Базовый курс ACI 2: Буддийское Прибежище — собрание великих идей из Совершенства мудрости (2019, Мексика), занятие 1

[Speaker 2]
Alright, so here we go. First thing, I'd like to talk a little bit about the ACI courses. And of course, that's mostly philosophy, but to be a good meditation teacher and to be a good retreat teacher, I think you need the philosophy also.

So, we have eight, we have, all of ACI courses are 36 courses.

[Speaker 1]
I designed them to take about five weeks each, which is two classes per week. And I started teaching them over 25 years ago. So, I taught three courses per year, and the first 18 courses took six years.

And we started in New York City, in a small apartment, in a special area of New York. It's called Hell's Kitchen. Very dangerous part of New York.

[Speaker 2]
Many students who came, their car was stolen during the class, but we didn't have any money, so we rented a place there.

[Speaker 1]
We start with, I think, eight students in the first class, and we sit around the kitchen table.

[Speaker 2]
There are two dogs.

[Speaker 1]
Maybe you heard the recording.

[Speaker 2]
And in the first class, there's one strange guy.

[Speaker 1]
He's a very successful stock market guy. He said, this is important. This is historical.

This will change the world. Can I make recording? So, he has little cheap cassette recording, and he insists to record.

[Speaker 2]
And those are still available.

[Speaker 1]
You can listen to them.

[Speaker 2]
80% Geshe Michael, 20% dogs.

[Speaker 1]
But I think it's fun. So, I did 18 courses.

[Speaker 2]
They cover all the Geshe course. So, there are five main subjects in the Geshe course. And in the 18 foundation ACI courses, I put all the Geshe course, most of the important material.

[Speaker 1]
And my dream is that in the modern world, family people should be the teachers of Buddhism.

[Speaker 2]
I think the time of monks teaching, honestly, I think this time is finished. Of course, there are amazing monks who teach. Dalai Lama is a monk.

There are many great Geshe's teaching.

[Speaker 1]
But actually, in my monastery, the number of monks is dropping every year.

[Speaker 2]
And it's like in the Catholic Church in America.

[Speaker 1]
I think half of the priests are from other countries.

[Speaker 2]
And I don't know if this structure is good for modern times. Because the ACI teacher must help normal people with their normal life.

[Speaker 1]
And the monk cannot teach the two husbands in the kitchen, because they never had a fight with their wife.

[Speaker 2]
And I think that's normal people's life. So, I love the monastery. I still pay for all the education of the children.

[Speaker 1]
And I built a school. 500, over 500 kids.

[Speaker 2]
And especially the groups in different countries like Singapore.

[Speaker 1]
Where are you? Jenny Wong.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, they are supporting most of them.

[Speaker 1]
And her too.

[Speaker 2]
So, we are supporting the future of the monastery.

[Speaker 1]
And I think they are the most beautiful places in the world. But I honestly believe you can help more people. Because people who need you are family people mostly.

And you had a fight with your husband.

[Speaker 2]
Right Barbara? So, you have more experience.

[Speaker 1]
And you can teach it. You can teach it better. So, I believe the future of this teaching is with you.

I believe you are the teachers. So, please teach. It's a lot of trouble.

Maybe you will get air-conditioning. But it's the happiest life you can do.

[Speaker 2]
I don't know anyone who's happier than an ACI teacher. To have trouble, to have students is like having kids.

[Speaker 1]
It's a lot of trouble.

[Speaker 2]
But when your kids grow up, and those kids are beautiful people, there's no happier feeling.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? If your kids are really good kids, then you feel special happiness.

[Speaker 2]
So, I'll tell you, I don't think there's any happier thing than to be ACI teacher.

[Speaker 1]
So, I encourage you to do it. So, there are two big ... After I taught in New York, the Geshe course, I call Baby Geshe course.

