Базовый курс ACI 1: Основные учения буддизма (2019, Аризона), занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
Alright, answer key class two, ready? Here we go. Does karma, good karma, which is called merit in the homework, okay?

Does it necessarily lead to nirvana and Buddhahood? Does all good karma lead to nirvana and Buddhahood? No, okay?

Why? There's 30 good karma, okay? There's karma you do with bad motivation, okay?

There's a huge question in Chandrakirti, there's a huge question in Chandrakirti, ready? So, according to DCI level 4, level 5, the way to get a partner, wife or husband, is to help lonely people. Plant seeds by going to a nursing home, find an old lady, an old man, and help them.

And I have had one for 20 years, okay? Why Geshe-la, you already have a partner? I want to keep them.

You can't stop, it's a pyramid scheme. MLM? Yeah, okay, you can't stop, okay?

To keep the partner going, you got to keep visiting the old lady, okay? So, now there comes a big question in Chandrakirti, if you go to visit the old lady and you don't love her, you just use her as your karmic object, you know? You try to find the worst one.

I had a guy in Detroit, he raised his hand, he said Geshe-la, I found my old lady. I said, yeah that's nice, he said, no no, I found THE old lady. I said, well what do you mean?

He says, she's poor, she's sick, and she's broke. Poor, broken, lonely. So, I can get a partner, money, and good health from one lady, you know?

Okay? He was so happy, and it's true, okay? I'm sorry.

So anyway, the question comes in Chandrakirti, if you visit the old lady with a cold heart, you just want a boyfriend, you don't care if she dies tomorrow, okay? Will you get the boyfriend or not? You will, okay?

You will. Yeah, but he'll be a selfish son of a gun, okay? You're collecting two karmas, white and black, okay?

You will get a boyfriend, but he will be unpleasant. It is good karma, but it may not lead you to nirvana or Buddhahood if you don't have the motivation. There's such a thing as dirty good karma, okay?

Good karma that comes with the ... you get the boyfriend, but he's selfish, okay? Or he doesn't have a job, and he expects you to make all the money.

Something like that. You know this kind, alright. Alright, next question.

In the book The Three Principal Paths, you should understand something important. There's a tradition in the Tsongkapa lineage that you cannot give the secret teachings to a person without a review of the Lamrim first. Even if they pass the eighteen courses, it doesn't matter.

You must review the Lamrim with them before they get the secret teachings. You're not allowed to give the secret teachings without doing a Lamrim again, which is a summary of the Geshe course. So, in our Diamond Way course, we made it the first three courses.

The first three courses are actually not Diamond Way, they're a review of the Lamrim, and a very famous Lamrim called the Path to Bliss, by the first Panchen Lama. Extraordinary poet, extraordinary philosopher, extraordinary ... unbelievable, okay?

So, and that's the last time Geshe Lothar came here, and during those teachings he shared a lot of experiences that he had with my teacher, okay? That's ... I think that's the last time he was here.

That was 16 years ago, okay? Cool? Alright.

Now, so one of the big secret teachings is called Maha Mudra. Say Maha? Mudra.

Maha Mudra. In Tibetan? Chakya Chempo, okay?

Mudra means the seal that a king puts on his letter when he says 40,000 cavalry soldiers should march to, I don't know, Afghanistan and take it over. You know, it's the old confirmation email, and if you were caught with a seal resembling the king's seal, you would be killed immediately. You see?

It means, it's his way of signing a paper, okay? And you should never, a king would never be without his seal. I like to say, the American president has a black box, we call it the black box, and there's a military, high military officer, he's always within 20 meters of the American president.

That box has the key to send the nuclear missiles around the world, because right now you have only 15 minutes to decide. You have 15 minutes to send them or not to send them. So, they're just, they stand outside his bedroom all night.

Once you become president, I saw when Obama came out of the White House, he was like, ah, you know, Trump, you got the box, I don't have the box anymore, you know, he was so happy, you know. Why am I talking about that? It's like the mudra, okay?

The king, the emperor must have their ... nobody can touch it, they must have it with them, okay? So, it became a word to describe the direct perception of emptiness, okay?

Especially the emptiness of your mind, okay? It became a word that means the direct perception of emptiness. And then, in Tantra, in the secret teachings, it became a word for your spiritual partner, okay?

Mudra, in the secret teachings, means your spiritual partner, okay? And that's the fastest way to practice the diamond way. If you can find a highly qualified spiritual partner, practice together with them, that's the fastest way to do the fastest way, okay?

It's the highest way. And there are stories in the monastery about Pabongka's spiritual partner, very interesting. He had a special cave, and there's all these stories about this angel who used to walk out of the cave, like people would just run into her, you know, like, wow, you know?

