Серия ежедневной практики, курс 08 — Сутра сердца: медитация на пустоту (1998, Годстоу), занятие 6

[Speaker 2]
This is the continuation of Session 5.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so we'll continue with the sutra. We're in the part of the sutra that's talking about the path of seeing. He already said ma kye pa ma ga pa, and then he says ti ma me pa, ti ma dan tra wa, ti ma me pa ka ma me pa wo.

This part is cool because the way I memorized it and the way it was taught to me is wrong. And it's very interesting, by looking at the original text and by reading Choney Lama's commentary, you realize that they left out a negative. So, you know, the way it is recited by thousands of monks in South India, we say ti ma me pa, ti ma dan tra wa.

And the original says, and you have the original from the Canon, and the original according to Dr. Sridharam, it says ti ma me pa, ti ma dan tra wa me pa. Okay, which is kind of interesting. It makes a lot more sense.

Ti ma me pa, ti ma means a stink, something stinky, a stain or impurity or something like that. It literally means a bad smell. And this refers to the negative parts of us, your mental afflictions mainly, but all the negative parts of a person.

Ti ma me pa means they don't exist. Ti ma dan tra wa means they don't exist. So there's actually no reason to repeat it.

Ti ma dan tra wa me pa, which is the way the Kangyur reads and not the way that we recite it. By the way, Sarah J's liturgy text is correct, I'm afraid to say. I checked it.

They say if a monkey types on a typewriter all day long, No, I remember. Anyway, ti ma me pa, ti ma dan tra wa. Ti ma me pa means there is no impurity.

Ti ma dan tra wa me pa means there is no freedom from impurity. Okay, and that makes more sense. So there is no condition of having your mind filled with anger, jealousy, desire, etc.

And there is no condition of being free from that. And this is a very cool thing to realize. Not only are those lilies, are they?

I don't know. Not only are the lilies not something which exists from their own side. Like if you, it's not hard to imagine that something that beautiful must have come from some very good deed that I did in the past.

You know what I mean? That's not so hard to imagine. And it's a lot easier to accept if someone says to you, the reason you're seeing it, the way it comes back to you from your old karma is through your own perceptions.

That makes a lot more sense. It wasn't like put there by Lily Construction Company. You know, Lily Karmic Construction Company came here the night before and put it there.

That doesn't make much sense to me. I never felt comfortable with that. The point is that the karma was implanted in my brain and that implanted karma is now ripening and making me think I see lilies there which is the same thing as lilies being there.

You got to get used to that. And that's how karma created those lilies. I can accept that.

That's comfortable. That's no problem. But now what about my own mind, my own thoughts?

You see, when I get jealous of somebody, I have a problem with jealousy. I really do. I don't like other Dharma teachers and I don't like people who translate books well and people have lots of nice students and so I get jealous.

And I have that. I honestly have that. And you can check my book.

And so for me to have to see that in my own mind, which is unpleasant. It's frankly very unpleasant. You know, for me to have to see that in my own mind is again a result of my past karma.

It's very interesting. You see, timma merpa means don't think that even your thoughts and the impurities in your own heart are any different from those flowers. They are also a projection.

They also have no existence down there or in there. They also are something that I am projecting. Timma merpa.

Timma dhantawa merpa. When comes a day that I get rid of those emotions and my mind is pure and you call me an arhat, you call me an enemy destroyer. I have defeated the foe of the mental afflictions.

On that day, have mental afflictions that used to exist out there on their own been destroyed out there on their own? No. My mind is now projecting a pure mind.

You see what I mean? There is no mind free of mental afflictions. I will in the future be forced to experience my mind that way.

In the same way that I am forced to experience these flowers. And there is no difference. Your thoughts are also empty.

Your mental afflictions are also empty. Thank God. That means they can be destroyed.

How? You don't take a bulldozer. You collect good karma until that good karma forces you to see them go away.

And that's really cool. And that's how you can get to be an arhat. That's nirvana, by the way.

That is nirvana. So, that doesn't exist out there on its own any more than the flowers do. That the day I get to wake up and have a nice, clean, pure mind without any of those jealous thoughts, it'll be because I collected the good deeds to make me see that.

And not because it exists out there for some reason on its own. That's what it means. Timadandewa Mepa.

Then he says, Tiwa Mepa Kawa Mepa O. Tiwa is a tricky word. For those of you learning Tibetan, if you spell it da-da-ta-ta-gi-ku-ti, it means to ask a question.

If you spell it pa-da-ta-ta-gi-ku-ti, same sound, it means a very rare word for getting less. Tiwa means to diminish. And it's often misspelled in prayer books and stuff like that.

Because the pa-da-ta-ta doesn't exist very often. Kawa Mepa O means there's no filling. So, Tiwa Mepa Kawa Mepa O means there's no decreasing and there's no filling.

