Базовый курс ACI 1: Основные учения буддизма (2019, Аризона), занятие 1

[Speaker 1]
Alright, here we go. So, I'm gonna follow the homework master, aren't you happy? But probably I'll get distracted and talk too long, and maybe won't even finish the first class, but let's try, okay?

So, here we go. I called the first course, and and the fun thing about this teacher training is that I'm gonna share with you some of what was happening, why I wrote the courses, you see what I mean? Like, what was happening, or what I was thinking about, so, if I can remember.

So, the first course is called The Principal Teachings of Buddhism, but the real book that I translated is called Lam Tso Namsum. Say Lam, Tso, Namsum, which is short for Lam Kyi Tso Namsum, okay? And, okay, I was teaching Masha a new word yesterday, where are you?

Oh, sorry, the pet peeve, hmm? What's it mean? Did she get it right Joe?

My pet peeve, no. I taught her American Idiom yesterday. I'm an American Idiom teacher for a lot of my students.

Pet peeve means the one thing that irritates me a lot, okay? And, it's people who misspell Principal Teachings of Buddhism. So, if you want to fail your teacher training course, just spell it wrong, okay?

So, let's talk about it. Principal, P-A-L, means main, main teachings, okay? And, it's an adjective, normally, except for the principal of a school, which is a man or woman who's the boss of the school, okay?

But, Principal Teachings, you're gonna spell it with P-A-L, which means main teaching, okay? What's principal mean with a P-L-E? It means an important idea, okay?

Like the principle of gravity, or the principle of relativity, okay? So, get it straight, okay? Don't embarrass me in front of your students.

I've seen many teachers do that, okay? We're talking Principal Teachings, P-A-L, okay? Some people have mistranslated it as the three principles, P-L-E, but that's because they don't understand that the Tibetan word, Tso, has to come after what it modifies, which is extremely rare, okay?

So, LAM GYI MTSO, means, it doesn't mean the principles of the path, it doesn't mean that, and many people are translated that way. So, you can just throw the book out if you see that at the top, and you don't know how many books I've thrown out that way. It's...so, unfortunately, the word Tso, which means main, primary, principle, P-A-L, always comes after the noun that it modifies, okay? Like book of red, rather than red book, okay? Got it? Just nod.

Sometimes the adjective comes after the noun, this is a dress of red, you see what I mean? Meaning red dress, okay? Anyway, people got confused, and it's a pet peeve, it irritates me, okay?

So, you're not going to do that. Okay, so three main paths, path, paths of Buddhism is the real title, okay? I changed it to the principle teachings of Buddhism to make it easier, more accessible, okay?

More accessible, and the book, the translated book with Tsongkhapa on the front, is called the Principle Teachings of Buddhism, it's not called the Three Principle Paths, okay? And it was meant to be, make it more accessible. By the way, that painting, or that statue on the front of that book, which is probably in the bookstore, I don't know, that's a real image of Tsongkhapa, okay?

It's the only one. So, it was a real statue of Je Tsongkhapa, and it's got big nose, and big ears, and that's the way he was, okay? His enemies called him Mr. Big Nose, and he had a very big nose, okay?

He was, face was very strong, okay? Fuerte, okay? And that's a real picture.

That statue was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and they put another one, they made another one that's all pretty and handsome, and that's not the real one, okay? So, that's why it's black and white, because the photograph was taken in the late 1940s or something like that, okay? Alright, so you, first course is based on the Principle Teachings of Buddhism, which is more correctly called the Three Principle Paths of Buddhism, Three Principle Paths.

Now, path, lam in Tibetan, what is it in Sanskrit? Marga. In this case doesn't mean a road, and it doesn't mean a method, it doesn't mean that.

In the Prajnaparamita teachings, okay? Topic number four. Path is a synonym for understanding, or realization, okay?

It means a mental state, okay? So, we're not talking about three methods of Buddhism, we're not even talking about three ways that you can go in Buddhism, we're talking about three attitudes, okay? Got it?

And that's very important, if you don't understand that, you don't understand the course, okay? We're not talking about three methods, we're not talking about three routes along a highway, we're talking about three attitudes that are the Principle Teachings of Buddhism, got it? So, we're not talking about books, we're talking about ideas, three big ideas, okay?

And that's something you should know, the author is Je Tsongkapa, okay? Sorry, Je means by the way Lord, it's an honorable name like Lao Tzu, but Lao Tzu is like elder teacher, right? Like, it's like that, it's Je, Je means ...

for example, diamond is called in Tibetan, Dorje, which means king of stones. Do means stone, Je means Lord. So, Je Tsongkapa means Lord Tsongkapa, it's a respect word, okay?

So, you can call him Tsongkapa, but it's a little bit impolite, and if you call him Je Tsongkapa, it's more polite, okay? Sometimes we call him Je Rinpoche, which means precious Lord, Rinpoche means like, you're like a jewel, okay? So, if they say Je Rinpoche, they're talking about Tsongkapa, okay?

So, you can use either one, it's kind of weird to say Tsongkapa. Then a lot of people spell his name with a K-H, Tsongkap, like many, many people. That's a pet peeve of mine, okay?

They are confusing the transliteration with the sound, okay? When you take a foreign word and you put it in English, you put the sound, you don't try to capture the spelling in the in the original language, okay? Got it?

Otherwise, you end up with things like Sri Lanka, or Sivananda Yoga Center, which is both mistaken, they're both mistaken. They are failed transcription, they are not the sound, got it? It's a weird mistake.

