just close my eyes and make a different projection is that what projection means you wish I mean that's what they told you in church they said go pray for auntie so and so who's got cancer you know and you wish real hard and then the next week you find out she died you know you're like wishing doesn't change things you know you can't make this thing change into something else just cause you want it to be and you can't make auntie Joan not die from the cancer that she got just cause you want it and you sit down in a certain building and pray for that it doesn't work you know that you tried that okay you can't it's not the point that it's a projection like that that's not what projection means okay so what does projection mean I'll give you a small clue then we'll take a break he keeps saying that right uh suppose a a dog walks in first of all what is this thing a pen okay okay some people haven't been here before say a pen okay heh alright okay no I mean I hold this up I say what is this thing you say pen okay prove it oh you've been writing with it all night you know no sleight of hand no tricks you know you've been writing with it it's a pen okay then I say is it a pen because it's a pen or is it a pen because you're thinking of it as a pen yeah right it's a pen because you're thinking of it as a pen okay prove it well if a dog walks in here and you and you stick this thing in their face you know you say what's that you know are they gonna take it in their paw and write a a love letter to their dog friend you know you know okay they can't do that they because they don't even conceptualize it as a pen they don't even think of it as a pen they don't perceive it as a pen to them at the best it's something interesting to chew on it's kind of an interesting shaped stick for chewing on you could call oh look he's got one that his dog chewed on okay okay who chewed our dog his dog I swear okay he knew I was gonna do that okay that's a that's not a pen that's a chewable object am I right now which one is it it can't be both at the same time yes it can okay depending on the on the being who's perceiving it okay it is properly logically totally reasonably a chewable object a doggy bone you know some kind of dog treat it proof proof is there it's all flat you can come see it during the break okay you know and it is just as reasonably a pen okay it depends on who's looking right there's a cylinder here that's white and blue some beings in the world will be forced to see it as a pen they'll see it as a pen some beings in the world who have four legs and tails will see it as something to chew on who's right they're both right because things are created by projections the very existence of the thing I'm holding in my hand depends on a projection

[Говорящий 2]
okay

[Говорящий 1]
what it is and what you use it for and how you relate to it depends on your own mindset okay it's not coming from this object it's coming from you

[Говорящий 2]
okay

[Говорящий 1]
this... it's very reality or it's... what it is is totally depending on you it's not a pen from its own side it's a pen because you're thinking of it as a pen okay what's it got to do with my life?

is that gonna keep me from dying? okay is that somehow gonna get me out of the wheel to understand that about this cylinder okay you have to think about that whilst you take refreshments, okay come back in about ten minutes and then we'll talk about it, okay so we're talking about three different ways of thinking about dependent origination okay you can understand that this pen comes from its causes and that's interesting and you can say, oh therefore everything is interconnected you know, somehow you bear a relationship with all other people you should be compassionate to them that's a useful way to think that has its own benefits especially it makes you aware that for example when one person dies in a boat and the other person doesn't die there must be a cause okay so that's helpful okay and then you can say okay, what is it in the parts of a person that makes me like them or dislike them you know everyone's the same atoms you know, certain number of water molecules certain number of carbon atoms everybody's made up of the same stuff why is it that I hate some people and I like other people you know basically we're all the same stuff so when you break it down to the parts of a person you know, most of us got two ears, ten fingers you know the parts are basically the same so why is it that I feel so strongly attracted to some people and so strongly repulsed by other people you know what is it about them if they're all the same parts and that's a useful way to think and that has its own benefit okay and that's one more you move up one you go like from freshman to sophomore when you think about that okay but but the real meaning of dependent origination and the next time somebody asks you okay the real meaning the highest meaning the highest meaning that Lord Buddha meant when he talked about dependent origination and the one that if you understand it you can break the first link of the wheel is that this pen is your projection

[Говорящий 2]
okay

[Говорящий 1]
because all there is in my hand is a blue and white cylinder okay don't lay your trips on this poor cylinder okay if you're a human you see a pen if you're a dog you see a chewable thing don't go telling me it's a pen in my hand I have a cylinder in my hand

