Базовый курс ACI 1: Основные учения буддизма (2019, Аризона), занятие 9

[Speaker 1]
We're doing class nine, okay? ACI course one, class nine. And we reached the third principal path which is?

Yeah, correct view of reality. Where is correct view in the kitchen? By the way, I say, okay?

This is my big thing nowadays. Geshe Michael says, every single idea in the 300,000 books of Buddhism is in the kitchen. And if you're a really good ACI teacher, you can find every high idea in Buddhism is in the kitchen when you're fighting with your husband, okay?

Alright? I say the whole thing is there. Then I had another understanding like a few days later on a tour, if it's not in the kitchen, Buddha wouldn't put it in the scripture, okay?

Got it? Okay? So, where is ...

what did I ask? Where's the third principal path in the kitchen? Not bad, yeah.

The wife ... view has to be a state of mind right? So, the wife is looking at the husband, and the wife is understanding he's not ...

the one that ... I didn't do anything husband right? I wish we had ...

who's that guy? Ayrton in Mexico, he does it so well. I didn't do anything!

I think he must deal with his wife sometimes. Pachi, he does it so well, you know, I didn't do anything! And the I didn't do anything husband doesn't exist.

That's all, and that's correct view, okay? Don't make it more complicated than that. If you want to help people as an ACI teacher, bring it to the kitchen, okay?

If you really want to help people, give them something they can take home, and not ... not philosophy, okay? So, keep talking about the kitchen, okay?

I got the copyright to the two husbands in the kitchen. I say you can use it, okay? But not the week before I teach it in a country.

Then ... always bring it to the kitchen, okay? Bring emptiness to the kitchen.

Otherwise, I think Nancy can tell you, we grew up in the same time, we were both hippies a hundred years ago, and I think we didn't really understand the kitchen for 20 years, you know? Nobody taught it to us clearly. You know, we got ...

we studied ... we studied with many many Lamas, and we attended many classes, and we couldn't tell you what's happening in the kitchen, you see? So, please don't do that, okay?

Don't teach emptiness without the kitchen, okay? And then everything else is easy, okay? Buddha had a Heart Sutra, Geshe Michael has the two husbands in the kitchen.

Mine's better. We're probably going to recite it at weddings in the future. Once I was two husbands in the kitchen, and my wife came home ...

I didn't do anything! It's better right? When your kids get married okay?

Huh? Yeah, we'll try it in Bali. But I'll tell you something, people like things they don't understand.

So, maybe we do it in French or something. Alright. Okay, here's the first question.

Let's do the whole homework in the kitchen, okay? Let's do the homework in the kitchen, and I'm gonna finish this homework tonight, I don't care how long it takes, but because I'm grandpa, I think it might magically end around nine o'clock. There are two realities in the kitchen.

There's two levels to reality okay? There's two kinds of reality. First, give me the name.

Ultimate reality and deceptive reality. Now, the word deceptive is difficult in English, it almost doesn't pass the waiter test. You can say there's a reality which does not lie to you, and there's a reality which does lie to you okay?

There's a reality which always speaks true to you, and there's a reality which always lies to you okay? Let's go from there okay? So, one of your biggest jobs as an ACI teacher is to avoid the big words of Buddhism in the past okay?

Don't ... I remember, I went into the first class, you're going to some from samsara by doing dependent origination in the suchness of the dharma, and then all of your nirmanclasias will be completely shantivipassana, and I'm like ... I said, I understood the DHA and the EH you know?

So, come on you know, you're a teacher, you're not like a ... I don't know, you didn't help anybody okay? So, start your emptiness with the kitchen okay?

And go from there. Then you can start adding ideas okay? So, someone ...

where's the ... where's the reality in the kitchen which is lying to you? Yeah, it looks like the husband is yelling, and you didn't do anything.

It looks like that okay? It looks like that. Sometimes you travel on this highway in the desert, you'll see a big lake you know, 200 miles away, and it's illusion right?