Decreasing here, Choney Dhapa Sherab says, refers to the decreasing of your mental afflictions and the eventual destruction of them. It's sepa. Sepa means to decrease or to eliminate something.

When your shoes wear out, it's called sepa. When the soles wear out and the holes show up, that's called sepa. Kangwa means your enlightenment, your nirvana, the fulfillment of those things.

Kang means full. In Tibetan, when you want to say, give me a cup of tea, you don't... You can tell a foreigner because they say, nga la kyu chik de shos, you know, give me a cup of tea.

They translate it in their mind. But in Tibetan, it's, kang chik de da, which means give me a kang, give me a full, hand me a full. And this is the same word.

Kangwa Mepa O means there's no fulfillment, there's no reaching Buddhahood, unless it's by the same process of projection. And that's what it means. You can also read these minds as referring to the experience of a person in the direct perception of emptiness.

You know, to their state of mind, none of these objects can appear self-existently. If you've been in the classes and you've heard the description, it's very interesting. You have zillions, zillions lifetimes seeing everything as self-existent.

Believing in number two in K.W.B.J.'s meditation. Believing that all those things come from their own side. And then comes a day, you see emptiness directly.

During that 15 to 20 minutes, you get relief for the first time. For 15 or 20 minutes, out of trillions and trillions of years, for the first time, and for the only time, you don't have that anymore. You don't see things as number two.

Okay. And to that state of mind, nothing else can appear. You can't see anything else except pure emptiness.

Now, the 15, 20 minutes is over. And you come down out of that. Your mind reverts to the way it was before.

Okay. You start seeing things number two way again. And that's the way it works.

But there's a big difference. You don't believe yourself anymore. Okay.

You know you're still seeing things like that, but you say, I know that's not the way they really are. And I know my mind is a little bit screwy. It's like the king who found out the water was poison and whoever drank it would go crazy.

And so he wrote a big X on his forehead because he had to drink water sooner or later. But he said, after I drink the water, I'll look in the mirror and I'll see the X and I'll remember that the water made me crazy. And of course after he drank it, he couldn't remember when the X was water.

Or like, I don't know if you're listening or who is it. Someone was correcting me the other day. Goes looking for the golden flame.

Is passing the land of the sun. Jason, sorry. Okay, and he's passing the land of the sirens and he wants to hear what so many people died for.

You know, and you guys put earplugs on. And no matter what things I do, you know like, let me go, let me go. Don't let me go.

Don't listen to me no matter what. Don't believe whatever I say for the next 24 hours. He orders his men that way.

And it's a very similar state of mind. You know your mind is wrong. And you know you can't help it.

And you're still seeing things as self-existent. Until you reach like 8th Bodhisattva level, which is just before enlightenment, you will continue to see things that way. But at least you don't believe it anymore and you react less and less ignorantly.

When your boss yells at you, you're much more sensitive to the fact that that's creating your... that bad reactions are stupid. So that, it helps you, but it still doesn't clear your vision of things.

You still see things number two way. Okay? To the state of mind in between, okay?

You got a billion, zillion years this way. You got seven lifetimes this way. And for that 15 to 20 minutes between there, you're free of those states of mind.

You can't have those bad states of mind. And that's one of the meanings of the sutra here. Okay?

There is no lessening. There is no decreasing. There is no birth.

There is no stopping. There is no purity. There is no lack of...

I'm sorry. There is no impurity. There is no freedom from impurity.

All meaning in one meaning that to the state of mind perceiving emptiness directly, none of those things are even perceivable because you can only lay your eyes on one thing. And that's pure, total emptiness. Okay?

And that's all. That's one of the meanings of this line. mā khepaṁ maggapa tīmaṁ mepa tīmaṁ daṁ tāṁ mepa tīmaṁ mepa kāmaṁ mepa te tāwin śāripu śāripu means hey, śāripu, śāriputra.

Is this still Avalokiteśvara you know, exhorting in here about that? Yeah, he says gomlam starts here. Okay?

When the Buddha says... Let me make sure. Okay?

Yeah, this is where gomlam starts. This is where he starts the description of the path of habituation. This is spiritual level number four.

It comes after you've seen emptiness directly. It might last very typically for seven lifetimes. And it's the whole process of using what you saw to get rid of your mental afflictions.

So, between seeing emptiness directly and the day you have your last jealous thought, that'll be nice, it's like very typically seven lifetimes. At this point in the path of seeing, you actually perceive those seven lifetimes. Not while you're seeing emptiness directly, but right after that.

And you actually see the future and you see how long it's going to take and you see the day of your enlightenment and things like that. But you... In between there, there's seven lifetimes of working on it.