If you see a book that has Tsongkapa on the front, just throw it out. It means the person who wrote it doesn't understand the difference between transcription and pronunciation, got it? What's the transcription from Moscow?

M-O-S-K-V-A. M-O-S-K-V-A is the transcription, got it? We pronounce it Moscow, okay?

So, got it? Don't put the spelling of the foreign language, put the sound, okay? Got it?

Tsongkapa, just K, there's no reason to put K-H, they messed up my Lama's name at the passport agency, he's Tharchin, okay? Because they saw the T-H in the transcription, got it? It's so terrible to ruin someone's name, because you can't tell the difference between the character and the sound, understand?

Okay? You're never gonna do that, or I will get irritated, more irritated. Now, his monk's name, this is all, I'm just working from the homeworks, is say Lobsang, Chakpa.

Lobsang, Chakpa. Lobsang means pure mind, okay? Lo means mind, and Sang means pure, and B is a prefix letter, so Lobsang, okay?

Pure-minded one. Sumati in Sanskrit, okay? And his last name is Chakpa, which is what in Sanskrit?

Kirti, like Dharmakirti, Chandrakirti. Kirti means famous, everyone heard of this guy, he's amazing, okay? Super popular, okay?

So, his name is pure-minded super popular, okay? That's his monk's name. Now, in the rules of monk's names, you take your ...

you take the first name of the person who made you a monk, okay? Like, the normal abbot, period, in Tserame monastery for 600 years, is four years. So, during those four years, if the abbot's name is Mike, then every monk who's made that four years, their first name is Mike.

And we had a big problem at our Tserame, because the abbot stayed for three terms, 12 years. Half the monks in the monastery are called Jampa, and it's really confusing, okay? So, my first name, monk name is Lobsang, and ultimately I come from Tsongkhapa, you see?

My teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher. Got it? Okay.

Alright, number two, what's the actual name of this work? Three Principle Paths, okay? You know that, it's not the principle teachings of Buddhism, but it's the same PAL, okay?

Alright, question three, we're working through homework number one, yay! Now, in Christian tradition, there's a big emphasis on epistles. What's an epistle?

It's like a heavy letter, like a letter that became a classic, you know? The letters of Paul, right? Epistles of Paul, which caused a lot of trouble.

He wasn't even there. Okay, anyway, epistle means sacred letter, important letter, okay? So, this book, the 14 verses, is a letter that was written to Tsongkhapa's student named Ngawang Drapa, okay?

Ngawang Drapa, you're supposed to know that, okay? And you can read it in the reading. Now, Ngawang Drapa had a crush on Tsongkhapa from the beginning, there's many paintings of Ngawang Drapa sitting at his feet, so, what did Tsongkhapa do?

You go to East Tibet and build a hundred and eight monasteries, you know? And he's like, what? So, but he wasn't one of those lazy disciples, he did what his teacher told him to do, even though he didn't want to go, that's the last thing he wanted to do, was leave his teacher's side.

But Tsongkhapa said go, and don't come back until you got a hundred and eight monasteries, okay? And he did it, he went to East Tibet, he built a hundred and eight monasteries. Guess what's the name of the last one?

Da Tsang. Da means now, Tsang means I reached the full number, complete, total. The last monastery was called total, got it?

I made the total. Da Tsang, and it's a famous monastery, I used to know the abbot, okay? It's a cool, it's a good monastery, it's still running, okay?

So, this book was written as a letter to his student who was upset because he got told to go out to East Tibet, okay? And he's trying to like, what do you call it? Soften him up a little bit, yeah, don't get irritated with me, you know?

Here, I'll give you a nice summary of all of Buddhism in two pages. He's like, yeah okay, that's cool. By the way, for $50, okay, I'm not saying you're interested in money and not Dharma, I'm just saying it makes it more fun for me, okay?

Frankly, it's more fun for me. Ready? In the ACI 18 Foundation courses, there's another important letter sent to Ngawang Drapa.

[Speaker 2]
Nah.

[Speaker 1]
Why? What's the letter say? Yeah, Ngawang Drapa made the first monks in East Tibet, and he wrote a letter to his teacher and said, look, I not only built monasteries, I ordained a bunch of monks.

And? This is the answer by Tsongkhapa. Don't tell him, yeah, you want money or you don't want money honey?

Okay, he forgot, I saved the money, cancel that one Xiaoping, okay? You just lost 25 bucks. Okay, he told his student, does anybody remember?

Come on. Yeah, you want to meditate? It's not the seat, it's not the legs, it's not the face, it's not the breathing, it's not the topic, it's ...

yeah, did you respect other people's peace of mind last week? Or did you irritate other people? And the letter is incredible, you know, and by the way, in DCI, we teach them, you know, level three, we teach in meditation for like hours after hours, then at the end we say, it doesn't matter, nothing matters.

What you hear in your mind is coming from how you treated people last week. Don't worry, your left foot goes up first, your right foot goes up first, you know, can you slouch, can you not slouch, do you exhale long enough or not, forget all this stuff, okay? If you want to have a good meditation, don't upset other people's mind, okay?

Be conscious to not upset other people's mind, speak kindly to people, speak with careful consideration to how they feel, watch their face, if they go like that, then back off, because you're planting seeds to hear crap in your mind while you meditate, okay? You're planting seeds for your mind to go, yeah, what's for lunch, what's for lunch? Okay, that comes from irritating other people, like teaching them sthanga and stuff like that.

Okay, just kidding, okay. He has a nickname okay? Say, Tsako Umbo.

