Серия ежедневной практики, курс 01 — Мандала шагов к просветлению (1999, Реддинг), занятие 4

[Speaker 2]
Session 4.

[Speaker 1]
Satsang with Masterjee Ok, page 73. We'll just read the verse. You've already covered this one, because this is in the hexagonal room, in the middle, ok?

This is bodhicitta, ok? But here we go anyway. One, two, three.

I have slipped and fallen into the sea of the suffering life. Bless me to see that every living being, every one of my own mother, has fallen into. Guide me then to practice this highest wish for enlightenment, to take from myself the task of freeing them all.

Ok. And that's all the construction up to now, from the courtyard out to the hexagonal room, is Mahayana, ok? That's bodhisattva attitude.

The first half was the secret side of Mahayana, and the second half was the open side of Mahayana. So we finished what we call kibujjumbo, which means the big capacity, great capacity person. And everything up to now is that.

So all the rooms up to now are part of what we call Mahayana, great capacity. Now we're into, the next room out is going to be a room for what we call people of medium capacity. And the difference between a person of Mahayana capacity and medium capacity is that, as you know from your homework, medium capacity person is interested in getting themselves out of any kind of suffering, at all.

And they understand that even this realm, and to live like this kind of a person, like a human, is suffering. So they're interested in getting out of that also. But they still haven't reached the point where they want to do it, or they want to make sure that everyone else does it also, ok?

So that's what we call a medium capacity person. So the next two verses, going backwards, are for people of medium capacity, ok? And these verses are divided into two.

Verse number 5 and verse number 6. Verse number 5 is just figuring out that this kind of life is not such a good, not such a hard thing, ok? And verse number 6 is figuring out what to do about it, how to stop your immediate suffering in this kind of existence.

So 5 and 6 go together. And 6 is really understanding karma, and understanding what you have to do to get out, what you have to do to get out of this suffering life. Where does the suffering come in your life?

And we've got to make up a room where, I don't know, you figure it out, but it's got to be something like, it's got to be the understanding that what you do today creates your reality next month, and six months from now. And conversely, that you're responsible for everything that's going on around you. And the implication of that is that you have to be really careful with what you do.

Ok, so I don't know what kind of room you want to have there, but the idea is that maybe a mirror, you know, maybe a mirror room would be good, ok? Before the hexagonal room. And I would make it a little bit smaller, and then, you know, the small capacity person's room is going to be even smaller.

And then you can remember, ok? So, I think we're talking about a mirror room, because the main thing here is that you realize that you are creating your reality. And if you don't like it, you know, Ken Rinpoche is always constantly saying, I would come home from work at Andean, you know, and dime in business and complain, and he'd say, well, if you don't like it, why don't you fix it, you know?

And that's all he would ever say, you know. You know, I wanted some commiseration, you know. Like, it's not so bad, or, you know, yeah, your boss is really a bad person, or...

He would just say, if you don't like it, just fix it, you know. So, this is where you realize that you're making it all. And then you look in the mirror, I think a mirror room would be good.

And then you... The point is that, realizing that you make it, that you stop doing any kind of tar-shin-cha-wan-nam-gyang-po-wan-dang, means you start to understand that you can't entertain even a slight bad deed, okay? Because there's no slack.

Nobody can cut you any slack. Karma doesn't cut any slack. And the slightest thing you do has repercussions karmically, okay?

Just being irritated with somebody on the street that bumps into you is already creating a lousier New York City six months from now. You know, like the street will be worse six months from now. And you have to understand that, and you have to act on that.

And it's very, very hard. Because your natural reaction to people bothering you is that you feel justified to think something bad. You know, there's reasonable people who bother you, and there's unreasonable people who bother you.

And the unreasonable people, there just seems to be no excuse for them. And it seems like it really is their fault. And it couldn't be your fault.

And that it's somehow more justified to be upset or irritated with an unreasonable person. But you made them. Every detail of them you created.

And you couldn't be perceiving them except that your mind is making you perceive them, okay? And their husband or wife or mother or son thinks they're the most wonderful person in the world, just as they are. Because they have a different set of karmas.

So, if you don't like it, then fix it, okay? So, that'll be a mirror room, okay? And that'll be the medium-capacity person.

And something for acting carefully about little things. I don't know, what should that be? I don't know.

Like you're tiptoeing across the room.

[Speaker 2]
Huh? Unprecarious substance.

