Серия ежедневной практики, курс 08 — Сутра сердца: медитация на пустоту (1998, Годстоу), занятие 1

[Speaker 2]
The Asian Classics Institute presents Heart Sutra, A Meditation on Emptiness with Geshe Michael Roach. Recorded live at Godstow Retreat Center in April of 1998.

[Speaker 1]
Sangye Jun Nam Songye Jun Nam Jangju Wadu Danikang Tsu Chi Dal Gyi Jun Yen Gyi Pen So Nam Gyi Ngo Nam Nchen Sangye Dun Hwa Chok Sangye Jun Nam Songye Jun Nam Jangju Wadu Danikang Tsu Chi Dal Gyi Jun Yen Gyi Pen So Nam Gyi Ngo Nam Nchen Sangye Dun Hwa Chok Sangye Jun Nam Songye Jun Nam Jangju Wadu Danikang Tsu Chi Dal Gyi Jun Yen Gyi Pen So Nam Gyi Ngo Nam Nchen Sangye Dun Hwa Chok One of the functions of the Heart Sutra is to stop obstacles. So it's a custom before a teaching to recite the Heart Sutra. And we use this special water.

It's really symbolic to remove obstacles from this room and from this house. So I'll be doing a special prayer. And you guys have to pray and imagine that all the obstacles, evil spirits have been removed from this house and from this place before the teaching starts.

They would love to mess up a teaching about the sutra that makes them go away. So it's important. The most serious evil spirit that could come in this place this weekend would be any kind of distraction in your mind or any kind of bad thoughts about someone else in this place or sleepiness or thinking about what you have to do on Monday morning and really, seriously, those are the major demons that could come in this place.

And this helps remove those. So while I'm doing it, try to think that during this time you'll concentrate only on the Heart Sutra. Give up all other plans.

I was going to finish the last 20 lines of my taxes. I was going to prepare for my trip. I was going to do a report that's due for a sponsor on Monday morning.

And I decided to just forget everything and do the Heart Sutra. So let's do that. And think about that.

I have to go through the whole house. Take me a few minutes. And then when I come back, we'll start.

So think about... Do tonglen on yourself for this weekend that they don't get distracted, those guys. We never tried to have a large group here.

And everything's a little experimental. So please bear with us, okay? I know some people couldn't be in this room.

And if we had a bigger room, everyone would be in this room. So it's not like on purpose, you know, that some people... We just didn't have enough room.

We were going to restrict the retreat to 50 people, but I don't like that. So I'd rather have people be uncomfortable, or I'd rather have people watch on a TV monitor than not to come. I can't bear to tell people they can't come to Dharma Teachers.

So it's going to be a little uncomfortable. And it might get warm here, I think, especially tomorrow. Just put up with it.

According to Buddhism, you've spent millions of years getting to this room. So this is nothing, okay? And you're going to get distracted.

And you'll think, why is the food like that? I don't like the person next to me. Just forget it, okay?

Those are demons. And don't worry about it. In Sara, it's 120 degrees in the temple.

Literally monks sitting on your lap because there's not enough room. You're sweating like crazy, and you can't move, and you can't get up to go to the bathroom. We do four or five hours like that.

You just learn to concentrate. So try to concentrate, and don't worry about the conditions. We can't have everything we want right now.

If you practice well, probably this place will get bigger or something. And that's the only way it will get bigger. So if you get angry, it will probably get smaller.

So, you know, be a smart Buddhist and make the place bigger, okay? We're going to go through the Heart Sutra in two ways. One, the most important way, people are always talking about meditating on emptiness.

People write books called Meditating on Emptiness. And then I think most of us don't have a clue how to meditate on emptiness. I mean, they talk about it, and they say, are you your parts or are you not your parts?

And it takes about ten minutes to go through that, and you don't say, well, what am I supposed to do after that? And you get up, and you still feel the same whether you're your parts or not. And it doesn't seem to click sometimes.

So I thought the most important thing we could do here would be to study how to meditate on emptiness and how to do a good emptiness meditation. In three days, you're not going to see emptiness here. I don't think so.

It takes a lot of training, and it takes a lot of practice. But I would like to teach you a meditation that if you carry it out in your home on a daily basis, and if you do the other things suggested, then I think you could see emptiness directly in this life. So I'm going to teach a meditation on emptiness, and we'll practice it.