It's illusion. So, all these Buddhist people, especially these Russians, Ukrainians who love Russian speakers, they are very mystichesky, they love mystery, so they will say, oh life is like illusion. How do you say illusion in Portuguese?

Illusia. Then, try to explain it okay? Don't just do this mystichesky.

Explain it okay? This is illusion. What's illusion in the kitchen?

What's the illusion in the kitchen? Yeah, it looks like he yelled at you and you didn't do anything, but actually you did do something, and if you think you didn't do anything, that's an illusion okay? That's an illusion.

And ... listen, there's no other illusion in Buddhism okay? I ...

trust me, John got the books, I studied them. There's nothing else there okay? There's nothing else there.

If you understand the kitchen well, you understand any school, any book, any topic okay? It's enough. I'm kind of ...

it's kind of disappointing to spend 25 years in the Geshe course, and somebody could have just told me about the kitchen you know? So anyway, yeah, that's deceptive reality, reality which is lying to you okay? And ...

all of the reality you ever experienced in your life so far was deceptive reality, hundred percent, hundred percent okay? What's pramana mean? Correct perception, accurate perception.

In the highest school of Buddhism, there's no pramana, no such thing. It's always lying to you, reality ... you're always wrong okay?

It's kind of weird okay? There's no real ... you're never right, it's like living with a woman, you're ...

you're never right okay? Get used to it. Now you have two deceptive realities in your life okay?

I make jokes like that, nowadays people say, you shouldn't make jokes like that. I don't know, I have fun with it. If Radhika's here, I promise I will say it.

Maybe I will hear a lecture later. Okay, what's the opposite of deceptive reality? Yeah, ultimate reality.

Now, normal human being never sees it in their lifetime, maybe once, when? Two times. During the death process, briefly, for a few seconds, it's like ...

it's like a car going by and you're like ... and most people never realize what it is, but emptiness appears to you during death. Also, if you're very deep into an orgasm okay?

You will have a minute, some kind of ... you will touch emptiness very slightly okay? And I think that's maybe why sex is so addicting, we're gonna talk about it tomorrow, but maybe that's why that experience is so powerful.

Death is also addicting. Just kidding. Okay, all right anyway, ultimate reality.

In the DCI level 7, we talk about touching ultimate reality. We call it the diamond world, because we want the courses to be available to people in all countries and all religions. So, we call it diamond world, we don't call it emptiness.

And I like to compare it to Manhattan. So, I worked in Manhattan for 19 years. It's an island.

The train station, Grand Central train station, I think a million and a half people walk across that floor every day. And the reason they can put tall buildings in Manhattan, especially southern Manhattan, is that it has a bedrock foundation. So, it's a weird island.

It's not dirt, it's pure rock. In fact, they found a nine-foot garnet underneath when they built the subways. It's one of the largest crystals in the world.

So, it's pure rock, you see? But when you walk across this busy train station, how many people from the million and a half people think about the rock three feet under? Nobody, okay?

They are not aware of it, okay? It's ... it's right there.

Every morning, every night when they go home, they run across ... don't get in the way of one of these people. They have a tie on, they have expensive suit, and if you are eating a pretzel or something, they will smash into you.

Right Steven? They'll just smash into you. Don't get in their way.

They're trying to get home, okay? But none of those people think about what's underneath, you see? And emptiness is very similar, okay?

It's around you all the time. It's around us all the time. Every object in this room, okay?

The light, the ceiling, the booger Geshe-la forgot to wipe off his nose. People are always giving me booger advice. Everything has emptiness, all of them.

All things have emptiness, okay? But we can't see it, and we don't think about it, okay? So that's ultimate reality.

If you can touch it for 20 minutes, you will become a Buddha within a few ... short time, okay? I like to call it like a cancer starts on the inside, a good cancer, and you start to become living diamond.