[Speaker 1]
What's that?

[Speaker 2]
Little glass figurine.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, that's okay. And you're tiptoeing through, okay? All right?

And you're tiptoeing through the room, all right? You got to walk careful through that room. And the idea is that Tathagatagarbha means once you understand about karma, you really have to avoid even the tiniest bad deeds.

Because you can't get away with anything. Because it's all being recorded by whom? St. Peter, was it?

It's recorded by your own consciousness, okay? As you're aware of having the thought, while you hear the thought, by hearing it, it's being karmically stored, like by this VCR called your consciousness, and it'll come back. And that's all it takes for karma to be planted, is that you have any kind of dim awareness of it.

So the minute you have a thought, you've already collected the karma, and the imprint has already been made on your mind, and it will come back. So even just having the thought to say something and do something without saying anything or doing anything is already ruining your future a month from now. And you'll never know why.

And the whole world goes around suffering because they don't understand that. And they're like blindly struggling against this thing, and by struggling, they're making it worse the next day, and the next month. And it's like ironic.

You know, it's sad that people are... their natural reaction is what's making their lives worse, and then kills them, you know. Then you go back to the last room before the courtyard, and it's this constant reactions to your life, to your world, that makes the fish...

what do you call it? Fish line? Get more knotted up, and then that eventually kills you.

That's what makes you mortal. And if you could fix that, you wouldn't be mortal. People think I'm being...

that I'm exaggerating when I say the point of Buddhism is not to die, but it really is. That's the whole point, and you don't have to die like that. But every time you struggle or fight back against something negative in a negative way, you put one more knot there, and you tie it up one more...

you choke it a little more. And the accumulation of a lifetime of choking the central channel is that you kill yourself. And that's what makes you mortal.

So if you can reverse it, then you have a chance to stop that, and you become enlightened. Why didn't we see anybody do that? Why does this holiness appear to be getting older?

That's your bad karma. How does he look to himself? You have to ask him.

But what you hear might depend on your bad karma also. Okay? All right?

Really. Okay? Don't think no one's ever done it.

Thousands and thousands of people have done it. Okay? In Tibet.

Okay. So let's read that one, number... it's on 64.

It should be the glass room with the glass figurines and your tiptoeing. Okay? There's this argument.

People say, How can I watch every single thought in my mind? This is impossible. I can't do that.

And Master Shantideva, remember the thing he said? He said, If you were walking across the room with a bowl full of water, right up to the lid, do you think you could make it to the other side? And the guy says, No, it's impossible.

And he says, Well, let's just try, and I'll stick this knife up to your neck. And if you slip, I'll cut your neck. Okay?

And the guy says, Well, maybe I could do it. You know?

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
You know, like, if there is a will, there is a way.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
If you understand the consequences, you would do it. Okay? All right, here we go.

One, two, three. Grant that these pure thoughts may lead me to be watchful and to recall what I should be doing. Grant me to give the greatest care to make the vows of morality the essence of my practice.

They are the root of the Buddha's teaching. Okay. Let's see.

I think we'll meditate on that one. Okay? Just briefly.

And it's watching your mind. Okay? Watching your mind.

And what's the difference between that and the next room?

[Speaker 2]
Huh?

[Speaker 1]
Towards the center. By the way, very tantric. I'll tell you a secret.

Okay? Everything should go towards the center. So...

What's the next room?

[Speaker 2]
Huh?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, the hexagonal. But what's the difference between this room and that one? Yeah, at that one, you're starting to do it for other people.

And this one, you're still doing it for yourself. That's the main thing. Yeah.

Except for the diamond. Okay? The diamond is ultimate bodhichitta.

Right? If you want to get technical.

[Speaker 2]
When you reach the six perfections, that is, that you begin to do that as a greater capacity? As a greater capacity?

[Speaker 1]
He can tell you. What's the difference between the perfection of wisdom and plain wisdom?

[Speaker 2]
Perfection of wisdom...

[Speaker 1]
And ordinary wisdom.

[Speaker 2]
Ordinary wisdom isn't a perfectionizer because you're not... you're not... volunteer.

You're not volunteer. The perfection of wisdom is direct perception of emptiness under the influence of bodhichitta. The regular perception of...

or the regular wisdom isn't that. It doesn't have bodhichitta. So without bodhichitta, then the result is different.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, and it's not the perfection of wisdom. So you can have wisdom in the room with the glass, the mirror room, but you can't have the perfection of wisdom until you've got that incense pot in the room. Okay?