Tsako Umbo. By the way, here the the master is mistaken, okay? The old master from 27 years ago, it's misspelled, his name is misspelled, okay?

It's Umbo, and Tsako is an area that he came from like, like Kansas or Shuzhou or something, okay? Like it's some Dalian, some faraway place, okay? Umbo means, it means like a friendly word for local priest, local, you know, like the little local priest, Tsako Umbo, okay?

Little local priest from Tsako. Okay, so sometimes you might see him's name spelled Tsako, okay? Umbo, okay.

Alright, I didn't put his dates, guess what? He lived in the same time as Tsongkhapa. Alright, I also try to leave out stuff that is gonna overload you, okay?

I mean, I could put more and more stuff and you would never finish the course, okay? It'd be like the Lam Rim. Okay, the commentary you are studying was written by Pabongka Rinpoche, and the whole translation is the course, okay?

The whole translation is in the course, the whole month, the whole commentary is in the course, okay? Got it? I trans, I remember where I translated it, I was on a one-month retreat in, near the Grand Canyon, and I remember, I remember I translated it there, okay?

Mmm, dates of Pabongka Rinpoche, 1878 to 1941. Now, he was probably the most famous teacher of the Tsongkhapa tradition for that hundred years, okay? He was number one, okay?

So, I'll tell you a little bit about his story, and you can read it in the book, okay? So, in the book, I got my teacher, Ken Rinpoche, Geshe Lo Tsongkhapa, I got him to tell me the story about Pabongka, okay? And it was hard because he didn't like to answer my questions, but I offered to drive him to Washington every month, which is a five-hour drive, and he couldn't get out of the car.

So, he told me the whole story, okay? So, it's in the ... by the way, his nephew, which is Geshe Lo Tsongkhapa, was brought up by Ken Rinpoche as a ...

from childhood, and became his main attendant. And he became the gergen, Kamsang gergen? What's that mean?

He became the house mom, the babysitter for all the monks in our college. There are 12 colleges in Seramei, according to the ancient constitution of Seramei, which we found in Russia. The only copy, we found it in St. Petersburg. And, there are 12 houses, 12 colleges inside of Sera, Seramei. Sera ... monastery is divided into two halves, Sera J, where they're not so educated, and Sera Mei, which is vastly superior.

And, there's a heavy rivalry between the two halves, and there's a green line in the monastery, there's an invisible line, and you don't cross it, or something might happen, okay? Tough stuff happens in the monastery, you have no idea, okay? But, you don't go over that line.

So, we're from Sera Mei, okay? And we don't like Sera J, okay? And there's lots of nice teachers at Sera J, but don't tell anybody.

Okay, so anyway, Sera Mei has 12 colleges. You're from Gyorong College, okay? You are affiliated, as my student, you are affiliated with Gyorong College.

So, in the structure of all the great Tsongkhapa monasteries, there are, what do you call, local houses. Meaning, when I went to Princeton, we had an Arizona club, and all the students from Arizona, we used to drink beer together, stuff like that, okay? And so, in the monastery, there are local houses, and Gyorong is east, east, east Tibetan.

... Their language is totally weird, okay? And not quite Tibetan, okay?

So anyway, for some reason, my teacher was put into Gyorong house, by his uncle, or something, at the age of seven or five, okay? And the highest Lama in history from our college is Pabongka, he's Geronghas, got it? He's from your college, so you got to be loyal, okay?

He's from our college, okay? Got it? Which is a great honor, okay?

To be from his house, and I had the honor of debating with the third one, okay? The third Pabongka. He was doing his geshe the year before I did my geshe, and he's from our college.

Tradition in the house is you have to defend yourself, geshe examination in your house before you defend yourself in the monastery, before you defend yourself in Sera. So, he had to defend himself in our college, and we only had 50 monks there, but the person who attacks him first is the senior student who's not a geshe yet, which was me. So, I was supposed to attack him first.

So, I'm attacking Pabongka in the debates, and that was my job. Guess what question I asked him? After you get enlightened, and you become a Buddha, how can you help suffering beings?

Because you don't have the karma to see people suffering anymore. You see them as high-level bodhisattvas, all beings become high-level bodhisattvas in your heaven. So, how can those people help suffering beings after they become a Buddha?

They all became humans instead of dogs, you see? So, there's no chew toys. Got it?

In the universe for them. So, we started like that, and I was really getting them, but when the opponent is a high Rinpoche, and you're just a schmuck, the debate master will call off the debate. He'll say, Ola So, which means, okay, next.

And I was like, I got him, I got him. He says, Ola So. I'm like, dang.

And then we went on the porch and continued the debate for three, four hours, and it was cool. And the abbot of the Tantric College was with us, and we ... okay.

Ola So. Alright, anyway, that's Pabongka Rinpoche. He has a nickname in the secret teachings, in the Diamond Way teachings.

We don't call him Pabongka Rinpoche, we call him Dechen Nyingpo. Say Dechen. Nyingpo.

Dechen means the bliss that's associated with seeing emptiness in Tantra. Okay? Great bliss.

And Nyingpo means ... heart. Heart.

Just heart. Okay? Heart of bliss.

Okay? So, that's his secret name. But sometimes you'll hear him called Dechen Nyingpo.

Okay? He was the greatest teacher of his time. He graduated from my monastery, our monastery, Serme, from Gerong House.

But he was not a high Geshe. He was not a number one Geshe. He was like a number three level Geshe, which is what I am.

If you want to be a number two level, you have to wait another four years. If you want to be another one level, it might take ten more years. And I'm too old.