And this is based on a work by Khenubje. Khenubje was Jetsung Kapa's, one of his two major disciples. He was like the tantric specialist of the two, Gyaltsabje and Khenubje.

Not that Gyaltsabje wasn't a great tantrica, but Khenubje was great. He's known for that. And in preparation for those kinds of teachings, he had a special practice on how to meditate on emptiness.

It's not tantra, but it's very cool. And I'll teach you that one. It's a four-part meditation on emptiness.

So we'll be doing that. To spice it up, and because when I studied, I memorized the Heart Sutras many years ago. I think it was one of the first things I did.

Rinpoche encouraged me to memorize it. It's part of the monk's confession ceremony. I always wondered what some of the words meant.

Some of the words didn't seem clear to me. I didn't know what they're talking about. I didn't get a good explanation.

And I waited a long time. Rinpoche taught it several times. He taught it once at Columbia University in 1974 or 5.

And then he taught it again in Washington at the Quaker house there in 75 or 76. And he's taught it on and off a few times since then. And that was wonderful.

Recently, also, we have a missing book from ceremony. We have a book from our monastery that explains the Heart Sutra. And it was written about 200 years ago.

We found it. It's interesting that we found it in December after we were supposed to have the first Heart Sutra. And we would not have had it at the first one.

It came in December. And we became aware that we had it in December. And we found it in Russia.

So we have a good copy of that. And I'm going to teach you that. That'll be a real tea.

Tea means, and I haven't done it with you, really. We're just going to go straight to that commentary. So I'll be referring directly to the commentary.

And what I like about that commentary, it's by Choney Dharpasidhu, who's my hero. And he writes a word-by-word commentary. It's called a Singja.

And I love it. I've always wondered what half the things in the Heart Sutra meant. And he gives a very, very clear word-by-word commentary.

So I think you'd like to hear that, especially I know some people are trying to memorize it and things like that. So we'll be doing that to spice up the meditation. Then we'll be doing some short, concentrated meditations on emptiness.

So I'd like to start with that tea. And then we'll get into, we'll do a short meditation. But we'll do many short meditations using Ketub Jain's method.

We'll take a break between the explanation and the meditation. As far as discipline, I ask you to keep the rules. Don't go off in a corner and whisper.

It breaks the intent of the whole thing. Just don't talk. It's fun.

I get to do all the talking. Nobody will complain. Just don't do it.

And it'll be a lot more intense for you. Try not to talk. I think one thing that is not in the schedule, there's a student here who finished a tantric retreat.

In conjunction with that, we are supposed to do a fire offering. Rinpoche encouraged us to do it here, to bless God's door. So we'll be preparing.

We started the preparations today. You'll see it out there, what we call the top, which is the fire offering platform. I ask you not to touch it.

You can go out and look at it. It doesn't look like much right now. But please don't touch it.

Then tomorrow night we'll be preparing the offerings for that. That'll just be the people who are involved in the fire offering. Then the night after the Heart Sutra finishes, we'll start the fire offering.

Rinpoche has always allowed people to watch. So we'll continue that tradition. If you would like to stay and watch that, you're welcome to stay.

I know people always want to know on Sunday evening when they might get home, if they stay. You're welcome to stay for any part that you like. You don't have to stay very long.

The first hour or two are private recitations by the student who finished their tantric retreat and myself. Actually, first there will be a mandala. We make a sand mandala.

You can't watch me make it, but you can look at it afterward. So it will take about maybe an hour to an hour and a half to make the sand mandala. It's a special mandala.

It's not like the ones you've seen for Kalachakra or something like that. But it's a special one for Vajrayogini fire offering. So I ask you not to hang around the fire offering place.

It's in the back here during that time. But after we're done, we'll ring a bell or something. You can go see it.

And then we have to do some special prayers for about 45 minutes to an hour. And then we'll start the actual fire offering. And that takes about another two hours.

And then we go and do some special prayers afterwards, which you don't have to stay for anyway. So I'd say Rinpoche's official policy on fire offering times is don't tell them anything, so they don't get nervous about they're late or something. So if you want to stay, stay.

Just figure you're going to blow the whole night. I would guess you'd be out by 11 or 12, something like that, if you stay for the whole thing. Could go later, could stop earlier, I don't know.