Alright, here we go. We'll do the mirror room and then work out to the courtyard, into the courtyard. Spend some time in the hexagonal room, because you've only done it once, okay?

Okay. Page fifty-five. We'll read it, okay?

One, two, three. Bless me to perceive all that's wrong with the seemingly good things of this life. I can never get enough of them.

They cannot be trusted. They are the door to every pain I have. Grant me then to strive and serve with happiness and freedom.

Okay. This is still medium capacity persons. And this is where you recognize that the things that seem to be going well are not.

Okay? And I suggest a corridor going, a hallway going into the middle sized room. Okay?

So, going into the glass room, going into the mirror room, there's a corridor from the room before, which we haven't got to yet. And I suggest windows, and you're looking out, and you're looking out at something. And, this is a meditation that comes from the Abhidharmakosha.

It's very beautiful. It's called the Middupa Goma. And, basically, you look out the window, and you try to imagine all the good things in your life five, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now.

Okay? All the things you think are great, you look out, and you see them as they're going to be. So, you know, if you're attracted to some other person physically, you're looking out, and they're aging.

You know? And you see them how they're going to look five, ten, fifteen years from now. And, and imagine how they're going to look.

And you see, and they, and they will look like that. You know? Then you look out, and there's a meditation part there where you try to imagine all the food you've ever eaten.

You know? Like mountains of food. You know, and all the crap you've ever crapped from that food.

No, really. And you just look out, and you realize that this is not pleasure. You know?

That there's no end to it. You know? You can't get enough.

Chepay Mingo means it doesn't matter how much you eat, like you're still going to be hungry in a few hours. And it doesn't really matter what you eat, it's still going to turn into crap. And then, if you really saw that your groceries for a few months piled up, and the craps for a few months piled up, it wouldn't seem so wonderful.

You know? And, and you, it's literally mountains, tons of food you've eaten already. And, and it's gross.

And you're supposed to... Middupa Gompa means meditation on the gross. Middupa means gross.

Okay? Ugly. And, and you, you even, they say, see the city that you're living in and advance it in time.

see New York City, how it will be a hundred years from now, two hundred years from now, five hundred years from now. And everything, they say everything ruined, you see? All your friends' bodies, old, wrinkled, ugly, all the place you live in, broken, broken down, dusty, rafters falling in, walls falling down.

You know? And when you do this in the Abhidharma, you start here. It's called Dowa, at the Dowa.

And, if you want, you can stop in the corner and do that way, okay? And you open a little piece here, like an open wound. Like, I had a friend who had cancer, and they had this open wound that never would heal.

And, it was just open all the time. And you imagine, like, an open hole right here, and you can see the skull. You can see the white of the skull.

And it's like oozing and pussy, and, and you just open up a tiny hole right here. And then, when you get it clear, you open it up a little more, you know? And you start opening it up to see what it really is.

You know what I mean? And it's just like rotting. The skin rots away here.

And this is supposed to be a good antidote for desire, okay? And, and then you just slowly do your whole skull, and all the bones. And then you, you keep going like that.

And then you do your clothes, like, are rotting off and falling apart. And then you, you keep going, and then you spread it out from your body, and the wood of the floor is getting old. This place, how it will look 10, 15, 20 years from now, especially if you don't get any money to fix anything.

And, and it's just rotting, and then the wood is rotting, and then you move out to the wall, and the walls have fallen down, and, you know, the good people of Reading Township are all dead, and, and the trees have fallen down, and the, the ponds are rotting, and the fish that used to live in them are all dead. And, and it, it reminds me of the day after that movie, you know? When I, when I saw that, I said, oh wow, McDupa Gumba.

And, and then you, you keep going out, and you do it, they say until you reach the ocean. It's a very powerful meditation. It's in the Abhidharma.

And then when you reach the ocean, you dry it up, and you let the fish die, and then you see their skeletons there, and then you, you just finish it like that. The whole world, including you, is just rotten, and ruined, and, and this is the, the way all good things happen. Especially work on the things that you're attracted to, you know, like another person that you're attracted to, or, you know, some position.

I used to be very attached to my position at work. And then one day, I, I was reading the history of the people who had lived in my building. If you work in New York, it's a really good meditation.