The inside becomes living diamond, like one small piece, and then it starts to spread in the body, in ... you know, I don't know if there's such a thing, but if some person who saw emptiness decide they don't want to become Buddha, it's too late. Like, I can't imagine, but if you see emptiness directly, and you say you know I'm not really into the Buddha thing, you can't stop it.

It's like trying to stop a ... it's already metastasized as soon as you see the emptiness. You cannot stop it, okay?

You're already becoming a Buddha from the inside, okay? Just 20 minutes, okay? It's around you all the time.

We can call it the biggest frustration in the world, right? If you touch it for 20 minutes, you become a diamond angel, okay? And it's around you all the time.

So, just do it. What are you waiting for? And it's a big frustration, because we can't.

It's just hard to see. Someone has to train you. You need very specific training to see it.

If you have that training, if you have a good husband-in-the-kitchen teacher, you can do it, okay? You can do it. Anybody can do it.

It's not you have to be in the time of the Buddha, you have to have shaved head, you have to have a robe, your name has to be Ananda, or Shariputra, or ... it's not true. Don't think these are historical people, it's you, okay?

Don't think it's only people in Buddha's time, it's not, it's you, okay? You have very clear information how to do it, maybe clearer than what Buddha's students had, okay? And you have to just do it, okay?

You can do it, everyone in this room can do it. And if you get old and die, you will curse me, you will say Geshe-la didn't tell us to do it fast. Do it fast, okay?

Do it fast. Pack your bags two days before you go to Diamond Mountain, and then relax, okay? You don't have much time, you know, and you will never get a chance like this, okay?

,DAL BA'I BRTEN NAS YI ZHIG GNOD LAS LHAG, You won't get it again easily, you won't get this chance again. Use it now, okay? See emptiness.

And you have everything you need, okay? In the ACI courses, in the ... you have everything.

The DCI manual for level seven, I think it's the most practical manual for seeing emptiness, than any sutra, okay? I think so. Okay, alright.

Then we study dependent origination, right? Let's talk about that. ,RTEN CING BRAL BA CHUNG BA, Say pratitya, samutpada.

Then, I hate this word, dependent origination. It definitely doesn't pass the waiter test. If you go in a Mexican restaurant and say, could I have a dependent origination, they'll say, we have tacos, but we don't have dependent origination, okay?

Is that some kind of salad or something? Okay, so ... I tried for many years to find a better translation.

Nowadays, I kind of like dependence. Dependence, it's not enough, but ... things depend on other things.

,DI CHUNG BA'I NA DE CHUNG, Say, ,DI CHUNG BA'I NA DE CHUNG, The ancient, ancient, ancient definition of dependent origination. If this happens, that happens. If this happens, that happens.

Okay, got it? And to be honest, in this homework I called it interdependence, but it's a little too much on the both ways. You see, dependent origination doesn't necessarily mean both ways.

It ... it means it actually, but it's not the emphasis. So, interdependence is not very precise.

I think dependence might be better. Things depend on other things. Nothing happens from nothing.

Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever comes ... Okay?

And by the way, books have been written about dependent origination. Vasubandhu wrote a book, which will be a thousand pages when we translate it, just on the twelve links. Okay?

It's an amazing subject. You can spend ten years on this subject. Sugeng is translating one of those books, and it will take him about ten or fifteen years, and they are delightful.

They are delicious. Okay? By the way, the translation classes from Sedona are online for free.

I did 72 classes in January, and they're free, and if you don't watch them, you're dum-dum. Okay? They're very fun, and confusing.

Okay? But you can learn so much. Just swim in those, put them on when you go to work, okay?

You will understand two or three sentences, but they're amazing. Those classes are amazing. You're crazy if you don't listen to them sometimes.

Just listen to them in the car, you know? Put them on when you're cooking. Okay?

No, it sinks into your brain. Okay? It doesn't cost anything.

Okay? Brainwash yourself. Okay.

Alright. This book, this commentary by Pabongka Rinpoche, is ... it has some of the best explanations of these ideas of any book.

