Серия ежедневной практики, курс 09 — Пустота ума (махамудра) (1999, Сокел), занятие 1

[Speaker 2]
This is the continuation of session one.

[Speaker 1]
Durma-dasha Srimad Bhaht, Avinashita Simha Dhrockhandham dashena chapato gururana medhala komjatha yani Okay, two kinds of emptiness about this pen, and then we'll meditate on it, okay? Okay, don't blame me, I didn't make it so long, Lord Buddha did, okay? Can't shorten it anymore.

Say, dak dak chik chik rawang rawang cheng gi cheng gi dak dak me pa me pa dak dak chik chik rawang rawang cheng gi cheng gi dak dak me pa me pa Okay, this is the very first kind of emptiness, is it emptiness? No. No, okay, not according to the highest schools, alright?

Not according to Nagarjuna, Lord Buddha, everybody else, okay? But it has been taught as a kind of emptiness, or more correctly, selflessness, okay? What is it?

Dak, the first word dak means unchanging, permanent, okay? Permanent, unchanging. Chik means whole, like one big whole thing, alright?

Singular. Rawang cheng means independent, self-standing, okay? Chi means of, or it's just an adjective, okay?

It sticks the rest onto the noun, okay? Don't worry about chi. Dak means self, self, a self.

Me pa means doesn't exist. You can say self-nature, okay? I think self is a little, it's not such a good translation for Atman or something like that.

It just means the nature of the thing, okay? Like we don't talk about pens as having themselves or something like that, you know? Like you can't hurt the pen's feelings or something like that.

So it's a little weird. When they talk about selflessness or no self, what they mean is no self-nature, or no nature like that, okay? No nature like what?

By the way, we're not doing Mahamudra yet because we're not going to use what as our object? Mind. Mind, we're going to use a pen, okay?

So we'll slip into Mahamudra later, okay? But I want you to get the six kinds of emptiness with the pen, and then we'll move it to your mind on Sunday, okay? And it's important to do that.

But in the meantime, work on the pen because it's easier like this, okay? We're talking about Dawa, and we'll be talking about Dawa. Dawa means worldview.

How do you look at your world? How do you see your world, okay? According to Buddhism, if you get it right, everything can happen.

You can become a beautiful, sexy, tantric deity in this lifetime. If you don't get your Dawa right, there's no hope. You will die.

You will get old and die. So Dawa separates the men from the boys. You've got to get your Dawa right.

Dawa means how do you view your world, okay? So, do you see the pen? Yes.

Is that worldview? No. Okay, is it Dawa?

No. Okay, you're just seeing a pen. It's how you think about the pen that's the difference, okay?

So, you know, when we talk about the emptiness of the pen, you always have some kind of rose-colored glasses on, okay? If you have rose-colored glasses on, you're seeing it one way. If you have green-colored glasses on, you're seeing it a different way.

Dawa is the filter with which you see the world, okay? Your worldview determines how you see things. It's not talking about, you know, looking at the pen per se, okay?

There's a state of mind called Tsema, or Pramana, which perceives a pen. We're not talking about that, okay? That's normal, what we call normal, correct, or valid perception of a pen.

Am I holding a pen in my hand? Yes. Yes, okay?

You do have a valid perception of it. Why is it valid? You can confirm it.

Come up here, I'll draw a little Hitler mustache on your face. We confirm that it's a pen, okay? That's a Tsema, that's a Pramana.

You have them all day long, by the millions, okay? You see a pen in my hand, there's nothing wrong with that. That's correct, okay?

But now you've got to get subtle, okay? As you look at the pen, you have a certain feeling about it. You have a certain, in Princeton religion department, they used to call it visceral presuppositions.

You have a gut feeling about the pen, you know what I mean? You have a certain assumption about the pen. You are seeing the pen through certain kinds of glasses, you know what I mean?

Your perception of the pen is constantly, always, colored by certain suppositions about the pen that come with the territory. You have them deep in your guts, you know? You have a certain feeling about the pen, okay?

What's the first one? And by the way, to catch yourself, to see the filters while you're wearing them is hard. You see what I mean?

To describe to someone their worldview while they're doing their worldview is a little slippery, okay? But you've got to get used to it. So the first wrong way of seeing the pen, okay?

