Серия ежедневной практики, курс 08 — Сутра сердца: медитация на пустоту (1998, Годстоу), занятие 9

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so please get ready to meditate. Watch your breath. Then take refuge in the ultimate sense, which is the only thing that can really protect you in your whole life from anything is understanding emptiness and understanding that the things around you come from your own actions and changing your actions.

And that's the only real protection you'll ever have in this life. And take refuge in that. And think about the possibility that you could stop the aging process.

You could turn it around. Your body could change. You could evolve your mind higher and higher until it's totally enlightened, totally omniscient.

And that you have that capacity. And think about doing that for other people. Think about how much you could help other people if you proved it was possible yourself.

Then ask your Lama to come or some other holy being to come and meditate with you. And enjoy picturing them and having them with you. Don't just make it like one of those President Clinton poster things on Times Square where you can stand next to the thing and they take your picture.

Make the person alive. Make them breathe. Make them warm.

Make them smell sweet. Feel them in front of you. Think about their good qualities that they have.

If they're really an enlightened being, then they can read your thoughts. They see your future. They care more for you than you care for yourself.

And they have plans for you. And then think about it and bow down to them in your mind. Then think about making them an offering or a gift.

And I imagine the thing they would most like is not so much flowers or fruits or things like that, but probably if you could say, you know, I'll try not to be jealous for the next hour of this person, or I'll try not to be irritable even though I'm sleepy. And some kind of gift like that. Offer them some concrete gift, like something to do with your practice.

Something small and manageable and real that you're actually going to do. Then think about the most negative thing that happened to you yesterday. It could be something you said or did, but I think more likely it's something that you thought, but you were smart enough not to say it.

So, try to play back the videotape from yesterday in your mind. And I like to actually get the very words I was thinking, and I like to play them over again because they sound so stupid when you play them back. And try to isolate or try to remember very clearly some thought that went through your mind that was just dumb, and admit it and look at it and realize that it's a reflection of who you are, and that will help purify it a lot.

Now do the same with some good thought, and a lot of people give me their confession books or their vow books, and I read them, and the bad side is very detailed and the good side has almost nothing. And I know it's not because they don't have good thoughts or good activities, but they're always looking at the negative side of themselves. And I guess that's a Western thing, a guilt trip thing, and it's not correct and it's not accurate.

But you, especially if you're sitting here, you have some very, very important spiritual powers to even get here and to be interested in these things in a world where the entire world is going the other way. And you should admit it and appreciate it and take joy in it, and you do have those qualities. Everybody here has those qualities.

And there's some kind of obstacle in our culture where you're not supposed to admit it or look at it, it's not improper pride to be proud of the goodness that you have, and you do have it. So now play back the tape and look at all the good things you did yesterday and be happy. Among all the people in this country, for a long time yesterday, you gave up everything else you were doing and you listened to emptiness, and that's an extraordinary accomplishment and you should be happy about it.

And ask for a blessing from that being and from the other holy beings that when you hear about emptiness today, it sinks into your mind and suddenly everything becomes clear. Then make a short prayer for the long life of His Holiness and Ken Rinpoche and all the other great lamas and also for the good friends you have around you that support you and they help you in your spiritual life. Make a prayer for their long life, make a prayer that they stay in your life.

Now if you have to move or adjust your position, then do that. Okay watch your breath, try to make it really nice and slow. It takes about ten days of meditation to become comfortable.

We only have two and a half. It's going to hurt a little bit, okay? Make your breath slow and just try to relax, okay?

Now at the end of the out breath, when it feels like all the breath has gone out, then gently push a little more out. There's always a little more left, so when you reach the end of your breath, out breath, then push a little bit more out. We'll do that for about three rounds of ten breaths.

There's a tendency when you increase the out breath at the end, the in breath comes in too fast, then you suck it in too fast. Now very, very gently try to slow down the in breath also, so push out a little bit more air gently when you're on the out breath. And then try to make the in breath very even and slow, but don't force anything and if it doesn't feel great, then don't do it.