But you're welcome to see it. It's a great blessing to see it. You can watch the actual fire offering.

During the fire, the mandala gets destroyed, so you have to see it before we start the fire, if you want to. The text we're going to study is by Choney Lama Darpashedu. One of the two great textbook writers for Seramon Monastery.

The greatest monastery in the world. And it's called The Sun Which Illuminates. By the way, I wouldn't take notes.

And if you like, you can get a tape. So I don't want you to be distracted. No notes.

You can get a tape later. We'll go through word by word. And later you can listen to the tape and write down.

I don't mind if you look at the root text. Is it in the back? The Kangyur edition?

There was a separate handout of the Heart Sutra, as it appears in the canon. And you can follow that if you like. But I ask you not to take notes.

It's a kind of talking, really. All right. Sherab Nimban Namshe means it's an explanation of the Heart Sutra.

Samudra Konanyi means it's the sun whose rays of light illuminate the profound dustness or emptiness. And that's the name of the commentary. According to the colophon at the end of the book, it was written in Chakbak year.

Chakbak year means the iron pig year. And then you have to go back and calculate it. And it's 1731.

It was written in 1731. He lived from 1675 to 1748. All right.

First he goes through the benefits of emptiness, perceiving emptiness. And he says the following. chakpa topa la tonyi topa tawa me me lung gi yen la yin te ting nge dzik gi gyabu la kya te dak me chola so so dak so so de do khang shi gom chen na de ni nyam yin de top drel bu gyur de ni nyam yin de top drel bu gyur gyu shen khang yin de ni shu min gyur So so, he's quoting the Samadhi Raja Sutra.

And he wants to show you how important it is to see emptiness. And it says, kya te dak me chola so so dak so so dak khang shi gom chen na If you are able to analyze what emptiness means, and if you are eventually able to see emptiness directly, de ni nyam yin de top drel bu gyur that is the way in which to reach nirvana and enlightenment. gyu shen khang yin de ni shu min gyur gyu shen khang yin de ni shu min gyur There is no other way to enlightenment.

So you, in your spiritual life, you will have to go through five steps, five realizations in the course of your entire life. You try to reach five different levels, the five paths. And each path occurs, you go up through the paths only in deep meditation.

You can't go between paths except in deep meditation. If you never learn to meditate deeply, you'll never go through the five paths. The fifth path is achieving enlightenment.

The first path is achieving, getting tired of this life and the way it's been for you so far. You know, ups and downs, things not going right, relationships falling apart, your body getting old, things like that. That's to get tired of that and to want to seriously do something about it and to stop it is the first path.

So that's the process from path number one to path number five. All the paths in between involve either emptiness, understanding emptiness, perceiving emptiness directly, and then wiping out your negative emotions by using your understanding of emptiness. That's the essence of the five paths.

And what the Buddha himself says is there's no other way to get enlightened, period. You have to see emptiness. You have to be able to see emptiness.

You have to be able to go into a deep state of meditation and see emptiness. There is no other way in this life to change things. I went to a movie last night, City of Angels, really nice, at least for me.

And the whole thing is about, it's supposed to be some angels, that there are angels around the planet and people can't see them except for some children sometimes or people like that. And every once in a while somebody sees one of them. But mainly they're like, they're not like disguised, but just nobody can see them because they're not pure enough or something.

And on certain occasions people can see them. And the story is about a doctor, a surgeon, a woman, who makes the breakthrough and starts to see them. You know what I mean?

And it's interesting, I like the movie because she's struggling with, could there be another reality? You know what I mean? And she doesn't particularly believe in angels.

I mean she doesn't believe in that other reality at all. But during the movie she's forced to deal with it. And it's very interesting because she plays the actor, she's Meg Ryan, right?

And she plays it very well. And during most of the movie she's struggling with, can she really accept this other reality? Because she went through high school, college, medical school, became a successful surgeon, and then is faced with having to deal with another reality.

She thought she'd finished everything. And there's a struggle in her that she doesn't want to deal with it because it's so strange and it's so different. And it's a beautiful movie for that, I think.

And you are dealing with the same problem. You can go see the movie. She gets frustrated.

At one point she tells the angel to get the hell out of her house because she can't deal with it. And he disappears for a while. But you're faced with the same thing.