Seeing the pen as having some nature that it doesn't have is that you feel like it's going to last, you know, it's got some kind of, it's the sense that it's unchanging, okay? You don't see it as some spurt of pen in a huge line of history or something like that. You know, you don't see it as a flash in the dark or something like that.

To you, it has some kind of solidity. It has some kind of permanence, okay? And you assume that about the pen, okay?

You assume that about your body, about your house, about your job, about your friendships, about the people around you. And then when someone dies, when the pen runs out of ink, when the car gets in an accident, suddenly that bubble bursts. That worldview is shaken at that moment, okay?

Then you go back to having it again, okay? But there's a sense about the pen. Is it the perception of the pen?

No, that's valid. No problem with that. Buddhas perceive pens, okay?

They don't have wrong views, okay? But there's a filter in your mind that looks at the pen and feels as though it has some solidity and not that it's some event which is flashing by your TV screen and it's going to soon be out of your life, like your body, your mind, and your own name, like that. Like you feel some kind of permanence about life.

You feel like there's some kind of solidity about life. And even about this pen, you have some feeling like it'll be around for a while, okay? Which is unfounded, okay?

The pen is hurtling towards its destruction, as are you. You know, your name won't be around in a certain number of years. Nobody will remember you.

There'll be some grandchildren throwing out your picture saying, who was that? You know what I mean? Really, you know what I mean?

You drive by names on the highway and say, who's that named after? Nobody remembers anymore. This is a great man, he was the governor, he was the senator, you know, and people are asking you, who was that?

You see, and still the name is on the street and nobody remembers who they were, you know? So that's the first kind of emptiness. According to the most basic schools, Abhidharma schools, and the other schools would also say, even one kind of Madhyamika school would say, the fact that it's not that way is one kind of an emptiness about it, okay?

It's one kind of emptiness. The fact that it's not that way is a kind of emptiness. The denial of a pen that has the kind of permanence or wholeness about it that you feel when you look at the pen, the denial of that is emptiness, okay?

The lack of that is emptiness. It's one kind of emptiness. Is it the ultimate kind of emptiness?

No. Is it helpful? Yes.

Why? Because the misperception, which is what? The idea that it has some permanence or that it's not changing as we speak creates mental afflictions.

You get upset, you get angry, okay? Some part of you says, a relationship will last forever. Some part of you says, your house will be there when you need it.

Some part of you says, this clothes are going to last for a while, or this body, and it's all wrong. Those misperceptions cause you suffering. And that's a test, basically, whether your view is correct or not.

If a view causes you suffering or causes you disturbance, that's the definition of a mental affliction. That's, by the way, the litmus test of samsara. If an idea or a viewpoint, a worldview can upset you, rang gyu negi kang sak gi sem gyu ma shiwa che pe, sempa, definition of a mental affliction.

If it can upset you, it's something that upsets your peace of mind. If you can have a mental affliction, you must be having a wrong view, a wrong worldview. They are always rooted in misperceiving something.

Okay, so that's the most basic one. Okay, so I want you to practice. You know, by the end of this meditation, you'll be able to go through six phases of emptiness with this pen.

Now I'll say, switch to number two. Then they say pel ma, okay? Gyu pa means, I'll say, think about this pen's emptiness number one.

Think about this pen's emptiness number two. Shift to number three. Go to number four.

Go to number five. Slide into number six, which is the real one, okay? And that'll help you.

Then in the Abhidharma they say, do one, three, six, five, four, you know, and be able to shift the perceptions of this pen. It's very cool, okay? Like, just be able to sit there and see six different kinds of emptiness, like shifting slide, what do you call slides in a projector, you know?

Like, take off those glasses, put on these glasses, look at it, take off those glasses, put on, you know? And when you can do that, then your emptiness meditation is getting pretty good, okay? So, the first kind of emptiness this thing has is that...

is that it doesn't have that kind of quality. Now we go to K.W.J. K.W.J. had a cool meditation. He said, hold up the pen, tell people to look at it as a pen, okay?

Just look at it as a normal pen. You don't have to worry about how you're looking at it. Just look at it, okay?