Buddha had a spiritual partner called Tilottama, okay? And according to the diamond way, he only became enlightened because he had a spiritual partner, and they became enlightened on the same morning, together. So, imagine, you're sitting together with your partner, the Sun comes up at Diamond Mountain, and with the first rays of light, you both get enlightened.

That's the real story, okay? And you can read it in the texts. John recovered those texts.

It's highly secret books of Gyumri. I asked for those books because my teacher became the abbot. So, I said, you're abbot right?

He said, yeah. I said, give me those books, I want to input them. He said, no.

And we have an input center about a hundred yards from the monastery in Hunsur. So, I gave up, I couldn't get those books, and twelve highly secret books. Then one day from Hunsur, which is all ladies, the data came.

All of it, all twelve books, you know? I'm like, I called him, how'd you get these books? They're like, we know some of the monks.

I'm like, man, good job! You know, they didn't do anything bad, okay? They just, you know, asked for them.

And so, the whole story of Tilottama is in those books, and I translated it, and it's in Course 17, okay? Of the Diamond Way, okay? So, Karpa had a partner, Tangshama, the lady with the red hat, and that's a beautiful story, which you can read.

He was assigned a partner by Manjushri, okay? And he didn't really want one, and that's another story, okay? But, Manjushri said, look, you're going too slow, you need a partner, you know?

So, that's a beautiful story, okay? You can kind of read that in that big red book, if you look carefully. We even made a painting of her, okay?

Alright, anyway, why are we talking about Tantra in the middle of Course 1, Class 1, of the non-tantra? Why are we talking about Mahamudra? Yeah, beautiful.

You cannot touch the secret teachings without these three attitudes, you will fail, you will fail, okay? Something bad will happen, something really bad will happen. We had people die here, okay?

Something bad will happen, okay? If you try to practice the secret teachings without those three attitudes, if your motivation is not, I'm tired, I gotta be a Buddha, I gotta see emptiness directly. If you don't have those three in your heart, you will fail in the second eighteen courses, you will fail spectacularly, like, amazingly.

It'll be a real amazing, okay? So, it's actually, these three are protecting you for when you get to the higher teachings, okay? If you don't have them, you cannot practice those teachings, okay?

So, Pabongka Rinpoche, Tsongkapa, they're trying to sell you first-grade lamrim, you know? And they're telling you, if you don't learn addition, you can't learn calculus, you know what I'm saying? You won't make it, got it?

You need this stuff. If you want to become a Buddha, you gotta have the three principle paths. If you want to practice Mahamudra, tantra, with a partner, by the way, why is a partner called mudra?

You can never lead them, you see what I mean? It's like the Emperor's stamp, okay? You can't ...

once you make that relationship, you should stay with them, okay? Until you're enlightened. It doesn't mean you can't switch partners if it happens, okay?

But it does mean, when you make that commitment to use that path, you must have a partner, okay? You can't let go of that ... you can't give up on that idea, okay?

If you lose your partner, you should find a new one, a good one, okay? But you can't give up, okay? Like, you can have fights with your partner, you can separate from your partner, but you must find your partner, okay?

You can't give up. It's mudra, got it? Okay, and if you don't have the three principle paths, you will lose your partner, and bad stuff will happen, got it?

Okay. All right, mmm ... yeah, so that's homework question number three, what's the relationship between the three principle paths and the Great Seal, and the word principle is misspelled in the homework.

Well, it happens to the best of us. Okay, question four, what are the two principle causes of being a Buddha? And we call it, you ready?

Method, say method, and wisdom, okay? Method and wisdom, they're called the two wings of the bird. If you don't have two wings you can't fly, okay?

Here's method, here's wisdom, okay? Method is Bodhisattva's training, training as a Bodhisattva, basically. Wisdom is the understanding of emptiness, okay?

If you don't have these two, you can't fly, you'll never make it, okay? Method ... so, method is a code word for the activities and thinking of a Bodhisattva.

Wisdom is wisdom, okay? Hundred dollars! When's the last time you thought about these things?

If you get it wrong you owe me a hundred dollars. Nice! Dang, he's such an expensive dude.

Hundred dollars, yeah. DGE BA DI'I DGE BA KUN TSUL KHRIMS YIN ZHIG TSUL TSOGS KYI. Okay, got it?

Collection of merit and wisdom, okay? Method and wisdom, got it? Okay, we'll talk about it.

Where's that come from? Four zero dollars! The sixty verses of ...

it's the last of the sixty verses that Nick is translating, okay? That prayer you do every night. Alright, okay, here we go.

Question five, what's the main elements of method and what's the main ... what's inside a method and what's inside a wisdom? I'll give you a clue.

Split the three principal paths into those two. Which is which? Where does renunciation belong?

With method. Where does bodhichitta belong? Method.