Okay? This little book, Principle Teaching, it has some of the best explanation ... it has the best explanation of dependent origination I have ever seen, and I use it almost every day.

Okay? If you want to know dependent origination, read the reading for this class, class nine. Okay?

So, I'm gonna go through three kinds of dependent origination. Okay? The third one's the correct one, but the first two are super sexy.

Okay? Alright. First one belongs to the first three schools, together.

Which is? Detailess School, Sutras School, and Mind-Only School. These three schools have the same explanation of dependent origination.

Okay? And they're called Functionalist Group. Except for Word, $100.

Why are they called Functionalist? Together they're called Functionalist Schools. Wait, wait, wait.

Ronit started, I don't know if she's gonna finish. Close. Kinda.

But why are they called Functionalist? Yeah, good. So, $100 for the handsome guy.

The other handsome guy. Yeah, like gasoline has a power in it to drive a car, to make a cargo. Fire has a heat inside.

Functions belong to things. Functions exist in things. Okay?

So, that's a belief of 75% of Buddhists. Okay? They think ...

nobody put heat in the fire. They make a joke, they say ... Diamond Mountain didn't hire a person to go around and make all the cactuses thorn sharp.

They just are. Okay? The cactus thorn is sharp.

Nobody got hired to sharpen all the cactuses in Diamond Mountain. That's just what they're ... function lies in the thing.

Okay? So, that's why they're called Functionalist. Okay, now somebody ...

Daniel, here comes Daniel's answer. Okay? If you ask them, what's dependent origination?

They will say ... yeah, all things depend on causes. Okay?

And that's ... you know, they say 因果 in Chinese or something, and when they say dependent origination, you think, oh things depend on their causes. Baby depends on the mom.

I don't know, food depends on cook. You know, thousands of examples. Okay?

And that's ... when you first heard dependent origination, someone taught it to you, 99% they said things come from their causes. Okay?

Things come from their causes. And this is dependent origination. Where's that dependent origination in the kitchen?

Yeah, the yelling husband came from the ... from ... I planted seeds by yelling at the kids.

I create the cause by yelling at the kids, and the result came out. The yelling husband is not independent. The yelling husband depend on yelling at the kids.

What's the classical proof word that something is a cause for a result? What's the classical proof that something is a cause for a result? Yeah, good.

If you stop making the cause, the result will stop. Which in the kitchen is? Yeah, if you never yell at the kids, the husband will never yell at you.

It's impossible.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Got it? That's the lowest of the three kinds of dependent origination. On question two, on homework nine.

What's the group? Yeah, those three schools together, which are called the functionist group, because they believe fire is hot. The function of fire, to burn, lives inside fire.

Nobody put it there, but really they ... did. You made the fire hot.

Okay, got it? That's why you can walk on water. Okay?

You can walk on water. It's very famous in Buddhism. I had it in a debate, and I screwed up, so I never forgot it.

It's a discussion of whether water can be solid. So, yeah. Okay, number two.

First, tell me, does the dependent origination of the first three schools cover everything? No. There's things that don't have causes, which do exist.

Okay? There are things which don't have causes, which do exist. Like your husband yelling at you, right?

I didn't do anything, result came, right? No. Okay, give me an example.

Space. Okay, space. Space and emptiness are two famous examples.

If you want to get really fancy? Yeah, the permanent ending of things. Like, if you learn the pen, and you never go to animal birth again, that has its own dependent origination.

Okay? It's a negativity, it's a negative. Okay?

Alright, so this is lower, middle way school. All things depend upon their parts, and that's dependent origination. All things depend upon their parts, and that's real dependent origination, because you functionless guys, you left out unchanging things.

Cause and effect only applies to changing things, but there's things in the world that don't change. Someone explain to me why space doesn't change. For $50, because I did it the four spaces like 10,000 times.