And I probably couldn't do it anyway. So, it's much more examinations. Okay?

But it's interesting, but he was also a third level Geshe. He was not a high level Geshe. But he did something strange, which is that he started teaching normal people.

And it was very, very unusual. And then ten normal people, not monks, came to his class. Then twenty came to his class.

Then thirty came to his class. By the time he taught the Lamrim you're studying in the morning, there were a thousand people in the room. Okay?

And he became famous for teaching normal people. He was the DCI of his time, and the ACI of his time. You see?

And he got heavily criticized. Very, very heavily criticized. And it was a very serious thing.

Like, you could be murdered in those days. And he he stuck it out. You know, you're gonna see two photos of him.

One is a young handsome guy. Okay? Then five years later, he looks terrible.

He looks like somebody beat him up. You know? And they say he was attacked by spirits.

He had a war with spirits. He had like a one-year war with a bunch of spirits. And it cost him physically.

He never recovered physically. Okay? You can see the two photos.

It's very interesting. So, that's the story. So, he used to come to monasteries and teach the Lamrim, which is what you're studying in the morning.

Maybe for a month, okay? And that's, by the way, how a Geshe gets the Lamrim teachings. You get them because a Lama visits and teaches them extracurricular.

It's not part of the program. It's a dessert. Okay?

So, they will cancel all the classes for a month. And some high, high Lama will come, like Pabongka Rinpoche. And he will teach the Lamrim for a month.

And then they'll invite all the local people to come. And that's what's happening in the morning. That's what you're hearing in the morning.

Okay? So, then there's a nyerpa. Say nyerpa.

Nyerpa means the refreshment person. Okay? And you're ...

okay. A monastery kitchen, like at Serame, we have to go serve in the kitchen. Every two weeks, we have to spend two days there.

Something like that. When you wash the teapot, you need a ladder to get up to the top. And then you need another ladder to get in.

And you clean it like this. It's tea for 3,000 people. Okay?

And so, that's the nyerpa. The nyerpa runs the tea at the Lamrim teaching, which has a thousand people. Everyone's got to get tea.

Everyone's got to get sampa, porridge. Okay? So, my teacher ...

and by the way, usually you only pick the lazy monks. You don't pick the geshe candidates, because they're too busy. Okay?

So, they have a mixel. Mixel means ... they don't have to do the dirty work in the monastery.

They can just study all day. They're pampered. The good geshe candidates are ...

you don't bother them. They don't have to work like other people. Okay?

My Lama was a goofball. Okay? Goofball means a bad boy.

Never studied, just played tricks on people. His favorite trick ... you know thumbtack?

Like small nails. So, people in Tibet, inside the monastery, they don't wear shoes. Understand?

He would spread thumbtacks all over, just for fun. Then he'd watch them. You know, and he was really naughty.

He was really bad. Pangda? Say pangda.

Pak means little piece of flour. Like, you make flour, and then you make little balls like that, and then when you're in the prayer, 3,000 guys, they're all going ... you know, when they go ...

and then you go ... you know, like ten feet away, three meters ... and he was the best.

My teacher was number one, and he didn't study, he didn't do anything. So, that's why he got stuck with Nyampa. He had to make refreshments, and he was doing it, and Pabongka visited the kitchen to check on the refreshments for the teaching, and he saw my teacher, and he walks over to him, and he puts his hands on his head, and he says, this one is special.

This one is special. Then he just turned around and left, you know? Yeah, and then something weird happened to my teacher, and he freaked out.

He got some kind of, I don't know what, spirit from Pabongka, and he changed totally, and he was offered a very important position, very good money, big temple, you know? Rest of your life you drink tea and eat offerings, and he said no. He told his teacher no, I'm not going.

He said, you're a fool, you know, the rest of your life you're gonna be wealthy, it's a good gig, you know? And he said no, I want to be a Geshe. He said, you?

A Geshe? And then my teacher said, I'm gonna be a number one Geshe, okay? And he's like, number one Geshe?

Yeah, yeah right, when you become a number one Geshe, I become the throne holder of Tsongkhapa, you know? And my teacher got pissed off, and he worked really hard, and he became a number one Geshe. And then in his year, they had a competition of all the number one Geshes, and he beat all of them.

So, we call Angi Dambo, he was number one of, I don't know, 20,000 monks, okay? In the debates. So, try to win an argument with him, you know?

If he says the sky's not blue, he can prove it, you know? Don't even try to fight with him, just go around him, understand? Okay, I still do that.

Okay, now, Pabong means boulder, and it's a special hermitage? Retreat center, outside of center, you can walk to it, you have to hike to it. It's like Diamond Mountain, it's very similar to Diamond Mountain.

So, that retreat center was called Pabong. So, he was called Pabongka, but he was not Pabongka, okay? They decided he would be the incarnation of the abbot of Pabongka, but he wasn't, so what's the story?

He's actually recognized as the reincarnation of, say, Changya Rope Dorje. Very, very famous Lama of the Emperor of China, and there's still a temple in Beijing, and I've seen it, dedicated to Changya, okay? So, this is a very famous teacher of the King of China, the Emperor of China, okay?

And still, that temple is still there. I've seen it, you can see it from the hotel, if you get to the 20th floor, because it's surrounded by other buildings, you know, and it's really cool, alright? Then, he was very friendly with China, and he really got along with the Chinese.

So, in the year that Pabongka was born, there was a lot of tension, and people were afraid to call him his real name, Changya. So, they called him Pabongka, okay? Understand?