I'll shut up for 30 seconds and just look at it, okay? Makes me feel like the Statue of Liberty sometimes. Now try to catch yourself thinking of it as being something lasting or permanent.

Try to catch yourself doing that. Now drop that and go back to the first one. Just looking at a pen.

You're not thinking anything about it, you're just looking at it. Now go back to the second one and try to catch yourself seeing it as something lasting. That state of mind that's disappointed when it runs out, or you lose it.

Now antidote state of mind, okay? Next time I pull it out. Antidote state of mind.

The emptiness state of mind. Wisdom. When I hold it up again, see it as a flash in history.

You see what I mean? See it as a comet flashing across the screen of your life, you know? You and it are hurdling to your destruction.

Try to see it that way, okay? It's just going to be around for an instant. Karmā mām e rābdhidās gīma-sūma-cubidā mila-lodha-ntinda-buddhi-jijñānaṁ detatā Last lines of the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

You know, everything is like a bubble, everything is like a dew, everything is like... See it that way, okay? When I hold it up again, see it as just a flash in your life.

It's going to be gone shortly, okay? Then you won't get so... The mental afflictions about it, when you lose it, or somebody steps on it and breaks it, won't be so bad, okay?

And that's one kind of wisdom, all right? Ready? This is the third way of looking at it.

Okay, one more time. We'll go through three modes of this pen, okay? What are the modes?

First one? Just look at it. No judgment.

No decisions about it. No che gom. No examination.

It's just a pen. Nice pen. Hope he puts it down soon, and go out, okay?

Second one. What? The feeling that it has, it's going to last for a while, like trusting it.

You'll be around for a while, won't you? We need you, okay? All right?

That feeling that it's going to be around for a while. Down here somewhere, you know? Oh, that'll be there for a while.

At least another half hour, for sure. That feeling. By the way, that's a source of a great much...

suffering and pain, mental pain, right? Things that you innately or inherently... you feel deep in your heart, this thing's going to be...

this relationship's got to last another week at least. Okay? You know what I mean?

And then when it doesn't, you feel so disappointed, okay? That's one kind of grasping to self-existence that's triggering a mental affliction, okay? Is it the ultimate one?

Not at all, okay? But... but it's one kind, okay?

And then the last way of looking at it? See it the way it really is. Subtle impermanence of the pen.

They say very difficult to perceive. Normally you see subtle impermanence just before you see true nature of the pen origination, which is just before you see emptiness. I mean, that could all happen in about two weeks period.

Okay? I mean, they come very close on the heels of each other. To really be aware of the subtle impermanence of a pen is extremely difficult.

It takes great yogi. It takes great meditation, okay? But to really look at this pen and appreciate that it is flashing out of existence as we talk, as are we, it takes a great deal of spiritual maturity and sophistication to see that, okay?

Especially as you're using it. Then you don't get disappointed, you know? Like someone close to you dies.

I mean, you feel sad for them and all that, but you're not like surprised or overwhelmed or anything like that. You just clearly see that this is obviously the way it was going to be anyway. You know what I mean?

You don't get... You don't freak out when things happen. When you lose suddenly your arm or something, you're like, Oh, yeah, yeah, I knew that was going to happen.

Okay? Really. Okay?

I mean, a real Buddhist, even at this level of emptiness, which is number one, you know, down here, is a lot more well-adjusted. You know, they can cope with sudden changes and things like that, because they didn't... they were anticipating this thing going away.

Okay? All right? So that's one kind of emptiness.

Now we'll go to the second one, and then we'll sit down and we'll do a short meditation. By the way, those of you who care, in the Abhidharma schools, that's one of the objects, gaccha, rejected by the theory of emptiness. And even in the higher schools, which is Svatantrika group of the Madhyamika school, they believe that that's one kind of lack of self-nature.

They would call it the obvious lack of self-nature to a person. They categorize it that way, if you care. Okay?

It's in your reading. Okay? Here's the next one.

That's the last thing you have to write tonight. Say, rang kya, thupa, dze yu kyi, dak, mey pa. rang kya, thupa, dze yu kyi, dak, mey pa.

Okay. rang kya thupa is an idiom. Okay, an idiom.

rang kya thupa means self-standing, self-supporting. Okay? In modern Tibetan, they say, rang go thumba.