Not you, word, just forget it, unless I ask you, okay? Yeah, if Eric stands up, and by the way I'd like to welcome Eric, Ali's fiancé. I think the first time he came here, I ran into him on the road, I said you need a ride?

He said no, I'm just out for a walk. You know, first of all, that's weird. Why does this guy have time to take a walk?

And then, he had a bunch of papers in his hand, do you remember? And it was all the information about the Fort Bowie. So, I've been coming here for 19 years, I've never been there.

I never had time. And he was curious to see the history of this place, and I thought that was so cool. I said, now Ali, now I believe she got a good one, you know?

Somebody with good curiosity, you know, about where you are, you know, like what happened here, and why is there this place here, you know? So, anyway, I'm glad you're here, and I'm glad you've caught a good fish. You also caught a good fish.

Okay, so, lower middle way, things have parts, and as Gyelse just mentioned, if Gyelse gets up and goes to the kitchen, the space she's occupying will stay there, and if she comes back and sits down again, the space will still be there. It doesn't move, it doesn't go away, okay? That's why it's unchanging, okay?

Does it have parts? Yeah, front, back, left, and right, okay? So, even those things have parts.

If you're interested more on this subject, you can read Venerable Utpala's book on ... she's translating a book on emptiness meditations, which is a genre of literature called Tattvi. Say Tattvi.

It's just books about emptiness meditations. So, we added it to our translator team. She's the emptiness meditation expert.

So, if you want to go deeper on this idea, ask her for ... oh, it's online right? It's free online, all of our translations are free online.

In fact, there's a place where, when you read them, you have to make comments like ... this is really a dumb translation, okay? So, yeah, okay good.

Is that it? Oh, okay, that's where the video's at. Tim, never take a video of me from the back.

Okay, if number two is lower middle way, what's number three? Yeah, higher way, higher middle way. And it just means that all things depend on the pictures coming out of your seeds.

All things depend on the pictures that come out of your seeds. Where's this higher dependent origination in the kitchen? Yeah, when you open the door, and the seed opens, and the husband starts yelling, he's originating dependently on the seeds you planted with your kids.

Okay, cool. Yeah, Stephen. Yeah.

You know, in DCI we call it this. Okay, in DCI we call it this. You want to explain Stanley?

Loud? Yeah, so this part is correct in the Mind-Only School, but they say the husband and the seed live in the Foundation Consciousness. You are watching a video in your mind, okay?

The higher school says the video is so good it can be outside. Okay, cool, good question. And I remember ...

this is one of the only times I ever interrupted my scripture teacher Geshe Thubten Rinchen. I think I interrupted him once in 12 years or something, and that was the question. That's an interruptible question.

It's one of the best questions you can ask. Okay, hmm ... okay, so what's the ...

the Tibetan is tendrel, the Sanskrit is pratityasamutpada. You don't have to worry about it. Okay.

Last thing, we're actually gonna finish on time I guess. Yeah, by the way, they told me to leave before you guys leave, so they can hit you up for a red envelope. I support it.

Just because I have word in my life, okay? If it wasn't for that, I don't need it. My house is very, very, very cheap.

I live in the smallest legal house in Arizona. Okay, here's the question three. Buddhism teaches that no self exists.

What's that non-existent self look like? Okay. RGAG PA'I CHOS LA MA RIG PAR DE'I DNGOS MED RDZIN MA YIN.

Word, $300. Last chance to make some money off me honey. I'll say it again.

RGAG PA'I CHOS LA MA RIG PAR DE'I DNGOS MED RDZIN MA YIN. Author. Meaning?

$200. $100. $100, holding at $100.

$70. $50. $30.

$30. That's what I have to do with him right? Get him flustered.

It's very difficult. Yeah, okay. Shantideva said, if you don't know what's not there, forget emptiness.

If you don't know what's not there, forget emptiness. And that's called in Tibetan. Gotcha.

In the ACI courses, as an ACI teacher, you shouldn't use foreign words. That's kind of a deal we have together, okay? Don't impress people.