They named him a different name, because there was so much tension, political tension, okay? Anyway, that's who he really is. 1717 to 1786, okay?

Changya, this Changya, very, very famous, and he wrote four volumes Siddhanta, Mr. Word, for zero dollars. Yeah, a study of all the schools. We kind of did a Siddhanta yesterday, okay?

But, he wrote the biggest and the most famous, okay? In his past life. Alright, now, Pabongka Rinpoche had a special student, okay?

Who wrote down his teachings, and these are the days before iPhone recorders, okay? And, people were taking notes like crazy, and the Lama just teaching, no microphone, thousand people, that you had to have a big voice, you know? And so, his student was a high Lama called Chögyam Rinpoche, say Chögyam Rinpoche, born 1901, passed away 1981, okay?

And Chögyam Rinpoche became the highest Geshe of his time, and taught the Dalai Lama, okay? He was the Dalai Lama's teacher, and he was an amazing, kind person, amazing scholar, amazing teacher. And, why we have the Gift of Liberation, why we have that book, is he spent 12 years editing those talks, and I believe it's the greatest book ever written in Tibetan, okay?

It's the sweetest Tibetan language that ever was written. It's perfect. The book is totally perfect.

The Tibetan is exquisite, and there, you know, nowadays, because of the Cultural Revolution, etc., the level of Tibetan in Tibet is low. I called a monastery many years ago to find a book, no one could speak Tibetan, okay? So, I believe that's going to be the greatest book ever written in Tibetan, and it was edited by Chögyam Rinpoche.

Chögyam Rinpoche was my teacher's root Lama, okay? So, you're Chögyam Rinpoche's great-grandkids, okay? Got it?

It's a good lineage, good lineage. Okay, so the person who wrote the introduction to your course, and it's on your homework, is Ken Rinpoche, Geshe Losang Tharchin, my teacher, okay? Born 1921, passed away 2004, okay?

Alright, and he taught me for free for 30 years, and I lived with him for 25 years, okay? And it was hard. He was a hard person.

You could never win an argument. He never once told me I did something right. When I finished my Geshe, first foreigner in 600 years, he's like huh.

So, his nephew was his closest disciple, and I'm pleased to say he's going to visit this week, okay? He's very old now, he's about 80, and we put him on a plane, he agreed to come, and I asked him to give a teaching about Ken Rinpoche, which is your grandfather, okay? And just to tell us about his personal life, you know, like tell us some nice stories.

Geshe Lothar is his name, he's not a high Geshe, he's not a great scholar, but he's a great storyteller. He's like the best I know, and he did become the Debate Master of Serame, okay? Which is kind of like assistant abbot, it's vice abbot, okay?

So, he did reach this position, and he helped me survive in the monastery, okay? Without him I wouldn't have survived. I was the only foreigner to survive in Serame, still, in 600 years, and it's only because he was so ...

he'd say, the green line's there, don't cross it, don't walk over there, I'm like, I don't see anything, he's like, trust me, you know? And my whole career in the monastery is due to him, he taught me to tie my robes, you know, everything, dressed me up for the Geshe exams, it's like getting married, no, it's like three layers of stupid historical stuff, and so, you should be grateful to him, you should make him some nice offerings, okay? Red envelopes, and you should respect him, okay?

Without him I wouldn't be here, okay? And he taught me to speak Tibetan, because he never stops talking, which is probably good luck for me, okay? And we lived together for about ten years, he's good.

So, you're gonna get a nice ... and I don't think he'll be able to come again, so, I think it's kind of a special chance, okay? What day is that Tim?

Yeah, he'll be staying here, but he'll give a lecture on Saturday morning, okay? So, anyone's welcome to come, okay? Now, the text doesn't jump right into the three principal paths, it starts with some preliminary material which is traditional, okay?

One of them, perhaps the most traditional thing to say first, is as you listen to this teaching, avoid the three problems of the path, okay? Which we covered in Kamalashila, so, as long ago as the Tang Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, 1700s? 700s.

Xuanzang, 1,300 years ago. As early as that, they were talking about this idea called the three problems of the path, okay? For zero dollars, okay, one dollar.

Give me any of them, give me one each. Raise your hand, give me one. Don't yell, okay?

Hustle. Yeah, okay, somebody else. You do that in the Geshe debates, you're in trouble.

Huh? Yeah, don't ... you can't pour water into a dirty cup, okay?

So, what's it mean? Let's do the other two. Yeah, give me another one.

Huh? Yeah, don't be like a cup with hole in the bottom, okay? The teacher teaches and teaches and teaches and it leaks out, and I ask you a question next day and you're like huh?

What was yours? Did you have another one? Yeah, upside down.

Like, the teacher tries to pour in the stuff, but you're already full with other ideas, you know? You went to some shaman ayahuasca ceremony and ... you know, you're not open to these three ideas, okay?

You're already ... you're off on some strange thing, okay? I had a student from Ireland who ...

she actually translated the mandala offering into Gaelic. What do you call it? Celtic.

And it was amazing, and then she was a very good student here, and then she ... she went to a ayahuasca ceremony and she said I'm going to record it. She turned on her video.

They overdosed her. She died on the video. You can watch it, okay?

And ... okay? Stupid idea, got it?

Don't fill yourself up with dumb spiritual, you know, okay? Got it? You can talk to her father, who's the head of the Ireland group, okay?

Sad, very sad, okay? So, anyway, don't be like a pot ... the three things you should go into the teaching, before the teaching starts, okay?

Be open, okay? I'm gonna learn something new, I'll be open. It's not what I'm used to, but I'm open to it.