They don't even know, you know, I know who lived in Leon's house. It was Joe D'Alessandro, who was Andy Warhol's star, who's now pumping gas somewhere. And, yeah, and he was this big handsome guy, you know, and, and now he's out pumping gas somewhere, and he's old, and he's ugly, and we don't even know who lived there before that, because they're dead.

Oh, I do know. That was the parish house of a Christian church, which is now the synagogue next door. And, the whole congregation went to Staten Island for a picnic on a ferry, and the ferry sank.

And, they all died. Like, almost every person died. And there were just a few left, and they sold it to the synagogue.

And then they sold Leon's house. And those, these are the stories of the, the buildings you live in, you know, and think about it. And there'll be a time, there'll be, you know, people struggle to get a place like that.

And then there'll be a time when people can't even remember who was there. And, and it, what's the use, you know, what's the use of, of wasting your whole life to get a place like that? And then just die, you know, and then people don't even remember who was there before.

I don't know who was there before, the Christian people who sank on the ferry, you know. And, and that's the, that's the story of everything, it's like that. So you have to think of all the things that you're attracted to in this life, your parents, your family, your job, your own mind, and, and imagine them rotting and falling apart.

Is this, what's the point, you know, you're just trying to be depressed or what, you know. There's two kinds of karma. We talked about it in Washington.

There's, there's, there's dirty good karma and there's pure good karma. Okay? Dirty good karma is what has produced all the nice things in your life.

And, and dirty good karma has one very bad problem in it, is that it wears out. Okay? So, how does it wear out?

By enjoying the thing. You see? So every minute you have of the thing, you're killing the thing.

You see, it's very ironic, you know, every moment that you're enjoying something, you're using it up. So, the longer you have a close friend, the more you've used up of them. You see what I mean?

Every day that you spend with them, you're using up a day of, of them. And they'll, it'll wear out, and then you'll lose them. You'll be separated from them.

If a good thing has been created by that kind of karma, you must lose it. It must get old. It must get rotten.

You must be torn away from it. and that purpose of this hallway is going to be to think about that. Okay?

And that's the verse before, we'll read it, okay? Actually we did read it, right? So just realize that all the good things are like that.

All the, all the good things, don't put your hope in them. Yi ten mi rung means you can't trust them. They're gonna die.

They're gonna rot. They're gonna degenerate. And, your own body also.

Because all of those things, the sak chen nyer khen den gyi pong po means it has been created by, by dirty good karma. Dirty meaning it wears out. What's pure good karma?

Pure good karma is karma you do with a knowledge of emptiness. And it has this quality of perpetuating itself. It's self-perpetuating.

And that's why a Buddha field can go on forever. Okay? They don't wear out.

You know, it's not like the longer you're there, the worse it gets, or something like that. It just keeps rolling. Because they know how to make it roll.

Because they reinvest the good karma. Like, if you get some money, give it away as soon as you can. And then when you get the karma back from that, give that away.

And Buddhas know how to do that in such a way that it perpetuates itself. It's the difference between fusion and fission, or something like that. Like, there's a point where you could reach an endotopic reaction that you get more energy out than you put in, so it'll go forever.

And I remember they were working on it at my university when I was studying there. And they were worried that they would succeed because it would just burn through the earth. And so they were holding it up with magnets, you know, and they were trying to keep it in the air because if it ever dropped on the ground, it would melt to the earth.

Because it would just eat, it would feed on whatever it touched. And they were afraid it would go down into the center of the earth and blow it up or something. And I understand that when they first set off the first atom bomb, they weren't exactly sure it wouldn't do the same thing with all the atmosphere.

So anyway, what you want is fission. You want that. You want, karmically, that's the difference.

You know, one of it is like gasoline. You know, the more you burn of it, it makes a big mess and it wears out. And then the other one is like fusion.

And that is, it just feeds on itself bigger and bigger, so it perpetuates itself. So that's the difference between a, like, that's why Buddhas don't get old, and ugly and wrinkled and things like that, okay? The karma which they're producing, we don't even call it karma.

What do we call it at that point? Merit and wisdom. They call it the two collections of merit and wisdom, okay?

Like, even the name gets changed. They don't call it pure karma, really. I mean, the Abhidharma does, but the higher schools don't call it.

They call it the collection of merit and wisdom, meaning you know how to keep it going indefinitely. And that's a Buddha paradise. But we're talking about the corridor, glass windows leading into the mirror room, and you're looking out and you're looking at all the things that you like, okay?