[Говорящий 2]
okay

[Говорящий 1]
if you see a pen it's because you you have a mindset that is making you see a pen and if you see a something to chew on if you suddenly have an irresistible urge to chew on this thing that's what it is to be a dog you see what I mean to perceive this object in the way it's not a dog when you get stuffed in a dog's skin okay that's not what rebirth is all about that's silly you giggle you don't really believe it but the day that you suddenly have this irresistible urge to chew this thing you might wanna check and see if you are a dog you see what I mean because that's what a dog is you see what I mean when something in your consciousness or your mind shifts and suddenly you aren't seeing this as a pen anymore and you're seeing it the way a dog sees it you is a dog okay and that's what rebirth means okay and that can happen in five minutes to any person in this room okay it doesn't dying is not self-existent dogs are not self-existent they're mental states your mind changes you see yourself stop breathing and then suddenly you don't see this as a pen anymore you see it a different way that's what makes you a dog it's not getting a dog's skin you gotta get used to that if rebirth was getting stuffed in a dog's skin it'd be really hard and then it would be kinda funny you know yeah right they could take my soul and stuff it into a dog you know where do they keep those dogs in the meantime you know what I mean it's not like that at a certain point a certain percentage of human brains human minds in any particular day start seeing things as how a dog sees them and that is an animal rebirth and it can happen to anyone in the same way that death can happen to you they're exactly the same thing to start seeing yourself not breathing anymore and to start seeing other things going on which are strange and unusual sudden shifts in your perceptions that's what it is to be reborn as a dog and you can be reborn as a dog and you might be reborn as a dog and it takes about five minutes and everyone here is eligible for that in the same way you're eligible to see yourself stop breathing why? because it's a projection it doesn't exist dogs don't exist dogs doesn't mean something with fur and a tail and four legs dog means someone's mind who has shifted and started seeing the world as a dog now they are a dog you see it's very subtle and it can happen to anybody, okay? so...

so understanding projection just with this pen, you know you don't have to be a Buddhist philosopher you can go to ten lectures on Buddhism and hear all these confusing things about Buddhism that don't make any sense and don't have any relevance to your personal life but what I'm saying about this... cylinder you cannot deny if you're a normal American with a half a brain and sitting in this room you can't deny that this is not a pen from its own side you're making it a pen you can't deny it there's no logical denying it it is a pen because you are thinking of it as a pen what's it got to do with my life? that's dependent origination okay?

that's the dependent origination of this pen now what's the emptiness of this pen? supposedly if I can talk to you for a couple nights convincingly about emptiness and supposedly if you go home and practice it like a pianist supposedly at some point in your morning meditation you will see your own enlightenment directly okay? supposedly and understanding dependent origination is the step first step second step is understanding emptiness what's this got to do with emptiness now?

how do we go from the dependent origination of this pen to emptiness? what's its dependent origination in the highest school? Carlito Carlito shh, don't tell Mary now what's its dependent origination?

what makes it dependent origination? do you remember? because it's my projection okay?

I'm thinking of it as a pen okay? that's its dependent origination what does its emptiness mean in the highest thinking of Buddhism? the highest school of Buddhism what is the emptiness of the pen?

oh, you get this double negative thing okay? ready? it never was anything else that's emptiness okay?

and that's all there is no pen in my hand that's the emptiness of this pen okay? there's no pen in my hand which is coming from its own side that's the emptiness of the pen how many pens are there in my hand that come from their own side whether you think of them as a pen or not how many? none that's emptiness okay?

I forget everything else you ever heard about it you understood emptiness just now meditate on it see your future enlightenment get there fast seriously, I'm not kidding okay? all that other stuff is just confusing things from people who didn't get it okay? that's all what's its dependent origination?

they are, by the way two sides of the same coin here's dependent origination here's emptiness okay? once you get it, you're home free okay? what's its dependent origination?

I'm seeing a pen because my mind is projecting a pen onto that poor, innocent cylinder okay? and if a dog walks in here he's dependently arising it too because he's projecting chewable thing onto it okay? all right?

okay? is there a pen from its own side? no prove it the dog would come in and...

Carly, you know what? no if it was a pen from its own side what would the dog do? come and write a letter to his girlfriend dog girlfriend I love your tail okay?

say one more okay? I mean, he would come in and see a pen if it was a pen from its own side then every creature that ever encountered it you know, a roach crawling along it would say, oh, I can write something you know? okay?

it's not a pen from its own side okay? it depends on your own projection that's dependent origination that's one side of the coin what's the other side of the coin? emptiness meaning what?

nothing ever existed any other way than that try to find me a pen in this room that exists from its own side try to find me a pen that's a pen by itself and not because you're thinking of it as a pen how many pens exist like that in the universe? none that's the meaning of emptiness that's all that's all now, what's that got to do with my death? I mean, that...

that drives me crazy when you go hear lamas and they don't talk about it that they leave you there they say, got it? see you later you know? okay?

tie it down to my life tie it down to my death how am I supposed to get out of the wheel of life if I understand all this stuff about this stupid pen? how's that supposed to save me?

[Говорящий 2]
okay?