You've been living a certain kind of reality. You live in a certain realm. This is all you know.

You're not really aware of any other realm. As far as you know, as far as you've ever heard, there's no serious concrete evidence that there's another realm. It seems to be that what you've been living so far is the only way it could be.

And you believe that. The process of the five paths and the process of seeing emptiness is necessary for you to go, there is another realm. You can go to that realm.

It's a completely different realm. And you can see it and go there. And you are very interesting people because out of all the Americans, you're like at the door of that other realm.

If you get a little push, if you try hard, you could see that other realm. You could experience it. And you're very interesting because you're right up to the edge of it.

And according to Buddhism, it took you thousands and thousands, millions of years to get here. And you're at the very threshold of that other realm. And whether or not you can see those things depends on seeing emptiness directly.

Because the day you do see emptiness directly, you get your first hard evidence of another realm. You see your future lives directly. Like I could get up and teach the Heart Sutra and teach you how to be calm and teach you how to be a good person at work and teach you how to deal with your troubles.

To be honest, it's not the point. If I can teach you to see emptiness, the ballgame gets much bigger, much more serious. You will see your future life directly.

You will meet the Dharmakaya, the ultimate reality of the Buddha, directly. You will commune with that energy directly. And it will be confirmed to you that those things are true.

You will see the day of your own enlightenment directly. You will know how long it's going to take you. You'll know your name that you will have on that day.

And you'll know the name that you don't have on that day. And you see all these things directly. So if I could help you, if the Heart Sutra...

I mean, the function of studying the Heart Sutra is that there is no other way to see that thing. There is no other way to reach that realm and to reach that reality. And if you stay in this one, it's only suffering.

There is nothing here. I mean, it's hopeless here. It's a mistake.

This realm is a bubu. And you don't want to stay here. You really have to see those other things before you die.

And the Heart Sutra is a very powerful way to do that. You have a good chance if you understand the Heart Sutra, and if you meditate on it, and if you see emptiness. So you really have to try.

It'll be a little... It's like this doctor in the movie who sees her first angel and she's like... And then everything, her life changes.

Her whole life changes. Everything changes. And it will be like that for you.

But you have to see emptiness directly. This is not the only realm there is. This is not the only way you can live.

But you must see emptiness directly to see those things. And you can. This is a very powerful way to do it.

You're very, very lucky to hear it. We're lucky. You have extraordinary karma that the Heart Sutra exists in this planet.

And you guys have some kind of other weird karma that this commentary suddenly shows up. It's you who made it. According to Buddhism, you forced this book to come here today.

By being good and by practicing well. So try to... The Buddha said...

He's quoting the Buddha. He says you must see emptiness directly. And there is no other way to reach enlightenment.

And don't stay in this realm. It's only death. It's very serious.

It's very bad. Nothing goes right here. Don't get frustrated trying to make it go right here.

It won't. It can't. It doesn't.

Is the other realm like Mars or Venus or Pluto? Not like that. It's running side by side with this realm.

It's very close. You don't have to leave your family at all. They might not notice anything when you get there.

They'll be perceiving you in a very similar way that they do now. It's not like that. It's running parallel to this realm.

There is no pain there. There is no suffering there. You can be with everyone you ever dreamed of.

And there won't be any of the wrong things that are happening here. Like getting old. Or losing those who are dear to you.

Or watching your own mind screw up your life. Those don't exist there. And you can go there.

But you have to see emptiness. Then he quotes another scripture that says, ,,Khandato nyi mi shepa de da tarpa ten mayin, ,,Dro du sipay tsun na ni mongpa de da korwa gyur,, Which means, anyone who doesn't get to see emptiness in this life, ,,ten nay mayin,, means they will never get any kind of freedom. ,,Dro du sipay tsun na ni mongpa de da korwa gyur,, And you will just continue to live like this.

If it was just that you could go through this weird mistake realm and die, and if there was some kind of peace after that, it would be alright. According to Buddhism, it doesn't stop. I mean, it would almost be alright if you could just shoot yourself, or if you could just get old and die and then not worry about it anymore.

I mean, if that was all, it wouldn't be so bad. It doesn't stop. It continues.

It goes on. So you have to deal with it now. It's like your taxes, you know.

And you have to deal with it. You have to face it and deal with it. It won't stop.