Your car, your house, your wife, you know, whatever is dear to you, and your own body, and your own mind, and your own hair, okay? And you're watching it fall apart, okay? And just watch it get old before your eyes, and fall apart, and wake up to what's really going to happen in five, ten years, okay?

And you look through the window and see that. And then your idea about what you want in your life will change, and you'll go into the mirror room. Because the idea there is that, okay, I don't want to have this bad karma anymore.

I don't want to have that kind of karma anymore. And you're trying to see how you could change the karma into something more pure. And you're not going to collect that kind of bad karma anymore, the dirty good karma anymore, okay?

You want to get out of that situation. Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
You mentioned that the pure good karma is kind of done with the knowledge of emptiness. Is that an intellectual or an intellectual?

[Speaker 1]
After you see emptiness directly, you can't, they say you can't collect bad good karma anymore, okay? So it's an intellectual. And intellectual is enough to do pretty pure karma, but not exactly pure karma, okay?

Eventually you have to see it directly. But that's a very big debate, whether an Arya has the truth of suffering, the noble truth of suffering anymore, the Arya truth of suffering. It's a big debate about whether they're even capable of creating new, dirty good karma.

And generally they'd say no. You know, they'll still have to use up the ones they had before in, say, seven lifetimes, but they're not collecting new ones. And once you get to a certain point, you're in arhat, and you're not collecting new ones at all.

And so you go through four stages. First is Arya. Maybe you have seven lives to go.

And then, Chir-o-wa, which means you have one more life to go in this lousy realm. And then Chir-mi-o-wa, meaning you don't have to come back to this particular realm, but you still have to come back to one of the two higher realms, form and formless realms. And then arhat, meaning you don't have to come back to any of the three realms.

So those are four possibilities you go through. But generally speaking, once you see emptiness directly, you're no longer collecting karma, which is dirty, which will ever produce a result. Like, you may collect seeds for it, but they'll never grow.

Like that, yeah.

[Speaker 2]
So that means, if you haven't seen emptiness directly, it doesn't matter what you do?

[Speaker 1]
If you can do good deeds intellectually, with wisdom, understanding the emptiness of them, then it would... it would be close to a pure good karma. Technically, I'm not sure it would be a...

Is that like a middle one? Well, not really. But it would be...

Let's say it would be an impure good karma, but it would be the type that was leading you to pure good karma, directly, in a direct way. How's that? Something like that.

I guess that's about the best you could hope for at that point.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Is there... By the same token, is there dirty bad karma and pure bad karma? That's a good question.

I don't know. But that would almost be saying that you're committing bad karma with a knowledge of emptiness, which I... Or with a really wrong view or something.

Because I don't understand how the second law of karma about increase...

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Most of the unpleasant experiences are relatively small.

[Speaker 2]
And if they've increased exponentially since the time of the non-virtue that I committed to get them as a reward, what incredibly tiny thing must I have done?

[Speaker 1]
Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I know what you mean. They answer that by saying...

by asking a rhetorical question in the Abhidharma. They say, can one bad deed create multiple bad results? And can multiple bad deeds create one bad result?

You see what I mean? And I think they'd probably say about your question that you did one pretty good bad thing, and you're having these small irritations for thousands of years. You know what I mean?

Like, every time you were... had to go on the subway in New York, the hundreds of those altogether was the result of one sexual misconduct. Something like that.

They would say something like that.

[Speaker 2]
Once you've experienced a moment of pure bodhichitta, at that point, which is the same as the renunciation, except directed towards others. Then, at that point, your primary wish or desire then would be the liberation of all sentient beings. Including yourself.

In this entire life. So, in order for you to... it seems if you're headed towards the Buddha realm, wouldn't the only sort of missing piece or the only unhappiness you've experienced be the continued suffering of sentient beings?

[Speaker 1]
You know what I'm saying? It seems hard to imagine how perfect happiness could occur if there's still beings stuck in samsara without pure bodhichitta. I see what you mean.

There's a debate like that, and it goes like this. This is Axel's favorite debate. Anyway.

If Buddhahood is pure bliss, then how can you ever reach it while people are still suffering? Because if you're still aware that people are suffering, isn't that a kind of sadness? So, isn't Buddhahood blemished by the fact that your friends are still stuck and you're not?

And you can't really be totally happy knowing that they're still stuck. It's a very, very, very delicate question. I once had two Christian friends who came from my childhood.