You know, like refugee help programs should make them rang go thumba. You know, should make them self-supporting. Something like that.

Dze yu, dze yu means substantial. Substantial. Dak mey pa means there's no such self as that.

Doesn't exist. That self doesn't exist. There is no self which is self-standing and substantial.

Okay? And you hear hundreds of explanations about these things, and some of them seem to be pretty wild. Okay?

They don't really appreciate what the scripture says or what it was meant to convey. Okay, here's, dze yu, substantial, is a code word. This whole thing is a code word for something else.

Okay? And it's explained in a very beautiful book by Changya Rupa Dorje, who's a previous life of Pabongka Rinpoche, who wrote four incredible volumes on the schools of Buddhism. And he says, in this case, substantial means a driver of the five parts of a person who's not in the person, like the director of the show.

Like, it's that feeling that you're in charge of your arms and legs and mind. Okay? Like, behind it all, up here somewhere, like Lama Serpa's beautiful statue that he's planning, okay?

There's an empty place up there, and there's a, there's a drive, like a crane conductor, what do you call them? Crane operator, you know, moving everything. That there's that kind of person behind it all, okay?

And you feel that sense sometimes, right? I'm in charge of my body. I'm also in charge of my mind.

I call the shots. Who's I outside of your mind and your body? Okay?

But you have that sense, okay? It's a sense of ownership almost, okay? You can call it like a sense of ownership.

I am controlling my body. I am controlling my mind. Hey, didn't you notice you are your body and your mind?

Okay? It's the, it's the sense, the false sense, that there's a person behind it all, running it all, as if you're the Wizard of Oz, you know, behind the curtain, you know, and then the body is going like that, and you're having thoughts, and the idea that you can control it, the idea that you're in control, and that you're not it, you see what I mean? It's, it's, rāṅghya-tupu-dzeyukhi-dhakmeva, okay?

That, that, that sense of things. How does it apply to a pen? Okay?

And this is very important. The belief that you control the destiny of this pen, you know, I own it. Okay?

What does it mean to own something? I own this shirt. I own this dhunga.

What does it mean? What does it mean in general terms? You control what's going to happen to it.

Yeah, I control what's going to happen to it. Okay? Also, I have the right to destroy it, and other people don't.

You know, like that. You know, like, I have the right to throw it out, but if someone came in my room and spilled something on it, that'd be bad. You know, like, I, I decide where this thing goes, you know, and other people are not supposed to.

That's called stealing. You know what I mean? But the idea of ownership, you know, I bought that house.

I paid the money. Now I can decide what kind of color to paint it. I decide who's going to stay in it.

That's the idea of ownership. The idea that, that you are running it. Okay?

Quest... Okay, so, so it's some kind of assumption that you... Ownership means you have the commonly accepted right among the people of your society that you get to decide what happens to that object.

Okay? That's what ownership means. Okay?

Is it true? Can you tell me that 24 hours from now you will, you will be in charge of your shirt that you have on now? You know?

Not at all. Okay? Tibetans have a joke.

They say, It means, you don't know that 24 hours from now your shirt won't be looking for a new owner. You know what I mean? I mean, forget your house.

Okay? You don't control your nose, your ear, your eye. Okay?

You can't tell me in 24 hours you're going to have it or not. The idea that you own it is a fallacy. It's a fallacy.

It's wrong. It's a wrong worldview. It's a foolish worldview.

You don't own, you don't own the shirt on your back. Why? Because you can't control its destiny.

That's what ownership means. You can't tell me you're going to own it. You could be a corpse tomorrow at this time.

The reason we have to move the car is that somebody's aunt became a corpse while we were talking, suddenly. Okay? They have to go decide what to do with her things and her clothes.

She owned them, right? So the idea that you own things is a fallacy. There's something else going on.

You see what I mean? There's some other powers at work. It's not the way it seems.

That's another kind of emptiness. There's a gākjā, which means a self-existent thing that's not there, which is the idea that you can own something. And then there's the truth, which is the emptiness of that gākjā, which means the non-existence of that gākjā.

You don't own anything. And you don't decide the fate of anything, even your own body and mind. You can't tell me you'll be in this body 24 hours from now.