Based with the equipment of your new understanding of emptiness. And so, between here and there, there's typically seven lifetimes, if you don't practice Tantra. If you do practice Tantra, finish it in one lifetime.

Properly. So, between there and there, there's like seven lifetimes. We have reached the point in the book where they're going to talk about that.

And then, after that, he's going to start talking about how it feels to get enlightened. Okay? That's kind of cool.

That's the fifth path. So, we've reached path number four. And this is where he says, we're on page four, line three, at the very, very last syllable, which for you is page...

line four. He's going through what we call the twelve gateways. In Sanskrit, they're called ayatana.

Most people chicken out and say ayatana. Okay? They're called keche.

Keche means... ke means to grow, and che means conflagration. Okay?

Or wild multiplication of something. Like, if you've ever been up close to a forest fire, like the one that came to my meditation cabin in Arizona. First, it catches on one or two trees, and then it starts to jump from tree to tree.

And then, finally, it's just like a wave moving across the tops of the trees. It doesn't even touch the ground. And it's just flying from tree to tree.

And that process of going from one to two to ten to a hundred is called che. Che. So, keche, or ayatana, means through a single-sense door like your eye.

You have millions and millions of perceptions that are being created through that sense door. So, you can call it a gateway of perception or something like that. Okay?

There are twelve of them. And he goes through all twelve. Sukhme...

He goes through the five heaps first, and then he says, mikme nama me nama che me nami me. Mikme means, your eye doesn't exist. Nama means, your ear doesn't exist.

Nami means, your nose doesn't exist. And in the Abhidharma, it says, if you forget the order, just go down. You hit your eyes first, then you hit your ears, then you hit your nose, then you hit your tongue, and then you get the rest of your body.

And that's the order of the... of five of the twelve ayatanas, the sense gates. And then you...

Number six is the mind itself. It's your thoughts. You can say your thoughts.

And then you get... Those are called the six objects. And then you have behind them six different states of consciousness.

Awareness of your eye, awareness of your ear, awareness of what you smell, awareness of what you taste, awareness of what you feel, and then awareness of what you're thinking. All twelve of those are non-existent, says the Buddha. Again, again, not meaning non-existent at all.

He says here, very cool, where is that? He says, don't forget to add the word rang shing gi. Okay, rang shing gi means from its own side, by its own nature.

Okay? None of those things has its own nature. Okay, in Tibetan it's their own nature doesn't exist, but he left out their own nature.

The Buddha, come on, everybody knows that's what I'm talking about. Let's just shorten it to they don't exist. And of course this has caused a lot of trouble over the last 20 centuries, okay, 20th century, you know.

And then you get these schools of Buddhism and say, oh, nothing exists, you know. And then you say, let me drill your teeth with a dental drill if it doesn't exist, okay. I said, later, you know.

[Speaker 2]
You know.

[Speaker 1]
You know, of course the Buddha didn't mean that. Obviously the Buddha didn't mean that. He says, rang shing gi ja go re.

I mean, you have to add the words by their own selves, or through their own nature, or by their own essence, or from their own side. You have to add those words. Then he says a very beautiful thing.

Let me see if I can find it. tong ni la chu shakpa shin du gyur we nyam shak gi si ngur me pa dang The fact that none of these things, from your eye, to your ear, to your nose, to your tongue, to your body, to your thoughts, and to the awareness of what you see and the awareness of what you hear, what you smell, what you taste, and what you feel, and what you think. The fact that none of those things exists to the state of mind of a person in perceiving emptiness directly in the way that water, we call chu la chu shakpa, means water poured into water.

While you are in the direct perception of emptiness, you cannot distinguish yourself from that emptiness. Why? Because you ain't emptiness, baby.

And you can't see anything else at that time. It doesn't mean that you are emptiness. We already talked about that.

During the direct perception of emptiness, you cannot discriminate between yourself and the emptiness which you are perceiving because you can't perceive yourself at that moment because you are not ultimate reality. And you can't see anything else for that 20 minutes or so. But the fact that you don't appear to yourself at that moment, during nam shak gi si ngur me pa dang, de nam chir rang shing gi me pa, the fact that at that moment you can't see them, that all that, that's what the me, me, me means in the root text.

Nothing exists, nothing exists, nothing exists. Doesn't exist to your state of mind at that moment. The fact that those things don't exist, A, chir rang shing gi me pa, the fact that in general they don't have any nature of their own, 2, B, dun dam chir jig gi rik pe chos su du me pa dang, the fact that when you do the Ketub Jey analysis of number 4, you'll never find anything.

If you go looking for a self-existent flower, you'll spend all day. You better spend all day. That means you didn't find it, and you found, you located emptiness.

You see what I mean? That fact, de nam gyi thang nyi tabay dun tsa, mi nye pa kang la, and when you, here's a subtle one, when you try to find the sense data itself, we didn't talk about that yet. You were hoping that was real.