[Speaker 2]
And if you finish the 18 Foundation courses, you get a Baby Geshe degree. And that's all. And I was in ...

where was I? I was in India. Some of the monks from my monastery came to visit my business talk.

[Speaker 1]
And they came to my hotel room.

[Speaker 2]
Two of them are finishing the last year of their Geshe.

[Speaker 1]
High Geshe. Twenty-five years.

[Speaker 2]
And Hasso was with me. And Orit, so Scott's wife Orit. And they start to debate.

[Speaker 1]
Sorry.

[Speaker 2]
Don't tell Scott. Then they start to debate, the two high Geshe candidates and my two ACI students. And they are debating a pretty difficult subject.

And Hasso kicked their ass. Okay? I'm sorry.

Sorry to use bad words, but it's true.

[Speaker 1]
So, I think if you study the 18 courses seriously, you can ... you understand. Okay?

Then I did a three-year retreat, and my New York students asked me, after the three-year retreat will you teach us Tantra? So, this is secret Buddhism.

[Speaker 2]
And there are two Tantra colleges in Tibet of Tsongkhapa's lineage.

[Speaker 1]
And my teacher was the assistant abbot of one of them. And he taught us Tantra for about 25 years.

[Speaker 2]
So, I said okay, I will teach you Tantra.

[Speaker 1]
It will take six years. We will do 18 courses.

[Speaker 2]
And so, I arranged all the scriptures for 18 courses. And I translated them. And the whole thing is about 10,000 pages.

And I think it's the ...

[Speaker 1]
personally, I believe it's the most organized Tantric course in history. So, you have to finish the first 18 courses. Then you can start the 18 secret courses.

The word Tantra has a bad reputation in the West. There are some non-real Tantra.

[Speaker 2]
And they're talking strange things like ...

[Speaker 1]
it sounds like voodoo or something.

[Speaker 2]
You become Buddha if you have sex with the teacher. Or if you kill 30 chickens on the same day. So, even in India, this word became dirty.

[Speaker 1]
So, I think we should use the traditional word, which is Diamond Way. Okay, Vajrayana. So, we have 18 foundation course, and the 18 Diamond Way course.

It was designed to take 12 years.

[Speaker 2]
And some people came late. They didn't finish the 18 foundation course.

[Speaker 1]
Can we study Diamond Way? Please, please. Then, I like people to like me.

So, I said, okay. Then I'll tell you honestly, I think about 75% of those people failed.

[Speaker 2]
It's like they are building a big apartment building with a bad foundation.

[Speaker 1]
And it will fall down. So, I encourage you, learn the 18 courses. Build a good foundation.

Then you can have 18-story apartment. Vajrayana. Diamond Way.

On top of that. I had a walk and talk with somebody just now. They say, I want to be a Buddha in this life.

That's the function of the Diamond Way courses. That's the difference between Diamond Way and foundation courses. If you study the foundation course, and you don't study the Diamond Way course, you will become Buddha.

In about 10 billion years.

[Speaker 2]
Or more.

[Speaker 1]
But, if you study the second 18 courses, it's easy to do in one life. Before you die. And then you don't have to die.

So, that's the structure, and to be honest, the study in the monastery is a little bit chaotic.

[Speaker 2]
For example, you have to do Geshe degree, and you have to do pre-Geshe degree.

[Speaker 1]
And when I did my pre-Geshe examination, someone knocked on my door. Come now.

[Speaker 2]
Why? It's your pre-Geshe examination is in 10 minutes. I'm like, nobody told me anything.

They said, yeah, they just decided. And this is the custom. It's really crazy in the monastery.

If you finish your Geshe, it's just good luck. You don't know when's the examination. Then each class moving at ...

[Speaker 1]
all the people in your class have different teachers.

[Speaker 2]
So, this one is studying class number one, this one's studying class number ten, this one's studying. And you have to debate with each other, but you don't know what you studied.

[Speaker 1]
Then, you know I went to Princeton.