The idea of ownership is false. That's a kind of misunderstanding reality. And the lack of that is a perception of emptiness.

You see what I mean? To realize that that's true is one kind of emptiness. Is it ultimate emptiness?

Does it help? Yeah. I mean, if you understand that, you won't get so angry when your students come in your room at night and steal your Cheerios.

And the next morning you get up and you shake it out. You know, because you thought you owned it. I mean, a lot fewer disappointments if you appreciate that you don't really own anything.

I mean, a lot more... You're a lot more well-rounded person, well-adjusted person, if you realize that ownership is not real, that you really don't own anything. Then you can flow with it easier.

Is that nirvana to understand that? No. Can you reach nirvana by thinking only that?

No. You must see number six to reach nirvana. You must understand emptiness flavor number six to reach nirvana.

But this one is very helpful for dealing with mental afflictions and stuff like that. And in some presentations of Buddhism, they're only dealing with number one, or they're only dealing with number two. That's helpful.

It's good for people. It's not the real thing. Does it mean those people are teaching false Dharma?

No. Why? Buddha taught this.

Okay? Certain people, it works better. Okay?

So think like that. Think, oh, that's useful, but it's not the real one. Okay?

Okay, ready? We're going to look at the pen, just as a pen. Then we're going to look at the pen as if somebody owned it, you know, like L.M.B. owns this pen. If I suddenly pocket it on my way out of the lecture, will somebody get upset? Okay. You know what I mean?

Like appreciate the ownership of the pen. And then think of it as being something that, come on, nobody owns it. I mean, it could be taken away by, it will be taken away by karma when karma is ready.

It'll steal it away. Okay? Karma owns it.

Okay? Okay, ready? What's the first one?

Just look at it. Okay? Without the glasses.

You're just having it a valid perception. What? What's your mind, what's the statement in your head at that moment?

There's a pen there. Okay, is it correct? Yes.

Is it got anything to do with emptiness? No. Does a Buddha see a pen there?

Yes. Okay, ready? Now try to catch yourself feeling that Michael Roach is controlling this pen, or L.M.B. owns this pen, or someone's in charge of this pen. Try to catch your emotion, or your feeling about it that way, which is a false emotion. And then lastly, see it as something which is totally at the mercy of karmic forces. You know?

If I have the karma to use it for the next 30 seconds, I will. If I don't, I won't. You know?

Who's running the show? Mr. Karma. Not me, not L.M.B. You know, get rid of the idea that there's an owner to this pen, that someone's in control of this pen. Okay? Try to think of it that way. Ready?

It's hard, because it's new. As you go up the ladder of emptiness, it gets harder and harder. This one's a little harder than the last one.

Okay? When I open it up again, and you see the pen, think of it as truly being something which no one really owns. No one really controls it.

It depends on our karma. Okay, ready? Got it?

I'll do it one more time. Number one, just look at it. No judgment about it.

Okay? Like if you had rose-colored glasses on, would you still see the pen? Yeah, you'd just see it with the wrong aspect, or the wrong color.

You see what I mean? Dharma is the same, you see? Everyone's seeing a pen.

Aryas, Arhats, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, normal people, they're all seeing a pen. But then the color, the coloring is totally different. The aspect is totally different.

Ready? Okay, now try to catch yourself thinking of it as something that I'm controlling at this moment, or that LNB owns, you know, at this moment. Okay, ready?

Which is a kind of grasping to the self-existence of the pen, but not the ultimate one. Last one is hard, okay? But if you get it, you get to go home.

Okay, ready? In this one we're going to, we're going to try to see it as not really having any owner. I mean, it's temporarily in my hand because I have the karma to have it in my hand, and temporarily you have the karma to see it right.

And those are all hurtling towards their end also. I mean, the idea that I own it is false. See it as being something with no owner.

Okay, ready? Okay. I'm not going to do a formal meditation tonight because it's late, and it's hot, and people went to work today, and people traveled today.

But I thought, if you have any questions, we'll talk about that. I think you had a question? We'll just do like ten minutes and then we'll stop, okay?

So looking at the pen, if you don't have any story about it, or you filter any conversation running, you're just seeing the object. It's a valid perception, right? Yeah.

This was my experience.