Now imagine that you're sitting next to yourself in the coming week on a difficult day, like imagine a typical difficult day for you. Like usually there's one or two hours in the week when something's not going well and imagine that you're sitting next to, you know, like Casper the ghost, they can't see you and you're going to help that person. It's you facing some usual weekly problem and first get the problem, set the scene, see yourself where you're going to be, see who else is there, what did they say, what did you say.

Visualize a problem that's going to come to you in the next week. Visualize the room and everything clearly as if you were a spirit that was sitting next to you. Now on the out breath, with that extra breath at the end, see some kind of like very fine mist like white light coming out of your nose and it touches you, the other you and it gives them some strength and some peace and some happiness and some inspiration to deal with that problem and they start to feel stronger and they start to feel better and they're not even aware that it's you sitting there and giving them the strength. So imagine that you're like their secret angel, you know, and you're giving them strength they don't even know and with your breath, with that last part of your breath, so do it very consciously, the last part of your breath, it covers their body and it seeps into them like white light and it gives them strength to deal with that. Okay, come out of that meditation and ask that being who's sitting in front of you, a nice, warm, fragrant, living, heart beating person to come into your heart and stay there during today and dedicate this good karma that you can keep your vows today.

Happily. Okay, then relax, okay? We're up to page five of the Heart Sutra, we're four lines from the bottom, and it says du sum du nam par shuk pa'i sang gye tham chek kyang, shiragyi parang du chenpo la ten, na na me pa'i yang dapar dzok pa'i chan chok du ngum par dzok pa'i sang gye so, du sum du nam par shuk pa'i sang gye, there's a little bit of debate about this, du sum du nam par shuk pa'i sang gye means the Buddhas who are residing in the three times, and then there's this, if you think about it, it's kind of weird to say that the Buddhas residing in the three times practiced this understanding emptiness, and that got them to total enlightenment, you know? And then Choney Dharpa Sheru, I mean, I used to think about it, and then it became a, what do you call it, then I got used to the words, but I still don't understand it, you know? How can you be talking about Buddhas of the three times using the perfection of wisdom and perceiving emptiness, you know, because half of them didn't happen yet, and half of them happened already, and really, you can only talk about the ones that are around now, it seems to me, you know, what does it mean, Buddhas of the three times?

And then he says, you're right, we can't say that Buddhas in the future have already practiced the perfection of wisdom, it's going to be hard to translate this part, okay? Those who haven't occurred yet, meaning us, or meaning me for sure, I don't know about you, you know, you can't say that we practiced the perfection of wisdom and we therefore attained enlightenment. So he says, when we say Buddhas of the three times, it means relative to their own time, okay?

Like, if I'm going to get enlightened in seven lifetimes from now, then in seven lifetimes from now, I will be a Buddha who practiced the perfection of wisdom and attained Buddhahood. So he says, you have to make that distinction, you know, you don't have to be confused, and if you feel confused, it's okay. They haven't happened yet, and they didn't achieve total enlightenment based on their practice of the perfection of wisdom, meaning perceiving emptiness.

Then he goes into a very beautiful description of the perfection of wisdom, because here it says, depending on the, because they relied on the perfection of wisdom, they attained enlightenment. And it's techen senge gyi senpe goni toni ngun tsun tope yeshe, something like that, toni tope yeshe, definition of the perfection of wisdom, it's the, it's the perception of emptiness under the influence of wanting to get to perfect bliss yourself so you can help other people, okay? I mean, that's the perfection of wisdom, and that's all it means, okay?

Trying to understand and perceive emptiness under the influence, the constant influence of the state of mind that wants to be, reach bliss so you can really help other people, and that's the perfection of wisdom. And this line says, that's how you get enlightened. And so he's wrapping up the five paths, you see?

He's reached the end of the five paths, and he's saying, that's how you do it. If you want to know how to do it, that's how to do it. The exercise we've been doing of realizing that your reality, who's calling the shots Mr. Karma, you know?