Death is not an option. You will die. You won't stop.

Your body will die. Your mind doesn't stop. You'll be back doing the same thing again, and having the same problems.

Probably worse. You have to deal with it now, and you have to try to see emptiness now. Okay.

Then he says, ,DE PHYIR RGYAL BA'I GSUNG RANG, THA DANG NGO DANG RGYUD PA'I PHYIR, ,YI RIGS KYI SGO NAS DE'ANG BRAL SA, ,MA DE KHO NA NYID DUM PA LA SHU BA YIN TE, Everything that the Buddha ever said, ultimately, shulwa means like the way that all rivers eventually lead to the ocean. Sooner or later, anything that the Buddha taught is based, and it leads to the study of emptiness. So, it doesn't matter what book you pick up about Buddhism, sooner or later, it all leads into the study of emptiness.

,RTOG NI SANG MO LA MÖ NAS, ,NYENG PA DANG LTOS PA'I PHYIR YIN MI, ,SDONG RANG NYID DANG LAS, ,MANG DU GSUNG ZHING, ,KHYAD PA DUR DOG CHUNG DU DRAG PA'I SHER, ,CHING GSUNG RGYAL PA LAS, ,RAB SBYOR GANG GI'I JI, ,DEN GYI GANG DE NYID, ,RUNG BU CHEN NA, ,DUN GYI GANG BA CHE, ,DE DE SHING SHES PA, Okay. ,GYAT TON DUG PAR CHEN PO'I DU LAG CHEN PO YANG, And, without understanding emptiness, tried to practice the perfections of a bodhisattva for millions of years. ,KANG GI CHUG GI NAMLA DI THET SOM DANG CHEN PO YIN YAM LAG GIS SUN NAM And if you compared them to a person who sat in this audience today and heard one verse of what we're going to study and had doubts about it, you know, who said, I don't think that's right, but maybe it could be right.

The person who sat here and said, maybe the Heart Sutra is right, would collect more virtue than a person who spent millions of years trying to practice the six perfections without understanding emptiness. So if you get the slightest suspicion that emptiness might be real, the virtue that you collect by that is infinitely more than trying to practice generosity and trying to practice patience, trying to practice morality and the other perfections. It's a much greater virtue to sit here and think maybe what the guy is saying is right.

That's a quotation from the Buddha. This is much less if they thought it was really right. This is one of my favorite quotations.

te tsam sappa yang min gyur sunam chung tu chud di la te tsam sappa yang min gyur te tsam sappa tsam gyi kyang sipa shupa chepa ngyur sunam chung tu chud di la te tsam sappa yang min gyur People who don't have enough goodness will listen to this teaching and not even occur to them that it could be true. Like they won't get some kind of suspicion that maybe it's true or maybe it's not. Maybe there is some other realm.

Maybe there really is some other place I could be right now. Certain people, if they don't have enough goodness, will not even occur to them that I could be speaking the truth right now. They'll just think, well, that's kind of interesting.

Sounds like an interesting book. It's kind of mystical. But I don't really think that's possible.

In my heart of hearts, I don't really think that's possible. te tsam sappa tsam gyi kyang sipa shupa chepa ngyur But if there's a person in this room who thinks maybe that guy is saying something real. Maybe he's describing something real about that future lifestyle, about seeing your own enlightenment stuff, about meeting the Dharmakaya, if you could see emptiness now in this life.

If you just had a little inkling of a suspicion, it's called te tsam, that maybe that guy is right. Not even believe me, okay? You don't believe me.

It just occurs in your mind that maybe he's saying something true. Sipa shupa chepa ngyur means you will rip this world into shreds. I like that one.

It means like, shupa means, it's like, and you will tear this reality into two pieces. It'll suddenly, you'll just rip apart this world that you see. Sooner or later, if you have any feeling that what I'm saying could be true, you will rip this world apart and everything will be revealed to you.

And all you need is the little suspicion that it could be true. Then he says, by the way, when the Diamond Cutter Sutra says you get all these benefits from just reading the Diamond Cutter Sutra, that's not literal. You have to think about it.

I mean, it became a custom in some Buddhist countries to sit and read a holy scripture and believe that that's going to make you see emptiness. Choney Dharpasena says, no way. You have to think about it.