[Speaker 2]
They ring the bell, you go here. They ring a big bell the whole university. Everyone moves at the same time.

[Speaker 1]
So, I thought if we could have some structure of the Geshe course, and the secret course, it's so much easier to become Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
So, I made everything like Princeton system. You have ten classes each course.

[Speaker 1]
You have homework. You have quiz. You have final exam.

[Speaker 2]
If you finish, you finish. If you don't finish, you don't finish. So, it's very clear, okay?

And I like it. Okay? All right?

Okay. So, the first thing what I'd like to do today is teach you about the structure of the foundation series.

[Speaker 1]
There are 18 courses. What are the 18 courses?

[Speaker 2]
It's good if you know before you start to become ACI teacher.

[Speaker 1]
When I first studied with my first lama, we are studying Shantideva.

[Speaker 2]
It's called A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. And I was going to all the classes in Tibetan, and then I was going to get on a train. I was traveling to New Delhi on a train, and all these Tibetan people were there.

[Speaker 1]
They are carrying cakes and things, you know, and they're all running into one room. Special waiting room for the train.

[Speaker 2]
And I was with my friend, and then we decided to ask the Tibetan people, what is all this cake? Why are you ... can we get some cake?

[Speaker 1]
And they said, no no, this cake is for Dalai Lama's teacher. Senior teacher. He's traveling on the train today.

So, we go, oh man, let's go buy a cake. We will offer cake, you know.

[Speaker 2]
So, we ran to the market. We got a cake, and we knock on the waiting room, and we push to the front, and there's Dalai Lama's senior teacher, you know.

[Speaker 1]
And our teacher is standing behind him. Then we do prostration, you know, and we say, we are also studying Buddhism. He's very strange.

I met him a few times after that. He's always doing mantra, without a rosary. He's like, oh, oh, you're studying, huh?

Yeah, yeah, we are studying. Oh, what book you study? We don't remember the name of the book, and our teacher is there.

He's like, Shantideva, Shantideva, Shantideva.

[Speaker 2]
We're like, Shantideva, Shantideva. You know, oh, very good, very good. Don't be like that.

[Speaker 1]
Maybe you meet somebody important on the train. They're going to say, what's the 18 courses you are teaching?

[Speaker 2]
I don't know, but I'm a teacher. Okay, so, here we go. So, each day I will introduce you to some of the 18 courses.

[Speaker 1]
Just a few minutes, okay? We finished in the first teacher training. We finished the first ten, and I'm going to repeat them this afternoon, because I know many of you couldn't come to the first one.

Okay, here we go.

[Speaker 2]
The first course is called Principal Teachings of Buddhism.

[Speaker 1]
It's from a very famous poem by Tsongkapa. All of Buddhism in 14 verses, including Tantra.

[Speaker 2]
So, it's the greatest summary of Buddhism ever made. My teacher's teacher is the teacher of the Dalai Lama, the junior teacher.

[Speaker 1]
My teacher's teacher is the teacher of this Dalai Lama.

[Speaker 2]
So, you are in a good lineage.

[Speaker 1]
His teacher wrote an explanation of this poem. His teacher's name is Pabongka, and that's the Lam Rim we are studying. He also gave that teaching, which is about a thousand pages.

[Speaker 2]
But, there's a two-page summary of Buddhism, and that was spoken by Tsongkapa.

[Speaker 1]
So, the first ACI course is that whole poetry. Two pages. All Buddhism, including secret Buddhism, in two pages.

[Speaker 2]
And then I have a commentary which is about, I don't know, 150 pages. So, that's the first, that's ACI course number one.

[Speaker 1]
If you understand it, you understand the whole structure of Buddhism. Buddhism is built on three ideas. Let's take it to the kitchen.

Okay? If you're an ACI teacher, and there's any idea you cannot find in the kitchen, then you're not a good teacher. Every Buddhist idea is in the kitchen.