They came and spent a few days with me in a retreat cabin. And this question really disturbed one of them, who's a very pure-hearted person. And he said, I understand everything you've said, but it seems to me that the logical end of all of your talk is that you'd get to a place where you didn't feel any suffering, and you'd actually be unaware of the suffering of other people.

And that doesn't seem to me to be much of a goal. And that's a very hard question. That's a good question.

I think what you'd have to say is, yeah, at that point, you would perceive all other living beings as deities. Simultaneously, they might not be perceiving themselves as deities. They might be plain old samsaric schmucks, suffering, you know.

And if you're on mission, you'd have to be aware of that. You see what I mean? That they weren't seeing themselves that way.

And by the way, there's no contradiction between them seeing themselves suffering and you seeing them as tantric deities. That's not a contradiction. That's okay.

Because they're not self-existent. But what would it feel like to know that they were seeing themselves as suffering while you were seeing themselves as tantric deity, because you're on mission, so you must know that also. And I think, we had this debate in the monastery, and basically they say that compassion, you would feel compassion, and compassion is not suffering.

You see what I mean? Like, it's, you would feel some, they'd say that a Buddha's compassion is a kind of bliss.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's also a kind of bliss. So that concern for others is not suffering. That's where it comes down in the monastery, when they debate it.

It's a hard debate. We had it, when the third Pabongka Rinpoche had his Geshe exams, we debated it. I remember, because it was very powerful.

Here's Pabongka Rinpoche, and he's debating this question. It was really powerful. And then there was this big breakout, you know, the ceremony ended, and then the debate continued on the porch, I remember.

And all these high Geshes were still finding where this question is. Yeah, it's a good question. It's probably the most important question, I guess.

Did you have a question?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, on the generation of the karma thing again.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
In terms of like, you know, you say when someone takes Arya, they're no longer generating any of the bad, bad karma, or the bad karma kind of thing.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah. In such a way that it will actually ever give its result.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. So, but even though they still have a lot, you know, they just have cut off wrong views from having, you know, they're still bound by all their clutches and so forth. So, if they're still bound by all their clutches and they're still reacting in negative ways, then how are they not able to generate that kind of bad karma?

[Speaker 1]
It seems like they have, they're still, I think what they say in the debate is that they're still collecting bad karma, but the momentum of their wisdom is such that that karma will never have time to reach fruition. You see what I mean? Something like that, you know.

Something like that. Okay, yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Just one more question about the bodhisattva and the six-sided moon of the bodhicitta. Could you clarify a little bit more the bodhicitta in the center? If that's deceptive bodhicitta, can you speak a little bit about that?

[Speaker 1]
Well, there's two kinds of bodhicitta, which, you know, if you've been in the courses in New York, you know. One is called deceptive, one is called ultimate. Ultimate bodhicitta is the direct perception of emptiness.

It has nothing to do with bodhicitta. It's just a nickname for it. So, I think we had ultimate refuge the other day.

Where was that? That was also? It's close to the same thing.

It's just a code word for the direct perception of emptiness. It has nothing to do with bodhicitta as a compassion.

[Speaker 2]
You were speaking about the diamond there as well.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
You mentioned...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, you could say that that's ultimate bodhicitta. You could say that's ultimate bodhicitta, but it's not the point. The point is that those six sides on the outside of the room, the six walls, and the objects in front of each of the six walls are not Mahayana until they're imbued with bodhicitta.

So, you've got to have that incense going. Okay? That's all.

That's all. And that's what we call deceptive bodhicitta, but it's not deceptive because it's not powerful. It's just deceptive because it's at a certain level of reality called deceptive reality.

But it's very real and very true. Okay? That's all.

That's perceiving emptiness directly under the influence of bodhicitta, which is the smell.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
And they say under the influence because... Yeah, because you can't have it directly in your mind at that moment, because it's focused on non-ultimate reality, which is all other living beings. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
That's all.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. So, we'll do... Let's take a break and then we'll do mid-dupa goma.

All right? And then you'll do that... You start here.

By the way, they also bring it back in the meditation. They bring it all back and then they close up the hall and then you... you know, you get up.

But it's still not very pleasant. Okay? So, take a break and we'll do mid-dupa goma when you get back.

Okay? Okay, let's start again. The glass room, I have to clarify.

It's not just generally doing good things or being careful. It's about your pratyamoksa vows. Okay?