Okay? You were hoping at least that was there. Okay?

I didn't, I didn't lay that on you yet. Okay? Your karma is making you interpret that green and white as a nice beautiful lily.

But you karma is also making you see the green and the white too. Okay? We didn't talk about that.

And you can keep going down, level by level, and you'll never find anything that you're not projecting. That fact, he says, I like this, he says, ney chig du dro, come on, it boils down to all the same thing. You know?

These are all the same thing. It's very cool. The fact that the data's not there either, the fact that the flower's not there either, the fact that when you're perceiving emptiness directly, the object and the subject seem to be mixed like water into water, the fact that nothing has any nature of its own, it's all the same thing really.

Okay? It's not technically the same thing, but it all boils down to the same thing, he says. In Tibetan it's, ney chig du dro.

Gag ja la, very important, gag ja la rang shing gi she ngu su char simpa la gong shing. The reason the Buddha doesn't repeat they have no self-existence, and the reason why he gets a little lazy and says they don't exist, is that he knows we'll be smart enough to say, through their own nature, or from their own side, or by themselves, or without my active karmic participation. He knows we'll be smart enough to do that.

Unfortunately, for centuries, people have not been smart enough, and then you get these schools of Buddhism that say nothing exists. Ergo, you can engage in any weird behavior you want. It's the towel thing, Joanna Macy's book, you know, she's at a Buddhist conference, and they're checking out, and the lady next to her drops her bag too hard, and it pops open, and all the hotel's towels fall out, and they say, wait, no, did you steal the hotel's towels at a Buddhist conference, you know, and the lady says, it's all empty, it doesn't matter, you know, and that's like classic wrong view, you know, and that's very, very classic.

We're getting to what is, to me, one of the sexiest parts, and I'd kind of like to leave it for the evening. The evening is the best time to talk about emptiness, okay? And I think we'll leave it, okay?

I'll give you 15 minutes to... Luk Satso, okay? Luk Satso means to prepare an empty space for dinner.

Uh... Okay. So...

Okay, we'll meditate. Just watch your breath, and take refuge in the contents of this book, in the Heart Sutra, what you've heard so far, and think about someone or a group of people who are suffering, and think clearly about what they're suffering from, and... and wish that you could achieve happiness so you can help them.

Be specific, don't be vague. Then go start, we'll start with the four parts of the meditation of Ketub Jain, and first, again, swing your eyes from left to right in your mind, across the room. Pick out about three or four things that you see.

Pick out... among those, the one that you like the best and the one that you like the least. Pick out something that you can see in this room that you like a lot, and pick out something that you don't like so much.

And look at those two things the way you used to look at them. The one you like is... is nice from their own side.

And the one you don't like is... is not nice from their own side. And look at them that way.

Practice looking at them the way that ignorance looks at them. Now, third way. Practice looking at the one you like and thinking that the nice thing's there.

The reason it looks nice to you is something in your mind. And then, flip over to the thing you don't like so much and think about how the reason that it doesn't look nice to you is that your own mind is making you see it that way. And it's not coming from their side.

So number three is wisdom. Number two is ignorance. Number three understands the dependent origination of those things.

Number three understands how they come from karma. Now for number four, do the reverse. Not of number two, but number three.

So now number four, which is an exercise of trying to see emptiness itself. Number one is... is not thinking about the way things are at all.

It's called matagma chepa, just watching things. Number two is called ignorance's way of looking at things, that they come from their own side. Number three is understanding dependent origination and focusing on how things are a result of your own karma.

And then number four is... it can go off of number two or number three. We'll take it off of number three this time.

Focus on those two things, the one that you like and the one you don't like. We'll start the one that you do like and try to decide whether there's anything so nice about them or that object that everyone would like it. Does everyone like that thing?

Does everybody in this room like it as much as you like it? Try to find something about that object that everyone would like, no matter who they are, that would never make a problem for somebody. Then go back.

It's very subtle. Try to focus again on the thing that you like. Focus on it like number three, that it's coming from your karma and coming from your mind.

And the reason you like it is that your mind is making you see it as something nice. Now it's very subtle, and this is the first time we try it. We'll do it a few more times, but pull the rug out from number three.

It means focus on the thing you like, the thing you like to look at. Very suddenly, pull out the thing that you are projecting and see what's left. And you'll lose it after a few seconds, and then go back and do it again.

Focus on the thing you like number three way as something that is just a bunch of colors and shapes, but you're projecting onto it something nice. For you it's something nice. That's coming from you.

And then suddenly pull out the thing that you're making it and see what's left. One more time, focus on the thing you like as number three. Try to see that the thing you like is something you're creating, that your mind is creating.

And then suddenly pull away, very suddenly pull away your participation of your mind and see if there's anything left. Go back to number one. Just look at the thing you like and look at the thing you don't like.