[Говорящий 1]
how's it supposed to save you? what's it got to do with your life? your death is a projection your old age is a projection okay?

if you can figure out what's making you project it you can stop it okay? now, two choices projections are voluntary and you can have any projection you want to like... chocolate chip cookie?

or... or the other choice somehow they are not up to your... under your control you know?

somehow they are not voluntary what's the case? and... and this is why prayer doesn't seem to work in some traditions you know what I mean?

that's the frustrating thing you can go and change your posture get on your knees and... and wish real hard that Aunt Joan didn't have cancer and then she dies the next week you know? it doesn't work you cannot change the projection by wishing that it went away or wishing that it changed you can't make this thing into a chocolate chip cookie just by wishing it that's not what projection means where's projections coming from?

is this just a pen because your mom told you it was a pen? I mean, sometimes you can think that you know, you can think like the reason I see it as a pen is because my mom told me it was a pen and explained to me how it could be used as a pen and now I came to think of those kinds of cylinders as pens okay? that's partly true go try to explain to a dog how a pen works you can spend weeks, you know show it to them put it in their paw you know, move it around you know and explain it to them there's something missing in their mind there's some kind of seed in their mind that they don't have and you can talk all night to them about how to use a pen you see?

it's not just that someone introduced it to you and it's not just that someone explained to you how to use it and it's not just that you saw other people using pens because dogs do that, right? you can do that with a dog but they don't get it there's something different about their mind there's something missing in their mind Buddhism says that in your mind's history which has no beginning you were familiar with what a pen does and now you're just sort of like remembering it again it's so much a part of your mind to see this as a pen that you immediately you very comfortably ease into thinking of it as a pen it just takes your parents a few days to teach you how to use it and you're already marking up the walls okay? like, you smoothly ease into it why? according to Buddhism you've seen it, you've used it millions of times before you're used to pens you're used to thinking of it as a pen okay?

and dogs aren't, why? then you get into the question of karma okay? this is the real meaning of karma right?

which is by the way link number two and we're gonna start it next Friday okay? link number two is karma link number one is? ignorance not understanding what the hell's going on around you okay?

that's ignorance it leads to karma okay? but what is, how does karma affect things? you know, people think karma, karma uh...

instant karma stuff like that you know? he stepped on a bug he got hit by a car the next minute instant karma you know? like that I mean, people think like that but so, where does karma stay?

I mean, when you step on the bug where does the karma stay until you get hit by the car? you know? does it like, go up to heaven or something like that?

or it circles around Pluto and comes back and hits you real fast? or something like that how long does it take for karma to come back? where does it stay in the meantime?

you see what I mean? you have to understand a little bit about karma when you do something good to someone else and you're aware of what you're doing and you watch yourself doing it it's like a video tape recorder or something like that, okay? it has an indelible effect on your mind certain impressions are planted in your mind just by watching yourself do something nice for somebody it's like, your mind is like a tape recorder and you watch yourself doing it and certain impressions are being made on your time on your mind even as you do it, okay?

if you're very aware that you're doing it like, if you're really sacrificing your last five dollars for somebody and you're not gonna have enough money to get home that night you're very aware of what you're doing the karma then is very strong the recorder is on very sensitive and very deep impressions are being made if it's like, you don't need this dollar and some guy is really bugging you and just to get rid of him you give him a dollar then the impression is very light on the mind but an impression is made nonetheless you know, I ask Western people do you believe in this karmic impression? they say, no and I say, did you send your kid to school?

and they say, yes and I say, did you send them to first grade? they say, yeah I say, what did they learn in first grade? they say, ABCs and a little bit of addition and stuff like that okay well, then they forgot it by the second grade, right?

they had to learn it over again in the second grade and by the time they got to high school and did algebra and geometry they couldn't do it because they didn't remember one plus one equals two, right? they say, no, of course they remember oh, how? oh, it's like some impression on their mind stays in their mind, you know oh, so you accept impressions on the mind then they have to say, yeah you see, we do prove it, you send your kid to school you're hoping the impression lasts till second grade sometimes it doesn't, okay?

but of course you're hoping that an impression is made on the child's mind and that they carry it to the next year to the next fall when class opens again that's a mental impression it's planted in the mind it's carried for a year over summer vacation and when they get back in September okay, they need a little brush up sometimes but then they remember because the impression is there karma works exactly the same way when you do something good for somebody and you're aware of it and especially if you're aware of it the recorder is on high sensitivity and that seed is put in your mind, okay? it's gonna force you to see something good happen to you in the future okay, definition of good karma is what? any action you do that leads to a future good feeling for you it's very interesting morality in Buddhism has nothing to do with some laws that somebody made morality in Buddhism has nothing to do with what God decided it's all just does this particular action cause you to have happiness in the future and if it does, that's good karma if killing people caused you to have a good feeling in the future it would be classified as good karma it doesn't happen to, okay? but you see, that's how we decide what's right and wrong in Buddhism it's very interesting if it would lead to a karmic result of happiness in the future it's good karma okay, and then bad karma is the opposite it's very interesting that's what decides whether something is good karma or bad karma and that decides whether something is right or wrong it's very interesting okay, very interesting that's the whole judgment of what's right or wrong okay, so you you plant a seed in your mind now is it pleasant or does it make you happy when you need a pen to have a pen?