It's about your freedom vows. In the glass... The mirror room refers specifically to keeping your pratyamoksa vows.

What are your pratyamoksa vows? If... What...

The mirror room is keeping your pratyamoksa vows. Okay? What are your pratyamoksa vows?

If you've never taken any vows, then at least you have refuge, right? So, you have twelve commitments there. And you have the ten commitments that all Buddhists have.

Okay? No killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, etc. Okay?

If you have lifetime layman's vows, you have five or more. Okay? If you have novice vows, you have ten or thirty-six.

If you have full monk's vows, two hundred and fifty-three. If you have full nun's vows... No, that's more.

Anyway... Three-sixty-some... Three-sixty-four, right?

Something like that.

[Speaker 2]
We figured out, you see, that...

[Speaker 1]
The... The full monk's vows, nun's vows have been broken. The lineage has been broken into that.

We figured out that if... But if you have full monk's vows and you change your sex, it becomes full nun's vows. Seriously.

So, we were looking for twelve volunteers. I was thinking that's what he... No, legally that's the thing.

I guess you could do it then, I think.

[Speaker 2]
Anyway... I was thinking about the... the question about Buddha's suffering.

I was thinking that even if the Buddha did experience grief, that he would be forced to experience it as bliss.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, I think so.

[Speaker 2]
So, it would make sense to say that that he was being heartless in response to people's suffering.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah, I think so.

[Speaker 2]
But you could say that he was perceiving a less than pure paradise because he had a perception of a blemish in his paradise.

[Speaker 1]
No, I think he would perceive it as existing outside of his paradise, no.

[Speaker 2]
No.

[Speaker 1]
No, you say, that's down in the desire realm. No, but we always say that's why there's two form bodies. One is staying in...

Sambhogakaya stays in the paradise and then the Madagascar goes down to the realms of suffering and helps people. So, if there wasn't any realms of suffering, he'd be short one body. Okay, anyway, we're going to...

Practice... Practice the whole, okay? Okay, what do we do, Bhagavata?

Okay, you're going into the mirror room which is your Pratimoksha vows, okay? And the reason you want to get in there is that you realize that even the things that seem to be nice are not so nice about your life. And prove it to yourself by taking, you know, take...

It's always good to be specific. Get to the corridor with the windows, look outside, see four or five things that you really like right now that are important to you in your life, like your own health, or anything about your intellect, or someone that you love, or something that you own, or a situation which is giving you comfort right now, like a good job, or a relationship you have with somebody, or things like that. And then look out the window and see where it's going to be in five or ten years, or fifteen years, okay?

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Say again?

[Speaker 1]
No, I just meant that the mirror room which I had described in more general terms as trying to be careful not to do anything good... Sorry, bad. I was going to say good or bad, meaning dirty good karma.

I just made it more specific. It's your Pratimoksha Vows. In the verse it says make your Pratimoksha Vows the essence of your practice.

The reason I did that is because we're going to get to a room tomorrow, which is being good and which is not being bad and trying to be good. Because you understand that everything has a repercussion. So that's a different room.

It's more the vows that you have, Pratimoksha Vows. Because the function of Pratimoksha Vows is to get you out of samsara, you personally. And it doesn't talk about saving other people or anything.

The motivation for becoming a monk or a nun classically in the Vinaya is only one thing. I want to get myself out of samsara. There is nothing in the Vinaya about saving all sentient beings or anything like that.

It's just the required motivation for taking ordination is that you want to get yourself out of samsara. If you choose to become a Bodhisattva, a monk or a nun, that's a different story. But the classic Vinaya is I will avoid any, mainly speech or activity which is unwholesome so that I can get out of samsara.

Okay? Did you have another question?

[Speaker 2]
Some people thought they might be missing some rooms. Would you mind going through them?

[Speaker 1]
You guys get... I've been around the room. Yeah, somebody asked me what we're up to.

I don't even know. What's the first thing?

[Speaker 2]
The courtyard.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, the courtyard. Off the courtyard? Completion stage.

Plumbing. And then in the hallway? Doing your four Tantric retreats.

So we got...

[Speaker 2]
That's the hallway.

[Speaker 1]
So you got one room and one hallway so far. The room is completion stage. Where you got the courtyard?

Which is enlightenment. Tantric enlightenment. Okay, then you have the...

which is called sung juk. Then you have the completion stage room. Then you have the hallway going into it which is doing your four retreats of four sessions each.