When something good happens to me nowadays, I'm like, thanks a lot, Mr. Karma, you know? And the whole reality, every detail of this room, every detail of your mind, whether you're in a good mood or a bad mood, whether you have your credit card balances taken care of or not, everything, the shots are all being called by Mr. Karma. And everything can change and become perfect because things are empty.

And understanding that is the perfection of wisdom. It's the sixth perfection. And there's a long section here where he explains that undertaking the other perfections, such as generosity, you know?

If you're a person who's attempting to practice the sacred action of giving to other people money or food or anything else, you have to do it with an understanding of emptiness, you know? Then, bok jimba. Bok jimba means it's enhanced to the point of blazing flame.

It's an expression in Tibetan, meaning it's a very, very important and good thing to give away money and things to other people. But if while you're doing it, you can keep your mind focused on the emptiness of yourself, the emptiness of the person you're giving it to, and the emptiness of the activity, those three spheres, right? If you can concentrate on that, then what's happening is you're not only helping other people directly, but you're making yourself a Buddha at the same time.

Because you're focusing on the fact that by giving this money away, I will reach my Buddha paradise, and then I'll really be able to help these people. Because there's a thing about speaking with authority, you know? People smell when you're speaking from experience.

We're not allowed in Buddhism to say, I saw emptiness, I saw my future lives, I can know the day I'm going to be enlightened, I met the Buddha. We're not actually encouraged to speak about those things directly. But you can smell it when somebody's describing it from experience, and they don't have to really say those things.

And so, if you are purifying your world, and it's happening to you already, and then you try to help other people, they can smell it, and they know that that's really what's happening and then they get encouraged and they try it themselves, and then they reach it, and then they help other people. So, it's this whole chain reaction of people who are really reaching Buddha paradise and who are helping other people do it. And if you do your generosity with that state of mind, it will start to spread like that.

And so, they say, really, the first five perfections, starting with generosity, the whole ball game changes when you're doing it with an understanding of, this is going to change my reality, and this is going to make my world a Buddha paradise, and then this is going to help me help other people in an ultimate way, and then everything changes. The knowledge of the emptiness of the situation, and the knowledge that this can create a Buddha paradise, makes that giving a dollar, bok chenpa means millions of times more powerful. In its potential to help people.

And that's what he means when he wraps up that line, he's reached the end of the five paths, and he's saying, that's how you get enlightened, with the perfection of wisdom. And then that's how it affects your other good deeds, makes them much more powerful. Then he says, we did reach the mantra, okay.

De ta we na shreya gyi phara tu chim me nga, rupa chim me nga, nga na me pa nga, mi nyam pa na nyam me nga, ding nga tham du, rab tu shuwa chipe nga, mi dzin me na dhammo shre pa ja te, shreya gyi phara tu chim me nga, me pa. I like a typical Amdo writer, he's going to tell us what each part means there, okay. De ta we na means, okay, we're at the next to last line on page five.

De ta we na means, therefore, therefore what? Oh, therefore, because if you use your knowledge of emptiness, and do your good deeds that way, you can become a Buddha, reach a Buddha paradise, watch your arm turn into light, slowly, okay. Therefore, because of that, de ta we na, lam de ni shreya gyi phara tu chim me nga in de, this path is the mantra of the perfection of wisdom, okay.

And that's a little tricky, all right. The mantra expresses the truth of everything we've set up to know, and that's all. The mantra itself is describing the path of doing your good deeds with an understanding of emptiness, so that you can reach a Buddha paradise, okay.

And that, that's the mantra. The path, I'm sorry, the mantra is the path, okay. The mantra is expressing the path, okay.