yeah, okay something's forcing you to see this cylinder as a pen a pen is a useful and good thing it helps you, okay? we would say that some good karma you did in the past is forcing you to see this cylinder that way why? why do you say it's a good karma?

because it's useful it makes you happy okay, that's the test of good karma or bad karma okay, suppose you're in a class, you know and the teacher's like into their fourteenth page of Latin on the board and you're wishing the thing would run out of ink okay then is it a good karma or a bad karma that made the pen? it's a bad karma you see what I mean? that's the emptiness of the cylinder if you have good karma you'll see it as something useful and beneficial if you had bad karma you'll see it as something quite painful you wish it would run out of ink fast okay but it doesn't have goodness or badness from its own side you make it that way okay and who's forcing you to see it that way?

old impressions that you put on your mind when you helped other people then you see it as something good and useful okay and suppose you have lousy impressions in your mind from the past then that same tabula rasa that same blank screen you will see as something bad okay maybe as something for an animal to chew on you see what I mean? then it's bad karma that's creating that thing to chew on you see what I mean? so, are things a projection?

yes the thing that the lamas didn't tell you and it drives me crazy okay who's making the projection? is it voluntary? no no it's being forced on you by what?

some kind of impressions that were made on your mind a long time ago or maybe a week ago okay that's all what's it got to do with my death? now we can stop the class I mean, two minutes we're out of here, okay? what's it got to do with my death?

what's all that stuff got to do with my death? is that just some kind of philosophy? first of all, is it true?

I don't know does it sound reasonable? possible if you get to possible tonight, I'm happy okay, we call it dun gyur gyur tetsam you know doubt that's tending towards the correct side okay that's enough if on the first night that you hear this you get to dun gyur gyur tetsam, you're doing fine that's all you can hope for, okay? maybe what I said tonight is right maybe you have to give it at least a maybe you have to accept the emptiness of the pen I mean the cylinder okay you have to accept that it's not a pen from its own side now, whether or not it's some good thing you did for somebody in the past making you see it as a pen maybe maybe he's right, maybe he's not right, okay?

it's got to come from somewhere, right? it's not just random, right? you're not seeing it as a rose, right?

you're not seeing it as a semi-truck or the moon or an ice cream cone okay I mean, there is something making it you see it a certain way it might make sense that you helped somebody in the past with communicating or something like that and therefore you're experiencing this as a useful pen that's giving you information that will get you out of your death, okay? possible is it for sure? no does it sound reasonable?

possibly does it sound possible? yes okay what's it got to do with your death? is seeing yourself die a good thing?

I mean, normally is it a pleasant thing? no it's not at all a pleasant thing according to Buddhism that must have come from a... bad karma you're seeing a perfectly healthy normal body get dead okay?

why? same thing as this cylinder whether you saw it continue to get... whether you saw your body just age gracefully or you saw your body die tomorrow or if you saw your body get younger and more beautiful and finally turn into light okay?

three possibilities, right? they're all projections the same as the projection onto this... cylinder okay?

and all three are possible Buddhism says all three are equally possible okay? you have three choices from tonight you can see these four sticks and that round thing and this thing in the middle continue to get older at a reasonable spe... you know okay, about a year a year all right?

or if you're not so lucky with your karma impressions in your mind you can see it stop breathing tomorrow okay? but Buddhism says there's a pungsumbha a third possibility what is it? like if you purified your karma extremely skillfully really skillfully we can call it tantric practice okay?

if you purified your mind that quickly and that effectively you would see it get younger and eventually it would change into light and it's... and you can do it okay? you can do it why?

what makes you eligible for that? the emptiness of your body okay? the same as the cylinder they share the same quality they ain't anything from their own side nothing says you have to get old and die nothing...

nothing says this has to be a pen from its own side okay? so dependent origination and emptiness are very useful stuff okay? and that's not a joke of what the Buddha's pointing to in the corner I think that art collector should burn that tongue he has he doesn't have a Buddha up in the corner pointing to the moon you know?

that's the whole point you know what I mean? the whole point is he's pointing to that... that moon which means CHI DAG DE NI SHON BAR BYA it's very auspicious if we finish the class on that okay?

say CHI DAG DE NI SHON BAR BYA CHI DAG DE means the lord of death SHON BAR BYA means crush him you know? like what? like an elephant crushes matchsticks or something like that okay?

that's what the verse says that's what the verse up in the corner says okay? cool okay, so we'll stop there and... I mean, now we gotta learn how to do it, right?

so then we'll go on next week okay?

[Говорящий 2]
alright?