It is a great benefit to sit there and read the Diamond Cutter Sutra even if you don't understand it. But don't waste your time. Think about it.

You have to think about emptiness. He says, when the Diamond Cutter Sutra says you get all this merit just from reading this, that's not literal. They're being figurative.

You can't just sit there and read a sutra. You have to think about it, what it means. And that's how you get the virtue from doing it.

And he makes a point in that. Kachi. What's Kachi?

Oh, you can't talk. Good. Kachi means in debate, you know.

Somebody comes up and debates, you know. Kachi nare. Okay, somebody says, hey, what about that?

Some people come along and say the only function of the Heart Sutra is to, you know, do this, making bad spirits go away. And he says, Chintzhi Lotso Sowa, they are ass-backwards. They are completely wrong.

He says, that's not the point of the Heart Sutra at all. That's a worldly goal. I mean, to get rid of some kind of spirits that are, you know, making your house creak and stuff like that.

Not the point, okay? He says, that's a worldly goal. The Buddha only taught the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Cutter Sutra to try to get you to see emptiness directly.

He didn't just teach the Heart Sutra to get rid of little ghosts that are bothering your house, okay? Okay. It is true that you can do that with the Heart Sutra, but that's not the point of the Heart Sutra.

So, you see it used that way. He says, that's not the point of the Heart Sutra. Now, he's actually going to get into the meaning of the Sutra.

He wanted to give you an explanation of why it's important to study it. And we won't waste time with lesser things, okay? Your motivation for being here should be see emptiness directly, see the other realms directly, see the realm of enlightened things directly, and get there.

And then in the back of your mind it should be how sweet it will be if I get there and then I can really help other people. You know, then I can really, really do something good for other people. There's nothing in this realm that you can do to help other people that comes at all close to the other thing, you know?

If you could teach somebody not to die, if you could teach someone never to be unhappy again in their life, if you could teach someone how to make everything go in an enlightened way or sacred way in their life all the time, forever, then it really eclipses everything else you could do for them in this realm, okay? And again, it doesn't mean that you ignore other people or the way to get to the other realm is to help other people even in worldly ways, okay? So I'm not saying don't help poor people or something like that.

You have to. That's the only way you can get there. But in the back of your mind the idea should be I will, in this life, pass beyond the state of death and I will teach other people to do it.

I'll do it for so that I can teach other people that. And that should be your motivation for being here. And that's why you're going to put up with the heat and the humidity and everything else, okay?

All right. The beginning of the sutra. Now if you want to, you can look at the sutra.

Do you have a copy of your copy? Yeah. It starts out and says, Gyarukedu Arya...

I'm going to do it Sikshay, okay? Word by word. I'm not going to leave a word out.

He does every one. It's very beautiful. So we'll do every single one.

Gyarukedu means in the language of India. He says there are four great languages of ancient India. We're talking about Sanskrit, okay?

All enlightened beings, when they get enlightened, according to our tradition of Buddhism, speak in Sanskrit. Seriously. And you will too.

The people sitting around them hear every different language of the world. They hear their own language. Okay?

That's one of the qualities of an enlightened being. It's called the Yenlak Dukchu Sung. One of the greatest qualities of their speech is that they speak Sanskrit.

Everybody else hears their own language. That's why you have fights about, Did he speak Sanskrit? Did he speak Pali?

No. Did he speak... Whatever.

But that's... Gyarukedu is a holy language. It means in the language of India, meaning in Sanskrit.

Okay? Arya Bhagavati Prajnaparamita Hridaya. And he starts to explain the title in Sanskrit.

Okay? Bhagavati Chomden De Ma Prajna Sherab Paramita Parottachimba Hridaya Ningbo Bhagavati Bhagavan Bhagavan means... It's translated into Tibetan as Chomden De Chom means conqueror Den means possessing something.

By the way, this is a real tree. Okay? Trees go on for hours.

They torture the audience. Word by word. Late into the night.

Okay? And I'm going to do it the old way this time.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
And... You know, enough of those New York classes. You know?

It's like Chinese food in New York. You know? It's like...

Go to Chinatown and get the real thing. You know? And...

This is going to be the real way. Okay? So you're going to stay up a little late.

Alright? And it'll be uncomfortable. And you'll wander.

But please come back once in a while. Chom means to destroy. Den means to possess.