Okay? So, in that first course, there's three ideas. Number one, I'm tired of fighting in the kitchen.

[Speaker 2]
I'm tired of all the fighting in the world.

[Speaker 1]
I want to stop all the poverty, all the trouble, all the unhappiness, all the conflict, especially in the kitchen. I'm tired of it. I want to stop it.

Okay?

[Speaker 2]
So, I don't know how you translate it.

[Speaker 1]
I'm tired of it, I want to stop it. That's the lowest kind of Buddhism. Number two, if I can learn how to stop it, I can help other people to stop it.

So, you can call number two is love. Okay? If I learn how to stop the trouble in my kitchen, I can help other people to stop the suffering in their kitchen.

You can call love for everyone. What's the Sanskrit word? Bodhicitta.

Love for everyone. Every kitchen should be happy. Number three, understand the pen.

Understand the pen. Understand the pen.

[Speaker 2]
It doesn't come from the pen.

[Speaker 1]
It comes from me. What's emptiness?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, the pen which don't come from me. Yeah, the pen which do not come from me.

[Speaker 1]
Empty. Impossible.

[Speaker 2]
She used such a nice word today.

[Speaker 1]
She said impossible.

[Speaker 2]
Very nice. Very nice. Okay.

That's emptiness. Which husband is emptiness?

[Speaker 1]
I didn't do anything.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? So, don't think emptiness, you close your eyes everything's black.

[Speaker 1]
That's not going to make your kitchen happy. That's not emptiness. Emptiness means your kitchen is empty of a husband who ...

I didn't do anything. Okay? That's emptiness.

Those three ideas, I'm tired of fighting in the kitchen. I wish every kitchen could be happy.

[Speaker 2]
And I understand what makes me unhappy come from me. This is all of Buddhism.

[Speaker 1]
That's class number one.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Geshe-la, you have to go faster.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Second class. Second course of the eighteen foundation courses.

It's called Buddhist Refuge, and it just means protection. For a hundred dollars, now everybody, where's the protection in the kitchen? And what is the wife protected from?

[Speaker 2]
Tim, you're the Apache, somebody choose. Apache choose? No bribery, no 50%.

[Speaker 1]
What's the trouble that we protect the wife from? Where's the Buddhist protection in the kitchen? Yeah, great, great.

How does she plant a bad seed?

[Speaker 2]
How will she plant a bad seed if she doesn't understand the pen?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, she will say, I'm not stupid, you're stupid. So, we protect the wife. The pen protects the wife from bad kids next week.

Really?

[Speaker 2]
Okay, who's got the money honey? Okay, let's go, let's go. Good answer, good answer.

Now, I'm going to spend five days and many hours teaching you course number two.

[Speaker 1]
Buddhist Refuge. You can call it Buddhist Protection, but she taught it to you already. She just taught you the whole course.

The pen protects the wife. Understand? That's protection.

And I'll tell you something very sneaky. So, in DCI, we teach business. We especially don't teach religion.

[Speaker 2]
Last month I taught in Indonesia.

[Speaker 1]
I taught DCI in Indonesia three weeks ago. This is the largest Muslim country in the world. 250 million Muslims.

[Speaker 2]
And I cannot talk about Buddhism. I'm just talking about business, and I teach the business people how to use the pen to protect themselves. Okay, in the Christian religion, what's the legal line you become Christian?

[Speaker 1]
You get baptism. They sprinkle water on your knee. Then you're a real Christian.

In Buddhism, what's the baptism? You use the pen for protection. Then you're Buddhist.

[Speaker 2]
Understand?

[Speaker 1]
We taught 10,000 people last month.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? No, just kidding, okay?

[Speaker 1]
Alright, so it's important. Protection. That wife is protected from more trouble.

And that's the purpose of Buddhism. Nowadays, to be honest, I think if Buddha is here, and you ask the Buddha, where is Buddhism in this world? I think he will say DCI.