It's like the yoga class we had this morning, yeah? The teacher said, first thing he said, look, I'm gonna do stuff you didn't do before, just be open, okay? That's the first part, be open to it.

Yeah, second one is, don't ... don't mix it up with other stuff, and as an ACI teacher, if you mix it up with other stuff, I'll kick you out in five minutes, okay? Ready?

You mentioned ayahuasca in an ACI course, and I will kick you out. Clear? Do I have to say it again?

Okay, you're teaching ACI, alright? Now, does that mean you can't teach something else next week? No, I'm not like that, okay?

I understand everyone in the room comes from a different tradition, you know, maybe you're from a Jewish tradition, maybe you're from a Christian tradition, maybe you're from a Muslim tradition, and maybe you're gonna be teaching in a Muslim country. Then say cool stuff about Muslim, okay? That's fine, but don't do it in the middle of the course, don't mix it with this course, okay?

This course is ACI, this course is Tsongkhapa, it's a formula for enlightenment, if you add ayahuasca, it won't work anymore, people will fail, people will suffer for more billions of years, got it? Okay, so I request, I don't request, I order, don't mix other stuff with ACI, it doesn't mean you can't teach other stuff, you want to teach something else, do it next week, don't do it in the middle of the ACI class, okay? Understand?

I request, no, I order, and I will remove your certification if I find out you're mixing it with other stuff, okay? It's a formula, it works, I can tell you it works, it happened to me, stuff happened to me that is extraordinary, unbelievable, so no one in the world can talk me out of it. People have tried, and I just laugh, you know, like what are you talking about?

You follow this correctly, you can see the whole universe in your meditation, you can meet every living creature, billions, you know, don't tell me ayahuasca, okay? I'm not interested, then they're like yeah but Geshe-la, I'm like yeah but get out, I'm not interested, you know? I already have a Model X, don't try to sell me a Volkswagen bug, okay?

And I'm not, what do you call, sectarian? I tried it, it worked, I got what I wanted, okay? And I say you can do it too, but not if you mix it up, you're gonna ruin the recipe, okay?

Understand? Okay. And it's not because other traditions are bad, it's not the point, you know?

You don't put mapo tofu recipe with a chocolate cake recipe, right? One is spicy, one is ... it's not gonna work out, it's gonna be the worst thing anyone ever made, okay?

Mapo tofu is nice, chocolate cake is nice, don't mix them, it's gonna ... let's do one one day and serve it to everybody, wouldn't that be fun? Luca, no?

Let's serve it tomorrow in class, so people remember what I said. You're all gonna throw up, okay? Mapo tofu chocolate cake.

Okay, maybe I'll make it just, just so you remember. You'll tell your students, yeah your grandfather Lama Geshe Michael, back in the old days, he made us eat a chocolate mapo tofu cake, and it was terrible, so please don't mix up the teaching, okay? Who's gonna make it?

Candy, you wanna make it? Come on. You guys are ...

I better teach Lama, obeying your Lama here. Okay, all Lamrim texts have three great divisions, all Lamrim texts have three great divisions. The teachings, A to Z, one two three, step four one two three four five, how to get to Buddhahood, have three big divisions, okay?

And they depend on the motivation of the person in the class, okay? So, we call kye bu chung, say kye bu chung, kye bu ding, kye bu chenpo, okay? They're called little people, middle people, and big people, okay?

But literally, the word is little people, medium people, and big people, okay? Now, it's just a difference of motivation. Who's gonna tell me little people's motivation?

It doesn't refer to your heart, height, it refers to your heart. Huh? Is that what it says?

Yeah, I don't want to go to the lower birth, okay? I don't want to go to the lower birth, alright? I don't want to be reborn as an animal, in the hell, or as a spirit, okay?

I don't want to go to the lower birth. That's little people's motivation. For a hundred ...

three hundred? I'm spending too fast, right Xiaoping? I'd make it a thousand ...

okay, thousand bucks, but I pay you later. Seriously, what's the one teaching that would satisfy a small person, what they want? You owe me a thousand, you owe me a thousand.

I'm ahead already. Sheesh, good, it's cancelled! The pen, okay?

The pen, alright? A person who understands the pen teaching correctly, cannot go to a lower birth. It's not possible, okay?

You destroy all the seeds in your being that would send you to a lower birth. And can you imagine people complain that I teach it too much? They're gonna thank me later, okay?

If you understand the pen correctly ... jor lam su is the technical term, the mastery level of the path of preparation, which is when you have a deep understanding of the pen, and the holder of the pen by the way, you cannot go to the lower realms, it's not physically possible, okay? Cool?

So, forget little person, you're already past that, okay? What's medium person? Yeah, I don't want any kind of samsara, I don't want any kind of suffering life, okay?

I don't care if I become president, or I become a garbage man, it all sucks, I don't want anything, okay? I want to be ... I want nirvana, okay?

For ... me, okay? Then that's a hint about the big person.

Big person wants ... yeah, yeah, they want everyone to be enlightened, okay? Bodhisattva, bodhisattva.

So, these are the three great divisions of the Lamrim teachings, okay? Alright, here we go. Question nine, I'm making it, I got three minutes Tim, I'm gonna do it.

Question nine, name the three principal paths. Okay, they are called renunciation, which is a big English word that nobody uses, it doesn't pass the waiter test. What's the waiter test Xiaoping?