De means gone beyond. The Tibetans chose to translate Bhagavan in a very unusual way. I translated English as conqueror but literally it means the conqueror who possesses something great and has gone beyond.

But you can't keep using that in English. Okay? Chom Den De.

Mah. Okay? Somebody, the Buddha, added the feminine ending to this book.

Okay? The name of this book is The Conquering Woman of Wisdom. Okay?

And it's very important. Bhagavati. The E is the feminine ending in Sanskrit.

And there's a reason for it. And we'll get into it later. But anyway, the title, Sanskrit, is that Bhagavati starts with the lady conqueror.

The woman conqueror. Prajna means wisdom. People accuse the Tibetans of mispronouncing it as Prajna.

It's actually the correct pronunciation. Sanskrit scholars are pronouncing it wrong. There is no J in Sanskrit.

It's a Z. They don't say Raja. They say Raza.

They don't say Prajna. They say Prajna. In Russian, they still say Znyayu.

Yes, Znyayu. Because it comes more directly from Sanskrit. So, it's a correct pronunciation.

Tibetans are being mis... maligned. Okay?

They're pronouncing it right. Prajna means wisdom. Okay?

Prajnaparamita. By the way, in Sanskrit, Znya changes in Greek to Gna. And that's why there's a K in front of now in English.

It comes from Znya. Okay? If you ever wondered.

Okay. Paramita Parottacempa. Paramita means param means other side.

The M is locative, to go to the other side. Ita is the past tense of the verb to go. Ita.

Gone to the other side. Okay? It doesn't mean perfection so much as reach the other side.

Okay? Paramita. Shridaya.

Hrd means the heart. Your heart. Hrd.

And that's Sanskrit for the word for heart. So really the thing is called the heart of the perfection of wisdom. The woman conqueror.

Okay? That's the real name of the heart sutra. All right?

Now he goes through each single word and explains them. korway gyatso parottacempa denyin la korway gyatso parottacempa means you have reached the other side. If you study this book, if you learn the heart sutra, if you see emptiness, you will reach the other side of the ocean of suffering.

You will no longer have to suffer. You get to Japan. Okay?

You'll be going from California. It's just like that. Paramita means that.

Starting off in a rowboat from Santa Monica headed west. And when you hit Japan, you've paramita. It means to reach the other side.

Of what? It's comparing like the Pacific Ocean to all the disappointments, all the failed dreams, all the getting old of your life. Okay?

You won't have that stuff anymore. Okay? You'll be beyond that.

And you can do it. It's not true that you have to live like this. That's a lie.

This is an error. You got into this realm by mistake. You can get out.

You don't have to... This is not the only realm in the world. That's a very parochial idea.

It's not true. There are many other realms. You can get to one where you don't have to live like this.

You just have to get out. It's like you got into a big mud, what do you call it, quicksand and somebody has to teach you to get out and then you look back on these days and say, boy, that was weird. You know, I'm glad I got out.

You know, that was scary. And no, you will. You will look back on it and say, oh, I remember those days.

You know, that was a weird place to be. And you'll look back on it like that and you'll say, it's just sad. Some people are still living like that.

Some people are still there in that realm. I have to help them. You know, put that seed in your mind.

You know, please come back and you have to help people. DE YANG CHE GCIG LA BYA BA DANG LAS GCIG LA BYA BA NYID YOD PA'I SNGA MA DANG NA When you say paramita, gone to the other side, you can either say it as feta comple, which is called here lecig, or you can be a cecig. Cecig means as a function.

You see what I mean? Cecig means, you can either translate paramita as the perfection of wisdom, or you can translate it as the thing which makes you perfect. You see what I mean?

Paramita, or palo tu chimpa, means perfect, and it also means makes you perfect. So paramita, the word paramita means perfect already, and it means the thing which makes you perfect. It means both.

If you translate it as the thing which makes you perfect, it means the direct perception of emptiness. Okay? Perfection of wisdom means seeing emptiness.

Okay? If you translate it the first way. And anyone can have it.

You don't have to be a Buddha to have it. So you see, it's not really perfection. It's making you perfect.

It helps you to get to perfection, if you translate it that way. If you translate it the second way, it means perfect already, in the mind of a Buddha. It has to be.