Understand? It's not churches. It's not temples.

It's not red clothes. Okay? It's protecting people from trouble in the kitchen.

Okay? That's Buddhism. So, if we don't have all red clothes, and we don't go to temple, and you don't have an altar in your house, I don't care.

I want you to protect people in the kitchen.

[Speaker 2]
Understand?

[Speaker 1]
Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Alright.

[Speaker 1]
Number three. Course number three. Meditation.

And it's called applied meditation.

[Speaker 2]
Practical meditation.

[Speaker 1]
We teach in DCI, we That's all. Okay? Your life is much easier if you meditate a little every day.

Okay? And it doesn't have to be religious. Just think about the pen for 15 minutes every day.

Quietly. In silence. Do you have to sit on the floor?

[Speaker 2]
Why did Buddhists sit on the floor?

[Speaker 1]
There's no chair.

[Speaker 2]
Some people say, Geshe-la I can't meditate, I cannot sit on the floor.

[Speaker 1]
Shut up and sit on a chair. I used a couch, and I inherited a dog by accident.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? And he always sits next to me. He's not allowed on the couch except during meditation time.

[Speaker 1]
So, he also loves meditation.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So, if you learn meditation, your life is much easier. And you cannot see a seed open in your mind. You cannot see the picture come out without meditation.

It's not possible. Okay? Meditation slows down the mind.

These seeds are opening 65 per second, and they are creating your world. But it's too fast. You cannot see it.

So, you must learn to meditate. Okay? If you see one seed open to make one pen, then you don't need these classes.

That's enough. Then you will believe where the husband comes from. Okay?

And you will have protection. Okay? So, we have to learn to meditate.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, course number four.

[Speaker 1]
Course number four is called Proof of Future Lives, and it's a little bit sensitive subject.

[Speaker 2]
In the DCI teacher training, we actually don't allow them to talk about future life.

[Speaker 1]
Because now this is a religious thing.

[Speaker 2]
If you talk about future lives, then many countries of the world, they're uncomfortable.

[Speaker 1]
But, if you have a Buddhism course, you have to talk about future life, and you have to try to prove it. So, most of you heard Buddhism has a logic. We study logic.

[Speaker 2]
How to prove the things you cannot see with your eyes. How many years ago? Seventy years ago.

[Speaker 1]
Seven zero. Einstein, from Princeton, some of his career, he wrote a letter to the American president. I can make you a bomb.

[Speaker 2]
It will destroy a whole city in one minute. If you make it now, 20 million people's life you can save.

[Speaker 1]
You can save. This war will finish in two days. I can do it.

Then the president is like, how? And Einstein's like, it's here, don't worry. I can see it.

I understand how to do it. Nobody did it before, but I understand it will work.

[Speaker 2]
Buddhism is the same.

[Speaker 1]
Many things you cannot see with your eyes. You have to be a ... you have to use your third eye.

Third eye is not mystical.

[Speaker 2]
I'm sorry to destroy the mysticism.

[Speaker 1]
The third eye in these Buddhist paintings is logic.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
For example, if the dog comes in the room, and chews on this thing, on this thing, if the dog come in the room, you ready? And chew on this thing, and if the human write with it, then it must be coming from the mind. It must be.

There's no choice. Okay? You used your third eye.

Just now. You used your third eye. Okay?

I'll say it again. If the dog look at this thing, and decide it's a chew toy, and if the ... sorry ...

if the human look at the same thing, and write with it, then logically it must be coming from you. Okay? Then you just used your third eye to see dependent origination.

We won't talk about it. So, course number four, how to use your third eye to see that there exists future life. And you must have come from another life before.

[Speaker 2]
That's all. That's course number four.

[Speaker 1]
It's called proof of future life, but it's also proof of past life.

[Speaker 2]
It also covers subjects like it is possible to become a person who can see future and past.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, course number five. All about karma. How does karma work?