By the way, there's a thing at the end of the Diamond Cutter Sutra where it says, you know, they have a mantra there, and they say, if you recite this mantra, it's worth doing a million Diamond Cutter Sutras. And Choney Dharpa Sridharp in his commentary says, not really. He says, you have to understand emptiness, you have to meditate on emptiness, you have to understand the content of the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

And it's a wonderful thing to recite it, and it's a wonderful thing to repeat the mantra, but don't think that's going to get you enlightened, okay. It doesn't work. Mantras work, says Dharmakirti, Master Dharmakirti, in his logic text, second chapter, mantras work only because the person reciting them is leading a very pure life.

And you can recite mantras all day and nothing will happen. If you don't keep your vows and you don't keep your book, so just forget it, you know. Otherwise, enlightenment would be a very easy thing, you know.

You could probably program a computer to recite the mantra, and sit there and enjoy, you know. It doesn't work like that. But if you do have a pure life, and if that mantra has been spoken by a pure being, which is the other requirement, if it's been taught by an enlightened being or a very holy being, then the mantra is extremely powerful.

And things can happen that could never happen otherwise, okay. Then he goes into the explanation of the words before the mantra. And the root text says, This is the mantra of the perfection of wisdom.

And he says, This mantra, meaning this path, is the mantra of the perfection of wisdom, because it's perfection of wisdom in the sense of getting you to perfection. Remember? Perfection has two meanings.

You and I can practice the perfection of wisdom. Our wisdom is not perfect. Perfection means, gets you to perfection, okay.

Parvata chambarche means, guides you or leads you to perfection. And the word perfection is a misnomer. It's not the six perfections.

It's the six activities which get you to perfection, okay. And he says, On that basis, you could call this mantra, the mantra of the perfection of wisdom, because it gets you to the perfection of wisdom, okay. And not the mantra, but the path.

But the mantra can remind you of the path. And that's all. You could recite tantric Sanskrit syllables all day and still be miserable.

And I know lots of people who seem to be. The next thing says, This is the mantra of the great knowledge. Of great knowledge.

And he says, It's called the mantra of great knowledge, because it, meaning the perfection of wisdom, helps you destroy your mental afflictions and ignorance. And that's why it's called the mantra or the path of great knowledge, okay. lana me pa'i ngak lana me pa'i means nothing higher, unsurpassed, okay.

Unsurpassable. de le hape thabur dupe lam me pa'i chö It's called unsurpassable because there is no better way to get to enlightenment, okay. Next page, page six.

mi nyam pa dan nyam pa ngak I never understood this. You know, I thought it was like some kind of Shakyamuni koan or something, you know. Mi nyam pa means unequaled.

Nyam pa means equal. And I thought he was saying it's beyond all yes and no. It's beyond all real and unreal, you know.

And actually it's much more ordinary than that. mi nyam pa dan nyam pa ngak nyam pa me pa is the sangye, okay. The thing which is unequaled is the Buddha himself, okay.

So when you say mi nyam pa dan nyam pa, you're saying this mantra is equal to the unequaled one, okay. So it's still cool. It's not quite a koan, okay.

mi nyam pa dan nyam pa ngak means it's equal to the unequaled, meaning this perfection of wisdom is sometimes called the yum, by the way. Yum, like in yab yum. Sometimes it's called the great mother because it gives birth to Buddha and bodhisattvas.

If you have this mantra, meaning this path in your heart, it will be your mommy because it will give birth to a new Buddha in the world, this knowledge, this understanding of emptiness. So it's like a yum, okay. dun gyal tham jay rat tu shiwa chepa ngak means this is the, rat tu shiwa chepa, shiwa means peace, shiwa means to kill.

I always think of R.I.P., you know, rest in peace, like a gravestone for your mental afflictions, you know. And dun gyal tham jay rat tu shiwa chepa ngak means this mantra, meaning this path, kills and puts to R.I.P. all of your negativities and all of their causes, okay. And that's why it's called dun gyal rat tu shiwa chepa ngak.

uh mi dzun mi na dhamma shepa chathe. mi dzun mi na means since it is not false, dhamma shepa chathe, you should understand that it is the truth. And he's referring to the version of the perfection of wisdom, which is the direct perception of emptiness, okay.