Don't worry about where they came from. Now number two. Practice it again.

The thing you like is good from its own side. The thing you don't like is bad from its own side. Now number three.

The thing I like must be nice because of my own mind forcing me to see it that way. The thing I don't like must be not nice because of my own mind forcing me to see it that way. Why?

Other people don't see it that way and they're not crazy. Number four. Very suddenly pull away your way of looking at it and see if there's anything left.

Okay, take a break. Relax. By the way, don't fall into this trap of oh yeah, I get it.

I like this thing because my mind likes it and not because it's nice from its own side. And then don't fall into the trap of thinking that's wrong or something like that. That's exactly the way it is.

The thing is not nice from its own side. You're making it nice. Does that mean you shouldn't like the thing?

Not at all. You should like the thing because your mind is making you think it's nice. But you should just get your mind to think everything is nice.

Okay? Really. It doesn't cheapen its value to understand that you're doing it.

It makes it more valuable because then you can maintain it. It doesn't make the nice things in the world less real to know that you're making them up. Let's just make them all up.

It also doesn't make them unfunctional or unreal. A piece of pie looks nice because of your past karma and it doesn't make it unreal when you bite into it. It still tastes good.

And paradise is that. Paradise is that. You got to get used to that too.

At some point it will seem like things are only good because you're making them good. And that's fine. Because that's all you were ever doing anyway.

Seriously. Seriously. Okay?

And that doesn't make them artificial or anything like that. It makes them more real. That's the middle way.

Okay? We'll go do some sutra. The Buddha just got through saying through Avalokiteshvara that nothing exists.

Right? Huh? No, you can't talk.

Okay. He did get through saying that but it means nothing exists by its own nature. Nothing has its own nature.

When you did your meditation on the thing you like and you strip away the part that's coming from you, there wasn't anything left. There should be some kind of feeling of boom! You know?

And nothing there. It doesn't mean visually nothing there. It doesn't mean a black hole or something like that.

It doesn't mean the person disappeared and there's this black space there where they used to be. It doesn't mean that. It means that very suddenly there's just nothing there.

Okay? At all. Now he gets into my favorite part.

We're at page four. We're on the last line. It says, marikpa me, marikpa sepa mepa ne gachi me.

Okay? Marikpa me, marikpa sepa mepa ne gachi me. Hmm.

This is a reference to the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination. You can see it here. Okay?

The Buddha said that every temple should have one of these at its door. And people from Boston are specialists, right? They had this, I think, a couple years ago.

I don't remember. There are twelve. It's a twelve-step progression of how things happen.

Why the world happens the way it's happening. Those of you who've heard Maitreya's version, it's very similar. Okay?

I mean, to summarize Maitreya's version, which is shorter. Okay? I know twelve is a lot.

Maitreya, the way Maitreya said it, you come into this life with the habit of thinking number two. Okay? You come into this life with that already planted in your mind.

You already have the seeds in your mind to think that the things around you exist from their own side. And you can't help it. You know, so first thing, it's original sin, okay?

It's not your fault, okay? You came into here with that problem in your mind. You and every other living creature, including amoebas, ants, roaches, elephants, whales, have the feeling that the world is happening out there, and that it's not coming from their mind.

They believe that. They really believe that. And all beings have what we call innate ignorance, okay?

Everybody has number two. Every being in the universe has number two, if you're not enlightened or an Arya, okay? And those are, relatively speaking, in this realm, people who are on an Arya track are extremely rare.

Okay? You tell me what is seven divided by infinity. And then I'll tell you how many Aryas there are on this planet right now.

Okay? I mean, that's the odds. You see?

They have seven lives to go. At the most, you and they have lived infinite lives in the past. The odds of meeting an Arya before they enter a different realm is something like seven divided by infinity.

Okay? Not counting emanations, okay? I mean, Buddhists can emanate here anytime they want.

That's a different thing. The odds of that are, who knows, maybe half the people in this room, maybe nobody, maybe everybody except me. Okay?

And, but everyone who's not like that comes into this life with the tendency to think that the things around them exist outside of them. Everybody. Every being in this realm unless an Arya, okay?

And the odds of meeting an Arya are very bad. Okay? Just statistically speaking.

That seed in their mind takes root and gets stronger during this life. Sooner or later, bad things start to happen to them. And it's all the huge long list of things you didn't want to happen in your life.

You know? It's people you didn't want to meet. It's disappointments you didn't want to have.

It's credit card problems that you didn't intend. It's problems with your family that you never wanted. It's watching your own body start to deteriorate.

And then watching your mind start to slow down. Which, you know, maybe we don't have great bodies. It's a comfort to have a nice mind.

That will also disappear. That will also start to melt down. Inevitably.