Loud. Good. When we decide in our translation team whether to use a word or not, I send Alison to the Mexican restaurant and I say, say to the waiter, what does renunciation ...

say to the waiter, I'm Chinese, look, I don't know English very well, what's renunciation mean? If the waiter can't answer you, don't use it in your translation. But I did, because that was 27 years ago, okay?

And that's what I was taught, alright? And it's not a great translation, okay? It's not a great translation.

Renunciation, okay now, follow me okay? Now we're gonna do content. Renunciation means, I will not ride in a fancy car, I will not have a lot of money, I will eat only dhal and rice, you know, and bananas.

I will live simply, I will not dress nice clothes, you know. This is the classical meaning of renunciation, okay? And it's not what we want.

It's not what we want you to do, okay? It's not ... we talked about it yesterday, okay?

If you practice Buddhism properly, you will be successful whether you want to be or not. And you can run, but the money will follow you, I'm sorry, okay? And fame, and clothes, and cars, and ...

they will chase you down the street. You can't avoid them, okay? If you plant ...

if you understand seeds, and you plant seeds only to serve other people, you will still be super successful, I'm sorry, okay? How many of the great saints of Buddhism were princes? Shantideva, Asanga, Siddhartha, okay?

Atisha, okay? Come on, okay? Got it?

So, it doesn't mean you have to run away from money, and cars, and girlfriends, okay? It doesn't mean that, okay? It doesn't mean that.

It means, recognize that if you don't figure out the seed system, everything around you is going to collapse and die, including you, okay? If you don't figure out how to plant more seeds than you use up, you will die, and you will not have money, and you will not have a partner, and you will not have happiness, okay? It doesn't mean you shouldn't have a partner, or money, or happiness, it doesn't mean that, okay?

Got it? That's not renunciation, okay? I tried to go to a cave, I did go to a cave, I spent, I don't know, a month in a cave.

It's not a good place, there's bugs, I had a rat, I had a highly deadly rattlesnake, green rattlesnake, bite you once, you're dead, there's no cure. I had a wolf come in, I had spiders crawling over me all day, it's not cool, okay? That's not renunciation.

Get a place with a door, okay? Get it, if you can find a cave with a door, okay? But I thought somehow a cave would be more holy or something, it's not, it's just irritating, okay?

Got it? Have a nice ... I like to say, I like a small house, but I want it elegant, okay?

Why? I hate cleaning, I don't want cleaning, I don't want a house with five rooms in it. If you are ...

somebody offered me one recently, you know his name, and I said no, I don't want it, he keeps asking me, I said I built it for you, I said I don't want it, you know? I don't want a house that I have to clean all day, you know? I want a small house, you know, sweet, cool, elegant, tasteful, like ...

but small, less cleaning, okay? So, that's renunciation, got it? You can have a nice house, it's fine, okay?

Got it? It's not renunciation to wear bad clothes, and to not have a job, and to wander around and stay on other people's couches, and ... I don't let those yogis in my house, why?

They always leave the refrigerator empty, these holy people, okay? They always park on your couch, you go to work to pay for the couch, and then your refrigerator is empty when you come home. I don't want you to be like that, okay?

That's not an ACI teacher, that's not a yogi, that's a Dharma bum, okay? That's a Dharma bum, okay? Make your own money, be responsible, that's a Dharma teacher.

The best ... you know, I made a list of the best ACI teachers I know, and they're all responsible people. Some of them have families, some of them have high jobs, you know, own big companies, but they're responsible, got it?

I would say that's one of the most important qualities of a ... I'm not gonna trust you with my life if you can't feed yourself, you see what I mean? I'm not gonna trust you with my spiritual life if you can't figure out how to make $50 a day, understand?

Got it? Okay. Alright, second one, okay, so first principle path, call it renunciation because I don't want to change all the masters, but what it means is, I'm tired of seeing the suffering of the world, I'm tired, I'm tired of it, okay?

I'm tired of it, that's all, that's all, I can't take it anymore, okay? These wars in Syria, in you know, Israel, Orit's friends got a missile dropped on them a few days ago, you know, I'm tired of seeing this stuff, you know, I'm tired of these crazy things going on, I'm tired of people dying all around me, you know, it makes me ... I'm tired, okay?

That's the first principle path, okay? What are you gonna write on the homework? I'm tired, that's all I can take, I don't want it anymore, okay?

I don't want people dying around me, okay? It's so lonely, my old lady, her worst suffering is that she's the last one, there's no one she can call, they all died, okay? And it will happen to us, it will happen to you, okay?

There will be a day when the last person from this training dies, okay? So, I'm tired, I don't want to see this anymore, I want to fix it, okay? That's the first principle path, got it?

I'm tired. If you want to show off your English, put renunciation, but I'm happy to take I'm tired on the homework. I'm tired of this stuff, you know, let's fix it, let's get it, let's stop this.

There are planets where they stopped it, okay? There's whole planets where people studied ACI, and no one dies anymore, and no one has to meet irritating people anymore, okay? Everyone has a Model X, until Model Z comes out, okay?

Everyone's happy because they understand Buddhism, and every planet goes through this evolution. Some are already finished, some are halfway through like us, and some didn't get Buddhism yet, okay? I'm tired of it, okay?

That's the first one, first principle path. Second principle path? It's called bodhicitta, okay?

If you see a book that says the Buddha mind as a translation of bodhicitta, throw it out, okay? They don't know what they're talking about, you know? People always give me books at the airport, oh Geshe-la, here's a book, you know?

I'm like, oh thanks. I go through customs and I throw it out on the other side, especially if it says Bodhi mind, or enlightenment mind, come on, okay? It means, ready?