[Speaker 2]
I didn't have any story about it, so I had to generate the conversation that the pen has permanence, et cetera, et cetera. But now, for me, it's not a hook. The pen is not a hook.

It doesn't elicit or generate a conversation or something, right? But in this experience, right? But if something else occurred out there, it was a hook for me, then that filter would be more right, or that conversation would be more...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, he's talking about the degree of color in the glass, like how rose-colored is it, you see? Like if I was talking about your pen, you know what I mean? You know what I said?

And I said, Michael's pen, you know? You know? Then the...

Yeah. Because of the intensity of the two misperceptions about the pen, A, thinking it was going to be there tomorrow when you needed it, you know, 2, thinking that you were going to have it tomorrow and that you controlled it and I don't have any right to break it. Yeah, those are obviously two emotions that create mental afflictions, and that's a sign that there's some kind of grasping, some kind of misperception there.

When you draw the Wheel of Life, we talked about it last night. We didn't get to the center, right? The Vinaya Sutra says at the end, when you draw it, draw the pig with the rooster and the snake coming out of his mouth.

Don't draw... You know, nowadays they draw in a circle, you know, each one has the other one in it. You can check it out.

I don't know if you have one in here? Yeah. As there should be, one at the door, right?

Check it out. I don't know how this one is, but the old ones, the Vinaya Sutra says, paint it with the pig and then the snake and the rooster coming out of his mouth. Meaning, feelings of hatred and feelings of desire all grow grounded in misunderstanding the subject.

Which you can obviously see. Okay? If it was your pen, then there'd be a story about it.

Then there'd be, you know... Yeah. You know, anything.

By the way, we're going to get to your mind later, but pen's easier.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
No? Okay. Any other questions?

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
When you said things about, like, just look at the pen and then try to catch yourself, can you describe that a little more? Because it seems like I can either sit there just looking at the pen and try and catch myself, but it's more like, oh, I don't know, like I can't...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, what I say is worldviews, worldviews, ignorance, right? In this case, worldviews are a feeling. You see what I mean?

And it's hard to catch yourself doing it. It's hard to catch yourself doing it. Forget number one or two.

When you get up to six, it's really hard. But, but just to catch yourself thinking that the things in your life have some kind of stability, that they have some kind of permanence, that you can reasonably expect that car to be there tomorrow, or that relationship not to break up by the end of this week. You know what I mean?

Those are all false. Okay? That, that it's a, it's a feeling in your heart, in your guts.

It's a, I get it right around here. You know, it's some kind of feeling like, yeah, that thing should be around. I mean, if I come here to teach tomorrow morning, I have some feeling that this pen is still going to be here.

And that's a false feeling. That's a kind of ignorance. Okay?

This thing is, is flashing through my life. Flashing. My whole life is flashing.

By the time you get to the end, the whole 50, 60 years doesn't mean a thing. It's like, what happened? You know, like you're 45 years old.

What happened? I, I just remember going to college, you know, and then suddenly, hey, I'm 45, you know. I, you know what I mean?

Like, the idea that, that you have any permanence, the idea that, that the things you are using right now or the people you know have any permanence, they'll be shattered in a, give it a few years. Let, let people start dying around you, you know. And then suddenly, you're, wow, you know, that's all.

It's that feeling that the things around you have any lasting quality to them. You have to catch yourself thinking that. That's a, it's a kind of ignorance.

It's not the ultimate ignorance. But it's, it's a very, it's a very bad misperception because it causes a lot of pain. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. He said, is the, is the suffering expecting the pen to be there tomorrow?

Or is the suffering to be upset when it's gone and you thought, you know, I'd say, I'd say one is the cause of the other, you see. One is a kind of ignorance, you know, which is the source of all suffering. Actually, I did.

Right? No, right, right. No, I'm not saying it's, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, there is a reasonable expectation that it'll be there. But we have, but if you get upset, that means your expectation was more than reasonable. Okay, that's all.

Yeah. There's a reasonable expectation, but we always have more. We always have unreasonable expectations.

Yeah, does it, does it cause suffering to have a reasonable expectation that this pen will be tomorrow? No, it wouldn't cause suffering. Are we capable of having that kind of reasonable expectation?