And then sooner or later those things start to happen to you. And you get angry. You know, you get into a traffic jam or you meet someone you don't like and you take them to exist from their own side.

You don't realize that it's a collection of data that your mind is making you see as a bad person. Okay? It's just your mind making you see that.

You think they're bad from their side. You forget that everyone's mother loves them. And every time I see a serial killer on TV, they interview the mother and she's, my?

Johnny? Never! Wonderful boy!

You can't find a person almost that somebody doesn't love. It proves they're not self-existently evil or appear evil or appear good to somebody. It depends on who's looking.

If mom's looking, they're always like, the world doesn't understand my boy. And it proves that they're not one way or the other from their own side. But you don't choose to think about that.

You get, I get also, you get fixated on that this person is bad from their side and everyone should agree with me. You know, this person is unpleasant from their side. And I'm, of course I was the first one to realize.

But now everyone else should come to that realization. And I'll do the best I can to convince them either directly or by slow persuasion that this person is really bad. And if direct slander doesn't work, I'll try hinting and stuff like that.

You know, and sooner or later everyone should come to believe how I believe and should come to see them as I've seen them. And based on that you say something or you do something and it's all based, the key is right there. The wheel starts at one o'clock with two blind men with sticks, you know.

It starts with not realizing that you have created this person and that your present perception of them is being sustained by your bad karma. You know, like, it's like a fountain, you see, and you created the bad karma at the bottom of the fountain and now this thing is happening at the top of the fountain. And there's a ball being held up by the water.

You know, if you could stop being angry or jealous or upset at them the ball would fall down. I mean, the ball's up there right now and you don't like them. And because you don't like them you get, you say more things to them or you say more things about them and that makes more water at the bottom of the fountain and then that keeps the bad thing happening.

And you don't get it. And then the wheel circles around. That's why samsara is called a wheel.

This is called Sipa Khorlo, means the wheel of life, the wheel of suffering. There's a reason for calling it Khorlo. There's a reason for drawing it as a Khorlo.

The process is Dhammo Maripa. You you don't understand that the world is number three and not number two. Nyipa Dujekhi Le.

Then you say something or you do something. Okay. Sumba Namshe.

It causes you to be born with a mind. Sipa What is that? What is number four?

Sipa Mingsuk. Two guys in a boat. Mingsuk, your body.

Basically your body that you're parked into when you get into this life. Ngapa. What is Ngapa?

Keche Drup. It's your sense powers. Druppa Rekpa.

Because you have sense powers you can make contact with outside objects, the person you don't like. Rekpa means contact. Dumbha Tsorwa.

Based on that contact you start to like them or dislike them. It's a guy with an arrow in his eye. Gepa Sepa.

You start to reach out for that. Sepa means desire. But it also means that the karma that you created at number two, at the bottom of the fountain by number eight has become very powerful and it starts to create its result.

What's the number nine? Gupa Lemba. The monkey grabbing the fruit.

Gupa Lemba means it's where the karma has become extremely powerful and it's just about to cause a result. Chupa Sepa. Gepa Sepa, Gupa Lemba.

These are also mental afflictions where you're starting to grasp to things strongly because you don't understand them. You get very attached to being angry at the person. You get very attached to wanting the person.

Those two extremes. Because you don't understand that what makes things happen and the reason they exist is something coming from your own mind. You think it exists from their side.

And so you do things towards them. Gepa Sepa, Gupa Lemba. You start to have mental afflictions towards them strongly.

Chupa Sepa is those emotions that's where the karma is very ripe. The karma that you collected before because of your emotions becomes extremely powerful until Chupa Gepa it's enough to cause you to see yourself take birth. We talked about how your karma makes you see the flowers.

And we talked about how your karma makes you see the sun come up. And then we talked about how your karma makes you hear the thoughts in your mind good or bad. And we talked about how karma creates the border between the United States and Mexico.

Karma also creates the whole impression of being alive. And karma also makes you think you're being born. It makes you think you're coming into this world.

It makes you think you're being in this world. And again, it's just a projection. The things you see around you, the thoughts you hear in your mind, the feelings you have, they're all a projection.

All of it's a projection. And the impression that you are a human is also a projection. When you look down and see hands and feet, it's a projection.

When you commune with other human beings, it's a projection. They don't exist independent of that. They don't have any other existence of their own.

That means it's really easy to go to a different realm. You can call it reborn as a bug. Americans like to think like that.

Oh, you stupid Buddhists. You say you're going to be reborn as a bug or something. I'll squash you when you get there.

They make fun of Buddhists for saying things like that. Being reborn as a bug doesn't mean that there's a factory somewhere that turns out bug bodies. And they're waiting there for the next available mind that's in the bardo.

And then when that mind comes out of the bug factory, you move into that body. But that's how you think, isn't it? If I ask you, you're kind of thinking like that.