Like perfection of wisdom comes in two flavors, right. Understanding emptiness intellectually and then the totally different direct perception of emptiness. In particular, the direct perception fits the description here in the Heart Sutra as this is not a lie, this is real, this is the truth.

Meaning, on the day you see emptiness directly, you realize there is a separate and higher truth that exists in the world. And at that moment you realize that this path is correct and it really is accurate. And incidentally, you understand that the contents of the Buddhist books, which are, you know, 200,000 scriptures, it's going to take 200 years to type them in, are all true.

Every word is true. And you know, I can sit here and claim that, and you don't have to believe that, and you probably shouldn't believe that. If you studied logic well, you have to say, okay, he doesn't lie usually.

Maybe he's telling the truth. I'll consider it probable. But on the day you see emptiness, you perceive that the contents of those 200,000 holy books are all absolutely true.

And then you get obsessive about saving them, okay? They must continue in the world. They must be protected in the world.

You know, they're true. Everything is true there. Everything described there can really happen.

And then, that's the meaning of this part of the mantra, okay? You have to try to protect them, okay? Then he says, nge dun gyi sa ngak dang rik ngang ni thab she khyepar chen shik la che.

Nge dun means the real one. Sa ngak means mantras. Okay, there are three kinds of mantras.

He says, sa ngak dang rik ngang ni, what we call secret mantras and what we call knowledge mantras, okay? They refer to method and wisdom. They refer to compassion and the understanding of emptiness.

The real mantras in the world are the perceptions of emptiness and the feelings of compassion in the hearts of living beings. That's the real mantra, okay? If you study the highest teachings of secret Buddhism, it also ties closely to what's going on inside your spiritual body, okay?

But those events inside of a real living being are mantra. That's the real mantra. It's not the words, okay?

It's the energies behind the words. And then the words and the physical appearance of those letters are expressions of deeper things going on physically and mentally deep within your spiritual body. And that's real mantra.

So he says, actually, the perfection of wisdom itself is the real mantra, okay? Do ngak ni su cheway ngak ni ma yin no. This is not tantra or mantra in the sense of the secret teachings and the open teachings.

This is mantra in the sense of the reality of a sacred event happening in a living being, both mentally and deep within the deepest parts of your spiritual physical body, okay, which you will study when you reach the higher stage of tantra, okay? Di ngak si kyang do chok gi, ngak si yin gi, gyi shir do pa na ma yin pe, che par chok. This is what we consider a sutra mantra and not a secret mantra.

So don't worry that it's sitting here in the middle of the Heart Sutra, okay? And he makes a distinction between mantras which everyone can hear and learn and those which are secret. And he says, this mantra here, it's a mantra and it's not a secret mantra.

It's not a tantric mantra. It's an open mantra. So you can go ahead and recite it and it's wonderful, okay?

And it still has a very similar effect on your inner being, okay? Now he explains the mantra and I like that. There's books that say mantras are powerful whether you understand them or not, because they are the holy Sanskrit language and all Buddhas express themselves in Sanskrit when they become enlightened.

The day you become enlightened, you will speak Sanskrit. As you get closer to enlightenment, Sanskrit will start popping out of your mouth, okay? Seriously, seriously.

And not because you studied it. And then as I said before, each being who listens to you will probably hear their own language, perhaps, okay? If they are close enough to you in kelva, they will hear you speak in Sanskrit, okay?

So there are books that say it doesn't matter whether you understand the words or not. But there's other books that say, hey, it's really cool to know what the words mean and that has its own benefit which is separate from the other benefit. And I like to do both, you know.

In most of the teachings like Vajrayogini teaching, a good teacher will take the time to explain the mantra to you carefully. And then you can get both the intellectual benefit and the deeper benefits that can't be expressed intellectually, okay? So here's the meaning of the mantra.

And you can appreciate it while you say the mantra. And you also get other benefits by saying the mantra, okay? tad yatha gathe gathe paragate parasangate bodhi soha tad yatha is dita te.