And then you have? Kirin. Kirin, which is...

I think you've got to be more creative in that room.

[Speaker 2]
Phase one, phase two.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, phase one, phase two. But it's basically starting to meet those beings. You're not one yourself yet.

But you know, you walk into a restaurant in the East Village and eat this huge meal and ask for the check. You know the story. Okay.

Then this old Israeli waitress comes up and says, who you've never met in your life, and says, I wouldn't charge a person practicing Vajrayogini. You know, and you're like... And they just turn around and say, have a nice evening, you know, and they just leave.

And you leave her a $60 tip, because... You know. Anyway.

Okay, so, that's the Kirin room. Okay. And that kind of stuff won't happen to you unless you keep your tantric vows.

So now we got five. And if you do keep your tantric vows, that kind of stuff will happen to you. It's very encouraging.

Okay, it's also cheaper. Okay, what's the one before that?

[Speaker 2]
Initiation.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, got to have the initiation, which gives you the vows, and plants the four seeds, through the four empowerments, right?

[Speaker 2]
Did we miss the hallway?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, the hallway with the vows. The hallway with the vows. No, we did that already.

That was number five. That was keeping the vows.

[Speaker 2]
Keeping the vows, we said that.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. There's a hallway. Yeah.

That's it. Alright, once you're loading the vows in with getting the vows. Okay.

Which is in the crystal palace. The hallway is keeping the vows. Yeah, the hallway is keeping the vows.

Hopefully your teacher, when he gave you the initiation, taught you the vows. Okay? Then how do you get into the mandala room?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, depending on which way you're going.

[Speaker 1]
How do you get into the mandala? How do you make the initiation happen? It's the flypaper principle.

You've got to keep your bodhisattva vows, which is the six perfections. Okay, so that's what triggers the incident where you meet this person who gives you your vows. Okay?

And it's not like, don't think of it necessarily in terms of some guy organizes something, and rents a hall, and blah, blah, blah. I mean, a real initiation might take place the way it did in the ancient days of India. You know, Naropa, I don't forget who it is.

He's sitting there. Somebody heard Naropa could give them initiation, and they go, and he's like sitting there killing fish, and throwing them into a frying pan alive, you know. And this guy loses faith immediately.

He says, oh man, this guy is... I heard he was a tantric yogi. He's crazy.

He's just a plain old fisherman, and he's killing live fish, cooking them, you know. And I think it was Naropa, right? And he says, hey, you want some, you know?

And the guy says, that's disgusting, you know. And he says, don't like it? And he says, no, I don't.

And he says, oh, okay. And he throws them back in the water and they swim away. You know, and then he's like...

So it might be like that. The initiation might be, you know, don't think it has to be under the circumstances that you might think. So there's...

how many? I don't know. We lost it.

This is the initiation.

[Speaker 2]
Huh?

[Speaker 1]
No, that's it. In the hexagon. Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
And there's no hallway between the crystal palace and the hexagon.

[Speaker 1]
Right. And then what was leading into that? The hexagon was near.

And then... And then... Don't worry, we'll get it back in a minute, if you don't.

Okay. Yeah, the hallway with the windows. Okay.

You look outside. So we got nine...

[Speaker 2]
I think we got nine. And it's between the brain and the... No, because so far you've just said it's at the opening.

So there's a window hallway between your brain and the hexagon, right?

[Speaker 1]
No, no, no, no, no, no. And then how much is secret? When did the secret stuff start?

[Speaker 2]
At the crystal palace.

[Speaker 1]
At the crystal palace. When did the Mahayana start?

[Speaker 2]
After perfection. Hexagon.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. And then the...

[Speaker 2]
The mirror room was...

[Speaker 1]
The mirror room and the hallway leading into it are middle capacity. And we'll get to small capacity tomorrow. Hopefully.

All right. So do a very short mid-duple combo. Look out the window in the hallway leading into the mirror room add three things you like and just accelerate them, you know, into senility.

Okay? Which makes you want to go into the mirror room.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's a tradition to bring it back. Okay? It's a tradition to restore everything after you get done ruining everything.

Okay? You have to clean up your toys.

[Speaker 2]
All right.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Bring it all back after you destroy it. Okay?

Bring it all back to normal. That's a custom. It's a...

It's very much a custom. Here we go. Okay.

Okay. Okay. This is the end of session four.