Where does wisdom belong? With wisdom, yay! Okay, you passed questions five.

Sorry Tim, I'm on schedule. Okay, now there's a special teaching called the Bodies of a Buddha. There's a special teaching called the Bodies of a Buddha.

Kaya, right? Dharmakaya, Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya, Kayakaya, Svabhavakaya, okay? There's lots of kayas.

Bodies of the Buddha, okay? And it's a very very important teaching in Buddhism, is the different bodies of a Buddha, okay? And I'm sorry, you know, on the way here I was thinking, how do I explain bodies?

They're not bodies, they're not separate bodies, okay? It doesn't mean that. It just means part, okay?

Buddha has two parts, or Buddha has three parts, or Buddha has four parts, okay? So, there's three different ways to teach the kayas. You can teach two, you can teach three, you can teach four, okay?

I'm gonna do two with you to start with, okay? Ready? And it's on your homework.

Number one, say sukhu. Rupakaya, what's it mean? Yeah, the physical part of a Buddha, the physical part of a Buddha, okay?

The part you can see, touch, okay? That's called rupakaya. You want to go deeper?

Two parts, there's two bodies inside the physical body. Give me any of them. Give me one.

Yeah, those two. One is called emanation body, the one you send to planets, okay? The copy of you that you send to other planets.

You can be a dog making an old lady happy in Los Angeles, and you can be an uber driver in Beijing, lift ... didu? Didi, sorry.

You can be a didi driver in Beijing at the same time, okay? If it makes people happy, and that's called emanation body. You have the power to split your body and serve multiple people at the same time, got it?

Easy, right? What's sambhogakaya? That's called enjoyment body, it just means your headquarter body.

Headquarter physical body in Buddha paradise, okay? Headquarter physical body. It has the ...

how many signs? 112. I taught it here for like a week, but that was a while ago, and we got leaky teacups.

32 major signs, 80 secondary signs on the Buddhist body. That body, classic? Classic body, that's the sambhogakaya, that's the one that stays in heaven, okay?

Then they come here, they look like Seiji, they look like Steven, they look like Connie, okay? That's nirmanakaya, got it? Okay.

Now, the other body, when you teach it as two bodies, is called dharmakaya. Say dharmakaya, okay cool. It also ...

you want to go deeper? It also has two parts, which is why you can make four bodies out of two bodies, okay? It also has two parts.

Number one, the easy one is the mental state of a Buddha. Jnana dharmakaya, okay? Jnana dharmakaya.

The omniscience of a Buddha, the ability to see all things at all times, okay? Past, present, and future. That ability is a separate body.

Body number three so far tonight, right? What was number one? Nirmanakaya.

Send yourself as a dog to LA, send yourself as a Didi driver to Beijing. And what's the second one? Yeah, home body, you know, paradise body.

Sometimes I like to call it paradise body, okay? With the 112 marks, okay? Body number three?

It's mental, the mental state of a Buddha. Can see all things at all times. Now, body number four is the most interesting one.

What's it called? The emptiness body. Say swabhava.

Swabhava. Sanskrit doesn't really have a V. Swabhava.

Swabhava, okay? Swabhavakaya, okay? Emptiness body.

For a hundred dollars, and not word, okay? You're not ... if you want to answer it, it's one dollar.

Tell me what's super cool about the Swabhavakaya? The emptiness body. Yeah, you have it now.

You already have it. It's your Buddha nature. It's the ...

what's the Sanskrit word? Word. For ten dollars.

Buddha nature, in Sanskrit. Huh? Whoa.

Tathagata Garbha. Say Tathagata ... Garbha.

Okay, Garbha means the womb of a woman. Tathagata means Buddha, and you already have this womb. Every person has it.

You have body number four. You already have body number four, okay? You want to impress your friends at a cocktail party?

I saw a nice cartoon in the New Yorker. There's this nerdy guy talking to this lady in a miniskirt, and she's ... they're at a cocktail party, and then the guys always try to impress the girl, right?

So, and in the cartoon she says, no, I don't want to know your secret mantra. He's trying to ... okay, anyway.

Why did I talk about that? Well, how's that connect to cocktail parties? Oh yeah, you want to impress your friends.

Okay, if you meet a girl at a cocktail party, you can say, do you know that part of you is already enlightened? You know, you got 25% Buddha in you already, and then she said, oh wow, I'm so impressed. Will you want to go out with me?

I told Veronica, you know, I'm a real Tibetan grammar nerd. I'm the only one. She said, oh ...

okay, anyway. You're already 25% Buddha, okay? It means you already have emptiness, which means you can change into a Buddha, okay?

The chew toy can become a pen, got it? If the stick didn't have emptiness, the chew toy couldn't become a pen, got it? So, you're ...

right now we're all chew toys, and you can become a pen, you can become a Buddha. Why? Because you're not anything from your own side.