That's hard. You're always wanting a little more than is possible from impermanence. Okay?

Yeah. He said it's the wrong view to get upset about anything. This is a very good question.

This is a very good question. A barometer of whether you understand emptiness is whether you're capable of getting upset. Okay?

The litmus test, the barometer that tells you whether you understand emptiness or not is whether or not you get upset, because it's very beautiful. ,,,, which means you cannot simultaneously appreciate the emptiness in the object and have a bad emotion. Impossible.

You cannot have a mental affliction about an object at the same moment that you're understanding its emptiness. Totally impossible. That's why arhats have reached nirvana, because using their knowledge of emptiness, they, they understand perfectly this pen and they can never get upset again.

,,, Definition of nirvana is, is totally the incapacity to be upset again, because you understand its emptiness so well. You're just totally happy. Totally happy.

Okay? You can't be upset by anything anymore. That's nirvana.

You could be sitting here tomorrow morning, reach nirvana tonight, to us you look the same, but you're totally a different person. You just can't be upset by anything. What I'm trying to say is, you must misunderstand reality to get upset.

You must not understand emptiness in order to get upset. If you want to know how your emptiness in meditation is going, see how much you're getting upset during the day. That's what I'm saying, the converse of them.

You see what I mean? Because they are what we call Ngyenpo in Tibetan, antidote. They cannot coexist in one human brain at the same time.

There ain't enough room in this town for both of us. Okay? Okay.

You know what I mean? Literally, inside the human brain, you cannot be, be consciously aware of the emptiness in an object and have a mental affliction. That's the whole beauty of emptiness.

That's the whole goal. Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
So, if you understand that, what you just said, does that mean that you can get upset because you know it's empty?

[Speaker 1]
No. No. No, no.

The more you appreciate it's emptiness, the less you'll ever get upset about it. And you've got now two pseudo-emptinesses. If you could even perceive those, you'd get a lot less upset.

I mean, when things suddenly go topsy-turvy in your life, you'd be like, oh yeah, I knew that was going to happen, because it's impermanent. Okay? It's not what my innate feeling of holding it to be unchanging was thinking.

But because I was meditating on it a lot, I don't have a problem with that right now. You know, you can get fired, lose all your salary, and then you're, you're like happy within five minutes. You know?

You're like, yeah, that's the nature of those things. I knew that. There was a little bit of shock about that.

There was a little, but the better you get at it, I swear to God, you can lose everything in five minutes, and you're like, okay, let's go on. You know, let's move on. You know, it gets, it's very useful.

Like in business, the ability to see impermanence. I mean, I worked in a corporation for 15 years. And, and it's very, very powerful in business or running a family or running your life or anything else, to be able to live with impermanence from a moment, you know, you lose account number two.

Okay, work on account number three. You know, suddenly a million dollar deal lost. I mean, the great businessmen, and I'm not saying, you know, that this is a big goal, but the really good millionaire businessmen who work, who are really good at it, they can lose huge amounts of money today and just, they don't get shaken at all.

They're just like, okay, let's move on. How do we, how do we do the next one? You know what I mean?

And that's a, that's a practice of impermanence. And the ability to change instantly when your life goes like that is because you've been meditating on that kind of emptiness. Well, okay, last question.

Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
How can you have love and compassion if you are unattached? Or, you know, if you don't, if you don't, without, I'm trying to say, if you don't have that attachment, how can you have love and compassion without suffering?

[Speaker 1]
Without what? Without suffering. He said, how can you have love and attachment without suffering?

I mean, love, yeah, compassion without suffering. I have to say this. I mean, to be able to cope with sudden changes like that and not get upset doesn't mean that you like them.

You see what I mean? What I mean is this. A Buddhist learns to roll with the punches of samsara, but constantly because you're trying to remove samsara.

You see? Because it's more efficient for removing samsara. You see what I mean?

It's more efficient for destroying suffering completely if you learn to cope with impermanence on the short term. Okay? But the goal is to remove it completely.

Okay? The reason not to be upset is to learn to remove it completely. You see what I mean?

You can work more efficiently to stop other people's pain if you don't get thrown by impermanence and not owning things. You see what I mean? Then you're a lot better warrior for helping people.