There's a bug mommy and a bug daddy and they have a bug baby and then the bug baby doesn't have a mind and you happen to be available and you move into that bug baby's body. No, you think that. You really think that.

And that's how everybody thinks about rebirth. You think like that. You really do think like that.

It don't work like that. Within the space of a few minutes, the karma in your own mind stream shifts and you start seeing yourself as a bug. How's that?

Okay. That's called a quick death, bardo and rebirth as a bug. And we are all eligible.

You know. Now, as of, you know, 8.30 or whatever time it is, within five minutes, anybody in this room, because the bug baby factory doesn't exist and the way you get reborn as an animal is a minor shift in your perceptions. And your mind has the ability to do that within five minutes.

And you will see yourself as an animal. And you will be an animal because all it takes to be an animal is to see yourself as an animal and there were never any other animals. Okay?

You're not safe in this realm. There's nothing concrete about this realm because it's all very fragile house of cards depending on your perceptions. And it could collapse at any moment.

You can't trust this realm. You can't even trust the thing that you're a human right now. It takes about five minutes for the perceptions to change.

It's not that you have to wait in line until the bug factory puts out a bug baby. It's not like that. The reason you think you're a human now is because you perceive yourself that way because your past karma is forcing you to think that way.

And that could wear out at any moment. And that's called, oh man, he was my best friend and suddenly he had this stroke, you know. And we tried to help him and right there, right in the middle of the Heart Sutra.

You know, and weird, you know. And you hear that. You hear stuff like that.

And it can happen, you know. That's number 11, Kyewa. So, I don't like it when they present the 12 links as some kind of foreign thing or theory or something like that.

We're all eligible for number 11 within five minutes of any given moment. Two breaths. I mean, hold it for 10 minutes and you're there, you know.

Number 12, Gasshi. Gasshi means old age and death. They have a guy carrying a body to a Tibetan cemetery, which means you throw the body out on some rocks, you know.

Why did they put Gasshi together? Why didn't they split off Gawa as another link and then we'd have 13 links? You see what I mean?

Why did they mix old age and death together? They said, listen, we didn't want to make old age link number 12 and death link number 13 because some people don't make it to number 12. Some people don't get old.

They die in the womb. They die at birth. You know, they die as a child.

The Buddha said, I'm not gonna make old age a separate link because it's not sure that you're gonna see it. Let's put Gasshi together. Okay, and so the last one is old age and death.

What I just went through is called Lung Jung. It means go from 1 o'clock up to 11 o'clock and describe the process in a cause and effect relationship. Now there's the thing called Lung Dok.

If you shut off number 1, then number 2 will stop. If you shut off number 2, if you stop thinking that things exist out there, you won't react negatively to people anymore or to situations that you don't like because you'll see that it's only the reason to make it happen more. If you shut off number 1, you shut off number 2.

If you shut off number 2, you shut off number 3. And so the Buddha in this Heart Sutra says, marikpa me ching, marikpa sepa me pa ne gasshi me. Marikpa is link number 1.

Gasshi is link number 12. He says, there is no link number 1 and there's no link number 12. And it's not true if you shut off link number 1.

You shut off link number 12. Okay. What's he mean?

Self-existently. From its own side. It is true if you can stop thinking of things the wrong way, you don't have to die or get old.

But even that doesn't exist outside of your own projections. Even that chart is your own projection. And you would never have heard what I said in the last 10 minutes if your past good karma wasn't forcing you to hear me.

You see? That chart is not self-existent either. The Buddha designed it, by the way.

Himself. That's not self-existent. And it's not the fact that if you stop being ignorant you don't have to die anymore.

Even that is a projection. Okay. So he's being very powerful.

Getting out of samsara. Getting out of your suffering. And the fact that Buddhism works itself is a projection.

Okay. And that's why it works. And if it wasn't a projection, it couldn't work.

Okay. marigpa sepa me gachi ma gachi sepa paru yang me do Don't tell me. I get this from a lot of people.

I really do. They object. They say, don't be so heavy.

Make your classes more light. You know. Be more scholarly.

You know. Teach us some nice meditation stuff to calm down and stuff like that. Be like those.

You know. Could we just do some happy meditation and relax. Watch our breath.

You know. Be joyful. Do some yoga and be calm.

Can we just do that? Over and over this theory stuff. And you don't...

And it's... I don't know how to say. It's hard to find sponsors, frankly, who will pay for me to sit here and talk about you can get out of your death.

You know. And you can... And that's the reason to have a Buddhist center.

And that's a reason to teach Buddhism. And that's a reason for us to be here. You know.

And I say... You know. And I say Buddhism.

You know. Heart Sutra. There it is.