It's a whole, you know, five week course about karma. Okay, course number six is emptiness, and we use the diamond cutter sutra.

[Speaker 2]
It's probably the most famous teaching about emptiness.

[Speaker 1]
So, course number six, everything's about emptiness. It's called diamond cutter sutra.

[Speaker 2]
Where's the emptiness in the kitchen for zero dollars? Nobody will answer. They're on strike.

Just tell me.

[Speaker 1]
We need an audience microphone later. Okay? Now, behind you.

[Speaker 2]
Where's the vacuidad in the kitchen?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, the vacuidad in the kitchen is where one of the two husbands is standing. Which one?

[Speaker 2]
Everything. Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, the place where he's standing, there's emptiness, because he's not real. He's impossible. Okay, cool.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, that's all. Now you've finished, you've finished course six.

[Speaker 1]
Course number seven. There's a special tradition to take 64 commitments of a bodhisattva.

[Speaker 2]
There are 64 bodhisattva code.

[Speaker 1]
All bodhisattvas like to do 64 things. In that course number seven, we learn the 64, and then you make a commitment to follow the 64.

[Speaker 2]
For example, Dr. Shenmue, Chuno Mishin Hin, Shakyamuni Nen, Thechabongka, Khojikoda, Chukwungna Mithun, Tsangmai Ngana, Lodra, Tsongsakpo, Mahayantuni, Tenzin, Tsogyalto, Ma Dongchang, like these are the 18 main ones.

[Speaker 1]
Dr. Shenmue, these are the first two. Praise yourself, and criticize other people.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, these are bodhisattva vows. Okay, and there are vows like that.

[Speaker 1]
Those are 64 special vows that you can learn, and if you keep them you become bodhisattva.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, course number eight.

[Speaker 1]
It's called Death and the Realms of Existence. When people die, what does it feel like? Where do you go?

Why we can't remember our past life?

[Speaker 2]
Where's the place we can go? How to go to a good place? Okay, so it's important to study.

[Speaker 1]
It's called Death and the Realms of Existence. Okay, where you will go after you die? What does it feel like to die?

[Speaker 2]
Okay, like that. What will happen to you?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, that's course number eight.

[Speaker 2]
Course number nine is called the Ethical Life. Christian has ten commandments.

[Speaker 1]
Buddhism has the ten good deeds. They're almost exactly the same.

[Speaker 2]
Then, these are rules for living your life.

[Speaker 1]
Not to hurt other people.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, by the way, 15 more minutes we take a break. Okay?

[Speaker 1]
All right, course number 10. 10, 11, 12.

[Speaker 2]
These are ... we are studying the book which I forgot in the railway station.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, Bodhisattva's Way of Life. It's a very, very beautiful book. Explains how to be like a bodhisattva, and it's so important.

It's three courses, 10, 11, and 12. So, in course number 10, we start the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. Mainly, three subjects.

Okay, number one, how to prepare for meditation.

[Speaker 2]
It's a very quick, 10-minute super-power good seeds and get rid of bad seeds.

[Speaker 1]
Just before meditation, you put some good seeds in. Then you do confession of all your bad seeds. Then quickly meditate before you can make more bad seeds.

Okay, that's the first subject. Second, perfection of giving. How to share what you have with other people.

[Speaker 2]
You say, Geshe-la, it's not so difficult.

[Speaker 1]
You just take the $100 out and you give it.

[Speaker 2]
No, but sharing is an art.

[Speaker 1]
Sharing is an art. Yeah, there's ways to do it. Elegant ways.

Powerful ways. Okay, and you study that. Third subject, second perfection, how to not hurt other people.

Don't bother other people.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, this is the second of the bodhisattva perfection.

[Speaker 1]
So, those are the first 10 courses.

[Speaker 2]
We just reviewed what the first teacher training did. And I think that's a good place to take a pee-pee break.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so