So perfection of wisdom can either mean emptiness as we're working on it, and trying to get perfect, or perfection of wisdom can mean the real perfect wisdom that's already in the mind of a Buddha. And it can mean either one. So when you say this book is called the essence of the perfection of wisdom, the Heart Sutra, the heart of the perfection of wisdom, that perfection can mean paramita, can mean either the one that gets you there, or the one you have when you get there.

Okay? The point of this book is prajnaparamita, the perfection of wisdom, meaning the perception of emptiness, getting to see emptiness directly. We're going to go through the rest of the title later.

We'll go through the meaning of perfection of wisdom. Then you have a note here. If you look at the Tibetan, it says, pāpa chomden de ma shreya gyi paro tu chimpay nyingpo bambo chiko.

Phuket du means in the language of India. pāpa chomden de ma shreya gyi... I'm sorry.

Phuket du means in the language of Tibet. pāpa chomden de ma shreya gyi paro tu chimpay nyingpo At the beginning of all sutras that reach Tibet, they put the Sanskrit first. Translation of the title.

Okay? And that's to remember the kindness of the translator. They probably stayed up all night translating in some coffee shop in Varanasi or something.

And this is to remember their efforts that we put the Sanskrit. It's one of the reasons to put the Sanskrit. And bambo chiko bambo chiko means this is one section of Sanskrit.

Okay? Bambo means the very long books go into many bambos. The Heart Sutra is very short and it's only one bambo.

So at the beginning of the Heart Sutra is a note that says hey, this book is only one bambo long. I think that was put so that they would know if other people came and changed it later. We put byte counts nowadays.

Really. You know, we know if someone has changed a single letter. And that's part of the point of a byte count.

For those of you who are wondering who had to do them for two weeks. And bambo chiko is the old way. This book is one bambo long.

If anybody, if you read this two thousand years from now and it's shorter than that, there's a problem. And that was just the byte count at the beginning of the book. Sangye dang chandro semba tam je la chak chal lo We're at the last line of the first page.

Sangye dang chandro semba tam je la chak chal lo I bow down to the Buddha and to all the bodhisattvas. Okay. Then, Chandra Rinpoche says Chandra Rinpoche Gopala Chimbala chak chal lo shepa lo tsawa lo tsawa kupao This has been put there by the famous translators.

The great master translators of Tibet. And at the beginning of a book that they translated they would put a chak chal a bowing down. They would bow down to somebody.

In this case they're bowing down to the Buddha and to all bodhisattvas. This is a sign. This is a this was required by the government of Tibet at the time which means the king.

And he said if you write a book about sutra I want you know the sutra basket of teaching I want to see a prostration to the Buddha and all bodhisattvas. You know and then if you write a book about other subjects you put other you bow down to other people. It's a notice to the people reading this new translation where this book belongs.

It's like the Dewey catalog number. Okay. The Dewey decimal number.

Okay. It's actually the same thing. So we had the by count and we had the Dewey decimal.

It's a catalog number. He's saying this book belongs in this section by bowing down in a certain way. And that that is not part of the sutra yet.

We haven't started the sutra yet. Okay. He gets into later much later at the end he explains a little bit about why this book is called The Woman or The Lady.

And in general in Buddhism we distinguish between wisdom and method. Okay. Between knowledge and action in a way.

The knowledge side of things the nighttime side of things the left side of things the mystical side of things the wise side of things the knowledge side of things is feminine. Okay. That is the feminine energy.

The woman's energy. And that's why this book is called The Lady The Woman. Okay.

And that's all that's all a special energy of of the woman and of the feminine energy in all people not just women but that's all a quality of of knowledge and of wisdom and of emptiness perceiving emptiness and being empty and those are all qualities of the feminine side of each of us. The masculine side is love compassion bodhicitta action daytime the right. And those are all distinction that we make in Buddhism.

So, wisdom this whole subject knowledge and a deeper understanding of reality is the feminine side of things. And that's why this book is called The Woman The Conqueror in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's Ma. She belongs to the night.

She acts in mystical ways. She acts to the the left side is important for her. Knowledge and a deep grasp of reality is a woman's power.

And that's why the book is called that. We'll take a break there. Please don't talk.

Take about a ten minute break. Refresh yourself and then come back and we'll meditate.

[Speaker 2]
Session 1 continues on the next CD.