Dita te means, here's the way it is, okay? This is the way it is, tad yatha. It can also mean, he says, te kang.

Te kang means, here it is, or something like that. This is what it is, okay, tad yatha. Then he says, gathe gathe paragate.

Gathe, the Sanskrit verbal root ga means to go, okay? By the way, in between here he says, om ni tashi padan deva te wa so dun dun na juk je ja la gathe gathe ni song shik song shik himde Apparently there might have been an omen here at some point, okay? Normally, om is called the go.

Ngake go means, it's often used as the lead off on a mantra, okay? And it incorporates, ultimately it incorporates the body and speech and mind of a Buddha. And it's important from that sense.

Gathe gathe means, song shik song shik means go, go. Gathe gathe means, get going, get going, okay? Gathe gathe, song shik song shik.

Kang du song she na, where are we supposed to go? Nga ma tsok lam dan, chi ma jor lam du song shik. The first gathe means, get going on the path of accumulation.

Get going on deciding that you don't want to live like this, okay? Gathe, gathe, get going. The second gathe means, get going on the path of preparation.

Preparing for what? Preparing to see emptiness directly. How do I prepare?

Oh, go take some good ACI classes about emptiness, you know? About understanding emptiness, okay? Gathe gathe.

The second path is characterized by the careful study of emptiness intellectually, okay? Gathe gathe, get going on this. The second gathe means, get going on the intellectual understanding about emptiness.

Gathe gathe, para gathe ni, para ni paro te, de paro te tong nam song shik. Gathe gathe, para gathe, para in the third gathe, okay? We got gathe, gathe, para gathe.

Para gathe means, get going on the other side. This is the para in paramita, okay? Paramita, okay?

This is the one that means other side. What? Get going on seeing emptiness directly, which lays beyond the intellectual study of emptiness.

You know, first decide you're tired of this life. Try to study emptiness intellectually and in classes to get ready, to prepare for the direct perception of emptiness. And then get to the other side, which is totally different.

The direct perception of emptiness on the path of seeing. So it makes sense that the mantra itself would express the contents of the book. The book is really a guidebook on how to go through the five paths.

The mantra is saying, get going on path number one. Get going on path number two. Go beyond both of those and get to path number three.

Para gathe. What's the next one mean? Para sang gathe.

Para sang gathe is the same thing. Para gathe means, now go beyond that one. And then the sang means, in a very beautiful, perfect way.

It's a young Thakpar in Tibetan, okay? So, para sang gathe means, once you get to the direct perception of emptiness, don't stop there. Apply that knowledge perfectly to the destruction of your mental afflictions, which happens on path number four.

Use what you saw to get rid of your anger, jealousy, desire, etc.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Para sang gathe. What happens after that? Bodhi soha.

Chang chok de she tsug means, and wrap it all up in getting enlightened. Bodhi means, get to Buddhahood. Path number five.

Soha, let it be that. Boom. Soha is like, she tsug means, it can sometimes mean purpa tsug.

Purpa tsug, you go like that. Finish it. Done.

Enlightened. Okay? Soha.

That's called she tsug, all right? Who are you stabbing? Your mental afflictions and your ignorance, okay?

Kill them off, all right? Para sang gathe bodhi soha. Now we reach the third part.

I think that's really an auspicious place to break. Ah, you know.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
And we'll take a break there. What's the schedule after that? We'll start again around 10.45, okay?

And this is a point where you're supposed to, it says walk outside and view the sky. It means take a break and relax. I think most people like to lay down in the temple or something.

But in the medical tantrums it says, after you've had a hard and a good day of meditation and teaching, and we're all tired by now, then go out and refresh yourself. And it's actually a medical treatment to go out and just look at the sky and look at the trees. And, you know, it's one of the treatments in Tibetan medicine, in the ancient tantras, in the gyushi, the four medical tantras.

So go out and get a treatment, all right?

[Speaker 2]
And come back around 10.45. Okay. This is the end of session eight.