I mean impress them and then stop using them, okay? But you are allowed to use GAC CHA, because there's nothing like it in English. I like to tell, when I teach it to new people, I say it's like GAC CHA.

GAC CHA. Say GAC CHA. Yeah, GAC CHA.

Easy definition. One sentence. Yeah, what emptiness is empty of?

What's not there in the kitchen? What's not there in the kitchen? If you don't know the GAC CHA, what's not there in the kitchen?

If you say your pockets are empty, you say, but what's not in there? Money, okay? Or a credit card, but especially a credit card that doesn't work anyway, okay?

So, where's the GAC CHA in the kitchen? Yeah, the husband who ... I like to say the husband who decided to yell at you, okay?

Yeah, the I-didn't-do-anything husband. Come on Luka, say it a little bit more. Is that what you say with your husband?

Oh, I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything! I didn't do anything, husband!

Okay, when you teach it, you have to ... it's a good time to wake up the students, half of them are ... I didn't do anything!

They're all like, what happened? Is the class over? Yeah, the husband who yelled at you when you didn't do anything is the GAC CHA, and his absence from the kitchen is emptiness, okay?

Cool. Okay, so now you know the answer to the question. Self-nature, self ...

thing which comes from its own side, okay? A husband who can yell at you without you making any seeds before, by yelling at your kids, is ATMAN in Buddh ... ancient Sanskrit, self, the self.

But it means the thing which is itself, okay? Sometimes I like to call emptiness ... ready?

Nowadays I'm translating many pages and I like to use things are not themself. Things are not themself, okay? That's no self-nature.

No self-nature doesn't pass the waiter test. But if you go into the restaurant and you say, I don't have to pay you, and the guy says, why? And you say, because money is not money.

Okay? That's ... really, that's KORNG HING.

It is KORNG HING. Whether you will not get the police call, you ... I don't know, okay?

Things are not themselves, okay? Things are not ... the husband ...

the husband who's yelling is not the husband who's yelling. Without seeds, okay? Without your seeds.

Nothing in the universe is that. I think in my life, you know, if I'm teaching you ... the reason I'm teaching this is ...

we have a teacher training for the first time in 27 years, and I'm very happy about it, and I heard very good things about you guys, and I believe we are going to start a revolution. So, welcome to the revolution, all these new ACI teachers. I'm very excited about it.

I really, I really, really like it. But I ... in my own heart, my own presentation has changed a lot in 27 years, you know?

It took 27 years to come to the kitchen, you know? And again, I ask you as an ACI teacher, keep it in the kitchen. If you can't explain every idea in the 18 courses in the kitchen, you're not a good teacher, okay?

Because people ... even if they come to your class because you're handsome or you're beautiful, like Peter or Maria, they won't stay unless you bring it to the kitchen, okay? They won't stay in your class if you don't teach them to use it at home, okay?

Or in their workplace, okay? So, when you teach emptiness, you know, I beg you, teach it in the kitchen, teach it from the kitchen. Then later, teach them all the philosophy, and say, here's that in the kitchen, here's a mind only in the kitchen, here's Sutras in the kitchen, okay?

Keep comparing it to the kitchen, or you failed, you're wasting their time, okay? If you teach emptiness well, the first night they hear about emptiness, the third principal path, their marriage should start to improve that night. If you're a good ACI teacher, and you teach them emptiness, principal path number three, correctly, from the point of view of the kitchen first, and then go give a big words, okay?

Their marriage should start to improve that night, same night, okay? Cool? Thank you.

I'm gonna go, you have to stay, okay? Stay a long time. Yeah?

Oh, sorry. Okay. Koni?

Tim, line up that video. Mayday, okay. Okay, just ...

when you teach ... when you teach, have fun. Okay, this is Taiwan last month, and please, please, please, don't ...

please, please, please, don't be too serious. Have some fun, and your students will love it, and they will love you for your whole life. Okay, here we go.

Ready? Go.