It's exactly what Buddhism is all about. It's exactly the purpose of Buddhist studies. It's exactly the only purpose of meditation.

It's to stop your death. And stop getting old. And I'm at an age where I would love it to happen.

And it's quite feasible and you can do it. You just do it. You know.

But you have to understand emptiness. And you have to keep your book. And I'm shocked that it's all the 40 and 45 year olds in our group that don't want to keep their book.

You know what I mean? I mean, I don't get it. We're the ones who need it the most.

The other people maybe have some time. You know. It takes a while for the process to take effect.

You have to stop the karma at the bottom of the fountain. And then, you know, sooner or later the ball falls down. But you got to get started at a decent age.

And... And that's keeping your book. You have to watch your vows.

I had somebody tell me I don't want to keep my book. You know. I have all these reasons people tell me.

It's weird. You know. I don't know.

I don't get it. I really don't get it. They say it's boring.

Or it sounds like Catholic Sunday School that they had to do something like that. I don't get it. It's not the way I heard it was done.

You know. I'm just going to recite something once in a while and I'll be okay. Or something like that.

I don't get it. All over Buddhism. All over scripture.

It says you have to check your vows every hour or two hours. You have to. Anyone in this room who has ever taken any kind of initiation is bound by solemn oath to check your vows every few hours.

It's a great idea and the Buddha said you have to do it. I don't know. And it works.

I mean, you know, it works. It's not meant to be a punishment or some kind of imposition. It's an imposition to have eternal ecstasy.

I don't get it. You know, I really don't get it. Anyway, it's a free country.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. All right.

[Speaker 1]
Then he says, Dungyawa means there's no suffering. There's no cause for suffering. Gopa-me, there's no end of suffering.

Lam-me, there's no path to get to that end. Okay. So he goes right into the Four Noble Truths.

Those of you who have had any kind of classes with me, you know Noble is a bad translation of Arya. Arya means person who's seen emptiness directly and in the few hours following your first direct perception of emptiness you see a bunch of incredible things including your own future enlightenment. You see what the problem was all along which was your ignorance.

You see clearly how many lifetimes it's going to take you and what you're going to be doing to get out. And you're very aware of your death. And you can read other people's minds directly and you feel the suffering there.

You hear it. You're aware of it directly. These all occur during the hours following the direct perception of emptiness.

And it's a point of no turning back. It's a very powerful point. All of those events also, says the Buddha, don't come from their own side.

They are also projections. So even something so profound as seeing your own enlightenment in the future. Something so profound as seeing why your whole world is painful.

Something so profound as seeing how many lifetimes it's going to take you and where you're going to be and how life is going to be. And then the ability to directly read other people's minds and see the suffering there. All of those things are only projections.

They also don't exist from their own side. That's... I mean he's going through the whole essence of Buddhism and saying that's a projection too.

Which by the way it has to be if his theory is correct. Even his own teaching and him have to be a projection. You get to hear the Heart Sutra not because the Buddha spoke it but because you have the good karma to make him speak it.

Okay. Yes, she means wisdom and the fact that you understand all of these things that we're talking about. Topamaya means...

By the way, these two phrases if you've memorized the Heart Sutra, you're working on the Heart Sutra. Tassi Hai, she asked me to wave in the camera. Topa Enma Topamaya, okay.

This is one part that I never got. You know, and Choney Dapashriti has a very nice commentary. Let me see if he's got it here.

Topajavacuyangme means Topamaya means Topa means to achieve something. Matopa means to fail to achieve something. And the Buddha says Achieving things doesn't exist and not achieving things doesn't exist.

So what's he talking about? Choney Dapashriti says Topajavacuyangme There's nothing you can ever attain spiritually which is not a projection. Forced on you by your goodness.

And not getting the things that are either not worth getting or the fact that you haven't got the things which you could have gotten but you couldn't do it yet. Okay, he distinguishes when he says you didn't attain it has two meanings. The non-attainment of the things that no one would ever want to attain is one way to read Matopa.

The fact that you haven't attained the things that you want to attain yet which is also a non-attaining both of those, either way you read it that's due to your karma and those are also not something that are existing from their own side. The fact that you attain whatever you've attained spiritually and the fact that you haven't attained what you shouldn't have attained or you haven't attained what you could have attained those also. Topajavacuyangme They don't exist from their own side.

Then he goes into another section and he calls Shaliputra again. I'd like to take a small break like five or ten minutes and then come back and we'll go through that section. We're about to reach the mantra.

Very sexy, okay, so come back quick. I've always wondered what a tantric mantra was doing in the middle of a nice little innocent Heart Sutra. Okay, and Choney Darpa Shedrup goes into a very long explanation, a beautiful explanation of the mantra and the meaning and why is it there.

Because I always thought mantras were secret. You can find out if you come back quick. Five, ten minutes, come back.