Because all kinds of terrible things can happen and you're just... Five minutes later you're back to normal and you're helping them again. You know, like I've...

Let's say you've worked on some big project at Sarah Monastery, you know, like building a big water tower. And you put five years of your life into it. And then suddenly there's an earthquake and the thing collapses.

You know? And then what I'm saying is if you've done this meditation, within five minutes you're joyfully helping to build the next one. You see?

No kind of worries or crazy or anything like that. You're able to be more compassionate because your own mind is clear. You know what I mean?

So it's not like some... And by the way, it's not a goal to learn to live with the crap of life. Okay?

Period. That is not the goal of Buddhism. It is presented as the goal of Buddhism.

That's a Dharma rumor. It's not the goal of Buddhism to learn to sit there and, you know, smile as your friends die off and as your body gets older and older, you know, and as terrible things in this world happen, that you can, with equanimity, sit there and watch them and feel some kind of equanimity of, oh, it's the way it goes, you know? That's a Dharma rumor of Buddhism.

It's not true. That's not the goal of Buddhism. The goal of Buddhism is to eradicate suffering in all forms.

You see what I mean? It's not to learn to put up with it. There's a big distinction between learning to sit and suffer quietly, perfectly with a smile on your face, you know, or wiping out that suffering altogether.

You see what I mean? Big difference. And I'm afraid that Buddhism is often presented in the first light, you know.

You should get to a place where you're not attached to anything so you can watch children die of AIDS and people get crushed in car accidents and friends of yours have their breasts cut off and die of cancer and still be joyful, you know. That's crap. You know, the goal of Buddhism is to remove all of those events altogether.

It's very interesting. You know, the ultimate goal of Buddhism is to stop those events from happening at all. Big difference, okay?

You've got to get into that. Is it possible to have sadness without suffering? Yeah, he said, is it possible to have sadness without suffering?

I mean, Buddhas watch us and they are compassionate. You know, they are saddened by our condition, but they don't feel pain. You see what I mean?

They have this kind of sweetness. A really compassionate person, when they're observing someone's pain and trying to help them, feels this, their own emotion is of a sort of sweetness. You see, real compassion feels sweet.

It's a sweetness. But it is focusing on someone's pain. You see what I mean?

So that's a big difference. It's possible to have a sweet feeling of compassion about someone without suffering yourself. You see what I mean?

And that's a clear state of mind that is totally compassionate and is absolutely working to help that person in the highest way possible, at every moment. But it's not suffering. It's a different thing.

Okay, we'll do a mandala. Ready? And a dedication.

Okay, see you tomorrow. What time? Ten o'clock?

Okay. If you have a regular meditation cushion, like, bring it. Okay?

Okay. Okay, so you owe me a couple things, right? Everybody has to take a homework.

Okay? There's a tradition, you should think of a class twice after the class. Okay?

Once after the class, and then once before the next class. You should review the class. Okay?

So, tonight, take a homework. You don't have to do it tonight. Before you go to bed, laying down, just look at it.

Three simple questions. Okay? Just look at it.

And then you'll think about the class. And then think about the pen. Practice a little bit tonight.

Okay? You got six modes, I think. Two worldviews, six modes.

Right? Go through them. See if you can shift through them.

What do you call it? Rotate through them. Cycle through them.

Like that. Practice it a couple of times. That's Mahamudra meditation.

You're starting. Okay? Baby Mahamudra meditation.

All right? Then tomorrow, when you get up, before the class, look at the homework thing again. Write it out.

Okay? Before class. If there's something on it that you didn't get, come 15 minutes early and copy it from somebody.

Okay? But the whole point is that to do this meditation right, you must think of it one time when you get home tonight. And you must think of it again one time in the morning before you start the class.

Otherwise it doesn't work. That's a tradition. Okay?

So please take it seriously. Take the homework. And I'm talking also about staff and cooks and directors and people from New York City who are helping.

You know, there's this fallacy in our Dharma centers, mine too, that the people running the class don't have to do the homework and stuff like that. And then, you know, oftentimes they get the least out of it. It's weird.

So everybody has to do it. Okay? Except me.

Maybe I'll do it. What's this? No.

All right. So please do it. Otherwise it doesn't stick.

This is the end of session one.