The wish to become enlightened. It doesn't mean an enlightened mind that's already enlightened, duh! Got it?

Okay? You have it before you become a Buddha, mainly, okay? I want to become enlightened so I can split my body into a billion pieces and help all the people who are suffering of things that I'm tired of.

Got it? It's natural next step, okay? I'm fed up with seeing people die.

Then, well what are you gonna do about it? Hey, I'm gonna become Buddha, because then I can split my body and teach ACI in a billion planets instead of just one country on the internet, got it? Okay?

That's ... that's all. I call it the wish for enlightenment and I capitalize the W, okay?

I'm fed up with bodhicitta. Citta does mean mind, bodhi does mean Buddhahood, bodhicitta doesn't mean enlightened mind, it's a bad translation, super bad translation. That's a James Brown song, super bad.

It's super bad, okay? Got it? It doesn't mean that at all.

If you see that in a translation, just ... it means the rest of the book is bad also, okay? If they didn't figure that much out.

Okay, got it? Pet peeve. Bad translations are 90% of my irritation, word is the other 10%.

Just kidding. Okay, third principle path. If you want to become a Buddha to help all living beings, you gotta see emptiness directly, that's all.

Third principle path. Call it wisdom, but you know, in English wisdom means like, wise person, they don't drive too fast, they don't eat stuff with a lot of cholesterol in it, that's not wisdom. We're not talking about that, we're talking about, have you seen emptiness directly, okay?

You can be a person like that. If you follow this class, if you follow these teachings, if you do the meditations you learn here, you can become an Arya, you can join Nagarjuna, Asanga, Tsongkhapa, you have everything you need. Everyone in this room has access to the direct perception of emptiness, and most of the people outside this room don't, okay?

Honestly, frankly, okay? You have everything you need to see emptiness directly. If you see it in the same hour, you see every planet, and every person on every planet, and you love them intensely during that hour, got it?

Then what else is gonna bother you your whole life? How can anyone make you upset or irritated? You know, they're like, I don't like what you cook for dinner.

Hey man, I saw all the billion planets, okay? Calm down, I don't care what you think about my dinner, okay? Got it?

You can't irritate an Arya, almost, unless you have bad translations and stuff. But okay, I mean, what's there to talk about if you saw your own Buddhahood, okay? In the future.

You saw the day, and you know it's coming. And then, who's gonna irritate you? I mean, if San Andreas teaches a really heavy yoga class, maybe.

But, come on, isn't that worth it? Just to do the ACI, see emptiness so nobody can irritate you? That's worth it, right?

That's worth coming here a bunch of times, okay? So, you can do it, okay? And that experience that happens right after you see emptiness directly, in the same hour, there's nothing like it, okay?

What happens the hour before you see emptiness directly? Come on, give me some specifics. You see a seed opening in your own mind, for the first time.

In mind-only language, you catch the storehouse opening. You ... you see, and it always happens like that, okay?

Technically, jor lam chod chok, just before you ... an hour before you see emptiness directly, for the first time, you see that this laptop is coming out of your seeds, coming from you, okay? Everything.

Then, who's gonna piss you off after that, you know? Your husband, who yells at you? He's also coming from you.

If you want to punch somebody, punch yourself, okay? Got it? Okay?

Understand? So, all these things happen. You confirm dependent origination one hour before you see emptiness directly, because dependent origination just means stuff is coming out of seeds in your mind, okay?

And you see it directly. Why can't you see it before that? Geshe-la's been teaching you year after year, why didn't you see it?

It's too fast, it's 65 a second. You got to meditate, okay? You got to have good meditation, okay?

Got it? Good seeds. Alright, those are the three principal paths.

Let's review. Number one, I'm tired, God bless, I'm tired, okay? Number two, I want to be a Buddha to help the universe.

I'm headed for the stars next week. I'm finishing this planet this week, I got it wrapped up by Sunday, and then I'm headed out, okay? That's intention, okay?

Though, you can say though-wish, capital W, I'll take it on a homework, okay? What's ... by the way, I finished the homework Tim, it took me ...

the master, it's like six pages, good luck. I didn't write the homework for tonight, but I'll do it by morning, okay? Third one?

Yeah, they call it DPE, I didn't invent that, it's not so bad. Somebody changed their car license to DPE. Direct Perception of Emptiness, okay?

Alright. Okay, got it? Those are what ACI course one is all about.

That's the only main subject of ACI course one, okay? So, all of Buddhism is covered in ACI course one. Why did you do the rest of the course Geshe-la?

I don't know, it's just fun. Okay, the last homework question. I'm not giving you a break, okay?

You got a pee-pee, just get up and go, okay? You're allowed. Yes, but it's got to be really good, because otherwise I won't finish the class.

Okay, it's not good. Alright, the last question is, are these three principal paths physical, mental, or are they concepts? Mental.

They are attitudes, they are attitudes, okay? They're not paths, they're not concrete, okay? They're not even instructions, they're not sutras, they're ideas, they're ways of thinking.

Attitudes, okay? Should have been called the three principal attitudes. Okay, alright, I finished homework one.

Let me finish the ... you sure? Okay, there's no microphone, I'm sorry.

Oh, okay. Three problems of the path. Number one, you're not open to learning, you're upside down.

Number two, what you hear, you mix it up with other, you know, ayahuasca, shaman stuff. Number three, you're leaky. Geshe-la teaches you something tonight, you forgot it by tomorrow.

Got it? You don't hold it, you don't retain it, okay? Alright, we're going to the second homework.

You guys okay?