If you plant the seeds, this can change. Okay, got it? So, that's your blessed fourth body, okay?

Why are we talking about that? Homework question number seven. What are the causes of the two bodies?

Yeah, merit and wisdom. You say it every night right? What's the body that's created by wisdom?

Dharmakaya, Dharma body, which just means the mind and the emptiness of a Buddha together, because one is looking at the other, got it? Okay? The mind of a Buddha and the emptiness of a Buddha together are called Dharmakaya, the ...

the body of all things, okay? And then, what's the cause of the physical body of a Buddha? Good karma, good deeds, okay?

SON NAMS NGES DBANG RGYUN GYI'I SKYE BA'O KUN ... you're hoping I'm finishing the class, but I'm not. NGES DBANG RGYUN GYI'I SKYE BA'O KUN, SON NAMS NGES RGYUN GYI'I THOGS PA BYED, SON NAMS NGES RGYUN GYI'I THOGS PA BYED, DANG PA KUN YI THOGS PA ZHOG, may all beings achieve the two holy bodies, okay?

That's what we're talking about, okay? Got it? Alright, oh Tim, we're gonna make it, I think.

Which one of the three principal paths causes each of the bodies? Which principal path causes the physical body of a Buddha? Huh?

Second one, for sure, and also the first one, okay? Getting tired of this life, getting tired of seeing people die around you, and the wish for enlightenment are causes for the physical body, mainly. That's what you say in the debate ground when you want to fudge something, mainly, okay?

And then what's the cause for the wisdom body? The direct perception of emptiness, mainly. Okay, got it?

I'd like to tell you something cool that happened to me, okay? I had this stuff going on all day with Ken Rinpoche, I was so lucky to live with him, so everything we talked about was Dharma, and so I would ask him questions constantly, and he would try to avoid me, but I learned to make momos, so he couldn't avoid me, which is the most delicious Tibetan food, and in fact I'm gonna make some next week for Geshe Lothar. I bought the pot, new pot, special one, okay, for him.

Anyway, I said Rinpoche, what's the connection between renunciation and bodhichitta? What do you think he said? Good, yeah, okay, understand?

Bodhichitta is just renunciation spread towards everybody, got it? It's such a cool answer, okay? The second principle path is just the first principle path aimed at everybody, got it?

The first principle path is aimed at me, I'm tired, I'm tired of seeing friends die, I'm tired of being in this kind of world, okay? Then when you feel like that for everybody, you reach the path number two, it's principle path number ... got it?

Cool? Cool man? 非常酷!

非常棒! Okay, what's that thing if a monkey hits on a typewriter all day, one word will come out? That's my Chinese.

Okay, what are the two obstacles to Buddhahood? Yeah, one is called mental affliction obstacle, okay? Mental affliction obstacle.

The second one is called obstacles to omniscience, okay? Somebody other than word, tell me why the wording is confusing, for a hundred dollars. Somebody who's not word, tell me why these two words are a little confusing.

Now, I mean it's a good guess, but ... and it's true, but it's not what I want. I can tell it's coming.

Good. Yeah, think about it. Yeah, good.

Think about it. In Tibetan, the first obstacle is called klesha obstacle, but it doesn't mean obstacle to reaching kleshas, it means the obstacle which is kleshas, you see what I mean? But the traditional second obstacle is the obstacle to omniscience.

Then it's the obstacle to the goal, it's not the obstacle. So, they're not the same. Okay, got it?

And it's an easier way to remember it. I'll say it again, okay? The first kind of obstacle, which is an obstacle to nirvana, is all of your kleshas.

The kleshas equal the obstacle, got it? The kleshas are the problem, got it? The name of the second obstacle is omniscience obstacle, and that doesn't equal anymore, it means gonna stop you from omniscience.

You understand? The wording is weird, okay? If you don't understand, ask somebody else.

Okay, ah, question ten, yay! I'm on the last one, I did it. So, that means I can do some teacher training stuff tonight, okay?

Or at least I can start. Okay, hmm, why was Je Tsongkapa able to write 10,000 pages of incredibly deep and difficult explanation of Buddhism? He cheated!

Yeah, he learned how to talk to Manjushri, okay? In English we call it plagiarism. It's where you write your book and you steal everything from DCI or somebody like that, okay?

He stole everything from Manjushri and he looked really smart. It looks like Tsongkapa's really smart, but he got it all from Manjushri. In fact, so well that later he was accused of being Manjushri, okay?

Like he reported to all his friends. Their friends are like, how'd you write this thing? He's like, I had help from Manjushri.

And then later, his close disciples, he said, I am Manjushri. Got it? He's really close to Manjushri.

Got it? Okay, now you have finished homework two.